Council Preview
By John Swartz
Orillia council has its August regular meeting Thursday at 4 p.m. During summer council only has committee and regular meetings once a month, which is why they are holding this one on a Thursday.
Monday night’s committee meeting only had 5 items on it, but they took a very long time on two items relating to all way stop requests at four intersections. Council took no action to install the all way stops, but did amend the policy to refine definitions of traffic calming methods (which includes stop signs).
They also allocated $1,300 of the $1,500 cost to remove the story pole from the foyer of the Opera House – for repairs – and to get advice how to make the repairs and devise an interpretation of what the parts of the pole mean. It may pass today as a ratification, but there will be additional information from the artist available which may change the motion. For more on this see SUNonline/Orillia’s analysis, Opera House Art Controversy.
The Art in Public Places Committee has a report on progress of their work, which includes asking for council endorsement of 7 locations where art could be installed.
They are: Wilson Point, Atherley and Fittons Roads and James Street where the trails cross, the water filtration plant, the Orillia Recreation Centre and Rotary Place.
The committee was also successful in getting a to $331,700 grant to fund development of a master plan and the art installations. The source of the funding was not given. They have Cobalt Connect consulting on the master plan.
Ice Cream Dreams
Now that summer is almost over, the issue of relocating Sweet Dreams Ice Cream is back on the agenda. This was delayed from the July meeting for more input. Sweet Dreams was located on the old rail bed along Centennial Drive for more than two decades and was evicted because of the road construction. The owner wanted to relocate to a spot near the Port building which has been used in the past during waterfront events, but staff were uncooperative and recommended a spot where the Island Princess ticket booth was.
The owner said that he is interested in that, but would like it to be permanent, staff say it should only be temporary for the almost over 2022 season and then be open to the usual procurement policy in 2023 – which means anyone else could apply to set up food vending in that spot and shut Sweet Dreams out of a 20 year relationship with the waterfront.
Consent Agenda
The Orillia Museum of Art and History has its quarterly report, ending June 2022, for council. So far a this year they have revenue from all sources of $352,790, which is $75,000 above budget. Combined with expenses the projected $28,000 annual operating loss is –with 6 months of financial reporting yet to occur – now a $26,000 surplus.
The Orillia Sunshine Youth Senate made appointments to the committee. Myles Odlozinski is returning as a member. Denis Granulo, Yiming Israel, Adair Wieclawek and Kenzie Williams will be joining as new committee members.
The public can watch this meeting live on Youtube.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia)
