Legalese - December 21, 2006

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Legalese - December 21, 2006 Consumer Tips for Yuletide Shoppers: Part II

Peter Graham, LawyerRural Legal Services, Sharbot Lake

The Ease and Convenience of Credit Cards

Credit cards can be very useful over the holidays. For example, when used carefully, credit cards can help you pay for unexpected emergencies. They allow you to take advantage of sales or special bargains. They help you keep track of your expenses by listing purchases on a monthly statement. You also avoid the danger of carrying large amounts of cash. Bill payments are simplified by allowing you to pay for your purchases once a month.

There is, however, another side to the coin, or credit card in this case. It is easy to forget that the signing of a $100.00 sales slip is the same as handing the seller a $100.00 bill. In fact, it can amount to much more if you do not pay your account off completely each month. You will be charged interest on the outstanding balance. Interest charges can mount up quickly as interest rates charged on credit cards are generally higher than those charged on other forms of credit.

If you treat credit cards like cash and are aware of all the charges associated with them, they can be a great convenience. When you use credit cards, read and understand the rules on interest calculations. Don’t set yourself up for any nasty surprises in the New Year.

Debit Cards – An Alternative

Debit cards provide the convenience of credit cards but, because the cash is taken immediately out of your bank account, there is no risk that you will spend more than you have in your account. By not buying on credit you will not be burdened with high interest charges on your credit cards after the holidays. However, because your debit card is equivalent to cash, exercise caution when using it to avoid unauthorized access to your bank account. For example, make sure no one can see you entering your PIN at the point of sale. Also, never share your PIN and avoid obvious numbers such as birth date or phone number.

Telephone and Online Shopping

It is becoming more common to shop over the telephone or online. Before you do make sure you:

know whom you’re dealing with (i.e. seller’s name, business address and phone number)check the reputation of the business before buyingknow what you’re paying for (e.g. information on size, materials or colour options, certificates or seals of approval, and warranties and guarantees).

In addition, if you are contacted by telephone, don’t do business with telemarketers who:

ask for your credit card number, bank account number, or any other personal informationoffer you a free prize, but want to charge handling and shipping fees for delivery demand payment in advance, for any reason.

If shopping online:

don’t respond to spam (unsolicited e-mail offers)don’t fall for offers that sound too good to be true – they often areavoid getting hooked by offers for additional products with purchases and other “freebies” – they are meant to reel in the unsuspecting.

If you have any questions about the consumer tips covered in Part One or this column, do not hesitate to contact us.

We always welcome your questions and comments. To all our readers, our best wishes for the season.

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Feature Article - February 1, 2007

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February 1, 2007

County budget nears completion: only two items outstanding -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------by Jeff Green

Frontenac County Council got some good news from staff last week when they sat down to consider their 2007 budget: the projected levy increase has dropped to 2.64% from 3.22% a week earlier.

Much of the county’s expenditures each year is linked to budgets for the Frontenac County Land Ambulance Service, which will see a 0.72% increase in the levy this year and the Fairmount Home for the Aged, which will see a 2.76% increase. In both cases, surplus funds from 2006 are being used to offset capital expenditures in the coming year.

Frontenac County Council approved the budgets for these two programs at their January 24th meeting. They are both funded by taxpayers from the City of Kingston as well as FrontenacCounty ratepayers, and will be discussed at a meeting of county and city politicians on February 12th. FrontenacCounty councilors wanted to go into that meeting with approved budgets for shared programs.

Two items on the budget were flagged for further discussion by members of council. Frontenac Islands Mayor Jim Vanden Hoek sought further explanation from county staff for a $50,000 Business Continuity Project under the Emergency Management budget.

The budget package contains the following explanation of the project: “The County recognises that it will need to continue operations under emergency conditions. An amount has been allocated to hire a consultant to assist with business continuity. It is hoped that this resource can be accessed by the townships also.”

“I’m not entirely comfortable with this,” said Frontenac Islands Mayor Jim Vanden Hoek, “It’s too grey for me.”

“We already have backup generators to deal with things like ice storms,” said County Warden Ron Maguire

Paul Charbonneau, the Emergency Services Co-ordinator for the County, described circumstances where townships of the county will need support. “What if your software fails, or a third of your staff is off with flu, or you have treasurer that will be away for a certain length of time. It’s really the soft issues that we are concerned about here. It would be beneficial to have fixed plans in place for these eventualities. The City of Kingston has $200,000 in their budget to do business continuity.”

“I see this planning as beneficial to do as a group. I don’t see our [township] staff being able to do this planning,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski.

“I have some discomfort with the $50,000” Jim Vanden Hoek reiterated.

Elizabeth Fulton, the chief administrative officer with the county, said that the funding for the business continuity project would not be taken from municipal taxes in any event, so cutting it will not lead to a decrease in the levy to ratepayers. If approved, the project would only go ahead if councilors decided to spend some of the county portion of the Federal Gas Tax rebate on it. (see “An Open Letter to the Mayors”)

The second unresolved item in the budget is $46,500 in support of the Rural Routes Transportation Program.

Rural Routes is a user-pay service that provides rides to medical appointments and other services for people in North and Central Frontenac, as well as some parts of South Frontenac.

South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison said, “This is not much different from the ferry issue,” referring to the fact that the municipal portion of costs to run the ferry to Howe Island is funded entirely by ratepayers from the Frontenac Islands. “I think it should be area rated.”

“It’s a new service,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski. I think it’s an extremely valuable service. There are opportunities to extend the service to South Frontenac.”

The $46,500 line item, which County Chief Administrative Officer Eizabeth Fulton understands will be devoted to covering administrative costs for Rural Routes, represents a little over 0.5% of the County levy. If it is removed, ratepayers would be left with a 2.1% increase in their county taxes over 2006.

Articles from January 18

Third time lucky for South, North Frontenac:The 3rd and final intake of submissions to the Canada Ontario Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund (COMRIF) resulted in funding support for relatively small initiatives in South and North Frontenac.

Flinton Habitat build: Executive members from the Prince Edward Hastings Affiliate of Habitat for Humanity met with the newly formed Flinton Build committee and the public at the Flinton Rec. Hall on Jan. 16

Biosphere, Committees, and the bridge: South Frontenac Council meetingThree strikes at Comrif for Addington Highlands: Addington Highlands Council meeting of January 15.Frontenac Heritage FestivalIt's Election Year, again: EditorialLetters

Feature Article - February 15, 2007

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Feature Article - February 15, 2007

Business retention and expansionby Jeff Green

The County of Frontenac is undertaking an exhaustive survey of businesses within the county to create a comprehensive understanding of the issues facing businesses, and hopefully provide insights into how to overcome some of the barriers preventing businesses from thriving over the next few years.

Three hundred and thirty businesses: 50 from North Frontenac, 80 from Central Frontenac, 150 from South Frontenac, and 50 from the Frontenac Islands , have been approached to participate in the survey, which takes about two hours to complete. Several people have been trained to conduct these surveys over the next few weeks.

Earlier this week, Dianna Bratina, the Manager for Economic Development from the County, conducted a survey with Frontenac News’ Publisher Jule Koch.

Participating businesses are first assured of the confidentiality of the interview process, and none of the answers they give are identified with their business.

“We are gathering information that we can put into a database for our own use in identifying what can be done to help the business community on a regional level, and the information will also be added to a provincial database,” Dianna Batina said.

The survey starts with a series of questions about the business climate, asking about strengths as well as barriers. It also asks about business owners’ attitudes towards the services provided by all three levels of government.

Questions about future plans are included as well, with space being devoted to what can be done to make expansion plans more likely to proceed. Use of technology is a feature of the survey, and access to cell phones and high speed internet is addressed as well.

There is an immediate benefit to the business owners who take the survey. Frontenac News Publisher Jule Koch said it gave her insights into the future of her own business that she didn’t have before. “Normally I only think about the day-to-day issues of running a business,” she told Dianna Bratina, “This survey made me think a bit about what we should be thinking about in the longer term.”

The information gathered by the surveys will give Dianna Bratina a stronger sense of the common and divergent concerns of business owners in all economic sectors throughout the county. Aside from a general section, there are specific sub-surveys for agricultural, home manufacturing, tourism related, and other kinds of businesses.

The generalised data that is gathered will be available to the public soon, and Batina is hoping to prepare a final report on the project by the fall.

“We will see which barriers to growth can be addressed locally and which will require provincial support,” she said, “and hopefully by the fall we will be in a position to present the results and propose some action to the public.”

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Feature Article - March 15, 2007

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Feature Article - March 15, 2007

Verona's doctor search, Part 3byInie Platenius

“It just doesn’t seem right somehow.” That’s a comment often heard in conversations about finding money to entice doctors to practice in rural areas – especially a rural area with all that Verona has to offer. Shouldn’t doctors be delighted to settle here where we have comparatively low housing costs, excellent recreational possibilities, good schools and an easy commute to a major medical teaching university? After all, we’ve had excellent doctoring here for as long as we remember. Why can’t things just go on as before?

There are many reasons why a community needs to become more active in finding good medical care. First of all, the entire province is short of family doctors. The reasons for this are tied to government funding policies, decisions about medical school enrolments, licensing of immigrant practitioners and the preferences of medical students – all things beyond the scope of local communities to directly change. But we can work to change the things that graduating family doctors find difficult to deal with – and many of these involve money in one way or another.

Doctors now come out school with student loan debts of $100,000 or more. Their contemporaries in the business world begin with a much smaller debt load and often begin earning a much higher wage. It isn’t helpful for us to say, “Well if you wanted to get rich, then you should have gone into business.” First of all, that doesn’t get us more doctors, but more to the point: when people choose medicine as a career, they’re opting to help people. It isn’t their intent to run a business, yet that’s what they often end up doing. Hiring nurses, nurse practitioners, secretaries and adjunct staff; managing the maze of government regulations around payment; keeping records and maintaining a physical plant are all things for which business people get good bucks, and these things have nothing to do with what family doctors want to be doing – diagnosing and treating kids and grandpas and young moms and dads. In a city, some of the business stuff is more easily dealt with by combining resources with other practioners or even hiring people who specialize in these things. In a rural setting, this is more difficult.

A committed community can help new doctors with any one or more of these factors, and many communities are already doing just that. Over this past year, the Verona Community Association has been planning with Dr. Laurel Dempsey from the Verona Medical Clinic and Dr. Lynn Wilson ,the Administrator of the Rural Kingston Primary Care Network, for the eventuality of Dr. Dempsey’s retirement. They have also spoken to many resource staff and community groups who are involved in similar searches to ours, and have formed the Verona and District Health Services Committee, to inform our community about what we have now, what we should be planning for in the future and what our community responsibilities will be over the next five years to ensure that our clinic has enough doctors. On Wednesday March 28 from 7 – 8:30 at the Lions Hall the committee will host a community gathering to discuss these issues. Speakers will include Louise Day, RN who along with husband Doctor Gordon Day was enticed to come here about 40 years ago by the work of a farsighted group of community people. Also speaking are Dr. Laurel Dempsey, who is actively recruiting doctors for a time when she will retire, Dr. Lynn Wilson, director of the Rural Kingston Primary Care Network, and Diana Bratina, manager of economic development for Frontenac County, who has studied the demographics of age and health issues which affect medical care in our area. Come out to learn what we have now in our Verona Clinic, what we should have now and will need in the years to come, and what our responsibilities will be to provide it.

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Feature Article - March 1, 2007

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Feature Article - March 1, 2007

BellSports fund puts Plevna rink back in business

Skaters were all smiles at the Clar/Mill rink last week.

After two years without ice, the rink is back in business this winter, thanks in part to a $5,000 grant for maintenance from the Bell Sports Fund. A presentation was made by a Bell official at a family fun day on February 17th.

The rink has been very popular this winter, as it was on the 17th, when there was a free skate followed by a pick up game for local adults. The Plevna Hockey Mums are back in business as well. They have organised a league for local kids that is running two days a week and there is a free skate on Saturdays.

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Feature Article - March 1, 2007

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Feature Article - March 1, 2007

Plevna gets a new grow-op, and it's legal

by Jeff Green

Sherry Gorr loves the gardening business, and Don and Sandy Raycroft love starting up new businesses. Sherry has been running a major greenhouse business north of Pickering for the past 10 years, but she has always wanted to live near her husband’s family in Plevna. When it became clear that the Gorrs’ Pickering home needed too many repairs, they decided to look into moving. Don and Sandy took over the North of Seven Restaurant about two years ago, and in that time they have rebuilt the restaurant, opened a modern Freshmart store, a post office, a gas station, and more.This winter, they put up a greenhouse on an adjacent property, and Sherry Gorr has leased it and has been busily planting cuttings, seedlings, and seeds in preparation for the 2007 gardening season.“People might be wondering what I’ve been doing here for 12 hours a day over the past couple of weeks, and why I’ve been coming over at night to fill the outdoor wood furnace, but it’s taken a lot of heat to warm this place up,” Sherry Gorr said from her toasty warm greenhouse earlier this week.Although it has only been running for a short while, there are already row after row of plants growing, and Sherry is seeding and transplanting constantly. The greenhouse business has been a passion for her since she started her own business in 1994. At her old location, Sherry ended up putting up five greenhouses, and she developed outdoor showcase gardens as well. Although she is starting from scratch in Plevna, she plans to landscape the area around her existing greenhouse, and will probably be building a cold frame within the next month or so to transition the seedlings she is now growing for outdoor planting. Sherry specialises in perennials, annuals and hanging baskets that contain different varieties. Although temporary greenhouses spring up each year at grocery and hardware stores, they tend to sell plants that were grown by large wholesalers. Since Sherry grows the vast majority of her plants, they will not have to undergo being shipped to the greenhouse. Some added advantages of buying bedding plants from the grower are: assurance of quality; more variety to choose from; and plants that stand a better chance of thriving in the particular gardening conditions north of 7 in Lanark, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Counties . Considering how quickly a vacant lot in Plevna has been transformed into a greenhouse operation that is well underway, there can be no doubt that Sherry Gorr will have splendid bedding plants for sale come the beginning of May. Not only will there be annual and perennial flowers and hanging baskets, but vegetable gardeners will not be disappointed either. Later this month, Sherry Gorr will begin seeding several varieties of tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, squash, lettuce and many other vegetables At her former business, Sherry tended towards retail sales, which is what she plans to do in Plevna as well. She also ran plant sales as fundraisers for local schools“I will have to find out what works here in Plevna,” she said. Sherry Gorr is confident, based on her former business experience, that once gardeners see the quality of her plants, they will come back again. Curious gardeners don’t need to wait until spring to see what Sherry has been up to. On March 10th, the Greenhouse will open to the public for a sneak peak. So, anybody with the winter blahs who would like to experience the warmth and the aroma of spring, and get a head start on garden planning for this year, go to North of 7 in Plevna on March 10th, and head over to the new grow op.

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Feature Article - April 12, 2007

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Feature Article - April 12, 2007

Addington Highlands BusinessBreakfast

The Addington Highlands Economic Advisors for Development (AHEAD) will be having a Business Breakfast on Wednesday, April 25 at 8 a.m. in the Flinton Recreation Centre. Guest speakers Lynn McEvoy and Nancy Fradenburgh will talk about township beautification with “Banners and Boxes for this Area”. Also Rob McLeman, assistant professor of Geography at the U. of Ottawa, will address “Climate Change and the Future of Addington Highlands”, focusing on the need for better understanding of the impacts of climate change on the economic well-being of seasonal-economy communities like ours. This breakfast promises to be very interesting for all business owners in Addington Highlands and those in North Frontenac’s Hwy. 41 corridor. Tickets are $7 each and are available from any AHEAD member, or by calling 613-336-2522. They will be calling area businesses in the near future, so please plan to attend and spend some quality time with your fellow business people.

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Feature Article - May 31, 2007

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Feature Article - May 31, 2007

FCFDC youth entrepreneurship competition

by John Inglis

Michelle Nowell, a student at North Addington Education Centre, won the first prize of $750 for her business plan titled “Keep Fit Fitness” in Frontenac CFDC’s annual competition.

Second prize this year went to Duncan McGregor of Sharbot Lake High School, who wrote a business plan for a summer ice cream and milkshake venture. Duncan receives a cheque for $300.

The northern portion of the CFDC’s Youth Entrepreneurship Initiative involves high school students from Sharbot Lake and North Addington. The students hear a local business owner describe the ups and downs of the small business experience, followed by a seminar on business plan writing given by Lance Gibson.

There was a lot of support from teachers again this year- Lynne Young at Sharbot Lake and Valerie Allen at NAECand the quality of the student work is FCFDC youth entrepreneurship competition improving. As always, we hope that the exercise of writing a business plan will encourage some of these young people to get out and give self-employment a try.

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Feature Article - May 3, 2007

Two projects at AHBusiness Breakfast

byJeff Green

Andy Anderson presented an idea he has been working on to the latest Addington Highlands Business Breakfast gathering last week in Flinton. It is a radio station, a 50-watt station that would send a signal in an 8km range from Northbrook, to cover most of the southern portion of the township, between Kaladar and Cloyne.

“By using a feeder transmitter, we could reach Bon Echo Park as well,” Anderson said. “They have no cellphone service, so they will have to listen to the radio.”

The plan, which is at the early development stage, is dependent on support form local business people. Anderson said that a tie in with students at NAEC would be necessary to bring out the needed volunteers, and envisions the station being on the air about 30 hours a week. He has been in contact with the people at a radio station in Campbellford.

“We will need advertising to cover costs,” and will be coming around to see if we can get enough advertising lined up to bring the station about,” Anderson said.

Land O’ Lakes Garden Club Lynn McEvoy of the Land O’ Lakes Garden Club described her 15-month-old group as a “force to be reckoned with.” The project she was promoting at the Business Breakfast was cedar planters that the garden club would like to install at area businesses. For a cost of around $30, the club will do a planting each year, and the business owner will then have the responsibility of watering. Tender plants will be removed in the fall by the garden club and replaced with hardy material for the winter. Businesses are welcome to contact the garden club if interested.

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Feature Article - June 28, 2007

Sydenham HighSchoolBusiness Plan competition winners

Harrowsmith - The Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation this past week awarded its 2007 Student Business Plan awards at Sydenham High School. The competition kicked off this year with local entrepreneur David Craig from “Mobile Kitchens Canada” speaking to students about his experience of the trials and tribulations of starting a business and getting his product to market.

This was followed by a pizza luncheon where the Frontenac CFDC Business Development Officer Lance Gibson spoke and gave examples of how to write a business plan. There were over 30 submissions in total this year from local students.

The first prize overall, a Toshiba laptop, went to Raymond Tolls for his business plan “Ray’s Guitar Tech”. Ray’s plan involved building on previous skills he learned in a specialized school program where he built a guitar from scratch and he would both build and repair from a shop located on his parent’s farm. Timing of the award was perfect, as Ray was currently in the process of looking to purchase a new computer to take with him to college next year.

Second place went to Scott Lombardi for his plan entitled “Scotties Sweet Tooth”- a mobile novelty food retailer attending summer events & concerts in the Kingston area, and Natasha Babcock for “Personalized Savvy Shoppers” - a service that would do both personal shopping and image consulting for clients in the area. She identified teachers as a key target market for the image-consulting component of her business -watch out Mr. O’Grady & Mr. Curtis! Aaron Bruyns won the GPS unit for the most ‘innovative’ plan entitled “Net-Zero Solutions Ltd” a business he would operate in the future after completing an engineering degree!

This is the third year that the Frontenac CFDC has run this program and would like to thank teachers Mark O’Grady and Roger Curtis from Sydenham High School for all of their assistance and John Inglis from the Frontenac CFDC board for his continued leadership and development on this worthwhile endeavour. A special thanks to David Craig for sharing his personal experiences with the students and answering their questions.

The Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation (CFDC) is a private, non-profit corporation, run by a volunteer board of directors and is funded by Industry Canada. Our mission is to stimulate community and economic development throughout the Frontenacs.

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