Latest / North Shore News / February 14th, 2025

Transcript

February 14th, 2025 · North Shore News

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Welcome to North Shore News and Interviews on Amherst Island Radio.
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Each week we keep you updated on newsworthy events, happenings, and conversations that
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we've had with people in the local community and beyond.
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We've had a lot of fun with the project.
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The plan acts as a framework to guide future growth and development in the area up until
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2046.
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Work on the project dates back to December 2020 when Council approved the contract with
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WSP Canada to prepare the plan.
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Since the project officially launched in 2021, a number of background studies have been completed
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and amendments have been made.
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Project engagement opportunities were provided throughout the process and the final proposed
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plan is now available to the public.
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The plan focuses on the urban settlement area of Amherst View, bounded by Taylor Kid Boulevard
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to the north, County Road 6 to the west, and Bath Road to the south.
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According to staff, consultation also took place with the following indigenous communities.
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Alderville First Nations, Curve Island First Nations, Hiawatha First Nations, Métis Nation
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of Ontario, Mississauga of Skugog Island First Nations, and Mohawks of the Bay of Quinty.
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Mayor Jim Hagedorn noted just how long this project has been going on.
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I remember when this started and then suddenly everything was virtual.
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Everything changed, but this still continued and then we were able to come back and complete
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it in person, which is great.
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Chief Manager with WSP Nadia Desanti explains the engagement program with the community
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and notes what it entailed.
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Over the last four years, we've had online in-person and hybrid meetings with the community
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and we've had a very robust engagement program with the community at large as well as the
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indigenous communities.
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In terms of what that involved, we had the draft secondary plan presented to the community
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twice.
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The first one was at a public open house last summer and then at the statutory meeting
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in December.
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And then we also had a community workshop.
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We've had a couple of meetings with the indigenous communities that have been engaged and kept
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informed throughout the entire project.
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Hagedorn thanked all that were involved and shared his opinion of the plan.
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WSP did a lot of work on this.
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It was great.
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They worked well with staff.
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I also want to thank the public that gave input through the whole process.
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We had developers, we have property owners.
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We have just people that are very interested in this development.
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And they all stayed engaged.
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They stayed in.
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They provided information, suggestions, and it really made it so that at this point, it's
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the best possible document, I believe, and plan to go forward for the township.
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The Santee outlines the next steps.
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Following council adoption of the secondary plan, official plan amendment, zoning bylaw
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amendment and urban design guidelines, there will be a notice of decision that's issued.
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Then there's a 20 day appeal period from the date of that notice of decision.
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Following council adoption as well, the municipal class, environmental assessment and notice
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of completion will be issued.
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So the environmental study report, the ESR, will be finalized and it with the notice of
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completion will be available for a 30 day public review.
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And once that 20 day and 30 day public review process have ended, we're all done.
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For Amherst Island Radio and the Local Journalism Initiative, I'm Ted Evans.
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This is North Shore News.
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Staff at Lenox and Addington County are bringing concerns to their local MPP regarding the
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distribution of funds for electric vehicle charging stations in the area.
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In a letter to Hastings, Lenox and Addington MPP, Rick Brezee, staff also addressed their
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unsuccessful application to the province's EV Charge O-N program.
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In November 2024, staff were notified that their application to the program was not successful.
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Since then, staff have now become aware of 41 new electric vehicle charging stations
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that were approved for funding in Hastings County and Lenox and Addington County.
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Director of Infrastructure Services, Chris Wager, noted the distribution of the stations.
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Of the 41 stations that were awarded in the Hastings and Lenox and Addington riding, 39
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were located in Hastings while only two were located in the county of Lenox and Addington.
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Both stations are at commercial establishments, including a car dealership and a brewery.
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Wager explained why their application to the EV Charge O-N program was not successful.
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Staff did contact the EV Charge O-N program team to inquire about the results and how
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we can improve our application for future submissions and were basically told that there
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was a lot of applicants, good applicants, and it was basically broken down regionally
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to spread the EV charging money throughout the province.
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In the letter, staff noted the unequal distribution of funds in the riding might support the idea
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that there's unbalanced awarding of funds within the entire program.
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For Amherst Island Radio and the Local Journalism Initiative, I'm Ted Evans.
5:51
This is North Shore News.
6:03
Lenox and Addington Council approved the purchase of two gas dryers for the John M. Parrot Center.
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The center currently operates three large gas dryers to manage daily laundry operations.
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The replacement of all three dryers is scheduled for this year as part of the county's 10-year
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capital plan.
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Senator John Wise spoke about the end of burning fossil fuels.
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This is typical of millions of decisions that are going to have to be made in institutions
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and businesses and homes all around the world.
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Our goal at this point in this country and anyone who signed that Paris Agreement is
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in 25 years we're supposed to not be burning any fossil fuels.
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Council approved the purchase of a 135-pound gas dryer as part of the 2025 pre-capital
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budget.
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The dryer has been purchased and now the other two are accounted for.
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Staff's report outlined options for purchasing electric dryers, but director of long-term
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care services Angela Malcolm noted an issue.
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Two electric dryers would actually affect our generator significantly by putting it
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at 99% capacity.
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There are some options available as to whether we have two gas dryers and one electric versus
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the three natural gas dryers.
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I would be very concerned about the capacity of our generator system because we are so
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reliant on so many of our life safety systems with that generator.
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Analysis on the emissions, installation costs and operational costs of electric dryers compared
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to the center's existing gas dryers was also included, but Wise said there was really no
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choice.
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Clearly the added cost and the strain on, potential strain on the system should there
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be a power outage, make this decision fairly clear-cut in the moment.
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Wise spoke about possible steps for the future.
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It would be good to revisit our climate change policy, put in some more specific analytical
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requirements and long-term capital planning in regard to fully electrifying all our facilities.
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At some point, I guess ideally, JNPC would then have four electrical dryers and a bigger
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capacity generator to back them up.
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Let's start thinking long-term and in the context of full electrification over time
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in all our facilities.
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For Amherst Island Radio and the Local Journalism Initiative, I'm Ted Evans.
8:31
This is North Shore News.
8:42
Rubberized flooring in the Best and Bash Arena in Napa N.E. was a highly contested matter
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as counsel approved their 2025 operating and capital budgets.
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Discussion at the meeting saw counsel amend the budget to reassess how they fund the $70,000
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replacement of flooring surrounding one of the rinks within the arena.
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Originally, the budget set out to use $70,000 from the town's levy, but counselor Dave
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Pinal suggested it be taken from the town's reserve funds.
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To have wear and tear on the rubberized floor in the hallways and in the change rooms, I
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think should be coming from the user pay system, much like what the ice resurfacer is and also
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the dehumidifier that we're purchasing partially through the building maintenance reserve.
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I think that if anybody is causing wear and tear on that floor, has some sort of close
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connection with the user pay, whether it be you've rented the ice surface, you are there
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for public skating or somebody has sponsored the public skating, and therefore it should
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be different than somebody with skates on causing wear and tear than what the general
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public is.
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Counselor Bob Norrie agreed with Pinal adding his own points.
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I don't even own a pair of skates.
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I don't mind paying for the scrubber because I do attend banquets and buy supper there
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once in a while, but we're watching game.
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But I mean, us in the urban area pay for the water treatment plant through service fees
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or whatever you want to call it.
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Bag tags are a similar thing, so we've opened that door.
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So I agree, it should just come out of the user pay area because that's where the damage
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happens.
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My running shoes don't scratch it up.
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Mayor Terry Richardson argued it was regular wear and tear.
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We're putting money into a facility that everyone benefits from.
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We can allow it to get wore down.
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There's a lot of other user groups that use it.
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It sounds like we're sort of blaming the hockey players and the figure skaters and the public
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skaters for their wear and tear on a flooring that a lot of other people use as well.
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Counselor Angela Hicks described why she didn't agree with the amendment.
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I am not in favor of taking anything else out of the reserves.
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In my mind, this is a consumable item.
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The roof is, the building is still going to be there and in 20 years we're going to have
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to replace the floor again because the floor is designed.
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It's the way it's designed.
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It's going to eventually fail.
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It's a consumable item.
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It is not something that is part of the building reserve fund, which is intended to eventually
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replace the existing arena.
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And so the more we dip into that reserve for this type of item, the longer it's going to
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take to build up the reserve again in order to do the arena.
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Counselor Michael Shank noted the importance of reserve funds.
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That's why we're in the predicament we are today because everybody keeps on sucking from
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the reserves.
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When I left here, we had a lot of money in reserves and those four years had all went
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away.
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So we have to start building the reserves so we can afford our fleet.
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God forbid if we happen to have a fire truck go down, you want this municipality to have
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our books in order.
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General Manager of Financial and Information Technology Services and Treasurer Ellen Hamill
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spoke about the looming possibility of tariffs and how it affected their creation of the
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2025 budget.
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There's a lot of moving pieces of this conversation right now up to and including the tariffs
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not happening.
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However, we obviously need to be prepared that this could impact the municipal budget.
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Hamill noted which areas might be most impacted.
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When we looked at our capital items that we think will be impacted by this, there are
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a few that kind of rise to the top, primarily as it relates to fleet.
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And as we said, those will come back to council and we will have contingency plans in place
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and options for council at that point in time to be able to fund any increase that may come
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as a result of pending tariffs.
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For Amherst Island Radio and the Local Journalism Initiative, I'm Ted Evans.
12:54
This is North Shore News.
13:02
A new five-year agreement with Lenox and Addington County will see the start-up of a farmer's
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market at Greater Napañez Historic Town Hall and Market Square this year.
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The county is expected to engage with businesses in the area focusing on traffic calming measures
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for market day.
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The town of Greater Napañez was approached by Lenox and Addington's Chamber of Commerce
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regarding their interest in operating a farmer's market in the area.
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At their December 10th meeting last year, council directed staff to work with the chamber
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on a draft operating agreement.
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The agreement was presented this week but must undergo revisions before completion.
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Officials for the market's operations were agreed upon but an included lease agreement
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for the use of two offices in the building caused some concerns.
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Mayor Terry Richardson noted the amount of discussion they had on the matter and addressed
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the volunteers, saying the town will go ahead with the market once issues are dealt with.
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I'm hoping that we're not scaring the folks that are sitting in the body of the council
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chambers away because we've spent an exorbitant amount of time talking about how we can't
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do this as opposed to how we can.
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I think it's marvelous, I think it's absolutely wonderful that the folks that volunteer to
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get this thing up and running is going to be a benefit to our downtown, is going to
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be a benefit to our market square.
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We will find a way to make it work.
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The proposed lease agreement included the use of a boardroom on the third floor.
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The proposed fee was $170 a month.
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These costs and the use of the third floor boardroom were concerns for council.
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CAO Matthew Grant described their reasoning for the proposed $170 monthly fee.
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We took a look at heating utilities maintenance costs.
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We did not include staffing costs for the entire facility.
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Then we basically created what is 2.7% in the square footage of the building and added
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a bit extra because the lease agreement also identifies intermittent use of the third floor
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boardroom which would be booked through the municipality's booking system and use of
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the washroom facilities.
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CAO Grant said he felt good about the agreement.
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They had originally proposed.
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I think that the agreement that is presented to council, I'm fairly supportive of and I
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think it fits in with the direction of the market square advisor committee and the larger
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community of work that's happening.
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Councilor and member of the town's market square advisory committee, Dave Pinnell,
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described his concerns with the use of the third floor boardroom.
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It concerns me that on the market square committee we were talking about not having
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anybody on the third floor.
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Third floor would be off limits and here now we're opening it up.
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Deputy Mayor Brian Calver noted his concerns with the monthly fee.
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It seems reasonable and I'm not doubting the work that the chamber does.
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As a chamber member myself, very valuable asset to our community.
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I just want to make sure we are covering our core costs here.
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Director of Parks, Recreation and Culture, Chris Brown explained how they decided on
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the amount for the fee.
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We did it off the last three years average.
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There was an anomaly last year that we started coding a different expense to a line that
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kind of threw off the average.
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So we did a three-year average utility costs and then looked at the percentage of space
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that they would be using and then use that number to calculate a fair rental fee.
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Richardson made note of the work that must be done in the building first.
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I don't mind the floor plan that we're looking at.
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The office space and for anybody that has seen that office space, I wouldn't say that
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it's expansive by any stretch of the imagination.
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It's actually quite small.
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I think we're all of the opinion that it's going to be some time before we get the downstairs
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functioning to the way we want to get it functioning.
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I mean, we've got to get it first and get rid of all the asbestos and then we'll rebuild
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it the way I think we need to rebuild it.
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Councillor Michael Shank was the one who suggested removing access to the third floor
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boardroom within the agreement.
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After listening to everybody's comments and everybody's concerned and everything else,
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it's a five-year agreement.
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It's been how many years that you haven't had an active farmers market.
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Every other municipality has a farmers market.
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As far as I'm concerned, it's going to be a five-year plan refurbishing the town hall.
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I agree and concur with what the mayor said about the third floor that it's out and what
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the deputy mayor said and what everybody else is.
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So just change the thing that you can't use the third floor boardroom.
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Another concern raised by council was the chamber having a monopoly on the town's market-based
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events.
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Mayor Richardson put that concern to rest.
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These folks are willing to try and do a markup one or two days a week.
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They don't hold the monopoly on the market in the market square.
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That leaves at least another five days a week, maybe six days a week, depending on how well
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the Chamber of Commerce gets up and running with respect to their market.
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It enables anybody else in this community to hold a market in the market square.
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And it doesn't have to be a farmers market or it could be just about any kind of market
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anybody wants to do.
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Manager of Legislative Services and Municipal Clerk Jessica Walters read the new revised
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motion.
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The motion is that council receive for information the Farmers Market Operating Agreement Report
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further that council directs staff to revise the draft agreement to remove any use of the
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third floor boardroom and include rental of the main floor flex space the same as any
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other community group for boardroom space and that that be brought to the February 25th
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meeting.
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For Amherst Island Radio and the Local Journalism Initiative, I'm Ted Evans.
18:48
This is North Shore News.
18:58
At their meeting this week, Greater Napa Nia Council decided against sponsoring the seventh
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annual Juried Exhibition and Awards show held by the Greater Napa Nia and Area Arts Association.
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The town has previously sponsored the event dating back to 2019 with 2022 and 2023 excluded.
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Last year, Greater Napa Nia sponsored the event in the amount of $300.
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Mayor Terry Richardson noted the decision wasn't personal.
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It has nothing to do with this organization or this request.
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You know, there's lots of them out there that will approach us at the town level to
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get something because I'm assuming they're thinking that we got lots of money and we
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can throw it around.
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I think we can all agree that we probably don't.
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The money has always come from the town's public celebrations operating budget, but
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staff was unsure if there would be enough.
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Director of Parks, Recreation and Culture, Chris Brown, explained why he brought it to
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council and noted the council donation budget.
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The town of Greater Napa Nia has sponsored this event before.
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The decision was made at the staff level and this is the first time that it's come across
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my desk and so I just wanted to bring it to council to get some direction.
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We do have some additional funds in the council donations budget.
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Brown spoke about the difficulty in handling sponsorship requests and noted an extra $2,500
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to deal with them this year in the budget.
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They come up randomly, right?
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So it's difficult to budget for because we don't know what sponsorship requests might
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come in, but we have done that ahead of this year's budget to allow council to be able
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to support some of these sponsorship requests if they do come in.
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And given council some wiggle room there to be able to sponsor some of these events that
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come up.
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Staff were ultimately told that no money would be given to the event.
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Richardson explained sponsoring it through council could lead to issues.
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I'll compare it to the requests we get for ice time.
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We get number of ice time requests to donate ice time so that charity tournaments, all
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kinds of things like that happen and we've sort of put an end to that because once you
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open up the floodgates, it's near impossible to stop it.
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DAO Matthew Grant described why the request was brought to council.
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Part of the reason to bring this forward is when we recognize the way that it was operating
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in terms of staff members entertaining request was not the correct way to do that.
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And also having some clarity around how council wants to handle these kinds of requests in
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the future, which are intermittent.
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Manager of executive services and municipal clerk Jessica Walters explained the town's
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current policy.
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Jessica Walters, Mayor of the City of New York City Council
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Currently the policy does indicate that the primary vehicle for council grants is those
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two community partnership funds but also the policy states that council will hear ad hoc
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requests throughout the year if they fall outside the budget cycle if council wants
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to hear them.
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So that's an area we could maybe tighten up with more clarity.
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DAO Council put forth a new motion to deny the request and made an addition that will
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see staff revise the town's policy on ad hoc requests so they aren't brought directly to
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council.
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Council does not support or does not approve the sponsorship request as it falls outside
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the perimeters of the town's community grants policy and further staff be directed to bring
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back a revision of the policy that deals with ad hoc requests.
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A revision will be brought back to council once complete.
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The Jury Exhibition and Awards show titled Unjarted Territory will be held at the Museum
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of Lenox and Addington in March.
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The Arts Association noted that sponsorships demonstrate a commitment to the value of a
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thriving arts and culture community and help support programs, workshops and art exhibitions
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throughout the area.
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For Amherst Island Radio and the Local Journalism Initiative, I'm Ted Evans.
22:49
This is North Shore News.
22:59
Greater Napa-nee Council approved an increase of $15,000 to the Cemetery Operating Budget
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for 2025.
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Staff brought the request forward just before council was to review and approve the 2025
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budget.
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The money will mainly be used to complete necessary work identified by the Bereavement
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Authority of Ontario.
23:18
Under the Funeral Barrel and Cremations Services Act, local municipalities are responsible
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for abandoned cemeteries within their boundaries.
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According to staff, there are no cemetery reserves established at this time.
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Director of Parks, Recreation and Culture, Chris Brown noted the associated legal implications
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of the work.
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Town staff have been contacted by the BAO, the Bereavement Authority of Ontario, regarding
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abandoned cemeteries within our boundaries and we're working with the BAO and our legal
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council to ensure that our legal obligations are properly understood prior to undertaking
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the directed work.
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As an early settlement area in Ontario, there are many abandoned and unregistered cemeteries
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within our municipal boundaries and this is anticipated to be an ongoing area of legal
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obligation and associated costs.
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Brown said details of the work will be brought back to council, noting that staff weren't
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prepared before budget time.
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There are going to be expenses incurred here in 2025 and we don't have money budgeted for
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it.
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We do want to bring back further reports for council detailing the work that does need
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to be done but under the Act, this work, we are obligated to complete this work and
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we didn't know of some of these expenses at the time of budget deliberations.
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CAO Matthew Grant spoke about the possibility of sharing some costs with related third parties.
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These may include adjacent properties.
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I'm confident every effort has been made for burden sharing with third parties.
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Brown ensured council would be kept in the loop.
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We know that there is some legal fees, some assessments that needs to be done and there's
25:00
going to be a cost to the municipality unfortunately and we are mandated to do the work.
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So really we don't have much of a choice in that but we are going to bring back more
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detailed reports for council to keep everyone up to speed.
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For Amherst Island Radio and the Local Journalism Initiative, I'm Tat Evans.
25:19
This is North Shore News.
25:22
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25:25
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