REPORT ON COUNCIL

May 13, 2002

Committee of the Whole 9:05 am ’Äì 4:52 pm

at Roads Complex, 220 Concession 9E

Evening Council Meeting 7:28 pm to 9:12 pm

All members of Council Present during the day; Councillor Pierre Paul Maurice left at 8 pm in evening.

 

CONFIDENTIAL/CLOSED SESSION: 2:10 pm - 4:45 pm

 

SHORT-SIGHTED DECISION TO SELL PARKLAND: To finance various projects, Council has been selling off "surplus land."  Much of this is the land that developers have been required to dedicate for parkland in each subdivision. By the time subdivisions are fully built, parkland is needed.  A case in point is a lot in Concession 11 several streets back from the shore.  Area residents made a deputation arguing that, as the lot was the last bit of woodland in the area, it was needed as a park.  They presented a petition in support of their view.  The local beach association (to which many of them belong) supported their application.  Council rejected the request 5-0.

 

SIGN BYLAW "RECEIVED" - NO ACTION TAKEN - AGAIN: Earl Evans (CAO/Clerk) presented a memorandum concerning a Sign Regulation Bylaw. (This is his second such memorandum; both were responses to a deputation by a resident of Woodland Beach about the ever increasing numbers of advertising signs nailed on roadside trees.) 

Council expressed concern about depriving businesses of an inexpensive means of advertising. They asked the Manager of Public Works to see whether the businesses in question are based in Tiny or elsewhere.

There was no discussion about the defacement of trees, the illegality of the practice, or of aesthetics.

 

PARKING: Decisions were to have been made at this meeting about numbers and placement of parking at access points along the shore. They weren't. As of May 13, 324 parking permits had been sold.

 

REPORT ON 2001 VOLUNTEER WATER SAMPLING PROGRAM: John Neil (fresh water expert) and Judith Grant (president of FoTTSA) presented to Council a special copy of the Report which includes the 30 or so maps pinpointing the 101 volunteer sampling locations.  As authors of the report, they presented its Findings and Recommendations.  The Findings reveal that swimming water quality is excellent in the north end of the Township, variable in the middle (where 2 beaches were posted last summer), and considerably less good from Concession Road 6W to the Town line where a significant portion of the summer's samples had readings of 100 E. coli or more.  The Findings also drew attention to 7 streams; for these streams, 6 or 7 of the 9 samples taken had readings of >600 E. coli.  The Report made 8 Recommendations, among them the commissioning of a study of sources of contamination along the western shore from Concession Road 17W south to the Town Line. (See below for the Recommendations.) Council suggested that the Report should be discussed at a meeting which would include Council, representatives from the Ministry of the Environment and the Simcoe County District Health Unit, Keith Sherman of the Severn Sound Environmental Group, and the authors of the report.

 

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

   In consideration of the findings of this report, it is recommended that:

  1. the general E. coli levels found in the shoreline waters at the northern end of Tiny Township be recognized as a goal for all waters in the Township that are used for recreational purposes.
  2. the Township of Tiny commission a study into the sources of contamination along the western shore from the town line to Concession Road 17 W., with special reference to the two areas where water quality is seriously impaired, and that remedial action be taken as required.
  3. the Township of Tiny commission studies of the seven problem streams, and that remedial action be taken as required.
  4. the Township direct its consultant (C. C. Tatham and Associates) to give priority for inspections of septic tank systems to those areas of shoreline exhibiting questionable water quality and also to installations adjacent to those streams identified as having high E. coli counts.
  5. the SCDHU be requested to provide appropriate wording for signs for posting at beach outflows of streams exhibiting high E. coli counts.
  6. the Health Unit continue its usual monitoring of parks and public access points in Tiny Township and that it also monitor Tamarack Trail, Siesta Drive, Laurel Avenue and Cove Beach.
  7. individual beach associations be encouraged to monitor the quality of the water fronting their shoreline until such time as some public agency agrees to monitor recreational water along the full length of Tiny's shore.
  8. the Health Unit create an information sheet for inclusion with the next tax bill about recreational water issues and especially the dangers of some stream outflows.