New Frontenac Municipal Services Corporation inaugural meeting held

Posted On Monday January 15, 2024
Frances Smith
Frontenac County Warden Fran Smith was elected FMSC President and Board Chair, January 15.

Frances Smith, Frontenac County Warden and Township of Central Frontenac Mayor, was elected President and Board Chair of the new Frontenac Municipal Services Corporation (FMSC) at the group’s inaugural meeting in Sydenham, January 15.  

“The FMSC and communal services is an example of people from all of Frontenac’s municipalities working together to effect practical solutions to some of the social and land-use issues faced by rural communities everywhere,” says Smith. “Our work now and over the next few years lays the foundation for a bright future in Frontenac.”   

Township of North Frontenac Mayor Gerry Lichty was elected FMSC Vice Chair.

The FMSC was incorporated November 7 to oversee the implementation and operation of communal water and wastewater services in Frontenac. Communal services are innovative technologies and approaches to water and wastewater treatment for clusters of residences and businesses especially suited to small communities and rural areas. They bridge a gap of unmet needs between the limitations of installing separate well-and-septic on each lot; and the financial impracticalities of building large, centralized treatment facilities found in more densely populated areas.

Communal services make way for smaller lot sizes across Frontenac that will help stimulate local economies, provide for less expensive housing options, build upon livability, protect water quality and the natural environment, and more.

The implementation of these new water and wastewater treatment possibilities by the FMSC initially clears the way for a much wider range of land use possibilities in three pilot projects across Frontenac: Development of the former Sharbot Lake Public School site in Central Frontenac, expected growth of the village of Marysville on Wolfe Island, and development of 10 largely unused hectares in the village of Verona in South Frontenac.  

Funding for the FMSC – $700,000 for the first five years of operation – is divided equally among the five founding municipalities: The County of Frontenac, The Township of Central Frontenac, The Township of Frontenac Islands, The Township of North Frontenac, and the Township of South Frontenac.