Leadership From Within
When Frontenac County announced last week that their new Chief Administrative Officer was an internal hire, Kevin Farrell, it came as a bit of a surprise, but it probably shouldn’t have. In 2016, after seeing 9 different appointees as Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) in 9 years, culminating in a three-month… READ MORE
Eclipse 2024 – Once In A Lifetime
Eclipse! What to say! Humbling, I guess, at being a witness to a truly spectacular example of the immensity of the universe, our microscopic place in it and the certainty that we will never have any control over what goes on. We can only sit back and watch. I travelled… READ MORE
National Tourism Week
Every day of the year is the National or International Day of something or other, or more than one thing. January 23 is National Pie Day in both Canada and the United States. The date was set in the 1970s by a man in Boulder, Colorado whose birthday was on… READ MORE
Why Townships Recycle
There has been discussion about waste site employees checking bags at our waste sites. Why is this important? Both Addington Highlands and North Frontenac Townships recycle and divert as much garbage from the waste sites and transfer stations as much as possible. They do this because: 1) It’s the right… READ MORE
Is the Province Serious About Phasing Out Free Water Tests?
So, far it is only a few lines of text in an Auditor General’s report, but slowly across rural Ontario there is starting to be a reaction to the idea that free water testing for total coliform and e coli, will no longer be offered to the 3 million rural… READ MORE
A Brighter Future For Public Health In Frontenac County?
There was a lot of enthusiasm among the three people who presented a plan to create a single Public Health Unit to serve six counties and the City of Kingston. It is a plan that seems destined to become a reality, in a matter of months. While all of the… READ MORE
Crunching the Budget Numbers
At least once every municipal budget year, someone asks why the Frontenac News don’t always report the same budget increase numbers as the local municipalities report. The first point is that all the numbers that we report come from the townships themselves. The difference is that some of the townships… READ MORE
Another Sad Sap Story
It started in late January. A friend(?) of mine leaned over to me while we were sitting in a restaurant and said, “have you tapped yet?” I was not ready to hear that. I said I was not going to be jumping at a January thaw, even in an El… READ MORE
North Frontenac Council Lost The Plot On Trail Grant Proposal
On February 2nd, North Frontenac Council had a full agenda for their regular meeting, the Christmas political lull being truly over. Council worked through a series of requests, with little fanfare. They listened to a detailed presentation about the township's various reserve funds, and the policies which have resulted in… READ MORE
Why is Nimbyism so constant, and who says it's bad?
Nimbyism is a boon to our business at the Frontenac News. In many cases, it is how we find out that something is happening, because someone contacts us to let is know about it. And more often than not, those people are the neighbouring property owners who have been informed… READ MORE
Amalgamation Of Local Health Units Inevitable, But Not Necessarily Wise
The Ontario Conservative government is not the first one that thought it would be a good idea for some of the small public health units, such as Kingston Frontenac Public Health (KFLAPH) to amalgamate with other smaller health units. Public health delivers services, such as dental screening of children and… READ MORE
A municipal response to climate change
As we begin a new year at the Frontenac News, it’s hard to predict what issues will come to the surface over the coming 12 months. There are already signs, however, that 2024 will be the year when climate change issues begin to filter down to municipal politics in our… READ MORE
Happy Christmas to our stalwart readers
2023 has been a year of change for many of us, certainly in the newspaper industry. Costs have jumped, most notably in the printing industry with the closing of the Metroland Plant in March. Luckily for us, another small business came though for us after a big media company walked… READ MORE
Troubled over Zionism
Almost 40 years ago, I wrote my first Christmas editorial. I was an editor of a student paper, at the time, after leaving the Jewish community in Montreal where I was raised.Where I grew up, Christmas was a day when we played hockey in backyard rinks. Ski hills would be… READ MORE
A Note To Readers Who Block Flyer Delivery By Canada Post
A couple of weeks ago, Canada Post began letting local post offices and community newspaper publishers, that as of January 8, 2024, they would be changing their policy regarding the delivery of community newspapers. Until now, when Canada Post customers inform their local post office that they do not want… READ MORE
Ontario Should Upload All Former Provincial Highways
It's too bad that Ontario Premier Doug Ford was not a former council member in Frontenac County instead of the City of Toronto. Because, if he was, then maybe Road 38 and Road 506/509 would have been uploaded last week instead of, or along with, the Don Valley Parkway and… READ MORE