Timmins council is at the table to talk about a number of items tonight (March 21).
This week's meeting includes youth sports associations asking for reduced ice rates, community safety updates and awarding new contracts.
Here's some of what's on the agenda:
- With community safety always a hot topic at the council table, the city's community strategies co-ordinator has provided an update on priority four of the Community Safety and Well-Being Plan. "Post-pandemic, we are seeing unprecedented societal consequences that are a result of the opioid and mental health crisis. Strategic Priority 4 emphasizes that there is a shared responsibility and effort required to improve the safety and belongingness of all residents while in our homes, at work and in the community," reads the report. It also mentions a number of committees and working groups that are part of plan. The people sitting of those are not included. Read the full report here.
- A number of groups are asking the city to extend the reduced youth ice rate to include April and September, however, staff recommend that the summer ice rentals stay the same. The Timmins Minor Hockey Association, Timmins and District Girls Hockey Association and Timmins Ringette Association wrote a joint letter to the city requesting an extension of the youth rates. A staff report says that the request "would increase the annual losses at the arena facilities at the most expensive time to operate those arenas." Staff say the request would mean a $31,151 loss for this year. "Past municipal councils have created and implemented a summer rental rate for the months of April, August and September for a reason. The city loses a tremendous amount of money each year operating our arenas," reads the report, which puts the accumulated loss to run the city's four arenas in 2022 at $1.1 million. More details are available in the report here.
- C&H Pumping could be awarded a two-year contract for the German Township Landfill that serves the Connaught, Barber's Bay and Frederick House Lake road areas. Proposing a $139,980 contract, the Matheson-based company was the lowest of the six bids the city received for the work. Read the full report here. The bid is within the budget that the city has allocated for the contract.
- Staff is proposing that Civica Infrastructure do this year's work for CCTV inspections and sewer line cleaning on about 14.5 kilometres of sanitary sewers across the city. The company bid $171,484.20 for the contract. Because the city has budgeted $221,450 for the work this year, the staff report notes that the "quantities will be adjusted to bring the amount spent within the allocated budget". Read the full report here.
- The 2022 council remuneration detailing how much money each council member took home last year has also been disclosed. Read more on that here.
None of the items have been approved.
The meeting is at 6 p.m. in council chambers at city hall. Watch the meeting live online here.
