North Frontenac Council Report - Apr 10/26
Updates to Community Improvement Plan
North Frontenac will continue to offer a matching grant program to local businesses, a Community Improvement Plan. The plan was established several years ago, using funding from Frontenac County. While the other Frontenac municipalities ceased to offer the plan when county-funding ceased to be available, North Frontenac continued to offer the plan, using township dollars.
The Frontenac County planning department, which provides planning services to North Frontenac under contract, completed an evaluation of the program, which distributed up to $15,000 annually in grants for improvements to local business infrastructure.
The biggest change to the program coming from the review is that instead of being a first come, first served process each year until the funds are gone, a fixed application window will be established, with a grading points system to evaluate applications from local businesses. The application process will be advertised across the township.
The change is not expected to result in any extra staff hours being devoted to the Community Improvement Plan.
County Planning Report
Joe Gallivan, Director of Planning and Economic Development for Frontenac County, provided his annual report into his department's activities at the county and township level. He reported that his department provided 755 hours of service to the township last year. There was a slight decrease in planning applications, and time has been saved through a delegated authority system that is now in place, which results in 1/3 of all planning applications now being handled by North Frontenac Township Staff on their own, without council or county planner input.
Most planning applications that do require county planners to get involved, take up about 10-15 hours of planning time.
An exception, that Gallivan made reference to, was the Palmerston Lake Lafolia Lane proposal, which he described as “one of the most complex, multi-issue applications we have seen”. It required 450 hours of planning time throughout the year's long process, and is now the subject of an Ontario Land Tribunal Appeal after North Frontenac Council turned down the proposal.
Gallivan said that the county planners, who supported the application when it went to Council, will not be involved in the appeal should it proceed to the hearing stage, except if they are subpoenaed to appear. If that happens, the township will not be billed for either the time it takes for staff to prepare for the hearing, and attend the hearing.
“I'm happy to hear that we won't have to pay those costs,” said Councillor Fred Fowler.
“But we still have our own costs to pay,” said Mayor Lichty.
Gallivan also talked about a major initiative being undertaken by his department that will be relevant to North Frontenac, a natural heritage study that will determine where the most environmentally sensitive areas are in the county.
“We are looking at a 100-year window in this study,” he said, “and in that sense it is groundbreaking work in Ontario, in my view. This way, the natural assets that are valued by residents now and residents in a 100 years time, such as sensitive wetland complexes, will be protected.”
Building Department Costs
Council approved a proposal to create a part time (22.5 hours a week) Building Department Support Clerk position, which will replace a full-time position within the building department. The new position will be separate from the building department and will be funded through the administrative budget instead of the building department budget.
“This will raise costs to taxpayers, will it not,” said Councillor Mike Hage “since the building department is funded by building permits and the administrative budget by taxpayer dollars?”
Chief Administrative Officer Cory Klatt pointed out that the building department has not been fully funded through permit fees for several years, so the cost ends up falling to the taxpayer anyway.
Council discussed measures to reverse the trend of building department deficits, but the remedy would be raising permit fees, which would be an impediment to new builds in the township.
In recent weeks, both Central Frontenac and Addington Highlands, have also reported that their building departments have not been able to fund all their activities from permit fees.
Generators For All Township Halls – Council approved the purchase of wired-in automatic generators for the Harlowe and Clar Mil Halls, at a cost of $4175. With that, all five halls in the township will have automatic backup generators in place.
Senior of the Year
The Ontario Ministry of Seniors and Accessibility invited all Ontario municipalities to nominate a senior of the year. Councillor Good proposed nominating Lois Emond for the award this year. Lois is the founder of the Land O'Lakes Food Bank that serves the western part of North Frontenac and Addington Highlands, which she continues to lead, aided by a team of volunteers, and her husband Red. Good proposed nominating Lois Emond last year, and this time she was the only nominee considered.
Food Bank Location
Mayor Lichty reported that, along with Chief Administrator Cory Klatt, he met with Reeve Tony Frisch and Chief Administrator Christine Reed from Addington Highlands, and Red and Lois Emond, to talk about a long term solution to the facility needs of the Land O'Lakes Emergency Food Bank. The food bank is currently located in a cramped space within the Public Health building in Cloyne, whose future is in doubt. A new location, at Pine View Free Methodist Church, north of Cloyne on Hwy. 41, is being offered up by the church.
“The new space looks good, much better than the current space, where there are boxes everywhere,”: said Lichty, “the church is only concerned about increased Hydro costs, which we may be asked to help out with.”
Motor Grader Purchase Over budget
An attempt to purchase a motor grader for the budgeted limit of $550,000 has not worked out, and the best available vehicle will cost $592+hst, an extra $53,300. The overage will be covered by the Road Sustainability Reserve Fund
