Monthly Archives: April 2015

Council Meeting Notes – April 21, 2015

22 Wednesday Apr 2015

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The meeting started off with a presentation or awards to the Champion Parry Sound Shamrock Midget Hockey Team. Let me assure they certainly aren’t midgets as most people would understand the word to mean.

This was followed by the public meeting, Item 2.1, that never actually indicated what it concerned. It was noted as being a ‘housekeeping’ issue but I believe it concerned a removal of the requirement to have defined on title parking for downtown Parry Sound properties. It’s hard to get public input if you never actually state what you want input on.

Council expressed dismay at the lack of responsiveness of CN Railway to the crossing blockages last Friday. So what are you going to do about it Council? Why waste time expressing disappointment and concern if you aren’t going to act. I’ll have more to say on this point in the next couple of weeks.

Returning to the meeting agenda here is a quick update on what was decided. No surprises, none at all.

Public Meeting
2.1 – A public meeting respecting a housekeeping amendment to the Town of Parry Sound Zoning By-law 2004-4653 under Sections 34 of the Planning Act, as amended. The purpose of the proposed Zoning By-Law amendment is to amend the Zoning By-law to permit the renovation of existing buildings in the Business Improvement Area for residential units. Limited written and spoken comments were provided, all of which were in support of this. Council will now deliberate and pass judgement, which of course will be to approve the change.

Correspondence
4.6 – Letter – Don Dudek, owner of 34 Seguin Street. Re: Support for the Zoning By-law Amendment regarding amending the cash-in-lieu of parking provision. This was in support of 2.1 above.

Deputations
5.1 – Terrilynne Bannon, Municipal Relations Representative, Municipal Property Assessment Corporation. Re: Education and Training Session about MPAC. An interesting presentation. All properties will be reassessed as of January 2016 with the increased, or decreased. assessments applied in the following years.

5.2 – Bernadette and Erick Phillis, residents of Seguin. Re: Lack of public transportation in Parry Sound. A no-show.

5.3 – Dan DiNicolo, IT Co-ordinator, Town of Parry Sound. Re: Overview of the Town’s new website. This should be interesting. The site looks good. One change that wasn’t mentioned was the change to the domain – parrysound.ca. I suspect, but don’t know, that they were provided the domain by Metroland Media who own the parrysound.com domain. If you use the .com extension you will end up at their website, not a big issue but one that can only benefit them. Good thinking. By the way using the old domain, townofparrysound.com will still take you to the new website.


Resolutions and Direction to Staff
9.3.1 – Tower Hill Heritage Garden. Resolution. That the efforts of the Tower Hill Gardeners that are part of the Civic Beautification committee of the Parry Sound and District Horticultural Society at Tower Hill continue; and That it be resolved that Council approves in principle the plans identified in the report attached as Schedule “A”, to continue to beautify the Tower Hill site, in consultation with and approval from the Director of Public Works. CARRIED.

9.3.4 – RFP Wharf Repairs – Seguin River Parkette. Resolution. That Council accept the proposal from Schlager Excavating in the amount of $21,700.00, taxes extra, for repair of the wharf located at the Seguin River Parkette. CARRIED.

9.3.5 – Gas Tax for Transportation Options. Direction. That Council directs staff to negotiate an agreement with the West Parry Sound District Community Support Services (CSS) for the provision of a specialized transportation service. CARRIED.


By-laws
10.2.1 – Adoption of 2015 Budget By-law. Being a By-law to adopt the Operating and Capital Budget Estimates for the Year 2015. CARRIED.

10.2.2 – Striking tax rates for fiscal year 2015. Being a bylaw to Strike the Tax Rates for Municipal Purposes for the Year 2015. CARRIED.

10.4.1 – Agreement to permit access onto Town lands in the Archipelago to evaluate the properties. Being a By-law to authorize the execution of two agreements for the access and assessment of Town owned lands by Henvey LP. CARRIED.

That’s pretty much all there was. A couple of pieces of equipment were approved for Public Works, they were in the budget, as well as a couple of Consent Agenda items.

Oh the Irony of It All (Parry Sound, Night Crawling)

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Council Agenda Preview – April 21, 2015

20 Monday Apr 2015

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You may have noticed that there was no follow up on this site from the last meeting of Council. The most interesting item on that meeting’s agenda in my opinion, Tony Romanelli, RCC Media, regarding an electronic billboard on the CN Trestle on Bowes Street, was cancelled, so I did not attend. I understand it was a packed house with people there in support of the Open Streets Parry Sound Initiative. In the end there were no surprises. The minutes for the meeting are available at the Town’s website.

This week’s agenda looks a little bit lighter, but probably will not be that short. There is an extended deputation, 30 minutes have been set aside for a presentation by the Municipal Property Assessment corporation (MPAC).

Public Meeting
2.1 – A public meeting respecting a housekeeping amendment to the Town of Parry Sound Zoning By-law 2004-4653 under Sections 34 of the Planning Act, as amended. The purpose of the proposed Zoning By-Law amendment is to amend the Zoning By-law to permit the renovation of existing buildings in the Business Improvement Area for residential units. I’m not sure what this is all about, we’ll need to see the presentation at the meeting.

Correspondence
4.6 – Letter – Don Dudek, owner of 34 Seguin Street. Re: Support for the Zoning By-law Amendment regarding amending the cash-in-lieu of parking provision. This letter supports an elimination or revision of the cash-in-lieu of parking requirement for downtown properties.

Deputations
5.1 – Terrilynne Bannon, Municipal Relations Representative, Municipal Property Assessment Corporation. Re: Education and Training Session about MPAC. The presentation is available as part of the Meeting Agenda Package. You can download it from this site or request a copy be emailed to you by contacting Parry Sound Town Hall.

5.2 – Bernadette and Erick Phillis, residents of Seguin. Re: Lack of public transportation in Parry Sound. I’m still confused by this on a couple of points. The first is what resources are we as a municipality expected to provide, the second is what resources are the neighbouring municipalities expected to provide. Is there a double standard? Perhaps some information will be provided in the presentation.

5.3 – Dan DiNicolo, IT Co-ordinator, Town of Parry Sound. Re: Overview of the Town’s new website. This should be interesting. I have one beef with the new site as outlined in a recent post, but all-in-all it’s a great improvement.


Resolutions and Direction to Staff
9.3.1 – Tower Hill Heritage Garden. Resolution. That the efforts of the Tower Hill Gardeners that are part of the Civic Beautification committee of the Parry Sound and District Horticultural Society at Tower Hill continue; and That it be resolved that Council approves in principle the plans identified in the report attached as Schedule “A”, to continue to beautify the Tower Hill site, in consultation with and approval from the Director of Public Works. See the full agenda package for information on what’s in the plans.

9.3.4 – RFP Wharf Repairs – Seguin River Parkette. Resolution. That Council accept the proposal from Schlager Excavating in the amount of $21,700.00, taxes extra, for repair of the wharf located at the Seguin River Parkette. If you have been by this area, it’s by the Chippewa III, you will have noticed barriers alerting people to keep away from the crumbling decking.

9.3.5 – Gas Tax for Transportation Options. Direction. That Council directs staff to negotiate an agreement with the West Parry Sound District Community Support Services (CSS) for the provision of a specialized transportation service. This may address the lack of public transportation for users of specialized transport. Again I ask, what services do our neighbouring municipalities provide for their residents. Do their residents all move to Parry Sound when they need additional services? We already dedicate a large portion of our limited space for District service buildings that do not pay municipal taxes.


By-laws
10.2.1 – Adoption of 2015 Budget By-law. Being a By-law to adopt the Operating and Capital Budget Estimates for the Year 2015.

10.2.2 – Striking tax rates for fiscal year 2015. Being a bylaw to Strike the Tax Rates for Municipal Purposes for the Year 2015.

10.4.1 – Agreement to permit access onto Town lands in the Archipelago to evaluate the properties. Being a By-law to authorize the execution of two agreements for the access and assessment of Town owned lands by Henvey LP. This is a bit weird, and is a result of Town management of EMS services for the District. The agreement requests approval to assess certain EMS sites in the Pointe as Baril area as part of a transmission line installation review. I’m sure there is more to it than that, but this may get you started. If you are interested contact the Town of Parry Sound for more information.

There is more, but now that your interest has been raised you are going to check out the full agenda at this link, or the Town’s website for the summary agenda but not the full package (boooooo!).

Don’t Worry – We’ll Still Watch What Goes on at Council.
 (Parry Sound in Glorious Colour)

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Parry Sound’s New Website

17 Friday Apr 2015

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The Town has a new website that is updated and Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) compliant. I see it as five steps forward and one step back.

No, I’m not bitching and moaning. I think it’s great but there is one element missing that I think is important. The full Council Agenda packages will not be available for review and download from the website. The agenda summary, a five page or so document will be available. If you want to see the full Council Agenda Package you will need to sign up to receive the document by email electronically as they are issued. It’s pretty simple, contact the Town office and ask to be added to the mailing list. I’m on the list as are several others. It’s practical and efficient. Or you can contact the Town Office and ask for the current or a past agenda package to be sent to you.

The reason for this is that not all of the attachments are AODA compliant, and I guess if any part is not AODA compliant it’s not permitted to be posted on the Town’s website. Seems as though we are going the way of Quebec where it is illegal to sell a talking doll if it only speaks English.

My concern is that the public will not have reasonable access to the agenda package. Yes you can request it, but it can only be delivered during working hours. Want to read it on a weekend? Wait until Monday, unless of course it’s a civic holiday, in which case wait until Tuesday. Want to read it Monday night because there is something on the agenda the following evening you want to know more about? Tsk, tsk, you should have checked the agenda summary on the weekend and requested the agenda package on Monday.

I think it’s a step backward. My solution is to host the full Council Agenda Packages at this site (www.parrysounds.com). I will have a new page where the packages are listed for download. In the past I had a link to the actual agenda packages. I will continue to include links in the Agenda Preview posts to the Town’s website for the agenda summaries and a link to the full package for download. I have no intention of ‘subverting’ the system but I feel a need to do my part to ensure there is full transparency with respect to the Town’s activities.

Great Advice! (Parry Sound, a Touch of Colour)

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Council Agenda Preview – April 7, 2015

05 Sunday Apr 2015

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It’s a packed agenda this week with almost two dozen items requiring Council’s approval and review, as well as five deputations. Many of the resolutions, directions and by-laws will require little discussion, but with a full complement of Councillors in attendance the meeting will stretch out. One of the bigger issues on this week’s agenda is a rescheduled deputation related to signage on the CN trestle crossing Bowes Street (Item 5.3). I had earlier sent a letter (Item 4.2) requesting that any signage in this location not compromise the safety of motorized and non-motorized users on that stretch of the street. We have had three preventable roadway deaths in Parry Sound in the past five years; I hope the Town doesn’t compromise safety in support of commerce.

In a related matter there is a deputation (Item 5.1) and resolution (Item 9.1.1) related to the Town’s Open Streets initiative.

The bigger items on the agenda, letters, deputations, resolutions, directions and by-laws are noted below. As always head over to the Town’s website for the full agenda and the supporting documentation. I guess we can expect the new website to show up any day now. It always takes longer than promised, perhaps because there are always too many ‘cooks in the kitchen’.


Correspondence

4.2 – Letter – J. Bossart, resident of Parry Sound. Re: Comments on the proposed Electronic Billboard signage on the CN Train Trestle where it crosses Bowes Street.

4.3 – Letter – Parry Sound Downtown Business Association. Re: Proposal to install an electronic billboard sign on the CN Train Trestle where it crosses Bowes Street.

4.4 – Letter – M. Fraser, resident of Parry Sound. Re: Moratorium on train transportation of dangerous goods.

4.6 – Letters from Supporters of Open Streets Parry Sound Initiative. Re: The Parry Sound Open Streets initiative will temporarily close streets to automobile traffic and to open them to people to walk, bike, dance, play & socialize.


Deputations

5.1 – Glenda Clayton, Community Committee Parry Sound Open Streets Initiative. Re: Parry Sound Open Streets Initiative

5.3 – Trevor Pinn, Director of Finance and POA Court Services. Re: Income Tax Returns.

5.4 – Tony Romanelli, RCC Media. Re: Electronic Billboard – CN Trestle – Bowes Street


Resolutions and Direction to Staff

9.1.1 – Open Streets Event. Resolution. That the Open Streets Special Events scheduled for July 12th and September 13th, 2015 on Municipal Roads Application as submitted to Council April 7th, be approved.

9.2.3 – Operating Surplus / Deficit Policy. Resolution. That Council approves the Operating Surplus / Deficit Policy, attached as Schedule “A”.

9.2.5 – 2015 Operating and Capital Budget. Resolution. Council hereby approves the 2015 Operating and Capital Budgets, in principle, as outlined in Schedule “A” reflecting a 3.8% tax rate increase for the year 2015. It’s official, taxes are up 3.8% for 2015, plus any assessment increase from MPAC.

9.3.1 – Public Works Department Fleet Tenders. Resolution. Public Works is ordering up the much-needed trucks approved as part of the 2015 budget.

9.6.1 – Accumulated Transportation Funds. Resolution. Director of Public Works bring a report and recommendation to Council regarding the best use of the $77,435.06 accumulated for public transportation in the Public Transit Gas Tax Reserve Fund addressing how best to disburse those funds with regard to revisiting the partnership with Belvedere Customer Support Services and Town residents with special needs.


By-laws 

10.2.1 – Establishment of Capital Replacement Reserve Fund. Being a By-law to Provide for the Establishment of a Reserve Fund to be known as the Capital Replacement Reserve Fund.

10.4.1 – Ontario Trillium Foundation – Funding Agreement/Parry Sound Public Library. This is a $150,000 grant to cover the cost of replacing flooring, painting, fixing leaks, replace mouldy insulation, repair the entranceway and install a canopy. This is a much-needed upgrade to one of the most used facilities in Parry Sound.

There is more, but now that your interest has been raised you are going to check out the full agenda at the Town’s website aren’t you? Here’s the link.

Take the Low Road – It’s More Fun! (Parry Sound, a Touch of Colour)

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