Iroquois holds 1812 re-enactment and commemoration

Effective Friday, February 13, 2015, South Dundas councillor Bill Ewing resigned from South Dundas Fire and Emergency Services.

Ewing was assistant deputy chief at SDFES Station 1-4, the Iroquois fire station.

Ewing has been an Iroquois firefighter since January 1980. 

“I became a firefighter because I wanted to help the community,” Ewing told The Leader.

Now, being a South Dundas councillor, Ewing’s community service role is in a different capacity, and it is his council role that moved him to make the difficult decision to resign from the fire service, a job that was extremely important to him.

After attending a recent council seminar and seeking the opinions of three different lawyers, Ewing determined that as a firefighter, “I could not speak to any fire service issues without being in conflict.”

In order to avoid any complications, and to ensure that his voice and expertise in the fire service would still be able to benefit the community, he chose to resign from the fire service.

“People voted for me to represent them, so it’s important to have my voice part of the discussions. With my years of service I have a lot of knowledge in all aspects of the fire service,” said Ewing who worked his way up through the ranks to become assistant deputy chief.

Although Ewing was a member of the fire service, when he served on council before, at that time he was not advised that being a firefighter put him in a conflict when making council decisions.

“It was never perceived as a conflict in the past, but perceptions have changed since then,” said Ewing.

Also, the last time Ewing served on council, South Dundas did not have a full time fire chief, this time it does.

With South Dundas having recently updated their fire master plan, and considering changes to the fire station in Morrisburg, Ewing says, “There will be a number of issues, going forward, that I feel I need to speak to.”

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MP Guy Lauzon was on hand at the St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage on Saturday, June 6, to present the board of directors with $25,000 in funding over two years from the Canada Arts Presentation Fund. 

“The Government of Canada is pleased to support the St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage Performances,” Lauzon said, in making the presentation. “Congratulations to the Stage’s organizers and volunteers, who developed this event from a showcase for local artists to an eight-show season that highlights both emerging and professional artists.” 

Sandra Whitworth of the SLAS accepted the cheque on behalf of the board. “The funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage plays a critical part in ensuring that we have the capacity to present high-calibre musicians as part of our annual music and workshop series. We are enormously grateful for the support.”

The St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage, run completely by volunteers, provides a showcase for touring professional musicians and for up and coming emerging artists. The Stage gives audiences, who might otherwise have to travel to large urban centres, the chance to enjoy live, original music right here in South Dundas. The Stage has also arranged workshops with several of these visiting professional artists for  amateur area musicians. 

In recent months, the SLAS has also established a program which brings performers into local schools, introducing a wide range of participatory music to children and their teachers. Educational  musical outreach is an area that the Stage is hoping to develop fully in the future.

Saturday, June 6, was a memorable occasion for the SLAS in other ways as well.

Madison Violet, Lisa MacIsaac and Brenley MacEachern, with Jakub Zapotonczny, performed before a sold out house, the third sold out concert in the Stage’s 2014-15 concert series. 

This was also the final concert which will  be held at the Operating Engineers, the Morrisburg Meeting Centre, the Stage’s venue since it first launched several years ago. In September, as the 2015-16 concert series kicks off, the SLAS will transfer to the Upper Canada Playhouse venue. 

The St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage board will formally announce the musical artists’ line up and performance dates later in the summer.  

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The Thousands Islanders, a vibrant a cappella chorus, centred in Brockville, held two days of dynamic vocal workshops in facilities arranged at the McIntosh Inn and Conference Centre in Morrisburg, April 17-18. Flown in as guest instructor was Steve Scott. Scott, a noted American voice and musical coach, is a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Kansas, and currently working on his Phd. in vocal pedagogy. The Islanders choir, led by director Stuart McMartin, front row left, includes two South Dundas residents, Wendy Gibb, second row, right end, and Karen Koivumaki, second row, third from the right. The choir is currently in final rehearsals for the 2015 Area Contest and Convention held in Alliston on May 23. At this event, choirs from all over Ontario will compete for musical gold. Instructor Scott, who worked extensively over two days with the choir, quartettes and individual singers, feels that “people are natural born musicians: to be human is to be a musician. I have the opportunity to coach and encourage that unique inner singer.”

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