The following are brief reports of items discussed during a July 26 Minden Hills council meeting.
Fleming College is proposing the construction of a water-testing facility at the Minden Hills waste water treatment plant site off of Deep Bay Road.
Correspondence from the college indicates its Centre for Water and Waste Water Technologies would operate the facility and the project would require no capital funding from the township.
“Fleming College’s CAWT would provide the investments needed for a testing facility at the Minden Hills WWTP” reads a submission from the school. “Furthermore CAWT would assume all responsibility for operation of the testing facility including costs to segregate the areas and provide appropriate and required insurance and pay for utilities and other associated costs. Terms for the collaboration would be negotiated with the Township of Minden Hills.”
Along with the township and the college the project would include partners such as the Ontario Clear Water Agency which operates the township’s treatment plant the Ministry of Environment Conservation and Parks.
Further information regarding the proposal will come back to the council table in reports from Minden Hills staff.
Township to be reimbursed
The township will seek reimbursement from residents who damaged a well at the Irondale landfill when they inadvertently encroached onto township property as they performed landscaping in the area.
After the township removed trees providing a visual buffer to the landfill for abutting property owners those property owners planted new trees and also constructed a berm and pond in the area.
However part of those landscaping efforts took place on township land and in the process a well on the landfill property was destroyed.
The legal surveying well replacement and correspondence fees the township paid as a result of the incident amount to $8700 according to a staff report.
“Staff agrees that the well being destroyed was accidental but staff has a duty to report to council when these incidents occur” the report from environmental and property operations manage Ivan Ingram reads. “The residents that did the improvements have done a wonderful job to beautify their property as well as the surrounding area.”
Councillors agreed that the residents would need to reimburse the township for the expenses and the township will work out a repayment plan.
Residents request extension of non-hunting boundaries
A group of township residents is asking council to extend non-hunting boundaries to a property along Bobcaygeon Road.
According to a petition signed by 15 residents people who have purchased a 100-acre lot along the road intend to use it for hunting purposes.
“The property lines many residential homes with children families and pets who enjoy the use of their yards lining this property” the petition reads. “We are concerned for our safety in regards to stray bullets and how easy it is to get turned around when out in wooded areas.
“It has also been brought to our attention there is the possibility of this 104 acres being fenced in thus trapping the wildlife inside the property. That is not but borderline poaching.
“We the undersigned are asking for this property to be listed as a non-hunting property due to the safety concerns we have for our loved ones.”
Mayor Brent Devolin said he had a number of questions and would like to see more information on the issue.
“Certainly I think this will be coming back to us” Devolin said.
Councillor Pam Sayne said she was supportive of the petition and that sometimes people don’t know where they should and shouldn’t be hunting.
“There are a lot of people hunting on private property . . . I’ve seen bullets through people’s houses” Sayne said.