By Chris Fell -

MP Larry Miller joined members of Meaford council last Friday for a tour of two important businesses based in the Municipality of Meaford.

Miller, four members of council and two senior members of the municipalitys staff were together on Friday morning for a tour of Freemans Farm located on the Third Line and Stanley Knight Limited on Boucher Street.The get together was organized by Meaford CAO Frank Miele and Economic Development Coordinator Laurie Mitchell in an effort to start spreading the encouraging economic news that goes on in the municipality on a day-to-day business.

The first stop for the tour was Freemans Farm on the Third Line. David and Lynn Freeman produce organic garlic on their farm. The Freemans have spent well over $1 million building a state-of-the-art processing facility on their farm. The Freemans use a freeze drying technique on their farm that has been proven to produce a much better end garlic product.”Garlic is amazing. A lot of people dont understand how healthy garlic is for them,” David Freeman explained to Miller and members of council. “We have tried to create an industry here that isnt available anywhere else in Canada or the United States,” he said during the tour of his facility.

Freeman explained that in his research he has discovered that heat dried garlic retains only 2.6 – 4.3 per cent of the original amounts of Allicin. By freeze drying their product the Freemans retain between 79.6 – 85.6 per cent of the Allicin. Their products are constantly tested at the Guelph University lab.The end result of their operation is their own unique Chef Organics garlic powder. A couple of years ago their farm won the Premiers Award for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence.Garlic is a very important component in health and the Freemans product has proven health benefits. The University of Guelph Equine Research Department is using it in a study on horses as a natural antibiotic. In addition, the garlic has been used on a poultry farm to study its affects on birds like chickens and turkeys.The Freemans also recently attracted the attention of giant food producer Heinz. That company is interested in using their garlic in baby food. Heinz sent an auditor to look over the Freeman operation and their farm passed with over 91 per cent. Heinz recently placed an order with them.”This is a very impressive operation,” MP Larry Miller said.Mayor Francis Richardson said the Freeman Farm represents a major opportunity for the entire community.”We have businesses in Meaford that are our best kept secrets. These are businesses that everybody needs to know about. When theyre successful – we as a community are successful,” he said.

The tours next stop was one of Meaford longest continually operating businesses: the Stanley Knight Limited hardwood floor factory on Boucher Street.

via Simcoe Article: Council tours businesses.

By Chris Fell -

The Municipality of Meaford’s auditors have confirmed that the 2010 budget finished with a significant surplus.

BDO Auditor Al White presented the 2010 audit at council’s regular meeting held on Monday, May 9. White said this was the earliest he has ever had the audit completed for Meaford.

“I’m extremely happy to be here. This is the earliest we’ve been to Meaford council since amalgamation,” he said. “It’s not that we did anything differently. The preparations of your staff made a big difference. Things went very smoothly,” White explained.

White took council through several aspects of the audited statements. He explained the statements and the complicated array of financial figures that the audit shows. He noted that new auditing standards and rules are making it more difficult to understand than they have been in the past.

The bottom line, White confirmed, is that the Municipality of Meaford finished 2010 with a surplus of just over $534,000. Municipal staff used close to $400,000 of that amount to help pay for unfunded capital projects from previous years in order to reduce the long-term debt those projects would have to incur. The remaining $134,000 was put into reserves.

“You’re not in bad shape. Things are turning around. The municipality has made some good strides,” White commented.

White said Meaford would be either the first or second municipality to have its audited statements for 2010 finished. He said there is even one municipality that he hasn’t visited to audit the 2009 statements.

via Simcoe Article: Audit confirms large 2010 surplus.

BILL HENRY

Sun Times staff

Meaford residents can expect the 2011 municipal tax rate to dip below 10 per cent as promised, chief administrative office Frank Miele said.

Staff will table a 2011 draft budget today during the first working session for the mostly-new Meaford council, along with a broad outline of the municipality’s overall financial position.

Miele said a confirmed 2009 operating surplus, an expected 2010 surplus and the 2011 draft operating budget are all on track with the municipality’s five-year financial recovery plan.

Auditors are expected to confirm tonight at 7 p.m. a surplus from the 2009 operating budget.

Both Miele and Mayor Francis Richardson also confirmed that surplus in interviews Friday, but provided no details until auditors table the report.

“We are sure we are going to get a report from the audited statement that shows we have a surplus in 2009,” Richardson said.

Any 2009 surplus funds will go to replenish the reserve funds Meaford has relied on to cover previous operating deficits, the mayor said.

Miele said despite unexpected snow removal expenses during the last two weeks, Meaford will almost certainly post another surplus once all the 2010 numbers are crunched.

via Meaford tax rate to dip below 10%, says CAO – Owen Sound Sun Times – Ontario, CA.

Public will “eventually” know who it is: CAO

By Bill Henry -

Meaford residents will soon know who was behind a controversial political blog which disrupted the recent election campaign.

“We know who the blogger was,” chief administrative officer Frank Miele confirmed Monday.

He would not name the blogger until he reports to the new Meaford council during an expected closed session next Monday, Dec. 6, the date of the inaugural session.

“The public will eventually know,” Miele said Monday morning. “We have no problems releasing the name of the individual, however there are some steps that I need to complete.”

Via   www.owensoundsuntimes.com

Miele said the previous council unanimously supported his request to do whatever it took to put a stop to what he said were continuous libelous and incorrect accusations posted against some councillors and senior staff.

By Stephen Vance -

Where are the 2008 audited financials?

The question was asked again by Councillor Jim McPherson on Tuesday night, and once again the reply was, well…”soon”.

It is somewhat baffling why in the middle of October we still haven’t seen the audited financial statements for the 2008 budget year.

CAO Frank Miele has after all repeatedly expressed a desire to have 2010 budget talks well under way in December, so you’d think that in order to prepare for that, it would be important to know the status of the 2008 budget and the deficit that it will likely show.

On June 8th BDO Dunwoody came to council to present their “Terms of Engagement”, which in effect was the beginning (albeit a late beginning) of the audit period. During that meeting the discussion that took place seemed to indicate that we should have expected the audit report by the end of the summer.

And now here we are in mid October, and no audit report.

At the last regular meeting of council in September, McPherson asked when the report could be expected, and the answer at that time was that it was the hope of the CAO that it would be ready for the next Committee of the Whole meeting which was yesterday.

When asked in a follow up question at that September meeting why it wasn’t ready yet, the CAO responded with a disheartening but not entirely surprising- “The books were a mess.”

At the meeting yesterday, Tuesday October 13th, when asked again by Councillor McPherson when the audit report could be expected, Miele said that he was hoping to meet with the auditors next week which would mean that at best the report would be presented to council at the October 26th meeting.

It would be nice to have a little more information. What are the reasons for the delay for example? Have there been issues with the auditors? Are the books really in that much of a mess? If so, why?

After the council meeting yesterday, I asked Councillor Harley Greenfield, who is a member of the Committee of Adjustment, for his thoughts on the absence of a report. Greenfield indicated that ‘part-time-volunteer financial consultant/acting treasurer’ David Kennedy has not been available lately to get everything wrapped up.

If that is the case, you can’t really fault Kennedy as he isn’t an employee, and he has been doing a lot of work for the municipality free of charge, and he really doesn’t have any obligation to the municipality at all…

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