South Frontenac Council - June 2/26
Richard Allen and Debbi Miller from the Frontenac County Economic Development Department, completed the annual reporting to local councils with a presentation to South Frontenac Council, on June 2nd.
Allen's presentation focussed on the increasing appeal of the county-owned and operated K&P Trail, and the partnership with the Frontenac ATV Club, which he said has resulted in a boost to local tourism on the trail. Debbi Miller gave a brief breakdown of her efforts with the Frontenac Lennox and Addington Ontario Health Team, in primary care reform and physician recruitment. She is now serving as chair of a sub-group looking at physician recruitment on a regional level, and will be reporting back to Frontenac County Council this summer, on the next steps. She said she has been away but is looking to see how the recent funding announcement for Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington primary care, will be implemented in South Frontenac.
Richard Allen said that the cancelling of the Open Farms event after 8 years, reflects the success of the event for South Frontenac farmers.
“It's really made a difference here in South Frontenac, in fact, so much of a difference that farms no longer need the benefits of Open Farms. They've got their customer lists, their products are being sold ... they are not necessarily looking to host hundreds, or even thousands, of people on their farms in the same way they were, when we started. Our team is exploring other ways of supporting the food and beverage sector as we go forward.”
Councillor Ruttan asked about the department's response to the Alto Train proposal, and Allen said that the Director of Planning and ED Joe Gallivan, is handling that matter. To a question from Ron Sleeth about a decline in building activity in recent years, Allen attributed that to the COVID bubble of activity of 2021, and subsequent impact of inflation. He said that building activity is settling down at a higher level than it was before the pandemic, in 2019.
Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree
A report from Manager of Recreational Facilities Tim Laprade contained a proposal to look at options for the future of tree lighting at both the Town Hall in Sydenham and the Storrington Centre.
Both have large trees with lights that are lit each December. Councillor Sleeth responded with, “why are we looking at this, at all?”
Mayor Vandewal said it had to do with costs, and Laprade elaborated. He said that the tree in Sydenham has been harmed by the lights, which have grown into the tree, and when there are light failures at the top of the tree, the cost of a bucket truck, which has to come from Ottawa, makes tree lighting an expense of up to $6,000 for the township.
His report suggested that the township look at options, the most probable being LED projections, which will not harm the trees but will still light them up. Council gave the go ahead to explore options and report back. One possibility Laprade mentioned was to try the LED lights in Sydenham this year, to give the tree a one year reprieve and see what the public thinks about the display.
Private Lane Grant Program – A program which was initially set up to provide a total of $15,000 annually in each district, to help private lane owners to improve their lanes, has developed into a $100,000 budget item that is accessed each year by dozens of lane associations. This year there were 30 applicants. The program provides for a maximum grant of $7,000 or 50% of the cost of a project put forward by an association, whichever is less. Collectively, the associations submitted applications that meet the parameters of the program, for $325,000 in grants. The preferred option presented by Staff, which has been used in recent years, was to grant 100% of the eligible amounts to those lane associations that are new or relatively rare users of the program, and only 20% of the eligible amount to the “frequent flyers” associations that have received 2 or more grants in the last five years. This would result in $103,000 in grants from the township.
Councillor Turcotte asked whether it was time to take a new look at the program, but at least for this year the 20% frequent flyer option was approved by Council.
$100,000 Organisational and Service Review
In light of recent cost increases and budget pressures that are mounting, Chief Administrator Louise Fragnito prepared a report asking Council to approve bumping forward an organisational review, originally planned for 2027, to this year. The cost of the review will be between $75,000 and $100,000 with the money being reallocated from the Joint Fire Hall and OPP Station Design Fund, which will be reduced from $250,000 to $150,000. Council approved the proposal without comment.
Fire Bylaw
Council gave final approval to the revised Open Fires Bylaw. Councillor Sleeth thanked clerk James Thompson for appearing at a meeting of the Frontenac Federation of Farmers to dispel a mistaken impression that the bylaw limits burning opportunities for farm operations. Among the classes of fires in the bylaw, are large agricultural burns that are only available to farm operations, but farms are also able to use other, smaller, categories of fire, including a camp/heat fire or a smaller brush burning fire that all property owners can have
