The 17th annual Pine Meadow Charity Golf Tournament took place on June 22nd at Hunter's Creek Golf Course on Hwy. 506 near Cloyne. As in previous years, this year's tournament was generously sponsored by numerous businesses and community members, raising over $20,000. These funds are used for a variety of items at Pine Meadow which cannot be included in their regular budget and which enhance the lives of the residents at the nursing home.

Funds raised this year will be used to subsidize the monthly excursions planned for the residents and to purchase additional adjustable dining room tables, four new wing chairs for the activity room, heel lifts, wheelchair positioning rolls and outdoor storage sheds.

65 golfers participated in the tournament on a sunny, breezy day at Hunter's Creek Golf Course. The first raffle prize was a beautiful quilt pieced and hand quilted by Treadles Quilters and valued at $1500. The quilt was won by Michelle Burgess. The second prize was a concrete firepit donated by Tuscany Concrete and valued at $1000, which was won by E. Hughes. The two winning tickets were drawn by Gladys Berry and Lillian Greene, residents at Pine Meadow Nursing Home.

There was also a 50/50 draw with a prize of $155, won by Austin South. The blue tooth speaker, donated by Dominic Vetere of Dom's Auto Parts was won by Rick Guthrie.

The members of the first-place team at the tournament (pictured) were Karen Stacey, Marilyn Lambert, Dawn Brown, Don Fobert and Greg Wise. This team donated $150 of their winnings back to the charity. Second place was won by the team of Brad Low, Eric Cockborn, Zach Giddings and Barry Bolahood.

The men's closest to the pin was won by Chris Stapley and the women's closest to the pin was won by Sandy Miller. The men's longest drive was won by Justin Day and the women's longest drive was also won by Sandy Miller, who donated all her prize money back to the Special Needs fund.

The raffle sales brought in close to $4000 and tournament organisers are especially grateful to the many ticket sellers, who gave of their time and enthusiasm. Special thanks to Cynthia Kennedy and Patrick Bassett, the new owners of Hunter's Creek, and their excellent staff for all their hard work in support of the Pine Meadow Golf Classic.

Rodger Holden, a resident of Kaladar, has been working day and night to get his showroom in Cloyne (next to Grand’s store across from the Pioneer Museum) ready for his grand opening this week.

The renovated showroom is filled with free standing Wood Stoves an inserts, Pellet Stoves, and BBQ’s, all from top brand name suppliers, such as Pacific Energy, Enviro, Saber, Green Mountain Grills, and Black Olive Grill.

“My intention for this business is to provide the best service I can to my customers. I stand by my products and will make sure they are serviced all year round,” he said.

He comes into this new business venture with varied experience as a pastor, a former Goodyear worker, and as a wood carver.

Since he started carving 28 years ago, he has won top honors in local, regional, national, and international fowl-carving competitions His pieces can take hundreds of hours to complete.

After opening his stove showroom open, he will be setting up a gallery space in a separate room, and in addition to his carvings he will be showing the work of fellow artists as well.

The grand opening of Holden’s Hearth and Home takes place on Saturday, June 29 from 10am – 3pm. There will be a BBQ. Featuring meat from Milligan’s Meats, over the lunch hour.

Author of "The Hard Road Ahead: The Addington Colonization Road of Early Ontario", Linda Corupe, visited The Cloyne & District Historical Society last week.     She shared her research about Road Agent Aylesworth Bowen Perry and his supervision of the building of the road.   It started in Sheffield Township, north of Napanee to Brudenell Township, to meet the Peterson Road in the 1860s.    Perry's descendants were in the audience that gathered from Ottawa, Kingston, Tweed, Belleville and Trenton.

The two-volume book shall be available in The Cloyne Pioneer Museum and Archives in the Spring.

Tickets for the annual Pine Meadow Special Needs Fund raffle are now on sale at various locations. The proceeds from the raffle sales go towards monthly excursions for the residents at Pine Meadow Nursing Home in Northbrook. This year, the prizes are a beautiful quilt, funded and constructed by the Treadles Quilting Group and a concrete fire pit designed by Tuscany Concrete. Tickets are $3.00 each or 2 for $5.00 and will be sold until the date of this year's Pine Meadow Charity golf tournament on June 22nd. The draw will be held at Pine Meadow that afternoon and will be announced at the tournament at Hunter's Creek. There will only be 2,500 tickets printed so they may not be available for that long. They are available at Bishop Lake, Nowell Motors and at Pine Meadow and will be sold by volunteers at local grocery stores over the next month.

The Special Needs Committee also organizes the annual Pine Meadow Charity Golf Classic at Hunter's Creek golf course. It is the biggest fundraiser that they undertake. Last year, this event raised over $20,000. Tickets for the golf tournament, which include a BBQ lunch and green fees, are a reasonable $55 per person, and are available through Eleanor Nowell at Nowell Motors in Cloyne. Call 613 336 2547 for information.

The funds raised through the raffle and the tournament owe a great deal of their success to the support of the small business community and to families in the surrounding region. The tournament has 80 to 100 sponsors annually and new sponsors are included each year. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please call Laury Hitchcock at 613 336 2394 or Esther Demczak at 613 336 2751.

Over its 16-year history, the tournament has raised thousands of dollars which is all directed towards extras that are not covered in Pine Meadow's funding. The home is a community owned, not for profit enterprise, under the umbrella of Land O' Lakes Community Services. This year, the funds will be used for additional adjustable dining tables, wing chairs for the activity room, heel supports, wheelchair positioning rolls and outdoor storage sheds, as well as all of the monthly outings.

At first glance, the smoking bylaw North Frontenac Council passed at its regular meeting last Friday in Plevna seemed a lot more ominous than it actually turns out to be.

For example, one section contains the phrase: “No person shall, smoke or vape within 20 metres of any point on the perimeter of the outdoor grounds of a community recreational facility and public areas.”

Now if you interpret that to mean the property lines of Township facilities, you might conclude that the bylaw extends into private property. For example, in the case of Barrie Hall, that would mean extending across Hwy 41, into Addington Highlands Township and onto the home of Addington Highlands Reeve Henry Hogg. It would also mean that in some cases, it would extend into Crown Lands (for example some boat launches).

But that’s not the intension, Clerk/Planning Manager Tara Mieske said Tuesday in an interview.

“It only pertains to Township-owned facilities and property,” she said. “The bylaw was updated to come into line with the updated Smoke-Free Ontario Act, which now includes cannabis and the bylaw is designed to reflect that.”

This means smoking is restricted to 9 metres from the entrance to a Township building and 20 metres from the ‘perimeter’ of a children’s playground, sporting area or recreational facility, but it doesn’t extend past the Township-owned property, she said.

“This includes the ballfield and tennis courts in Cloyne but not Township beaches and boat launches, or things that don’t have a roof like waste sites,” she said.

It also doesn’t include things like the Township garages and municipal office (although the 9 metres from the entrance still applies), she said.

Technically, the 20 metres doesn’t include fire halls but in some cases (notably Ompah and Snow Road) the fire halls are attached or adjacent to recreational halls and/or libraries where the 20-metre restriction does apply.

One other unclear aspect of the bylaw is what constitutes smoking.

“Smoke and Smoking includes carrying or holding of a lighted tobacco product, a lighted cannabis product, an activated electronic cigarette, or a lighted or heated water pipe,” would seem to prohibit the First Nation smudging ceremony, common at Powwows and other gatherings.

Mieske said that hadn’t been considered in the wording of the bylaw and she’d research the matter before bringing a report to Council.

• • •

On March 26, Mayor Ron Higgins sent an email to Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith asking about Central’s plans to fix potholes on Road 509 and Ardoch Road.

“How’d you make out?” said Dep. Mayor Fred Perry.

“You saw her response,” said Higgins.

“Although they did do some work,” said Coun. Gerry Martin.

“I didn’t agree with this action at all,” said Coun. John Inglis. “It was unnecessary and the tone wsas insulting.”

For the record, here are the two emails.

From Higgins to Smith:

“Frances, I was asked by Council to contact you about the road condition of 509 (near Ardoch Road) and 2-3 bad spots on Ardoch Road. We have been getting a number of residents asking if we knew what Central Frontenac was considering with regards to repair. They are concerned about vehicle damage due to bad road conditions.

“Would it be possible to provide us with any plans your Township has in regards to this issue?”

Smith’s response:

“Good morning Ron. I think it is the swamp on the flat that you are talking about. We are quite aware of it and as soon as the thaw permits, we will be dealing with it.”

• • •

With about a dozen members of the public in attendance at the meeting, Mayor Ron Higgins asked for a motion to move the public question period up on the agenda so that those members of the public who wished to could comment on the question of ANSIs (Area of Natural or Scientific Interest) in North Frontenac’s Zoning Bylaw could be heard.

Only Coun. Wayne Good voted against the measure.

Later in the meeting, Council voted to end the restriction that a public question period only be permitted if the Council meeting takes under three hours.

North’s meetings commonly exceed three hours. By comparison, Central and South meetings rarely exceed two hours and South has one or two meetings a year under a half hour.

• • •

In response to Kerry Skipper’s request for a Pickleball court in Cloyne, Coun. Fred Fowler challenged Dep. Mayor Fred Perry to the first game.

Fowler declined to offer Perry some sort of handicap even though Perry recently had surgery on his leg.

Pickleball is a racquet sport combining elements of badminton, tennis and ping pong using a whiffleball of some sort.

North Frontenac Township is recruiting for it fire department.

“We have banners up in the municipality and hopefully we’ll get some response,” said Eric Korhonen, director of emergency services/fire chief.

While Korhonen has no idea how much response he will get, he would like to add about 10 new firefighters per station (Snow Road, Ompah and Plevna; the department also has a joint operation with Addington Highlands in Cloyne) or 30 overall. But, he recognizes that goal is more long-term.

“Realistically, we’ll probably add a handful at a time,” he said.

Prospective applicants are asked to send an email to the chief (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) expressing interest. From there, there will be an application interview, basic medical requirement and a driver’s abstract.

“Then you start training,” he said.

New firefighters receive a rural firefighters course, first aid, CPR and defibrillator training. Once every four months, there is a mandatory training session as well.

There is weekend involvement but Korhonen said “as a department, we try to be flexible, such as training on weekends so students can attend their classes during the week.”

Korhonen said there’s no cause for alarm at the moment but they do need some more people.

“Our roster is just not where it should be,” he said. “We have sufficient people to respond but people have other lives outside the department and we have to be able to cover for this.”

For Korhonen, the biggest reward of the job is “to protect your community and the people you’ve grown up with.

“When people need us, it’s at a time when they’re really down and really need us.”

There are other rewards as well, he said.

“We’re also teaching you a skill as a young person that you can easily transfer to the big city,” he said. “Plus firefighting is a brotherhood and the camaraderie is a big part of it.

“It’s a family and as you make a commitment to them and they’ll make a commitment to you.”

There’s also a lot of gratification when you help somebody that really needs it, he said.

“And let’s face it, lights and sirens are a rush.”

The students of North Addington Education Centre will be suiting up in their Campbell’s Soup costumes on October 31st and knocking on your door! They will be asking for non-perishable food items which will be donated to the local food bank, which is experiencing a shortage of food. About ten secondary students will be spreading out between Flinton, Northbrook, Cloyne, and Denbigh to collect non-perishable food items, instead of tricking or treating for candy. This is the second year that Denbigh will be participating, and all items from Denbigh will be donated to the Denbigh Food Bank.

The students are not strangers to supporting the community who supports them. This is the seventh year for the very successful event. We’re asking community members to contribute what they can. We will have three to four students canvassing each community between approximately 4:30 and 8:00pm. They will be wearing soup costumes and a very large smile. We are going to visit as many households as possible, but if you have contributions and the food is not picked up, please call Candice Bovard throughout the week at 613-336-8991 and we will pick it up, or items can be dropped off at the school.

On behalf of students and staff, the principal, Angela Salmond, would like to thank the community for their contributions to our food drive efforts over the years: “This event has become a staple in our school- students are quick to offer their help. We couldn’t do this without the parents who drive around and assist- it truly takes a community to raise children who understand the importance of helping one another”.

If you see students in the community and they are ‘trick or eating’, feel free to ask them to sing or dance for your donation; they are prepared to work for your generosity!

NAEC students turned out in force on Thursday, September 28, to raise money in the annual Terry Fox Run. Student’s Council set a goal of $2,500 in sponsorships. The money has all been collected, and the final tally comes to $3,019.25 – over $500 higher than the goal.
As well as obtaining sponsorships, 48 students and staff bought Terry Fox T-shirts, which also contributed to the fundraising.

Ms. Shepherd’s class won free breakfasts for raising the most Secondary money, while Ms. Dunham’s class won free sundaes for being the top Elementary earners.
Greg Garey, Alexus Wagner, Henry Hasler, Raistlin Lloyd, Avery Gaylord, and Maggie Hasler raised $100 or more each.

“We are very proud that our little school was able to meet and exceed an ambitious target,” remarked Angela Salmond, Principal. “It just shows what can happen when the whole school works together.”

On Saturday, August 26, everyone is invited to explore in Cloyne – Ponds, Pioneer Days and Parks. The Friends of the Salmon River will host an afternoon event of interest to lovers of nature and history. Have a tour of Benny’s Pond and learn how it is part of the Salmon River watershed. Enjoy tours of the Cloyne Pioneer Museum and the new Benny’s Lake Park.

At 1pm, local Glen Pearce will lead the pack to Benny’s Pond behind the museum. He will explain the formation of the string of little lakes/ponds that are all in the line of flow from the headwaters and connect to Beaver Creek, Kennebec Lake and hence to the main channel of the Salmon. Glen Pearce was part of the field crew who mapped these waters.

The headwaters are the birthplace and most essential part of any watershed, and these ponds are in the forefront of those headwaters, providing healthy eco-services for the entire Salmon system.
Benny’s Lake Heritage Park – just opened – is a collaborative project to restore the area where a grove of 200-year-old white pines was destroyed by a major wind storm. Many new pine trees were planted to breathe new life into the park.

The Cloyne Pioneer Museum & Archives reflect the history of this area with emphasis on such themes as settlement and pioneer life, mining, logging and tourism. Their staff will provide a tour and gladly answer all your questions.
Refreshments will be served and this will be an opportunity for folks to connect and find out more about the Friends of the Salmon River group.
Come for a day of nature and history; it’s a free event. On August 26, meet at the Cloyne Museum (14235 Hwy. 41 in Cloyne) at 1pm and stay til 3 or 4pm. Bring your friends to the “Friends of Salmon” gathering and learn more about the top of our beautiful watershed. For more information, contact Gray Merriam at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. OR Susan Moore at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

On Saturday, August 26, everyone is invited to explore in Cloyne – Ponds, Pioneer Days and Parks. The Friends of the Salmon River will host an afternoon event of interest to lovers of nature and history. Have a tour of Benny’s Pond and learn how it is part of the Salmon River watershed. Enjoy tours of the Cloyne Pioneer Museum and the new Benny’s Lake Park.
At 1pm, local Glen Pearce will lead the pack to Benny’s Pond behind the museum. He will explain the formation of the string of little lakes/ponds that are all in the line of flow from the headwaters and connect to Beaver Creek, Kennebec Lake and hence to the main channel of the Salmon. Glen Pearce was part of the field crew who mapped these waters.
The headwaters are the birthplace and most essential part of any watershed, and these ponds are in the forefront of those headwaters, providing healthy eco-services for the entire Salmon system.
Benny’s Lake Heritage Park – just opened – is a collaborative project to restore the area where a grove of 200-year-old white pines was destroyed by a major wind storm. Many new pine trees were planted to breathe new life into the park.
The Cloyne Pioneer Museum & Archives reflect the history of this area with emphasis on such themes as settlement and pioneer life, mining, logging and tourism. Their staff will provide a tour and gladly answer all your questions.
Refreshments will be served and this will be an opportunity for folks to connect and find out more about the Friends of the Salmon River group.
Come for a day of nature and history; it’s a free event. On August 26, meet at the Cloyne Museum (14235 Hwy. 41 in Cloyne) at 1pm and stay until 3 or 4pm. Bring your friends to the “Friends of Salmon” gathering and learn more about the top of our beautiful watershed. For more information, contact Gray Merriam at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. OR Susan Moore at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..