South Frontenac Budget 2021 - Of Furniture, Fire-gear and Finishing Hinchinbrook Road

Wilma Kenny | Jan 20, 2021

South Frontenac staff and council met on Thursday Jan 14 for an all-day Committee of the Whole budget marathon.

The sessions began with CAO Carbone leading Council through introductory information, beginning with a reminder that the tax bill is made up of three components: the Township share set by Council, the County Share set by County Council, and the Education Share set by the Province.

Four major Township budget pressures were identified for the coming year: A) there will be no phase-in assessment this year (+1.57% for growth only); B) costs for winter control and garbage/recycling collection have increased significantly; C) new services will be provided: in-house winter control & roadside mowing, and Part 8 on-site sewage system services; D) three large capital works are planned: Station 8 fire hall reconstruction, Frontenac community arena major upgrades, and Storrington Centre renovations.

As in recent years, Council has directed the tax rate target should remain at 2%. This year, the total budget increase in taxes to be collected from local ratepayers would therefore be 3.57% because of the increased assessment due to growth.

Carebone told council that certain items are not included in the budget: changes to by-law enforcement; some recreation capital projects which have been deferred until completion of the Recreation Master Plan that is currently underway; new/expanded community events including funding for a music festival have been put on hold due to the pandemic (however, base recreation programming funding remains).

The liveliest discussions occurred as Council worked its way through 62 pages of Capital budget detail sheets. Councillor Revill led off with “We don’t want to walk in here to find furniture nobody likes!” in response to a proposal to upgrade Council Chambers furniture with the purchase of 14 new modular tables and 4 ergonomic chairs.

Mayor Vandewal agreed; “I don’t want to see this Council Chamber crammed with furniture.” CAO Carbone assured them that this item was a ‘placeholder’: because the Council chambers are a primary meeting room, he is recommending moving to more dual-purpose furniture, and assured Council that any new furniture will be discussed with Council and bought only with their approval.

Although the draft budget shows some of the funding for Hinchinbrook road carried over to 2022, CAO Carbone and Public Services Director Segsworth both confirmed that Council had directed that the road be paved in 2021, and it would be done. Carbone: “We anticipate savings in other projects that will allow us to complete Hinchinbrook: if we don’t find the savings, we will come back to Council for permission to draw from reserves.”

Segsworth added: “Our goal is to have it (Hinchinbrook Road) hard-topped by Labour Day, Sept 1, 2021.”

The protection Services (fire and safety) capital budget came in at $1.5M; this included the cost of five smaller rapid response vehicles, two of which are to be purchased in the current year; and a Mechanical Support vehicle ($80,000), which will be readily available to all fire stations for repairs, etc. Mayor Vandewal opposed the Mechanical Support vehicle, speaking of it several times during the day.

“A mechanical support vehicle is not a requirement,” he said, near the end of the meeting.

“There is no legislated requirement to have a fire department,” replied Fire Chief Darcy Knott.

When Mayor Vandewal asked what the fire department was doing to ensure pager returns, commenting on the many times former fire department volunteers kept their pagers and phones, Knott said that he could not speak for previous times, but in his tenure, “I am extremely aggressive about getting their equipment back when anyone leaves the department.”

Deputy Mayor Ray Leonard said that when he joined as a volunteer firefighter he paid for his own radio, as there was no budget money for it, and “I plan to take it with me.” Knott laughed and agreed that was a good idea.

Asked about $30,000 budgeted for boat launches, Mark Segsworth said that amount was “a placeholder”: His department has had to remove the steel grates, because ‘“people are losing their trailer axels on them,”. Segsworth said the township’s plan is to replace them with flexible concrete. Another challenge as boat launch use increases is providing adequate safe parking space for trucks and trailers at the boat launch sites.

Council supported a plan to rehabilitee the Petworth mill site, a Township property, to stabilize the remaining stonework, clear away brush, and make the site safe and accessible for public use as a picnic site. The SF Museum Society has expressed interest in working with township staff to carry out this project.

Councillor Morey said he was shocked to learn that the Fourteen-Island Lake dam had somehow become the responsibility of private property owners: Segsworth said he plans to do a site visit in the spring and will discuss the dam with Quinte Conservation Authority.

Councillors Morey, Sutherland and Barr all spoke of the need for a viable plan for Fermoy Hall: There is almost $60,000 still set aside for the hall, but a concrete plan for its future use needs to be developed, before adding more money. They agreed that the lack of broadband service is a separate problem that needs to be addressed on a Township-wide basis: The current proposal of setting up an internet service in Fermoy does not include any concrete information or estimates from potential internet suppliers.

Other items such as upgrading the playing courts in Battersea and Glendower have been set aside pending the completion of the Recreation Master Plan, due in late spring/early summer.

The day-long session ended with a general informal agreement that, as a goodwill gesture during Covid, perhaps the township should draw $100,000 from reserves, and thus lower this year’s tax rate to 1.5% (an increase of 3.27% in the total to be raised through taxation).

For full details about the Capital Budget, Operating Budget and Reserves and their interrelationships, the true budget aficionado is referred to the Township’s website, where the documents are in the Jan 14 COW meeting agenda, and/or to Facebook, where all five hours of the meeting are recorded in three separate parts.

The final budget document is expected to come back to Council for approval in early to mid-February.