If you would like to see the full agenda, click here.
We have a closed session beginning at 17:00. Council should get under way at 18:00.
Consent Agenda
- Once again, the building report is strong. Not as brisk as September 2018, but still well ahead of last year in raw number of permits, value, and development charges collected.
- Staff are looking for support for the same municipal representative for the Lake Erie Source Protection Committee to continue on, and he is happy to.
- Staff are proposing a three year renewal of our relationship with the County to provide planning services. Overall this has worked out well. What hasn’t worked out so well is one planner leaving for a promotion to Lambton County, and now our most recent planner choosing to move on as well. Hopefully our next planner will stick around a bit longer!
- Staff are looking for Council to support AMO’s report and recommendations on rising municipal insurance and liability costs. They are escalating quickly, and AMO has put together recommendations for the province on how to get the under control and hopefully reduce costs once again.
- An outside consultant (Monteith Brown) is recommending that the per player fee for youth soccer and youth baseball be raised from $14 per year to $21 per year. This would help us achieve our goal of recovering just 20% of the annual cost to maintain soccer fields and baseball diamonds. The other 80% would be covered by the tax levy.
Staff Reports
- The Building Department would like to hire a co-op student next year to assist in a variety of tasks. The Building Department is completely self-funded/sustaining through the fees they charge, so there would not be any impact on property taxes if approved.
- Staff would like to hire an outside firm to update the municipality’s corporate strategic plan. I have sent some questions off to staff that I will also ask tonight during the meeting.
- Staff are recommending reducing the number of years someone has to work for Middlesex Centre in order to qualify for full retirement benefits from 20 years to 10 years. The rationale for this includes making it easier to attract new team members and retain existing staff, noting that only 25% of staff eligible to get full retirement benefits retire in the first year of eligibility. Again, I have sent some questions to staff about this proposed change.
There are 4 items up at Committee of Adjustment tonight, but none of them are located in Ward 4.
Public Meetings
Item 10.2 – 120 Arthur St, Komoka. A previous application was withdrawn for this property because the new lot created was going to be incredibly narrow. However, this new plan appears to make a lot more sense, creating two lots that are 15.24 metres wide (50′), and the retained lot would be 19.81 metres (64.99′) and now face Duke St instead of Arthur St.
By-Laws
If approved, by-law 2019-100 would ratify a subdivision agreement on the south side, west side of the road, on Union Ave. This represents the final batch of new homes to be built on the street, unless something significant changes on the agricultural property abutting the east side of the road.
And that’s it for this evening! Thanks for reading. Get in touch if you need to.