North Frontenac has concerns over proposed boat launch on Palmerston Lake

Craig Bakay | Jul 18, 2018

While there’s likely nothing the Township can do about it, Council did express concerns about a planned new boat launch on Palmerston Lake in Ompah at its regular meeting last Friday.

At the very least, they won’t be supporting Michael Widmeyer’s request for financial assistance for upgrades to accommodate larger boats and trailers to the private boat launch at the Palmerston Lake Marina.

In fact, they’re not convinced it’s a good idea at all.

“The problem I have with it is it’s a limited space,” said Public Works Manager Darwyn Sproule to Council. “The way the sketch is, the area is square and I’m concerned about pontoon boats attached to a half-ton encroaching on a busy highway.”

“I’m also concerned about safety but how do we provide comments on something we don’t control?” said Mayor Ron Higgins.

Since there already is an entrance to Road 509 at the sight, the Township really has no avenue to pursue. The Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority has some regulatory authority but as MVCA rep Coun. Gerry Martin said: “Mississippi Valley is not concerned with traffic, just water.”

Council resolved to have Sproule meet with the owner to discuss the Township’s concerns and to send a copy of the resolution to the MVCA.

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It looks like from now on, the Township of North Frontenac will provide its own traffic control in the form of public works employees..

Public works employees performed the task for the Canada Day fireworks display after a request to the OPP turned out that there were no OPP officers available to provide traffic control.

“Even with short notice, and it being the long weekend, we were able to book two public works employees and two public works vehicles (not fire department volunteers or vehicles as legislation does not permit the fire department to provide traffic control) to provide traffic control at this year’s event,” said CAO Cheryl Robson in her report.

“I think it would be a good idea to do this in the future,” said Coun. Wayne Good. “It’s cheaper.”

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North Frontenac Township Council is asking for the public’s help.

It seems not enough people are calling the TIPS line to report poaching and other wildlife/fishing violations.

This is important because, believe it or not, the number of conservation officers and resources allocated to an area is dependent on the number of TIPS calls the area generates.

“We’ll take this up when we meet with the Minister of Natural Resources,” said Mayor Ron Higgins.

“Pretty much our anglers and hunters have given up calling TIPS because of little response,” said Coun. Gerry Martin. “The bureaucrats have decided the conservation officers’ budgets are dependent on TIPS calls.

“We have three trucks and four conservation officers.”

“We were told the Minden area has more conservation officers but we have more area to cover,” said Dep. Mayor Fred Perry. “Minden does have more population.”

“It’s not just calling, but people have to include information like licence plates and color of boats,” said Higgins.

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North Frontenac Township appointed former Building Inspector Dan Halladay as its Chief Building Official by bylaw at its Friday meeting following the resignation of Shawn Merriman.

Since North has an agreement with Central Frontenac regarding CBOs, Council appointed Alan Revill as Deputy CBO in accordance with the Shared Building Department Services joint agreement.

Central has appointed Revill as its interim CBO until such time as they hire a permanent person.

Revill is the former CBO of South Frontenac Township.