City Council LIVE BLOG July 20, 2015

city council group picture A couple key presentations will highlight Monday’s city council agenda.

Council will hear updates to the Hollinger Pit Project, as well as the Whitney-Tisdale Sanitary system.

Follow along with our live blog starting at 6pm.

(Keep refreshing the page as the night goes along for updates.)

First up is an award given to Karl Habla.

He is receiving a plaque for the promotion of national pride, more prominently for his annual walk held on Canada Day.

Habla says he’s lived in Timmins for 54-years, and it’s the best city to live in and retire in.

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Next is the Goldcorp update on the Hollinger Pit.

This is with Brendan Zuidema and Darren Fasciano.

They employ nearly 100 people on this project on the operations side (including 12 students.)

Over 2.2-million tonnes has been mined and moved this quarter.

From January to June, they’ve done 187 blasts, with over 3.1-million tonnes blasted.

For their full presentation, and pictures from the site, CLICK HERE.

Dubeau asks about a property issue.

Fasciano says it was a minor dust issue.

Bamford says the work at east Ackland’s was a huge mess. He compliments the work done.

Doody asks what the length of the project will be, and if the company is satisfied with what’s happened.

Zuidema says we’re looking at about 8 years from the time they started. He says they are quite a ways behind schedule, due to things like the weather.

He adds the morale and the work speed is going up.

Doody suggests making a presentation to the public on the Hoyle Pond site, as he doesn’t believe the community understands the importance that the site has on the city.

Zuidema says he will come back in the future to do exactly that.

Black asks about a blast that was done on July 12th. Zuidema says they got a complaint from a resident in Fairway Village, that a fly rock may have entered the area. He says it was a non-incident, and nothing left the property.

He adds there was a third party that came in to do a review to make sure they didn’t miss anything.

Zuidema says since an incident last June (a fly rock that hit an employee vehicle), they’ve tightened up their operations.

He says there are even times they’ve cancelled blasts because it didn’t meet certain criteria.

“We’re not taking any short cuts…we’re committed to community safety,” he said.

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Next is the Whitney-Tisdale sanitary project.

Black makes mention of the government funding that was received last week ($2.6-million from each the province and the feds.)

Director of Public Works Luc Duval is up with a JL Richards representative.

This is a second report.

The city approved $7,360,000 to budget for Phase 1, and they are on budget and about three months behind schedule. They are expected to finish this Phase by the end of 2015, despite issues like an extremely cold winter and the rainfall in the early fall 2014.

The funding from the government is for Phase 2 of the project.

They believe the project as a whole is about 20% complete, and extends into 2017.

To see the full report, that includes the scope of Phase 1 and the budget, CLICK HERE.

Campbell points out the reason for the project is the sewage backup the area has had, and he asks if they ever envisioned any backup sewage coming up.

Duval says they were averaging 10-12 occurences per year, and a target with the new design is zero.

He says if they do have one, it will be minimal.

Duval adds there is more of a design, and more structure.

Bamford asks if these pumps will be operational while the rest of the project is under construction and Duval says yes.

Marks asks what kind of staffing will be in the control room.

Duval says they are staying at the same amount of people as beforehand, but the efficiency will go up with the new technology.

“We’re making some pretty significant leaps and bounds,” he said,

Dubeau compliments the project for what they’ve done thus far, as does Doody.

Doody makes mention that these are the types of projects people should look at as tax dollars well spent.

Black says projects like this and the Mattagami Waste Water Plant are expensive, but is well worth it for improving the quality of life for residents.

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Moving to correspondence, and the town of Tweed. They are requesting disaster relief for extensive flooding.

There is no dollar amount requested, and is open for discussion.

Bamford suggests the same amount that was given to Thunder Bay, but Black points out Thunder Bay had a lot more damage.

Bamford asks to give $500.

Wawrzaszek wants to see it go to $1,000.

All vote in favour of the $1,000, and that will come back for full approval.

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True North Estates wants to use the McIntyre Arena for a public meeting.

They want to get together to have communication on things such as the Neighbourhood Watch, a Landlord and Tenant Act explanation, etc.

They say they want to get together to iron out some issues, and expect between 350-400 people.

True North Estates is formerly known as Sheridan’s Trailer Park.

The estates representatives will do their own setup, and council officially approves the request.

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The Town of Tecumseth wants support on their motion in relation to electricity rates.

Bamford says we have to be careful, and need to come up with a better solution. One of the conditions would be to not have Hydro One get sold off.

He suggests that if the industrial rate goes down, it will most likely be residents who front the bill.

Doody would like some feedback from other organizations and vote on this support at a later date.

CLICK HERE for the full report. This will come back.

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The Women in Unity Group want to use council chambers for Saturday morning prayers.

Doesn’t seem to be any opposition, but CAO Joe Torlone says there has to be a staff member present for opening and closing city hall.

It is approved.

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Next is a letter from Don Marcoux, the owner and operator of the Mini Putt and Batting Cages at Hollinger Park.

He’s requesting a speed bump in the drive thru area separating the Hollinger from the Senator Apartments near the mini putt entrance, and a 10km speed limit.

Marcoux says there is a risk of kids being hit by cars, due to them running towards the nearby bathrooms.

Doody says it’s a busy area, and has no issue with the request.

Marks says safety needs to be thought about when they re-construct the parking lot as a whole.

Rinaldo says she has no problem reducing the speed limit, but need someone in the area to police it.

Torlone says if the owner refuses to get into an agreement with this, what would council want to do.

Doody says in the summer time, it’s not just people from the apartments using the pathway. He says 75% of the people are ones just going through to use the playground, among other things in the park.

“That’s a busy place on a non-road,” he said.

Marks says if the apartment owner doesn’t agree, they should close the back end and the residents should speak up if they want to continue using it.

He requests those residents to go to the building owner on the issue.

Campbell says although it’s not a road, it is a safety issue and agrees with Marks.

He ask if it gets plowed during the winter time, and Duval says he’ll have to take a look into it.

Bamford is not in favour of having the pathway open.

Dubeau asks if they can put in temporary speed bumps. Duval says they don’t have them at public works, and the dollars required belongs to another department.

Dubeau says they should look into it.

Torlone says he has a bit of a concern, and asks about insurance and that they are exposed to a possible lawsuit if anything happens.

Grzela says they now see the use of re-constructing the parking lot, as some people use it as a road.

Dubeau asks about the costing of temporary speed bumps, and Black says they’ll include it in a report.

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Mayor Black is voted to be the council representative for the review committee for the Aquatic Centre request for proposal.

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Jim Howie is up with the investment policy.

This is to set guidelines for a policy that they technically do not have yet when it comes to investments.

This will come back.

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Howie talks about the investment in the ONE Fund Investment Program.

City Council LIVE BLOG July 20, 2015

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