Photo: Central Frontenac Fire and Rescue undergo evaluation for water shuttle accreditation

On October 30, 29 Central Frontenac volunteer firefighters gathered at the former Arden Station site near Mountain Grove on Highway 7 and underwent their first-ever attempt for water tanker shuttle accreditation by Fire Protection Survey Services. According to Central Frontenac Fire Chief Mark MacDonald, who was on site acting as incident commander during the procedure, “A successful accreditation will directly improve the insurance rating for the municipality and will convert into savings on premiums for home owners’ home fire insurance”.

The two-hour test involved 30 staff and 10 vehicles. A designated pumper was set up to simulate a real response and numerous attack lines were set in place. Once the lines began to flow the team had to demonstrate that they could maintain a continuous flow of 200 gallons per minute over a continuous two-hour period. Throughout the test pumper trucks traveled to two separate water holes, each over the required 5 km designation from the fire site. One was at the Mill Pond in Arden and the other on Wilmack Road.

Suveyors Peter Rose and Mike McKenna, both of the Fire Protection Survey Services, were present conducting the test.

Fire Chief MacDonald explained, “What we are after here is an ‘equivalent to hydrant rating’ which demonstrates that we can get water here quick enough, as though we were using actual fire hydrants.” He continued, “We have been working up to this accreditation for the last three years and we want to demonstrate that we can respond in a timely manner with our equipment.”

Eight full practice sessions had taken place prior to the test, along with multiple individual station practices.

Those practices panned out for the department and at the end of the day Central Frontenac Fire and Rescue was issued full accreditation. MacDonald said, “We passed with flying colours. The surveyors were very impressed with our overall performance and teamwork and we actually had in excess of what was required.”

The accreditation will benefit residents living within an 8 km distance of any of the four fire stations in Central Frontenac, who may qualify for a reduction in their insurance premiums.

Those residents should advise their insurance providers of the accreditation, which will be listed on the Fire Protection Survey Services website (www.fpss.ca) and will also be posted on the township's website in the next few weeks.

Photo: Sharbot Lake and District Lions organized a seniors’ night to remember in Sharbot, which included a tribute to Rosemary Wadham of Arden

The annual Seniors’ Night put on by the Sharbot Lake and District Lions was another overwhelming success. The evening including musical entertainment by emcee Jim MacPherson and Gary Giller, who played a number of well-received toe-tapping pop and country favorites. Door prizes were given away throughout the evening. By far the most moving part of the evening was a video tribute put together by Peter Wadham of Arden, honouring his late wife Rosemary, who entertained the community for years as her very British comedic alter ego Rosie. Sadly, Rosemary passed away on June 21 this year.

Seniors who came out for the evening of entertainment on Oct. 27 were given a chance to laugh and remember Rosie (archive photo, left), a creative spark in the local community who spread joy and laughter far and wide and who is sorely missed by many.

The video was a compilation of Rosie's stand up routines that were performed at the annual Lions seniors' nights, and spanned a period from 1988 through 2009.

Charming, engaging and always entertaining, Rosie never failed to spread joy and laughter.

Born in Newbury, England, Rosemary was a dressmaker by profession. She emigrated to Montreal in 1963 with husband Peter and three children and moved to Ottawa in 1970, where she performed in the Ottawa Little Theatre and was a founding member of the Bytown Players in Gloucester.

In 1992 she and Peter retired to Arden where Rosemary shared her many talents with the community as treasurer of the Kennebec Lake Association from 1996-2000, as a member of the Arden Glee Club and the United Church, and as a regular performer in Mystery Theatre. She was also a talented line dancer and cross stitcher and perhaps became most loved as Rosie. She and her husband Peter were recognized as Seniors of the Year in Kennebec District in 2006.

Though she bravely battled cancer three times and had a long fight with scleroderma, Rosemary is remembered by many as “always having something positive to say”.

Photo:Terry Kennedy, Sarah Hale, Dorothy Procter, Glen Matson and councilor Gary Smith

Long-time Arden resident Dorothy Procter was floored when over 70 Arden and area residents who turned out for the Arden Revitalization Forum that took place at the Kennebec Hall on Nov.18.

“I am absolutely overwhelmed,” said Dorothy, who heads the Friends of Arden group. At 90 years of age has seen Arden drastically change over the 86 years she has spent in the community.

A few weeks ago, she got together with a few other area residents at her home to discuss the declining state of Arden and they together decided to initiate what will likely be the first of a series meetings designed to turn that around.

“We felt badly that Arden was declining and when we lost our last store recently - that was the last straw..”

The meeting, chaired by township councilor Gary Smith and facilitated by Terry Kennedy, President of the Kennebec Lake Association, began with Dorothy reminiscing about Arden’s past, when it was a thriving hamlet that once boasted eight stores, a hotel, a bank, a dentist and doctor. It was, in her words “a place that residents were extremely proud of…I know we can't go back to those days, but we have here and now enough people with smarts that we should be able to do something.”

Fifth-generation Ardenite Glen Matson agreed with Dorothy, citing other small Ontario towns that bounced back from decline and are now thriving: towns like Westport, St. Jacobs and Sparta. He also recalled the Arden of his youth and talked about the milk and cheese cooperative Arden farmers formed to benefit the entire community.

“The point I'm trying to make here is that if our aim is revitalization, we all have to come together,” he said.

And come together they did that night, sharing their ideas for a new vision for Arden. This vision included looking into the property standards act as a possible means of cleaning up some of the properties around town, erecting public washroom facilities, a community bulletin board, and historic plaques. Suggestions were also made about increasing and highlighting public parking, walking, hiking, biking and canoe routes as well as looking at ways of encouraging new businesses to the area perhaps by offering a tax break in the hopes of attracting a new store, restaurant, or coffee shop.

The second part of the forum involved looking at Arden’s existing assets. Again the list was long and included existing facilities like Kennebec hall, the Legion and recreation committee, the old church, the Glee Club, Arden's artisans and other area groups. Arden's natural features ranked high on the list, including: the Mill Pond, Kennebec Recreation Park, the natural gorge, and the 700 acre piece of land that abuts crown land at Pitt Road.

Other environmental assets that were mentioned include Arden's “dark skies”, High Falls, the railway trail, and of course the area’s abundance of wild blueberries, which Gary Smith suggested might inspire a giant blueberry sign along Highway 7.

Revitalizing existing assets was also discussed and suggestions were made to focus on the park, playground, tennis courts, and the public beach.

Ken Hook, head of the Land O'Lakes Tourist Association, also attended the meeting and made his own suggestions about how to attract tourists to the area. His ideas included winter ice hockey in the winter, cross country ski trails, and constructing a covered bridge.

The meeting then dealt with a consideration of where this whole process should begin. Suggestions were made to begin looking into available grants, organizing a community clean up day and revitalizing the park and rink.

Guests were then invited to commit themselves to one particular area of interest and were invited to leave their contact information with organizers, who planned to arrange a second meeting in the near future. Judging by the enthusiasm of the group, Dorothy’s vision of revitalizing Arden is by no means an unrealistic one. She hopes that Arden is in the initial stages of a committed, cooperative, community revitalization process and it will be interesting to see how the plan develops in the future.

Photos Left: Ms Jones' grade 6/7 class of Hinchinbrooke PS enjoy the Festival of Trees at Oso Hall

It began over a decade ago as a millennium project in 2000 and as the sole fundraising event for Villages Beautiful, an organization whose goal is to beautify six area villages including Parham, Tichborne, Sharbot Lake, Arden, Crow Lake and Mountain Grove. The event has since grown into likely the best-attended holiday event of the season in the area. This year was no exception and Central Frontenac's Festival of Trees, which took place at Oso Hall from Dec. 9-11, was another overwhelming success. It attracted hundreds of visitors to Oso hall to view the entries, enjoy live entertainment, and participate in the raffling off of the entries, which took place at the close of the festival on Saturday.

Generous visitors also made cash and food donations to the Northern Frontenac Community Services food bank. Chair of Villages Beautiful, Pearl Robinson, was astounded by the number of donations and the creative entries, and was pleased with the turnout.

The festival invites local businesses, organizations and individuals to submit entries into a number of different categories. Awards are given and raffle tickets are sold to visitors who bid on the submissions. New entertainers this year included Adrian O’Connell, the Piccadilly Pickers, Shari Talon, and Ann Banks and Redneck Boulevard.

Students from six local area schools were also bused in to enjoy the event and this year all participated in a scavenger hunt, which kept students occupied and interested in all of the submissions.

The free event is enjoyed by the entire community and is made possible by the hard work of the Villages Beautiful Committee plus a committed group of volunteers who put in many hours of work and time in allowing the event to run smoothly.

Pearl Robinson wishes to thank the Villages Beautiful Committee, all the local businesses and individuals who submitted entries and all the volunteers.

Congratulations to all who contributed and following is a list of the winning entries who placed first second and third in the seven categories.

Who took those prizes home? Submitted by the festival committee

Large Trees – The Royal Bank won 1st prize for its tree entry, Christmas in Canada, and it went home with Cheryl Parks; 2nd prize entry by Lake District Realty, Joy to the World, to Cheryl Massey; 3rd donated by North Frontenac Telephone Company, The Jewels of India, to Nancy Gaylord. North Frontenac Little Theatre’s tree, the Japanese Peace & Hope Tree to Colby Eman, and Northern Frontenac Community Services’ tree, Christmas in China, to Tangie Howes.

Small Trees - First Prize winner, entered by the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy, Christmas in Bethlehem, went to Ryleigh Rioux; 2nd prize entry by the Friday Night Ladies, Children Around the World, to Niki Putnam; 3rd prize entry by Stephen Duggan’s Law Office, A Scandinavian Christmas, to Peter Hallam; Sharbot Lake and District Lions’ Lions’ Gift of Sight Around the World, to Claire Macfarlane; the Arden Seniors’ Paradise Tree, (Holland), to Linda Wise; the Frontenac Masonic Lodge tree, Sharing the World at Christmas, to Keeley Cox; the Fit Plus tree, Wildlife Christmas, to Sarah Hale; and the Treasure Trunk’s Arctic Memories to Joyce VanAlstine.

Gingerbread Creations - First prize entry donated by Northern Connections Adult Learning Centre, Around the World in Eighty Sleighs, went home with Marshall Kiss. 2nd prize entry by The Rising Bun, Festival Wreath of Ginger, to Sue Leslie; 3rd prize by Ilona Cox, Christmas in Germany, to Abbie Kirkham; and Hilary Howes’ Jewelled Ginger Tree to S.Trower.

Wall Hangings - First prize entry, donated by Ann Howitt, Christmas in the Forest, went to Pearl Robinson; 2nd prize by Judy Versavel, The Arden Bakery, to Bill Bowick; 3rd prize by Arden Batik, Christmas Eve in Canada, to Brian West; and Sharbot Lake Country Inn donation, Water Painting – “Carousel”, to Chris Bertrim.

Wreaths - First prize entry by Clip-It Hair Salon, Peace on Earth, to Lisa Hanson; 2nd prize by Claire Macfarlane, Sew Happy to be Christmas, to Beth Munro; and 3rd by Arden TOPS, Birds of Paradise, to Pearl Killingbeck.

Anything Goes - First prize won by Central Frontenac Railway Heritage Society, The Christmas Train, went home with Britany Lewis; and 2nd prize by Parham General Store, Old Fashioned Xmas Kitchen, to Amanda Crawford.

Baskets - First prize entry by the Lakeside Readers, Reading Around the World, to Norm Landry; 2nd prize by Parham Happy Travellers, Happy Holidays, to Art Cowdy; 3rd prize by Starbucks, Christmas at Starbucks, to Angie Sergeant; Yuletide Cheer by the Royal Canadian Legion to Bill Guigue; Heavenly Chocolate by Scott’s Landscaping Supplies to Connie Coyle; and Just for Her by Jockey – Person to Person to Mary Lu Slavin.

The Christmas Dinner was won by Keith Steele. The People’s Choice Award, indicating the most popular entry, was The Christmas Train, donated by the Central Frontenac Railway Society.

It never fails that a few rowdies can turn the Halloween holiday into an unpleasant affair. That was the case in Arden on Thursday October 31 at approximately 8pm when 16-year Arden resident and proud home owner, Bob Woodcock, heard some shooting just outside of his home. Woodcock said that the shooting was followed by two loud bangs that sounded like they hit the side of his home. “I stepped outside really quick after hearing the bangs but because of the bad weather all I could see were the tail lights of a vehicle speeding away.” Bob said that once outside he noticed paint just above the garage door and after retrieving his flashlight and investigating further, found a hole in his home's vinyl siding about the size of a golf ball. Woodcock thinks that it was a paint ball gun that was fired at his home. Woodcock next called his daughter who told him he should call the police. Roughly half an hour later an OPP Constable arrived to investigate.

Woodcock said when I interviewed him at his home on November 1 that he was disappointed by the “stupidity and disrespectful nature of the perpetrators. What happened to the days when hooligans just used to use toilet paper and eggs and when no real serious damage was done? I can easily clean up a bit of toilet paper and eggs but it will hard and expensive to fix this. It took me three years to save up to put the siding on this house,” he said.

Woodcock said he was also surprised by the serious nature of the vandalism, especially the fact that the shooting was done from a moving vehicle. He also said that the consequences could have been much more serious. Woodcock is a father and the grandfather of a 14-month-old girl, whom he often baby sits at his home. Woodcock's daughter, who was present at our interview mentioned that it could have been a window that was shot out. Luckily Woodcock was alone at the time but said, “The window is right in front of the chesterfield which is where my granddaughter and I usually sit when she is here.”

Woodcock said that he wished that people would “smarten up, think twice and have more respect for other people and their property.” Anyone with any information about the Halloween shooting in Arden can contact OPP Constable Lori Lobinowich at 613-279-2195 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Villages Beautiful Festival of Trees, which starts today at the Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake and runs through to Saturday afternoon, has a western theme this year, promising to bring the same mix of Christmas decorations, music and a touch of ‘Anything Goes’ that has made it such a popular event over the years.

This is the tenth Festival of Trees (the event ran for 7 years, then took a year off and was resurrected two years ago) and in addition to about 15 trees that will be available for raffle, there are wreaths, gingerbread houses, gift baskets and more, all of which will be divvied out to the lucky winners on Saturday afternoon. Admission is a donation to the food bank.

Among the musical groups who will perform this year, the Arden Glee club will grace the stage on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m., as they have every year (Festival organizers apologize for missing the Glee Club in the schedule of events that was published in last week’s paper.)

The Sharbot Lake Line Dancers start the entertainment at 6pm on Thursday night. New to the Festival this year are Old Habits (a.k.a. Guy Cooke and Friends) on Thursday at 7pm, following the line dancers.

The Blue Skies Fiddle Orchestra kicks off the Friday afternoon schedule at 4 p.m., followed by Barb Agnew’s piano students at 5:30, Barb Agnew at 6:00 and Anne Banks and Redneck Blvd, at 6:45.

On Saturday, the resurgent Young Choristers open up the day at 10:30, followed by Young Choristers musicians at 11a.m. After lunch, Melanie Fyfe (one of the featured musicians at the Maberly Choir’s concert last week) will perform at 1 p.m. The Arden Glee Club will perform next and as is the norm, the Ardendaires will close the festival with a show that runs from 2:50 to 3:30.

The highly anticipated prize draws take place at 4 p.m.

According to Derreck Roemer, the Lost Highway project had its impetus when his filmmaking partner Neil Graham, who was riding his motorcycle on the stretch of Highway 7 from Peterborough to Ottawa, noticed that once he passed the Tweed turnoff there was very little at the side of the road except some empty shells of former restaurants, motels and gas stations.

Neil Graham knew the local area somewhat, being related to the former owner of what was then the Saylor's Inn near Arden, and the filmmakers wondered if there was a story in the question of what happened to cause this pocket of Eastern Ontario to fall on hard times when it is located in the vicinity of the growth that has characterized southern Ontario for years and years.

“There was an article in the Guardian newspaper (Guardian.co.uk) about a woman living in an old gas station on Route 66 in the United States. Neil sent it to me and said, 'look at this woman'. It made me wonder who we would find by knocking on doors on Highway 7 between Kaladar and Perth,” Derreck Roemer said in a phone interview last week.

The project was kick-started in 2009 when Roemer and Graham interviewed former Reeve and Frontenac County Warden Howard Gibbs at his now closed garage between Arden and Mountain Grove, and Insurgent Productions, Roemer and Graham's production company, recently received funding from TVO to produce an hour-long documentary by the end of 2012 for airing in 2013.

The project also includes a web site and a web forum to collect materials about the Arden region.

“As the project has developed we realized the original idea of looking at the highway between Kaladar and Perth was too broad and we have focused in on Arden,” Roemer said.

One of the elements that has piqued Insurgent Productions’ interest has been the Arden rejuvenation project through the ongoing Friends of Arden project.

The two-man film crew showed up at a meeting of Central Frontenac Council on Tuesday, November 22 to film David Dashke and Terry Kennedy from the 'Friends' as they presented an update of recent activities and future plans.

Don Amos and Maribeth Scott from Northern Frontenac Community Services (NFCS) were also a delegation at that council meeting. They presented an update of the NFCS Youth program and Neil Graham quickly turned his camera on them.

“We heard from people in Arden that all the young people are leaving the area as soon as they can and here were people who were trying to give them a reason to stay, so we ended up meeting with Don Amos the next day,” Derreck Roemer said.

At this point the shape of the Lost Highway film is evolving, according to Dereck Roemer. The plan is to structure the film around four or so individual stories, and the filmmakers are casting about for those four stories.

“We are hoping to find a young person to profile, which is what interested us about the youth program,” he said.

To learn more about the local region, Insurgent Projects has rented a house on the Henderson Road, which will serve as a base. They will be there for about a week at a time periodically throughout the next six months or so to get a feel for the local community in the different seasons.

Whether the film ends up delivering a hopeful message about Arden, a forlorn one, or some combination of the two is not yet clear, even to the filmmakers.

“We aren't coming in with a fixed message. We want to look at rural life, the issues that people face here,” he said.

Roemer and Graham made a movie about the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto a few years ago. The Gemini award-winning documentary was about the renovations to what had been a rundown hotel in the Parkdale region of Toronto. It ended up portraying in some detail the lives of the people who had been living in the hotel and were displaced as it was modernized.

It will be interesting to see how the lives of Ardenites are portrayed in “Lost Highway”.

For more information visit: thelosthighway.ca/the-film

NFCS report

Don Amos and May Beth Scott of Northern Frontenac Community Services presented a summary of how the $10,000 funding they received from the township was spent over the past year.

The funds were spread between at Amos described as a number of successful NFCS programs that included the Teen Centre at The Sharbot Lake Medical Centre, after school programs at three area schools, youth dances and family movie nights, the GO Guys and Go Girls programs, a video dance that attracted over 90 youth from the surrounding area, the summer boys camp program that ran for the first time this year and the publication of the annual Recreation Guide.

He explained how by partnering with the township NFCS has been successful in receiving a number of grants this past year: an $86,000 Trillium grant, a $15,000 grant from the United Church of Canada and a $18,000 grant form the United Way which will be used to higher three new staff members to their team.

“There is definitely more work that needs to be done but we are confident that by partnering with the township will help continue to move forward by providing more opportunities our youth in the area,” he said.

Cameras roll for Friends of Arden

Terry Kennedy and David Daski updated their groups work to date, all the while being filmed by independent film makers who are making a film titled Lost Highway. The film is about the stretch of Highway 7 that includes Arden.

David Daski reviewed the results from the First Impressions findings after which Kennedy provided council with a detailed list of the 21 projects, some of which have been completed and others that they group aim to complete in the near future. Other ideas the group are considering include the relocation of the entrance to Recreation Park, constructing a bandshell type of structure at the park, forming a working events group, mobilizing the over 30 independent businesses in the area and more.

Kennedy finished the presentation by making four requests ofcouncil: 1.the opportunity to discuss with council Township plans for maintaining and improving infrastructure in the Arden area over the next 3-5 years; 2. Council’s permission for the Friends of Arden to do some work on their own, including putting up signage to as part of their the trails initiatives across township lands; 3. The provision of gravel to stabilize the new access to the Look Out from recreation park and lastly, a partnering relationship in the groups application for funding opportunities.

Arden Playground

Construction of a new playground for Arden is underway and an additional $10,000 grant was received from Ontario Hydro for the project bringing the total cost to $30,000. The new playground which will include a extensive climbing structure is set to be completed by May 2012.

by Jeff Green and Julie Druker

CF Council finalizes budget

Local budget up 4.25%, but education and county rates will lower increase to rate of inflation

As Central Frontenac Council met on Tuesday night to finalize their 2012 budget, they received some good news.

When the final accounting was done for 2011, it turns out that $300,000 that was collected from ratepayers had not been spent.

Council decided to put $100,000 of the money towards a fund for a new fire hall in Parham, which is something they had already been planning to do. By transferring the money from the 2011 surplus, however, they do not have to raise those funds from ratepayers in 2012, cutting $100,000 from 2012 taxation. Of the other $200,000, $75,000 will go to cost overruns in the winter maintenance budget stemming from an increase in salt/sand costs this winter. The remaining $125,000 will be put into the township's general reserve funds, which have been depleted in recent years.

Going into the meeting, the 2012 total to be raised in taxation stood at $5.725 million, an increase of over $300,000 from the $5.4 million that was collected in 2011.

With the $100,000 savings, the 2012 total now stands at $5.625 million, an increase of $225,000 (4.25%) over 2011.

Council made no further cuts to the budget.

When the 4.25% increase in local taxes is combined with education taxes and county taxes, the net effect on ratepayers will be an increase in the 2% to 3%

range, an increase that is in line with inflation and increases in property values due to growth.

Given that the first draft of the budget envisioned a 15% increase in local taxation, the outcome of the budget process will come as a relief to beleaguered ratepayers.

Most of the cuts to the budget came from the roads and fire departments. $210,000 in savings came from a decision to defer the purchase of a tandem truck for another year, and the curtailing of a planned road construction project on the Arden Road.

The budget includes only limited road construction for 2012, which was also the case in 2011.

Waste management bylaw approved -

A bylaw that details all of the changes to the waste management system, including the clear bag system, was presented to council. Among the highlights of the bylaw are the clear bag system and tipping fees for bulk waste. The proposed bylaw is posted on the township website.

Council is slated to approve the bylaw at their February 28 meeting.

Change to staff benefits plan deferred -

CAO Shawn Trépanier brought forward a proposal that the employee benefits program be transferred to a Great West Life plan, pulling Central Frontenac out of a pooled plan with Frontenac County.

“What this proposal does is provide extended dental care, an enhanced health plan and a new short-term disability plan to add to the current long-term disability plan,” said Trépanier. “At the same time it will bring a rate reduction of $18,000 to the township and $6,300 to the employees.”

Mayor Gutowski wondered how it is that by going to a smaller pool of employees the costs could go down while benefits increase.

“I think we should defer this and investigate a bit further,” she said.

Councilor John Purdon asked if Trépanier had looked at the possibility of joining a pooled program that is available through the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

Trépanier said he would make the requested inquiries and bring the matter back to council at a later date.

Signage project in Arden -

The friends of Arden are planning to put up a number of new signs, including a 10' by 12' sign at Highway 7 and Arden Road, an 8' by 6' sign at the Millpond in the hub of the hamlet, and three 4' x 8' panels to be used to consolidate the many contractor signs on trees throughout Arden in central locations.

A number of smaller signs are planed as well.

The Friends requested that township staff be tasked with looking for grant money to make the signage project a reality.

Councilor Frances Smith wondered about the wording of the request. “The way it reads it is only the township who is taking responsibility for this. I think we should add some language about the Friends of Arden working on these grant applications as well,” she said.

“The Friends of Arden have done all the work required to get this project to this point,” said Mayor Gutowski. “The grant writing part is only a small part, that they are asking for our help with.”

Council agreed to task township staff with seeking grants for the Arden signage project.

Photo: Queensborough/Arden Exchange at Kennebec Hall

Friends of Arden Chair, Terry Kennedy, said it best when he stated, “Often visitors to your home have the freshest eyes to determine both its assets and its flaws.”

It was with that in mind that members of the Friends of Arden group entered into the First Impressions Community Exchange (FICE), an economic development exchange program sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). FICE partners similar communities who are looking for input into reaching their economic development goals.

Arden was partnered with the community of Queensborough, which is located north of Highway 7 just west of Tweed, and on November 3, members of the Queensborough contingent, along with OMAFRA field staff Karen Fisher and Katie Nolan, presented their Arden findings at a well-attended community meeting at the Kennebec hall.

A six-member Queensborough team, led by

Elaine Kapusta and Paula Harding, had made an incognito visit to Arden on September 14. All in all they were impressed by the natural beauty and the quaintness of the village; its public beach and park and waterfront parkette; its extra friendly and very informative postmaster; the impressive artisans' shops (though they were closed on the day the team came); and its basic infrastructure, like the Kennebec hall and its bulletin board listing all of the events that take place there, the Legion, and library. That being said, the group also pointed out a number of areas that they felt could use some attention. They first mentioned the plethora of scattered tree-mounted business signs they passed when they entered the village from Highway 7 and suggested gathering the signs in one central location.

They loved the Arden sign in the village and would have liked to have seen it instead of the mundane one on Highway 7.They found the village's park entrance confusing and suggested more tourist signage to determine the locations of its public spaces. Redoing some of the public facilities like the park benches and picnic tables was suggested, along with sprucing up the public outhouse at the park. They commented on the lack of advertising for festivals and events in the village and also the general lack of information available on the Internet. While they loved the environmental Bucket List displayed at a private home in the village, they could not find any recycling bins nearby and also commented on the dead flowers in the planters at the south end of the village.

As far as business potential they listed a possible cafe, or store to serve visitors and also suggested a tourist information booth. They loved the old stone church which they understood would require a “very creative plan” to utilize to its full advantage.

Many times during the presentation Paula Harding spoke of the potential that the natural beauty of the village has to offer. “You really have it all here, the village is a gem, a gold mine. You have the potential here but we just need to know what is going on and when it's going on.”

Ludwik Kapusta weighed in a few times on the importance of not trying to do everything all at once. “Unity of purpose is the most important thing to have and I would suggest deciding long term what exactly you are trying to achieve here and focus on a few things to get things moving in that direction and use those as building blocks,” he said.

Katie Nolan of OMAFRA, who is working with the Arden group, said “The beauty of this exchange program is that whether you are looking for some quick, achievable solutions to spruce up the community or longer term, deeper economic goals, there is always something that will come out of this exchange.“ She added that the process can also be followed up with other programs that OMAFRA offers, like the Business Retention and Expansion Survey and other community economic analysis and downtown revitalization resources and tools.

“We're here to support communities in this process and help to facilitate any actions that might come out of this to attain your goals,” Nolan said.

Terry Kennedy thanked the Queensborough team and looked forward to addressing the issues raised at the meeting. The Friends of Arden were also looking forward to presenting their findings about their partner village at the second half of the exchange, which was to take place in Queensborough on Tuesday, November 8.