| Jun 15, 2016


Council mulling over Crow Lake Road speed issue

A contingent of Crow Lake Village residents attended this week's Central Frontenac Council meeting to hear what Council plans to do after a delegation led by the owners of the The Oaks petitioned Council to set up a pedestrian crosswalk in the village.

In a report to Council, Public Works Manager John Badgley outlined a number of options, including: pedestrian crossovers, which include overhead lights that are triggered by pedestrians hitting a button on one side of the road; courtesy crossing, where stopping is not mandatory; speed bumps; permanent speed signs; traffic signs; and engaging the OPP to enforce speed limits.

In the end, Badgley recommended that traffic signs be installed at a cost of $1,000 to $1,500 to inform drivers that a pedestrian crossing is ahead.

However, Badgley was not present at the meeting, as he is away on vacation. In his absence, road superintendents Rick Commodore and Steve Gould said they had investigated the possibility of temporary speed bumps on both sides of the village.

“The advantage of temporary bumps is that they will not cause problems for the snow plows in the winter because we can remove them,” said Commodore.

Council passed a motion to install the traffic signs and asked Commodore and Gould to bring back pricing on the temporary speed bumps.

The Crow Lake residents then left, and at least one of them was visibly upset, saying Council is doing “nothing for us”. He then added that “the only solution is stop signs.”

Line painting contract approved retroactively

CAO Cathy MacMunn learned on Monday that the line painters who were engaged by both South Frontenac and North Frontenac to work on the arterial roads, such as Highway 509 and Road 38, were working their way through South Frontenac and would be willing to do the painting in Central Frontenac at the same price as the other townships, $160 per kilometre under a three-year contact. However, they needed the go ahead on Monday.

By the time the matter came to Council on Tuesday, MacMunn said she had already given the go-ahead. Still, Council gave retroactive approval.

Building starts slow down in May

After a disappointing May, when permits valued at only $88,000 were sold, which compares unfavorably to the total of $269,000 in 2015 and $935,000 in 2014, the year to date permit activity has dropped to the lowest level in the last three years. As of June 1, the total is $1.2 million this year. By this time last year the total was over $2 million and in 2014 it was $1.3 million.

In terms of new residential units, permits for three have been sold this year, whereas five had been sold at this time in 2015 and three in 2014.

Chief Building Official Jeremy Neven said that based on enquiries he has received, he expects that activity will increase in the coming month or so.

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