Councillor

Gerry Martin – not complaining any more

Gerry Martin was born and raised at Fernleigh, where his family ran the general store. After going to school in Fernleigh and Sharbot Lake, he went to work for Bell, and lived in other parts of Ontario, eventually landing in Ottawa. He ran a construction company after retiring from Bell and retired back home on Malcolm Lake about 15 years ago.

He was at home about four and a half years ago, complaining about the township.

“My wife said I should stop complaining and start doing something about it. So I ran and got elected."

In his four years on Council, Gerry has been very busy. He has been chair of the personnel committee, has headed the master fire plan task force, has sat on the committee of adjustment, and even had a turn chairing the Ompah fire hall task force for a time (“I didn't make many friends there,” he recalls)

He found that there are a lot of obstacles to progress on municipal councils, and progress can be very slow, but he is proud of the work that has been done on Council, and speaks highly of the job that was done by Bud Clayton as mayor.

“Bud was a really forward-thinking guy, and he put a whole lot of effort into the job. He really worked at it, day and night.”

Knowing how much work Bud Clayton put into being mayor was one of the reasons that Gerry Martin did not put his name in for mayor after Bud died a month ago.

“I'm a retiree,” he said, “I don't want to start another career.”

One of the things that stands out for him during his first term was a successful effort to bring Bell cell towers to the township.

“I still had some contacts at Bell, so I called them up. They said there was no chance they were going to come in because we have only 2,000 residents. I told them about the 10,000 seasonals and a few months later they called saying the budget had been approved. That was a real highlight for me,” he said.

One of the projects that is going forward in the new term is a war memorial at a new park next to the Clar-Mill Hall.

“It will be fitting for us to have a proper memorial to the soldiers from around here who served and died in Canada's wars. It is long overdue,” Martin said.

He is not convinced that more money should be sunk into the township office to bring it up to accessibility standards.

“That building was built as a ski factory. It never was meant to be an office building. I'm not sure we couldn't be able to build something on a very reasonable scale, likely at the site of the former MNR building. It already has a well and septic. That might be better than the alternative. Nothing fancy; just what we need.”

Councillor

Betty Hunter – Economic Development veteran

Betty Hunter moved to Ompah with her husband Don about 27 years ago after they purchased the Trout Lake Hotel in Ompah. They sold the business only a year later but they had already become enamoured with the area and they remained.

Betty has worked as cook and caterer over the years and Don as a carpenter, logger, and in construction.

Since Betty Hunter first ran for Council in Ward 2 in 2003, she has continually been involved in promoting local business in North Frontenac. After serving on Council between 2003 and 2006, she fell short in a bid to become mayor. During the four years between that election and her return as a councillor in Ward 3 (Palmerston Canonto) in 2010, she sat on the board of the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation and was involved in local arts projects. Since 2010 she has been the driving force behind the township's Economic Development Task Force, and has been the township's representative to social service agencies based in Northbrook and Sharbot Lake.

Working with Frontenac County Council, she obtained funding for the township's Dark Skies initiative, worked on a business profile for the township and helped develop a toolkit at the township office to help prospective businesses find funding and avoid pitfalls when they express interest in the township.

She said that just last week she heard from two businesses who were happy with the help they received from staff

“We have made a lot of progress in this last term. I think the township is in good shape; our finances are sound, but I also think there are places where we could improve,” she said.

“We have done a lot in terms of investment readiness. We have done a First Impressions tour, and a root cause analysis as well. I am looking forward to getting our Official Plan adopted and then we will be able to amend our zoning bylaw. That will help us key in on real opportunities for prospective business investment,” she said.

With the Ompah fire hall construction under way, she said she hopes for more stability among the fire service in the next term, and is committed to finding a solution to the recent difficulties faced by the Dark Skies viewing pad.

She was also encouraged by the first North Frontenac Studio Tour last weekend, and expects it to become an event that brings people to the township outside of the summer season.

Although she is optimistic about the township's future, Hunter is concerned about policing costs that the township will have to bear starting in 2015.

“Budgets have been hard enough until now; 2015 could be tougher yet,” she said.

Councillor

Vernon (Micky) Hermer – a political comeback

Micky Hermer is originally from Ardoch. Aside from a few years in the late 1970s, he has lived his whole life in what is now North Frontenac. With his wife Deb, he has raised a family in the area.

He has worked as a textile operator, a foreman, and a survey technician, commuting to Perth and other locations. Later, he owned and operated a school bus and drove for the Limestone District School Board. He has been retired for four years.

“I now find I have the time needed to dedicate myself to giving back to the community that has given me so much throughout my life,” he said in describing his decision to seek a council position in Ward 2 (Clarendon and Miller)

If elected, this would not be Hermer's first experience on Council. In the 1990s he served two three-year terms under Clar-Mill reeve, Stan Johnston.

He left politics after amalgamation as other priorities took his attention away from politics.

He said that one of his priorities is reversing the trend towards decreasing population in the township.

“Several initiatives put forth by the Economic Development Task Force are things that I don't feel are in the interest of the taxpayers of North Frontenac,” he said, “The Dark Skies pad and the location it was set up in, solar retrofits for the township office, and the $1.9 million administration building they want to build - I don't feel these are necessary and realistic projects,” he said.

He said that capital spending, except for necessities such as roads and bridges, should be put on hold until “we achieve a stronger tax base.

“I hate to think that the township will be responsible, through higher and higher taxes, for elderly people having to leave the area and move into supported housing,” he said.

He is in favour of extensive promotional programs in Ottawa and Toronto to bring more people in. He thinks that while much of this can be done using social media at minimal cost, “There would have to be some budget for it, I'm sure, but we seem to be able to find money for all sorts of unnecessary projects; we should be able to come up with a dollar or two for promotion,” he said.

In terms of township operations as a whole, Hermer is in favour of restraint.

“Taxes are too high. We have to review all administrative costs and budgets to see where cost cutting can occur. In any other level of government, when the economy is tight they tighten their belt. What has been going on just seems to fly in the face of what conditions are at present.”

Councillor

Lonnie Watkins – A Team Player in the 2014 race

Lonnie Watkins comes from a long line of municipal politicians and employees. His father was the roads superintendent for Clarendon/Miller for 26 years; his mother was the roads bookkeeper for 29 years; his grandfather sat on council for 29 years; and his great-great grandfather, Bramwell Watkins, was the original reeve of the former township.

Watkins has represented Ward 2 (Clarendon/Miller) at North Frontenac Council for eight years, but this time instead of running in his own ward as a two-time incumbent he is appealing to new voters by seeking a council seat in Ward 1 (Barrie).

When asked why he is running in Ward 1, he responded, “We don't go to Council to protect the interests of our own ward; we go there to serve the township as a whole. We need to listen to people and what their needs are, and help those people out no matter which ward they live in. We need to stand as one united township and work as a team to prosper. There is strength in numbers and together we can all see success!

“I had not been intending to run in this election, but people have been encouraging me to run and I realized that I would really appreciate the opportunity to see a lot of the unsettled issues resolved”

Quite a few of the initiatives that council had taken on during the last two terms were important to Watkins.

He would really like to see more growth and development brought into the community.

He states that the new council will have to think long and hard before putting more money into the township office.

He would like to see alternative practices considered at township waste sites to limit the amount of cover material that is required. “Not only does that sand we use cost money, it takes up space in the dumps, and we need that space,” he said.

He also said he thinks it would be a mistake to walk away from the Dark Skies initiative because the Ontario Air Ambulance is now requiring lights at the adjacent helipad. “There is a $3,000 option that would bring up the lights automatically whenever they are needed. We could do that. It's like having a $50,000 truck that needs new lights. You don't throw it out, you buy new lights,” he said.

Councillor

Fred Perry – township has progressed but there is unfinished business.

Fred Perry was not born near Myers Cave, in what is now North Frontenac, but he did move to the area when he was pretty young, 3 weeks old in fact. He was born in Quebec, primarily because that's where his mother was from and there were no hospitals anywhere near his family home.

He went to elementary school in Cloyne, to high school in Flinton, and then like so many others before and since, he left the area in order to seek employment. He took a job at Massey Harris Ferguson in Toronto, and then started working for Northern Telecom (which became Nortel) in Brampton. He started as a lift truck driver and then took many management courses. Eventually he managed a number of operations, including a silicon technology lab in Ottawa. After he retired in 1992, he volunteered for the United Way for 12 months, then volunteered at CHEO, helping raise $6 million in corporate donations for a research building.

In the 1970s, he bought a cottage with his wife Monica near where he grew up, and in the late '90s they built a year-round home, where their son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren come to visit often.

In 2004 a council vacancy for Ward 1 (Barrie) came up when Dick Hook resigned for health reasons. Fred was encouraged to put his resume in, and he was selected. He was acclaimed to Council in 2006, and ran successfully in his first contested election in 2010. He served as deputy mayor of the township for the last four years, and is currently the acting mayor.

“I think we have been a pretty forward-thinking council,” he said, “things are a lot better now than when I got on council. We have tight budget controls; we have moved to managing the township like a business; the roads are well maintained, and we have instituted asset management and long-term planning. We have really put a lot of energy into our recycling program and our waste sites are now good for 25 years, and we are debt free. The only really disappointing thing has been economic development, but that is not easy task and we have been working on it,” he said.

He is not certain that a new township office is required, but since dealing with water issues and requirements to meet provincial accessibility standards could cost a considerable amount, he thinks building new may have to be considered in the future.

While he said he is “comfortable with the level of staffing at the township,” he thinks “there could be a lot of value into looking at shared services, and turning 506/509 into a county road system would be good for North Frontenac.”

He said he is running again to see the strategic plan implemented and to work on shared services.

“I also enjoy being involved,” he said.

Councillor

Wayne Good – keeping a lid on spending

Anyone who has observed North Frontenac Council over the last nine years knows that Wayne Good is always looking to keep spending in line.

He grew up in Harlowe and spent his career working for Ontario Hydro in many parts of the province, including a 17-year stint in Bracebridge. He transferred to the Tweed office and moved back to Harlowe for the last seven years of his career in order to be close to family.

In 2005, Ward 1 councilor, Will Cybulski, left for northern Ontario. Good put his resume in and was selected as Cybulski's replacement. He was acclaimed to Council in 2006 and ran successfully in 2010.

He is happy with the work the current council has done, with one notable exception.

“We improved a lot of the operations and the township is on good footing. We are up on provincial regulations and have done some long-term planning. Other than the Ompah fire hall it's been good this last term,” he said.

To a series of proposals about the Ompah fire hall, Wayne Good has been a voice of opposition.

“I never saw how we could be considering spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade the Ompah fire hall when there are two other halls nearby and the population in that area is so small,” he said.

Partly as the result of his persistence, reparations to the hall were capped at a cost of $180,000. The renovations are now well above that amount, and the motion to lift the cap came forward, coincidentally, at a meeting where Good was not present.

“Council does what council does,” he said. “All I can do is make my position clear.”

Similarly, he is wary of any plans to build a new township office.

“I would like to look at the existing office. If you tore the walls out and started over again, it might work well enough for us,” he said.

He also expressed opposition to an idea championed by the late Mayor Bud Clayton, that of a central township hall for North Frontenac and the closing of some of the five other halls in the township.

“The halls are very important to the little communities, and they work hard to keep them up. Now that we have invested in bringing them to safety standards, they are an asset to the township. I don't look at them as a cost,” he said.

He said is running again because he can contribute to the community and he enjoys being on council, but he is worried about pending increases in OPP costs.

“We can say whatever we want about doing something else with policing, but we are stuck with the OPP. It's just another case of the province downloading costs on municipalities. All we can do is figure out how to deal with it,” he said.

Mayor

Claudio Valentini – Aiming to reverse a long decline

In 1989 Claudio Valentini moved to one of the few wide open spaces in North Frontenac (off Road 506 south-west of the junction with Ardoch Road) with his wife Kathleen and their children. They had been living in Toronto.

They chose the location of their property carefully, because they were planning to build an airport, which they did. They also quickly learned something about the way the local township operated, an experience that informs his run for mayor in 2014.

“To get approval for an airport, you only need to go to the federal government, but we wanted to let the local people know what we were doing and went to the township seeking support. After a delay, they wrote back and said we should go to the Feds,” he said. “Not exactly encouraging.”

Since then North Frontenac has seen a decline in both population and commercial vitality, and he plans to create a new atmosphere to promote a new entrepreneurial spirit in the township.

“If you elect me as mayor, I’ll work with everyone in this township on fresh ideas for growing local prosperity. We’ll create good, middle-class jobs by supporting home-grown businesses in promising areas like the arts, local food, clean energy and even local manufacturing. We’ll make it easier for people to build, relocate, set up businesses, tele-commute, improve themselves and make a living that doesn’t rely on going elsewhere every day,” he wrote on his election website.

Valentini said that the township needs to advertise in Toronto and Ottawa to make them aware that it is an easy process to relocate to North Frontenac. He said he would like to see a resident information package on the township website, to let people know they can run all kinds of home-based businesses in the township.

Valentini retired in June this year after 14 years as the music instructor at Sharbot Lake High School, so he is able to run for mayor, a job he says he would do on a full-time basis if elected. He also runs a flight and music- related software business, his major product being ground school software that he describes as “the industry standard for ground school software in Canada.”

He has a number of ideas about how to make improvements to the way the township operates. He said that he would seek to repeal the township’s procedural bylaw and code of conduct if elected, because he thinks the code of conduct restricts council's ability to deal with the employees of the township and the procedural bylaw makes decision-making inefficient as it restricts debate at the council table.

“All of the rules that council needs to follow are clearly spelled out in the Ontario Municipal Act, in my view, and these two bylaws are unnecessary and restrictive.”

He also would address any lingering resentment between wards by looking at electoral reform.

“I am in favour of at-large voting instead of ward elections and making sure that the deputy mayor always comes from ward 1,” he said.

On issues before Council, he would promote a more activist agenda in promoting development, including waterfront development. He opposes a proposal to build a new township office, and thinks the township might consider an innovative approach to pending increases in OPP costs.

“There are jurisdictions in Michigan that cross-train first responders: firefighters, paramedics and police officers. We could look at that,” he said. “We certainly can't afford the increase in OPP costs that the province is talking about.”

He says he was motivated to run for mayor out of concern for the future of the township and its local communities, and all of this efforts will be focused on renewal.

He would like to instil new thinking around the council table: “Every decision made by Council or township employees should beg the question, ‘Will this encourage current residents to stay here; seasonal residents to live here year round; and non-residents to move here?’”  

Trustee

Suzanne Ruttan – opening doors and promoting rural education

Suzanne Ruttan is running for re-election to a second term as trustee of the Limestone School Board.

“A lot of great things have happened in South Frontenac over the last four years,” she said. “The expansion of Sydenham High School is the most high profile one but there have been others. The parent councils in South Frontenac have raised over $80,000 for their children's education; Perth Road School is now heated by a geothermal system under the

Ontario Green Energy projects; and kindergarten rooms were refurbished in a number of schools to accommodate full-time Junior Kindergarten, which is now available at all the elementary schools in the township.”

Suzanne Ruttan lives “on beautiful Buck Lake” off Perth Road with her husband Randy. They have one child who attends French immersion at Rideau PS. She works as the regional co-ordinator for school nutrition programs in Leeds and Grenville County.

French immersion is an interest of hers and she is anxious to address French instruction in her next term in Limestone.

“One thing that I am looking forward to is the French review that the board is undertaking. I think there are opportunities to enhance French programming in the rural schools,” she said.

Over the last four years she has become familiar with each of the schools in the township, and this has shown her that each of them has unique challenges.

“There are rural challenges in some locations, such as access to resources like child care, social services and transportation, and in some places Internet access is limited as well,” she said.

She has been compared to an ombudsman for parents and students in their dealings with their school and with the board when problems arise, or when they are seeking information about options.

“It is an important part of my job. I look at it as opening doors for people,” she said.

She is committed to continuing that role in the future, as well as to “ensuring that all South Frontenac schools receive the resources that they require and are entitled to in order to meet the needs of the entire student population, and supporting Limestone District School Board staff and administration as they provide quality instruction to South Frontenac students.”

She is sensitive to the fact that the campaign for re-election has become personalized to a certain extent and wants voters to be clear that she lives permanently in South Frontenac and does not work for the Limestone DSB, except as a Trustee.

“I stick to my focus on the education of the students in the community where I live,” she said. “Where board-wide issues are concerned, I am one vote out of nine, and once a vote is taken I support the decision of the majority.”

Trustee

Lynda Hawn – Children are our future

Lynda Hawn is a newcomer to South Frontenac. She lives in Verona now after living in Kingston for a few years. Before that she lived in Ottawa.

She  works for an entertainment and event management firm.  Before that she worked for 25 years in the travel industry, many of those years operating her own travel agency.

Her interest in education stems from her interest in children.

“Children are our future. I help a lot of people in any way I can all the time, and as trustee I would give parents a voice at the school board office and at the board table,” she said.

Bullying is a major issue for her in the schools and is one that she would like to focus on as a trustee.

“I would try to get the board to acknowledge that there is a problem that we need to fix. It is complicated because children do some of the bullying because they are depressed in some cases,” she said.

She said she would encourage schools to engage older children to reach out to the younger ones who are being picked on.

Another concern of hers is the state of music and arts education within the Limestone Board.

“The schools used to have music teachers but that is gone and we need to do something. The arts and musicians in the community have such a passion for what they do; they are a resource the school board can tap into,” she said.

She said that she will be canvassing parents during the campaign and after, and will bring their concerns to the board.

“I will have to meet the other trustees and see about the issues that concern them and work with them to improve education in South Frontenac,” she said.

For Lynda Hawn, “It’s about the children, their safety, their education. We need to move forward to make sure they get the proper education and that what they are learning interests them and helps them in their future endeavours.”

Trustee

Lindsay Davidson – shaking up the Limestone Board

Lindsay Davidson is a busy mid-career surgeon, educator, and parent, not exactly the sort of person who would normally jump into the race for school board trustee, a job that carries a large time commitment.

Davidson become involved in school board politics when she became a community representative to the central Kingston Program and Accommodation Review Committee (PARC), a controversial process that has ended up in court, and has turned her into an oppositional figure in relation to the board.

She is blunt in her assessment of the board: “I think we have a board that is convinced that bigger is better when it comes to schools ... I think that the senior staff at the board are quite complacent and have a rigid vision... Trustees have a responsibility to ask hard questions and get answers,” she said.

Her son is a grade 12 student at Kingston Collegiate, a school that is now slated for closure. Even though her family's full time residence is in rural Kingston, on Unity Road in Glenburnie, she said that she did not see herself running in Countryside ward in Kingston, which is represented by long-time trustee Elaine Crawford, because it includes urban East Kingston, and her connections are stronger in South Frontenac, as her family has property on Desert Lake.

She said that South Frontenac is also under threat by the tendency of the board, admittedly under pressure from the province, to close smaller community schools and open larger regional ones.

“Ernestown High School could be closed. It is something that is being considered and it would affect South Frontenac because 1/3 of the Ernestown students would be redirected to Sydenham High School, which is already a 1,000 student high school. I also think that Storrington and Perth Road public schools could be in the board's sights in the future,” she said.

Lindsay Davidson is also critical of the current trustee for South Frontenac, Suzanne Ruttan.

“It is not sufficient to for a trustee to just help parents navigate the system for their children, a trustee has to ask some questions,” she said, “and having a trustee who is in the education system and married to a school principal is not enough. I come from the outside the system. I am familiar with large institutions and large systems, and I don’t like the way this one operates. It needs someone to challenge it on behalf of residents, not someone who will just defend it.”