The North Dundas Council meeting of April 13 was held via zoom and streamed live on the township’s Facebook site.
Development continues in North Dundas. Dan Belleau, Director of Public Works, reiterated that, of each request for water and sewer units, the allocations are, “above the anticipated unit requests” but, “still within available capacity.” There were seven requests at this meeting, for a total of 20.5 water and sewer units allocated. There will be some decisions made in the coming months about what North Dundas will do to increase water and sewer capacity.
The Council accepted Annual Reports from the Ontario Clean Water Agency (OCWA) regarding the drinking water system in North Dundas, as well as both the Winchester and the Chesterville Wastewater Treatment Systems. The spring discharge of the Chesterville sewage lagoons in April 2020 contained higher than acceptable levels of total suspended solids (TSS), caused by algae growth in the polishing cells. At Winchester’s Wastewater Treatment System, the ECA limit of total ammonia nitrogen was exceeded during the fall discharge, caused by lack of precipitation and high summer evaporation.
Three Community Grants of $400 each were awarded to Seaway Surge Baseball Club Inc., Mountain Lions Club, and St Paul’s Presbyterian Church. There are 5 grants available, and the deadline for applications is April 1 and September 1 of each year. Nine applications were received by April 1. SDG Library is installing a “Little Free Library at the Morewood Community Centre. A Summer Pool Co-ordinator has been hired for 2021, which is a hopeful sign for the upcoming summer.
Section 2.2 was removed from proposed zoning bylaw amendments following the public meeting, but the rest were passed. These bylaws included standardising the size and setback of front yards in townhomes in Winchester and Chesterville to allow enough space for parking, and exempting ramps and other barrier-free structures from all setbacks. The zoning bylaw amendments to the Sevita property that requires the raising of the Sandy Row road passed as well.
The Township received a $7,300 Fire Safety Grant from the Office of the Fire Marshall, intended for increased training and virtual inspections. Due to a one-time doubling of Gas Tax Funds, soon to be rebranded Canada Community-Building Fund, North Dundas received an extra $343, 851, for a total of $701 535, for this year. North Dundas also received $5,000 from the Ontario Cannabis Legalization Implementation Fund, intended to help with the implementation costs of recreational cannabis legislation.
The Local Business Expo will not be held in person again this year. Instead, the Economic Development Office is planning a series of short, professionally created videos highlighting some businesses. The videos will be released on the Township and Chamber of Commerce’s social media. This is dependent on funding from the Canada Healthy Communities Initiative grant of $127,500 under the Digital Solutions funding. The Explore North Dundas magazine is now complete. It features six businesses: Doyle’s Pub, Iron Forge Pizzeria, Morewood Lucky Mart, MacEwen’s Chesterville, The Planted Arrow, and Simply Baked Catering. There are also 144 business card sized ads over 9 pages. 9500 copies were printed, with 8500 copies mailed out in mid-March to residents of North Dundas, Russel, Finch, Avonmore, and Berwick.
Waste management, and the Counties’ involvement, was discussed at the meeting. Although waste management is not the mandate of the Counties’ Council, they nevertheless created a presentation for the Counties’ council. Mayor Fraser and Deputy Mayor Armstrong were very emphatic that the other councillors should pay attention and make sure they read and understand what the Counties Council has presented. North Dundas is unique in its waste management practices, and very efficient. There will be future meetings to explore what kind of information was presented at the County level.
Finally, the cost for various building permits is being examined, and some will be adjusted. There’s a careful balance to be found between ensuring that the cost of the permits pay for the service, but not to the point of making a large profit. Deputy Mayor Armstrong said “we don’t want to start making permits punitive.”
North Dundas will have a leaf and yard waste pickup as follows:
May 3: Village of Winchester;
May 10: Village of Chesterville including Thompson Subdivision;
May 17: Villages of Morewood and South Mountain, Hamlets of Inkerman, Mountain, Hallville, and Ormond, and Forestwood Heights Subdivision.
