REPORT ON COUNCIL
September 26, 2005
Committee of the Whole Meeting: 9:01 a.m. – 3:46 p.m.
Regular Evening Meeting: 7:01 p.m. – 7:58 p.m.
All Members of Council present.
CONFIDENTIAL / CLOSED SESSION: None
BAIRD & ASSOCIATES REPORT RE DYNAMIC BEACHES: In supporting the hiring of Baird & Associates to assess the shoreline of Tiny Township, Council had hoped to exempt significant numbers of shoreline property owners from the need to have engineering studies done to prove that their property was not on a dynamic beach, and thus did not require the 45 m dynamic beach setback from the 100 year flood level (178 m above sea level). However, disappointingly the report did not identify the precise limits of dynamic, potential dynamic and non-dynamic beaches, only the type of beach at each of 51 points spaced along the shore of Tiny Township. The Report is posted on the Township website – tiny.ca. See Community Info; Public Notices; W.F. Baird Report – Review of Dynamic Beach Shorelines,
GARBAGE AGAIN: John Theriault, Treasurer, brought in a report recommending that the costs for waste management (garbage and recycling) be calculated as a tax rate and added to the County’s yearly tax rate, instead of being charged as an annual fee. His suggestion would have resulted in owners of vacant lots being charged for garbage services and for all owners being charged at their assessment level. Properties with high assessments would have paid more for the same service than properties with low assessments. Councillors Panasiuk and Breckenridge felt that this was not equitable. Council decided that the method of payment would continue to be a flat fee per household.
COUNTY REDUCES GARBAGE SERVICE AGAIN: The County of Simcoe is cutting back, again, on garbage service, and has asked the Township to decide among three options for 2006:
– No once-a-year bulky pick up, no heavy metal pickup, no free dump vouchers
– Bulky/metal item collections, $6 per household for collecting bulky items in one collection and metal items in another. No dump vouchers. (Presently Tiny has a spring clean up that costs $5 per household or $45,455.)
– Vouchers, maximum value $50. No bulky/metal pickup. (The present voucher maximum is $60 and costs approximately $48,000 per year.)
Council selected a variant on the middle option – a single bulky/metal collection. They thought this best, as more households use the annual bulky items pickup than use the vouchers.
LIBRARY FUNDING CONTINUES AT SAME LEVEL: Since 2003, Tiny Township has been paying an annual fee for each household using the libraries in Penetanguishene ($75 per user household), Midland ($80 per user household), and Springwater ($60 per user household). The fees per household are the same as those each library charges to families who do not reside in their municipality. The libraries wish to change to a per household fee for all households in Tiny Township, even though only 18% of Tiny’s households are registered at one or another of the libraries. Council felt that the current method of funding is fair and elected to remain with it. (The total paid each year is substantial, $103,600 in 2003 and $103, 675 in 2004.)
MPAC PRESENTATION: Council learned that the Assessment notices for next year were to be mailed by October 11. The valuation date for 2005-2006 is January 1, 2005. The deadline for complaints is March 31, 2006. Requests for a reconsideration of your property’s assessed value must be in by December 31, 2006. The presentation is posted on the Township’s website – tiny.ca. See Community Info; Public Notices; Municipal Property Assessment Corp (MPAC) Presentation to Council.
10 PROBLEMATIC BRIDGES AGAIN: Reconstruction of the defective bridges will begin, as scheduled, on October 26, and will be substantially complete by the end of the year, as required by SuperBuild funding. The final completion date has been set at the end of February.
RENAMING OF LAYLA DRIVE: Layla Drive is to be renamed Spruce Street, and the Township is to bear the cost of the new 911 house numbering blades for affected residences.
