Did you know that 70% of residents in Addington Highlands and North Frontenac use wood to heat their homes? Maybe that is not surprising to you. But what may be of interest is the fact that more than 80% would support seeing more rooftop solar panels in the region. Now based on the high acceptance rate of rooftop solar, how might that impact the face of energy use here in the future, say five, 10 or even 20 years from now? The survey results also clearly gauge citizens on the “not in my backyard” stance. The Not In My Backyard or “NIMBY” response is a favourite explanation for some policy makers who suggest people will oppose any new buildings or new technology close to their property. The survey suggests people do not have a NIMBY attitude when it comes to new potential methods to generate energy.

So maybe it would be helpful to find out how your neighbours across the region answered the survey and share some of your ideas. Come hear more at one of the information evenings where University of Ottawa researcher Stewart Fast will report back results of the recent energy use and energy attitudes survey completed by residents. All welcome to meetings held in Denbigh (April 7, Denbigh Town Hall), Flinton  (April 10, Flinton Hall) and Ompah (April 11, Ompah Hall). Light refreshments served. Start time 7PM.

Photo: Norman Kunc

“Why is it fun to be mean?”

“How do we create a sense of belonging without relying on a common enemy?”

With these and other questions, along with stories laced with humour and wit, Norman Kunc challenged a large audience of students and staff at Sharbot Lake High School last week to re-examine their views of disabilities and people with disabilities, their views of the world and of themselves.

Norman Kunc has a Master of Science degree in Family Therapy and is co-director of a company, Broadreach Training and Resources in Nanaimo, B.C., whose aim is to “help individuals with disabilities and their families live rich and meaningful lives in their communities”.

Kunc has cerebral palsy (CP) and addressed the students on March 24 from his wheelchair. “You don’t need to feel sorry for me,” he said. “If someone offered me a cure I’d turn it down. Why? I’ve always had CP – our identity is a product of our history - and I would have to start my history all over again. It would be like what you would have to do if you theoretically had a sex change operation.”

Norman stressed to the audience that he didn’t want people to be nice to him, didn’t want people to try to be “best buddies”. He said that what people with disabilities want is to be “authentically included”, and told a story to illustrate what that means.

He said that when he was a child, even though he lived close to a baseball field, it was a place he never went to. At that time he could still walk and wasn’t confined to a wheelchair, but he thought that in order to play baseball you had to be able to run. Many years later when he was at university, he went out with some friends one day, and afterwards they all decided to play baseball. They invited him to come along, but he thought, “No way – how could I play?”

But they figured it out, he told the audience. With some experimentation, they figured out that it took him 12 seconds longer than the others to run from home plate to first. So when he started to run, they gave him 12 counts before throwing him out. They had to invent a few other rules, he said, “but once those rules were in place, it was fun for everyone because it was fair – they gave me 12 seconds, not 14 seconds; no one ‘let’ me be safe.”

He encouraged the audience to be innovative and creative in finding ways of authentically including people with disabilities in their activities and their lives.

Norman Kunc also challenged the audience to view disability and people with disabilities as “normal”. He said that in every culture and every age, there have always been disabled people.

“We aren’t ‘broken’; we’re a normal part of the diversity in a society,” he said, adding that it took a long time for him to realize he was under no obligation to anyone to not to be disabled.

“When you think about disability, what do you see?” he asked the students, showing a slide of an empty wheelchair. He said, “You see only the limitations, but did you ever think that a wheelchair could be graceful? Fun? Even sexy?” He then switched slides to show people in wheelchairs dancing with very glamorously dressed non-wheelchair bound partners; playing fast-moving basketball; and careening up and down skateboard ramps, sometimes wiping out in the process.

He told the students that all of us, on a deep level, feel the need to belong, and said that it’s not that hard to create a sense of belonging without being addicted to a common enemy; that the students can do just a few simple things that would have a huge impact.

One is to value our diversity, and another is to realize that we’re all like a half full glass of water– there are things we do well and things we can’t do well. “But that’s ok because in that way everything’s covered,” he said. “Figure out what you do well and really do it well, and then the others will do what they can do well.”

Kunc also encouraged the students to “see the story in the stranger”, to not make split-second judgments, but to find out the ways in which other people’s life stories are similar to theirs and to ask themselves what they can learn from the person. “Never assume there’s nothing we can learn,” he said.

At the end of his talk, Norman Kunc received a standing ovation from the audience.

Several articles on the topics he addressed at the high school as well as videos are posted on Norman Kunc’s website: www.normemma.com

Photo: Jim and Kahoru Noonan at their home in Cloyne

For many Canadian residents the effects of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and 4 metre tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 are far from over as they continue to search for news of loved ones.

Cloyne resident Kahoru Noonan, who was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, is riding the emotional roller coaster of not knowing the whereabouts of a number of her relatives and good friends.

Kahoru was awoken at 4:30 AM on Friday, March 11 just two hours after the earthquake struck, by a phone call from her father. She immediately surmised upon hearing her father’s voice that something very serious had happened. Her father, who resides in Tokyo along with Kahoru's mother and brother, made sure his wife and son were okay (the two had been shopping in downtown Tokyo when the earthquake hit) before calling Kahoru.

“As soon as he knew for sure that they were all okay he called me. He knew that if he had waited to call, he might never have gotten through.” Kahoru's husband Jim added, “He was really worried that we would have woken up, heard about the earthquake and then would not have be able to get through to them.”

Since then Kahoru and her family have been desperately trying to get information about other members of Kahoru's father’s family: an aunt, an uncle and two cousins who live in Fukushima prefecture close to the troubled Fukushima nuclear plant. “Right now they are still missing but we are pretty sure that they are being evacuated but because there has been no power there, we have been unable to contact them.”

Good news arrived a day after we interviewed the Noonans and Kahoru emailed me to say that she had found her aunt and uncle’s names on a list of evacuees. Still, the waiting game is far from over. Now Kahoru's biggest concern is for her friends, many of whom live in the Miyagi Prefecture, near the coast that was hardest hit by the tsunami. Visibly shaken, Kahoru pointed to a map and the north-eastern coast of Japan where many of her friend reside. “That is where the tsunami hit and all along that area there is nothing left.” For days she has been trying to call, and continues to scan posted internet lists of evacuees, survivors and the deceased. While she has successfully found the names of most of her friends, who were lucky enough to survive the devastation, many remain unaccounted for.

The hardest thing for Kahoru is the feeling of helplessness. “There is nothing I can do to help from here which is the hardest thing.” For a long time she felt a strong need to go to Japan but Kahoru’s husband Jim, who cut short a business trip to British Columbia after the quake struck, talked her out of it. “Of course I didn't want her to go and Kahoru's family said they would be more at ease knowing she was safe in Canada, especially with the threats posed by the nuclear power plants,” Jim said.

Kahoru has come to realize that she has no choice but to stay put in Cloyne where she continues searching for news of her friends.

More news came in subsequent days. Kahoru said she had found the name of one friend on the list of the survivors from the tsunami but it might be a different person because the lady on the list was much older than her friend.

Kahoru will continue her search for as long as it takes. Exhausted but still hopeful, she expressed her determination in standing by the people in Japan who are experiencing what she describes as "unimaginable.”

“I really want to say to all of the Japanese people - Don't Give Up! We, people from all over the world are thinking about you, even us here in this small town in Canada called Cloyne.”

Kahoru is definitely not alone in that.

Anyone interested in donating to the relief effort in Japan can do so through the Canadian Red Cross online at www.redcross.ca and going to World/ Japan Earthquake/Tsunami or by calling 1-800-418-1111. Also, cheques can be made payable to the Canadian Red Cross, earmarked “Japan Earthquake/Asia-Pacific Tsunami” and mailed to the Canadian Red Cross National Office, 170 Metcalfe Street, Suite 300, Ottawa, ON, K2P 2P2

Photo: Drawing by Angela Badour, then  grade 10 student at SLHS, who was a winner for the 500th edition drawing contest in 1988.

The first edition of the Frontenac News was nothing more than a short essay, printed on the second page of a single sheet of paper (It is reprinted below). It was a call to a public meeting to try and pull together the small communities in the former townships of Olden, Oso, Hinchinbrooke and Bedford.

One of the interesting things about the essay is that with a few changes in wording, much of it could have been written in March of 1981, 1991, 2001, or even today, in March 2011.

“What do the 2010s have to offer the Frontenac residents, after all? ‘Is it only crown land, nature reserves, pockets of government privilege, few services and spotty seasonal employment?’”

I could have written that last week.

And if a questionnaire were sent out to local residents about issues facing the local communities, recreation, environment (the word we now use for pollution), schools, roads, lack of industry and economic opportunity would be some of the answers.

In preparing this section to mark the 40th anniversary of the Frontenac News, I dug through many of the issues that are stored in our offices. The paper has expanded its scope; we now distribute over 9,000 copies each week to 22 communities in five amalgamated townships and three counties. Through our website, Frontenacnews.ca, 2000 people read our paper each week online from locations across the globe.

The special section that starts on page 8 includes a history of how the single sheet that was tacked up on the wall in stores around what is now Central Frontenac has continued on, as a not-for-profit entity for 30 years and a private business for the past 10 years. We will chronicle the struggles of the newspaper and the communities it serves and look at how some of the institutions we cherish today were built. We will also look at our plans for the future.

Ultimately what the Frontenac News is still about is communication. Our job is to let people know what is going on here, not in Toronto or Ottawa or Kingston or Belleville or Napanee. There are lots of 'media outlets' that deliver information from the perspective of those centres. We are the only one that is based right here, and is concerned only with the issues of the rural people and communities where we distribute the paper.

And as that first little essay said it so well in 1971, it is really up to us to build our own communities and the broader community that is defined by The Frontenac News. There is still a lack of economic development in our region; the retail sector has weakened considerably over the past 40 years; and most people drive to cities for work. But there are also opportunities in our region that simply were not there in 1971. People can live good lives, feed their families, even accumulate wealth, and still go out of their houses and take a walk in the woods or put a canoe in the water without having to go anywhere.

The Frontenac News chronicles the joy and pain of life in the 20 communities with our weekly paper. And somehow, through the support of the businesses, the municipalities and our readers, enough advertising revenue comes in each week to enable us to send the paper to every mail box in those communities and every computer as well.

Photo: NAEC students gather core samples from Lake Mazinaw. Courtesy of Dave Deacon

Grade nine students from North Addington Education Centre in Cloyne had a chance to get to the bottom of things when on Feb.23 they assisted Queen’s University geographer Scott Lamoureux and Professor Robert McLeman of the University of Ottawa in extracting core samples from the bottom of frozen Mazinaw Lake near Bon Echo Provincial Park. The research is part of a multi-university project aimed at understanding what impacts climate change may have in store for people of this region. The samples will be used to reconstruct the environmental changes in the Eastern Ontario Highlands over the past several centuries. By involving local communities in the project, the researchers hope to raise awareness of environmental issues and to encourage students to pursue post-secondary training in environmental research.

Participating students from Mr. Hasler's, Ms. Snider's and Ms. Lloyd’s classes at NAEC used an auger to drill holes into the lake ice, into which they inserted metre-long plastic tubes. The tubes were then lowered down to the lake bottom and a weight was used to pound the tubes into the sediment there encasing a core sample in each. The layers in the cores show a history of the environment going back hundreds of years, to pre-European settlement. Two samples were obtained, which students then took back to their classrooms, where they were studied.

Professor Robert McLeman explained what exactly the samples showed. “We saw in both samples, about mid-way through, a large grey streak which points to an event that likely occurred roughly 100 years ago. The streak demonstrates that there was large-scale erosion going on, likely the result of the clear cutting of the forest around the lake.”

McLeman explained how this type of information would give researchers the information they are hoping to gain to get a better understanding of climate change. ”With this research we are hoping to get a better understanding of the trends of long-term environmental trends in the region. We will use the findings to help us plan for the future and help us to adapt to climate change. Similarly, because so many people live downstream from Mazinaw Lake it’s also important for us to understand what changes are happening from a water management point of view.”

Researchers plan to take more core samples from the lake, which will be sent to laboratories for further study. The results will also be sent to the students at NAEC for further learning opportunities.

Professor McLeman was pleased to provide the students with such an exciting and valuable hands-on learning tool. “By allowing the students to practice hands-on science in their own backyard we are hoping to get them excited about the environmental sciences and are also hoping to encourage them to pursue environmental studies later on, either at college or university.”

“What I like most about Verona is that is it mainly located on Road 38, and how narrow the street is,” said Mike Keene (photo left) of Fo-Tenn Consulting at a kick-off meeting for the Verona Community Improvement Plan (CIP) that was held at the Verona Lions Hall last Thursday, February 24.

The concentration of businesses and houses along the stretch of main street in Verona was one of the reasons that Verona was chosen as the first community in Frontenac County to have a community improvement plan done.

About 60 of the 75 or so people who came out to the meeting remained until the end of a presentation by Keene, assisted by Peter Young of Frontenac County.

Keene explained that CIPs are not a new tool for helping to bring new energy to rural towns seeking a revival.

“Gananoque has one in place, as does Campbellford and Stirling,” Keene said.

In Gananoque the improvement plan includes a heritage street sign, and a facade improvement plan that offers rebates to business owners who invest in improvements to the look and accessibility of their establishments. The plan is being augmented with a new cultural policy this year.

“What I appreciate about the Gananoque plan is that small investments can make large changes. Gananoque has dished out about $24,000 and businesses have put in $50,000. The numbers aren't huge but the changes are noticeable,” Keene said.

Under the Ontario Municipal Act, municipalities are severely limited in the ways they can spend public funds. That's why Community Improvement Plans were established under the Ontario Planning Act. CIPs are one of the few ways that municipalities can invest their own money or money they can access through grants directly to businesses and individuals in their jurisdiction.

CIPs require a public process, and also require that fixed boundaries for the improvement area be established.

“In the case of Verona, those boundaries could be the hamlet boundaries that are encompassed by the township’s zoning bylaw,” Keene said, “or they could be expanded. That is one of the things that will be decided through the public process. If there are granting programs they do not have to be restricted to businesses. Homeowners and not-for profit organizations can be eligible as well.”

The people at the meeting were given an opportunity to mark down specific suggestions about the kind of community improvement plan they would like to see in Verona. They did so by writing down suggestions, putting sticky tabs on specific locations on a large map, and talking their ideas up to their neighbours. These ideas included sidewalk improvement, signage, and others.

Some of the suggestions will be included in the Community Improvement Plan itself, and others may be pursued through other means, by groups that form or by the municipality itself

A meeting will be called for early April, after the information gathered at the meeting and through other research is completed. The plan itself will start to take shape at that meeting.

“I'm really glad to see so many people out tonight,” said Mike Keene, “it shows how strong Verona is and how much can be achieved.”

In addition to members of the public and members of the Verona Community Association, there was also a strong contingent from the township council in attendance, including Mayor Davison, Portland Councilors McDougall and Robinson, and Councilors Vandewal and York. Central Frontenac Councilor Bill Snyder was on hand as well.

Once the Verona plan is underway, a number of others are contemplated throughout the county.

A few months ago, enthused by some improvements to the sidewalks and roadways in the middle of the village, Arden resident Dorothy Proctor issued a challenge to her fellow Ardenites to come together and try to revitalize the village.

That led to a public meeting in November, which drew over 70 people to share ideas and plans for the future.

A follow-up meeting last week, on Thursday, February 17, drew 60 people according to Adrian O’Connell, one of the organizers.

“The turnout for the second meeting is encouraging,” O’Connell said, “and there is a bit of a concern that these meetings not become talking shops or that people go off and start doing things that overlap with things that others are doing, or that the township should be doing.”

To counter that possibility, a set of small committees has been formed to move different initiatives forward. The committees include: maps and signage (chaired by Art Dunham); clean up and property standards (Jim Duthie); coffee shop/store (Janina Fisher); and public works (Glen Matson).

A couple of projects that are aimed at enhancing the tourism potential of Arden were discussed at the meeting, including constructing a covered walking bridge and the possibility of development of a 400 + acre site off the Arden Pit Road as a recreational area. The property, which is known as the Arden Canyon, was purchased by Kennebec Township years ago, and Glen Matson has kept the idea of doing something with it ever since he was the Reeve of Kennebec. Pictures of the property were shown to those attending the meeting. It includes a picturesque gorge, hence the moniker, Arden Canyon.

Expansion of the role of the Arden and the Arts concept is also being looked at.

Terry Kennedy, the chairperson of the Kennebec Lake Association, is another of the members of what he calls “the start up group”.

“Each of the committees has picked something they will be trying to accomplish right away, to keep up the momentum,” Kennedy said.

A delegation will be going to a meeting of Central Frontenac Council next month to keep council apprised of what is being planned in the short and medium term.

The two Kenebec ward councilors, Jeff Matson and Tom Dewey, attended the meeting, as did Mayor Janet Gutowski.

Another public meeting will likely be called in June, at which time Kennedy said it might be time to form a formal steering committee for what has this far been an informal process. 

Editorial by Jeff Green

In 1971 there was no Facebook, no Twitter, no Internet at all, and no cell phones. Most telephones in this part of the world were on party lines. It was a long distance call between Sharbot Lake and Arden, or Harrowsmith and Sydenham for that matter.

At that time, the institution that had been the life blood of rural communities, the K&P railroad, was long gone. All the local mines had closed. Agriculture, a victim of the rocky ground and changing times, was in the midst of a long decline, and the heyday for local foresters was also in the past.

Tourism, which had long been a major factor in the local economy, was becoming the economic base, and there was a recognition on the part of many that the local communities that dotted the landscape were in a state of decline.

A group of people began meeting to talk about how people in the small communities north and south of Highway 7 could work together to develop social and economic ties on a more regional basis.

This Communications Group, as it came to be called, decided to put out a monthly newsletter, and in March of 1971, the first edition of the North Frontenac News was spit out of an old Gestetner machine and delivered to local stores and restaurants.

The North Frontenac News eventually evolved into a weekly newspaper over the years, and survived as a publicly owned not-for-profit enterprise, under North Frontenac Community Services until it went into private hands in 2001.

Since then the paper has continued to publish community reports each week, as well as other news, and continues to strive to accomplish the original goals that the communications group created it for – namely, to inform people in the small communities, now through most of Frontenac County, Addington Highlands and western Lanark County.

We now also use the world-wide web to do this, through Frontenacnews.ca, which has an archive of stories going back ten years

Next month, we will be publishing a special 40th Anniversary issue, and in looking back at what has happened during that time, we invite readers and volunteers from the past to send in their memories of the News, flattering or unflattering as they may be, as we share our anniversary with the readers and businesses that have kept us alive and independent for all these years.

We can be reached through the mail at Box 229 Sharbot Lake, K0H 2P0, by phone at 613-279-3159 or 1-888-779-3150; by fax at 613-279-3172, or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, March 8, and the special edition is scheduled for publication on March 17.

Enquiries about advertising in the 40th anniversary edition can be sent to the above coordinates as well. 

Photo: Doug Lovegrove's computer genealogy seminar in Hartington

On February 9, those looking for help in unearthing their family trees got the ins and outs at a seminar called “Computer Genealogy” presented by Verona resident Doug Lovegrove. Sponsored by the Portland & District Heritage Society, the seminar guided participants through the steps involved and focused primarily on using the computer as the tool to get them there.

Lovegrove is a self-professed genealogy addict and has traced the Lovegrove family tree all the way back to 1719. “I usually start by warning people that once you get hooked it can be a hazard as far as using up your spare time. It definitely becomes consuming.”

His seminar connects searchers with the computer tools they need. “I'm basically showing people how to use the Internet and the computer program ‘Personal Ancestry File’, which can be downloaded for free.”

To begin, searchers need a computer, an Internet connection, and the program. Doug also suggests creating a bookmark folder and having a tape recorder to conduct interviews.

Doug recommends starting with the known family and going back from there. He emphasizes the fact that “the best resources are your oldest living relatives. It is not just names that you are looking for but all of the stories that go along with them.”

When looking up the names on his own birth certificate Doug recalled, “Two were those of my parents and the third name, which I did not know, was the name of the cabdriver who drove them to the hospital where I was born.”

Important information to record is of course names, including nicknames, dates and places of birth, death, marriage, baptism and burial. Finding and scanning all certificates is recommended.

Doug suggests beginning a search by using a Google search and entering the full name as best you know it. The more specific you can be the narrower your search will be. As a resource Doug also suggested using related computer genealogy links like the Canadian Genealogy and History links as well as the Immigrant ship lists. “Basically most of us at some point immigrated to this country so these lists can be very useful.” Other useful links include Library and Archives Canada

There are also sites like Ancestry.com or .ca that offer a free 14-day trial.

One of the most important points that Doug stressed was to keep up-to-date records of where you've been, what you've found and where you need to go next. “Otherwise,” he says, “you can spend a lot of time searching and then have to end up retracing your steps.”

The seminar attracted a number of people, each looking for specific information. Danka Brewer has been searching for her native ancestry and is now looking to the Internet to help her complete her search, which began first on paper in 1991. “I'm particularly interested in this seminar in order to broaden my search and will use the computer to access a number of records that are available online.”

If tracing your family roots is something you're thinking of pursuing, Doug Lovegrove is the man to offer you the tools and advice you'll need.

Back to HomeFeature Article - February 3, 2011 A “Blossoming” businessby Julie Druker

Photo: Pam Morey of Blossoms

Pam Morey of Harrowsmith stumbled across the ad on Kijiji and the rest, as they say, is history - business history. A wife and mother of two, Pam had always wanted to start up her own business and was intrigued by the ad looking for an entrepreneur to open up a Blossoms store in Kingston.

Blossoms is a line of Canadian retail stores based in St. John, New Brunswick, which create and sell edible centerpieces made from fresh fruit. “I knew it would be the perfect kind of work for me - I love flowers and have always loved being creative and making crafts so it seemed the perfect fit for me,” Morey said.

She took possession of the Kingston store on October 1 and with the help of friends did an intensive month-long renovation, knocking out walls, putting in plumbing and rewiring the entire store before her grand opening on November 6.

Pam’s store is one of 10 operating across Canada with many other locations in the States and the business is steadily gaining in popularity. Morey vouches for that. “I had a very busy first Christmas season and as people get to know that I am here and see what I make, I am seeing more and more customers walking through the door.”

Blossoms specializes in a wide array of edible bouquets, each made from a variety of fresh fruit -pineapple, melon, cantaloupe strawberries, apples and pears, some of which is dipped in chocolate and covered in a wide selection of tasty decorative toppings, all arranged into a centerpiece as beautiful to look at as it is delicious to eat. The bouquets are made fresh daily and prices range from $30-$118.

Pam also sells chocolate-covered strawberries which she says make great Valentine’s Day gifts. Her products are designed to fit that special gift need for any number of occasions including anniversaries, baby showers, hostess gifts, corporate gift giving, retirement or as novel additions to dinner parties. Pam has also created a number of arrangements for patients recovering in the hospital and for a small fee she will also deliver them.

Each centerpiece takes Pam about an hour to make and she will often customize her work to fit a specific special occasion or theme, which she says is a lot of fun. So far she has created a basketball-themed bouquet and an angel bouquet as well.

She is also exploring new items and has been experimenting with candied caramel and chocolate apples, of which she has already sold a number. Fresh fruit smoothies are another idea that she is pursuing. Along with the chocolate-covered strawberries for Valentines Day she will be selling a special Valentine’s Blossom Bouquet made with pineapple hearts and strawberries dipped in white chocolate.

Like with all businesses there are challenges and Pam finds that the business end of things is where she has experienced her greatest learning curve. “I do all of my own marketing, advertising and promotion, so getting to know that end of the business has been a step-by-step process for me but I find that each time I do it, it gets easier.” She also says, however, “I am a people person and the fact that people are often buying for happy occasions makes the business an all-around enjoyable one.”

Pam’s family has been 100% supportive of her undertaking from the get go, something she says is a must for anyone undertaking a full-time business venture.

With that support and a true love of her work, Pam is confident that business will steadily grow.  “I feel that I have found my niche and feel very lucky. I love going to work every day, which is really what it is all about.”

Blossoms is located at 2785 princess St, Unit 3 just west of the Cataraqui Town Centre. Orders should be made two days ahead of time. Call 613-389-3180 or visit www.blossomskingston.com for more information.