HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 2014-12-24, Page 15Wednesday, December 24, 2014 • Lucknow Sentinel 15
Changes coming to ACW's procedural by-law
Dave Flaherty
Goderich Signal Star
Residents of Ashfield-Col-
borne-Wawanosh will have
their microphone time ear-
lier during council
meetings.
The municipality will be
making some changes to its
procedural by-law.
Council was presented
with the revised by-law at
the Dec. 16 meeting.
The major change is that
the open forum portion of
meetings, where members of
the public can comment or
ask questions about items on
the agenda, will now take
place earlier, immediately
following the adoption of the
minutes of the previous
meeting.
Previously the open forum
had taken place after "unfin-
ished business"
ACW Reeve Ben Van Die-
penbeek told The Signal Star
the changes were introduced
after receiving input from
the public.
Over the course of the
meeting, resident Shawn
Drennan provided a number
of suggestions for council on
the procedural by-law.
Drennan's suggestions
included allowing residents
to speak on specific agenda
items after they are debated
by council, that open forum
start at the beginning of the
meeting, if a resident asks for
a certain agenda item only to
have a first and second read-
ing (through open forum,
delegation or letter to
council) that council delay
the third reading until the
next meeting and that one or
two council meetings be
held in each ward every year.
Drennan said he would
like to see more people
attend council meetings and
this may not be possible if
they are always in the same
venue.
Coun. Jennifer Miltenburg
told Drennan while she
appreciated the intent of his
suggestions, she couldn't
support them.
She said the meetings are
for elected officials and staff,
and by accepting the first
suggestion from Drennan
meetings could potentially
become an open commen-
tary on items that have
approved in the past.
Van Diepenbeek said by-
laws are only given a first
and second reading when
they are ready for the third
and final reading, with some
exceptions.
Speaking on the sugges-
tion of moving meetings
around, Coun. Bill Vanstone
said he didn't believe it
would be practical, as it
would require furniture and
equipment to be
transported.
When the by-law came up
for discussion, it was deter-
mined the time limit for each
speaker during open forum
would be five minutes.
Because further revisions
will be made to the by-law, it
will be brought back to
council at a further meeting
for a final vote.
ACW council defers decision on request for snow removal on MacKenzie Camp Road
Dave Flaherty
Goderich Signal Star
Ashfield-Colborne-
Wawanosh (ACW) council
has deferred its decision on
whether to take on the cost
of winter maintenance for
MacKenzie Camp Road.
Resident Lynne Harris,
who owns a residence on the
road, which is located west
off Hwy. 21 just north of Kin -
tail, made the request for
snow removal to council
members at the Dec. 16
meeting.
Harris said historically the
road has been maintained
by the owners of a nearby
trailer park, who use a truck
with a blower to remove
snow.
However, Harris believes
just because the road has
never been maintained by
the township that it
shouldn't be.
In correspondence to
council, Harris said she was
of the understanding that if
someone purchased prop-
erty to build a residence on a
road which doesn't receive
winter maintenance from
the municipality or if they
wanted to live in a seasonal
residence all -year round on
a similar road, a request
such as hers would be
denied.
Harris said neither of the
situations applies to her
request, as her family has
Huron -Kinloss Mayor is
Bruce County Warden
Valerie Gillies
Editor, Lucknow Sentinel
The inaugural meeting of
the mayors of Bruce County
was December 4, 2014. For
the second time Huron -
Kinloss Mayor Mitch
Twolan was acclaimed as
Warden for Bruce County.
He had been Warden in
2007 and now again for the
2015 term.
Twolan is proud to be
Mayor of Huron -Kinloss. He
is proud to follow in the foot-
steps of Stuart Reavy who
was the first Mayor of the
amalgamated municipality
and served from 1999 to
2000.
There are eight munici-
palities in Bruce County
including: Municipality of
Arran-Elderslie,
Municipality of Brockton,
Township of Huron -Kin-
loss, Municipality of Kin-
cardine, Municipality of
Northern Bruce Peninsula,
Town of Saugeen Shores,
Municipality of South
Bruce and Town of South
Bruce Peninsula. Each
municipality has an elected
mayor. The eight mayors
vote for one to be elected as
Warden for Bruce County
to represent them at the
county level. In some coun-
ties this appointment is for
a 2 or 4 year term in Bruce
County it is still a 1 year
term.
Congratulations to Mayor
Twolan for representing
Huron -Kinloss as well as
representing the Mayors of
Bruce County in this
appointment.
always owned the property
and the residence has not
been assessed as seasonal.
She claimed that when she
took over ownership of the
home through an inherit-
ance she was never informed
that the municipality would
not assume responsibility for
snow removal.
"I believe I have a valid
argument," Harris said.
In a report to council,
public works superintendent
Brian Van Osch stated the
road is very narrow, with
utility poles and fences very
close to the travel area.
"Because this road has not
been reconstructed or built
up, it will hold snow espe-
cially along the fence line,
and therefore the snowplow
will leave snow banks. Those
snow banks will quickly fill
in and cause more snow to
accumulate," Van Osch said.
Harris said over the years
the township has started to
plow many previously
unmaintained roads.
She used Millar Street in
Benmiller as an example of a
maintained road that could
not facilitate a regular plow.
Reeve Ben Van Diepen-
beek pointed out that Millar
Street is about "100 metres
long" and is more of a
"laneway" than a road.
Coun. Bill Vanstone said
he had a few concerns with
the request.
"We need some time to
look at this," Vanstone said,
noting he would like to defer
a decision until the spring
when councillors will be
given a tour of all the roads
within in the municipality.
In his report, Van Osch
noted that there are three
other roads in ACW where
residents live year round that
do not receive winter main-
tenance - Zion Road, west of
Laurier Line, Birch Beach
Road, west of Kingsbridge
Lane and Kerry's Line, west
of Glen's Hill Road.
In these cases, the resi-
dents have the responsibility
of plowing the roads.
Coun. Jennifer Miltenburg
said if the request is turned
down, Harris was entitled to
a reason while Coun. Paul
Bollinger felt Harris was as
entitled to the service as any
other resident is.
A motion was made by
Deputy Reeve Roger Watt to
have Van Osch come back
with a report indicating how
much it would cost the
township to provide winter
maintenance to the four
roads.
Van Osch said it would
likely be about a month
before the report was ready
due to holiday scheduling.
Harris voiced her disap-
pointment with council's
decision.
"This doesn't help me, it's
not what I came here for,"
she said.
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