Photo: l-r: Bruce Bertrim, Cec Marshall, Bob Hollywood, Kathryn Foster and Jane Drew

Seniors from in and around the community took the opportunity to view the newly completed Mature Living complex on Clement Road in Sharbot Lake, which was constructed by Central Frontenac Non-Profit Housing The complex met the approval of those who visited it over the weekend, including Kathyrn Foster, who visited it with friends. “It is definitely an option that we might be looking into down the road depending if we would qualify or not and it is a wonderful option for all seniors who for any number of reasons may be wishing to move out of their homes. The units are very lovely, and very bright with lots of storage and a nice large bathrooms,” she said.

Jane Drew, who is the property manager at the site and who was on hand with refreshments and snacks in the complex’s common room, received a steady stream of interested visitors over the weekend. She said, “We're definitely getting a lot of positive feedback. Visitors are thrilled with the units and the green technology that we have incorporated. Since the rents are inclusive and we will be the ones paying the utilities, we are also thrilled that the green technology will be making the site much more cost effective.”

Visitors were also pleased with the common area, a place where residents can gather. “We are waiting until tenants move in on the first week of April so they can decide how they would like to set up this area to best suit their needs,” Drew said.

She also said that to date three of the five units have already been leased; one has been tentatively taken; and one is still available. She is hoping that more facilities like these will be built down the road. “If there is funding available we will definitely be looking to make a future plan. The board would love to have a complex like this one in every village in the township and if there is funding available we would definitely take a look at another phase.”

To which, visitor Bob Hollywood replied, “That sounds good- especially because there are lots of us people who are getting up there in years and will be needing a place to go.”

An official grand opening will be held on Thursday, May 5 at the complex.

Photo: David Buckley and Cam Allen inf front the the new seniors housing project.

A construction project that has seen its share of controversy will be home for five individual seniors or couples later this spring.

Construction crews started work on the project early last fall, after the Central Frontenac Not-For-Profit Housing Corporation had to wait about 15 months for the project to work its way through the administrative hoops that were required because of zoning issues.

These included an Ontario Municipal Board hearing challenging the zoning bylaw and Official Plan amendments that were approved by Central Frontenac Township for the project, and an organized public opposition campaign that characterized the building as a seniors’ home located deep “in the forest”.

Cam Allen of the All-Tech Construction Group has a different way of characterizing the project. He calls it the “the first Greenhouse Certified townhouse project in Canada. And it is right here in Frontenac County.”

Greenhouse Certification is a new construction industry standard that has been developed by the Ener-quality Group. It is similar in a number of ways to the LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] building standards that were developed a couple of years ago, but does not require the builder to pay certification fees, as LEED does.

The project has been used as a sort of demonstration project for the All-Tech Construction Management Group, which in addition to Cam Allen, includes Buckley Construction, Frontenac Roofing, and Phase 1 Electric.

“In terms of water use, energy efficiency, use of materials - even the recycling of construction waste - we are only interested in green building practices,” said Allen.

Not all of the practices add expense to a project. The Clement Road townhouse project is oriented so as to maximize passive solar capture for heat and light, and has an overhang on the south of the building for cooling in the summer.

It is also built to a high air-tight standard and has enhanced insulation properties to keep heating costs low.

The project includes a number of other environmental features. Some are deceptively simple, such as the inclusion of three small sun domes in each unit for added light in darker areas, reducing the need for artificial light. There is also a shut-off switch in the main room of each unit that will enable tenants to cut the power to some, but not all, of the electrical outlets in the room. This will make it easy to shut off the power to appliances, such as TV and stereo units, which use up power even when they are off, and to leave others, such as alarm clocks, running all the time,

The building also includes a six-panel thermal solar system that will provide a solar “top up” for the water heating system, and will cover about 50-70% of the complex's hot water needs. In-floor heating is another feature of the construction.

The plumbing and appliances were all purchased with energy efficiency and safety issues for seniors in mind.

David Buckley, of Buckley Construction out of Inverary, is one of the All-Tech partners. He said that it is important for him to walk away from a project like this with a sense of pride.

“You can do things quickly, but in the end it's better to do things right,” he said.

“I'm extremely pleased with the way the construction has been completed. I think the units will be well used by the tenants and the efficiency of the building will really pay off,” said Jane Drew, the director of the housing corporation.

An Open House will be held at the seniors’ townhouse project, which is located at 1096 Clement Road, on Friday, March 4 between 1 and 5 pm, and Saturday, March 5 between 10 am and 3 pm.

The rent is geared to income and units will be available for the price of $625 per month inclusive, for families with an income under $30,000 per year.

(Jeff Green is the Publisher of the Frontenac News. He is also a volunteer board member for Central Frontenac Not-For-Profit Housing)

Photo: members of the Alzheimer Society KFLA team  Marcel Giroux,  Bob Fisher, Patti Dixon-Medora and Vicki Poffley 

Various members of the Alzheimer Society of Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington attended the re-opening of the Sharbot Lake office. Bob Fisher will be manning the office three days a week and members of the community living with dementia and their caregivers should be pleased to know that they can again receive support services right here in their own community.

President of the Board of Directors of the KFLA Alzheimers Society Patti Dixon-Medora was in attendance and was thrilled to have this important community service resume.

”We're really pleased that the organization is now able to once again have public educator coordinators embedded in the communities that they serve. That's been a huge step for the society.”

As the new public education coordinator, Bob Fisher will be in the Sharbot Lake office on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, providing information as well as one-on-one and group support to those in the community living with various types of dementia, and to their families and care partners. He will also be providing public education on Alzheimer’s and related dementias and will be heading up various awareness-raising activities.

Fisher is looking forward to his post. ”I've been doing a lot of learning and reading and have made a lot of contacts in the area. I am really looking forward to serving members of this community.”

Funds for the Sharbot Lake services were provided by a one-time grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, which will pay for the services for another year’s duration, at which point the service  will require support solely through community fundraising.

For more information about services call Bob Fisher at 613-279-3078 or visit www.alzking.com

Henry Hogg has seen this all before.

In 2008, as Reeve of Addington Highlands and member of Lennox and Addington County Council, he had the job of convincing his colleagues on county council that it was important to maintain the ambulance services in Northbrook and Denbigh even though a consultant’s report suggested it was too expensive to operate two bases in the sparsely populated northern end of the county.

At that time, the county sided with Addington Highlands and kept the two bases in operation.

At the same time, a decision was made to integrate the entire L&A County ambulance service into the same professional model. Previously, the northern bases had been what are called ‘volunteer’ services, which pay paramedics at a lower rate. The L&A ambulance service is slated to be fully integrated by 2014, raising the projected costs of running the two northern bases.

The L&A ambulance service rents space for the Northbrook base, and they have been informed that the landlord has other plans for the building after the current lease expires at the end of this month, although the lease can be extended for a time.

To deal with this, an update to the 2008 consultant’s report was ordered, and that report was delivered to L&A County Council last week.

The update deals with a lot more issues than finding a new location for the Northbrook base. It notes that the northern bases are much more costly to operate than they were three years ago, and are even less frequently used.

“Station operating costs for both Northbrook and Denbigh have increased to $700,000 (from $465,000 in 2008) and are projected to increase to $1,033,000 by 2014. Call volumes have declined by about 10%. For Northbrook the cost per call has increased to $1,850 (from $1,100) and for Denbigh it has increased to $5,500 (from $3,100),” says the new report. “In our opinion, it is no longer necessary or financially justifiable to maintain ambulance service operations at both locations.”

The report recommends closing the Denbigh and Northbrook bases, and opening a new base in the Northbrook/Cloyne area. It also recommends building a new base to serve Loyalist Township, which is currently served mostly by Kingston ambulance bases operated by Frontenac County ambulance services. Ambulance calls to Loyalist are billed to L&A County, based on a cross-border agreement.

On a more positive note, the report recommends ending the policy of having northern ambulances go south to Tamworth on standby whenever the Napanee ambulance is called out, which happened twice a day, on average, last year. The report also recommends upgrading the capacity of the system to put Advanced Life Service paramedics in L&A ambulances in the coming years.

Henry Hogg, who has now been the Warden of Lennox and Addington for two years in addition to being Reeve of Addington Highlands, is less than convinced by all of the points raised in the new report.

“The report said that the new Family Health Teams in Northbrook and Denbigh have changed the service environment, but they have little to do with the kind of 24-hour emergency service that people are seeking when they call an ambulance. People call an ambulance to go to a hospital, and hospitals are an hour away from Addington Highlands,” he said.

Hogg said he is not sure that the members of county council will go along with the recommendations.

“I am not convinced that the cross-border service in Loyalist is hurting anyone, and the Denbigh base serves Renfrew and Frontenac County as well as Lennox and Addington. If that base were gone, there would be a large region that would be a long way from any ambulance base,” he said. “This is not a done deal. I’m not sure there is enough support on council for it to proceed,” he said

Ambulance talks “not fruitful”: Meanwhile back in Frontenac County, putting in a northern ambulance base continues to be on hold.

At a Frontenac County Council meeting in May, a proposal by North Frontenac to go ahead with construction of a joint ambulance base/fire hall in Ompah was deferred because details about how the costs will be divided up have not been agreed to. At the time, the direction from county council was for an agreement to be worked on at staff level.

However, talks at a staff level “have not been fruitful”, in the words of North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton. Staff have not met in person to work on an agreement.

According to North Frontenac CAO Cheryl Robson, County CAO Liz Savill has informed the township that she has not received specific direction from county council to alter a funding formula calling for two-thirds of the costs to be borne by North Frontenac. Since this change is what North Frontenac had requested in order to move the project forward, the matter must go back to county council, which will not be meeting until July 6.

Mayor Clayton said that he has asked County Warden Gary Davison to call an emergency meeting this month to deal with this, because the construction window for building a base in 2011 is rapidly closing, “but the warden refused to call a meeting,” Clayton said.

In the interim, the potential closing of the Denbigh base may change Frontenac County’s plans entirely, because Frontenac County depends on the Denbigh base to cover its northwest corner.

Paul Charbonneau, the Director of Emergency Services for Frontenac County, said on Tuesday, June 14 that he had just received the report about the future of the Lennox and Addington Service and will be reading it this week.

“It [the report] has not been a factor in anything we have done thus far, because I was not even aware of its existence,” he said, “but that does not mean it won’t become a factor.”

There were smiles all around at the ground-breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of the construction phase of the Pine Meadow Nursing Home redevelopment.

The target date for the completion of the project is the spring of 2015. Once completed, the home will have two wings, each with capacity to house 32 residents in single and double occupancy rooms. Each wing will have its own nursing station and dining room.

Currently, the 20-year-old home has capacity for 60 residents in single, double and four-bed rooms. There is one nursing station and a large dining room for all the residents.

“It will be much more homey once the changes are made,” said Barb Ellsworth, a six-year resident of Pine Meadow and the chair of the residents' council, “especially for those who live in the four-bed rooms. That's too many people living in one room.”

Before the ceremony proceeded, presentations were made that demonstrated two of the major fund-raising commitments that have made the project possible. Doug Bearance, warden of Lennox and Addington County, presented a ceremonial cheque of $250,000 to mark the 10-year commitment of $25,000 per year that the county has made to the project. As well, Marilyn Bolender presented a $50,000 cheque to mark the commitment that the Land O'lakes Lions Club has made. Also on hand were Paul and Martha McLean, summer residents on Mazinaw Lake who have donated $30,000 to the Pine Meadow redevelopment fund.

Ernest Lapchinski, along with North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton, has been involved with the project as a member of the Pine Meadow Management Committee for the 12 years it has taken for the project to get final approval from the Ministry of Health, and financing from Infrastructure Ontario.

He thanked a number of people who have been instrumental in bringing the long-anticipated project to this stage.

“I would particularly like to thank Land O'Lakes Community Services, the parent body of Pine Meadow Nursing Home, for their trust and confidence in our management committee,” said Lapchinski.

In addition to thanking some of the people who were involved with the project when it was originally conceived in 2001, Lapchinski also thanked the home's administrator Bonnie George, and committee member Bill Cox. Lapchinski said that Cox, as deputy reeve of Addington Highlands Council, has “given considerable support to our funding proposals at Lennox and Addington County and continuing moral support for the project.

“I would also like to thank the local fund-raising committees, the special needs committee for Pine Meadow, the annual golf tournament, our local quilting groups and merchants, who have all given so much in time and funding,” said Lapchinski.

Pine Meadow Nursing Home is a community-owned home. It receives funding support from the Province of Ontario on a per patient basis, and patients pay rent as well. It is run on a not-for-profit basis under the umbrella of Land O'Lakes Community Services. Unlike municipally run homes such as the John Parrot Home in Napanee or Fairmount Home in rural Kingston, Pine Meadow does not receive any operating funds from municipal tax dollars.

It has been in place and in service since June, but it was not until October 9 last week that politicians, Emergency Services officials, and senior staff from Lennox and Addington County had an opportunity to officially open their new Northbrook base.

The cost to build the 3,143 square foot base, which includes crew quarters, a training room, an office, two drive-through garage bays and a back-up generator, was $1.3 million.

Although Lannox and Addington Chief Administrative Officer Larry Keech said that the base was built “on time and on budget” the price was much higher than had been originally anticipated.

At first L&A Council put aside $1.2 million for the new base and two new ambulances (which can cost between $110,000 and $135,000 each). The $1.3 million budget came later.

Keech said that the new base represents a long-term commitment by L&A County to maintain a 24-hour a day ambulance service in Northbrook.

“We are extremely pleased to have the new Northbrook Ambulance Base operational,” stated Doug Bearance, warden of the County of Lennox & Addington. “This beautiful new facility provides a vital service for residents of the northern part of our county and of neighbouring municipalities as well.”

Residents of Addington Highlands and North and Central Frontenac will finally have the benefit of a Class “A” Nursing Home, no thanks to Frontenac County.

A class “A” home is something that residents of Kingston and the southern portion of Frontenac County have enjoyed for a number of years. That’s because Fairmount Home, which is owned by Frontenac County residents, was the subject of a $17 million upgrade in 2004, an upgrade that we are still paying for through a debenture that remains part of the annual Frontenac County budget to this day. Fairmount Home’s operating costs are also subsidized by municipal tax dollars, in addition to provincial funding and resident fees. And this year Frontenac County Council has decided to go ahead with a $2 million upgrade to the Fairmount Home auditorium, an ancillary building attached to the home.

Municipal taxes are spent on many different priorities, from roads to waste to social services and education, and the fact that a relatively small amount goes towards maintaining a comfortable, caring long-term care facility located in rural Kingston just outside the county’s borders is fine by me. The residents of Fairmount Home deserve the best we can offer as a community, and that costs money. If that means some of my tax dollars help someone who lives south of the 401 get better long-term care, that’s ok too.

Over a number of years, municipal politicians from North Frontenac Township have asked Frontenac County to contribute to another home that is located just outside of Frontenac County. Pine Meadow Nursing Home is in the hamlet of Northbrook in L&A County. It is a not-for-profit long-term care facility that is community owned. As such, it does not receive operating funds from municipal tax dollars. It must get by solely on provincial funding and resident fees.

Land O’Lakes Community Services, the owner of Pine Meadow, does not have the kind of resources that Frontenac or L&A County have. Its reserve funds are measured in the thousands, not the tens of millions. It took a long time for them to get financing in place to upgrade Pine Meadow to the “A” class.

L&A County Council recognised this situation several years ago and in addition to handsomely supporting the John Parrot Home, a class “A” home they own in Napanee, they committed a small amount of money, $25,000 per year for ten years, to be put towards the Pine Meadow upgrade.

For a half dozen years, politicians from North Frontenac made an annual plea for a 10-year, $25,000 annual commitment to the Pine Meadow redevelopment project from Frontenac County Council, but the request was always refused.

The reasons that were offered were never convincing. On one occasion North Frontenac councilors were told that Pine Meadow is not located in Frontenac County - not a really good answer, when you consider that Fairmount Home is not located in Frontenac County either. They were also told Frontenac County was not inclined to support a private sector home, which Pine Meadow is not.

Frontenac County Council was also asked to help with the fund-raising for Kingston General Hospital’s capital project several years ago. Noting that KGH is the regional hospital, Frontenac County said yes, and have made an annual payment of $40,000 ever since.

Even when it was demonstrated that almost half of the 60 residents of Pine Meadow come from Frontenac County, that same Council turned a deaf ear to a similar argument that Pine Meadow is the regional long-term care facility that serves the northern part of Frontenac County.

The bottom line is that Pine Meadow has received no support from Frontenac County for its redevelopment. With a $40 million annual budget, and over $5 million in its working fund reserves, $25,000 per year was too much for the majority of Frontenac County councilors to commit to the comfort of the frail elderly who happen to live closer to Highway 7 than to Highway 401.

Nonetheless, Pine Meadow will continue to welcome Frontenac County residents with open arms. 

On Sept. 25, Caitlin Norwich-Stevenson of the Alzheimer’s Society gave a valuable seminar in Sharbot Lake on coping with the challenging behaviors that are sometimes exhibited by people with Alzheimer’s.

Although Alzheimer’s sufferers may look normal outwardly, dramatic changes and cell death have occurred in their brains. The disease is fatal, though its progression can be from 2 to 20 years (average 7 – 8 years), and people will often die from other causes.

The first thing Caitlin stressed is that all behavior has meaning. What caregivers see as random, irrational and confusing behavior usually has a cause - it can be from emotional or physical, internal or external causes, or is an attempt to communicate. She gave several examples of things that can be irritating to someone with Alzheimer’s, but which caregivers can be unaware of, such as the itching caused by tags on the back of clothes, or the flickering of fluorescent lights.

The person may also be suffering from fear or anxiety caused by something in their past. She told of a man who had been in a concentration camp, who freaked out whenever he saw someone in green scrubs, because that is what camp staff wore. Also, because the person is reverting to things from their youth, even their family can be unaware of the reasons for their behavior. She gave another example of a woman who when she became an adult had completely rejected her ethnicity, so much so that her family was astonished when their mother started to feel a strong need of certain cultural and religious traditions.

As people lose their language skills and ability to communicate, behavior is often the only way left to them to express their preferences and needs. For example, normally adults make their own decisions about eating and showering, but someone who is being cared for doesn’t have those options, and the only way they can express their feelings is by physically refusing to cooperate, which causes extreme frustration for caregivers.

The world of an Alzheimer’s sufferer is very confusing and if anxiety is not dealt with, it escalates into agitation, which can manifest itself as: hiding objects; inappropriate dressing or undressing; repetitive mannerisms or vocalization; or physical aggression, screaming, cursing, or violent outbursts.

Caitlin said that such catastrophic reactions can be anticipated when anxiety, agitation or misperceptions are not relieved. She called these behaviours “responsive” behaviors – meaning that they are in response to something.

The challenge for caregivers is how to respond to these behaviors and Caitlin outlined several strategies:

Caregivers must go slowly, as Alzheimer’s sufferers are surprised by every movement, often despite being told in advance. Redirection – giving the person something to do, eat or drink - is often all that needs to be done to relieve anxiety.

Caregivers need to constantly reassure the person that they are safe and that the caregivers are there to help them. They can also use the “out of sight, out of mind” tactic, such as removing shoes and clothes from view to help prevent wandering, and covering IVs with flesh-colored bandages to prevent patients from tearing them out. One creative approach that was employed by an institution was to cover an exit door with a mural to prevent assaults by patients on the door. Caregivers also need to be flexible – if there is resistance and a test can be run later or questions asked later, then they should wait.

Caregivers should not attempt to argue or drag Alzheimer’s patients back into the “real world”; it is not necessarily better unless the hallucination or delusion is causing the person to harm themselves or others.

Attempts to physically restrain the person should also be avoided unless they are in imminent physical danger, as this can lead to violent outbursts.

Caitlin summarized by stressing that each Alzheimer’s patient has unique physical, emotional and social needs that can only be met by an individualized approach. It is up to caregivers to gather as much information as they can to try to understand the behavior, and to use creative strategies – often by trial and error – to try to meet the person’s needs and calm them down.

It is exhausting and difficult in the extreme to cope with the challenging behaviors caused by Alzheimer’s disease, and caregivers often experience burnout, but the good news is that there are different strategies that can help.

The Alzheimer’s Society runs monthly support groups, in Sharbot Lake on the first Wednesday of each month from 1 to 3 p.m. at the United Church hall, and in Sydenham on the last Thursday of the month, 7-9 p.m. at the Grace Centre. Anyone who needs help in coping with a loved one, friend or family member with Alzheimer’s, please contact Caitlin at 613-544-3078, ext 202; toll free: 1-800-266-7516; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Thanks to a $50,000 grant from the federal government's Enabling/Accessibility Fund, clients and the community at large who use wheelchairs can now access the main entrance at the Southern Frontenac Community Services' Grace Centre via an extensive new ramp, which was officially opened on September 29.

The SFCSC will have to raise another $20,000 to cover its total cost. Kepler Bell Contracting built the ramp with the help of Colbourne and Kembel Architects Inc. Prior to its construction those in wheelchairs had to enter the center through the rear entrance from a smaller ramp and take an elevator in order to access the main hall. 

Joan Cameron, board chair at SFCSC, said that using the rear access entrance was often cumbersome and time consuming, especially when larger events were being held in the hall. “We always wanted to have a ramp at the center's main entrance but did not have the funds to build one. This grant thankfully allowed us to get it done.”

The SFCSC staff provide a number of programs and activities to their clients along with their partners in the community and currently the hall is used for Yoga, Tai Chi, Girl Guides and Brownies, and the VON's Smart exercise program as well as for special events and fundraisers. SFCSC's executive director David Townsend also spoke at the ceremony and thanked all involved, including their 160+ volunteers. He stressed that the center's recent new additions were all made possible through grants from Green Shield Canada and Home Depot Canada and the Homelessness Partnering Strategy of the United Way of Simcoe County.

North Frontenac will be getting an ambulance base after all, although not in the location that many had originally hoped for.

In a report to Frontenac County Council, Chief of Paramedic Services Paul Charbonneau confirmed that all conditions have been waived and the County will be purchasing a lot located at Road 509 and Robertsville Road for $20,000. An ambulance post will be constructed on that lot, for use by a 12-hour ambulance that is currently housed at the North Frontenac township garage at Lavant station, 15 or so kilometres to the north-west.

The location fits within the recommended location for a northern base that was included in a report by the IBI group of consultants several years ago. The IBI report said that a location in the vicinity of the Ardoch Road and Road 509 would serve both the population in east and central North Frontenac while being close enough to Highway 7 to respond to traffic accidents in the Wemyss to Arden corridor.

Politicians from North Frontenac, noting that the Ardoch Road/Road 509 junction is located in Central Frontenac, and that response times in the Ompah area would be slower once a base was moved to the south, objected to the IBI recommendation.

An alternate plan, which would have seen a base in the village of Ompah in conjunction with a new fire hall and the relocating of the Parham base to a location in Sharbot Lake, was chosen over the IBI recommendation. When the joint project between Frontenac County and North Frontenac fell apart last year over costing, Frontenac Paramedic Services reverted to Plan A.

The location on Road 509 at Roberstville Road is about 2 kilometres north of the Ardoch Road, but it is located in North Frontenac, about 200 metres from the border with Central Frontenac.

It is also located right across the road from the former Robertsville mine, which was the site of an occupation against uranium exploration in the summer of 2007.

An agreement to purchase was signed on May 1, subject to a hydro-geological study demonstrating there is enough potable water on the site, an environmental site assessment and a geo-technical study. Those studies have been completed, at the cost of the County, and the purchase is going through.

The timeframe for the construction of the base has not been announced, but the construction cost is included in the 2013 Frontenac County budget. Money for the construction has been held in a dedicated reserve fund by the county for some years.