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By mid-morning Saturday, much of the Frontenacs were being blanketed by a considerable coating of snow.

That proved to be too much for the sixth annual 4 on 4 tournament at the Tichborne rink, held in support of Central Frontenac Minor Softball.

“It’s our kickoff fundraiser and we’d already postponed it once because of weather,” said Kurtis Jackson, league president. “So we decided to push on.”

But Jackson’s optimism wasn’t rewarded and they ended up calling it a day after the first round.

For the record (and annual bragging rights) Welch’s Snap On and the Tichborne Ice Hawks tied for first with the Bradshaw Woodchoppers and Tyrell’s trio tied for third.

Jackson said a registration date has yet to be set but he expects it to be in March.

“Check the Facebook Page for the date,” he said.

He said they do have an executive in place for this year but they could use some volunteer umpires, coaches, sponsors and/or helpers.

“It can be as informal as people want to be,” he said. “Any help is appreciated.”

Rec committee representative Bob Teal said the Tichborne Rink is slated for renovations in 2021 and they have blueprints in hand for some new boards that can be removed after the season and stored, thus extending their working life.

“This rink is coming up on 100 years old,” Teal said. “I think it was 1930 when some of the residents realized they could dam up the creek and let the water out when it got cold.

“It’s a natural place for a skating rink.”

Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC

From “Anne of Green Gables” to “Annie”; “Tom Sawyer” to “Aladdin”, children have always figured prominently in North Frontenac Little Theatre productions. To recognize this fact in this, our 40th anniversary year, students were invited to participate in a special poster contest so they too could celebrate and demonstrate their appreciation of our live theatre company.

Posters were to focus on the celebration of NFLT’s 40th Anniversary, were to have an original concept and design, and could not be computer aided.

The contest was open to students in Central and North Frontenac. All participants received a special anniversary certificate and the winners got monetary awards as well.

Submissions were dropped off at the Cardinal Café in Sharbot Lake and totalled twenty-eight by the May 1st deadline.

NFLT thanks all the contestants for honouring our theatre company with their art, and is pleased to announce the winners:

Intermediate Division - 1st Place: Samantha Driscoll, Harrowsmith Public School, Gr. 7; 2nd place: Sarah Powell, GREC, Gr. 7; 3rd place: Amy Watkins, GREC, Gr. 7

Junior Division - 1st Place: Jenna Rose GREC Gr. 6; 2nd Place: Sloane Putnam GREC, Gr. 6; 3rd Place: Isabelle Tryon, LOLPS, Gr. 4

Primary Division - 1st Place: Emily Parks LOLPS Gr. 3; 2nd Place: Ted Saunders, LOLPS, Gr. 3

The winning posters are on display at NFLT’s Tichborne Hall. The public is invited to see them, along with other memorabilia on Friday, 7:00 pm, August 16th, 2019 at the “Tichborne Hall Open House and Listen Along”. Please come celebrate with us, won’t you?

Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 12 June 2019 13:23

Prohibited driver arrested and charged

On June 3, 2019 shortly after 7:00pm, Frontenac Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) received a traffic complaint from a concerned motorist about a person who was driving and was unlicensed.

The vehicle was located in Verona and as a result of the investigation, Frank Teal, a 27-year-old from Tichborne, Ontario, was charged with prohibited driving.

The motor vehicle was towed and impounded for 45 days. The accused was released on a promise to appear in the Ontario Court of Justice in Kingston at a late date to answer to the charge.

Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC

At their meeting this week (Mayu 21) Frontenac County is being asked to initiate expropriation proceedings to deal with three properties on the former K&P rail line. The owners of the three properties, one of which is located south of Oconto Road in South Frontenac, and two are located in Central Frontenac closer to Sharbot Lake. The owner of the properties have rebuffed attempts by the county to negotiate a land purchase of the former railway corridor.

The county has secured most of the privately held sections of the rail/trail line, and has completed construction at the north and south ends of the final section of trail between Tichborne and Sharbot Lake, but these outstanding pieces, along with the challenges posed by some of swampier sections that the trail passes through, are a challenge to be met as the trail is overdue for completion.

In a report to council, staff explained why they are seeking to use legal means after attempting a less confrontational approach.

“The County's efforts to purchase three sections of privately owned lands at market value for the purpose of connecting the Frontenac K&P Trail have been unsuccessful and staff have determined that it is now necessary and in the public interest to apply for approval to expropriate these private lands. The purpose of acquiring these three parcels of land is to link two sections of the Frontenac K&P Trail and thereby ensure its continued longterm viability as a public trail within the Frontenac County Trail System in accordance with the County of Frontenac Trails Master Plan,” said he rport, which was co-authored by Janette Amini (Manager of Legislative Services) and Kevin Farrell (Manager of Continuous Improvement/GIS)

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY

The Frontenac Heritage Festival returns to Central Frontenac Township this weekend for its 12th year.

Things get underway Friday night with an opening gala at GREC and the annual local talent show — Frontenac’s Got Talent.

The Festival swings into high gear on Saturday with a variety of events and activities in Sharbot Lake, Tichborne, Arden and Kennebec Lake. You can skate for free at the Tichborne rink all day.

Sharbot Lake will be busy starting with the Lions All You Can Eat Breakfast, a bonfire at the CF Train Museum and a Bucket Drumming Workshop for kids at the Child Centre.

But the Arden area has historically been the busiest area on the Saturday and this year is no exception with the Empty Bowls lunch with proceeds going to the food bank, the annual fur-traders camp reenactment, indoor displays from the Historical Society and Trappers Council along with games for the kids outside and chainsaw wood carving demonstrations. There’s a chili cook-off at the Legion too.

And over at the Kennebec Lake public boat launch, the Kennebec Lake Association is holding its 7th annual Winter Fun Day with skating, hockey, ring-toss, snow shoeing, ice fishing, campfire and hot food and drinks.

On Sunday, the focus shifts back to Sharbot Lake for the annual Polar Bear Plunge followed by live music and chili at the Legion. At 6 p.m., the winners of the photo contest will be announced at Oso Hall followed by a family movie.

On Monday, there will be games and activities at the ball field in Sharbot Lake and demonstrations of logging skills at Glen Matson’s farm in Arden.

Although there’s no official ‘chair’ of the festival committee for this year (founder/showrunner Janet Gutowski has stepped down), Mike Procter, who’s busy with different events three of the four days, said they’re always looking for volunteers (they’re good for this year), especially when it comes to planning next year’s event.

“All it would take is a 10-15 hour commitment, all indoors if you want,” Procter said. “We will train you.”

You can call Procter at 613-279-2572.

(And you can look for Procter at his “jockularity and prestidigitation” at the talent show, the fur traders camp on Saturday and with the Frontenac Blades tomahawk/knife throwers at Matson’s Farm.)

Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC

Well, it was billed as a 4 on 4 hockey tournament.

The posters mentioned goalies.

And there was trophy presentation of sorts.

But mostly it was more in that great Canadian shinny tradition as a bunch of guys got together at the Tichborne Rink Saturday to lace up some skates and take shots at nets placed face-down, all the while building up some bragging rights. Oh, and they raised a few dollars for the rink project in Sharbot Lake.

It seemed that they might be keeping score, as it was explained that a ‘goal’ involved hitting the mesh only. If you could hear the clank of puck on metal, it wasn’t a score.

But as the 5 on 4 ‘game’ ended, it seemed that a ‘winner’ was chosen more by consensus than anything else.

“It’s last goal wins,” said Joan Hollywood, whose husband Rudy seemed to be the main ‘organizer’ of the event. “Rudy organized this.

“That should tell you a lot.”

“We don’t keep score when we play cards either,” said Richard Struthers, one of the ‘players.’

“We tried playing zero on zero but it was too low-scoring,” said another of the ‘players,’ Peter Shaver.

A lot of the participants play hockey Wednesday and Friday mornings at Piccadilly and as hockey aficionados, they were more than willing to help further the fundraising cause for the Sharbot Lake project.

“We made enough for a bundle of shingles,” said Gary Giller.

All kidding aside, there was a pair of sunglasses in the donation box.

As Tim Cota arrived with a box of hamburgers and hot dogs, everybody sat down to kibitz about their prowess, spurred on by the contributions of “beverage coordinator” Darrin Richard.

“All in all, it wasn’t a bad idea,” said Hollywood. “We made a little money for the roof, which has been held up by the weather, and we’ve managed to keep interest going for the project.

“We’d like to thank the District 4 Rec Committee for the use of the rink and thank the fans (all three of them) for coming out.”

Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 17 January 2018 11:17

Rampant vandalism on Bobs Lake.

Eleven cottages on Maple Lane, Meadow Lane, and Maple Grove Crescent were vandalised by perpetrators on an ATV last Friday night between sometime before 9pm and 11pm. Patio and garage doors were smashed by the ATV, and the vandals destroyed tv’s and mirrors, emptied fire extinguishers, broke toilets and sinks and appliances, creating maximum destruction in a short time frame.

The laneways are all accessed via Steele Road in the former hamlet of Bradshaw just north of Tichborne in South Frontenac.

A year round resident, who lives nearby, received a call from one of the property owners who is currently in Florida. The property owner has an alarm system that notified him there, and also has an internet connected camera showing that a patio door was off its moorings and laying in the snow.

The OPP had already been called, but the police service was stretched due to the weather that night (a flash freeze, high winds and snowfall had abruptly ended a warm, rainy patch of weather in the late afternoon) and the resident went out to see what was going on.

The resident went out in a car, and with another neighbour who took an ATV they went to the house. When they got to the house, they saw that the ATV had also hit the garage door, and the house had been entered and a lot of damage had been done.

“From there we decided to follow the tracks to see where they went. We went into one house and saw they had destroyed the banisters, tv’s, mirrors, and they also had sat down and had a snack. Nothing of significance seemed to be missing. They were only interested in destruction.”

They followed the tracks and eventually found the two perpetrators in one of the houses, but they also saw that there was a rifle on the ATV so they decided to back off. Later they found out that the rifle was a stolen air gun that belonged to one of absentee homeowners.

Soon after they observed the ATV heading back towards Steele Road so they followed. When they reached the ATV, the police were arriving from the other direction. The ATV was still running but the two people who had been on it had run off into the woods. The police remained on scene waiting for a canine unit to come and help them give chase. Apparently the perpetrators were not found that evening.

The male resident, who requested not to be identified, said that the next day he went back to the houses with a forensics officer and was also interviewed by police. The surveilance camera photo was posted on a Bob’s Lake Facebook group site, and the other photos were submitted to the News.

On Tuesday, OPP Officer Roop Sandhu, Communications Officer with the Frontenac Detachment, informed the News that there would be no statement to the public about the incident, which is somewhat unusual in cases of vandalism. Police often ask the public for assistance in identifying suspects in these kinds of cases.

The reason for this reluctance to communicate might have something to do with the tragic death of Debra Ann Hill (Teal), who died early the next morning outside of her house on Steele Road after being driven home by police about 2 hours vandalism had taken place, while the canine search would have still been going on.

There is absolutely no indication that the two cases are linked, except that it is likely, although police have said nothing, that the officers who drove Debra Hill home that night were already at that location because they were still investigating the break-ins.

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC

Minor softball has held a fundraising 4 on 4 hockey tournament for several years now at the outdoor rink in Tichborne but last year the weather didn’t cooperate and so it had to be cancelled.

This year, organizers decided to move it up a couple of weeks.

Sure enough, the weather threatened to intervene once again with a major thaw followed by freezing rain.

But while it was touch and go there for awhile, but the ice was in great shape when the first puck dropped Sunday morning.

“We weren’t sure with that Friday storm,” said organizer Christine Teal.

“Five guys came out and flooded it Saturday night,” said head ice-keeper Bob Teal. “Then my son (Riley) got me up at quarter to five Sunday morning and we flooded it again.

“Everybody seems happy with the ice but then again, they don’t complain because they know if they do, I’ll make them do it.”

It was a beautiful sunny day for a hockey tournament Sunday, albeit kinda cool.

“The mustard froze up earlier,” said Bob.

In the end, Kurt Thompson’s team edged Keegan Love’s team to take top honours (bragging rights) in the final. Thompson’s team earlier beat Mike Thompson’s team in the A final while Love’s team topped the Tichborne Termites in the B final.

“The winners generously donated their winnings back to minor ball and we thank them for this kind gesture,” said Christine.

Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC

49 year old Debra Anne Hill (Teal) was found by her son in-law Owen Young early on Saturday morning outside of her home on Steele Road near Tichborne, and was declared deceased by Emergency Srevices personnel a short time later. As reported in the OPP and Special Investigation Unit (SIU) releases reprinted below, there had been unusual circumstances late on the evening before she died.

A query by The News to the SIU regarding cause of death after a post-mortem reportedly took place on Monday, led to the following response from Monica Hudon, Communications co-ordinator with the SIU: “The results of a post-mortem are considered evidence. The SIU does not comment on, confirm, or share any specific evidence the Unit may have gathered during the course of its investigation until the investigation is completed.”

There is no information available about how long that investigation will take.

Here is the OPP release from Saturday.

OPP Investigate Death - SIU Invoke Mandate

Members of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Frontenac Detachment, along with the OPP Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB), are currently investigating the death of a 49-year-old female in South Frontenac Township.

In the early morning hours of January 13, 2018, officers had provided assistance to this female. Shortly before 9 a.m., Emergency Medical Services contacted the OPP for assistance for a sudden death in South Frontenac Township.

The OPP has notified the province's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) which has invoked its mandate. As a result the OPP will not be able to provide any further information.

The Special Investigation Unit then put out the following release on Sunday, January 14.

At approximately 1 a.m. on Saturday, January 13, 2018, Ontario Provincial Police officers came across a suspicious vehicle in the Frontenac area. The driver fled on foot, but police encountered a woman outside of the vehicle. The officers transported her to her residence and left.

At approximately 5:30 a.m., emergency responders attended the woman’s residence. She was found deceased.

At this time, two investigators and one forensic investigator have been assigned to this incident. The SIU is an arm’s length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault. Under the Police Services Act, the Director of the SIU must

  • consider whether an officer has committed a criminal offence in connection with the incident under investigation.
  • depending on the evidence, lay a criminal charge against the officer if appropriate, or close the file without any charges being laid.
  • report the results of any investigations to the Attorney General.

In the meantime, Debra Teal’s husband Kevin and three children, Jesse, Chantel and Frank, as well as father in law Levi, have organised a celebration of her life is set for the Oso Hall on Saturday from noon to 3pm.

Debbie Teal will be missed by the local community and in nearby Sharbot Lake, where she worked for a number of years at the Sharbot Lake Senior’s Home before it closed. She then took a job with the Rainbow Valley Group Home. She also provided care for ailing family members.

Related: Rampant vandalism on Bob’s Lake.

Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 30 August 2017 16:39

K&P Trail grand opening

It was a rare occasion for the summer of 2017, a sunny Saturday, and participants in a ceremony and parade marking Trans Canada Trail day at the Sharbot Lake Railway Park and Trailhead were pretty happy about the good weather. The event was originally intended to mark the completion of the K&P trail between Lake Ontario and Sharbot Lake, and the opening of the final piece of the Trans Canada Trail in Eastern Ontario. Delays in completing the Sharbot Lake to Tichborne section, slated for completion by the spring of 2018 now that all the necessary land agreements are in place, meant that the it was the anticipated completion of the trail that was being celebrated. That did not put a damper on the celebrations, which were jointly organized by Frontenac County and the Central Frontenac Canada 150 Committee. A number of people who have been integral to the development of the trail were acknowledged during the 20 minute ceremony. They included Anne Marie Young, who spearheaded the project for Frontenac County for several years, and Wayne Robinson and Marcel Giroux who helped secure passage of the trail through private lands between Tichborne and Sharbot Lake. Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith and Frontenac County Warden Ron Vandewal spoke about the role the trail is already playing for residents and visitors alike along the Hwy. 38 corridor. As if to reinforce that point, there were bicycles, a horse drawn wagon (courtesy of the unstoppable Bill Lee) walkers and runners, horseback riders, a convoy of ATV’s and a wagon carrying vintage snowmobiles, all lined up waiting for the ceremony to end. Then, after a ribbon cutting, the motley parade from the park to the Oso beach began, as befits the opening of a multiuse trail. A free BBQ and music by Jim Macpherson, Craig Bakay and John Grindrod greeted them when they got there.

Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC
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With the participation of the Government of Canada