Council Highlights from the September 25, 2023 meeting

Clarington gives $1.25 million to kick-start construction of new hospice

Council voted to provide a $1.25 million grant to Durham Region Hospice – Clarington. Due to escalating construction costs, additional financial support was needed to make the much-needed Marigold Hospice Care a reality.

The hospice will provide care in a home-like setting for those at the end of life and support for their families. The Municipality has strongly supported the new hospice, donating surplus land on Cobbledick Road in Newcastle for the building and a grant to offset development charges for the project.

With the additional financial support from Clarington Council, Marigold Hospice Care is expected to break ground this fall. 

Clarington Council voted to request that Durham Region to move forward with the Zone 1 Reservoir and Zone 2 Pumping Station in Newcastle. The Region of Durham operates and maintains the water and sewer infrastructure. There are concerns that a delay in constructing the new infrastructure needed in Newcastle could result in delays in planning for a large housing development.

Earlier this year, Council endorsed Clarington’s Housing Pledge to support accelerating the housing supply in Ontario. One of the action items in that report included working with Durham Region to coordinate land use and infrastructure planning to increase the prompt servicing of secondary plan areas to support the construction of new homes.

Clarington Council asked the Region of Durham to report on the timelines for the water system infrastructure needed in Newcastle.

Clarington Council approved hiring 11 staff to run the new sidewalk snow-clearing program on arterial roads.

The Municipality has historically hired external contractors and relied on homeowners and business owners to clear sidewalk snow along the main roads. Earlier this year, Council brought this service in-house to improve service levels and consistency in clearing arterial sidewalks after a snowfall.

To provide this new service, Clarington will hire 10 labourers and one supervisor. Five staff will operate the sidewalk plows. The other five staff will deliver salt and fill the machines, remove snow at pedestrian crossings and intersections in the main urban areas, as well as fill school crossing salt boxes and respond to customer service requests. The supervisor will be responsible for the overall coordination of the sidewalk snow-clearing service, staff scheduling, service request tracking and concern resolution.

The new staff will assist the Public Works Department year-round. During the non-winter months, the ten labourers will be distributed between the roads and parks divisions. With these new staff, Public Works will no longer need to hire eight temporary labourers every summer.

The arterial sidewalk snow-clearing services will begin later this year with the first snowfall.

Solar-powered lights from the Bowmanville Leash-Free Dog Park will be relocated to the Newcastle Leash-Free Dog Park.

Solar lights were installed at the Courtice and Bowmanville dog parks in 2022. The lights at the Courtice park are working well. However, there have been ongoing issues with the lights at the Bowmanville dog park caused by the overhead high-voltage power transmission lines. After investigating the problem with the solar light manufacturer and Hydro One, removing all the lights was the final decision recommended by Hydro One.

Council approved $10,000 to cover removing the solar lights and poles from the Bowmanville Leash-Free Dog Park and re-installing the solar lighting at the Newcastle Leash-Free Dog Park. Staff were asked to investigate a hardwired lighting system for the Bowmanville dog park and funding sources for the project.

The next Council Meeting is on October 2, 2023.