NORTH FRONTENAC

Photo: The Ompah fire hall, which is not only too small to hold all the equipment the fire crew uses, it is also slowly sinking into the swampy ground “Give us a chance to decide what we want to do, and to do it right.” That was the final word...

Back to HomeFeature Article - July 19, 2012 Thieves Make Off With Dead RacoonBy Jeff Green A number of break-ins occurred last week in the Bradshaw Road area near Tichborne. Among the victims was a newly retired woman who recently moved to the...

Ompah fire hall/ambulance project officially dead The joint North Frontenac/Frontenac County building project, which was to bring an ambulance post and a new fire hall to Ompah, has been formally rejected by North Frontenac Council. The project was...

Editorial by Jeff Green Back in the fall of 2010, North Frontenac Council thought it would cost about $80 per square foot to build a fire hall/ambulance post in Ompah. Frontenac County staff disagreed. By hiring project management, and building to...

By David Arama, Outdoors Survival Writer, Director WSC Survival School Inc./Marble Lake Lodge Photo:  Matt Robins and Andy Chima training for wilderness survival. During the week of June 10-15, I had the task of training Matt Robins and Andy Chima...

Photo: Historical Society members- president Carolyn McCulloch and museum curator Margaret Axford in Cloyne’s Pioneer Museum The grand opening celebrations at Cloyne's Pioneer and Archive Museum on June 23 attracted history buffs from far and wide...

This week, North Frontenac Council made one large expenditure, $511,000 to Smith Construction for road paving (which was included in their 2012 budget) as well as a number of much smaller expenditures for other projects. One of those expenditures...

Photo: Front:  John Gemmell, Janet Gutowski, Betty Hunter, Ruth Wark, Gordon Monroe, Morley Wark, Jack Elzinga, Karen Lindop-Beckwith, Brian Stewart, Ken Sinclair with some of the many SRSC volunteers in the background. Photograph by Doug Syme....

The organization that has single-handedly preserved the rich history of the past along the Highway 41 corridor, from the Aboriginal past to the logging, mining and settlement history right through to the development of the tourist industry and life...

North Frontenac participates in “First Impressions Community Exchange”Residents of areas of North Frontenac will soon have a chance to see their community through the eyes of first-time visitors as part of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture,...

Sticker shock puts Ompah build on life support $734,443. With most, but not all of the costs for the fire station portion of a proposed fire station/ambulance base at Ompah factored in, that is what North Frontenac ratepayers will be saddled with...

Update on Green Energy Task Force John Kittle, the chair of the Frontenac County Green Energy Task Force, presented an update of the task force's activities and proposed setting up a similar initiative in North Frontenac at a meeting of North...

Ompah fire station/ambulance base faces new hurdle The long talked about joint county/township building project in Ompah is at risk once again, even before the construction bids have been opened. After dealing with a political impasse that spanned...

Gord Mountenay from Mississippi Valley Conservation (MVC) appeared at the request of the township to talk about the dam structure and water management practices that he employs on behalf of MVC on some of the major lakes in North Frontenac. Mazinaw,...

Photo: Maureen Marlin and Lori Ellerbeck, the two proud owners of the new Mazinaw Lakeside Resort near Cloyne that opened on May 5. Nestled on the shores of the Upper Mazinaw Lake on Hwy 41 just north of Cloyne sits a cluster of small buildings on...

Photo: David Arama demonstrates fire lighting using steel wool and flint. If there is anyone you would want with you when things go wrong in the back woods, David Arama is that person. David has made a career of preparing people to deal with some of...

North Frontenac waives permit fees for Ompah build - April 23, 2012 Four companies are planning to submit bids under a Frontenac County Request for Proposal (RFP) for a design/build contract to put up a fire hall and ambulance post in North...

Photo: Lynne James with students Ashlee Redmond, Lauren Desarmia, Rose James and St. Clair School principal Mark Millan present "Searching for Tom" at Barrie Hall in Cloyne. Students unearth Harrowsmith connection in Tom Thomson’s mysterious...

North Frontenac property tax increase settles at 7% 11.3% local increase offset by lower Education and County rates “I apologize for bringing this up so late in the process,” said Councilor John Inglis during a public meeting about the 2012...

Repaving program causing NF taxes to go up North Frontenac Council has met extensively over the month, looking in detail at departmental budgets before coming together on a draft budget for presentation to the public on April 10. Citing the need to...

North Frontenac discusses septic inspections Dave Cook and Ed Gardener of KFL&A Public Health attended the meeting to discuss discretionary sewage system maintenance inspections. The difference between mandatory and discretionary is that mandatory...

North Frontenac Council is taking the slow route to their 2012 budget. They have already held two day-long budget sessions, and might actually see a draft budget by the middle of March. Meanwhile they have received detailed reports from department...

$1175 for new fire department crests – Council approved the purchase of 500 newly designed crests for the fire department. The crests were designed by Michelle Ross, who won a contest that was sponsored by the township's fire department...

Photo: Jack and Lois Weber (just right of center) founders of Jack’s Jam in Plevna with members of the Over the Hill Gang house jam band and other players at Saturday’s jam-packed jam on Jan. 21. Founded almost five years ago by long-time...

Council Goes Solar, in Principal North Frontenac Council has decided, in principle, to pursue a ground-mounted solar MicroFIT project. The decision came about when council was considering one in a long string of communiques from the Association of...

New works manager to make his mark in North Frontenac Jim Phillips has kept a low profile since taking on the role of public works manager in North Frontenac a couple of months ago. Philips was hired after a summer-long search took place, a search...

North Frontenac Council gives New Energy project a cold shoulder Ruth Noordegraff is the part time program manager for the New Energy Project, an initiative that is being supported by Frontenac County, the Kingston Economic Development Council...

Editorial by Jeff Green The Parham ambulance base will have to close after the Ompah base opens Barring anything unforeseen, Frontenac County will be building an ambulance post in Ompah next year. Four members of county council already support going...

Campground owners call NF Council 'anti-business'  Rob Gentile, a consultant and part owner of Bon Echo Campground, made a submission to North Frontenac Council on behalf of a group of 11 campground owners in North Frontenac. He read out a...

Barring any last-minute political intervention, a project manager will be hired early this winter to work out the construction details for a 1,500 square foot ambulance post and a 2,750 square foot fire hall in a single building to be located in...

Photo: Rhena Pollard’s relatives unveil her historic plaque at the Harlowe cemetery, l-r Alice Gillies, Sandra Chisholm, Laura Delyea and Laurie Gillies It’s not often that a tiny rural village can claim a piece of history associated with one...

Sheri Chatson and Lorraine McDonald of Cloyne are planning to participate in a 150 kilometre all-women charity snowmobile run in Huntsville next February, and they are doing some fundraising to raise the $1250 donation that is the price of admission...

Pineview Free Methodist Church is doing it again - 24 years to be exact - of giving away clothing! It all started with people dropping off bags of clothing at Shirley Wise's house and at the Cloyne General Store, owned by the Clelands back then....

No news is not necessarily bad news on ambulance base front By Jeff Green When the agenda came out for the Frontenac County Council meeting this week, it did not include any reference to the proposed joint ambulance base/fire station in Ompah. A...

Emergency repairs to be completed on Mississippi Bridge. During a routine road patrol in August, North Frontenac Public Works foreman, Gregg Wise, noticed some erosion on the northeast corner of the Mississippi Bridge, which is located on Road 509...

Submitted by Kashwakamak Lake Association Volunteers have been hard at work in cottage country. In July, the Kashwakamak Lake Association (KLA) held its annual general meeting in Northbrook, where the newly formed Kashwakamak Lake Sustainability...

Neighbouring counties and Denbigh ambulance The Denbigh ambulance base, whose fate will be decided by Lennox and Addington County Council as early as the end of October, came to the fore at a meeting of North Frontenac Council this week. Paul Isaacs...

Storage shed in dire need of repairs. Maybe it's something about the weather in North Frontenac. Once again the township is facing the cost of repairing a salt/sand storage dome, this time the one serving the former township of Clarendon/Miller,...

Photo: In the photo Virginia is slaloming around balls on a course.  Eleven-year-old Virginia Weese entered the Nationals Water Ski Championships, which were held in Newmarket, Ont., this summer of 2011. This was her first season competing and she...

Photo: Sue and Jim Waddington receive a gift from the Friends of Bon Echo after their presentation in Cloyne Art enthusiasts, Sue and Jim Waddington, returned to the Cloyne area this month in a continuation of their 30-year cross-country foray...

Summer fiction by Jack Benjamin I still remember finding our lot on Palmerston Lake. It was in 1957, the day after we left the hunt camp back of Schooner Lake and had made our way down the mountain. Instead of heading back to Toronto, Bernie and I...

There’s still time to book your shoreline planting project with MVC. Mississippi Valley Conservation (MVC) staff have already planted more than 100 trees and shrubs on lakefront properties in the watershed this season…and we’re looking for...

Expansion plans for Cloyne and District Museum Ian Brummel and Marg Axford, of the Cloyne and District Historical Society, came to North Frontenac Council to talk about plans for the next phase of development of the society’s museum and archives,...

Photo: Clifford Boomhower, Mayor Bud Clayton and Councilor Wayne Good For over a decade now, drivers on Harlowe Road in North Frontenac have been used to receiving a wave and a smile from Harlowe resident Clifford Boomhower. Clifford for years has...

Photo: The Heath descendents at a recent reunion. In 1911, when Dora and Jacob Heath built their cottage along the shore of Big Clear Lake, they could not possibly have known what they set in motion. They were living in Toronto and had five...

Sometimes life hands out surprises - some good, some bad; some unexpected, some kind of expected; some that make you laugh, some that make you cry. For example, last year I was told I had kidney cancer. Totally unexpected, totally bad, and it made...

Photo: Parham artist Heather Hugh Landscape artists from all over Ontario and Quebec set up shop under the towering pines at Bon Echo Provincial Park this past weekend for the Friends of Bon Echo 16th annual Art Exhibition & Sale. The annual show...

North Frontenac zoning bylaw battle looms Different players are taking different positions on issues related to a new comprehensive zoning bylaw in North Frontenac Township. At a council meeting this week, the township heard from Ron Higgins and Jim...

Photo: Laurentian University associate professor and graduate coordinator, Dr. Mark Kuhlberg This being the International Year of Forests, the Friends of Bon Echo Provincial Park presented a talk at the outdoor amphitheater by Laurentian University...

Don Webster of Mississippi Station spends four days a week working for CP Rail, and as the father of a young daughter he is busy during the days when he is home, so he does not have a lot of time to pay attention to township matters. But since he...