What Odds at City Hall 6 February 2023

It was pretty empty in the chamber today, with Mayor Danny Breen, Deputy Mayor Sheilagh O’Leary and Cllrs Ophelia Ravencroft. Maggie Burton and Jamie Korab absent.

Cllr Sandy Hickman was leading the regular council meeting.

There was also one proclamation marking February as Violence Prevention Month, which Cllr Hickman read out.

A registered massage therapy practice has gotten approval to open at 607 Topsail Road after Council voted to approve a discretionary use application.

“The treatment room is within the Dwelling and has an area of 11.7 square meters. Hours of operation are Monday through Thursday from 12pm to 8pm, Tuesday and Wednesday from 8am to 4pm, and Friday from 9:30am to 4pm, and Saturday from 9 to 5,” said Cllr Ron Ellsworth.

“The business will have one employee. Parking provided on site. The proposed application site is RI Zone.”

Morgan Enterprises Limited – directed by Audrey Morgan, Grant Morgan and Jacqueline Morgan – also got Council approval for a clinic at 35 Major’s Path.

“A new building is proposed onsite with 20 clinic rooms and contains both clinic and office uses. Hours of operation will be Monday to Saturday, 7am to 7pm. And the proposed development will conform to the Industrial Commercial Zone requirements and parking will be provided for the additional clinic space,” said Cllr Ellsworth.

“Layout and Design will be subject to the City specifications at the time of development. The proposed application site is zoned IC, which is Industrial Commercial.”

“Sounds like a great project,” said Cllr HIckman.

One person wrote in, wanting information about the site and raising potential issues around parking.

Trading in Skates for Scales

Council then voted on a change of non-conforming use application for a service shop and retail use for the repair of musical instruments and retail sales at 254 Pennywell Road.

The application was submitted by Kearsey’s Guitar Works and they’re switching the existing use from sharpening of skates and retail to the repair of musical instruments and retail sales.

One person wrote in, worried about the hours of the business and noise associated with the musical repair side of the business (ie, the wild hours for Saturday that go all the way to 6pm!)

They even wrote: “We cannot have musical instruments playing after 6” and, I’ll have you note, that isn’t anywhere near our current noise bylaw.

“In fact if this business is to operate at all it cannot disrupt our peaceful enjoyment of our home,” they wrote.

Well, the music store is replacing a business that’s already there, so this person clearly lived with the noise coming out of the spot. So I’m not sure how it’ll be less peaceful.

And as usual, they were worried about increased traffic.

Council gave the okay for the servicing of a private development within the Floodplain Buffer at 716 Water Street.

“An application was received for a building extension, along with parking lot and stormwater collection system upgrades at 716 Water Street. The developer is proposing to expand and upgrade the parking lot, along with new curb, catch basins, and storm pipe network,” said Cllr Ellsworth.

“The storm pipe is proposed to cross Water Street and discharge into the Waterford River and is proposed to be located within the Floodplain Buffer. Under Section 4.10(4), Council may permit “servicing of a private development” within the Floodplain Buffer.”

Procurement Policy Expanded

Council signed off on an increase to the procurement threshold for when three quotes are required from $1,000 to $2,500.

“The City’s procurement policy lays out what is required on the part of staff to acquire goods and services. As the dollar value on the procurement increases so does the necessary work to try and ensure best value for money,” said Cllr Ellsworth.

“And the current policy is as follows: 1. For items less than $1,000 a direct purchase can be made; for items between $1,000 and $2,500 three quotes are required and can include online listings and catalogs.”

“And item three, items between $2,500 and $10,000 three written quotes supplied by vendors are required.”

Pay Topped Up

Instructors and work term students are getting an increase to their hourly wage and Council also agreed that they should be reviewed on an annual basis or in line with changes to the minimum wage as required.

This bump is to align with what other municipalities are paying. They haven’t increased in over a decade, since 2011!

Cllr Ian Froude said he thinks this is the right move, in terms of fairness for employees and future employees, and also so they’re competitive when it comes to getting people to fill those important positions.

Council approved access to $100,000 from the Regional Wastewater Reserve to purchase a SCADA software upgrade.

“The software package is used for treatment plant process monitoring, control, data trending, and historical data archiving. The software package currently in use has reached the end of its life and must be upgraded,” said Cllr Froude.

Following that up, $500,000 from the Regional Wastewater Reserve will go towards buying replacement clarifier collectors.

New Traffic Calming Policy

Buckle up, we’re talking about traffic calming!

A few months back, Council was presented with proposed changes to the Traffic Calming Policy Update and at the December 12, 2022 Council Meeting a motion was passed to bring this decision note back to Committee of the Whole for further discussion regarding the resident survey as some councilors suggested removing the survey from the policy.

If you remember, at that council meeting discussion around the policy was briefly derailed when Cllr Jill Bruce wanted to remove a survey from this process, but it went nowhere and was sent back to Committee of the Whole. Well now it’s back.

Council agreed to keep a resident survey and to set a target minimum response rate for the Traffic Calming public survey to be 40% of households surveyed by 2026 and require the support of at least 60% of the responding households to implement permanent traffic calming.

Cllr Ellsworth said they had a great discussion at the Committee of the Whole but he did have a concern with the number of participants that had to be involved. He did have a caution to the community.

“If your street is being targeted for traffic calming, speak up and have your voice heard. If not, don’t come back complaining afterwards because you didn’t engage in the discussion,” he said.

Cllr Froude also had some concerns about it – like on the public survey threshold – but on the whole he supports the policy.

Water Work, Codes of Conduct, and Travel Plans

Exclusive supplier Evoqua Water Technologies was awarded a $405,560.86 (plus HST) bid to supply a clarifier collector equipment for the Riverhead Wastewater Treatment Facility.

Cllr Ellsworth announced that “Take notice that I will at the next regular meeting of the St. John’s Municipal Council move for the adoption of the Code of Conduct for Municipal Officials and the Code of Conduct for Councillors as required under the Municipal Conduct Act.”

For a bit of background, the provincial government enacted legislation that required municipalities to establish their own codes of conduct by early March. So the City of St. John’s will do this just in time!

Mayor Breen is heading down south for CERAWEEK, in Houston, Texas, with Council’s approval to cover travel costs. The event is an annual energy conference for leaders, energy executives, and government officials. It will take place March 6-10.

There was no mention during the meeting of the estimated cost.

The Go Round

Cllr Carl Ridgeley said that they are expecting snow sometime this week and asked for people to be patient when it comes to getting their streets cleared.

He noted the other week when we got a dumping of snow that he got calls from people who said our snow clearing was great, but when we got a bit more snow, he was getting calls that our snow clearing was poor. He reminded people that there are priority routes that have to be done first.

Cllr Debbie Hanlon wanted to remind people that Seniors’ winter recreation registration is open now and spring recreation registration opens on March 2 for residents and non-residents on March 7.

“Spaces are filling up fast,” she said, but some spaces remain.

As well, nominations for the Applause Awards are now open and will close February 23 at 5pm. You can head to the website for more information. 

And with that, Cllr Hickman adjourned.