1% stake? Not so fast says CF

Craig Bakay | May 29, 2019

Central Frontenac Township deferred making a commitment on regional roads at its regular meeting Tuesday evening in Mountain Grove until it hears back from lawyer Tony Fleming as to what a “1 per cent ownership of regional roads and bridges” means in a proposal drafted up by Frontenac County and presented to the four member townships for ratification.

In a report to Central Frontenac Council, Dep. Clerk Cindy Deachman said: “staff have some reservations about the 1 per cent ownership model and how it would integrate with the jurisdiction sections of the Municipal Act.

Frontenac County currently owns no roads and/or bridges as part of the restructuring order at amalgamation. As such, it is not eligible for some grant money to be applied to roads such as 38 or 509/506. What the townships are concerned about is how much say the County would have in road repairs and how much of any grant money the County would administer.

For example, would a County staff member be the one to decide if a pothole on Road 38 got fixed? Or would the County have the right to hire staff to make such decisions?

North Frontenac Township passed a similar resolution at its meeting Monday in Plevna, wanting to know the same things Central does before making a decision on which of several proposals the County has made to support, if any.

South Frontenac has already endorsed a proposal that grants Frontenac County a 1 per cent ownership interest in agreed-upon regional roads and proposes contracting out for any engineering services required to apply for and/or administer grants.

Mayor Frances Smith said she was concerned that by deferring, they may miss out on some funding.

Hydro for Railway Heritage Park

Central Frontenac Council gave its consent to the Central Frontenac Railway Heritage Society to have Hydro One install a pole at Railway Heritage Park in order to get power to the tool shed and for things like security cameras and amplifiers/PA for concerts and other events.

Co-chair Gary Giller and Treasurer Wayne Moase told Council that they had the funds to have the services installed but asked for help with the monthly hydro fees.

They also asked if they could be put under the Township’s insurance for liability and damage to assets.

When Dep. Mayor Victor Heese wondered if the Society should become a Committee of Council to accommodate these requests, Mayor Frances Smith pointed out that if they ceased to be a private society, their opportunities for grants would become severely limited.

Council agreed to have staff look into the insurance aspects and also to examine a ‘donation’ to pay hydro and/or insurance as if has done with other groups in the Township.

RKY Hall

Mayor Frances Smith said that RKY Camp on Eagle Lake is building a 150-seat banquet hall that should be finished by 2020 at the latest.

“This will be an asset to the Township to be able to seat 150 people for dinner,” she said. “It could attract a lot of convention type business.”

Swiss Smith

On becoming a Swiss TV star (ie appearing in the Swiss TV show featuring two Frontenac paramedics switching places with two Swiss paramedics), Mayor Frances Smith seemed somewhat underwhelmed.

“Something that takes 20 minutes ended up taking two hours because we had to do it three times,” she said. “I guess that’s television.”