Frontenac Paramedic services took some initiative a few years ago establishing paramedicine services, which involve making use of paramedic infrastructure and staff capacity to provide services aimed at preventing the kinds of catastrophic medical events that lead to 911 calls for service. To that end, with funding from the county and provincial grant money a wellness clinic in Marysville, on Wolfe Island, was established, and later visiting clinics at Diners clubs across the County have been set up. Now the province has established Paramedicine as an ongoing program and has tasked the Local Health Integration Networks (LHIN’s) with distributing funding to local paramedic services.

It’s all a bit confusing because the boundaries that the LHIN’s are using don’t correspond to our service boundaries,” said Frontenac Chief of Paramedic Services Paul Charbonneau.

While there is only $312,000 available for programming in the southeast LHIN territory, which includes 6 counties  (Hastings, Prince Edward, Lennox and Addington, Frontenac, Lanark, and Leeds Grenville) and the City of Kingston, $58,000 of that money must be allocated to Frontenac Paramedic Services to continue the programs that are already in place.

“We are glad of the guaranteed funding,” said Charbonneau, “and we will be preparing a submission for some new initiatives.”

One possibility is to set up a clinic in a social housing complex in the City of Kingston, where Frontenac Paramedic Services delivers service.

“One of the positive aspects of paramedicine for our paramedics is it can be a good fit for older paramedics,” he said.

Charbonneau is hoping Frontenac County will be able to secure $100,000 or so in funding out of the $362,000 that is available by designing highly effective programs for vulnerable population sectors in Kingston and Frontenac.

No user fees on K&P Traill
Last fall, Frontenac County Council entered into an agreement with the Eastern Ontario Traills Alliance (EOTA) to manage the soon to be completed  K&P Traill between the southern border of the county and the trailhead in Sharbot Lake for an annual price of $400 per kilometre. The Tweed based Not-For-Profit Corporation manages a network of trails across Eastern Ontario, including the popular ATV oriented trails in North Frontenac. It has been very successful over the past ten years as an ATV tourism marketing and trail management agency. Most EOTA trail users pay annual trail fees, and the trails are motorised.

The K&P Trail is a hybrid, however. ATV’s are not permitted from Verona South and are permitted to the north.

The maintenance agreement with EOTA stipulated that no fees would be charged for the section of trail from Sharbot Lake to the South, but at a county budget meeting in November a discussion took place about the amount of funding that the County is spending on trails and some members of council argued that trails should be “self-sustainable”.

According to the staff account from that meeting  “it was questioned if the County should start looking at charging a user fee as most other recreational areas such as Big Sandy Bay and other Trails charge a user fee. Subsequently, an action item was requested to have the Community Development Advisory Committee review the Trails Master Plan to look at including user fees”.

But in a report to Council from Clerk Janette Amini, the fact that a bylaw as passed establishing a no-fee contract, it would require a complicated set of procedures to unpack the contract in order to consider adding fees.

In response to Amini’s report, Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle, who speculated about a fee in the first place, did not comment.

South Frontenac Councilor John McDougall said “we can make it clear now to everyone that there will be no fee to use the trail.”

The snowmobile clubs that groom and maintain a snowmobile trail on the Cataraqui Trail have announced the official end of the snowmobile season.

The Lennox and Addington Ridgerunners and the Leeds and Grenville Snowmobile Association will be closing and locking the gates on Saturday April 1, 2017.

The gates are open during snowmobile season to allow snowmobilers with a valid OFSC permit to use the Trail. They are closed during the balance of the year to keep other motorized vehicles off the Cataraqui Trail. Other than snowmobiles, only authorized maintenance vehicles are allowed to have access to the Trail.

The Cataraqui Trail is a 104 km long multi-use trail along a former railway line that goes from Smiths Falls to Strathcona (near Napanee). Permitted uses on the trail include hiking, cycling, skiing and horseback riding.

Last week’s warm temperatures and heavy rain that forced cancellation of an actual snowmobile ride, but unwavering volunteers at the Snow Road Snowmobile Club still hosted their third successful Ride for Dad event on Saturday.    Donuts donated by Tim Hortons and hot coffee greeted participants registering their pledges.  

The 26 registrants collected $6,419 in pledges.  Although Alice Gilchrist, with pledges totalling $1,285, was top pledge earner for the third year in a row, Bob Olmstead and Rob Schippert were close behind and tied in 2nd place with $1,030 each in pledges.  The club wants to thank all the generous sponsors who donated cash or goods or food, those who collected pledges and those who donated, and all the volunteers who worked before, during and after the event.   

Corporate sponsorships exceeded $2,000 this year so the big winner is Ride for Dad with an expected donation over $8,000 to support the fight against prostate cancer.   A lunch of hot dogs and several kinds of homemade soups was enjoyed and followed up by the distribution of awards and prizes.  A number of snow-mobilers arrived in their vehicles, along with other club supporters, to enjoy a great spaghetti dinner.  The Club plans to hold this event on February 10th next year, hoping an earlier date will mean better trail conditions for their Ride for Dad.

Once again this year the Kennebec Recreation Committee is sponsoring Free Pleasure Skating at the Arden rink, 5998 Arden Road.

This years’ rink maintenance and operations are being managed by Chase Matson, who in spite of what many would call a total lack of support by Mother Nature, is doing an amazing job of keeping the rink up and running.

Regular hours of operation are: Monday to Friday 5 pm to 9pm; and Saturdays 2 pm to 9 pm (Mother Nature permitting).

Everyone is invited out for a family skate and Community BBQ on Saturday, January 28th. The BBQ is scheduled for 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.

The Kennebec Recreation Committee is a non-profit committee of council, which promotes healthy and active living in Central Frontenac through fundraising initiatives. By providing social interaction and community involvement, through recreation programs, and activities so that all members of the community may participate in educational, leisure, sport and physical activities, regardless of their age and ability.

It was a goal that fit nicely into a narrative. The K&P trail linking the Trans Canada Trail segments between Sharbot Lake and the Cataraqui Trail to ensure Frontenac County is part of the national trail network was to be complete by Canada Day 2017. A photo-op at the Trail head located at the exact location where the funeral car carrying Canada’s first prime minister switched onto the K&P line, for its trip to his adopted home town of Kingston as thousands looked on, would be the centre-piece of Canada Day celebrations in Frontenac County.

It’s not going to happen. The complicated final 12 kilometres of trail, which are located on lands that were sold off to the owners of abutting lands before the rest of the trail was sold to Frontenac County, have proven to be slow to acquire, as agreements need to be reached with each landowner. Only then can a contract for building the trail even be negotiated.

At their final meeting of 2016 in late December, Frontenac County Council accepted the bid by Crains’ Construction to build “approximately 4 km of the 12km remaining to be completed by the end of 2017” in the words of a staff report to Council. The bid price was $137,593 plus hst and Crains’ also agreed to honour the same unit pricing for one year should more trail be freed up for development as agreement with landowners are reached.  Their bid was the lowest of 7 that came in, the second lowest was $195,200 from the Cruikshank Group.

At this time, 42 kilometres of trail, between Orser Road and the rail crossing in Tichborne have been completed. Work has begun in the City of Kingston to complete the Kingston portion of trail so it will run all the way to Lake Ontario.
Funding for the final section of the trail is coming from a Canada 150 Community Infrastructure Program and the Investing Ontario Fund, which has made just under $500,000 available for the project.

Frontenac County Council members from Frontenac Islands and North Frontenac were able to secure special funding from the county for recreational infrastructure within their borders when the K&P Trail was first being developed. The trail is only located in South and Central Frontenac and county gas tax rebates were being used for its construction.

That money is all gone, as those rebates are going directly to the local townships, and funding the K&P Trail has come mostly from grants.

At the December meeting, Councilor John Inglis made a request to county staff for an accounting of all the money spent on the trail since the proposal to purchase and construct it was approved in 2009.

There is no set completion date for the trail.

A special certificate of recognition upon retirement was awarded Dan Bell, Portland resident and volunteer, for his years of outstanding contributions to the Portland Recreation Committee and the South Frontenac Recreation Committee.

His attention to small details (keeping water turned on, and opening and closing park facilities) and his accomplishment of large and lasting community improvements such as the new pavilion in Centennial Park and the playground equipment in McMullen Park were all a part of his continuing commitment to his community.

He seems to have had the rare ability to understand what his community wanted and needed, combined with the ability to raise enthusiasm and quietly help make things happen. As Mike Howe summarized: “Dan doesn’t say a lot, but I soon learned that when he speaks, it pays to listen.”

On June 21 over 250 children and their families gathered at the Flinton Recreation Centre for the second annual Touch a Truck event, which was sponsored by the Lennox and Addington Resources for Children (LARC) and the Flinton Recreation Club. Representatives of local emergency service groups, social service teams and other organizations were invited to attend and bring their vehicles for children to get up close and personal with. There were school buses, Hydro One trucks, an EMS ambulance and local fire trucks, tow trucks, tractors, transport trucks, race cars and more.

Becky Cavanaugh of LARC said that the purpose of the event is not only to provide a lot of fun for children, it is also aimed at familiarizing them with emergency service workers, their vehicles and the other equipment they use, which helps to quell the children's fears if they are in an emergency situation. “It's a fun thing for kids to do; not only do they get to learn more about the people, their vehicles and the services they provide but they get to do so in a friendly and fun environment,” Cavanaugh said.

A group of paramedics invited youngsters to lie on a stretcher and to experience some of the machinery and tests they would undergo in the event of a 911 emergency call. Paramedic Ryan Thielman explained, “We show them the tools that we would normally use in an on-scene call so that if they have to experience a call in the future, they will know that there is nothing to be afraid of and that none of this stuff can hurt them.”

The children had their blood pressure taken and were also hooked up to the electrodes used for taking an electrocardiogram.

LARC provides other services to children and their families in Lennox and Addington, including playgroups, parenting courses and other outreach programs. For more information about the services they provide call 613-354-6318 or visit www.larc4kids.com

The Touch-a-Truck event also raised donations for the food bank.

The opening of bass season last weekend attracted fishers in droves to the Land O'Lakes region to take part in a number of bass derbies that offered up many opportunities for fishers to win big. At the Double S Marina in Ompah, which is located on the shores of Palmerston Lake, owners/operators Denis and Rose Bedard held their 11th annual Bass Derby on June 21 and 22.

On Sunday when I visited, boats were making their way to the marina’s main dock for a final noon weigh in, with many participants hoping to bag the $1,000 first place prize. Denis Bedard was handling the fish coming in and staff member Kate Osborne was recording the weights. Adults could weigh in up to eight fish and children up to four. The winners with the greatest average overall took home the prizes. Ron Skevington and Robin Soluri of Frankfurt weighed in two bass that together weighed 4.45 pounds. It was their second year at the derby and Ron said he came back this year because of its “laid back feel” and his “not having to worry about heavy duty competition since everyone here gets along really well.” This year the derby attracted a total of 41 teams in that many boats. Over 100 people participated, 20 of them children who dined and fished for free. The $100 weekend ticket per team included fishing both days, a Saturday night steak dinner and a visit by Canadian champion bass fisherman Big Jim McLaughlin, who was to make a Sunday appearance to hand out the winnings.

This year the derby included fishers from Kingston, Ottawa and Perth and many of the participants rented cottages nearby for the weekend. The Bedards enjoy running the derby and especially love seeing the kids participate. They offer a prize to all of the children who participate and the young fishers can also win cash prizes of $100, $50 and $25. The couple purchased the marina in 2003 and have been running the derby ever since.

The weekend’s big winners were Dan Griffin and Tim McGuire, who took the $1,000 first place prize for their 23.99 pound total; Mark Lemke and Shauna Rowland won $500 for their combined 21.7 pounds and the $250 third place prize went to Tyler Ahsick and Kirt Zummers who weighed in 20.54 pounds. The young winners of the day were Braydan Dunham who won first place with his 9.68 average; Meagan Dunham who won second place for her 6.78 and Harrison Sargeant, who won third with 4.29.

For those who have never visited, the Double S Marina, which has now been renamed the Palmerston Lake Marina, is a full service marina that sells gas, fishing licenses, tackle and has a fully stocked convenience store, a full service post office and ice cream. They offer boat, kayak, canoe and paddle boats rentals and service and store boats on site. There is a payphone on the premises and free WiFi. The Palmerston Lake Marina is open all year round and is located at 9637 Highway 509 just west of Ompah. In the words of Denis, the location offers up some of the best fishing in the area.

“In order to survive in business in this area you have to do more than none thing,” said Don Yearwood, who opened the Bishop Lake Trailer Park in 1986 with his wife Helen. At the time their only employee was their son Bob, who had to take work outside the region in the wintertime. The business grew over the next ten years, with the addition of a motel and more services,

15 years ago this weekend, on the first day of Walleye season in 1999, BL Outdoor Centre opened. It was the biggest single change to the business and is being celebrated this weekend.

When interviewed about the store 5 years ago on the 10th anniversary, Bob Yearwood said that the business had been growing each year as new services were added and seasonal and permanent residents realized the prices were competitive and the service level was infinitely superior to what is on offered at box stored in urban centres.

That trend has continued.

BL Outdoor Centre carries a full range of hunting and fishing gear, as well as hiking and camping equipment in addition to operating a laundromat and supplying propane.

“The biggest growth in the last five years has been in the woman’s market,” Bob Yearwod said last week, “women have taken to hunting and fishing like never before and we stock more and more products that are geared toward women.”

BL Outdoor Centre is always expanding its product lines, including Browning Firearms and accessories, Hoyt bows, Danner and Lacrosse boots, and aline of moccasins from Quebec.

“But as I said, what separates is the service we offer. If you buy a rifle or a crossbow and there is a problem with it, we can wither adjust it here or we wil send it to the manufacturer and make sure our customers are satisfied. You can't get that elsewhere,” he said.

BL Outdoor is also involved in marketing and selling through Facebook, an new innovation this year.

“We need to keep looking at new products, new markets and new services,” said Yearwood.

BL Outdoors and Bishop Lake Campgrounds, which employed one part-time person in 1986, now keeps Don and Helen Yearwood, as well as Bob and Allison, and Dennis (last name) working year-round, in addition to seasonal employees in the summer.

And now, even though the campground, which has been fully subscribed for a number of years, is only open in the summer, the store is so well established for year-round outdoor sports that as much business comes in during the shoulder seasons from September 15 to June 15 as it does in the prime summer season.

While the tourists and seasonal population have come to rely on BL Outdoors, the support of local hunters and fishers has been crucial to the stores success, and as the store celebrates its anniversary this weekend, it is the local community that the Yearwoods are thinking of.

“When we had our ten year celebration, we offered propane at $10 for a 20 lb tank. As everyone knows the price of propane is not what it was 5 years ago, but this weekend we will be selling it at $15 for 20lb. We are also putting some special sales in place.

The first thing that stands out about Lucas Wales is his youth. At 24 he might be the youngest general manager in the 70-year history of the Land O'Lakes Tourist Association (LOLTA), which works on behalf of tourist operators in Frontenac and L&A counties and the Municipality of Tweed.

On his second day on the job last week he was being briefed by long-time administrator, Joanne Cuddy, who has provided continuity in recent months and over the years. The association has now seen five managers in the last dozen or so years.

Wales will have to learn quickly because the LOLTA Annual General Meeting is slated for May 7 this week. The LOLTA membership includes a wide variety of businesses from a large geographic area, and they are anxious to find out the direction Lucas Wales plans to take the association in.

He brings a background in municipal government and economic development and tourism. He has worked for the Municipality of Tweed on their asset management plan; in the economic development department of the Town of Marmora, and most recently, for the Eastern Ontario Trails Association on their strategic plan. Before that he attended Loyalist College in Belleville, where he studied Public Relations.

All of this background, as compact as it has been in his relatively short working life, will come in handy as Wales will have to deal with the LOLTA membership, the municipal governments who have provided financial support to the association over the years, and provincial bureaucracy and granting programs.

“One of the major focuses this summer will be to complete our contract with Fish TV, which is a two-year contract that we are in the middle of. Afterwards we will take some time to assess the contract to see how we are going to continue to serve the fishing industry locally. There are lots of other opportunities in the Land O'Lakes as well. We have trails, canoeing and kayaking, golfing, cycling, dark skies and many other opportunities to focus on,” he said.

Another focus he noted was to foster partnerships with other players such as the FAB region (Food and Beverage) Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance, the K&P Trail development and others to make sure that LOLTA members are linked in to other efforts to promote the region.

“One of the things I will be doing is meeting with some of the community development managers in the various townships and counties. I will also be looking to meet with members and other business owners to make as many connections as possible for the association,” he said.

As someone who is born and raised in the Tweed area, where he still lives, Lucas Wales is pretty familiar with the Tweed and Lennox and Addington parts of the LOLTA region. He said he is very much looking forward to getting familiar with the eastern end, to seeing the lakes, and to meeting the people who make the region a unique opportunity for visitors.