Duane Hicks
The sidewalk on the east side of the 700 and 900 blocks of Portage Avenue will not be removed as part of Phase II of the biomass roads project this spring.
Council approved a recommendation from the Operations and Facilities executive committee last night indicating that while the road work and water and sewer infrastructure reconstruction on that stretch of road will go ahead this year, the contract will be amended to keep the sidewalk.
The committee said the sidewalk should stay due to the fact the east ones were replaced in 1999.
As such, the sections of sidewalk are relatively young in age and not due for replacement for an estimated 39 years.
As well, the 1999 replacement of the sidewalks was completed under a local improvement program, where the abutting property owners have just completed paying for the improvements.
All property owners abutting these sections of sidewalk will be notified by letter that the sidewalk in front of their property will remain.
During the second phase of the biomass roads project, that sections of the sidewalk will be removed and then replaced in order to install water and sewer service lines to their property line.
Also at last night’s meeting, council:
•heard a presentation from Meghan Haehn, Public Sector Accounting Board co-ordinator for the Town of Fort Frances, regarding the completion of a review of the town’s Tangible Capital Assets (TCA);
•heard a presentation from local resident Allan T. Bedard, who has questions and concerns about the Fort Frances Community Clinic and doctor recruitment;
•received a report on establishing water and sewer rates for 2010, and passed a corresponding bylaw to impose water and sewer user fees in 2010 (as reported last week, if the bylaw is passed, residents will see a two percent rate hike while ICI will go up 17 percent);
•passed a bylaw for the purpose of fixing remuneration and benefits for elected officials;
•passed a bylaw to authorize the execution of a letter of understanding with CUPE pertaining to the observance of Family Day (Feb. 15);
•passed a bylaw to authorize a licence agreement for purposes of utilization of the town’s geospatial data with Hynde Paul Planners;
•passed a bylaw to authorize a lease with respect to certain municipal property at 501 Sixth St. W.;
•passed a bylaw to authorize an agreement with Tom Veert Contracting Ltd. granting conditional extension into 2010 of terms of tender 09-OF-02 (reconstruction of Scott Street from Reid Avenue to Colonization Road East);
•passed a bylaw to approve an agreement with iCompass Technologies Inc. for CivicWeb web-hosted application services;
•passed a bylaw to authorize the sale of land at 319 Third St. W. to Walter Cunningham;
•agreed to support the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association re: an energy resolution; and
•approved a break-open ticket licence application from the Riverside Foundation for Health Care at La Verendrye Hospital (lobby) from Feb. 10-Aug. 9, 2010.
