council group pictureReports a plenty are filling the city council agenda Monday night.

There’s also a presentation on the 2016 fleet program, and council will also be addressing a concern for drivers and pedestrians at the Mountjoy-Vimy intersection.

It all goes at 6:00pm.

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

We’re starting off with a letter from a concerned resident over the Vimy-Mountjoy intersection.

CLICK HERE to read the letter from Jean-Yves Vezeau.

Bamford says he’s happy this is coming forward, and thought council would eventually would see a report on it.

“It’s very difficult to turn left onto Mountjoy from Vimy,” he says, citing the blind curve coming around MacLean Drive.

Bamford thinks nobody should turn left from Vimy.

Marks agrees, and would like to see police reports involving this intersection.

Doody mentions how it’s difficult for pedestrians to cross the street as well.

Rinaldo talks about the petition Vezeau mentions in the report, and says they could come to council with the petition as well.  She is glad the letter is included.

Marks talks about Chez Nous, and many people tend to back out onto Vimy.  He says there needs to be changes, but council needs to take into account the effect a change would have on the business.

Council votes in favour of having a report prepared.

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Now to a noise exemption and street closure for the Great Canadian Kayak Challenge and Festival.

Fire Chief Mike Pintar says the setup for street closures for fireworks isn’t ideal, but they make it work the best they can.

Dubeau makes mention that the festival could be moved to Gillies Lake, adding how people could see the races from every angle around the lake.

CLICK HERE for the full request.

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To the street closure for Summerfest in South Porcupine.

A pretty standard ask, and this will come back.

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Mayor Black is shuffling the agenda around, and were starting with the 2016 fleet program.

There are a number of items that is recommended for purchase for $1.17-million.

CLICK HERE to see the full list.

Council is raising the topic of gas prices having an effect on the cost of fleet.

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We go to a request for another maintenance worker at the water filtration plant.

The issue has to do with manpower.  CLICK HERE to see the full explanation.

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Same idea with the next request in getting two resource workers in the public utilities department.

CLICK HERE for that explanation.

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Next is a site plan agreement with Goulet Aggregate Pit.

It takes a while to load the document, which is very lengthy. (View it HERE).

This is to permit Laurier and Florence Goulet to develop a commercial sand and gravel operation in Ogden Township.

The issue is that the proposed site is also near the Mattagami River and Baker Lake, and council does have some concerns over where the city falls under the Aggregate Act.

A public meeting looks to be a go on this, preferably one that the MNRF would be available for.  Letters will also be sent out to residents living around Baker Lake.

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Clr Grzela had to leave and we’re down a councillor for the rest of the meeting.

Now to the purchase of a conventional bus service and handy transit buses.

No questions on that and we go on to the Denis Poulin Holdings Subdivision.

This is for the planned subdivision off Dalton Road, and addressing conditions to move ahead with a final site plan control agreement.

CLICK HERE for more on this.

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To an update to the Grants to Organizations account for 2016.

CAO Joe Torlone says the city’s got about $48,000 remaining from their budget.

Rinaldo says they need to look at funding a little differently, as certain items may not fit in that certain account and could be taken from other accounts.

We move on after clarification council is okay with the report as is.

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Now to the Timmins Ringette Association with President Yves Viel.

He wants a donation for this weekend’s provincial championships for $3,200 to help offset the cost of hall rentals.

Viel says the teams and coaches need room to do warm-ups and other game day operations.

Dubeau is seemingly in support, as the tournament is bringing in much more money to the economy than what he’s asking for.

The rest of council speak very highly on the request.

A consensus vote shows overwhelming support.

Black mentions how arena rentals are traditionally down during March Break, and applauds the efforts of Viel and his team.

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We go to the pilot extension of the handy transit service area.

This is an update that was promised when the pilot project was first implemented.

CLICK HERE to see that report.

Catherine Verreault says the project saw zero requests between July 1, 2015 and the end of February.

There were two return trips into the area, by the same person.

The return on the cost? $9.00 on the service that cost just over $100 for the two trips.

Campbell defends the position of this project, as we will see more and more baby boomers become seniors soon.

Bamford says he can’t support the extension based on the cost.

Marks says it was a valiant effort.  He says there’s a unique criteria for people to qualify to use the handy transit system.

Dubeau clarifies that Phase 2 involves additional areas that aren’t rural areas at all.  He says it’s not out of the ordinary and should at least consider going forward with an expansion, and possibly educate the public more that the service is available.

Black offers a consideration of sending out an RFP for cab companies locally to be equipped with items to provide service.

He says he’ll bring an item to council in the future and will not support an expansion.

Bamford says he brought it up a while back, and the thought was that the unions with the cab companies would have a problem with it.

This will go to a vote at a future meeting.

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We go to Guy Lamarche with options for Canada Day celebrations.

He’s looking for in-kind donations of just under $14,000 for several items, including rentals, bleachers, tents and much more (that can be seen HERE.)

He also wants to have celebrations at Hollinger Park, launching fireworks from the berm at the Hollinger Pit.

Black says there are issues with holding events at Gillies Lake, particularly with having a number of residents crossing Algonquin on a frequent basis when facilities at Hollinger Park can house many of the events proposed by Tourism Timmins.

There is a consensus to have Canada Day at Hollinger Park.  Lamarche also getting kudos for the recent Snowcross event and having the Kayak Challenge named one of the top 100 festivals in Ontario.

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Cindy Welsh is back up to discuss a zoning amendment for a property on the corner of First Avenue and Balsam North.

This is to turn a two-storey structure that had a residence on the top floor and a store on the bottom floor, to a building with six apartments.

CLICK HERE for more.

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After a 5 minute break, council returns with an update to the rural roads policy.

There aren’t too many updates, in fact, Duval says this was more of a “fine-tuning” based on the core services review.

CLICK HERE to see the full report.

The highlight is that it is “the responsibility of the property owners to approach the Corporation before upgrading a cottage/seasonal road.”

This brings up the rural roads discussion council has had numerous times, involving maintenance on some of these roads.

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Next is the 2016-2021 financial plan for water filtration.

See the full report on this HERE.

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Awarding of detailed design of Connecting Link Phase 1.

The construction looks like it will go this summer.  AECOM is the recommended choice, as they’re the ones that is putting together the entire study on the 21 km stretch.

The city says they sole sourced this, as they didn’t have a big enough window of time.

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We go to a donation request for a Community Powwow.

The powwow would go May 27th, and the joint venture between DSB-One and the NCDSB is requesting $5,250 for a tent to house up to 300 people for the event.

There are concerns that the request is from school boards, who collect tax base from the residents.

This will come back for a vote at a future meeting, same with the donation request for “Welcome to Timmins Night.”

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Council remuneration goes without questions.

Financial report for 2015 shows there’s $324,236.64 in a surplus for the city.

Jim Howie working through many of the numbers, which you can follow along HERE (For your sake I won’t regurgitate this to you because my brain hurts just trying to process all the numbers.)

and we are adjourned!