| Oct 15, 2014


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.

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