Councillor laments condition of ponds

Councillor Jane Fogal wondered out loud at a recent council meeting whether the Town could do some regular maintenance on stormwater management ponds. She passed around two photos she had taken: one of the new Meadowglen subdivision pond and the second of the Dominion Gardens pond. "When I look at the plantings at the new one, it's better planting than what we get at just about any park," she said. "And then we (the Town) leave it and it becomes just another stormwater management pond that is to go to some sort of natural state. It strikes me as a great waste of this planting. It's in beautiful condition to start with and then we turn it into overgrown weeds." The planted ponds areas are handed over to the town as a condition of development agreement. "I would like to take better advantage of them if we could," said Fogal. "We should incorporate it into the neighbourhood so that it is useful for the people who are there." At Dominion Gardens Park pond area, it's a mass of weeds and the trees have died, with no chance of anyone be able to walk Fogal suggests a trail should be developed, and asked whether those options can be built into future subdivision agreements. Engineering director Rick Henry said it could be done as long as it does not compromise the function of the pond. He said developers give the Town a perpetual maintenance fee to fund the future work on the ponds. The Town assumed control of the Dominion Gardens Park pond last year and Henry said he would speak to staff about cleaning up the site. Councillor Bob Inglis questioned why the new ponds are not fenced today. Henry replied that the slopes in the past were substantially smaller and steeper. Now the Town has adopted the Ontario ministry standards on larger ponds with flatter slopes and the safety issues no longer exist.