April 5/04 Report
Scheduled start time: 9:30 am, Actual start time: 9:35 am, Adjournment 2:30 pm+

Committee Members Present:

• Chad Collins (chair)
• Dave Braden
• Phil Bruckler
• Murray Ferguson
• Tom Jackson
• Margaret McCarthy
• Sam Merulla
• Dave Mitchell

Non-Members Present:

• Andrea Horwath
• Brian McHattie
• Maria Pearson
• Terry Whitehead

Media Present:

• Chinta Puxley (Spectator)
• Ken Mann (CHML)
• Natalie Morcceni (CH)
• Kevin Werner (Brabant)
• Students (Mohawk College)

1.      Declarations of Interest

None

2.      Changes to the Agenda

Added Item 7.6 Janice Brown, respecting Trillium Awards Program funding

Added Item 7.7 Fred Zimmerman, respecting garbage, odour, dust from Glanbrook Landfill

Added Item 11.1, motion respecting all way stops

3.      Approval of Minutes

Approved

4.      Delegation Requests

4.1             Suzanne McInnes, Watershed Planning Coordinator, Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, March 19, 2004 www.hamilton.ca/Clerk/agendas-minutes-reports/
public-works/2004/Apr05/Item%204.1.pdf

Approved

5.      Items Referred from Council

None

6.      Consent Items

None

7.      Public Hearings/Delegations

7.1              Leo Laviolette, General Manager of the Hamilton and District Heavy Construction Association, respecting the challenges of upgrading sewer, watermain and road infrastructure.
www.hamilton.ca/Clerk/agendas-minutes-reports/
public-works/2004/Apr05/Item%207.1.pdf

7.2              Paul Smeltzer, P.Eng., Executive Director of the Ontario Concrete Pipe Association, respecting the use of precast concrete pressure pipe for large diameter watermain applications.
www.hamilton.ca/Clerk/agendas-minutes-reports/
public-works/2004/Apr05/Item%207.2.pdf

Mr. Smeltzer made a 12 minute presentation on the benefits of concrete pipes and urged Hamilton to choose concrete pipes for its watermain needs.

Jackson and Ferguson clarified that the motion passed a month ago did not ban concrete pressure pipes from consideration, but just allowed staff to award contracts to lowest-bidder who may then be free to choose any material (PVC, steel, or concrete) for the large-diameter watermains it would be installing.

7.3              Ms. Maxine Coopersmith of Gowlings Lafleur Henderson, solicitors for Richard Salzsauler, principal of 984429 Ontario Limited which owns the property described as part Lot 9, Concession 11, in the former Township of East Flamborough requesting a lease agreement for access to property over a stopped up and closed road allowance.
www.hamilton.ca/Clerk/agendas-minutes-reports/
public-works/2004/Apr05/Item%207.3.pdf

Ms. Coopersmith made a 15 minute presentation explaining that the stop-up, closing, and sale of the unopened road allowance between Concessions 11 & 12 to Four Seasons Resort would prevent her client (Richard Salzsauler) from accessing his land-locked property.

In their earlier handling of this case, the Town of Flamborough had failed to distinguish between the right to pass over an unopened road allowance (legal) and a stopped-up and closed road allowance (akin to trespassing on private property).

Asking City to either:

1. Sell Mr. Salzsauler this right-of-way
2. If cannot sell, then 99 year lease on this right-of-way
3. If cannot sell or lease, then compensation and alternative access to his land

City Legal Department replied that this property never had legal access and Mr. Salzsauler should have known this when he purchased the property.

Report back to Committee/Council on this issue. (McCarthy/Bruckler)

7.4              Jay Jelinek, 96 Tom Street, March 5, 2004, respecting City's snow removal policy.
www.hamilton.ca/Clerk/agendas-minutes-reports/
public-works/2004/Apr05/Item%207.4.pdf

Could not be present today.

7.5              Tracy Fox, 302-50 Mohawk Road West, Hamilton, March 5, 2004, respecting noise and heavy trucks on Mohawk Road West.
www.hamilton.ca/Clerk/agendas-minutes-reports/
public-works/2004/Apr05/Item%207.5.pdf

Tracy Fox provided CATCH with her presentation and letter to the council. It can be viewed here.

Peter Crockett recommended that the noise issue be taken up at the Planning & Economic Development Committee.

Merulla: "On the issue of truck traffic, this is a concern to me. I support the Red Hill Creek Expressway based on trying to mitigate the truck traffic in the East End. I think this is a telling issue regarding that issue. Why is it that under these restrictions, these trucks can travel without any type of enforcement?"

Crockett: "The 7-7 truck restriction prohibits trucks to travel through that area outside of those hours. What it doesn't restrict is the ability of a truck to make a delivery within the restricted area. So for example, if a truck is going to a site that is in the middle of a block that is restricted, it can do that as long as it is not 'travelling through' the area."

Merulla: "Why aren't we enforcing that?"

Crockett: "That is the police that do the enforcement."

Merulla: "Can we send a strong directive from this committee that enforcement is absolutely essential and that anything short of that would be failing the community?"

Whitehead asked for a study/report measuring the type of enforcement that is currently taking place on truck traffic restrictions City-wide (Jackson/Merulla)

7.6              Janice Brown, current chair of Trillium Awards Program re: funding
www.hamilton.ca/Clerk/agendas-minutes-reports/
public-works/2004/Apr05/Item%204.2.pdf

The Trillium Awards Program, formerly called The Hamilton Beautification Awards Program, was established in 1956 and continues today.  The program "promotes and encourages community pride through the recognition of excellence in landscape design, maintenance and effort to beautify properties making a positive contribution to the City." 

Janice Brown provided CATCH with a copy of her presentation.
You can view it here.

For more information:
http://www.city.hamilton.on.ca/Parks/Horticulture/
trilliums/default.asp

City has cut funding to this City-initiated program and last year volunteers were responsible for all fundraising. Volunteers do not have energy, capacity or desire for this large fundraising undertaking but want to see this important program continue.

Janice Brown: "we want a City staff member once again to assume responsibility for funding through securing corporate sponsors, and in the event of a short fall, additional money be made available in the budget."

Asking for $14-15,000 for program expenditures plus seed funds and office expenses.

"We do not want to fundraise, it is a full time job and we have had no training in this."

Brian (Staff): "The money is there and the staff resources will be there for next year's program going forward."

Jackson: "To summarize, the $7,000 from the levy is recommended in the budget for this year, and the additional $7,000 of sponsorship and corporate support is still there in terms of helping the Committee, you're not pulling away, helping the committee raise the additional dollars as you have in the past, is that correct."

Jackson, Mitchell, Whitehead, Bruckler, Merulla all spoke at length strongly in favour of Janice's request.

Braden praised the program but disagreed that the City needed to spend money on it: "this is not a government thing, this is a neighbourhood, and an individual, and a community thing. When you see the kind of energy that the presenter has, you wouldn't want to dilute that by having government mix with it. It's not government's job to raise funds. That's not where we need to be, I don't think. I think that the pride that people have is not limited to whether government is involved or not. I don't want to speak against the program, but I do want to say that we need to be careful what things we want to provide money for. I don't think it's our job to provide basic amounts of money to run programs. That's not politically very popular but I think that that needs to be said and we need to decide whether we're going to adopt it or we're not. Otherwise, there are many other groups who are equally deserving of the kind of funding and respect that this group is. By and large, what we want to do is to encourage them to be independent and we want to do this as quickly as possible."

Mitchell agreed with Braden in principal however he supports funding this program in particular because "it shows sincere appreciation for the massive amount of hours and time and their own personal cost that they're putting into this."

Jackson : "It is not Janice Brown's Trillium Awards, it is the City of Hamilton's Trillium Awards and the Mayor and all of us are honoured when we give it out to the award winners."

Jackson proposes motion: "That the City of Hamilton continue to provide the same level of financial and in-kind support for the Trillium Awards for 2004 and beyond." (Jackson/Mitchell) Carries unanimously.

7.7              Fred Zimmerman, respecting garbage, odour, dust from Glanbrook Landfill Site

Mitchell requested that Mr. Zimmerman be permitted to speak now since he is not available to stay until the end of the meeting when his item is to be discussed in-camera (13.1). (Merulla/Mitchell)

Mr. Zimmerman had already presented his concerns about litter, odour, and dust from the Glanbrook Landfill Site blowing onto his property at the March 1, 2004 meeting of Public Works (Item 7.1
www.environmenthamilton.org/CATCH/public/pub_040301.htm ).

Staff were directed to prepare a report for this meeting that addressed Mr. Zimmerman's concerns.

Mr. Zimmerman: "I was here 30 days ago to discuss these problems. I live 200 feet downwind from the Glanbrook Landfill Site. Nothing has been done. I'm not surprised since nothing has been done over 30 years. Nobody likes to have garbage blowing all over their property. I've tolerated this for 20 years. I've had promises from a lot of people but nothing has happened. The problem has gotten worse since SWARU closed. They used to not dump on really windy days, but no more..My opinion is that the landfill should be closed. If they can't contain the garbage on-site, it shouldn't blow over to my property, I shouldn't have to put up with that. If I can't get anywhere this way, do I have to go the legal way or do I have to go to the MOE to see if they can help me? I do have to do something." Mr. Zimmerman explained that he also receives compensation for paying for water since he used to collect it off a cistern off his roof but now there is landfill dust contaminating his water. Asked City to continue providing him with trucked-in water.

Mitchell asked why garbage (i.e. plastic bags high up in trees) had not been collected from Mr. Zimmerman's property since last month's meeting?

Staff: "Waste management does have a litter policy to address complaints as quickly as possible. Regarding Mr. Zimmerman's property, the delays are largely due to ground conditions (too wet) and they need ladders to get at some of the trees. We will do this as soon as possible as soon as the site dries up."

8.      Staff Presentations

8.1   Tolling of the Red Hill Creek Expressway (PW04037/FCS04050) (City Wide) This is a large item. See this section of the CATCH report.

8.2    Working Group on Illegal Dumping and Anti-Litter (PW04029) (City Wide)
www.hamilton.ca/Clerk/agendas-minutes-reports/
public-works/2004/Apr05/PW04029.pdf

A Staff working group was formed to review current initiatives of anit-littering and illegal dumping and to provide recommendations to Council on strategies to enhance these efforts. The key achievement of the working group was identifying the roles of responsibilities of everyone at the City, establishing key contact points and the development of a littering hotline.

1. That the General Manager of Public Works establish an anti-littering and illegal dumping central contact point.
2. That an effective anti-litter public awareness campaign, as outlined in Report PW04029, be launched for April 2004.
3. That the cost to the City not exceed $40,000 in 2004, to be funded from the following operating levy budgets:
   1. $30,000 from the Operations and Maintenance Division (Dept. ID 441100) and,
   2. $10,000 from the Waste Management Division (Dept. ID 512830), assuming the 2004 Requested Budget is approved as submitted;
4. That Police Services be requested to undertake a sustained, well publicized anti-litter enforcement strategy;
5. That the General Manager of Public Works report to Council in the first quarter of 2005 with an overview and recommendations for consideration for 2005;

There was 20 minutes of discussion around this item. Councillors mostly praised the work of this Committee and emphasized the importance of this issue to their wards and the image of the entire City. Discussion also focused on improving convenience of Waste Transfer Station.

9.      Discussion Items

9.1              Stop Control List , April 5, 2004, PW04038 (Merulla/Bruckler)
www.hamilton.ca/Clerk/agendas-minutes-reports/
public-works/2004/Apr05/Stop%20List%20-%20April%205.pdf

9.2              2004 Aquatic Weed Control Program (PW04036) (City Wide) (Merulla/Bruckler) No debate or discussion. Carried unanimously.

www.hamilton.ca/Clerk/agendas-minutes-reports/
public-works/2004/Apr05/Stop%20List%20-%20April%205.pdf

Regarding staff recommendation to endorse the use of mechanical harvesting for acquatic vegetation control in the Macassa Basin (owned by City of Hamilton) in Hamilton Harbour and if those prove ineffective to endorse the use of herbicides.

10. Motions

10.1 Motion to transfer Item L respecting Turf at Ivor Wynne Stadium, from the Public Works Infrastructure and Environment Committee Outstanding Business List to the Community Services Committee .

11. Notice of Motions

None

12. General Information/Other Business

None

13. Private and Confidential

13.1 Fred Zimmerman, 1206 Hall Road East, Binbrook Garbage, Odour and Dust from Glanbrook Landfill Site (PW04035/LS04005) (Ward 11) (Confidential report distributed under separate cover.)

Andrew was not present as Committee came out of in-camera session to hear any motions.

14. Adjournment

The meeting of the Public Works Infrastructure and Environment Committee adjourned at

approximately 2:30 p.m. +

Report by Andrew Curran, Citizens at City Hall (CATCH)