Monthly Archives: July 2012

Comments Provide Railway Information

29 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by in Parry Sound, Train

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As a member of the Parry Sound Rail Safety Committee I have been quiet for the last few months about how I feel the town is being taken advantage of by the railways and their federally granted rights. I’ll start the discussion again this fall after the committee has finished its work and submitted a summary of suggested actions.

But, I was delighted to see that an individual going by the handle of ‘Jason’ has provided some colour to my earlier posts (Another Needless Train Fatality – Update, Fire From the Tracks, Train Wars – Canadian Business Magazine Article, About).

The comments are relevant and informative. More information and discussion can only be helpful. I suggest you take a look at them. To access the comments just click on the comments link at the top of the linked pages.

Notes – Council Meeting 2012-07-17

18 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by in Budget/Financial, Parry Sound, Town Council

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No surprises at the meeting. Staff and council by the end were looking forward to a three week break until the next meeting of council.

Item 5.1 – a deputation on the upcoming province wide property reassessment was well done. It seems that the process is intent on becoming very friendly in terms of the online user interface. There is a reassessment now ongoing that will impact valuations in 2013 and beyond. Regardless, property taxes will be increasing and a higher assessment will probably mean local politicians won’t need to increase the mill rate as much to capture the same revenue.

Item 9.1.1 – concerned a review of service delivery, possibly with consultant support. A couple of the councillors asked pointed questions regarding the use of outside consultants and were told that it was a possibility but that their involvement would likely be minimal. Hopefully this means it won’t be too expensive.

Item 9.1.2 – concerns water and waste water arrears. The Finance Department’s requests for not pursuing overdue bills prior to January 2012 was approved by council. That seems reasonable and practical. The one question that I probably would have asked, but wasn’t raised, was how much money are we talking about? Regardless, it’s time to cut our losses and move forward. We have limited staff resources that are better spent keeping on top of the deadbeats going forward.

Item 9.2.2 – offered direction that any expense related to rehabilitation of the  Ranger Cabin on Tower Hill be included in the 2013 budget discussion was accepted by council. Council also directed staff to apply for funding under the Community Infrastructure Improvement Grant. This is in addition to applying for funding to this same grant for support of a multi-use trail connecting Parry Sound with Kinsman Park. Community volunteers interested in rehabilitating the Ranger Cabin were invited to put forward a proposal.

Item 9.2.3 – concerned the purchase of a Trimble GPS device for the plotting of town assets. A couple of the councillors wondered whether this would be taking opportunity from local businesses, or whether it would be better value to rent the equipment. It was also asked whether it would be possible to lease the device out to other municipalities in hopes of recouping some of the $15,000 cost. This last suggestion brought memories of a TV show that I vaguely remember as a child and the Ballad of Paladin theme song “Have Gun Will Travel” (the link will get you to the original on You Tube). I couldn’t help but think of a modern remake that includes “Have Trimble will travel reads the card of a man”.

Regardless, the purchase was approved. I believe this is a good investment.

Item 9.5.1 – concerns the charitable waste grant. The Salvation army will receive about $3,500 and Habit for Humanity $1,500.

There is nothing on the council end of things until the middle of August. Enjoy the summer and let’s hope we get rain. The Director of Public Works indicated water usage in town is up by about 50% to 1.2 million gallons per day.

Council Agenda Preview – July 17th, 2012 Meeting

14 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by in Green Shoots, Parry Sound, Suggestions, Town Council

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What seemed like a short and relatively non-controversial agenda became much more interesting once I had a chance to review the council package at the library. Here are some of the highlights and my comments. To get the full story I’d advise town residents to review the agenda that is available online and the council package that is made available at the library and the town office. A reminder: the library is closed Mondays.

Item 5.1 – a deputation on the upcoming province wide property reassessment is worth seeing live or catching later on Cogeco. It is unlikely there is a systematic plan to lower assessments, so expect more tax increases.

Item 9.1.1 – concerns a review of service delivery. This is scary, from a tax payer’s perspective. The town is considering hiring a consultant, probably KPMG, to audit the town’s services and identify opportunities to reduce expenses and/or raise revenues by about $900,000 per year. We’ll probably end up paying about $50,000 to be told that the town is already doing a good job and the only opportunities are those town residents are unlikely to accept. But town staff and council will have done the necessary audit and we will all be a little poorer. (Disclosure – I work as a consultant, albeit not is the financial sector, and have first hand experience on what consultants can do and why they are hired. In most cases it’s a CYA exercise.)

Item 9.1.2 – concerns water and waste water arrears. I wondered what this was all about and why we received three separate bills (water, waste water, and water heater rental). I’m not sure I really get it but it seems to be related to the fact that if you have it all on one bill, and only a portion is paid, you can’t be sure what service is in arrears and should be shut off. I hope the new proposals will address the problem. We seem to have an issue with deadbeats who don’t pay their bills. It’s especially a problem when they are renters. Suggestion – require a deposit on the start of service. I’ve lived in many different municipalities and we were always required to put up a $100 or $200 deposit for service to be turned on. Yes, it’s not fair for those who pay their bills. The alternative is paying higher rates to compensate for those people who ‘stiff’ the town.

Item 9.2.2 – offers direction for staff follow up concerning the Ranger Cabin on Tower Hill. (Disclosure – the Anne Bossart of the Tower Hill group is my wife, so I have some additional insights and probably some biases. Take this into consideration.)

My reading of the direction seems to indicate the Director of Public Works is suggesting the cabin is dilapidated and in need of repairs that would cost on the order of $15,000 to $30,000. His preferred approach, which he has presented previously, seems to be to tear down the cabin and replace it with a gazebo. He does not provide a budget for what this might cost.

A philosophy of recycle, reuse and repair is seemingly being exchanged for a philosophy of replace, replace and replace. That may, or may not, be the right thing to do when it comes to trucks and plows, but it really isn’t the right thing to do when it comes to our history and our heritage. It’s a bit like taking Buddy behind the shed to be shot because well, he’s a bit slow on the hunt, the vet bills are adding up, and we’d rather have a younger dog, preferably a different breed.

How about adding a recommendation that the town residents who support rehabilitation of the cabin be given until the end of the year to put together a plan? They’ll get it done, and it will be for much less than the cost of tearing down the cabin and replacing it with a gazebo. With public funding sources identified, a heritage property at stake, and a motivated volunteer group, it may cost the town nothing. Doing the right thing for less – now that’s a bargain that the consultants wouldn’t be able to come up with.

Item 9.5.1 – concerns the charitable waste grant. It looks as though the money budgeted by the town for charitable waste will be disbursed to the groups that have filed requests. This is good.

See you Tuesday.

Between Rocks and Rail – Update/Revision

12 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by in Parry Sound, Train, Urban Development

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I have received valuable information concerning my last post ‘Between Rocks and Rails‘ where I discussed some of the challenges faced by Parry Sound in growing within its current boundaries.

In the post I suggested that access to the undeveloped property north of the Smelter Wharf was limited in part by the need to cross rail lines, most certainly for the more easterly section.

It was confirmed that the most westerly area is accessible through an existing right of way off of Salt Dock Road. So the potential for development in this area does exist if and when it becomes economically attractive to support the construction of the necessary municipal services.

With respect to the more easterly section of land that lies between the two rail lines, and represents more than half of the undeveloped area, access is challenging. It was confirmed that negotiating a level grade crossing with the railways (it’s actually federal property) would be difficult if not impossible. So accessing this area from the Parry Sound end of things would mean access from between the two crossings on Isabella. But, it would be possible to access the property further north, from McDougall Township, off of Oakridge Road. But this might well be a moot point because much of the area surrounds Strain Lake which is an environmentally sensitive area and possibly is not suitable for development.

Overall then the area north of the Smelter Wharf seems an unlikely candidate for development in the next decade or more for a variety of reasons some of which have been noted.

Development in Parry Sound will need to focus on filling in and growing ‘up’ if the town wants to build a residential base that can support services for its residents and those of the surrounding communities.

Between Rocks and Rails

10 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by in Parry Sound, Reflections, Train, Urban Development

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Last week’s North Star editorial about the limited land available for Parry Sound development and the the need to build up and in (Up is the New Out), rather than out, brought to mind a discussion that came up at an earlier public planning meeting organized by the town.

The details of the meeting are beyond summarizing here, except to say that it was a very informative session regarding the issues facing Parry Sound as they relate to town planning and development. Two issues came up in the discussion that relate to the North Star editorial. Basically we’re stuck between rocks and rails.

About the rocks. During the meeting it was explained that the town’s plan did not include near term development along Louisa Street. This was because of the considerable town expense involved in providing necessary water and sewage services (moving rock, blasting rock, drilling rock, etc.) to this area. This is a rather large section of undeveloped land, about 150 acres by my rough estimate, representing almost 5% of the total area of Parry Sound (about 3,300 acres).

The other area off limits for development is north of Isabella Streets and west of the mall (see the map below). This is an area of about 250 acres of land (about 7.5% of the total town area), with Georgian Bay frontage, that is not available for development. The reason is the two rail lines, CN and CP, that cross this land and in effect cut off any reasonable access. This is the area north of the Smelter Wharf, I’ll bet you never really realized it was part of Parry Sound. A limited portion of this area could be accessed from the Smelter Wharf, but the only way to access the larger portion would require a a road starting between the CN and CP lines as they cross Isabella Street. Yes, that’s a pretty narrow space, perhaps 100 feet. It’s not possible to imagine an intersection in this small space with the trains whizzing by.

Alternatively, it would be possible to access this land by building crossings over the CP and CN rail lines off of Joseph Street and/or Parry Sound Drive. Between the cost of building the crossings (above grade, below grade, at grade?), and the challenge of securing railway permissions and allowances, it seems this is not going to happen for decades.

So as the North Star editorial noted we are looking at the prospect of more infill and taller buildings. This makes sense in too many ways to be criticized. But at some point we will need to think about developing the two areas mentioned earlier. In one case we have the necessary control, if not the financial resources to make it happen (Louisa Street). In the other we are not likely to see any development unless we can reach some sort of agreement with the railways.

Stuck between rocks and rails the town’s prospects are still very good, even if challenging.

Oh, for those of you who might be wondering; the railways together pay a total of $2,700 in annual property taxes (right of way privileges) for the right to run their trains through town and house their vehicles and equipment. The cost to the town is probably on the order of $3 million annually in terms of property taxes lost because of the undevelopable lands discussed above. And there is perhaps another couple of million lost to depressed property values because of the sound, smell and inconvenience of freight trains running through town day and night.

Railways, putting the “Sound” in Parry Sound ;-)

Notes – Council Meeting 2012-07-03

04 Wednesday Jul 2012

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This is the first edition of council notes that will not provide a more or less comprehensive summary of the meeting. The focus here will be on items I found interesting and are worth noting and commenting on. For more comprehensive coverage of the meeting and council decisions the official council minutes are available at the Town of Parry Sound website. And for topical issues I would point you to the North Star, and their online version. The North Star’s reporting goes beyond the meeting proceedings to provide you with background information. And of course Moose-FM provides the highlights of the meeting the next day as on air news and Tweets.

Okay, so what about my thoughts? Well the meeting was efficient and effective with the proceedings complete by about 8:30. All items presented to council were approved. None were controversial.

What did strike me as interesting was the deputation by Tammy Purdy and the town’s requirements to meet the AODA Standard –Integrated Accessibility Standards. They will have a significant impact on the town.

The town website will need to be revised and made more ‘accessible’. Yippee! I’m finally able to find my way around the town’s website but I feel sorry for anybody who only rarely needs to find information on it. It’s not easy and it’s not obvious. So an update and revision will be most welcome. And while the town is at it how about changing the header photo to one that shows Parry Sound? We are the ‘Jewel of the 30,000 Islands’ and don’t need to ‘hide’ behind a photo of the Archipelago.

It looks as though the public transit system will end this year. The many demands of the AODA legislation make it financially impossible for the town to continue the service. Public transit was already difficult to rationalize based on the very low ridership. A potentially tough decision for council was actually made much easier with the AODA requirements. While the town always wants to do the right thing for its residents and visitors it won’t be able to in this case.

That’s it. Public Works received approval for its new trucks and fork lift so they should be good to go for the next few years.

Council Agenda Summary – July 3rd, 2012

01 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by in Budget/Financial, Parry Sound, Town Council

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Once again there are no critical issues on the agenda that should raise concerns or complaints. Of the items on the agenda the more interesting relate to Mr. Chips and his banner (it looks as though he will be getting it), and the request from the Public Works department to issue purchase orders for capital equipment.

Interesting and Notable Agenda Items

Item 9.2.1, 9.2.2 & 9.2.3, are three separate capital item requests from the Public Works department and include one forklift and two pickup style trucks. The total cost is on the order of $110,000, and all were included in the 2012 Budget. The costs are all below the 2012 budgeted amounts, but you never know if these were sandbagged when the budget was developed (it’s standard management practice to do so). Regardless, if the equipment is needed and budgeted let’s get on with it. The time to discuss whether we need the equipment is well before the budget discussions and not at the purchase order stage.

Item 9.4.1, is a comprehensive accessibility plan. I looked at the proposal in the council package but did not study it. I wouldn’t expect too many issues.

Item 9.4.3, is the Mr. Chips sign (banner) variance approval. There shouldn’t be an issue if the appropriate by-laws have been reviewed.

Item 9.4.4, is a request to revise the sidewalk associated with the Belvedere Heights parking area. The area is under construction right now. Can anyone provide information on where the funding was sourced for this project? The last I knew they were still raising funds and were far from their target. Did an anonymous donor come to the rescue or have public funds been diverted?

There are additional items on the agenda but these are the ones that struck me as most notable. Details are provided in the packages available for view at the library and town hall. I’ll be at the meeting this week. With this week’s meeting I will start reporting only on key points arising out of the council meeting. With the North Star, Moose-FM and the issued meeting minutes there is little I can add on the majority of the issues.