Letters: Jan 31/13

Jeff Green | Jan 30, 2013

Re: Ready to take the plunge

I had to chuckle when I saw the front page of the January 17 edition: “Ready to take the plunge” shows three hearty souls ready to take the Polar Plunge at the Frontenac Heritage Festival, and then below the fold “North Frontenac eliminates ice water rescue service”. So plungers beware, you are on your own.

Judi Montgomery

Idle-No-More

Monday's Idle-No-More witness at the corner of Highway 7 & Road 38 in Sharbot Lake, could be seen as a microbe on a mosquito biting an elephant. And yet, in that drumming, pamphleteering, waving and honking, one could hear and see the eternal cosmos reaching out, asserting care for our habitat and justice for all. Our political masters are in the pocket of the rulers of the fossil fuel economy. Whatever it takes, the authenticity of Idle-No-More must expand for the sake of our collective survival.

Ken Fisher

Re: Hinchinbrooke Public School closure

I would like to thank Julie Druker for her January 24th article Looking Back at Hinchinbrooke PS. I am sure the mention of former staff and students will remind residents of the area of the difference Hinchinbrooke Public School has made in the lives of their children and their communities.

In my conversation with Ms. Druker, we discussed many things and I was pleased with the accuracy of her reporting. However, in her last sentence where she quotes me, I remember a slight word change, i.e. "Though the closure of the school is sad, we will hope for the best, that the new school will be better able to serve students."

For all the students and staff who will be moving into the new school in the fall, I wish them every success in their new accommodations.

Eric R. Wagar

Snow shovelling by NF waste site attendants

With winter firmly in place and more snow assuredly on the way, I'm wondering about the work and equipment involved in keeping our municipal waste sites clear during and after snowstorms.

I was at the Plevna waste site after the big December storms, and I was concerned. Although the ploughs clear the large main areas, such big machinery can't get into the narrower passageways - next to the recycling bins, for example. On top of that, there's the snow that falls (or has to be shovelled) off the bins themselves.

I assume the site attendants have to clear all that snow by hand right after every storm. I'm impressed by how the attendants manage to get that laborious shovelling done and still handle all their regular tasks. But I'm also concerned. In this modern age, most of us - even the younger set - would not likely be doing that much shovelling by hand, even for our own properties!

So - does the township already have - or could it quickly procure - one of those small snow throwers that homeowners use for paths and walkways? Actually, probably one for each waste site would be good. The cost would be minor (a 22-inch gas-powered one costs just $600) which I'd assume could be covered by existing snow removal budgets.

I think most of us taxpayers would be glad to have our municipality put out the small expense necessary to do this. And since we're surely in for more snow, "time is of the essence."

Helen Forsey

Ompah  ice water rescue service?

Time will tell if Council’s decision to cease Ompah Station’s ice water rescue service was wise. Council made this decision based on so-called reasons and facts their own senior staff had provided.  If those reasons had been valid, there would have been true cause to cease Ice Water Rescue operation.  The best that can be said is those excuses have proven to be somewhat doubtful and far-fetched.

Reality is  - there is little or no ongoing cost for the program, ice water suits and the rescue boats  do not have the  alleged phantom expiry dates, there is no lack of training as inferred, there is no critical issue with the number of responders and there are no response time issues.  Councillors now know these reasons are baseless and to save face, let’s just say slightly overstated.

Dump all those excuses into the recycle or trash bin and clarify the issue. Simply put: 

There is no valid reason at this time to cease Ice Water Rescue Services in the township.  To appease those councillors who are intent on reducing the size and core services of Ompah Station, staff made the disbandment of the service decision before meeting with council and without its authority or permission to do so. To again keep peace flowing in the mayor’s recently christened sandbox, council voted to accept the proposal.

Councillors are not well served by township staff and senior managers if the information and facts presented are compromised by being inaccurate, not well researched, deceptive or intended to prejudice the decision to be made.  In the same vein, if council cannot find cause or reasons to make a specific decision, it shouldn’t expect managers to invent some.

The whole discussion on ice water rescue was corrupted, compromised, and biased by the facts presented.  Everyone on the outside looking in knows the so-called justification for the disbandment of the service was not valid.   No wonder we are now considered “Up in Dreamland” by those who read about us, either in the township or county news.

Staying “Up in  Dreamland”, would  it be delusional to think council might reconsider its decision, or does the truth and the real facts matter to them? How about a year’s probation with a year-end review?

Place yourself with Ompah responders standing on the shoreline watching a person going down again and again and having to tell his wife or his children “Sorry, we can’t go out on to the ice to save your husband/father.  We have the suits, the boats, the ropes and the trained personnel, but our township doesn’t have a by-law in place that allows us to help you. If you’d like, our chief will try to get someone from Sharbot Lake to finally come up here in an hour or two to recover his body.”

Leo L Ladouceur

The Gutowski affair is not a gender issue

Some have claimed the dispute between Janet Gutowski and the other Frontenac County councilors is a gender issue. It's no such thing. It's a matter of principle and tradition - the principle of fairness in giving all Frontenac mayors, male and female, equal opportunity to be warden for one year. Tradition, because the one-year tenure of Frontenac wardens is 124 years old. Is Janet Gutowski being unfair by demanding that she be warden for three years to the detriment of the other three mayors in the county? Let's try to look at this issue objectively.

To those making this a gender issue, please, remove your feminist-colored glasses that are distorting this event. To help us see the real issue, let's reverse the gender of the disputants and make Janet Gutowski, Jake Gutowski, and the seven male councilors, female. By gender reversal we have seven female councilors making a verbal agreement to continue the traditional one-year warden's tenure. Jake decides to break with tradition, finds a law to support his position, and by demanding a three-year tenure denies the other three female mayors on council their one-year term as warden. As a result of Jake's unreasonable demands, the seven female councilors declare their non-cooperation in future council meetings.

Let's transfer some gender issue comments, which made Janet Gutowski the hero of the plot, to this reversal of gender scenario. The seven female councilors would become "a bunch of little bullies who will not play fairly if they do not get their own way". Jake would become the hero because he "will not play the silly games" the seven women want to play. Jake becomes the hero again because he "has just beaten the old girls’ club at their own game". By changing the gender it changes the whole picture. Most reasonable people can see that the wrong things done by Janet Gutowski are just as wrong if they were done by Jake Gutowski and right things done by the seven male councilors are just as right if done by seven female councilors.

Janet, what good is it if you have the law on your side, if you have alienated the other councilors with your unfair behaviour? I always thought you were a fair person, but this last episode has definitely changed my mind, and the minds of others also. Please, for the good of Frontenac County, resign your wardenship or face a tainted legacy. Remember, elections are coming.

John Wallace

Central Frontenac taxes

As council commences its budget deliberations for 2013, it’s time to ask “Where are they heading?” Are we, the residents of Central Frontenac, looking at yet another large property tax increase?

First, a few reminders about the information we are presented with: A tax increase is the increase in the dollars we pay, not the increase in the tax rate which, when property values are increasing, is always less.

The purpose of property value assessments is to provide a basis for the distribution of the municipal tax burden among property owners, not to play a role in setting the magnitude of that burden. An increase in the tax base, i.e. in the total assessed value of all properties in Central Frontenac, does not hand the township an automatic tax revenue increase, although there are many who would like us to think it does.

If the percentage change in a property’s valuation is more or less than that of the township’s tax base, any change in that property’s taxes will be correspondingly more or less than the average. This comes courtesy of market forces changing property values, not from the township.

Also, when assessing changes in township taxes, we should not be sidetracked by references to our total property taxes. If the increase in county and education levies is small, the temptation to draw our attention away from a larger township increase, by focusing on the total bill, is too much for our councillors to resist. Any restraint shown by the county in the preparation of its budget, and/or by the province when setting the education levy, should not be hijacked by council to raise Central Frontenac taxes.

Now, let’s look at budget discussions so far: Central Frontenac staff has brought forward a budget proposal calling for a nearly $0.7 million increase in tax revenue, an increase that would see the township’s burden on the average property owner rise by about 12%.

Township treasurer Michael McGovern said that most taxpayers would be facing some sort of increase anyway given that the MPAC property assessments increased by an average of 2.73 per cent and he estimated that this increase would bring in about $250,000. I hope that he has been misquoted and does not actually believe this. Mr. McGovern, taxes increase only if council chooses to increase them, not because property values have increased.

Deputy Mayor Tom Dewey said that he wants to see an increase of 2 per cent in the tax rate, i.e. an average real tax increase of about 5 per cent, plus an increase in user fees at some halls to pull in some extra revenue. Does he really think we can afford these increases - that our incomes have increased by this much?

In her message accompanying our January tax bills, our mayor states “Although both councils [Ed. note - township and county] have expressed a desire to keep tax increases as low as possible, there is a recognition that annual budgets must be approached….” Such a comment at the start of the budgetary process can only indicate a too ready willingness to increase taxes.

None of this bodes well for our avoiding yet another large Central Frontenac tax increase well above the rate of inflation.

However, there is a bright light on the horizon. Councillors Norm Guntensperger and Bill Snyder are on record as saying they would like to see a decrease in the tax rate this year. While this does not necessarily mean they are asking for taxes to remain at last year’s level, it does indicate that they are seeking to keep any increase commensurate with the rate of inflation. We can only hope that they can convince their colleagues on council of the reasonableness of this objective; that due consideration must be given to the taxpayer’s ability to pay.

Michael Wise