At their May General Committee meeting, Huntsville councillors received an overview of the Town’s bylaw enforcement and licensing department’s activities for 2023.
Huntsville bylaw enforcement officer Corey Crewson said the department had issued 12 refreshment vehicle licences and three transient trader permits in 2023. Crewson also said that three vehicle-for-hire companies were licensed last year, with a total of 39 drivers under those licences.
Another 14 lottery licences were issued for things like bingo, raffles and 50/50 draws last year.
Other highlights included:
- Overall, in 2023, there were approximately 1,111 calls for service versus 1,266 in 2022. These calls ranged from reports on dogs that are lost or have been found, burning during prohibited times, clean yards, noise complaints, and a host of miscellaneous questions.
- Education and Public Awareness Campaigns: Winter parking reminders were done in late 2023 and early 2024 to remind people to not park and leave their vehicles on streets overnight as the vehicle could be towed for interfering with snow plowing or snow removal from roads.
- Parking: In the summer of 2023, the part-time bylaw enforcement officer issued a total of 387 parking infractions. As of the end of 2023, the total collected for parking infractions was $12,435.00 as opposed to $10,425.00 in 2022.
- Burning: Muskoka fire chiefs issued a total fire ban on May 30th, 2023, and six Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMPs) were issued to property owners. Outside of the fire ban, another five AMPS were issued for offences such as burning during prohibited hours, the burning of materials not permitted, and having an unattended fire.
“The bylaw department still continues to administer and monitor the crossing guards at all the schools within the municipality,” said Crewson, adding that the department also collects transit fares from the Town bus, “that we then pass on to the finance department to sort and count.”
Crewson said following concerns expressed through council regarding calls after hours and on weekends, the department has extended its hours from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week.
Councillor Dione Schumacher asked Crewson whether the department received complaints for smoking in public areas. She said she was amazed at the amount of cigarette butts found during a clean-up at Utterson Park. “We don’t get a huge amount of complaints at Town parks and stuff, just more Town facilities, like where there’s actual buildings, but it’s something that we do monitor when we’re in that area, look for dogs, smoking, those kinds of scenarios,” said Crewson.
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!
Click here to support local news
Joseph Reijnen says
With just over 12.000 dollars collected in parking finest, one wonders how much it cost for the bylaw officer in salary, and , in the end was it worth it?
Sher McGrath says
Joseph, my thoughts exactly. As a tourist town and with so few parking spots available, we should be a free parking town which would help the shops as well. Or install those parking machines in larger lots like you see elsewhere. A definite cost for sure but not a constant yearly salary cost. I just load the parking app and pay when I park in a designated lot. I figure we would need two.
Bill Bell says
Did anyone get a ticket for illegaly parking in a handicap spot ? I doubt it. They could rake in a ton of cash if they did.
Randy Spencer says
If they start enforcing the 3 hour max there will be no problem to triple revenue!! Especially on a nights when there are shows on in town can’t go for dinner and the theatre in 3 hours!!!!!! When is the town leadership going to start realizing we need parking in the downtown core if we are going to have thriving business’s
Thomas R Spivak says
The cost of collection exceeded the fines collected.