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The South Marysbursh Mire FYI By Barb Proctor Councillor for South Marysburgh Well done to all of you, managing to dodge those ruts and bumps—most of the time anyway! Aging sewers and culverts have demanded most available dollars in this year’s roads budget, allowing only filling and patching to be done. The new year is fast approaching and Com- missioner of Public Works, Robert McAuley, is de- veloping an affordable long range plan to effectively put our tax dollars, gas tax revenues and possible grants to work. Small rural municipalities such as ours suffer from a significant gap in funding for maintenance of their bridges, culverts and aging infi The the Federal Government develop a National Marine and Heritage Park on the south shores of Athol and South Marysburgh. The other is a proposal for Hos- pice Prince Edward for development of a 3 or 4 bed Hospice in Benson Hall. ‘In principle’ infers that there are no objections to the facts and information currently presented to council. These proposals are now open to appropriate examination and investiga- tion by all stakeholders, ministries, agencies, organi- zations and taxpayers. A successor for Richard Shannon has been hired: Merlin Dewing will be Chief Administrative Officer for Prince Edward County. Mr. Dewing has extensive municipal administrative background, and our selection committee has carefully considered the value of his experience and skills for our municipal- ity. He will begin his work on November 1. Association of Municipalities of Ontario and the Eastern Ontario Warden’s Caucus continually advo- cate for increased federal and provincial gap funding. Our Public Works Dept. is conducting a preliminary in-house roads assessment and 5 of our roads will be priorities for next year but that is not yet confirmed. A perfect road system is more than our present tax levy can sustain. The proposed seasonal closures of 5 landfill sites will be reduced to closures on Wednesdays only and they will remain open on Saturdays. Thank you for all your input on this subject. One suggestion was to equitably rotate the closures. Municipal staff felt this would cause confusion for users and attendants and would have no significant impact on savings. Disposal of construction waste was another consid- eration. The proposed budget savings for full sea- sonal closures was $30,000. The devil was in the de- tails and the majority of council did not concur that those savings justified the closures. A motion was put to council on September 27" “that staff be directed to issue an RFP to ob- tain an independent facilitator to conduct a public consultation process: to review the size of council and develop h and in- cluding the possibility of changing, dividing or dis- solving ward boundaries.”. The motion was debated at length and was lost. Changing the structure of council will not be a priority at this particular time. Council has recently supported two proposals “in principle”. A group of citizens is requesting that Dan Cole « Sons Milford Renovations « Construction Kitchens Bathrooms Basements Decks Flooring Tile Quality workmanship from start to finish. On time and on budget! References & portfolio available. Phone: 613.476.3579 Karen Vance-McCrea Knowledgeable and Friendly Service *Cosmetics *Fragrances *Gifts *Skin Care ‘Jewellery © *Fashions 613.476.9729 karenvancemccrea@yahoo.ca