Old friends meet at wardens' dinner

Jeff Green | Oct 26, 2016

Frances Smith hosted the Frontenac County wardens' dinner last week at the St. James Catholic Church Hall in her home township of Central Frontenac. The meal was also locally catered by Tim Cota of Cota's Mobile Catering of Tichborne.

The evening provided an opportunity for politicians from Frontenac and surrounding municipalities, volunteer committee members, and leaders from groups and associations to get together over a meal. It was a chance to reminisce about the previous year, and talk about the future.

For Frances Smith it marked one of the final acts of her year as warden. It is the second time she has served in that office, the last time being 20 years earlier in 1996, when she was the reeve of Oso Township.

Isabel Turner served as warden while she was the reeve of the former Kingston Township, and later served as mayor of Kingston between 2000 and 2003, after Kingston Township was amalgamated into the City of Kingston. When she found out that Don Lee, the 97-year-old former warden from the former Hinchinbrooke Township was also at the dinner, she and her husband John bolted from their chairs and went to find him and have a chat.

When it came time to gather all the former wardens for a photo, they all gathered around Turner and Lee, who were still deep in conversation.