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Last Friday’s North Frontenac Township Council meeting began with a definite air of surrealism.

Before entering the Council chambers, everyone, councillors and staff included, was led by firefighter Robert Rutherford, one at a time, to Geoff Culp and Marc Guilbault, who asked questions (have you been out of the country, have a sore throat, etc) and took people’s temperatures. (The reporter’s temp was 36.5 C.)

Once screened, it was inside to a skeleton Council consisting of Mayor Ron Higgins, Coun. Fred Perry and Wayne Good. Coun. Fred Fowler arrived 20 minutes late to complete a quorum. Dep. Mayor Gerry Martin along with Coun. John Inglis and Vernon Hermer were advised not to attend due to underlying medical conditions.

Friday was actually two meetings, the first of which was a public meeting to present the 2020 budget.

“We have continued to maintain a great fiscal outlook for the Township with healthy reserves, fiscal management and priority setting based on our strategic plan,” Higgins said in his opening remarks. “I would like to thank Council and management for their continued commitment and management of our fiscal responsibility. That commitment and our healthy reserves has allowed us to keep our annual levy at, or close to, the annual consumer price index and avoids higher than necessary taxation. Doing so has not been easy based on the continued level of Provincial and Federal policies that at times puts a huge strain on how a municipality can respond and sustain our municipal responsibilities.”

For the record, the 2020 budget is set at $6,197,558 to be raised in taxation or a 3.09 per cent increase over 2019’s $6,001,535.

“This has gotten right out of hand,” said Herbert Kent, when the Mayor asked for comments from the public (Kent was the lone member of the public who attended). “Our businesses can’t handle it.”

Once the budget was passed into law, the regular meeting continued.

Higgins told Council that on March 17, he was part of a conference call with several other heads of council and Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark.

“The Minister told us that a bill has been passed that will allow us to hold electronic meetings,” Higgins said. “Everybody knows our bandwidth in NF isn’t that great.”

“Another push for better internet,” said Perry.

“How will the public be able to listen in?” said Fowler.

Higgins said that all that would have to be determined.

“We’ll have a meeting with staff after this meeting to discuss what we need to go about this,” Higgins said. “If we can’t get it done soon, we’ll probably have to cancel the April meeting.”

CAO Cheryl Robson they did have funds to potentially upgrade the computer systems.

“We’ll see what we need to buy.”

One aspect of such a system would be that the public must be able to track it online and likely all votes would have to be recorded votes.

 

• • •

Council and committee members remuneration figures for 2019 were released, including mileage, conference expenses, training and office expenses.

Coun. Fred Fowler received $22,310.15; Coun. Wayne Good — $18,179.74; Mayor Ron Higgins — $28,561.54; Coun. Vernon Hermer — $19,181.83; Coun. John Inglis — $20,935.94; Coun. Gerry Martin — $19,610.94; Dep. Mayor Fred Perry — $23,281.09.

 

• • •

Coun. agreed to draft a letter signed by the Mayor and Coun. John Inglis (Economic Development Task Force)to present to a potential private donor for a substantial amount of funds towards the building to house the donated Fred Lossing telescope at the North Frontenac Star Gazing Pad near Fernleigh.

“It was advised that it may be helpful to offer a possible large donor an opportunity to have the potential building named after him/her . . . and a plaque be mounted on the building advising same,” said a report from the EDTV.

Published in NORTH FRONTENAC

North Frontenac Council sharpened up its red pencils Friday morning and spent the entire day hammering out its 2020 budget, which should be officially passed in bylaw at the March 20 Council meeting.

They started out looking at a 2.77 per cent levy increase or ($166,648).

But there were a few things Council wanted to add so they started out cutting a few things to make room.

First to go was a $3,000 line item for new Council chairs.

“If we’re going to trim the budget, that seems like a good place to start,” said Dep. Mayor Gerry Martin.

Next to go was $1,025 for a proposed Kaladar/Barrie Joint Fire Department Audit that went down in a 6-1 vote that prompted Mayor Ron Higgins to quip “I guess I’m all alone (in wanting this).”

The Septic Re-inspection program budget was cut by $5,000 as well as $20,000 added as revenue for Trailer invoices.

Council then added $3,500 to the budget for a volunteer appreciation dinner and $10,000 to a revamped Community Grant program. A further $7,500 was added for a dynamic speed sign and $20,000 for grinding of materials at the waste sites. They also added $5,400 for funding of Rural Frontenac Community Services and $2,00 to add pickle ball lines to the tennis courts in Cloyne.

As evening approached, Treasurer Kelly Watkins calculated that they “ended the day with a $186,023 levy increase or a 3.09 per cent increase.”

Higgins also noted an increase in roads spending of $63,409 and expressed surprise that there was very little discussion about it.

“We got the fewest questions about the biggest budget item,” he said.

In the never-got-off the ground category, a suggested $10,000 to install a second entrance to the Sky Pad observation facility wasn’t approved, to which Coun. Vernon Hermer quipped: “We should donate that to Central Frontenac so they can fix up Ardoch Road.”

While there was some discussion concerning what the Township should do about seniors housing, it was decided not to go ahead with anything just yet and Council directed its two County Council reps, Higgins and Martin to inquire if the County might let North Frontenac use funding earmarked for senior housing to use it to attract a retirement residence builder.

One other suggestion that had been floated was the possibility of the Township building a float for the Northbrook and/or North Frontenac Santa Claus Parades. That sort of died on the drawing board when Coun. John Inglis observed: “A thousand dollars donation means I gotta sit on a float? No, I’m not doing that.”

Published in NORTH FRONTENAC

In the early ’70s, there was no fire protection in Barrie Township. Around 1972, Barrie purchased fire protection.

In 1990 the Fire Marshall’s office conducted a survey and a new department, the Kaladar-Barrie Fire Department was formed.

In 1998, municipal amalgamations took place but the Kaladar-Barrie Fire Department remained the same.

This past year, Loomex Training and Consulting conducted a North Frontenac Fire Review, an independent study on the level of fire service in Ward 1, as compared to Wards 2 and 3.

Last Friday, the Council of Addington Highlands met with their counterparts in North Frontenac in Plevna to discuss the results and recommendations of the study.

The study concluded that the level of service in the three North Frontenac Wards is very similar in the way they respond, the training standards, the challenge of recruitment and retention, the infrastructure and the daily operations.

“There is a difference, however, in how the departments are being managed, as well as differences in public education, fire prevention and inspections,” the report concluded.

As such, the report gave five recommendations as well as five service level options to be considered.

At the end of the day, however, things stayed pretty much status quo as both Councils passed identical resolutions.

About the only things changing are that Kaladar-Barrie Chief Casey Cuddy will present the Ward 1 budget to both Councils and a financial audit to ensure that the current 50/50 cost sharing is correct will be “discussed at the next Joint Fire Committee meeting.”

Both Councils agreed that the level of service has been working for some time now and took a don’t-fix-what-isn’t-broke attitude.

“The arrangements have been in place for four decades now and I’m not hearing people complaining about the service they’re getting at a car accident or house fire,” said Addington Highlands Dep. Mayor Tony Fritsch.

“I don’t think the service in Ward 1 is different than in Ward 2 or 3,” said North Frontenac Coun. Fred Perry.

When it was suggested that it might be an option for North Frontenac to simply purchase protection from its neighbour, Addington Highlands Reeve Henry quickly put an end to the idea by saying that while his Township might be able to afford half a pumper, the entire truck was essentially out of the question.

He also worried that without Ward 1 residents, they might have trouble fielding enough recruits for a fire department, especially when they’d still have to cover Highways 41 and 7.

Published in NORTH FRONTENAC

Last fall, North Frontenac firefighter Michael Leach went to Bolivia ostensibly for some rope rescue exercises. When he got there, he became involved in that country’s battle against wildfires in the Amazon basin.

What he found was many young people willing to put their lives on the line, but without many of the tools their Canadian counterparts take for granted.

Leach brought his story back and presented to the joint chiefs of the Mutual Aid agreement.

Moved by the need, the chiefs decided to get involved and the result turned out to be two ½-ton truckloads of gear being shipped to the Bolivian firefighters, courtesy of the Stone Mills, Napanee, Kingston and North Frontenac fire departments.

“We’re sending coveralls for fighting wildfires, bunker gear — especially boots, forestry hose, main water supply hose, all sorts of things,” said North Frontenac Chief Eric Korhonen. “We even got contributions from our suppliers Canadian Safety Equipment and A. J. Stone in the form of gloves and safety equipment.

“The chiefs of the mutual aid group were very quick to respond.”

Korhonen said the chiefs and the mutual aide group were “very sympathetic” to the plights of their Amazon Basin counterparts, referring to the efforts as “firefighters without borders.”

So, last week, a section of the firehall in Plevna was full of gear, all waiting to be sent off to the third-world country.

“We have at least two truckloads being sent to Peterborough where it will be put on a plane to Toronto and then to Bolivia,” he said.

Published in NORTH FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 22 January 2020 13:01

Newest firefighters

Central Frontenac Fire Chief Jamie Riddell welcomed new firefighters Rebecca Vinkle, Taylor Hughes and Paul Gosse to the “family” Tuesday night in Mountain Grove in a special swearing in ceremony. The three are the latest graduates of the Township’s recruitment and training program. On this, the department’s second annual awards night, they also honoured Corey Kemp for dedication and leadership in training and development, Virginia Gray and John Morrow for their work in fire prevention and life safety and Andrew Hole for occupational health and safety. Also honoured was Ryan Conboy, who successfully completed his public information officer certificate from the Office of the Fire Marshall. “We’re a really tight-knit group who have responded to major incidents, some in the past two years,” said Chief Riddell. “It’s an honour of mine to stand with you was we do our duty.”

Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 22 January 2020 13:00

Driver charged over Webster, O'Neil fatality.

The Lanark County Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) charged the westbound driver involved in a two-vehicle collision on Highway 7 between Drummond Concession 9A and Pauls Road in Drummond-North Elmsley Township just before 2:00 p.m. on November 10, 2019.

The occupants of the eastbound vehicle, D'Thea WEBSTER, age 63 and Maureen O'NEILL, age 81 both of Northbrook, Ontario died as result of their injuries sustained in the collision. 

Police were assisted by members of the Drummond-North Elmsley Fire Department, Lanark County Paramedics and the OPP Traffic Reconstruction Unit and Highway 7 was shut down until around 9:00 p.m. 

The driver, James O'HARA, age 68 of Vancouver, British Columbia was charged under the Highway Traffic Act Section 142 - Fail to Share Half Roadway - Meeting Vehicle.

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY

Good news for alumni and/or anyone who’d like a keepsake of the old Sharbot Lake Public School.

Andy Dillon, manager of development services/CBO, told Central Frontenac Council at its regular meeting Tuesday evening at Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake that he’s having a number of bricks delivered to the Township offices which will be made available to the public at no cost.

“We don’t want people going on-site to pick up a souvenir as it could be dangerous,” he said. “But it will be one (brick) to a customer.

“That’s so they don’t think they can come and get a bunch of bricks to build something,” he said with a grin.

Dillon said that while there have been some trucks and equipment on-site, the work being done is all on the inside.

“We don’t expect the actual demolition of the building to begin until sometime in January,” he said.

Coun. Bill MacDonald asked where the material that’s being demolished was going, wondering if it would be added to the Oso or Olden sites.

“I don’t really know,” Dillon said. “But it’s somewhere out of Central Frontenac.”

Building values up.

Coun. Bill MacDonald was also curious as to the increase in construction value being more than a million dollars more in 2019 than 2018 ($10,965,340 vs $9,561,283) despite there being one less building permit issued (seven vs eight).

“That would probably be because the average value of homes being built is about $350,000,” said Andy Dillon, CBO.

“That’s good for taxes,” said Mayor Frances Smith.

Dewey elected Deputy Mayor for 2020

Council elected District 1 Coun. Tom Dewey as Deputy Mayor for 2020, replacing Coun. Victor Heese.

Tanker pulled off the road

With tanker 441 out of Station 4 Parham in such bad shape and due to be replaced in 2020, Fire Chief Jamie Riddell told Council he is taking it out of service as of Dec. 4.

“To go a number of months without a tanker in Parham does not sit well with me,” said Coun. Nicki Gowdy.

Riddell said that tankers from Mountain Grove and Sharbot Lake will respond to all fire calls in the 400 and 600 Zones and a tanker from South Frontenac’s Verona station will respond to all confirmed fires in Zone CF6-601.

“I’ve spoken with the the fire chief in South Frontenac and they’re willing to extend the mutual aid agreement in this way until our new tanker arrives,” Riddell said.

“The fire hall in Verona is closer to Piccadilly than Parham is anyway,” said Mayor Frances Smith.

Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC

South Frontenac Fire & Rescue Station 6 welcomed a full house last Wednesday night at the 2019 Volunteer Fire Fighter Recruit Graduation Ceremony. Dozens of fire personnel, Councillors, staff, and family members gathered to celebrate the achievements of 24 new firefighters that can now respond to fires and emergencies in South Frontenac after having completed 6 months of extensive training.

Mayor Ron Vandewal addressed the graduating class with his well wishes for their future careers and thanked their families for their continuous support at home.

“I also want to thank Council for their ongoing support of the fire service and the steps that have been taken to position South Frontenac Fire & Rescue to continue providing exemplary service to our growing municipality. I am grateful for each and every member of SFFR for dedicating their lives to protection of life and property in South Frontenac,” said Mayor Vandewal.

The recruitment of a significant number of new volunteer fire fighters is part of Fire Chief Darcy Knott’s multi-year plan to bolster and modernize SFFR to ensure it can continue to provide excellent service to a region that is experiencing significant growth pressure.

“The men and women sitting before you are the cream of the crop, “noted Director of Fire & Emergency Services Darcy Knott. “They have received the same level of training as a fulltime fire fighter in any city across North America, and now hold certifications that are internationally recognized.”

Chief Knott explained that this year’s recruitment campaign was one of the most involved and most successful in South Frontenac’s history, ensuring that our eight stations spread out across the township remain equipped for any emergency that faces the residents of South Frontenac.

“I am continually amazed by the dedication, commitment, and professionalism of the volunteer firefighters of South Frontenac Fire and Rescue,” added Chief Knott.

“This graduating group of new firefighters share those same qualities and have already exhibited great comradery throughout this process. I congratulate them on this achievement and welcome them to the SFFR family!”

About South Frontenac Fire & Rescue: SFFR is a hybrid force with 110 volunteer fire fighters. With 8 fire stations located throughout the township, and 36 apparatus, SFFR volunteer fire fighters help to protect 18,646 residents and over 941 sq. km. of beautiful landscape. These individuals spend their time responding to calls relating to fires, medical emergencies, and various other situations that require their assistance.

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC

In response to last week’s delegation of residents and several other requests Council passed a by-law extending the 2018 parking restrictions on both sides of the Devil Lake culvert, to be effective as soon as the signs are posted. This is intended to reduce the hazard to traffic and pedestrians along that stretch of road.

Councillor Ruttan asked what further measures Council could take to address residents’ concerns. Public Works Director Mark Segsworth said that any changes such as prohibiting fishing from the sides of the culvert or night fishing, would have to be consistent with other similar areas in the Township. Segsworth said the MNR was aware of the concerns around commercial night fishing; “We need to further explore (what the MNR can do). We don’t want to create unenforceable by-laws, and we aren’t the only area with these problems.” As for trespassing, it is up to the residents to clearly sign their property, and phone the police immediately if there are violations. Mayor Vandewal suggested it might be best to begin with the parking restrictions, which should make that stretch of road less dangerous, and see if the overall situation improves next spring when fishing season begins again.

Fire and Rescue

During Fire Prevention Week in early October, South Frontenac Fire and Rescue (SFFR) was very active in the Township, holding open houses at 5 of the 8 firehalls, visiting all six elementary schools in the Township, and through the media (Frontenac News, the Township’s website, Twitter, Facebook, and local radio stations.) Throughout, their message addressed smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and the importance of having a well thought-out and rehearsed home fire escape plan. They reported a lot of community interest and positive feedback.

Promotion of Frontenac County’s Bike trails

Council passed a motion to fund the Ontario by Bike 2020 publication to “promote the great trails throughout Frontenac County that currently are not identified as part of the Eastern Ontario bike trails.” Councillor Sutherland had brought this motion in response to a presentation and request made last week by Robert Charest and Bob Clinton.

Municipal Office Christmas Hours and January Meeting Schedule

The South Frontenac Municipal offices will close at noon Tuesday Dec 24, and reopen on Thursday Jan 2, 2020.

Council will meet January 14 and 28, and COW will be January 14.

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC

The day started out calmly enough. Brad Telford, who has lived on the Campbell Road near Sydenham with his wife Megan and their 2 1/2 year old son John for about a year and half, did some indoor chores last Saturday morning (August 10) because it was raining.

When the weather cleared up, he went outside to do some yard work. The weather, as far as he could tell at the time, was fine, as he began filling some bird feeders with birdseed in the yard. He was listening to some music through ear buds that were connected to his phone, which was in his pocket. It was all pretty normal Saturday stuff.

He did not know what hit him.

“All I knew was that I had been blown back from the bird feeder and that I was on the ground and I felt that I was paralysed. I could smell burning flesh. I was trying to move my legs but I could not move them at all,” he said in a phone interview on Thursday evening (August 15).

He was all alone, and thought he might be done for.

But Megan heard the bang and saw the flash of lightening, as had their neighbour Chad Hotner. It took a minute or two to locate him, but when they did Chad, who has a military background, took control.

Brad’s shirt and shorts were gone, as were his phone and ear buds. Chad told Megan and his own son Milo to get some blankets and call 911.

“Fortunately, our son John slept through the whole ordeal,” said Megan later.

They were pretty concerned, because of the extreme nature of the lightening strike and the severity of some of the burns on Brad’s body, particularly a diagonal burn across his torso where the cord for the ear buds had been laying. Also, by this time a storm was really brewing and the rain was coming.

Within a few minutes, the first responders were on the scene and the system kicked into gear. Members of the South Frontenac Fire Department, some in their own vehicles, were the first to arrive, and one of them informed Brad that he is a full-time paramedic when he isn’t volunteering with the fire department.

“After he said that and I saw what was going on, I began to feel that maybe I would live through this,” Brad recalls, “at least I knew that the right things were going to be done.”

The firefighters prepared him to be lifted onto a stretcher and when the Frontenac Paramedics arrived, they helped lift him onto the stretcher and into the ambulance, which rushed him to KGH.

“When we got to KGH there was a whole medical crew waiting to treat me. The medical team at KGH contacted the burn unit at Sunnybrook hospital in Toronto for advice, and soon decided that it was best to send Brad there. He was taken to the airport and flown to Pearson on an ORNGE plane, and then whisked by ambulance to Sunnybrook.

“They did everything, looked internally to see if there was any damage, got my electrolytes straightened around and evaluated my burns. On Wednesday they told me they did not think they needed to do any skin grafts and that as long as I changed my dressings every day I would heal up on my own.

Five days after being struck by lighting, Brad was back home, still in considerable pain and in need of a few weeks of healing, but home, safe and sound with his family.

His main emotions are relief and gratitude.

“From the volunteer firefighters, the paramedics and medical teams at KGH and Sunnybrook, I received the best care I could imagine. I’m very grateful for everything they have done. We are very lucky to have these kinds of services in our communities,” he said.

He also admitted that, in the past, he was not one to take every precaution during electrical storms, but that will change in the future, even though he could not have foreseen the strike that hit him on this occasion.

(Postscript – Megan reported to us on Monday (August 19) that Brad’s “burns are healing beautifully. It’s amazing really.”)

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC
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