Council in brief: The Royal, mini-golf, repairs and green energy
Administrator | Aug 31, 2011 | Comments 5
By Nicole Kleinsteuber
Council designates The Royal
County council has designated The Royal Hotel in downtown Picton and the Hayward Long Reach Lookout to be of cultural, heritage value.
Council passed the bylaw at Tuesday night’s council meeting placing both sites as part of Cultural Heritage Value and Interest pursuant to Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act.
New mini-golf course for East Lake
County residents and tourists can look forward to a new 18-hole miniature golf course next year.
Council approved a site plan giving Charles Vaughn and Parkside Developments the go-head to start the project on the north side of East Lake.
Council approves repair projects
Prince Edward County council gave the green light to several water, sewer and roadwork contracts at last night’s council meeting.
Coco Paving got the go-ahead to complete road work on County Road 29 and County Road 33 for $523,000.
Council agreed Gordon Barr Ltd. will complete sewer and watermain reconstruction on Maple Avenue and Gladstone Avenue for $793,000. York Street will have the sanitary sewer replaced by Gordon Barr, at a cost of $93,000.
County supports Marmora and Lake green energy project
Council is backing Marmora and Lake in its development of a pumped storage energy facility built at the old vacant Marmora mine.
“This is a great opportunity,” said councillor Barry Turpin.
There will be a storage area at the top of the mine and water will be pumped from the bottom to the top. When the water is released from the top it will power wind turbines.
“Electricity is produced when it’s needed at a peak time,” said Turpin.
Filed Under: Local News
Green Energy?
I would like to know how pumping water from the bottom of an old mine (using electricity) is going to power wind turbines as per the last paragraph. Councillor Barry Turpin thinks this is a great opportunity – maybe he thinks we should use this model to use Lake on the Mountain to power wind turbines beside the ferry?
The county keeps talking about new county offices. They now rent for the bulging staff. I do not want them to build a new building but to reduce middle and upper staff jobs and like other businesses do more with less but they will build a new office instead some day. Convert the Royal!
It is rather a quandary, what to do with The Royal. It was an important part of Picton in its day, and could be again. Like The Regent Theatre, it could be renovated to add to the streetscape, and become an integral part of the vibrant lifestyle of the County. Perhaps government grants – although they might have all been spent in Clement’s riding!
You are probably right. You can’t legislate that it be heated so I would suspect 3 years has almost taken it’s toll beyond repair. And with the economoc climate no one is likely to touch it. Designated heritage so the taxpayer can tear it down perhaps. Does council not have bigger issues to deal with, like making an affordable municipality with real job opportunities?
So council designated the Royal to be of cultural, heritage value. Does that mean that the taxpayers will be on the hook to bring this building back up to snuff? It would be cheaper to knock it down and rebuild it rather than try to fix it from the state it’s currently in now.