Dialogue

Informative and engaging town hall meeting

It was a packed town hall Thursday night as more than 130 folks participated in the first town hall meeting hosted by Wellington councillor Mike Harper. It was a highly structured dialogue that succeeded in covering a considerable number of topics without the sense that issues were being processed through a meat grinder. Voices were heard. Ideas shared and some light was shed on decision- making at Shire Hall. In total, a very useful format for other council members fearful of hosting a town hall meeting.

CLEAR GARBAGE BAGS
First up was the pilot project to test the utility of using clear garbage bags. The assembled gathering shared some confusion, some complaints, and some indifference. Councillor Harper noted that the trial was nearing an end and the group’s feedback would be included in the final report.

There seemed a general confusion about the purpose of the plan—what it was seeking to accomplish—but also what items belonged in clear or opaque bags or even blue or green bins. To go forward, the clear bag project will need better communication and marketing support in order to achieve broad-based support.

Perhaps the most clear-eyed comment came from Ted Aman who noted that residents ought to be encouraged to use transfer locations rather than three and four trucks rumbling down 1,000 kilometres of County roads each week. Currently residents pay $3 per garbage bag they leave at their curbside, but $5 for each bag they bring to the transfer site. Aman suggested a significant reduction in the cost of each clear bag brought to the transfer site.

Councillor Mike Harper engages the audience at last Thursday’s town hall meeting as councillor Ernie Margetson looks on.

TOWN HALL
The Wellington Town Hall is woefully underutilized. For the past year the Rec Committee has been managing the facility seeking to reduce costs and drive more use.

Corey Engelsdorfer, chair of the Wellington Recreation Committee, explained that the hall sits empty and dark 45 weekends a year. It is booked only about 11 hours per week, generating average revenue equal to about $1.50 per hour. Keeping the lights and heat on in the hall costs the municipality about $10,000 each year—but generates just about $5,000 in rental revenue.

Councillor Harper asked the gathering for ideas, noting that if the community didn’t use the aging facility it was at risk of losing it. Some suggested renovating the space to make it more attractive as a wedding or party venue. But others noted the limited kitchen facilities and lighting served as deterrents to potential users.

Eventually the discussion turned to divesting the building, and doing so in a way that preserves its architectural heritage value. Phyo Kyi, a former president of the Wellington Rotary Club, observed that the village was well served with meeting spaces at the library, the Legion hall, the community centre as well as the community hall at Wellington on the Lake. He said it was time to consider putting it into private hands where it would benefit from much needed re-investment.

TRAFFIC
Councillor Harper used the occasion to unveil a number of measures to make Main Street safer. Council has already approved lowering the speed limit from 50 to 40 kilometres per hour between Consecon Street on the west, to Beach Street on the east. Signs and enforcement are set to begin this spring.

Meanwhile a portion West Street (from Main to Noxon Street only) is set to become one way this year. It is a narrow street and presents troublesome sightlines for those entering Main Street from the north. The southern portion of West Street down to Water Street and Narrow Street is also set to become a one way. Harper noted several accidents and near- misses, particularly at the intersection of West and Main Streets.

The councillor noted that plans were still being worked out to implement some form of pedestrian crossing control in the vicinity of the elementary school and Post Office. Harper noted that there is near constant jaywalking across Main Street in this location, and with increasing congestion, it was time to improve safety for pedestrians.

Councillor Harper also touched on charging for parking in the village. But only for tourists. He suggests parking enforcement tools have evolved that can enable County staff to quickly identify whether a car is registered to someone local. If not, it could be liable for a ticket.

“We have to get something from the tourists,” explained the councillor.

It is not at all clear, however that the revenue these selective fines might generate would be anywhere near sufficient to cover the cost of this technology, the human resources needed to enforce it or the bureaucracy needed to manage it.

BEACH
Councillor Harper acknowledged the village’s beach is an underappreciated gem, and has been mismanaged in recent years.

For about a decade there was a measure of management meted out by Chris Bowles, former proprietor of the Reel Thing Fishing Shop, who was appointed harbourmaster by the municipality. Bowles patrolled the docks, collecting fees and enforcing rules. He also minded the beach area, too, leading efforts to discourage beavers from devouring the trees that helped stabilize the sand. Bowles, too, agitated for the water rescue service and for regular dredging of the channel to enable safe passage in and out of West Lake and Wellington harbour. But since Chris passed away in 2017, the harbour and the beach have been without a champion. It has reverted largely to an unmanaged wild west.

The problems have been compounded by the regular closures of Sandbanks Provincial Park over the past couple of seasons. Beach visitors don’t go home—they find Wellington’s beach. It is attractive and free. Several times last summer municipal officials were forced to close the village beach due to overcrowding.

Harper has prepared a plan to turn this situation, restore order and manage this asset more effectively. Along with Bill Cobban, a Wellington resident, Harper has been working with municipal officials to identify the challenges and recommend solutions. High water levels on Lake Ontario have so far kept the channel navigable, but that won’t last. Harper said the channel would be dredged this spring. His plan calls for contracting a new harbourmaster and resources to equip this person. It is proposed for discussion in municipal budget deliberations in February.

CONVENIENCE STORE
No briefing of village politics would be complete without a discussion of the fate of the former convenience store at the corner of Wharf and Main Streets in Wellington. Councillor Harper was joined in this portion of the meeting by his council colleague Ernie Margetson. Margetson is an engineer by profession and has had an abiding interest in this building.

Harper and Margetson got approval from council last month to ask for expressions of interest to purchase the property. This is a way to begin a conversation with potential bidders, to assess various proposals and determine if a fit might work. This process enables the municipality to exert some control over the intent and plans of the purchaser.

This means the municipality may be backing away from rerouting the creek—as it has considered for several years—and instead passing any liability exposure back onto future landowners.

Margetson noted that the municipality has sunk about $800,000 into this project. While the County might not recover all of that in a sale, it will avoid the $2 million cost of redirecting Lane Creek.

WATERWORKS
Councillor Harper explained that the municipality was working with its consultant R.V. Anderson to scale back plans, or at least, phase plans based on priority. He noted that the 8,500 target population and the subsequent $100 million price tag to build out Wellington waterworks was a bit of an overshoot. But he said there were some things needed sooner rather than later and that some work—specifically main distribution and collection lines along the Millennium Trail.

In an answer to a question, Harper noted that replacing the water tower was a priority. The consultants have recommended relocating it to a County-owned property immediately south of the community centre on Belleville Road. Once it is built the existing water tower will be dismantled.

DEVELOPMENT
While at least four developers have designs to build in subdivisions in Wellington, all are continuing to navigate the municipal planning process. Harper, however, tamped down expectations that new homebuilding was likely to rise in the near future.

He noted that the developer of the 12 Trees project was re-evaluating its plans for the property on the west end of the village. Finally, he reported that the developers of the Wellington Hotel (behind Rock’n Rogers restaurant) were still working on securing financing for the project and had not sold the property, squelching speculation that had been circulating in recent months