Mono is home to a variety of plant species while most contribute to the beauty, there are invasive species that can be found. While some of the invasive species spread quickly and spread rapidly, preventing much growth opportunity for other plants, some species are potentially dangerous to people.
Clean Equipment Protocol
The Town of Mono is actively trying to reduce the growth and spread of Invasive Species, such as, Phragmites. All Contractors that work within the Town are required to follow the best practices for clean equipment protocol for industry, which can be found by on the Ontario Invasive Plant Council website.
The hogweed’s danger lies in its clear and watery sap. If the sap from a broken stem or crushed leaf, root, flower or seed comes into contact with skin, it can cause severe burns, blistering and painful sores when the skin is exposed to sunlight. Giant Hogweed poses a serious health threat - if you come across it or think you have it on your property, DO NOT touch it. If even a small amount of sap comes into contact with the eyes, it can lead to temporary or permanent blindness.
Giant Hogweed can grow 4.5 to 6 metres in height (15 to 20 feet). Its leaves are over a metre wide (3.5 feet) and feature hairs on their underside. Its hollow stem has dark reddish-purple splotches and coarse white hair. Hogweed is able to live in a variety of habitats, but is generally found in moist soils. It is often seen along roadside ditches, stream banks, and vacant lots.
Do you have Giant Hogweeds on your property?
If you do, this invasive species is dangerous (chemicals on the plant can burn the skin) and you should be careful working near the plant. If you want to try to eliminate or, at least, control Giant Hogweed, volunteers on Mono's Headwaters Streams Committee may be able to help.
These are volunteers, not Town employees, so they will take requests only to the extent they can handle the work. Email Councillor Fred Nix at fred.nix@townofmono.com for details.
Ontario’s Invading Species Awareness Program - Giant Hogweed
Wild Parsnip [Pastinaca sativa]
Wild Parsnip, also known as Poison Parsnip, is a toxic plant that is spreading throughout Southern Ontario. You should avoid the plant when spending time outdoors during the summer months and teach children to do the same.
Certain individuals may be affected by Wild Parsnip more than others as they may suffer from a heightened sensitivity to the plant’s sap. When the stem is broken or the plant is brushed against, exposure to the sap can cause severe rashes, blisters or burns resulting in brown scars that can last for several years. If a person’s eyes come into contact with the plant’s sap, it can cause temporary or permanent blindness.
Wild Parsnip is amongst the most visible yellow-flowered weeds in disturbed areas, such as roadside ditches, along railroad right of ways, through cracks in parking lot pavement, around sports fields and recreation areas, fields, pastures, fence rows and yards during July, August and September.
The plants vary in height from 50 to 150 cm (20" - 60") and produce yellow flowers with 5 petals forming a head shaped like an umbrella. Leaves are branched and are characterized by a saw toothed edge.
If you discover Wild Parsnip on Town owned public land, including the road allowance, contact the Public Works department at PublicWorks@townofmono.com.
Ontario’s Invading Species Awareness Program - Wild Parsnip
Phragmites [Phragmites australis] (European Common Reed)
Phragmites are commonly found at the side of the road and ditches. It is very aggressive due to the ease at which it is distributed and its capability to grow rapidly.
Dog-Strangling Vine spreads easily by producing seeds that are carried by the wind. The vine grows one to two metres upwards by wrapping itself around nearby trees and other plants or just grows horizontally across the ground. While the name dog-strangling vine is a misnomer as it carries little risk to dogs, its leaves and roots may be toxic to some animals. It also threatens monarch butterflies that lay their eggs on DSV, but the larvae are unable to use the DSV as a viable food source.
Japanese knotweed grows in a variety of habitats, including by river banks, ditches, fence lines, and so on. This plan can reduce the sunlight's penetration and its dead/decaying vegation can prevent other plant species from growing. It can also grow through concrete/asphalt and building foundations.
Council Resolution: We will allocate the necessary resources to develop and implement a strategic energy management plan that will reduce our energy consumption and its related environmental impact.
Vision
We exercise stewardship in our use of finite energy resources to demonstrate leadership, optimize our delivery of services, and enhance the overall quality of life in our community.
Policy
We will incorporate energy efficiency into all areas of our activity including our organizational and human resources management procedures, procurement practices, financial management and investment decisions, and facility operations and maintenance.
Goals
To continuously improve the energy efficiency of our facilities and processes in order to reduce our operating costs, our energy consumption and the concomitant greenhouse gas emissions.
Overall Target
We will reduce our consumption of fuels and electricity in all municipal operations each year between now and 2020.
Objectives
To implement energy audits on all municipal facilities during the next five years;
To convert all lighting in town facilities, parking lots and street lighting to LED.
We need reliable, low-cost, sustainable energy sources delivering energy to the most efficient facilities and energy-consuming technology feasible.
Stakeholder Needs
Internal stakeholders (Council, CAO, staff) need to be able to clearly communicate the corporate commitment to energy efficiency, and to develop the skills and knowledge required to implement energy management practices and measures. External stakeholders (the Province, community citizens and groups) need the municipality to be accountable for energy performance and to minimize the energy component of the costs of municipal services.
Municipal Energy Situation
Our assessment of organizational capacity for energy management with respect to energy policy; organizational structure; employee awareness, skills and knowledge; energy information management; communications; and investment practices indicates the following: The Town of Mono has pursued many measures to improve the energy efficiency of municipal equipment. Some of these measures include: Interior and exterior lighting upgrades at the town offices and Monora Park Pavilion Proposal to Council for conversion to LED street lighting Approved FIT project for solar photovoltaic applications at Town facilities. As the understanding of corporate energy consumption improves, staff will be equipped with the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions. This improved understanding will also reveal how simple actions like commissioning and maintenance procedures can improve existing equipment efficiency.
How We Manage Energy Today
The management of energy consumption and the energy performance of our facilities and equipment are the responsibilities of: Finance (cost management), Works Department (maintenance), Department managers (operations), the CAO for leadership.
Summary of Current Energy Consumption, Cost and GHGs
Summaries of energy consumption and greenhouse gas may be found in appendices to this plan.
Trends in Energy Consumption
Our energy consumption decreased due to efficiency created by upgrading our buildings with spray foam insulation, high efficiency furnaces and LED lighting retrofits. This trend will continue with additional upgrades and retrofits.
Summary of Current Technical Practices
Our assessment of operations and maintenance practices, facility and equipment condition, and energy performance indicators establishes the following priorities:
Development of standard operating procedures incorporating energy efficiency optimization,
Enhancement of preventative maintenance procedures,
Continuation of our retrofit of lighting system in Mono Centre Community Centre in 2015
Implementation of the LED Street lighting conversion in 2014.
Renewable Energy Utilized or Planned
The Town of Mono aspires to show leadership in the promotion and development of renewable energy systems that are compatible with our asset management and land use planning objectives. As a result, we have applied for and received approval to develop a solar photovoltaic system on the rooftop of the municipal garage/shop building, subject to capacity of the adjoining street hydro system to take the resultant additional current. The town will consider possibilities for additional roof top installations on municipal buildings.
As an integral component of the management structure, the energy management plan is coordinated with the municipality's budget planning process, preventative maintenance plans, environmental management plan, and the overall asset management plan.
We will develop criteria for the design and/or acquisition of new buildings that include energy performance factors and that use as appropriate the principles embedded in performance standards such as LEED and the Model National Energy Code for Buildings.
Business Procedures
We will carry out a comprehensive review of all business processes and modify them as necessary in order to incorporate energy efficiency considerations.
We will carry out the required development of business procedures and communication programs and implement them methodically according to the planned timelines within the resources constraints that apply.
Asset Level
We use department and facility energy team representatives to facilitate the implementation of facility level business procedures and communication initiatives, including energy performance reporting.
Overall Target: We will reduce our overall municipal energy consumption (from all facilities and streetlights) by 5% from 2014 (based on baseline data) to 2019. The baseline was determined by averaging the annual consumption in ekWh for 2011 and 2012 for all facilities reported under Regulation 397/11 plus streetlights as they are such a significant energy consumer.
Green House Gas Emission
Governments at all levels are moving to address emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), in light of scientific evidence on how human activities are affecting the world's climate. For more information on the science, see the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The combustion of fossil fuels in buildings is a major source of GHG emissions that fall under local government influence. Municipalities can lower emissions by improving energy efficiency of buildings and using more renewable energy. The Town of Mono is committed to both objectives through the development and implementation of this Energy Conservation and Demand Management Plan (CDM). We will continue to track and report on GHGs as part of our regular reporting on energy consumption and will evaluate progress in this area against our overall reduction target.
Cost
Summary of Current Energy Consumption, Cost and GHGs: The current energy usage by building is detailed in Appendix A. Our energy usage is updated monthly in the Energy Planning Tool (EPT) and reported annually to the Ministry of Energy.
Energy Consumption: We will review and evaluate our energy plan, revising and updating it as necessary, on an annual basis as based on the Energy Consumption Reports that are submitted to the Ministry of Energy on an annual basis as required under Regulation 397/11.
The Mono Community Policing Committee is run by volunteers who live and/or work in the Town of Mono and meets bimonthly to allow for feedback from committee members, individual residents, and the OPP Community Policing Officer. The committee also operates the Neighbourhood Watch program.
Tax certificates show the amount of money owing against a property. If you are buying a new property you can order a certificate to be sure there are no outstanding amounts owing when you take ownership. Anyone can purchase a tax certificate by submitting a letter requesting a tax certificate, along with the fee payable to the Town of Mono.
You may email a scanned PDF letter request and cheque copy to cathy.crawford@townofmono.com. The original letter along with payment should be placed in the mail the same date as the request.
