North Frontenac Council - Sept. 9/10

Sep 16, 2010

Current (roads) situation “not sustainable” - Gallivan

Joe Gallivan, Manager of Sustainability Planning for Frontenac County, attended a meeting of North Frontenac Council last week, September 9, to address council concerns about a county-wide roads management plan that is still in the early stages of development.

A consultant has been hired to come up with options for such a plan and will be reporting back to a meeting of Frontenac County Council in November.

Gallivan reiterated that at amalgamation 12 years ago, more than 400 km. of roads that were originally maintained by the province or the former Frontenac County were downloaded to four townships. These include roads on Howe and Wolfe Islands as well as mainland Frontenac County.

“The townships are now paying to maintain roads that were never meant to be paid for by township taxpayers.”

Gallivan continued: “We're in a situation now - and I want to make sure council knows that all four township public works managers agree - that the current system is not sustainable. The financial burden will get worse and worse as time goes by up and down the county and this is an attempt to find different ways to deal with it.

“In other words, if there is an agreement that this north /south spine is important to everyone living in Frontenac County then there should be an attempt to look at funding either throughout the county or looking at sources outside the county.”

While the roads plan has been focused on Roads 38, 506/509 and Perth Road, Mayor Maguire has been pushing at the county level for other arterial roads in the north end of the county to be included.

“The reason I lobbied to make sure that Harlowe and Ardoch Roads and Buckshot Lake Road were on there is because they are main entry points through North Frontenac from the north, west, east and south. I'm trying to stimulate discussion among councilors here who might be reluctant to lose control of our roads to the county or to the region,” Maguire said.

Gallivan pointed out that there is ”absolutely no proposal to create a new county road system. It's about looking at new ways to manage these important roads.”

Gallivan explained that the plan is to be broken down into two pieces. The first part is to have a consulting firm look at new and different financial models for maintaining the system and then present them to county council.

One possible model among several is the model of the Lennox and Addington County (L&A), where the county road system exists on an administrative level only. “All of the L&A County roads are maintained by the local townships but because they are designated as county roads the township is able to access additional funding by the province,” Gallivan said.

The second step will be the more important phase - to lay down a new system. That will be something that will be considered by the new county and township councils after the municipal election.

Councilor Fred Perry’s major concern was how the funds might be divided. “The people in the South have a tendency to forget those in the North and they have more leverage since they have more votes to decide where the money goes,” he said.

Joe Gallivan said that the financial model would define how funds would be divided and he referred again to the Lennox and Addington model, whose system has been in place for over 10 years.

“At least once a year all of the public works managers get together and decide what sections of roads need improvement and then go to council with those suggestions. It's a political decision in the end but the system seems to be working out fairly for all concerned,” he said.

Deputy Mayor Jim Beam pointed out that the idea of a county roads system was raised at a meeting 18 months ago in Sharbot Lake, which was chaired by then County Warden Janet Gutowski and attended by the CAOs, road superintendents and the majority of the members of all the member councils.

“A vision of a county roads system was discussed at that meeting and there was absolutely no appetite whatsoever at all for any kind of road network for the County of Frontenac,” Beam said.

“There is a big difference between the County of Frontenac road network and a 'regional' road network and those words are very important. This is not a county roads system that we are talking about,” Gallian responded

He stressed that the reason the issue came to county council this year was because it was listed as a priority in the Integrated Sustainability Plan that the county developed, and township council staff members from all of the townships have made note of these roads when doing their capital budgets

Gallivan summed up the issue this way: “The basis of this work is that if you look at the population base, then North Frontenac has some significant challenges ahead to keep this road system that was downloaded up and running. The attempt here is to try to say, 'All of these roads are important to the County and have to be looked at more than as just a part of North Frontenac ...These roads are an important part of the economy.’”

Mayor Maguire reiterated his request at the last meeting to see that part of the financial planning include a 10 and 20-year long-term plan.

Other issues at North Frontenac Council:

Speed limit at Shawenegog

Council received a letter from a resident of Shawenegog Lake Lane requesting that the proposed by-law enacting a 40 km speed limit on Shabomeka Lake Road be increased to 60 km/hour. The letter stated, “I believe if we can currently travel on loose gravel at 50km/hour, why do we need to travel at 40km/hour when the paving is complete?” Mayor Maguire said council would weigh all letters pertaining to the issue and after a public meeting to take place at the Clar-Mill Fire hall, Oct. 14 at 9:30 am, would make a final decision.

Heritage Recognition

Marg Axford of the Cloyne Historical Society was nominated by council to the Heritage Community Recognition Program.

Dishwasher for Clar-Mill Hall

Council approved the installation of a commercial dishwasher at the Clar-Mill hall, expenses to be covered by the Clar-Mill Hall committee.

No bylaw numbers on signs

Council decided against Councilor Fred Perry's suggestion that By-Law numbers be added to the bottom of all posted signage. Other council members said that it would a labour-intensive and expensive undertaking.