“This is where your tax money goes to,” said North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins at the 2017 Essential Services Fair last Saturday at the Ompah Rest Stop. The idea was to get representatives of the various essential services in one place — police, fire, conservation authorities, public health, community services, etc — to show the public what they do. “This has been an awareness raiser for me,” Higgins, who used to be a volunteer firefighter. “You know we’ve been trained in disaster management but we’ve never really practised with an exercise. “I think we should schedule one.”  Coun. Gerry Martin, chair of the personnel and audit committee, organized the event. “I almost panicked this morning because some guys were a little slow on our crooked…

Arguably the biggest block of North Frontenac Council’s debate time at last Friday’s regular meeting in Ompah centred on the Frontenac News story two weeks ago in which Mayor Ron Higgins discussed his thoughts and plans for community development. The Mayor laid out a futuristic vision that he’s been working on involving aquaculture, hydroponics and electricity generation that certainly would be unique in rural Ontario municipalities if nothing else.But, as sometimes happens, it would appear his Council isn’t entirely on-board with the concept as of yet.“The mayor can do independent research but this was not approved by Council,” said Coun. John Inglis, starting things off.“I’m going through research to see if it is feasible,” Higgins said.“I find that arrogant and disrespectful of everyone on this…

While many rural municipalities are still looking to squeeze more dollars out of tourism and Frontenac County wants to turn us into a community of goat farmers, one of our township mayors is definitely thinking outside the tourism/agrobusiness box.North Frontenac’s Ron Higgins is gradually bringing together a concept that, if successful, could effectively re-write the blueprint for municipal governance. It’s a bit out there, and something that you might more expect to see in a science fiction magazine than the AMO (Association of Municipalities of Ontario) bulletin, but strangely enough, it almost ‘feels’ possible. Higgins freely admits that there are still ‘I’s’ to be dotted and ‘T’s’ to be crossed but he’s now at the point where he’s bringing a working concept to paper. “North…

St. Kilian’s Catholic Church in Ardoch celebrated 125 years as a parish last Sunday with special guests, a special mass and luncheon. The current building celebrated 50 years. Wayne Manion, chair of the cemetery board has been around for many of those years and shared some of his memories. “I’ve known Father Murphy for a long time — I was at his ordination,” Manion said. “That’s why I was picking on him (during the service). “In the city, they probably would have thrown him out of town but he fit right in here — always joking around.” Manion said St. Kilian’s is a “mission parish” of the Flinton parish. “This goes back to the days of horse and buggy,” he said. “Now it’s a short…