Usually, when all the stacking chairs at a North Frontenac Council meeting are filled with warm bodies, it means somebody’s getting an award.

But the crowd at last Friday’s meeting was in no mood to give anybody an award. They were there to voice their concerns about the Township’s new Zoning Bylaw.

Zoning Bylaw discussions, as a rule, don’t tend to draw crowds. But two aspects of this one would seem to have created considerable concerns — commercial forestry operations and Areas of Natural or Scientific Interest (ANSI).

In particular, the ANSIs in North Frontenac seemed to draw the most interest.

Some ANSIs date back as far as the late ’60s and were created by the Province of Ontario under the MNR to protect significant areas of biological or geological interest, including old growth forests, unique flora and fauna, species at risk, fossils, mineral deposits or geological structures. Perhaps the best known is the Niagara Escarpment and one new one under consideration is the Marble Lake Stromatolites- arguably the oldest fossils on the planet. ANSIs designated as “provincial” are considered among the best examples of certain aspects in the province.

“We’re not even close to passing the bylaw yet,” Mayor Ron Higgins told the crowd. “This is my No. 1 priority.

“I’m on it every day.”

He said there’s another public meeting on the agenda, likely near the end of May “but we’re not near ready yet.”

In a report to the Township, Megan Rueckwald, manager of community planning, County of Frontenac said there are currently eight confirmed ANSIs within the Township and three more ‘candidate ANSIs.

The confirmed ANSIs are:

The Plevna Cedar Swamp (life sciences, regional)

Snow Road Station Esker (earth sciences, provincial)

Hungry Lake Barrens (life sciences, provincial)

Within the Madawaska Highlands Land Use Plan:

Palmerston Lake (life sciences, regional)

Evergreen Mountain (life sciences, regional)

Summit Lake (life sciences, provincial)

Fortune-Schooner (life sciences, provincial)

Centennial Lake (life science, provincial)

The candidate ANSIs are:

Bishop Corners Schoolhouse (earth sciences, provincial)

Ore Chimney Mine (earth sciences, provincial)

Marble Lake Stromatolites (earth sciences, provincial)

Most of the ANSI lands are on Crown Land, however, the Plevna Cedar Swamp, Snow Road Station Esker, Palmerston Lake and Fortune-Schooner overlap with privately-owned land.

And that’s where the points of contention come in.

“When I read it, it clearly indicates the ANSI (designation) totally applies to Crown Land,” said Coun. Vernon Hermer. “My opinion is that they’ve (MNR) made mapping mistakes and they don’t want to appear foolish.

“That’s why they’re stonewalling.”

“According to the map, it applies to Crown Land, not private land,” said Higgins. “So we’re contesting it.”

“We’ve had like 18 instances of invasive species, gypsy moths being one example,” said Dep. Mayor Fred Perry. “How do we know these things are still there?”

Being designated and Environmental Protection zones doesn’t in itself preclude development in these areas but it does require some studies that wouldn’t necessarily be required in other zones (at a cost of $2,000-$5,000). Also, certain activities (mining, lumbering, hunting) may be restricted depending on what’s being protected in the ANSI.

“And, if you remove the EP in the Zoning Bylaw, a study still has to be done because of the Township and County Official Plan requirements,” said Rueckwald.

The Palmerston Lake ANSI seems to be garnering the most attention. Among the features being protected are a rare form of orchid, and a rare moss, a Great Blue Heron colony, nesting ravens and calcareous-based hardwoods.

At first glance, the smoking bylaw North Frontenac Council passed at its regular meeting last Friday in Plevna seemed a lot more ominous than it actually turns out to be.

For example, one section contains the phrase: “No person shall, smoke or vape within 20 metres of any point on the perimeter of the outdoor grounds of a community recreational facility and public areas.”

Now if you interpret that to mean the property lines of Township facilities, you might conclude that the bylaw extends into private property. For example, in the case of Barrie Hall, that would mean extending across Hwy 41, into Addington Highlands Township and onto the home of Addington Highlands Reeve Henry Hogg. It would also mean that in some cases, it would extend into Crown Lands (for example some boat launches).

But that’s not the intension, Clerk/Planning Manager Tara Mieske said Tuesday in an interview.

“It only pertains to Township-owned facilities and property,” she said. “The bylaw was updated to come into line with the updated Smoke-Free Ontario Act, which now includes cannabis and the bylaw is designed to reflect that.”

This means smoking is restricted to 9 metres from the entrance to a Township building and 20 metres from the ‘perimeter’ of a children’s playground, sporting area or recreational facility, but it doesn’t extend past the Township-owned property, she said.

“This includes the ballfield and tennis courts in Cloyne but not Township beaches and boat launches, or things that don’t have a roof like waste sites,” she said.

It also doesn’t include things like the Township garages and municipal office (although the 9 metres from the entrance still applies), she said.

Technically, the 20 metres doesn’t include fire halls but in some cases (notably Ompah and Snow Road) the fire halls are attached or adjacent to recreational halls and/or libraries where the 20-metre restriction does apply.

One other unclear aspect of the bylaw is what constitutes smoking.

“Smoke and Smoking includes carrying or holding of a lighted tobacco product, a lighted cannabis product, an activated electronic cigarette, or a lighted or heated water pipe,” would seem to prohibit the First Nation smudging ceremony, common at Powwows and other gatherings.

Mieske said that hadn’t been considered in the wording of the bylaw and she’d research the matter before bringing a report to Council.

• • •

On March 26, Mayor Ron Higgins sent an email to Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith asking about Central’s plans to fix potholes on Road 509 and Ardoch Road.

“How’d you make out?” said Dep. Mayor Fred Perry.

“You saw her response,” said Higgins.

“Although they did do some work,” said Coun. Gerry Martin.

“I didn’t agree with this action at all,” said Coun. John Inglis. “It was unnecessary and the tone wsas insulting.”

For the record, here are the two emails.

From Higgins to Smith:

“Frances, I was asked by Council to contact you about the road condition of 509 (near Ardoch Road) and 2-3 bad spots on Ardoch Road. We have been getting a number of residents asking if we knew what Central Frontenac was considering with regards to repair. They are concerned about vehicle damage due to bad road conditions.

“Would it be possible to provide us with any plans your Township has in regards to this issue?”

Smith’s response:

“Good morning Ron. I think it is the swamp on the flat that you are talking about. We are quite aware of it and as soon as the thaw permits, we will be dealing with it.”

• • •

With about a dozen members of the public in attendance at the meeting, Mayor Ron Higgins asked for a motion to move the public question period up on the agenda so that those members of the public who wished to could comment on the question of ANSIs (Area of Natural or Scientific Interest) in North Frontenac’s Zoning Bylaw could be heard.

Only Coun. Wayne Good voted against the measure.

Later in the meeting, Council voted to end the restriction that a public question period only be permitted if the Council meeting takes under three hours.

North’s meetings commonly exceed three hours. By comparison, Central and South meetings rarely exceed two hours and South has one or two meetings a year under a half hour.

• • •

In response to Kerry Skipper’s request for a Pickleball court in Cloyne, Coun. Fred Fowler challenged Dep. Mayor Fred Perry to the first game.

Fowler declined to offer Perry some sort of handicap even though Perry recently had surgery on his leg.

Pickleball is a racquet sport combining elements of badminton, tennis and ping pong using a whiffleball of some sort.

North Frontenac Township is recruiting for it fire department.

“We have banners up in the municipality and hopefully we’ll get some response,” said Eric Korhonen, director of emergency services/fire chief.

While Korhonen has no idea how much response he will get, he would like to add about 10 new firefighters per station (Snow Road, Ompah and Plevna; the department also has a joint operation with Addington Highlands in Cloyne) or 30 overall. But, he recognizes that goal is more long-term.

“Realistically, we’ll probably add a handful at a time,” he said.

Prospective applicants are asked to send an email to the chief (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) expressing interest. From there, there will be an application interview, basic medical requirement and a driver’s abstract.

“Then you start training,” he said.

New firefighters receive a rural firefighters course, first aid, CPR and defibrillator training. Once every four months, there is a mandatory training session as well.

There is weekend involvement but Korhonen said “as a department, we try to be flexible, such as training on weekends so students can attend their classes during the week.”

Korhonen said there’s no cause for alarm at the moment but they do need some more people.

“Our roster is just not where it should be,” he said. “We have sufficient people to respond but people have other lives outside the department and we have to be able to cover for this.”

For Korhonen, the biggest reward of the job is “to protect your community and the people you’ve grown up with.

“When people need us, it’s at a time when they’re really down and really need us.”

There are other rewards as well, he said.

“We’re also teaching you a skill as a young person that you can easily transfer to the big city,” he said. “Plus firefighting is a brotherhood and the camaraderie is a big part of it.

“It’s a family and as you make a commitment to them and they’ll make a commitment to you.”

There’s also a lot of gratification when you help somebody that really needs it, he said.

“And let’s face it, lights and sirens are a rush.”

The 4th annual Telus Ride For Dad raised about $8,000 for the fight against prostrate cancer Saturday at the Snow Road Snowmobile.

Awhile back, organizer Brandon Crain heard about a motorcycle Ride For Dad on the radio.

“I don’t have any personal connection to the fight against prostrate cancer, I just thought it would be a good thing to do,” he said. “It’s just a good reason to get out and ride.”

“He sucked me into it,” said co-organizer Shelby Knight.

The ride itself ran from the clubhouse, up to Wilbur, across to Dalhousie Lake, around through McDonalds Corners and back to the clubhouse for lunch.

“We were going to go to Lanark but there just isn’t enough snow on that part of the trail for this many machines,” Crain said. “You need at least two feet of snow and it didn’t have it.”

The run didn’t just include snowmobiles.

Although they couldn’t go on the trail in the their enclosed, heated 4x4, Bob Olmstead and Janet Rhyndress still managed to participate.

“We’ll ride the roads,” Olmstead said. “We’ve managed to get about $2,300 in pledges.”

Even those who didn’t get pledges managed to participate through the Slap-Down-a-$20 campaign.

If you’d still like to contribute, you can do so by calling Crain at 613-277-0092.

On the evening of Thursday December 14th Joey Wright and Al Tuck will be performing an intimate concert of song and story telling. The concert will be held at the Snow Road community hall at 7:00pm.

In June 2013, Tuck's studio album Stranger at the Wake was longlisted for the 2013 Polaris Music Prize. "Fair Country" is a mix of original songs and co-writes with poet Alex Rettie; and covers, was released in 2016. December 2016 saw the release of a tribute album, featuring 15 of Tuck's songs, performed by 15 of his musical friends, and produced by Adam Gallant of Charlottetown, PEI.

Joey Wright is a Juno-nominated songwriter, composer and performer from Toronto/Elphin. Joey is well known for his lyrical and inspired guitar and mandolin playing. As the eagerly anticipated follow up to Hatch, 2017’s Country, Music takes us further down the road on Joey Wright’s musical journey.

Al and Joey will be having a good time keeping the event fun and informal and Al will surely be playing some songs by the great Gene Maclellan.

Snow Road author Joelle Hubner-McLean was at the Snow Road Community Hall Saturday to sign copies of her novel Corvus & Me: The Indigenous Spirit, the third in her Corvus & Me series.
“In this latest one, the protagonist, Janine, along with Corvus (the Crow) and Right Whisper, struggle to preserve the forest and save it from the evil Phantom Faeron,” she said.
Hubner-McLean, a former teacher with a background in indigenous studies, said the series is “semi-autobiographical” and came from an incident one winter in her youth.
“I was looking at a tree and saw a face in it,” she said.

She said there is a lot of the spirit world, based on Native studies, and it’s “full of metaphors.”
“There are a lot of messages in there that reflect on adult people that teachers have to go through,” she said.
For example, she said many of the metaphors relate to the recent struggles the Dakota peoples have gone through trying to protect the watersheds from the “disastrous consequences” of a pipeline proposal.
Some of the struggles Janine goes through are based on her own childhood, she said.

“I came from France at a young age and growing up here, there were language barriers,” she said. “I was bullied because of them.”
So, she wanted to write for young adults to perhaps help them along. But she also wanted to do it in a certain way.
“There are no pictures in the book,” she said. “Children will have to come up with their own images through their imagination.
“That may be generational because we didn’t have Google (growing up).”

Corvus is Latin for crow or raven and when asked if she has a spirit animal connection to the birds, she said “yes and no”.
“I seem to be close to them in real life. The crows seem to be on my right side in intellectual situations and on my left in emotional situations, such as a death in the family.”

Hubner-McLean’s books can be ordered through her website corvusandme.com and ravenswoodpublishing.com.

It was standing room only at the former schoolhouse, now know as the Snow Road Community Centre on Saturday afternoon (June 17)

Gerry Lichty, President of the Community Centre, was the Master of Ceremonies.

The building was originally constructed in 1896. The local township, South Palmerston, provided the local school trustees with a debenture for $400 to cover the cost of the new building with the terms of repayment of $100 per annum with 6% interest. The school proved to be a wise investment wit attendance of up to 50 students a year. At times it was so busy that desks frequently did dual or triple duty. All this under the supervision of only one teacher. The building served serves as the local school until 1966, when it was decided to bus both the elementary and high school students to Sharbot Lake.

In 1976 a group of local citizens decided that the old schoolhouse should be preserved for posterity. On Oct. 20Th 1977 the “Happy Gang Senior’s Club” was established. Over the next three years an addition was dded to the back of the building to house the kitchen and washroom facilities and the meeting hall portion of the building was insulated, panelled, and carpeted. After many months of hard work and sacrifices it opened on august 9th, 1980 and almost 300 people attended the opening ceremony. The building became the focal point for local activities, meetings and entertainment. The school bell, which had been purchased by the Gemmill family at auction in 1966 when the school was closed, was donated back as part of the refurbishment.

Over the next 30 years or so, through good times and bad, even when the hall was much less active, a core group of volunteers maintained the facility. A few years ago $8,000 was raised through fund raising and with an additional 1,000 hours of volunteer labour the Township of North Frontenac, the hall was upgraded again. Corey Klatt, with the township of North Frontenac guided the volunteers through the process and helped see the dream through to reality. Thanks to everyone, including the Frontenac County Schools museum who created various displays and artifacts go that we have an enhanced appreiation of the history of the Snow Road settlement.

By 2015 use of the building had increased so significantly that major changes were needed again. With the help of the Federal government through their Canada150 program and generous assistance and wisdom of the Township of North Frontenac, the community came together once again to undertake the following activities: replacement of all he seating with new comfortable padded chairs; the addition of a heat pump to improve heating and provide air-conditioning; the construction of a new entrance to improve access and increase usable interior space;  the complete renovation of the kitchen facilities; and the refurbishment of the existing interior overhead sign. The facility has also been re-named the Snow Road Community Centre (it has been officially known as the South Palmerston Community Centre until now).

Walter Gemmil brought everyone together for the ceremony on Saturday by ringing the bell that he donated back to the centre so many years ago. Sharon Dowdall did a fantastic job and presentation about the history of the one room schoolhouse. Mayor Ron Higgins gave a speech. Wonderful music as provided by Walter Cameron and his partner Marilyn, who is a fantastic singer, as well as Eric Labelle, Eddie Ashton, Mark Hannah and Kevin Topping.

Olive Allen, Harriet Riddell, Ron Higgins and Eva Webster cut the ribbon. And there was cake of course, and cold drinks and coffee and tea.

It was a wonderful and interesting afternoon.

Stephen Goodberry aka Elvis - aka Neil Diamond - aka Roy Orbison entertained a full crowd at the snowmobile clubhouse. The event was hosted by the Snow Road Community Centre and drew fans from as far away as Oshawa. Stephen was accompanied by his talented wife Debra and together they provided an excellent show with their vocal talents and their bantering interaction. They brought the crowd to their feet in an ovation and were gracious enough to do several encores. Thank you Stephen and Debra on behalf of the Snow Road Community Centre. Unfortunately the camera did not catch all the great "moves" in that leather suit.

One dedicated and long-time fan of "everything and anything Elvis" was absolutely thrilled with the performance.  Pearl Killingbeck received a souvenir scarf when "Elvis" did a walkabout in the audience and received a warm hug from her idol.   Plus she had the opportunity to enjoy some personal chat time with him at the end of the show along with her friends Olive Allan and Harriet Riddell.   

The music committee knows this will be a hard act to follow but are certain that Henry Norwood is up to the challenge. Join us at the Community Centre on Thursday, February 16th for another great evening of music.  Call 613-278-0958 for tickets.

Need one last opportunity to drive up the 509 before Christmas?

The combined open houses at Mariclaro (located on Road 509 just north of the Mississippi Bridge) and Back Forty Cheese (located a few hundred metres down the Gully Road) feature fine handmade Christmas gift options.

Mariclaro will be featuring its full line of bags, purses, clutches, wallets and more all made from top quality reclaimed materials, including many pieces from the Air Canada Collection,  a line of handcrafted items made from re-purposed Air Canada seat covers that was very successful at the recent  One of a Kind Craft Show in Toronto. Susie Osler, a ceramic artist who lives and works near Mablerly will also be showing at Mariclaro. She makes colourful vases and containers in unorthodox shapes, glazed in a very painterly way. She may also have some samples of a new project she has taken on this fall, one that she calls Objects for the hand and heart, unglazed clay objects that are, in the words of her wesbsite “made to be held and explored through touch and as objects of contemplation.” These items are all about curves and smooth surfaces, some resembling found objects such as animal bones or smooth rocks that can be found on old farm properties throughout the region.

At Back Forty Cheese, Jeff Fenwick will have a selection of holiday sheeps milk cheeses for sampling and purchase as well Berkshire Pork and gift certificates. Jenna Rose, the textile studio of Jenna Fenwick, occupies the loft above the cheese factory. Jenna is also just back from the One of a Kind Show, and she will have a selection of work available, including her Etsy award nominated Weekender bags and newly introduced Journey Bag. She will also have hand printed pouches, tea towels, hand kerchiefs and more.

Both studios will be open from 10-4 on Saturday, December 17th. For more information, contact Mariclaro at 613-278-1631 or Back Forty Artisan Cheese at 613-278-7011.

On May 1, the Snow Road Snowmobile Club hosted its annual Landowner and Volunteer Appreciation gathering at the Timber Run Golf Course in Lanark. Concerns had been expressed by a number of landowners related to Bill 100 and its potential impact on their properties that have snowmobile trails. A presentation was made by Scott Buckley, Governor of OFSC District 1 and Ruth Wark, President of Snow Road Snowmobile Club who responded to questions and assured landowners that snowmobile clubs do not want easements across their properties but fully intend to maintain their current agreements and relationships. In fact, the land use form has been updated to include a statement to this effect, and many landowners renewed their agreement for continued use of the trails on their properties. There has been mutual co-operation and respect between the landowners and the snowmobile clubs in this area for over 40 years. The club is very appreciative of the trails across private property, which allow for a great network across the scenic landscapes in Lanark and Frontenac Counties.

On April 30 Ruth Wark and her crew of volunteers at the snowmobile club presented a cheque to representatives from the Perth branch of the Canadian Cancer Society to support research, programming and prevention in the fight against melanoma. The club held a fundraising breakfast for the cause and after all the pledges were in, the final total raised was $1466. President Derrick Dixon and fundraising manager Jessica Roback of the Perth CCS received the cheque and conveyed their thanks for the club's support.