By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
The Municipality of Port Hope has provided a summary of key items discussed at both regular and committee-of-the-whole council meetings of Dec. 1, held electronically via videoconferencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Former George Hamilton Public School Acquisition
Council authorized and directed staff to submit an offer to purchase to the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board for the property formerly known as George Hamilton Public School, located on County Road 10 in Welcome.
Council directed staff to engage legal counsel, negotiate the purchase of the property, and bring forth the purchase agreement in the form of a bylaw for council consideration at a later date.
At the last committee-of-the-whole meeting, staff advised that use of the property has not yet been established, but that its acquisition would be of strategic benefit to the municipality, well worth pursuing for future efforts related to satisfying the objectives of the Strategic Plan 2019-2022.
Proposed Cancellation of Choate Street Extension / Changes to Vision in Motion
Council approved in principle the municipality’s acceptance of the proposed changes to the Vision in Motion Project as presented by Cameco Corporation, including the cancellation of the proposed Choate Street Extension, conditional on the satisfactory negotiation of remaining anticipated expenses and previous commitments incurred by the municipality to date.
Council also directed staff to work with legal counsel and negotiate with Cameco Corporation to prepare the necessary amendments to Bylaw 60/2014 and the necessary agreement to repeal Bylaw 61/2014.
Delegations
Two delegations were presented, both received for information purposes.
The quarterly PHAI update was presented by Scott Parnell, General Manager of the Historic Waste Program Management Office, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories.
Mike Bellamy of Frontier Labs and Jeremy Laurin of Loyalist College shared their vision of Canada’s first Smart Agricultural Hub in Port Hope, and an overview of work done to date.
Staff Presentation
Staff made a presentation to the Finance Committee with progress update on the Municipality’s Asset Management and Capital Funding.
Highlights of progress to date include:
Hiring of Asset Management & GIS Coordinator position.
Continual advancement of asset management knowledge through staff professional development.
Strategic Asset Management Policy approved July 2019.
Continual enhancement of the data (condition assessments and replacement cost updates).
Implementation of basic enterprise-wide asset management planning software, integrated with GIS, work orders, and permitting.
The presentation was received for information purposes.
Water and Wastewater Rate Study Presentation
As the next step in the Water and Wastewater Rate Study process, Watson & Associates Economists Ltd. Manager Peter Simcisko made a presentation to the Works and Engineering Committee on refinements that have been made to the capital forecasts as a result of comments submitted by residents during the community consultation process (as well as council feedback).
Council directed staff to prepare a bylaw for presentation to council to approve the new Water and Wastewater Rate Structure, effective January 1, 2021. The bylaw will be considered at the Dec. 15 council meeting.
The full agenda and staff reports from Dec. 3 are available on the Council Portal. Recordings are available at //porthope.ca/council-communications. Minutes will be available pending approval at the Dec. 15 council meeting, at which point they will become the official record of the meeting.
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