Central Frontenac Council - Jul 9/13

Jeff Green | Jul 11, 2013

Central Frontenac Council holds up to 25 meetings a year, and in recent years all but three of those meetings have been held in Sharbot Lake at the Oso Hall. The three other meetings, one per month in June, July, and August, move around the township, to the Olden, Piccadilly, and Kennebec halls.

In order to make those "road trip" meetings happen, numbers of staff have to truck themselves and a sound system down the road, often, as was the case for the June meeting at the Olden Hall, to find no one from the local community in attendance. That is not surprising, because there are rarely any community members at the meetings in Sharbot Lake either.

Not so in Arden. The annual July council meeting at the Kennebec Hall, which was held on Tuesday afternoon in the sweltering heat, drew a crowd. Not only were there five delegations from the local community, there were also 50 visitors in attendance, and the local fire crew put on a supper for the entire crowd, councilors, township staff, and all.

The Arden feel of the meeting was accentuated by the fact that outgoing interim CAO John Duchene was officiating at his last meeting. As a member of the greater Arden community, Duchene did double duty at the meeting, participating as a delegate from the Kennebec Lake Association as they presented their stewardship plan to council.

Kennebec Hall Committee – Jack Nicolson made a presentation on behalf of the committee. He said that the major priorities for the committee are the installation of new boards for the Arden rink, and an air conditioner for the Kennebec Hall.

“The Arden community is extremely involved in all number of activities, and the recreation hall is the main location for these activities,” he said. “As you can see this afternoon, from mid-May to mid-September, when temperatures in the hall can easily be at or about 30 degrees, that hall can become unbearable,” he said. “It was one of the requests we made of council for this year’s budget and we never heard back.”

Nicolson added that it might be worth considering putting a new high efficiency furnace in the hall, one that can also function as an air conditioner in the summer.

Mayor Janet Gutowski said, “We hear you loud and clear. But we also hear you when you ask for road work to be done, and we hear you when you ask us to keep rental fees low and not to increase taxes.”

“Have you ever considered doing fund-raising for an air conditioner?” asked Councilor Tom Dewey.

“We have discussed it but we thought it was in the bailiwick of Council,” said Nicolson.

The matter will be considered for the 2014 township budget.

Arden Seniors – although she was representing the Arden “Happy Gang” seniors club, Wanda Harrison was not particularly happy about plans to raise fees for the use of township facilities, particularly the Kennebec Hall. She said higher fees would impact on the Happy Gang’s ability to donate money to local causes, and would be a barrier to seniors’ access to recreation, with resulting harm to their physical and mental health.

“While we appreciate the need to review costs and seek savings we submit that this is not the way to realise budget reductions,” she said.

She also lamented the condition of the Arden Road, which she described as “very bad, and presents a poor introduction to visitors to the area.”

Big Clear Lake – Theresa Smith of the Big Clear Lake Association brought forward two issues: the need for septic re-inspection to protect the lakes, and the issue of what she called “illegal” cottage rentals on Big Clear Lake.

“There are some large cottages being rented out on a weekly basis by people who are not registered as businesses, so the township is not receiving any revenue for them,” she said. She referred to a cottage that rents out as a “party place” for up to 6 couples at a time for a cost of $5,000 per week.

“How would you know if someone is renting a cottage or just lending it out to a friend or relative?” asked Tom Dewey.

“They’re advertised on the Internet” said Theresa Smith.

Kennebec Lake Plan – John Duchene and Terry Kennedy presented the Kennebec Lake Stewardship plan to Council.

The plan is a relatively short document, and is in fact a summary of a much thicker background document called "Kennebec Lake, State, Care, Planning” written by Gray Merriam, who worked for 10 years gathering data about the lake with the help of a number of volunteers.

“The core values of the plan, and our association, are water, air quality, peace and tranquility, nature and wildlife and our rural lifestyle,” John Duchene said. “Our watershed is in pretty good shape and the plan is all about keeping it that way.”

The plan’s recommendations are consistent with stewardship practice in the region, from protecting the “ribbon of life” around the lake to monitoring water quality, the habitat and populations, and more. In Kennebec Lake's case, maintaining vegetation on the shoreline and wetlands in the vicinity is crucial because the lake is surrounded by shallow soil and surface bedrock. According to the report, if the wetlands and shoreline vegetation around Kennebec Lake were gone, every inch of rain that fell on the watershed would raise the lake level by 55 inches.

The association has requested that their stewardship plan be included with the township's Official Plan as a secondary document.

Friends of Arden: Terry Kennedy outlined some of the activities the Friends of Arden have undertaken over the past year or so, including trail development next to the Arden Recreation Park, work on the mill pond, the new sign at Hwy. 7, and more.

The Friends are also asking Council to support their application for funding from Quinte Conservation for more work in the park.

Other items – In his monthly activity report, Chief Building Official Jeremy Nevens said that the voluntary septic re-inspection program will be conducted by the Mississippi-Rideau Septic System office. Work is being planned on Sharbot and Kennebec Lakes.

At the same time, a new group has formed to advocate for a mandatory inspection program for waterfront properties. Representatives from Elbow, Bobs and Crow, Big Clear, Eagle and Kennebec Lakes will be meeting to talk about a mandatory program. Council will decide next month whether to send Jeremy Neven to the meetings of the new group as a liaison/resource person.

Building activity: Year to date building activity for the first half of the year totals $3.37 million, up from $2.45 at the same time in 2012, but down from $4.5 million in 2011.

Road work comes in over budget: Public Works Manager Mike Richardson brought forward tenders for three road projects. The reconstruction of Elm Tree Road from Arden Road to Bridge Street in Arden came in at $84,430. The project was budgeted at $80,000 and the over-run can be covered from savings in other public works projects. The contract is going to Crains’ Construction.

Richardson said that he had underestimated the amount of work that needs to be done on Oak Flats Road. Instead of the budgeted $215,000, the road requires $368,000 worth of work. Because planned work on the Wagarville Road will be delayed until next year, some of that money will be spent to do the entire job that is required at Oak Flats. Again, the bid from Crains’ Construction was accepted.

“Will this complete the roadwork on Oak Flats for a while?” asked Councilor Frances Smith, a reference to the fact that work has taken place on a couple of occasions in recent years.

A property line fence at the Oso Waste site will cost $17,545, $4,000 over budget. The shortfall will be covered within the existing operations budget. The contract is going to Barretts Farm Centre.