May 6 2014
By Zach Cox

The following are brief reports of items discussed during a May 1 meeting of the Algonquin Highlands council.

At the April 17 Algonquin Highlands council meeting council decided to expand the proposed Dorset Transfer Station solar compactor project to include the Maple Lake landfill location as well. At the May 1 meeting Algonquin Highlands public works operations manager Mike Thomas informed council that CIF funding for the Maple Lake compactors would not be available.

According to Thomas the fact that Maple Lake is using 40-yard bins limits the cost reduction of the upgrade. If the location were to be upgraded from 20-yard bins to 40-yard compactor bins as is the case at the Dorset location receiving funding would be more likely. “Already having 40 yard bins at Maple it’s 10.1 years payback so CIF probably won’t entertain giving us any funding” he explains.

“At least we’ll get [solar compactors] for the one location” says Reeve Carol Moffatt. Councilor Gord Henderson inquired as to whether the Maple Lake upgrade may be possible in the future and Thomas indicated that the situation would be monitored and the location upgraded once the savings outweigh the costs. Council moved to apply for CIF project funding to install solar compactors Dorset Landfill Transfer Station.

Septic services present issues

While Mitch O’Grady Algonquin Highlands chief building official and bylaw enforcement officer presented amendments to the Algonquin Highlands building by-law to council the conversation turned to concerns regarding the transition of septic service responsibility from the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit to the township.

O’Grady listed concerns with the transfer of records and with the fact that over 100 septic deficiency notices issued by the HKPR Health Unit will be passed on to him and that there has been no indication that the funds for inspections collected by the Health Unit will be passed over to the township. He indicated that it is possible that the township will have to ask permit applicants to pay additional fees in order to cover the costs of performing site inspections.

O’Grady also highlighted the importance of transferring the documentation. “We don’t have an understanding of what went on in the past we need history” he says. Chief administrative officer Angie Bird explained that an email she received earlier in the week indicated that the health unit is committed to getting the Algonquin Highlands township records from 1998 to the present by the time septic service responsibilities are passed to the township but that any documentation beyond that date has no proposed delivery date.

“It was our understanding that the cooperation would be forthcoming from the director of health” says O’Grady “Their lack of responding to their commitment it’s sad.”

Moffatt proposed that council keep an eye on the situation assess the facts and take the necessary action. “Let’s gather the facts make some calls and if we have to take it political we can do that” she said.

Municipal debt has decreased

Carl Pahapill and MaryAnne Poand of Pahapill and Associates Chartered Accountants presented the draft 2013 financial statements to council informing them that the municipal debt has decreased from $413950 in 2012 to $365250 in 2013. Pahapill stated that the township of Algonquin Highlands is in “a stable healthy financial position.”