What can I say about the decision by Janet Gutowski to remain as warden of Frontenac County Council?

On one hand she is fully within her legal rights to keep the position. While there has been a ‘gentleman’s’ agreement that the chain of office is to be passed on every year, that agreement was already dented, if not broken, a year ago. At that time North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton attempted to jump the queue, and he forced an election for the position of warden even though Gutowski was the deputy warden at the time and part of the ‘gentleman’s agreement’ until then had been that the deputy always gets the warden’s job.

The councilors from Frontenac Islands and North Frontenac formed a voting block and Clayton almost won. The vote was 4-4 and Gutowski only became warden out of luck when her name was pulled from a hat to break the tie.

At the time Bud Clayton justified trying to wrestle the job away from Gutowski by saying that she was too closely tied to the interests of county staff.

At the special meeting of Council this past Tuesday, December 11, Warden Gutowski was able to establish that she can stay on as warden if she wants to, and that any attempts to alter the county procedural bylaw will not take effect until after the next election.

Legalities aside, it is foolhardy for her to defy the will of the council in this way. The fact that a meeting was called to try and force her to resign is a sign of the obstruction she will face as warden from now on. Of the eight members of county council, five have made it clear they want her to resign, and two have remained silent.

In the coming county budget debate, council is certain to oppose any initiative that she supports. She has been a champion of a green energy Initiative, sustainability planning, and economic development, which are all certain to come under increased pressure by council with her as warden.

It is important to point out that, unlike the mayor of a city or a township, the warden is not elected through a public vote; the council itself elects the warden. To defy her council is to defy those who elected her.

As well, rightly or wrongly, at least half of county council thinks that Warden Gutowski is too closely aligned politically with County CAO Liz Savill, who they feel has too much authority and has not allowed the council to put their own stamp on the county’s future.

I personally find that position is more than a bit naïve. The fact is that county council has never pulled up its socks and done the necessary home work and research to come up with a viable vision of Frontenac County, and to a certain extent CAO Savill has filled in for a vacuum of leadership from the council itself.

As for Warden Gutowski, there is still time for a cooler head to prevail.

The county meets next Wednesday for the last time in 2012. While Janet Gutowski clearly believes she is in a unique position to promote county interests externally in 2013, to the Eastern Ontario Warden’s Caucus, the City of Kingston and the Province of Ontario, and believes that those opportunities will be lost if she steps down, everything changed this past Tuesday.

It became painfully clear, in the full light of a public meeting, that Frontenac County Council strongly opposes her.

This opposition will not pass and for her to continue as warden will be counter-productive. It will ensure an uncomfortable year ahead, and a stagnant council.

In light of all this, she should step down as warden.

Photo: Frontenac County Warde Janet Gutowski.

Procedural bylaw supports her decision, but council is opposed

It was a special meeting indeed.

Frontenac County Council met on Tuesday December 11, ostensibly to discuss their procedural bylaw.

But the real reason that members of Council petitioned for the meeting was to address a more direct question.

They wanted to know if the current warden, Central Frontenac Township Mayor Janet Gutowski, intended to resign as warden and turn the job over to Deputy Warden Dennis Doyle, the mayor of the Township of Frontenac Islands.

“Nobody has ever put the question directly to you so I will,” said South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison to Gutowski. “Do you intend to respect the office and turn it over to the deputy warden?”

“I have decided that I will remain in the chair of the warden. Times change and council needs to reflect those changes. We have to serve the needs of the citizens, and at this point there are a number of important initiatives that need to be followed through to their completion. At this point it is my intention to remain in the chair,” said Gutowski.

Gutowski’s position is backed up by the county's procedural bylaw, which stipulates that the warden is elected for a four-year term through a vote of Council. There is also nothing in the procedural bylaw that speaks to Council removing a warden from office.

By way of context - ever since the formation of the County of Frontenac, the wardens have only held the post for one year, and then resigned to give another mayor a year at the helm.

With four-year terms being instituted in Ontario municipalities in 2006, that meant each mayor had a chance to be warden.

After the most recent election in the fall of 2010, South Frontenac Mayor Davison was elected warden, and he resigned late last year.

After a contested election, Janet Gutowski was named warden after her name was pulled from a hat.

Back to Tuesday’s meeting.

Once Warden Gutowski made her decision clear, North Frontenac Mayor Clayton rose on a point of order. Citing a provision of the procedural bylaw, he challenged Gutowski’s ruling on the matter of remaining as warden. Gutowski then called for a recess, while along with the County CAO Liz Savill, she consulted with the county’s lawyer Tim Wilkin, who was on hand at the meeting.

During the break, Frontenac Islands representative David Jones leaned over to the press table and said, “It’s not really about the warden, you know; it’s all about the CAO.”

Gutowski returned, called the meeting to order, and said the provision about challenging a ruling [No. 17-11 in the bylaw] did not apply in this case, because she “had not made a ruling on any motion or any procedural item. I only answered a question from a member of Council”

South Frontenac Mayor Davison then asked Gutowski, “Why was that an in camera meeting between you and the solicitor?”

Warden Gutowski invited Tim Wilkin to speak to Council.

“The intention of the provisions in the procedural bylaw challenging a ruling of the chair, Nos.17-10, 17-11, and 17-12 are about different circumstances than this one. They are more about rules of order,” he said.

“You are using technicalities and procedural tricks to subvert the will of Council,” said Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle to Gutowski.

The meeting broke up shortly thereafter, and will be followed up with a further meeting on the procedural bylaw, but the question of Warden Gutowski remaining in place will not be part of those discussions.

“I’m terribly disappointed and a bit embarrassed to be part of this organization,” South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison said after the meeting.

(see editorial)

Fire hall plans to be fine tuned before seeking bids

A proposed municipal complex on Hwy. 41 just south of Northbrook, which was originally slated to include a fire hall and municipal offices, has been scaled back.

A draft plan for a fire hall only was before Council this week. Questions remain about the use of a second floor mezzanine for office space, and about some of the other specifications for the building.

“What are we going to do next? Time is passing on this,” said Deputy Reeve Bill Cox.

Fire Chief Casey Cuddy said that before any decisions are made, “we need to fine tune the drawing.”

“We do need to come to a final design and then agree to work with it,” said Councilor Tony Fritsch.

A motion was passed asking Cuddy to fine tune the design and bring it back to the final meeting of the year, in Denbigh on December 17.

Council may then decide to use the final drawing as the basis for a set of architect's drawings, which will form the basis of a tender document. Alternatively they might opt to set out a request for proposal for a design-build project, based more loosely on the final drawings.

The budget for the project has also not been determined, but it will likely become the centrepiece of the budget deliberations for 2013 and perhaps beyond.

Grant application for Glastonbury Road Bridge – In what would have to be considered a long shot, Addington Highlands is applying for a grant from the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Initiative (MIII) to rebuild the one lane Retan Bridge on Glastonbury Road. The township is seeking about $540,000, about 1% of the $50 million from the Ontario-wide initiative. The population of the township is about .0015% percent of the Ontario total.

If successful, the province will cover 90% of the cost for the $600,000 project, and the township 10%.

Cost to retain Northbrook canteen pegged at $10,000 – In response to an inquiry from the Northbrook Legion, the recreation committee has looked in a preliminary way at what it would cost in materials to bring the canteen adjacent to the Skateboard park in Northbrook back to a useable state. The Legion said they would be interested in using the canteen and paying for its upkeep if the township is willing to halt the decline of the structure. Ever since the Blueberry Festival ceased to operate 9 years ago the canteen has had little or no use.

Councilor Tony Fritsch said that it would cost “$3,200 for roofing materials, $3,000 to $3,500 for water treatment. If you add on $1,500 for a covered porch, $500 for electrical and some money for new lock sets, it gets to about $10,000 to make it useable. If you are going to fix it up, you would have to double that.”

“That project might make for a Trillium grant application later on,” said Bill Cox.

“If we are going to do this, the question is why?” asked Reeve Henry Hogg.

“If we don’t spend the money, it won’t be usable and I hate to see us lose something that we have,” said Bill Cox. “I’ll make a motion that we contact the Legion and tell them these are our preliminary thoughts about cost and ask them what their thoughts are.”

The motion passed.

Playground equipment – Keep, fix or tear down

The Recreation Facilities Committee has completed an inventory of play structures (climbers, swing sets, etc.) that are owned by the township. Some of them need to be torn down, a number need to be repaired, and a few are in good shape.

Most of the equipment at the former Denbigh school is in poor shape and needs to be removed, with the exception of the large swing set, which will stay.

This is in spite of the fact that a number of years ago, 12-year-old Tony Fritsch (now the chair of the Recreation Facilities Committee) broke his leg so badly after falling off that swing set that he was forced to wear a full leg cast for several months.

“When I went to the hospital they were going to cut off my rubber boots to work on the break, but they were good boots so my dad wouldn’t let them, so they had to pull them off,” Fritsch said, before adding, “that was off the record.”

OMPF to be kind to AH – The Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund, a transfer of funds from the province to municipal governments that require support, is being changed. The impact of the change will be minimal to Addington Highlands, which received $1.338 million in 2012 and will receive $1.341 million in 2013. In the Northern and Rural Fiscal Circumstances index, Addington Highlands had a ranking of 9.9 out of 10, meaning the township faces the highest level of fiscal need and requires a continued high level of provincial support. Sort of a bad-news-is-good-news scenario.

Cut in transfer nudges up SF tax hike

For the year 2012, South Frontenac Township received $1.86 million from the Province of Ontario under the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) to help with municipal social service and other costs for programs that at one time were fully funded by the province.

The OMPF program is changing in 2013 and for at least the next four years. The total funding will be decreased on a provincial level by $98 million, and those municipalities with the greatest capacity to handle a decrease, based on a number of factors, will be the ones that face the largest cut.

For South Frontenac that amounts to $206,000 less in OMPF funding in 2013. The total to be transferred will be $1.692 million.

Since the announcement of 2013 OMPF allocation was only made on November 15, just as the South Frontenac budgeting process was at the final stages, Treasurer Louise Fragnoti presented Council with some new budget numbers at their meeting in Sydenham on Tuesday night, Dec. 4.

The last time Council looked at the 2013 budget, they gave staff a directive to come back with two scenarios, one with a 2.98% increase in taxes for the average residential property, and one with a 3.28% increase.

Incorporating the $206,000 shortfall into her latest report, Fragnoti proposed three scenarios for council’s consideration.

In order to reach the 2.98% target, Council will need to cut about $500,000 from spending plans, with cuts to winter road control as well as maintenance to hardtop and gravel roads making up about half of the shortfall.

As well, Fragnoti proposed making a change in the way ratepayers are charged for the township's waste management system.

Until now, a flat $100 user fee has been charged to properties with residences on them. Staff proposed integrating waste into the regular budget, so that the costs will be shared by all properties, including vacant land, and properties with higher assessments will also pay more for garbage collection than those with lower assessments, just as they do for everything else the township does. This change would bring in more money and help cover for the OMPF cut.

Council was left with three scenarios to consider. Under option A, they could keep the waste management fee as a separate item and increase it to $110, and make a number of cuts to bring the budget to a 3.84% increase.

Under option B, they could integrate the waste management fee into the budget, make the same cuts as in option A, not make the road maintenance cuts, and come to a 3.84% increase. Under option C, they could integrate the waste fee and make the road maintenance cuts and cut the increase to the 2.98% target.

With council feeling uneasy about changing the way it collects fees for garbage pick-up and two memebers absent from the meeting, debate on the budget proposals was deferred to next week’s committeee of the whole meeting (December 11 - 7:00 pm)

OMPF cuts spare other townships In our region

South Frontenac would appear to be the only one losing out under Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) reform. North Frontenac will also see a marginal increase to $1.054 million. Central Frontenac will also see a marginal increase to $1.47 million;  Tay Valley Township will see a marginal increase to $546,700, and Lanark Highlands will see a marginal increase to $1.32 million.

Editorial by Jeff Green

From a distance it has been a lot of fun watching the trials and tribulations of the City of Toronto and its outlandish Mayor Rob Ford.

In the first instance, there was the outrage of the Toronto Star, whose editors still can't believe that the citizenry of Toronto refused to heed their unrelenting warnings by electing Ford in the first place. After that, courtesy of some of my old friends, who, judging from their Facebook posts, have become obsessed with every nuance of Mr. Ford's personality and political program, I have come to see the whole Rob Ford thing as a kind of small-town mayor issue set in a large city.

The reaction to Ford is personal; it's as if everyone knows him, as they would a very annoying neighbour who gets drunk on Saturday nights and walks up and down the sidewalk singing Danny Boy off-key.

The decision by a Superior Court judge to remove Mr. Ford from office is particularly interesting from a small municipality point of view. Although Toronto's budget is thousands of times larger than our local municipalities, and there are probably more people working for the City of Toronto than live in Frontenac or L&A Counties, conflict of interest rules for mayors and members of council everywhere are exactly the same, and it doesn’t matter how much money, or little, is involved.

What Rob Ford did would raise the same objections here as it did in Toronto.

Although Mr. Ford and his supporters blame his downfall on a left-wing conspiracy, and while the decision by a Toronto resident to bring the conflict of interest charge to court may have been politically motivated, the truth is that Mr. Ford's actions gave the judge no choice but to rule as he did.

The issue in front of the judge was not whether it was fair to make Rob Ford pay back the $3,000 he raised for his football team's charitable foundation by sending request letters out on city letterhead. The issue in front of the judge was much more simple than that.

A motion was made at council to excuse Rob Ford from paying $3,000. Mr. Ford spoke to the motion, and he voted on the motion. Municipal politicians in Ontario must excuse themselves from any decision that has a direct effect on their own financial interest. It could not be clearer than that. All Ford had to do was say, "I have a conflict of interest in this case", pull his chair back from the table, and stay quiet until the vote was taken.

Whatever else Rob Ford has done or not done as mayor of Toronto, he has breached the conflict of interest act and has thus been removed from office.

He will appeal, and another judge may try to bring some nuance to the situation, some lesser penalty, but the judge in the first instance certainly acted properly.

Ford broke the most basic rule of municipal politics, and he can't blame any of his political opponents for the consequences he faces as the result.

What happened to him should give some local politicians pause. From time to time, we have made note of apparent, even indirect, conflicts by members of some of the local councils, as the press in Toronto did in the Rob Ford case. The difference was that someone took it a step further and brought the case to court, and that is what has, presumably, cost Ford his job.

It is rather unlikely that someone would take the trouble of taking a municipal councilor or mayor to court over a conflict, but the possibility exists.

The irony is that it is actually very difficult to remove someone from office in an Ontario municipality, as the Council from the City of London is finding out.

Their mayor, Joe Fontana, is facing criminal charges for fraud, but the council can only ask, they cannot force him to step aside until the charges are dealt with.

A council does not have the power to remove the person who has been elected to head it - be they elected by the public, as a Mayor or Reeve is, or even elected by the council itself, as a Warden is.

The Council of the City of London, might well try to make Joe Fontana’s life miserable by thwarting his efforts and blocking his policies, but until he has his day in court there is nothing stopping him from thumbing his nose at his council and hanging onto the chain of office for dear life.

Proposal for park at Clar-Mill Hall

Jocelyne Lemke appeared before Council to advocate for a park in the Plevna/Ompah region of the township.

“I am grateful for everything that we have in the township and for the efforts that the council makes. However a park facility would be a great place for an entire family to socialize! Where our children could play, families could picnic, adults gather, and community events could be held outdoors. An ideal park would have play structures, swings, benches, picnic tables and an outdoor shelter,” she said.

While she mentioned a number of possible locations, she said the area around the Clar-Mill hall in Plevna, which already has a winter hockey rink, would be ideal.

"The Clar-Mill volunteers had a park on their wish list a couple of years ago so I know they would work on building one,” she said.

She asked if Council might consider putting in a Trillium application for a new park when they are working on next year's budget, estimating that it would cost $40,000 or more for the project.

Mayor Bud Clayton thanked Jocelyn Lemke for her presentation and said they would look at it when they are doing the budget in the coming weeks.

Only 40 septic re-inspections in 2012: Eric Kohlsmith from the Mississippi-Rideau Septic System Office (MRSSO), presented his report on the 2012 voluntary septic re-inspection program on the township's lakes.

The program is designed to inspect about 100 properties on as many lakes as possible within the township, with a view to fostering an understanding of the need to maintain functioning septic systems on waterfront properties because of the impact on phosphorous and other compounds on wildlife habitat.

In the executive summary to his report Kohlsmith outlined some of the issues that the program faced this year: “During the 2012 sewage system re-inspection program 40 properties were inspected on nine lakes – Brule, Buckshot, Canonto, Grindstone, Mackie, Marble, Mazinaw, Palmerston and Shabomeka. Two hundred and thirty-four Property Owner Information packages were mailed out in a total of four mailings. New for 2012, the MRSSO went door to door to 76 properties that had not responded by the week of August 13. In total 234 Property Owner packages were sent, rendering a 17% response rate. One of the possible reasons for the low response rate was that approximately 131 properties were non-respondents from previous years.”

Of those 40 inspections, two resulted in recommendations for replacement, and about 20 others required remediation of some form, most typically a simple pump out. In addition to the 40 inspections, another 36 property owners were visited and given information about septic system maintenance.

“The goal of the program over the last two years has been to inspect properties that we had been unable to inspect in previous years, and the township needs to decide what to do for next year. We could continue to focus on non-respondents, which would reduce the overall number of inspections; expand the voluntary program to property owners we have not yet approached; enter into mandatory inspection to force compliance; or do a combination of all three,” Kohlsmith said.

He pointed out that Tay Valley Township, which does 200 inspections each year, passed a bylaw enabling mandatory inspection on seven of its more sensitive lakes, and uses voluntary inspections in the rest of the township.

A handshake or Mazinaw Rock? After a discussion about a proposed new township logo at the last meeting, which led to the rejection of the proposal after a 3-3 vote, Councilor Betty Hunter was seeking clarification.

“Does Council want to keep the existing logo or should we be looking at commissioning a new one?” she asked.

Mayor Clayton then said that the old logo does not feature a handshake as everyone on Council thought.

“I talked to Laurie Lemke, who designed it, and she said the logo includes trees, water, and Mazinaw Rock, not a handshake,” said Clayton.

Lonnie Watkins said, “Look at it, it's two hand shaking.”

“No,” said Clayton, “it's the rock, the trees and the water.

“Well, what's this big hand doing holding the rock?” asked Watkins.

While Council did not answer Hunter's question, it looks as if the rock (or handshake) may be here to stay.

Arsenic to be removed from fire hall site -

A Phase 11 environmental assessment of the proposed building site for a new fire hall has been completed by Malroz Engineering. They found no issues of concern at the site, save for a localised area where levels of arsenic were high. This area did not correspond to any of the previous uses of the site as a gas station and garage. Nonetheless, Malroz recommended removing the offending soil, preferably with them present, and then taking more samples for testing. Costs for this further step should be minimal.

Councilor Inglis said that he had been talking to a retired engineer, who told him the arsenic is more than likely naturally occurring and should be left where it is.

“Can your friend give a stamp of approval for the site?” asked Deputy Mayor Fred Perry.

Council decided to take the next step, which will get them an approved building site for a new fire hall.

A bridge too far – Public Works Manager Jim Phillips recommended that the township apply to a new provincial infrastructure program for a new two-lane bridge to replace the one-lane Mississippi bridge on Road 509.

The existing bridge is in need of repair, and a new bridge would not only negate the need for repairs, it would deal with a long standing concern over having a one-lane bridge on a major arterial road that is used by delivery trucks on a regular basis.

“We have applied for that bridge how many times in the past? Two, or is it three?” said Councilor Wayne Good. "Why apply again when the province is so uninterested?”

“The bridge was in good shape then,” said Mayor Clayton. “Now it isn't. That improves our chances.”

It will cost the township $10,000 to do the groundwork for the application, and if successful the township will have to pay about $200,000 for a new bridge, which would cost about between $2 and $2.5 million. 

Safe properties bylaw still needs work, but it is getting closer

A draft version of a new Safe Properties bylaw was presented to Central Frontenac Council on Tuesday afternoon (November 27)

Councilor Tom Dewey was the first to speak to the new draft. He proposed a number of wording changes intended to clarify and in some cases, strengthen the bylaw. Among the items that were the most discussed was a provision regarding “refuse”, which will not be permitted under the draft bylaw.

“Refuse” is defined in item 3 of the draft bylaw as “garbage, waste, debris, long grass, brush, clippings or other material that may promote or be susceptible to fire and rodents, timber, lumber, building materials or any other type of product or material that may be susceptible to fire or present a risk to safety.”

“We live in a big, swampy area,” said Councilor Norm Guntensperger. “If we pass this as written then every single property with 'long grass' will be deemed unsafe.

Councilor Heather Fox said, “I agree with Norm; I thought that provision was going to be taken out of the bylaw after our last discussion.”

Councilor Frances Smith said she thought some provisions in the bylaw “seem to be written with the built up areas in mind. If we attach a schedule to the bylaw saying those provision only apply in the hamlets, then those properties where there are no neighbours within sight will be left alone.

Smith's proposal was rejected by a number of speakers.

“I think there should be one set of rules for everyone,” said Mayor Gutowski. “Don't forget that enforcement will be complaints driven, so that will keep the focus on the more densely populated areas.

Another provision in the bylaw say that properties must be kept free from “inoperable vehicles, trailers, machinery, tools, tires, appliances, equipment or any parts thereof” and another says that every property shall be kept free from any pit, excavation or deep water that is unfenced or unprotected against dangerous risk of accident.”

Penalties for contravening the bylaw will range from $500 to $5,000.

After some further discussion the bylaw was sent back to staff for more revisions. It will come back to Council on December 10.

Green light to co-op solar: Ian Robery appeared before Central Frontenac Council on Tuesday (November 27) as well as at a business breakfast in Sharbot Lake last week. He represents a not-for-profit corporation called Queen Street Solar, an affiliate of the Options for Green Energy.

Queen Street Solar is seeking to get a foothold in Frontenac County. What they do is build solar energy systems that are larger than the normal private micro-fit program but are eligible for the micro-fit program, which pays a premium price to small-scale electricity producers from Ontario Power Generation. Queen Street uses public sector rooftops for their projects, sells shares to members of the public, and pays profits over the 20-year lifespan of the project.

“Just as micro-fit projects are profitable for private investors who have $20,000 to $80,000 available to spend, we pool money from many investors to put up solar arrays and pay the profits back to the investors,” Robery said.

He added that Ontario Power Generation, which was reluctant to approve co-op projects when micro-fit projects first came on, are now favoring them.

Queen Street Solar has its eyes on the roof of the Olden Garage for its first Frontenac County project, and Robery asked Council to permit Queen Street access to the garage to further evaluate the possibility. If they decide to proceed, they would offer the township payment to lease the roof, and would sell shares in the project. Local involvement is required for the project to go ahead. For now, Robery only asked Council to pass a motion in favor of solar projects in principle, and giving leave to investigate the Olden garage project. Council passed the motion.

For more information on co-op green energy projects and investments, go to Optionsforgreenenergy.ca

Mountain Grove Library building safe, but outdated: Township Chief Building Official Jeremy Neven, responding to a request from Council, presented a report on the state of repair of the Mountain Grove Library building, which was formerly a school, township office, and fire hall. Neven found that the “building is generally sound and stable, however, significant expense would need to be incurred to bring the building and its mechanical systems up to current standards and codes.”

Measures would include damp proofing the basement, insulating walls and attics and upgrading the heating systems.

Mayor Gutowski said, “It is important, after some comments were made by members of council, that we reassure library staff that the building is safe and free of mould. Given the cost of upgrades, however, Council needs to consider whether this building should be kept in our inventory into the future.”

Minimum building size proposal nixed: Township Planning Consultant Glen Tunnock presented a draft revision of the comprehensive zoning bylaw. It contained a number of measures to clarify elements of the bylaw, which mostly received the acceptance of council, and will be presented to the public in December. One proposed measure was not well received, however.

“I have hesitated to bring this forward in the past,” said Tunnock, “but it is common for there to be a minimum building size in most comprehensive zoning bylaws, and I am proposing one be set at 900 square feet. There have been few if any applications for buildings smaller than that for a number of years so it would not likely hinder any development.”

Mayor Gutowski said that the limit might impede the building of not-for profit seniors' housing, which is a priority for the township.

Councilor Guntensperger said he was concerned the limit might push some builders to build in secret, without permits.

“This would probably eliminate granny suites,” said Councilor Tom Dewey.

Tunnock said he would pull the minimum standard from the proposed bylaw before bringing it forward to the public.

Five-year capital budget: Treasurer Michael McGovern presented a draft five-year capital budget for Council's consideration. The budget is subject to revision each year, but is intended to help with long term planning. The most expensive area in the budget is road and bridge projects and public works equipment. It calls for about $1.3 million in public works spending each year, with a focus on equipment purchases in the first two years, and road and bridge projects in years 3-5. The budget calls for a spending spike in the third year, 2015, but that is based on the expectation of a granting program in that year, and a successful application to that program by the township for the reconstruction of Elizabeth Street in Sharbot Lake.

by Wilma Kenny

Seniors’ Housing for Verona?

Jamie Curragh asked Council for their feedback on his proposal to build a two-storey, 10-unit seniors housing complex in Verona.

Curragh’s plans are still in the early stages. He showed a sketch of a potential layout and quoted a recent study published by the County of Frontenac, which identifies the need for more seniors’ housing in the Verona area. He is presently in the process of gathering information about the zoning and planning requirements for such a project, and working on his business plan.

Council complimented him on his work to date, and asked that he keep them informed of his plans.

Harrowsmith Subdivision Closed Down

It’s unlikely many Harrowsmith residents are even aware of the 126-year old subdivision on the northeast corner of the village off Church Street, bounded by two surveyed but otherwise nonexistent streets called Park Street and John Street. Lawyer Peter Radley came to Council on behalf of Mrs. Shirley Hole, who has discovered that her house is not only in the middle of John Street, but apparently had been built there in 1880, six years before the subdivision plan was approved. None of the subdivision lots have ever been developed. Lawyer Radley noted that there is provision to close a subdivision plan after eight years if it is “not moving ahead” by that time, and asked if Council would consider closing John Street, and granting Mrs. Hole clear title to her property. Council agreed, but asked if Mrs. Hole in return would give the township a corner of her lot, presently used as a turning area for snow plows. Everett Kerr, who owns the adjoining field, offered to give the township a strip of land so John Street could be relocated a short distance to the east, and provide access to the back part of his property. This will come to a regular council meeting for official approval.

Motorized Traffic on Cataraqui Trail

Council received a letter drawing their attention to the frequent, illegal use of the Cataraqui Trail west of Sydenham by 4 wheelers, dirt bikes, trucks and farm vehicles. The writer asked why there were no gates on the trail, as there are from Sydenham east. Councilor Stowe said the Cataraqui Conservation Authority has money budgeted for more gates, which should be installed soon. Public Works Manager Segsworth said it was important to see that the gates would leave enough space to allow accessibility for motorized wheelchairs, which are a permitted use on the trail.

January Meeting Schedule

Township offices will be closed between Christmas and New Year, with staff using three days' vacation time. Because New Year falls on a Tuesday, all January Council meetings will be moved forward one week: the first 2013 Council meeting will be January 8.

Received for Information

When a township council wants to reject a request for money or support, or ignore the recommendation of a consultant, government body or even a member of their own staff, they have a polite way of doing so.

They simply ignore whatever the request for action is, and receive the correspondence “For Information”.

In response to an email from an outfit called the Dimestore Fisherman asking for a cash donation and five days’ free accommodation in order to have a TV show filmed in Addington Highlands, Councilor Bill Cox said “Motion to receive for information” and everyone put up their hand.

To a request for support for a meeting with the Ministry of Natural Resources to address a lack of enforcement of hunting and fishing violations, it was Councilor Helen Yanch’s to turn to make a motion to “receive the request for information”, which council did.

Council also received for information a supplemental report from a consultant after they had complained that the consultant’s report on recycling in the township had overstated the costs of their program and misunderstood the way it works.

“He said he made some changes to the report, but it doesn’t look like he did much of anything,” said Henry Hogg after the report was received.

Township will not clean up other people’s messes – A motion to have the public works department clean up a large amount of garbage, including chesterfields, tires and other large items on a dead end road that is a boundary road with North Frontenac, was defeated.

Denbigh Waste site - still waiting for Certificate of Approval - Works Manager Royce Rosenblath reported that work has been completed on a leachate pond at the Denbigh waste site. “We have done everything that the Ministry of the Environment has asked us to do, and we will wait for them to either find something else they want us to do or give us our certificate so we can proceed.”

New tendering plan - The township is planning to go to tender early in 2012 to find vendors of record for specific kinds of smaller jobs, so when jobs need to be completed as quickly as possible, they can simply hire the vendor instead of having to wait through a tendering process.

Library work to commence – The township has received the cheque for $72,000 from the Trillium Foundation, and renovation work at the new Denbigh Recreation Centre to accommodate the library’s move to the centre will commence in January.

(Editor’s Note: Addington Highlands Council will be meeting on January 3 at 1pm at the Flinton Recreation Centre, during the News’ hiatus, and we will not have a report from that meeting).

South Frontenac now a chicken friendly zone

At their final meeting of the year, South Frontenac Council finally dispensed with an issue that they have been pecking away at for six months. The township will now permit residents on lots as small as one acre in size to keep up to 10 hens, but no roosters.

The new bylaw is a simple amendment to the existing comprehensive zoning bylaw, which limits hens to lots of 3 acres or more. Several members of the public spoke in favour of the bylaw in a public meeting that preceded its passage, as did a number of members of council.

Mayor Davison sounded a note of caution however.

“Remember a few years ago people were worried about avian flu from living too close together with poultry,” he said.

Nonetheless, the bylaw amendment passed without incident.

Private lane upgrade grants – Public Works Manager Mark Segsworth presented a report on the private lanes upgrade program for 2011. The program provides for up to 50% financial support for upgrades that lane associations take on, under certain conditions.

“This is the 4th year of the program and it has proved rather popular. The intention of the program is to improve access for emergency vehicles to properties on private lanes, and this year certain issues came up that we had not faced before. Some property owners were not in agreement with some of the work that was done. I also think that some of the lanes have been resurfaced without dealing with drainage issues. What I have ruled ineligible is gravel resurfacing, and I think we might have to make some of the rules more explicit in future years to limit confusion among applicants” said Segsworth.

“Maybe we should send this to the Public Works Committee to review the criteria,” said Councilor Del Stowe.

“We have made it clear already that this program is not about just putting down gravel. I don’t think we have to revisit that,” said Councilor Alan McPhail.

“Let’s not forget that this is a successful program,” said Councilor Mark Tinlin.

Council approved grants totalling $30,771 for work on 10 different lanes, including: Osboren Lane - $276; Wildlife Lane - $2,542; Sandpit Lane - $10,810; Tim’s Lane - $470; Sellers Lane - $3,676; Sharpley Lane - $517; MacComich Lane - $1288; Garter Lake Lane - $1,953; Henry Lane - $6,893; Sunset Shores - $2,340.

2.1% pay increase for non-unionized staff - Council confirmed a pay increase of 2.1% in 2012 for all non-unionized staff, which includes themselves. The 2.1% figure is identical to the pay increase that was negotiated for unionized staff through a collective bargaining agreement.