South Frontenac Township functioning well through pandemic, unclear when office will re-open

May 20, 2020

For the better part of two months, South Frontenac Chief Administrative Officer Neil Carbone spent most of his time at this home in the north end of Kingston, 15 minutes south of the township office in Sydenham, working remotely. Most of the rest of the office staff at the township were working remotely as well. Fortunately, the township had developed the capacity to enable those employees the same access to the township computer network that they would have were they in the office, as well as call forwarding from their office phone.

“It was probably a lot better than people might have anticipated. There is sometimes a reluctance to look at working from home in municipal settings, a concern that when people are not sitting in a chair in their office they are not working. It’s an old management approach, measuring effectiveness by time instead of outcomes, and maybe that will change a bit after this experience. We did have some Internet issues at times but everything went relatively smoothly,” he said, in a telephone interview from the township office on May 19.

A little over two weeks ago, the management team returned to the office, and other office staff members are making their way back as well.

He said that there were only a few minor reductions in service, all stemming from provincial orders, including the burn ban and the closure of waste sites to the public for a time

“We used a light touch wherever we could, and of course we adhered to everything the province required. We were able to keep our boat launches open, because they were providing access to primary dwellings. There was a little bit of a push back over the burn bans but since the MNRF (Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry) put on a province-wide ban, most people understood our reasoning.”

The township, like the rest of Frontenac County, Kingston, and Lennox and Addington, has been spared the worst of the outbreak, but one small cluster of cases involving township staff demonstrated how things could gone.

“When we had those two cases among our roads crew, 2/3 of the crew had to go into isolation for two weeks. Luckily it went no further but you can see how easily a small township could be debilitated by a cluster of cases,” he said.

The township has been able to continue processing planning applications, with some delays, and residential construction projects were on hold when construction was halted across the province, but the township continued to process building permits throughout the lock-down.

“We could have issued those permits, but since it was not permitted to do any construction, we processed them and held on to them until last week, when construction was allowed to start up again. We are seeing a similar number of permits issued this year as in other years, but the values tend to be higher this year. There is more new construction and less renovations.”

He said that most capital projects will proceed this year, although some recreation relate projects may be delayed.

South Frontenac started 2020 with the intention of implementing a new strategic plan that had been a priority for Carbone, one of this signature initiatives in the first six months since coming to the township. The township was also embarking on a comprehensive Official Plan review.

Strategic Plan implementation has been slowed down, but it is back before council this week. A population study, which must be completed before the Official Plan work gets underway in earnest, is being worked on by a consultant.

“Maybe some things were delayed a few months, but I don’t think our activities were eliminated. On this weeks’ council agenda, we are looking at our response to climate change, and at strategic plan implementation, so we are moving forward as we are able,” he said.

As far as opening the township office to the public, the necessary infrastructure such as plexiglass, PPE, etc. will be in place within the next week or so, and protocols are being developed for proper distancing.

“We want to make sure we have everything in place, including procedures, and then we will look at what our neighbours are doing as well. We want to work with others, to make the transition as smooth as possible when we start allowing public access to the office again in the coming weeks.”