• Council declared a recently purchased piece of land at Main and Ninth Line as surplus and authorized Staff to list it for sale. The Town will seek full market value.
  • Mayor Lovatt’s resolution asking Staff to conduct public consultation over the planned relocation of the Town’s cenotaph, removal of the 150th Canadian anniversary garden, and installation of a decommissioned tank in Memorial Park was approved. We covered this in detail in a previous article.
  • A motion from Councillor Upton asking for a comprehensive review of the Town’s Fireworks By-Law was approved. Staff will report back to Council at a future meeting with findings and recommendations.
  • Council received a report detailing a five-year contract with Shades of Hope Wildlife Refuge for animal rehabilitation services, which we detailed in an earlier piece.
  • The Town’s School Crossing Guard Policy was updated:
    • 40 peak-period student crossings, up from 20, will now be needed to justify deploying a crossing guard at any given location.
    • All existing crossing guard locations will be reassessed under the new policy this spring.
    • Any not meeting the 40-crossing requirement will no longer be served by a crossing guard beginning September 2024.
  • The Town will update its emergency services agreement with the Town of Newmarket:
    • Newmarket has long provided emergency response services to the northwest corner of Stouffville.
    • The update will remove their obligated response to commercial and industrial alarms in the area.
    • Stouffville’s Fire and Emergency services are already dispatched as standard procedure.
    • This is expected to save the municipality roughly $64,000 per year.
  • Council deferred speed limit reductions from 60 km//h to 50 km/h for a portion of Tenth Line between Forsyth and Bethesda.
    • The currently posted 50 km/h signs were mistakenly placed by Metrolinx during the construction of the new Old Elm GO station.
    • This stretch of roadway will see a return of 60 km/h speed limit signage.
    • Council will reassess the reduction as the Old Elm MTSA area development gets underway.
  • Stouffville endorsed correspondence from the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority regarding the development of a new limited liability framework for winter maintenance contractors.
    • Due to liability concerns, it is typical for winter service providers such as municipalities to use an abundance of road salt during winter maintenance operations.
    • Over-salting heavily contaminates waterways, and Stouffville is recognized for having some of the highest York Region salt concentrations within local water systems.
    • Stouffville will request regulatory changes from the Province to limit liability and allow for reduced use of salt during the winter months.
  • Correspondence was received from the Town of Aurora regarding their 100 Year Cenotaph Celebration planned for 2025.
    • Aurora’s 1925-built cenotaph commemorates soldiers from the Stouffville area and is one of Canada’s earliest World War I memorials.
    • Stouffville will continue its partnership with the Town of Aurora and their Remembrance Day services and participate in the celebration.
  • Council directed Staff to enter into a subdivision agreement with the Wyview Group for their MZO lands along Highway 48. It includes water-main connection and other servicing infrastructure to be constructed by Wyview.
  • Stouffville will assume public works and services for two subdivisions, one in the area of Baker Hill Boulevard and Glad Park Avenue and another at Highway 48 and Norman Jones Place.