On May 7 Council in Committee dealt with a 289-page Agenda. Councillor Ernie Peplinski declared a Pecuniary Interest relating to the request from the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 406 for partial exemption of municipal taxes. The meeting lasted most of the day.
Three delegations
The meeting began with three delegations.
- The municipal Integrity Commissioner, Guy Giorno, presented two reports on complaints filed last year and did not find that any member of Council violated the Code of Conduct. The Current will publish a separate article about the reports.
- Then Bearcom (formerly Turris Communications) (shown above) presented its proposals to update the Fire Department communication system. Present from Bearcom were Pat Maguire (Account Executive), Chris McCauley (Sales Director), Bryan Gagnon (Regional Sales Manager), Dan Lafrance (Systems Consultant) and Chris Nantes (Senior Channel Account Executive, Ontario & Atlantic Canada – Motorola Solutions). They presented two options using Motorola equipment. They explained some technical features and said that the higher level solution could be added to the basic system later.
- The third delegation, an amendment to the Agenda, came from Fatima Adams-Zahn (shown below) who told Council that her car had been written on and her clients’ treatments had been disturbed by complaints from pedestrians about parking issues on Opeongo Line in front of her business Eve’s Escape Spa. Hilary Kutchkoskie, Operations Manager, said MV would paint lines for angled parking to help resolve the problem.
Council receives update on property tax arrears
Deputy-Treasurer Janice Zelney reported on the status of the Township’s attempts to reduce property tax arrears. Last February, letters were mailed out to delinquent taxpayers with taxes owing for three years and beyond. She noted that this was the first time that any efforts had been taken to collect outstanding taxes since the departure of the former Treasurer/Deputy Clerk. She advised that at December 31, 2018 the total tax arrears amounted to $1,301,551.36. Council was told that since the initial letters were sent out, payment in full for many tax accounts have been received and arrangements have been made with many other ratepayers to make regular payments in an effort to get their accounts up to date. As at April 29, 2019 the arrears amounted to $743,052.58. Zelney said that collection efforts are ongoing and, with regular communication with delinquent taxpayers, she believes that the arrears will be reduced to a more acceptable level.
Zelney also reported on Water/Wastewater arrears and, similarly, no collection activities had taken place since prior to the former Treasurer’s departure. In April, demands were made on customers with balances over $500. If these are not brought up to date as requested, the outstanding amounts will be transferred to the defaulters’ property tax accounts which will add to the tax arrears totals.
5 Year Roads Plan to be updated
Council agreed to accept the low bid in the amount of $10,000 from D. M. Wills & Associates Limited to update the 5 Year Capital Roads Plan, so the item will go forward to budget.
Council approves Little Bark Bay condo plan
Along with other planning matters, Council passed a By-Law approving the Little Bark Bay condominium plan for the development on Bark Lake. CAO/Clerk Sue Klatt took Council through some small amendments to the Condominium Agreement that clarified items that had been missed or should have been clarified in the Subdivision Agreement. She said the changes came about after County of Renfrew spoke with the municipal lawyer and they compared the two documents. She had asked questions pertaining to the clearance letter needed from the municipality. Neil Enright on behalf of Little Bark Bay Properties Inc. told Council that it became a rather complex document compared to the usual agreement of purchase and sale because the Subdivision Agreement had imposed certain conditions of disclosure. He said the Condominium Agreement became a disclosure document “as one more fail-safe that somebody knows what they are buying.” He said, “If you look up there you’ll find studies 2016, 2017 and this is 2019. It is a long and winding road.” Mayor Love agreed: “Absolutely and we’re very thrilled to finally have this development headed out there to be sold and built upon and to welcome new residents. Congratulations and thank you.”
Rural garbage collection proposal
Council discussed correspondence from Wendy Wolak, Vice-President of Carson, Trout, Lepine and Greenan Lakes Association. Wolak requested mobile waste pick-up for rural locations in the Township in an effort to reduce littering and dumping along roads. Kutchkoskie and Councillor Carl Bromwich were concerned about the cost of what Kutchkoskie called a hybrid system. Mayor Love suggested this topic be referred to the Public Liaison Committee for research and recommendation.