Costly Demand for Millbrook Water and Questionable Township Planning

The taxpayers of Cavan Monaghan Township are paying a fortune to create a sewage and water supply for Kawartha Downs and a non existent Fraserville mega-city in a way that I think is totally environmentally and economically unsustainable.

Are residents of Cavan Monaghan aware that Kawartha Downs have received 10 % of the revenue from the slots, around $63 million to date, and that the township has taken in half that amount, or $31 million?

Providing water and sewage treatment to the Fraserville area, which only includes Kawartha Downs at this time, will cost roughly $30 million from the township with the inevitable cost overruns and interest, and $20 million in grants from the federal and provincial governments. It appears that all the money the township (we) has received from the slots is in effect being used to provide services to Kawartha Downs, which has already received $60 million?
CM Township plans build new sewage facilities and to pipe a large amount of water over 12 kilometres from existing Millbrook wells to service Fraserville. I am concerned the Millbrook and area aquifer will be adversely and permanently affected.

I wonder why Kawartha Downs is currently shipping its sewage to Millbrook and taking its water from Peterborough although it appears that they do have good wells and sewage facilities on their property. I also wonder why Peterborough, the Airport, or even the Otonabee River is not a viable water supply source for Kawartha Downs to purchase if they do not want to invest in treating the water from their own wells.

I find it interesting that Sysco Food Service of Central Ontario which is also nearby in the township, has paid for their own treatment facilities.

Cavan Monaghan council has told us that residential, commercial and industrial land development fees will repay all the money they are investing in the Fraserville mega-development infrastructure.

I wonder if this is dreaming.

Peterborough, a few minutes away, has 1,227 residential lots ready for building applications tomorrow, and has a surplus of serviced and unserviced residential, industrial and commercial lands. Its development charges are low it has all the normal services of a city.

Fraserville has none of these amenities and will have an expanded airport on its doorstep as well as a brightly lit casino and racetrack in its midst.

I wonder why anyone would choose to build in Fraserville in the next 10 or 20 years, and even if they did and huge development fees were charged, it would still be insignificant in recouping the enormous infrastructure and loan interest costs?

Lastly, I wonder if the presence of Kawartha Downs and the slots has been the catalyst for this whole developer-driven mega-planning.

In light of the way the township has used the windfall income from the slots, I wonder if we would be far better off without them and I do not implicate the horseman’s association in all this.

Unlike all other communities with slot or casino income, not one penny of the $30 million Kawartha Downs slot money has been invested in a community foundation or trust.

I was happy to see a packed Legion Hall in Millbrook recently to voice concerns over the diversion of Millbrook ground water, and to also see a big turnout for the Oct. 25 protest march.

It appears that opposition to the water and development issues and to the lack of Cavan Monaghan council support for the wishes and enrichment of the community is uniting a broad spectrum of angry township residents.