Council remuneration for South Frontenac at $180,000 in 2016

Craig Bakay | Mar 22, 2017

Mayor Ron Vandewal made $31,144.34 for running South Frontenac Township in 2016, says an information item presented at the regular Council meeting Tuesday night. Of that, $26,315.79 was the honorarium for being Mayor, $2,497.55 was for mileage, $1,700 for conference per diem and $631 for ‘other’ (primarily communication and travel expenses) Vandewal received no remuneration under the “meetings” heading.

Deputy Mayor Ross Sutherland received $21,593 of which $14,061.42 was his honorarium, $3,150 was for meetings, $1,836.22 was for ‘other,’ $1,796 was mileage and $750 was conference per diem.

Coun. Alan Revill actually took home more than the Deputy Mayor at $24,381.05. Of that, $12,128.94 was the regular councillors honorarium, $5,450 was for meetings, $4,307.60 for mileage, 1,494 for ‘other’ and 1,000 in conference per diem.

As for the rest of Council, Pat Barr received $19,521.74, John McDougall $18,759.79, Norman Roberts $18,674 (which includes one month as Deputy Mayor), Ron Sleeth $18,022.79, Mark Schjerning $17,132.72 and the late Bill Robinson $10,045.28.
In total, Council remuneration cost the Township $179,275.71

No ban on parking on Walker Street
A motion to ban overnight parking at the Walker Street parking lot in Sydenham was defeated with only the mover, Coun. Ross Sutherland voting in favour.

“It’s sort of a small, very limited purpose lot for accessing the (K & P) Trail,” Sutherland said. “But there was an RV parked there for five days and it took up all the space so there was no place for anyone else to park.

“And I notice now that it’s getting even more use now.”

However Mayor Ron Vandewal didn’t like the idea of a total overnight ban.

“We should allow at least one night’s parking,” Vandewal said. “If somebody makes an effort to drive here and use the trail we shouldn’t tell them after a day of using it ‘you can’t stay here.’”

Vandewal also noted that “other than your RV, there’s only been one complaint about the parking lot.”

Vandewal also suggested that more than one year of data would be useful in making decisions about the lot.

Hockey heroes
The OMHA Ontario Novice East CC-C champion Frontenac Flyers were honoured for their victory this past weekend with a plaque presented by Mayor Ron Vandewal on behalf of the Township. Grinning almost as much as the team, Vandewal congratulated both coaches and players while noting “this is the first ‘Frontenac’ championship team since the arena’s name was changed from North Frontenac Arena.”

Quinte grant
Council supported Quinte Conservation’s bid for a grant to study to “prepare for the ever changing climate and the impacts that it has on everything that municipalities are involved in.”

Coun. Alan Revill said that while he supported the grant application, he’d like to see some plans as to how the three conservation authorities operating in the Township might “mesh together” for things like drought strategy.