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St. Lawrence College Employment Services opened a new office in Verona last week, on Road 38 next to the Revell Ford pre-owned lot and in the same building as Frontenac Mental Health Services.
Spokesperson Karen McGregor said opening this third office (the other two being in Sharbot Lake and Sydenham) serves a geographical need.
“It’s in between Sharbot Lake and Sydenham so we’re hoping it will be easier for those in this area without transportation to get to,” she said. “It’s walking distance from the downtown (Verona) core.
“It’s the same idea as in Sharbot Lake but in a community that hasn’t been served before.”

She said that not only are there businesses in Verona that need employees but also in the surrounding area.
“Verona is unique,” she said. “We’ll be tapping into the tourism-based industries that are off the beaten path.”
Initially, McGregor will be in the Verona office Monday mornings and while drop-ins are welcome, they’d prefer people make appointments by calling the Sharbot Lake office (613-545-3949, press 3).
St. Lawrence provides a range of services for both job-seekers and employers.

For workers, they can help connect them with available jobs and help with things like resumes and “appropriate” email addresses.
“We know there’s a need,” she said. “Times are changing and employers are often asking for resumes via email or other electronic means.
“We can help with that.”

She said they can provide training such as Smart Serve and Working at Heights and even mock interviews geared to certain jobs so that potential employees can get an idea of what they’ll be facing.
For employers, there may be even more benefits.

“Besides training time, we can often arrange subsidies for employers,” she said. “We can read applications and screen employees for them as well.”
McGregor said that they also have services for people who are currently employed but contemplating change.
“Some people hate their job but don’t know what to do,” she said. “Sometimes, it’s about finding a career change.
“I can find you a job but a career is different.”

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 30 August 2017 16:20

Art in the Saw Mill in Verona

Dave Gilmore has exhibited at Verona’s Art in the Saw Mill since it began in 2013.
An engineer by trade, he began to take up painting seriously about 10 years ago after he retired to 14 Island Lake.
“I guess it’s full time now in retirement,” he said. “I enjoy it, it’s a good way to pass the time and it seems to make people happy.”
He said he enjoys showing his work as well.
“I do enjoy showing,” he said. “It’s a chance to mix with people and explain your art as well.”
His subject matter tends to come from what he sees around him but he’s starting to lean a little more towards abstraction as his art evolves.
“How you choose subjects is usually something that inspires you inside and out,” he said. “I like colourful scenes, fall colours especially.
“But I like buildings too.”
Gilmore’s artistic education is quite diverse. He lived in England for a time and took courses from three different artists and studied with Kingston artist Don McCallum.
He numbers among his prized possessions two brushes that once belonged to the Group of Seven’s Edwin Holgate.
Gilmore credits a love of the Group of Seven with his new-found interest in abstraction, such as the works of Lawren Harris an A. Y. Jackson.
“It’s a journey,” he said of art and painting. “You can’t expect to make your bread and butter in art unless you’ve got a unique approach.
“But it’s fun.”
Art in the Saw Mill featured nine local artist/artisans this year including Gilmore, Elaine Farragher, Havery, Virginia Lavin, Ali Williams, Carolyn Bloye, Bill Anderson, Judy Skeggs and Waters Edge Pottery.

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 30 August 2017 16:09

Traffic stop leads to charges in Verona

On 25 August 2017, at approximately 09:00 p.m., Frontenac Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) stopped a green BMW 4-door sedan on Road 38 southbound in the town of Verona. The vehicle was travelling without any rear lights.
During the traffic stop, officers observed open liquor in the vehicle and the male driver failed the Roadside Screening Device test. Further investigation revealed that the driver had a suspended driver's license, no insurance and the plates were not authorized for the vehicle.

As a result 28 year old Cody Allan GRIMARD of South Frontenac Township has been charged with Driving with More than 80 mgs of Alcohol in Blood under the Criminal Code 253(1) (b) as well as several driving related charges under the Canadian Automobile Insurance Act, Highway Traffic Act and Liquor License Act.

The vehicle was towed and impounded for seven days. GRIMARD was released on a Promise to Appear to attend The Ontario Court of Justice in Kingston on 5 October 2017.

Contact: PC Roop Sandhu   Phone: 613-532-0247  Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC

South Frontenac Students interested in exploring painting, pottery, and printmaking will have an opportunity to take classes this fall.
Gabriel Deerman and Ashley Doucette Pilles operate Salmon River Studios out of Tamworth. Last year they started offering afternoon art classes in Tamworth, Enterprise, Centreville and Newburgh in Lennox and Addington and this year they are expanding to Frontenac.

The two artists are establishing their own practices out of their studio and one of their goals is to foster the arts in their community by offering the classes. It makes for a bit of a juggling act to keep making and teaching art while running a studio, and for Ashley even more so since she is also a supply teacher, but they love teaching art and exploring different materials and media with their students.
“We both taught oversees for four years, teaching art mostly.  We came home and we decided we wanted to try and start a private art teaching practice. We found that what was most valuable to parents is if we started working in the schools. It’s turned out to be a lot of fun.  A lot rural schools are lacking in arts programming, and that’s where we step in for families and kids who are interested,” said Gabriel Deerman.
Salmon River Studios is committed to arts education for all ages and all abilities. Workshops for adults in various media are being offered out of the studio, and the artists also work with special needs young adults in association with New Leaf Link in South Frontenac.

They are also looking into some other schools in South Frontenac where they might offer classes   
The classes take place once a week after school, at a cost of $50 per month. Students in all elementary grades (Kindergarten to grade 8) are welcome to join in.  There is a limit to class size, somewhere between 12 and 15 students depending on the room that is available and makeup of the classes.

Students at Harrowsmith and Prince Charles are encouraged to have a look at the Salmon River Studios website. Registration forms will be available at the school offices when school starts next week, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information about booking a spot.

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 23 August 2017 13:45

Bumper Butternut Bounty

Butternut trees have been on the endangered species list in Ontario ever since the Endangered Species Act was enacted in 2008 and the list was created. Butternut’s are a medium sized deciduous tree that thrives in full sun. They can be found the limestone substrate regions of Frontenac and Lennox and Addington, and particularly in the borderline areas where the Limestone meets the Canadian Shield, roughly north of Tamworth and Verona and south of Hwy. 7.

They have been hit by a canker, and the population throughout the US and Canada have been devastated. A Butternut recovery program, which has been mainly volunteer driven, has been responsible for planting seeds of trees that have shown resistance to the canker in order to re-establish a population of healthy trees as infected trees die off.
Even with the canker damaging trees, many trees in the local region have been able to survive, although not thriving, for a number of years.
Doug Lee, currently of Enterprise, has been a fan of the Butternut for a quarter of a century, ever since the canker first began to have an impact on trees in Ontario. It was identified in the United States decades earlier but did not venture north until later. He has identified Butternuts throughout the Verona-Godfrey-Tamworth region over the years and regularly checks on the progress of the trees, paying particular attention to trees that appear to have few or no symptoms of canker infestation.

At the end of the summer, he visits different locations where he has seen Butternuts over the years to see how they are doing and to find out if they have put out any seed this year, in the form of Butternuts.
“I’ve never seen this many butternuts in one year in the 25 years I’ve been collecting them,” he said earlier this week. I have collected about 3,000 butternuts over the last week, including 195 pounds of nuts off one tree, over 2,000 butternuts,” he said, in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
To put this year’s haul in context, back in 2010, working with the Butternut recovery program, the News did a story with Doug Lee. At a property in South Frontenac, about 200 butternuts, one and a half buckets full, were collected and it was considered a very good haul.

While Lee is preparing all of the Butternuts he has harvested for planting, most of them are not viable for the Butternut recovery program, which only collects seed from trees that are considered canker free.
“I think there are about 3 or 4 trees that I have seen this year that are of that calibre,” said Lee.
He will be reporting those to the recovery program for them to evaluate later in the fall.
Meanwhile he still intends to plant all the seed that he has collected, and is making them available for others who would like to try their luck. He does use bleach on his seed to try and kill any of the canker that is carried by the seed, but the chances of success for seed from infected trees is less than ideal.
“I have had some success,” said Lee, “and I keep trying.”

For information about the Butternut Recover Program, how to identify Butternut Trees by their distinctive leaf structure, and how to identify infected and uninfected trees, you can contact Rose Fleguel, Butternut Recovery Technician with Rideau Valley conservation at 613-858-3678 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Steve Pitt at 613-532-0701. Anyone who is interested in contacting Doug Lee to receive some of his record haul of nuts can call 613-328-9599

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC

Linda Cyr’s husband Reg surprised her at a party celebrating a milestone occasion with a special gift — a white 1973 Volkswagen SuperBeetle convertable.
She’d always wanted one.
The Cyr’s have a ‘fleet’ of Volkswagens including a 1972 camper, a 2000 and Reg’s souped up drag Bug, which was also on display at the 22nd annual Verona Classic Car Show last weekend.
So, why Bugs?

“They’re very dependable,” she said. “They’re a really fun, loveable little car.
“It makes you fell younger.”
Cyr had plenty of visitors at the car show.
“People smile when they see it,” she said. “Everybody either had one or knew somebody who had one.
“Everybody has a memory about a beetle.”
The Cyr fleet began with a relatively new Beetle, again a gift from Reg, as a surprise for her retirement.
“Then Linda said she wanted an older one,” Reg said.
Well, it wasn’t long before Reg got the ‘bug’ as well.
“This is a ’68 Bug, modified with a mid-engine turbo VW VR6,” he said. “It was built as a drag car . . . a street and strip build.
“But it is street legal.”

Reg said that for him, restoring old cars is a mixture of nostalgia, childhood and university memories.
“They’re all fun,” he said. “And you get the same reaction from just about everybody.”
Fun and reactions kind of spells it our for Linda too.
For example, check out her licence plate ABADGIRL.
Is that for the car, or its driver?
“That depends on the day, . . . or who’s asking?” Linda said with a chuckle.

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC

There are a few things about the Verona Car Show that set it apart from other car shows.

One of them is the variety of activities the Verona show offers for the entire family. Aside from up to 300 vintage cars, it includes performances by Elvis impersonator Berry Chumley and country star Jaydee Bixby, a Kidz Zone, a craft show in the Lion’s Hall, and the Lion’s canteen featuring both breakfast and lunch, among other attractions for the entire family.

Last year after running in conjunction with the Cattail Festival for 20 years, the car show was launched as a stand alone event, and thanks in part to a prize package for participating vintage car owners that includes a trip to Las Vegas and tickets to Barrett Jackson, the world’s largest vintage car auction, the show drew over 250 cars and attracted a large, appreciative audience to the Lion’s Park and Hall on Verona Sand Road.

This year there is more, including something that local mover and shaker Linda Bates has been trying to attract to Verona for a long time, a Pinty’s NASCAR Series Black #43 race ready car. The car will be on show with a specially designed trailer from NASCAR and audience members will be able to look under the hood. Show organiser John Nizman said that it is very difficult to get a NASCAR race ready car to a show, and it is a tribute to Linda Bates tenacity and the car show’s success that the car will be one of the features of this year’s show.

“The closest location where you can see a real NASCAR car this year is Oshawa. There is no other one between Cornwall and Toronto except in Verona,” he said. “When we went to them last year with our plans, they wanted to see if we could draw enough vintage cars and enough of an audience, and when we did, that they came through for us this year.

In addition to NASCAR joining the car show, the OPP will be involved this year in a bigger way. Roop Sandhu from the Frontenac detachment was on hand last year with his modern cruiser and was talking about community policing, and he will be back this year, but so will a 1987 vintage OPP Classic Car 7-500 cruiser, on loan from the OPP museum in Orillia. It will be an opportunity to see not only how the style of vehicles has changed over 30 year but the technology of police cars as well.

South Frontenac Fire and Rescue will also be at the show, demonstrating how they use the Jaws of Life to extricate car crash victims.

Bry the Magic Guy will be in among the crowd doing sleight of hand tricks again this year, and new feature is local Rob Fenwick, who will be doing drone demonstrations. Last year Rob used one of his drones to take overhead pictures of the car show, and this year he will be doing demonstrations.

The summer craft show in the Lion’s Hall has been fully subscribed by local artisans. The Kidz Zone will keep the little ones busy with face painting, balloon animals and rides on the Verona Racers as well as Mini Putt and Kub Car making – all unlimited with the purchase of a $5 armband – the only fee that is charged at the show, which is free to the public, is parking. There will be donation jars at the show as well.

There will be 18 classes with trophies awarded including Production and Modified Car and Truck classes as well as Special Interest Vehicles, Foreign Vehicles, People’s Choice, Best in Show and Kids’ Pick. And don’t forget the 50/50 draw. Last year the winner took home $940.

All proceeds from this event go back into the local community through Verona Community Association (VCA) sponsored events and programs. Some examples of such programs are Christmas in the Village, K&P Trailhead Project, Flower Barrel Contest and maintenance of our village signs and kiosk. Visit veronacarshow.com or Like us on Facebook for more information.

The Verona Car show runs this Sunday, August 13 from 8am-3pm at the Verona Lions Hall – 4504 Verona Sand Rd.

Free Admission for Spectators. $10/car registered The Verona Community Association is hosting the 22nd Annual Verona Car Show.  

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC

It was several years in the making, and not without several roadblocks, but last week the Verona Community Association celebrated the official unveiling of its new electronic message sign.

The new sign sits exactly where the old manual sign sat. The old board was serviceable but it was partial to one particular problem. Changing the letters was fine in the summer, but in the winter — not so much.

“Snow tended to cover up the box where the letters were kept and it also covered up the ditch,” said VCA president Wayne Conway. But because they wanted to promote local events, they soldiered on.

The idea of going digital started several years ago when the VCA started putting away funds for a new sign, Conway said. The land the sign was on belonged to the Township and there were concerns that it might have negative effects on traffic. It also turned out that Hydro One needed an address to provide power but these got worked out.

“The VCA is very active,” said Mayor Ron Vandewal. “We hear from them a lot.

“But the selling point for us on the sign was that we could use it for messages concerning road work and closures and such.

“We do a lot of work together with the VCA.”

“It’s absolutely amazing what you can do,” said Coun. John McDougall. “We’re so lucky to have an organization like the VCA.”

In the end, the Township gave the VCA use of the land, installed the poles and provided access to power. The Verona Lions Club provided financial assistance for the installation and Reid’s Foodland cuts the grass.

The VCA is a registered corporation which promotes community involvement and the welfare of the area. It is governed by a board of eight members elected for two-year terms. Membership is open to anyone living within an area roughly bounded by Verona, Godfrey, Desert Lake, Hartington and Bellrock.

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC

(A continuing series of articles to be used as part of the build-out of the Villages pages on Frontenac-live.ca, this look at the history of Harrowsmith and Verona is based on the book, Portland - My Home by Wiliam J. Patterson)

In 1802 Micajah Purdy registered the lots in what was later (1807) called Portland Township. In 1804, John Shibley, where this story really begins, bought the south-west corner of the township (what is now essentially Harrowsmith) for £175. He split up his land in three, giving a piece to each of his sons Jacob and Henry. Portland Township then had a population of at least six because each Shibley man was married at the time.

From that point forward the township began to grow in population. Between 1810 and 1830 land was being sold at bargain prices in the township because the government of Upper-Canada had more land than money and they would often use land in places like Portland as a reward for loyal service, military pensions, civil servant wages etc. In 1819, there were nineteen households in the township. By 1826, the population was recorded at 279, and by 1829 had risen to 343. In the 1830’s the population had even more growth due to the high number of immigrants from the United Kingdom. In the 1840’s the population of Portland spiked yet again, creating a township that was two thirds full with the majority of vacant lots being in the north. Verona and Harrowsmith contained little vacant area at that time.

Now that there was a full community, Jacob Shibley went to work ensuring it was a well governed and just place. He became justice of the peace and was one of the first two councillors along with Clark Nicholls. Shibley has served in the War of 1812 as a regiment commander and later became a captain. He even became the county’s first member of Parliament. He was “undoubtedly the most important man in Portland” according to local historian William J. Patterson, who wrote the book, Portland my home.  

In the 1840’s with a relatively stabilized population and a growing government, there was a movement away from pioneer subsistence farming practices (mainly growing wheat) and on to mixed farming. The number of farm animals dramatically increased during this period as did the average acreage of cleared land per farm. Because of this change in farming practices, there was a higher annual salary per household than ever before. By the 1840’s the populations of Verona and Harrowsmith had significantly improved their quality of life.

In the early years, education was limited. Parents needed their children to help on their farms. Upper Canada eventually established a public elementary school system in 1846 although less than half of the township’s child population attended. Small school houses started popping up in Portland Township and were used for worship on weekends because it was too expensive to build both a church and a school house.  

A number of new occupations were possible from the 1840’s and afterwards because of schools, government, and the building of the Kingston & Pembroke railroad. The prosperity in Portland over the second half of the 19th Century funded the building of the K&P, the establishment of a Board of Health, and providing limited support to low-income members of society. By the 1880’s Verona and Harrowsmith provided such opportunities to their populations that there are records of railway workers, undertakers, bakers, miners, plasterers, photographers, nurses, store clerks and seamstresses in addition to farmers.

By 1848 Joshua Hicks had opened the first tavern in Verona. And by 1849 the first Methodist church was built in Harrowsmith (Wesleyan Methodist Church). As William Peterson points out in Portland My Home, the two events are related and had implications for a very long time. Patterson wrote that  “Methodism taught that salvation came from separating oneself from the temptations of the world. It was a denomination with a strong social conscience that believed in one’s duty to one’s neighbour”.

Because of this strong community oriented conscience during the 1870’s there was a movement by the Methodists to stamp out drunkenness. This movement led to the establishment of temperance organizations and the building of temperance houses such as the Verona Temperance House which was completed in 1910. The Verona organization had over 100 members. Religion was also linked at this time to a political identity.  Methodists were Reformers and Anglicans were Tories. Jacob Shibley was a Reformer.

Unlike the religious affiliations in the rest of Upper Canada in the second half of the 19th Century, favouring the Church of England and Presbyterian Church, in Portland 52% of the population was Methodist. At the end of the 19th Century a new wave of Methodism arrived in Portland, called Free Methodism. In 1889 Rev. A.H. Norrington tried to bring Free Methodism to Harrowsmith and received rotten vegetables in return – lots of them, thrown at him and his followers. Norrington moved on to Verona with greater success and by 1891 they had built a church. The Verona circuit became the strongest Free Methodist community in Canada by 1895 – producing 23 Methodist ministers, and gaining popularity due to the mass baptism of converts in Rock Lake. Eventually Free Methodism made its way back to Harrowsmith and in 1919 the Presbyterian church was bought and converted into a Free Methodist church. The Harrowsmith congregation continued to grow throughout the 20th Century and at one point even published a newspaper, called The Harrowsmith Banner.

Harrowsmith and Verona have a long history of industry and resource extraction as well. In Verona, the mills and factories of the 19th Century were mostly in service of the local population but some of the produce was destined for export – cheese most notably. Today, there are few remnants remaining to tell us how many mills there were or what they were producing. We do know that in Verona there was a saw mill and a flouring mill in the 1870’s around the same time that Verona was supplied with a source of power. In 1912 Davy Well Drilling was established by Charles Davy and his son William. This is the third oldest well drilling firm in Ontario and still in business today. It is currently run by the 5th generation and services over three hundred homes a year, a far cry from the 1940’s when they were drilling at most 40 wells a year. The first saw-mill in Portland township was in Harrowsmith opened in 1826. Many more saw-mills were opened later in the century as well as nearby associated industries such as barrel factories, tanneries (using tan bark), and carriage factories. Eventually all of these wood-associated businesses closed down and in the 1930’s only Harrowsmith’s cheese box factory was still running. Eventually the resource industries in Verona and Harrowsmith died out and their economies relied on small shops and stores.

What is really special about Harrowsmith and Verona is their social and community development. In the first half of the 20th Century the township hall in Harowsmith was used for visiting troops of actors and in 1927 - under sponsorship from the Women’s Institute – for local amateur productions. Verona had a local group of entertainers called The Dumbells from the 1920’s on. The Women’s Institute was an original Canadian organization for rural women, the Harrowsmith branch opened in 1924 and the Verona branch in 1927. These organizations provided a social focus for women outside of church circles and involved work for the betterment of the community. Thanks to the Harrowsmith Women’s Institute, the library was built in 1926. Both the Verona and Harrowsmith branches provided aid to less fortunate families during the depression and made countless contributions to charities such as the Red Cross during WW1. In the second half of the century the focus of their work was in education, scholarships for local students at Sydenham High School, public speech competitions, etc. The Verona Women’s Institute has since closed but the Harrowsmith branch is still going strong. Just last month they celebrated their 92nd anniversary.

Verona and Harrowsmith share much of their rich history. Both hamlets are today home to thriving communities and the beautiful countryside. In the 1900’s there was a natural rivalry between the two township centres in the form of hockey matches and baseball games. Organizations and clubs that were founded in one were immediately duplicated in the other. Thankfully that rivalry has been put to rest and we can appreciate the positive impact that these twin hamlets have had on our local rural history.

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 05 July 2017 12:55

Ecumenical service, music in the park

It’s not often all the churches in the area get together for an event but that’s what happened Sunday in Verona. And to top it off, the day also featured a stunning concert featuring two local teenagers with extremely bright futures.

The Ecumenical Service was a Canada 150 event featuring seven area churches, said Rev. Patsy Henry of Trinity United Church, one of the organizers.

“It was wonderful, and the first time anything like this has occurred in my time here (six years)” Henry said. “We had five area pastors, and a mixed choir from a number of congregations.

“Everybody seemed very happy and I think this should be a yearly event.”

Henry said there were about 200 people in attendance “based on the number of chairs.”

Never one to miss out on an opportunity, the Verona Community Association’s Joyce Casement said the VCA figured this was a good day to have a Music in the Park event.

“They (the churches) planned the Ecumenical Service, so we tagged on to it,” she said.

Not only did the VCA bring in some top-notch music, they also sprung for a free lunch of hot dogs and cake, and paid for the grounds.

Now, about this edition of Music in the Park.

The VCA has been putting on some excellent Sunday concerts for a few years now usually three or four a summer. The event stared out at McMullen Park by the water but moved to the Lions Pavilion after experiencing a couple of rainouts.

And you could make a case for being the best Music in the Park installment yet, thanks to the remarkable talents of two teenage girls.

Mountain Grove’s Jessica Wedden led things off fiddling up a storm and backed by Inverary’s Jon McLurg (Turpin’s Trail, Crooked Wood). Wedden delighted the audience with classic fiddle tunes, step-dancing and trick fiddling. This kid never seems to miss a note and smiles from the time she hits the stage until she gets off (even then the smile seems to remain).

Wedden proved to be a very capable opening act for another area rising star — Abby Stewart (OK, she’s from Kingston but after her concert earlier this year at GREC and this outing, we’ll claim her too).

Backed by guitarist Shaun Weima, Stewart certainly didn’t disappoint, running through a mix of country and alternative in a polished style that’s all her own.

Just imagine if you got to see Natalie MacMaster opening for Shania Twain before they were ‘stars’ and you’ll kind of get the picture.

Ladies, it was a treat.

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