Council Recap: Nov 14, 2018

Did you miss the preview for Nov 14’s Council meeting? You can read it here.

Consent Agenda

  • As expected, the discrepancies between the expected percentage for the month of October versus what we’re seeing is mostly down to timing, or unexpected reductions/increases in various departments. Like I said previously, it’s all balancing itself out and there is nothing to be concerned about at this time.
  • Council approved allowing the Komoka Railway Museum change the purpose of their grant to repairing the vandalism recently experienced.
  • I already wrote a little bit about my optimism over BMA Consulting’s most recent review of the water and wastewater rates, along with the infrastructure lifecycle funds.
    • Council is not currently endorsing full funding, according to the Long-Range Financial Plan, of the water and wastewater reserves.
    • Despite that, things are trending in the right direction. We do have a substantial amount of money going into each reserve, but we are off where BMA recommends us to be by hundreds of thousands of dollars in each pot.
    • Taking into consideration affordability and future growth projections, BMA and staff recommending freezing rates for another year, and that is what Council voted to do!
    • Consolidating operations by shuttering the Kilworth Wastewater Treatment Facility in 2019, and reducing the number of pumping stations, is allowing us to reduce operating expenses in 2019 and therefore gets us closer to reducing water and wastewater usage rates or minimum monthly charges. Either way, I continue to be optimistic that bill reductions are on the way in the short-term.
    • The focus here on out needs to be encouraging good, smart growth with an emphasis and more commercial and industrial users. Keep in mind that industrial does not necessarily mean a factory that puts out tonnes of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, but certainly a facility that uses a high amount of water.

Staff Reports

  • Transferring funds to the Campbell Cemetery Board was approved, with a bit of trepidation over ensuring the funds are used wisely.
  • Request to begin work on the Ettrick Drain Ideson Branch Improvement was approved.

Correspondence

  • There was some discussion over why Bell cannot effectively limit the 311 service to the City of London’s physical boundaries. Thanks to our past experiences, Councillor Berze and I were able to explain the antiquated landline technology’s ability to do so, and how large swaths of populations share central offices and the phone switches inside them. This is similar to the reason why Komoka and Kilworth residents’ phone lines share the same prefixes to many homes in London, like 519-472-xxxx and 519-671-xxxx numbers.
  • I put the question out there, just in case someone knew the answer, over whether recent developments would allow BRA to start collecting styrofoam in the recycling bin. I was directed to a staff member at BRA, and I will be following up with that gentleman.

I will be at tonight’s public budget information session at 6pm at the Komoka Community Centre. I hope to see you there!