Beauty & the Beast at Loughborough PS

Council approved the award of contract to Dependable Emergency Vehicles Ltd. of Brampton On for $604,500.19 for the purchase of one tanker and additional equipment such as radios, tools, firehose. When questioned by Councillor Leonard about the cost coming in over the budgeted $575,000, Fire Chief Alex Bennett referred to current inflation, noting that this was the lowest bid received, McMullen Net Sport Court Upgrade Council approved a $245,546.22 bid submission from Crains Construction Limited for reconstruction, resurfacing and fencing of the Verona net sport courts, which will provide a full-sized two-court tennis area as well as a small basketball area and shuffleboard. The scope of the project was increased to address concerns with site drainage, site access, and the proximity of the facility to the surrounding Verona Cemetery. By replacing the current black asphalt surface with a coloured surface using acrylic, water-based materials there is a positive mitigative result: in addition to the materials having low levels of volatile organic compounds, the colour rubberized material reduces the ‘heat island’ effect of a black surface, resulting in a safer more enjoyable playing surface that reduces impact on the users and environment.

With over 35 vendors opening day it's fair to say the re-launch of the Frontenac Farmers Market kicked off its season with tremendous success. The new location, under the recently constructed "pavilion" in Harrowsmith's Centennial Park, provided customers with true outdoor Market experience as well as potential shelter from the threatening rain. The Frontenac Farmers' Market is held 3-7pm every Friday from Victoria Day until Thanksgiving.

Rental: “Bare naked & Trespassing?”

Councillor Program noted that the 1350 responses to the Township’s survey represent (from a population of 22,000) represent a significantly high result. Greatest support was shown for ensuring owner responsibility for behaviour on their properties, followed by a code of conduct for renters and noise complaints.

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By Wilma Kenny

ast week, Loughborough Public School treated full houses of all ages to four superlative productions of “The Beauty and The Beast”. (My ticket was number 200, and many people came after me.)

This year-long project used the Disney copyrighted script, music and “authorized materials” and involved the whole school in coming up with a colourful, energetic and tightly choreographed production.

There truly wasn’t a bad seat in the house: the enormous cast of all ages was miked, and there were a lot of excellent singers (notably Audrey Bateman, who sang the demanding part of Belle.) And perhaps most delightful of all, the entire cast, some of them covering multiple roles, certainly seemed to be having fun. There was genuine glee in the rhythmic raising of tankards in the hilarious tavern scene. Retiring music teacher Gillian MacDonald and her production team of Elizabeth Kay, Alan Macdonald and Greg Ross (“Musicals R Us”) led a creative support team and crew: they all deserve great credit for this gift to both the students and the community. ■

Procedure

By-law Amendments

A public meeting to hear comments from the public on amendments to the Council Procedure By-law passed with no comments or questions from either Councillors or members of the public. However, these documents might be of interest to anyone planning to make a delegation to Council, and could be helpful for anyone considering running for a position on Council. The changes in these lengthy (23 and 14 pages) documents are marked in red in the online agenda for this meeting.

Council Remuneration

Council remuneration was increased by $750 (annually $17,240.68) to recognize that the scheduled COW meetings will be replaced by Council meetings on the second Tuesday of each month, and the Deputy Mayor’s will become $24,321.70. Vandewal commented “The Mayor’s salary didn’t change: just sayin’…” By-law Enforcement and Short-Term

Councillor Ruttan spoke in support of enforcing property standards, but Mayor Vandewal disagreed, saying property standards encouraged people to ‘tattle on their neighbours’ and in the past, recent arrivals have been very critical of longtime rural residents having what they perceived to be untidy properties.

Clerk Thompson said the Township is now in a stronger position to deal with property owners using existing bylaws and emphasized the importance of complaints being submitted in real time. “Staff are also taking steps to raise awareness regarding the By-law Enforcement programs and services currently in place.”

“ What about ten of ‘em runnin’ around bare naked and trespassing?” asked Councillor Sleeth.

“That’s a matter for the OPP” was Thompson’s response.

Councillor Pegrum added that it’s important to continue to keep the public informed and to maintain good communication with the OPP. ■

Last summer, an architect’s report about a potential expansion of the Frontenac county-owned long term care facility, Fairmount Home, recommended that the existing 128 bed home be abandoned and instead, a brand new 160 bed, $60 million dollar facility be built on the county owned property in Glenburnie.

Sixty million dollars is a lot of money for a small municipality like Frontenac County. It works out to $2,200 per resident. It would be like a $6.6 billion project arriving at the Toronto City Council table.

But since the report was presented in the midst of the summer, months before a municipal election, the reaction by council to the presentation was muted. The feeling was that the next council can deal with it.

A few months into a new council term, the architect was back, with the same presentation, and a proposal to redo the costing for the project. The new council is not particularly comfortable with the project, and wants to look at some of other options, such as renovating the existing facility. After some debate, the decision was taken to hire a consultant to update the costing of all the pptions in the report.

Before we say goodbye to the building that currently houses Fairmount Home, it is worth looking at a bit of the history of the facility.

Twenty five years ago, on January 1st, 1998, 4 days before a historic ice storm, municipal amalgamation took effect. At that moment, the Fairmount Home for the Aged, as it was called then, was no longer located in Frontenac County. The village of Glenburnie, which had been located in Kingston Township in Frontenac County, became part of the Country Ward in the City of Kingston.

By Jeff Green

Frontenac County ceased to exist on that day as well. County functions were divided among the four new Frontenac townships and the City of Kingston. To handle relations between the Frontenac townships and the city, and to oversee Fairmount Home, the Frontenac Management Board, made up of the mayors of the 4 tnew ownships (North, Central and South Frontenac, and Frontenac Islands) was established.

The Frontenac Management Board's office was located at the “Old House”, adjacent to Fairmount Home, in Glenburnie

Within 6 years, the Frontenac Management Board became untenable, and Frontenac County was re-established.

The management board had too much to do. Not only was it given, in 2002, responsibility for land ambulance for the city and the county, it had also undertaken a renovation project to expand Fairmount Home from 96 to 128 beds, and to upgrade it to a Class “A” long term care facility.

Under the amalgamation agreement, the city of Kingston agreed to pay 78% of the municipal contribution towards operating Fairmount Home, while Frontenac County ratepayers covered the rest.

But when the city was approached to fund its share of the upgrade costs for Fairmount, they balked.

They did come on board eventually, but not at 78%, either for building or for operating costs. To this day, the city pays a lower percentage of the costs for the operation of the 36 “new” beds at Fairmount than they do for the original 96 beds.

Frontenac County ratepayers paid only a portion of the $17million construction costs of Fairmount Home, but it has still taken us all 20 years to pay off our share of those costs

Five years after the Fairmount upgrade, a new project, the upgrade of the Fairmount auditorium was proposed. The auditorium needed a new roof, and other improvements, so it could be used for recreation purposes by Fairmount residents, and as a council chamber for Frontenac County Council. That project ended up costing $2.1million.

10 years later, the Frontenac County redevelopment is underway, including a $5million renovation to the Frontenac County of- fice space, which is nearing completion. In addition to that, a $2.5million paramedic station is being constructed, and a $1.4million upgrade to the HVAC system at Fairmount Home is being done.

It is in this context that the plan to build a new Fairmount Home, sometime over the next five years, for a $60million+.

In order to make this happen, Frontenac County will need to secure provincial and City of Kingston funding, which may not be that quick or easy, in order to construct the brand new 160 bed long term care home. There has been no discussion about moving the home to another site in Frontenac County, partly because it would be even more difficult to secure funding from the City in that case. Even more troubling than the price tag for the new build, is the fate of the existing Fairmount Home in this scenario. The current buillding was upgraded for $17million in 2004, $2.1million in 2013, and a further $1.4million this year. It would need to be renovated for another use, torn down, or sold off.

The report that was presented to Frontenac County Council last month, speculated about a number of potential uses for the current facility.

They are “Hospice, Alternate Levels of Care, Retirement/ Assisted Living, Affordable Rental Housing, Homelessness/ Shelter/ Support Services, Community Medicine/ Clinic, Daycare, Community Hall, Offices”

For one thing, the cost of renovating one kind of facility into another is always much higher and more complicated than anyone ever projects.

Secondly, any of the uses mentioned above would enhance services to residents of the City of Kingston, not Frontenac County.

Kingston provides the services mentioned above for its own residents. If Frontenac County wants to bring any of those services online for its residents, that would be great, but it would have to be in Verona or Sharbot Lake. Plevna, or Marysville, not Glenburnie.

Finally, the amount of Frontenac County administrative capacity that has been devoted, for years now, to what County officials now call the "Frontenac County Campus" and its various redevelopment projects, leaves little room for other initiatives.

The goal of Frontenac County should be to complete the current projects, and take some time to refocus its efforts on the very real needs of its own residents.

When the Fairmount Home rebuilding project comes back to the council table in a few months time, it would be prudent