Frontenac County Council - July 12/11

Jeff Green | Jul 14, 2011

Visit from Librarian

Deborah Defoe, the Chief Librarian/CEO of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library, outlined some of the issues and history behind the library board’s decision to close the Ompah branch of the library, which was one of 10 branches located in Frontenac County.

After going over the results of a branch studies report from 2004, a branch master plan from 2010, and a public survey from 2010, and some of the circumstances surrounding the Ompah branch in particular, Defoe described her visit as “step 1 of a consultation process with county council.”

County Councillor John Inglis from North Frontenac asked, “Don't you think step 1 of the consultation process should have come before one of the branches was closed?”

Councilor John Purdon, from Central Frontenac, is also the County representative to the library board, said that he has been pushing the library board to consult more directly with the county. He also asked about the future prospects for library branches in Central Frontenac, since the same library branch study from 2004 that called for the closure of the Ompah branch also called for the closure of the Arden, Mountain Grove, and Parham branches.

“It really is circulation that drives a lot of our decision-making,” said Defoe.

She then pointed out that the Arden branch has had an increase in circulation and is in line for improvements, not closure.

“The Parham branch, which is located in a portable classroom next to the school, will lose its space when the school closes,” she said, “so you, as a township, will have to decide what you are going to do about that. The school closing will also cause circulation in that branch to plummet.”

Defoe also said that the Mountain Grove branch is facing a mould issue, which must be addressed.

She did not comment directly when asked if the board would consider re-opening the Ompah branch now that a community group has re-opened the library as a stand-alone community-based service.

County Official Plan – A report from sustainability planner Joe Gallivan outlined the benefits of developing a County Official Plan.

The report pointed out the Ministry of Municipal Affairs recommends that such a plan be developed, and says that planning matters dealt with by the local municipalities in the county will be easier and quicker to approve if the county has an Official Plan. Currently, any time one of the Frontenac townships needs to amend their own plan to allow for a building project to go forward, that amendment goes to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, causing delays and complications. If a county-wide Official Plan were in place, that would no longer be necessary. The county, which includes representatives from the local municipalities, would be able to do the final approvals.

Council received Gallivan's report for information. There will be more on this in the coming months.

Netbooks for Council members - David Millard, Information Technologist for the county, talked about the netbook computers that members of council will be receiving this month. The computers will be the property of the county, and only the IT department will be able to load software on them. They will be subject to the county computer use policy that applies to county staff, and any personal use is prohibited, including loading photos or videos. The county chose an ACER model, at a cost of just under $300 per unit. The projected lifespan of the computers is two to three years.

Clean Audit – Vicky Leakey from KPMG presented the county’s 2010 audit results. The report concludes that the county’s “operations and cash flows for the year [are] in accordance with Canadian public sector accounting standards,” which is audit-speak for ‘everything seems to be on the up and up’.