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editionap.ca Roadworks budget doubles for Alfred-Plantagenet
rehabilitation of the bridge on Concession 3 in Alfred. Concession 3 road in Plantagen- et, Blue Corner Nation Street in Alfred, and Concession 10 in Pendleton will all see con- struction crews on site this summer. Other capital works improvements planned for this year include replacement work for the Plantagenet public swimming pool, development plans for the new Al- fred library building and purchase of library books, new computers for administration and the planning department, buying land for the site of the new Wendover fire sta- tion and purchase of new bunker suits and self-contained breathing units for the town- ship’s volunteer fire department. Township administrator Marc Daigneault noted that the municipality is able to in- crease its capital works budget this year because it has paid off some old capital projects loans. Now that the loans are paid off, the township’s borrowing capacity has increased again so it can get loans this year for new infrastructure projects on its list of targets for community improvements. “We’re also using a variety of financial sources to do what needs to be done,” Daigneault said. “It’s ongoing improve- ments. It’s not a piecemeal approach. It’s an integrated approach.” The township may be able to maintain its larger capital works budget next year when some more loans are paid off. Those loans were taken out for the township’s share of infrastructure aid grants that the federal and provincial governments offered mu- nicipalities as economic stimulus and job
creation programs during the past global recession. Daigneault noted that “strate- gic borrowing” works better in the long run for the township’s long-term capital works needs rather than always waiting until there is enough money available in reserves or from other sources.
“If you look at what we’ve achieved over the past four or five years,” he said. “Three new tanker trucks for the fire department, public works has new trucks, a new grader, new brushcutter and other equipment. This is a good budget, it’s within our means and we are planning for the future also.”
GREGGCHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
PLANTAGENET | Alfred-Plantagenet has its 2013 budget and unlike some other municipalities, the township has in- creased the capital works portion. When the snowstorms blow away at last in the spring, the road crews will start getting busy in Alfred-Plantagenet Town- ship thanks to the new $11.5 million bud- get council approved Feb. 19. That bud- get includes a $3.3 million capital works program, which is more than double what was in the township’s 2012 budget. “I feel good about it,” said Mayor Jean- Yves Lalonde, regarding the overall bud- get. “It is reflecting what our taxpayers are really expecting.” This year’s budget means a 1.9 per cent increase for the property tax rate. For the average homeowner who paid $579 for every $100,000 assessed value on their property in 2012, this year they will pay $590 in property tax for every $100,000 assessed value. Individual property tax amounts may vary, either increasing or decreasing, depending on whether the assessed value of the land and buildings went up or down. The majority portion of this year’s capital works budget has $2.4 million dedicated to road work and related im- provements like storm sewer upgrades in Wendover, ditch work in Lefaivre, and
A deep discussion
gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca L’ORIGNAL | Old wells proved a deep sub- ject for discussion at the latest counties council meeting Ray Beauregard, chairman for the East- ern Ontario Water Resources Commit- tee (EOWRC), and Ronda Boutz, EOWRC communications director, presented the United Counties of Prescott-Russell council (UCPR) Feb. 13 with a summary of the past year’s work for the regional water protec- tion group. What claimed most of the attention of the mayors was the funding aid the EO- WRC has provided through other agencies like the South Nation Conservation Author- ity (SNC) to help with finding and closing off old and unused wells on private lands. Since 2004 the EOWRC has helped finance closure of more than a hundred old wells in the Prescott-Russell region alone but Boutz indicated that figure is a figurative drop in the bucket about the risk that old and un- used wells can present in both the counties and the rest of Eastern Ontario. “There are hundreds of thousands of
wells out there,” she said. “There are prob- ably thousands of wells out there that we haven’t addressed.” The EOWRC’s well-decommissioning program provides farmers and other land- owners with funding aid to close off both old wells that have gone dry or working wells that are no longer needed. “We’ve seen everything from old stone dug wells to tile dug wells to drilled wells,” said Boutz. “If it’s a hole in the ground, we’ll cap it.” The two main problems, she noted, are convincing some landowners that an old well needs capping and then finding some of these wells. Too many old well sites may be unrecorded on property maps for vari- ous reasons. While some may be easy to spot aboveground, some may be boarded up andhiddenunder brushor other growth and their existence may even be unknown to the present landowner. Those pose the greatest risk to both livestock and people as a person or animal may fall through the rotted boards into the well before they re- alize it is there.
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