September 28, 2017 Vol. 17, No. 38
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Council accepts District 3 Rec Committee’s plan for canteen at Oliver Scott Park
by Craig Bakay entral Frontenac Council gave its approval to a revised proposal from the District 3 Rec committee for a canteen at Oliver Scott Memorial Park in Sharbot Lake at its regular meeting Tuesday afternoon in Oso Hall. (The meeting had been scheduled for Piccadilly Hall but because of the heat and fact that Pic Hall has no air conditioning, the meeting was moved. The Oct. 10 meeting will now be held in Pic Hall.) At the Sept. 12 meeting, a proposal for a new canteen with accessible washrooms, storage and warming area, complete with well and septic at a cost between $100,000 and $125,000 was defeated prompting Mayor Frances Smith to ask “what do we do now?” (The well and septic is already in place.) District 3 Rec Committee chair Lesley Smith-Merrigan presented Council with a new plan, whereby: • $30,000 that has been allotted for new washrooms still be earmarked for the build • the Township takes the money for the well and septic (about $20,000) out of reserves instead of out of the aforementioned $30,000 • the Township allows the committee to act as contractor with John Neven, Robyn Gould and Justin Riddell as project managers • the cost of the building permit refunded to the Rec Committee • in the event that this portion of the building exceeds the $30,000 the Township has, the Rec Committee will temporarily use funds from its own account to complete the project to a maximum of $15,000. Smith-Merrigan said the Rec Committee wasn’t really surprised the Sept. 12 proposal was defeated given the costs involved. “So we discussed it and came up with this alternative proposal,” she said. Coun. Jamie Riddell said he was prepared to support this proposal. “I voted against last time but this is more like what I was looking for,” Riddell said. “This building will allow us to continue fundraising,” SmithMerrigan said. “It will allow us to attract more teams and events.” SLPOA urges septic inspection Representing the Sharbot Lake Property Association, Bill Wilson made a presentation in favour of mandatory septic inspection. Mayor Frances Smith said the matter is slated to come before Council Oct. 24 when they expect to issue direction to staff. There was no other discussion. Fire Chief says changes needed in department Fire Chief Greg Robinson told Council that “many organizational and operational changes need to be made, however, we have only made changes that are absolutely required now” and other changes will be pending when he completes Phase 2 of his Operational/Organizational Review. “The review has been delayed due to having no or very poor records regarding training, emergency responses, attendance, fire investigation reports, fire loss data, fire inspections, fire prevention, public safety, personal protective equipment, personnel personal information, equipment inventory and a general lack of established programs, policies and procedures,” Robinson said in his report. He said it is his intention to present the Phase 2 review to Council at the first meeting in November. He said he has been responding to emergency incidents and some burn complaints. “A number of follow-ups have been required for burning complaints and illegal burning,” he said.
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K&P Trail purchase price details I
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35 years of fire fighting
f the firefighting thing doesn’t work out, Stan Seitz may have a future in speech writing as his reception of a 35-year service pin produced one of the better acceptance speeches in municipal awards history. “It started out in this very room (in the Ompah fire hall/community hall) in 1980,” he said. “That door there led to the outhouse. “There was an old woodstove and firefighters were expected to bring a log or two
for meetings. “We had no truck, no equipment, no uniforms . . . but we had spirit. “We saw it as our job to make somebody who was having a very bad day feel a little bit better. “I feel I should warn the Mayor and Council — it’s going to be very hard to get another 35 years out of me.”
Hope, then pessimism at Frontenac County pre-budget session by Jeff Green
F
rontenac County asked community groups and individuals to come forward with funding requests in advance of the adoption of the 2018 budget in December. Four groups took up the offer and made presentations to a meeting of Frontenac County Council last Wednesday (September 21) They were Frontenac Transportation Services (FTS), The Kingston University Hospitals Foundation, Frontenac Addington Children’s and Family Services (FACSLA), and Jonas Bonnetta. In each case, the requests were for new or increased funding, and the amounts requested varied from a high of $200,000 per year for 10 years from the hospital foundation to a $6,000 annual investment over 4 years to create a bursary for children in foster care from FACSLFA. The County is already committed to providing $96,000 each year to Frontenac Transportation Services to support administration costs and subsidies for seniors who use the service. Last week, program Manager Gail
Young made requests for several extra pots of funding, including an annual increase of $20,000 to help cover increased costs that come from changes in the mix of riders in recent years. She said there has been an increase in the number of rides for seniors and a decrease in the number of rides paid for by third parties such as Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program. Seniors rides pay the agency less than the third party rides. Young also asked for a one time payment of $10,000 to replenish the FTS reserve fund, which has been depleted due to an operating loss in 2016/17. As well, FTS is asking for $5,000 annually to subsidise seniors rides, and $10,000 for a one year pilot project to enhance accessibility for people with mobility deficits. The last request was in response to an initiative sponsored by the Frontenac County accessibility committee. The total request from FTS is for a $45,000
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by Jeff Green n response to the front page article last week on the projected construction costs for the final 13 km stretch of the K&P Trail from Tichborne to Sharbot Lake, Frontenac County Manager for Economic Development Richard Allen sent an email pointing out two things. First, his last name is Allen, not Allan, as it said in the article. (The News apologises for the error) Secondly, he said that contrary to an assertion in the article, the price paid by the county to the private landowners along that section of the trail is public knowledge, as the prices of each parcel were included in two bylaws passed by Frontenac County Council in June. The bylaws include information about the sale of 16 parcels, which sold for prices ranging from $2,000 to $35,000, reflecting different amounts of trail and other circumstances. The total paid for the 16 parcels was $260,120. The county had legal costs on top of that. The money for the purchases was drawn from a reserve fund transfer from the Kingston Frontenac Renovates Program. Kingston Frontenac Renovates is a provincially funded program that provides forgivable loans to low income homeowners for necessary renovations, such as new roofs, heating systems, etc. Over the years the program has been well used by Frontenac County residents in particular. In 2014, Kingston City staff, who administer the program on behalf of the city and the county, informed Frontenac County Council that the province was considering pulling funding for the program. In response Frontenac County set up a $400,000 reserve fund so the program would continue to operate if the province pulled out. The City of Kingston created a reserve fund as well. The province has continued to fund the program, however, and has committed to maintaining funding until at least 2019. In September of 2016, Frontenac County staff came
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