ALMAGUIN NEWS, Thursday, May 23, 2013 - Page 5

Armour Earnings Expenses TotalReeve Bob MacPhail 13,642.49 98.73 13,741.22Rod Blakelock 10,006.23 12.00 10,018.23Marty Corcoran 9,846.11 330.09 10,176.20Jerry Brandt 10,006.23 1,864.06 11,870.29Patrick Hayes 10,006.23 12.00 10,018.23Total 53,507.29 2,316.88 55,824.17BonfieldYvon Foisy 9,400.00 595.00 9,995.00Randall McLaren 13,438.00 4,353.00 17,791.00Jane Lagassie 10,500.00 1,738.00 12,238.00Tamela Price-Fry 10,434.00 3,920.00 14,354.00James Savard 11,278.00 2,914.00 14,192.00Total 55,050.00 13,520.00 68,570.00Burk's FallsMayor Cathy Still 11,400.00 0.00 11,400.00Bruce Campbell 8,400.00 0.00 8,400.00Lewis Hodgson 8,400.00 0.00 8,400.00Rex Smith 8,400.00 590.40 8,990.40Lisa Morrison 8,400.00 0.00 8,400.00Total 45,000.00 590.40 45,590.40CallanderMayor Hector Lavigne 17,493.63 8,488.01 25,981.64Virginia Onley 10,448.06 2,782.65 13,230.71Maurice Turgeon 9,824.25 3,037.44 12,861.69Doug Brydges 9,754.11 1577.92 11,332.03Robb Noon 9,804.21 5,269.88 15,074.09Total 57,324.26 21,155.90 78,480.16ChisholmMayor Leo Jobin 8,875.00 1,211.85 10,086.85Cec Reid 6,085.20 676.55 6,761.75Teresa Miller 5,000.00 0.00 5,000.00David Hodgins 4,405.00 210.70 4,615.70Susan Major 1,070.00 52.38 1,122.38Total 25,435.20 2,151.48 27,586.68East FerrisMayor Bill Vrebosch 20,722.23 5,590.14 26,312.37Robert Point 14,940.48 4,945.35 19,885.83Daniel Corbeil 12,552.00 4,342.50 16,894.50Richard Champagne 14,209.92 3,056.94 17,266.86Terry Kelly 14,052.00 5,816.44 19,868.44Total 76,476.63 23,751.37 100,228.00Joly Mayor Mario Campese 6,033.33 4,500.00 10,533.33Bette Barnes 3,133.33 3,000.00 6,133.33Bruce Baker 4,833.33 2,000.00 6,833.33Tom Rheubottom 2,916.67 2,000.00 4,916.67Marion Duke 4,666.67 1,000.00 5,666.67Total 21,583.33 12,500.00 34,083.33KearneyMayor Paul Tomlinson 8,400.00 1,852.55 10,252.55Louise Wadsworth 7,200.00 779.04 7,979.04Ken Ball 7,200.00 35.66 7,235.66Barry Dingwall 7,200.00 75.78 7,275.78Arthur Murdy 7,200.00 0.00 7,200.00Steve Sainsbury 7,200.00 0.00 7,200.00Yvonne Wills 7,200.00 0.00 7,200.00Total 51,600.00 2,743.03 54,343.03MacharMayor Doug Maeck 10,663.80 279.00 10,942.80Ron Bennison 10,146.90 351.00 10,497.90Ron McLaren 7,980.75 74.25 8,055.00Bonnie Gagnon 7,955.10 48.60 8,003.70Bill Russell 9,254.10 361.80 9,615.90Total 46,000.65 1,114.65 47,115.30MagnetawanMayor Sam Dunnett 16,868.40 471.15 17,339.55Jack Crossman 12,076.96 232.20 12,309.16Charles Gray 12,026.96 364.50 12,391.46

Bryan Hampson 11,241.96 47.25 11,289.21Barry Mutton 11,241.96 140.45 11,382.41Total 63,456.24 1,255.55 64,711.79McMurrich/MonteithReeve Glynn Robinson 7,150.00 940.00 8,090.00Mervin Mulligan 5,400.00 784.40 6,184.40Tina Scott 4,400.00 0.00 4,400.00Lynn Zemnicky 5,975.00 112.80 6,087.80Carol Armstrong 5,150.00 106.00 5,256.00Total 28,075.00 1,943.20 30,018.20NipissingMayor Pat Haufe 11,804.00 0.00 11,804.00Tom Piper 7,868.00 312.44 8,180.44Liz Smith 7,868.00 0.00 7,868.00Tom Butler 7,868.00 0.00 7,868.00Dougal Culham 7,868.00 0.00 7,868.00Total 43,276.00 312.44 43,588.44PerryMayor John Dunn 13,287.00 1,050.75 14,337.75Mary Anne Love 9,300.00 640.20 9,940.20Les Rowley 9,300.00 940.25 10,240.25Jim Cushman 9,300.00 0.00 9,300.00Norm Hofstetter 9,300.00 392.87 9,692.87Total 50,487.00 3,024.07 53,511.07PowassanMayor Peter McIssac 12,000.00 6,055.54 18,055.54Nancy Barner 6,800.00 7,383.70 14,183.70Rober Glabb 6,800.00 500.00 7,300.00Gerry Giesler 6,800.00 825.00 7,625.00Todd White 6,800.00 5,399.32 12,199.32Dave Britton 6,800.00 500.00 7,300.00Steve Eide 6,800.00 911.90 7,711.90Total 52,800.00 21,575.46 74,375.46RyersonReeve Glenn Miller 11,250.00 779.06 12,029.06Barbara Marlow 7,900.00 1,019.75 8,919.75George Sterling 6,100.00 589.50 6,689.50Rosalind Hall 9,600.00 593.55 10,193.55Doug Weddel 6,300.00 0.00 6,300.00Total 41,150.00 2,981.86 44,131.86South RiverMayor Jim Coleman 13,170.00 42.95 13,212.95Les Mahon 10,320.00 151.96 10,471.96Sharon Smith 8,380.00 0.00 8,380.00Jeffrey Dickerson 9,610.00 170.20 9,780.20Bill O'Hallarn 9,330.00 0.00 9,330.00Total 50,810.00 365.11 51,175.11Strong totalMayor Christine Ellis 15,015.96 200.59 15,216.55John Newstead 13,752.00 201.53 13,953.53Merlyn Snow 13,752.00 192.90 13,944.90Jason Cottrell 13,752.00 0.00 13,752.00Kelly Elik 13,752.00 181.15 13,933.15Total 70,023.96 776.17 70,800.13Sundridge Mayor Elgin Schneider 15,250.50 172.00 15,422.50Bill de Vries 9,088.75 67.50 9,156.25Barry Morris 9,250.00 353.50 9,603.50Lawrie Vincer 6,787.50 221.00 7,008.50Christopher Blueman 8,959.75 391.00 9,350.75Total 49,336.50 1,205.00 50,541.50WhitestoneMayor Chris Armstrong 20,621.68 3,922.23 24,543.91Joe Lamb 13,776.09 0.00 13,776.09Bill Church 16,447.58 2,197.35 18,644.93Don Carter 13,120.08 1,544.06 14,664.14Colette Deacon 13,120.08 553.77 13,673.85Total 77,085.51 8,217.41 85,302.92

Continued from Page 1McMurrich/Monteith Township is the third lowest

paid municipality in the region.Like Chisholm and Joly, other municipalities saw

decreases in their remuneration and expenses in 2012

including Bonfield, which saw a 6.22 per cent decrease. Others that cost less in 2012 over 2011 include Cal-lander at 3.77 per cent, Machar at 4.76 per cent, Mag-netawan 10.11 per cent, Powassan 1.21 per cent, South River 8.68 per cent and Sundridge at 4.5 per cent.

Continued from Page 1roadways, while the municipal-ity was responsible for providing maintenance to the road.

Burk’s Falls clerk Kim Dunnett says that she understands that this is just a change in the infrastruc-ture maintenance and should not impact the work that the MTO currently does on the road, which is winter plowing.

The village currently looks after the snow removal of the bridge and south to Land of Lakes Pub-lic School on Ontario Street. The MTO plows from Highway 11 south down on Ontario Street to Ryerson Crescent and out to High-way 520.

Capitol funding in the old pro-gram was based on municipally initiated connecting link project costs. Projects were approved based on availability of funding.

However, Rennie says work has been done to the infrastructure in the areas impacted by the cut in programming.

“Since 2003, the province has invested $370,000 in the Highway 522 connecting link in Trout Creek and $2.3 million in the Highway 520 connecting link in Burk’s Falls,” he said.

According to Rennie, munici-palities were advised through a letter on Jan. 23 that the program was cancelled and replaced by the Municipal Infrastructure Invest-ment Initiative (MIII).

Rennie calls the new MIII pro-gram “a more comprehensive approach to municipal infrastruc-ture funding” that encourages municipal partners to prioritize core infrastructure needs under one umbrella and direct resources to their more critical needs first.

“Through MIII, Ontario is pro-viding almost $100 million to help municipalities prepare asset management plans and address critical infrastructure projects,” he said. “In addition, as part of the 2013 budget, the province has proposed $100 million for North-ern and rural municipalities for a new, dedicated fund for munici-pal roads, bridges and other criti-cal infrastructure. The Ministry of Rural Affairs and the Ministries of Transportation and Infrastructure will consult in the summer of 2013 on the design of the program and make funds available by October 1, 2013.”

Continued from Page 1In Magnetawan, repairs to Mill-

er and Nipissing roads are esti-mated at about $400,000.

Miller Road reconstruction was being handed over to Aecom Engineering to look after and the municipality will repair Nipissing.

The initial cost projection was about double the amount.

“It definitely cuts our costs way down by doing part of it our-selves,” said Dunnett. “And it cer-tainly speeds up the timing of hav-ing (Nipissing) completed.”

Repairs to what is known as

Buchanan’s Bridge on the Main Street in Sundridge, which is really a substantial culvert, is estimat-ed at about $188,000, although according to clerk Lillian Fowler, the actual cost could be more.

Construction crews hit the ground running on May 6 and with the exception of asphalt was completed last week.

According to Mayor Elgin Sch-neider, Fowler Construction has installed pre-cast square concrete culverts similar to those used dur-ing construction on the Highway 11 four-laning project.

Some councils actually went down in pay

–Council Remuneration in 2012 –

Roadway upgrades made before download

Most repairs completed

Continued from Page 4that had been done for them pre-viously may become their own responsibilities – more added to an already lengthy list. How many of the dedicated and responsible individuals will stay on then? I can not say what kind of package the current drivers would be offered in the future, but the fact of the matter is large conglomerates are winning these RFP’s because they have actual Acquisition Depart-ments whose job it is to com-plete and submit these RFP’s that sometimes are as large as 75 page documents – and they can afford to undercut the present operator with their paydays when the con-tracts gets renewed. At least theo-retically, in the beginning though, as they are already operating at or below a loss, there will not be copi-ous amounts of funds to throw at the driving staff.

Where do the replacement driv-ers come from? The corporation will have a home base. I think it is fair to say that it would be unre-alistic to think drivers will com-mute from Toronto or Sudbury or wherever that base is – to drive a bus here. It would be economi-cally unfeasible to house drivers in motels for any length of time. Local prospective bus drivers are not clamoring over themselves to drive bus here not so I do not see this shift in landscape changing that. If anything I see the driver recruitment and retention situa-tion worsening and this would be a legitimate and real problem.

To be clear, all operators deal with staff turnover at times. Usu-ally it is a planned venture (i.e. retirement). There is a training period. The driver gets experience behind the wheel before taking over a run full time. They will be shown where they are going and what they will be doing. They go on ride-alongs with the driver they’ll

replace. It is done in controlled, methodical manner to insure the driver is put in the best position to succeed, which obviously benefits the driver and your children.

So at this point I must pose two questions.

Are you comfortable with someone with possibly little bus driving experience and/or pos-sibly no bus driving experience escorting your kids on a bus down the road you live on? Are these places you would be comfortable putting your kids on a bus with a driver who is learning on the fly?

Secondly, with the amount of snow days, job action(strike) days, hydro outage closures that we all have to navigate through already, are you prepared to receive calls in the morning saying your child’s bus is cancelled because of driver shortage?

If you answered “no” to either of these questions then I encourage you to contact the Nipissing-Parry Sound Transportation Consortium and tell them you would like the bus service system to remain as it is. Their email is info@npssts.ca or mailing address is 1870 Bond St, Suite 201, North Bay, ON., P1B 4V6.

I have never been comfortable asking for or expecting others to fight my battles. Bus operators are vigilantly trying to combat the government and Consortiums who have already gone down this path. The fact is we are easily ignored and frankly the Court of Public Opinion holds more sway. I would not write this letter is I did not think the parents and children of this region did not have valid con-cerns and should be made aware of their possibility. Nor would I do so if I did not think your input could make a difference.

Barry BellBell Transportation

Experienced drivers an asset