Cf_dumps

Jeff Green | Apr 12, 2007

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Central Frontenac dumps dump passes, adopts system of listsby Jule KochBrison

At Tuesday night’s council meeting, Central Frontenac Council voted to replace their current system of mailing free dump passes to all residents with a procedure whereby a catalogue of names would be kept at all dump sites and residents would simply “sign off” on the list.

The system of creating and mailing the passes out with the tax bills is extremely labour intensive and Mayor Janet Gutowski said that she has seen staff take as much as a week away from their other work in order to accomplish the task. Also, people sometimes do not receive their passes or they lose them. The matter then has to be investigated and passes re-issued.

Under the new system, residents will not have to possess or remember to bring a pass. The lists will be periodically compared to make sure that residents only sign off once a year, and the waste site attendants will ask for ID if necessary to prevent people signing under false names. Anyone signing more than once will receive an invoice from the township.

Hinchinbrooke fryer - A delegation from District 4 Rec. Committee attended the meeting to ask council to re-consider a request they had made for $8000 to purchase a deep-fryer and ventilation system for the canteen at the Parham Fairgrounds. According to Councilor Bill Snyder, the request had been removed before it ever got to council and he asked why District 4’s recreation budget was only around $23,000, when the other districts had much larger allocations. To that point Councilor Frances Smith replied that the rec. committee budgets include expenses for community halls.

Joe Dupuis, spokesperson for the delegation, said that the goal of District 4 Rec. Committee is to make things better for the children and that chips and chocolate bars are not the best things to offer kids during games. The equipment would also create some revenue for the committee, enabling them to be more self-sufficient.

The issue of security was addressed at length in the committee’s submission because the canteen has been broken into and vandalized several times. The committee members will install steel gates and do all the work necessary to secure the facilities.

Council congratulated the District 4 Rec. Committee for their accomplishments and voted to grant the request for $8000.

Waste Management - Council voted to seek input from the public in its waste management and recycling policies by establishing a steering committee to work with the township’s waste management consultant and prepare a report with recommendations by June 27, 2007. Several councillors said they knew members of the public who have considerable expertise in that area. They will be asked to submit applications to sit on the committee, which will consist of two councillors, three members of the public and one staff person. Mayor Gutowski said that Central Frontenac waste sites are feeling the impact of the demise of the Frontenac E-Waste Centre.

3% solution? - Councilor Gary Smith questioned a 3% increase in the draft budget for the salaries of councillors and staff, saying that the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) increase is only 2.3%. Councilor Frances Smith said that the 3% just gives the budget some “wiggle room”, and council may vote to give themselves a smaller increase or none at all. Township Clerk/Acting CAO John DuChene suggested that council finalize the matter at the April 24 meeting, and council agreed.

Surprise grant - After the County of Frontenac received a grant for $289,000 towards developing the Trans-Canada Trail, they contacted Central Frontenac and asked if the township could utilize $10,000 of the grant money “to facilitate trail acquisition”.

“We were surprised by the call,” said Mayor Janet Gutowski, adding, “$10,000 won’t go very far, but if money is starting to flow we should investigate it.” The money would be used to determine the boundaries of the K&P trail in the Hamlet of Sharbot Lake, as “looking at Sharbot Lake to Harrowsmith involves major issues. A lot of people are against it,” said Councilor Bill Snyder.

Council voted to request the money from the county.