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May 29, 2014 | 84 pages
www.insideottawavalley.com
Inside
By HOWAIDA SOROUR
A Four-Part Series
hsorour@perfprint.ca
See Pages 24, 25 & 26
helping hands healing hearts
COMMUNITY Photo by HOWAIDA SOROUR
Honouring our Citizen of the Year
Find out what’s going on inside Tweed. — Page SF1
RELAY FOR LIFE
Community - The 45th annual Citizen of the Year banquet hosted by the Kinsmen Club was held on Monday, May 26, at the Smiths Falls Golf and Country Club. The award recognizes a citizen who has made a contribution to the town through volunteer efforts which have a positive effect on fellow citizens and the community. The evening started with a social hour followed by dinner and a presentation by guest speaker Eleanor Glenn, author of The Business Barons. The evening wrapped up with Mayor Dennis Staples declaring Gib Hodge as the 2013 Citizen of the Year. Here, the long-time Civitan member receives a standing ovation following the announcement. See a future Record News for a feature on this special resident.
Canal closes due to high water levels News - This spring, Parks Canada has continuously faced high water levels along the length of the Rideau Canal due to excessive run-off caused by heavy rains and a late snow melt. The Rideau Canal’s 182nd navigation season began on Friday, May 16 and many boaters have already begun enjoying the world famous waterway. However, to ensure public safety until high waters have subsided to safe levels, the following lock stations will be closed to navigation, effective as of 4 p.m. on Monday, May 26: Hogs Back, Black Rapids, Long Island, Burritts Rapids, Lower Nicholsons,
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Upper Nicholsons, Clowes, Merrickville, Kilmarnock, Edmonds, Old Slys, Smiths Falls Combined and Smiths Falls Detached. Parks Canada will advise the public as soon as water levels will allow for safe navigation; and when these locks will be operational again. The following lockstations of the Rideau Canal remain open to navigation during normal operating hours: Ottawa Locks, Hartwells, Poonamalie, Beveridges, Narrows, Newboro, Chaffeys, Davis, Jones Falls, Upper Brewers, Lower Brewers and Kingston Mills. A reminder that high water flows around water control
structures such as dams and spillways can be hazardous and should be avoided at all times. Parks Canada has a proven track record in managing water. This year, water along the Rideau Canal is being aggressively controlled and monitored in order to move tremendous amounts of water through the system to mitigate effects from the colossal amount of water travelling at this time. Reservoir lakes are being filled as necessary, dam operations are happening daily, and over the course of the next few weeks, levels will begin to stabilize. Submitted by Parks Canada.
News – They are angry and they’re frustrated. They are the residents of Montague Township who receive their water from Smiths Falls. They’ve just been informed that their water and sewage rates have jumped 50 per cent. “Why did you wait till now to hike the bills so high that we’re going to have to take baths in rainwater,” said one angry resident at a town hall meeting called by Montague staff at Montague Centennial Hall on Tuesday, May 20. There were more than 30 residents in attendance. Among them were Bill Dobson, the Reeve of Montague, and former Reeve Gary Doyle under whose watch one of the original agreements with Smiths Falls was drawn. “The purpose of this meeting is to try and clarify a few things that begat the increase we’ve put on water and wastewater rates,” Glenn Barnes, Montague CAO said by way of introduction, before handing over the presentation to Shawn Mason, township treasurer. As Mason explained Montague residents are charged a 75 per cent premium on the water they receive from Smiths Falls. “We are fighting on behalf of residents to get that lowered, we think it would be fairer at 25 per cent,” said Dobson. In the meantime, under that arrangement which is believed to date back to 1996, Smiths Falls bills the Township of Montague for water usage. The township in turn collects a water rate from residents but the discrepancy between the amount billed and amount collected has led Montague to dip into its reserves to pay the bill. “So when the billing went to meters, the thinking was that the revenue would increase,” said Mason at the meeting. Although revenue did increase, there was still a more than $51,000 gap that the Township of Montague covered in 2013.
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“My bill went from $160 before the meters were installed to $220 after the meters were installed to $330 with this increase,” said Nancy Lumsden, Montague resident. There are several issues involved. It is expected that all municipalities will be required to comply with the new Sustainable Water and Waste Water Improvement and Maintenance Act that’s coming down the pipeline. That act states that municipalities must be able to demonstrate that they have achieved or are close to achieving full cost recovery of their water systems. Montague’s billing now includes a fee that will allow the township to build up a reserve of about $14,000 annually so that by 2068 the township can be in a position to replace its entire system at a cost of $879,000 the current estimate for replacement. “The new water act states that you have to build reserves in the event of a catastrophic failure,” explained Mason. In addition Smiths Falls applied the same 13 per cent increase it adopted in town to the residents of Montague over and above the 75 per cent premium. Right now both Smiths Falls and Montague build the cost of infrastructure replacement into their fees, both build in the costs of maintenance, water testing and administration into their fees. There is, according to Barnes, a duplication of fees and services that Montague residents end up paying. At the same time both municipalities are bylawrequired to do their own water testing which in turn incurs maintenance and administrative expenses. “If the whole water system was just between Smiths Falls and our residents without going through Montague at all, there would be less duplication,” said Dobson. Also at issue is the fact that Montague has not been raising its water fees on a regular basis. See WATER page SF2
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