Eganville Leader - March 2023

By Gerald Tracey News Editor

Renfrew – A $3.2 million funding announcement Friday to support the continuation of Renfrew County’s Virtual Triage and Assessment Centre (VTAC) will help to ensure those residents without a primary care provider can continue to receive care by calling a toll-free number and avoid unnecessary trips to the emergency department.

It was a huge day for Renfrew County politicians, staff and residents as the announcement by MPP

John Yakabuski brought to an end months of lobbying at the provincial level to see ongoing funding continue for an innovative idea that began in Renfrew County during COVID-19 to ensure residents could continue to access health care.

The VTAC model is now being watched closely by other regions across the province, some of which have also implemented the model. It enables residents to call a toll-free number and schedule a same day virtual appointment with a physician as well as receive in-home visits and remote monitoring by community paramedics.

Since its launch, the RCVTAC has provided services to nearly 20,000 patients, including approximately 48,000 physician assessments and 5,500 paramedic home assessments.

The model developed by Renfrew County health officials is designed to improve the patient experience and divert lower acuity patients away from emergency departments. It has received high patient satisfaction to date.

There were a lot of smiling faces when county officials, mayors, members of the Renfrew County Paramedic Service and others gathered at the ambulance station at Renfrew County Place in Renfrew Friday morning for the announcement.

Mr. Yakabuski and Renfrew County Warden Peter Emon beamed with pride as they shared the news many had been waiting to

MPP John Yakabuski was in Renfrew Friday morning to announce $3.2 million in funding for the

County Virtual Triage Assessment Centre program that was launched during COVID-19 which helps people without a doctor or those who cannot access their doctor to get medical care.

be funded in the future. Joining him for the announcement were, to the left,

hear for several months.

Describing it as an exceptional program, Mr. Yakabuski said from its inception as a response to the pandemic, Renfrew County’s VTAC has shown to be a model of connected care worthy of permanent funding. “I want to thank Minister (Sylvia) Jones for her commitment to exactly that,” he said. “This is tremendous news for the patients and families in Renfrew County.”

Warden Emon was not only ecstat-

ic with the news, but also emotional when he spoke about VTAC and the long and sometimes tiring journey lobbying for sustainable funding for the program.

“We are appreciative that the province has recognized the tremendous value of the Renfrew County Virtual Triage and Assessment Centre in our community and seen fit to provide the permanent funding to allow this program to serve the residents of Renfrew County and continue

to expand to meet their healthcare needs,” he said. “We are also thankful to MPP Yakabuski for his tireless work on this file to ensure the funding was secured.”

Chief Paramedic Mike Nolan, who has and continues to provide strong leadership and develop new and innovative ideas copied around the province, said he was extremely proud of the effort of the VTAC physicians, staff and partner organizations for making VTAC a lifeline to connect

Algonquins elect a new chief, and five of the six current First Nation councillors

By Terry Fleurie Staff Writer

Pikwakanagan – Members of the Algonquins First Nation elected a new band council on Saturday and the group will look decidedly different than the council that was in office the past three years.

Former chief Greg Sarazin defeated incumbent Chief Wendy Jocko and Councillor Jim Meness, who chose to seek the chief’s position in the March 25 vote. Chief-elect Sarazin polled 245 votes with both opponents close behind -- Chief Jocko collecting 232 votes and Coun. Meness polling 230 markers. Chief Jocko offered her congratulations to the successful candidates,

wishing them all the best over the next three years.

“Thanks to everyone for their support during my term as chief and previously on council,” she said. In the race for the six council seats, only one member from the previous council was returned to office.

Don Bilodeau topped the polls with 393, with former councillor Sherry Kohoko a very close second at 391. Retired office employee, Cathy Bernard, was third with 357, and former executive director, Vickey Two-Axe, was fourth with 332. Incumbent Councillor Merv Sarazin was fifth with 300 votes and Dale Benoit fills the sixth and final position with 281 votes.

Unsuccessful were incumbent Angelina Commanda, 274; incumbent Barbara Sarazin, 272; incumbent Steve Benoit, 249; Karen Whalen, 219; Shelley Belaire, 188; Budgie Nadeau, 179; Natalie Commanda, 175.

In her official report, Electoral Officer Kassandra Sackaney listed 2,314 total members of the band with 2,099 eligible voters. The total number of voters was 723, with 312 voting electronically, 207 in-person and 204 returned mail-in ballots. Twenty-one of the mail-in ballots were rejected and two of the ballots were spoiled. See next week’s Leader for an interview with Chief-elect Sarazin.

An iconic citizen passes

Although Ron Nelson was not a native of the Eganville community and only moved here with his wife, Doris and their family in 1992 when they bought Strickland’s Supermarket, in his 31 years here he became very well known as an aggressive, progressive and successful retailer.

Mr. Nelson passed away Sunday afternoon after a brief illness at the age of 79.

The former owner of Eganville Foodland, he was currently involved in another successful business that he and son, Ron Jr. launched, Papa Ron’s, a discount store.

Mr. Nelson is being remembered as a hard worker, a very successful retailer and a mentor to many in business. See Page A3 for story. Ron Nelson

Renfrew

Mr. Yakabuski said the made-in-Renfrew County program will continue to

Melanie Kruger, Medical Receptionist; Stuart Theron, Paramedic Lead, and Lindsay McLeese, VTAC Admin Coordinator while to the right are Roxanne Kamula, Paramedic; Alyssa Chapman, Medical Receptionist, and Sean Plunkett, Paramedic.

Chief-elect Greg Sarazin

VTAC funding news a great day for county

By Gerald Tracey News Editor

Renfrew – There was a lot of joy and exuberance at Renfrew County Place Friday morning when full funding to continue the Renfrew County Virtual Triage Assessment Centre (RC VTAC) was announced by Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke

MPP John Yakabuski.

The program was launched in March 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure residents of the county without a primary health care provider could continue to access health care. The program has proven to be so successful and valuable that it will become a permanent fixture after the province’s announcement it is investing $3.2 million in 2023-24 to support its continuance. Funding will be ongoing in the coming years.

“It’s not possible that we are going to agree on everything,” Mr. Yakabuski stated as he took to the podium, “but there is one thing that I absolutely know without any doubt, that everyone in this building today and all across Renfrew County agrees on, this is one hell of a great day.”

After a long applause, Mr. Yakabuski said it was great to hear because he knew how many people worked hard and diligently to see the program continue. He said COVID-19 hurt a lot of people, but added there were positive things happen as well.

“It is often said that necessity is the mother of invention, and it also worked that way when it comes to Renfrew County VTAC, because without the pandemic, I don’t know if or when we would have ever seen something like Renfrew County VTAC.

“But the fact that it was conceived, imagined and implemented gave us all a glimpse of how much better it can be. We have a way of reaching patients without family doctors and being able to provide them with the medical care they expect and deserve. And also that we can take the kind of pressures off our emergency system, our ERs in our hospitals through that period, because everyone was challenged through that period.”

Mr. Yakabuski said with the pandemic coming to an end, VTAC can live on and that was the message the county was delivering to himself and the government.

He expressed his thanks to Premier Doug Ford for his support and Health Minister Sylvia Jones who was only sworn in a few days when he was bringing her the message from Renfrew County which was being brought to him on a regular basis.

“Her eyes opened and her ears

were open,” he said. “She wanted to know more about it. She got it, and it wasn’t long into that process that she became a big fan herself.”

While he was aware for some time full funding would be coming for the program, Mr. Yakabuski said some may question why the announcement wasn’t made sooner.

“Well, if all of your Christmas presents are opened by December 5th, there isn’t that much excitement on Christmas morning, is there?

“But the (current) funding doesn’t run out until March 31st and you can rest assured that funding will begin in earnest on April 1st in a big way.”

Mr. Yakabuski also spoke about how it was so easy to deliver the message to the powers that be.

“Those thanks and that honour belongs to you. To the people of the County of Renfrew and to the people who are working for the County of Renfrew. Thank you for never giving up on the hope that this would actually happen.”

He singled out Chief Paramedic Mike Nolan, Karen Simpson and Lea Levesque from Arnprior Regional Health, and noted there were others involved in designing the VTAC program.

“They built something and put together something that was easy to stand behind, to get behind and say

this is not only good for Renfrew County, it can be used as a template and a model all across the province of Ontario because Renfrew County is unique.”

Mr. Yakabuski also paid tribute to former county CAO Paul Moreau for his involvement at the beginning of the program and also former Laurentian Valley Township Reeve and past County Warden Debbie Robinson for her involvement.

He said VTAC was a winner from day one.

“Now we can rest assured that this Renfrew County Virtual Triage Assessment Centre will operate not just for 2023, but for each and every year going forward into the future, improving the lives, and health care of individuals in Renfrew County, taking pressures off our hospitals and making sure that what the health care people want and deserve is there.”

Mr. Yakabuski said this was not the first time Renfrew County has stood out front and centre in the innovation of delivering health care.

“This is the birthplace of community paramedicine,” he said, adding he was confident the VTAC program would be adopted in other areas of the province. “The community paramedicine program has

already been adopted in other areas across the province because of what was started here.”

Born Out of Need

Warden Peter Emon said VTAC was born during a very scary time when no one knew what COVID was about.

“And people couldn’t go see their doctor, they couldn’t get tested and it was a time when leadership was important,” he said.

He paid tribute to former CAO Moreau, former Warden Robinson and Health committee chair Michael Donohue (Admaston/ Bromley) for working with Mr. Nolan who put together a very quick presentation for council, quick in the sense that these were the broad parameters, and then Mr. Nolan went out and found partners in the health care system throughout the county.

“And it was built on trust,” Warden Emon said.

He said VTAC was born out of a need to serve the community and keep it safe, to test and assess and to protect the emergency departments and the 911 paramedics.

“It allowed those who did not have access to a family doctor and didn’t feel comfortable visiting an office to access acute and primary care,” he said.

are under pressure and we know that VTAC has been the only pressure relief valve in the system. And we know other municipalities want what we have been able to create here and we are ecstatic to be able to support them to be able to create VTAC in other communities across Ontario.”

Chief Nolan said that without VTAC, the only place for people who don’t have a family doctor to go for care is to call 911 or go to an ER.

“And they are already overwhelmed across the province,” he said. “We’ve been fortunate. We have great support from our hospital partners, our family doctors and everybody across Renfrew County in continuing the important service of VTAC. If you are lucky enough to have a family doctor, VTAC might help you to access care as well.

“By keeping the emergency departments more available for emergencies, that helps everybody, not just people who don’t have a family doctor.”

Chief Nolan praised members of county council and county residents for their overwhelming support of the paramedic service in his 20 years with the service.

Warden Emon added the service is effective, efficient and cost effective and in his discussions with Minister Jones he said VTAC wasn’t just a shiny new toy, but a legacy project that will turn into a critical part of the health care system.

VTAC – The Only Pressure Relief Valve

Chief Nolan was ecstatic with Friday’s announcement saying everyone can now get back to focusing on delivering health care now that funding has been guaranteed. He was also pleased the VTAC proposal had the full support of the premier, the health minister and Mr. Yakabuski.

“County council has been incredibly supportive, from the past warden to the current warden, and I think it not only represents a success story here in Renfrew County but it also represents a success story as a new model of care in Ontario.”

He said VTAC was something that was designed for Renfrew County with the expressed intent of being able to take what was done in the county to other communities that have the same challenges.

“Almost 30 per cent of our population don’t have a family doctor, emergency departments are extremely under pressure, paramedics

“When we think about challenges that rural communities face, it is no surprise that the paramedics and the community here have come up with exceptional programs to overcome those challenges. I think the necessity of invention comes out of communities like ours. We made sure during the pandemic that nobody suffered in silence. Anybody could pick up the phone, talk to a medical receptionist, talk to a family doctor, have a community paramedic come right to their living room and do a physical assessment and now we have opened up clinical assessment centres staffed by community paramedics across Renfrew County.” How VTAC Works

Chief Nolan explained how VTAC works saying by design the service doesn’t have a physical location. Medical receptionists and doctors work from home offices across Eastern Ontario. If a person is referred by a physician to a clinical assessment centre in the county, led by community paramedics, they will provide assessments, support and additional testing and then coordinate a care plan with a VTAC doctor if necessary. Doctors can also be brought in virtually for an assessment, prescribe medications, etc.

County CAO Craig Kelley, who emceed Friday’s event, said for people who do not have a family physician or for those who do but cannot reach their doctor, they can call VTAC – 1-844-727-6404.

There were many smiling faces last Friday at Renfrew County Place in Arnprior when MPP John Yakabuski announced the province would be providing full funding so that the Renfrew County Virtual Triage Assessment Centre could continue into the future. Among the elated were Leah Levesque, CEO Arnprior Regional Health; Mayor Michael Donohue, Chair of the County Health Committee; Chief Paramedic Mike Nolan; Mr. Yakabuski, County Warden Peter Emon, County CAO Craig Kelley and Karen Simpson, Executive Director, Arnprior & District Family Health Team.

“This is one hell of a great day for Renfrew County.”

– John Yakabuski, MPP

“VTAC was born out of a need.” – Peter Emon, Warden

“VTAC has been the only pressure relief valve,” – Chief Paramedic Mike Nolan

Ron Nelson lived for retail

By Gerald Tracey

in the fall of 1992 when they purchased Strickland’s Supermarket from Henry and Lillian Strickland. Located on Foymount Road, about a mile west of the village, Strickland’s was one of the best known and most successful family-owned supermarkets in Eastern Ontario and attracted customers from far and wide, especially for its annual Fall Fair sale.

When the Nelsons took over the store, they were joined by his son, Ron Jr. and her daughter, Tracee, and the four worked together for many years until Ron and Doris sold the franchise in 2011 to Tracee and her husband, Mike Dillabough.

In 2006, Mr. Nelson purchased the former Len’s Clothing and Furniture Store and opened Eganville’s Ultimate Discount Store in October of that year. Ron Jr. ran the business and was joined later by his father. They quickly developed the business into a thriving retail operation.

News of Mr. Nelson’s passing cast sadness over the community. He worked hard at his businesses and was usually the person who opened the store every day. He loved meeting and talking with people and could converse on a wide range of topics, ranging from politics at all levels, to sports and local events and issues.

Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke

MPP John Yakabuski said Mr. Nelson and his family chose to make Eganville their home and became an integral part of the community.

“From the building of a modern supermarket and opening Papa

Ron’s he has left an indelible mark on the local retail sector,” he said.

“He will be remembered for his support of his adopted community and his causes.”

Bonnechere Valley Mayor Jen-

nifer Murphy said Mr. Nelson made her and husband, Dave feel like they were always part of the community,

“despite that we were outsiders when we moved here.

“He was such a community champion and his lifetime as a businessman touched everyone in our area. We will miss him so much,” she said.

Eight years after buying Strickland’s Supermarket, the Nelsons moved to a brand new store west of Eganville in North Algona Wilberforce Township. When the store first opened, it was under the IGA banner and was later changed to Eganville Foodland.

“Ron was an extremely important part of my life,” son-in-law Mike Dillabough said. “He was a mentor. He taught me everything about business, customer service… everything.

“He was a great guy and a lot of people don’t realize how many people Ron helped out. He is the reason we work so hard.”

Mr. Nelson was known for his hard work and long hours and he instilled a strong work ethic into his family, most of whom worked for him.

“He helped Tracee and I out so much from bringing us into the fold – well Tracee had already been working for him – to setting us up to succeed,” he said. “I could call Ron at any time and bounce anything off of him. He was so proud of everyone and what they succeeded in doing.”

For several years, Ron and Doris sponsored a major golf tournament every year and raised a lot of money for minor sports in the area. They also made their store available for various fundraisers sponsored by local organizations.

Son-in-law Peter Larose and his wife, Colleen, purchased Reinke’s Home Hardware in 2011 and remembers Mr. Nelson assisting them with the purchase and doing a lot of the leg work. He admired him for his tenacity, attention to detail and his willingness to take a risk.

“He was a trailblazer in retail,”

Mr. Larose said. “He wasn’t afraid to buy a business and make a go of it. He had his whole family involved and he always had a job for everyone in the family.

“He was a great mentor, and he brought a whole new generation in retailing.”

Prior to moving to Eganville, Mr. Nelson worked for 17 years with Robinson Food Markets in Ottawa. He started his own business in 1980, Lakeside Foodmart in Ottawa and operated it for five years before purchasing Strickland’s. During those five years he worked 115 hours a week. He had given up the security he had earned with Robinson’s IGA at Cityview where he was manager and invested heavily by selling some personal assets, and borrowing to the hilt on his home and life insurance policy.

He was alone in the business and was butcher, carpenter, electrician, stockboy, bookkeeper, cashier, produce manager and much more, and also night watchman because he often slept on a cot in the basement because he was too tired to drive home to Carp.

Mr. Larose said Mr. Nelson’s motto was work hard.

“He lived for retail,” he said. “It’s all he knew. He had a few good friends, but family was everything to him.”

In business, Mr. Larose said he paid attention to detail, his competition and to his customers who he always put first.

“He loved business and he breathed it,” he said.

Mr. Dillabough said Mr. Nelson was extremely tough, but added he had the biggest heart he has ever seen. He added he enjoyed slowing down and working with Ron Jr. at Papa Ron’s where he continued to meet many people and remain active.

“I’ve never seen a father and son work so closely,” he said.

Mr. Nelson was bereaved by his wife in April 2020 and her death hit him hard as the two had worked together in the businesses for many years.

Other immediate family bedside Ron Jr. and Bridget, the Laroses and the Dillaboughs, are daughter, Debbie of Elliott Lake, stepddaughter, Maureen (M.J. McHale) and several grandchildren.

Medical Foymount marijuana facility clears another hurdle

Delcan answers more questions from public during information session as plans

By Gerald Tracey News Editor

Foymount – An Ottawa company is one step closer to starting production of cannabis in the former Black Water Factory building at the former Canadian Forces Station in Bonnechere Valley Township.

At a public information session last Thursday, held via Zoom , company officials made themselves available to anyone with questions or concerns about their plans for the Foymount facility. Although a public meeting was already held to give residents of the former Pine Tree radar station and others the opportunity to ask questions, the public information meeting last week was not something the company was mandated to do but was done at the request of the township.

One of the final matters is a site plan agreement which will be dealt with in April.

A presentation by Mark Drouin focussed on six areas: water, traffic, odour, security, playground and economic impact.

Mr. Drouin made it clear the company will not be using water from Foymount as the ground supply is low. Rather, water will be purchased from an independent offsite water supplier and delivered to the site.

He said the company’s current water waste system is self-contained and all runoff and wastewater can be collected in a tank and pumped into a tanker and transported offsite to a recycling facility.

“There will be no runoff or contamination that will be affecting the town,” Mr. Drouin said. “We do have a goal going forward. Technology is increasing and getting cheaper, and we’re excited about this, and we have a goal of zero waste. So we will be looking into different technologies on how to absolutely reduce water waste to zero, which is amazing because water is money and it’s expensive.”

Mr. Drouin said everything coming in is not going to be from Foymount, but everything going out is going out of Foymount.

The company also heard concerns about increased traffic at the public meeting and Mr. Drouin said there will be increased traffic, but it won’t be significant, especially compared with when Black Water was operating.

“Looking at the employees and the economic impact and that type of thing and the people we are going to hire, having to keep the lights on

and run this business, we’re looking at 10 to 15 people daily in and out,” he said. “Any increase in traffic will be focused solely on the industrial business part.”

Looking back to the late 2000s, 175 people were employed at Black Water and they drove in and out of Foymount daily while, in the days when it was a federal government military station, there was much more traffic, he said.

One of the early concerns raised was odour and whether the growing of cannabis would create a smell in the community.

“At Delcan we’re using a very different approach,” he said. “We won’t be venting to the outdoors. We don’t want any contact with the outdoors. As we open up to the outdoors, that’s when stuff gets in. We’re worried about stuff getting in and so, with that in mind, we are 100 per cent self-contained. We are not a greenhouse. We are not going to be opening windows or doors.”

He said all of the waste air that will be going out of the building will be exiting through high efficiency filters required and reviewed by Health Canada. As a fail safe for any issues, he said anyone with questions or concerns will have access to a dedicated complaint line as per its agreement with the municipality. This will allow residents to voice concerns and expect to see a quick resolution.

He said this not only helps residents, but also the company because Health Canada can come in anytime and audit the company and part of the audit would include odour.

“So if something is stinking and people have an issue with that, there is a federal complaint line to be able call and essentially report the odour or the discrepancy,” he said. “And there is also a step in between that if you wanted to use it which is to talk to us personally. We can fix it even quicker rather than having to go through all of that. And it helps us too, so we don’t get a red mark from Health Canada.”

Concerns had also been raised about the children’s playground being in close proximity to the facility.

Mr. Drouin said the company will be putting in a tree line between the playground and the building, to create a separation between business and pleasure.

In terms of employment, he said it makes good business sense to hire local people who are passionate about the area.

“There is a really good base of human resources in the area and that’s one of the reasons why we really like it here,” he said. “There are good people in the area who like to work and if there is opportunity we would love to provide it on a local basis.”

He said Delcan hopes to have a positive impact on the municipality and the people.

“We’re excited and I hope you’re excited too,” he said. “We look forward to moving forward together.”

The meeting was chaired by Mayor Jennifer Murphy. While several questions were raised, none of them were of a significant nature and Mr. Drouin’s responses appeared to allay any concerns. In response to how the new facility will benefit Foymount, he said Delcan will provide jobs and also revitalize the business park. He said when production gets off the ground and the company is profitable, it wants to take care of the community.

“It could bring more attention to the area also,” he said.

Although it is a retirement community for many, Mr. Drouin said several young families have moved to Foymount and the company has already received several resumes from local residents.

“We can be part of that by providing opportunity or at least interest, if not the opportunity to come and work here.”

Company President Patrick Delcan said if the opportunity to hire locally presents itself in any shape or form, it will be his priority to get it done.

Mayor Murphy encouraged anyone to read the site plan which is available on the township’s website.

“It’s a lot more than I’m sure you guys thought we were going to request, but we heard from our residents and I think the county tried to include every concern that was presented,” she said.

Mr. Drouin expressed his thanks to council and especially township CAO Annette Gilchrist for working with the company on its plans to establish at Foymount.

“I really want to thank Annette. You really helped us out through this process and I know it took time and effort and sometimes it wasn’t fun. You were awesome. Everybody was great.”

Delcan will operate a medical marijuana production facility in

This is a drawing of what Delcan plans to make the former Black Water clothing manufacturing plant at Foymount look like when they begin production of medical marijuana. The company has been working with Bonnechere Valley Township and the County of Renfrew for about two years to comply with conditions before starting production.

Killaloe market is possibly returning to Station Park

By Terry Fleurie Staff Writer

Killaloe – At a meeting of Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards (KHR)

Township council last Tuesday night, the groundwork was laid for the Killaloe Farmers’ Market to return to Station Park this year as council approved a proposal.

Community Development Coordinator Chris Neff had been directed to prepare a list of recommendations to council that the Killaloe Heritage and Ecology Society (KHES), the organizers of the market, would follow to facilitate a return to the park. The market was moved to Station Park in September 2022 from the Lions ballfield.

His report included a proposed sketch of the market’s layout as well as 13 recommendations which organizers must adhere to.

He explained the recommendations could be included in a modified ‘Facilities Use Agreement’ between the township and organizers, noting if accepted by council it would have to be presented to the KHES.

“This is just meant to act as a template to discuss the main concerns that we’re bringing forward and the next steps, if this is approved. We would have the meeting with the Heritage and Ecology Society and see what they think,” he explained.

“Then I’d bring that final document back to council.”

Mr. Neff suggested a contract be created between the two parties and that it be for only one year at a time and reviewed annually. He said the proposed layout will ensure safety, accessibility and organization, while also ensuring vendors’ needs are met.

“The main thing is safety, and there should be no vehicles permitted within 50 feet of the roadway,” he stated. “And there needs to be a buffer there so an emergency vehicle can get through.”

He said power could be accessed from either Queen Street or at the gazebo in the park, stressing there should be no cables running on the ground where visitors would be walking. He added there were not many vendors at the market that required power.

Mr. Neff said there should be no

vehicles allowed in the park during the event, but loading and unloading will be permitted one hour before and one hour after it begins and ends.

He recommended two metres between each booth to allow for accessibility and that washroom facilities be coordinated with the township during the markets.

Mr. Neff noted at times farmers’ markets are exempt from some of the health and safety regulations, but he wanted to make sure the Killaloe market qualified.

“We just want to make sure they actually have that exemption because there is a technicality where there has to be a certain percentage of farmers,” he said. “So we just want to basically know they have that certification in writing and that we coordinate that with the health unit.

“That is important to us because as the landowner we are libel for health,” he added.

Mayor Dave Mayville verified it is the vendors that are responsible to pursue any health unit certifications required for the market.

Mr. Neff said the township should have a list of the vendors for emergency purposes to know who is attending. The vendors will be responsible for their own garbage and recycling each week and its

Community Development Coordinator Chris Neff

removal from the property.

He recommended the KHES have some sort of emergency plan, which could be as simple as who is to call 911 in the case of an accident.

He noted the KHES will not be able to use the park on the third weekend in August due to the Irish Gathering , suggesting perhaps Lake Street could be closed and the market held there under a special event permit.

Finally, he noted the township’s insurance provider recommended there be $5 million in liability coverage, which he said apparently already exists.

“If this all sounds good to council, the next steps would be that we would schedule a meeting and invite the Heritage and Ecology Society and see what they think about this and if there’s anything we might have missed or that they’re not able to do. If we can mitigate that, then we’ll come back with a final document to council that can be signed by both sides.”

Councillor Ted Browne asked if the park has an actual 911 address in case of emergency and was told it does have one.

“Then we need a sign there if someone has to call the ambulance or police,” he said.

Mayor Mayville noted someone was injured last year at the Irish Gathering and an ambulance had to be called.

Coun. Browne noted there is a sign in most arenas now that indicates the 911 address if help is required, so a similar sign could be installed in the park.

Councillor Maureen MacMillan asked if the KHES would be invited to an upcoming economic development committee meeting to be presented with the document.

“If that’s what council would like, that would probably make sense,” Mr. Neff replied. “They could come in and it’s a little less daunting of a situation.

“We could talk and then bring a report back to council of what we’ve found and I can bring a proposed document back, so we can get going,” he added. It was agreed to invite the KHES to the next meeting scheduled.

Odi’s Kingburger drive-thru celebrating 50 years in Renfrew

By R. Bruce McIntyre

Local

Journalism Initiative Reporter

Renfrew -- On April 1, 1973, Bob

“Odi” Audette had people wonder-

ing if he was playing a joke when

he announced that at the age of 24 he was leaving his factory job to become the owner of a drive-thrurestaurant on the edge of Renfrew.

“I certainly got a few looks and a few friends just couldn’t believe I was leaving my job making corrugated containers at Abitibi in Pembroke to own and run a hamburger drive-thru in Renfrew,” the owner of Odi’s Kingburger told the Leader

“I am looking out this window and the view is just as amazing as it was 50 years ago when I bought this business. Back then this was the old Highway 17. It was a busy place and there was a little ski hill right over there on Pinnacle Hill.”

He credits Keith Saunders, the original owner of the Kingburger Drive-Thru locations in Pembroke, Renfrew, Cobden and Arnprior for giving him an opportunity to purchase the Renfrew location.

Mr. Audette had worked part-time at the Pembroke location before his full-time employment at Abitibi.

Mr. Saunders opened the Renfrew location in late 1971 and after just 18 months, he decided to sell the location to the same young man who had been a part-time employee at his Pembroke location.

Taking over a business sometimes requires a seasoned entrepreneur to provide guidance and mentoring, and at the age of 24, Mr. Audette sought out a person with experience who was well-connected to help make the venture a success.

His earliest supporter was the late Mack Wilson, one of Renfrew’s most successful land developers and a respected businessman.

“Mack was a big supporter of Odi’s and for years he was a fixture in our kitchen. He would just sit and watch in amazement as the early morning staffers and I did all the prep work for the day,” he said. “Mack just shook his head and always commented on how efficient we all were and the best thing he could do was just sit back and stay out of the way.”

This Saturday Mr. Audette will celebrate 50 years as the owner of the family-run landmark that has been a regular stop for several generations and out-of-town customers.

When asked why at first he was resistant to having his daughter, Robin (Hisko), make a big deal of his 50 years in business, he said it is just his nature to stay in the background.

“I am actually one who likes to stay out of the spotlight and let others talk about the business,” he said.

“Then I realized Robin was right when she reminded me nothing is as important as our loyal custom-

ers, some who have been coming back every year since 1973. Without them we wouldn’t have survived this long, and they are why we come here every day to serve up our food.”

“We have a retired lawyer from Montreal who calls ahead to place his order and we all laugh when we find out it is ‘Montreal Ted’ who is coming by for his order,” Mr. Audette said.

Looking back over the last half century, Mr. Audette said he never imagined owning his own business, never mind the fact he would be working alongside his daughter for almost 20 of those 50 years.

“My dad is not just a dad or the founder and owner of Odi’s, but my dad is my best friend and every day I look forward to coming into work and seeing his smile,” Mrs. Hisko said. “We are both competitive when it comes to work and each day we try to be the first one in and we kind of rub it in for whoever shows up here after the other.”

Mr. Audette is now in his mid-70s, and while most of his friends or family have retired and can usually be found on the golf course or travelling around enjoying their retirement years, he can be found in the same

spot every day.

“My dad is here every day around six o’clock when it is still dark and you will find him making homemade burgers,” Mrs. Hisko said.

“From day one he has insisted on using local products and you won’t find any frozen pre-made patties here. That is one of the reasons we are still busy after all these years.”

Old Fashioned Respect

Mr. Audette can’t help but laugh as his daughter brings up the original menu board to compare the 1973 menu items and the cost of each item today. Aside from the incredibly low prices such as the 50-cent milkshake or the 95 cent Cheese Kingburger, which remains the top seller at Odi’s, it is the little things that customers look forward to.

“Along with using the same sauce recipe we started with in 1973, we keep it simple so folks are not spending time making a choice,” he said.

“But one thing you must acknowledge is the devotion and care that all our staff have when they come in for their shift. I have always believed in treating every staff member with respect and treat them as if they were part of my family.”

He said he pays his staff a little

more than minimum wage and does his best to accommodate anytime they might need time off.

“We have hundreds and hundreds of people who worked here over the years, and many of them are students who come back each summer to lend a hand,” he said.

“They may have a school concert or basketball game or something else, but we value them and try our best to make a schedule work for everyone. We are so lucky to have been blessed with dedicated staff who do not call in last minute, or don’t bother to call in and just don’t show up for their shift.”

Both father and daughter agree it is the customers, whether locals or tourists, who have made the last 50 years just fly by. Mrs. Hisko said they see customers who came to eat a burger as a young child and then as adults with their own kids.

“We even have some grandparents

who were here as a child themselves 50 years ago and they drive through with their own grandchildren,” Mr. Audete said.

Every classic eatery in a small town usually has a “schtick” or tradition that makes the business stand out. In the case of Odi’s Kingburger it is the vintage blow horn speaker that people talk about. As old as the drive-thru itself, a customer usually hears a high crackling sound of static and a voice that sounds like it is coming from inside a tin can.

Family Big Part of Success

“My brother Nathan and I convinced my dad to replace the old sign with pop-in letters with an electronic sign and that was a big change for our business,” Mrs. Hisko said. “But people love ordering through our blowhorn and when they drive up for their burger or classic milkshake, they usually have a smile and mention the intercom system.”

She grew up in the restaurant and started work at the age of 14. She said she is lucky to be able to work alongside her dad every day.

“He was so well-known around town and everyone liked him so much, I thought he was famous when I was little,” she said. “This is always a place I wanted to be because I love everything about our town and our community. We have multiple generations that come back, and I don’t think people realize how wonderful that makes us feel.”

Mrs. Hisko said Odi’s has been a big supporter of local charities, including Angelman Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes children to function on as little as three hours sleep a day, every day. She and her husband, Kirk, along with her mom, Karen, and Odi, have become well-educated spokespersons for research into the syndrome.

“Our daughter, Ever, was diagnosed with Angelman’s Syndrome and for nine years we have had the support of our community through Odi’s to help raise money for research. We have a collection jar at the window and just last week we donated $4,000 towards research and that

Mackenzie Leclaire and Linda Carter help Robin (Audette) HIsko and Bob “Odi” Audette get ready to hang up a 50th anniversary banner as part of the week-long celebration.

Above: Bob Audette said the last 50 years was only made possible thanks to the support of his wife, Karen; their children, Nathan and Robin (Kirk) Hisko; and their granddaughter, Ever.

Below: Odi and his daughter Robin hold up the original menu board from 1973. Most of the original items remain on the menu today, including the popular King Cheese Burger which sold for 95 cents at the time.

Pembroke Regional Hospital hoping to go paperless

Pembroke -- Over the next few years, the Pembroke Regional Hospital will be making strides in its plan to go “paperless” with the implementation of a new electronic medical record system.

“PRH has identified Digital Transformation as a key strategic initiative which will include this next major step,” PRH President

and CEO Sabine Mersmann said. “While there is still a lot of advance planning work to be done, including costing and identifying the source of funds for such a large investment, we are excited about the many benefits this will bring for our patients and health care providers.”

In recent years, the digitization of health care has resulted in numer-

ous tools and resources that improve healthcare services, including software that makes health information more accessible to patients, and keeps patient data secure in one place.

At PRH, some of the work done to date includes transition from paper-based to digital physician reports which can be electronically transferred in a timely manner to

family doctors. This enables a faster review of the results and any necessary follow up.

Pembroke Regional Hospital also submits inpatient reports, surgical reports, diagnostic imaging and emergency department patient documentation to a provincial electronic medical record called Connecting Ontario and Ontario MD

Killaloe -- A resident of the Pikwakanagn First Nation is facing several criminal charges as a result of a disturbance call on March 20. Just before 6 p.m., members of the Killaloe detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) responded to a residence at Pikwakanagan. As a result of the investigation, police arrested and charged 35-yearold Nathaniel Amikons with three counts of uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm; resist peace officer; assault with a weapon; two counts of assault; four counts of mischief to property under $,5000 and failing to comply with a probation order. The accused was released with conditions and will appear in court April 12.

Papa Ron

The wider Eganville community is mourning the loss of yet another well-known citizen whose contributions to the area and its residents were many.

Ron Nelson, also known as Papa Ron, the name of the discount store he and son Ron Jr. established here in the former Len’s Furniture and Clothing building on Queen Street in 2006, passed away Sunday afternoon after a brief illness.

Known as a master retailer, a wonderful mentor for those entering the world of retail business and an ardent supporter of youth sports programs, he will be missed by everyone who knew him. After he and his late wife, Doris, purchased Strickland’s Supermarket in 1992, they wholeheartedly embraced their newlyadopted community and within a short time it was as though they had been life-long members.

Mr. Nelson was intelligent when it came to grocery retailing and was well-known throughout the industry. He was a guru in the food industry. He worked very hard to become successful and instilled a strong work ethic into family members. He loved every day being in business. He loved talking with people. He loved helping organizations and individuals who needed help. Many of his charitable acts were done quietly and went unnoticed.

He could also be tough to deal with, not mean, but he ran a tight business and didn’t waste money or throw it around carelessly. He took risks and worked hard to make his ventures successful.

Over the years, many students were hired for their first jobs by the Nelsons, a tradition that continues today at Eganville Foodland, by daughter, Tracee and son-in-law Mike Dillabough.

We will miss Papa Ron, especially when driving by the store where he would be a familiar figure standing outside or sitting in one of the chairs enjoying a cigarette and chatting with people. Or standing behind the counter, munching on some freshly made popcorn.

He knew so many people and he was genuinely interested in their lives and also in the community as a whole.

Ron Nelson leaves big shoes to fill, not only in business, but in the greater community where he quietly supported numerous good causes. He will truly be missed!

Girls

don’t

feel safe; why?

Dear Editor: Letter writer you’re right, girls don’t feel safe, but I feel it’s a much larger issue than described. I am a woman in her 30s and I struggle to feel safe in the world in general. Honestly? I am way more afraid of the average man than I am a gay, trans, or other person struggling to affirm their gender. In my twenties I was assaulted and escaped a man while walking home – a scenario described in the previous letter. It’s a sad fact that the majority of victims of violence are women and girls and the majority of perpetrators of violence are boys and men. I agree that an average group of teenage boys should not be hanging around the girls bathroom. I as-

sume they would be doing so only to push boundaries -as kids and teens are frustratingly known to do regularly. In that example then, I would hope parents and educators would step in to confront the bad behavior and set said boys on a better path to being empathetic and respectful adults. If we are talking about protecting women and girls, let’s start there. I’ve found the subtext of recent letters around the “bathroom debate” off-putting. I am a woman and I’ve never felt unsafe around a trans, or non-binary person in a bathroom. I feel unsafe around regular men all the time. Jessica Fortin, Eganville

A win-win! Really?

Dear Editor:

As I read the article in the March 22 edition of the Leader about NAW taking ownership of the Sno- Drifters property, I certainly got the impression that this was a good news story. Councillor Doug Buckwald is quoted as saying it is a win-win for everybody.

It is certainly a win for the nonprofit Sno-Drifters club as they can continue on with their activities as they did before now that the NAW taxpayers have assumed the cost of insurance and the liability risks. The township will also assume all the costs for upkeep and maintenance of the property. These changes are definitely a win for someone.

The words used to describe the takeover were similar to those used by a good vacuum cleaner salesman. Words like potential, many ideas, new possibilities and hopeful were used to describe how beneficial this takeover was going to be to NAW. There were examples given stating they will use baby showers and horseshoes tournaments as ways to generate revenue. Those are flowery words but they have little substance and were not reassuring to me.

We should ask council to produce the business plan that was used to make this decision. Please show us the risk assessment and calculations that demonstrate the benefits to be accrued to NAW by assuming responsibility for this property. Did council even request that staff draw up a business plan to support this takeover?

As a taxpayer I expect the benefits of this takeover to be significant and to have a positive financial result for NAW ratepayers. Does this takeover increase or decrease the tax burden to NAW ratepayers? How much additional effort will be required by NAW workers to maintain and upkeep the premises? At what point will this venture start to generate positive revenues for NAW, one year, two years, five years never?

Unless NAW can provide a business plan that supports this decision beyond what was reported in the paper, then this story reads like a Disney bedtime story. It is filled with a lot of fairy dust and unicorn kisses to convince us to have a good night’s sleep and not to worry.

Terry Hoffman, Pembroke

Progress brings its own problems

‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas’… or should we say, ‘continuing to look a lot like Christmas’!

We have more snow and howling winds at the end of March when the snowbirds are making their trek home and we should be dusting off our Easter bonnets. It’s depressing and no amount of exciting hockey action at the Heritage Cup is going to change my mind about that!

I am not possessed of the inborn Canadian ability to see snow and make happy snowmen or to see ice and rejoice in ice fishing. It might be that I was raised with the difficulties that new immigrants often have with an unfamiliar climate and culture.

Growing up with only wood stoves for heat, long drifted driveways, a truck that needed the motor cranked to start, woollen coats and those chilly wet rubber boots that went over your shoes and a schoolhouse so cold that the ink froze in the inkwell, is it any wonder that I dread winter?

Lest anyone think I am as old as Methuselah (if anyone still recognizes that name), I am not! But like Dolly Parton in the hollers of Appalachia, the farmers on the tiny boreens in the west of Ireland or the shepherds of the isolated valleys of Andalucía, we rural dwellers grew up before the automobile, telephone wires or electricity sent tentacles of

modernity into every remote place on the planet. We weren’t living in the Amazon (the river, not the shopping site), the Sahara or the Antarctic but merely in sparsely populated regions where there wasn’t enough demand or money to encourage ‘modern progress’. We now live in an era where the term ‘modern progress’ is easily used ironically. We grew up without the advantages of our current culture, having to endure the snowy signal of only three television channels, the wavering broadcasts of Mac Beattie’s music from CHOV in Pembroke and the limited product

availability in the stores of Killaloe, Barry’s Bay, Eganville and Pembroke.

How dreadful, you might think. What we did have was the necessities and most often they were vastly superior to all that we have at our fingertips now. When we needed a doctor, we had several in our local communities. Being hospitalized for having a baby was a restful week with attention and care from hordes of white-capped nurses. We came out of our one-room schoolhouses, well taught in arithmetic, spelling, geography and history, not to mention Latin and religion. We walked miles in fresh air to school and church, uphill both ways. There was a dark side of course. The threat of the BOMB hung over the planet. Plastic and fast foods were about to ruin the environment and nutrition. All of that remains a threat and we have added countless more to the litany of humanities problems… some of it real, some of it fear-mongering political opportunism. With rise of artificial intelligence ‘chatbots’ who easily create fake news and spread it effortlessly, we are entering an entirely new era of ‘progress’. Already, you can’t be sure that what you see or hear or read is true.

Long live the Eganville Leader where news is still researched and written by real human beings!

Dear Honourable Minister & Assistant Deputy Minister

Dear Debbie Scharf, Assistant Deputy Minister: Congratulations on climbing the ladder in the Holy House on the Hill. When I compared your letter with the original from Seamus O’Regan, I was reminded of that grand old song ‘When the new wears off on your crystal chandelier.’ After having to deal with PM Harper and Peter MacKay about the Military Personnel who became Atomic Veterans after 5 or 6 minutes working with us at the Chalk River Plant, we felt more at home being called Atomic Workers. While I hoped, and even prayed that your letter was informing me that next of kin are now eligible for the A.W.R.P., I should have realized that dead people, and ones my age don’t need money. On that subject, perhaps you could inform Honourable Minister Jonathan Wilkinson that he doesn’t need to dig so deep in his piggy bank. Thankfully some of my good friends, Martin Habraken, our recently deceased lifetime friend, George Kiely, myself and that beautiful retired Senator Céline Hervieuix Payette fought and successfully lobbied for the Senate to unanimously set aside $24,000 for 102 real Atomic Veterans who applied for the A.W.R.P., but for some very strange reason have found numerous of us disqualified. Both reactor accidents could not have happened at a worse time, as nuclear powered submarines were in the planning stage causing secrecy to be our number one priority. Cleaning up one pocket of radiation sometimes

uncovered a worse source. My lungs had taken a beating from asthma and hay fever. Using a respirator or fresh air mask for hours at a time made me feel so weak that the walk from NRU to the bus was often difficult. Trying to survive without radiation exposure was next to impossible. Trying to do a little carpentry at home meant early to bed time, and no time to enjoy the family.

Dear Debbie, since this is our first correspondence, perhaps you and Minister Wilkinson are wondering why this 93 year old is still representing his former co-workers. I know exactly the kind of suffering that they and their families endured. Calling it suffering is putting it mildly. It is a dangerous disease that effects both body and mind, a sneaky disease that we cannot see,

hear or smell. No wonder it is called the silent killer. We were not paid dangerous pay, we were paid the same rate as the boys who shoveled the snow and cut the grass. Some applicants have been referred to as next of kin. They are just as much victims of the silent killer as those who have died, they are left with the expenses, and they deserve the A.W.R.P. The Program was first passed in 2016 and yet payments did not start being received until 2022. The long delay in printing cheques, after the A.W.R.P. was approved has been questionable and suspicious. Taking into consideration our age, were you waiting for us old people to die, to rectify this you must extend the A.W.R.P. the same length of time that it was delayed. My writing this letter to our Honourable Ministers, and to our Eganville Leader readers, I prefer to use the term Family Members rather than next of kin. Every time I attend the wake or funeral of one of my co-workers I have the kind of suffering that bring tears to my eyes. The ‘Family Members’ have lost not only their parent, but the one who paid the taxes, the rent, brought home the groceries, but also brought home some of that silent killer to also share with their family. Every day on the job we were the victims of the Silent Killer, our families were the Silent Sufferers, Honourable Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, dear Debbie Scarf, Assistant Deputy Minister, they surely deserve the A.W.R.P. Sadly disappointed, yours, Al Donohue

Dear Editor: Happy Spring Equinox! The longer days of Sunlight and our witnessing sun rising further north in the east each day tells a true story: Spring in here and spring is on her way. Though the piles of snow and the biting north winds want to suggest otherwise, now is the time for earth to start letting go of her winter’s blanket. Now is the moment of stepping forwards into new plans, new activities and new ways of thinking. This past winter has been full of continual revelations of more and more corruption and more and more lies by people in “power”. Back in the 1950s it was revealed that some movie theatres were adding hidden messages amidst the feature films they were showing on the screen. Messages like “eat more popcorn”, “buy more soda”. This was an example of subliminal messaging. It worked; greater numbers of products were sold.

W ith so many new technological developments since then, like cell phones and personal computers, one can easily imagine that not only can thoughts be implanted by technology… it is likely happening at a rate and with a depth that we can hardly begin to imagine. To me, it seems like the most promoted product of the past number of years has been fear. The second most promoted idea has been confusion. This has led to the largest movement in the modern world: Nihilism: aka hopelessness, loneliness, lovelessness, touchlessness, meaninglessness, indifference, callousness, and all that numbs people. Thankfully, here in the Valley we keep witnessing love rising above Nihilism and people growing towards solidarity with each other and helping each other in the face of the unknown.

We’re faced with the reality that we have Canadian leaders who have two sets of agendas to fulfill. They must choose to whom their loyalty lies. With Chrystia Freeland being a board member of the World Economic Forum, and both Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh (and others) being graduates of the WEF programs… we can get an inkling that when faced with the Truckers Freedom Convoy, they all admitted they were pressured by “international partners” to prove Canada was strong, so they resorted to violence, rather than acting in accordance with the Canadian Constitution.

Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels said: “Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.” He’s more famous for saying: “A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.” Yet what is less repeated is this quote of his: “There will come a day when all the lies will collapse under their own weight and truth will again triumph.” I believe we are approaching that time, thankfully. Spring brings a new beginning. May it be so. We need new thinking to get out of the mess the war mongers and bankers are creating on earth, Robbie Anderman, Killaloe

100 Years Ago - March 31,1923

Renfrew Magistrate Imposes

$2,000 Fine For Breach of O.T.A. Renfrew, March 27 – The Ontario Wine Company of Toronto today paid the maximum penalty of $2,000 for violation of section 40 of the Ontario Temperance Act. The case came before Magistrate Devine and was a result of a shipment of invalids’ wine having been canvassed, sold and shipped to Theo Lafreniere, proprietor of the British Hotel, Renfrew. The traveller who solicited and obtained the order was fined $50. The summing up and view taken by the magistrate was a man found with a bottle containing only a small amount of liquor would be fined $200, and a party to whom such liquor was shipped was fined $200 and costs. For selling the same in hotels, the company who violated the act in the first instance should, therefore, suffer a much greater penalty, and he found no greater reason for not imposing the maximum fine.

Crown Attorney, James H. Burritt of Pembroke, appeared for the Crown, and E.J. Stewart, barrister, Renfrew, for the defendant. The case was presented by License Inspector G. Sylvester. It is the first time a maximum penalty has been imposed in the County of Renfrew.

It is understood the wine company will enter an appeal.

* * * * * * A Bear Cat War Minister Arnprior Chronicle: It may now be assumed that Hon. Thos. A. Low will be Canada’s next Minister of War. South Renfrew’s M.P. doesn’t claim to be a military genius, but he’s a bear cat for work and that’s what is mostly needed in Canada right now.

* * * * * * Madawaska

The Irish play entitled ‘The Shannon Boys” which was presented in St. Matthew’s hall on Monday evening, March 19th, by the Dramatic Club of Barry’s Bay, was a very enjoyable affair. The play was replete with Irish wit and repartee and many dramatic situations. The grace and ease with which the different characters performed their role merited the appreciation and repeated applause of the audience. The cast consisted of the Misses T. Coyne, M. Biernacki, M. Dooner and S. Ritza, and Messrs. E.A. Gutowski, T. Gutowski, J. Omernik, A. Grace, D. Murray, R. Witkowski, J. Kulas, and J. Ritza. Father Biernacki accompanied the club and in a brief and witty speech introduced “The Shannon Boys”.

*

Local News

St. Columba’s Boys’ Club and St. Michael’s Boys’ Club of Douglas met in a debate last Friday night in the school hall, the subject being, “Resolved, that the pen is mightier than the sword”.

Edward Austin and Charles Bilsborough of St. Columba’s had the affirmative, while Harold Breen and J.P. Howard of Douglas supported the negative. The four speakers marshalled and advanced their arguments most capably and the judges, after due deliberation, awarded the debate to the Douglas boys, supporting the negative, who had a short lead in points. There were about 200 interested listeners and after the speaking, supper was served to the boys by the local club. The judges were Rev. Father E.T. McNally and Messrs. William Lacey and J.L. Murray. Mr. M.J. Neville was the Chairman. – Observer

Mr. Richard McClennon of Wilberforce has installed a radio in his house and his household are now experienced in the joys and pleasures of “listening in” to the lectures, musicales, etc., broadcasted from Schenectady, Newark, and other American cities. Mr. Peter McIntyre, town, lent his skill in the first operations of the set.

75 Years Ago - March 26, 1948

Pembroke Boy Sees Broken Rail And Stops Train

Pembroke, March 21 – Prompt action on the part of a 13-year-old Pembroke boy narrowly averted what might have been a serious accident when he waved the CPR Ottawa – Chalk River local to a stop before it reached a rail break on the outskirts of town at 11 o’clock that morning.

The train was not delayed long, however, and as soon as the break was repaired was allowed to go on to Chalk River.

The boy, Garwin O’Brien, son of Mr. and Mrs. J.D. O’Brien, Pembroke, noticed the break in the rail while he was playing with a group of children on the CPR right-of-way at the east end of town near the Cedars crossing.

Realizing what could occur when he heard the westbound train approaching, he grabbed a red scarf from the hands of a playmate and ran east down the track waving the scarf. The engineer saw the boy and stopped the train. When he saw the six-inch break, he telephoned the station and a crew were sent out to repair it.

Arnprior Man Killed Near Cobourg

One of Arnprior’s most popular young men and a veteran of the Second World War, Hugh Wilson, was instantly killed yesterday near Cobourg when his car overturned in a ditch.

He was born in Arnprior 34 years ago, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Horace Wilson, and was educated in Arnprior schools. After serving his apprenticeship in a local drug store, he entered the Ontario College of Pharmacy and graduated from that school in 1939. He joined the staff of the Synthetic Drug Co. a year later and, with the exception of his Army Service, had been with that firm since. He was returning home for the weekend when the accident occurred.

In 1940, Hugh Wilson joined the Sherbrooke Fusilliers and went overseas with the unit that year. He escaped death in a tank battle after being blown clear out of the tank in

which he was fighting.

The Late R.F. Kasdorff

The brief announcement in the Leader last week of the sudden death of Mr. R.F. Kasdorff, while visiting his sister, Mrs. Krause, and other relatives in his native land, Germany, was sad, shocking tidings to his wife, and family here and was received with regret by many friends in Eganville and district. Mr. Kasdorff left here on February 26 and had looked forward to an enjoyable stay with relatives and friends in the fatherland.

Owing to unforeseen passport restrictions or difficulties, he was detained in England for several days. He had spent but five days in Germany when he was subject to an attack of apoplexy, causing his death.

Rheinhold Frederick Kasdorff, Phd., was born at Glendelin, Pommern, Germany on March 31, 1889, a son of Frederick Kasdorff and Wilhelmina Thoms. He received his education at the University of Berlin, Halle-Wurtenburg and Marburg.

The late Mr. Kasdorff came to Canada 34 years ago. Twenty years ago he entered the Lutheran ministry and served Sebastopol, Grattan and Silver Lake for a period of about five years. Seeing the commercial possibilities in this district of honey production, he engaged in

this work and in a very successful manner. His plant was established at Eganville and in later years he had 15 supplementary places in the district adding their quotas of honey. We learn that an average of about 35 tons is the output. A market has been found all over Canada – from British Columbia to Nova Scotia.

* * * * * * Cattle Spraying In Bromley

The committee in charge of the Bromley Township spray truck met in the Osceola hall recently and decided to start spraying cattle for the warble fly on March 29.

This committee asks the co-operation of every farmer in the township with the hope that all cattle will be treated. Each farmer will be notified in due time when spraying will be done in the community.

* * * * * *

Arnprior, March 14 – The boat building firm of Ayling and Ramage apparently is giving some impetus to the art of boat building and a revival of the era of 1890 when the Vermettes, Lamories, Greniers and Merricks excelled in the building in all types of river and pleasure boats, that in those days plied the beautiful waters of the Ottawa at Arnprior.

Eganville also had a period when the Merricks and Moores built substantial river boats for lumbermen.

50 Years Ago - March 28, 1973

16 Schools Below Fire Marshal’s Standards

Killaloe’s public school and the public school located at Round Lake are among 16 under the Renfrew County Board of Education that require major renovations to bring them up to fire safety standards.

The public school board was told that the 16 schools do not comply with the basic requirements of fire safety standards.

Other schools that do not meet the fire marshal’s standards are Calabogie Public School. Foresters Falls Public School, Arnprior District High School, Beachburg, Westmeath, and Walter Zadow schools. Also included were several public schools in and around Pembroke.

CFS Foymount Drivers Are Tops

Vehicle drivers from Canadians Forces Station Foymount scored a first among all Forces bases and stations recently when they racked up 2,000,000 miles of accident-free driving. That’s roughly equivalent to 80 trips around the world.

Not since August 1964 has this hilltop radar site had a preventable accident. * * * * * * Sebastopol Native Presented To Governor General

Mrs. Joyce Bleakney, the former Joyce Schaven of Sebastopol, accompanied by her eldest son, Paul, was recently presented at Government House to Governor General and Mrs. Michener in recognition of her outstanding work in recruiting university graduates for the public service commission.

Mrs. Schaven’s itinerary for the 1972 showed that she made four trips across Canada. Prior to her present position, she worked in various departments of the federal government. * * * * * * * The Late Isaac St. Louis Isaac St. Louis passed away in the Pembroke Civic Hospital on March 22nd after a short illness. He was 78. He was born at Perrault Settlement on January 16, 1895 and spent most of his life in the Eganville area except for a few years when he lived at Mackey Station.

After returning from Mackey Station, he took over the homestead and farmed for a number of years . In later years, Mr. St. Louis operated a sawmill on Highway

25 Years Ago - March 31, 1998

Killaloe Council Appoints Reeve

Just four months after being elected for the first time to council, Isabel O’Reilly is the new reeve of Killaloe.

Reeve O’Reilly was appointed at a special council meeting last Tuesday to replace the late Emerson Lepine, who had served as reeve of the village from 1985 until his death March 20.

The first female reeve in the history of Killaloe was unanimously voted in by council. After being selected as the acting reeve at Renfrew County council last November, Reeve O’Reilly said that probably was a factor for council to decide to extend her powers as the new reeve.

As a first-time municipal candidate last November, Reeve O’Reilly said she was overwhelmed by the support she received both at the polling station and the verbal support by the village.

“Being reeve is a challenge I’m looking forward to. These are very interesting times with amalgamation,” she said.

*

* * * * * Boa Constrictor Is Not Everyone’s Idea of Pet Some people in Eganville went snaky on Monday and called the Killaloe OPP to put the squeeze on a local pet owner.

Shirley Doucette, owner of an eight-foot-long boa constrictor, took her pet to enjoy the warm spring weather yesterday but some local residents didn’t enjoy the stroll.

“People were freaking out but I don’t know why because he’s harmless,” she said. “Someone called the police and said they were worried about their children because they would be getting out of school soon.

“I was the one holding the snake, it’s not like I was putting him on the ground or anything.”

As the story about the snake walk spread, so did the size and weight of the pet.

*

* * * * * Grant For Makwa Co-op

The Makwa Community Development Corporation, a project operated by the Algonquins of Golden Lake, has received a $33,894 grant from the province for its commercial tree seedling nursery.

The program provides grants of up

to $35,000 to support communitybased economic and business development projects by First Nations, Metis, and off-reserve Aboriginal people.

The Makwa Community Development Corporation recently signed an agreement with the Canadian Forest Service to run the tree nursery at the former Petawawa Forestry Research Station, which was owned and operated by the federal government. The government ceased operation of the nursery program three years ago.

* * * * * * Adjudicator Praises

OHS Students

Two Opeongo High School students representing the Cobden branch of the Royal Canadian Legion were declared winners at the district level of the Legion’s public speaking contest Saturday in Smiths Falls.

OAC student Megan Conway of Eganville placed first in the senior high school category with her speech on preparing for the millennium, and Grade 9 student Melissa

Janke of Douglas placed first in the junior high school category with her speech on El Nino.

A prominent member of the Toastmasters organization, Harry Kingston, was adjudicator of the high school portion of the contest, and delivered a critique of the speeches at the conclusion of the competition. He was most generous in his praise of Opeongo’s speakers, describing Melissa’s presentation as OAC level quality, and Megan’s as university level and a “text-book” speech.

The Opeongo speakers are coached by staff member Kathleen O’Grady.

* * * * * * Car Demolished In Sunday Night Accident In Killaloe A 45-year-old Killaloe man escaped injury when he demolished his car near the Queen Street and Annie Street intersection in Killaloe Sunday night.

John Kohl was travelling north on Queen Steet around 9:20 p.m. when his 1987 Oldsmobile crossed over the highway and rolled onto a lawn.

Shirley Doucette and her boa constrictor caused a bit of an uproar in Eganville 25 years ago.

Madawaska Valley council votes down development charges

By Barry Conway Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Barry’s Bay -- Not everyone has the intestinal fortitude for municipal politics, given that sometimes it does involve more guts than glory.

Last Tuesday, in what was the first, but certainly not the last, showdown between decidedly opposing political points of view on the new Madawaska Valley Township council, there was a moment worthy of a Hollywood guts-and-glory shoot-out, if not a spaghetti western.

Essentially, since its inauguration, the new council had been tentatively feeling its way, albeit gingerly, into its first year of office; but finally, the rubber had to hit the road, as it were. Last week, that council decided it had to solve the very prickly issue of development charges. Those are the one-time fees that some Ontario municipalities add to new residential, commercial and industrial developments under their jurisdictions.

It’s a hot-button issue that quickly can split most ratepayers, if not most local politicians, into diametrically opposed factions. There are those who become categorically against all such development charges, often arguing that they are an unnecessary, if not an unconstitutional, ‘ tax ,’ especially on young, first-time home buyers.

Then there are those in support of specific development charges. They argue that collecting such fees, especially from large corporations that build subdivisions full of tract homes, helps to defray the cost of all those new roads, parks, schools and other municipal infrastructure required to service those new developments. Put another way, they argue that long-established ratepayers should not have to front those new infrastructure costs, especially long before anyone figures out those corporate developers have made off like bandits after seemingly duping ratepayers into subsidizing their profit margins.

Of course, last week the MV decided the

issue for itself, after almost two decades of toying with what must seem to some like a lucrative idea that could help top up cash reserves and avoid raising the more usual kind of property taxes.

As expected, two fiscal conservatives -- Councillors Shelley Maika and Joseph Olsheski -- both voted against an option brought forward by township staff that is best described as ‘development charges lite.’

As the township’s new manager of planning and development, Luc Desjardins, told the council, the township staff was proposing “for a rural lot... a $1,900 charge.” In other words, his developmental charge lite would only involve the cost of new roads, fire protection and waste disposal. At its absolute worst, it would seek only to collect a one-time fee of just under $3,200 for an in-town lot under development where more municipal services would have to be provided.

The option promoted by Mr. Desjardin was for seemingly sound fiscal reasons and may have been especially attractive to those counting on strategic economic growth. So, it was ultimately supported by two fiscal progressives -- Mayor Mark Willmer and Councillor Mary Blank -- who, as expected, voted in favour of introducing those development charges lite.

The odd man out in all of this, of course, at least this time around, but who held the crucial fifth and deciding council vote was the former MV mayor, and current councillor, David Shulist. And yet, one look at his face during the moments leading up to the recorded vote taken last week was worth the price of admission.

A casual observer might even be forgiven if it called to mind Wyatt Earp’s famous look of calm desperation as he approached the O.K. Corral in Tombstone. Or that inscrutable look of the ‘Man with No Name’ as he contemplated what to do next, after he mangled his black cheroot in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Interestingly, Coun. Shulist said he was neither unilaterally in favour nor opposed to development charges; his, apparently, was a more nuanced response, determined by different situations and economic circumstances that he tried to make clear with personal experiences.

“I’m not against development charges,” he said, “but they have to be in the right place.”

He concluded, just before the doom of his impending vote, with a faint hope that it might be better to revisit such charges in two years time. What he really wanted to say, and eventually actually did say, just before casting his deciding vote was: “I’m not ready to make any decision right now.” For the record, Coun. Shulist ultimately voted against those development charges lite recommended by the staff and thus ended any speculation as to where this council stood.

Still, the consultants hired at no cost to the township -- the province paid the tab -- and who had studied the issue on council’s behalf had found that the annual new home construction rate in the township was barely two dozen homes; that is, except for last year, when it spiked at 38 homes. Those same consultants forecasted that the annual rate of new home builds within the township will likely return to its expected level going forward over the next five years, meaning they again expect less than two dozen new homes to be built annually in the township over the next five years.

If all politics is local, and the consultants are right, then it doesn’t much matter if MV chose to take up development charges or not. At best, it probably wasn’t worth all the aggravation and bad-blood of a Mexican stand-off to decide. Still, it doesn’t get much more interesting nor entertaining than watching that democratic decision evolve last Tuesday. Better, at least, than what passes for a Hollywood guts-and-glory flick these days.

Madawaska Valley Township Councillor David Shulist cast the deciding vote last week in a discussion on implementing development charges in the township. Stating he wasn’t against the charges, he said they have to be in the right place.

Loving husband, devoted father drowns in Bark Lake

By Terry Fleurie Staff Writer

Bancroft – A 28-year-old resi-

dent of the Bancroft area who has called the community home the past 22 years drowned last Friday while enjoying one of his favourite activities, fishing, on Bark Lake, near Combermere.

Nathan Libby had celebrated his 28th birthday just two days before he failed to come home from his fishing excursion that evening.

Members of the Bancroft Ontario Provincial Police were notified Saturday morning of his disappearance and responded with assistance from the Emergency Response Team (ERT).

The OPP’s Underwater Search and Recovery Unit (USRU) was called in and Mr. Libby’s body was

recovered Sunday just after 11 a.m.

The investigation is ongoing.

Mr. Libby was married to Lindsay (Cybulskie) of Barry’s Bay, and the father of Jackson. He was one of four children of Jerry and Jackie Libby of Carleton Place, and son-in-law of Audrey and Darcy Cybulskie. He is also survived by siblings Kyla, Kristin and Matthew, and brothers and sister-in law Jon, Connor and Macaila.

He received his elementary education at Bancroft Public School and was a graduate of North Hastings High School where he enjoyed the outdoor education programs. He spent the majority of summers at Graphite Bible Camp with his parents, choosing to help his uncle and others with the maintenance

and mingle with the other campers. Described as very intelligent, a good reader and incredible writer, he preferred to work with his hands and began a carpentry apprenticeship in high school which led to his obtaining his Red Seal in 2015. Very hard-working, Mr. Libby was never satisfied until the job was done right.

A country boy through and through, he loved the outdoors and going hunting, fishing, canoeing and camping.

He married the love of his life in a small, private ceremony in 2019 and moved into their current home on Musclow Greenview Road shortly after their wedding. They welcomed their son, Jackson on August 30, 2021 and Lindsay is expecting their second child in October.

“We cannot understand why the Lord took Nathan so suddenly and tragically on a lonely night while he was doing something that he loved to do, fishing – night fishing for ling to be specific,” his father Jerry said in the obituary. “We struggle with the what ifs of the circumstance, the terror of the final moments of his life, struggling in that cold water.

“He was alone. All of us who loved him are shaken by that thought,” he continued. “But he really wasn’t alone. The Saviour –Jesus – who he trusted at an early age, who he grew to know and quietly followed, was with him.

“Why didn’t he spare him? We will not know the answer to that question until we see him again in heaven.”

Mr. Libby said the family is devastated by the loss and their lives will never be the same again.

“But we who knew Nathan and loved him will never forget him. The most difficult days lie ahead for us.

“The hurt will never completely go away until we are home together in the Father’s house,” he concluded.

A GoFundMe account was established by family friend Kassidy Kutchaw with a goal of $5,000 to assist Lindsay and the children in the future. As of 4:30 Tuesday afternoon, the amount don ated totalled $100,298.

Former mayor topped 2022 council earnings in KHR

Killaloe – Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards (KHR) Township has released its 2022 council remunerations, totalling $136,050.

CAO Tammy Gorgerat presented the report to council last Tuesday night, detailing what each member of the previous council earned between meetings and honourariums in 2022.

Former mayor Janice Tiedje topped the list at $40,950, an increase of $970 over her 2021 earnings of $39,980.

Councillor Brian Pecoskie had the highest earnings among the six councillors at $17,550, up $900 from 2021. Councillor Carl Kuehl earned the second highest amount at $16,950, up $2,250 from his 2021 earnings of $14,700.

Former councillor John Jeffrey was next at $15,350, up $1,250, and Councillor Ted Browne ranked fourth at $15,150, an increase of $2,250. Former councillor Debbie Peplinskie was fifth on the list with $15,050, up $200 from 2021, and former councillor Stanley Pecoskie was the lowest earner at $15,050, which was down $200 from his 2021 earnings.

Councillors Brian Pecoskie, Browne and Kuehl were returned to office in the 2022 election. Former mayor Tiedje was unsuccessful in her re-election bid, and former councillors John Jeffrey, Stanley Pecoskie and Debbie Peplinskie did not seek re-election.

KHR approves speed markings on highway through Killaloe

By Terry Fleurie Staff Writer

Killaloe – Motorists travelling through Killaloe on County Road 58 (Queen Street) will soon be seeing some new markings on the pavement.

Council approved the installation of two speed limit markings on the county-owned highway at last Tuesday night’s regular meeting.

The topic of installing some type of signage or safety bollards to slow down motorists on the busy street had been brought before council by Mayor Dave Mayville on two previous occasions, but council did not support his suggestions either time.

However, during the March 7 meeting, KHR Works Superintendent, Dean Holly was instructed to contact the County of Renfrew regarding the cost of the painted highway signs and he delivered his finding to council last Tuesday night.

Mr. Holly spoke with Lee Perkins, the county’s Director of Operations and he had quoted the signs at between $460 to $475 each. Mr. Holly added county personnel would meet him on site to determine where the

signs could be painted, reminding council he had to abide by the county policy as to the location of the markings.

Mr. Holly asked how many markings council wanted installed, adding the cost of the signs would be split 50/50 between the county and the municipality.

Mayor Mayville recalled during a previous discussion that Councillor

Ted Browne suggested one marking be placed in the vicinity of Annie Street.

“I’m thinking you’d only need two,” Coun. Browne suggested.

“One coming into town and one there (Annie Street area). It’s 40 km/hr coming in from the highway (Hwy. 60) all the way through to Ruby Road.”

“So one each way,” Mayor Mayville recommended, confirming the total cost to the township would be approximately $500 for the two signs.

“I think it’s a good thing for $500,” Coun. Browne remarked.

He suggested one marking be place in the vicinity of Annie Street on the south end of the village and

the other in the area of the municipal office before entering the downtown core from the north. Mayor Mayville questioned if another marking should be installed in the vicinity of Station Park due to the heavy pedestrian traffic there.

“Surely when they see the sign here (municipal office), that gives them enough time to go from here (pointing to his eyes) to here (pointing to his brain).”

“If they go by here, they have to see it,” Councillor Brian Pecoskie added.

Councillor Maureen MacMillan noted the county-owned digital speed sign will also be located in the area of Annie Street, with Mayor Mayville noting no one knows how long the sign that has been promised by the county, can actually remain there.

“I think we try two this year and see how it works,” Coun. Browne recommended.

Council unanimously supported the resolution calling for the purchase of two signs.

“Thank you council,” the mayor concluded.

Valley Manor faces a gap in funding its new $49 million home

Local

By Barry Conway

Journalism Initiative Reporter

Barry’s Bay -- When the Valley Manor’s executive management team stopped by the Township of Madawaska Valley council chambers last week to update the municipality on its progress in replacing the current 90-bed long-term care facility in Barry’s Bay, things did not go well.

While the province expects residents to be moved out of the old manor by the end of 2025, building a new manor in time for such a deadline seems increasingly unlikely.

Led by the manor’s chief executive officer, Trisha DesLaurier, along with Stacey McDonald, the Valley Manor’s new director of finance, the two long-term care executives rolled out a dazzling Powerpoint array of tables, charts and conceptual drawings for their new 96-bed facility. It’s a plan, said Ms. DesLaurier, that slowly materialized over 16 years, “like the little engine that could.”

Still, the pair’s presentation clearly indicates the new Valley Manor’s

cost of construction has risen a whopping 41 per cent in the past year alone. In essence, Ms. DesLaurier is now talking about a new manor with a price tag of nearly $49 million. The new number, she told MV council, is due largely “to supply chain issues and soaring construction costs.” Her new director of finance added the increase was entirely due to COVID. During the pandemic, Ms. DesLaurier noted that the manor’s usual cadre of 90 residents fell to 65 and won’t return to full capacity until May at the earliest.

She said that her goal, given an18to-24 month construction phase, was “to tender the project and award a contract hopefully towards the end of 2023, early 2024,” before adding she was “moving on to finalize the funding; then once we finalize the funding, we are going to tender.”

Ms. DesLaurier spoke sparingly about how the manor hopes “to close the gap on our finances,” as she curiously put it. Ms. McDonald then added even more curiously that this ‘gap’ was due largely “to decreased

industry in the area and increased retirement in the area... so they have limited incomes... fixed incomes; we have decreased corporate sponsorships; we’re not in Deep River where we would be able to have CNL; or other towns where we might have large companies we could approach for sponsorship.”

The executive duo then went on to say that the St. Francis Valley Healthcare Foundation, the manor’s professional fundraising arm, had raised more than twice the amount -- one million dollars in fact -- than the $500,000 the manor had asked for initially.

Ms. McDonald also cited increased costs for such things as local gasoline which she said was “more expensive here than in the city,” Presumably, she is unaware the price of gasoline in Barry’s Bay remains consistently lower than most of Renfrew County and certainly most cities across Ontario.

Ms. DesLaurier said she also plans to increase revenues in the new facility by leasing out extra space to commercial tenants. She also has plans

to add paid parking lots. She noted that her board recently used some of its non-profit corporation’s investment funds to pay off the last $1.2 million still owing on the current 45-year-old building’s mortgage. Doing so, she said, should make it easier for the manor to apply for new loans. The original manor building was constructed, beginning in May, 1977, at a cost of $1,478,000 and was covered by a single Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation loan.

Ms. DesLaurier also mentioned her board of directors had recently purchased in joint partnership with St. Francis Memorial Hospital and with the help of MV Township an additional 25 acres of land. It was hoped that such acreage might prove better than the original building site first chosen for the new manor and that had been bought, she said, with the generous help of the municipality. That original new building site on the old Sherwood Public School property was located near the St. Francis Memorial Hospital complex. The recently purchased site, she said, proved too rocky for new manor construction.

In passing, Ms. McDonald also mentioned that provincial bureaucrats had suggested the manor might solve its funding gap by enlisting the help of its local MPPs. So, the two executives met in early January with MPP John Yakabuski and Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston MPP John Jordan, the parliamentary assistant to the Ontario Minister of Long-Term Care.

Ms. DesLaurier also approached the County of Renfrew for an annual $325,000 redevelopment contribution but said she was denied. She also made several attempts to close the funding gap by approaching various other agencies, but all attempts have came to nothing.

When the 15 minute Powerpoint presentation was over, Councillor Mary Blank, who spent most of her career prior to retirement as the manor’s recreation director, asked Ms. DesLaurier, “What would you like to see from the municipality in your plan?”

Ms. DesLaurier responded hesitantly at first but ultimately suggested the township might show “some support in terms of our loan... maybe... to be a guarantor of the

loan which gives us more borrowing power?” She did not say if the township would be on the hook for all $49 million or just the usual 10 per cent ($4.9 million) the province expects the local community to contribute.

Councillor Joseph Olsheski, after looking closely at the financial plan the manor was proposing, posed a very penetrating, if not revealing, question. He wanted to know about the manor’s highly irregular contingency fund. It topped out at more than 18 per cent of its entire new building cost. As the lone civil engineer on council, Coun. Olsheski simply asked, “Industry standard is 10 per cent, right?” before adding “So, I don’t understand why it’s still sitting at $8 million?

Construction companies aren’t worried about being shut down with COVID anymore?”

Ms. DesLaurier and her aid-decamp had no immediate answer other than to imply they took their building consultant’s word at face value, and that the 18%+ figure

as far as they could determine was as accurate and up to date as their last meeting with their consultants which she said occurred only a few weeks ago.

“An $8 million contingency fund -- that’s ridiculous!” Coun. Olsheski concluded.

Mayor Mark Willmer then asked how the manor ultimately hoped to close its funding gap?

Ms. DesLaurier said she was “working very hard at closing the funding gap by exploring some very unique models with our MPP and John Jordan.”

After the meeting ended, a majority of the council members indicated they would not likely support Ms. DesLaurier’s request to act as the manor’s loan guarantor. They were not convinced it would be financially wise for the municipality to be so exposed.

According to the manor’s latest calculations, the total unit cost of housing a single resident in the new facility remains at $509,291.

Trisha DesLaurier, left, Chief Executive Officer at Valley Manor Inc. in Barry’s Bay, and Stacey McDonald, Chief Financial Officer, updated Madawaska Valley Township on plans for a new $49 million home, but the news was not good.

MV Councillor Joseph Olsheski questioned the highly irregular contingency fund for the new building of a new Valley Manor.

Nathan Libby was the victim of a drowning accident in Bark Lake Friday night.

Former KHR mayor, Janice Tiedje

German Black Eagles win open title at Opeongo Heritage Cup

By Terry Fleurie Staff Writer

Photos: Gerald Tracey

Barry’s Bay – The 2023 Opeongo Heritage Cup multicultural hockey tournament made a very successful return over the weekend, capped off with a thrilling overtime final in the open division where the German Black Eagles edged the Kashubian Griffins 3-2.

The Germans posted a perfect 3-0 record in the round-robin to seal their birth in the final, while the Griffins went 2-1 in the round-robin, their only loss being a 5-2 defeat by the Germans.

The defending champion Irish Shamrocks were winless, going 0-3, while the Algonquin Thunderbirds posted a 1-2 record.

In the championship game, the Germans trailed the Kashubs 2-1 until late in the third period when they tied the game with 1:20 left in regulation time to force suddendeath overtime.

Robbie Lepine was the hero for the Germans, scoring the OT winner at the 7:41 mark.

Lepine had staked the Black Eagles to a 1-0 lead at the 11:16 mark of the first period on what proved to be the only goal of the period. Russell Summers was credited with the lone assist on the goal.

The Griffins tied the score at the 7:57 mark of period two, with Zack Luckasavitch finding the twine behind Tyler Kauffeldt in the German net. Ethan Yantha and Jackson Voldock had the helpers. The Kashubs took their first lead of the game just over a minute later on a Jack Shulist tally, with Voldock earning another assist. That lead held up until the final 80 seconds of the third period when Justin Felhaber buried a Dante Hoffman pass behind Richard Barr to tie the score at two and force OT.

The Kashubs had a brief, 36-second power-play in the overtime with Tyler Kauffeldt making a game-saving stop to keep the Black

Eagles alive. The Griffins then took a penalty and the teams were playing 4-on-4 when the winning goal was scored.

The penalty resulted in a face-off in the Kashub zone and a scramble ensued off the puck drop. Lucas Gonu of the Black Eagles kicked the puck to Lepine, who one-timed it top-shelf past Barr for the win.

Women’s Team Also Win

The team’s win in the open division gave the Black Eagles double bragging rights as the women’s team captured the Opeongo Heritage Trophy in the previous game, clinching the title with a 4-0 win, also over the Kashubs.

The Black Eagles had shut-out the Griffins 1-0 in round-robin play and Madison Samms recorded her second shut-out in the championship win.

Lily Zadow staked the Germans to a 1-0 lead in the first period, with Courtney Pilgrim and Ava Zadow earning the helpers. Ava Zadow stretched the lead to 2-0 early in the second, with Layne Jessup and Robyn Sunners drawing assists.

Hannah Summers made it 2-0 late in the period, off a Kaylie Welk feed. Welk rounded out the scoring with an unassisted goal to make the final 4-0.

The Opeongo Heritage Bowl, presented to the top team in the gentlemen’s division, went to the defending champion, Irish Shamrocks with their 6-1 win over the Kashubian Griffins in the 30-plus game on Sunday.

The two teams went into the game having split the two previous games on the weekend, the Irish winning the 50-plus game 5-2, with the Germans answering with a 2-1 win in the 40-plus contest to force the deciding game Sunday.

Tim Lemoyre led the Irish offence in their win with the hat-trick, including the opening goal in the first period. Johnnie Shulist tied the game for the Kashubs four minutes later. But it was all Irish after that.

Dane O’Reilly and Lemoyre made it 3-1 after the first and Jesse Lepine, Lemoyre and Tim Ronholm found the twine in the second for the win. Huge Success Tournament founder and commissioner, David Shulist (a.ka. Johnny Kashub) was delighted with the success of the weekend.

“I am very pleased with the return of the Opeongo Heritage Cup,” he said. “It was a great success in many ways.

“Everyone had fun celebrating their ancestral heritage through the game of hockey,” he added.

Mr. Shulist said everyone obviously enjoyed the high level of hockey that was exhibited and meeting with family and friends they have not seen since the last event in 2019.

“Congratulations to the German nation for winning the Opeongo Heritage Cup and Trophy and the Irish nation for winning the Opeongo Heritage Bowl,” he remarked.

“Cheers to the Algonquin and Kashub nations for competing hard and promoting their culture and identity at this year’s event.

“As a Kashubian Canadian who created this event and a descendant of the Kashub nation, I felt very proud of our Griffin teams,” he added. “Although they did not win any hardware, they won the hearts of many.”

He explained the men’s open team and the women’s team are first generation Kashubian-Canadian. They were born knowing they were Kashubs, of Kashubian heritage and that Kashubia is the homeland of their ancestors in Europe.

“Their parents and grandparents were born not knowing their true Slavic identity until later in their life,” he said. “Their great grand-

parents died and left this earth not knowing their true national identity of their ancestors in Europe. They were living under a false identity, victims of identity theft.

“Our young teams lost their games, but they won respect. For the first time, the fans of the Algonquins, Irish and German nations recognized that the Kashubs are a nation with their own identity. Who would have thought someone could discover their heritage through the game of hockey. Hockey is our vehicle and diversity is our fuel.

“Thank you to all the fans, volunteers, sponsors and media for making our 2023 Opeongo Heritage Cup event a great success.

Mr. Shulist said the on-ice officiating was excellent and there were no complaints. Attendance was up from previous years, which was a very pleasant surprise after missing the past three years due to COVID.

“We weren’t sure the people were going to come back out because of COVID. There’s still that fear. But they were ready to come out.

“I guess the final numbers will tell us for sure, but the people at the front said it was totally amazing.”

He said the Paul J. Yakabuski Community Centre was full all weekend, kicking off with the tribute to the late Carl Lacombe, of Killaloe, the longtime Director of Hockey Operations for the tournament, and the Algonquin Thunderbirds tribute to NHL and Aboriginal legend, the late Gino Odjik.

“It brought a lot of tears for the people who knew Carl and the Lacombe family did a fantastic job with some words that really touched everybody’s hearts. We had to honour Carl because he was there from day one and it was an honour to raise

that banner.

“And when those drums start beating and the Algonquins paid tribute to one of their heroes, it was very touching,” he added. “What’s important here also, as far as the Algonquins go, is we need to recognize we are playing on Algonquin Native land. So that was very special for our event.”

Mr. Shulist said the level of hockey was “unbelievable” all weekend.

“I don’t know if I’ve seen hockey like that for a long time. I know the Griffins are really young and fast, but the Germans are so smart with the puck . . . it went into suddendeath overtime, that’s how close it was.

“That was a treat for everyone,” he continued. “All the games were relatively close and the caliber of play was unbelievable.”

Mix of Old and New Chris (Chummy) Gienow, head coach of both the German open and women’s teams, credited their success to having the necessary blend of veterans and new recruits on the ice.

“You never know what you’re going to get Friday night in that first game,” he said of the open division.

“We had seven first timers and our veteran group led by Robbie Lepine and Lucas Gonu . . . having those guys out there at the right time with Ryan Lepine and Russell Summers.

“It was an unbelievable mix of veterans and youth that you need in that tournament every year,” he added.

In their opening win over the Kashubs in the round-robin, he realized the Kashubs were likely the youngest and fastest team in the tournament, so knowing that he set up a strategy for the Black Eagles in the final.

“Their speed really brought it to us, so I just told the guys to be patient,” he explained. “Just weather the storm in the first period and the plan worked. It took us up until the final minute and 20 seconds to finally tie the game, so some of the boys were starting to get anxious.

“But I told the boys to stick with it,” he added. He said the team got off the plan a little in the first period by taking

a couple of penalties, but they returned to being one of the most disciplined teams he has ever coached in the tournament.

He credited goalie Tyler Kauffeldt for being one of the big keys to their success.

“It doesn’t matter where you play, you have to have the best goaltending, and he gave us that all weekend.”

Mr. Gienow said the level of play in the open category was as good as it had always been, adding both the Black Eagles and Griffins had a lot of new players in the line-ups this year.

“The Germans had seven young lads in their first Heritage Cup, so there was a lot of turnover. The Kashubs, too, were the youngest team there.”

He said the quality of the play in the ladies’ division continues to improve and impress the crowd each year. He cited one example of a young woman, Ruby Selle, of the German Black Eagles who dove in front of a hard one-timer by Irish Shamrocks player Avery Foy.

“Ruby came flying out and blocked the shot with her pads and Avery can fire it like a young man,” he recalled. “The women’s calibre every year just gets better and better.”

Mr. Gienow, a personal friend of the late Mr. Lacombe, said the tribute Friday was very well done.

“Carl was a guy I looked up to hockey-wise for his coaching and management skills too,” he remarked.

He concluded by noting it was just amazing to see the whole crowd back, adding it was just an

Members of the winning German Black Eagles men’s team: Front row, from the left, Tyler Kauffeldt, Jeff Summers, Dylan Kuehl, Denver Schruder, Sam Schutt, Robbie Lepine, Gabe Schutt, Shamus Lacombe, R ussel Summers, Dante Hoffman and Carter Zomers; back row: Dustin Hoffman, James Welk, Buck Kuehl, Tom Summers, Glen Gulick, Jeff Kuehl, Gary Layman, Justin Felhaber, Lucas Gonu, Davine Parks, Ryan Lepine, Will Pigeon, Thomas Summers, Cal Gienow, Cutler Lacombe, Curtis Fabian, Sam Klawitter, Chummy Gienow and Grant Gulick.

Robbie Lepine was chosen the MVP in the men’s championship game Sunday and was presented with the Jim Peplinski Trophy by Mr. Shulist.

R obbie Lepine takes the Heritage Cup for a skate around the ice following the Black Eagles thrilling 3-2 overtime win over the Griffins

German Black Eagles’ Captain Lucas Gonu is presented with the Heritage Cup by Hockey Commissioner David Shulist.

Opeongo Heritage Cup tournament

by Gerald Tracey

Robyn Summers, Captain of the German Black Eagles, accepts the championship trophy from Heritage Cup Commissioner David Shulist.

Ava Zadow was chosen Most Valuable Player in the championship game between the German Black Eagles and the Kashubian Griffins She scored a goal and earned an assist in the championship game.

Front row, from the left: Bridget Zadow, Ava Zadow, Madison Samms, Robyn Summers, Kaylie Welk and Layne Jessup; Middle row: Lily Zadow, Ruby Selle, Maggie Hartwig, Katelyn Kuehl, Maddy Gienow, Mackenzie Summers, Hannah Summers, Kaylie Kuehl, Sam Tomasini, Taliya Hildebrandt and Courtney Pilgrim; Back row, left to right: Jeff Kuehl, Chummy Gienow, Buck Kuehl and Michelle Jessup.

The champion Women’s German Black Eagles team

Photos

Members of the Irish Shamrocks Over 30 team: front row, from the left, James Murray, Jessie Lepine, Kyle Foy, Eric Mayhew and Dane O’Reilly; back row: Andy Murray and Don O’Reilly, assistant coaches; Sean O’Reilly, Tim Ronholm, Martin Mullin, Brian Mullin, Drew Murray, Steve Rumleskie, Kelvin Murray, Bryson Kitts, Ryan Donnelly, Will Hourigan, Tim Lemoyre and Neil Mullin, coach.

Ava Zadow of the German Black Eagles Women’s team gets ready to fire a shot on net in their 4-0 victory over the Kashubian Griffins Sunday afternoon.

Kaylie Welk of the German Black Eagles closes in on Griffins’ goalie Kirstyn Olsheskie to score the fourth and final goal for her team in its 4-0 championship game victory Sunday.

Robbie Lepine scrambles to get control of the puck in front of the Griffins net with Jackson Norlock keeping a close eye on his next move. Richard Barr is in net for the Griffins. Behind the net is Lucas Gonu.

Robbie Lepine of the German Black Eagles makes a rush down the ice Bradley Borutskie of the Kashubian Griffins giving chase in the exciting overtime final won the Black Eagles.

Heritage Cup opening salutes Carl Lacombe and Gino Odjick

By Barry Conway Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Barry’s Bay -- At the grand opening ceremonies of the Opeongo Heritage Cup tournament Friday night, a jam-packed Paul J. Yakabuski Community Centre witnessed two very special tributes paid to one local hockey legend and one NHL legend from the Ottawa Valley.

Carl Lacombe of Killaloe, the former head of hockey operations for the Opeongo Heritage Cup tournament over the past 17 years who died this past October, was emotionally honoured. Gina Odjick who died this past January was also given a rousing drumming circle salute at centre ice by the Algonquin First Nation of Pikwakanagan.

Odjick, a Kitigan Zibi Algonquin saying, born in Maniwaki, played 12 seasons with Vancouver Canucks, New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens and wore Number 29, a bitter-sweet reminder of his federal Indian reg-

istration number that was once assigned to his father after being sent to a residential school in northern Ontario.

“We are back,” announced Opeongo Heritage Cup commissioner David Shulist to the cheering capacity crowd. Mr. Shulist was speaking as the tournament’s master of ceremonies for the first time in three years. Previously, the tournament had been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Shulist immediately began talking about his close friend and tournament right-hand man, Carl Lacombe, who he acknowledged, sadly, “We miss him dearly.”

Mr. Lacombe had managed the hockey operations for the tournament since its inception in 2006.

Mr. Shulist said he was known far and wide in local hockey circles as both the ‘enforcer,’ as well as ‘the doctor.’

“Any kind of illness or pain that was here,” said Mr. Shulist, refer-

ring to past tournaments at the Paul J. Yakabuski arena, “he would fix it up.”

Mr. Lacombe’s immediate family was on hand, including his widow, Geraldine, daughter Colleen, and sons Corrie and Curtis, along with two grandsons, Cutler and Seamus. Colleen spoke for the family and thanked everyone for turning out, saying that, in this particular arena, she felt very much at home.

“This is where I grew up,” she said enthusiastically. “My older brother, Corrie, my little bigger brother, Curtis; this is where we grew up; we were rink rats. My dad and my mom took us everywhere, playing hockey.”

She acknowledged many of the people in the crowd that she first met during those childhood hockey games and she thanked everyone “for honouring my father.”

After she spoke, a large blue and white banner with Carl Lacombe’s name was raised over the ice surface as a permanent memorial.

Why

the Opeongo

By Barry Conway

Reporter

Local Journalism Initiative

Barry’s Bay -- The Opeongo Heritage Cup tournament was a roaring success this past weekend, after an enforced hiatus of three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s not surprising it rebounded so well, with the Paul J. Yakabuski Community Centre once again jam-packed to its beams. For the area’s premier hockey tournament is not really about hockey.

The whole thing is based on an inspirational, if once-precarious, idea that the tournament’s founder and current Commissioner, David Shulist, had back in 1997. It would take him nine years to bring that giddy idea to fruition, but now after 15 very successful Cup tournaments, Mr. Shulist may want to rest on his laurels, understanding the wide spread appeal of his original inspiration has not really to do with hockey.

“It started with my passion for heritage and, of course, sports,” said the long-time Wilno resident and former defenceman who played in a golden by-gone era when his beloved MVDHS Wolves hockey team could pack 1,500 crazed fans inside

One of the hockey players Mr. Lacombe had once coached in Killaloe and Golden Lake, Barry Sarazin, then presented the Lacombe family with a traditional eagle feather. Mr. Sarazin went on to lead his Algonquin drumming circle in salute to Wayne “ Gino ” Odjick beneath a

similar banner as the one just raised to Carl Lacombe. It was dedicated to Mr. Sarazin’s brother, Kevin Sarazin, who earned much respect as an original member of the Algonquin Thunderbirds who began playing in the tournament in 2007. The drumming circle included Merv and

and

the son of the former MPP the arena is named after, then belted out an inspirational rendition of O Canada and without any further adieu, happily stated ‘let the games begin.’

Heritage Cup is not really just about hockey

a natural ice arena known locally as the Old Grey Lady. “The seed was planted in 1997, when I discovered my Kashubian roots and ancestry.”

A year later in 1998, Mr. Shulist found himself heavily involved with the creation of the Wilno Heritage Park and Museum, which, in turn, quickly became the premier location in Canada to promote local Kashubian culture from the surrounding Wilno area. But at the same time as he was working on that Wilno project, there were other, similar heritage groups in Combermere, Killaloe and Barry’s Bay that were also rediscovering their Irish, German and other ethnocentric roots. Yet, all were struggling with raising funds to realize their organizational aspirations.

“Everybody was so busy that we didn’t have time for fundraisers,” he said.

Suddenly, in 2005 a light bulb went on.

“I had an idea,” he remembers with a broad grin. “Something I was thinking about for a long time -- a hockey tournament that would promote our local heritage.”

Mr. Shulist said he remembers thinking it was “a perfect fit -- my

two passions, heritage and sports, coming together.”

So, he asked those four heritage groups in Killaloe, Wilno, Combermere and Barry’s Bay, if they would be interested in organizing a heritage hockey tournament to raise funds for their organizations where all proceeds would go to their local heritage projects.

“They were all on board,” said Mr. Shulist, again smiling broadly and noting that each of the four volunteer groups took on a specific tournament task; one group ran front-door admissions, another looked after setting up game-day raffles, a third ran a cash bar and sold cultural foods, and a fourth held a dance on the tournament weekend.

His job as founding commissioner was to register players and organize heritage teams that would promise to show up on the tournament ice, as well as agree to play by a new set of rules that he was expected not only to draft but enforce. On top of all that, he was to take care of promoting the event.

One of the first tournament team rules Mr. Shulist established lead to the naming of the Cup.

“I selected the name Opeongo,

because the players chosen to play on each team had to be descendents of the first pioneers who came up the Opeongo Line in the 1800s,” he recalled.

He also created a tournament slogan to reflect his passion for heritage: ‘Proud of our heritage and proud of our cultural roots .’ And because his idea used hockey to promote heritage, he added, ‘Hockey is our vehicle and diversity is our fuel.’ Finally, it all came together in 2006 with the first Opeongo Heritage Cup, a round-robin tournament with three men’s teams participating -- the German Black Eagles , the Irish Shamrocks and the Kashubian Griffins . Within a year, however, they were joined by the Algonquin Thunderbirds and a highly-competitive and rambunctious women’s division. In no time at all, as more and more local descendants of the Opeongo Line wanted to play, the tournament added more and more age-group divisions. Suddenly, there was a different hockey game every hour, all weekend long.

The rest, they say is history. But along the way, many things had to happen, leading to the success of this past weekend. For instance, one hockey player had to be ejected with a lifetime ban for violence with intent to cause bodily harm while on the ice.

And for most of it, Dan Conway, a local sports writer and general manager of the Irish Shamrocks for all 14 tournaments until this past weekend, was there. And not without personal

The most poignant moment came, however, when a Kashubian player, Mark Yakabuski, skated over to him during one of his games and simply made a gesture of genuine condolence that Mr. Conway will never forget.

He knows it’s not really about hockey. The Opeongo Heritage Cup is really about family. So, after his father’s passing, Mr. Conway started to take notice of the 40 to 50 calls that came to him between Christmas and the end of January each year, all wanting to know what weekend the Heritage Cup was going to be played.

triumph as well as tragedy.

Proudly, he will tell you his Irish team won the Cup seven times. But one of those wins was about much more than hockey.

On one particularly memorable Friday night, as the tournament again opened for business as it did this past Friday night, his father, Omer, died. Despite all the trauma that it would enthral, his family told him he really needed to get to the arena. When he did, his team dedicated their tournament effort to Omer. They won every game they played, as well as the cup itself.

“None of them were players!” he said. They were all fans who would drive hundreds of miles every spring for a local Easter family gathering, but now, they were starting to “come home for the Heritage Cup -- instead of Easter -- because they know they are going to see everybody.” Or as Mr. Shulist says with a knowing smile, the Opeongo Heritage Cup has become a homecoming weekend for the area. Maybe it started out its precarious life as something akin to a shaky marriage between rambunctious hockey and heart-warming heritage; now, it’s something larger, something far more important than a weekend of just hockey sticks and rubber pucks. It’s a specific time in a peculiar place for extended, globe-trotting families to come home, if only once a year, to appreciate and grow their rich, ancestorial roots.

David “ Crocket ” Sarazin, Denise Dupont

a Mr. Pierce. Local MPP John Yakabuski,

Jerome Shulist, left, of Killaloe extends his sympathy to Dan Conway on the passing of his father, Omer during the 2014 Opeongo Heritage Cup Hockey Tournament.

Tony Yandernoll, left, talks with Hockey Commissioner David Shulist at the 2015 Heritage Cup Tournament which is as much a homecoming weekend as it is a sporting event.

David Shulist first conceived the idea of a hockey tournament in 1997 but it wasn’t until nine years later the Heritage Cup started.

Members of the Algonquin community did a drumming ceremony at centre ice during the opening ceremonies Friday night in honour of former NHL player Gina Odjick.

The family of the late Carl Lacombe watch as his sweater is raised in the Paul J. Yakabuski Community Centre Friday night. From the left are his wife, Geraldine, son Curtis, daughter, Colleen, two grandsons, Seamus and Culter, cousin Melissa Craftchick and son, Corrie.

OHTO reps discuss how to support tourist operators in 2023

By Terry Fleurie Staff Writer

Eganville – Although it’s only March, tourism operators across the Valley and beyond are preparing for the 2023 season and last week in Eganville new strategies were being discussed to assist operators this summer. Members of the board of directors of the Ontario’s Highland Tourism Organization (OHTO) met last Wednesday at the Bonnechere Museum to evaluate past practices and discuss new strategies to support their members, which in turn, will grow their respective businesses.

Nicole Whiting, executive director of OHTO, said the meeting in Eganville was one of their regular bi-monthly meetings where she and the board get together to discuss a variety of topics. “They range from our policy, to what is happening on the ground with the tourism industry, to our business plan, and other issues,” she explained. “So it’s just a really good opportunity for us to meet face-to-face and talk about tourism.”

She said the OHTO’s catchment area is very large, extending from Haliburton County, down through the Ottawa Valley to Lanark, Hastings, Frontenac, and Lennox and Addington. The locations of the meetings are rotated between the regions every second month.

“We try to get out to each community so we’re able to experience the community itself, as well as give everyone the opportunity to be in the community that is hosting,” she said.

Wednesday marked the first time she was in town for a board meeting; however she was here in 2022 when Tourism minister Lisa McLeod was here for a day.

Ms. Whiting said board member, Chris Hinsperger, owner of the Bonnechere Caves, was an incredible ambassador for tourism and for the community.

“We’re very privileged to have him on the board and from my side and the operational side, it’s so great to have him as one of our anchor attractions in the area. He’s a legend.”

Meghan James, chair of the OHTO board, said the organization represents

almost 700 members across the region.

The general manager of the Summer Inn in Calabogie, she said they were discussing stakeholder engagement, ongoing board education, outreach programs where the board can work in support of its members, and how board members can help facilitate that.

“We talk about future meetings like our AGM, our yearly board retreats, policy, business plans, a lot of general stuff,” she added. “It really focuses on how the board can support its members and each other as we grow tourism in our region.”

The meeting included board members from Beachburg, Sharbot Lake and a couple from Haliburton, as well as Mr. Hinsperger. After a few very tough years due to COVID, Ms. James was unsure if they would ever see a return to “normal.”

“I think there’s a new normal and I think that’s going to be even better than it was,” she remarked. “I’ve seen personally, just a really strong connection and partnerships and relationships between operators who want to support each other.

“So collaboration has really been a huge part to come out of this pandemic, and I think that’s going to be something that’s ongoing,” she added. “We’re going to find ways to help and support each other more and more, which will

result in everybody growing. Not just Eganville and the Valley, but Ontario Highlands as a whole as well.”

Ms. Whiting said she was humbled and amazed by the tenacity, innovation and creativity of the tourism operators throughout the pandemic.

“And also their determination,” she added. “There’s a real coming together in wanting to get through this.

“We were fortunate that we were able to provide funding for organizations that did have those ideas that needed to make infrastructure improvements or adapt their offering in a way that would support the new measures, and also prepare for growth once the pandemic was over,” she said. “We couldn’t have done that without the ideas that came out of the industry itself, so it was a wonderful way to work with them.”

Ms. Whiting said they see a great excitement as people are finally starting to get out and do things again, adding that even during the pandemic, because the region is so rural and tied to the outdoors, there was a lot more awareness created about those opportunities in the region.

“What we’re finding, from the position of operators, is those people are coming back, even though the pandemic is over, and they can go back to their old ways of doing things. They still were amazed by this region and are

WWR adopts revised procedural by-law despite some misgivings

By Marie Zettler Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Cobden -- Whitewater Region adopted a revised procedural by-law at its March 15 meeting, despite concerns expressed by some council members.

One of the changes amends the twice-monthly regular meeting schedule to alternating afternoon and evening meetings, with the meeting on the first Wednesday of the month beginning at 1 p.m. and running until 4 p.m. at the latest, and the meeting on the third Wednesday of the month beginning at 4:45 p.m. and adjourning at 7:45 p.m. If unfinished business remains at the designated adjournment time, a two-thirds majority vote of council can extend it by another 30 minutes. If any unfinished business remains, council will automatically reconvene the following Wednesday at 1 p.m.

Clerk Carmen Miller, in highlighting the changes, said the revised schedule will provide better work-life balance for staff.

Councillor Chris Olmstead questioned the need for names and addresses of persons addressing council either by correspondence or at a public meeting to be part of the public record.

“There are subjects that get hot, and I would like the ability to redact – not names but addresses -- from the public record,” said Coun. Olmstead.

Ms. Miller said that staff is required to get names and addresses when members of the public contact the municipality, and if someone subsequently requests that information, it’s required that it be given to them.

CAO Ivan Burton noted most matters on which members of the public address council are Planning Act matters.

“There definitely has to be a name to give them a right to appeal decisions of council,” he said. “What we can do is, rather than announcing their address, is to only get their name and collect the address information separately,”

he said. He added staff will review the relevant legislation and will protect the privacy of the persons involved as much as is allowed.

In commenting later, he said it is mandatory for speakers to confirm their names and addresses, but that staff will ensure that confidentially is maintained by providing an alternative form for obtaining this information.

The by-law includes the framework for an agenda for a regular council meeting, and Coun. Connie Tabbert noted that the opening prayer is no longer there.

“So are we doing the land acknowledgement but no prayer?” she asked.

“At this point it’s out,” said Mayor Neil Nicholson. “We are including the Canadian Anthem.”

“So are we singing instead of praying?” she asked. “I disagree with taking the prayer out.”

Mayor Nicholson said the music for the anthem would be heard with still photos shown on the screen.

Deputy-Mayor Cathy Regier pointed out the by-law would have to be passed that night in order for the April 5 meeting to begin at 1 p.m. as prescribed for the first meeting of every month.

The prayer which has been used for some time says “Almighty God, we give thanks for the great blessings which have been bestowed on Canada and its citizens, including the gifts of freedom, opportunity, and peace that we enjoy. Guide us in our deliberations as township councillors, and strengthen us in our awareness of our duties and responsibilities. Grant us wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to preserve the blessing of this country for the benefit of all and to make good laws and wise decisions. Amen.”

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2015 that municipal meetings cannot open with prayer.

The by-law was passed as presented, with Coun. Tabbert casting the only “no” vote.

coming back to experience it again.”

Mr. Hinsperger said meetings like the one Wednesday are a lot of fun for the people in the industry and the businesses they are in.

“Especially coming out of what we have been in the last two years.

People are excited to get back to doing their jobs and doing what we do well, and that is promoting our area for the people who come to visit us.”

He said tourism operators understand if they improve their area for their visitors, they are also improving their own lifestyles.

One conversation involved the OHTO’s outreach and how they take their organization into the communi-

ties so they know more about it.

“And when people know more about us, they have more knowledge of resources that are available to small businesses in tourism,” he stated. “And not just tourism; to better improve their visitation and their cash flow. We are businesses and the bottom line is we want to make money, but at the same time we realize that we are enhancing the lives of our visitors and our residents.”

He has been involved with the OHTO since its inception in 2010 and is serving his second term as a board member.

“I’ve been advantaged as the Bonnechere Caves in the recreational geology initiative. I’ve been advan-

taged by the Ride the Highlands program which promotes motorcycles, and those folks travel lightly, but heavily with their wallets.”

He has also seen benefits from the OHTO’s cycling initiatives, noting they all bring people into the area to visit and they leave their money behind. He stressed when a business improves the experience for visitors, it also improves it for the people who reside there regularly.

Mr. Hinsperger said OHTO has seen success from looking at what other tourism organizations do and incorporating common threads that have worked in other areas.

“The one thing that connected us, from Lanark to Haliburton to Renfrew County was our geology,” he explained. “I don’t want to say geology is big business, but it’s a whole bunch of small businesses to grow, and a lot of our tourism is about education and having fun.

“And geology was identified as something we can promote, whether it be mineral collecting at the Beryl Pit or the Bonnechere Caves, or the fossil hunts, or nature walks,” he added. The visit included a presentation on the museum and the partnership his business has with that entity, lunch at the Rio where the visitors learned how the new rooftop patio has been a huge success, and a visit to Fifth Chute Coffee for beverages and snacks.

“Their comments of the day were how friendly people were,” Mr. Hinsperger said.

TOWNSHIP OF BONNECHERE VALLEY

NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING

That portion of unopened shore road allowance along Golden Lake, fronting Part Lot 31, Concession 12 in the Geographic township of South Algona. Municipally known as 42 Hawkins Drive. Property is owned by Stephen Wood & Allison Wood. TAKE NOTICE THAT the Council of the Corporation of the

This meeting will be held in person. For those wanting to just watch the meeting it is live streamed on the Township of Bonnechere Valley's Youtube Channel. Please email your concerns to danab@eganville.com. The lands affected are more particularly described as follows: AND FURTHER TAKE NOTICE that the Council of the Corporation of the Township of Bonnechere Valley at the above described meeting shall hear any person or by his/her counsel, solicitor or agent, any person who claims that their land will be prejudicially affected by the By-Laws and who applied to be heard. Written comments should be received in this office by April 19, 2023.

DATED at the Township of Bonnechere Valley this 29th day of March, 2023.

(Municipal

Section

The Council of the Township of Horton will present its draft 2023 municipal budget for public input at a Public Meeting to be held in the Municipal Council Chambers commencing at 4:00 p.m. on April 18, 2023. The finalized budget will be presented to Council at the same Council Meeting for adoption.

A copy of the proposed budget is available for pickup at the Municipal Office or on our website www.hortontownship.ca. Inquiries should be directed to the Treasurer, Nathalie Moore at treasurer@hortontownship.ca or 613-432-6271. Anyone wishing to make a presentation at the Public Meeting is to contact the CAO/Clerk for an appointment prior to 12:00 noon April 14, 2023.

Hope Dillabough, CAO/Clerk cao@hortontownship.ca

Nathalie Moore, Treasurer treasurer@hortontownship.ca

Dated at the Township of Horton this 22nd day of March, 2023

The board of the OHTO met at the Bonnechere Museum in Eganville last week to discuss how to improve its outreach among its members.

The members are clockwise from left, Karen Warner, Harcourt; Cindy Jamieson, Beachburg; Meghan James, chair of board, Calabogie; Chris Hinsperger, host, Eganville; Tracie Bertrand, Haliburton; Greg Rodgers, Sharbot Lake; and Nicole Whiting, executive director, Beachburg.

Former GG promotes latest book during visit to Pembroke

By Connie Tabbert

Reporter

Local Initiative Journalism

Pembroke -- Sitting comfortably in a green chair, a former GovernorGeneral of Canada spoke to a large audience about volunteer life while at the same time promoting his most recent book, Empathy, Turning compassion into action

“It’s nice to be back in the Ottawa Valley,” said David Johnston, who was Canada’s 28th Governor-General for seven years, 2010-2017. He said his father co-owned a hardware store in Arnprior when he was very young. As a matter of fact, Mr. Johnston was a batboy for the Arnprior Seniors Baseball team, of which his father’s business was a sponsor.

Mr. Johnston was the guest speaker at a fireside chat at Algonquin College in Pembroke recently with host Jamie Bramburger. The event was packed with people interested in hearing what he had to say.

An author of many books, Mr. Johnston said his book can help establish the momentum of a caring country. His previous book was titled Trust, Twenty Ways to Build a Better Country It’s important there be trust in our public institutions, he said. But how do you develop that trust? It starts with trusting your family, your community, your businesses, etc., he noted.

“It takes a village to develop character,” Mr. Johnston said, recalling his teenage years.

His family moved to Sault Ste. Marie from Arnprior when he was eight years old. Four years later he began working at a local garage and established friendships with the 15 mechanics who worked there. Back then, mechanics were paid by piecework, so he learned that by helping them, they could make more money. He gained his entrepreneurial skill while working at this garage for the next six years.

“The business of business is trust,” Mr. Johnston said. “I learned that in the garage. Trust equals cost and time.”

Paraphrasing George P. Schultz, a former US Secretary of State, he said, if there is trust in the room, everything goes well. When trust is not in the room, good things did not happen.

Mr. Bramburger noted that volunteering is important to Mr. Johnston, but the younger generation don’t seem to be following in the footsteps of volunteerism.

“Do you worry about that?” he asked.

“Sure,” Mr. Johnston replied.

As he travels the country, he inquires about the volunteers and the various associations within a

in-Chief.

“Canada’s place in the world, and not to sound arrogant, is that we are known as understanding people. We love to help people.”

When questioned about learning from other countries, he said, “We should be learning all the time.”

Learning gives people the opportunity to find their curiosity, to be tolerant of other people, to make better judgements and “most important, become more empathetic.”

Mr. Johnston also spoke about Truth and Reconciliation and how it helped him develop The Rideau Hall Foundation, which is a project partnered with Mastercard Foundation to increase the numbers of First Nations, Inuit and Metis teachers by 10,000 and to promote the systemic changes necessary to lead to more sustainable Indigenous teacher employment opportunities in all areas of the country.

The hope is to help young Indigenous people get their high school diploma and then get into college and university, he added.

Mr. Bramburger noted that in Empathy, Mr. Johnston wrote about Samuel de Champlain.

Upon arrival, he learned the Indigenous language and it was the First Nations who provided him with fresh meat and pine needle tea. While there were differences between the First Nations and Europeans who were settling in Canada, it was Samuel de Champlain who was the peacemaker.

“He always respected the different cultures,” he said. “He wanted to ensure the settlements were built in harmony.”

Mr. Johnston also spoke about the Internet, saying it does not teach children what they need to learn.

“You learn respect in team sports,” he said. “You don’t learn that in any online games.”

When questioned by Mr. Bramburger as to how young people can be engaged in volunteering, Mr. Johnston said a community can only develop itself with volunteers.

“Young people are computer literate,” he said. “We need to engage them on that level.

“We need to encourage young people to volunteer and that’s only by providing the opportunities for volunteers.

community.

“That’s the way I measure the health of a community,” he said. “If the number of volunteers is higher than the per capita, by and large that’s a healthy community.”

He then spoke about the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers, which was created in 2016 to replace the Caring Canadian Awards conceived by then-Governor General Romeo Leblanc, 1995-1999. Unfortunately, it fell under the knife and was a budget cut. In 2016, Mr. Johnston reinstated it with the new name.

The medal honours the dedication and commitment of volunteers, he explained.

He would like to see 10,000 of these medals presented each year, considering there are 40,000 to 50,000 communities across the country that have been operating various community events, such as meals on wheels.

Mr. Johnston explained that one volunteer is just a pebble in the pond, but as it gathers momentum, there is a rippling effect.

Mr. Bramburger said Canada is known as a nation of helpers. What role has Canada played in helping other countries, he questioned.

While Mr. Johnston has never served in uniform, he said, “It was an honour to be the Commander-

Mr. Johnston said Samuel de Champlain was sent on his crossocean journey to find China and send furs and fish back to France.

“Young people learn best from one another,” he noted. Following questions from the audience, Mr. Johnston took time to autograph books.

David Johnston, Governor General of Canada from 2010 to 2017, recently spoke about many subjects during a fireside chat at Algonquin College, including volunteerism and his most recent book, Empathy, turning compassion into action

Former Governor General David Johnston, left, was the guest speaker at a fireside chat at Algonquin College in Pembroke. Jamie Bramburger, right, was the host of the chat and Fred Blackstein, centre, was the emcee. Mr. Blackstein showed off a cover of Reader’s Digest with Mr. Johnston on the front.

Jamie Bramburger was the host of a fireside chat. Following the conversation with Mr. Johnston, Mr. Bramburger holds a copy of the book, advising it was for sale in the back of the room and that Mr. Johnston would be signing copies.

Tree will be planted to honour a former Cobden reeve

By Marie Zettler Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Cobden -- Whitewater Region will be planting a ceremonial tree to honour the memory of Dave Stewart, reeve of the former Village of Cobden, which is now part of Whitewater Region from 1982 to 2000.

Mr. Stewart, a locally and internationally known forester and strong supporter of the Cobden and area community, died earlier this year. The township was approached by Norm Ottoway to ask that Mr. Stewart be commemorated in this way.

Mr. Ottoway, who was present via video link, said the original intent was only a small event for the family. “Then we thought that, in the light of his lifelong career as a forester, his 18 years as reeve and all the various committees he sat on, the municipality might want to do something bigger, such as put up a plaque or something,” he said. “We thought this would be more appropriate than flowers. He was a tree hugger all his life.”

Council approved the request. Public notice of the intent to proceed will be advertised on the township’s website for 10 days and if there are no objections, municipal staff, with the support of Mr. Ottoway and his family, will organize a ceremony in the spring.

The tree will be planted in Veteran’s Memorial Park in Cobden in conjunction with a memorial service for Mr. Stewart.

Thank You!

In Memoriam

In Loving Memory of our Son & Brother

May 5, 1998 - March 29, 2022 Jonathan Bimm

We thought of you today

But that is nothing new

We thought about you yesterday

And days before that too

We think of you in silence

We often speak your name

All we have are memories and

Your picture in a frame

Your memory is a keepsake

From which we'll never part

God has you in his arms

We have you in our hearts

You are forever with us in spirit Until we meet again

You are forever with us in spirit Until we meet again.

In Loving Memory

Coules

Loving you always, Mom (Heather) Russ and Dakota Verch are forever with us in spirit Until we meet again.

always,

Loving you always Mom (Heather), Russ and Dakota

and

Dearly missed and loved by June, Nicole, Alfie and families

Loving you always, Mom (Heather) Russ and Dakota Verch

Thank You

The family of the late Catherine Behan (Fleurie) wishes to sincerely thank all those who brought or prepared food and sent flowers, as well as all who provided words of comfort and support at this difficult time.

Very special thanks to the staff of the Palliative Care Unit at Renfrew Victoria Hospital, the Zohr Family Funeral Home in Eganville, Dante’s Delicatessen in Cobden, and O’Grady’s Flowers and Gifts in Eganville. Heartfelt thanks to Father Brennan, Father Lacey, Pastor Wall, and Father Holly for their spiritual guidance; and to the St. James the Less parish staff, choir, and kitchen workers.

Also greatly appreciated are all who donated to the Renfrew Victoria Hospital Foundation and the Canadian Cancer Society in Catherine’s memory.

Bill & Family

Death Notice

Donna Massingberd (Wolfe)

February 2, 1946 - March 25, 2023

Daughter to Beatrice and Daniel Wolfe. Sister to Lionel (Irene). A graduate of EDHS and St. Patrick's College.

She spent years as a psychotherapist with Dr. Robert Knight of Carleton University as well as the Renfrew Board of Education. She travelled extensively in Europe before marrying John Massingberd (deceased) in 1981. They bought a travel agency (Goligers) in Nepean, which they ran for ten years.

She was a favourite aunt to Scott (Monika) and Lindsay (Carey). She loved dogs, the blues, Tina Turner and PBS. In December 2022 she was diagnosed with cancer. When it became inoperable, she spent the last two months of life in the care of her two best friends and guardian angels, Al and Brenda Desrochers, in Kanata. Cremation has taken place.

Death Notice Death Notice

Charles Joseph Musclow

June 15 1938 - December 13, 2022

Carol Anne Musclow (nee Bannister) November 23, 1940 - March 21, 2023

A Memorial Service for the late Charles Carol Anne Musclow will be held on Saturday, April 1, 2023 at 11 am at Melville United Church, 99 Victoria Street, Eganville; followed by a Celebration of Life luncheon at the Eganville Legion, 57 Veterans Way, Eganville.

Charlie and Carols' greatest joy was spending time with family and friends. They travelled across Canada and had many European trips abroad with friends. Many good times were shared at the family “camp” with music, maple syrup making and the annual Musclow hunt.

As an expression of sympathy, donations to Melville United Church would be greatly appreciated. Tributes, condolences and donations may be made online at www.zohrfuneralhome.com

Death Notice

David Walter Weltz

David passed away at St. Peter's Hospital, Hamilton, on March 20, 2023, in his 76th year.

Beloved husband of Jo-An (nee Glen) for more than 50 years. Strong mentor and loving father to Andrew (Danielle). Cherished grandfather of Aidan, Blake and Connor. Dear brother of Anne Stephens (Bruce) and brother-in-law of Susan Watson (Dave), Thomas Glen (Maria) and Richard Glen (Geraldine).

Dave was born and raised in Willowdale where he attended Earl Haig Secondary School. Dave graduated from the University of Toronto Civil Engineering in 1972. He went on to spend 40 years working in the heavy construction industry for CA Pitts, Armbro Construction and Graham Brothers Construction. Dave mentored many of the current industry leaders while working on all 400 Series Highways as well as many major dam, lock and airport projects across Canada.

Together with the help of the Walters family, Dave and Jo-An designed and built their dream log cabin nestled amongst the pine and maple trees of the Ottawa Valley. In retirement Dave was happiest when cutting firewood, baiting a hook for grandchildren or hunting with friends. Dave will be remembered as a direct communicator, powerful competitor, intensely loyal friend and a practical joker who could uncover humour in almost any situation.

Cremation has taken place. Visitation at STONEHOUSE-WHITCOMB FUNERAL HOME, 11 Mountain Street, GRIMSBY (905-945-2755) on Thursday, March 30, 2023 from 4pm to 8pm. A service of remembrance will take place at St. Andrew's Anglican Church, 156 Main Street West, Grimsby, on Friday, March 31, 2023, at 11am.

In lieu of flowers, if desired, memorial contributions to the Salvation Army or the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters would be sincerely appreciated by the family. www.smithsfh.com

Verch you

Mom Russ

Dakota Verch

Seniors’ working group looking at new model for continuing its work

By Marie Zettler

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Cobden -- Whitewater Region

Seniors Home Support & Active

Living is looking at proposing a new model for its continuing work in the municipality.

Two volunteers from the organization’s Working Group, Bonny Johnson and Moira D’Aoust, presented an update on the committee’s work to Whitewater council at its March 15 meeting.

“We’re here to give you a summary of where we’ve been and where we want to go,” Ms. Johnson said. “We have morphed from our original agefriendly plan and have narrowed it down to looking at the pilot with our working group.”

Ms. Johnson said the overall priority for ongoing work will follow the “nothing about us without us” philosophy.

“This is basically about engaging seniors in accessing services and programming, and planning them with input from everyone,” she said.

She added the group will be looking at building capacity in the community for better access to services.

“When people have more access, there is more growth,” she said.

High on the priority list will be food security, she added, and said that when there were “glitches” in staffing, the group was compelled to look at doing more with less while identifying what they couldn’t give up. Co-presenter Moira D’Aoust said one significant item that emerged during the pandemic was in-person programming.

“It focused on supporting people coming out of their homes getting together, recognizing that as seniors we are lifelong learners, ready to take in new information to enhance our quality of life,” she said.

From April of 2022 to March of 2023, 64 programs were presented with 705 participants in Cobden, Beachburg, Westmeath and Haley Station covering various topics.

“We utilized participant feedback for programming,” Ms. D’Aoust said.

She added that programs had a secondary benefit of connecting previously isolated seniors to others, thereby encouraging them to participate in other events.

Current core partners are Renfrew and Area Home Support, Carefor, Eganville and District Seniors and ConnectWell Community Health. There are also a number of associate partners.

“Social prescribing,” or referring a senior to social services as opposed to prescribing a medication, is a component of the new model.

“If a senior comes in and needs help, we have to be well networked so

the senior can have their needs met,” said Ms. Johnson.

There are 22 volunteers in six communities engaged in providing services including meal delivery and ordering, program setup, program development and networking.

Ms. Johnson said a major challenge has been the loss of the program’s Beachburg storefront which was the hub for programming and food distribution.

“We’re still grieving that loss,” she said.

Another challenge was the loss of the program’s coordinator in January of this year. A new coordinator, Margaret Morin, has been hired and began her duties on March 6.

“There is no sustainable funding yet,” she said. “We still depend on grants and writing grant applications and figuring how to scrape through. But the mayor and council are advocating for us.”

The group is challenged further by the increase in costs for meals and transportation.

“Meals used to be $5 and are going up to $8 in April, and there are no subsidies from the province,” Ms. Johnson noted.

Over 900 frozen meals have been distributed. Additionally, 64 curbside/community meals, secured from a caterer in cooperation with Eganville and District Seniors and made available for pickup by residents, have been supplied since October of 2022.

The group will be convening a planning workshop in April to establish a new governance model which will include developing an updated Mission and Vision statement, and Terms of Reference. It is hoped that participants will include a council representative, municipal staff, volunteers, previous task force members and representation from working partners.

Councillor Chris Olmstead asked about barriers to frozen food access mentioned in the presentation.

Ms. Johnson said the freezers storing the meals in the storefront location in Beachburg had been readily accessible for people to drop in and pick them up. While the search for a new location in Beachburg is continuing since the Beachburg location became unavailable, the freezer is housed in the basement of the municipal building in Cobden.

“It’s still accessible, but not as accessible as it was in Beachburg,” she said. “For one thing there isn’t somebody on site all time. We’ve been picking up meals when ordered and delivering them to people who are not sure what’s going on . We haven’t updated our website because we were not sure what we would

be doing or what space we would have. The freezer is now here in the basement, and is, I think, taking up space for the Cobden seniors for their activities.”

Councillor Joe Trimm explained that, with the majority of people purchasing frozen meals in Beachburg and Westmeath, having the freezer located in Cobden is not very convenient.

Mayor Neil Nicholson said the recently hired staff person will enable the group to form a plan going forward.

Coun. Olmstead asked the representatives of the seniors’ group about their wishes.

“If you had one wish to be granted, what would it be?” he asked.

“Sustainable funding,” said Ms. D’Aoust.

“And a storefront location,” added Ms. Johnson.

Mayor Nicholson recognized the two presenters for their ongoing work.

“Since we lost the last employee and until we hired the new one, Bonny and Moira took it all on,” he said. “The programs and running the curbside meals did not stop, only because these two picked (the job) up. I would like to publicly acknowledge their dedication. They are not doing this out of a sense of pride but because they believe in the impact (the meal program) is having locally. That’s how significant it is in the community.”

He added the goal of the planning exercise is to identify what the group needs to go forward.

“The current organization is a working group of four,” he said. “We have realized that that is not sustainable, based on what ministry is telling us. They will report back to council and tell us what they need. This is a very important piece to sustain us while we wait for that sustainable funding. Our (budgetary) commitment from council is $10,000 and the support of council and staff.”

The group met with the CEO of the Pembroke Regional Hospital recently and she offered to link them with the CEO of Carefor.

“We will take her up on that in order that we can get a little more influence on the funding,” he said.

Whitewater CAO Ivan Burton said the staff will be working with the working group and the new coordinator and will present their findings as a staff report to council.

“If permanent funding is ever to be secured, the province would require a governance model similar to what we’re trying to establish, so the work we’re doing now will lend itself well to a situation where permanent funding is available,” he said.

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You Could Win Me

Marjorie Joly, Executive Director of Hospice Renfrew, sits behind the wheel of a 2023 Kia Sportage that will be given away April 15th in Hospice Renfrew’s 15th anniversary Auto Lotto. The SUV is the grand prize in the lottery which also features 14 other prizes. Tickets are $100 each or three for $250 and are available at outlets across Renfrew County including the Leader office and Hospice Renfrew. Only 2100 tickets are available. Proceeds from the lottery will be used to support the ongoing operations at hospice which is only partially funded by the province.

Plants, trees and native flowers

T he Eganville and Area Horticultural Society (EAHS) met on March 20th and thoroughly enjoyed a presentation by Brian Carson on the topic of Trilliums and other unique plants he’s found throughout the Ottawa Valley.

He was the winner of the Ontario Horticultural Association’s 2022 Silver Fir Award, the highest horticultural award for outstanding work in the advancement of horticulture. Members were spell-bound by his beautiful photographs of trilliums, hepatica and gentian, including one very rare trillium species he found near Eganville. We also enjoyed his delightful and touching stories of his aspiration to learn more about these plants.

On April 17 th at 7 p.m. at the Legion, Bob Dobson will share his story about the many benefits he has realized with his ambitious tree planting project. He has planted about 40,000 trees on his property and we can learn how and why he has done that. He is a fifth-generation farmer operating a 200-acre, grass-fed beef farm near Cobden. Members can attend free. It is never too late to buy a membership for $10, but visitors are welcome for only $5 at the door. It is the best bargain in town, and we throw in the coffee, tea and cookies for free.

On Earth Day, Friday, April 21st the Ontario Horticultural Asso-

ciation (OHA) is hosting an Earth Day Celebration by inviting us to listen to two wonderful speakers: Michael McTavish will join us and speak about Jumping Worms, and Catherine McGill will speak about Kitchen Gardens. Access to this celebration is available on the OHA’s website, GardenOntario.ca. The WebEx will open at 6:40 p.m. to the first 1,000 visitors. EAHS members will receive an email with the link. Any other interested parties will find the link on the gardenontario.ca website on that day and time. The EAHS will be holding monthly floral and horticultural shows

(cut flowers, potted plants, fruit and vegetables) during the monthly meetings. The shows are organized by a Director on the Board, Michele Parsons, and are offered for the members’ enjoyment, to provide a creative outlet and to encourage interest in horticulture. Only members are eligible to enter classes, but visitors will enjoy the show as well. As I write this, the “For the Birds” Auction is live, but only until March 28 th . This online auction was a fundraiser for the upcoming OHA Convention on July 21-23 in Kanata at the Brookstreet Hotel. Five Eganville artists generously contributed to this auction by donating their skill, time and imaginations: Christine Peltzer, Beverly Lewis, Val Collins, Michele Parsons and Laura Hinrichsen. They created five beautifully decorated birdhouses, each uniquely designed, and bidding was open to everyone. I am so pleased to tell you that our painted birdhouses are commanding very high bids. Genevieve Townsend has also done a stunning original pyrographic design of Ontario native flowers on a beautiful bird feeder which will be offered at a silent auction at the province-wide convention in July. Thank you so much to these artists for their support and interest in horticulture.

Meanwhile, members are anxiously planning their gardens and waiting for the snow to disappear.

KHR council receives update on Killaloe Pathways Park

By Terry Fleurie Staff Writer

Killaloe – As the finishing touches are being made on the reading and fitness trails at Killaloe Pathways Park (KPP) for a hoped-for May 2023 official opening, planning is underway for the next major project at the municipally-owned Hoch Farm property.

At last Tuesday’s meeting of Killaloe, Hagarty, and Richards (KHR) Township council, KPP co-founder Cathy Lyons provided an update as to how the idea of the park came about, what funding was received, what work has been done to date, and what future plans are for the site.

Ms. Lyons noted while Chris Neff, the community development coordinator, has been providing updates on KPP, she felt council might appreciate an “outside” perspective. She explained 11 individuals/organizations have been involved in the park planning, but she was only speaking on her own behalf that evening.

Her presentation was broken down into four areas – the origin of the park; the funding and corresponding work that has been done; the commitments to date for 2023; and, an asset management perspective on the future development of the historic barn.

She said when the group was formed, they developed a guiding statement from the outset and the goal was everything done there must have a very gentle ecological footprint on the park.

“This is not a park development where you’re going to see all kinds of structures, lots of metal, or anything like that,” she explained. “We’re also focusing on sustainability.”

She said they are committed to using locally-sourced materials where practical and have a similar commitment to using multi-lingual signage.

“Killaloe is exceptionally good at recognizing its traditional settler heritage – its Irish, German and Polish roots. And what we want the park to be able to do is to gently raise awareness about the Indigenous reality that the land was basically their land.

“So, the signing in the park will be in Anishinaabe, English and French.”

The signs will not be “loud” but will be done with respect for the quietness of the setting, she said.

Ms. Lyons explained the origin of the park started with the conversation about developing a reading trail which was being discussed to sustain the goals of the Killaloe Kids Bookfest (KKB), after the pandemic was declared.

“As you know, Phil (her late husband, Phil Godon) had been working with the Friends of the Library and I had been running the Killaloe Kids’ Bookfest. It had been really successful and we had over 18 authors come in and the kids were really excited about it, as were the teachers and the principals.”

However, once the pandemic began, they knew the idea of in-person author visits was no longer possible, but they still wanted to keep the spirit of the bookfest alive. The idea for a permanent reading trail where kids and parents walk on a path through part of a forest and read pages of a book that are displayed was born.

“Beneath the pages of the book, there are suggestions and activities for kids to do different things,” she noted. “It allows them to sort of see the arch of a storyline while being outside in nature.”

Ms. Lyons said one of the positive outcomes of the pandemic was new funding sources were created, so the committee took “aggressive advantage” of the pandemic-driven grant opportunities that were becoming available. A lot of the grants were based on creating some safe place for people to gather, which are more typically outdoors.

The group also committed to recognizing the legacy of Hoch Farm and the stewardship of the Killaloe Heritage and Ecology Society, which ran programs and activities there for many years.

Built From Community Input

Ms. Lyons said every initiative to date at KPP, excluding the reading trail, was based on the input in an initial

Cathy Lyons, spokesperson for Killaloe Pathways Park, provided an update for council on what has happened to date and what the future plans entail.

community survey.

“People really wanted to see infrastructure to support people gathering and places for kids to explore the natural world. They wanted inclusivity and access and opportunities to learn about the natural world.

“They wanted to celebrate art and many of the people that answered the survey really said the park could be a critical economic development asset for the township and needs to be thought about in that context as well,” she continued.

The committee wanted to have broader community consultation in-person, as the original was online and by hard copy, with some respondents saying they didn’t feel as engaged as they had hoped to in the development process. Hence, a broader public consultation, sponsored by the Community Resource Centre (CRC), was actually scheduled for last Wednesday night, March 22.

“Our dream for that is, again with a sustainability focus, we hope to engage the people who come to that consultation and to encourage and excite them to actively become involved in any future work in the park. We are hoping to develop teams of volunteers that will continue to undertake maintenance and other activities in the park so that the footprint remains grounded and supported by the community.”

It is hopeful a Friends of KPP will be developed from the meeting, and as a non-governmental organization to bring together all of the partners external to the township, with the possibility of attracting future funding. It is also hoped the consultation will assist in the development of a strategic plan for the park, which would be linked to KHR’s strategic plan and asset management plan.

The Finances

Ms. Lyons told council to date that over $200,000 in grants have been secured, including the grant the CRC had received for its greenhouse and orchard on the property.

“All of the grant opportunities we put through, we thought about sustainability,” she stressed.

She shared how they had asked for the maximum $65,000 through the Healthy Communities Initiative, who liked the park idea, but due to the demand for funding, the amount would be $30,000.

“So we scaled back that original grant assessment and kept re-submitting it, and wouldn’t you know, the Commonwell Insurance L.E.A.F. program, the Community Revitalization Grant, all ended up picking up pieces we had not been able to get funded originally by that first grant.”

Ms. Lyons said some projects that had to be carried over to 2023 due to a variety of reasons, are fully funded.

She shared how the committee wasn’t sure they would

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

PHYSIOTHERAPIST

Full Time Permanent

get funding for the actual reading stations, so they looked at a possible sponsorship strategy and marketing plan, launching social media and getting people engaged around the park who might become sponsors of a reading or fitness station. She was happy to report the reading stations were tested over the winter months, using submissions from local children who shared their vision of the park for display purposes.

“They dreamed amazing things for what they wanted to see in the park, including disco balls and underground pools.”

She encouraged council to walk the path to see the imaginative ideas and thoughtfulness the kids’ projects contained. She said the stations proved to be fully weatherproof, noting when the park is officially opened, actual books will be installed in the stations.

There will be an accessible washroom in the park, with Ms. Lyons noting it may not be quite as elaborate as one child depicted on their drawing, with hand sanitizers and solar power.

The committee is working with the library and CRC to bring children’s outdoor programming into the park.

“The reading trail is the only permanent reading trail in all of Renfrew County,” she remarked.

She said other trails are typically called “StoryWalks”, which are basically laminated posters with wires that can be pushed into the ground wherever you choose to. She said librarian, Nicole Zummach, has secured some funding for a StoryWalk so there will be a time this summer when that will be added to the reading trail and people can see the benefits of the more permanent stations.

Looking Ahead

With the trails completed, the committee is turning its focus towards a possible rehabilitation of the large barn on the property into some sort of community venue that would perhaps create revenue for the municipality. Ms. Lyons was thrilled to see the township had included the development of KPP in its strategic plan for the future, and she believes the barn, if restored, could become another non-core asset for the township and be recognized as such in the asset management plan.

“But unique to the barn, I would think, is the possibility that it could generate revenue for the township if renovated.”

She said she and Mr. Godon did research last fall on other barn restorations in Ontario, adding she is now a member of the Ontario Barn Restoration Network, which has gotten her involved with other people quite involved in barn restorations elsewhere. She also has been in touch with Just Food Ottawa, a rural urban food and farming initiative, which has fully renovated a barn on their property and are benefitting from its rental income. She added their website seems to indicate they received funding in the neighbourhood of $500,000 for the project and she was hopeful her committee could get the same. She stressed a structural review of the barn must be done to ensure a renovation is viable, noting all the grant opportunities require proof of an engineer’s inspection before the project is viable. Through one of the park volunteers, she has made contact with a firm in Ottawa that does barn restorations, noting an estimate would cost around $10,000.

“I’m not asking you for that tonight, but what I’m saying is I think a $10,000 investment could leverage over half-a-million dollars, if the barn is determined to be able to be renovated.”

She believes the commitment of the previous $200,000 bodes well for further support of the project that will promote health and the well-being in the community.

for all her hard work on the project. Councillor Brian Pecoksie questioned if Ms. Lyons was in fact asking council for the $10,000. She said she was simply letting council know the group could not proceed with any funding applications until a study was completed. “If it turns out that asset is not feasible to be renovated, the sooner we would know that, the better. Then there are outstanding considerations,” she said. “People have been wandering around in the bottom of that barn for years, and I don’t think there’s ever been a guarantee that it is a safe and secure location.”

Coun. Pecoskie said while he is not a banker, it seems smart if you can invest $10,000 and realize $500,000.

“I’m just putting it out there, but you’ve gotten $200,000 without any investment,” Ms. Lyons reminded the group. “So just think what $10,000 could do.

“And it’s all around the barn – if the barn is not able to be renovated, the sooner we put that to bed, the better,” she added. “Then we need to develop the park around other areas, but that barn is absolutely spectacular..” Councillor Ted Browne, who noted the previous council had discussed the restoration of the barn, agreed it needs to be looked at sooner than later.

“Like anything else, the longer it sits, the worse its condition is going to get,” he noted. “Hopefully, we can figure something out.”

“I’d like to applaud you,” added Mayor Dave Mayville.

“It’s a labour of love and your heart’s in it.

“And Chris (Mr. Neff), I’m sure you’re right there on the other side of it,” he added. “It’s amazing what has been done to this point.” Mayor Mayville asked if it was known how old the structure was with Mr. Neff replying it was 115 years old.

“Would that qualify for a heritage (grant)?” the mayor asked.

Ms. Lyons said it might, adding there is not a lot of activity happening out there, but promising to do some investigation into that possibility.

“From what I’ve heard, they’re very willing to help restore almost anything,” the mayor noted.

Reporting to the Client Programs Supervisor, the Registered Physiotherapist is responsible for providing residents assessed as requiring physiotherapy with a rehabilitation plan of care consistent with the Long-Term Care Homes Act and Regulations and within the current evidencebased physiotherapy practices and professional standards. The Physiotherapist will contribute to a comprehensive rehabilitation program that supports and promotes resident-centred care within an inter-professional team, optimizing the resources available to Bonnechere Manor. Performs duties in accordance with Bonnechere Manor's Mission, Vision and Values, competencies, Long-Term Care Homes Act and Regulations.

Qualifications:

Ÿ Bachelor's Degree in Physiotherapy.

Ÿ Current registration with the College of Physiotherapists of Ontario, in good standing.

Ÿ Long-term care experience preferred.

Proven leadership capabilities with excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills.

Computer literacy required.

Compensation: $49.97 - $56.24 per hour, plus comprehensive benefits package.

Please send your resume, stating competition #23-27 to:

Human Resources, County of Renfrew

9 International Drive, Pembroke, ON K8A 6W5

EMAIL: hrinfo@countyofrenfrew.on.ca (in MS Word or pdf format)

Thank you for your interest, however, only applicants considered for an interview will be contacted. Accessibility accommodations are available for all parts of the selection process. Applicants must make their needs known in advance. Information collected will be handled in accordance with the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Kudos From Council Councillor Maureen MacMillan thanked Ms. Lyons

“With a person-centered approach, Bonnechere Manor