REPORT ON COUNCIL
April 10, 2007
Committee of the Whole Meeting: 9:02 a.m. – 5:01 p.m.
Regular Evening Meeting: 7:00 p.m. – 7:23 p.m.
All members of Council present.
CONFIDENTIAL / CLOSED SESSION: 3:34 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
1st ANNUAL PIG ROAST: Mayor Breckenridge announced that the 1st Annual Pig Roast is to be held on Saturday, July 7, from 1-4 pm at the Perkinsfield Park. There will be games, prizes, displays and booths. The event is open to all Tiny residents at a cost of $1 per person and $3 per family.
SEPTIC RE-INSPECTION UPDATE: During the first five years of the septic re-inspection program (2002-2006), C.C. Tatham and Associates re-inspected all septic systems older than 10 years from the town line north to Concession Road 16.
This summer, the whole northeast quadrant of the Township will be inspected, from Methodist Point Road on the west, Concession 16 on the south, to the shore on the east and north. This area includes Toanche, Coutnac Beach, Pinery Point, Clearwater Beach, Adams Point, Sawlog Bay, Georgian Bay Estates, Kettles Beach and Farlain Lake. The fee that will be charged to each property owner is $71.95.
All problems discovered in 2002 have been remedied. As of the end of December 2006, follow up work was still required (and will be continued this year) for 11 systems inspected in 2003, 28 in 2004, 402 from 2005, and 505 from 2006 for a total of 946. The problems include (beginning with the most frequent):
– pumpouts needed
– structure or driveway over the bed or tank
– root intrusions into the bed area
– more information needed from the resident
– unsafe tank conditions (corroded tank material, deficient lids)
– improper treatment of sewage due to high water table
– improper grey water discharge
– exposed distribution pipes
– outhouses in disrepair
– decks supported by the septic tank
– grading/erosion deficiencies
– outdated pumpout records
– leaching bed too close to a well
– old system not in use and needing decommissioning
and miscellaneous others.
FIREWORKS TO BE PERMITTED ON TWO WEEKENDS ONLY: In response to various complaints about fireworks, Shawn Crawford, Tiny’s Chief Municipal Law Enforcement Officer, prepared a report and proposed changes to the Township’s Noise By-law. Discussion of various related issues made Council feel that a separate By-law was needed to deal with sale of fireworks, appropriate times for setting them off, fire-crackers, and safety. Key points in the proposed by-law for residents are
– the restriction of consumer fireworks to the hours between dusk and 11:00 pm on Victoria Day and Canada Day weekends
– the banning of fireworks during fire bans
– a ban on firecrackers (fireworks which explode with little or no visual effect)
– the need for a valid certificate from the Explosive Regulatory Division of Natural Resources Canada before displaying or setting off Display Fireworks/Pyrotechnic Special Effects and also for a Township permit
COMMITTEE INQUIRIES RE ACCOUNTS: The kind of exploratory questioning of the Township’s accounts that Councillor Nigel Warren has been pursuing has been curbed. Members of Council were told that questions are to focus on things that seem to be incorrect or out of line. Councillor Warren was told that he should address his questions directly to the treasurer rather than taking up Committee of the Whole time.
(We note that observers found his questions useful, that it seemed likely that they would gradual dwindle in number as he got full understanding of the Township’s accounting practices, and that some useful reconsideration of habitual procedures resulted from the questions.)
LEAF AND YARD WASTE COLLECTION: The Woodland Beach Property Owners’ Association wrote a letter to Council asking that there be one or two leaf and yard waste pickups each year in late spring and late fall, observing that
“The constant smoke in the shoreline communities from smoldering fires is not only a health hazard to our residents but a direct cause of greenhouse gas & pollution. There are a number of residents, many of them children & the elderly, with asthma & various lung diseases. Driving or walking along Tiny Beaches Road in the Spring & Fall can become quite a challenge if one wants to see where one is going or breathe while doing it!… Most of our residents are forced to burn as they do not have the means to compost properly or take their yard waste to a dump, nor can they find and/or pay a suitable person to do this for them.”
The County of Simcoe (which is in charge of garbage collection) offers collection of leaf and yard waste for $1.75 per unit, plus brush at $0.80 per unit, for a total of $2.55 per unit, and notes that residents may bring leaf and yard waste up to 500 lbs and brush up to 300 lbs to the County Transfer Station free of charge.
Council decided to authorize a trial one-time pickup on October 15, 2007 (a week after Thanksgiving), at a cost of $24,024, to be paid out of the garbage reserve. Leaves and garden waste are to be by the curb no later than 7 am in Kraft paper leaf bags, unwaxed cardboard boxes or open top rigid containers; brush is to be in bundles no larger than 1.2 m in length, 30 cm in diameter, individual pieces no wider than 12 cm.
