It was a quick day at Sharbot Lake criminal court, only stretching out to half an hour in order to give an absent accused a chance to show up, which did not happen.

Withdrawn – A charge of possession of an illegal substance against Thomas Quinn was withdrawn at the request of the crown.

Ongoing – James Godin, 55, charged on the 4th of March with 3 counts of driving while under suspension, a count of driving without proper vehicle plates, a count of driving without insurance, and a count of operating a vehicle with blood alcohol over 80 mg/100 ml of blood, and a new charge of operating a vehicle while disqualified, had all his matters put over until June 19th.

Allison Potter, 40, is facing a charges of production and possession of marijuana, and an unauthorised possession of a firearm charge. She has obtained a legal aide certificate and will return on June 19th with her lawyer in tow.

Finally, Chloe Lallemand-LeBrasseur, 22, charged with possession of an illegal substance, which Judge Griffin determined was 0.58 grams of marijuana, was not in court to face her charge.

The judge said he was reluctant to issue an arrest warrant under the circumstances.

“In a year’s time this substance may not be illegal,” he said. Lallemand-Brasseaur was searched while she was a passenger in a car passing though the township. A warrant with discretion was served and as long as the accused shows up in court on June 19th, there will be no consequences for missing this court date.

“If she is not here then, and the federal crowns seeks a warrant without discretion, I will have no choice but to issue one,” Griffin said.

The Day of the Pig, which was initially conceived as a small party to mark the opening of the Seed to Sausage store on Road 38 for the summer season four years ago, is about to become a major event at a new venue.

The beach at Sharbot Lake has hosted weddings, a Karaoke contest, Snow Drag races and is the permanent home of Canada Day festivities in Central Frontenac and a weekly summer farmer’s market, which opens this Saturday. This Sunday will be the first time the beach is being used for a large commercial event, and according to Mike McKenzie of Seed to Sausage, the site is well suited to the purpose.

“I had a designer come in and lay everything out for me and those plans can be used for future events at the beach,” he said.

Central Frontenac Township has come on board to support the event and is not charging rent for the site, but it was left to Seed to Sausage to finance it.

As in past years, a number of chefs have been invited in to help roast ten pigs and provide food for sale at kiosks, along with regional brewers and vineyards and some of the best local food producers from Frontenac and the surrounding region.

But with the new venue, the level and cost of entertainment has gone up, and the hours of the event have been lengthened as well.

In order to fit with Mckenzie’s carnival vision, one of the major acts that will be performing is the Blue Mushroom Psyshow with featured performers Miss BonBon Bombay, Angela Solo, István Betyár, and sword swallower and fire eater The Mighty Leviticus. Magician Eric Leclerc is the other featured performer. Musical acts include the Foley Mountain Playboys, Tom Savage and Marc Charron, who will perform with Jason Leen as the Jaymarcs.

With the event taking on such a new scale, there is an admission fee this year. It is $20 at the door, but advance tickets are $15 and are available through the event website dayofthepig.ca

Anyone under 18 years old will be admitted for free however, making it a family friendly event.

Even with the admission fee, McKenzie is not expecting to turn a profit this year.

“I’d like to see this event break even or make enough money to pay for an event organiser to run it next year,” he said.

To get to the Day of the Pig, take road 38 north to Sharbot Lake and look for the cars.

Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake often functions as Provincial Court but last Saturday, it became a slightly different ‘Court’ as the Sharbot Lake Leos Club held its first ever Jail ’n’ Bail to raise funds for the Food Bank.

President Annika Putnam, who also served as ‘judge,’ said the idea came from a brainstorming session where club members tossed out fundraising ideas.

“This one seemed the most feasible,” she said. “We thought it was unique.

“The Mayor (Francis Smith) was the first one we thought of to arrest.

Lion Leslie Smith-Merrigan said the ideas were all from the Leos but “sometimes you gotta shake up the town.

“(But) we try to let them make the rules.”

So, beginning around 10am, prominent local ‘criminals’ started being ‘arrested’ and sentenced to an hour behind bars phoning friends, family and anybody else they could think of to pledge funds and get them out of jail.

At the end of the day, they’d raised about $5,600 for the Food Bank.

They had a lot of help, such as OPP Aux. Const. Nicole Greenstreet and Ilya Medovikov who apprehended the criminals, Brian Robertson of North Frontenac Little Theatre who assembled the ‘jail,’

John Richter who made a special maple and cherry wood gavel and block just for the occasion, as well as numerous parents and Lions Club members who donated to the Leos’ bake sale table and canteen (proceeds of which will go towards funding Leo activities).

Bailiffs were Abby Beattie, Braidey Merrigan, Zack Kaillam, Christian Armstrong and Riley Merrigan.

Smith-Merrigan said anyone 12-18 who’d like to join the Leos can do so by contacting her, and Leo or Lions Club member.

The following is a list of the criminals apprehended and the crimes they commited:

• James MacDonald: Orderly conduct and Driving while under the influence of education
• Tom Corneil: Felony planking, Attempted retirement and Possession of shorts and attempting to wear them year-round
• Wayne Robinson: Generosity in the first degree
• Marcel Giroux: Excessive volunteering and Stalking and contributing to every needy cause
• Connie McLellan: Grand selflessness with excessive positivity
• Robert Moore: Possession of caffeine with intent to sell and Distribution of Community Spirit
• Bill MacDonald: Aiding and abetting aggravated salting of township roads and Attempted assault on an innocent pine tree
• Francis Smith: Attempting honest politics and Break & entering into office
• Dave and Dawn Hansen: Disturbing the peace with the Lions roar and Possession and trafficking of pins worldwide.

The Oso (Crow Lake) waste site probably won’t last much more than five years but with proper management and diversion techniques, the Olden site could last 17-35 years, with 25 years being a reasonable estimate, David Bucholtz of Environmental Services, Cambium Inc. told Central Frontenac Council at its regular meeting Tuesday in Sharbot Lake.

“A new operations plan is being completed (for Olden) and we’ll have a better idea once it’s submitted to the Ministry from review and approval,” he said.

Currently, the Olden site has a remaining capacity of about 92,000 cubic metres and an average annual fill rate of 2,100 to 4,200 cubic metres. The Oso site has a remaining capacity of about 10,000 cubic metres with an average annual fill rate of 2,000 metres.

He said both sites as well as the Hinchinbrooke transfer station and the two closed sites (Arden and Wilkinson) are monitored for both ground water and surface water contamination and once a “minor action” was taken care of at Oso, all are satisfactory. The Township will need a closure plan for Oso, he said.

One plan in the works that could help is a potential agreement between all County members to increase diversion (in all likelihood in conjunction with the City of Kingston).

North Frontenac Council has rejected the plan, South Frontenac has accepted it and Central voted to accept it as well.

“And I’ll be voting for it at County Council,” said Mayor Francis Smith.

“I’ll be supporting it as well,” said Coun. Tom Dewey, the Township’s other representative on County Council.

• Council approved a new half-ton truck at a cost not to exceed $40,000 for new Fire Chief Greg Robinson. The vehicle is not in the 2017 fire budget and will be financed through reserves.

“It is normal accepted practice for municipalities to provide a vehicle to full-time fire chiefs so that they may respond quickly and safely to emergencies when required, both from home and while on duty,” Robinson said.

Mayor Francis Smith said they had discussed using one of two other pickups in the fleet for the chief but Robinson said both were already assigned to other duties at their respective fire halls.

Robinson said there was another aspect to the vehicle request that would have to be discussed in camera.

When Council announced its intension to go into closed session, it gave the reason of discussion of an identifiable individual.

• Public Works Manager Brad Thake said all the rain lately has kept his department busy inspecting, diverting and cleaning out culverts.

“Water is really weighing on my mind but I think we’re in pretty good shape other than 2nd Depot Lake Road,” he said. “I can’t say when that will reopen.”

“We did a lot of work on that road a couple of years ago,” said Coun. Phillip Smith. “Did we not get what we contracted for?”

“We won’t know until we get the engineer’s report,” Thake said. “But if it should have been done differently, then we may have some recourse.”

And speaking of recourse, Coun, Sherry Whan noted the number of guardrails that need replacing and asked if there was some recourse for that.

“Yes, if the incident was reported to the police, we can recoup some of the cost,” Thake said.

• Jerry Ackerman, despite making a compelling argument to change the name of the road he was born on several decades ago, was turned down by Council.

Ackerman made the case that the road, which runs from Tamworth to Parham is known by many names including Wagarville Road when it leaves Parham to 5th Lake Road to Carroll Road to California Road.

Ackerman made the case for Tampar or Partam Road, as well as simplified signage. If successful in Central Frontenac, he planned to take his proposal to adjacent Stone Mills Township.

However, several Council members, while sympathetic to his arguments, pointed out that there are several reasons road names don’t get changed very often.

“Jerry, as much as I sympathize with you, there’s a domino effect that happens when you change a road name,” said Coun. Bill MacDonald. “Everybody along the road has to change their mailing address on everything including their driver’s licence and all the maps in Ontario have to be changed.

“And the number of people who take ownership of a road name is amazing and they would all have to be consulted.”

“There are many roads like that such as Henderson Road which becomes Arden Road which becomes County Road 15,” said Coun. Cindy Kelsey. “And there are costs involved with every change of address and that can get expensive.”

Council did however make it part of its resolution to have the Public Works Manager look at ensuring adequate signage on the the road, at least that part in Central Frontenac.

The coroners inquest into the death of Robert Srigley took place two weeks ago  in Sharbot Lake. It finally revealing some of the details around the sequence of events that led to his death. The jury that heard all the evidence will be submitting its report, with recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths in the future.

At the time, I wrote that there are some unanswered questions about the case that the public has a right to know. One was what happened when the police arrived, and the second was why only uniformed police responded to what was clearly a mental health crisis for a man who was known to hate the police.

On the whole, the inquest answered those questions. Essentially, when police called out his name, Mr. Srigley ran out of his trailer, picked up what looked like a hunting rifle and aimed it at them. And they shot him. Did they need to shoot him as often as they did? Why did so many of the bullets hit him in the back? These questions were not completely answered, but it was clear the officers who shot him did so to protect each other from a viable threat to their lives. Police are trained to shoot until there is no more threat to themselves or the public, and in an incident that unfolded in seconds it is hard to sit in judgement of the police officer who was in that situation after the fact. And the police testimony at the hearing was credible, and at times poignant.

Police also answered the question about mental health workers, by saying that when there is an incident like this where there is a potential for danger, only they are trained to handle the situation. A mental health worker or team could have been with them as backup but not at the scene. Given the description of events, this is also a credible answer to that question.

From the testimony of Srigley's brother and the one officer on the scene who had met and dealt with him before, it was clear Mr. Srigley was known to social services and mental health services in the region, and going back many years in other locations. Much can be said about the inadequacies of the system, in relation to him, but on that day in July it was too late to address those problems. Mr. Srigley's circumstances had deteriorated to a point of no return and he met a tragic end at the hands of police officers who were doing their job.

But that does not mean that the coroner's inquest was a wholly satisfactory airing of the issues. The first thing I noticed about the inquest was the role of the counsel to the coroner. Since I have never covered an inquest before I can't say if this one was conducted in the normal way, but to my view the counsel, Peter Blaine, was framing a narrative about what happened right from the start and no one challenged that narrative. He had gone through all the reports, knew much of what each witness was going to say, and asked leading questions on a number of occasions, and seemed to be trying to do the jury’s work for them at times, even suggesting wording for the jury to consider in their report and recommendations.

For example, during the testimony of  one of the paramadics who attended at the scene shooting and remained with Srigley until they reached the hospital in Napanee, Blaine asked a leading question. “Did Mr. Srigley say anything about wanting to die during that time. The paramedic said “no, I did not hear him say anything about that” and then Blaine went further. He said that sometimes people who are involved in an intense effort such as attending to  gunshot wounds “are so fixated on what they are doing they don't see or hear anything else.”

“I did not hear him say anything about wanting to die” the Paramedic repeated. When the other paramedic, who drove the ambulance, took the stand, Blaine asked him if he heard Srigley say anything about wanting to die. He said he did not hear much, except “you guys are lousy shots”.

Later in the hearing, at least two of the police officers who testified recalled Srigley saying “just shoot me now” and “I want to die”. As I said before they were very credible witnesses whose accounts were pretty consistent with each others. But why did Mr. Blaine, whose job is to present the facts of the case to the jury, repeatedly push this line. Indeed, he seemed to be pushing pretty hard on a “suicide by police” theory.

Although the OPP  and the OPP Officers Association were represented by lawyers at the hearing, the Srigley family was not. There was no one trying to tease out any details to challenge the dominant narrative, no one poking at any of the loose ends in the testimony

This was not a criminal trial, and was not intended to be a confrontational process, but the supporting witnesses who were called in to explain OPP initiatives as regards mental health and the general tone of the questioning by Mr. Blaine suggested an attempt to make sure that, in the end, the entire matter can be filed away neatly in some cabinet somewhere, never to be referred to again.

President June Crawford opened the proceedings with a remembrance as comrades gathered at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 425 in Sharbot Lake for its annual Honours, Awards and Appreciation luncheon last Saturday.

Perhaps the highlight of the ceremony was when Second World War Veteran Norm Garney made his way to the podium to receive his 30-year pin.

Other highlights included Ty Seely and Dan Bush being presented life memberships from Zone Commander Terry Shelley and Donna Longmire receiving the Volunteer of the Year Award for “all of her assistance and contribution to the welfare of the Legion.”

Bill Bowick was presented his 20-year pin.

Fifteen-year pins went to James, Barnett, John Parks, Dave Whelan and Larry Chaiarot.

Ten-year pins went to Ken Waller and Brent Cullen.

Associate 30-year pins went to Cathy MacMunn, Kathy Fister and Gerald Fox.

An Associate 25-year pin went to Judy Gray.

Associate 20-year pins went to Rosemarie Bowick and Bart Menard.

Associate 15-year pins went to David Yerxa and Anne Hauser.

Associate 10-year pins went to Rustin Hollywood, Skip Moyst, Helene Riddell and Gilbert Riddell, who also accepted pins on behalf of members who were unable to attend.

Associate five-year pins went to Susan Mazerall, Alden McLellan Jr., Lisa McLellan, Frances Smith and Barry Bailey.

Certificates of Appreciation and Pens went to David Yerxa for his swim-a-thon donation, Connie McLellan for tending as bartender and post-treasurer and John Campbell for his work on the Finance Committee.

John Campbell received an executive medal, Doug Steele received an executive medal and treasurer’s bar, Wayne Sheppard received an executive medal and senior’s bar (accepted posthumously by his wife Lillian Sheppard) and June Crawford received a past president medal and bar pin and public relations pin.

Executive bars went to Ty Seeley (2nd vice-president), Bob Olmstead (2nd vice-president), Dan Bush (poppy), Vern Crawford (service officer and sgt-at-arms), Connie McLellan (youth education) and Patty Middleton (1st vice-president, honours and awards and youth education)

North Frontenac Little Theatre’s production of the Canadian playwright Norm Foster’s play, Here Along the Flight Path, went up last weekend at Granite Ridge Education Centre in Sharbot Lake. The play centres around John Cummings, played by Marc Veno, who is a teacher at Harrowsmith Public School.

The title of the play refers not only to the planes that fly over the apartment building in an un-named Canadian City where the play is set, but also to Cummings himself. Although he is a catalyst for changes in the lives of three women who live in the apartment next door at different times over a three year period, he does not act. We get a picture of his changing perspective on the world and his life through the interaction but he is essentially along the flight path of their lives, watching and listening as they eventually fly off to the next phase of their lives, leaving him behind.

The play also has something to say about gender and gender stereotypes. Cummings is 46 when the play starts, a cuckolded divorced man who loves his young children but may or may not be involved in their lives. He thinks about having sex all the time, but knows he wants something more in his life without really knowing what it is or how to seek it. Veno captures all this very well, but he is hindered by the character’s limitatoins. As a playwright Foster sets his characters up to reveal and maybe discover themselves, and then inevitably retreats to a joke, keeping the characters from being too “real” and this also hinders the performances of the actors playing those roles. Veno did a very good job, showing Cummings is a fundamentally decent man who respects, cares about and eventually helps each of the women living next door.

Faye Davidson (played by Ellie Steele) is the first neighbout, a ‘hooker with the heart of gold’, Angel Plunkett (played by Carol Belanger) is a ‘plucky’ aspiring musical theatre actress from the sticks come to make her mark in the big city, and Gwen (played by Barb Matson) is a 40ish woman seeking a new life on her own after her policeman husband dumped her for another woman.

Steele played Davidson as strong, unapologetic, worldly and at the same time sympathetic. The scene just before she leaves for Montreal is a classic slapstick ala the Dick Van Dyke show. She decides to have sex with Cummings before leaving town, and he refuses, leading to a kind of chase scene as they both trip over couches, all the while delivering their lines on cue.

The character of Angel Plunkett is in her early 20’s, too young for John Cummings to pursue, which she makes abundantly clear. Carol Belanger captured a lot of the naivetee of Plunkett, who clearly is never going to succeed in musical theatre, but has a second life as a country singer-songwriter back in Alberta. She appreciates her neighbour, a friendly face in a cold big city.

Barb Matson had more to work with as Gwen, who enters into an affair with Cumming, essentially using him to recover her composure and sense of self worth in order to return home to Vancouver and face her own life. Matson was very good in the role, good enough that her ultimate decision to leave Cummings with no warning takes him, and the audience, by surprise. But the structure of the play is such that Cummings is “on the flight path” not the destination.

In spite some of my issues with the play itself, the NFLT production was very solid this time around, the acting and staging and lighting were all clean, and the subject matter of the play was interesting as well.

After two days of testimony in the coroner’s inquest into the death of Robert (Bob) Srigley, who was shot by Ontario Provincial Police Officers (OPP) on July 25/2013 and died 3 days later at Kingston General Hospital, a picture has emerged. It is that of a severely troubled man whose ultimate end resulted from a series of actions and reactions by him, community members concerned about his well-being, and members of the Lanark detachment of the OPP.

Michael Blain, counsel to Coroner Dr. John Carlisle, said on Tuesday (April 25) that the inquest would be wrapping up the next morning, and after receiving instructions from the coroner, the five member jury would be heading to a jury room to confirm their findings and prepare a report on the death.

The testimony commenced on Monday with a detailed account of Mr. Srigley’s life and history of altercations with police from his brother Scott, a police officer himself, who serves with the Guelph police force.

He talked about his brother’s life, going back to childhood, and presented a sequence of events that explained the twists and turns of his brother’s life, and how he came to “hate the blue uniform”.

“I am here as a brother, not a police officer,” Scott Srigley said to the five member jury. “I can't comment on what happened that day. I wasn't there, but when you make your recommendations I think you should consider a few things”.

Srigley then said that his brother’s death, in his mind, came about as the result of a failure of the mental health and welfare systems in Ontario. The police response to the 911 call on July 25/2013 representing only the final moments of a life that had been deteriorating for years. He said that the fact that the Ontario Disability Support system pays a fixed amount of money to every recipient (about $1,000 a month for a single male) made it impossible for his brother to establish a safe living situation on the property he had purchased on the Arden Tamworth Road.

“Rob was living way, way below the poverty line,” he said,

He also said that in the name of protecting his brother’s civil rights, the mental health system made it impossible for his mother and him to get Robert the help he needed.

Finally, he questioned the decision to send a four member team of OPP officers to the 911 call on July 25th.

“If you send a brain surgeon to fix a car, or you send a mechanic into the operating room to do brain surgery, it will not go well,” he said. “For my brother, 4 blue uniforms arriving at that scene was the last thing he needed.”

Srigley went on to say that, at least in urban areas where it is practical, emergency mental health units should accompany police when they attend at mental health emergencies.

“I don't want more and more of these inquests to take place in more and more halls like this,” he said.

In the second day of the hearing, Scott Srigley’s comment about the appropriateness of the police to the 911 call was addressed in detail.

Each of the four officers who responded to the call that day, as well as both of the Paramedics who attended the scene, presented their own version of what transpired at the scene. The OPP officers are Constables Botham, Copp, and Niceliu and Sgt. Monker, all members of the Lanark detachment.

The four officers met up a short distance from Srigley’s property and formulated a plan. Constable Botham had been to the property before and had established a good, but inconsistant relationship with Srigley. He advised the others on the lay of the land at the property. At the inquest, each of the other officers said they had heard about Srigley and were aware that he could be co-operative at times but that he had a tendency toward violence and a hatred of police.

As a video from the scene showed, the property was in a bad state, with garbage strewn about and plastic pails and twisted metal poking out of the ground. Sgt. Monkers was in charge and he gave out the assignments. He was the only officer with the clearance to fire a taser so he carried one. Officer Botham had a rifle, and Officers Copp and Niceliu were carrying fire extinguishers. They all carried standard issue hand guns.

In calls about an hour earlier to his lawyer and to the Frontenac News, both of which resulted in 911 calls, Srigley said he was planning to get into his boat and set himself on fire.

As the officers made their way down the path to Srigley’s trailer, they were not sure if he was even home. They were greeted at first by his dogs, and when they got closer to the door Officer Botham, whose first name is Jody, called out, “Bob, its Jody, are you there, I want to talk to you.”

The door to the trailer opened and Bob Srigley, naked, burst out of the door and headed towards the water, or so it seemed to the officers at first. Officer Niceliu said that he started to head in the direction of Srigley to stop him from getting into his boat, but instead of heading towards the water, Srigley went to a picnic table, turned his back to police, and picked up what looked like a hunting rifle and turned to face the officers.

At that point each of the officers reacted in a different way. Copp, who was furthest away, made his way to a utility trailer near where he was standing, took cover behind it and pulled out his gun. Botham pulled out his police issue rifle, Monker pulled out his taser, and Niceliu dropped the fire extinguisher and pulled out his gun. They called to Srigley to drop the weapon, but Srigley pulled the rifle up and aimed it at the officers. Monkers said that he fired the taser even though he knew he was too far away for it to be of any use.

“I remember thinking, wrong weapon,” he said. Botham took aim with his rifle, and then Niceliu fired twice at Srigley’s upper body.

“From my viewpoint it appeared he was taking dead aim at Sgt. Monkers,” Niceliu said.

A police training officer who gave evidence on the first day of the hearing, explained that police officers in Ontario are trained to always fire at the chest area when they discharge a firearm because it is the easiest part of the body to hit and the most effective way to stop an assailant from being a danger to others.

Niceliu fired again and Srigley fell back and began to head back to his trailer, now pointing his gun to the side at Niceliu. Niceliu and Monkers both fired on him as he ran back to the trailer, hitting him on his side and back. Nine casings were recovered from the scene, and 6 of the bullets hit Srigley, two just grazing him and the other four causing various amounts of damage.

As Srigley fell headfirst on his front stoop, Sgt. Monkers approached, as did the others. Srigley’s hands were cuffed behind his back, and the rifle, which turned out to be a scoped pellet gun and not a hunting rifle, was found on the ground behind him. After searching the trailer and finding it was empty, Officer Niceliu held Bob Srigley’s head up because it was drooping to the side.

In his account, Officer Niceliu said that Srigley remained conscious and in the ten minutes it took for the ambulance to arrive on scene, “he asked me to take out my hand gun and shoot him in the head. He said ‘just kill me but take off the handcuffs first, I don’t want to die with hand cuffs on.’ He kept repeating that.”

Paramedics arrived and attended to the wounds as much as they could. Then with help from the officers they carried Srigley on a stretcher to the vehicle and headed towards Napanee hospital. Two of the officers, Copp and Botham, went in the ambulance with paramedics. Srigley remained conscious throughout the trip. He was transferred to Kingston afterwards and underwent surgery that night. The next day, as his mother and brother arrived, it appeared that he would make a recovery, but instead his condition deteriorated and he died on Sunday, July 28.

Michael Blain asked each of the officers if, in retrospect, they felt the situation could have been better handled by someone other than a police officer given Srigley’s history and state of mind, perhaps a mental health crisis team such as exist in larger centres.

Sgt. Monkers, who was the last to provide evidence, summed up what the others had all said in one way or another: “Only police have the training and the equipment to handle dangerous encounters. In this case there were way too many variables at play for someone without extensive training to deal with. Once we have secured a scene, sure a mental health crisis team can come it, but in this case we knew there was a potential for danger and we needed to try and get to Mr. Srigley before he caused damage to himself and we needed to secure our own safety if necessary, which is what happened. It was the correct response.”

The Cardinal Cafe in Sharbot Lake has a new product this week with a twist — a raspberry twist to be exact.

At first glance, Caden’s Ultimate Raspberry Twist looks like a tasty square, which it is. But how it came to be is a bit of a story in itself.

Cardinal owner Rob Moore is known for his innovative concoctions but in this case he had some help from the Lakers and senior food and nutrition programs at GREC. Moore has had a relationship with the Lakers program in the past and so when students were studying how to promote fruits, Moore came to give a talk. The next thing you know, they’d come up with a bit of a contest, with Moore offering to feature the winner’s creation in his Cafe.

Part of the Lakers program’s mandate is to get students involved in the community. You might know them from their work with the Food Bank.

“He came to our class to talk about fruits and deserts and then each person had to come up with a recipe,” said Summer Kennedy. “Rob then judged them.”

The result was Caden’s Ultimate Raspberry Twist, which is on sale this week at the Cafe for $3 a square.

‘Caden’ in this case is Grade 12 Caden Stephenson, a budding pastry chef who’s looking at St. Lawrence College next year.

“I found the original recipe on the Internet,” Stephenson said. “It took two or three tries to get it to look right.

“It’s raspberries, lemon zest, sugar, flour, salt and lemon juice.”

It was something of a labour of love for Stephenson.

“I love cooking and baking,” he said. “I can do it all day.”

Moore said judging the competition was a difficult job.

“There were a lot of delicious creations,” he said. “But part of the criteria was how it would work as a marketable item.”

He liked the raspberry twist and saw its potential.

“It has a unique texture and a very vibrant flavour,” Moore said. “And we didn’t have anything like it.

“I modified the base into a short-bread and came up with a lemon-raspberry curd topping.”

“Rob’s changes are awesome,” said Stephenson.

Moore said the squares will be for sale all this week and if all goes well “I might keep them.”

The St. James Catholic Church hall was filled to the brim on Monday as staff from Northern Frontenac Community Services served up a roast beef dinner for over 100 volunteers who help the agency deliver  services to disparate parts of Frontenac County on a daily basis.

This year the Volunteer of the Year award went to Bob Greer, who has been a volunteer driver for decades.

In describing Bob’s dedication, Gail Young, co-ordinator of Frontenac Transportation Services,  referred to a ride Bob gave to a young man on Christmas day a couple of years ago. “He was supposed to drive him to Perth, but the young man wanted to get to Ottawa for Christmas with his family, so Bob took him all the way. He never says no.

After dinner the volunteers were entertained by Stephen and Debra Goodberry, a popular Neil Diamond and Elvis tribute act.