CENTRAL FRONTENAC

At 81 years of age Dave Dawson of Sharbot Lake is an artist who continues to create work at an awe-inspiring rate. A painter, poet, writer, songwriter and musician, Dawson has been living the life of a multi- disciplinary artist for decades. A visit...

'Small-scale seed producer' is not listed as one of the top 10, or top 100 career choice options in the post-modern, post-manufacturing, post-agricultural economy, but don't tell that to Dawn Morden. A passion for vegetable gardening led Dawn to an...

There was something for everyone at the Arden Legion’s all-day fundraiser on March 8. The event, which is one of the Legion’s biggest of the year, included kitchen volunteers serving up three square meals, and a singles and doubles darts...

Filling the late Bill Snyder's council seat Included in a motion where council (with great sadness) officially declared the seat of the late Councilor Bill Snyder vacant, CAO Larry Donaldson informed council of the rules in the Municipal Act...

Four students from the Granite Ridge Education Centre in Sharbot Lake recently took part in the Junior Iron Chef Competition on February 9 at Loyalist College in Belleville. The goal of the annual competition is to educate high school students in...

June's Angels, the North and Central Frontenac Relay for Life team who are entering their third year of participation in the Canadian Cancer Society's (CCS) annual fundraiser, are starting their efforts off early this year. They held a chili lunch...

The old image of a small school is of a one-room schoolhouse with multi-grade classes, a wood stove in the middle of each room and upper year boys taking turns binging firewood as the upper year girls collect slates from the younger students to...

Bill Snyder dies at 65 Bill Snyder, who has served on Central Frontenac Council since 2001, after over 20 years on Hinchinbooke Council before amalgamation, died last week in hospital. He had been suffering from complications related to Diabetes. a...

The Director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Tony Loparco, has concluded that there are no reasonable grounds to charge either of two Ontario Provincial Police officers with the Lanark County detachment with a criminal offence in relation...

The water was warm. It was a balmy day on the lake. Great costumes, back flips - it was all there for this year's Central Frontenac Heritage Festival Polar Bear Plunge. There was an Olympic theme going on with several of the Plungers, including Anne...

Certain types of art and craft work, when demonstrated live, often draws a big crowd. That was the case outside the Kennebec hall in Arden during this year’s Frontenac Heritage Festival, where chainsaw artist Robin Deruchie of Cloyne spent the...

  Perhaps it was the perfect ice, snow and weather conditions that attracted over 120 riders, who came to participate in the 4th annual Sharbot Lake Snow Drags on February 15. The event is put on by the Oso Recreation Committee. It was revived in...

This year’s Frontenac Heritage Festival was another success and as it unfolded over the weekend. At the opening breakfast, guest speaker Eric Wagar highlighted the history of Central Frontenac with a focus on the areas that he knows best....

OPP Constable Lori Lobinowich was just starting her day shift on a cold, dark Saturday morning last week when she received a call from the dispatch centre to tell her that a woman in labour was about to arrive at the detachment to meet an ambulance...

On February 6, staff from Northern Frontenac Community Services held their first fundraiser of 2014 for the United Way at the Child Centre in Sharbot Lake. Guests enjoyed generous helpings of chili that was made and donated by members of the NFCS...

Close to 50 seniors showed up for the special Heart 2 Heart event put on by the occupational therapists who are running the very popular seniors' fitness program at the Medical Centre in Sharbot Lake. After a hiatus the program was reinstated a few...

Judging by the enthusiasm of the students offering visitors tours of the Granite Ridge Education Centre in Sharbot Lake on January 29, it looks as though both staff and students have taken a liking to their new home and home of the newly named...

Members of the Frontenac Masonic Lodge and the Sharbot Lake Legion joined forces for the first-ever Robbie Burns Dinner at the Legion, which took place on January 25 and was a sold-out event. Bill Bowick, who is the Master of the Frontenac Masonic...

Budget meeting and othere items from Council Central Frontenac Council made short work of their line-by-line consideration of the 2014 township budget on Monday afternoon. They had met twice the previous week to hear management-level staff go over...

The Center Stage Café will be back in action with live music at the Sharbot Lake Legion on the 3rd Thursday of the month for February, March and April. The house band (Feral Five), as well as playing its own eclectic repertoire, will host a number...

“Age is only a number”. “You're only as old as you feel”. “The more you move the more you can”. All of us have heard these adages. Some of us might even have heard them in the doctor's office. Now our answers of, "But I don't live three...

The Sharbot Lake Property Owners’ Association have revised the website to make it even more accessible and it is still at www.slpoa.ca. We invite all residents, whether members of the association or not, to take a look. Tell us what you think...

Last week students at Land O'Lakes Public School in Mountain Grove with a passion for art started up the second year of an extra-curricular art program at the school. The popular program, which first ran in 2011, is back this year thanks to a $800...

Thanks to a grant from the St. Lawrence College Employment Centre, the Frontenac Heritage Festival will employ a new marketing strategy this year and into the future. Jesse Mills, a graduate of Sharbot Lake High School who has studied film in...

  A small gathering was held on January 18 at the Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake. Elder Donna Hollywood, who has been involved in educational, cultural and political Aboriginal pursuits for decades, called people together in the name of unity. A pipe...

Central Frontenac draft budget The draft 2014 Central Frontenac budget, presented by Treasurer Michael McGovern to a special meeting of Council on Monday afternoon (January 20), carries an increase of just over $500,000 in the cost to taxpayers for...

A celebrated 40-year career as one of Canada's top-notch luthiers was not the career that Oskar Graf originally planned for, but he affirms that it is one that he is very grateful for. Trained in his native Germany as a cabinet maker and...

Though he was raised in rural Prince Edward Island, Darin MacKinnon is no stranger to Ontario. The new student minister at the Arden Pastoral Charge just finished his second week of services since he was appointed to his new post on January 1. He...

Meeting  on January 14/14 It might have had something to do with an extra full agenda or perhaps the election year is resulting in councilors being more intent on making their opinions heard, but the Central Frontenac Council meeting on Tuesday...

It’s been an exciting and challenging year with the construction of the new school in Sharbot Lake. Some of us have had the opportunity to peek into the new building to see how it will be useable for NFLT productions. WOW! It’s a larger stage;...

It wasn't exactly easy or smooth, but on Sunday afternoon, January 5, the Limestone District School Board received an occupancy permit for Granite Ridge Education Centre. The next morning, the school was ready to receive students, although the fact...

This year Chanukah, the Jewish festival of lights, took place earlier than normal, overlapping with Diwali rather than Christmas for a change. Hanukkah fits into the pantheon of winter onset festivals because it is all about lighting candles and...

Jessica and Chris Roberts, and their children Konner and Paige, will be moving into a new home in Tichborne sometime in the spring of 2014. They are the family who has been chosen by Habitat For Humanity to purchase the home that is under...

It has been a complex and sometimes controversial process getting a new school built for Central and North Frontenac residents, and along the way there have probably been a number of miss steps, some of which have been identified by this newspaper....

“In all likelihood I will be running,” two-time incumbent Janet Gutowski said when asked if she was going to run for a third term as mayor of Central Frontenac. “I’m very committed to this township and I think there is still a lot to be...

Fans of fiddle tunes got more than an earful of the tunes they love best courtesy of the Blue Skies and Celtic Heritage Fiddle Orchestras, who performed an exceptionally diverse and eclectic concert on January 5 to close out the holiday season and...

Officials with the Limestone District School Board are still working towards welcoming Kindergarten to grade 12 students to the brand new Granite Ridge Education Centre on the first day of classes after the Christmas holidays. But it will take a lot...

Central Frontenac opts for internet/telephone voting Central Frontenac was the only township in Frontenac County and vicinity that was still committed to conducting its municipal elections by a postal vote. That all changed this week, when, at their...

A case of illegal dumping on the edge of the Trans-Canada Trail outside of Sharbot Lake has revealed that the ownership of the trail is still in doubt. The owners of the adjacent private property have gone to both Central Frontenac Township and the...

The holidays can be an especially difficult time for those experiencing grief due to the loss of a loved one. In a special information session held at the Maples Restaurant in Sharbot Lake on December 2, two grief counselors spoke about their own...

Editorial by Jeff Green

No one understands how the OPP currently calculates the fees it charges to municipalities. Therefore a lot of local populations were pleased when the OPP said it was going to simplify things. The OPP looked at all the costs that are charged to local...

Gary Auerbach uses his skills as both a former world freestyle Frisbee champion and as an inspirational speaker to help young people learn the tools they need to be successful. Auerbach, who won the World Freestyle Frisbee Championship in 1995 while...

Members of the Shabot Obaadjiwan First nation along with other local artists and crafts people participated in a celebratory art and craft show on November 23. The show marked the end of a special two-year workshop program put on by the Shabot...

By Julie Druker and Jeff Green

CF Council supports grant proposal for HPS Community Centre The Central Frontenac Community Recreation Centre sub-committee is looking into the viability of turning Hinchinbrooke Public School in Parham into a community recreation centre to be used...

Bards, buffs and behind the scene-ers of the North Frontenac Little Theatre (NFLT) filled the Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake for their first ever lifetime achievement awards ceremony. Like all great awards ceremonies, this one offered up fine food and...

Friends, family and holiday shoppers made the trek to Perth to attend the latest entrepreneurial endeavor by Cheryl Matson and Janina Fisher on November 15. The two ladies, both residents of Sharbot Lake, attracted a sizable following from Central...

As we face shortening days, long cold, winter nights, and snow and ice, that first late winter maple run seems a long, long way off. ... Oh for that first taste of sap, cold, slightly heavy on the tongue and just a bit sweet, as it drips off the tap...

A small group of those concerned about global climate change gathered at the Railway Heritage Park in Sharbot Lake on November 16. The vigil was organized by Sharbot Lake resident Ken Fisher and it was one of over 130 Defend Our Climate/ Defend Our...

The annual “HungerCount 2013" report was released last week and to no one’s surprise it highlighted that over 800,000 Canadians were helped by food banks in the month of March 2013. 36% of these people were children and almost 80,000 of them...