REPORT ON COUNCIL July 9, 2007 Committee of the Whole Meeting: 9:03 am – 2:10 p.m. Regular Evening Meeting: 7:00 p.m. – 7:11 p.m. All Members of Council present.
CONFIDENTIAL / CLOSED SESSION: 11:41 a.m. – 12:43 p.m. and 1:31 p.m. – 2:09 p.m.
JULY LONG WEEKEND PROBLEMS: Although infractions of by-laws kept the By-Law Department extremely busy on the July long weekend, the extent of the problems was not fully evident in the report submitted by Shawn Crawford, Chief Municipal Law Enforcement Officer, largely, Council gradually discovered, because the reporting form focusses on the number of occurrences of violations rather than the number of complaints. In addition the few charges laid bore no relationship to the number of occurrences. For example, only one charge resulted from the 40 fire violations that occurred on a weekend when there was a fire ban in effect, and none for the 15 watering violations.
The explanation was that By-law lays no charges as long as people are co-operative and have no previous violations on record.
Some members of Council felt that when a by-law had been fully advertised (as was the case with the fire ban and with the prohibition against lawn watering), charges should have been laid. There is to be a discussion of whether the By-law Department should move from its current policy to one of zero tolerance.
There was an astonishing incident at Balm Beach, which was not mentioned in the report, but which was raised by George Lawrence. Apparently someone shot more than 50 firework rockets from a rental complex, which landed on the Arcade’s roof. For various reasons, it took considerable time to control this situation. In this case a charge was laid.
SUNSET BAY COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION WANTS TO BUILD A CENTRE: At the June 25 meeting of Council, Hans Merzbacher, president of the Sunset Bay Community Association, asked Council for the right to use part of the park between Sequin & Manitou for a Sunset Bay Association Community Centre.
When the request was discussed at this meeting, Clerk Ruth Coursey noted that, before it would be possible to lease parkland to the Sunset Bay Association, the Park would have to become a sixth major community park (the five community parks are Lafontaine, Wyebridge, Perkinsfield, Toanche, and CBO at Balm Beach); a Master Plan would have to be prepared; and financing of the project, including long-term maintenance, would have to be carefully considered. She noted that the two seniors’ buildings in the township – the Swinging Seniors on Balm Beach Road West and the Bayshore Seniors on Lawson in Woodland Beach – are privately owned.
The request is to be considered during the review of the Township’s Official Plan.
PUBB GROUP ASKS TO SPEAK TO COUNCIL ABOUT FENCES: Even though a public meeting about fences has been scheduled for August 11, the PUBB (Preserving the Use of Balm Beach) group, asked to make an oral submission to Council. After considerable discussion, Council decided that the PUBB group should make its presentation at the public meeting and then, if still concerned that their points had not been heard, they might speak to Council at its meeting on August 13. Some 64 individuals attended the evening meeting to protest this decision, but Council stuck by its decision.
A SECOND BRUSH AND LEAF AND YARD WASTE COLLECTION AUTHORIZED FOR FALL 2008: Council decided to authorize a brush and leaf and yard waste collection in the fall of 2008 in addition to the trial collection this fall on October 15. Their feeling was that a single collection was not sufficient to give a sense of the interest in and the cost of such a collection. By making the decision about next year now, Council ensured that next year’s collection date would be included in the County’s 2008 Curbside Collection Calendar.
