Keegan Kozolanka covers Wellington County for EloraFergusToday.
It’s pretty clear something is wrong with how the Township of Centre Wellington is approaching its termite program. It needs some adjusting or we might end up with a three-of-a-kind and even more wasted time.
Recently it came to light that negotiations to hire a termite management company have failed. Again.
That's two years with little progress and surely the problem has only become worse.
In late-September 2023, council approved staff to enter into negotiations to hire Termite Research Services Inc., run by noted entomologist Tim Myles, to deal with the hundreds of properties with confirmed termite activity at an upwards cost of $1.4 million over five years.
Years of work that had its origins in a pre-COVID motion by former Coun. Kirk McElwain at a February 2020 meeting seemed to be coming to a conclusion.
Seemingly out of nowhere, EloraFergusToday learned and confirmed that “negotiations have not been successful to date” in regards to the termite management program and a report on next steps would be coming.
The mayor nor the township would say why negotiations failed. Myles wouldn’t say either
If this sounds familiar to you, it should.
The same thing happened the last time the township tried this nearly beat for beat.
In August 2022, staff were approved to negotiate a contract with Balson Preventative Solutions Inc. at an upwards limit of $200,000 for a year pilot program.
Once again, an agreement couldn’t be reached between the township and the vendor. The township would not elaborate on why but promised a future report on next steps.
It is certainly frustrating when it’s obvious something isn’t right but you come up against an information brick wall. It’s surely more frustrating for those who have dealt with or continue to deal with termites, some spending thousands of dollars on treatment, to not have any answers.
Tammy Rutherford has long been one of those fighting the good fight. Although she’s since moved, she dealt with termites at her Fergus home for 12 years and eventually started the CW Termites Facebook page aimed at creating awareness about termites and advocating for action from the municipality for years.
She’s similarly frustrated by a lack of information coming from the township on what’s happened and lamented not getting Myles for the job who has run programs in Guelph, Kitchener and Woolwich.
“To me, they’ve just let the best person for the job out of their grasp,” Rutherford said via phone call.
“People are angry about this. I’m sure there’s some people that are thrilled because they don’t want tax dollars being spent on something like this but if they actually understood what a challenge it is for homeowners, they would do what they could to help their neighbours and also to protect their own properties because the problem is just getting worse.”
Rutherford is no entomologist but certainly has done a lot of research on termites. She was confident to say the problem has likely expanded since a 2021 termite survey found 259 properties in Fergus and Elora had active termite activity and a further 219 adjacent properties were at risk.
“Termites work 24/7 and they’re constantly looking for new sources of food,” Rutherford said.
Mayor Shawn Watters stressed to EloraFergusToday the township intends to go forward with a program but is township staff on board?
It’s hard to say but last time this happened, the staff report that came back suggested something of a rebate program.
The proposal would see property owners apply for township grants to cover some of the cost of termite treatment. Between the options of doing nothing, tweaking the request for proposal or the grant program, staff were recommending the grant program because “termite management services is not considered a core municipal service” and it minimized the financial impact and risk to the township while still offering some assistance.
Council chose not to go with staff’s recommendation but wound up in the same place as before and this very much feels like a waste of time.
Should council have listened to staff after the first failed negotiation?
Maybe, it’s at least obvious something different needs to be done or more time is going to be wasted and the problem is going to get worse.
Let’s not do this a third time.
