by Doug Hutton

Carolyn Amyott,   Barry Rand,         Jim Whelan,     Warren Smith,         Arnie Brown
Picture taken by W.A.J.

Although the election made few changes to many of the councils in Ontario Townships, North Kawartha replaced 4 of the 5 members of its council. The new council has been busy over the last three meetings dealing with many major items. Its approach has been fairly open, with requests for comments from the gallery. The following is a brief summary.

The Meeting of Dec 3, 2003

The first meeting in December was an all-day affair where the council dealt with a mixture of items from Committees to Toilets. Some of the duration was due to the new council members getting accustomed to their new positions. Their questions were handled well by the staff, but it was a long day for everyone involved. Some of the items the new council faced were:

The COW is Dead (so is the Planning Advisory Board):
    The Committee Of the Whole has been disbanded. This was a catchall committee to deal with the items handled by the former townships’ committees prior to amalgamation. The council stated that there was nothing that this committee handled that couldn’t be brought to regular council meetings. 

Council also eliminated the Planning Advisory Board. This board had two members of council on it. When the planning issue went to the entire council, only the two members were completely aware of all of the details. It is the intention of the new council that all members will be involved in each planning issue to streamline the process.

Public Washrooms in Apsley:
    A committee did an impressive presentation with short-term and long-term solutions to providing public washrooms in Apsley. This might not seem important to some, but the lack of these facilities puts considerable pressure on local businesses and limits the time (and therefore, money) that tourists spend in Apsley. The short-term solution is to use the community centre: the long-term solution is to consider the community policing building for a possible location as a tourist bureau with a public washroom.

Waste Disposal:
    The council put a hold on the proposed Balmer Rd Transfer site because they are not comfortable that it is a suitable site. There is a recorded vote on this because one of the members is concerned that the government could force the other sites to close before another site is approved. This fear is real. The government has a history of closing sites in many townships and the approval process can take 6 months. The council established a Waste Committee to find alternative sites.

Medical Centre:
    Fundraising for the medical centre project was put on hold pending the report from the architect on the cost of new centre versus renovating the existing centre.

Sale of land:
    Approval to sell a township property on 504 near Glen Alda was passed. Given that the Trash Committee has not yet had a chance to review the existing properties for possible transfer sites, this was a surprise. It is the opinion of the writer that it could be prudent to postpone selling any properties until the Waste committee has declared them to be surplus.

Crowe Valley Conservation Authority:
    The Township pays $18,000 to the above group and the council has asked what North Kawartha gets for this expenditure. (Later it was discovered that North Kawartha is required by the province to contribute to this group.)

Time Change for Council Meetings:
    ALL regular council meetings will now be held in the daytime. There is always the opportunity for council to hold a special evening meeting if required, but this will not be a common practice.

The Meeting of Dec 16, 2003

Fire Stations (a hot issue):
    A rumor that the council was going to eliminate the Balmer Road fire station triggered a crowded gallery of concerned citizens  many of whom were involved in the original fundraising for the station. The actual presentation by the Fire Chief was to be a review of the Fire Stations and the response. Council assured the gallery that there would be public meetings before making decisions on the station.     The lease on the former fire station on Clydesdale Rd is up at the beginning of March. Because a new fire station has not been built, negotiations to extend the lease have to take place or the equipment will have to be parked at the fire captain’s home.

Kennel at Tallan Lake:
    Folks from Tallan Lake gave a presentation regarding an existing kennel operation. This was approved many years ago as a non-conforming use. There are concerns about noise, and possible e-coli pollution of the lake. Normally notifications of changes to properties are sent to residents within 400 feet of the affected property. It is the opinion of the writer that perhaps for small lakes, everyone on the lake should be notified regardless of the distance.

Septic System Changes:
    Recent changes to the building code have potential consequences to the environment. Essentially these changes consider the septic system to be a residence. (It’s not clear who or what is living in it!). The result is that a homeowner could simply add on to an old existing system to match the requirements of an addition to the house rather than install a new upgraded system. Council wisely agreed to support the county’s efforts to change the code to require a new upgraded system.

The Meeting of Jan 6, 2004

Burleigh Bay Corporation:
Ron Dick, Peter Josephs and John Mills gave a presentation to inform the members of the council about this substantial proposed project on Stoney Lake. They explained that this project has been on the agenda for about 3 years. It involves an area of 273 hectares of land, 56 lakefront lots with individual family dwellings, 4 “shared areas” and a large back lot for condo maintenance equipment and other services for the condominium. (The location of this property is near Fraser Island on Stoney Lake but does not include the island.) The minimum frontage of each lot is 160 ft and there is a proposed 30m setback along the lake to preserve the environment. (No boathouses or docks.) There have been a lot of studies done and the concept is different from what we’ve seen before. There will definitely be a public meeting probably this spring to get input from folks in the area.

Insurance:
    Paul Domain of Jardine Insurance made a presentation regarding the Township’s liability insurance. Even though the township’s claim record is excellent, the premium is increasing by over 20%. This is a worldwide phenomenon and those with poor claim histories are experiencing increases of over 50%. The council wisely increased the deductible and increased the liability coverage resulting in lessening the impact of the increased premium. In a related move, the council also locked in the premium rate by extending the insurance by another 6 months.

Disclaimer: The above article represents the views of the North Kawartha Community Interest Group only. Readers are encouraged to contact their members of council or the township office on council matters. The North Kawartha Community Interest Group can be reached at nk_cig@hotmail.com.