Letters: Apr 11/13

Apr 11, 2013

Letter to Central Frontenac Township

Re: outside door at the community centre at Arden. Unable to come closed tightly properly.

Mr. Dewey – You told me the night of March 19 at the card game that the door would be fixed by March 26, 2013 which there is proof of your saying. To date this has never been done. Sorry Tom Dewey. You have forced me to take action on this matter, whether it will do any good. This door has been this way for approximately two years. To me, this is the responsibility of the Township of Central Frontenac and not our caretaker. If the outside door of your house did not work properly, would you not have it fixed?

Also – County Road 38 from south of Godfrey to Highway #7 at Sharbot Lake: I asked our mayor, Janet Gutowski, about one year ago if the Township of Central Frontenac received any funds from the provincial government to cover the cost in maintaining this portion of the road and she replied “NO”. Do the people realize that we pay taxes to the provincial government and we also pay taxes to the Township of Central Frontenac to cover this portion? This is NOT right!

I hear that the township may put an electric fence around the Olden dump site to keep bears away. If someone is killed, who is responsible? As far as I am concerned, the Ministry of Natural Resources should take care of the bear – NOT the township. Why is the extra expense on the tax payer?

I hope the gas tax received by Central Frontenac all goes for the upkeep of our roads.

Thomas Hughes

The passing of Roly Dusharm: Sharbot Lake landmark

I still think of myself as a newcomer to Sharbot Lake though I’ve had Roly Dusharm as a neighbour for nearly a quarter of my life. I’ve lived next door to Roly almost as long as I lived with my parents. Yet, I didn’t know he had died until I came home and saw the hearse and police cars in front of his house. This is kind of sad but, in a way, it’s also kind of fitting. Roly was a proud and private man and I expect this is how he would have liked to go – by himself, with his dog and his cats.

There are no doubt folks in the community who feel that we, or someone, should have done more. But I’m not sure Roly would have wanted it. Certainly people have tried to do more in the past and been rebuffed. There are lots of people who succeeded in doing things for Roly. There is a neighbour who occasionally brought groceries and always brought Christmas dinner and a lady who did his laundry. There were the ladies in the Post Office who helped him with his shopping and there were people at the grocery store who gave him newspapers and stale bread for the seagulls. The folks at NFCS watched over him and helped him pay his bills and there were lots of others. Yes, Roly got along all right, with his dog and his cats . . . and a little help from his friends.

And in the last two or three years, a very fine lady has kept an eye on him and brought him water and food. You could tell that Roly was slipping. More and more, people were asking “Have you seen Roly?” or “How’s Roly?” They knew that he lay low in a full moon but the moon’s not always full. They’ve always treated him with respect and what more could a man want?

You’ve been a good neighbour, Roly, and a good friend. Farewell, but treat this as just one more late night walk on the old rail bed and enjoy it.

Bill Bowick