Frontenac County Council - Feb. 22/11

Jeff Green | Feb 24, 2011

Planning Department in the offing?

When Frontenac County completed its Sustainability Plan two years ago a decision was made to hire a manager to oversee projects that county council approves as the plan moves forward.

Under the heading of “Sustainability”, the county is currently working on projects as varied as community improvement plans (with a focus on business retention and expansion), a Green Energy Task Force (which encourages small-scale investments in solar, and perhaps wind and hydro power) and a County Roads strategy (which deals with the funding and maintenance of major roads in the county).

The individual who was hired to facilitate all these projects, Joe Gallivan, comes from a background in land use planning, which has the more narrow focus of looking at plans of subdivision approvals, property setbacks, zoning bylaws and the like.

Hiring a municipal planner was no accident for the county, because it does have a role in approving plans of subdivision and plans of condominium in Frontenac County, although all other planning matters are handled by the individual townships.

Last year the county used grant money from the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation to hire Peter Young as an intern to work on a number of projects, particularly the Community Improvement Plan for Verona.

When Joe Gallivan came to council last week to ask that the intern position, which is running out, be transitioned into a one-year contract position for $23.07/hr., he made reference not only to sustainability projects, but to land use planning as well.

“The number of subdivision applications has risen dramatically in the last two years,” Gallivan said, “and I have been available to assist Central Frontenac in their own work on the Bridgen's Island approval on Eagle Lake.”

“So, could you provide more affordable planning for the townships with this hiring?” asked Frontenac Island's Mayor Dennis Doyle.

“I would be pleased to do so. Without this position in place it would be more challenging for me to do that,” said Gallivan.

“I think there is a tremendous need to get planning right, and to get through all that our Sustainability plan calls for,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski.

Warden Davison, speaking on behalf of South Frontenac Township, wondered how the billing for Gallivan's time as a land use planner is being handled.

“That has not been worked out,” Gallivan said.

“It will have to be if this is the direction we are going,” said Davison, “because in South Frontenac we have our own planning department and we don't want our county taxes paying to cut planning costs in the other townships.”

“The idea of a County Planner providing services is an argument for another day,” said North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton. “We in North Frontenac are not looking at using a county planner. But I can support this position, for one year.”

The one-year contract position was approved, and will be included in the 2011 county budget.

North and Central Frontenac and Frontenac Islands all currently use the services of Tunnock Consulting in addition to having their own planning co-ordinators on staff. Most of the costs for planning approvals are passed on to the developer, although the townships pay consulting fees in the development of their Official Plans and Comprehensive Zoning Bylaws.

Preliminary county budget – costs up for Fairmount Home, Land ambulance service

The first pieces of the draft budget were presented to county council last week. The proposed budget for the county-owned, 128-bed Fairmount Home Long Term Care Facility is over $10.7 million for 2011, up from $10 million in 2010, a 2.6% increase (all numbers rounded).

A number of funders contribute to the Fairmount Home budget, including the Province of Ontario ($4.9 million), patient fees ($3 million), and the City of Kingston ($1.7 million). The projected increase in the share paid by county ratepayers in 2011 is up $60,000, to $794,000, an increase of 8.2%. The increase will be included in the 2011 county levy to ratepayers if the budget is not altered.

The largest increase in the home’s overall budget is a $524,000 line item for depreciation, which is new this year. County ratepayers are being asked to cover about $41,000 of those depreciation costs. Other cost increases include a 12% increase in laundry and linen services, and a 17% increase in general and administrative costs.

The budget for land ambulance services is also up, partly because of an increased share for county ratepayers relative to the City of Kingston because the population in the county is growing relative to the city.

The overall municipal levy for the ambulance is up by $544,000 in the draft budget, an increase of 7.8%, but the proposed Frontenac County levy is up by $170,000 to $1.48 million, an increase of 13%.

While the Province of Ontario pays 50% of operating costs, capital costs for the ambulance service are covered by the municipal partners, and the 2011 budget includes increases in vehicle and equipment replacement reserve funds of about 10%.

Committees and mileage/kilometrage – Council approved the establishment of the following committees: Green Energy Task Group, Sustainability Advisory, and 150th anniversary planning. These committees include members of the public as well as members of county council. After considerable debate, it was decided that members of the public will not receive remuneration for attending meetings, but they will receive 'mileage' at the county rate of 48 cents per kilometre.

LHINS visit – Paul Huras (Chief Executive Officer) and Georgina Thompson (Board Chair) of the Southeast Ontario Local Health Integration Network made a short presentation about changes that are being contemplated in the service delivery model of the seven hospitals in the region. Thompson said that duplication of service would be addressed in this process.

“There are five hospitals doing orthopaedic surgery in our LHIN, for example,” said Thompson. “Perhaps there should only be four or three. These are the kinds of things we are looking at.”

Public consultations will be undertaken by the LHIN, using social networking as a major focus, and public meetings are being planned as well.

Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski brought up the issue of transportation from locations in Frontenac County as service may be offered further away from residents than they are now.

“We are just now looking at the transportation piece,” said Huras. “We recognize that transportation is a huge issue.”

Huras and Thompson said there would be more coming out on these planned changes in the coming months.