South Frontenac agrees to waive development fees for Kinsmen Dream Home

Craig Bakay | Oct 03, 2019

South Frontenac Council agreed to a request by the Kinsmen Club of Kingston to waive development fees and building permits to the tune of $23,146 for its Dream Home Lottery project at its regular meeting Tuesday night in Sydenham.

The Dream Home is scheduled to be built on Applewood Drive in Battersea, a few lots closer to the water than last year’s house.

“We raised $390,000 last year, $20,000 of which went to Southern Frontenac Community Services,” Graham Forsythe, deputy chair of the lottery told Council. “One hundred per cent of everything raised goes back into the community and last year we ran out of tickets.

“We’ve put $6.7 million back into the community and we have a good track record.”

Coun. Ross Sutherland said he had “one issue” with the proposal.

“We’re taking public money and giving it to you to give back to the community,” Sutherland said. “Writing off the development charges essentially becomes seed money for you.

“I wonder if you’d consider bringing it back to Council to determine priorities as to where it goes.”

“I’m not sure we can,” Forsythe said. “While we would love to put that decision back in your hands, we’re not allowed to give money to anybody that’s not a charity.

“But we will take it to the gaming association to see what they say.

“They don’t like bricks and mortar projects, they prefer services.”

Mayor Ron Vandewal said “maybe we could give you a couple of suggestions for priorities.

“We do still have some control in that we gave Community Services $20,000 last year. We could make this our donation to them and donate to another organization.”

“I think your suggestion is a good one, Mr. Mayor,” said Dep. Mayor Ron Sleeth. “Rather than complicating the situation as we would be.”

“I do have one suggestion,” Vandewal said. “You need some traffic control.

“I went there last year and it was like there was an auction sale on the road.”

Vandewal then added: “I’m glad it was so successful in South Frontenac last year. Everybody wants to live here.”

Single use plastic bottles

Council approved a notice of motion from Coun. Ross Sutherland to eliminate the distribution of single use bottles of water at functions organized by the township. Sutherland’s motion further outlined that water in large containers be made available for participants to fill up their own jugs and that organizations and groups using township facilities be encouraged to not bring single-use containers to their functions.

Coun. Randy Ruttan wanted to take it one step further by “finding a stronger word than ‘encourage’” but Coun. Doug Morey argued against it.

“I think this is a good start,” Morey said. “Let’s see how it goes.”

CAO Neil Carbone agreed, pointing out that there could very well be issues with a full ban.

“I don’t think it would be realistic,” Carbone said. “To enforce it would be a challenge.”

Rolling stock to roll into SF?

Following on a similar move by Frontenac County, Council endorsed a proposal to bring a locomotive and two rail cars (see last week’s Frontenac News for a picture of the gear) from Upper Canada Village to South Frontenac and approved sending a letter to the SLPC indicating its interest and support.

In a delegation to Council, Matt Trousdale and Daisy Belec estimated getting the rail cars to South Frontenac would cost about $30,000.

Trousdale said that the SLPC estimated the costs to restore the cars at about $1.1 million but “that would be restoration to museum quality standards.

“And the SLPC has indicated they would entertain proposals where groups wouldn’t have to restore it to those standards.

“They said it’s free to a good home as long as the recipient pays to move it.”

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Dep. Mayor Ron Sleeth, who moved drafting the letter of support. “Verona, Harrowsmith and lots of smaller communities have had trains going through them in the past.”

Trousdale said he envisions the locomotive and cars being somewhere “to catch people’s eye” and be used in conjunction with the many trails in the area “because after all, most of the trails are former rail beds.”

CAO Neil Carbone said he thought that there might be some county funding available for such a project through Main Street Revitalization or Trail Development granting programs..

“And I think the community will step up,” said Mayor Ron Vandewal. “I’ll bet you’ll get plenty of help renovating when people hear about this.

“And we’ve built plenty of concrete pads before.”