LoW council gives itself a raise

Ruth Brett
Contributor

The regular meeting of the Lake of the Woods Township Council was held on April 6th at Bergland with Mayor Pizey, all Councillors, Clerk/Treasurer P.Giles, Road Supt. E. Pearson, and Staff Sgt. Hugh Dennis of the OPP present.
In his report, Mr. Dennis gave an update on statistics and crime rates and reported a high clearance rate of crimes solved in this District. He went on to inform the meeting that the OPP will soon be starting a large scale seat belt check in the area.
The Council Remuneration By-Law that was discussed in camera at the last meeting is a by-law that approves an increase in the amount that Mayor and Councillors are paid in Lake of the Woods Township. It is now $120.00 per meeting for Councillors and $150.00 per meeting for Mayor.
Bills for the month of March in the amount of $72,464.95 were approved for payment.
Clerk Giles reported that final notices of tax sales are being mailed out to owners of the properties with houses on them.
Road Report: The discussion continued on purchasing a truck for the township. It was left with the Road Supt. to research costs and order one. The Road Supt. will be attending a one day course in Thunder Bay for preventative maintenance of municipal roads. The Mayor, all councillors and Road Supt. will conduct a road patrol on April 24th.
In regards to the cost of building permits, Councillor Lundgren objected to this Township considering using a $7.00/1,000 rate, which would bring the cost of a permit to about $1,500.00 for a 1,200 sq. ft. home. The present rate here is $4.00/1,000. After some discussion, council decided to adopt a $5.00/1,000 rate.
Old Business: The dump attendant and other contract positions for hall custodian and cemetery that were advertised for in the newspaper. Councillor Lundgren stated that he strongly objected to immediate family members of council being considered for these positions. Clerk Giles outlined conflict of interest guidelines to council members. Very little discussion followed.
Mayor Pizey asked Road Supt. Pearson for input into hiring the full time labourer. Mr. Pearson stated that he feels that there is not enough work for a full time person but “...you can create the job if you want to...”. Councillor McCormack protested that “ We are not creating a job”
Councillor Gate suggested that there is a lot of work that is not being done. When Mr. Pearson asked what was not being done, Councillors Gate, McCormack, and Fadden spoke at once, listing jobs like...no grass being cut around the township signs, no trim being done around the buildings.....The Road Supt. repeated that he still feels there is not enough work for a full time person.
It was then decided that the full time labourer person will be reporting to Council, not the Road Supt., and would be getting his list of duties from Council directly. He/she would look after both dumps ( which was a contract position) and do casual labour as needed... as well.
There were 2 applications for the Halls custodian contract; 1 application for cemetery; no applications for dump attendant; 4 applications for the full time labourer position. No interviews were conducted.
Council went in camera to discuss these personnel matters and the results are: Hall Custodian Contract awarded to Sheila Gate and Maryanne McCormack (who will job share); Full time labourer position awarded to Lawrence Fadden; Cemetery Contract awarded to Fred Gate. Councillor Lundgren asked for a recorded vote on each of the motions hiring the personnel.
The LOW Township website is now up at lakeofthewoods.ca. More features will continue to be added and in future, the minutes of each council meeting. Clerk Giles has been authorized to look into a computer database for cemetery records.
By-Law #129 has been enacted which is the tax ratio by-law that retains the following ratio— commercial 1.98 times residential rate.
Dump hours have been changed: Morson- Tuesday & Thursday 10am to 6pm; Bergland- Wednesday. & Sunday 10am to 3pm.