Susan Andrew Allen speaks at the fair. Photo Christi Laundrie..

The Seniors’ Advisory Committee organized a Land O’Lakes Committee Services Resources Fair at the Denbigh Hall on Monday, April 12. Yours truly was impressed with the wealth of information. I had no idea we had such a vast variety of resources at our disposal.

Seniors’ Group member Betty Bass introduced the individual speakers. Susan Andrew-Allen, Executive Director of Land o’Lakes Community Services (LOLCS) spoke of the committee’s goal to provide services to allow people to recuperate in, or stay in their own home as long as possible, and to receive help with such issues as home care, palliative care, housekeeping, shopping, gardening, personal care, lifeline support, and even visiting.

Marlene Dacuk, transportation co-ordinator for LOLCS, supplied information about personal drivers and the VON van with future wheelchair access available to take people to doctors` and hospital appointments. She also talked of the ongoing meals on wheels service that will continue to run in conjunction with Northbrook for the residents of Denbigh and area. Volunteers would be greatly appreciated.

Ruby Malcolm from the Denbigh Lions Club let us know the Denbigh Lions have an assortment of medical equipment available on a loan basis, everything from canes to wheelchairs, and all without cost. The Lions will gladly take donations of medical equipment that are no longer needed.

Bonnie George of Pine Meadow Nursing Home gave a revealing glimpse into the home, which will expand to four more rooms this year, with a dining room at each end. Ward, semi or private rooms will be available for the residents. Among the many options are cable TV, private phones, a tuck shop with sundry items such as stamps and stationary, ingoing and outgoing mail, newspaper delivery, hairdresser/barber, laundry and housekeeping services. There is a library on the premises. They also offer a wide variety of activities, such as bingo, shuffleboard, gardening, horseshoes, darts, music and movie nights, tea parties, socials, word games and visits to the Lions’ Club for lunches. They encourage visitors without restrictions. For those who care for someone at home, they also have one respite bed available for a reasonable price, so you can take granny for a visit to the home and either grab some extra sleep or go on that holiday you have been promising yourself. Pine Meadow encourages anyone to come any time to have a tour of the place. Many volunteers work at the home, and new volunteers will be cheerfully accepted. Contact Bonnie at Pine Meadows, 613-336-9120.

Senior Manager of the Community Engagement and Integration, Joel Cole, represented the Community Care Access Centre (CCAC), which offers a wide scope of services to the communities, such as social work, equipment rental, physiotherapy, info, eligibility and admissions into nursing homes or long-term care facilities anywhere in Ontario. They will also direct you to services they do not provide themselves and put you in touch with the right people. You can call CCAC toll free between 8 am and 8pm by dialling 310-CCAC (2222). Anything you need, they will help you with it.

Michaela Jones from the V.O.N. explained the SMILE program (Seniors Managing Independent Living Easily) in detail. While the criteria for in-home care is quite restricted, each person will be assessed and they hope to be able to correlate that information with other resource centres in the near future. The person must live alone, or have the caregiver unable to do four key issues of daily living to qualify. SMILE is geared to making life at home as comfortable and affordable as possible.

Jilene introduced her Neighbourly Yard Services, consisting of special needs teenagers who will, under supervision, provide yard services such as raking, sweeping, planting, weeding, brush and wood piling at a reasonable price for the Denbigh-Northbrook area. This will not only give seniors a helping hand, but will also provide an employment opportunity for the youth. Call Jilene at LOLCS 613-336-8934 ext 228.

Last, but not least, Derek Maschke, director of the Maschke Funeral Home, provided some very pertinent information on the different services a funeral home can provide for the public, such as orchestrating different types of burial or cremation services, arranging for available government help with costs, helping with forms for survivors’ pensions, and other issues that may arise when people are faced with the funeral of a loved one.

This is valuable information for an ever-growing senior population, and I hope all of you will take note of these great services that stand at our disposal. Even yours truly will eventually need them.

Public Health to continue septic approvals

Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington (KFL&A) Public Health will continue to provide septic approval services for building departments in Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Counties.

Senior staff at Public Health had been planning to pull out of providing the service, which is not offered by most other public health units in the province, and sent letters to local municipalities saying the service was going to be phased out by sometime in 2011. However, after a number of smaller municipalities and cottage associations objected, Public Health has backed down.

While Public Health Staff were moving ahead with plans to back out of the service, their board of directors had not made a decision.

One of the groups that spearheaded opposition to KFL&A Public Health getting out of the inspection business was the Skootamatta Lake Association in Addington Highlands. The township itself also wrote to Public Health saying they did not have the capacity to deliver the service themselves.

Janet Gutowski, who represents Frontenac County on the Board, and Helen Yanch, representing Lennox and Addington County, both committed to advocating for the service as an important rural outreach for Public Health, and at the February board meeting, they convinced their colleagues to stick with the service.

In a letter dated March 22 to Addington Highlands Clerk Jack Pauhl, Ian Gemmill, the Medical Officer of Health with KFL&A Public Health, said that the “Board of Health made the decision to continue to be the service provider for this program as a service to residents of the KFL&A area and to our municipal colleagues.”

Gemmill added that the Board of Health would be reconsidering the fee structure for the service, because the program does not recover all of its costs. Individuals who are putting in septic systems must take out a septic permit in addition to any building permits they require for new construction or renovations.

“I'm glad that is sorted out,” said Addington Highlands Reeve Henry Hogg in receiving the letter.

Other items from AH Council

Addington Highlands wants to prepare an offer to purchase the Denbigh School House from the Limestone District School Board for use as a satellite medical clinic for the Lakelands Family Health Team. The board has not responded to township enquiries regarding the property and the township will be trying to contact them again.

PUBLIC WORKS – Work has begun on the renovations to the Denbigh garage.

(Information for the following was gathered from the books “The Oxen and the Axe”, and “Lennox and Addington”, which was written by Orland French, although the sections that were used here were written by Marg Axford)

Photo right: Drive the Mississippi, courtesy The Oxen and the Axe

It takes about 45 minutes to drive the roughly 65 kilometres between Kaladar and Denbigh on Highway 41. Starting with the push up Kaladar Hill, the route meanders through rocky, swampy ground until it passes through Northbrook. It then passes over rolling hills, passes along the shoreline of Mazinaw Lake and then heads over hillier and hillier vistas until it reaches Denbigh Lake.

Highway 41 follows pretty much the same route that was laid out by the Perry brothers (Aylesworth B. and Ebenezer) back in 1854 when they oversaw the building of the Addington (a.k.a. Perry) Road. The new road opened up the “back” country to enhance the logging industry and encourage settlement on lands that were thought to have the makings of good farmland.

In the 19th century, the trip along the old Addington Road from Kaladar to Denbigh took the better part of two days to complete. In the book “Lennox and Addington” (Orland French – 2010) the trip is described in the following way: “It was a tiring and sometimes painful experience, up and down endless hills, over bumpy corduroy and around rocks and massive tree stumps.”

There was an easier route to the west, along a well-established Aboriginal trail that ran near the shoreline of the Skootamatta River as far as Flinton.

The region, which had remained in the same state for thousands of years, had been severely impacted by economic interests long before the Addington Road was built. In the 1830s and '40s, drawn by the abundance of white and red pine, logging companies came to the region and they found they could send logs to markets in several directions.

Mazinaw Lake is a headwater lake for the Mississippi River system, draining into the Ottawa River. Skootamatta Lake is a headwater lake for the Moira River system, which drains into Lake Ontario. Just south of Mazinaw, Story Lake is a headwater lake for the Salmon River, which also drains into Lake Ontario, while to the north at Denbigh the lakes drain into the Madawaska River.

This made for a number of water routes for logs to travel to sawmills at major centres, and the seemingly endless supply of lumber from what are now Addington Highlands and North Frontenac townships was decimated by the early years of the 20th century.

With the development of the Addington Road later on, settlement in the area was encouraged for farming purposes, under the mistaken belief that once the pines were gone the land left behind would be rich farmland. But with the trees went whatever topsoil had built up over the granite rock since the last ice age, leaving several generations of settlers with a hard rock existence, trying to eke out a living from an unforgiving land.

Until the loggers left, struggling farmers were able to sell goods to the logging camps, and pick up seasonal work logging as well, but the 20th century brought hard times to the settlements along the Addington Road/Hwy. 41 corridor, although the return of logging with the building of the Sawyer-Stoll sawmill and company town, which was a major employer between the 1930s and 1960s, provided some economic relief.

With rock comes prospecting, and there have been several attempts to establish mines in the region. The Golden Fleece mine near Flinton was started up in 1881 and remained in operation until 1940, but was never a particularly lucrative property because of low-grade ore. Two smaller gold mines, the Star of the East and Ore Chimney mines, were established in 1903 and 1902 respectively in Barrie Township near Cloyne, but never had much success. Near Denbigh, the Jewell Ruby mine was established. It was the dream-child of J.H. Jewell of Toronto and garnets were the rubies that were being sought, but again the grade of the ore was less than ideal. For a time the low-grade garnets were a viable commodity for use in sandpaper, but eventually even that demand dried up.

Tourism has turned out to be a more viable economic activity in the region, with the same lakes and woodlands that drew the interest of lumbermen a century earlier drawing the attention of canoeists, hunters and fishers, summer cottagers and campers.

The foundation of the tourism industry in the region had an unlikely early boost in the mid-1890s from an Ohio dentist's honeymoon. Although Dr. Weston Price lived and worked in Cleveland, he was originally from Newburgh.

The Prices spent their honeymoon camping in the shadow of Mazinaw Rock on the narrows of Mazinaw Lake, near the Tapping family farm. They became so enamoured with the place that they purchased the land around the narrows and built the Bon Echo Inn by the end of 1899. The Inn attracted wealthy tourists from the United States and Canada and gave the region a profile in major cities throughout the Eastern Seaboard. The Inn was sold to Flora MacDonald in 1910. MacDonald was an ardent spiritualist and admirer of Walt Whitman, and although Whitman never visited Bon Echo, she went so far as to have a memorial to him chiselled on the Mazinaw/Bon Echo Rock on the occasion of his centenary in 1919. After Flora died her son Merrill Denison inherited the hotel, and during the 1920s it became a host to members of the Group of Seven and others.

As it turns out, just last week an Arthur Lismer painting called “Bon Echo Rock” sold for $778,750 at a Sotheby's art auction, demonstrating the enduring public fascination with the Group of 7 and Bon Echo.

The depression put an end to a prosperous decade for the hotel, which burned down in 1935. Merrill Denison continued to spend summers at Bon Echo and he was involved in the conversion of his property, and other surrounding lands, into Bon Echo Provincial Park, which to this day remains the singular most popular tourist destination on Highway 41.

KALADAR – Transportation Hub

Photo right: The kaladar Hotel, c1925, courtesy The Oxen and the Axe

The history of the village of Kaladar is connected to the era of motorized transport. Until the Canadian Pacific Railway came through in 1884, there was only sporadic settlement in the area, but with the arrival of the railroad, lumber began to be transported to Kaladar to be loaded onto rail cars. The first post office was established at the start of 1885. For 30 years after that, there were a number of jobs, both manual labour and office jobs, available in Kaladar with the railroad and lumber companies. The CPR shifted its focus to the south in 1915, building a line on Lake Ontario, and with the lumber industry having already fallen, Kaladar suffered. When Highways 7 and 41 were built in the ‘30s, the good times returned, and commercial ventures sprung up at the north end of the village on the highway. There were several garages in Kaladar in the 1950s and the Kaladar Hotel, which had been moved to the edge of Highway 7, thrived. The hotel closed in 2007. The Kaladar Planing Mill, a division of the Sawyer Stoll Company, operated in Kaladar until 1968.

Among the businesses that have come and gone in Kaladar, Bence Motors, founded in 1946, continues to operate as a family-run Ford dealership, garage and service centre. The Kaladar Public School, which was closed in 1971 when North Addington Education Centre in Cloyne was opened, was sold to the Kaladar Community Club. The club, which was founded in 1944, took possession of the Kaladar Community Centre on its 30th anniversary year in 1974. By making judicious use of government grants, the club has been refurbished a couple of times since then, and a youth centre was added in the early 2000s. It is also the headquarters of the Land O'Lakes Tourist Association, which was also founded locally in the 1940s.

Glenda Bence was the president of the association when the centre was established in 1974, and remained in that position until her death in 2007.

To this day, as the population is scattered throughout the countryside, the Kaladar Community Centre is the glue that knits the community together.

NORTHBROOK

Northbrook is a community that owes its existence to the Addington Road. Until the road was built, Glastonbury, located to the east along what is now Glastonbury Road, being located on Beaver Creek, was the site of the local mill, and other commerce built up around it. The two communities were both active until the school in Glastonbury burned down in the 1920s and a new one was built in Northbrook. Some of the businesses that have made Northbrook the commercial and administrative centre of the township of Addington Highlands today, were originally started up by families that are still prominent in the local community. Cas and Lulu Thompson started a grocery store in 1915, a business that was later purchased by Alf and Lulu Northey, who added it to their undertaking business. In the 1950s, John Bolton senior ran the major tourist hotel in Northbrook.

In the 1990s, community members teamed up with Land O'Lakes Community Services to obtain government approval and support to build the Pine Meadow Nursing Home. Today, the nursing home is the largest employer in the town, and is working hard on upgrading its services. This will not only secure Pine Meadow’s existence and provincial funding well into the future, it will also build on the home’s role as a health care centre. The recent announcement that the Northbrook Medical Clinic will become a Family Health Team underpins the role of Northbrook as a centre for medical and social services.

Although it sparked a certain amount of controversy, a stop light was put in by the Ministry of Transportation at the corner of Hwy. 41 and Peterson Road a couple of years ago, right in the middle of Northbrook where the Foodland and Bank of Montreal branches are located. The stoplight was put in to address the needs of seniors who live up the road at the Pineview Seniors apartments, but as the only traffic light on Hwy. 41, it marks the central role that Northbrook has established for itself in the region. Not bad for a town that once was called Dunham and only boasted 25 inhabitants.

FLINTON 

Photo right: The Skootamatta River at Flinton

Its location on the Skootamatta River made Flinton a settlement earlier than any other village in what is now Addington Highlands. In fact there is archaeological evidence that it was a seasonal Aboriginal settlement before the coming of European immigrants. Before roads were built and the land grant system was set up in the latter half of the 19th century, squatters made their way along an ancient trail on the route that is now County Road 29 between Flinton and Actinolite.

There is also a possibility that Samuel Champlain spent a winter on the Skootamatta River at Flinton, although he may have been further to the southwest on the Moira.

In the 1850s, a Belleville-based entrepreneur and future member of the Canadian senate, Billa Flint, built a grist and sawmill in what became known as Flints Mills. In 1859 the town was named Flinton and 98 small building lots were laid out in a grid formation along seven streets, forming a core village that remains intact to this day.

Unlike much of the land along the Hwy. 41 corridor, there was some reasonable farmland in the vicinity of Flinton, and a number of families raised sheep, but wolves/coyotes were a constant problem.

When the lumber industry collapsed early in the 20th century it hit Flinton harder than some other communities because Flinton is located several kilometres west of the Addington Road (and later, Hwy. 41). The Stewart Hotel, which was built just outside of the village boundary when Billa Flint was still a force (Flint maintained Flinton as a dry town) burned down in 1989.

No longer a centre for business and commerce, Flinton remains a population and recreation centre thanks to the existence of Flinton Recreation Centre and the fact that the Flinton Recreation Club is alive and kicking. Flinton is the location of a thriving Jamboree on the August long weekend, and as of this week, has also become the regional host village for the Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.

CLOYNE 

Photo right: Wheelers Store, Cloyne, courtesy Cloyne Historical Society

When North Addington Education Centre opened in 1971, it established Cloyne as an education and training centre. The village also is the home of the Pioneer Museum and is the closest centre to Bon Echo Park, which brings a steady flow of people through Cloyne all year round.

In addition to the tourist population, seasonal residents on Mazinaw, Skootamatta, Marble, and Mississagagon lakes spend up to five months a year living in the vicinity. Cloyne is unique among the villages along Hwy. 41 in that it straddles two townships (and two counties as well) and is the hub community for the Barrie ward of North Frontenac Township, as well as being one of the largest population centres in Addington Highlands.

The Irish heritage of many of the early settlers in Cloyne is reflected in its name, which is taken from a Village in County Cork, Ireland.

The first post office in Cloyne was opened in 1859, and the village grew quickly after that. The first hotel, the Wickware Hotel (which burned down in 1963) was built in 1864. The first school was opened in 1868 and a number of other trades and businesses necessary for a self-sufficient village in the 19th century (blacksmith shop, general store, etc.) all followed in due course. Many families that continue to be active in Cloyne today can trace their routes to pioneer days. For example, there are a number of Sniders in Cloyne today, and they can trace their family heritage back to Charles Snider, who built a sawmill and log slide on Marble Lake at the end of what is now Head Road. The business was sold to Peter McLaren (of the McLaren/Caldwell feud that is so prominent in the logging history of Lanark County). Although Charles returned to his home in Ernestown, three of his sons so preferred the rugged life in the 'back' country of the north to the easy life in the 'front' country to the south, that they stayed behind.

Today Cloyne is a centre for the building trade, as seasonal residents continually upgrade their cottages and year-round homes. There are three hardware/building supply stores in the vicinity of the village (Cloyne Home Hardware, Hook’s Rona, and Yourway Lumber) as well as numerous trades-people. Within the village itself, Cloyne Village Foods, Nowell Motors, and Grand’s Store are all going concerns.

DENBIGH - A community that stands alone

Photo right: The Denbigh Grist Mill, courtesy The Oxen and the Axe

In pioneer days the people who settled in Denbigh found that anything they could not make themselves or access locally was basically out of reach, unless they were able to travel for several days over rough terrain to Renfrew, or to the south on the Addington Road.

This led to a spirit of self-sufficiency, and at the turn of the 20th century there were a number of blacksmiths, a very busy grist mill, hotels, two churches and two stores in Denbigh to serve the population. A description of life in Denbigh in 1900 that was reprinted in the Oxen and the Axe illustrates what life and travel were like back then: “They used to gather all the produce that could be spared in the fall and drive to Renfrew to trade. They had butter in 90 pound firkins or in prints, potatoes, grain, beef, pigs, geese and wool in fleece and spun into yarn. The journey took three days down and back They traded their produce for sugar, flour, and meal by the hundred pound bag to do them a year.”

Until 1903, Denbigh had a lot of competition as a centre from the village of Vennachar, which is located only a few kilometres away, but a massive fire decimated Vennachar, and Denbigh has been a larger centre ever since. Not that Denbigh is large; it has 176 year-round households along with many seasonal residences on Denbigh, Ashby, and other smaller lakes. But the community is tightly knit, and community events are often better attended than those in communities ten times as large.

Located as it is at the junction of Highways 41 and 28, at the very top of Lennox and Addington (L&A), Denbigh is also somewhat isolated politically. Denbigh residents are understandably more oriented to Renfrew County, which is on its doorstep, than to L&A County, which has its administrative centre 90 minutes away in Napanee.

Municipal Election - October 25, 2010

Mayor - Henry Hogg - Acclaimed

Ward 1, Denbigh

Ward 2, Kaladar

TONY FRITSCH

Tony Fritsch was born and raised on a farm near Denbigh.

He moved away to seek employment with Ontario Hydro as a young man and ended up working in many locations throughout Ontario. He rose to the management level at Hydro One, and was manager of Work Methods and Training at the point of his retirement four years ago.

At that time, he returned with his wife Gail to the homestead that has been in his family since the 1800s.

Since then he has volunteered with a number of organisations, and now he is ready to make a run for council. “My decision to pursue council really came down to a sense of civic duty, because I'm an avid volunteer and I want to continue serving and contributing to the community,” Tony Fritsch said.

He brings a wealth of management experience to his bid for council. “I have pretty good leadership, management and business skills that could be of value to the community, including extensive experience in planning, business planning, budgeting, and labour relations,” he said.

He has an interest in developing a strategic plan for the township in addition to its Official Plan.

“I think it would be a worthwhile exercise for us to look at where we are as a community, where we want to go, and how we are going to get there,” he said.

The issues that Fritsch sees council facing are no surprise and include health care (Family Health Team and ambulance service), waste management, business development, roads and the environment.

“My vision of this coming council is that we would have a really strong municipal council that provides strong leadership for our community and functions as a team. I think we are very fortunate to live in this county and I will do whatever I can do to keep what we have and make continuous improvements.”

EYTHEL GRANT

There are a few initiatives that Eythel Grant is committed to seeing through as he seeks another term on council in Addington Highlands.

One of them is the purchase of the Denbigh school by the township, and the plans to renovate it for use as a satellite medical clinic to be affiliated with the Lakelands Family Health Team based in Northbrook.

Another is the Denbigh waste site, which was closed a couple of years ago when the Ministry of the Environment (MoE) determined that it was full.

“We purchased more property around the site to expand the site and have a sufficient buffer for it. We are waiting for the MoE to give us the approval to re-open the site,” he said.

Eythel Grant is a lifelong resident of Denbigh. He worked at Bon Echo Park for the Ministry of Natural Resources for almost 35 years, ending up as the maintenance foreman, and has been retired since 1993. He keeps active by hunting and running a trap line in the winter time.

He is a long-time member of Council, having served for 24 years, the last 13 of them as a member of the Addington Highlands Council.

Grant said he is comfortable with the way the township has developed, and with the amount of work that has been done in this last term, thanks, in part, to increased grant money.

“We managed to get some roadwork done, and five bridges built, and we have hired one extra person for the office, which we needed, because there is always more to do in the office,” he said.

Among his council responsibilities, Eythel Grant has been a long-time member of the Quinte Regional Conservation Authority board.

JANICE KERR

During her first term on council, Janice Kerr has made recreation in Denbigh one of her priorities.

She has lived in Denbigh for 16 years. In 1994, she moved to Denbigh from nearby Madawaska Highlands, where she served a term on council in the 1980s. Kerr worked at the Swiss Inn in Denbigh for 26 years and is now working at Stop 41.

“I’ve been very interested in council throughout the whole term. I think we got a lot of things done.”

One project that Kerr is very interested in seeing through is the purchase of the Denbigh School from the Limestone District School Board. “It has been slowed down because the board has graciously removed the asbestos that was found in the school,” she said, “but the arrangements for the transfer are pending. I think the rec. committee will be able to use the gym once the purchase is finished, so the school will be used as a clinic and for the kids as well.”

Another thing that the township is waiting for is a certificate of approval that will allow the Denbigh dump to be re-opened. “We have worked very hard to get the Denbigh dump re-opened and on waste diversion. Right now we are doing things with the blue bins. It's a lot for people to deal with but it is important for us in the long term to get it right now,” she said.

One additional item that has been important to Kerr is keeping the ambulance service in Denbigh. “It is definitely an essential service to the people of Denbigh and the surrounding area,” she said.

Janice Kerr said that the current council has been a good one, and she would like to see council continue to move in the same direction.

In addition, she thinks that the Denbigh area is in need of a boost to its tourist potential. “We are trying to draw more tourists and recreation. We hope the Denbigh Countryfest can expand our reach. Maybe someone will see the potential here and think about investing.”

YVONNE ROSIEN

Yvonne Rosien is motivated to run for council because she is “not happy with some of the things that are going on.”

She said she knows that Denbigh is the farthest reach of the county, but is concerned because, “We lost our school; we lost our dump. We've lost most of the businesses out here, and I feel council has to take some chances to make something happen out here.”

One of her issues with council has to do with a lack of information. “We never seem to find out what is going on in our community. The school is supposed to be turned into a medical clinic but there is nothing official about that either,” she said.

One thing that Rosien would like to see is improved services for seniors in Denbigh. “I would like to see a nursing home here. Lots of seniors are moving out because they are too old to remain in their homes. They would like to stay here but there is nowhere for them to go,” she said.

Rosien also says that if elected she would like to attend all lake association meetings in the area so that they “can be represented at council meetings and not be left out”.

Yvonne Rosien came to Denbigh as a teenager in the mid 1970s when her parents purchased a resort that was then called the Sun and Sand (now Moosehorn Lodge). She attended North Addington Education Centre, got married and took a job with the volunteer ambulance service in Denbigh. She remained with the ambulance service until last year, when its status was changed by Lennox and Addington County. She is now on the fire department, and is a key member of the emergency first response team.

As a community volunteer Yvonne Rosien said she “always takes things on with a lot of energy” and she would bring that energy to council.

“Denbigh is within 45 minutes of Bancroft and Renfrew, and 30 minutes from Northbrook. We need to start taking advantage of that. We need to promote our area with everything we have to make it a tourist destination,” she said. “Doing nothing is not good enough.” 

ADAM SNIDER

Adam Snider ran a small logging company for a time, then six years ago he along with his brother bought the Pine Crest Marine on Mazinaw Lake.

He said he was attracted to running for council by his love for the area.

Another motivation lies in the fact that Snider is younger than other members of council.

“I've always been impressed by both our employees and council members, but we need the younger generation to start stepping up and helping out,” he said.

As the father of three young children, Adam Snider is concerned about maintaining resources for children.

“As we know, in this north ward we have a declining number of full-time residents, and child population is directly affected by that. It makes for a long bus ride to school, and there are other disadvantages, but this is a good place for people of all ages and adding more recreational opportunities will make it an even better place to raise a family,” he said.

He said he believes that some sort of economic development plan, specifically for the Denbigh region, needs to be developed.

Adam Snider does not come at a run for council with illusions about what a local council can do. “I know there are limitations. A small council cannot change the world and I'm not planning to do that either,” he said. “But I will work hard to remain informed and make good decisions,”

He is also a strong supporter of township staff.

“I think we are very well served by our staff,” he said.

Ward 2, Kaladar

BILL COX

Bill Cox was an enthusiastic, hard-working member of Addington Highlands Council between 2004 and 2006, and, as he said, “The only reason I wasn't on council for the last four years was that I ran for mayor and lost.”

Bill Cox was raised in the area, left to work for the transit commission as an Engineering Technologist in Toronto, and returned when he retired 16 years ago.

Not being on council did not make him step back from township activities, however. He has been part of the community health advisory committee, which was involved in the drive for a Family Health Team, and he serves as co-chair of the Pine Meadow Nursing Home Management Committee. He also sits on the Recreation Facilities, Waste and Roads Committees of council.

“I've continued to keep myself involved as best I can,” Cox said. “I get the minutes from the meetings and keep up with the issues.”

In seeking a position on council this time around, Cox will be seeking some reforms. “Administratively, communication practices must improve; council needs to be more transparent,” he said.

A septic re-inspection program, which has never been tried in the township, is one thing that Bill Cox would like to see initiated.

He would also be interested in sitting on the L&A County Council if that came about. “I am committed, dedicated and interested in continuing to make this community a better place to live, work and play.”

LARRY PEALOW

Larry Pealow has only been living in Northbrook for eight years, but in that time he has established himself as a dedicated community activist and advocate for the business community, and as a man who likes to share a laugh when he can.

The Pealows purchased the Pine Grove Motel in Northbrook in 2002 and moved up from Campbellford. The appeal of the motel was tied in to the region and to the opportunity to run a business.

Larry joined the Addington Highlands Economic Development Committee (AHEAD) right away and also became involved with the Land O'Lakes Tourist Association (LOLTA). He has been the chair of the AHEAD committee for the past five years and is currently the president of LOLTA as well.

He is seeking a seat on council in order to bring some of the concerns of the business community to the council table.

“When it comes down to it, council has the ability to say yea or nay on any issue. I would like to see taxpayers’ money spent more wisely, and I'm interested in business retention and attraction,” he said. “The landfill issue is going to be big, and things like high speed Internet and cell phone coverage for the whole municipality, and solar power for municipal buildings are things to look into.”

Larry Pealow ran unsuccessfully for council in 2006, but thinks he might do better this time because he is better known.

He also has an innovative proposal to try to improve councilors’ attendance at committee meetings. Currently, councilors receive a fixed salary. He would like to see the salaries cut by $1,000 and councilors be paid a stipend for attending meetings, to a value of up to $1,000.

“It's not really about the money,” he said, “it's about councilors living up to their responsibilities to attend all meetings, not just council meetings.” 

MARY ANN TRYON

Mary Ann Tryon has been living in what is now Addington Highlands since 1955, when her family moved to Kaladar.

“It's like I'm part of the rocks by now,” she said.

Her father built the service centre and the motel in Kaladar, and she worked at the motel with her parents and her husband until they sold the business in 1987, She has been living in Northbrook ever since.

In addition to that, she drove a school bus and was Postmaster, first in Kaladar from 1981 to 1988, then in Cloyne from 1988-2005 until she retired.

She served on council for 8 years during the 1970s, starting as a councillor in Kaladar, Anglesea and Effingham and eventually becoming the first deputy reeve in the township. Her father was a councillor during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Now that she has some time on her hands - “Retirement is for the birds,” she said – Mary Ann Tryon is ready to jump into municipal politics again to help tackle some of the difficult issues facing council.

“Right now our dump sites are slowly running out of space, and we have to get some control over that. At the same time you see garbage thrown all over the roads. If we don't look after this place, who is going to look after it?” she said.

While she would like to see the level of service in the township maintained, Tryon is aware of the necessity to keep taxes from going up. “It is really important to keep taxes as stable as possible,” she said. “People are already taxed to the hilt.”

If Mary Ann Tryon had a wish list, the top item would be to bring about affordable housing for seniors and others who need it.

“There are a lot of people who aren't able to stay in their own homes anymore, but they don't need a nursing home. That's the group we need to serve,” she said.

HELEN YANCH

In her first term on council, Helen Yanch received the most votes from Kaladar ward, and as such was selected as deputy reeve at her first-ever council meeting.

As deputy reeve she sat on the L&A County Council as well as Addington Highlands Council for the last four years and she has enjoyed the experience. “It has been very interesting being on both councils. We work hard on county council to make sure that benefits flow to the north end, and we have had some success, with support for the Pine Meadow expansion and the ambulance bases in Northbrook and Denbigh remaining, and improvements to the Denbigh service, all coming about during the term,” she said.

Helen Yanch is a lifelong resident of the township. Although serving in this latest council was her first experience as a councillor, she had some previous political experience as a school board trustee in the Lennox & Addington Public School Board before it was amalgamated to become part of the Limestone District School Board.

She is currently employed by the Friends of Bon Echo Park as their office manager.

“I am motivated to serve on council again. Four years is a big commitment, I know, but you find out more needs of the township sitting on council, and there are things that we started working on that I am anxious to see completed,” she said.

She is also interested in promoting new green initiatives in Addington Highlands.

“We all need to promote our area as a destination area as well as a place to live and play,” she said.

Denbigh School purchase “imminent”

One of the hurdles to establishing a satellite medical clinic in Denbigh is about to be removed. The Limestone District School Board sent a letter to Addington Highlands Township last week formally offering to sell the Denbigh School to the township for $75,000 on an “as is” basis.

The board has received certification that all of the remaining asbestos in the building has been removed.

With the purchase of the school now imminent, although a final date for the transaction has not been indicated, the township will be contacting the retired school custodian in Denbigh who has been monitoring the building to see if he is willing to continue to do so for the township. As well, snow removal and water testing will need to be arranged.

Other items from Addington Highlands Council:

PINE MEADOW FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN:

Pine Meadow will be starting up a $50,000 fund-raising campaign to support the redevelopment project. The township has allowed the Pine Meadow Management Committee to put up a thermometer sign at the Flinton Hall to mark the progress of the campaign.

KALADAR WASTE SITE – Works Manager Royce Rosenblath informed Council that the Ministry of the Environment is requiring that no less than 15 different issues need to be resolved at the Kaladar waste site. He will provide details as to cost.

BRUSHING – In response to a letter from Skootamatta resident Rosemary Teed complaining about the brushing job that was done on her road, Rosenblath said that the brushing is designed to limit growth in future years, even though it looks messy at the time.

Starting in January 2011, both Addington Highlands and North Frontenac townships will be paying $15,000 a year for the next five years to Ann Wilson, a third-year medical student at the University of Toronto. Wilson will begin practicing at the Lakelands Family Health Team in Northbrook on July 1st 2012, and will be committed to remaining at the Family Health Team at least until July 1, 2017.

North Frontenac Council found the money for their share of the $150,000 commitment from their 2010 budget. They had put $88,100 aside to use for a medical clinic in Plevna as part of their commitment to the Family Health Team, but later in the year they decided not to pursue the clinic.

However, the money had already been placed in a reserve fund, and at their meeting last week, North Frontenac Council decided to divert those funds to a medical student recruitment fund, from which $15,000 will be paid annually for five years, starting on January 15, 2011.

A formal announcement of the arrangement will be made at the Lakelands Family Health Team on Friday, when Anne Wilson will be present.

(Note: the Denbigh clinic of the Family Health Team has moved its location to the Denbigh School as of next Tuesday)

Received for Information

When a township council wants to reject a request for money or support, or ignore the recommendation of a consultant, government body or even a member of their own staff, they have a polite way of doing so.

They simply ignore whatever the request for action is, and receive the correspondence “For Information”.

In response to an email from an outfit called the Dimestore Fisherman asking for a cash donation and five days’ free accommodation in order to have a TV show filmed in Addington Highlands, Councilor Bill Cox said “Motion to receive for information” and everyone put up their hand.

To a request for support for a meeting with the Ministry of Natural Resources to address a lack of enforcement of hunting and fishing violations, it was Councilor Helen Yanch’s to turn to make a motion to “receive the request for information”, which council did.

Council also received for information a supplemental report from a consultant after they had complained that the consultant’s report on recycling in the township had overstated the costs of their program and misunderstood the way it works.

“He said he made some changes to the report, but it doesn’t look like he did much of anything,” said Henry Hogg after the report was received.

Township will not clean up other people’s messes – A motion to have the public works department clean up a large amount of garbage, including chesterfields, tires and other large items on a dead end road that is a boundary road with North Frontenac, was defeated.

Denbigh Waste site - still waiting for Certificate of Approval - Works Manager Royce Rosenblath reported that work has been completed on a leachate pond at the Denbigh waste site. “We have done everything that the Ministry of the Environment has asked us to do, and we will wait for them to either find something else they want us to do or give us our certificate so we can proceed.”

New tendering plan - The township is planning to go to tender early in 2012 to find vendors of record for specific kinds of smaller jobs, so when jobs need to be completed as quickly as possible, they can simply hire the vendor instead of having to wait through a tendering process.

Library work to commence – The township has received the cheque for $72,000 from the Trillium Foundation, and renovation work at the new Denbigh Recreation Centre to accommodate the library’s move to the centre will commence in January.

(Editor’s Note: Addington Highlands Council will be meeting on January 3 at 1pm at the Flinton Recreation Centre, during the News’ hiatus, and we will not have a report from that meeting).

Photo: back row l-r,Councilor Tony Fritch with library board members Carol Lessard, Ann Ball, Carolyn Hasler and Mary McKinnon, front row l-r, MPP Randy Hillier, Reeve Henry Hogg, OTF district chair Nina Jenkins, Councilor Helen Yanch and volunteer Jeanette Scott (hidden is June Phillips) courtesy of June Phillips

The new Addington Highlands Community Centre located in the former Denbigh school has now become the official home of the Denbigh Public Library. The new library was unveiled to the general public in an official ribbon cutting ceremony that took place on November 17 and was attended by many members of the community; local dignitaries, including MPP Randy Hillier, Reeve Henry Hogg and members of council; and the library board and staff.

The new library branch, which was formerly located in the township hall, offers patrons and visitors a fully accessible, air-conditioned facility with unisex washrooms in what were two former classrooms in the new community center. The two classrooms were opened up into one single space, which provides visitors with a 1200 square foot facility that boasts numerous south-facing windows.

Along with a large selection of reading materials, DVDs and audio books for all ages, the new branch now includes a children’s section, a youth and teens’ area and a comfortable lounge area for adults. The branch also houses six new computer work stations and wireless internet access.

Also in attendance at the ceremony was Nina Jenkins, chair of the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) review team for the district. It was thanks to a $72,500 Trillium grant that the library was able to move to the new community centre. “With the over $120 million of funding from the province available to us, our goal is to invest in communities. Over the past 30 years we have found that there are many ways to strengthen the province and one of the best ways is to support local communities and their volunteers,” Jenkins said. She stressed that, “...a fully accessible library is more than just bricks and mortar. It is a place where people come and can be supported in reaching their full potential. So for us at the OTF the grant was about making an investment in the community and visitors to the community by offering them a place to have fun and to enjoy the world that books can open up to us all.”

Hillier congratulated the council and the library board on the new facility. “It's wonderful to be here and to see this new library branch. Libraries are a key to knowledge and understanding and these kinds of projects are the ones we need to see more of in these rural communities,” he said.

June Phillips, CEO of the Addington Highlands Public Library, said she was thrilled to see so many people out to support the new branch’s official opening.

The Addington Highlands Community Centre – Denbigh already houses the Lakelands Family Health Team offices and the local food bank, and the addition of the library is fast creating an important new hub in the Denbigh and area community. The centre will soon also be home to a privately owned cafe as well a full kitchen/bar and a gymnasium facility where a myriad of community events will be able to take place.

Addington Highlands councilor, Tony Fritsch, spoke last at the ceremony and thanked the many community volunteers who offered their skills, knowledge and elbow grease throughout the project. “Without the local volunteers, projects like this would not see the light of day. It is thanks to them and their dedication and desire to do something positive for the community, as well as to the OTF, that we owe our thanks.”

The new Denbigh library branch is located in the new Addington Highlands Community Centre at 31 Central Street. Winter library hours are Tuesdays 10am-3pm, Wednesdays 4-7pm, Thursdays 10am-3pm and Saturdays 9am-noon. For further information contact the new branch at 613-333-1426.

Trenton mill closure will affect local logging industry

The township received a letter from Wayne Snider and Shawn & Patricia Gray asking council to send a letter to the LFL&A MP and MPP informing them of the impact of the impending closure of the Norampac paper mill in Trenton on the local economy.

Cascades Inc. announced that the mill will close no later than June 1, 2012 after employees rejected a final offer for a new collective agreement.

The letter from Mr. Snider and the Grays said that all wood deliveries to the mill have been stopped. "Loss of this mill will greatly impact the local logging industry not only for the sale of round wood pulp, but also the sale of our saw logs as the mills that buy our logs will not be able to send their chips … The next closest mills are in Thurso, Quebec, or Espanola, Ontario. Shipping to these mills would not be economical because of distance and low revenue from this product, as well, the transportation regulations are not the same in Ontario and Quebec."

The letter estimates that losses to the local forest industry will be in the millions.

Council agreed to send the letters to the MP and MPP as requested.

Denbigh Ambulance Service -Councilor Tony Fritsch spoke briefly about the Denbigh Ambulance Service, whose fate was decided at the L&A County Council meeting on April 11. The base will not be closed, but will continue as a 12-hour instead of a 24-hour base. Fritsch acknowledged that the Denbigh area was on the brink of having no service at all and said he is grateful that it has been saved to some degree. He expressed his thanks to everyone who was involved in the intensive lobbying to save the base – to the citizens and the businesses as well as the council.

Reeve Henry Hogg said that he was asked at the county council meeting whether the township could help to some degree with the costs of the base, but that the township has no existing secure facility that it could contribute to serve as a base. Also, the township would not build such a facility. Councilor Fritsch commented that it wasn't reasonable to expect free space from the township.

Councilor Adam Snider commented that since the ambulance has to stand down so often, it is often not available for calls. Councilor Fritsch agreed, saying that people often make the decision not to call the ambulance even when they should, and they get themselves to the hospital some other way.

Source Water Protection - Council received draft Source Water Protection plans for consultation from both the Mississippi Valley and Quinte Conservation authorities. The deadline for comments is May 4 for the MVCA plan and May 18 for the Quinte Conservation plan. Council will request an extension for the former in order to properly consider both plans.

Yard maintenance by-law - Council considered a new draft yard maintenance by-law, which mentioned "firewood being stacked neatly" and "inoperative farm machinery being lined up in rows". The main thrust of the bylaw is to "prohibit deposition of refuse or debris on land without the consent of the owner or occupant". However, Councilor Snider asked how the bylaw could be enforced, as the township has no bylaw enforcement officer. The township does currently have a bylaw in place, and council decided to see if it could be built on instead of passing a new bylaw.

Council voted to remove the half-load restrictions on April 23, two weeks earlier than usual.

Tweed Hearing Centre - Laura Moloughney of the Tweed Hearing Centre wrote to council about plans to start holding a hearing clinic in Northbrook once a week. The letter said that the Tweed Hearing Centre would like to "participate in a patient-centric clinic that could provide several medical disciplines…" The letter mentioned the need for a storefront office-type space and asked for council's assistance in locating potential resources.

Council said that they would advise Ms. Moloughney to contact Land o'Lakes Community Services for assistance in finding a suitable space.

Addington Highlands Reeve Henry Hogg and Deputy Reeve Bill Cox had a decision to make at the Lennox and Addington County Council meeting on April 11. Should they wait to hear their fellow councilors’ response to a staff report that called for closure of the Denbigh ambulance service in favour of a new base to serve Loyalist Township, or should they get a jump on the debate and propose cutting the Denbigh service to 12 hours a day?

“It was a difficult decision to make,” Hogg said after the meeting, “because we really think the Denbigh ambulance should be as it is, a 24 hour service.”

The debate on the future of ambulance service in Lennox and Addington was preceded by a 30 minute long powerpoint presentation by Brian Smith, L&A County Director of Emergency and Long Term Care Services, and Mark Schjerning, Chief of Paramedic Services. Council had asked for information on a number of options, and in addition to financial data, the report included population information. The report pointed out that Addington Highlands, with 6% of the population, has 57% of the ambulance resources in Lennox and Addington County. Napanee, with 37% of the population, has 43% of the resources. Stone Mills, with 10.7%, and Loyalist, with 47.6% of the population respectively, each have 0% of the ambulance resources.

Napanee has the fastest response times in the county, followed by Addington Highlands, Loyalist and Stone Mills.

In advocating for moving the Denbigh resources to Loyalist, Smith and Schjerning said the impact would be “faster response times to a higher number of calls in the south and “an increase in response times to come calls in the north,” leading to a “positive statistical impact on the average response times in the county.”

Immediately after hearing the report, Henry Hogg, moved, and Cox seconded, a motion to keep the Denbigh service open 12 hours a day, and allocate half of its resources to serve the south end of the County.

“I'm going to quote the County's website in response to this report,” said Hogg. “It says L&A County is a 'friendly and caring organization, dedicated to respecting and upholding the rights of its citizens.' I don't believe the people of the north should be called upon to suffer for the statistical benefit of the county.”

Napanee Mayor Gord Schemerhorn spoke next.

“I did not prepare a speech like Henry did,” he said, “but I would say that if I was being responsible to the people of Napanee I would say it is fiscally responsible to close the base in Denbigh. But I have supported Lennox and Addington from day one. I feel I’m between a rock and a hard place. I can’t just sit here and support Napanee when there are such great distances to cover in the north. It would help if Henry was offering to help out with facility costs up there, but I support this in principle.”

“We can talk about facility costs,” Henry Hogg responded.

County Warden Bill Lowery, who is also the mayor of Loyalist Township, said, “I think with the closure of Denbigh and the building of a new, proper base in Northbrook and one in the south we would be up to date and good for the next 50 years. What is being talked about here is a band-aid solution.”

In the end, Council sided with Henry Hogg’s motion, in a vote of 7-1, securing a future for the Denbigh ambulance service.