South Frontenac Council - May 25/10

Wilma Kenny | May 27, 2010

South Frontenac and the Verona Medical Centre

Members of South Frontenac Council were all in favour of the township owning the Verona Medical Centre a few weeks ago. Although they still are, come members are finding the details hard to get their heads around.

At a Committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday Night, CAO Wayne Orr presented a report outlining some of the issues relating to municipal ownership of the clinic.

Most of the discussion centred on the choice of management model. Although there seemed to be general preference to have the management provided by a non-profit community board, not all Councillors agreed.

Councillor John Fillion commented: “Once you have a Board, you get a lot of ideas and opinions, and the whole thing spirals right out of control.” Councillor Larry York wondered how much the Board members would have to be paid.

John McDougall, speaking on behalf of the Verona Find-a-Doc Committee, was emphatic that as a non-profit Board, none of the members would receive remuneration.

He said it was possible in the future that the Board might decide to hire a property manager, but if so, the cost would be factored into the tenant’s rent.

The matter will come back to Council for resolution.

Highly Sensitive Groundwater Areas:

In response to an earlier request of Council, Township planner Lindsay Mills presented a map outlining areas in Southern Ontario where the quantity and quality of the groundwater supply is considered to be of concern. This includes most of the land south of the shield: Mills noted that four particular areas in South Frontenac are rated highly sensitive. Two are in Portland, one east of Hartington and the other south of Harrowsmith along Road 38. The main area in Loughborough district is south of Sydenham, in the vicinity of Stagecoach Road. Mills recommended that when development is being considered in these four areas, a hydro geological study should be done as part of the consent process. Deputy Mayor Vandewal questioned the accuracy of the designations, because none of the areas with dug wells are noted. Councillor Robinson said that as long as a well could pump 3-5 gal/min for six hours, it qualified for a CMHC mortgage, and that should be where the municipality’s responsibility ended.

“Why do we need to be concerned?” he asked.

Councillor Hahn said it was also important to find out what impact a new well or wells might have on existing wells in the neighbourhood.

Lindsay Mills reiterated that is important to be aware of potential water problems in these highly sensitive areas, when planning development.

Composition of Sustainability Committee

Councillor York said that since Bedford had two council members on the Sustainability Committee, he would like to be appointed as a second representative from Storrington.

Bedford Councillor Del Stowe said that he had asked to be part of the committee while it was developing plans for extending waste pickup to Bedford, and now that this was underway, he would be happy to leave the committee.

This led to a wider discussion of the whole question of township committees: their purpose and composition. Some felt the whole issue should be left to the new Council; others suggested the present Council should review the committee structure, and make recommendations to next year’s Council. They agreed to conduct a committee review in September.

Speed Limits on Township Roads

In September, Public Works Manager Mark Segsworth had approached Council with a recommendation to develop standardized criteria, which could be used to evaluate requests for reduced speed zones. At that time Council directed him to search the records for a previous policy. Meanwhile, the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) has published (Dec 2009) guidelines, along with a program that evaluates various criteria such as: curves, intersections, adjacent land use, width of lanes, parking, pedestrian and cyclist exposure, roadside hazards, etc.

This makes it possible to quickly, objectively and consistently evaluate the speed limit appropriate for any given area, according to Mark Segworth. He recommended Council adopt the TAC guidelines for use in responding to requests for speed limits in the Township, particularly on secondary roads where the speed limit defaults to 80km/hr unless posted otherwise.

“The OPP have been extremely supportive of his efforts to develop an objective approach to addressing speed issues,” he added.

Ron Vandewal objected that the speed limits were too low already, and seldom obeyed. Del Stowe asked whether this would be administered proactively or reactively.

Mark Segsworth said that while it would probably be good to become more proactive, the township doesn’t have the resources to be much other than reactive. “The Township needs to demonstrate due diligence: probably we aren’t resourcing that function as well as we should.”

Councilors Fillion and Robinson were opposed to adopting a speed limit policy, fearing it would lead to unnecessary additional expenses. Councillors Stowe and Hahn spoke in support of the policy. No agreement was reached.