North Frontenac Council – Apr. 22/10

Jeff Green | Apr 29, 2010

Budget approved in North Frontenac

At a public meeting on April 22 preceding the formal adoption of the 2010 North Frontenac budget, Treasurer/CAO Cheryl Robson made a detailed presentation of the budget highlights, including the impact of Education and Frontenac County tax rates.

She explained that while the overall tax rate has decreased, by virtue of an increase in the average property assessment in the township, the township will be collecting more money, $92,500 or 2.5% more from North Frontenac ratepayers than they did in 2009.

Among the highlights from the spending side of the budget, Robson pointed to an Organizational Review that will be completed this year as well as the continuation of the township’s broadband project.

For the fire service, there will be an addition put onto the Barrie Hall, a new station built in Ompah in conjunction with an ambulance base to be funded by Frontenac County, and the purchase of a used 4-wheel-drive ½ ton to be used to fight wild fires and for other purposes.

The township will be purchasing and installing a communications tower for the fire department, thanks in part to a Joint Emergency Preparedness Program grant from the province.

Along with ongoing road maintenance, paving will be done on Robertsville Road (1 km); Myers Cave Road (3 km); Shabomeka Road 1km – and preparations on 2.2 more km. for next year; Head Road (1km); South Road (1 km); and Roads 506/509 (approx. 8km. depending on tender costs).

Other roadwork will be done on Harlowe Road, Boundary Road, River Road, Smith Road, Greer Road, Canonto Road, Gulley Road, and Buckshot Lake Road.

The township will also purchase a new ½ ton truck for the roads department and has put aside $88,100 for building a new satellite medical clinic in Plevna.

When it came time to vote on the budget, Mayor Ron Maguire invited public comment, and then offered each councilor the opportunity to comment.

Deputy Mayor Jim Beam said, “I’m not in favour of a 2.5% taxation increase for the township. If I decide to increase my household spending, say by buying a new truck, I have to do without something else, because I am on a fixed income. The township should work in the same way. The mayor says that ‘costs go up, that’s how it is’, but I disagree.”

Councilor Fred Perry responded to Beam: “When we left the last meeting, everybody agreed, but now you are having a problem at the last minute. I know it’s an election year, but that does not mean we should artificially lower taxes and have to raise them twice as much next year.”

Councillor Elaine Gunsinger said, “We all know it’s an election year, but we have to manage the township. There are projects to be completed.”

“This 2% is what we need to run the township and not go into a deficit,” said Councilor Wayne Good. “I think staff have done well”. 

Low Water Levels Likely

Nobody needs a deluge, but a little bit of a rain dance might be in order if people want to see the normal amount of water on the lakes in the Mississippi River watershed this summer, Gord Mountenay of Mississippi Valley Conservation (MVC) told members of North Frontenac Council last week.

Mountenay, the water management supervisor for MVC, has been dealing with water levels on the Mississippi since the early 1980s, and he made a presentation to North Frontenac Council in response to concerns by Councilor Wayne Good about the water levels on some of the lakes in Barrie ward, near the top of the watershed.

Mountenay said that lake levels were drawn down in early September as normal, and that logs were put into the dams on Shabomeka, Big Gull, and the other lakes on March 15 of this year, earlier than normal, because at that point it had become clear that there was a lower level of snow and the prospect of dry spring. “When there is a lot of water in the system, there are things we can do to try and alleviate potential flooding downstream, but there is nothing we can do when levels are low,” he said.

It is always a balancing act managing the system, Mountenay explained. Water levels for recreational use of the lakes between May 15 and Thanksgiving is a prime concern, as is flooding in the spring along the Mississippi and at Dalhousie Lake. Maintaining levels on spawning grounds during trout, walleye, and to some extent, bass spawning seasons is also a major goal.

Lake levels are about 80 centimetres below normal at this time, but the real concern is that the flow rates from the streams are way down, and unless there is a significant amount of rain the lakes will not rise between now and May 24, which is traditionally when the levels rise to their summer levels.

The impact of a mild, dry winter and what is turning out to be a dry spring has already affected spawning beds. “There will be no walleye spawning on Gull Creek this year, for example,” Mountenay said.

The likelihood is also high that the traditional water levels that MVC likes to maintain for recreation on the lakes will not be achieved this year.

FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR ONE METRE INITIATIVE – D'Arcy McKittrick from the Tourism Company, a consulting firm in Peterborough, presented his final report to Council on the market and financial prospects for the proposed observatory and visitors’ centre at Mallory Hill in the northwest corner of the township.

There was bad news and good news in McKittrick's report for proponents of the One Metre Initiative.

The bad news is that McKittrick's projections for attendance and revenue generation were a lot lower than those that were included in the business case report that had earlier been prepared by Frank Roy, who has been the main driver of the project. For example, Frank Roy's projection for revenue in the fifth year of operation was $1.56 million.

The Tourism Company considered the various scenarios if the observatory were to become an attraction of local, regional, or provincial/national significance. If it were of local significance, annual revenue of $250,000 could be projected; if it had a regional pull the projection would be $581,000; and if it had a provincial/national draw the revenue could be almost $1 million per year.

The reason for the discrepancy with Frank Roy's conclusions are varied, but D'Arcy McKittrick argued that pricing for activities would need to be lower than Frank Roy had projected and that the potential clientele was less than Roy calculated. The problem was not so much that Frank Roy was overly optimistic in his numbers; it was more that the consultants had access to more detailed information.

For example, Ministry of Tourism figures say that each year 180,000 people visit Bon Echo Park, a prime market for the One Metre Initiative. However, as McKittrick explained, the Ministry of Tourism counts every person day in the park as a person. So a family of four that stays at the park for a week is considered as 28 people coming to the Park. For D'Arcy McKittrick, the number of actual visitors to Bon Echo is 50,000 per year.

The good news in the consultants’report is that it concludes that, even with the new numbers, the project is viable, would have a major positive impact on the local economy, would be a boon to the Land O'Lakes Tourist Region, and would be a major draw for school groups from as far away as Kingston and Ottawa.

Even the revenue projection of $250,000 is seen by D'Arcy McKittrick as enough to make the project possible.

“I think, in looking at all of the issues, including the lack of supporting infrastructure in the local region, that the positives outweigh the negatives,” McKittrick said, “and this project can have a significant catalyst effect for the township and the Land O'Lakes.”