Council Recap: April 10, 2019

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If you missed the preview, you can find it here. We’re going to keep this recap short and sweet!

Delegations, Presentations & Petitions

  • Pat Fowler made a passionate, compelling presentation about the need to encourage and adopt policies to encourage the planting of flower species that monarch butterflies need in order to thrive. Deputy Mayor Brennan expressed concern about milkweed invading farmland, but I deflected that by sticking to the policies recommended by the Mayors Monarch Pledge and the fact that our staff can ensure any works don’t impact farmland. I made the motion to receive the presentation and to ask staff to report back on which steps we can take along with a timeline, which was seconded and approved!
  • The Middlesex Federation of Agriculture presented information that showed the number of farms continues to decline, along with the amount of farmland available. On a brighter side, some types of farms are increasing in numbers. We also briefly discussed the property tax ratio, which County Council left at 25% for this year with an eye toward more long-term solutions.
  • Jordyn Scott requested, and received, the Municipally Significant Event designation for the third annual Oma’s Big Green Egg Food Festival in Delaware happening June 8, 2019 at BJ’s Country market. Councillor Scott recused himself since it is his business hosting the event.

Consent Agenda

Items 7.1 through 7.5 were received as information. For item 7.6, Council asked staff to bring back the Arva WWTF EA to proceed forward with it.

Staff Reports

A light night for staff reports.

  • The application for funding the reconstruction of Hyde Park Rd through the Rural and Northern Communities Funding Stream was approved.
  • Council voted to receive the one-time doubling of the Federal Gas Tax Fund and will look for the best projects to use it on in 2020.

There is nothing of significance to report on correspondence or by-laws. We eventually did go into closed session to discuss the selection of our new CAO, which was revealed last week.

And that’s it! Thanks for reading.