Seniors

Jeff Green | May 25, 2006

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Seniors of theYear and other matters:CentralFrontenac Council

by Jeff Green

At their meeting this week, councilors from each of the four districts of Central Frontenac announced the names of the people that will be honoured as Seniors of the Year at a ceremony in June. The honourees will be: Rosemary and Peter Wadham ( Kennebec ); Mauveen (Moe) Bush (Hinchinbrooke), posthumously; Velma Price (Olden); and John Lee (Oso).

OPP boats do get cleaned Sergeant Jeff McCann of the Sharbot Lake OPP detachment appeared before council to dispel rumours that the patrol boat the OPP uses to patrol local lakes does not get cleaned when it is moved from lake to lake.

Concern had been expressed that the boat is simply transported between lakes, in which case it would run a great risk of transporting zebra mussels from lake to lake.

“We clean all of our boats,” said McCann,” but that is not to say that our boats are zebra mussel free. In order to ensure that we should have to take out the intake valve, and take the boat apart each time, which we don’t do. But we do scrub the boats down each day.”

The marine patrol officer generally works on a single lake each day, and then brings the boat back to the station for cleaning. “If he is called to another lake for an emergency or some other request in the middle of a day, then the boat is not cleaned in between. But that rarely happens,” McCann said.

Sergeant McCann also responded to an unrelated question from Mayor Bill MacDonald concerning the reported refusal of the OPP to attend at a car fire on Hwy. 7 when their presence was requested by the Olden Fire department.

“I know of that incident,” McCann said, “and it shouldn’t have happened. I don’t know if it was a mistake at the Comm [communications] Centre or what, but if the fire department requires the police to stop traffic or provide support order for them to do their job, the police should be there. If it ever happens again, I encourage the fire department to call me the next day, and I will find out what happened immediately.”

Meeting with cottage associations Councilor Gutowski wanted to know if council would like the Economic Development Committee to set up a meeting with cottage association representatives as was done last year. After some debate, council decided to ask the committee to set up a meeting.

Recreation survey Councilor Gutowski also proposed that a meeting be set up between the four recreation committees in the township and individuals and user groups that use recreational facilities to see if any changes or improvements are required. A long debate ensued concerning the role of recreational committees; the failure of the Central Recreation Committee; the advent of soccer as a more popular summer sport than baseball; and other issues.

In the end it was decided that council would invite submissions on recreational facilities from the general public through the township’s website.

Engineering for Road 38 reconstruction Three tenders were received for the engineering that is required for the $6 million road construction project on Road 38. The lowest bid was from Genivar Consulting of Brockville , $50,000. G.D.Jewel submitted a bid of $83,560 and McIntosh Perry submitted an $87,000 bid. Public works Manager Bill Nicol recommended choosing Genivar in his written report, but he also told council that he met last Friday with Steve Archibald, the former Public Works Manager from South Frontenac who is now working for McIntosh Perry, and that Archibald was in attendance and wished to address Council before the tender was granted.

Deputy Mayor Frances Smith said that it might be a problem if council allows a representative from one company to speak without inviting the other companies.

When asked if it was feasible to delay awarding the tender until the next council meeting in order to invite the other companies to address council, Bill Nicol said that would delay the construction project until October, which he did not recommend. Nicol also said he was confident Genivar could do the job.

The tender was awarded to Genivar Construction, and Steve Archibald left the meeting without addressing council.

Brush burning banned at Mountain Grove Waste Disposal site A report by the Public Works Manager outlined difficulties with burning brush at the Mountain Grove dump. At one point last summer, a fire got into the waste at the dump and burned for 3 days. An alternate burning site at the dump is not suitable because it is on too steep a grade. The report recommended that brush burning only be permitted at the Elbow Lake site south of Parham.

Councilor Nicolson said this would be too far for people from Kennebec and Olden to travel with their brush, but the proposal was accepted nonetheless.

Burn Barrels in villages Fire Chief Mark MacDonald will be invited to the next meeting of council to discuss concerns that have been expressed by residents to Councilor Murray over the impact on neighbours of burn barrels being used in built up areas of the township.