North Frontenac to explore shared seniors housing with Central

Craig Bakay | Oct 06, 2021

North Frontenac Council decided to investigate a partnership with Central Frontenac Township for some seniors housing opportunities after a request for proposal to build and operate a five-unit seniors facility in Cloyne or Plevna received no takers.

Ken Foulds of Re/fact Consulting presented Council with four potential options at its regular (online) meeting last Friday that included abandoning the project completely (essentially forfeiting County grant money); re-issuing the same RFP for a later date, perhaps with more municipal incentives but still with third-party management; issuing a restructured RFP for a build-only project with the municipality serving as owner-operator and seeking a partnership with a project in an adjacent municipality in exchange for priority access for North Frontenac seniors.

“If we contribute our funds to the Central Frontenac plan for the old school lot in Sharbot Lake, we could have five more units with communal services,” said Mayor Ron Higgins. “We’re having trouble with the (proposed) North Frontenac sites (Cloyne or Plevna) and Sharbot Lake has far more amenities (grocery store, pharmacy, medical centre, sand beach).

“And it’s not that far.”

“My own feeling is that it (a partnership with Central) is not the best option,” said Councillor John Inglis. “I’d still like to go the original route where we build in Plevna or Cloyne and we own it.”

“I don’t think we’ve exhausted all the potential locations in North Frontenac,” said Coun. Fred Fowler. “What about across from the school in Plevna?”

“When you get to a certain age, you require more medical services,” said Coun. Vernon Hermer.

“In our survey, most people didn’t want to leave home, even though they’d have better facilities,” said Higgins.

“This might ruffle some feathers but the Sharbot Lake proposal would have more medical facilities and amenities,” said Dep. Mayor Gerry Martin.

In the end, Council passed a resolution to invite Mayor Frances Smith to a meeting with the mayors, CAOs and treasurers to discuss the possibilities.

“To be clear, this is just for us to investigate,” said CAO Cheryl Robson. “They may not be interested.”

Fast charger

Following a report from Coun. John Inglis, Council agreed to look into funding opportunities to install a Level-3, fast-charger for Plevna.

Currently, the federal government has a program to provide roughly half of the $90,000 cost.

Inglis said Dep. Mayor Gerry Martin had talked to Ontario Hydro and the required 200-amp service does exist in Plevna.

“Quite frankly, I was not expecting this to pass,” said Inglis. “It is doable but I’m not sure it would pay for itself in 15 years.”

“Before we do it, we’d have to see what grants were available,” said Martin.

“If it’s all taken over by the private sector, it would probably take a long time before we had one in North Frontenac,” said Inglis. “After all, we only have two gas stations in North Frontenac.”

Donations to Lions

Council voted to make a $500 donation to the Land O’Lakes Lions Club for stepping up and providing a barbecue to the Essential Service Fair after the Salvation Army cancelled at the last minute.

Welcomed pump repair

A proposed new pump (at a cost of $16,000) for Tanker 621 was averted when “the person we had do our annual testing” suggested a fix.

“I believe it’s already been done and the solution worked,” said Mayor Ron Higgins.

Will the graveyard registry die?

Dep. Mayor Gerry Martin wondered aloud if the Historical Society’s graveyard registry project “will ever be finished.

“Church records are incomplete and we’re finding a lot of unmarked graves, many from the flu epidemic of 1918, many with whole families buried,” he said. “There are quite a few unregistered graveyards and we’re finding graveyards on private property.”

Water Accesss

Mayor Ron Higgins agreed to contact the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks on behalf of Shabomeka Lake residents who would like to use a 70-year-old road through part of Bon Echo Park to access their water-access properties.