The Tay Valley Community Choir presents it's annual Christmas concert titled “A Home Grown Christmas'. The choir is renowned for its warm, cozy country concerts where the audience takes an active part by joining in the sing-a-long songs. Several groups of local musicians will add to the Home Grown joyful celebration of music.

The choir, under the direction of Rebecca Worden and accompanist Mary Lou Carrol, has been hard at work preparing seasonal tunes and two different takes on the Hallelujah Chorus. Local musician and former music teacher Jack Hurd has helped the choir prepare a song that he arranged for one of his high school musicals.

The Home Grown theme continues as individual members of the choir show off their talents. Special guests will be local groups; The Suspects, a local band made up of Jack Hurd, Tim Wynne Jones, Kalil Bailey, Cam Gray, and Frank Vanoort, who will perform two songs with the choir as well as a couple of their own songs; and The Ompah Community Choir who will sing a 50s inspired song along with other Christmas songs.

The Home Grown Christmas concert takes place on Friday, December 1 at 7:00 at the Maberly Hall. Admission is $10 at the door, and food bank donations are welcome. Following the concert, all are welcome to mingle with friends, neighbours and performers over refreshments.

The Ducharme family is pretty busy these days. Not only are they installing thousands of lights at just the correct location in the four acre patch of property that they decorate for Christmas each year, there is also the matter of preparing the Singing Trees.

“We store about 80% of the lights each year and put them up in new locations to keep the display new,”said Greg Ducharme early this week, “and tee Singing Trees are new for us this year. The lights are hooked in to a computer so they respond to the music that is played through the system. It really looks like the trees are singing when you see it in action.”

Ducharme is waiting for the final piece of equipment to come in from Kansas City to hook up four trees, and the singing trees will be the centrepiece of the display at Riverhill farms this Christmas season. The display will be complete and ready for the opening evening, which coincides with the Ompah-Plevna Santa Clause Parade.

Riverhill farms is located on Struthadam Road, which is off River Road. Riverr Road runs between Ardoch Road (near Ardoch) and 509 (at Ompah) in North Frontenac Township.

For the past four years, Ducharme’s past time of putting up Christmas lights, which started in 2008 with the birth of his grand-daughter, has been a public event that is a highlight of the Christmas season in the region.

“We kept adding to it and adding to it as each year progressed, more and more people were coming in the driveway. We tried opening it to the public for the first time four years ago and it has been very successful,” he said.

The lights are turned on each evening between November 25 and New Years, and the Ducharmes keep then lights on until 9pm on weeknights and 10pm on weekends.

For three Saturday evenings during that time (December 2, 9, and 16) between 5pm and 8pm there will be wagon rides, hot chocolate, coffee, donuts, and pancakes and sausage or bacon and home-made maple syrup available as well.

Bus trips for 30 passengers or more can be arranged by calling Greg at 613-282-3276. Please provide one week’s notice.

The entire enterprise is about sharing the Ducharme families’ passion for Christmas lights that bring joy to the cold, dark fall evenings.

“I’ve lived a pretty blessed life,” said Ducharme, “and this is my way to give back some joy and Christmas spirit.”

The Riverhill Christmas Lights Show is free to view. The only charge is for refreshments on the three special Saturday Nights. There is a jar available for donations to help cover costs.

Ron Higgins sees himself as a kind of hub in the wheel that is rolling towards a major change in the economic and social reality in North Frontenac Township over the next ten years. He is neither and investor nor a proponent for any of the series of projects that are in various stages of development, but he has been at the centre of the effort to put groups and individuals interested in starting new ventures with the governmental and non-governmental agencies that can help make the ventures come to fruition.

Higgins brought the projects together in one package at a special meeting of Council almost two weeks ago. He was seeking Council’s support in principle in order to advance one of the projects, a power generation proposal, which is still in the conceptual stages, but the meeting provided an opportunity to bring forward two other initiative that are at a more advanced stage, even though they do not require council action.

In an interview with the News last Friday (November 19) Higgins took the opportunity to clarify where all of the threads of the complicated set of initiatives are located, both physically and in terms of time frame.

The proposal for a wellness centre, wood shop and apiary is the first that will get underway. It has a location that has already been purchased. Planning is underway now for a renovation to the former Tooley house and 36 acre property which has road frontage in Plevna on Road 506. The property has commercial-residential zoning and starting up the new ventures will not require any planning applications. However renovations to the 2,275 square foot house on the property to create an interim home for the wellness centre will require a building permit, which has not been acquired as of yet. The proposal that was presented to council said that there is potential for the centre to offer the following services: massage, including Reiki, Shiatsu, accupressure and other types, chiropractic services, physiotherapy, First Nations healing or crystal/herbal healing, and primary care services offered by three medical doctors, and the services of a locally based Nurse Practitioner and midwife.

There is a large garage/worskhop on the property, and the plan is to build a canoe this winter to “show the community the quality of canoes that can be made here in North Frontenac. Publicity would be enhanced by raffling off the canoe,” according to the report on the “One Small Town Implementation Plan that Higgins submitted to Council on November 3.

The other project slated to get underway in the near term on the Tooley property is an apiary. All of the projects will be taken on by a co-operative called C&T North Frontenac (C&T stand for Contribute and Thrive). Part of the operating mandate of the co-op is that members who contribute 3 hours per week to one of the projects will receive a share of the benefits. In the case of the canoe factory, if one develops, that would amount to a free canoe.

David Craig, one of the main proponents of the Talking Trees project, which will be discussed below. According to Ron Higgins Craig will be involved in the renovation project in Plevna and will be living and working in North Frontenac this winter. He has been residing near Perth until now.

The second initiative covered in the plan is the Talking Trees Earth Ship project, which has been the subject of articles in the Frontenac News as early as last spring. In its current incarnation, the project envisions constructing 89 Earth Ships, homes built from used tires and concrete, built into the land to make them self sufficient in terms of electrical power and heat/cooling. The land for this project has not been purchased but there are un-comfirmed reports that a property that is suitable for the project has been located to the east of Ompah towards Snow Road, close to Road 509.

Higgins said that this project will require planning approvals from Frontenac County, likely a Plan of Condominium will need to be prepared and approved before lots can be created and construction of the pod based community can get underway.

“I don’t think the process will create the same amount of controversy among neighbours as a proposal to create 20 or more waterfront lots would,” Higgins said, comparing the Talking Trees initiative with the Ardoch Lake Plan of subdivision, a project in North Frontenac that is being opposed by neighbouring property owners. In the plan that was presented to Council, construction on the Talking Trees project is slated to begin in late 2018, although Higgins said he does understand that may be an overly optimistic given the land has not been purchased and planning processes in Frontenac County tend to be slow.

The longest term plan is the proposal for electrical generation and aquaculture projects, which will require some land that includes waterfront because the generating process requires water to be drawn from a water source, processed and then returned to the water source. A second factor about site selection for this project is proximity to the electrical grid to feed power into the hydro system. The aquaculture project will be energy intensive and will require the electrical generation to help it remain competitive in the market place. The municipality will need to be the owners of the power project, but Higgins said that Langenburg, the company that has expressed interest in building the project, is prepared to cover all the costs in exchange for the profits that will be generated, making North Frontenac a power producer in name only.

There is no time frame set out for this part of the One Small Town initiative.

North Frontenac Township announced it has hired a new public works manager at its regular Council meeting last Friday in Ompah.

Darwyn Sproule becomes the new public works manager effective Nov. 20, replacing Jim Phillips who earlier this year announced his retirement date as Dec. 22, 2017.
In a press release, CAO Cheryl Robson said: “Darwyn brings a wealth of knowledge as a professional engineer and 34 years of experience with the Ministry of Transportation in a management capacity.
“We look forward to working with Darwyn.”

The press release also said: “We sincerely appreciate the level of expertise that (Phillips) brought to our Township and wish Jim all the best in his future endeavours.”
“This is a good news story and great for our Township,” said Coun. Gerry Martin, chair of the Personnel and Audit Committee.”

Council also heard presentations from Carrie Salisbury, community coordinator for the Heart of Hastings Hospice on visiting Hospice Services in rural Frontenac, Lennox & Addington and an assessment update from Beverley Disney and Kim Bennett from MPAC.

North Frontenac’s two representatives on Frontenac County Council, Mayor Ron Higgins and Coun. John Inglis, are diametrically opposed when it comes to a proposed County contribution to the Hospitals Foundation in Kingston.
The County hasn’t quite finished its budget process yet but Higgins is opposed to $54,000 this year and another proposal to continue a similar commitment for 10 years as the County had been doing.
“My problem is that the commitment ended,” said Higgins. “I don’t think taxpayers dollars should go to contributions.”
Inglis, on the other hand, is in favour of the contributions.
“I’m in favour of it but I’m the only one,” Inglis said.
Although he doesn’t get a vote, Coun. Wayne Good isn’t in favour either.
“We voted you (Inglis) in to represent this Council,” said Good. “You wont’ be voted in again if I have any say in it.”

As Mayor Ron Higgins was giving his report from County Council, North Frontenac Coun. Gerry Martin voiced his displeasure at there being no plans for the K & P Trail to be extended past Sharbot Lake.
“I hear no discussion of any section going north through our area to connect to the Lanark and Renfrew Trails,” Martin said. “I think we’re remiss in not connecting to north of 7.”

At the urging of Coun. Gerry Martin, North Frontenac will contact Metroland Media to protest its decision to limit distribution of the Perth Courier in North Frontenac to one outlet.
“Only in Plevna is unacceptable,” he said.

Generally speaking, in the 10 years the volunteers have been holding ATV run fundraisers in Ompah, the beginning of summer event is usually busier than the end of summer one. But this year the trend was reversed with about 545 riders registered, said one of the organizers, Lindy Hay.
Perhaps it was because of the nice weather.

“It’s ridiculously hot and there are blackflies and mosquitos,” Hay said. “But then, I’m a winter girl.

“The riders seem to be happy.”

“A little light rain last night would’ve made a world of difference, but it’s still wonderful,” said rider Brent Lightbody, who came from Smiths Falls.
But it seems that for most people these days, just getting out on the trails with their ATVs is a fun thing to do, Hay said.
“We stopped doing competitive things like the poker run,” she said. “These days it’s just leisure and scenery.

“Everybody gets entered in everything and has the same chance to win a prize.”
Not that there isn’t friendly competition.

“Oh you’ll get some guys competing but that’s more of a boys-will-be-boys thing,” she said. “But we do get a lot of grandparents who bought side-by-sides specifically so they could bring their grandchildren.
“And we’re getting a lot more women, who come by themselves — not with husbands or boyfriends.
“And they don’t get stuck in the mud.”

Most people finish the 100 kilometers or so but there is the odd person who comes back early.
“We had one gentleman in his late 40s who came back early,” she said. “He had prostrate surgery three weeks ago and it was important for him to be here.”
The Ride-For-Dad charity is a partner in the event.

The event itself is a fundraiser for various Township volunteer activities and projects and hay said volunteers seem to have their own competition to bring in prizes and sponsors.
“It’s amazing where the volunteers get prizes,” she said. “First prize is a handmade fire pit made by John Marshman.”

And it’s also become something of a destination for sponsors as well, with many of the latest machines on display.
This year’s sponsors included Kanata Honda, Perth Powersports, Rideau Carleton Raceway and Lake District Realty.

It appears that much of North Frontenac Council has heard enough about Mayor Ron Higgins innovative and imaginative theories about how the Township might evolve. However, when the topic arose from Business Arising Out of the Minutes at last Friday’s regular Council meeting in Ompah, it also appeared at least one councilor still had a few things to say.
First, to recap, the Mayor has been researching some contemporary technologies (on his own, not as head of Council) which he believes can be successfully adapted to North Frontenac. He presented some of these three meetings ago when Council met in Calabogie.

Since that meeting represented considerable mileage, The Frontenac News contacted the Mayor about the meeting and during the course of the interview, a story emerged about thinking outside the box when it came to municipal governance.
But, some North Frontenac Councilors took exception to the Mayor’s candor and philosophies such that they requested he write an explanation that emphasized he was working at his own initiative and not the Township’s which The News published as an op-ed piece.
But that didn’t satisfy all of Council, and it particular Coun. Vernon Hermer.

“You (Higgins) stated there was a resolution, I don’t recall any such resolution,” Hermer said.
Hermer went on to question the nature of the Ubuntu philosophy and connecting it to the “Nelson Mandela Effect.”
“(And) you (Higgins) left out the source of energy,” Hermer said. “Is it noise?”
“Tell me where it says that,” said Higgins. “I’m not necessarily saying we’ll go that route.
“You assume it’s noise but I can’t discuss it because of a non-disclosure agreement.”
“We never agreed it was viable,” said Coun. Denis Bedard.

Higgins offered to send a correction to the paper if that was what Council wanted but the majority seemed to want to let this sleeping dog lie.
“This is three meetings in a row this has come before me,” said Coun. Gerry Martin. “It’s a neverending story.”
“I’ve seen enough of this in the paper,” said Coun. Wayne Good.
“It doesn’t need to go back in the paper, just your acknowledgement is enough,” said Bedard.
“At least you’re looking at options,” said Dep. Mayor Fred Perry.

Planner Megan Ruckwald told Council that the Township’s Official Plan is ready to go to County Council for final approval, barring any last-minute changes from the Township.
She said the final tweaking included a commercial logging restriction within 150 metres of a waterbody, some natural heritage comments from the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority, some policy clarification and rewording and the updating of existing map layers.

Council approved a 50 kph speed limit for Brule Lake Road, Sunday Lake Road and Austris Road.
Coun. Vernon Hermer said: “The delegation wanted 40 kph. Several 60 kph signs are missing and at $500 a pop, that could get expensive.”
Public Works Manager Jim Phillips said: “We lose lake and road signs all the time — it’s a common thing.”

Council accepted the 2016 Ontario Structure Inspection Manual Bridge and Culvert Inspection report (488 culverts).
Public Works Manager Jim Phillips also took the opportunity to pitch a grant application to rehabilitate the Meyers Cave Bridge to the tune of $1.4 million (if successful, the Township share would be $140,000).
“It’s a good project, there’s a history of accidents there,” Phillips said. “It would involve a wider deck and then we’d redo the road on either side.
“If we don’t get the grant, Plan B would be to rehab it as our budget will allow.”
“Would there be bicycle lanes?” asked Coun. Wayne Good.
“There’ll be paved shoulders,” said Phillips. “Bicycles can ride on them if they want to.”

“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 roads up here and there were almost a few no-shows,” Martin joked. “(But) there has been a steady flow of people through here and it’s mostly for education purposes but I think people will see where their tax dollars go.”

“This is a unique opportunity to display our capabilities,” said Director of Emergency Services/Fire Chief Eric Korhonen. “All three stations are participating and we even have a contingent from South Frontenac.”

There was also a bit of PR and recruitment on Korhonen’s mind.

“We are taking applications today,” he said. “We can always use more community support and I’d love for more individuals to apply to become members of the fire department.”

Coun. John Inglis was also in attendance but couldn’t stay long. He was engaged in the Ompah Community Centre Association elections taking place across the street.

“I pay $1 a year and I get to vote,” Inglis said. “It’s very exciting this year because we have four people running for three positions.

“That hasn’t happened for the past two years.”

For the record, Rick Morey, Betty Kelford and Elaine Moffitt won seats on the executive and will be joining Rob Harris and Stacey Couture.

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 Council,” said Coun, Vernon Hermer. “You sanctioned me for discussing (Council business) with one resident.
“Here you are presenting inaccurate information with the world.”
“We told you very carefully we did not approve,” said Coun. Denis Bedard. “I’ve had callers ask me if we’re remaking The Nutty Professor or if we’re on drugs.”
“When I see a picture of the Mayor with the chain of office (on a story) it makes it look like we endorse it,” said Coun. Gerry Martin.
After some more back and forth discussion, Higgins offered to write a letter to the editor of the paper clarifying his, and Council’s, position.
“I will clarify that this was my initiative, not Council’s,” he said.

Fire Rosters
In a report to Council, Fire Chief Eric Korhonen acknowledged that there are some concerns with the current roster of firefighters in terms of training and attendance but said “the fire roster continues to remain stable” and he has plans to address any deficiencies.
“I appreciate the roster has been deficient for five years,” he said. “I have been chief for a year and a half.
“We are attempting to make training and recruitment priorities but I’m not going to go all heavy handed on volunteers.
“I hope to have it all addressed by Dec. 31, 2017.”
He said they should be reviewing the makeup of the department.
“Currently, medical response is not a problem and that makes up about 85 per cent of our calls,” he said. “Some members don’t want to carry hose and they’re content to be first responders at accidents and that’s much of our business.”
“The Chief and the Personnel & Audit Committee are dealing with it and I’m happy to shut up about it,” said Coun. John Inglis.
“If you want to support the fire department then get on board and don’t go on a witch hunt,” said Dep. Mayor Fred Perry.

Bylaws
Council passed bylaws restricting the use of flying lanterns and changing fees and charges and changes to its municipal waste and recyclables bylaw.

Fiddlers and Friends have filled the Ompah Community Centre several times in the last few years and the appreciative audience left wanting more.  In fact the audience joined in whenever the opportunity arose and felt that they were part of the concert too.  The band has always talked about the great audience and all fun they had.  They are delighted to have the chance to return to Ompah to play a completely Canadian set of tunes.

Fiddlers and Friends love to entertain by sharing their joy of music and zany sense of fun.  They play a cheerful set of old-time fiddle tunes that has the audience clapping, toe tapping and singing along.  Fiddlers are joined by keyboard, double bass, and cello.  The irrepressible Lois Webster who makes many of her own percussion instruments and costumes, dances and keeps everyone guessing what she will do next.  Special guests will be the Ompah Community Choir.

Mark Thursday, July 20 at 7:00 on your calendar.  Admission is $10 at the door.  Following the concert, musicians and audience can mingle over refreshments.  For further information, contact Marily Seitz (613-479-2855).

Don Bates drove the Official Pace Car of Canada Day at Centennial Park in Harrowsmith.

Franny & Beebs, hosts of the popular YouTube/Facebook phenomenon In the Breezeway, showed up all the way from Cobourg to be in the parade and headline the show at Oso Beach.

Patriotic Flag Wavers signing O Canada, on top of the lookout between Palmerston and Canonto Lakes in North Frontenac!

Preparing the cookie decorating table (Sunbury)

Although rain put the damper on half of Maberly’s Pie in the Sky event, Anne Thomlison, Mary Lou Pospisil, Sue Munro and Marlene Ambler presided over the sale featuring “at least 100” (Photos - Craig Bakay and Wilma Kenny)