Things were just a little bit different at the regular Addington Highlands Council meeting meeting in Flinton this week.

First of all, Council was missing Reeve Henry Hogg and Dep. Reeve Helen Yanch. So, at the insistence of Coun. Kirby Thompson and Bill Cox, Coun. Tony Fritsch took the chair.

“I’ve done it before, it’s good experience,” Cox to Fritsch.

Then, CAO/Clerk-Treasurer Christine Reed had some news.

“We’re finding ourselves in a little bit of a new situation for us,” she said. “Normally, our building department has operated at a loss.

“But in 2017, we made some changes to policies and became more pro-active with building permits.”

The bottom line is that the building department took in $156,000 in revenues, she said.

After expenses, that left $54,748 to go into a new building department reserve.

“Of course, that can only be used by the building department,” she said.

Guido’s on the move
Stephanie Morrisett, who operated Guido’s Gourmet Grub, a chip wagon at the Shell station for several years, came to Council to ask if business licence fees could be waved or reduced.

“I had to move from the Shell and then the Kaladar Community Centre asked if I could set up there,” she said. “I have five employees and I know the Community Centre could use the rent.”

Morrisett originally asked if the $1,200 zoning change application fee could be reduced or waived. But CAO/Clerk-Treasurer Christine Reed said that it was likely the zoning wouldn’t have to be changed other than having add a site-specific change to allow the chip truck.

However, Reed wanted to check with the solicitor to ensure anything they intended to do wasn’t contrary to the Municipal Act.

Morrisett said she’d already contacted the MTO to make sure she’d be well back of the 40 feet from the roadway requirement.

Morrisett said she’s looking at opening at the beginning of May or “the long weekend at the latest.”

Sand supplies
Roads/bridges supervisor Brett Reavie told Council that while winter operations are continuing, they should have enough sand on hand.

“It could be touch and go but we can get more if we need it,” he said.

Reavie also received Council’s permission to remove some toppled trees in Kaladar Park.

“There are some toppled trees there that are really leaning,” he said. “One neighbour offered to cut them down but because they’re on our property, I think the Township should be the ones to cut them down.

“Toppled trees don’t typically last long and this is a good time to take them down when the ground’s still frozen because we won’t damage the park.”

Contaminated properties
Council voted to support the City of Cornwall’s resolution calling on the Ontario government to implement reforms that would encourage the remediation of abandoned contaminated properties.

“Our municipality has been stuck with contaminated properties before,” said Coun. Tony Fritsch. “You never know.”

“When people read all this in the paper, they’ll think we actually got something done today,” said Coun. Bill Cox.

“If we adhere (to these training requirements), I don’t see how we can continue to operate a fire department,” Addington Highlands Fire Chief Casey Cuddy told Council at its regular meeting Tuesday in Flinton.

Cuddy was responding to an Association of Municipalities Ontario (AMO) memo on proposed mandatory training requirements for volunteer firefighters being proposed by the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.

“I understand the value of training,” Cuddy said. “But to continue the level of service we provide, you’re looking at 25 to 37 days of training at the fire college without exams.

“We can’t possibly make the deadline (later this year).”

Cuddy said that while some firefighters can be grandfathered in the requirements, (about 75 per cent of the Kaladar members), very few of the younger recruits can. And, he said, a force needs younger recruits for their physical abilities and to continue on as older members retire.

“Many of the younger members also have young families and jobs that require their time,” he said. “They can’t just tell their employers that they need to take 30 days off to go to the fire college.

“And even if they could, the fire college is booked solid for most of the courses they’d required.

“There are about 40,000 volunteer firefighters in Ontario and the courses can only take 40 at a time.”

“This would jeopardize our ability to provide fire protection to our sparsely populated area that has lots of Crown Land in it,” said Reeve Henry Hogg.

Cuddy said they try to do as much training as they can, and they use facilities in Napanee and Kingston when they can but that’s not always an option.

“It’s not like we have facilities where we can light a house on fire for training,” he said.

For example, he said, a fire department has to have pumper operators but just in order to take that course, other courses are required.

“The pumper course is five days but you can’t take that until you have firefighter 1 and firefighter 2,” he said. “Then you have to have the hazmat (hazardous materials) course and that’s another seven days.

“The fire college just can’t accommodate all that.”

“So, it’s not just timing, it’s content,” said Coun. Tony Fritsch.

AMO is asking rural municipalities to draft responses to the proposed changes. Those changes were developed by the Ministry, the Ontario Fire Marshall executive and staff, the Ontario Professional Firefighters Association, the Ontario Fire Chiefs Association, fire chiefs from full-time, composite and volunteer services, Toronto Fire Services with only an AMO staff member and one lower-tier CAO for the municipal perspective.

“This is just another urban vs. rural thing,” said Dep. Mayor Helen Yanch. “They keep throwing up these rules that have nothing to do with us.”

“I think it requires a change to lesser qualifications for smaller volunteer departments in rural municipalities,” said Fritsch.

Council passed a resolution, based on Cuddy’s recommendation, that he and North Frontenac Fire Chief Eric Korhonen draft a joint response.

Denbigh waste site

The application to re-open the Denbigh landfill is still very much on Coun. Bill Cox’s mind.

“Can we ask the Ministry when we can get an answer on this?” Cox asked Council. “It’s been 10 years, we’ve spent a lot of money and we’ve done everything they’ve asked.”

Dump cards?

The Township is still looking at a few more changes to its landfills, including new hours and possibly “dump cards.”

But the information won’t be on the newly-approved newsletter that’s set to go out with tax bills shortly.

“We’re researching dump cards and it will be provided in correspondence at the time any decision is made,” said CAO/Clerk-Treasurer Christine Reed.

Current landfill hours are on the newsletter but changes such as requiring cards require Ministry permission and will be posted if approved.

A request from the Too Far, Too Fast organization for Addington Highlands to declare itself an ‘unwilling host’ for any marijuana distribution operations once it becomes legal July 1 seemed to garner the most discussion at Council’s regular meeting Tuesday afternoon in Flinton.

“Is there any point to declaring ourselves unwilling?” said Coun. Tony Fritsch. “The government did say municipalities would have some input but we haven’t heard from them yet and they likely wouldn’t listen to us anyway.”

“A lot of things are like that,” said Reeve Henry Hogg.

Clerk-treasurer Christine Reed said she understood that the 14 municipalities who would have sales outlets have had some input.

“It used to be with alcohol a municipality could declare itself dry but who’s to stop somebody from going to Kingston or Belleville to get it?” said Dep. Reeve Helen Yanch.

“And what’s in it for us?” said Hogg.

“You mean other than cost?” said Fritsch.

“They’re not telling us anything,” said Coun. Bill Cox. “Will they be giving us anything?”

“I’d like to have some input if it’s available in our area,” said Fritsch.

“Our only option might be to wait until they say ‘hey, Addington Highlands, we’re looking at this in your area,’” said Reed. “We have had a couple of calls about zoning and where you could put a greenhouse.”

“When a taxpayer starts his own business, they call it a ‘grow-op,’” said Cox. “When the government does it, it’s a ‘greenhouse.’”

Community Transportation grant
Clerk-treasurer Christine Reed sought out and received Council’s approval to begin drafting an application to the Community Transportation Grant Program for a five-year grant that would lead to the implementation of of a twice-monthly bus service to various locations such as Napanee, Belleville, Renfrew and Bancroft for various services. The service would be available to the general public and there would be a fee.

She said the funding would be used to cover staffing and administrative costs as well as the busing costs.

Reed said the actual routes are still being determined in consultation with Land O’ Lakes Community Services and the community to determine interest in such a program.

“Thought would have to be given to the sustainability of the program at the end of the five years when the funding was depleted,” she said.

“So, the assumption we’re making is that after five years the fund could be zero because nobody can afford to administer it,” said Coun. Tony Fritsch.

“There used to be bus service every week but we just couldn’t sustain it,” said Reeve Henry Hogg.

Newsletter changes
Clerk-treasurer Christine Reed presented Council with a draft newsletter.

“A lot of people don’t notice the newsletter and it’s been the same for about 10 years so we’re trying a little different format,” she said.

“There’s no mention of my phone number anywhere on it,” said Reeve Henry Hogg.

“It’s on the website and people can call the Township for it,” said Reed.

“They usually call me to find out the Township number,” said Hogg.

“I think it would be wise to put the Council members’ names in,” said Coun. Bill Cox.

“But no pictures,” said Hogg.

“I guess they know who you are since they voted you in,” said Cox.

Dump hours
Roads/bridges supervisor Brett Reavie got Council’s approval to change winter hours of operation at Township dump sites to eliminate operating in the dark.

Although it won’t be immediate, Kaladar will change to 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.

“There’s no lights and after dark it becomes a safety issue,” Reavie said.

He’s also looking at changing the winter and summer hours at Vennachar and summer hours at MacKavoy for the same reason.

He said they’re still working on snow removal at Weslemkoon and “it’s probably going to be April when we’re done.”

Still with dump sites, Reavie said the Ministry has asked for information on two of the dump sites that were closed.

“They asked for information on Denbigh and Kaladar and that’s what I gave them,” he said.

“There’s a house on one of them,” said Coun. Bill Cox.

Reavie said he has yet to receive any negative feedback on the previous recent changes to dump procedures and fees.

Addington Highlands Council voted to move its meetings to Tuesdays from Mondays at its regular meeting Monday afternoon in Flinton.

The move was made to avoid having to schedule around holiday Mondays and to make it easier for residents to attend, said Dep. Mayor Helen Yanch.

The move will come into effect for the Jan. 2, 2018 meeting and continue for meetings in both Flinton and Denbigh. Meeting times remain 1 p.m. in Flinton. Denbigh meetings are at 1 p.m. for January, February, March, November and December and 7 p.m. for the remainder of the year.

The only comment on the meeting change came from Frontenac News Publisher Jeff Green, who said in an email: “Tuesdays are difficult for us to cover Addington Highlands meetings as it is our production day. We do cover other councils on that day and adding Addington Highlands will make it more of a stress. With the change, we should still be able to cover the Flinton meetings, but the evening meetings and even the afternoon meetings in Denbigh will be an issue.”

“The time of the meetings should be there to serve the community,” said Coun. Tony Fritsch. “I have no issue with Monday or Tuesday.”

Speed device slows traffic
Roads supervisor Brett Reavie told Council that the speed measuring device on the road into Flinton seems to be having the desired effect.

“Comments from neighbours are that people seem to be slowing down,” he said. “Although after awhile, it could lose its effectiveness as people get used to it being there.”

“I want to see how high I can get it,” joked Reeve Henry Hogg.

Hospice services
Carrie Salsbury, community coordinator for The Heart of Hastings Hospice, addressed Council on the plan for extending their services into Addington Highlands and North Frontenac Townships.

“The Local Health Integration Network has asked the Heart of Hastings Hospice to work with agencies in Lennox & Addington and Frontenac Counties to coordinate end-of-life hospice services,” she said. “I have been meeting with health care agencies, community groups, social service agencies and individuals to better understand the needs of the community and to tap into systems, services and communications links that already exist.

Harry and Fim Andringa have made their mark in the town of Flinton ever since they moved to the community 25 years ago. They have been good neighbours and keen volunteers, and have made many friends.
Harry, who had recently retired from the Toronto Transit Commission when the Andringas moved to Flinton, drove for both Land O’Lakes Community Services (Meals of Wheels) and Friends of Bon Echo (captaining the Mugwump ferry) among other volunteer commitments. Harry has also been involved with local Legions and schools more recently by recounting his experiences in WW2 as a child in the Netherlands.

“When we moved to Flinton we knew no one. We found the community by looking around for a small town where we could retire and enjoy life. And we found it,” he said, when interviewed at his home earlier this week.
A few years after they had retired, Harry realized that he was not feeling well, and that he hadn’t been feeling well for many years. He went for tests and they did tests and found nothing. Eventually doctors realized that Harry was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and had been for most of his life. He lived through WW2 in the Netherlands as a young child and those experiences had remained bottled up in him for over 60 years. After 11 months of therapy he felt better and was able to begin sharing his story, which he did through presentations at Legions and at local high schools and Senior’s homes for a number of years.

“I think it is important for people to know what happened, especially now when there are holocaust deniers around. There are even some in Germany now, so I wanted to do my part,” he said.
A couple of years ago Fim began having health problems and more recently Harry has also been struggling physically. The strain of visiting groups in person has become too great.
When Ken Hook heard that Harry was getting older and frailer, he is now 85, he recalled how much of an impact that a presentation Harry had on the participants at a meeting of the Cloyne and District Historical Society a number of years ago. He thought it was important to get Harry’s story on video. A year ago, he conducted a series of interviews with Harry and then applied for a Canada 150 grant to fund the completion of the video. He did not get one, but decided to self fund the project.

“I’ve done a lot of corporate and other videos and people are always a bit shy or wary, and we need to do two or three takes. But Harry wasn’t like that. He didn’t have any notes at all. He knew his story and could tell it off the top of his head.”
Obtaining video clips to round out the story was a more difficult process for Hook, but he did have help from the National Film Board, which allowed him to use newsreel footage. Finding the write footage took many hours, however. When the video was done, edited down to 36 minutes, an opening was arranged at the Northbrook Lion’s Hall on October 25.

To Harry and Ken’s surprise, the hall was filled to the brim, standing room only, for the viewing.
The film itself is straight forward. Harry speaks, there are images and voice overs for context, and his story unfolds.
And what a grim, cautionary tale it is.

Harry was a young boy when the war started, living in a small town north of Amsterdam. It took only four days for the German army to over-run the Dutch in 1940. Harry was 9 at the time. In the film he recalled the night when the German army arrived in his town. He thought it was a thunderstorm but his father said it was a war.

“I had never even heard the word war. I asked my father what it was, and he said ‘you’ll find out’. Did I ever.”
In “Harry’s Story” which is available for free viewing on Youtube and can be easily accessed at Harrysstory.ca, Harry talks about the way life immediately changed under German occupation. The school in his village was taken over and classes were held outside. German was taught and soldiers would come in to the schools and make sure the students were learning the language. Prisoners of war, from as far away as Mongolia, were brought in as slave labour for the army.

Harry talked about seeing the German soldiers eating lunch in their truck, “with thermoses of hot coffee and cheese sandwiches, with not a care in the world” while the slave labourers were out in the cold, wearing rags, with soaked burlap on their feet in place of shoes, sharing a frozen beetroot they found in a ditch by the side of the road “just to have something in their stomach.”

The Nazi regime also targeted Dutch Jews for extermination, and because of the efficiency of Dutch birth and citizenship records they had great success in finding Dutch Jews. As the documentary points out, only 30,000 of the 140,000 Dutch Jews survived the war.
Harry’s uncle Cor was involved in the effort to save as many Jews as possible from the fate they faced if captured by the Nazi’s. He coordinated efforts in the region, often using bicycle power by night to ferry individuals and families to safety.
Harry talks in the film about a mother and daughter, Esther and Sonya, who were sheltered in his home.

He talks in particular about one day when a soldier arrived in his house without any warning, so quickly that Sonya, who was sitting in the kitchen, was unable to scurry under the large tablecloth that covered the kitchen table, which she normally did when there was any warning they were coming.
The soldier asked Harry’s mother about the children, and she said they were her children.

“‘What about her’ he said pointing right at Sonya. He picked her right out, and my mother said she was her sisters child who was staying with us for the day. He laughed, and looked at us as if he was insulted by our attempts to fool him, and then he left” Harry recalled, his memory as clear 75 years later as if the event had just taken place.

They thought they were done for, and waited for the truck to come and load them up “never to be seen or heard from again,” which was what had happened to the Mayor of the town earlier, but by late afternoon nothing had happened and Harry said to his mother “I think we are in the clear”.
They never found out why the soldier never turned them in. Harry’s mother said maybe the soldier had a daughter who was about 2 or 3 years old back home in Germany.
“That’s the only explanation we could come up with.”

In the film there are some stories that are more harrowing than this one.

Harry also remembers the bitter cold winter of 1944, which became known as the Hunger Winter or Dutch Famine, when the German’s cut off all food and fuel shipments to the western provinces, where 4.5 million Dutch lived.
Harry talks about ripping door trims for wood, stealing trees, and eating tulip bulbs and nettles.
Canadian troops liberated the Netherlands after the D-Day invasion, a fact that certainly played into Harry’s decision to emigrate to Canada in 1957.
It pleases him to point out how Canadian WW2 veterans are received when they go back to Holland. By a strange coincidence, the last surviving D-Day veteran in our readership area (as far as we know) is Gordon Wood of Flinton, and over the years since Harry and Fim Andriga have been living in Flinton they have formed a bond from being on two sides of a dark chapter of Dutch and Canadian history.

Harry met his wife, Fim, soon after he arrived in Canada in 1957. She is from the Netherlands as well and they were married on Thanksgiving Day in 1959 and raised a family in Toronto before moving to Flinton, where they live with their son.
Fim is younger than Harry, and she was born during the war, and although she was very young she has her own vivid of the war.
When I contacted Harry for a few details early this week, Fim came on the line afterwards.

Her concern, after what both she and Harry had experienced when they were very young, is with the refugees that have been taken in by Canada over the last few years.
“I was 5 when the war was over, and I have memories that no person should have,” she said.

“Canada is bringing in a lot of refugees, and they are coming from war torn countries that are as bad or worse as what we came from. Some of these children are going to have the same kind of memories. These memories that are so intrusive, and Canada should know that these people need emotional and mental help when they come here. We don’t need to coddle the refugees, we weren’t coddled when we came here, but they have seen things and those things don’t disappear. I know that for myself, they come back instantly and without any warning.”
When Harry’s Story was screened in Northbrook, the tears were flowing in the audience in response to the dignified account of horrendous events, as Harry still finds it hard to believe that people could act as the Nazis did in his village and his country.
Afterwards, Harry was surprised and a bit overwhelmed by the response.

“I expected about a dozen people would show up, not a full house like this,” he said.

The website Harrysstory.ca includes information about the film, an embedded Youtube link to the full 36 minute video and a link to the trailer. It also includes out-takes, footage that was not included in the film for time reasons but add much to the story. More outtakes will be added over time as well.
Harry’s story is also being screened in Napanee on Saturday, November 25th at 2pm at the Lennox and Addington County Museum and Archives.

The High Land Waters Metis Community has been holding annual Harvest Dinners for 17 years, but this one, held Saturday at the Flinton Township Hall, held a little extra significance.
Part of this year’s ceremony was to acknowledge and thank the Ontario Trillium Foundation for a grant of $75,000 which will allow the Community to begin its Traditional Knowledge Project, Metis Mamawapowuk, which will document Metis culture and knowledge in this area (which stretches from Smiths Falls to the 401 and west to the Kawarthas.

“We’ve been trying for years to start this project,” said Scott Lloyd, the Community’s president. “I’d like to also thank my sister, Candace (the Community’s secretary/treasurer) who did much of the work to make this happen.
“Our focus will be on traditional land use but also on traditional gatherings of friends, family where the history was told through stories.
“We depend greatly on our land and waterways and so want to protect the land and bring traditional knowledge forward.”
“I’d like to acknowledge that we’re on traditional First Nations land here,” said Jim Roulston, representing the Trillium Foundation. “The seed grant is to preserve the oral traditions.
“The Trillium Foundation gave out 1,000 grants last year through the Ministry of Tourism and our goal is to move people from being a passive audience to active participants in arts, culture and heritage.”
“I wish I could say the Trillium Foundation was federal but . . .” said area MP Mike Bossio. “How do we move forward with reconciliation if we don’t know where we come from?
“It’s wonderful to see this grant come forward as many are just finding out they have Metis connections and this may allow them to reconnect with their heritage.”

Candace Lloyd emceed the event and brought greetings from Margaret Froh, president of the Metis Nation of Ontario, France Picotti, chair of the Metis Nation of Ontario and Brian Tucker, associated director of Education and Way of Life who said: “This work will benefit generations far into the future because it will gather and preserve the stories and knowledge of the Metis Community.”

The rains threatened but held off just long enough for the Land O’Lakes Traditional Music Hall of Fame to induct six new members at a ceremony/performance Saturday during the Flinton Jamboree. First on stage was Ross Clow. Born and raised near Verona, Clow spent more than a decade as the lead singer for Don Johnson and the Serenaders, a long-running dance orchestra with weekly radio shows on two Kingston radio stations during the ’50s and ’60s. In his senior years, Clow gravitated towards gospel music with the Gospel Jewels and later with the Old Hims. Clow was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Sheila Calthorpe was inducted in the Songwriters Category. Calthorpe grew up on Simcoe Island in the St. Lawrence River and developed a tradition of home worship during winters because there was no church on the island.

Eventually, she met and married musician Barry Calthorpe, who taught her to play. This led to writing such songs as The Church by the Side of the Bed, Mother’s Still On The Home Place and Heaven Said Goodbye, which was recorded by Bill White and White Pines. Lionel Grimard was born and raised in South Frontenac where he was a member of a number of country bands as well as a guitar teacher. During his later years, he has arranged and hosted numerous open mics and jamborees. He now lives in Harlowe. Bob Goodberry was elected posthumously. Born and raised in Verona, he came from a musical family and was the consummate country troubadour. In his later years, he was a resident of Northbrook. After his death, his songbook was discovered. In it, there were no lyrics or chords, merely the names of thousands of songs.

He never used music sheets but remembered all the words. He is affectionately known as “the man of a thousand songs.” His induction was accepted by his wife Norma and son Rob. Bill White was born and raised in Plevna and has received numerous awards including five Canadian Music Association awards for bluegrass, male vocalist of the year, Canadian bluegrass group of the year (Echo Mountain) and bluegrass gospel group of the year (Bill White and White Pines). He started his career with the Neil Perry Orchestra and spent many years as a member of Buddy Clarke and Grass Creek. Neville Wells grew up in Ompah, moved to Ottawa and now lives in Perth. He is known for being the producer of the Ompah Stomp, being founder/editor of the Capitol City Music News (now the Ottawa Valley Country Music News) as well as being inducted into the Ottawa Valley Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994. His band credits include The Children (which also featured Bruce Cockburn, David Whiffen and Peter (Sneezy Waters) Hodgson) and Neville Wells & Sweetwater. Of late, he has been appearing at more and more events and shows no signs of slowing down. 

It’s clear talking with Neville Wells that he’s uncomfortable with the term legend being applied to him.
“I’m just a kid from Ompah,” he says.
He was born in Newfoundland and moved to Mosque Lake Lodge in Ompah as a child. His musical career began at the Ompah Dance Hall where, for $2 a night, he backed up Neil and Flora Perry.
But when he moved to Ottawa, he hooked up with some guys you may have heard of before in a band called The Children. His bandmates included Bruce Cockburn, David Whiffen, Peter Hodgson (aka Sneezy Waters), Sandy Crawley and Richard Patterson.

“We were terrible,” he says, laughing. “But we were having fun and we did have a following.
“Ricky was extremely talented and Dave should have been a big star (but) we were all prima donnas.
From there he moved on, playing with Crawley a lot.

“Coffee houses were the thing,” he says. “Performing was different then.
“You didn’t have to be a star and the audiences were always respectful.”
Oh, did we mention there was a mid-’60s gig in Ottawa where he opened for the Rolling Stones and one in Toronto opening for The Lovin’ Spoonful?
“We were just there for the sound man to get the levels right,” he said.

OK, how about the Sweetwater years and songs charting and getting airplay? If You Will See Me Through and Please Don’t Mention Her Name come to mind.
“Ah, the Sweetwater years,” he said. “We had a ’77 Chevy van and it was the road — the Pump in Regina, Moose Jaw, Edmonton, Calgary, and a lot of booze.”
Still, being a working musician is something most people will never get to do.
“OK, my career, I consider it a procession of lost opportunities,” he said. “I really don’t have any regrets other than not learning that ‘music business’ is two words.
“I didn’t learn the ‘business’ part of it soon enough.”
But, then there is some reflection.

“I’m a bit of a hack,” he said. “But look around you — most people will never get to do that.
“People who aren’t musicians will never know what it feels like to be on stage, with the band getting in a groove, the audience getting into it . . . they’ll never know.”
At 77, Wells has retired to Perth in a small bungalow on a modest pension with his wife Anne-Lis.
He’s playing more these days than he had been, but he’s not one to live in the past.
“Music is more of a hobby, now,” he said. “The rest, well, I can’t fathom it.
“Life goes on with you or without you.”

“KFL&A Public Health has no plans to get out of the septic inspection business,” Director of Programs Ed Gardner told Addington Highlands Council at its regular meeting Tuesday afternoon in Flinton.

Reeve Henry Hogg said he’d invited public health officials to the meeting because “people were asking us why we weren’t doing it ourselves, which prompted this discussion.”

Gardner begin his brief presentation by giving a short history of septic inspection in Ontario highlighting that the responsibility was downloaded to the municipalities in 1998 and is now governed by the Building Code.

“(But) KFL&A has been doing septics since the early ’70s,” he said. “We do all nine municipalities in our catchment area.”

Coun. Tony Fritsch asked what effect there would be on the health unit if municipalities opted to do their own inspections.

“It would have a very deleterious effect,” Gardner said. “We have three septic inspectors as well as Public Health Inspector Gordon Mitchell and support staff.

“It would mean a big part of our budget would be gone.”

Gardner said they’d had to raise fees a few years ago to cover costs and costs are still rising but “we’d like to keep in it.

“We have no immediate plans to shelve the system.”

Coun. Bill Cox asked if there were any benefits to a Township for handling the inspections themselves.

Gardner conceded that townships could charge fees but suggested any profit gained would likely be more than eaten up by training people and especially with the inevitable litigation that occurs.

“We’ve had years and years of experience and we know what to do when it goes to court,” Gardner said. “It’s built into our fee structure.

“It’s very difficult to go cold into septic inspection and our inspectors train for years and are used to a lot of travel and litigation.”

Gardner said he didn’t know if there was a right or wrong answer to who should handle septic inspections but he’s seen municipalities take it over themselves or go to the conservation authorities, but most come back.

“Stone Mills opted out but ended up asking us to take over again because they were facing more and more litigation,” he said.

Mitchell said that of the 20-30 septic permits issued for Addington Highlands in an average year, most were for new systems and one-third to one-half are for replacement systems.

Overall, he said KFL&A issues about 550 permits in an average year.

New tandem truck, just shy of $200,000
Council approved the purchase of a tandem axle cab and chassis truck with complete roll-off hoist package plus an optional tarp system.

Road & Waste Management Supervisor Mark Freeburn told Council there was only one quotation received, that being from Winslow Gerolamy Motors Ltd. for $190,348 plus GST.

“I think this is money well spent,” Freeburn said. “Especially for the safety of the drivers.”

“Especially if we’re entertaining the idea of moving bulkier items ourselves,” said Clerk-Treasurer Christine Reed.

Dust suppression
Freeburn said they’re putting down dust suppressant as weather permits.

“This has been an abnormal year,” he said. “I can’t understand how a road gets so dusty when it’s raining all the time.”

Fire crews nice and quiet
Fire Chief Casey Cuddy told Council that aside from the Canada Day weekend, “it’s been quiet and call volumes are down.”

This week, the Land O’Lakes Traditional Country Music Hall of Fame announced who the inductees for 2017 are going to be. The second annual awards will handed out this summer as part of the Flinton Jamboree on Saturday August 5th at 3:00 during a gala show featuring hall of fame members.

This years inductees in the musician category are Bill White from Harrowsmith, Neville Wells from Ompah, Ross Clow from Verona, and Lionel Grimard from Harlowee. In the songwriter category, Sheila Calthorpe of Yarker, and in the posthumous category, Bob Goodberry from Verona. Many of the names on the list are familiar to music enthusiasts throughout the region as they have played regularly over the years and still play today. Within the past few months all of the living musicians on the list have played at local venues.

The hall of fame will be enshrined virtually in the coming months with the creation of a comprehensive website.

In addition to establishing the hall of fame, the Flinton Jamboree has been active in other ways in recent weeks.

Pine Meadow residents and staff were delighted to be presented with a cheque for $1000.00 from the Flinton Jamboree Committee on Mar.17, 2017. The 2016 Flinton  Jamboree was very successful and the organizing committee decided to donate to Pine Meadow’s capital campaign to replace 11 bay windows at a  total cost of approximately $125,000. Five windows were completed in 2016. At least 3 more will be able to be done this summer and the project will hopefully be completed in the summer of 2018. Thanks to the Flinton Jamboree Committee and all the other individuals, organizations, counties and townships who have helped us with this ongoing project.

More donations are welcome and still needed!

The 2017 Flinton Community Jamboree will take place August 3-6 on the grounds of  the Flinton Recreational Centre. For more information about the event or to volunteer or donate, please visit their website at www.flintonjamboree.ca.  All the contact information is there. One way or another, come out and support a fantastic weekend of live music!