Online voting, PCB cleanup and trees on agenda

City council will consider several agenda items during Monday’s meeting of the committee of the whole, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall. Visit peterboroughexaminer.com for live video and updates from the meeting.

PCB testing at airport

City council will be asked to boost the payment to a local environmental consulting firm as it deals with PCBs at the Peterborough Airport.

“In March of 2015 the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change advised the city that the ministry’s Environmental Monitoring and Reporting Branch had completed a surface water and sediment sampling survey

on and around the Peterborough Airport,” Humble’s report states. “The study identified some elevated levels of PCB’s in certain sampling sites. It is assumed that the elevated levels may be related to historical landfill activities on the airport property.”

The city currently has a contract with Hunter St. E. firm Cambium Inc. worth $212,100 to sample, analyze and manage the PCB project. A report from city planning director Jeffrey Humble recommends raising that to $247,000 to cover additional fees and expenses furing the second phase of the program.

Cambium’s work involves testing surface water and sediment.

The additional $35,000 would come out of the city PCB program’s budget and would address environment ministry requirements, the report states.

Voting system

City staffers recommend sticking with the company that provided online voting services in the last three elections.

Staff recommends going with internet and tabulator systems, offered by Dominion Voting Systems Corp. of Toronto, for two terms, at a cost of $269,816 plus HST, for a total of $304,892.

Staff state that the cost of the system in 2018 would be $137,282.38 including HST, and that would come out of the 2018 election budget. The remainder would be paid in 2022 when the system is used for that election.

Dominion has provided the service since 2006; that deal expired in 2014. The city issued a request for proposals and recommends sticking with Dominion.

Council will discuss the plan Monday night.

Special Olympics

Council will be asked tor $40,000 to support the High School Special Olympics, to be held in Peterborough May 29 to 31.

The payment would be funded through the 2017 capital levy reserve, staff state.

Of that, $35,000 would cover the cost of city services and facilities used by the event, which is projected to cost $334,000 and already has $294,000 in projected revenue from sponsors, registrations, nonmunicipal government funding and grants.

The event is expected to bring 1,000 athletes, coaches and officials as well as thousands of spectators to the city’s athletic fields and facilities.

Athletes will stay at Trent University and Fleming College residences.

Tree replacement

The city could rework its bylaw concerning the replacement of healthy trees on private property if a staff report is approved by council.

As it stands now, the tree replacement bylaw requires three replacement trees be planted to replace one removed tree, aimed at compensating for overall tree canopy loss across the city. Property owners could replant the new trees themselves on their own property or have the city do it on public property, at the owner’s cost. Trees tend to cost $50 to $80 and come in a two-gallon pot.

Under proposed changes, the ratio of 3-1 would change to a sliding scale based on the size of the removed tree: One replacement for a tree with a 15- to 30-centimetre diameter, two for 31-40 cm, three for 41-50 cm and four for trees bigger than 50 cm in diameter. There would be considerations for trees that are culturally, visibly or biologically significant, staff state.

The new bylaw would designate the city’s staff urban forest manager and technologist as bylaw appoinment officers, specify the replacement size of trees and call for a committee to review appeals of the woodland bylaw permit. There would also be a public consultation process.

Council will consider the request Monday night.