South Frontenac Council - May 19/26

Divestment of Municipal Assets

In the wake of an asset management report a week earlier, that put a price on maintaining and replacing township assets, Council received a Review of Facility Assets from Director of Public Works Kyle Bolton, a report that has been in the works for a year or more.

Asset Management requires that money be set aside for all assets in the books, so removing assets from the books means money no longer needs to be set aside for them.

The report looked at 66 township-owned buildings, and discussion focussed on 8 of them whose condition rating was listed in the report as “Poor”.

It included four options to deal with these buildings: “Demolish with no replacement • Demolish and alternative replacement option • Candidate for declaring surplus and divestment • Future consideration to be declared surplus or repurposed”

It recommends that five of those buildings be demolished and not replaced. They are: Inverary Ball Park Storage Building, Inverary Ball Park Shed, Sandhill Cemetery Maintenance Shed, Verona Cemetery Building, and the Old Picadilly Maintenance Garage.

The maintenance garage is still being used, and will remain in place for now since it is being used, but when it is no longer safe to use, it will be demolished instead of repaired.

In Perth Road, the Wilmer Ball Park Canteen & Washroom Buildings are in poor condition, and the report recommends demolishing them and installing a concrete storage bunker in the park instead.

The report also recommends pulling the plug on the Fermoy Hall, by declaring it surplus and divesting of it, if possible. Several reports into the hall have been prepared over the years, all of them deemed too expensive to be viable. The Hall has had a storied history as a former township hall, a baseball bat factory and more, and a community group has worked hard to keep it viable into the future.

Looking forward, the report talks about two buildings in Hartington whose future may be related. The building that is leased to the OPP will be vacated by them in 3-5 years, and is in need of a roof among other things, and the Princess Margaret Building is in poor condition and will require a major investment to remain viable in the long run.

A plan will be developed in 2027 to look at the option of bringing either one or the other of the buildings up to standard, and divesting of the least viable one, or demolishing both of them and building a brand new community centre in Hartington.

Fire Halls

Finally, the report talked about fire halls. A report about the future facilities needs of the fire departments will come to Council later this year. At that point the future of four fire halls will be looked at. The Verona Fire Hall is in fair condition, and the Hartington, Inverary, and Sydenham Fire Halls are in poor condition.

Verona Housing – Bylaw 2026-32

A very short item on the agenda, receiving an administrative report about the bylaw to approve zoning for the Verona Housing project, has taken five years worth of work to bring to this point. The report includes a site plan for the project, an account of the processes that have taken place, including water studies, environmental assessments and other planning work.

Being familiar with all of these undertakings, Council accepted the admin report without comment, and the rezoning bylaw received third reading and was passed later in the meeting.

In another item related to the Verona Housing Project, Council received a report about financing options. The most advantageous situation would be for an application to the six month old Build Canada Homes program that has replaced programs previously available under the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The South Frontenac application is for $21 million in funding, of which $6 million would be a grant, and $15 million would be a loan.

Councillor Sleeth asked when the township expects to hear back, and Chief Administrative Officer Louise Fragnito said that Build Canada Homes has contacted the township with questions over the past couple of months, “which we think is a good sign,” and she is expecting to hear back from them in June.

In case the Build Canada Homes application is not approved, the township has other, more expensive, options available. The next best option would be a CMHC low cost loan program, designed for student and senior rental housing projects. After that, there is the option of applying to the Infrastructure Ontario Loan Program, which is available to municipalities for infrastructure projects, is another option.

And if all else fails, RBC Commercial financing is available to income-generating real estate projects.

Expensive Fish Creek Bridge

A final report into the Fish Creek Bridge project outlined how what had been budgeted as a $1.55 million project, aided by a $950,000 grant from the Canadian Community Building Fund, has turned into a $2.82 million project because what was found at the site, during construction, was more difficult to work through than anticipated.

“Upon further exploration, the design team became aware of irregularities in the bedrock conditions below the bridge which varied from 1.26m to 1.66m deeper than recorded bedrock conditions north and south of the former bridge. In addition, the rock on the lakebed was heavily fractured and had to be scarified to additional depth, to establish a sound connection for the new footings.”

This resulted in much more in material costs, and 10 weeks of additional work, and the additional cost as a result. To cover the extra $1.27 million in costs, money was reallocated from the township’s Asset Investment Reserve fund.

Council Compensation

Council considered a staff report that contained two options for councillor pay, starting in January, 2027, which will not apply to members of this council, but to the newly elected council. One option was a 2.25% cost of living increase, and the second was a 4.5% increase in order to bring the rate paid to members of council in South Frontenac closer to the average paid in similar sized municipalities.

Councillors took turns saying that sitting on council is more of a civic service than a job for pay, and that with other costs going up they did not want to be responsible for even higher increases in taxation, even if their pay is minimal compared to all the other expenses that a township faces.

Council opted for the 2.25% increase. Councillors will receive $18,753 in 2027, the Deputy Mayor $25,455 and the Mayor $39,981. Mileage rates will also go up by 2 cents per kilometre.

(Note - Of the 9 sitting members of Council, 8 have already registered as candidates for the upcoming election. The only who has not yet done so is Councillor Ron Sleeth from Storrington District.)