Neighbours in Sharpe's Bay are asking North Kawartha Township Council that the issue of commercial use by professional contractors is immediately brought before city council at the August 13th meeting and that the issue is resolved in the following ways:

 

1) The issue is added to councils meeting, per the request of many written letters to the Mayor and councillors

 

2) A sign is added to the property prohibiting commercial use

 

3) A sign is added to the property to prohibit parking. 

 

4) The rules are then enforced by bylaw officers. 

Over the last 4 weeks there has been heavy commercial activity at the launch in Sharpe's by a contractor working on island 48.

Needless to say, this is a major source of anxiety for a lot of cottagers near the launch, that has not been present since the early 90s (before my time on the lake) when this issue last arose over a septic contractor and council ruled in favour of the neighbours. 

 

We believe that the major problem is the fact that the boat launch should only be available for recreational boat launching purposes by recreational boaters. Over the last 3-4 weeks it has been heavily used by the contractor for commercial purposes using a work-boat/mini barge. At times he stored materials and moored his boat overnight. We understand that he was told to stop those actions by Matt Aldom and while we appreciate the quick action of the township telling the contractor to halt those activities, this only addresses part of our concern. 

 

We believe commercial activities also include the loading and unloading of boats for commercial and professional purposes on a consistent and prolonged basis and we believe that this is precisely what this contractor has been doing. If not stopped he will likely continue to do this through the duration of this project (potentially several years), and future contractors will likely do the same as this could become precedent setting. 

 

Why we believe the actions of the contractor qualify as commercial-use:

 

1. The contractor is presumably a licensed professional

2. The contractor is here every day carrying out a paid job on behalf of his client

3. The contractor is barging commercial materials back and forth including wood, tools, cement, and various other building materials. They even barged cement trucks at one point. I've included photos and videos of some of the activities caught in a link below at the bottom of this email.  

4. There are sometimes multiple loads per day and sometimes when they are loading and unloading they occupy the launch space for prolonged periods of time

5. They are parking large pickup trucks and work vans all day long, every day, that are likely registered to businesses. They are transporting staff and materials in these trucks to and from the launch and parking on site to fulfill their contracting services

6. The contractor is often bringing along staff of 4-6 others helping him load and unload and barging those staff over to the island to complete the commercial job. 

7. The contractor isn't even launching the Stanley boat from the launch anymore. They are only using the launch as a loading point for materials with that boat. In Mayor Amyotes email to several concerned neighbours on Aug 2, she clearly stated that the only use for the launch should be launching boats. So their use, including their use today (see pictures) is in clear contrast to her email statement. I've forwarded this email chain to you and I've also CCd the Mayor. 

 

Why we believe this will continue:

 

The project is only at its beginning stages. It is likely that the contractor will barge ~400,000 lbs of construction materials through that launch over the next few years to bring this project to completion. 

 

If this sort of activity is not shut down now, we are very concerned other contractors will take note and start to use the launch for similar projects in the future, for their convenience, but at the inconvenience and expense of the cottagers near the launch.

 

Why this ongoing activity is frustrating to neighbours:

 

1. We did not purchase our cottages with the expectation of contractors consistently using the launch and loading and unloading construction materials for island cottages. This is a clear disturbance in terms of noise, traffic, privacy and general peace.

 

2. The recent use breaks the historical record of use of the property as no other contractor has used the launch this way consistently for 3 decades (since this was last addressed at council)

 

3. The wetlands to the east of the launch are being impacted. Potentially the contractor even mowed or stomped much of the grass and bullrushes to make loading and unloading the moored boat easier since it was just wild growth previously. I can assure you the launch looks very different this year than previous years in terms of natural growth.