Monday October 23rd Regular town council meeting

Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful. Hate me because I’m about to bore you to tears.

**Mayor DiCarlo was absent tonight.**

Due to the Mayor’s absence, Deputy Mayor DiPasquale chaired the meeting.

DELEGATIONS
Request for Dedicated Parking Spaces – Stefano Storey and Chad Denomme, Storey  and Denomme Family Dentistry

Originally it appears that Dr Storey and Dr Denomme were going to ask council for two parking spots for their business. They purchased the old “Pizza V” building and will be moving their dental practice into the building. Their business is located next to a public parking lot and they would have liked two spots in that public parking lot reserved for their business. They were also asking to have the lines repainted for parking on the street since the current ones are faded.

Well, it seems the lines have been repainted, so that’s all good now. Dr Storey and Dr Denomme spoke and said they realised that their request for two parking spots in the public parking lot may open a can of worms. Their concern was that the spots are often filled for 8 or 9 hours per day all week long. They requested if there could be a possibility for a 2 hours time limit on some of the spots in order to encourage the employees of the downtown businesses to park on the outskirts of the downtown area.

Councillor Pouget asked if there was already 2 hour parking in that area. The CAO said that was no signage in the area for 2 hour parking. Administration said that that there are numerous 2 hour parking spots, but they are on Murray Street. Councillor Pouget wondered if it would be possible to have a few 2 hours spots within that parking lot. Mr Galvin, the Director of planning, development and legislative services spoke and said that any municipality always strives to seek balance of both short term and long term parking in it’s downtown core. He offered to look at the mix that may be required without doing a costly study. He felt that administration could figure it out and find a balance to designate a few spots.

Councillor Lavigne felt that the parking issue has been an ongoing dispute for many years. He said there had been a study done and a debate about parking was had with the Chamber of Commerce. He pointed out the often empty public lot that sits at the back of Heritage Plaza as a possibility for parking for the two dentists. Dr Storey and Dr Denomme spoke and agreed about the empty lot but felt it was off the beaten path and was a little far for the customers. The mentioned that people that live in the condo building nearby use the public parking lot regularly and that a large percentage of people using the lot are employees of the businesses located downtown.

Concillor Lavigne spoke again and felt that the 2 hour time limit would be problematic. He feels there is a ton of parking downtown. Councillor Fryer both agreed and disagreed. He felt that people are parked in the lot for a long time and wondered if something could be done about the daytime hours. He mentioned the possibility of charging for parking spots per hour during the day time business hours.

Councillor Meloche felt it was important to keep the short term parking close to the businesses and commercial district and to have long term farther out and away. There was much more back and forth, but finally Councillor Fryer made a motion to defer back to administration for a report back to council regarding options for the parking lot on Richmond Street/Ramsey Street. The motion passed.

REPORTS – ENGINEERING AND PUBLIC WORKS
Repair and Improvement to the Leo Beaudoin Drain – Tender Results

REPORT – PLANNING, DEVELOPMENT AND LEGISLATIVE SERVICES
By-law 2017-94 to Repeal and Replace By-law 2017-50

2017 Special Event Approval (Remembrance Day Parade and Ceremony at Cenotaph)

2017 Special Event Approval

2018 Calendar of Council Meetings

All of the above items sailed through with little discussion and in most cases, no discussion at all.

Ontario Municipal GHG Challenge Fund Application

This item was on a supplementary agenda that I found when I walked in. So, when this item came up on the agenda, I had no idea what they were talking about, since I had not seen, read or even glanced over the report. It must have been added after Saturday afternoon, when I had checked the agenda. (Basically, I think I now know how council members must feel if or when they have not read the reports on the agenda before the meeting. I was lost.) I had no idea what the heck was going on. Councillor Meloche, Councillor Fryer and the CAO had some debate about carbon tax, going green, subsidies, lighting at the arena, LED lighting, solar panels……..I’m not really in the mood to go back and read the report now, so……from what I could deduce, it looks like this is some type of grant process that involves an inventory of our environmentally friendly equipment or lack there of. There will be some type of application for funding of some sort and it appears that LaSalle and Leamington are doing this as well. Well, there was much ado about nothing I guess, this motion for the funding application passed through eventually.

There was a little bit more discussion about the yard waste depot during the New Business section of the meeting…..if anyone has made it this far into the blog……I have to guess most bailed on this blog a while ago…..anyway, debate over whether to open or not to open the yard waste depot for a couple of days…..basically, it doesn’t look like it will happen because of costs, but administration will add the sites of 3 other depots available within less than a 15 minute drive.

As usual, Council went off behind closed doors to discuss :

SPECIAL IN-CAMERA COUNCIL MEETING

ITEM A – Dog Control Services – Section 239(2)(b) – Personal matters about an
identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees; and,
Section 239(2)(d) – Labour relations or employee negotiations.
ITEM B – Update on Council Resolution # 20170821-851 – Family Physicians & 
Services – Section 239(2)(b) – Personal matters about an identifiable individual,
including municipal or local board employees.
ITEM C – Policing Request for Proposal (RFP) Update – Section 239(2)(a) – The
security of the property of the municipality or local board.

The meeting finished just before 7:00, which was nice. Considering I may very well have nodded off had it gone on much longer.

Councillor of the week? Nope. Nobody stood out. Rate the meeting on a scale of 1 to 10? Naw, again, it was pretty boring…….if you made it to the end of this blog, I’m sorry. I hope you don’t hate me. This meeting was generally dull, boring and dry. Even I can’t embellish it. I’ll leave you with a quote : “There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees. ” Michel de Montaigne

I guess, tonight, at town council, everybody was in agreement. More or less.

 

In preparation for Monday October 23rd Regular town council meeting

Well, the agenda for Monday night’s meeting is a mere 280 pages, plus a 7 page supplementary agenda. That gives me hope that Monday night’s meeting shouldn’t last too, too long, but we’ll have to wait and see.

DELEGATIONS
Request for Dedicated Parking Spaces – Stefano Storey and Chad Denomme, Storey  and Denomme Family Dentistry

It appears that Dr Storey and Dr Denomme will be asking council for two parking spots for their business. They purchased the old “Pizza V” building and will be moving their dental practice into the building. Their business is located next to a public parking lot and they would like two spots in that public parking lot reserved for their business. They are also asking to have the lines repainted for parking on the street since the current ones are faded.

 

REPORTS – PLANNING, DEVELOPMENT AND LEGISLATIVE SERVICES
Parking Space Request – Delegation from Storey and Denomme Family Dentistry

The 7 page supplementary report is a report about the parking spots being requested. It looks like administration is recommending that council deny this request. I would guess they will move the report up to be voted on after the delegation.

We will wait and see what council decides Monday night…..should be interesting.

REPORTS – ENGINEERING AND PUBLIC WORKS
Repair and Improvement to the Leo Beaudoin Drain – Tender Results

The prices are in and it’s time to get the drain done. I would guess this will sail through.

REPORT – PLANNING, DEVELOPMENT AND LEGISLATIVE SERVICES
By-law 2017-94 to Repeal and Replace By-law 2017-50

This appears to be a house keeping issue in regards to a property for an agriculture brewery. It looks like the names on the title didn’t match up exactly, so they’re repealing one bylaw and replacing it with another so that the names match up. Doesn’t look too interesting or exciting. I would guess this will fly through.

2017 Special Event Approval

Each event that happens in Amherstburg must have council approval. Next up seeking approval is:

• Remembrance Day Parade &  Ceremony at Cenotaph (KNYP) November 11, 2017

They need road closures for this event, but I am guessing that council will allow this. Again, I would guess it will fly through.

Sale and Use of Fireworks By-law 2017-92

It looks like this bylaw is just getting finalised in terms of the sale and use of fireworks. I don’t buy them, nor use them, so I’m skipping the report. lol

2018 Calendar of Council Meetings

The calendar for all the 2018 regular council meetings is ready and needs approval. I would guess this will be approved. Hopefully, our members of council can look at the calendar to plan ahead in order to ensure attendance….

Also, 2018 is an election year. I don’t know at what point council will become a “lame duck” council. I’m not sure how that works. Will they continue to have meetings once they’re declared lame duck? Can they still actually do anything at that point? Make motions? Approve or deny requests? I’m hoping somebody sees this and will explain to me how that works……

Amherstburg Police Service 2016 Annual Report

I don’t always include information reports in my pre-meeting blog because they are usually just that, for information only and council simply receives them. However, since the issue surrounding changing police forces is on the table, I think it’s important to note this comprehensive report that will be received. Would council get such a report form the OPP or another police service?

Included in the report, among other things, an organisational chart, graphs explaining the police department budget, statistics about crimes, calls and complaints.

Accounts Payable

As always, I try to find anything of interest in the accounts payable report and check how much we’ve paid out in legal fees. As far as I can tell, we paid about $9,200.00  in legal fees. That’s fairly decent….. Nothing of interest caught my eye either.

And then, as seems to have become normal practice, council will go in-camera at the end of the meeting to discuss:

SPECIAL IN-CAMERA COUNCIL MEETING

ITEM A – Dog Control Services – Section 239(2)(b) – Personal matters about an
identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees; and,
Section 239(2)(d) – Labour relations or employee negotiations.
ITEM B – Update on Council Resolution # 20170821-851 – Family Physicians & 
Services – Section 239(2)(b) – Personal matters about an identifiable individual,
including municipal or local board employees.
ITEM C – Policing Request for Proposal (RFP) Update – Section 239(2)(a) – The
security of the property of the municipality or local board.

All in all, the agenda looks fairly light, which leaves me with the hope that the meeting won’t last too long…..

Tuesday October 10th Regular town council meeting

Well, tonight’s meeting did wrap up around 7:20, which was good. It would have probably been over even sooner if not for the lengthy list of unfinished business and new business.

Just a small disclaimer or spoiler alert…..if you were or are less than impressed about the $100,000 donation to the ERCA Foundation, well, stop reading now. Like right now. If you continue to read, it is at your own risk. Don’t say I did not warn you.

2016 Road Needs Study – Kyle Edmunds, Dillon Consulting

Mr Edmunds presented the recently completed Road Needs study. All of Amherstburg’s roads were subjected to a comprehensive visual inspection, a ride comfort analysis and a traffic counting program. The roads were all rated on a scale of 0 to 10.  An 8-10 rating is “excellent” and means it’s a very smooth ride.  A 6-8 rating is “good” with a smooth ride with just a few bumps or depressions. A 4-6 rating is “fair” and is still comfortable with intermittent bumps or depressions.  A 2-4 rating is “poor” and is considered an uncomfortable ride with frequent bumps or depressions. And 0-2 rating is “very poor”, well I think that speaks for itself LOL. It seems 83% of our roads need some type of rehabilitation within the next 10 years. Mr Edmunds presented a map which highlighted “the worst” of the roads in red and the gravel roads were highlighted in yellow since they require annual maintenance. Mr Edmunds explained that if the town sticks with the current spending model for road repairs, our PCI (Pavement Condition Index) rating will drop from 62 to 55. Mr Edmunds felt that the best and most realistic option for council would involve spending approximately $1.4 Million per year and keep the PCI around the current score of 62.  In a nutshell, this would consist of reconstruction of roads in the “now” condition with a PCI of less than 30. Total program cost is $14.05 Million. The average annual cost would be $1.41 Million per year. The resulting average PSI would be 62.6. At the end of the presentation, there was a big, long, awkward pause.

Councillor Meloche spoke first. He had figured it all out to a cost per kilometer. It was an interesting concept, but I did not catch the numbers. Councillor Pouget felt the municipality started to get into trouble when the province started downloading road repair costs. She felt the report was honest and forthcoming, however, she did note that Amherstburg has 226 kilometers of roads, LaSalle has 187 kilometers of roads and Tecumseh has 181 kilometers of roads. (Amherstburg roads were compared to LaSalle and Tecumeh in the report.) She wondered if the town is wasting money when they don’t mill the road down and are just repairing instead of reconstructing. Mr Edmunds felt that that no, that is not the case since the graph presented showed that milling and paving can add 10 to 15 years to the roads overall life.

Councillor Fryer then said that he felt it was a good thing to get this report prior to the budget. He cited some examples of various roads around town that are in poor condition. He felt that it is a waste of taxpayer money to mill and pave roads and cited Victoria Street as an example of a road that was repaired not long ago, yet is in poor condition. Councillor Fryer felt that attention should be on infrastructure and not on any unneeded purchases……

(Okay…..for those who were less than impressed by the $100,000 ERCA Foundation donation and continued to read anyway……how are you feeling right about now???…..don’t say I didn’t warn you……and there’s more coming later……I know I had personally emailed council the day before that famous $100,000 ERCA Foundation donation meeting and suggested it would be wise to wait for the budget process before making a decision to donate money to anyone……but no………..they did not wait and they gave it away……and now we’re talking about needs and unneeded purchases……….I don’t know whether to laugh or cry……)

Deputy Mayor DiPasquale asked about how much money was set aside at the moment for infrastructure. CAO Miceli stated that basically the town currently budgets around $500,000 annually on roads. This amount needs to increase by about $900,000 to bring it to $1.4 Million. The CAO spoke for a while about the various challenges of finding enough contractors to do the necessary work and that the market will be the true indicator going forward. There was much more back and forth but I think you get the picture.

Councillor Lavigne mentioned that council had asked for this report and has spent a lot of money on roads since their term began. He wondered if the roads were rated, I think prioritised, in order to keep politics out of it. (I had to chuckle when I had a brief flashback to last year’s budget deliberation when some councillors seemed to be playing Monopoly and trying to trade roads, repair some now, others later ….LOL) Mr Edmunds did say that each road was rated individually and there is a numerical ranking for each road.

Anyway, this is getting long and tedious, so finally, council did vote to receive the report and approve the average annual expenditure of $1.4 Million on roads.

The rest of the items in my pre-meeting blog flew through with no discussion or in some cases, very little discussion. Until…..

Unfinished Business

Any councillor can bring forth for discussion any item previously discussed but would be considered unfinished. To save myself typing it all up, I will present it in point form, like a grocery list.

• Did anything come of the Italian Community wanting use of the Libro Centre? (They’re currently renting space at Amherstburg Community Services and working on other initiatives)
• How about adding railings in the stands at the arena? When will that be implemented and how quickly? Will there be a report? (It’s an accommodation issue and is being looked into.)
• This council tried to have railings installed. (okay??….)
• The format of 2017 unfinished business report not as clear and concise as the 2016 unfinished business report.(Seems to be a formatting issue with the new software.)
• When will Amherstburg intersections be getting LED lights? (shortly, October or November)
• When will the rest of the Kings Navy Yard Park be designated as heritage land? (report coming soon, not next meeting, the one after)
• Can administration investigate the agreements about the old General Chemical properties? And Honeywell? (possibly trying to sell these as 2 properties, the Mayor can’t say anything more…..)
• Has administration investigated the number of family physicians in Amherstburg? (The CAO is meeting with people and working on it.)
• Where are things at with the county for the library strike money “owed to the town”? (The CAO has to resubmit the request with all the bills.)

If there’s anything on the grocery list that you absolutely must have a complete answer about, just message me or call or email council. (Or, just message me if they don’t reply. lol) It was not a particularly interesting part of the evening.

New Business

This is the part of the meeting where any council member can bring forward any new business items, as in, never discussed before, perhaps direct administration to do something, business.

Councillor Meloche talked about the corner of Howard Avenue and Alma and the number of accidents, often fatal that happen there. Mayor DiCarlo said that he has already contacted the Police Chief and they are working on getting some statistics and to see what can be done….possible rumble strips etc.

Councillor Fryer then started talking about the Big Creek area North of Alma Street. (He went on quite at length and I zoned out a bit, until…..) Councillor Fryer wanted administration to look into the possibility of purchasing this property.

(Okay. For those that I warned to stop reading and you did not listen to me, did you just gasp? In shock? Or horror? Or a combination of the two? )

Councillor Pouget said she would second his motion for discussion but wanted to clarify that the town is just investigating, not committing to purchasing this property. The CAO explained that it is simply an investigation at this point. (This made me only feel a very slight bit better, very slight……I remember once upon a time when we were simply investigating donating money to the ERCA Foundation…….) Anyway, long story short, the CAO said the Ministry of Natural Ressources is starting to require developers to create a fund to protect these natural areas.

Councillor Lavigne spoke up and said that council should be concentrating on roads and not considering purchasing anything. (Um, ya…..we’re with you Councillor Lavigne! Thank you! ) However, CAO Miceli said that the approach lately seems to be that the Ministry of Natural Resources is taking a hard line approach and making developers contribute to the studies of natural properties and their maintenance. He said that eventually the protected area gets transferred to the municipality and so do the maintenance costs. Apparently, reserves are being requested from developers.

So, all this to say……administration will be preparing a report about the feasibility of purchasing the Big Creek property. Then, it will be up to council to decide…..

Around 7:20, the meeting wrapped up because council was going in-camera to discuss:

SPECIAL IN-CAMERA COUNCIL MEETNG

ITEM A – Insurance Claim Update – Section 239(2)(b) – Personal matters about
an identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees; and,
Section 239(2)(e) – Litigation or potential litigation, including matters before
administrative tribunals, affecting the municipality or local board.
ITEM B – Town Wide Fibre Solutions – Section 239(2)(f) – Advice that is subject
to solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose.
ITEM C – Disposition of Property – Section 239(2)(c) – A proposed or pending
acquisition or disposition of land by the municipality or local board.

I know many of my readers enjoy the Councillor of the week element of my blog…..however, it’s getting more and more difficult to continue with this (draw your own conclusion)……I may go with an overall rating for the meeting…..on a scale of 1 to 10……so with that in mind, this meeting was about a 2. Maybe a 3. And for those of you who powered through to the end, how are you feeling on a scale of 1 to 10?

 

In preparation for Tuesday October 10th Regular town council meeting

Well, Monday is a holiday, so the regular meeting will happen on Tuesday night. The agenda is a mere 250 pages, so that is something to be thankful for!

PRESENTATIONS
2016 Road Needs Study – Kyle Edmunds, Dillon Consulting

It looks like council will be hearing a presentation about the current conditions of our roads. The roads have been examined, traveled on and rated from 0 to 10. An 8-10 rating is “excellent” and means it’s a very smooth ride.  A 6-8 rating is “good” with a smooth ride with just a few bumps or depressions. A 4-6 rating is “fair” and is still comfortable with intermittent bumps or depressions.  A 2-4 rating is “poor” and is considered an uncomfortable ride with frequent bumps or depressions. And 0-2 rating is “very poor”, which they have fancy, polite words for saying “it’s junk” LOL. (This makes me wonder if I should start rating council meetings, instead of trying to choose a councillor of the week……hmmmm……food for thought…..)  The thing that jumped out at me was that 83% of our roads will need rehabilitation within 10 years! Yikes! The report is lengthy. I’m just skimming over it…..I see that they’re comparing the condition of Amherstburg with roads in surrounding communities. Let’s just say that if it were a competition, well, we lost. Badly. Our roads are by far in worse shape than LaSalle and Tecumseh. In the report, each road is specified, with measurements, costs etc. It appears that council will be presented with 4 options, each with varying prices, to consider. So, anyway which way this shakes it out, this is going to cost us $$$$$.

If you’re curious about your own road’s condition, here’s the link to the agenda :

Click to access 2017%2010%2010%20-%20Regular%20Council%20Meeting%20Agenda%20Packet.pdf

Acceptance of Surface Asphalt – Kingsbridge Subdivision Phase 6D

I would have to guess that this is just a formality and will fly through.

2017 Special Event Approval

Each event must come before council to seek approval. Next up is :

• Super Santa Run – November 18, 2017

They need an exemption for road closures prior to 5 PM. I would have to guess this will be approved and we will see the Santas run!

Pre-Hospital Joint Operational Cyanide Antidote Agreement

OK, I saw this item and though what the heck???? I have to read this one…..a cyanide antidote agreement???? Is this something I should be concerned about???

So, I found this in the report : “During the combustion of fire, many dangerous and possible fatal chemicals are released. One of the most poisonous and noxious chemicals is cyanide. Although firefighters wear self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) on all fire responses they, and the victims of fires, risk exposure to cyanide. The prompt and expeditious delivery of the antidote “Cyanokit” can limit the toxic effects of cyanide exposure.”

Aha! That makes sense…..I will rest easier now. The cost is only $900 and can be absorbed by the fire department’s budget. So, I would have to guess the antidote will be allowed.

Accounts payable

Every two weeks, I like to look through what we have paid out for legal fees and anything else that catches my eye. This week, I have yet another thing to be thankful for…….only $271.20 paid out in legal fees and nothing else caught my attention. Awesome!

And then, when all is said and done, council will, as per the usual lately, go in-camera to discuss :

SPECIAL IN-CAMERA COUNCIL MEETNG

ITEM A – Insurance Claim Update – Section 239(2)(b) – Personal matters about
an identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees; and,
Section 239(2)(e) – Litigation or potential litigation, including matters before
administrative tribunals, affecting the municipality or local board.
ITEM B – Town Wide Fibre Solutions – Section 239(2)(f) – Advice that is subject
to solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose.
ITEM C – Disposition of Property – Section 239(2)(c) – A proposed or pending
acquisition or disposition of land by the municipality or local board.

Overall, I foresee a quick and easy meeting Tuesday night. A girl can hope, right?