Latest / North Shore News / February 10th, 2025

Transcript

February 10th, 2025 · North Shore News

• 0:00
  Welcome to North Shore News and Interviews on Amherst Island Radio.
• 0:12
  Each week we keep you updated on newsworthy events, happenings, and conversations that
• 0:18
  we've had with people in the local community and beyond.
• 0:25
  Rubberized flooring in the Best and Bash Arena in Napañí was a highly contested matter
• 0:30
  as council approved their 2025 operating and capital budgets.
• 0:34
  Discussion at the meeting saw council amend the budget to reassess how they fund the $70,000
• 0:39
  replacement of flooring surrounding one of the rinks within the arena.
• 0:43
  Originally the budget set out to use $70,000 from the town's levee, but Councillor Dave
• 0:48
  Panel suggested it be taken from the town's reserve funds.
• 1:14
  I think that if anybody is causing wear and tear on that floor has some sort of close
• 1:21
  connection with the user pay, whether it be you've rented the ice surface, you are there
• 1:27
  for public skating or somebody has sponsored the public skating, and therefore it should
• 1:35
  be different than somebody with skates on causing wear and tear than what the general
• 1:41
  public is.
• 1:42
  Councillor Bob Norrie agreed with Panel adding his own points.
• 1:45
  I don't even own a pair of skates.
• 1:47
  I don't mind paying for the scrubber because I do attend banquets and buy supper there
• 1:51
  once in a while, but we're watching game.
• 1:54
  But I mean us in the urban area pay for the water treatment plant through service fees
• 1:59
  or whatever you want to call it.
• 2:01
  Bag tags are a similar thing, so we've opened that door.
• 2:03
  So I agree, it should just come out of the user pay area because that's where the damage
• 2:09
  happens.
• 2:10
  By running shoes don't scratch it up.
• 2:12
  Mayor Terry Richardson argued it was regular wear and tear.
• 2:15
  We're putting money into a facility that everyone benefits from.
• 2:21
  We can allow to get wore down.
• 2:23
  There's a lot of other user groups that use it.
• 2:25
  It sounds like we're sort of blaming the hockey players and the figure skaters and the public
• 2:28
  skaters for their wear and tear on a flooring that a lot of other people use as well.
• 2:34
  Councillor Angela Hicks described why she didn't agree with the amendment.
• 2:37
  I am not in favour of taking anything else out of the reserves.
• 2:40
  In my mind, this is a consumable item.
• 2:43
  The roof is the building is still going to be there and in 20 years we're going to have
• 2:48
  to replace the floor again because the floor is designed.
• 2:53
  It's the way it's designed.
• 2:54
  It's going to eventually fail.
• 2:56
  It's a consumable item.
• 2:58
  It is not something that is part of the building reserve fund which is intended to eventually
• 3:05
  replace the existing arena.
• 3:07
  And so the more we dip into that reserve for this type of item, the longer it's going
• 3:13
  to take to build up the reserve again in order to do the arena.
• 3:18
  Councillor Michael Schenck noted the importance of reserve funds.
• 3:22
  That's why we're in the predicament we are today because everybody keeps on sucking from
• 3:26
  the reserves.
• 3:27
  When I left here, we had a lot of money in reserves and those four years had all went
• 3:32
  away.
• 3:33
  We have to start building the reserves so we can afford our fleet.
• 3:38
  God forbid if we happen to have a fire truck go down, you want this municipality to go
• 3:42
  we better have our books in order.
• 3:44
  General Manager of Financial and Information Technology Services and Treasurer Ellen Hamill
• 3:49
  spoke about the looming possibility of tariffs and how it affected their creation of the
• 3:53
  2025 budget.
• 3:55
  There's a lot of moving pieces of this conversation right now up to and including the tariffs
• 3:59
  not happening.
• 4:01
  However, we also need to be prepared that this could impact the municipal budget.
• 4:05
  Hamill noted which areas might be most impacted.
• 4:08
  When we looked at our capital items that we think will be impacted by this, there are
• 4:12
  a few that kind of rise to the top primarily as it relates to fleet.
• 4:19
  And as we said, those will come back to council and we will have contingency plans in place
• 4:23
  and options for council at that point in time to be able to fund any increase that may come
• 4:30
  as a result of pending tariffs.
• 4:32
  For Amherst Island Radio and the Local Journalism Initiative, I'm Ted Evans.
• 4:37
  This is North Shore News.
• 4:46
  A new five-year agreement with Lenox and Addington County will see the start-up of a farmers
• 4:50
  market at Greater Napañez Historic Town Hall and Market Square this year.
• 4:54
  The county is expected to engage with businesses in the area focusing on traffic calming measures
• 4:59
  for market day.
• 5:00
  The town of Greater Napañez was approached by Lenox and Addington's Chamber of Commerce
• 5:04
  regarding their interest in operating a farmers market in the area.
• 5:07
  At their December 10th meeting last year, council directed staff to work with the chamber
• 5:11
  on a draft operating agreement.
• 5:14
  The agreement was presented this week but must undergo revisions before completion.
• 5:18
  Terms for the market's operations were agreed upon but and included lease agreement for
• 5:22
  the use of two offices in the building caused some concerns.
• 5:26
  Mayor Terry Richardson noted the amount of discussion they had on the matter and addressed
• 5:30
  the volunteers, saying the town will go ahead with the market once issues are dealt with.
• 5:34
  I'm hoping that we're not scaring the folks that are sitting in the body of the council
• 5:38
  chambers away because we've spent an exorbitant amount of time talking about how we can't
• 5:43
  do this as opposed to how we can.
• 5:46
  I think it's marvelous.
• 5:47
  I think it's absolutely wonderful that the folks have volunteered to get this thing up
• 5:51
  and running.
• 5:52
  It's going to be a benefit to our downtown.
• 5:53
  It's going to be a benefit to our market square.
• 5:56
  We will find a way to make it work.
• 5:58
  The proposed lease agreement included the use of a board room on the third floor.
• 6:01
  The proposed fee was $170 a month.
• 6:05
  These costs and the use of the third floor board room were concerns for council.
• 6:09
  CAO Matthew Grant described their reasoning for the proposed $170 monthly fee.
• 6:15
  We took a look at heating utilities, maintenance costs.
• 6:19
  We did not include staffing costs for the entire facility.
• 6:24
  Then we basically created what is 2.7% in the square footage of the building and added
• 6:32
  a bit extra because the lease agreement also identifies intermittent use of the third floor
• 6:41
  board room, which would be booked through the municipality's booking system and use
• 6:48
  of the washroom facilities.
• 6:50
  Grant said he felt good about the agreement they had originally proposed.
• 6:53
  I think that the agreement that is presented to council, I'm fairly supportive of and I
• 7:01
  think it fits in with the direction of the market square advisory committee and the larger
• 7:10
  body of work that's happening.
• 7:12
  Councilor and member of the town's market square advisory committee, Dave Pinnell,
• 7:16
  described his concerns with the use of the third floor board room.
• 7:19
  It concerns me that on the market square committee, we were talking about not having
• 7:24
  anybody on the third floor.
• 7:26
  Third floor would be off limits and here now we're opening it up.
• 7:30
  Deputy Mayor Brian Calver noted his concerns with the monthly fee.
• 7:34
  It seems reasonable and I'm not doubting the work that the chamber does.
• 7:38
  As a chamber member myself, very valuable asset to our community.
• 7:43
  I just want to make sure we are covering our core costs here.
• 7:47
  Member of Parks, Recreation and Culture, Chris Brown, explained how they decided on the amount
• 7:52
  for the fee.
• 7:53
  We did it off the last three years average.
• 7:55
  There was an anomaly last year that we started coding a different expense to a line that
• 8:01
  kind of threw off the average.
• 8:02
  So we did a three year average utility costs and then looked at the percentage of space
• 8:07
  that they would be using and then use that number to calculate a fair rental fee.
• 8:14
  Kevin made note of the work that must be done in the building first.
• 8:18
  I don't mind the floor plan that we're looking at.
• 8:21
  The office space and for anybody that has seen that office space, I wouldn't say that
• 8:25
  it's expansive by any stretch of the imagination.
• 8:29
  It's actually quite small.
• 8:32
  I think we're all of the opinion that it's going to be some time before we get the downstairs
• 8:36
  functioning to the way we want to get it functioning.
• 8:39
  I mean, we've got to get it first and get rid of all the asbestos and then we'll rebuild
• 8:44
  it the way I think we need to rebuild it.
• 8:46
  Councillor Michael Shank was the one who suggested removing access to the third floor
• 8:50
  boardroom within the agreement.
• 8:52
  After listening to everybody's comments and everybody's concerned or anything else, it's
• 8:55
  five year agreement.
• 8:57
  It's been how many years that you haven't had an active farmers market.
• 9:01
  Every other municipality has a farmers market.
• 9:03
  As far as I'm concerned, it's going to be a five year plan refurbishing the town hall.
• 9:09
  I agree and concur with what the mayor said about the third floor that it's out and what
• 9:13
  the deputy mayor said and what everybody else is.
• 9:15
  So just change the thing that you can't use the third floor boardroom.
• 9:20
  Another concern raised by council was the chamber having a monopoly on the town's market
• 9:24
  based events.
• 9:26
  Mayor Richardson put that concern to rest.
• 9:28
  These folks are willing to try and do a market one or two days a week.
• 9:32
  They don't hold the monopoly on the market in the market square.
• 9:35
  That leaves at least another five days a week, maybe six days a week depending on how well
• 9:40
  the chamber of commerce gets up and running with respect to their market.
• 9:43
  It enables anybody else in this community to hold a market in the market square.
• 9:50
  And it doesn't have to be a farmers market or it could be just about any kind of market
• 9:53
  anybody wants to do.
• 9:55
  Manager of legislative services and municipal clerk Jessica Walters read the new revised
• 10:00
  motion.
• 10:01
  The motion is that council receive for information the farmers market operating agreement report
• 10:08
  further that council direct staff to revise the draft agreement to remove any use of the
• 10:14
  third floor boardroom and include rental of the main floor flex space the same as any
• 10:20
  other community group for border and space and that that be brought to the February
• 10:25
  25th meeting for Amherst Island radio and the local journalism initiative.
• 10:30
  I'm Ted Evans.
• 10:32
  This is North Shore news at their meeting this week.
• 10:43
  Greater Napa Nea Council decided against sponsoring the seventh annual juried exhibition and awards
• 10:47
  show held by the Greater Napa Nea and area arts association.
• 10:51
  The town has previously sponsored the event dating back to 2019 with 2022 and 2023 excluded
• 10:58
  last year Greater Napa Nea sponsored the event in the amount of $300.
• 11:02
  Mayor Terry Richardson noted the decision wasn't personal.
• 11:05
  It has nothing to do with this organization or this request.
• 11:10
  You know there's lots of them out there that will approach us at the town level to get
• 11:15
  something because I'm assuming they're thinking that we got lots of money and we can throw
• 11:19
  it around.
• 11:20
  I think we can all agree that we probably don't.
• 11:23
  The money has always come from the town's public celebrations operating budget but staff
• 11:27
  was unsure if there would be enough.
• 11:29
  Director of Parks, Recreation and Culture Chris Brown explained why he brought it to
• 11:33
  council and noted the council donation budget.
• 11:36
  The town of Greater Napa Nea has sponsored this event before.
• 11:39
  The decision was made at the staff level and this is the first time that it's come across
• 11:44
  my desk and so I just wanted to bring it to council to get some direction.
• 11:48
  We do have some additional funds in the council donations budget.
• 11:54
  Brown spoke about the difficulty in handling sponsorship requests and noted an extra $2,500
• 11:59
  to deal with them this year in the budget.
• 12:02
  They come up randomly right so it's difficult to budget for because we don't know what sponsorship
• 12:07
  requests might come in but we have done that ahead of this year's budget to allow council
• 12:12
  to be able to support some of these sponsorship requests if they do come in and give council
• 12:18
  some wiggle room there to be able to sponsor some of these events that come up.
• 12:23
  Staff were ultimately told that no money would be given to the event.
• 12:26
  Richardson explained sponsoring it through council could lead to issues.
• 12:30
  I'll compare it to the requests we get for ice time.
• 12:34
  We get number of ice time requests to donate ice time so that charity tournaments, all
• 12:40
  kinds of things like that happen and we've sort of put an end to that because once you
• 12:44
  open up the floodgates it's near impossible to stop it.
• 12:47
  CAO Matthew Grant described why the request was brought to council.
• 12:51
  Manager of the reason to bring this forward is one we recognize the way that it was operating
• 12:56
  in terms of staff members entertaining requests was not the correct way to do that.
• 13:04
  And also having some clarity around how council wants to handle these kinds of requests in
• 13:09
  the future which are intermittent.
• 13:13
  Manager of executive services and municipal clerk Jessica Walters explained the town's
• 13:18
  current policy.
• 13:19
  Certainly the policy does indicate that the primary vehicle for council grants is those
• 13:24
  two community partnership funds but also the policy states that council will hear ad hoc
• 13:30
  requests throughout the year if they fall outside the budget cycle if council wants
• 13:35
  to hear them so that's an area we could maybe tighten up with more clarity.
• 13:40
  Council put forth a new motion to deny the request and made an addition that will see
• 13:44
  staff revise the town's policy on ad hoc requests so they aren't brought directly to
• 13:49
  council.
• 13:50
  Council does not support or does not approve the sponsorship request as it falls outside
• 13:55
  the perimeters of the town's community grants policy and further staff be directed to bring
• 14:00
  back a revision of the policy that deals with ad hoc requests.
• 14:06
  A revision will be brought back to council once complete.
• 14:09
  The juried exhibition and awards show titled Uncharted Territory will be held at the Museum
• 14:14
  of Lenox and Addington in March.
• 14:16
  The arts association noted that sponsorships demonstrate a commitment to the value of a
• 14:20
  thriving arts and culture community and help support programs, workshops and art exhibitions
• 14:25
  throughout the area.
• 14:27
  For Amherst Island Radio and the Local Journalism Initiative, I'm Ted Evans.
• 14:33
  This is North Shore News.
• 14:43
  Under Napa-nee Council approved an increase of $15,000 to the Cemetery Operating Budget
• 14:48
  for 2025.
• 14:50
  Staff brought the request forward just before council was to review and approve the 2025
• 14:55
  budget.
• 14:56
  The money will mainly be used to complete necessary work identified by the Bereavement
• 14:59
  Authority of Ontario.
• 15:01
  Under the Funeral Barrel and Cremations Services Act, local municipalities are responsible
• 15:06
  for abandoned cemeteries within their boundaries.
• 15:09
  According to staff, there are no cemetery reserves established at this time.
• 15:14
  Director of Parks, Recreation and Culture, Chris Brown noted the associated legal implications
• 15:19
  of the work.
• 15:20
  Town staff have been contacted by the BAO, the Bereavement Authority of Ontario, regarding
• 15:25
  abandoned cemeteries within our boundaries.
• 15:27
  And we're working with the BAO and our legal council to ensure that our legal obligations
• 15:32
  are properly understood prior to undertaking the directed work.
• 15:37
  As an early settlement area in Ontario, there are many abandoned and unregistered cemeteries
• 15:42
  within our municipal boundaries.
• 15:44
  And this is anticipated to be an ongoing area of legal obligation and associated costs.
• 15:51
  Brown said details of the work will be brought back to council, noting that staff weren't
• 15:55
  prepared before budget time.
• 15:57
  There are going to be expenses incurred here in 2025 and we don't have money budgeted for
• 16:04
  it.
• 16:05
  We're bringing back further reports for council detailing the work that does need to be done.
• 16:10
  But you know, under the act, this work, we are obligated to complete this work and we
• 16:17
  didn't know of some of these expenses at the time of budget deliberations.
• 16:21
  CAO Matthew Grant spoke about the possibility of sharing some costs with related third parties.
• 16:27
  These may include adjacent properties.
• 16:29
  I'm confident every effort has been made for burden sharing with third parties.
• 16:35
  One insured council would be kept in the loop.
• 16:37
  We know that there is some legal fees, some assessments that needs to be done and there's
• 16:43
  going to be a cost of the municipality, unfortunately, and we are mandated to do the work.
• 16:49
  So really we don't have much of a choice in that, but we are going to bring back more
• 16:54
  detailed reports for council to keep everyone up to speed.
• 16:57
  For Amherst Island Radio and the Local Journalism Initiative, I'm Ted Evans.
• 17:03
  This has been North Shore News and Interviews.
• 17:09
  If you have an idea for a story or want to create stories for the show, consider joining
• 17:14
  our 100% volunteer team.
• 17:18
  Contact Amherst Island Radio for more details.