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January 16, 2014 | 68 pages

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Caboose accommodations new marketing tool at RMEO

By HOWAIDA SOROUR hsorour@perfprint.ca

Community - In an effort to turn the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario into a sustainable and independently viable museum, curator Anne Shropshire, her board of directors and volunteers have been busy coming up with all kinds of ideas to attract more people. “We need money, so we need to find innovative ways to keep the museum open and relevant,� Shropshire said. “We already have something special because just about everyone can relate to trains, whether they worked on the railway, remembers their first trip or had a train set as a child.� Among those innovative ideas Photo by HOWAIDA SOROUR is a plan to offer overnight stays in the cabooses on site. “We have four cabooses that Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario’s curator Anne Shropshire shows off the interior of would require minimal work to one of the four cabooses that will soon be opened for overnight stays as a tourist attrac- be prepared for guests, so we’re looking to start with two or three tion in Smiths Falls. this year as a pilot project,� said Shropshire. The overnight stays would only be available on weekends or holidays but that means guests could stay for as long as three to the new Water Opportunities and Water ConBy HOWAIDA SOROUR nights or as little as one night hsorour@perfprint.ca servation Act which will be the new benchmark from May until September. News - After lengthy discussions Smiths for all Ontario municipalities. According to “Visitors can relive the expeFalls town council finally gave staff direction to Joynt, failure by a municipality to demonstrate rience. These were not luxury go ahead and bring forward a bylaw authorizing the will to achieve cost recovery will hamper, if accommodations, they were a 13 per cent increase on water and wastewater not disqualify, a municipality from applying for functional and they’d be an exinfrastructure grants. His recommendation was rates. perience for the tourists. The That bylaw will be brought to council on Jan. to jump to full recovery this year but council decaboose was an important part 20. If that bylaw passes the increase could be clined on the grounds that it would be too steep of the railway, it was the place applied to next water waste-water billing, which an increase for residents to absorb in one year. where trainmen and a conductor “I support the 13 per cent increase in water is the commercial billing, at the end of January. used to sleep at the tail end of the For most users the increase will amount to rates because it shows the province that we are train, and where the conductor moving towards sustainability,� said Coun. Ken less than $10 per month. had an office,� explained John “It works out to an increase of $9.25 a month Graham. Weir, a long time volunteer with The second reason is to balance the bare or $111 a year,� said Janet Koziel, deputy treathe railway museum and former bones version of the 2014 budget. surer. railroad worker who came up “This budget reflects priority capital items The increase in water rates was one of staff’s with the idea. recommendations for two reasons. The first is only at $665,105, leaving a shortfall of $360,461 The overnight stays would that the province is currently putting pressure plus $80,000 to $120,000 from pending cominclude breakfast served in the on municipalities to demonstrate that they are munity grant requests which equals a potenbreezeway in good weather or in moving towards water and waste-water treat- tial shortfall of $440,461 to $480,461,� wrote the baggage room in inclement Koziel in the second draft budget summary. ment cost recovery. weather. The increase in water rates would net the “I can tell you that full cost recovery will “It would be a fine quality be part of the act,� said Ted Joynt, water and town $477,140.30 in revenue. continental breakfast with tables, wastewater operations superintendent, referring See TAX page SF3 table cloths and a server, but the menu would be limited,� said

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Inside News - Canadian Blood Services is holding a donor clinic at the Smiths Falls Civitan on Friday, and they need every available person possible to make it count. CBS says it is short 72 donor appointments and is desperate for help. Visit the clinic between 1:15 and 7 p.m. to donate. Winter storms have negatively impacted blood clinics over the past couple of weeks. With your help, they can turn it around!

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Shropshire. The rate would be around $150 per caboose. Each caboose sleeps three people but a family of four could be accommodated with an additional cot. Another exciting development the museum is working on is a miniature railway. To do that the museum needs to invest in the actual site. “Phase I is re-organizing the site and leveling the land. It’s the single biggest part of the project because it’s a lot of work to cleanup and level four acres of land,� said Shropshire. To that end Shropshire and her skeleton summer staff put together an application for $50,000 to Valley Heartland Community Futures Development Corporation’s Community Innovations program in 2013. “By the time we got our application submitted in late May early June, there was only $10,000 available in the pot which we were able to secure,� explained Shropshire. Under the terms of the funding contract, Valley Heartland will cover 75 per cent of the project costs up to $10,000. “So we have to come up with 25 per cent and I have no idea where we’ll get that, but it will happen, and that’s just for Phase I,� said Shropshire. It’s an ongoing conundrum for the Railway Museum as for most non-profit organizations, that funding agencies want fund recipients to contribute anywhere from 25 to 50 per cent of a project. “Who is going to give us $10,000 if we have nothing to contribute ourselves?� she pointed out. With some funding secured the museum felt encouraged to continue and approached its neighbours for help. “We were beyond thrilled that Saumure (Guy Saumure and Sons Construction Ltd.) was willing to contribute about $20,000 of See CABOOSE page SF2

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