Region of Queens Council will once again vote whether to build the new public library at Queens Place.

After receiving more information on the costs to run a road and services to the new location Councillor Maddie Charlton presented a notice of motion for council to vote on the suitability of Queens Place for the new facility at the next council meeting. There will be more to come on this story later in the week.

While the new library provided the most heated discussion there was still plenty to discuss at the Feb 28 meeting.

Staff continued reviewing and updating existing bylaws and presented council with a modernized Emergency Management Bylaw.

Council then filled vacancies on the Heritage and Planning Advisory Committees.

Next staff recommended council approve a development agreement for the construction of a three unit fixed-roof overnight accommodation on Beach Meadows Road.

A public hearing will be held March 28 in council chambers for residents to provide input on the proposal.

The next item was a proposal shift the various insurance policies held by the Region to a single provider.

The move could save the municipality $65,000 each year.

Eight items in the discussion portion of the session began with a request to name a private road, “Serenity Now Lane”.

From there council talked about the Region’s area rate policy and requests for area rates from Brooklyn Cemetery Association and Brooklyn Recreation Association.

An area rate is a tax collected for a specific community purpose which is collected by the municipality through the property tax bill and paid to the administrating group.

The two Brooklyn Associations were concerned they couldn’t meet the level of accounting standards deemed necessary by the municipality.

Mayor Darlene Norman says if the Region is going to collect money on behalf of an organization, there needs to be the upmost transparency.

“It’s very important that when groups come to us requesting us to collect taxpayer's money on their behalf that there be a third party independent look at their books.”

Norman says the groups will meet with the Director of Corporate Services and their councillor before presenting their yearly budgets and the reasons the area rate is required in a public meeting.

Council followed that with the library discussion which resulted in the motion to rescind the approval of Queens Place as the new library site.

A question about installing new sidewalks in Cobbs Ridge was shut down when Public Works staff said if the sidewalk was to be built, the underlying infrastructure should be updated first, which would increase the cost of construction exponentially.

Council then punted a discussion of whether council meetings should be live streamed to the communications committee.

The committee is looking into ways to improve sound and video for people wanting to follow council proceedings from home.

The last discussion point was to have an engineering firm perform a comprehensive study of the heating and ventilation system at the Astor Theatre.

Staff are recommending the study be included in the 2023/24 budget and work should begin as soon as possible.

Finally, the municipality announced it has entered into a lease agreement at the regional airport with the South Shore Drag Racers Association.

Discussions are continuing with the South Shore Flying Club.

Region of Queens Council will meet next in council chambers beginning at 9:00am on March 14.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

To listen to the broadcast of this story, press play below.