Letter from the Publisher

The summer season is a crucial part of the year for all the businesses that are the lifeblood of our communities. This week, I've been calling many of the business owners that we deal with on a regular basis to ask them for help.

There is a good possibility that this will be the last Frontenac News that readers will receive in their mailboxes for a while, as Canada Post and two of the bargaining units with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers are at an impasse in negotiating a contract.

As of this coming Saturday, July 2, the union will be in a legal strike position. What will result is anyone's guess. It could be a contract; the union may launch a strike; or Canada Post might lock them out.

We distribute 9214 copies of the Frontenac News through Canada Post each week, to the far corners of Frontenac County, Addington Highlands and western Lanark County. On some weeks, we distribute an extra 2920 papers to the Inverary and Perth Road regions. While this is an expensive way to distribute newspapers, in our experience it is the only way to reach all the hamlets and back roads properties in the region. For us to set up our own distribution system would be [prohibitively?] expensive and would also be difficult to monitor effectively.

So, as we face a shut down at Canada Post, we’ve been on the phone to ask for help.

Thankfully, all the businesses we approached have been understanding, and below is a list of locations that have been lined up as of early this week. We will expand our distribution further as we contact more businesses but you can count on the ones listed here to have the Frontenac News available for free every Thursday until Canada Post is back up and running.

DISTRIBUTION POINTS:

• KINGSTON FRONTENAC PUBLIC LIBRARY branches during open hours – Sydenham, Hartington, Sharbot Lake, Parham, Arden, Mountain Grove, Plevna, and Cloyne.

• TOWNSHIP OFFICES for Addington Highlands (Flinton Recreation Centre – basement), North Frontenac (Road 506 between Ardoch and Plevna), Central Frontenac (Sharbot Lake), and South Frontenac (Sydenham)

• RETAIL OUTLETS -

• Denbigh – Glaeser's General Store

• Cloyne/Northbrook – Nowell Motors, Grand's Store, Bishop Lake Outdoor Centre, Hook's, Yourway, Northbrook Gas and Variety, Northbrook Foodland, Addison's Restaurant

• Kaladar – Kaladar Shell

• Plevna – North of 7

• Ompah – Palmerston Lake Marina

• Arden – Arden Batik?

• Sharbot Lake – Petrocan, Ram's Esso, Mike Dean's Superstore, Pharmasave, St. Lawrence College Employment Centre, Cardinal Cafe, Maples?, Sharbot Lake Country Inn, and our own office at 1095 Garrett St., rear building.

• Parham – Parham General Store

• Godfrey – Godfrey General Store

• Verona – Asselstine Hardware, Verona Hardware, Food Less Traveled, Nicole's Gifts, Verona Foodland

• Hartington - Leonard Fuels

• Harrowsmith – Gilmour's on 38, The Pizza Place

• Sydenham – Sydenham One Stop, Trousdale's Foodland ?

We are also constructing some special temporary boxes, which will be located at roadside postal locations, such as the Snow Road Community Centre, the Mountain Grove Library (outside), the Arden Post Office, etc.

Also, readers can always read the articles online at frontenacnews.ca and at that site can also access a flash version of our paper that is a .pdf copy of the newsprint version that comes to your door each week under normal circumstances.

If there is a strike, this distribution system will remain in place for at least the July 7 and 14 editions. If there is a stoppage that extends beyond mid-July, we will take stock of the success of our system and may consider changes.

We thank our readers in advance for their patience, and hope that those who enjoy the Frontenac News each week will be able to continue to do so next week.

After 11 months on the job, Lucus Wales has left the Land O'Lakes Tourist Association (LOLTA) to take a job in the planning department of the City of Tweed.

During his tenure at LOLTA the tourist marketing agency upgraded its website, a key platform for its services, and carried on in the direction of his predecessor, some of which was oriented to promoting fishing in the Land O'Lakes through television programming and marketing.

“I enjoyed my time here, as short as it was,” said Wales when contacted at the LOLTA office in Kaladar on Monday (May 4). “I think we accomplished quite a bit.”

Rob Plumley, the chair of the board of directors at LOLTA, who is also the community development officer at Lennox and Addington County, said, “Wales is leaving the association in a strong position, and we are able to continue our services without missing a beat, thanks to the work of Joanne Cuddy, who continues to run the office and keep all our programs moving forward. We will be meeting as a board next week to talk about a hiring process for a replacement.”

Lucas Wales is the second consecutive LOLTA manager to leave for a job with the City of Tweed. Rachelle Hardesty took a job there in early 2014, after two years with the tourist association.

LOLTA is a member-based tourism marketing association serving tourism-related businesses in the municipality of Tweed, Lennox and Addington and Frontenac Counties.  

Severe mold, later confirmed to be many times over safe limits, forced Danielle Pollard to vacate her home at Kaladar in late September, her young daughter in tow.

This week, after a series of measures had been taken by the landlord, Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services (OAHS), the house has been given a clean bill of health as far as air quality is concerned, and Pollard is preparing to move back in.

However there are a few loose ends. Much of her furniture, and all the mattresses in the house could not be successfully freed of mold and have been thrown out.

“I asked them about my out of pocket costs for furniture and they told me that they had informed me when I moved in that I should obtain renter's insurance. I did that, but my renter's insurance does not cover damage due to mold. I'd say that is the responsibility of the landlord,” said Pollard.

In an email to her from OAHS, a commitment was made to look at relief from rent and hydro payments that Pollard has made for October and November, but when she pointed out that her renter's insurance does not cover mold damage in an email to OAHS they did not respond.

“I'm going to have to bring the financial matters to a Landord-Tenant Board tribunal,” said Pollard.

Before moving back in, Pollard is checking all the household items to make sure they are mold-free and, with the help of her church, friends and neighbours, is working on replacing the household items she needs to be comfortable in the house.

“I am a bit nervous about moving back in, because even with the inspection and the measures that have been taken to prevent mold from coming back, I still fear that it will come back, and where will I be then?” she said.

Last year, Pollard left an OAHS house in Northbrook because of mold in the basement, only to find her Kaladar home filled with mold in September.

OAHS Executive Director Don McBain, responded to a question about compensation for Danielle Pollard via email this week.

“I have requested a report from our property management division on current discussions with the client” he said. There are 9 Ontario Aboriginal Housing Corporation homes in Addington Highlands, 13 in North Frontenac, 19 in Central Frontenac, 4 in South Frontenac, 3 in Westport, 4 in Tay Valley, and 22 in the Township of Rideau Lakes, making it one of the largest providers of rent-subsidised housing in the region.

McBain said that of the 61 units listed above, 55 are currently occupied, 5 are being rehabilitated and prepared for new tenants, and one is in need of more major repairs, which will be undertaken next spring.

OAHS brings in mold-Busters

Five weeks ago Danielle Pollard of Kaladar moved out of the home she has lived in with her young daughter since early in 2014 after finding that mold had developed throughout the upstairs portion of the house.

As reported in the Frontenac News on October 23, Ms. Pollard lives in a rent-subsidised house that is administered by Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services (OAHS).

The article outlined how Ms. Pollard received an opinion from the KFL&A Public Health Unit, which indicated that all porous materials in the home should be replaced, including the wooden furniture, sofas, etc. At the time that the article was written, the results of an air quality test had not come in yet.

A phone message to Cory Smith, of the client services department of OAHS in Peterborough, was not returned before the article was published.

Subsequent to the article being posted online, on October 24 an email from Kelly Reynolds, communications co-ordinator at the OAHS head office in Sault St. Marie, came to the News. The email included a statement from Don McBain, executive director of OAHS. It reads, in full:

“OAHS has been working in collaboration with Mrs. Pollard and independent contractors to have her concerns regarding mold addressed. A Health Inspector visited the unit and the report was provided to Mrs. Pollard on October 3. This report did not indicate the home was unsafe to live in and indicated specifically which furniture items were to be cleaned with soap and water, removed or replaced. Mold was not reported to have been found on the shell of the unit. Air quality tests were performed and sent to a third-party laboratory for inspection. We anticipate results of this independent Air Quality Report sometime today. Mrs. Pollard was notified that OAHS would not move forward with remediation until results and recommendations are received. Records do not indicate that the unit had mold issues in the past. OAHS has been active in addressing this complaint and will continue to work with this client to ensure this unit meets all Health and Safety requirements.”

When interviewed earlier this week, Don McBain confirmed that the air quality test referred to in the email was received by OAHS on October 27.

The test indicated a very high reading for a category of mold called Asp/Pen (Aspirgillus and Penicillium). The reading inside the building was 60,800 in what is called raw data and 3.24 million spores per cubic metre.

It was hard to find online information about what a safe level for Asp/Pen is, but one web site we consulted said the raw count for Asp/Pen should be in the single digits, and another, Inspectapedia, said a reading of 36,000 per cubic metre indicated a “mold-damaged building”.

This week, Don McBain acknowledged that the mold readings are “very high”. He also said that indications are that the building is not contaminated with mold, and that the cause of the problem is poor ventilation.

The health hazards of Asp/Pen, which is a category including a number different varieties of mold, vary from individual to individual. They are allergens which can cause reactions such as sneezing, itching wheezing etc, and they can be more serious for asthma sufferers, and even fatal for those with suppressed immune systems. People working on cleaning up Asp/Pen contamination are instructed to wear respirators.

A Kingston-based company, mold-busters, was contracted to come in this week to do a remediation.

According to an email sent to Danielle Pollard by Cory Smith, the remediation will proceed in two phases.

“The good news is that since the mold exists on the surface, it can be disinfected and demolition will likely not have to take place. Therefore, according to Mold Busters, remediation should take one day. They will be disinfecting all surfaces, drapery, and ventilation systems to ensure a complete removal,” he wrote. “As far as preventing future growth, Mold Busters will be providing the unit with an air extractor/dehumidifier.”

Once the remediation is done the air will be tested again and if it is declared mold-free the OAHS will consider the matter to have been dealt with.

As far as the status of the wood furniture and sofas in the house, which KFL&A Public Health said could not be cleaned, Don McBain said Mold-busters does not take the same view.

“They are capable of determining what needs to be done and if they decide things need to be removed they go ahead and do that,” he said.

When asked about compensation for Ms. Pollard, who has not been living in her rental house for five weeks and counting, and might be dealing with the loss of furniture and other items, McBain said that those matters will be taken into account.

This leaves Danielle Pollard in a bit of a quandary. What should she do if Mold-busters says her furniture can stay but Public Health has condemned it as contaminated.

“If Mold-busters says it is safe, should I put my daughter in her bed, knowing that Public Health says it should be thrown out?” she wonders.

When contacted, Matt Doyle from KFL&A Public Health confirmed that in the view of his agency, all porous surfaces, including wood, cannot be decontaminated. As far as the claim by OAHS that he “did not indicate that the house was unsafe to occupy,” Matt Doyle said that does not mean he said the house was safe to occupy, only that he did not comment on that issue since it was outside of the scope of his investigation.

Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services owns and operates a number of houses in the Frontenac News readership area. They are available to the entire population on the basis of a needs assessment. Referrals are made through community services agencies, local First Nations and the Métis Association.

Danielle Pollard and her young daughter live in a subsidised rental house in Kaladar that is provided by Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services, an agency that is based in Sault Ste. Marie, and has rental properties throughout the province.

That is, she lived in the house until late September when she found that the air in the house had taken on a sour, moldy smell, and found that some of the walls of the house, all her furniture and other possessions were covered in a light grey mold. She is now staying with her mother and ailing father at their small home in Northbrook.

When I met her at the house last week, it appeared spotlessly clean inside because much of the mold had been washed off, but it persisted on the beds and some other spots. However, the smell of mold was immediately apparent as soon as I entered the house.

“Part of my frustration comes from the fact that I moved to this house because I had to leave the previous Aboriginal Services house that I lived in in Northbrook, because the mold in the basement was so bad it made the house unliveable and ruined half of my furniture,” Pollard said. “So I moved in here, and they told me the house was mold free but it isn't anymore.”

“What I want to know is whether the house is safe to live in and whether I can clean some of my furniture or does it all have to go,” she said.

Matt Doyle of the Kingston Frontenac Public Health Unit did an inspection of the house and in his letter of opinion he said any materials in the house that are porous and can not go through a washing machine, need to be replaced.

That would include the couch and chairs and almost all of the furniture, which is made of wood.

Pollard said that repeated requests for service to Aboriginal Housing Services have only resulted in inspections, but the results of those inspections have not been shared with her and no commitment to a remedy has been made.

“I've now been out of the house for almost a month, and I don't see that changing,” said Pollard, “and if I do have to replace all my furniture - how I am going to replace it?” she said.

An air quality test was ordered by Aboriginal Housing and was done early last week at the house, and last weekend an inspection was done by the Ministry of Housing Inspection and Enforcement Board on Pollard's request.

Results of those tests should have been delivered to the regional office of Aboriginal Housing in Peterborough, but calls from Pollard and a subsequent call on Tuesday by the Frontenac News have not been answered.

This is not the first time mold has been an issue in the house. According to Mike Powley, the Kaladar waste site attendant, the furniture and other possessions of the previous tenant in the building ended up in landfill because “they were covered in grey mold.”

Ontario Aboriginal Housing operates nine units in Addington Highlands, 13 in North Frontenac, 19 in Central Frontenac, four in South Frontenac, nine in Stone Mills, and 13 in Lanark Highlands.

by Lucas Wales

For over 70 years the Land O’ Lakes Tourist Association (LOLTA) has been working to add value to our region of Ontario, to create a sense of place, and to establish the small rural communities within it as a destination.

The association is one of the best shared services that our local municipalities and business owners make an investment in each year. General Manager of LOLTA, Lucas Wales, says the association has been doing a great job in terms of marketing the area over the short term, but it is time to start looking at some of the bigger picture items that need to be addressed. “Our region’s growth rates are not flattering to the long term sustainability of our small communities. Without the means for proper investment we are going to be facing some major challenges within the next decade. If we are unable to invest in the infrastructure that is crucial to growth, we will remain stagnate; that hurts our communities, but it also hurts our tourism industry...We need to continue to focus our efforts on bringing people here from Kingston, Ottawa, and Toronto, but what is critical is that while we have them here we are making a sales pitch as to why they should retire or start a business here. That can be either formal, or informal through projects like community improvements plans and beautification projects which many communities have begun undertaking.”

For those who already own a business one of the most important marketing connections they can make is with the Land O’ Lakes. “Each year we print 70,000 tourist information maps for the region that go all over the province, including inside the region as well at local gas stations, accommodations, restaurants, tourism centres, in outdoor boxes, and countless other locations. If you run any type of business that is tourism-related, you need to get yourself listed on our map and on our website. We currently have about 180 businesses who are members of the association, but there are so many more out there with whom we still need to connect.” According to a recent report from RTO 11, tourism is a $440 million industry in Ontario’s Highlands alone every year. Our job is to connect as many of those dollars being spent within the industry with our piece of Ontario here in the Land O’ Lakes. This summer our social media outlets were driving our focus on our small festivals and events, which create a huge economic stimulus within our communities. Next year we will publish our first ever festivals and events map for the region, highlighting exactly what is going on, where, and when to connect visitors with an added incentive to visit our communities. We will also be focusing on driving tourism to our trails systems as we move into 2015. With winter quickly approaching we are building a relationship with the OFSC to draw on Snowmobile Tourism into our region. We will be working with our accommodators to highlight which businesses remain open in the winter months, and how we can connect snowmobilers with their businesses.

Anyone wishing to become a member of LOLTA, please contact Lucas Wales at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or call 613-336-8818 to find out more information about the benefits of membership.

The Land O'Lakes Tourist Association's second annual Land O' Lakes Large and Small Mouth Bass Fishing Tournament took place on August 16, with about 300 participants casting their lines into the water. Fishermen John Robert Greer and Peter St. Pierre, both of Sharbot Lake, were just two of many who weighed in with Victor Heese at one of two weigh in stations set up on Bobs Lake for the event. Participants could fish on five area lakes, which included Skootamatta, Stocco, Beaver, Bobs and Kashwakamak. The grand prize was offered up to anyone who bought a ticket and was a 2014 Legend 14 FT Ultralite Boat courtesy of North Shore Marina. Five first place prizes of $500 each were given out to the biggest large or small mouth bass caught on each of the five lakes. After weighing in one large mouth bass at 1.89 pounds, Greer and St. Pierre headed out again to see if they could beat that with just 2.5 hours remaining in the tournament.  

The year was 1946; the Second World War had just ended, and Bob Bence had returned to Arden from military service in the United States. With his father Joe, Bob decided to start up a car dealership in Arden.

The Bence family, who originally came from New York State, had moved to Arden on a full-time basis after having a cottage there for years.

After preparing a site in the middle of the village for construction, and even pouring a foundation, something happened that changed the family history, much to the benefit of the Bence family, the village of Kaladar, and thousands of truck and car buyers from across Ontario.

As Bob Bence, now 89, recollected this week from the spacious, brand spanking new Bence Motors showroom at the junction of Hwy. 7 and 41, it all had to do with the then Reeve of Kennebec Township.

Photo: Robert (Bob Sr.) and the late Glenda Bence.

“He made an inappropriate pass to a close relative of my father, while her husband was still overseas, and after my father told him what he thought of his behaviour, it became difficult for us to do business in Arden any more."

At the time, the trains were still going through Arden and Highway 7 was still a dirt road. Nevertheless, Bob Bence visited the site at Kaladar, thought it looked promising, and moved the business, lock, stock and cement block, over to Kaladar.

Highway 41 was also no more than a gravel road then, but over the years the train has stopped running through Arden, and Highways 7 and 41 have become transportation corridors to far-flung corners of the province.

In 1959, two major events took place in Bob Bence's life. He married Glenda, who was 13 years his junior, and he purchased Bence Motors from his father. During the 1960s, Bob did most of the work on his own, both selling cars and running the repairs end of the business. Meanwhile, Glenda gave birth to six children over the next 10 years.

“Glenda was always an extrovert,” Bob Bence said fondly of his wife, who died of cancer in the winter of 2007, “so she started selling cars while I looked after the rest of the business.”

One of the reasons for Bence Motors’ staying power is the way three of Bob and Glenda Bence’s children, Joe, Bob Jr. and Tammy (Gaylord), have taken up the business. Tammy is the bookkeeper/manager for the sales and repairs; Bob is a master technician; and Joe takes care of the sales end of the business.

Photo: Robert (Bobby) Bence Jr., Tammy Gaylord, and Joe Bence in front of the new Bence Motors.

For Tammy, the fact that the business is a three-generation family-run enterprise is key to its continued success after 68 years.

At one point it looked like only Bob Jr., who was interested in being a technician ever since he was a boy, would stay in the business. But in 1983, Joe came back to Kaladar and started selling cars, and in 1989, Tammy, who at the time was running a hair salon, started working as a part-time book-keeper for her parents.

“I was part-time for about two months,” she recalls now.

Even in a new, modern car showroom, the Bence family keeps things pretty informal. Joe Bence prefers a ball cap and a t-shirt to a suit and tie, and for the picture accompanying this article, a new Ford shirt had to be found for Bob to replace and not-so new shirt he was wearing.

But car sales are about service and having the products people want, and Bence keeps a wide selection of Ford trucks in stock, which Joe Bence complies himself, in order to have the trucks their customers always seem to want.

“A lot of our sales are now done through the Internet” said Tammy, “and mostly people see trucks listed with the features they need and they get hold of us for them. We have customers who order vehicles from Toronto, from Quebec, from all over, as well as from the local community.”

Even though the final decision to build a new showroom, office and six-bay service centre was only finalised last spring, leading to a frenetic year of building while the old Bence Motors remained open for business, it has been coming for a number of years.

“We knew we had outgrown our old dealership 15 years ago,” said Tammy, "and we starting thinking about what we should do.”

A little over five years ago, work began on flattening some of the huge outcrop behind the old building, and some more land was purchased to accommodate the ever expanding business.

“We had to lay the groundwork, and then last year we decided to make the investment and go for it,” said Joe Bence.

“Dad didn't see the need for it, after all he is 89, but I think we all have seen, since we opened the new building, that it is what we had hoped for and more,” said Tammy.

Back in 2003, we ran an article in the Frontenac News about the staying power of Bence Motors, which at that time had outlasted other Ford and car dealerships along Highways 7 and 41, even though it did not have the fancy showrooms that the other dealers had.

In recent years, other dealerships, including A&B Ford in Perth and Revell Ford, another generations-old family-run business in Verona, have upgraded their facilities, and Bence Motors was falling further behind.

Not any more.

Feature Article - November 10, 2005

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Feature Article

November 10, 2005

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Gray MerriamLegaleseGeneral information and opinion on legal topics by Rural Legal ServicesNature Reflectionsby Jean GriffinNight Skiesby Leo Enright

Computers stolen from Denbigh Library:Addington Highlands Council report

by Jeff Green

Addington Highlands Deputy Reeve Lorraine Berger brought the sad news to Council last week that it could cost the township $3,000 to replace computers that were stolen from the Denbigh Library. The computers had been purchased using grant money to set up a Community Access Portal (CAP) site at the library. They have been used to provide free internet access to members of the public as part of a strategy to bring technology to rural areas. CAP sites exist in many of the rural communities in Lennox and Addington and Frontenac Counties.

The township does not have money in their budget to purchase the computers this year, so it is unlikely they will be replaced until sometime in 2006.

Clerk Jack Pauhl said that the township has a deductible on its insurance of $2,500, so making an insurance claim is not seen as a good idea.

The computers that were stolen are somewhat out of the ordinary, and this could potentially help to locate them. They were made by Jamie Grand of Grand Computers (now located in Tweed) and have blue side walls on the Central Processing Unit. A laptop computer is being used at the library now.

Bill Brown was in the gallery at this week’s Council meeting when the issue was discussed, and he suggested purchasing laptop instead of desktop computers to replace the stolen ones, so the librarian could take them home when the library is not open.

Reeve Ken Hook suggested putting a picture of the computers in newspaper ads and on posters so anyone who may have purchased them or seen them in someone else’s possession would know they were stolen from the Library. Council approved doing so.

Cracks in the walls – Roads Superintendent Royce Rosenblath raised the question of paying for the new sand/salt containment unit, which is completed and has been filled with a salt sand mixture. Payment for the units is due upon completion. The township has received an engineer’s report on the project, but the report was prepared on the day the cement was poured for the building’s walls, September 19th. However, one month later, when the building was filled with material, cracks developed, some of them 1/8 inch in diameter, in the building’s walls.

“Right now we hold all of the marbles, we haven’t paid anything. Once we pay the money, we won’t be able to say anything, really,” said Reeve Hook.

The township has decided to request a new engineer’s report that gives assurance that these cracks are not signs of weakness in the building before paying the invoice.

Hazardous waste company rescinds offer - Councillor Eythel Grant reported that a company out of Belleville, Quinte Waste Solutions, that had offered to set up a hazardous waste day for Addington Highlands and North Frontenac has now said they don’t want to do so.

“They asked if we’ve ever had such a thing as a hazardous waste day, and when I said we hadn’t, they decided that the number of people that are likely to bring material would overrun their capabilities, so they said they won’t do it at all,” Grant told Council.

Eythel Grant will be attending a meeting in Renfrew County, where a municipally-run hazardous waste service exists, to see if Addington Highlands residents could make use of that service.

Teranet mapping - Addington Highlands has purchased Teranet digital parcel mapping, which is necessary for the development of the township’s comprehensive zoning bylaw, at a cost of $1,600 per year for five years. Teranet will provide updates on a regular basis.

Wind Power presentation upcoming – Mike Benson, of the Conestoga Rovers Engineering firm, had been scheduled to attend this meeting to present a report on the Kaladar Waste Site monitoring program, but he did not attend. Instead, he told the Reeve that he would like to make presentations sometime during the week of Nov. 21 about the Kaladar Site and a proposal his company is developing for Wind Power Generation in Addington Highlands. A meeting is being set up for November 24 or 25.

Nine thousand sign for cell phones - The cell phone petitions that have been circulated in AH and North Frontenac since the early summer have been collected, and 9,000 people have signed. The petitions and letters of support will be presented to the two major cell phone companies in the hopes that one of them will respond by putting in a new tower to cover the large areas in both townships that don’t have cell phone service.

Feature Article - January 5, 2006

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January 5, 2006

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Gray MerriamLegaleseGeneral information and opinion on legal topics by Rural Legal ServicesNature Reflectionsby Jean GriffinNight Skiesby Leo EnrightTastes oftheOttawa Valley Courtesy of the Fall RiverPub & Grill, Maberly

Kaladar man rescues transport driver

by Jeff Green

“It sounded just like thunder,” said Peter Tryon in describing the noise he heard coming from Bence Motors at about 9:45 p.m. on December 8. Peter, who lives on Highway 7 just west of Hwy 41, then looked out and saw fire.

“I said, oh, god, Joe’s [Joe Bence] cars are on fire.”

A transport truck, headed east on Highway 7, swerved and headed across the Highway through the westbound lane and into the parking lot of the Kaladar Shell station at Hwy. 41. After taking out the Shell sign the truck hit several new and used cars at Bence Motors before coming to rest at the southwest corner of the building.

Peter Tryon and his wife Kim took immediate action. Kim went over to the nearby OPP station to get the police and Peter jumped into his truck and went over to the accident scene.

“The lady at the Shell had a fire extinguisher. She said ‘he’s still in the cab’ and I took the extinguisher and went to the truck, which was on fire,” Peter Tryon said of what he found when he arrived at the scene. “A gentleman had opened the passenger door but couldn’t wake the driver. I climbed upon the running board and hollered several times until the driver finally came to. He couldn’t see anything for the smoke so I told him to follow my voice, and he climbed over to the passenger door and out of the truck. We helped him to the Shell station, and the ambulance came a few minutes later. He only had a few cuts and bruises.”

Peter Tryon then remained on the scene helping emergency personnel divert traffic on highway 7 for another three hours.

“You don’t have time to think when something like that happens,” Peter Tryon said, “the man was still in the truck and someone had to get him out of it."

Luckily, the accident took place at 9:45pm, after the restaurant at the Kaladar Shell had closed for the evening. Otherwise, it would have struck cars or people in the restaurant parking lot.

Several cars on the Bence Motors lot suffered damage, and a few were destroyed, including a brand new vehicle that had been sold and had yet to be picked up by the new owner. The busy garage at BenceMotors suffered dadmage as well, but was back up and running quickly.

The large electric signs at both Bence Motors and Kaladar Shell were destroyed. The truck driver was taken to hospital and later released.