WHITEWATER REGION — Briefs from the Aug. 1 Whitewater Region council meeting.
Debbie Ready hired
Debbie Ready has been hired as the is the newest employee at Whitewater Region.
Councillor Cathy Regier, who is chair of the corporate services committee, made the official announcement at the council meeting.
She noted there were 160 applicants whittled down to 14 who were interviewed by herself, Councillor Chris Olmstead, Treasurer Marsha Hawthorne, and community services manager Jordan Durocher.
She spoke about Ms. Ready’s many years of experience, noting the job she is leaving is in the recreation department at Garrison Petawawa. She noted Ms. Ready has taken administrative courses at Algonquin College and has many years experience in customer service, administration and recreation.
Ms. Ready has volunteered extensively within the Whitewater Region community, including with the Ottawa Valley youth football, Cobden minor ball, hockey and was on the former Cobden Recreation Association.
“We believe she is a strong addition to our team and I hope everyone will give her a warm welcome,” Coun. Regier said.
Ms. Ready will begin on Monday, Aug. 14
Mayor Hal Johnson is glad someone from within the township was hired.
“It’s great to see we are utilizing the amazing talent of people from within our municipality to move forward,” he said.
He also complimented Coun. Regier.
“As human resources chair, you have been totally successful in placing people,” Mayor Johnson said, adding, “It’s been quite an adventure over the last year. We have been very successful in the people who have started with us.
“Our staff is becoming unique within the county.”
Administration Report
Chief Administrative Officer Robert Tremblay provided council with the second quarterly report. He noted the departments used to report monthly to council, but now he provides a full report on the departments each quarter.
“This has been a busy quarter,” he said. “There is a lot of work done behind the scenes for some great successes.”
He noted the Whitewater Streetstrut was a great success and there will be a full report at the Sept. 6 council meeting.
“We anticipate a small surplus,” he said. “The planning committee is recommending a donation be made to the Muskrat Watershed Council.”
“I just want to thank all staff for their hard work and dedication and I want to give particular mention to our summer students,” CAO Tremblay said. “They work on a variety of projects or help us with routine matters we don’t necessarily have the time, but we had a very good group of students and their time with us is running down.”
Building and property highlights: 59 permits were issued with a total value of $6.4 million. On the residential side, 21 permits for single family dwellings, which is tremendous. Some good, positive building stats, he said.
On the animal control, staff sent out notices to those residents who have yet to purchase dog tags, noting 850 dog tags have been purchased.
Community Services: working on studies for the Beachburg and Cobden arenas; in emergency management, Jordan Durocher was here onlythree weeks when there occurred massive flooding. 35,000 sandbags were distributed and several tandem loads of sand were placed in various areas near the flooding.
A number of lessons were learned during this flood, CAO Tremblay said.
There are three crossing guard locations within Cobden, he said. There were changes to the lunch break for students so an analysis will be done to see if crosswalks are required during the day.
There was $12,200 secured in monetary sponsorship and over $10,000 of in-kind sponsorships for Streetstrut, CAO Tremblay noted.
“That’s a great success story,” he said.
“Jordan was very busy in terms of the healthy kids community challenge funds, purchasing the water craft and getting funding, $7,000, to do some veggie and fruit and educational cooking workshops in the fall.”
The tourism booth could not happen without dedicated volunteers, he said.
Physical Services Manager Janet Collins spoke about the eel program. The Ottawa Riverkeeper is posting signs about eels at the boat launches in La Passe and Westmeath, she said.
There are going to be about 500 female eels released into the Ottawa River, she said.
“The population has declined 99 percent since the 1980s,” Ms. Colllins said. “There’s been a study on the Ottawa River for about six years regarding the eels.”
Committees changed and formed
The township’s procedural bylaw was amended to reflect the new operational departments within the municipality.
The standing committees and chair people are Building and Property Services – Reeve Terry Millar; Community Services – Councillor Chris Olmstead; Corporate Services – Councillor Cathy Regier; Economic Development and Tourism – Councillor Dave Mackay; Fire and Emergency Services – Councillor Charlene Jackson; Physical Services – Councillor Daryl McLaughlin.
The arenas and transition team will act as an information sharing mechanism and sounding board on recreation matters.
The members are CAO Tremblay or his designate Treasurer Marsha Hawthorne; Jordan Durocher and Hugh Martin or his designate, Ms. Ready. The citizen members, who were or are involved with recreation within Whitewater Region are Heather Corrigan, Neil Nicholson, Sheila Wishart and Brent Gould.
There will also be an economic development advisory committee and development review team for the township. This committee will provide a collaborative forum for discussion of economic development ideas, opportunities and matters of common interest in the township. It will assist the township to identify and recommend opportunities for effective local and regional economic development initiatives, foster a positive community-wide investment image, promote the enhanced quality of life the township officers and enhance the profile of Whitewater Region as an attractive business environment for existing and prospective businesses.
There will be seven business people sitting around the table to give advice to council every other month, said CAO Tremblay. The committee will be a mix of council and staff, however, the final decisions will always be with council, he added.
“We’re hoping to get a broad representation of citizen members to represent a variety of sectors,” he said. “We’re lucky to have strong tourism and agricultural sectors, but also from retail and other services.”
The development review team would not be solely council members, but a mix of council and staff, CAO Tremblay said. This is an informal team to meet with proponents on ongoing projects to continue the dialogue, he explained.
And again, council will make any decisions, he said.
“It’s a vehicle to ensure there is constant dialogue,” he explained, “ to ensure we do see some growth and we do have development in our township.”
Councillor Daryl McLaughlin questioned how the people will be selected for the economic development committee.
“Are we going to be advertising for people to sit on this committee,” he questioned.
CAO Tremblay said there is no formal policy for volunteers submitting applications. It’s an experiment with the time remaining for this council to start these committees, he said.
He noted Mayor Johnson has been “going around to different businesses from different sectors to get a cross-section of people to see if they’d be interested in participating.
“My experience with economic development committees, often time you have to ask people to participate because they are busy with their businesses and they may not volunteer,” CAO Tremblay continued, adding, “We can do a mix of letting people know we’re filling the rec advisory committee and the economic development committee and see if anyone comes forward.”
Coun. McLaughlin also suggested putting this information on the township’s website rather than council just appointing people.
