The Chair asked if any written appeals were received by the Town.
The Deputy Clerk informed that no written appeals were received by the Clerk's office.
Mr. Rood informed that he was appointed to provide for the repair and improvement of the Szakacs Drain. Mr. Rood advised that investigation, instructions and the report is accordance with Section 78 of the Drainage Act.
Mr. Rood provided a detailed summary of the report he prepared that was circulated to all the affected owners.
The Chair asked Ms. Dean to summarize what has happened at the on-site meeting since some Drainage Board members were not present.
Ms. Dean, Drainage Superintendent, explained that at the on-site meeting two options were discussed: to finalize the report under Section 78 or to prepare a report under Section 40 to stop the project. Ms. Dean added that a report should be prepared either way and the cost for both options will be similar. In conclusion Ms. Dean said that the general consensus was to continue with the report under Section 78 and not to proceed with construction at this time. Ms. Dean added that at this meeting the property owners may change their mind on whether to proceed to construction, but that was the consensus at that time.
The Chair asked if Board Members have any questions.
Board Member Dufour commented that at the on-site meeting the owners were told that the debenture could be 10 years instead of 5 years since the cost of the project is high. Mr. Dufour asked Ms. Dean to clarify the debenture option.
Ms. Dean replied that the debenture threshold is based on the assessment values so if the project does not proceed with construction than probably the assessments would be in a 5 year debenture range and if the construction is done than the assessment could be in a 10 year threshold. Ms. Dean added that this could be discussed if the project proceeded to construction.
Board Member Dufour asked if the debenture option is written in the report or it is reflected in the Drainage Act.
Ms. Dean replied that the debenture option details and thresholds will be contained in the provisional by-law which would be sent with the notice for the Court of Revision which will follow this meeting.
The Chair asked Ms. Dean that if the construction part does not happen for 10 years from now, shouldn’t the debentures bear the current interest rate.
Ms. Dean replied that she is not sure at this time if the debentures will be allowed in the future. Ms. Dean added that she assumes that if this drainage works are constructed at a later date that it would be undertaken as drain maintenance, therefore, the land owners will be responsible for the full cost at that time and no debentures will be issued.
The Chair asked if the assessed property owners have any questions.
Inaudible background sounds.
The Chair commented that he could not hear Ms. Welzel’s questions.
Ms. Dean commented that we will try to connect with Ms. Welzel on the other line.
Romano Quintigliani, 1485 Ridge Road, said that they do not want to go with the expense of replacing the drain right now.
The Chair commented that any land owner could contact the Town of Essex when they need the drain repairs to be done.
Ms. Welzel said that at the meeting it was decided that all the owners agreed that they do not want the construction part to go through as it is not needed. Ms. Welzel added that she spoke with Monica Zavaros today and they are against the construction as well.
The Chair concluded that the consensus of the on-site meeting which was held about a month ago that the landowners want to move forward with the report to be adopted by Council so they have a mechanism to repair the drain at a future date. Therefore we are going through the procedure of adopting the report so the report can be utilized in the future to do proper repairs and improvements to the Szakacs Drain.
The Chair asked if there are any further questions.
Board Member Dufour asked if this a direction the landowners want to go or to put a hold to this project right now.
The Chair has commented that under Section 78 the project cannot be hold and there is a procedure that we should follow and asked Ms. Dean to clarify.
Ms. Dean replied that Section 78 appointment has been initiated through Council to get this project going and once it started we cannot simply stop it. The mechanism to stop it would be to prepare Section 40 report to end the Section 78 process. The land owners expressed that they would like to continue with this process so they have this report if they wish to replace this drain in the future.
The Chair added that the cost has already been incurred so rather than quashing the report and lose the engineering cost and surveying that would need to be completed again at the later date. This mechanism allows us to keep the report for the future repairs.