Central Frontenac sending Tom Dewey to County

Tom Dewey defeated Bill MacDonald 6-3 to become the second township representative, along with Mayor Frances Smith, for the new term of Frontenac County Council.

Central Frontenac held their inaugural Council meeting on Tuesday evening (December 2) at the Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake. The meeting did not include any of the normal business of council; that will come at a meeting on December 9.

Aside from taking the oaths of office for mayor and council, the major piece of business on the agenda was the selection of the county council member.

Bill MacDonald, who represents ward 3 (Oso), was nominated by the other ward 3 councillor, Sherry Whan. MacDonald has a long history on Frontenac County Council, both before and after amalgamation.

When it came time to vote, there was a geographical component to the results.

Tom Dewey, a second term councilor who represents ward 1 (Kennebec) was supported by the other ward 1 councilor, Cindy Kelsey; both ward 2 (Olden) councilors, Jamie Riddell and Victor Haase; as well as both ward 4 (Hinchinbrooke) councilors, Phillip Smith and Brent Cameron.

Sherry Whan and Mayor Smith voted for Bill MacDonald.

Dewey's appointment to county council is for the entire four year term of council.

Jamie Riddell was the only candidate for the largely ceremonial role of deputy mayor, a one-year appointment.

McDougall returns to County Council: South Frontenac inaugural meeting

Tuesday was the inaugural meeting of the new South Frontenac Council. Following Mayor Ron Vandewal’s oath of office, the eight Councillors performed a choral swear-in. Each thanked their supporters and family, and expressed their commitment to the four years’ work ahead. Although five of the councillors are new to the table, at least three have some municipal experience: Ron Sleeth of Storrington was Reeve of Storrington and County Warden for several years in the 1990's, Alan Revill recently retired as chief building official for South Frontenac, and Mark Schjerning is the Chief of Emergency Services for Lennox and Addington County. Mayor Vandewal and Councillors Pat Barr, John McDougall and Bill Robinson all served on Council last term.

Appointee to County Council

The first piece of business for Council was to decide who is to join the Mayor as a member of the Frontenac County Council for the next four years. Two candidates were nominated: John McDougall, by councillors Bill Robinson and Alan Revill, and Ron Sleeth by Councillors Norm Roberts and Mark Schjerning. McDougall spoke of his previous four years serving on County Council, noting that with three new Mayors and several new Councillors, his experience would be useful. Sleeth said he had hoped to be the County representative, but he has four more months left in his term as a director on Holstein Ontario, and “a man cannot serve two masters.”

Accordingly, he withdrew his nomination, and wished McDougall well. County Warden Dennis Doyle was present at the meeting.

Deputy Mayor

The position of Deputy Mayor rotates through the four districts over the term of Council. After fine-tuning and approving a bullet-proof method of selection based on number of votes received, agreement between acclaimed councillors, and back-up voting arrangements if agreement is not reached, the matter was settled to what appeared to be the satisfaction of all. It went as follows: year 1, John McDougall; year 2, Ross Sutherland; year 3, Norm Roberts, and year 4, Pat Barr for the first six months and Alan Revill for the last six.

Waterfront Zoning Issue

Planner Lindsay Mills brought a report on the McMahon property on Thirteen Island Lake (part lot 1, Conc. 1, Bedford). Mills said a development agreement registered on title in 2002, requiring a 400’ setback from the water was not consistent with the zoning by-law, which requires a 300’ setback, recommending that this be amended to agree with the zoning by-law. Mills strongly recommended removing a requirement permitting only pedestrian traffic on the 50’ waterfront, saying that this would suggest no docks, decks, boats or boat trailers would be permitted: “In the opinion of the planning department this prohibition has no validity and is not consistent with the intent of the official plan.” Sutherland said that this stricture should remain, for the committee of adjustment of the day must have had good reasons to set it, and should be respected. McDougall recommended a decision be deferred until the history of this decision could be researched.

Notices of Motion

Mark Schjerning listed five notices of motion he wished to bring forward: monthly payment of Councillors’ honourariums, reports on the Johnson Point condo application and on legislative compliance, amendments to the procedural by-law re timing of closed meetings, and township maintenance on roads with year-round residents.

Technological Changes

There will be no more paper agenda packages. All members of Council are now equipped with new iPads, and appear to have been coached on their use. During the meeting, details of the agenda item under discussion are projected onto a screen lowered down in front of the Township coat of arms, so members of the public in attendance are fully informed. The press has a table to work at and he public now has access to the public branch of the Township WiFi.  

Luck of the draw sends Helen Yanch to L&A County Council

In the run up to the municipal election, the probability that the deputy mayor/county representative position for the next four years would not be settled by the electorate was foreseen by the council.

The way it works in Addington Highlands, the councilor who receives the most votes in the ward where the reeve does not reside is offered the position of deputy reeve and joins the reeve as a member of the eight- member Lennox and Addington County Council. Since it was likely that Henry Hogg, who resides in ward 1, would be re-elected, and the two candidates in ward 2 (Bill Cox and Helen Yanch) were acclaimed, a vote among the five-member council was a likely scenario, and a secret ballot is not permissible under the municipal act.

Instead of subjecting themselves to a popularity contest to be played out in public, Bill Cox, who at that time was the deputy reeve, put forward a motion in early October that in the case of a tie, the matter be settled by lot.

Both Yanch and Cox said they wanted the position, so on Monday afternoon (December 1) at the township office in Flinton, that's exactly what was done, although a plastic tub was used in place of a hat.

Reeve Hogg pulled a piece of paper from the tub, unfolded it and read out the name, “Yanch”.

This is Helen Yanch's second term as deputy reeve and county representative. She served in that role between 2006 and 2010.

Kirby Thompson was also welcomed as a new representative from Ward 1, along with second term incumbent Tony Fritsch.

Committee appointments – Council is considering whether to alter the roles of the waste management, public works, and recreation facilities committees. They decided to defer appointments to either committee until the next meeting while they consider their options.

Other appointments were made – Kirby Thompson will sit on the Mississippi Valley Conservation Board; Henry Hogg will sit on the Quinte Region Conservation Board; and Bill Cox returns to the Pine Meadow Nursing Home Management Committee, which he now chairs. Helen Yanch and Kirby Thompson will sit as council representatives on the seven-member Addington Highlands Library Board; and Bill Cox, Henry Hogg and Kirby Thompson will sit on the Joint Fire Services Board with North Frontenac. Tony Fritsch remains the council-appointed manager of the Denbigh Community Centre (former schoolhouse). All members of council will sit on the Committee of Adjustment. Finally, Bill Cox was chosen to be the alternate to L&A County Council should the reeve or deputy reeve be unable to attend for any reason.

Zamboni to be resurrected – Community members Dave Miles and Ron St. Peters appeared before Council to talk about the Zamboni that is parked in a shed near the Flinton ice rink. With the support of the Flinton Recreation Club, the two are proposing to have the Zamboni looked at to see if it can be put back in service without too much cost, and are willing to arrange training for volunteer drivers as well.

“We are shy of taking ownership of the Zamboni,” said Councilor Bill Cox, but Council offered support for the initiative.

Paul Isaacs proposes committees – Denbigh resident Paul Isaacs also appeared before Council to propose the formation of two new council committees, one to concern itself with the future of the Denbigh ambulance service, and a second on social issues. Council did not take immediate action on either proposal.

Insurance premiums down - Paul Dorman from Jardine Lloyd Thompson Insurance Brokers (JLT), made his annual presentation about the township's insurance policy, which JLT is offering to renew for $$63,929, a slight decrease from last year’s premium $64,644.

Council decided to renew the contract with JLT, but next year they will undertake a tendering process for insurance, which is required under their procurement bylaw.

Township unhappy with proposed County Official Plan

“We need to ask the county to make changes to the Official Plan before it is approved,” said Reeve Hogg.

“I agree completely,” said Councilor Tony Fritsch. “My understanding was that it was not going to get into the detail that is covered in our Official Plan, but that's not what I see in the document.”

“They said they would not duplicate what we have here, and would make it general, but as time went on they kept adding and adding to it,” said Councilor Bill Cox.

One of the issues of concern to Addington Highlands is the plan’s insistence that development be concentrated within the boundaries of hamlets.

OMPF grant – OMPF (Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund) is an annual grant from the provincial government directly to municipalities. In rural Ontario it is designed to compensate for the lack of commercial assessment, and costs related to distance from population centres. This year, Addington Highlands will be receiving $1,602,500 being an increase of $76,000 over last year. (see article on OMPF funding for the allocations in other townships and counties)

Lanark OPP pulling out of Frontenac County

Inspector Derek Needham, the detachment commander for the Lanark County OPP, went over the new OPP billing model for the benefit of North Frontenac Council at the final meeting of the current council in Plevna on Monday morning (November 24).

Although the explanation went into more detail than the township had seen earlier, the bottom line is still, as had been previously communicated to the township, an increase of $139,000 in 2015, and an identical increase each year for the following three years, followed by a smaller increase in 2019.

Within five years, the annual cost for service to North Frontenac Township will have risen by 367% from 2014 costs, going from $230,000 to $845,000 over that time, representing a 12% increase (about 2.5% per year) in taxes just to cover increases in policing costs.

“The fact is that North Frontenac has been paying $66 per household until now, which is way less than what most municipalities have been paying,” said Needham, “that's why you've been hit so hard.”

He then explained that the change in the billing model, which is not leading to an overall increase in municipal funding for the OPP, was mandated by the Attorney General of Ontario in order to make the model easy to understand.

“The old model was overly complicated,” he said, adding that the new model will “result in a decrease for Perth and Carleton Place and increases in the other townships, some as much as 100%, but none as dramatic as yours.”

The model does take into account the low rate of service calls in North Frontenac since 40% of the billing is related to calls for service, but since there is a billing of $200 per household as a base cost for the service, and according to the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation, North Frontenac has 3,464 households even though it only has 2,000 permanent residents, the costs to ratepayers will be going up and up.

“We receive grants based on our permanent resident population, such as gas tax and others. But this is the first time our number of households has been used, but it is not for a grant, it is for a bill,” said Councilor Gerry Martin.

Needham said he didn't know anything about how grants are allocated.

Needham was also asked by Councilor Lonnie Watkins why so many tickets were issued during the September ATV charity run event in Ompah. “From what I've heard it was a ticket writing exercise,” Watkins said, "400 tickets were issued.”

“I don't want to say too much about that event,” said Needham, “so I'll speak generally. Individual officers have a lot of discretion when it comes to certain kinds of offences, and sometimes things can be handled as kind of an education piece. I'd like to optimistically say there will be a different way of handling it next year.”

Needham revealed at the end of his presentation that jurisdiction for policing in North Frontenac (and Central Frontenac as well) will be handed over to a new detachment.

“We have been looking at efficiencies, and as of February 1, the Sharbot Lake Detachment will align with the Frontenac detachment in Hartington, and not the Lanark Detachment in Smiths Falls. The same officers will work out of the detachment, but the commander will be out of Hartington."

Compressor order approved

At the previous meeting Council had deferred ordering a new air compressor to fill breathing bottles for firefighters because at that time Fire Chief Riddell was on vacation.

This time around Riddell explained that a new compressor is required because new regulations require that compressors include a detector/shut off valve that makes it impossible for carbon monoxide to infiltrate the bottles, and the North Frontenac compressor doesn't have one.

“I didn't see that in your report,” said Councilor John Inglis, “but why does the new compressor need to be bigger - 5,000 pounds per square inch in place of the 3,000 psi machine we have now?

“Down the line a few years the word is that the 4,500 psi bottles will be required and I thought it was best to plan ahead instead being faced with the cost of a new compressor,” said Riddell.

Armed with this knowledge Council approved the new purchase, and decided to take the old compressor out of service.

Riddell said that delivery could take a month and until the new compressor arrives North Frontenac will fill their breathing bottles at the fire station in Sharbot Lake, where there is a compressor that meets safety standards.

Applewood Application Forwarded to County for Final Approval

Planner Lindsay Mills presented his recommendation that Council receive the October 30 planning report and forward all relevant documents to the County, as representing the Township’s conditions of draft approval for the Applewood plan of condominium for 22 (reduced from 23) residential units on the eastern portion of Loughborough Lake.

In his report, Mills referred to a public meeting on September 2 (a meeting that actually occurred on October 7), during which he said “members of the public made a number of specific enquiries about the development but most comments were positive.”

This is somewhat at odds with the report of this meeting in the Frontenac News of October 9, which indicated many unresolved concerns from residents, under the general tenor of 'I’m not against development, but…'.

Some of the people at that October 7 meeting asked about the reliability of the well monitoring tests, the perceived lack of adherence to the goals and vision of the Township’s official plan, and the creation of lots with protected wetlands as their waterfront. At the time many of the 60 residents present asked for one more public meeting before the township forwarded the draft plan to the County.

Nonetheless last week Council passed Mills’ recommendation with no discussion.

Last Meeting of this Council

Mayor Davison presented plaques to departing members of Council Larry York and Al McPhail: Del Stowe was absent. Deputy Mayor Vandewal gave a similar plaque to Mayor Gary Davison, who thanked Council, staff and community volunteers for their hard work, support and cooperation. Davison said “The township is a success story, and I have found my time on Council both as councilor and mayor to have been a truly enjoyable experience. Thank you all.”

The first meeting of the new Council will be Tuesday December 2.

Central Frontenac Council signs off

Before starting their November 11 meeting, Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski announced that the late November meeting will be cancelled, making this the final event in the term for six of the nine members of the current council. One of the six, Norman Guntensperger, was not in attendance, but the other four, John Purdon, Wayne Millar, Heather Fox and Jeff Matson, and Gutowski herself were all in good humour. At the end of the meeting they had a chance to wish the new council well.

For her part, Gutowski said she expects that she will continue to be involved in community activities in one way or another.

As the new council is set to take office next month, Council deferred all but the most clear-cut decisions.

Waste Management consulting

Council received a report from the public works managers of North and South Frontenac as well as their own former public works manager, Mike Richardson, regarding the cost of monitoring waste management sites in all three townships. Currently, the work is contracted out separately by each of the townships.

The report considered developing the expertise to do all the work through a new department to serve all three townships, and perhaps Frontenac Islands as well.

The cost for work on the 13 active and 14 closed sites in mainland Frontenac County is almost $450,000. However, rather than taking all this work in house, the report recommended putting out a combined Request for Proposals to deliver the service on a county-wide basis.

They selected the following option: “totally outsource all aspects of the service delivery of Waste Management

that involve required Ministry reporting, liaison with the Ministry of Environment, ground water and surface water testing and monitoring, using one RFP to contract the work to include all four townships” in the hope that they can all save some money.

“This is a good example of how we all benefit from common efforts between the townships and the county,” said Mayor Gutowski of the report and the recommendation.

Since the matter needs to be considered by the other townships before being acted on, Council just accepted the report for information, leaving approval to the new Council.

Waste Services Manager Kyle Labbett also reported that the formal closing of the Arden site has been completed to the satisfaction of the Ministry of the Environment, and that the Wilkinson Road site, near Chippego Lake, is also ready to be formally closed.

“These are items I have been working on for five years,” said Labbett.

He then added a bit of a tidbit for the benefit of the incoming council.

“The next one to come is Crow Lake,” he said. According to the most recent capacity study, at the current fill rate, that site will be filled within the next half dozen years.

Disappointing year of construction

With only two wintry months to go in 2014, Central Frontenac is poised to see construction values of below $5 million for the first time in recent memory.

As of the end of October, building permits have been issued for $4.25 million in construction since the start of the year, down just over $750,000 from 2013. 10 new residential units and 2 new seasonal units were started this year, as compared to 10 residential and 5 seasonal in 2013. In 2012, a year whose overall numbers (over $20 million) were skewed by the construction of Granite Ridge Education Centre, there were also 16 residential and 8 seasonal residences under construction.

Public Meeting about Road 38 overpass

In the latest bridge study done for the township the bridge over the former rail line (now part of the Trans-Canada Trail) on Road 38 in Sharbot Lake has been identified as in need of repair within five years.

In looking at the cost of repair, the township is considering the possibility of either replacing the bridge with a box culvert or simply eliminating it entirely and letting the road cross the trail. The upfront costs of either of these options will be considerable, but the long-term savings in maintenance make them viable possibilities.

The bridge was originally built to permit a train to pass under it, and is therefore no longer needed. A public meeting to discuss options has been set for Thurs. Nov. 20 from 6 to 8pm in the Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake.

Councilor John Purdon asked Kyle Labbett if the Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance (EOTA) had been consulted about the possibility of a highway passing over the trail if one of the options is selected.

Labbett said that it is not unusual for the trail to pass over roads. “The trail passes over Hwy. 7 near the weigh station before Perth,” said Labbett, “Cindy Cassidy from EOTA said she could work with whatever we decide to do.”

Township says goodbye to IT Coordinator

Evan Sepa, the IT/911 co-ordinator for North Frontenac who has put the township at the forefront of Global Information Systems (GIS) applications on its website, is leaving this week for a job in York Region. He said that he will be doing the same things that he has been doing in North Frontenac, “except on a larger scale”.

That is a bit of an under-statement since York Region has operating and capital budgets that are both over $1 billion and North Frontenac's total annual spending is under $10 million.

Before leaving the township this week, Sepa outlined for Council where the township now stands in regards to the goal that he has been working towards on their behalf as IT co-ordinator: open government.

In presenting a wide range of municipal information for public consumption, the website is the prime example of that project. The township was the first in Frontenac County to publish all agendas and supporting reports, with a full archive.

Frontenac County has an electronic agenda management system in place that is being offered to the townships under contract, but since North Frontenac has their own system that does not require a third party contract to maintain, they have turned down the offer.

Similarly, the township's website was re-designed in-house, in contrast to the $20,000 that South Frontenac spent last year to have their site commercially built.

Another aspect to Sepa's work on the website was the embedding of mapping data within the site. This effort was recognised by ESRI, the world's largest GIS mapping company, and was included in a presentation by the company at their annual users conference, which is attended by 15,000 people, in San Diego this year.

As well, Sepa launched a raw data initiative for the township. All of the data held by the township is not only available to the public, it is available to be downloaded in usable form by researchers, developers, or anyone with a use for it from the township's raw data site – http://data.nftwp.opendata.arcgis.com/.

In his final presentation to Council before leaving, Sepa said that the township “can take pride in being a leader in its open government initiative, as it is far ahead of most small municipalities. These kinds of initiatives have been led, for the most part, by large cities like Toronto and Ottawa.”

With Sepa leaving just before a new council is sworn in, township CAO Cheryl Robson said he will not be replaced in the short term. The township will make use of support offered by the Frontenac County IT department and will be exploring ways of working with neighbouring municipalities and the county before deciding how to proceed.

Evan Sepa has worked with the County IT department on some of his mapping initiatives, making use of the resources of Frontenacmaps.ca.

No solution at Norcan Lake

Public Works Manager Jim Phillips presented a report on a meeting he held with landowners within the ill-fated Norcan Lake subdivision at the north-western corner of the township. The subdivision ran into difficulties when the developer did not live up to his commitment to build a road linking back lots in the subdivision with a commonly owned water access lot.

The developer now says he cannot afford to put the road in as planned, and the township has made an alternate proposal that is cheaper, but in the view of Mr. Phillips, still accomplishes the goals of the residents.

Phillips said in his report that after hearing him out, “The group said they would meet again soon to discuss the matter, but several in the group expressed their opinion that the township’s proposal would not be acceptable to them,” for a number of reasons.

Faced with this reality, Phillips proposed a motion to Council that puts “the developer on notice with respect to his obligations” and proposes that a mediator be hired to try and iron out the dispute.

Council approved the motion.

Council balks at air compressor

A proposal to purchase a 5,000 pounds per square inch compressor with ancillary equipment for the fire department, at a cost of $31,000, was deferred until the fire chief is available to explain why it is necessary.

Even though the item was budgeted for, Councilor Inglis said his understanding is that a smaller compressor would be suitable and fit with current equipment better. Until now the fire department has used a 2,500 pounds per square inch unit.

“I did not think this would be an issue because it was budgeted, but since the fire chief is on vacation for two weeks, we can defer this until the 24th of November when he can explain,” said Cheryl Robson.

Too much snow, plows at fault; too much water, beavers

Two complaints from residents came up at Addington Highlands Council this week.

Residents living on Dennison Road came to council to complain that the road crews pushed snow onto their lot when clearing their road last winter.

“We recognise that since we live on a dead end road, there is a problem, but if there is a build up this year, then we would want the snow to be removed instead of being continually pushed into our property,” one of them said.

Public Works Manager Royce Rosenblath said the expense of removing snow instead of pushing it off the road is not something the township normally gets into.

Council passed a motion asking Public Works to come up with a proposal for Dennison Road.

Beavers: The township received a letter from Timothy Laidler who lives on Addington Road 7, complaining about the effects of constant beaver activity on his road, causing costs to the township for de-clogging and replacing culverts and putting gravel down on the road.

“I suggest a new approach” he said, and then proposed that all deciduous trees be removed from within 100 metres of the high water mark of the pond that is near the road. “The deciduous trees should be replaced with planting of coniferous trees, cedar close to the water, spruce further back, pine even further back .. Beavers only live on deciduous species," Laidler said.

He added that beavers end up doing this to their habitat eventually, “eating themselves out of house and home."

“I don't think we want to get into a program like that,” said Deputy Reeve Bill Cox.

“I think we should respond saying we will do our best to control the beavers and leave it at that,” said Councilor Tony Fritsch.

County OP causes concern

The draft Lennox and Addington County Official Plan was received by council. “There's a lot there that I don't like, such as restricting developments to hamlets; we don't have serviced hamlets,” said Reeve Hogg, “but I don't see what we can do.”

Council accepted the OP for information purposes only.

Move in date for fire hall put back.

The move in date for the new Northbrook fire hall is set for December 24, but expectations are that the construction may drag on into the new year.

NF coming to terms with OPP costs

North Frontenac Township formally received notification from Derek Needham, the detachment commander of the Lanark County OPP, that the cost of policing for the township in 2015 will be just under $365,000, an increase of $137,000 dollars over the cost in 2014.

Further, Needham projects that costs will increase by $137,000 per year through 2018, and will go up $63,000 in 2019. By that time the costs are projected to be almost $846,000, an increase of $619,000 in annual costs after the five-year rollout of the new costs.

That represents an increase of over 12% in the tax rate if all other spending in the township remains frozen at 2014 levels.

In the short term, when the 2015 budget is being contemplated the township will be facing an increase of almost 3% before they begin to look at any other spending priorities.

Derek Needham will be appearing before Council on November 24 to explain the funding model.

As Council was preparing to accept the administrative report on the OPP billing, Councilor John Inglis said, “Are we not going to discuss this today? This bill is very real. I guess we are giving up protesting this at this point.”

Councilor Gerry Martin said, “It is very unfair to bill us on a per dwelling basis when 80% of our dwellings are empty for at least six months a year."

“The government pays us gas tax on the basis of permanent population only, and we are billed by the OPP on the basis of permanent and seasonal residents. There should at least be some consistency,” said acting Mayor Fred Perry.

Treasurer Angela Miller said, “We got together with Tay Valley, Madawaska Highlands, and three other townships and hired Howard Allen to analyse the data and make a presentation for us to the ministry at the AMO meeting in August. The seasonal versus permanent issue was raised in that presentation. There was no response. We could submit that information again.”

Council received the administrative report for information.

Trillium application for Snow Road hall

John Kittle of the South Palmerston Community Centre Association (SPCCA), which runs the Snow Road Hall, came to council seeking endorsement for an application to the Trillium Foundation to fund the installation of a new air conditioning unit (including a heat pump), a new kitchen and an exercise-friendly red oak floor.

If successful, the $35,000 project will include a contribution of $3,500 from the township, $500 from the SPCCA and $31,000 from Trillium. The project represents phase 2 of a refurbishment project for the hall.

Kittle pointed out that ever since the township told the local community two years ago that unless the hall started being used they were going to consider closing it, there has been a massive community effort to make use of the hall.

“Last month there were 22 bookings,” said Kittle. “It is amazing what has happened. It has rejuvenated not only

the hall but the community as well.”

Council endorsed the grant application.

Rogers cell tower

Graham Lewis appeared before Council on behalf of the Status Group who are working with Rogers Communications. He provided information about an application to the federal government for permission to install a tower that will provide cell service in the far eastern end of the township, an under-served area for cell coverage. Council endorsed the proposal.

Miniature horses can stay at Clarke Road property for now

Two months ago Margaret Mallory and Brian Skillen received the good news that Central Frontenac Township had decided to stay proceedings that would have forced them to remove their two miniature horses, Teddy and Tommy, from the garage on their one-acre property on the Clarke Road.

The stay was to remain in effect until the township had an opportunity to evaluate the bylaw prohibiting livestock on small lots.

At a Council meeting on Tuesday afternoon (October 14) council received a report from Frontenac County Planner Joe Gallivan on the bylaw.

In his report Gallivan said that the current bylaw “does not provide sufficient definitions, policies or requirements regarding livestock and small-scale agricultural uses, such as hobby". He outlined four options for council's consideration.

The first would be to re-zone the property as a rural-exception zone but this would not be suitable given the size of the lot. The second would be to amend the zoning bylaw to clarify agricultural use, essentially classifying miniature horses as pets instead of livestock, but this would lead to confusion about which animals are pets and which are livestock. The fourth option would be to do nothing and apply the bylaw as it stands.

The third, the recommended option, is to conduct additional research into how other townships deal with these kinds of issues and how OMAFRA (Ontario Ministry of Food and Rural Affairs) views the issue, and essentially re-write the bylaw to deal with this and other small-scale agriculture issues on under-sized lots.

This option was supported by Council.

“There are a number of families coming into the township with a view towards starting up small farm operations. It would be good for us to clarify the rules,” said Mayor Janet Gutowski.

To a question about who is going to pay for the work required, Gallivan said that since it is the township that is ordering the work, there will be no charge for it.

Even though the township may not in the end determine that miniature horses would be permitted on one-acre lots since it appears they would not be permitted in any of the townships mentioned in Gallivan's report, Council decided to maintain the stay on proceedings under the bylaw until Gallivan has completed his work.

Chief Administrative Officer Larry Donaldson told Council that the Ministry of the Environment has conducted their own investigation into the converted garage where the horses are housed, a garage that also contains the well head for the property.

“In short, subject to one minor issue (a hole in the well casing that the wires to the pump go through needed to be siliconed shut) the MOE have no additional objections to the situation,” Donaldson said.

Satisfied with the result, Mallory and Skillen, along with 20 or so supporters, left the meeting in a chipper mood. Presumably, back on Clarke Road, Teddy and Tommy were relaxing and enjoying the unseasonably sunny, warm weather, unaware of all the fuss they had caused.

Feds want rent for Sharbot, Crow Lake docks

The last time the township interacted with the federal government over dock facilities was several years ago when the government agreed to rebuild the Crow Lake dock, which was in tatters.

At the time, the government indicated that as a condition of the rebuild, the township would have to resume ownership of the dock. Nothing happened after that as neither side followed up.

Last month the township received a letter from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans stating that rent has not been paid on the docks since 2006, and almost $5,000 is owing. They propose to bill the township about $500 per year for the next five years under a new agreement.

“This letter came as a surprise,” said Donaldson. “As far as we can tell we were never invoiced for this money, which is why we never paid it.”

Given that the cost of major repairs to the docks can run into the tens of thousands, Councilor Frances Smith said, “I think we should pay the $5,000 and sign a lease for as long as we can on this, and hope they leave the docks as they are.”

Councilor John Purdon said he did some research on the Fisheries website and found that of the 399 such docks in Ontario, over 300 have been divested and most of the rest are in the process of being divested.

“Of the 29 that are still in the hands of Fisheries and Oceans, we have two,” Purdon said.