Body: Committee of the Whole Type: Minutes Meeting: Committee of the Whole Date: May 25, 2010 Collection: Council Minutes Municipality: South Frontenac
[View Document (PDF)](/docs/south-frontenac/Minutes/Committee of Whole/2010/Committee of the Whole - 25 May 2010 - Minutes.pdf)
Document Text
Minutes of Committee of the Whole
May 25th'2010
Meeting No. 18 Date: May 25th,th 2010 Time: 7:00 p.m. Location: Sydenham Present:
Mayor,
Councillors,
Gary Davison Larry York David Hahn Jim Hicks
AUan McPhail Del Stowe Bill Robinson Ron Vandewal John Fillion
Staff: wayne orr’ c]lerk-Admmist]rator>Mark Segsworth, Public Works Manager Lindsay Mills, Planning Coordinator
Call to Order
The Mayor called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Declaration of Pecuniary Interest. There were declarations of pecuniary interest. 3.
Delegations
(i)
Groundwater - Very Highly Sensitive Areas
Lindsay Mills presented to Council on very highly sensitive areas for groundwater. Within the Township of South Fronteaac there are four very highly sensitive areas, two within Portland District and hvo in Loughborough. With the assistance of maps from the Conversation Authority, these areas were highlighted to Council. This was a study conducted by the Cataraqui Conservation Authority, funded by the
Ministry of Environment and conducted by Trow Consulting. This was a regional study on wells taken over the course of two years involving 22,000 well records. It looked at supply, quality, and quantity and used a variety of data sources to determine the very highly sensitive areas. The intent of this study is to look at the vulnerability of groundwater to cross contamination. The recommendation of the
study was that all lands within these areas should be subject to significant testing prior to development. The township’s fall back point has traditionally been that as long as each lot has water, then in fact we move forward with approving lots. Council asked what the percentages of wells that were contaminated in the original study. Lindsay Mills will determine that and follow up with Council. The existing draw down test of 3.5 gallons per minute for 6 hours was confirmed as a requirement of the Zoning By-law.
Sidney was found to be responsible for lots that had problems with their water as a result of failure to do adequate planning was raised. In that case, the municipality had to provide a water source to a subdivision.
It is not only about sufficient quality and quantity, but the impact on resulting wells both in terms of supply and contamination.
It was pointed out that houses take livestock off the land and this in fact improves the quality of the water.
It was also pointed out that this issue is a matter of managing municipal liability and it was questioned whether this would change our practices at all.
Minutes of Committee of the Whole
May 25th'2010
Business Items
The business items were rearranged to accommodate scheduling. (")
Wayne Orr, Clerk-Administrator, re: Sustainability Committee
^a^e-?^Lr^viewe?,the i?tent of Larl? York’s request for inclusion on the Sustainability Committee and suggested to Council that this item be deferred.
^^L^?* l^l-t^i ^!?Tr!^^^ri-T- ^view_of a11 committees il]tld suggested to Council that he would bring forward his ideas on committee structure and asked all councillors to also bring forward their ideas for a joint discussion on this issue.
Mayor Davison spoke to the issue that Sustainability Committee had been struck by Council and that the additional member was a result of the need for consultation with the changes for Bedford services.
Del Stowe offered to step off the committee because he feels that at this point his concerns have been addressed.
There was discussion with regard to whether the current Council should make recommendations to the future Council or whether this item should be left for the future Council to address.
It was reiterated that in the interim alternates can attend and vote at a meetine should the current member not be present.
John ^Fillion commented that it is most likely he will be stepping off the Sustainability Committee.
The CAO was asked to find the committee structures from other similar
municipalities as examples for consideration by Council and that this item is to be brought back in September to Council. (iii)
Wayne Orr, Clerk-Administrator, re: Medical Centre
Wayne Orr presented the report on medical clinics and reviewed the alternatives for the property management model that was outlined in the report. Concerns were raised on what would happen if the community board was dissolved. There were questions as to who was on the community board and whether that included Council
Members. There was a question as to whether the community board would be a
committee of Council and how this community board would manage escalating costs. There was concern as to how capital costs such as a furnace would be
recovered and what to do if the perceived power of the tenant resulted in the non payment of rent.
John MacDougall from the Verona District Health Services Committee was asked
for his comments. He indicated that the current committee was prepared to restructure and establish itself as a not for profit corporation and that they were prepared to handle the lease with the township and address the issue of leasing to
the future physicians. The benefit of this model is it assists with attracting
physicians because there would be no capital costs recovery for the initial investment in the building. The direction from Council was to further the discussions on the establishment of a
community board model with no market rent being charged and to bring back to Council further details for their consideration. (iv)
Anne Levac, Planning Assistant, re: Extension ofRickards Road
Lindsay Mills presented this report which highlights the desire of a property owner to create a lot and in doing so he needs to extend Rickards Road to that lot include a
2
Minutes of Committee of the Whole
3
May 25th'2010
!urum.g.bulb ,on thf e?d* It was stated that this would need to be upgraded to township road standards and that Council was prepared to agree in ^n^^ assumption of that extension if it was built to township standards. (V)
Anne Levac, Planning Assistant, re: Road Closing off Hidden Valley
Lindsay Mills _ presented this report on a request to purchase a portion of the
unopened road allowance. A property owner reports the current use of the road
allowance as storage by^ other property owners. It was pointed out that our practice
has been to offer half both of the adjoining property owners. However there greater concern that this closure would limit access to property and there was no
was
support for the sale. There was discussion on whether the township could offer signage and enforcement with regard to the use of that space. This is to be followed up with By-law Enforcement. (vi)
Sanding and Snow Plowing - Councillor Hicks
CounciUor Hicks presented this item. He is concerned and brought to the attention of Council that some contractors are sanding and ploughing at an inconsistent Fevei.
Where some areas are ploughed and sanded 7 -14 times over the course of a two month period, other contractors are doing the same work 26 times in their area in .
^::,“ru.:^r^"^,:"^ss-^= being charged by some contractors. He compared these results and offered school board records of snow ploughing and sanding as a benchmark for consideration. He
also raised that_where contractors work for the township, do they get their sand
from the township and if so are they paying for it. He indicated that the OFF station, the Murvale Boat Ramp, the Jamieson Boat Ramp, Veroua Boat Ramp and the Hartingfon and Verona Fire HaUs were all serviced 26 times over the course of
<^la^ fl^dfif^r^^^h^^»^h:lIL^!^^^J^ ^^!°?^i^!.r! JI.au 1va-s.only ^OI?.e .7 times in the same period. This is inconsistent and he is looking for a response to this issue.
(i) Mark Segsworth, Public Works Manager, re: Speed Study
Mark Segsworth and David Holliday presented information on the speed study.
This was in response to Council discussion in September 2009 that Council was looking to see previous processes had been approved by Council for this as well as looking for criteria for the evaluation speed requests. During the period of this review, the Canadian Standards became available and it is
the recommendation of the Public Works Manager that we would move forward using that standard for the evaluation of speed requests. Currently there is no accepted uniform process for this, rather it is currently dealt with at the discretion of Council.
Questions were raised if it would be simpler to simply respond to police requests for reduced speed limits. The studies with details from the Canadian Guidelines provide a more objective assessment. There were questions with regard to the cost of this approach and while the tool itself is not a cost, the implementation and evaluation of
the requests wiU involve time and resources. There is a greater risk to the township for the exposure if we have unmarked areas.
It was questioned if this would be used in a proactive or reactive manner and it was highlighted that currently the township does not have the resources to move
forward on a proactive manner and evaluate all roads. All recommendations would
still have to come to Council in the form of a by-law for any changes in speed limits. It was brought to the attention of Council that the methodology would provide the
criteria for increasing or decreasing speeds based on the characteristics and usage of
the road.
Minutes of Committee of the Whole th, May 25”’-2010
4
MarkSegsworth pointed out to Council that as a matter of due diligence, we need to
be able to demonstrate that we have evaluated the roadways for an appropriat speed and a tool such as this would demonstrate our commitment to that process
?aV.id, Holliday walked Council through the evaluation as it would apply to Rutledge Road and addressed questions on how the tool would work.
In a straw vote, council was supportive of accepting the Canadian Guidelines and
this item will come back to Council however in addition to this aspect it was requested to include how school zones would be dealt with.
In-Camera
Other Business - nil
Adjournment
The Committee of the Whole meeting adjourned at 9:40 p.m.
e
