By Mike Renzella
The Haldimand Press
HALDIMAND—The following items were discussed at a Council-in-committee meeting on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. All items discussed will need to be ratified at the upcoming Council meeting on Monday, March 20.
County to establish civic addressing bylaw
Haldimand County is enacting a new civic addressing bylaw, designed to formalize the process for assigning new addresses and road names.
While such bylaws are not a legal requirement, County staff asserted in a report that operating without one in place, as Haldimand has done since becoming incorporated, can lead to “inconsistent processes during time of staff change, and may confuse the public when questions arise about how the County makes its decision on addressing and road naming.”
Currently, new road names are submitted by developers to the County, who reject names that already exist elsewhere in the County or when staff feel it does not align with “proper naming conventions” or is inappropriate. Staff cite naming a street after a controversial historical figure as something that would be rejected.
In terms of civic addresses, proponents can either submit their requests through a draft plan of subdivision or, in the case of one-off addresses, applicants submit a request form and a new address is assigned.
The new bylaw will not alter the current County processes for these matters, but it will “provide greater transparency and the benefit from the additional layer of regulatory direction and defensibility.”
County makes sidewalk and on-street patio program permanent
Back in 2018, Haldimand County established a seasonal sidewalk and on-street patio pilot program aimed at allowing commercial establishments in the region the ability to use County property to erect seasonal patios during set summer months.
The program was made permanent in May 2020, and due to ongoing health restrictions limiting access to indoor businesses during the pandemic, the decision was made to temporarily extend the program’s available dates through winter to January in a bid to help struggling local businesses.
Following two years of successful deployment of the program and its extended timeframe, County staff are recommending the program’s timeframe be permanently set between April 1 and November 30.
According to a staff report, local businesses that participated noted the positive impact the patio program has had on their business, with seven new public patios getting approval in 2022, resulting in 128 additional seats added to Haldimand’s hospitality sector.
Hagersville and Dunnville Iron Watermain replacement project creates $250,000 budget shortfall
A required maintenance project that will see the replacement of cast iron watermain and sanitary sewer pipes at two locations in Hagersville and Dunnville will cost the County significantly more than budgeted.
County staff had allotted $1,446,700 in the annual budget for the project, but the lowest bid, received from Neil Montague Construction Ltd., was for $1,696,984 – creating a shortfall of $250,284.
The shortfall follows on the footsteps of a similar project in Caledonia earlier this year, budgeted for $2,022,600 but with the lowest bid coming in at $2,922,340. CAO Craig Manley said at the time that the shortfalls mean the County is “drawing from the reserves faster or more than we anticipated.”
A review of the bid shows that the higher cost is the result of increased labour and material costs driven by supply chain issues. The project also includes a previously-unbudgeted $100,000 for provincial excess soil regulations, which came into effect in January.
As of publication, it was unclear if Council would vote to proceed with the project at the higher rate or cancel the tender and try again later, a practice they used with success on the Caledonia project to secure a lower bid.
County increases user rates for hired vehicles in Haldimand
Living in a county with no public transit system in place, taxis and other hired transportation services are of crucial importance. Recently, County staff conducted a review of Statistics Canada’s Consumer Price Index’s (CPI) annual average rate for transportation costs in Ontario, noting a 5.2% increase in rates between December 2020-2021.
As a result, staff are recommending an increase to the Urban Area flat rate fee from $11 to $11.50, and a rural area minimum fee increase from $6 to $6.25. Additionally, the $/km rate will increase from $2.50/km to $2.75/km.
According to a County release, the increases are designed to maintain the balance between maintaining the operational feasibility of hired vehicle services in Haldimand while not overcharging the customer for accessing those services.
“Since hired vehicle owners have historically had concerns with rising insurance rates and fuel costs, it is expected that the increased fares will be welcomed by the business owners yet are not significant enough to adversely impact users of the service,” said the release.
