Something new near Great Northern and Third Line (10 council briefs)

A new truck maintenance shop and holding/transfer yard is planned in the Sault's existing trucking district on Great Northern Road north of Third Line.

Rejean Bernard's Reghold Corp., a log and freight hauler currently based at 987 Great Northern Rd., was granted a needed zoning change this week for a now-vacant 3.24-hectare lot at 534 Third Line East.

The new trucking centre will be on the north side of Third Line East, about 294 metres from the Burger King on Great Northern Road.

Eight new homes on Old Garden River Rd.

Daniel Fremlin Holdings received rezoning approval for four semi-detached residential units to be built at 207 Old Garden River Rd.

The building site is about 177 metres northeast of Second Line East. The new homes will be on the northwest portion of the lot.

This will provide eight of the 3,115 additional housing units that Sault Ste. Marie is projected to need by 2036.

Headhunter will give us a freebie if new CAO doesn't work out

Toronto-based Feldman Daxon Partners Inc. got a $33,000 contract this week to fill help the shoes of Malcolm White, the city's retiring chief administrative officer.

Mayor Matthew Shoemaker confirmed that if White's replacement doesn't last a certain period of time in the job, Feldman Daxon will find a replacement-replacement for no charge.

"There's a service guarantee in there," the mayor said. "I'm not sure if I'm allowed to disclose the time frame but it's longer than six months that they'll do a second search if the candidate that's recruited leaves for any reason, they'll do a search without an additional fee."

White announced in May that he expects to retire on Jan. 31, 2024.

Emergency at downtown fire hall

City council voted this week to make a $35,000 emergency allocation from an asset management reserve to correct a boo-boo in the estimated cost of upgrades to the parking lot at Fire Station 1 on Tancred St.

The work was expected to cost $120,000 but it was discovered during construction that additional asphalt was required over and above the original estimated quantities.

Downtown security

Private security patrols will resume downtown, at least until the end of this year.

City councillors agreed this week to spend up to $60,000 to relaunch the service until December.

It's expected to continue next year with financial assistance from the Downtown Association, with the final cost to the city to be determined during 2024 budget deliberations.

No stop sign at Northern Ave. and Bainbridge

A request from Ward 4 Couns. Stephan Kinach and Marchy Bruni to switch a yield sign on Northern Avenue at Bainbridge Street to a stop sign fell on deaf ears.

The councillors proposed the change to discourage aggressive driving, but city staff say the awkward T-intersection has bad geometry and they suggested a mini-roundabout be considered there when future work is done on the intersection.

A dying dump?

The Sault Ste. Marie landfill has just five years of useful life remaining, but that's no cause for immediate alarm, councillors were told this week.

"Should we be in a panic mode with our landfill site?" asked Ward 4 Coun. Marchy Bruni, referring to a half-page note contained in the city's 2022 audited financial statements.

A representative from auditor KPMG responded: "We do understand that there is a strategy underway to mine the landfill, to increase the capacity of the existing site."

"We also understand that there has been some land that is acquired for expansion as well." 

Fire hall public address system

Council approved spending $60,000 from reserve funds for upgrades to a paging system used to convey audio information to all of the city's fire stations.

"The current paging solution is outdated; the volume and rate of data transfer being introduced to the system is causing it to fail and not function properly during alarms," says fire chief Peter Johnson.

"This creates issues for emergency response staff. The PA is cutting out and crews are not receiving and critical information for the response and nature of the call. An upgrade to the PA system is required in order to integrate with the NG-911 technology and seamless transfer of call information to responding crews."

Northern Ontario School of Medicine

Council approved a resolution from Ward 4 Coun. Stephan Kinach and Ward 5's Matthew Scott, calling on the Ontario government to grant Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) University a permanent increase in annual base funding of $4 million before the end of the 2023-2024 fiscal year. 

"NOSM University’s current base funding rates have not been increased sufficiently to accommodate growth and expansion, or recognition of the added costs stemming from the medical school becoming an independent university," the resolution declared.

Updated gender references

All references to 'his' in the city's streets bylaw were changed this past week to 'their.'

All references to 'his/her' or 'his and hers' were replaced with 'their.'

The changes were made as part of a list of 'housekeeping' amendments that normally wouldn't include major policy changes and normally would be approved with little or no comment.

More controversially, these 'housekeeping' changes also included new wording in the parks bylaw aimed at making homeless encampments illegal.

As SooToday originally reported, the new language was added to existing night restrictions in city parks that didn't specifically ban camping but made physical presence in a park illegal anytime between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. 

The new wording directly targets encampments, stating they are now illegal 24/7 in any city park.

Nuala Kenny, who used to run the City of Sault Ste. Marie's legal department and now serves as executive director of Algoma Community Legal Clinic, said she'd have no choice to launch an appeal if council passed the bylaw changes.

Ward 2 Coun. Luke Dufour, who's also chair of the District of Sault Ste. Marie Social Services Administration Board, defended "what I truly know to be housekeeping amendments."