Councillor questions $2,500 telephone call

Ken Johnston
Editor

Council spent nearly half its fifty minute regular monthly meeting Monday evening discussing a letter that cost the taxpayers $2,500 late last month.

In a letter, dated August 10, 2001, council was informed that the consultant they hired to look at the town’s sewer system had misplaced a bill for $2,500.

However, council did not receive notification of this matter until August 28, 2001 when Town Administrator Deb Bowman telephoned every councillor.

Facing an August 31st deadline to pay the bill, Bowman felt that she had no choice but to conduct a phone poll on the expenditure.

Councillor Glen Armstrong asked several poignant questions about the entire matter. The first being the matter of how long it took from the time the letter was written until when council was notified. He felt that they should have been aware of it much sooner and questioned when it was received by the town office.

Armstrong also asked if it was proper procedure to make such a decision outside the bounds of a special or regular meeting.

Bowman said that had she not been able to reach council she would have paid the bill regardless as it was a “government order.”

Armstrong again asked the Mayor, Gord Prost, if it was proper procedure to make the decision over the phone and he said, “It dealt with the problem.”

The mayor then went on to say council had wasted enough time on the matter and then after both Armstrong and Councillor Brent Anderson said it was pretty important he retracted the statement saying the word “wasted” was not the right one to use.

Councillor Dennis Ewald expressed concern about the fact that Burnside, the consultant, asked for more money at all. He noted that it appeared that the Ministry of Environment changed its requirements from Burnside and that in turn lead to the additional $2,500 bill.

Councillor Larry Armstrong noted that town planner, A. Anderson, has requested a meeting with council and that is where council should express concerns about the government’s handling of the entire sewer situation.

Rec. Board in the Red Council unanimously passed a motion to lend the Rainy River Recreation Board $10,000.

It then agreed to form a subcommittee of council consisting of Glen Armstrong, Larry Armstrong and Brent Anderson to work with the Rec. Bd. to review operations and the organization’s bylaws.

Baby steps for fire departments

Mayor Gord Prost noted that a meeting with Dawson about amalgamating their fire dept. with Rainy’s saw the need for “baby steps” to start the process.

He noted that a twinning of policies will take place and one chief will oversee both depts. Deputy chiefs will be in charge at the individual department levels. The depts. will remain separate, but more working together will take place.

Thumbs down from O.P.P.

Mayor Gord Prost reported that a meeting with the Ontario Provincial Police and Rainy River, Dawson and Morley resulted in the O.P.P. saying no to full time clerical staff at the RR detachment. They suggested that it could be staffed by volunteers as it is in Emo. Council agreed to begin working towards a volunteer system to see if it would work.