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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

Like just about all business owners these days, Asselstine Hardware owner Andrew Asselstine is concerned over the health and safety of his staff and customers. So, this past weekend, he built a little drive-through kiosk onto the front of the store where he can serve customers without them having to enter the store.

“With my wife being a healthcare worker at Providence Hospital, I’m well aware of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said. “And I was concerned about the staff and customers.”

And the drive-through seems to be a hit, not only for its conscientiousness, but also as a rather humorous oddity in trying times.

“A little bit of humour never hurts,” Asselstine said. “It’s been a great response.

“We’ve had 25,000 likes on Facebook — 20,000 in the first 24 hours.”

He said he hopes it’ll help keep people’s spirits up and at the same time promote more awareness of social distancing.

“I’m surprised at how many people are still unaware,” he said. “I’ve had people come in and ask ‘why did you do this?’ and ‘is this about the virus thing?’”

And then, he’s also had more humorous queries like “Should you be asking ‘do you want fries with that hammer?’”

If nothing else, the positive comments have done a world of good for Asselstine himself.

“Amongst all the negativity around retail right now, it’s nice to have a little positive feedback,” he said.

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC

(Editors note. This item is an edited version of the item published in the Frontenac News on page 1, March 26.2019 - the original quoted Dr. Moore saying the person who tested positive was a "patient" at the Northbook clinic.  Dr. Moore did not say whether the individual was a patient or a staff member at the clinic. The policy of Public Health is not to provide identifying information about people who test positive - JG)) 

On Tuesday afternoon, the COVID-19 pandemic hit home on the Highway 41 corridor.

On their Facebook feed, the Lakelands Family Health Team posted the following: “Our clinic has been closed indefinitely due to a single positive COVID-19 test. Despite our safety precautions we have one positive. Please take social distancing seriously!”

Later on Tuesday, Dr. Kieran Moore, Medical Officer of Health for Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington (KFLA), said that the case has been fully investigated by KFLA Public Health as part of their COVID-19 containment efforts.

“We have investigated and have contacted every individual who may have been exposed to the person who tested positive.”

To reassure the local community, he then said “if you have not been contacted, you have not been exposed.”

Moore confirmed that the clinic is closed because members of the clinics staff have been exposed and are in self isolation.

“The clinic staff will be available by phone while it is closed. Patients will continue to be served, but not physically at the clinic,” he said.

He also said that after a thorough investigation, KFLA Public Health has concluded that Tobia Pharmacy, which is in the same building as the Family Health Team but with a separate entrance, has not been exposed to the virus and can remain open to serve the local community.

A few days before this case came to light, the pharmacy had already instituted a strict protocol. The premises are not open to the public at all, only by phone, and prescriptions and other medicines and products are then available at an impromptu drive-through door at the side of the building.

Dr. Moore said that KFLA Public Health has conducted 492 tests for the virus, and 12 people have tested positive. Of those, 11 are recovering at home and only 1 has been hospitalised. Unlike Toronto and Ottawa, there have been no instances of community transmission of the virus as of yet in KFL&A.

“We have tied every case so far to someone who has traveled,” he said. He is hoping that by following the directives about social distancing, the communities in the region will be spared the clustering of cases that has happened in other locations.

The instructions on the KFLA Public Health website, which have been in place for two weeks, urge everyone to “practice social distancing and regular infection prevention (e.g., wash your hands often, cough into your elbow, don't touch your face, stay home if you are sick, etc.)

The site also says that anyone who has traveled outside of Canada in the last 14 days needs to enter self isolation for 14 days immediately after returning.

“The vast majority of people have been doing the right things, but if there is any weak link in a chain the chain can break, so everyone has to do their part.”

He also said that for the next two weeks, residents should not be travelling outside the region.

“It is time to hunker down.”

Seasonal residents who have decided to ‘hunker down’ at their cottages should be following the same practices as everyone else.

“Anyone who thinks that because they have left the city, they are not longer at risk is wrong. We all need to do the same things,” he said.

When asked if people coming to the region from Ottawa and Toronto should enter self-quarantine for 14 days, Moore said that is not called for at this time.

Of the other 11 KFLA cases, most of them come from Kingston and Napanee, but there are cases from the rural areas as well.

COVID-19 is here.

Published in ADDINGTON HIGHLANDS
Wednesday, 25 March 2020 13:12

Got a full belly? Thank your local grocer

The grocery business is tough in normal times, and these are not normal times. Stores are adept at tracking the sales of hundreds of product lines by the day, week, and month in order to stock what people are looking for most or all of the time.

Ten days ago, well ingrained shopping patterns were tossed out the window. At the same time, well established cleaning protocols were turned into what one grocer described to me as “OCD cleaning”, and that was before the social distancing regimes were even in the cards.

Store owners and managers have been scrambling for product, learning about new and teaching their staff and customers about brand new safety standards, dealing with unprecedented demand, and setting up new pickup and delivery services, all at the same time.

Here is a rundown about what the stores are up to, from north west to southeast this time.

Northbrook Foodland

The store’s hours have been reduced somewhat, but they are still pretty long, from 8am-8pm, 7 days a week, and also from 7am-8am for seniors only. They are also offering both a delivery and pickup service from Monday to Friday for people who can’t get out or have returned from travel. Customers can call 613-336-2647 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to place an order. Delivery orders sent in early in the day will sometimes be delivered that afternoon, the next day at the latest.

“We have an amazing amount of support from the local community, and so many offers of help,” Charlene Van Dusen said this week. “We have had to make so many changes to everything that we are doing, just about every day, and I’m sure there will be more as time goes on.”

Her biggest concern at the moment is to ensure the safety of the store’s customers and staff. To do that the floors in the store have had spots marked off where customers need to wait in order to keep everyone two metres apart at all times.

North of 7 - Plevna

Bill James of the North of 7 restaurant and grocery store said that all in all things have “gone pretty well” thus far.

The store has been busy and he has been ordering extra food, and dealing with some shortages, “but all in all we have been able to keep everyone supplied with what they need. The store remains open during its normal hours of 8am-6pm Monday to Saturday, and 9am-5pm on Sunday. The extra cleaning and constant sanitising has been a burden for staff, and the restaurant, which was very busy through February this years because snowmobile traffic was up over the last few years, has been slowed down by the new rules, since it is only open for takeout on Fridays and Saturdays from 11am-7pm. Telephone orders are preferred.

The store is also offering a delivery service for groceries. Orders need to be called in Mondays, Tuesday morning at the latest to 613-464-2155.

Mike Deans Grocery store – Sharbot Lake

Gordon Dean, who owns stores in Bourget and Winchester as well as Sharbot Lake, hasn’t been to Sharbot Lake that much over the last few weeks. He has been spending most of his days in his office in Chesterville calling suppliers and making arrangements to keep his stores supplied in the face of unprecedented demand. As an independent, he had the advantaged of more inventory than most affiliated stores carry, but that did not last.

“We sold a year’s worth of toilet paper in two days,” he said, “I had some advance warning from the experience in other countries that toilet paper might become an item for hoarding, but there was no way anyone could keep up.”

Not only has he been working day and night to keep stock, he has been working with staff in all three stores to increase sanitation and now social distancing protocols. The store is open shorter hours than before, 9am-7:30pm every day, and delivery is available now as well, for those who can’t get to the store.

“I’ve been through other disasters over the years,” Gord Dean said, “ice storms, power outages, other weather events, but nothing like this. This is much bigger.”

Establishing distance protocols in the store has been a priority this week, and it has been a challenge. There are posters, message on screens in the store, hand sanitizers at entrances and staff have been informing customers, but “it has been a challenge” he said. Plexiglass at cashier stations will be coming later this week.

Verona Foodland

Verona Foodland has made some important changes in order to respond to the COVID-19 reality. As of Monday, March 23, the store has shortened hours, from 8am – 6pm Monday to Saturday and 9am-6pm on Sunday (LCBO hours are 9-6) , but it will also be open between 7am and 8am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for seniors only in order to provide a safer time to shop for a more vulnerable sector of the population.

“This is a really important time for our store,” said Clint Reid, who owns the store with his wife, Andrea. “There is a need in the community for our products, as everyone knows, and we need to keep our staff healthy as well.

The store is taking some extra measures, with help from community members, by offering delivery, for seniors and people who are self isolating due to travel or an illness with COVID-19 like symptoms.

The delivery service is on Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Fridays. Orders must be called in by noon on the day before delivery to 613-374-2112. Customers need to provide their name, address, phone number, and credit card information.

The store management also wants to remind all those who are returning to the community from the south that these systems are in place to enable them to get the products they need to remain safe while self isolating. Feel free to call a neighbour or the store to get the ball rolling.

Local Family Farms – Verona

Kim Perry of Local Family Farms, carries locally produced meat and many other products, and also makes soups, pies and entrees. With so many people at home, cottagers coming to stay, she has been busy getting stock in and very busy in the kitchen keeping up with demand for prepared meals. She has also been sending people to other stores in the area for items that she does not carry and had people come her way from those stores.

“We are all working together, which we always do, but even more so now,” she said.

Gilmour’s on 38 Harrowsmith

For the most part, it has been business as usual at Gilmour’s, but it has been very busy. The store has been able to keep up with the demand for meat, and other grocery items. This week, they are starting up a delivery service to help those in isolation. Orders are being taken by phone to 613-449-2384. The service is free but they will be accepting donations with each delivery which will be passed to the food bank.

The store is open 8am-6pm daily, except Friday 8am-7pm, and Sunday 9am-4pm.

Trousdale’s Foodland – Sydenham

It has been a challenge for Trousdale’s to keep up with unprecedented demand and deal with extra sanitation protocols and social distancing, just like the other stores in the area. Trousdale’s has been delivering food orders to seniors in Sydenham, quietly, for years. Because of that, they were the first store in the area to expand their delivery when COVID-19 came along, and the demand has been increasing. Call the store for details, 613-376-6609.

Glenburnie Grocery – Glenburnie

As a family owned, community centred store, Glenburnie grocery has depended on it staff, customers and volunteers to keep up over the last couple of weeks.

“We’ve been adjusting to a new normal all the time,” said Courtney Rickards, who works with her husband Mark, who purchased the store from his father almost 20 years ago.

The store is opening from 10am-6pm every day now in order to give enough time to clean and allow staff to get some rest, and is also open from 9am-10am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

It would have been impossible to set up delivery, even though there is a community need right now, but for a local business stepping up and offering. Heart to Heart Senior’s Services is handling the entire process, from ordering to delivery. They can be reached at 613-767-0820 or 613-453-7668 to make arrangements.

“That allows us to work on keeping the shelves stocks, and always being friendly with out customers, fro a distance now,” she said.

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY
Wednesday, 25 March 2020 13:12

What a week, and there is more to come

It has been an unprecedented in week in the life of the county, the province, and our little corner of it. The scope of it started to come clear to me last Thursday when I was driving down Road 38 to deliver papers to post offices at about 7:15. When I pulled out the Verona Post office heading south, I looked to my left and instead of  the row of 10 or more cars heading into Kingston which  I normally see, there was nothing moving at all, not a single car or walker. The traffic stayed sparse until I reached Perth Road and Rutlege. Through the whole run from Rutledge to Inverary. I saw one car, headed north. It was like a Sunday morning. No one seemed to headed into Kingston to work.

People are working from home to be sure, but people have also been laid off, lots of people. Entire industries are on hold. The rest of the week has become stranger. Everything has been shutting down so quickly that when the government declared that non-essential businesses needed to close, most of them were closed already. Grocery shopping now resembles and odd dance or some kind of performance piece as everyone tries to get what they need to get while avoiding people, all the while awkwardly greeting friends they never see anymore. All we know is that we need to avoid each other for the next 2 weeks, which could turn into 4 or 6. And even when this stage ends, it will be a very gradual return to some kind of new normal.

We are all separated from each other now, and at the same time we are all in this together.

On the whole, people are supporting each other, with exceptions. Social Media has been a lifeline.

It has also demonstrated its failings as an information source.

Twice in the last week, I have been made aware of posts alleging price gouging by local businesses. It took less than two minutes of researching pricing to determine that the claims were baseless. Prices vary at all times and even more when there is a supply shortage and that was all that was going on in each of the cases.

But someone who wants to level an accusation does not do research, they just make claims and those claims are passed around with lighting speed. My responses to those posts received 10,000 views within hours, so I can only assume the posts themselves were seen by 100,000 people or more.

This incident demonstrates, in my view, demonstrates the value of traditional media, with the checks and balances it brings, sometimes as a complement and other times as a corrective for the excesses of social media.

Next week would normally be our April Fool’s edition, but it might not be the greatest time for fake news stories.

We need some lightness however, so we are inviting readers, particularly young readers, to send in something funny, even silly. We’ll try to put some laughs into a newspaper that has been all about fear and bad news for the last few weeks.

There may be a fake news story in the mix as well, but mostly we aim to keep things light, and please, no dark humour, just the light stuff.

Published in Editorials

Canadian science showed its superior ability with viruses long before COVID19.

The National Microbiology Laboratory opened in Winnipeg in 1998, providing a Level 4 (highest) microbiological containment facility. Heinz Feldman, a researcher studying hemorrhagic fevers, joined the new lab. His critical observation that lab mice did not get sick even when exposed to Ebola virus meant that a vaccine for Ebola was possible.

But the world had not yet had an Ebola outbreak and Canadian researchers had trouble getting government funding in the early 2000's.

Nevertheless by 2004 the Winnipeg lab showed that they had a vaccine that was 100 percent effective in lab mice. In 2005 they published a study showing that the vaccine totally protected monkeys against Ebola.

But greater funding was needed to get the vaccine through clinical trials and to devise commercial production methods.

Canada sought help from corporations in the US and signed an agreement with BioProtection Systems Inc., later called NewLink Genetics, to get the vaccine commercialized. Nothing happened and by 2010 funding the Canadian work was at risk. A contract scientist, Judie Alimonti, kept it alive by personal devotion. Canada's National Research Council developed methods for commercial production of the vaccine.

In 2014 Ebola killed more than 11,000 people in west Africa. The political winds changed. Canada donated 800 doses of vaccine to those affected by the outbreak. In the midst of the outbreak Merck bought NewLink for US$ 50 million. Canada's government had put $120 million into the Ebola project.

Canadian science developed the Ebola vaccine that saved thousands of lives in west Africa. Our scientific capability with viruses was globally superior despite being handicapped by political and commercial viewpoints. We need that superior science again now with COVID19 and probably will again in the future.

Published in Editorials
Wednesday, 25 March 2020 13:10

Food producers react to changing times

Mike Mckenzie of Seed to Sausage saw his sales tumble, overnight, when the restaurant business collapsed two weeks ago, and was subsequently closed entirely. After laying off his hourly employees, he was trying to figure how to find enough work to keep his four salaried employees on the job.

He also participated in a meat processing industry meeting where he was informed by officials from OMAFRA (Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Rural Affairs) that meat processing plants must remain operation and ready to produce in case there is an urgent need

“We have access to meat at good prices and we have a supply of our dried sausage as well, so we are opening up the store to sell fresh meat at a good price, and we are starting to do take-out meals as well this week,” he said. “We were busy last weekend with it.”

These are both things that the company was hoping to bring in this summer, but they have come to the forefront now that so much of the business has slowed down.

In addition, Seed to Sausage has approached local food banks and the Ontario Association of Food Banks about providing them with low cost cuts of meat, burgers and sausage, which the company has been doing for some time for the North Frontenac Food Bank.

“We are getting that set up this week. The goal is to help the community out with cheap, high quality meat and meals and keep my salaried staff employed,” Mckenzie said.

Delivery is also something they are working on.

Back Forty Cheese

Jeff and Jenna Fenwick also sell about 80% of the cheese Jeff makes to restaurants across Ontario, and those sales evaporated two weeks ago. While some of their sheep’s milk cheese can keep for a time, some of their softer cheeses have a short shelf life.

They put out a Facebook post offering their cheese to consumers in Eastern Ontario for pickup or delivery and in just a couple of days they managed to sell their inventory.

“We are overwhelmed by the support and are working on getting the logistics of the sales and delivery worked out,” said Jeff from the cheese shop on Tuesday (March 24)

Now he has a decision to make. He can curtail his production or keep producing and hope the sales will continue to roll in. The decision is complicated by the fact that Back Forty regularly purchases most, if not all, of the milk from five small sheep farms in the region, a relationship that Fenwick has been cultivating over several years in order to make sure he has a consistent supply of milk for his cheese factory.

“I don’t want them to have to dump all that milk, especially in the spring when there is so much of it, but it is a risk for me to keep making so much cheese,” he said.

To make things easier, through a mutual friend a web developer has stepped forward to create a fully functioning web-based store for Back Forty Cheese, which is coming online this week.

“Jenna has spent all week getting the orders we got from our web call organised, and this will make that so much easier to manage,” he said, “and he gave me a very good price on it, and then said he would do it for cheese, which is even better.”

Back Forty Cheese is available at Foodsmiths, Seed to Sausage, Local Family Farms, and Glenburnie Groceries, at the farm gate on Gulley Road in Mississippi Station, and as of this week at www.artisancheese.ca

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY
Wednesday, 25 March 2020 13:09

Care Mongering takes off in Sharbot Lake

A little over a week ago, Amrit Kaillon was watching tv and saw an item about Caremongering Facebook sites, a Canadian idea that is taking hold across the world.

The idea is simple, instead of promoting fear, caremongering is a Facebook page devoted to people coming together to support one another in a troubled time.

She decided to start a Sharbot Lake site. Within a day it had 80 members and has been growing ever since.

Out of that effort, a Sharbot Lake and Rural Frontenac COVID-10 support group is being formed. It is teaming up with Rural Frontenac Community Services and its transportation wing, Frontenac Transportation Services, to help people access what they need.

“The support group is to act as a centralized system for deliveries. By doing so, we're giving businesses the chance to use their resources for the more important things, like stocking shelves, refilling prescriptions and helping those in need,” Amrit said.

Ken Fisher and Greg Rodgers from the Rockhill B&B have been working on behalf of the Sharbot Lake Business Group to help turn this initiative into reality. A number of businesses are already on board and more are interested in joining.  And Louise Moody from Rural Frontenac Community Services has brought all her resources to the effort.

Frontenac Transportation Services is helping with deliveries, but more volunteers are needed.

Anyone who is interested can contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or go to the Caremongering Sharbot Lake Facebook page to access an online form.

“These are unprecedented times where many are worried and fearful of the future.  We are here to help, in any way we can, even if it’s for a friendly phone call or to boost morale.  Thank you to all the volunteers for your dedication to helping those in trying times,” said Amrit.

The group is also planning a social-distancing friendly Easter event. Look for details over the next two weeks.

Published in CENTRAL FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 25 March 2020 13:09

Pine Meadow Classic cancelled for 2020

The ever-expanding spread of the COVID – 20 pandemic has claimed another victim.

For 17 years the Pine Meadow Classic has been an early summer tradition at Hunter’s Creek Golf and Country Club in Cloyne, raising $15,000 - $20,000 regularly for the Pine Meadow Nursing Special Projects Fund.

Tournament organisers decided this week to cancel for 2020 and hold the next tournament on June 26, 2021.

While events in April and early May are all being canceled, it might seem early to cancel an event in late June, which is held outdoors on a golf course.

“It is sponsorship by local businesses that makes our tournament so successful,” said Lori Hitchcock, one of the tournament committee members, and with everything they are going through right now and will continue to face for the rest of the year, we did not want to start going to them asking for money, which we would have to start doing. A couple of our members are local business people, and they know that the businesses are hurting. So, we decided to cancel early for this year, and set a date for next year.”

On the brighter side, Hunter’s Creek is hoping to open in May, if the social distancing regimen is relaxed. Cynthia, the course manager, is making some changes to minimise contact with the pins and holes.

 

 

Published in ADDINGTON HIGHLANDS

The Township is making every effort to support its residents through these unprecedented times.

South Frontenac residents currently enrolled in a monthly water or property tax preauthorized payment plan with the Township, with a withdrawal date of March 31st or April 1st, 2020, will be provided the option to request a deferral of the March 31st or April 1st payment withdrawal.

In order to defer your payment, we ask that you provide your request in writing to the Township via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or in our drop box located at the front door of our office at 4432 George Street in Sydenham. Please ensure that your request has been submitted no later than end of day on Thursday March 26th, 2020

This deferral opportunity is for one payment ONLY and will be processed only for those that formally request the deferral by the deadline above. The deferred payment will be incorporated in the recalculation of future payments within the pre-authorized payment plan cycle.

Township Council and Staff will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation with guidance from KFL&A Public Health. Further updates about the Township’s service delivery, facilities, health and safety and more will be available through our website, social media platforms, and our banner in the Frontenac News and other channels.

Total Fire Ban in Effect - March 20, 2020

 

Please be advised that effective Friday, March 20, 2020, there is a total burning ban in effect across the Township of South Frontenac. Despite some rain in the forecast the ground remains very dry.

 

A total fire ban means absolutely no open air burning including cooking fires, charcoal barbeques, and fireworks; but does not include cooking appliances with a mechanical shutoff.

 

Residents are reminded of the importance of complying with the burning Bylaw 2012-68 which is available on our website – www.southfrontenac.net.

 

Residents are also reminded that any infraction of this By-law will result in significant financial penalties. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact South Frontenac Fire and Rescue at 613-376-3027 ext. 2234.

 

Your cooperation to protect our citizens and property is sincerely appreciated.

 

Services

While our offices and facilities remain closed to the public, most municipal services will continue to be delivered and public communications via telephone and email remain in place during regular business hours.

In addition to these closures, please note the following changes to our service delivery as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and a need to reduce the spread of the virus:

• Community Grants Applications: The deadline for 2020 Community Grant Submissions has been extended to April 30, 2020. Please continue to email your submissions to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or drop them off at 4432 George St. in our drop box located at the front door.

• Sydenham Water Public Consultation Session: The Sydenham Water Public Consultation session scheduled for April 16, 2020 will be postponed.Please continue to complete and submit the customer feedback survey included in your recent utility bill. Online submissions are encouraged, however, you can also submit your completed survey to our drop box located at the front door of our office at 4432 George St., in Sydenham.

• Touch a Truck Event – The annual ‘Touch a Truck’ event that is held in May for young children and their families will be postponed.

The postponement of other Township events or affiliated events will be considered on a case by case basis and discussed with organizers as the COVID-19 situation evolves.

• Cancellation of the April 9 Committee of Adjustment Meeting: Township Planning staff have been working to assess the COVID-19 situation and make relevant changes to our service delivery. Recognizing the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on our partner agencies, and in the interest of maintaining public safety during this evolving situation, the decision has been made to CANCEL the April 9, 2020 Committee of Adjustment meeting.

Pre-consultation meetings will continue to be scheduled but will occur via telephone. The Township recognizes that the broad response to the COVID-19 pandemic creates uncertainty about the timelines for processing planning applications. The Township will update residents as more information becomes available from the Province and our commenting agencies regarding these timelines and the scheduling of public meetings.

• Building & Planning Permit Application Submissions: While our office is closed to the public, Planning and Building staff remain available to respond to inquiries and assist in the processing of applications via phone and email. Online submissions are encouraged where possible, however, you can also submit your applications and corresponding information to our drop box located at the front door of our office at 4432 George St., in Sydenham.

• Tender Submissions & Openings: Tender & RFP openings will be conducted as scheduled; however due to office closures, the township will be postponing public openings until further notice. Instead, the results of the public tenders and RFPs will be posted immediately on our website’s ‘Tenders’ page here: https://www.southfrontenac.net/en/town-hall/tenders.aspx.

Bidders are encouraged to drop off their tender or RFP package in person at our office drop box located at 4432 George St. in Sydenham, or mail them without requiring a signature upon delivery. Taking these measures will help to ensure your tender documents are received on time.

• Summer Student Recruitment: The Township has decided to extend the due date for summer student applications to March 31st, 2020. Although we are still actively recruiting, timelines associated with interviews and hiring may be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Reminder – Garbage & Recycling: Reminder to residents that all Township waste sites including hazardous waste, are closed to the public until further notice. Garbage and Recycling will continue to be picked up on the regularly scheduled days. Garbage and recycling pickup is available curbside to all residents, including at the end of private lanes. Should you have any questions, please contact our Public Services department at 613-376-3027 ext. 4331.

Please continue to take precautions against the spread of COVID-19 by practicing these everyday steps to reduce exposure to the virus and protect your and others’ health:

• wash your hands often with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer
• sneeze and cough into your sleeve
• avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth
• avoid contact with people who are sick
• stay home if you are sick

Township Council and Staff will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation with guidance from KFL&A Public Health. Further updates about the Township’s service delivery, facilities, health and safety and more will be available through our website, social media platforms, and our banner in the Frontenac News and other channels.

It is the goal of Council and staff to continue to provide quality services to the public, while keeping residents and staff safe, and to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC
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With the participation of the Government of Canada