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Municipality of West Nipissing will continue to have Field church parking lot cleared of snow

Residents of Field don’t have to worry about snow removal at the Field church parking lot this winter.

Although the municipality does not remove snow from non-municipal land, the situation in Field is a little different.

The basement in the church is used for a variety of purposes and councillor Chris Fisher noted that it serves as a community centre for Field.

Fisher says he’d be the first to say the municipality should not be plowing snow from a property it doesn’t own.

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But Fisher added this should not be the case in this instance.

Fisher said recently the federal government gave West Nipissing $70,000 to make the facility wheelchair accessible.

Fisher said in a way, the feds were regarding the community centre as belonging to the municipality.

Mayor Joanne Savage also noted that the church parking lot was regularly cleared of snow before amalgamation took place.

No member of council objected to the practice continuing.

CAO Jay Barbeau told council it was up to elected officials to decide whether the snow clearing would continue.

The issue came up at council when public works learned about the snow clearing operation and questions were raised on why this was going on.

However, council has reassured residents the church parking lot will continue to be cleared of snow.

The Field issue has also guaranteed that the Lavigne Community Centre will also see its parking lot cleared of snow.

Councillor Denis Senecal told council the facility also serves as an emergency shelter and as such, the municipality should handle the snowplow operations at the site.

Barbeau told council, the centre is not being maintained by the municipality.

Mayor Joanne Savage said it was her understanding that the centre was being plowed last year and then Denis Senecal added a contractor was doing the work this year.

At the end of the discussion, council agreed the municipality should be doing the snow clearing.

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