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Council Mtg July 16

Posted by hockey17 on July 17, 2007 - 10:39pm

Attended last nights Council meeting and as usual it moved from the sublime to the ridiculous. To start off, there was a moments silence, followed by the Lord's Prayer. Two of the audience actually sat down during the prayer, obviously unaware of proper etiquette or just didn't care--those of us who do care, would like those who don't to either wait outside til the prayer is over or follow protocol, which says remain standing until the prayer is completed (What else,though,should we expect from louts).

On the positive side of the meeting, a new tanker(demo) is going to be purchased for the Wiarton Fire Dept. at substantial savings. The Sauble Medical Clinic is a GO as all the required signatures have been obtained. B R A V O !!!! Positive outcomes can result from working as a team as these 2 results prove.

And now for the ridiculous. Council decided to ask Henderson Paddon (HP) to look into the cost of burying "dead pipe" in Hepworth for sewer and water (this couldn't be the multi-million dollar pipeline rearing its ugly head again could it-- no, silly me). There was a recorded vote in reverse order and it came out 5-4 in favour. Can you guess who the 5 were ? No cheating!!! Next came a motion to ask HP how much they would charge to do this burying investigation. Is there something wrong with the order here ??? Following this, in no particular order, came Councillor Harron voting against putting money aside from the general funds to pay for the fire truck , then voting yes to buying the truck. She voted for spending tax payers money to have HP research the cost of burying the dead pipe then voted against spending money to have HP attend a meeting when a small sewer project(cost)would be presented by another company, because she says, it would be a waste of taxpayers money ( WHAT ???) Councillor Wunderlich went on, at another point in the meeting, about the signage on 2nd Ave saying the signs there say no parking on both sides of 2nd so where do the people park? Later on, during "question period", a member of the audience asked Wunderlich that if he had so much trouble with the paid parking, why did he never attend any parking committee meetings. Now get this, he said he was told by the previous CAO that he was too confrontational and should not attend these meetings. Question -- if you cannot attend meetings (due to your personal biases and confrontational nature) to represent your area, why did you run for election as you can't properly represent your constituents.

Another positive that came out of discussion was presented by Councillor King. His point-- how can council drop the number of garbage bags from 2 to 1 and penalize the young families who have babies( diapers to get rid of) and the seniors ( Depends to get rid of- maybe). These are the needy groups that may not have a lot of money and we're penalizing them. Excellent point!!!

Stan Hoath brought up the idea of cancelling a future COW meeting since a couple of councillor members would be absent. He voted against cancelling the infamous walkout council meeting (he was one of the "walkers"). What's up Doc !!!

Council does have positives but could progress so much better if the "ditherers" would come aboard and work with the members who do their homework and have a vision for our town. Will this EVER happen ???

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re: Council Meeting

Submitted by ollie on July 18, 2007 - 1:52pm.

I also was appalled at the lack of respect with the people who decided to sit during the prayer but the fact the Echo reporter was using her computer during the prayer was even more appalling! Keith Gilbert needs a call on this one!

Mark's lack of understanding how to read a road sign is a great concern....if you can't read a simple road sign how on earth can you decipher all the material councilors have to go through on a weekly basis? As far as Yvonne and her flip-flop vote that shouldn't be a surprise. She may not have understood the motion! Dan Kerr missed one vote completely! He was too busy reading to vote for or against a motion.

I was sure glad to see Chris from the County planning dept. at the meeting or I am sure they would have voted against the recommendation of Cara and would have given the go ahead for the Hope Bay campgrounds to expand! It is amazing how these 5 are so attached at the hip!

There should also be a rule that people who have been drinking should not be allowed in Council Chambers.

Flogging a dead pipe.

Submitted by garym on July 31, 2007 - 11:42am.

Bayshore has caught up with the dead-pipe issue, and however you may feel about the prospect of Hepworth obtaining water from Sauble (or is it vice versa?) I do note with some grim disappointment how, just as with the previous trenchings done during the gas pipelining of that same road, nowhere in his plan do I see the more feasible, profitable and economically catalytic option to string municipal dark fibre along that same said re-roading. But what do I know.

South Bruce Peninsula Council is requesting quotes to install dead pipes between Hepworth and Sauble Beach. Councillor Dan Kerr says Bruce County is proceeding with upgrades to County road 8, and says this is the best time for the town to do any needed work on the road. He says the dead pipes would be in place for future water and sewer needs in Hepworth.

Kerr says it only makes sense to install the pipes while the road is under construction. He says council is looking at its options and what it will cost to install the pipes.

Councillor Art King says he doesn't see the benefit of putting the dead pipes in. He says the taxpayers are going to have to pay for them, even though they are not going to be using them.
[ Dead pipes in South Bruce Peninsula ]

I do hope Kerr has factored in the 20 years maintenance costs of ensuring empty pipe integrity while we wait for the viability of filling them, and then the projected 2027 costs to dig it all up again so we can inspect each and every seam prior to trusting the aged rig with our drinking water ...

Just a thought.

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever

Only A Short Run In Hepworth

Submitted by Dodge on July 31, 2007 - 12:26pm.

The section of county highway due for repair is only a short run in Hepworth out to the Legion Road. It would be possible to run a fibre trunk but the service area is very small. Placing dead pipe would result in a Hepworth charge to residents I would guess otherwise who would you tap to pay for it? I doubt they are interested and besides there is no EA to cover it. There is too high a risk that it will never be used thus it is a non starter.

Dead Pipe Issue Closed - Other project problems not addressed.

Submitted by Dodge on August 21, 2007 - 7:47pm.

I am late posting this due to my preference to go fishing and the fishing has been good. We have had some great BBQs of Colpoys Bay Rainbow this summer.

This dead pipe proposal originated with Council to install water and sewer main along with road improvement work that had to be done. The stretch in Hepworth is from Tim Horton's to the Legion Road about 1.3 Km. The assumption was that a 16 " main originating at Wiarton and routed along Spring Creek Rd would supply a 10" main down Legion Rd and into Hepworth. A 10" sanitary sewer would also be run. Cost estimate was $1,119,000 for 1.3 Km. Council dropped the idea.

This whole exercise was a waste of Council time and again taxpayers will get the bill for the estimate. Pipe installation could never be done in any case since there is no Environmental Assessment to cover the work. The Water and Sewer EA was never renewed and expired in June 2006. That monster project is dead and finished and could never be used to cover any type of construction related to the old pipeline scheme.

Council instructed the Town's engineer to change the EA to focus on a small system at Sauble Beach earlier this year. One of the possible new solutions for the EA will be presented to Council soon. It will require further evaluation of course.

On Sept 4 next we should get a look at a possible method for setting up a small wastewater treatment system for the core area of Sauble Beach. The keys to building it will be to keep it small so that treated effluent does not have to be dumped in the Sauble River and keeping it simple to keep costs down and possibly attract funding for a small project.

On another project there is a more immediate problem. Funding for a project to combine small water systems at Sauble Beach is still being delayed by the Federal Government. The earliest that a start could be made is 2008 and since the tentative funding was based on a projected cost developed in 2003 the users on these small systems face a much higher bill for their share than the original projected amount of around $5000.

I am told that over a million dollars has already been spent upgrading the Oliphant water system (also part of this project) and it is not complete yet. How many homes is this for? I find this hard to believe but, if true, it means Council should be spending time on real water expense problems instead of dead pipe.

The obvious path to take here is to upgrade three or four of the small Sauble systems, connect them together in pairs where practical, shut the others down and be done with it. If Council continues with this project as planned in 2003 there will be a lot of grief when they tell people how much it will cost in 2008.

Combining all seven systems to the marginal water supply at the school wells, piping the systems together and building water storage tanks with water treatment seems like an idea that will be way too expensive in 2008 project dollars to justify the cost.