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Ron Brown, CAO, far left addresses crowd as council members listen
It was standing room only as approximately 300 people filled
Southampton Town Hall for the first public meeting over the issue of
sewer installation and upgrading of roads in the area of
Southampton, Saugeen Shores, north of the Saugeen River.
Ron Brown, Chief Administration Officer (CAO) of Saugeen Shores,
facilitated the meeting and lead off with an overview of the
situation. According to Brown, the plan was always there to run
sewers to the north side of the river but the plan was always
considered too expensive unless there was major government funding.
"We finally put the sewer system in at the south b oundary of
Southamtpon which completed the town's sewers except for the north
side of the river," he explained.
During the 2009 Capital Budget process, Saugeen Shores staff came to
council to explain that, given the way the economy was going,
funding was expected to be coming through from the upper tiers of
government for some projects. Council then decided to make
application for the across- the-river sewer project. "We had two
weeks to make the applications for projects that were not on the
Capital Budget project list,' said Brown, "and they had to be shovel
ready and able to be completed by 20111 and not be part of the 2009
budget process."
According to Brown, the town is very early into the process of the
proposed sewer project. "The design has not be finalized," he said,
"and the numbers have not been finalized. In addition, the
Environmental Assessment (EA) has to go to several agencies."
Brown also informed the crowd that the town was trying to come up
with a funding formula for the one-third funding that the
municipality would be responsible for. "We hope that the government
is going to give an extension on the complete date if this goes
ahead," he said. "There may also be the possiblity that septic
systems may have a two-year exemption so that could possibly run in
to 2013."
Others also raised concerns over the urbanization of the streets
which would include paving, installation of curbs and possibly
sidewalks, which according to some would create even more of an
environmental problem with the removal of trees, plant life and,
perhaps, the destruction of various species and their habitat. (next column)
18/06/2009 11:56 PM
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Although town staff, represented by Brown and Dave Burnside, insisted
that public input would play an important role in the decision making
process, most people in the audience expressed skepticism. Some went so
far as to ask if it was, in fact, "a done deal". Brown assured everyone
that council would be taking public feedback into consideration. During
a 'straw vote' show of hands of who was for the proposed project and who
was against it, the room was divided with the 'against' outnumbering
those in favour of the sewage installation.
People will again have the opportunity to express their views at the
next and final public meeting to be held Saturday, June 20th at 2:00
p.m. at the Plex in Port Elgin.
People line up to ask questions
The line up didn't let up for more than two hours
More than one in attendance raised the issue that installing a complete
sewer system would be installing the missing link that would open up the
area to high density development.
While the main reason for the proposed project appeared to be to control
an environmental waste hazard with the installation of sewers and
pumping stations, a report was handed out at the meeting in the form of
a media release from the University of Guelph. In the report, it stated
that E. coli bacteria that contaminates part of Lake Huron is primarily
caused by agricultural and livestock waste. According to the study,
human sewage accounted for only one to three per cent of contamination.
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