Brighton councillor, Brian Ostrander. (Photo: Joyce Cassin / Quinte News File)
Council wants to clarify grant request process
Brighton councillors have asked staff to review the grant-in-aid request process, after the municipality agreed to fund more than $140,000 worth of those this budget year.
Councillor Brian Ostrander made the motion, seconded by Councillor John Martinello, noting that the full amount requested from groups, of almost $175,000, would alone amount to a 2% tax increase.
Ostrander tells Quinte News, part of the motion is about holding organizations accountable when they get financial hand-outs.
Ostrander also noted that charitable organizations should only be coming to the municipality as a last resort and should be finding new and creative ways to raise their own funds.
He also says that groups that do want funding should be supporting the town’s core services, and used the start-up of the Beacon Youth Centre a few years ago as an example.
Deputy Mayor Laura Vink had asked for the language in the motion to be softened a bit, saying some groups might be intimidated by the wording and the original motion was too restrictive.
The motion also calls for grant-in-aid requests to be removed from the draft budget, so councillors can get a true picture of the costs of running the municipality and then added once capital and operating spending plans have been approved.
JL Richards to be asked to visit and explain wastewater plant EA
Brighton Council wants an update from a consulting firm about the ongoing class environmental assessment on the town’s troubled wastewater treatment plant.
Staff have been asked to tell JL Richards and Associates to bring a presentation to council by May 1, 2017.
Mayor Mark Walas tells Quinte News it’s just been too long since they’ve heard anything about how the process is going, when it started six months ago.
The class environmental assessment is looking at all of the issues facing the plant, ways to fix them and how to run the plant better overall, using newer techniques and technologies.
Rural road improvements are on the way
A number of rural roads in Brighton will be getting facelifts at a cost of almost $1 million.
Cooney Excavating has been awarded the contract to make improvements to nine rural roads, at a cost of $921,833 including taxes, which is below the $1.28 million budgeted for those projects this year.
Cooney’s bid was the lowest of four and the work includes tear-up, re-finishing and drainage upgrades.
Those roads include Telephone Road, Georgina Street, Whites Road, Lakeshore Road, Little Lake Road, Goodrich Road, Percy Boom Road, Hansen Road and Alexander Road
Public Works Projects Supervisor Lucas Kelly noted that Little Lake Road, which includes a massive pothole and has been the source of some insurance claims made against the municipality, will be the first to be torn up.
Brighton Council meetings could be live-streamed by mid-summer
Brighton Council meetings could be live-streamed to the internet as early as August.
Council passed a motion on Monday night asking staff to expedite the process to live-stream meetings and have the equipment set up and in place by July 31, 2017.
Deputy Clerk Vicki Kimmett noted that the timeline is achievable and two tenders have already come in for the job.
She added, she’s waiting for a third bid to come in and once it does, a full detailed costing will be presented to council for a decision.
May declared OurTMH Month
Praising the success of the group’s efforts to keep services at Trenton Memorial Hospital, Brighton Council is declaring May 2017 as “OurTMH Month” in the municipality.
OurTMH Co-Chair Mike Cowan made a brief presentation on Monday night, asking council to follow the lead of Quinte West in making the declaration, to help spur on membership for the citizens’ advocacy group.
OurTMH has already grown to include 10,000 members and is trying to reach a lofty goal of 20,000 by the end of 2017.
The motion was passed unanimously, with many councillors applauding the efforts of the group and noting the difference it makes to have a high-service hospital so close to town.
