North Frontenac Council - June 28/11

Jeff Green | Jun 30, 2011

Township pours cold water on library plans

Claudette Richardson, the chair of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library (KFPL) Board, might have expected a cold reception when she came to a meeting of North Frontenac Council in Snow Road to explain why her board voted to close the Ompah branch.

While Richardson received a polite, if unenthusiastic response to her explanation of the board's actions, members of the Ompah Library Users Group who were in attendance saved their anger for council itself, when council showed little enthusiasm for providing any financial support towards setting up a public Internet hotspot in the former branch.

Richardson went over the chronology of events, going back to the amalgamation of the Kingston and Frontenac libraries in 1998, and subsequent library branch studies in 2004 and 2010. She explained that as far as the library board has been concerned, it was not feasible to provide service to both Ompah and Plevna.

“I know it is controversial among some of the people in this area, but in the view of the library board, the Ompah/Plevna area is a single catchment area. All the reports that we've seen basically conclude that we will support one branch for that area. The fact is that the new branch was located in Plevna rather than Ompah, and that was not our decision.

“A motion was brought from the floor of our meeting just before Easter. All the issues were very clear in our minds at that time. There was some discussion about deferring the motion. It was finally brought to a vote and it was decided in a vote 5-4 to close the branch,” Claudette Richardson told council.

“We had expected and asked for input from the library board before this decision was taken,” said Councilor John Inglis. “We sent a resolution to the library board earlier and received no response.”

“We had received a resolution from the township, and one from Central Frontenac Council as well, but really, our relationship is with the county, not the townships, so we did not know what to do with the resolutions. We took them into consideration but did not know how to respond,” Richardson answered.

“There is no doubt in my mind that KFPL Board is doing a wonderful job,” said Mayor Bud Clayton. “When the board decides to close branches there are two issues - fiscal issues, which are not relevant in this case, and moral issues. The board does not think this branch is viable, but the people in Ompah were running the branch themselves until 1998. If the Ompah users can demonstrate to the board that they can make the branch work with their own efforts, will the board re-examine the issue?"

“I don't see why the board wouldn't,” said Claudette Richardson.

Setback for Users Group

The Users group has set up a temporary service in the former Ompah branch, using donated books and two donated computers, and the township has donated the space. The group is keeping the branch open for four hours a week, the same four hours that the KFPL had been providing, using volunteers. They also want to provide public Internet service at that location for 10 extra hours a week, which is something the township provides, with permission from the KFPL, at the existing branches in Cloyne and Plevna,

But a request by the Ompah Users Group for financial support from council to cover the $640 short term cost of satellite Internet and the wages of a summer student for 10 hours a week was deferred by council until July 18.

Councilor Betty Hunter said that providing Internet service in the Ompah area for summer cottagers is a priority now that KFPL is gone. She described the area around Ompah as “the darkest in the township in terms of high speed Internet.”

Councilor Gerry Martin said, “We don't want to start a public library board in North Frontenac.”

“I believe the group should have a fundraiser - raise $500 or so, and then come back to us,” said Mayor Clayton.

“My concern is that if we defer this, it simply is not going to happen,” said Councilor Inglis.

“So Plevna and Ompah can have a student paid by the township for ten hours a week but Ompah can't,” said Marily Seitz of the users group.

When council did not vote on the funding request, the users group left.

ATVs and trails: Beryl Stott presented information about some of the damaging impacts ATVs can have on multi-use trails, and outlined how specific trails for ATVs are preferable.

She said that use of ATVs on wetlands needs to be prohibited, as should aggressive-tread tires on trails, and made a number of other recommendations.

North Frontenac is a popular destination for ATV trail riders, and there are number of controls in place, in line with a number of Beryl Stott's recommendations.

“This is not the first time we have considered a number of these concerns,” said Mayor Clayton, “but it is valuable to receive them all in this way.

Senior of the Year – Ernest Lapchinski, who has been working diligently for five years towards obtaining provincial funding for the expansion to the Pine Meadow Nursing Home, and who is a volunteer with Bon Echo Park as well, was nominated by the township for a provincial senior of the year award. He was named as one of the recipients by the province. Lapchinski, a retired doctor, said that when he moved to the area he did not know what he was going to do with his time. “I was invited to get involved and it has brought me into contact with many wonderful people. I love this place.”

Changes in staffing – Mayor Clayton made a statement regarding the results of an organizational review that has been going on behind the scenes at the township for several months, and has been discussed at several in-camera meetings.

“An organizational review was ordered by the previous council and has taken place over several months,” he said.

He added that changes coming from the review will “be a total new way of doing business for the township to ensure that we are sustainable,” in light of requirements that the province has brought in for asset management and accountability.

The review has not resulted in any decreases in township staffing at this time, but there have been some shuffling of positions. Cheryl Robson is now the Chief Administrative Officer, and Angela Miller is the Treasurer. Brenda Defosse has switched from the clerk/planning co-ordinator position to waste/recycling co-ordinator and Jenny Duhamel as taken over the clerk/planning job.

As previously reported, John Ibey has retired as public works manager and a new hiring will be taking place. In the meantime, the roads foreman Gregg Wise has been filling in as public works manager in addition to his regular duties.

Denbigh/Northbrook ambulance base

Council approved a motion in support of the Lennox and Addington County ambulance bases located in Northbrook and Denbigh, saying “they are located in critical geographic locations providing cross boundary coverage.” The motion went on to point out that “Counties are inappropriate jurisdictions for the administration of ambulance service”, and urged the province to reconsider the downloading of the service.

Road tender granted: It was extremely close but Smith Construction has won the contract for paving 1 km of Canonto Road, 1 km of Buckshot Lake Road, 0.3 km of Lodge Road, and 9 km. of road 506/509, and doing work on the Barrie salt/sand storage facility. The winning bid was $284,595. The only other bidder was Greenwood Paving, at $287,571. The bids came in under the budget estimates for the projects, which was $330,000. Township staff will review the bids to make sure all the specifications are covered before awarding the contract.