South Frontenac Council - Dec. 18

Jeff Green | Dec 20, 2012

South Frontenac Council gave final direction to their treasurer regarding the 2013 budget at their last meeting of 2012 on Tuesday night, December 18.

Until late in the budgeting process, the goal of keeping the increase under 3% was being achieved, but in November the township found out that starting in 2013 its allocation from a provincial grant program will be dropping by $206,000.

$100,000 of that shortfall was covered by an increase in the levy for garbage pickup, which is paid on a per household basis. Council agreed to hand out the same number of bag tags (50) as in previous years, but increased the pickup fee to $120 from $100. The township has about 5,000 households, and thus $100,000 was raised.

The other $106,000 was raised by increasing the tax rate on all properties from 2.98% to 3.53%.

Council considered the option of limiting the increase and taking the extra money from reserve funds, but since the shortfall from the province is a permanent feature, they felt that would only lead to higher tax increases in future years.

The increase was too steep for some members of Council. Councilor Vandewal said, “I know it’s not going to happen at this point, but does anybody really think that we couldn’t find $100,000 in savings if went over the budget again?”

There was no response, and the budget directive was approved 6-3, with Councilors Vandewal, Robinson, and Deputy Mayor Naish voting against it.

The budget bylaw will come to Council in the new year. The final tax rate will be affected not only by the township budget, and by the County of Frontenac levy and the Education tax rate as well.

Robinson fights the tri-axle battle

Prior to the budget discussion, Councilor Bill Robinson tried to save the township $340,000. He proposed a motion to scrap the purchase of a tri-axle truck for the Public Works Department.

“$340,000 is a lot of money to spend for a vehicle. I’ve talked to people in heavy construction who own these kinds of vehicles and they say you have to use them every day in order to make them pay, and we simply don’t have enough use for one. It would be cheaper to rent one when we need it. It will be too big to work on most of our roads,” said Robinson in support of his motion.

A number of councilors spoke out against the motion, saying they had to stick with the advice of the Public Works Department. The motion was defeated 8-1.

Zoning bylaw change draws opposition

Councilor Del Stowe expressed a concern about some changes to the township's comprehensive zoning bylaw that were proposed by Township Planner Lindsay Mills.

The new bylaw will permit the 60 or so waterfront resort owners, most of whom have a number of cabins spread out along the shoreline of township lakes, to put up new buildings on the same footprint as the old ones, even if the buildings are located less than 30 metres from the high water mark.

“If a private cottager wanted to do the same thing if their 50-year-old cottage is falling apart, would they be able to?” asked Stowe of Mills.

“No, they would have to move back 30 metres, and if that wasn’t possible they would have to come to us to ask for a minor variance,” said Mills. “This proposal is here for the viability of the small resorts.”

Del Stowe, as well as Councilors Mark Tinlin and Deputy Mayor Cam Naish voted against the bylaw, which still passed 6-3

$130,000 Petworth Bridge repair

Public Works Manager Mark Segsworth came to Council to get final approval to apply for a grant, in conjunction with Lennox and Addington County, for the repair of the Petworth bridge. The bridge is located in South Frontenac, but has always been considered a boundary bridge with L&A County.

"I should let Council know that when we contemplated this project, the grant program was set at $50 million for the entire province, so we kept it to a smaller project. I received an email today saying that the grant program has been increased to $90 million, but the deadline is still January 9th, and we already have agreed with L&A about this project."

Council agreed.

The difference between this repair and most other bridge repairs is that the bridge is not suffering from age-related problems. It was damaged by someone, but the township has not been able to find out who.

“I find it astounding that someone can do $130,000 in damage to a bridge and we cannot find out who it is,” said Councilor John McDougall.

Pay raises for managerial staff

Managerial staff will be receiving a 2.1% raise in 2013, the same raise that was negotiated for unionized staff.