Timmins council is sitting down for its last scheduled meeting of the year tonight.
The agenda includes water and sewer rate hike, giving the go-ahead to the 2022 fleet program and a presentation about the summer concert series.
Here are some items of note:
- A group is looking to transform a Porcupine park. There is a report and presentation on Melview Park, which is located behind the Porcupine Mall and can be accessed from Michener Boulevard and Eric Crescent. City staff is recommending that a section of the park be declared surplus to create two residential lots. The lots would be on Michener on the west side and there would be about 26 metres of space for people to access the park on the east side. A community group, Friends of Melview Park, are interested in fundraising to redevelop the space. The options put forward by the group include the existing basketball court, a sensory garden, open exploration area,adventure zone, discovery zone and community connections. Friends of Melview Park's vision is available here. The staff report can be found here.
- Peter Lawryniw is pitching bringing back the Summer Concert Series. The series wasn't held this past summer and was offered through a virtual format in 2020. In 2022, he's asking to hold 10 weekly concerts at Hollinger Park. The proposed cost is $1,800 per week. Of the total $18,000 cost, the presentation notes $6,000 would be covered by PJ Production and $12,000 by the City of Timmins. He's also asking the city to provide access to Hollinger Park and maintain the grounds, such as the garbage and bathrooms, provide electricity, and provide an alternate location if weather is an issue. There's also a request for Tourism Timmins to attend and gather community feedback, distribute promotional rack cards, provide accommodations for out-of-town artists where needed, give the series exposure in its publications and a link on its website, and provide the application and other documents from past series. Read the presentation here.
- The city's water and sewer rate hikes are up for approval. Council talked about this year's rates at a Dec. 1 meeting, which was the first in a series of meetings for 2022. At that meeting, a $53 rate hike was proposed — $22 for water and $31 for wastewater. The low-income water and wastewater rebate program is also up for discussion. The recommendation is to increase the current $50 rebate to $100 for low-income earners to offset future utility bill increases.
- There is a motion to approve the $1.69 million fleet program. The program was laid out at the budget meeting Dec. 7, which was council's first chance to publicly talk about the 2022 budget. The program includes replacing 10 vehicles as well as buying ancillary equipment, such as attachments or trailers.
The council meeting is at 6 p.m. You can watch the meeting online here.
The full agenda is available here.
