Photo: SLHS students were given the opportunity to safely demonstrate proper techniques for rappelling trees.

On March 4, students in the Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) – Forestry program at Sharbot Lake High School experienced this old adage first hand. Two representatives from Hydro One, Marty Little and Bob Burke, volunteered their time to speak with the students and to demonstrate proper techniques for rappelling trees. After the Hydro One demonstration, each student was then given the opportunity to safely demonstrate that he/she did indeed “learn the ropes”.

Students in the Northern Forester program, the only Forestry SHSM in the Limestone District School Board, work closely with one another and with lead teacher, Lyle Young as they take the classroom outdoors. At the present time, students have earned their first of seven certifications, chainsaw safety, and enjoy the weekly outings to the woodlot to perfect their skills. Plans are in progress for students to earn other certifications this semester, including First Aid, WHMIS, GPS navigation and Project Wild.

The SHSM Forestry Program is available to students beginning in grade 11 and provides unique opportunities for students. By completing a Specialist High Skills Major, a student earns a red seal on his/her diploma which recognizes that a student has achieved the necessary credits, skills, knowledge and sector certifications associated with a specific industry. More information is available in Student Services.

Special thanks to teacher candidate Eric Weese who organized the experience for the students.

A few months ago, enthused by some improvements to the sidewalks and roadways in the middle of the village, Arden resident Dorothy Proctor issued a challenge to her fellow Ardenites to come together and try to revitalize the village.

That led to a public meeting in November, which drew over 70 people to share ideas and plans for the future.

A follow-up meeting last week, on Thursday, February 17, drew 60 people according to Adrian O’Connell, one of the organizers.

“The turnout for the second meeting is encouraging,” O’Connell said, “and there is a bit of a concern that these meetings not become talking shops or that people go off and start doing things that overlap with things that others are doing, or that the township should be doing.”

To counter that possibility, a set of small committees has been formed to move different initiatives forward. The committees include: maps and signage (chaired by Art Dunham); clean up and property standards (Jim Duthie); coffee shop/store (Janina Fisher); and public works (Glen Matson).

A couple of projects that are aimed at enhancing the tourism potential of Arden were discussed at the meeting, including constructing a covered walking bridge and the possibility of development of a 400 + acre site off the Arden Pit Road as a recreational area. The property, which is known as the Arden Canyon, was purchased by Kennebec Township years ago, and Glen Matson has kept the idea of doing something with it ever since he was the Reeve of Kennebec. Pictures of the property were shown to those attending the meeting. It includes a picturesque gorge, hence the moniker, Arden Canyon.

Expansion of the role of the Arden and the Arts concept is also being looked at.

Terry Kennedy, the chairperson of the Kennebec Lake Association, is another of the members of what he calls “the start up group”.

“Each of the committees has picked something they will be trying to accomplish right away, to keep up the momentum,” Kennedy said.

A delegation will be going to a meeting of Central Frontenac Council next month to keep council apprised of what is being planned in the short and medium term.

The two Kenebec ward councilors, Jeff Matson and Tom Dewey, attended the meeting, as did Mayor Janet Gutowski.

Another public meeting will likely be called in June, at which time Kennedy said it might be time to form a formal steering committee for what has this far been an informal process. 

The Sharbot Lake High School Panthers Senior Girls Volleyball team lost out to Regiopolis High School 3 sets to 1 in the final match of the Kingston Area Secondary School Athletic Association (KASSAA) on Sunday, Feb. 20.

Considering the size difference in the two schools - Regiopolis is a Class AAA school with well over 1,000 students while Sharbot Lake High School has a population that is five times smaller - there was no shame in losing out in the finale of the KASSAA season and bringing home the silver.

“It's been quite a ride,” said team coach Mark Elliot. “The girls have done well. I'm really proud of them. They felt they played their best against Regi, which is all they really expect.”

This week, the team is playing against teams from smaller “A” size schools at the Eastern Ontario Secondary Schools Association Tournament in Carleton Place. The Panthers are seeded second in the six team tournament, with the school from the town of Embrun (located East of Ottawa near Russell) being the top seed. The Embrun team won the tournament last year.

“That puts the pressure on Embrun, really,” Elliott said. The Panther team is a veteran squad, with a number of girls in their fifth year at the school. “The core of the team is the same as last year’s, but the girls tell me they play a lot better as a unit than they did last year. I know they will give it their all at EOSSAA.”

The winning team at the EOSSAA tournament will go on to the provincial finals at the OFSAA tournament in the Quinte region, which starts on March 8.

There was much community interest early last summer when the Limestone District School Board’s Program and Accommodation Review Committee (PARC) process for the Sharbot Lake Family of Schools completed its work and the Board of Trustees announced that a new K-12 school would be built in Sharbot Lake by the fall of 2013.

Ever since then there has been silence from the board, publicly at least.

Behind the scenes, however, planning has proceeded, and this week Ann Goodfellow, the trustee for the northern schools, let is be known that an architect has been chosen for the project.

“Within the next month or so a design team will be appointed. The team will include the principals from Hinchinbrooke and Sharbot Lake Public Schools and Sharbot Lake High School, as well as parent reps from those schools, the architect, Roger Richard from the board office and other board staff as needed,” said Ann Goodfellow.

Goodfellow will chair the meetings, which will take place about twice a month until a preliminary design is completed. The representatives from the schools will bring comments and suggestions from their school communities to the meetings, and once the preliminary design is complete later this spring or summer, at least two public meetings will be held before the architect starts working on the final design.

“We are going to be open to all sorts of suggestions, but in the end we can only build what we have funding to build,” Goodfellow said.

The final design will undergo a detailed costing review before it is sent to the Ministry of Education for final approval, a process that will take a considerable amount of time.

The new Sharbot Lake comprehensive school will replace Sharbot Lake High and Intermediate schools, Sharbot Lake Public School, and Hinchinbrooke Public School in Parham.

Land O’Lakes Public School in Mountain Grove and Clarendon Central School in Plevna will remain open.

The new school is slated to be built on or around the current parking lot at Sharbot Lake High School, and the existing school will be demolished.

Photo: members of Arden's Line Dancing groupA group of ladies in Arden start their week by kicking up their heels every Monday morning at the Kennebec Hall - and it’s nothing new. The Arden Line Dancers have been stepping together in unison for the last 17 years.

The group was started by three transplants to the Arden community, Audrée Tompkins, Shirley Menyes and Diane Nicolson, who were looking for a bit of regular fun and fitness. The three began by first attending Beryl and Brenda Garrett’s line dancing group in Sharbot Lake. They soon tired of making the trip and decided to start their own Arden group. The Garrets came out to Arden to help the ladies get started and taught them a number of routines. The three took turns leading the Arden group until the late Rosie Wadham, who had been teaching line dancing in Florida for a number of years, took the helm and brought to the group a number of different dance routines that she perfected while down south. After Rosie passed away in 2010, Diane and Wanda Harrison, who joined the group back in 2006, have taken the lead.

When I attended the class on Feb. 7 Wanda took the group through a number of different routines. The routines are made up of about 20 different dance steps that include shuffles, vines, step digs, locks, cha-chas and polkas, the more tricky steps I am told are the jazz boxes, the lindys, fish tails and the scissors. Wanda begins each class by reviewing the individual steps and preceding each routine runs through all of the steps. Doreen Millar mans the boom box, which belts out and eclectic mix of big band oldies like the Bossa Nova, Puttin' on the Ritz, and Up a lazy River; classic pop like the Locomotion and Layla; and of course good old country tunes like Achy Breaky Heart plus a Scottish reel thrown in for good measure.

“The ladies seem to really enjoy the fitness and fun of it,” Wanda said. “It's good exercise and a really great way to start the week off. There is also a certain amount of fellowship and afterwards we usually will enjoy coffee and snacks and linger to catch up on all the local news - we usually spend as much time together after the class as we do during.”

Dancers range in age from 50 to 90 years old and each is encouraged to step at their own pace. While there is only one lone fellow in the group the ladies are in no way averse to male members and in its earlier years the group included a number of couples.

The groups welcomes new members, young and old, and each participant pays 25 cents per class to help pay costs. For those coming out for the first time Wanda recommends loose pants, rubber-soled shoes, and a loose fitting top. “Bringing water is also a good idea,” she said.

Sheila Duthie who has been attending the classes for years said, “I like the fact that the routines make you think as well as move. And if we happen to get mixed up we all have a good laugh about it.”

The Arden Line dancers meet every Monday at 9:30 am in Arden at the Kennebec hall.

Photo: buttons & axes int he hands of festival, committe members

On February 1, members of the Frontenac Heritage Festival Committee held their final pre-festival meeting to shore up this year’s plans and they have added a few more new and exciting events to this year’s roster.

Mike Procter, who will be back at the Crow Lake school house doing pioneer demonstrations and displays, will be lending out his recipe for Crow's Feet, a similar version of the popular Canadian doughnut beaver tails which will be served (for free). Visitors to Crow Lake will also be able to cook their own bannock on an outdoor fire.

Rudy Hollywood, who is organizing the first ever Heritage walk/run in Sharbot Lake, announced that the winner of the 10K run who also completes the Polar Bear Plunge, another not-to-be-missed new event this year (which to date has 30 brave souls signed up), will receive a trophy with this year’s new event mascot Heri Fest, as well as a gift certificate for dinner for two at the Fall River Pub and Grill in Maberly. For more information about the Polar Plunge contact Mark Montagano at 279-2886. For the walk/run contact Rudy Hollywood at 279-2761

One pre-festival event that has been added to the roster this year is a performance by Tafelmusik, an internationally acclaimed 20-piece orchestra that will perform at St. James Major Catholic Church in Sharbot Lake on Friday February 18 at 7pm. Admission is a freewill offering

Tickets for the following Friday’s opening breakfast where Dr. Peter Frise, a leading Canadian research scientist who has CP Rail roots in Mountain Grove will speak, will go on sale at the Township office in Sharbot Lake on Monday February 7.

Also new this year is the first ever Heritage Festival website, which is being created by David Potts, and where all entries for the festival’s photo contest will be posted:

sites.google.com/site/frontenacheritagefestival/

Photo contest submissions are welcome now, until February 18 at 5 pm. There is $200 in prize money, so don’t hesitate! Send your photos to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. To find out the photo contest rules or for more information about the schedule of events, visit the website above.

Information is also posted at centralfrontenac.com/Heritage_Festival.html

Festival buttons, which cost $5, will automatically qualify buyers for various draws throughout the three day event and can be purchased now at the Township office, NFCS, the Treasure Trunk, Community Living North Frontenac, Freshmart, Sharbot Lake Petro Can, Arden Batik, Ram’s Esso and Tip Top Dollar Shop.

Attention Local Artists! LOGO CONTEST

Also new this year, the Central Frontenac Heritage Festival Committee is looking for an official logo. Your help is needed to create a logo for the Frontenac Heritage Festival. As described by one of the organizers, “We are looking for a logo that shows something unique and interesting about the heritage of Frontenac County. At the same time, we want to emphasize the aspect of people having fun at the festival.”

It’s important to incorporate these ideas into your logo. Your artwork must be relevant to the area, and to the spirit of the festival. Above all, be creative... with your logo concept and with the artistic medium(s) used in its creation.

Please send your entry as a .jpeg file to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., with “logo contest” in the subject line. Or you can take a digital picture of your entry, burn it onto a CD, and drop it off at the Township office at 1084 Elizabeth Street in Sharbot Lake. If you have any questions, or for other arrangements, contact David Potts at the above-mentioned email address. He can also be reached by phone, at 613-279-2741 or 613-279-3200.

The winning entry will be announced in the Frontenac News. The organizers would ideally like to reveal the winner before the 2011 festival is over. So get your imaginations working and maybe your logo will be the one seen every year on all Heritage Festival signs, advertisements and memorabilia. You will, in a significant way, be contributing your own piece of heritage to our community. Discussions are taking place with regard to a prize for the winning entry and this too will be announced as soon as possible.

Best of luck to all participants!

This year’s festival is definitely gearing up to be one to remember. Join in celebrating the health, happiness and heritage of beautiful Frontenac County.

Organizers of this year’s Frontenac Heritage Festival have been busy planning some new and exciting activities for the festival, which will take place Friday February 25 to Sunday February 27 in various locations around Central and North Frontenac. Now in its 5th year, the festival attracts over 1000 visitors to the area every year and is continuing to grow.

New this year will be a combined community walk/run organized by Joan and Rudy Hollywood, which will take place on Sunday Feb 27 at 2pm. Distances will vary from 2-10 kilometres and the run will loop around the village of Sharbot Lake. Participants will pay $2 per km with a maximum cost of $20 per family and all proceeds will benefit the local food bank. For more information contact Rudy Hollywood at 279-2761 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Also new this year will be the first ever Polar Bear Plunge organized by Mark Montagano, Richard Struthers and Bill Young, which will also take place on Sunday, Feb. 27 at the docks of the Sharbot Lake Marina. Registration begins at 8:45 AM and the plunge is scheduled to take place at 10:00AM. Plungers are needed! Anyone interested can get a pledge sheet and plungers are required to amass a minimum of $40 in pledges, with all funds going to the Central Frontenac Volunteer Fire Department to purchase a Thermal Imaging Device, which is used, among other things, to locate people in burning buildings. Prizes will be awarded for the oldest and youngest plungers and also for the one who receives the most pledges. “Chicken Plungers” - i.e. those who have no interest in braving the winter waves but who still want to support the cause - can still collect pledges.

For more information contact Mark Montagano at 279-2886, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

This year’s festival will open with keynote speaker Dr. Peter Frise, a leading Canadian research scientist who has roots in Mountain Grove, and who will likely share some interesting anecdotes about his grandfather, who was employed by CP Rail there.

This year’s festival will include all of the usual favorites, including various heritage displays at Oso hall, and a Saturday night variety show followed by fireworks. Other favorite venues like the indoor and outdoor displays and demonstrations at the Crow Lake Schoolhouse will be expanding. Also returning is the amateur photo contest, which last year attracted over 70 entries.

Any individual or organization who would like in any way to contribute, participate or volunteer can contact Janet Gutowski at 374-1355, Mike Procter at 279-2572, Tom Dewey at 335-2834 and/or attend the next festival meeting, which will be held at Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake on Monday January 10 at 6:30pm.

Photo: Jillian Bandy, Katie Luffman and Molly Clow performed the song “Mean” by Taylor Swift at PCPS annual Talent Show

The top five winners at Prince Charles Public School’s 2011 talent show, which took place on June 14, will be gracing the stage again tomorrow at the school’s Panther Palooza community party and fundraiser. Close to 30 acts performed in the school gym, including a number of talented singers, dancers, instrumentalists and a couple of comedians. The event was emceed by grade 8 students, Cole Sigsworth and Neil Sorensen, and also included a bucket drumming performance by staff members that was popular with the students.

The top five finalists will be performing at Panther Palooza at 7 p.m. and will be opening for the renowned local band, Bauder Road. The community-style party offers fun for everyone and is the school’s biggest fundraiser for the parent council, which uses the money to purchase sports equipment and other important extras for the student body.

Events at Palooza will also include a delicious BBQ, a silent auction, a theme basket raffle made by students in each class, plus numerous fun activities for kids including mini-golf, a crawling maze, the wet sponge toss, free face painting and balloon animals.

Silent auction items this year include passes to the Toronto and Bomanville Zoos, Fort Henry and the Aviation Museum; an overnight stay at the Ambassador Hotel in Kingston; golf at Rivendell Golf Club; multiple gift certificates to stores and restaurants and much, much more. The school is inviting the whole community to attend this important fundraising event, whose goal is to provide students at PCPS with some of the extras they require for a well-rounded school experience.

Palooza will take place at the school on Friday, June 17 starting at 6 p.m. Admission is $3 for children (under 2 years free), $6 for adults or $10 for an entire family. Advance tickets can be purchased at the school office. Come on out and enjoy the 2011 Panther Palooza and help support your local school and community.

One day, several years ago, I was attending an event at Sharbot Lake High School.

“McVety,” I heard a girl yell out in the hallway at the top of her voice, sounding for all the world as if she was calling out to a reluctant friend to come over and help her with something.

But she wasn’t calling to a friend, she was calling out to a teacher. Sure enough Randy McVety came bounding over, not at all concerned about the lack of formality, some might say decorum, of one of his students.

All of the students at SLHS are Randy McVety’s students, whether they take a Social Studies course with him or not. The citation that came with the announcement this week that he is being honoured with the J.C. McLeod Excellence in Teaching Award, which is also known in the Limestone Board as the teacher of the year award, includes a paragraph about his central role at SLHS: “Randy is committed to the whole school community, enthusiastically participating in all school events, and often serving as organizer. He is always someone you could count on to do whatever it took to make things happen at the school and within the community. Randy McVety is the heart and soul of Sharbot Lake High School, so much so that he has been named ‘Mr. Sharbot Lake’.”

He is also being honoured for his knowledge of social studies and for the courses he has developed at SLHS.

Again, from the citation: “He is an expert in his field of teaching history, geography, native studies and senior social sciences. As the department head he shares his knowledge, expertise and resources with colleagues and works to support teachers in their own professional and personal growth … He is a long time mentor with Queen's University, helping future teachers develop. He has served with his federation for many years, and various school communities.”

The McLeod awards committee must know something about dealing with sibling rivalry, because they made sure there will be no resentment when members of the McVety family get together over the summer holidays.

While Randy McVety won the McLeod for secondary school teachers, his sister Kathy McVety-Kavanagh is the winner of the award for elementary students. She has been working as a special education co-ordinator with the board and is returning to classroom teaching next fall.

In the heat of debate on a motion that was directed at her, Frontenac County Warden Janet Gutowski announced that she will step down as warden at the end of this year.

She said that she will be doing so “mostly because being the warden of a county is a large responsibility. To be a county warden you are the head of not just one but two councils, and there is not a lot of remuneration. I have said all along that I think two years is an appropriate term. So today I am serving notice to the citizens of Frontenac County whom I serve and I was elected to serve that I will stepping down as warden at the end of December.”

Last November, Gutowski raised eyebrows, and the hackles of her fellow county council members, when she did not step down after one year as warden, as had been the tradition in Frontenac County for 147 years.

She also refused to leave when Council overwhelmingly passed a motion of non-confidence last December.

As she approached the end of her second year as warden, the question of whether she would hold on to the position until the end of this council’s term in the fall of 2014 started to be raised, and that speculation is now gone.

The announcement came out in the midst of a debate at a council meeting last Wednesday (September 18) over a motion that was aimed at restricting her activities as head of council.

The motion, moved by Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle, and seconded by South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison, called for pre-approval in the form of a resolution from council before any member of county staff or council could attend a meeting with a federal or provincial minister, and would also require that any request for such a meeting “include any meeting notes to be discussed with the minister.”

The motion came about as the result of scenario that unfolded this past summer.

At the July council meeting, a staff report about the draft county Official Plan (OP), which was presented as an information report, made reference to a short meeting on the OP that staff was trying to set up with the Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs, Linda Jeffrey, at an Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in August.

In discussing that report, objections were raised about the draft Official Plan and about the wisdom of promoting the plan to the province in its current form. A motion to receive the report about the draft OP, for information purposes only, was defeated.

By defeating the motion, several members of council thought were also clearly indicating that staff should not pursue the meeting with Minister Jeffrey.

That meeting did take place, however and Warden Gutowski gave interviews about the meeting to some media outlets, with the result that those members of council who thought they had nixed the meeting in the first place ended up finding out that it had taken place by reading about it in newspaper accounts.

Their anger spilled out at a Committee of the Whole meeting of county council in early September, leading Doyle to bring forward his motion last week.

Dennis Doyle’s motion was seemingly headed for defeat before Gutowski made her announcement.

No arguments were made in favour of the motion, and three councilors said they would not be supporting it.

Councilor John Purdon said it was “too heavy a weight to have within our procedures” and Councilor John Inglis said it was “overly restrictive and really not workable.” North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton said he would not be supporting it either.

Once she had given everyone an opportunity to speak, Gutowski said she would like to say something. She said that in her opinion the motion was directed at her personally but would hinder the ability of any future warden to carry out the responsibilities of the job. Therefore it would be helpful if Council knew what her intentions were going forward.

Gary Davison did not see how Gutowski’s announcement was relevant to the motion, and continually raised a point of order as she was speaking, saying “What has this got to do with the motion on the floor?”

Warden Gutowski waved off his protestations, saying “I have the floor now and I will speak,” and completed her statement.

The motion was defeated, and another bitter meeting of Frontenac County Council came to a merciful end soon after.

Under Frontenac County rules, only the four mayors are eligible to run for county warden. Janet Gutowski will be leaving the post and Gary Davison has indicated he will not seek the position, which he has already held on two occasions. This leaves only Dennis Doyle and Bud Clayton as potential candidates in the election for warden that will likely be held in January.

For the purposes of warden elections, there are no weighted votes. By virtue of being the mayor of the largest municipality in the county, Gary Davison has two votes on all substantive motions before the council, but not in a warden or deputy warden election. This makes a tie vote among the eight members of council a very real possibility.

In fact when Janet Gutowski was elected warden in November of 2011, it was as the result of her name being pulled out of a hat after a 4-4 vote between herself and Bud Clayton.