Who's Runs the Zoo?

Ken Fisher | Aug 10, 2022

Central Frontenac Council recently approved a $620,000 reconstruction project for the Sharbot Lake beach area. It could be a planning fiasco.

On the face of it, the plan makes sense: fix the storm sewers, pave Mathew Street, maybe add some parking. The problem is, it will create more problems than it solves. The current iteration of the plan - and it keeps morphing - calls for making Mathew Street one-way, downhill. This will have traffic converging at the bottom of Mathew from five directions.

The Township's solution to the inevitable traffic jam? Create a traffic circle!

This plan is wrongheaded. First, it will create a safety hazard for pedestrians using the beach or K&P Trail. That's a liability problem for the Township. Second, it throws the new Official Plan (OP) out the window. The OP calls for recognizing the social, cultural, and economic importance of the waterfront area, not paving it over. It calls for encouraging pedestrians and active transportation, not putting a roundabout on top of the K&P Trail.

It seems abundantly clear that County planning staff - who are paid by our Township for planning advice - have not been consulted on this. And if they have, stakeholders in Sharbot Lake have still not had the experience of being heard. Recent data from the County itself shows spiking growth in use of the Trail. The problems introduced by this flawed plan will be magnified once the K&P reopens northward. County planners need to be a central voice in any redesign of our waterfront.

And so do local residents. And the Indigenous community. And business owners. And tourism bodies. Where is the public consultation?  Frankly, the impulsiveness of this plan is disturbing. The idea was first presented to Council on June 28 by Public Works Manager Tyson Myers. Council approved it on the spot. Moments later in that same meeting, it emerged that Mr. Meyers had already put the plan out to tender and accepted a bid from Crain's Construction.

Pardon me? Who’s in charge? The Mayor? The Council? The Clerk? Or the Public Works Manager?

Who?

I have questions. Like, how is there $620,00 left over from a $1.9M infrastructure project? Council is being led to believe that the Province of Ontario is footing the tab. Is it really? Or is it the citizens of Central Frontenac?

And why, at the time the project was tendered, did the tender not appear in the Frontenac News?  Gravel and heavy equipment do not fly themselves in. A local project like this might be done by a local company. How exactly did the bid come to be awarded to Crain's Construction?

I call on Council to pause this project, request community input, and revisit their decision to approve it prematurely, based only on a staff recommendation.  Our iconic beach area deserves nothing less.

Ken Fisher