Rural Homelessness

David Townsend of Southern Frontenac Community Services and Louise Moody of Northern Frontenac Services gave a presentation on rural homelessness in the three townships north of Kingston. They emphasized the difference between city homelessness, which is often visible, and the rural version, which is much less noticeable, with people often subsisting in out-of-the way unserviced or poorly serviced accommodations, or ‘couch surfing’ with acquaintances. In rural areas, making it possible for people to remain in their ‘community of choice’ is essential.

Addictions and Mental Health, NFCSC and SFCSC have formed a collaborative approach to working with the homeless and those at risk throughout the County. Last May, over 50 community members and service providers met at a rural summit in Sharbot Lake. They chose to pursue expanding housing options in rural areas by working with local landlords, investigating what has worked well in other places, such as shared housing, and mini housing projects, and agreed to improve communication through forming a rural poverty coalition.

Townsend emphasized that they were not asking Council for concrete assistance other than their awareness and interest in rural housing needs.

He and Moody were warmly thanked for their work.

SFCSC Relocation has Cost Overrun

Townsend remained as a second delegate concerning the issue of the unexpectedly high cost of relocating all of SFCSC’s services to the Grace Centre. Purpose of the move is to make service provision more efficient and to realize annual savings of 22,000 in rent, utilities, etc. Establishing two portables to accommodate the food bank and the George Street offices has cost $60,000 more than budgeted (the first time, Townsend noted, that he has not brought a project in on budget.) So far, SFCSC has accumulated 40,000; Townsend asked Council if they would consider a one-time grant of $25,000 to the agency. Mayor Vandewal said that the budget was not yet set, and they would include this request in their discussions.

South Frontenac Waterfront Coalition

Jeff Peck addressed Council on behalf of a group of over 200 waterfront residents from “all the larger lakes in the Township” who have opposed and appealed Council’s recent bylaw amendments regarding waterfront structures. Peck emphasized that these residents merely want “the ability to use and maintain what they currently have.” He presented some compelling arguments for addressing the “grey area’ between derelict waterfront structures and those damaged or destroyed by “act of God”. “We have lots of common ground: can we work together on this? We don’t want to be adversarial. (by going to the OMB) for we only end up paying your legal fees and our own: could we open that door again?” Council had no questions for him, but later said that since this was before the OMB, it should be discussed in a closed session, perhaps prior to the Dec 6 Council meeting.

Applewood Parkland Fee

Planner Lindsay Mills brought the recommendation that Council accept the $30,000 cash in lieu of parkland offered by the developer of the 21-unit Applewood condominium project in Storrington district. The owner has based his proposal on a land value of $600,000. When questioned by Council about how the value was determined, Mills was unsure how or whether the property had been appraised. Orr said he thought the township lawyer had referred to an appraisal, and agreed to look into the question. Mayor Vandewal said Council needed a policy about appraisals from both sides in situations like this.

Who Owns Lane off Bellrock Road?

A request that the Township accept a lane at 4725 Bellrock Road (Hamilton) has opened up the question of who owns the 400 foot lane: originally it belonged to the County, but there appears to be no record of it having been transferred to South Frontenac at amalgamation. The Public Works Manager, who was unable to be at tonight’s meeting, will be asked to look into this.

Staff Budget Report

Treasurer Fragnito brought a summary of changes to the 2017 draft budget. Currently, after the cuts recommended at the last budget meeting, the Township has an unallocated sum of $52,475 in order to to meet the goal of a 2.2% taxation increase. This leaves them with the options of adjusting the the taxation impact downward, or adding in some items such as the CFDC grant request for $35,000, if it is not covered by the County. Mayor Vandewal commented, “This looks a lot better than it did in the Frontenac News.” There was some discussion in favour of SFCSC’s request for one-time funding assistance, in view of their very good track record of service to the community.

Ranked Balloting for 2018 Elections

Although recent amendments to the Municipal Elections Act now offer municipalities the option of introducing ranked balloting, CAO Orr brought a report to Council recommending that they maintain the existing First Past the Post system for the 2018 elections. He suggested Council might wish to request a report back to Council in 2019, based on the experiences of municipalities that used it. (to date no Canadian municipal, provincial or federal election uses ranked balloting, so there is no opportunity to learn from others.) Council showed no interest in becoming famous as pioneers in this field. Councillor Barr summed it up: “ we already have too few people voting in our elections: we don’t want to make it even more complicated than it is now.”  

As members of Frontenac County Council sit down this week to consider the 2017 county budget, they will be facing a document that includes an increase of $333,635.60 in the amount of money to be levied to ratepayers for county programs in 2017.

As Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Pender said in the report accompanying the budget document, staff worked towards building a budget that kept the increase to within the 1.5% inflation rate for 2016, but found it difficult given a number of factors.

One that he mentioned in particular was a $111,000 increase in the base budget for Frontenac Paramedic Services.

“This increase results from salary and benefit costs,” he said, “the additional reserve transfer re the [new] stretchers and the ongoing phase in of the Wolfe Island enhancement.”

The $111,000 cost is being brought into the levy over three years to mitigate its impact.

Still, there are other projects that, if left in the budget would result in an increase approaching 5%.

In presenting the budget to Council, staff recommended a series of changes to bring it back to the 3.72% level.

The budget includes a $35,000 one time grant to the Frontenac CFDC for operational purposes.

After a budget session this week, changes will be incorporated into the final version, which is set for approval at the December meeting.

Also, at the meeting Frances Smith will be stepping down as Warden to be replaced by Ron Vandewal.

I always love that line from the tv show where a family stands in order in front of a goofy host and tries to fill in a statement such as “Pasta is to spaghetti as pie is to ___?

They give their answer and the hosts says, ... “and the survey says ...”

I wonder who took that survey, where those hundred people came from. Imagine you are walking down the street and someone accosts you, asking what you think about the relationship between spaghetti, pasta, and pie. Do you run? Do you wave our hands in front of your face and cover your eyes? Or do you pause and think, should I say pumpkin? Coconut cream? Apple or cherry?

Frontenac County and South Frontenac Township's Recreation Department both conducted surveys this year, and North Frontenac Community Services is undertaking one this month.

The similarities and differences in these surveys are interesting, as are the results.

The South Frontenac Survey was undertaken this spring and summer. 697 surveys were filled in. With a population of 18,000 or so, that represents about 4% of the population, but some of those responses could represent entire families. It also represents those residents in South Frontenac who use Recreation facilities or participate in local recreation. In a township where much of the population is located close to large recreation facilities in Kingston, the 697 responses were seen by township staff and council as a solid result.

When the survey was presented to Council this fall, it was taken as a bit of a wish list, particularly the question about what kinds of facilities people would like to see built. But as the Recreation Department, which has only 1 full time employee, develops a 5 year plan it is good to know what people are interested in seeing come about.

Some of the responses will not be relevent to that plan. When asked what people would like to see if “money were no object” almost a third of the respondants, 191, had a swimming pool as their first choice. Council is not running out and building a pool, particularly when almost everyone in the township lives in walking or bicycle range to a lake. However, the fact that about half the respondents use the library system and half use the arena (the two are not mutually exclusive) is important to know, and the detail in the survey results about cycling opportunities is relevant to the township's cycling strategy moving forward. The survey was done in-house, at a low cost.

Frontenac County had a more difficult task when conducting a survey this fall. While people know what a park is, they don't really know what Frontenac County does. It is not that surprising then, that even drawing from a larger population (27,000) in the end 274 individuals completed the recent Frontenac County Survey. And given the lack of profile of many Frontenac County services, an average of 220 responses were entered for each question. To demonstrate the problem that the county faces, of those who responded to the survey, who are essentially the most engage 0.8% of the county population, only 179 said they were “somewhat or very familiar with the “services, programs and operations of Frontenac County”. 97 were “somewhat unfamiliar,” “very unfamiliar”, or “knew nothing at all” about county operations.

Over 60% of respondents were somewhat or very satisfied with the land ambulance service, which is county run, and over 65% felt that way about the Kingston Frontenac Public Library (which is run by an independent board that has county and city representation).

The level of satisfaction for Fairmount Home, the county run long term care facility, seems low, at first glance. Only 28% of respondents said they were somewhat or very satisfied with the service at Fairmount, but this does not really reflect dissatisfaction. Only 8% of respondents were somewhat or very dissatisfied. The bulk of respondents either did not know (48%) or had no opinion (14%).

Fairmount regularly surveys its own clientele and their families as part of its operating procedures.

The County survey also asked if residents would like to see it take the lead on a number of fronts: social services, economic development, planning, transportation, etc, and the most common response was that the county should work with partners to improve service in these areas.

While County CAO Kelly Pender said the survey will provide a baseline of information for future efforts in a low key presentation of its results at council last week, care should be taken not to use any of the data that was collected to justify new initiatives or spending.

Aside from any statistical significance of a survey that reaches less than 1% of the population, the low real numbers make the survey open to distortions of many kinds. If, for example, all of the members of council, CAO’s, treasurers and Public Works Managers from the townships and county filled in the survey, that would be almost 50 people. That would mean that people intimately involved with delivering all the services would have a large impact on the results. The number of responses was so low that any group that is over-represented in the survey would have an over-sized impact.

Perhaps the most important messages from the county survey are the low overall response rate and the fact that those who did fill out the survey left almost a 1/4 of the questions blank.

South Frontenac Council met as a Committee of the Whole on Saturday morning (November 12) to go over the 2017 township budget. Parts of the budget had been brought to committee meetings as far back as early September, but this was the first time the entire package was presented. The budget numbers were no surprise, as the township has embarked on a 10 year budget and infrastructure plan which calls for an increase of 2.2% per year over that time. The biggest structural change in this years budget is a revenue neutral change for the township which will, however, impact some ratepayers.

The township is scrapping a $180 waste management user fee to each household. The revenue that those fees generated (about $1.2 million) will now come from general taxation. What that means for ratepayers is those whose property is valued under the township average of about $250,000 will end up paying more than $180 towards the waste management budget and those who's property is worth less will pay less.

Aside from that change, staff proposed some cuts to the budget to meet the 2.2% target. These include the following cuts: a 35,000 grant for Ken Garrett Park, a $35,000 grant to the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation (which was only to be enacted if Frontenac County decided not to support the agency this year), $53,000 in public works staffing costs for a mechanic and a light equipment operator, $50,000 that was to be placed in a reserve fund for the Frontenac Arena, and $6,600 for operating costs for an outdoor movie screen at Harrowsmith Park. The total cuts amounts to a savings of $180,327.

The net result of all those changes is to bring in a budget with an increase in the total levy to ratepayers for township purposes of about $750,000 this year. That increase is covered by new assessment (ie growth) of 0.85% and from the 2.2% average tax increase.

Among other changes that were made to some of the budget proposals that came to Council earlier in the process was a scrapping of the plan to repair and resurface the Sunbury and Westport Roads, multi-million dollar projects that were to be financed through borrowing. $150,000 has remained in the 2017 budget for engineering work on Sunbury Road, which will make it “shovel ready” should a large infrastructure grant become available.

Among major road projects still on the books this year are two large jobs. One is the Harrowsmith intersection upgrade and reconfiguration which will cost over $1.5 million all told, with $1 million of that coming from 2017 taxes. The other is the Bedford Road north of Sydenham which will cost $1 million to upgrade. Another $600,000 will be spent on Green Bay bridge #28, $350,000 on Randy Clark Road, $300,000 on Buck Bay Road, and $250,000 on Bradshaw Road.

The largest project on a township building is a $1 million project at the Storrington Centre, of which $550,000 will come from 2017 taxation and the rest from reserve funds. That project includes accessible washrooms, an updated septic system, parking lot improvements, retrofitting, a kitchen upgrade and space reconfiguration.

At the meeting on Saturday, there were two additional requests for funding that were considered. One came from Mike Nolan of the Tett Park Association. Tett Road runs off of Perth Road near the border with the Township of Rideau Lakes. On behalf of the association, Nolan asked that the road be paved and that streetlights be installed at the junction of Tett and Perth Roads. Council instructed Treasurer Louise Fragnito to put $10,000 in the budget for the street lights but put off the paving project. The other request came from Southern Frontenac Community Services (SFCS), which is looking for $25,000 to help cover some unexpected planning and building department fees from the township related to the new portables the agency has brought on to its Grace Centre site in Sydenham.

“We perceive the cost increases to be the result of major changes required by the Building Department. Many of these changes appear to have lacked clear communication and interpretation of building codes. This has also resulted in major deviations from our original plan,” said SFCS Executive Director David Townsend in a letter to Council.

Council referred the SFSC request to Chief Administrative Officer Wayne Orr, who will be talking to David Townsend about the situation.

The township budget will be on the agenda at the next regular Committee of the Whole meeting on November 22nd . A number of changes will be made based on recommendations from last Saturday's meeting.

The budget is set for adoption on December 3rd .

Council opened with a minute of silence in memory of Eileen Sleeth, recognized as one of South Frontenac’s 2016 Volunteers of the Year, and wife of Councillor Ron Sleeth.

Fees for Sale of Public Lands and Road Allowances

Deputy Mayor Sutherland and Mayor Vandewal disagreed sharply on the question of whether or not the current system of pricing closed road allowances was being “fairly and equitably” applied. Sutherland had brought a notice of motion proposing to ask the Corporate Services Committee to consider updating the formula for sale of public lands. Vandewal said “I think it (the current system) works well as it is, now.” Councilor John Mcdougall cautioned against legislating all the flexibility out of the process. When Sutherland said he thought the present system was unfair because Council has not always charged everyone at the same rate,

Vandewal asked “Didn’t you vote to reduce the Boy Scout Camp fee?” Sutherland accused the Mayor of being out of order. Eventually all but Vandewal and Roberts voted to refer the issue to the Corporate Services Board for a recommendation.

FIT Solar Resolution Support

Following David Hahn’s delegation at the last Committee of the Whole on behalf of Wintergreen Renewal Energy Cooperative, Council agreed to reconsider their decision not to support the Wintergreen project. They had previously rejected it because the applicants had not followed the required procedure in bringing their application forward. It was approved this time around.

Lobbying Strategy

The Township has been unsuccessful in obtaining grants or other financial support for major infrastructure funding, such as Sunbury Road and Road 38. Council agreed to ask the CAO to prepare a report recommending a Township lobbying strategy which might help bring our needs to the attention of Provincial and Federal officials.

Terms of Committee Chairs

Council passed an amendment to the Procedural bylaw clarifying that the Chairs of the Committee of Adjustment and South Frontenac Recreation Committee should serve for “no more than a period of two consecutive years.” This restriction will not apply to any of the other township committees.

Insurance RFP

The County issued a joint insurance RFP for all lower tiers as well as the County for insurance coverage, services and premiums. This RFP was structured to try to obtain cost savings by jointly selecting one server across all municipalities. However, because the savings by municipality were not consistently from the same provider, each municipality was left to select its own provider. South Frontenac chose JLT Canada’s bid of $230,000, for a savings of $102,014 for the next two years, with an option to extend it one more year, depending on “reasonable price adjustments and satisfactory service.”

New Building Official

The motion to appoint a new Chief Building Official was briefly introduced by Mayor Vandewal; “We all know about the new Building Official.” The motion passed. A reading of the bylaw reveals the person’s name is Ryan Arcand. There was no other information given. The bylaw is to take effect December 05/16.

No Development Services Manager

CAO Wayne Orr announced that no suitable candidate had been found for the newly created position of Manager of Developmental Services, and the position will be re-posted in the New Year. For the time being, the Planner/Deputy Clerk and the Chief Building Official will report directly to CAO Orr.

Fermoy Hall

Council agreed to release up to $5,000 of the $30,000 budgeted for Fermoy Hall so the electrical portion of the work can be done this year.

Search is on for Canada 150 Community Leader

Council has been tasked with choosing one or more local people to “act as official community voices in Canada 150 events in the municipality”. As the deadline is near, Councillor McDougall suggested that staff and Council make recommendations within a week. The list will be passed on to the Public Services Committee, for a final recommendation.

At a special meeting on November 2, members of Frontenac County Council listened to a 20 minute presentation from Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Pender and Manager of Planning and  
Development Services Joe Gallivan about the merits of hiring a new Economic Development Officer to replace the retiring Anne-Marie Young.

The meeting, which was devoted to only that topic, came about as the result of a notice of motion at the previous meeting by North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins.
Higgins notice of motion asked that the =hiring process for the position be frozen until council has time to consider contracting out
the service.

Rather than put off the hiring, Pender suggested the special meeting to settle the matter. In their presentations, Pender and Gallivan outlined some of the goals of the department going forward.

“An Economic Development department does not create jobs,” Pender said at the end of the detailed presentation. “It is people who want to start a business in a specific location who create jobs. We don’t make that happen. But when someone calls us and they find out that in order to start something up they will have to undertake a long, expensive planning process, that’s how we lose them. That’s why planning and economic development need to work together, and outsourcing economic development brings risk.”

“There is a lot of good detail in this report,” said Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle. “Back in 2008 we made a conscious decision at this table to divert the Economic Development Officer’s time to the K&P Trail. Now we are pulling that back to none. I’m generally in favour of keeping on the track we are on. Outsourcing makes me nervous.”

One by one, Councilors spoke out in favour of hiring a new Economic Development Officer.

South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal, who as chair of the meeting, spoke out only at the end.

“If this goes through, as I think it will, we need to make sure that whoever has that position works with people at the CFDC [Community Futures Development Corporation] and KEDCO [Kingston Economic Development Corporation] and not against them.”

There were 7 members of Council at the meeting, John Inglis from North Frontenac was absent, and 6 of them supported the motion. Ron Vandewal voted against it.

As Pender told Council at their previous meeting, a short list of candidates has been developed, and interviews can now proceed.

Anne-Marie Young will be retiring at the end of the year.

New rink in Sharbot Lake one step closer

but money needs to come from local community

The Oso Recreation has long hoped to build an outdoor rink at the Oliver Scott Memorial Park, the ball field that is located next to Granite Ridge Education Centre, and at Council this week Jeremy Neven, Manager of Development Services, presented a set of drawings for a rink that is located within all the required setbacks in the zoning bylaw, and that has the blessing of the Public Works Manager as far as distance from Road 38 is concerned.

“I must say I was surprised by how much room there was for a rink,” said Neven.

Rec committee members intend to build a change room/washroom and a canteen as well on the site, for use in the winter and for the ball field in the summer time.

In his report, Neven said “in addition to the Rec. Committees fund raising efforts, plans are being made to engage township staff to ensure monies are collected and receipted appropriately, setbacks and building codes are met and public works are not affected.”

While all systems are go for the project as far as the planning issues are concerned, it is left to the local committee to raise the necessary funds to put up the rink.

Emergency culvert replacement

Interim Public Works Manager Mike Richardson came to council to talk about a large culvert at 4th Lake Road in Hinchinbrooke ward.

Because of the low water levels, the culvert, which is normally always half full of water, has been left dry. This allowed township roads staff to inspect it, and when it looked suspicious, Richardson himself walked through it.

“I'm not that glad that I did,” he said, “I found it was in a sorry state.”

Richardson said the culvert will likely collapse if left in place until next spring. He suggested, and council agreed, that he immediately approach three engineering companies to quote on engineering for the project.

It will be funded through reserves, which will have to be replenished in 2017, curtailing other potential road and bridge upgrades next year.

Facilities update

Of the projects that were planned for this year, a number are completed or under construction. The Boat ramp at Big Gull Lake, a $20,000 project, has been completed. Construction is underway for the $220,000 addition to the Mountain Grove fire hall for a new library. A $31,000 project to update shelving in the Parham library has been completed. The $20,000 range hood for in the kitchen at the Kennebec Fire Hall has been installed.

The fencing and lighting project at the Parham ball field, originally budgeted at $37,965, has gone over budget. Council approved an increase in spending to $49,445. The extra funds will come from the recreation reserve.

The township has also applied for a number of one time federal “Canada 150” infrastructure grants. They range from larger to smaller grants: $113,052 for the rink and building project at Oliver Scott Park in Sharbot Lake, $53,000 for the Thompson's Cut Trail, $50,000 for the new Olden ball field, $6,600 for the Kennebec hall range hood, $1,650 for playground fencing at the Parham ball field, and $1,980 for the Parham ball field canteen water pressure system. No one knows exactly when the results of the massive nationwide grant program will be known.

New boat for building department

In order to enforce the building code on island properties, council was asked to support the purchase of a boat for $8,582.

Jeremy Neven said that the department is currently dependent on the property owners to ferry them across in their own boats, which raises a liability issue, “and can also lead to some uncomfortable boat rides back to shore if the properties fail our inspection.”

Icarus ascending

The representatives from Icarus Power, who were rebuffed when they tried to address council at the previous meeting because there was no township staff report available concerning the three solar power projects they were seeking municipal support for.

This time around, a staff report said they were well within the necessary setbacks for Feed in Tariff (FIT) projects, and they have also obtained signatures from neighbouring property owners in support of the projects. Council passed a motion of support for the 3 projects, two of which will generate 500 kw of power if approved, and the third 250 kw.

NFCS gets continued support for youth program

Louise Moody, the Executive Director of Northern Frontenac Community Services (NFCS), outlined the extensive youth program that the agency has built over the past few years. With no provincial funding, but support from foundations and the municipalities of Central and North Frontenac, the program has increased its offerings for youth over the last three years.

The township committed $15,500 in 2017, the same amount they provided in 2016.

ROMA electing new member

Liz Huff, a board member of the Rural Ontario Municipalities Association (ROMA), made a presentation to Council on Friday on the roles and benefits of being a board member for ROMA.

ROMA is an organization made up of elected councillors from across rural Ontario that lobbies the Provincial government to make changes at the municipal level. Huff, a Councillor in the Leeds/1000 Islands riding, explained that ROMA tries to find a common voice across municipalities in Ontario to try and deal with some of the issues that are specific to rural Ontario.

She cited rising policing costs, access to broadband internet, taxation issues, implications of cap and trade, and higher energy costs as some of the issues that ROMA is currently discussing and working on.

“You get ideas about service sharing and cost sharing by meeting other municipalities,” Huff said explaining how it can benefit North Frontenac to have a Councillor join ROMA.

If a member of North Frontenac's Council was to be elected into ROMA they'd be representing Zone 6 which runs from the Ottawa River down to Quinte West, a large chunk of area to cover. ROMA is electing a member for Zone 6 on January 30th at their conference 'ROMA Speaks' which is being held, ironically or not, in downtown Toronto.

New Sign For Snow Road Community Centre

Molly Hartin, from the South Palmerston Community Centre (SPCC), made a presentation to Council regarding updating the exterior sign at the Snow Road Community Centre.

Hartin had made a humerous Powerpoint which she screened before Council, that featured music by local musicians Kathryn Briggs and Terry Tufts and had the Councillors laughing at some humorous pictures. The SPCC told Council that the sign will cost just under $2900 to have sandblasted, reinstalled and repainted with the new logo. They said it could cost an extra $1000 if the contractor has to pour a new footing for the sign.

“I wonder what the 2 councillors from Ward 3 think?” Councillor Gerry Martin asked jokingly as both Councillors weren't in attendance at the meeting.

Council approved the resolution for the sign and decided the monies would come from the Special Parks Ward 3 fund.

Part of Hartin's presentation mocked the mess of signs that crowd Snow Road Station and that confuse new visitors to the area.

“Maybe we need to add a signage by-law as business arising?” Mayor Ron Higgins asked Council.

1% Municipal Tax

Mayor Ron Higgins made a short report on an Association of Municipalities Ontario (AMO) meeting he attended last week where 80% of the attendees were in favour of adding a 1% “Municipal” tax in Ontario to cover the fiscal gap they're experiencing in infrastructure and funding. Mayor Higgins was against the idea, which would bring sales taxation in Ontario up to 14%, from the current 13% (HST).

“The reason I'm upset is we're helping the government to bail them out of a situation they've created,” Higgins said. “They're trying to put a Bandaid on a problem that the provincial government created.”

“We were looking after our infrastructure quite well until we got hit with downloaded services,” Higgins said.

“I want to make sure that the AMO board understands my position even though it isn't a majority,” said Higgins who was frustrated that that was the one option they were presenting.

Liz Huff from ROMA, who was still in the audience during this point of the meeting, spoke about the issue.

“AMO has been working on this for years. It isn't the only option they looked at. The basic premise is that property tax isn't sufficient to sustain municipalities in Canada. We now have a picture of what it would cost ($8.6 billion) to keep our infrastructure in shape versus what the ability of the property tax is, locally, to carry that.

“It seems to me we were told it would mean an 8% annual property tax increase on the average rural municipality in Ontario to carry that cost. Out of all the unappealing options at least the 1% puts it in our hands,” she said.

North Frontenac Looking At Consolidating Wards 2 and 3

Council had a conversation on Friday about amalgamating Wards 2 and 3 into one ward and having just two Wards in the township. The reasoning behind this is that then the two zones, Ward 1 and 2+3, would have closer to a 50/50 split of the population.

They decided to bring this idea to the public in June 2017 for discussion which would leave them time to implement the new system, if things changed, for the 2018 election.

Sale of Road Allowance puts an end to years of debate

It is not often that the ghost of the founder of Flinton, the legendary Senator and business man Billa Flint, is brought up in the context of a decision by a contemporary council. But that is what happened on Monday (November 7) in the context of a decision to sell a 32 by 40 foot parcel of land behind the former United Church in Flinton to the Orser family.

The Orsers purchased the church 5 years ago and have been struggling ever since to obtain the necessary approvals to put in a septic system behind the building. The solution that came to Council for final approval on Monday was for them to sell part of the road allowance to the adjacent Skootamatta River to the Orsers.

Three delegations came forward to comment on the proposed sale. One, James Wood, merely sought clarification. Another, June Phillips and Caol Lessard from the Addington Highlands Public Library, which has a branch next door to the former church, objected to the sale on the grounds that it will impinge on their ability to run outdoor children programs next to the library. They noted as well, in their written submission, that “the neighbour looking to purchase the property has caused many access issues. If he is able to purchase any part of the property we feel these problems will grow.”

The most vociferous opponent to the proposal was Flinton resident Bruce Hasler. He asked council if they considered themselves wiser than all of those who have served on council “for the last 157 years since the road allowance was established by Bella Flint and surveyed by John Emerson in 1859.”

He said, “I would think that you would have to have the ego of Trump to put yourselves above all those smart people and stop and sell this property after all this time.”

He added that “any councilor who votes for this bylaw is guilty of ignoring the rights of taxpayers, and should resign.”

Councilors Tony Fritsch, Kirby Thompson, and Deputy Reeve Helen Yanch all briefly engaged in back and forth comments with Hasler, saying they looked at all of the issues before coming to the decision and that the right of way will still be in place, though it will be narrowed for a 40 foot stretch.

Later in the meeting, after the opponents and the Orser family had left the meeting, the sale came up for approval. Councilor's Thompson and Fritsch both said that they would like to see a low fence constructed to mark off the edge of the road allowance and the new boundary of the Orser property.

Council agreed that the township should pay for the fence because it is for the townships benefit that it is being constructed. The Orsers need only agree to its construction in order for the sale to be approved at the next meeting.

A discussion about whether it was possible to prohibit the Orsers from parking in front of the library fizzled when council realised that their only option was to prohibit all parking in that location, which would not help anyone.

“The Orsers should just be encouraged to park on their own property,” said Helen Yanch.

Police report

Napanee Detachment Commander Pat Finnegan made his quarterly visit to council, outlining the activities of the OPP in Addington Highlands over the summer months.

He paid particular attention to a letter that the township forwarded to his office that came from Robert Taylor, who operates a fruit and vegetable stand in front of his property on Hwy. 41 in Northbrook. In his letter, Taylor said that traffic travels at high speed in that part of Northbrook, and dangerous driving is rampant. He said that the police presence in Northbrook has gone down in recent years and that had made the problem worse.

Finnegan said that he appreciates the letter, and thanked Council for forwarding it, and added that “we responded by taking a closer look at that is going on there and at our activities. We need to determine, in these cases, if there is major problem or just the perception of a major problem.”

While Finnegan said it is true that many northbound summer drivers start speeding up in Northbrook well before they reach the 80 km zone, there has been no spike in incidents in that location.

He also said that the detachment is less likely to park a police car with a radar gun in a fixed location these days “because it has been shown to be ineffective. People slow down when they see the police and when they get out of sight they just speed up again.”

Instead, he said they often use unmarked cars with mobile radar and other techniques to patrol the roadways.

All told, 700 motor vehicle charges have been laid in Addington Highlands this year, 588 between June 1 and September 30th. Most of those have been provincial offences such as speeding, seat belt infractions, cell phone use by drivers, etc. That figure includes patrols along Hwy. 7 in the the township as well as on Hwy. 41 and other arterial and back roads.

Finnegan also said that the OPP is investigating vandalism at the former Northbrook fire hall. It was broken into, covered in graffiti, some of it anti-police, and some furniture that was stored in the building was destroyed. Finnegan indicated that he expects the investigation will turn up the culprits eventually.

The hall has since been emptied and the doors secured.

Kaladar Comunity Hall

Council received a letter from Penny Hinchey, the secretary of the Kaladar Community Club, regarding the future of the Kaladar hall. The letter outlined the difficulty the club as encountered keeping the hall in operation, which has recently become more acute when the Land O'Lakes Tourist Association stopped renting office space in the hall.

“So my question to you is, rather than shutting the hall down, which would be a huge loss to the community, is it possible for the township to basically take over the hall?” Hinchey said in her letter.

Hinchey added that she believes this has been done with the Cloyne, Harlowe and Denbigh Halls, and concluded her letter by saying, “hoping to hear back from you before we have to take some drastic decisions.”

Reeve Hogg said first that the Cloyne and Harlowe Halls are not in the township.

The township does, however, maintain the Flinton Recreation Centre, the Family Health Team Building in Northbrook and both the Denbigh Hall and the Denbigh Recreation Centre.

“I think we should ask them for a financial statement to see what we are looking at here,” said Councilor Tony Fritsch.

Denbigh Recreation Centre

Council received the engineering plans for renovating the kitchen at the Denbigh Recreation Centre but will not take on the project unless a grant can be found to help pay the cost.

Flinton Recreation Centre.

A $24,000 contract was awarded to Hook's for the supply and installation of new flooring in the Flinton Recreation Centre. The top floor will be done in 2016 and the bottom in early 2017 in order to spread the cost over two budget years.

An end to 55 years of service by one family to Addington Highlands Township

In 1986 Royce Rosenblath took over from his father Joe as the “road boss” in the former township of Denbigh, Abinger and Ashby after his father had served in the role for 26 years. 29 years later, now serving under the title of the Roads and Waste Management Supervisor in the amalgamated township of Addington Highlands, he is leaving at the end of the November.

In a letter he delivered to Council on Monday (February 7), he said “I would like to thank Reeve Hogg and the Council, both present and past, and the ratepayers of Addington Highlands for the opportunity to work with them for the past 29+ years ... I have enjoyed my employment and will miss working with my coworkers when my retirement day comes. Please accept this letter as my official notice of retirement, My last day at Addington Highlands will be November 30, 2016.”

Councilor Tony Fritsch said to Rosenblath that “there is no doubt that there will be a hole to fill after you leave. No one has the same feel for the history of the township, why decisions were made, what works and does not work.”

No reason was given for Rosenblath's decision to retire, although in his letter he noted that he would like to thank Tanya [also a Rosenblath – his cousin by marriage] who has been acting as the Roads and Waste Manager for the past 3+ months.

He may have had more to say at an in camera meeting which followed the regular meeting of Council.

Addington Highlands has also been undergoing an operational review this year, and one of its recommendations was the establishment of a Chief Administrative Officer to oversee all township operations. Currently it is one of a few townships where senior managers, such as the roads and waste manager, fire chief, and chief building official, all report directly to council.

Two special meetings have been set for next week to discuss that review.

At the end of his letter Rosenblath said he will be “glad to provide whatever assistance I can to provide for a smooth transition.”