Page 5 - May 18, 2017

Thursday, May 18, 2017 The Independent
Page 5
Flooding worse without conservation authorities
Progressively Forward
Emery Huszka
DEALER-FLORENCE, ON
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Opinion
EDITOR:
maps to identify these areas and a good monitoring and warning system which requires a close partnership between all levels of government and the Conservation Authorities. Some of this work is paid for by the Province, but the need is far greater than available funding – especially with the increase in frequency of extreme weather events year round.
natural features that are all part of a resilient ood management program. In urban areas, they promote and implement stormwater management, including low impact development and green infrastructure.
Although it’s tough to convince people after ooding like this week, Ontario is not completely without pro- tection from ood events. We would be a lot worse off if we didn’t have conservation authorities.
Despite all the good things they do, Conservation Authorities aren’t always the most popular kids on the block, often because of their regulatory role. Lots of residents and developers want to build in areas next to water not real- izing that these areas can be suscept- ible to ooding and erosion.
Ontario’s 36 Conservation Author- ities are key players in preventing and reducing the impacts of overland ooding across the province and they do this by working with all levels of government. They began to be estab- lished in the 1940s by the Province and municipalities. Where there isn’t a conservation authority, the Province works with municipalities.
Having forest cover, wetlands and naturalized shorelines, also reduces the impacts of ooding.
Conservation authorities prevent and/ or reduce the risk of overland ooding using a combination of $2.7 billion dollars’ worth of ood infrastructure, regulations which prohibit develop- ment in ood prone areas, oodplain
Conservation Authorities help to pro- tect and enhance these natural features through the wide variety of restoration and rehabilitation programs they de- liver. Working with residents, agencies and other partners, they plant trees and protect wetlands, shorelines and other
They help to slow down ows or soak up and store some of the ood waters.
Keeping people out of water and water away from people saves lives, prevents property damages and keeps business humming, saving hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
Kim Gavine, General Manager, Conservation Ontario
Brooke-Alvinston residents facing higher water bills
The Independent Staff
Any way you look at it, people in Brooke-Alvinston will end up paying higher water bills.
sewer rate structure that will raise
the money needed to run the system without unfairly squeezing ratepayers.
schools.
Inwood residents won’t see their
Treasurer Steve Ikert says the province wants municipalities to fund the operation of their water and sewer systems with water and sewer rates. That doesn’t happen in Brooke- Alvinston.
He laid out 10 different ways
to change the rate structure for councillors recently. All of them would mean the water and sewer systems would be fully funded by water and sewer rates. But some place the burden of the cost on low volume users, others on those who use the most water.
rates change since their water and sewer charges are billed by Enniskillen township and are signi cantly higher than the rest of the municipality’s.
Last year alone, the municipality used $110,205 tax dollars to support the system. This year another $95,000 will be needed according to the treasurer.
Right now, the average family
of three spends about $56.73 on
their water and sewer bill. Ikert has calculated new rates which could see that bill rise to $62.43 per month all the way up to $89 per month. That would make Brooke-Alvinston’s water bills the fourth highest in Lambton.
Mayor Don McGugan says they needed time to look over the different possibilities and will likely discuss them in June.
Councillors have made no decisions yet on the new rate structure for Brooke-Alvinston.
That keeps water and sewer rates low. Only Enniskillen residents have lower bills than Brooke-Alvinston right now.
But he says it is clear the costs will go up. “This plan will get us to self- suf ciency,” says McGugan. “There will be changes - at rates will change. I believe we will likely end up doing something for big water users although they will still pay their fair share.”
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But that is about to change.
Some of the suggestions include much higher rates for large volume users such as livestock operations and
After council decides a rate structure, McGugan says there will be a public meeting held on the issue.
Ikert has been crunching some numbers, trying to nd a water and
Centennial Hall will be in use until at least 2018
The Independent Staff
Watford residents will be using Centennial Hall until at least 2018.
That from Warwick Township council which has set up a special committee of council to gure out what should be done with the aging community hall.
A consultant recently told Warwick Council the 50 year- old community hall is not up to code and suggested it should be closed instead of sinking hundreds of thousands of dollars into it.
He suggested community events could be accommodated in either the Warwick Hall or the local arena. That caused concern from groups in Watford who want Centennial to remain open saying it has more space. Members of the local gun club, which has a shooting range in the basement, are also concerned. They say it would be next to impossible to replicate what they have in Centennial Hall.
the groups.
“They’re going to expand it to other groups like churches,
The consultant also suggested building a new hall instead of renovating Centennial.
Boy Scouts or Girl Guides who have expressed an interest already,” says Case. It’s not clear how long the committee will consult but the mayor says the township has worked with the re department to make sure the hall meets re code and he believes it can be used into 2018, when the municipality has a better idea what its next steps will be.
Mayor Todd Case says the new group will be made up mainly of members of the current recreation committee. It meets regularly with community groups who are hall users and council believes it would be the best to get input from
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