Loading...
The Citizen, 2015-01-29, Page 18PAGE 18. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2015. Continued from page 8 discussed the challenges the group will face in the coming year. Judy Lyons detailed some of the events the Friends of the Museum plan on holding. She said the group is looking at an event at the Hot Stove Lounge in the North Huron Wescast Complex for Family Day; an Edwardian Tea day in the spring; barbecues in June, July and August; an expanded Halloween event and a special Christmas at the museum event. “We had a lot of attendance at the previous Christmas events,” Lyons expained. “We couldn’t do it in 2014 due to renovations.” During a question period for the group, Deputy-Reeve James Campbell asked if the group had considered a Canada Day event, citing one he had attended in Timmins in 2014 as an example. “[The community] had all their events geared around the museum on the July 1 weekend,” he said. They had just about everything you could want for a celebration and I was amazed at the crowd of people they had for that.” Council also asked what kind of space Steffler felt might be needed for her idea on an exhibit for Munro. “We’ve been looking at [North Huron Economic Development Officer Connie Goodall’s] office,” Steffler said. “You could move Connie over here [to the North Huron Township Hall].” Steffler said that, with some minor renovations, a door could be installed in the building facing out to the existing Alice Munro Literary Garden so a special section of the museum focused on Munro could be accessed from the garden. “We could put a sign that says Alice Munro museum on the whole area,” she said. “One whole section for Alice Munro.” Steffler also said the space currently being used for the Munro exhibit could be used to highlight other local authors, saying she was currently working on a display for Harry J. Boyle, an author who, if he was still alive, would be 100 years old this year. “That way we could have constant turn-over in the museum... and we could focus on other people,” she said. “That’s what I would like to see.” Councillor Brock Vodden said he believed there wasn’t enough space in the whole museum to recognize Munro. “We need to look at a complete alternative,” he said. “That building has a lot of uses, but, in terms of a display commensurate with her importance, that’s not the place to do it, there just isn’t room.” Goodall explained the labour market partnership project looks at five specific areas, and museum development is one of them. “As part of the guidelines, we have asked the consultants to look at all the potential sites in the county to engage with the community and find out where it makes sense to host an exhibit,” she said. Council took no action in regards to the suggestions, aside from waiting for the results of the study. NH Council, group hope to capitalize on Munro’s win Continued from page 8 thought he understood “where Knott is heading,” but said it wouldn’t work. “You can’t put, into an agreement, an unknown cost,” he said. “You can’t put into a lease that the leasee owes x per cent of an unknown cost. They have no control over those. They have the insurance for the hangar and all that.” Seip went on to say that he felt that a market value study should be completed to make sure that North Huron is getting a fair price. “Maybe it does need to be discounted for amenities,” he said. “However, we want to make sure we’re getting fair market value. Just because [Apex Helicopters] have another agreement, with another hangar, doesn’t mean they get the same here.” Knott disagreed, stating that he wasn’t talking about unknown costs, but unexpected costs. “The operating costs and expenses are clearly laid out in the airport’s budget,” he said. “Whether it’s snowplowing, maintenance or insurance, it’s in the budget. There are no unknowns. The only unknown is whether one of those items might get a massive increase at some point in the future. If we’re tied to COLA, and I’ve never seen a corporate lease tied to COLA, we could be in trouble. COLA is something you use for payroll. I hesitate to sign anything with anyone that will limit us in recovering costs in the future. That’s separate from fair-market value.” Knott said the lease should start off on the right foot by having COLA as part of the increase, but there also needs to be a way to recover costs if the price for maintaining the airport increases exponentially. “We only have two tenants now, but the reality is we’re on pretty thin ice as far as income for the property and if we tie to COLA, we might be cutting ourselves short in the future,” he said. Clerk Kathy Adams said that, despite Knott’s experiences, COLA and CPI are often used in contracts. She said that North Huron uses it in many of its contracts. “In a lot of our agreements, whether it’s for renting space in our facilities or land we rent, it’s all attached to COLA/CPI,” she said. “That’s how we have done all of our agreements for a number of years.” Knott said that, regardless of the existing practice, contracts need to be tied to something other than COLA or CPI increases. “I find it limiting as the landlord to be tied to that,” he said. “I know we could get caught later on down the road.” Councillor Campbell said he would prefer to see a 20-year lease with a five-year renewal period, similar to a mortgage, to alleviate some of Knott’s concerns. “That’s a good compromise,” Seip said. “It gives the tenant the 20-year term and it gives us the chance to renew every five years. From there, it’s the leasee’s determination as to whether he accepts or not.” Seip also said that it could work better for the leasee than the township if values happen to go down somehow, but said it was still a good idea. Newson asked Knott to provide the documents on which he was basing his comparison so she could try to implement similar changes. She also said leasing land at the airport is a fairly unique arrangement. “The difference here is that when we rent office space or an area to another group, they are just using what’s there,” she said. “We typically do that for five or 10 years but we’re not asking them to fork over the money to put the building on the property.” Newson was referring to the fact that, regardless of who now owns the lease, someone spent the money to put the hangar on the property. “There are places where these leases are 45 years,” she said. “They are leasing the land, but they are also preparing it, building upon it and operating the hangar. We have no expense tied to these buildings. Even if the cost goes up, it won’t affect the long-term outcome when we’re talking about the amount of money being dealt with. I understand what people are saying, but currently the airport has no operating expenses.” The operating expenses for the airport are off-set by the rental cost of the surrounding farmland. Newson said if that changes, it will affect the revenue for the airport, but not the hangars. She also said it would be a real struggle to get businesses to lease the land and then spend $50,000 to $60,000 on a hangar. Campbell said the farmland could change fairly drastically, mentioning that over 33 years he has watched farms go from $60,000 to a million or more. “We have a big investment in that land,” he said. “Once you lock it in for 20 years, it’s locked in and we have no option to open it up.” Reeve Neil Vincent said that he felt, having only three hangars, it would be better to err on the side of caution, or commerce. “I think it would be more important to have the commerce out of the extra hangars than worry about getting that extra little bit of money,” he said. “We’re talking about relatively small acreages and I think having a successful running operation is [preferable].” Vincent went on to say that council has to be careful not to “bonus” to get businesses to invest in the area, but that the municipality can continue to practice having reasonable leases for the lands. “Whoever builds or puts anything on that land has to carry liability insurance for everything that happens on it and I think that being able to make it attractive, and have businesses operating there is key to have a successfully-run airport... Keep in mind that if we try to raise the leases for the land, we might stop other hangars that [could possibly] open.” Seip said that the discussion thus far wasn’t about raising the prices, but about changing the lease structure. “In five years, there will be a new council that may want to take a new direction,” he said. “This five-year renewal plan gives council an avenue to take if they need it. Right now, we’re locking them into this cost of living thing and that’s it.” Seip said he didn’t see the new renewal clause as something that would be a detriment to other people looking to build hangars. “I just see that as the nature of doing business,” he said. Councillor Brock Vodden felt the discussion wasn’t in line with the way the township had reacted in the past. “When Apex [Helicopters] came to us, we celebrated them,” he said. “I think this is nonsense. We’re not going to nickle and dime them out of the airport.” Knott pointed out that, with the change, the municipality was looking at a net loss of $2,000 in income as the office space Apex Helicopters had rented, on a month- to-month basis brought the municipality $3,000, while the rental suggested would only bring in $1,008.22 plus HST. Newson said that was true, but that she couldn’t ask Apex Helicopters to not move out of the office. “I can look for more people,” she said. Knott also took issue with the fact that North Huron’s building code was referenced in the document. He felt that wasn’t appropriate, as the land was actually in Morris- Turnberry. Newson, however, said that neither was legally enacted, as airports are mandated federally. “The provincial building code that Morris-Turnberry applies doesn’t apply to the land,” she said. “The lease says that North Huron’s [Building Code and Chief Building Official’s rulings] apply.” The motion to lease the land was defeated and Newson was instructed to come back with a market review as well as a new 20-year lease with a five-year renewal option implemented. Newson’s report suggested that Apex Helicopters, once this issue was dealt with, planned to expand and build a helicopter landing site beside the existing hangars. Council struggles with valuation of hangar leases Fighting cancer and fires Chemicals and toxic gases are becoming a big concern for firefighters as their relation to life- threatening diseases continue to be discovered. To help combat potentially cancer-causing chemicals, DuPont Pioneer donated $5,183 to the Fire Department of North Huron (FDNH) for Hydrogen-Cyanide monitoring equipment on Monday. The inorganic compound has been linked to increased heart attack and throat cancer risks and, following gear washers and dryers that were purchased last year, the devices are the next in a suite of technologies the FDNH is pursuing to make sure its firefighters stay healthy. Shown are, from left: FDNH Chief David Sparling, North Huron Reeve Neil Vincent, FDNH Captain and Health and Safety Officer Paul Kerr, DuPont Pioneer Office Assistant and Safety Lead Linda Doiron, Location Manager for Wingham Plant Tim Martin and Account Manager Troy Hamilton. (Denny Scott photo) Read Rhea Hamilton Seeger’s Gardening column on the Huron Home and Garden Guide section of our website www.northhuron.on.ca