An application for a zoning bylaw amendment for property that could be used for a new ambulance station here will come before town council at its regular meeting tonight.
The Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board has made the request to the town to rezone property at 801 Scott St. (currently the Fort Frances Bingo Hall) from General Commercial (C2) to Institutional (I).
Included with the application, noted municipal planner Faye Flatt, is a request—related to and contingent upon the rezoning—to reduce the required parking spaces from 22 to 17, including the use of the paved boulevard for parking purposes, and to install manually-activated caution lights to assist the egress of emergency vehicles onto Scott Street.
In the rezoning request, Health Services manager Dan McCormick noted the rezoning is a condition of the DSSAB’s purchase of the property.
DSSAB will be assuming direct delivery of land ambulance starting Jan. 1.
Meanwhile, as first reported in Friday’s Daily Bulletin, Jennifer McKibbon, the local tobacco strategy co-ordinator for the Northwestern Health Unit, will speak to residents and business owners of Fort Frances at tonight’s council meeting on the Smoke-Free Ontario Act that takes effect May 31.
The presentation, which is scheduled to start around 7:15 p.m., will cover aspects of that legislation, including the impact of the law on the public, the roles of municipalities, health units, and enforcement agencies, the obligations on owners/occupants of facilities, and the penalties for breaking the law.
The council meeting is scheduled to start at 7:15 p.m. It will be preceded by the committee of the whole, which will meet in-camera at 5:30 p.m., with the public session resuming at 6:30.
Other business at tonight’s meeting includes:
•a letter from D.R. Cousineau regarding traffic concerns at the corner of Keating Avenue and King’s Highway;
•a break-open ticket licence application from the La Verendrye General Hospital Auxiliary at Bonnie Blue from June 1-Dec. 1, 2006;
•a bylaw to approve a standard pipe agreement regarding the installation of a watermain within CNR property in Fort Frances (from Mile 88.28 to Mile 88.46);
•a bylaw to authorize the levying and collection of a special charge of taxes upon the Business Improvement Association;
•a bylaw to approve a municipal response agreement with the Ministry of Natural Resources with respect to human/black bear conflict management in town;
•a bylaw to approve an agreement with Carol Barrell for operation of concessions in the Memorial Sports Centre; and
•a bylaw to approve an easement of agreement with the Minister of Natural Resources for purposes of water intake piping and outfall piping for the water treatment plant.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
