Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Members of Greater Napanee council discussed bright ideas during their Feb. 22 meeting, which was held virtually and broadcast on the town’s YouTube channel.
More specifically, members of council discussed options presented by staff regarding the town’s popular Big Bright Lights, which all agreed needed to be revamped in the future. Reasons for a new set up range from the cost associated with maintaining the current lights, which were first introduced in 2010, to the staff hours spent installing them every autumn and then removing them after the holiday season.
For the time being councillor Ellen Johnson put forward a successful motion to keep the same configuration for next winter while directing staff to investigate options for the 2023 budget while seeking community sponsorships and grants.
Among the options suggested by town staff were to keep the same set current set up indefinitely, which comes at a cost of $30,000 annually and involves several weeks of installation and take down. Option 2 is to install a new lights system at town hall, for a capital cost of $70,000 with lights that could be used year round for various celebrations and proclamations such as Canada Day and Pride Month. The second option comes with some upfront cost but would lead to savings over the long haul compared to the current method. Option 3 is a bit of a hybrid known as a corner placement of the new system to illuminate buildings on the corner of Dundas Street blocks: Campbell House, Touch of Class, Napanee Opticians, BMO, Starlet, Wallace’s, L&A Financial and RBC. A fourth option, which was immediately dismissed by council, was a full-scale new system with a cost of $750,000.
“It will probably take almost a year to come up with a new plan and a replacement and who is going to partner into it,” said Johnson of the report. “This is a good start.”
Deputy Mayor Max Kaiser outlined the importance of the lights to the town’s tourism.
“I’ve always been a big fan of the Big Bright Lights downtown,” said Kaiser. “I know that there’s times as we all know that volunteers wax and wane, come and go and there’s interest in it that varies year to year. Looking at the options as they’re presented in the report, 1, 2, 3 and 4, Option 2 is obviously the most financially palatable with long-term thinking, but it really minimizes the impact. I’ve kind of been a big fan of the Big Bright Lights downtown. I think it has been a big selling feature. I’ve interacted with people on the street for years as they come to the town to do some shopping, they hear about it whether they’re from Bath or Madoc or wherever they’re coming from. It’s a drawing card.”
Councillor Bob Norrie was among those who said its time to phase out the current set up.
“I don’t want to sound like the Grinch but I truly believe these lights have run their course,” said Norrie. “Four months of work, forget the $30,000, it’s four months of work. Put them up, take them down. That’s a lot of man hours, that’s a lot of time that it takes away staff from doing other things.”
Mayor Marg Isbester supported the idea of taking time to explore more options. That included getting a new light system and using the old lights to create a lighting display within the trees of Springside Park.
“We spent hours and hours and hours (researching the lights when the idea was first presented to council by James Timlin in 2010),” said Isbester, who was a member of council at that time. “When the concept was shown to us, I don’t think any of us, other than the pictures from some other place that everybody says we copied-Christmas lights are not copied, the whole world has Christmas lights, so get over it-(had seen them before) When we unrolled it and put them on to everything, they worked. I think to me with this what we’re missing is why are we just concentrating on the downtown? Why aren’t we looking for Canada celebrations with the SPC? Why aren’t we looking something for other areas? Who is to say Canadian Tire with their expansion wouldn’t be interested in something like this? Maybe on their own, certainly not from us. The mall, farms. There’s any number of areas that it can be used. I think we need a lot more information.”
-The town has denied a request from the Concerned Citizens of Tyendinaga and Environs (CCCTE) for $1,000 to help cover the cost of hiring a consulting hydrogeologist to review applications submitted by Waste Management regarding the Richmond landfill.
Councillor Dave Pinnell Jr. questioned why the request was denied.
“It’s a small amount of money that they’re asking for just to make sure that the numbers that Waste Management is putting out are true,” said Pinnell Jr.
Peter Dafoe, the town’s general manager of infrastructure services, said the review was unnecessary as the town already received one from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP).
“Staff have the utmost respect for the CCCTE group, but just for a point of clarification, the MECP is a governing authority with respect to environmental approvals and enforcement,” said Dafoe. “They also regulate many things that the municipality does- water, waste water, solid waste, etc. The MECP are the ones that have the sole responsibility to review all applications to ensure the applicants meet all applicable environmental regulations. From a staff perspective, the municipal contributions that are granted for any third party review, that’s completely separate of the municipality for several reasons. This could likely set a bit of a precedent where you may have other groups that may want to challenge a provincial regulator’s perspective on something.”
Council voted to accept the staff recommendation of not meeting the request for $1,000, with Pinnell Jr. the lone vote opposed.
-Council voted to have staff being preparations for hybrid meetings to be held in person at Greater Napanee’s town hall, starting April 26.
This would mark a major step towards returning to the way things were pre-COVID-19 as council has not held a meeting within the town hall chambers since March of 2020. Following a the first declaration of emergency, council turned to virtual meetings held in Zoom and then held in-person meetings at the Selby Community Hall before returning to virtual late last year as cases spiked in the KFLA region.
-Council voted to declare March 26 as Epilepsy Awareness Day in Greater Napanee and encourages residents to wear purple in support.
-Continuing their partnership with Selby, UK, council voted to arrange a date for a future Zoom meeting with their counterparts on the other side of the pond to formally sign a Twinning Arrangement.
-The town will enable a partnership with the County of Lennox and Addington to explore for a new library location within the downtown core, as well as recognizing the need to upgrade town hall. Staff will work with Ventin Group Ltd. to develop concept drawings for the town hall and a county library to occupy spaces down town, not to exceed $50,000.