The good news is that the Central Frontenac capital budget for last year came in $270,000 less than what was budgeted for. The bad news is that the Township still owes $2,162,569 for various loans. These loans include $301,246 still remaining on the medical centre, $25,502 on solar installations, $396,034 on the 5th Lake Road project, $722,287 for fire equipment and $717,500 for public works equipment. These revelations were presented by Central Frontenac Treasurer Michael McGovern at a special capital budget Council meeting last Thursday at the Fire Hall in Sharbot Lake. If the budget were passed as presented, it would represent $3,071,808. Last year, it was $1,932,114. “The capital budget is up $1.1 million over last year,” McGovern said. That doesn’t include the operating…

“It’s the only way other than raising registration fees that we can have the kids play a season of minor ball,” said Central Frontenac Minor Softball Association President Kurtis Jackson said Saturday at the outdoor rink in Tichborne. “Registration just doesn’t cover the costs (and) we try to keep the costs down as much as possible for parents to get as many kids into minor ball as possible.” And so it was last Saturday morning at the mighty Tichborne outdoor arena, where five teams faced off in a round robin 4 on 4 shinny set to see who’d get to brag about it for the coming year. Saturday was a beautiful day for outdoor hockey — not bitterly cold, but cold enough for the rink…

The Slocan Ramblers play bluegrass. And they kinda rock it. The first time they played The Crossing Pub in Sharbot Lake, they didn’t have any albums out. Last Saturday night, their fourth Crossing gig, they have three albums and the latest, Queen City Jubilee, promises to be the one that takes them to the next level. “It’s also on vinyl, the longest, most circular format that you can listen to music on,” said mandolin player Adrian Gross. “With your first album, it’s pretty much what you have ready,” he said. “With the second, it’s refining and working on things. “But the third, that’s your statement. “We feel we’ve grown as songwriters and we feel we’re in a good place.” Things have been going fairly well…

Alison Robinson has remained busy since retiring as the lead realtor at Lake District Realty a few years ago. Aside from extensive family commitments and other activities, she has also kept up her involvement with the local business community, helping out when she has had time. A little over a year ago, with her husband Wayne, and neighbours Rosemary and Bill Bowick and Ken Fisher, she organixed a meet and greet event at the Sharbot Lake Retirement Centre to introduce the owner, Andrew Kovacs, to the local business community. “When we were putting together an invitation list, we found that there are over 120 businesses in the vicinity of Sharbot Lake,” she recalled this week, during her remarks at the third semi-annual Sharbot Lake business…

Last year when the word came out through the grapevine that Ann Goodfellow was not well, and this was followed by a difficult diagnosis and prognosis, it shook a lot of people in the Parham area and beyond. By the time she died last week (January 5th). It was not a surprise, but it was still difficult news for all of those who knew her. Ann was a force in the community for many years. Many people knew Ann well, and she touched their lives. I knew her as an advertiser in the paper through the funeral home and Goodfellow’s Flowers shop that she used to run, but mostly I knew her in her role as a school board trustee. She became involved with the…