Community Care Building is open

 More than twice as many students participated in the 2012 Iroquois Legion Remembrance Day poster and literary contest than the previous year, and the winners received their awards at a small ceremony January 6 in the Iroquois Legion’s museum.

Dave Weedmark, youth and education chair with Iroquois Legion Branch 370 hosted the event, where the awards were handed out by Ralph Martin, acting president.

Twenty branch awards were handed out to the best entries among the 89 received from the schools in Iroquois, and those winners were forwarded on to the zone level.

At the zone level, three students were awarded prizes. At the zone level, Dani Shae Barkley’s black and white poster placed third in the senior division, Kitana Millward’s colour poster placed third in the intermediate division and Darci Dodge’s poem placed third in the junior division.

At the branch level, Maeryn Gilmour won the primary colour poster contest, Leo Vezina was second and Keaton Urquhart was third.

Harley Heustis won the junior black and white poster contest. Nicholas Howard was second and Bryce St. Pierre was third.

The junior colour poster contest was won by Jamie Wilson, with Aria Whisselle placing second and Bryanna Whitford third.

Darci Dodge won the junior poem contest. Kurtis Markell was second and Catie Piquette was third.

The intermediate poster contest winners were Grace Barkley (first in black and white), Kitana Millward (first in colour), Abby MacMillan (second in colour) and Matt Backes (third in colour). Dani Shae Barkley won the senior black and white poster contest.

Prize winning intermediate poems were submitted by Kaitlyn Stewart, who won first prize, Jane van Moorsel, who won second prize, and Nathanial Collard, who won third prize.

[…]

While South Dundas council may have handled more than its fair share of controversy in 2013, its mayor is looking ahead to 2014;  positive about what has been accomplished, positive about projects in the works and positive about the new year.

The 2013 year end interview with local media took place December 18 at the Mayor’s office on the third floor of the new South Dundas Municipal Centre in Morrisburg.

“We are definitely sitting in the highlight of the year,” said South Dundas Mayor Steven Byvelds of the South Dundas Municipal Centre.

“We have rebuilt this into a very useful space, not only for South Dundas council and staff, but for the St. Lawrence Medical Clinic,” said Byvelds.

This SDMC building project, along with South Dundas’ partnership with the St. Lawrence Medical Clinic team to renovate the former Catholic school in Iroquois into a new clinic, means that South Dundas is now home to two new medical facilities.

“That is an important asset in a time where it is challenging to keep medical staff within our borders,” said Byvelds.

Although not yet complete, Byvelds reported that the new Morrisburg library portion of the project should be finished early this year. It will be housed in a portion of the former Morrisburg Clinic space.

On top of this huge project nearing completion, Byvelds is proud to have been able to be part of major progress on working towards rectifying infrastructure issues that have needed addressing for decades.

He acknowledges that the work taking place around Lakeshore Drive certainly wouldn’t have been possible without $2 million worth of provincial funding that South Dundas was fortunate enough to receive. 

That funding, along with the funding for the new Iroquois waste water treatment plant, have allowed significant infrastructure improvements. 

“A lot of good stuff happened with that money,” said Byvelds. 

The new Iroquois waste water treatment plant is expected to be commissioned within a couple of months.

Also, coming to council early in the new year, are plans for the expansion of the Williamsburg recreation building that will return library space to Williamsburg and also provide a useful facility for the community.

With 2014 being an election year, like most municipal politicians, Byvelds hopes for a ‘boring’ year, but he will not shy away from making decisions because of the looming election, which will take place in October.

“I know that any issues that are simmering won’t disappear, and when the time comes, we will deal with things the best we can.”

No matter the issue, Byvelds always adheres to the same process. “You listen, you learn, then you make the decision, and that in part is where your own philosophies come into play,” he explained.

“Most times, change is the biggest challenge, but change is inevitable. Change is challenging for me too, but I know that change has to be managed. It can’t be radical. It has to make sense. I don’t like change either, but globally it is something we need to deal with. If you do nothing, then you are going backwards, and I’m not prepared to do that.”

Even a tough open forum meeting in the fall where much of the public backlash over various issues was directed at Byvelds, has not swayed his philosophy.

Admittedly a tough experience, Byvelds still called the process a useful one, as people had the opportunity to voice their opinions. 

“In an election year, my role is to lead properly,” said Byvelds. “I need to demonstrate leadership, showing the community what it takes to run a municipality from the mayor’s chair.”

He sees 2014 as a year to settle down, get things wrapped up and put South Dundas in a position to allow its new council to pick up the ball and make the decisions going forward.

Byvelds would not divulge his intentions for the 2014 election. He plans to make his intentions known in late summer. His only prediction for the new year, was that South Dundas residents will see a zero or very modest tax increase in 2014. 

The budgeting process will take place earlier in 2014 than it has in the past, a change that Byvelds has been eager to see. 

At this point he is focusing on the roads system. “We are a rural municipality and roads are important,” said Byvelds. “I would rather spend money on roads wisely, making things last beyond their useful life than ignore them.”

“Provincial funding has dried up, so how we manage our own affairs is very important,” he said. 

[…]

 

 The Lundeens are a dysfunctional family. No doubt about it.

Brother Michael, the ‘successful’ doctor, is repressed and desperate.

Brother Carl, the truck-driving ‘journalist,’ is resentful and sarcastic.

Sister Stacey flutters waif-like around the edges of the family, mostly overlooked.

Michael’s wife Jill teeters on the brink of hormonal hysteria.

Mom Helen appears to be losing all sense of reality.

And Dad? Well, he’s actually dead. Sort of. 

The appeal of Phil Olson’s A Nice Family Gathering, the last show of the Upper Canada Playhouse 2012 summer season, is this. In even the most dysfunctional of families, there remains a deep running thread of loyalty and love which simply can’t be broken. 

In the course of a Thanksgiving dinner, audiences will get to know the Lundeens, laugh with the Lundeens (often and very loudly) and yes, even shed a tear with them. 

A Nice Family Gathering is a great show.

Lovingly directed by Donnie Bowes, it features the “blue chip” cast Bowes said (in an earlier press conference) he needed to bring Olson’s play to the stage. 

Don Ciaschini is Jerry, the neighbour. It’s a smaller role, but Ciaschini brings real personality to it. He was Carl Sr.’s oldest friend: he remains Helen’s friend. And he is a kind of catalyst in the play, setting off unexpected events. As he observes,  ultimately fleeing from the ‘friendly’ dinner he thought he was attending, “Any family with more than three people is dysfunctional.” 

Richard Bauer creates a truly sympathetic character in his Carl Lundeen. Scruffy, resentful of what he believes is the family preference for brother Michael, the doctor, he clings to the hope of becoming a journalist. Unfortunately, his sole output, a weekly column, Observations, runs only in a tiny local paper. Stories focussed, for example, on the time he swerved to miss a gopher and spilled coffee in his crotch, have never gained him much respect at home.

But Bauer’s Carl is also very witty, very funny. He alone is able to see the ‘spirit’ of his late father, who has returned to the family on a mission. And he is the one, to his horror, Dad wants to use to “channel” those efforts. 

Jamie Williams, Dr. Michael, is one half of “the perfect couple.” He’s got a beautiful wife, a beautiful house, a beautiful car and he’s absolutely miserable. His wife, Jill, (Kate Gordon in a role that could have become a caricature, but is instead sympathetic and loving) is “just a little emotional.” She and Michael have been unsuccessfully trying to have children, and the effort has become a burden. And Michael’s finances have taken a bad turn.

Stacey, played with a certain wonderful ditziness by Liz Gilroy, is the too often overlooked child. 

“I don’t think Stacey will ever get married,” Helen proclaims. “She’s just not popular with boys.”

“Mom, I’m right here,” Stacey wails.

“Well, I didn’t think you’d mind my saying it. You like being alone, don’t you?”

However, it is Stacey, delivering two bombshells after dinner, who flings the Lundeen family into comic chaos.

The heart and soul (literally, in Dad’s case) of the Lundeen family are the parents.

Doug Tangney, even as a ghost, is charming, unexpected and incredibly funny. His running commentaries on events, his head to head duels with Carl, the absolute certainty with which he finally admits his family is “a Marx Brothers movie,” endear him to the audience. Yes, he made mistakes as a father, but he utterly adores the wife and the children he had to leave behind. 

That wife is played by Linda Goranson with both pathos and great humour. Her family fears that she is slipping away from reality: turkey dogs for Thanksgiving dinner, boiling water that she never remembers to add coffee to, and confusing comments like ‘Spam makes me laugh’ and ‘I love jumbo shrimp’ suggest there may some truth to their fears. 

They all adore her. So does the audience.

When she and Carl Sr, using son Carl as the intermediary, finally reveal the true, forever depth of their love, we cared. 

It was a wonderful moment.

And this is a wonderful piece of theatre. The play is hilarious, unexpected, touching and, above all, really entertaining. 

Plan to spend some time with the Lundeens at A Nice Family Gathering. You won’t regret it.

Call Upper Canada Playhouse at 1-613-543-3713 for tickets and information or contact www.uppercanadaplayhouse.com 

[…]