South Frontenac Council - May 9/13

Jeff Green | May 09, 2013

South Frontenac gets five years to wean itself from City money

South Frontenac Township’s CAO Wayne Orr took on a thankless task last fall when he went to Kingston City Hall to try to convince the city to continue paying the $600,000 per year to help with road maintenance on roads that were transferred from the city to South Frontenac 15 years ago, at the time of municipal amalgamation.

The amalgamation agreement called for the annual payments to end in 2012, but Orr argued that it remains important for the city to subsidize the road maintenance into the future.

He had limited success.

The city has agreed to continue making payments, and will transfer $469,643 in 2013. Payments will continue for another four years, but they will diminish in size with each passing year. In 2014, the payment will be $375,714; in 2015 - $281,786; in 2016 - $187,857; and in 2017 - $93,929.

After that the payments will cease.

The agreement signed this week between the city and the township makes that point clear: “THAT this agreement represents the final conclusion to the City’s responsibilities under the 1997 Amalgamation Order Section 7.2 “Compensation” (County Arterial Roads)”

The same negotiations established a similar denouement to payments between the City of Kingston and the Township of Frontenac Islands, but with smaller payouts.

Over the next five years, South Frontenac will receive $1,619,458 and the Township of Frontenac Islands $210,529.

Councilor McDougall congratulated the CAO for “concluding these negotiations,” and Councilor Vandewal concurred, saying “This is the best outcome when you consider we could easily have received nothing. Now, with cuts to the OMPF [Ontario Municipal Partnership Funding – a provincial subsidy for rural municipalities] the reality is we are going to have to maintain all these roads ourselves in the future as well as Road 38."

The money from the City of Kingston is earmarked for Perth, Battersea, Sydenham, Bellrock and Harrowsmith Roads (94 kilometres of paved roadway that until 1998 were part of the Frontenac County Road system).

Wayne Orr said that by instituting a 1% capital fund on top of each year’s budget, which has already been instituted, the township will have money in place to cover for the lost revenue by 2017, when the agreement with the Kingston City Council expires.

Tenders

The good news is that the new Tri-Axle truck for the township will cost $90,000 less than budgeted. The bad news is that the new Tri-Axle truck for the township will cost $90,000 less than budgeted.

At least that’s how Councilor Vandewal sees it.

According to Vandewal, the bad news comes from the fact that “$90,000 more was collected in taxes than was required. That’s a 1% increase,” he said.

“We should have done more homework on pricing,” said Public Works Manager Mark Segsworth, “although the money for the truck came from our capital reserve, which will be replaced next year.”

The township will be paying $231,000 for a MACK truck from Surgenor’s. There was a lower bid, for an International Truck, but the International Trucks the township has purchased in the recent past have “been nothing but trouble” Segsworth said in recommending the MACK truck.

Council also accepted the tender of $617,405 from Gordon Barr Limited for reconstruction of Wellington and Cross Streets in the village of Battersea. Although the price was the lowest of 10 bids on the job, it was $117,405 over the $500,000 that was budgeted for the job. To cover the extra, Segsworth recommended that a $350,000 Petworth Road culvert replacement project can be put off because a recent bridge inspection has determined that the culvert in better shape than the township had originally thought.

Paving rehabilitation projects in Perth Road and Harrowsmith are being done by Coco Paving Incorporated at a price of $680,991, which is within budget.

Finally, a bridge rehabilitation project on the Petworth bridge is being undertaken by Lennox and Addington County.

“Our friends in Lennox and Addington have been kind enough to consider the Petworth Bridge a boundary bridge, even though it is located entirely in South Frontenac,” said Mark Segsworth. The $92,000 cost of repairing the bridge will be funded on a 50/50 basis, and the $46,000 unbudgeted cost to South Frontenac will also be taken from the unspent $250,000 on the Petworth Road culvert.

Segwsorh said that L&A has informed South Frontenac that once this repair is done the bridge will be entirely South Frontenac’s responsibility.

“The upsetting aspect of all this is that the bridge was damaged by a logging truck, and there are people who know which company that truck was working for, but they have not come forward, forcing the entire township to cover the cost,” said Mark Segsworth.

Questions about ambulance service cuts

Councilor Del Stowe said he has been receiving communications about the cut in ambulance service in the City of Kingston and possible impacts on the availability of ambulances out of the Sydenham base as the result.

“Is that a done deal?” he asked.

John McDougall was the only South Frontenac County representative at the meeting, since Mayor Davison was absent.”

“It is a done deal,” McDougall said. “If you want any more of a comment on that you have to talk to Paul Charbonneau. He speaks for the county on that matter.”