The South Frontenac Planning Department receives a steady stream of inquiries from individuals and developers who are looking to do business in South Frontenac.

Given the nature of land use planning, especially in a rural area where each piece of property brings unique challenges with it, some of these inquiries go nowhere, and others can seem like a rabbit hole, leading to a years’ long, expensive, detailed process that is sometimes mired in controversy and often results in delays and added costs.

The township has ramped up its planning department to deal with the influx of complex applications, and developed a closer working relationship with Frontenac Count’s planning department, since applications for plans of subdivision and plans of land use condominium, which are the most complex and quite often controversial planning applications, are subject to approval by Frontenac County.

On top of everything, the fact that much of the demand in the marketplace is for year-round homes on water within a short drive from the city of Kingston, pitting development pressures against environmental concerns in many cases.

And now the building permits sales data is starting to indicate that the planning boom in South Frontenac may be resulting in an increase in construction activity. For a number of years, permit sales have hovered around the $30 million mark annually in the township.

The second quarter (April to June) is the busiest each year, but this year it was the busiest quarter in at least 4 years. The construction value was $14.8 million over the 90 day period, $1.8 million more than last year, $2 million more than the same period in 2017, and $3 million more than 2016. The total is about the same, in one quarter, as the three other Frontenac Township combined permit values for most years.

And it is new construction of single-family dwellings that is the main driver of the construction boom in the township. Permits for 39 new homes were issued in the 2nd quarter of this year, an increase over 26 in 2018 and 32 in the 2nd quarter of 2017.

If the pattern from previous years holds, more new home permits will be sold in the second half of the year than in the first half and the total for 2019 could very well reach 85 to 90, well up from 66 in 2018, and 71 in each of 2017 and 2016.

It all sets up a pretty interesting context for the township to be conducting both a Strategic and an Official Review just as the Chief Administrative Officer, Neil Carbone, assumes his role. There is a short survey posted on the township website for the Strategic Plan, and public meetings are set for Sunbury, Sydenham and Verona this month, all aimed at creating a document that may be referred to by council and staff if they are seeking direction when making decisions over the next few years. But while a strategic plan may, at best, reflect the intentions of the council and residents of the township and one or two over-arching goals, it has not real teeth.

The Official Plan, however, can create new opportunities for residents and developers alike, and can close off opportunities as well, all within the confines of a set of provincially mandated standards as expressed in the provincial policy statement and codified in the provincial planning act.

Claire Dodds, the Director of Development Services for South Frontenac, outlined a process for updating the township Official in a presentation to a Public Meeting as part of the August meeting of Council on Tuesday night.

As she worked through the process in her report, she made reference to an issue that defines an area of tension both within the township and between the township and the planning policy directives coming from the Province of Ontario.

Under the heading of growth management, one of the bullets in the report says: “Province permits limited growth in rural areas and direct majority of growth to settlement areas”.

While this logic makes sense as a general rule, it does not easily fit the reality in Frontenac County. For one thing, the demand is greater for lots in the countryside, and particularly near water, than within the hamlets. Secondly, among the hamlets only Sydenham has a municipal water system and none of the hamlets have a municipal sewage system, more density in hamlet is not necessarily advisable since that involves crowding septic systems together as well as stressing the water table.

As part of its Official Plan review, South Frontenac may look at changing the boundaries of its hamlets to create more opportunities, and it may also look at the possibility of creating smaller scale, privately held water and sewer systems within individual developments. This is something that the Frontenac County Development department has been looking, and in Claire Dodds report to council she refers to proposes changes in provincial policy that might create “flexibility by clarifying perceived barriers to sewage and water treatment policies in rural settlement areas.

There is another factor that will certainly become apparent as the Official Plan process gets underway in South Frontenac. There are a significant number of people in any rural township, and certainly in one experience growth pressure such as South Frontenac is facing, who will see only a downside to significant growth.

Rural landowners do not necessarily want to live too close to their neighbours, in fact they often don’t want to see their neighbours at all. And just about every proposal for a waterfront development will be opposed by neighbours on the lake, for good environmental reasons and for self interested reasons as well.

These are just some of the tensions that will be expressed through the Official Plan process in the township.

Managing growth, creating business opportunities in the retail sector, and creating employment through growth, will be major factors throughout this process, which is projected to take over 2 years to complete.

While only a small percentage of residents will take an interest in the Official Plan, those that do will be taking a keen, active interest, and many who don’t will still find, eventually, that the plan that emerges from this effort will one day have an impact on their living situation or their financial situation.

Frontenac County senior administration began talking about the need for an improved administrative office suite several years ago. This has lead to the consideration of a number of options, the completion of a number of studies and a consultation process led by Rob Wood of 80/20Info.

An Administrative Building Design Taskforce was formed in 2016 and has met in fits and starts ever since. Between last summer and the spring of this year, the task force was looking at the idea of constructing a new building, located in South Frontenac, to house the administrations of South Frontenac Township, the Cararaqui Region Conservation Authority (CRCA), as well as Frontenac County.

But in April, South Frontenac informed the county that they were not proceeding with any relocation plans at this point, and will remain based at the township hall complex in Sydenham in addition to a supplementary office at the Keeley Road works yard just outside of Sydenham for the foreseeable future.

Three months later, the design task force met again, and this time considered a new proposal that is based on remaining in place at the existing “Old House” building that is co-located with the County owned Fairmount Home site. A new facility analysis has been prepared by architects Coulbourn and Kendell of Kingston, presenting two options, a renovated space for Frontenac County alone and a renovated space for Frontenac County and the CRCA. In both cases, the working assumption is that headquarters of Frontenac Paramedic Service will no longer be located in the building.

During the July 17 meeting of the Administrative Building Design Taskforce, Frontenac County Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Pender referred to the uncertainty about how paramedic services will be administered in Ontario after 2019. The Province of Ontario plans to reduce the number of paramedic service operators in Ontario from 56 to 10 within a year.

“We don’t know what will happen with Paramedic Services. If FPS goes away they will not need the space anymore, and if the service stays with us we will move it to a location in the City of Kingston,” he said.

Option 1 in the Coulbourn and Kendell facility analysis includes just under $1 million for renovations to make the existing building, which is still set up more like stately home than an office space, as well as a $452,000, fifteen hundred square foot extension at the east end of the building to create a new council chamber from an external entrance. The estimated total cost of option 1 is $1.84 million, $2.21 million if construction is done to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, which has been Frontenac Counties practice

Under this scenario the suite of offices on the lower level of the building, currently occupied by Frontenac Paramedic Services, will be available for lease once they are vacated.

Option 2 is based on the assumption that the CRCA will occupy the FPS offices, which will require a 6,300 square foot addition to the building to the south in order to be large enough for their needs. The new council chamber would be be a shared space with the CRCA. The estimated cost of construction would be $3.7 million ($4.4 million if it is LEED certified) but the CRCA would pay a substantial occupancy cost, rendering option 2 the one that would most likely lead to lower costs for Frontenac County ratepayers.

The CRCA Board will make a determination shortly about their involvement in the project, but all along CAO Pender has indicated that the administrative needs for the CRCA are more acute than those of Frontenac County, because, he said, their current building it at the end of its useful life.

The task force passed a motion to proceed to the next stage of the project under option a or b, pending a decision about participation from the CRCA. The next phase would be to compete a detailed study of the space needs of both organisations to come up with a final floor plan, at which time the actual costs can be determined. The task force will reconvene at the call of the chair, likely in September or October.

No one really knew what to expect when members of the Horseless Carriage Club of America – Southern Ontario Region said they were planning to make Sydenham a lunch stop on one of the touring days of their annual gathering... which is centred at the Ambassador Hotel in Kingston this year.

There were about 60 of the brass-era vehicles, so-named for the shiny gold trim on many of the them, all built before 2016. They were planning to drive from the hotel up Sydenham Road to a pit stop at the Limestone Creamery before heading to Sydenham to visit Trousdale’s General Store, before having lunch at the Legion.

Trousdale’s was a fitting stop, since the store has been operating since long before these cars were first built, having survived from the horse and buggy days of the 1830’s.

The vehicles began to arrive at around 11, and by 11:30 they were buzzing and darting around the intersection of Mill Street and George Street like so many bees. Club members were checking out Trousdale’s, some filling up at the One Stop along with all of the modern cars, which all looked pretty drab and uniform in comparison to the elegant and varied brass era beauties.

The vintage cars never seemed to stop for too long, though, before heading one way or another through the village, some at a gentle cruising speed and others bolting along at a rapid clip. Club members smiled at passers-by, and whispered to each other about how their cars were running, where they were able to source parts, and about makes and model years, etc.

After 15 minutes, they began to vacate the intersection, heading towards the Legion parking lot, which was quickly filled up. There club members gathered in earnest, talking shop for the most part. After lunch they were gone, headed towards the Wilton Cheese Factory and the return trip to Kingston.

Sydenham quickly returned to normal, the modern lumps on wheels reclaimed the streets, and pedestrian put their phones/cameras back into their pockets.

The brass-era invasion was over.

Saturday … in the park … I think it was the 20th of July.

With apologies to Robert Lamm, there wasn’t a man selling ice cream but there was a ton of other stuff going on at The Point in Sydenham Saturday for the 3rd Annual Lakes & Trails Festival.

“We’re here today because they like doing things outdoors,” said “closest to an organizer as we get” Ross Sutherland. “And it’s a fun festival for kids.”

Sutherland said the underlying purpose of the Lakes & Trails Festival is three-fold.

“First, it’s a celebration of our natural beauty,” he said. “Second, it’s a celebration of our active lifestyle.

“And (third), it’s about our history and bringing it all together in one place.”

And that’s exactly what they did.

Natural History wise, displays from the Frontenac Arch Biosphere and Reptile and Amphibian Advocacy provided information and a platform for their interests.

“I think it’s very well organized with lots of activities and a great location,” said Julie Servant, executive director of the Frontenac Arch Biosphere. “We’re a community organization ourselves so anything the community does is important for us.

“And it gives us a chance to tell you we’re having a Trails-Fest ourselves, Sept. 28 at Charleston Lake Provincial Park.”

And trails figured prominently on this day as well.

“We’ve had about 40 do the cycling trip with about a couple of dozen doing the 21 kilometre long bike route around the lake,” Sutherland said. “And the dragon boat out there has been quite popular.”

The South Frontenac Museum had a booth set up and there were walking tours of historical Sydenham.

“We even have Wallace’s local roast beef and portabello mushroom sandwiches,” Sutherland said. “Surprisingly, that turned out cheaper than hot dogs and hamburgers would have been.”

Ghost Road, Maple Fire, Zombie Sunset, Sheer Agony, Red Viper . . . sounds a bit like the upcoming season of The Walking Dead, doesn’t it?

But no, these are a few of the 13 varieties of hot sauce available from MissFortuneS Unforgiving Hot Sauces, which are produced in the kitchens of St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Sydenham, by father and son team Erik and Taylor Miazga.

And after about three years in business, there are plenty of signs that they may just be on to something.

“We’re pushing 40 locations (where their sauces are available),” Taylor said.

These include where you might expect in the Frontenacs such as Food Less Travelled, Trousdale’s, Seed to Sausage and Foodland, but they’re also expanded out to Gananoque, Perth, Trenton, Belleville, Kingston.

The hot sauce business isn’t a full-time gig for either of them — yet — but that’s definitely looking like a distinct possibility.

Taylor drives truck for Findlay Foods and through his deliveries, he’s managed to cultivate a network of contacts that’s paying off.

Erik was injured a couple of years ago in a car accident and hasn’t really been able to do other work, but that’s OK, he’s kind of the creative end of the team — both in the kitchen and product development/artwork.

“I used to do a lot of the cooking around home,” he said. “But I’m not one of those who sticks to recipes.”

To that end, he started “experimenting” with red pepper jellies which he would give to friends and families.

“(But) with jellies, you have to put pectin in and I could never really come up with the right consistency.”

So, the natural progression of his culinary art led him to sauces — hot pepper sauces.

But Miazga is definitely his own man, and his philosophy led him to a rather unique product line.

“We’re not out to fry somebody’s face off,” he said. “We start out with a flavour and then add the heat.”

For example, Maple Fire is 30 per cent (“local” maple syrup) with hot pepper added.

“We have 13 flavours, all with their own heat level,” Erik said. “It might be cranberry, sweet & sour, curry or Louisiana style.

“Then we add what peppers, or combination of peppers, we think will work best.”

This isn’t your typical little bottle of Tabasco or Frank’s Red Hot.

MissFortuneS comes in a mickey-sized flask bottle with some of the most unique labelling around.

“People seem to like our labels,” Erik said.

For example, one flavour is “Kamikaze” which features the tag line “to die for.” And then there’s “Asylum Serum” for “when you can’t make up your mind.” That one features artwork of the asylum Lizzie Borden ended up in.

And even though their current product line is doing well, the Miazgas aren’t about to rest on their laurels. They see expansion into marinades, meat rubs and such. They’re also working with restaurants like Mesa Fresca in Kingston to develop house sauces and bulk for places like Gilmour’s who use in in their .38 Special sausages.

“And we’re trying to devise a logo for sway,” Taylor said. “I’d like to see this a full-time thing for sure.

“Right now, I can spend a full day in the kitchen, 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. and then have to work the next day.”

The way things are heating up this grilling season, that could easily be just around the corner.

The new(/old/refurbished) organ at St. Paul’s in Sydenham got its second workout in a concert setting Sunday at Jeffrey Moellman, director of music at St. Mary’s Cathedral, brought his five musical children (Jonathan, Clara, Paul, Gabriel and Catherine)to town at the request of colleague, St. Paul’s Music Director Damien Macedo.

The organ has had a rather storied journey to get to Sydenham and is in the process of breaking new ground with an electronics/pipes technology to restore former glory.

Moellman’s performance featured pieces by Craig Sellar Lang and George Thalben-Ball and while the organ performed well in the higher scales, the bottom end still needs some work. No fault of the performer though.

“We’re about 80 per completed on the organ project,” said Hans Berriman, one of the driving forces behind the restoration project.

Berriman, himself a trumpet player, hails originally from Perth Road and has connections with the old church. While working as an OPP officer in the Kenora area, he undertook a similar project there.

“That one took about four years,” he said. “This particular organ was rescued from St. Mark’s in Deseronto.

“It was in another church before that. We’re quite pleased that it fit in the architecture of this church.”

They’re using a Hauptwerk virtual organ system augmented by air (pipes) and electric.

Restoration of the organ has spurred a musical renaissance of sorts with concerts scheduled for 2 p.m. Sundays throughout the summer.

On July 21, Luba Cargill, Fran Harkness and friends are scheduled for an eclectic mix of violin, piano and chamber ensemble. (See Northern happenings for further concert details)

Merriman said they’d very much like to hear from anyone interested in playing at the church (particularly the organ once it’s finished) but “we’d like to make this available as a venue form anyone who needs one.”

It should be an attractive one as the acoustics of the old church (original thick lathe and plaster) make it particularly effective for music.

Most of the Moellman kids (Clara, Paul and Gabriel) played factory-built (two of them ¾ size) fiddles, the sound was incredible. Much of this was no doubt enhanced by their impeccable fingering techniques but the youngest son sounded particularly good during his solo section.

On Saturday, July 6 Sydenham Lake Canoe Club competitive sprint paddlers, Paige Bowes, Kayla Headrick, Claire Swinton, Ashley Headrick and Parker Friendship competed in the Annual Gananoque Canoe Club U14 Regatta. Experienced paddler, Claire Swinton, Parker Friendship teamed up with novice paddlers Kayla and Ashley Headrick to place first in the U14 Women’s K4 200 m race. Kayla and Ashley placed third in their U14 Women’s K2 200 m race. Claire Swinton, Kayla, Ashley all placed third in their U14 women’s K1 races and Paige Bowes placed fifth in her U12 K1 200m race competing again paddlers two years older than her.

All this effort is in preparation of the Divisional Championships which will take place right here in South Frontenac at The Point in Sydenham. Sydenham will be hosting the Eastern Ontario U14 Championships on Saturday, August 10 and 11. The regatta will be an exciting event with over 400 paddlers and their families coming to Sydenham for two days to compete in multiple sprint canoe and kayaking events. Sydenham’s nationally sanctioned regatta course is highly regarded in the paddling community for its fine water quality and clear line of visibility. The younger paddlers with have the opportunity to become Eastern Ontario Champions and older U12+ paddlers will have the opportunity to compete at Ontario Championship in Ottawa and possibly the Nationals in Regina Saskatchewan.

Now in its twentieth year, the Sydenham Lake Canoe Club, a volunteer run organization, is an established part of the region’s sprint racing canoe kayak tradition producing a number of youth and adult Masters competitive paddlers despite its small size. Along with the sprint training for youth and Masters adults, SLCC offers a recreational Canoe Kids Day Camp. The camp follows the skills progression outlined by Canoe Kayak Canada’s Canoe Kids program. Any U14 paddler who has registered for a week of the camp over the 2019 summer season is eligible to compete in the Sydenham EOD Regatta. Program registration is ongoing throughout the summer, so there are usually, but not always, spaces available, if you wish to sign up at short notice. For more information, please go to www.sydenhamlakecanoeclub.com

There are farms. There are gardens. And then there is Robert and Sue Clinton’s back yard, a ‘garden’ that rather defies description, unless of course that description is “awesome.”

The Clintons’ spread was one of the eight properties featured in this year’s (2nd Annual) South Frontenac Garden Tour, a fundraiser for Seniors Services of Southern Frontenac Community Services consisting of a tour around their service area highlighting notable horticultural pursuits and a lunch provided by Chartwell Conservatory Pond Retirement Residence.

“It’s not a farm, it’s a folly,” says Robert Clinton. “I refuse to spray or water but there’s not a blemish on my (Asian) pears.

“The stuff that works, I plant more . . .”

And there’s a lot working here.

Technically, the Clintons will admit to having adopted the permaculture philosophy, which (according to Wikipedia) is a set of design principles centred around whole systems thinking simulating or directly utilizing the patterns and resilient features observed in natural ecosystems.

To that end, they have an entire field dedicated to a series of earth berms that provide and retain water.

Their garlic plants use a hugelkultur approach, which is the practice of burying large volumes of wood to increase soil water retention. They have about 500 garlic plants that appear to be doing quite well.

But while they do grow things most would associate with farming in this area (beans, flowers for their honey operation, plums, grapes and such), there is also an eclectic mix of things you probably wouldn’t expect to see in a South Frontenac farm/garden.

For example, they have thriving paw paw trees, which are normally associated with the Carolinas and the Southern U.S. They have three kinds of currents (red, white and black), shitake mushrooms, Asian pears, mulberry trees, heartnut trees (just like it sound, the nut is shaped like a heart), spindle trees (which were once used for making spindles on spinning wheels).

“The heart nuts and pine nuts are for the next generation,” Robert said.

They also have haskap berries, which is a sweet/sour berry that looks something like a large blueberry that’s shaped more like a football.

“They’re also called honey berries and they’re the new super berry,” Robert said.

In total, the Clintons have 1.7 acres of main garden/arboretum plus another four acres of woodlot/solar panel farm/berms etc.

“This was all furrowed fields when we bought 26 years ago,” said Sue. “Now, I do berries and vegetables and he’s the tree guy.”

Well, he is. He’s recently begun grafting Asian pears onto Barlett trees and it looks like this too will turn out to be a successful experiment.

But, while Clinton may have “always had the bug” to grow things, he’s getting to an age now where he’s adopted a particular philosophy as to what he’s doing.

“I’m not in the business of growing fruit,” he said. “I’m in the business of building soil.”

And doing it rather well, if the scores of fascinated visitors Sunday were any indication.

When contacted, tour organizer Nona Marriotti said the tour was “very, very busy this year. We sold over 100 tickets, and it was really, really good. People came from the United States, Kingston, over by Yarker and from South Frontenac,” she said.

One surprise bonus this year was that Chartwell Homes provided the lunch for tour participants.

“They provided box lunches, which was a bonus because people could sit and eat their lunch at the Grace Centre or they could take it with them with if they were in a hurry to visit the gardens.”

The tour includes gardens in the Inverary, Latimer and Sydenham areas, and Mariotti is hopeful that it will expand into other parts of the township in future years.

It is a fundraiser for Southern Frontenac Community Services, for which

Chartwell Homes – Conservatory Ponds. They were going to bring some people. Offered to provide the lunch. Could coe, pick it up and go, pr they could sit and eat it.

Chartwell provided boxed lunches for us. Everybody seemed very happy and very pleased with places. Asking for next year. I would like to see it go through and hit the whole county. Same day as the Sydenham Triathlon. Slowed a few people town. One of our gardeners had a sign in. Some people were from the states, Odessa area, kingsotn area. People who didn’t know South Frontenac said “they did not realise how beautiful it is here. “Very pleased with how it all turned out, and somebody really had pull with the weather. Sunday was the cool off day.

Writer/director Peggy Hallett talking with cast following final rehearsal of her new play The Dressing Room, which will be running this week (Thursday, Friday & Saturday, 7:30) at Domino Theatre, 52 Church Street, Kingston.

Hallett says the idea for the play came to her while sitting backstage waiting to go on in a musical years ago; “The idea that there was actually a story, lots of drama and comedy, in the ladies backstage dressing room percolated with me for awhile. I realized it could work, and got moving on it.” She took her script-in-process to several reading groups for critiques, including a play reading at Domino. This spring she began casting and production. This is the final product of a number of rewrites and fine tunings.

The whole comedy takes place backstage in an aging theatre, over a period of several years, each scene set during the production of a different musical. The all-female cast runs from age 15 to 65.

Dress rehearsals can be pretty grim, but this one went well with very few hitches, though it is to be hoped that the unnecessarily complicated set changes will be speedier on opening night.

Hallett, a Sydenham resident, is retired from her teaching job, but works more than full-time painting, writing and editing. Come to her play, and enjoy the additional treat of seeing some of her artwork in the lobby.

“I think we have a legitimate shot at first or second,” said Karl Hammer Monday at the Stock Sports demonstration in Harrowsmith’s Centennial Park as part of the Canada Day celebrations. “Brazil is a powerhouse but we’ve put in a lot of time.”

Many will know Hammer as coach of Sydenham High School’s football team, but in this particular case, he’s talking about Stock Sports, a curling variant that can be played on tennis courts or any other smooth surface. The granite rocks of curling are replaced by stocks (which can be and are played on ice) with plastic or Teflon bases. The game is very similar to curling with some differences.

“There’s a perfect Venn Diagram of similarities,” Hammer said.

There is a world championship organization for the sport, which will be holding its championship in Asuncion, Paraguay July 9-11 and Hammer, along with teammates Mike Osborne, Tyler McComish and Karl Hammer Sr. will be representing Canada in the four-nation event, which is called the America Cup of Stock Sport. Tammy Lambert will also be going as a member of the women’s team.

Worldwide, South America is a perhaps the most enthusiastic about this sport, Hammer said.

“The origins of the sport are Austrian-Bavarian,” he said. “There was a large emigration to South America from those areas and they brought the sport with them.”

Canada hosted the championship in Angus, ON in 2015 but this will be Hammer’s first championship.

“Our other members were there,” he said. “Including Tyler, who came seventh out of 15 in the target competition.

“He was the first person to ever compete in the world championships who has an exceptionality.”

He said McComish has become something of a celebrity in the sport.

“Some people were worried about him competing but it’s turned out he’s bolstered the sport’s reputation,” Hammer said.

Obviously, Hammer and squad want to do well but there’s also an underlying reason they’d like to put in a good showing.

“We’d like to host the 2021 championships in Sydenham,” he said. “We’re making a push for a playing area specific to the sport.

“It would be nice to have level asphalt without any pressure cracks.”