Tag: renfrew-council

McDOUGALL MUSEUM CONSIDERED FOR BUDGET CUTS

How important is Renfrew’s McDougall Mill Museum?

A couple of points are worth considering before leaping to any kind of response.  First, the McDougall Mill was one of the very first structures in Renfrew’s history, located at the Second Chute of the Bonnechere River, and from there serving as the focal point for the community that would grow around it.  In terms of heritage and heritage buildings, the museum is the pre-eminent historical structure in Renfrew.  The fact that it’s morphed into the curation and preservation of important relics connected to Renfrew’s past makes all the sense in the world.

Second, the McDougall Mill’s place in the community is embedded in the town’s corporate logo, and it’s been prominent in just about every effort at promoting Renfrew beyond the town’s limits.

It stands as the very symbol of Renfrew.

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COUNCIL GRAPPLES WITH BUDGET FIRST DRAFT

Chopped, slashed, and cut.

As much as that might be the language of your hairdresser, those were the watch words when it came to over five hours of budget deliberations in what would be the first of several meetings intent upon bringing forward a new budget for 2025 in Renfrew.

If there was any fluff, either real or imagined, in previous municipal budgets, then Council had a machete stroke to apply to it.  There will be no fluff left unattended by the look of it.

Councillors Kyle Cybulski, John McDonald, and Andrew Dick sported the sharpest knives during the opening session, at times making Elon Musk look like just some guy with a chainsaw.  The three councillors were the most heard-from when it came to a line by line presentation by Renfrew Treasurer Charlene Jackson.

In fact, it was Councillor Cybulski who showed up with a document representing twenty-some hours of homework whereby the councillor determined that axing any number of expense items was the way to move forward, because, as he said, “it all adds up.”

Addition by subtraction.

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COUNCIL DEFERS ICE MARKING CONTRACT DECISION

Eastern Rink Services.

As the name implies, it’s a company specializing in providing services to rinks, something we have two of now with the Ma-Te-Way expansion yielding a second ice pad for community use.

Specifically, it’s a company that paints the ice, as in paints the markings on the ice, the lines, the graphics, the whole deal.  If you’ve ever wondered how they get the ice so perfectly marked up in our hockey arenas far and wide, then companies like Eastern Rink Services come into the conversation.

The company came to my interest during the last Renfrew Town Council meeting when a contract came up for painting the markings on the ice at Ma-Te-Way for the 2025-26 season.  Shawn Eckford, Recreation Operations Supervisor, had the item tucked into the agenda, the type of decision-making minutia that makes up a large chunk of a council meeting.  These things fly past Council all the time, routine matters that often don’t provoke much discussion, just a show of hands and we’ll be on our way.  If Council had a drive-thru window, it would be stuff like this that gets done there.

But this was different.

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THE KEYBOARD WARRIORS

Am I a keyboard warrior?

The term was used by Mayor Tom Sidney to describe somebody, or somebodies, who level commentary and/or criticism of Council decisions, actions, inactions, and procedures.

It would seem that, by this comment, the mayor is demonstrating the possibility that such commentary, from whatever source or sources, is starting to strike a bit of a nerve, if that nerve hasn’t been tweaked before.

The comment came as Council was discussing debt load, debentures, and possible impact on rate levies, which is municipal-speak for the amount of money you pay in property taxes.

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DEBT AND TAXES

Last tax year, Renfrew property owners were assessed a 10% tax increase to compensate for the additional burden the completion of the Ma-Te-Way complex represented when the dust finally settled on that project.  That 10% increase yielded somewhere in the area of $1 million dollars, and it was proposed at the time that the full additional amount raised be applied to the Ma-Te-Way debenture for the entire thirty-year term of that instrument.

It seems like a clean solution.  Sure, nobody’s going to host a block party and applaud a 10% additional hit on their property tax bill, but you grit your teeth and carry on, taking some small measure of comfort knowing that the increase will be perpetually applied to the debenture debt load and interest.  But it still chafes to know that you’re paying this levy increase so that the books can look a lot better for property owners thirty years downstream from now.  But you do it because you’re an awesome citizen prepared to do your bit for the common good.  

Good for you, and thank you.

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DISENTANGLING FROM A GRANT

Cars and cameras came back to the agenda again on Tuesday night at Council, sort of like a bout of heartburn that lingers after you’ve pounded down a warehouse-sized jar of Rolaids.

The heartburn has nothing to do with Council itself, or with the administrative staff that toils night and day, it’s more a matter of entanglement with other agencies and municipalities, and being part of a situation where the provincial government decided to change course mid-stream and leave everyone hanging as they did.

A quick review reveals that an Auto-Theft Prevention grant was applied for by three different entities, Admaston-Bromley Township, the Ontario Provincial Police, and the Town of Renfrew.  This was back in the day when there used to be a Police Services Board as an arm of the municipal corporation, which was the very thing changed by the provincial government when they decided to go to an amalgamated board containing several municipalities, including Renfrew.  Our Police Services Board of the time saw an opportunity to support the initiative, since Renfrew was part of a back-road network of stolen vehicle transportation used by the bad guys in an effort to avoid anti-theft surveillance along the Highway 401 corridor.

It also had a side benefit, that being that the cameras involved could perform a double-duty as monitors for the downtown stretch of Raglan Street, where numerous instances of graffiti and hooliganism ate into the carefully cultivated atmosphere the town and the BIA — Business Improvement Association — had worked so hard and spent so much to achieve.

It seemed like a good deal.

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COUNTY ASKS RENFREW FOR HELP IN BUILDING MODULAR HOUSING

Renfrew County is asking Renfrew Town Council to support them in the construction/building of forty modular units on the grounds of the Bonnechere Manor property.

The units will be of the prefabricated type, and will be a step towards alleviating some of the pressure felt by citizens when searching for affordable housing.

The target demographics are seniors not yet ready to enter long-term care/supportive accommodation and support workers who work either with these people, or with the people in the Manor proper.  A possibility exists that affordable housing for people not in the first two groups might also be made available through the project.

The County is asking the Town to waive the usual fees associated with the building of homes or housing, a number that’s in the area of some $58,000 in lost fees.

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HR ISSUE RESOLVED

If I’m not mistaken, there appears to be some sort of resolution to the HR Liaison issue that’s proven to be a difficult piece of policy-making for Renfrew Town Council.

It appears that Council is willing to move forward with the idea of an elected councillor being involved in the Stage 3 grievance protocol, meaning that when an employee grievance reaches that stage, a councillor will be present representing the town.  In fact, it appears that Council as a whole actually put forward the idea of three councillors possibly being present as part of this process, which may well be a little bit of overkill, but if it’s staff accountability we’re trying to ensure here, then we’ll certainly get more of our money’s worth.  What may elude a single councillor could not possibly get by three of them.

For the record, Stage 1 of the grievance process involves an employee attempting to reconcile the issue at hand with their immediate supervisor.  Stage 2 involves filing a grievance and having the discussion over the issue elevated to include the Director of the department involved, along with the immediate supervisor.  At Stage 2 there’s likely to be union representation in support of the employee  involved.  It’s Stage 3 where Council got hung up on who represents the town.

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SPEAKING TO BE UNDERSTOOD

I don’t know if it’s because of the impending budget, or if it’s merely a matter of coincidence, but Renfrew Town Council meetings are becoming longer and longer, marathons really, with last night’s gathering consuming five and a half hours before going into closed session, which is pretty wild given the fact that I left at about 11:15 PM.  That means the closed session extended beyond that, which has me feeling entirely sympathetic to the plight of a local municipal politician and municipal administrators.

That the agenda was chock-full was evident from the 400-plus pages of agenda materials released last Friday.  Also last Friday, a Renfrew staffer gave me a bit of heads-up that Tuesday’s meeting was going to be on the brutal side in terms of length.  I remember laughing somewhat at that piece of fore-knowledge, because I’ve sat through a lot of sessions of people  hot air and gassing for hours at a time, so I felt I was up to the task.

But for the love of God, almost six hours?  And again, that’s six hours before being chased out of the room so they could talk among themselves.  You can throw a hood over a guy’s head and waterboard him all day and it would be like a light swim compared to this exercise in democracy, both time-wise and often content-wise. More meetings like this one may trigger a Geneva Convention investigation.

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BONNECHERE TRAIL PROPOSAL MAY BE READY BY CANADA DAY

To me, it seems that this is the first, or opening phase of a really good idea that provides a ton of value without needing a ton of cash.

The Bonnechere Trail will be an addition to the trail network here in Renfrew, but with significant differences that separate it from the existing Millennium and Algonquin Trails.

First, it’s not going to be a ready-made former railway bed leftover from the halcyon days of rail here in this part of the County.  Second, it will be a more winding trail, less an affair of straight lines that trains love, but more in the way of bends and curves and elevation changes.

And third, it will be people-only.  Not to people on snow machines, or people on four wheelers, or people on bicycles or dirt bikes.  It will people-only in the sense that it will accommodate foot traffic only.

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