Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Greater Napanee’s current council gathered at town hall on Nov. 8 for the final meeting of the term.
Prior to saying their good-byes, there was a full agenda’s worth of items to get through to close out the session.
Included in that was an update on the town’s 2021 finances, done virtually by Doug Churcher of Welch LLP.
Counting the town’s financial assets, minus liabilities, produced a net of $13.5 million, up $1.1 million compared to 2020. Added to 2021’s non-financial assets, the accumulated surplus was $131.4 million, up from $128.6 million in 2020.
Turning to the consolidated statement of operations and accumulated surplus, the town saw a net change of cash of $432,025, resulting in $21.2 million in cash at the end of the year, compared to $20.7 million in 2020. Of that balance, about $7 million is currently labeled as unappropriated cash.
“Part of your tax balance is restricted but then there is a portion that is unrestricted,” said Churcher. “It all depends on management and what their tax flow needs are at the end of the year. It’s all sort of relative to any point in time depending on what your cash requirements were. Your accounts payable were significantly up at the end of the year due to various capital projects and other stuff, I’m assuming a fair chunk of that cash would have went out just after you went to pay off some of those accounts payable and liabilities at year’s end.”
Councillor John McCormack, in an effort to answer a question that had been posed to him by residents, asked Paul Dowber, the town’s treasurer, about the need to borrow money to help fund the purchase of 99 Advance Ave. The town is in the process of moving into that building as they consolidate all their services under one roof.
“I’m just wondering with $21 million in cash and $7 million of unappropriated funds, will we be revising that $1.5 million debenture? It seems like we have a lot of money here, I’m just wondering why the town would be seeking to go out and borrow that amount of money,” said McCormack.
Dowber noted much of that money has actually already been ear marked for other projects in the coming years.
“Even though we have what appears to be a fairly large reserve balance compared to previous years, it’s offset by the presentation that staff did to council Oct. 19 showing that on our current course of funding a large portion of our capital projects from reserves that we were likely to see pretty much a use or full use of those unrestricted reserves probably within the next three years,” said Dowber. “At this point we thought it best not to tie up all of those funds with the purchase of the building when we’re funding probably almost $2 million a year in roads work alone, let alone other capital projects.”
McCormack noted that was the answer he was expecting to hear.
-Council also received an update on the town’s recreation master plan, presented by Jonathan Hack of Sierra Planning and Management.
Noting that a more formal draft with recommendations would be coming to council next month, Hack outlined that the Nov. 8 presentation was a more of a snapshot of data received regarding the desire of residents.
An aquatics facility was mentioned many times by those surveyed.
“We’re quite confident that what we’re hearing from a broad range of people is their emphasis on some additional new facility that they would like in town,” said Hack.
Deputy mayor Max Kaiser noted with WJ Henderson’s pool closing last April due to the growing costs of repairs, there is currently no aquatic facility within L&A County.
“I think going forward that we need to consider a possibility, and I’m not sure how that can happen, about structuring a partnership with other municipalities that maybe we can provide services for their residents if they can help us make it happen,” said Kaiser, referring to neighbouring centres such as Stone Mills, Loyalist, Tyendinaga and beyond.
“Within a 45 minute drive of Napanee, the population is 323,000 and change, divide that by five pools and 64,000 and change for people per pool, where the typical standard is 35,000,” added councillor Dave Pinnell Jr. “There’s another good thing for us.”
“We hear time and time that a pool loses money, but in this report you’ll see that the SPC is only 49 per cent cost recovery, which is less than half and it shows a net loss of $922,996 in 2019 and I can also show you budgets where past years have been similar to that,” said Pinnell Jr. “A report was brought to council in April 21, 2021, and suggested a pool would see a loss of $442,000, so its less than what the arena is.”
Pinnell Jr. expressed a desire for council to move forward with working to bring an indoor pool to town. He also referenced the growing tax base, which was captured in the report. Numbers show Greater Napanee saw a 6.2 per cent population growth between the years of 2016-’21, which accounted for a greater average seen across the province, which was 5.8 per cent.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that Greater Napanee has a great hockey and softball program and with our growing population and changing demographics, there’s also room for aquatics here,” added Pinnell Jr.
Council voted to note and receive the master plan update.
-Greater Napanee’s Downtown Merchant Association was granted $5,000 from council to fund the annual Downtown Shopping Party.
The money was doled out in response to a last-minute deputation by Rennie Hutzler, owner of Lansing Gallery and Gifts. She requested the money on behalf of the merchants, noting the funds were previously allocated by the now defunct Business Improvement Area’s levy surplus for the Guitars and Cars event that wound up getting cancelled.
“Our downtown area has gone through two years of the Big Dig in 2018 and 2019,” said Hutzler. “Then we were hit by COVID in March of 2020. Three consecutive years of uncertainty. We as a group of merchants have suffered greatly. Not only will this event provide an awesome sales night for many merchants, it will unite our members after a long haul and provide donations to the food bank.”
The Downtown Shopping Party is scheduled for Dec. 16.
-Councillor Bob Norrie successfully lobbied to have the first council meeting of the new term moved to Dec. 20. He noted he would have been unable to attend the Dec. 6 date.
Greater Napanee CAO John Pinsent presents mayor Marg Isbester with a framed photo of the 2018-22 town council at the Nov. 8 meeting. Isbester is among four members of the current council: deputy mayor Max Kaiser and councillors John McCormack and Ellen Johnson, who won’t return for the next term of council.
-At the close of the meeting each of the members of council took a turn offering their thanks for the previous term. For some it was a look ahead to the next four years, for four other members of council it was good-bye.
“We’ve been a really strong team working together,” said councillor Ellen Johnson, who won’t be returning next term. “We did not always agree, but that’s what made us stronger. We always respected one another and I think we’re walking away from this having made some friends that we’ll keep for a long time.”
Outgoing councillor McCormack agreed.
“It’s been a fun run. I learned a lot, lots of great people, residents and what not,” he said.
Kaiser stated he made up his mind not to seek re-election a year and a half ago, citing a desire to be with family. He thanked his fellow councillors and particularly mayor Marg Isbester for all her support over the years.
Fittingly, Isbester had the final word.
“In a word I have enjoyed each and every bit of it. Some better than others, but overall the experience of serving for, and working with council, staff and residents was a very good one,” said Isbester, who retires after 12 years on council, working up for councillor to deputy and ultimately becoming the first female mayor in the town’s history.
Isbester reflected on the last four years that started with a major turnover from the previous council with five new members joining the seven-seat horseshoe. Shortly thereafter came a global pandemic.
“Not everyone on or off council agreed with the methodology of operating under a state of emergency and I hope that council orientation for the new council will include an in-depth section of the hows and the whys,” said Isbester. “I can not think of a better way that I could have spent 12 years. The achievements, the people, the engagement, all the things that I will never regret or forget.”
-A special council orientation will take place on Nov. 22 followed by the inaugural meeting of the term on Dec. 20, which will see Terry Richardson take over the mayor’s seat with deputy mayor Brian Calver one seat over.