Welcome to South Dundas Municipal Centre

MORRISBURG-Since she was a young girl, singing has brought her joy, and now Joanne Laurin has decided to share that joy.

“I can remember being a child in church, about seven years old, and an older couple tapping me on the should to tell me I should keep on singing, that I could be a professional one day.” 

“Then in high school, I remember being asked to sing on stage. But I was way too shy back then to let out what has been buried all my life.”

Now,” says Joanne, “here I am, in my late 40’s and finally ready to let people hear what I have been hiding.”

After receiving encouragement from a friend at work, John Mondoux, Joanne signed up for singing lessons and is now preparing to sing in public.

What she didn’t know, when she set out on this “magical” journey, was how much there is to learn and how much hard work there would be.

But Joanne is extremely happy balancing her home life with husband Mike, a demanding career as a Health Care Aid working at the Villa in Long Sault and the demands of her singing.

“After work each day, I do exercises for my throat and on my days off, I sing for upwards of four hours.”

“It’s more than I ever thought. How you learn to find your voice is magical.”

One of her first lessons involved learning where her voice was coming from. “I was actually singing in my speaking voice. There is a lot of homework and a lot of practise.”

Joanne says she owes her decision to pursue her singing to Mondoux, a co-worker and also a very talented singer and guitarist.

After Mondoux heard Joanne sing at the nursing home, he encouraged and worked with her as did Ingleside singer Candy Rutley, “who spent hours teaching me how to find my chest voice.”

“And John really helped get me on my feet. He mentored me.”

With their encouragement, Joanne is now enrolled in singing lessons with “a highly gifted and professional teacher, Siaca from Melody Makers”. She attends one lesson each week.

“It’s all about learning about your vocal chords, the do’s and don’t’s. I am learning what phrasing is, and tempo, and working on my facial expressions, making my eyes match the song. There are so many things to learn. It is so interesting. And, oh my gosh, breathing is so important when you sing.”

“There is also a lot of memorization. I started school in January, and I have now learned eight songs. So in four months, I have done a lot of work.”

“I never thought in a million years there would be so much to learn. But I love it, and I can’t wait to make this happen.”

As for finally hitting the stage and sharing her joy of singing with others, Joanne says she is taking baby steps. She says her band is named “It’s Just Joe”, that being herself, a CD, and a microphone.

“The patients (at Woodlands) are my little rookies,” she says of her first gig set for June. “They are all excited for me to come and sing for them in June. They are going to hear my summer road show before anyone else.”

At this point, Joanne’s summer road show will include a performance during a St. Lawrence River cruise with the Thousand Island Cruise Line in June, and a July 1st Canada Day performance on the Lost Villages’ stage.

She expects her ultimate experience will be when she sings a solo on the professional stage at Aultsville Hall in Cornwall next spring during the annual Festival of Music.

Down the road she would like to sing at local events, perhaps at weddings and funerals.

“The reason I like to sing is to put happiness and joy into people’s lives. I want to make people feel happy because I’m happy when I’m singing.”

“I want to sing anywhere people can hear me,” she concludes.

[…]

Upper Canada Village’s award-winning fall event Pumpkinferno is getting ready to enchant visitors once again this fall with more than 50 percent new themed exhibits.  

The creative and artistic event will be open on select nights starting Friday, October 3 until Saturday, November 1.  

Pumpkinferno is a unique blend of artistry, imagination and ingenuity.  A total of 30 exhibits – half of them brand-new – will display more than 6,000 intricately carved lit artificial pumpkins.  

Highlights of the new exhibits this fall include The Animals of Noah’s Ark featuring animals large and small; Evolution of the Ford Vehicle, a display of nine Ford vehicles; Monster Smash, an exhibit of iconic Halloween Movie Monsters including a Vampire, Monster of Frankenstein, Frankenbride, a Werewolf and a Mummy, plus many more!  

The popular Sound & Light show has been newly re-designed into a “Pumpkin Promenade” exhibit in front of Crysler Hall.

The event will see other refinements including more wall washer lighting and mood lighting for the exhibits, more sound effects and improved flow of visitors through the admissions area with an express entry line for pre-paid ticketholders.

“Now in our third year, we have raised the bar creatively on the level of artistry of the exhibits we will have on display,” says Geoff Waycik, Manager, Upper Canada Village. “The Pumpkinferno team has risen to the challenge developing an amazing array of new themed exhibits and created some real masterpieces.  Our whole team is very excited to share this newly inspired experience with our visitors”

The evening of Wednesday, October 15 will be set aside exclusively to accommodate groups of people with physical disabilities so they can ride in their own vehicles to view Pumpkinferno. Only ‘special needs’ vans or parabuses will be allowed.  Coaches and school buses cannot be accommodated.  

Upper Canada Village will provide a staff person familiar with the Village roadways in the dark to lead the vehicles through the site.  Admission to tour on this night is $10 for adults and $8 for seniors and youth.  Reservations are required and may be made by calling 613-543-4328 or 800-437-2233.

Pumpkinferno will feature a display of local school children’s artwork over the course of the event in a special exhibit “Painted Pumpkin Art” in the fairgrounds of Upper Canada Village.  

Upper Canada Village supplied the locally grown pumpkins to students from grades Kindergarten to Grade 8 in schools of the Upper Canada District School Board and the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario.  

Over 1,000 school children from 22 schools will share their own unique artistically painted real pumpkins which will be on display for the duration of Pumpkinferno.

Visitors can start their visit with a pre-tour dinner at historic Willard’s Hotel and the Harvest Barn Restaurant will also be open during regular Pumpkinferno hours for dining after dark. Upper Canada Golf Course restaurant located just across the road from Upper Canada Village will also be open during Pumpkinferno.  

See for yourself why Pumpkinferno has earned “Best New Event in Ontario” designation by Festival and Events Ontario, “Tourism event of the Year” by the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario and “New Company of the Year” by Ottawa Tourism.

[…]

A wrinkle has appeared in South Dundas’ ongoing project to expand the Morrisburg’s commercial business park.

South Dundas council decided that offering more readily accessible commercial land in the Morrisburg Industrial Park was a priority, so this summer they broke ground on a project that has been in the works for several years.

The $535,000 road extension to extend roadway 500 metres north and 400 metres east to complete a loop to Prospect Road is underway and will make available municipally-owned commercial properties, located on the west and north sides of the new road.

“When South Dundas decided on constructing the road it was with the understanding that the wetland was not a current issue but may impact us down the road,” said South Dundas Mayor Steven Byvelds. “However, now it may become an issue sooner.”

Local councils and municipal officials have known for many years that the Provincial Government (MNR) had intended to designate part of South Dundas’ holdings of municipal land in the Morrisburg industrial park as a provincially-significant wetland, but a loop-hole meant that the designation had not been made officially thus leaving open one last opportunity for the municipality to open up access to the lands, allowing them to be properly marketed for economic growth.

“South Dundas is still allowed to do what we want, within reason, in the area,” said Byvelds. 

That is why South Dundas undertook the study of the area and moved forward with the road project. 

“None of the roadway and adjacent lands are in the wetland but they are within the 120 meter buffer area. One can develop that area with a study that proves the proposed development does not impact the wetland.”  

In advance of this project, South Dundas and the United Counties had agreed that any employment lands that would eventually be lost to the PSW designation, would be shifted west of Morrisburg, through an expanded settlement area designation.

SDG is the planning authority for the region, by virtue of the Official Plan. A recent report to Counties Council revealed that, the province will not agree with the compromise.

“When this was put to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, they said we needed to do a study to determine what the future needs were and what was available to justify the proposal,” explained Byvelds. “The study indicated that there is enough vacant land throughout SDG to accommodate any growth for the next 20 years and as such, MMAH were not going to allow any expansion unless vacant land was traded off to do so.”

A trade off could mean that South Dundas loses potential employment lands completely, if the trade off is for land in another municipality within SDG.

South Stormont council is pushing the issue by passing a resolution supporting a proposed 260 hectare planning expansion of employment lands in South Stormont.

If approved by counties council, South Dundas would lose 160 hectares of potential employment lands and the other 100 hectares would come from other, much smaller vacant land parcels from all the other municipalities in SDG.

Counties council has made no decision on the matter, but it is expected that South Stormont will continue to push the issue.

“I acknowledge that some of the Morrisburg employment lands are wetland, however, I want to make sure the line is in the right place,” said Byvelds. The lines already exist on a map, and Byvelds is of the opinion that the designation extends too far to the south. 

If the lines were a little further north, it would move the buffer area away from the commercial properties South Dundas will market for commercial growth. 

Byvelds would like to see some of the vacant land being lost in South Dundas move to another area of South Dundas.

“I want to protect what we have and what we may be able to use in the future,” said Byvelds. “I am willing to work with our partners at SDG but it needs to be fair to South Dundas and all the townships.”

South Dundas and Counties staff will meet soon to determine a course of action.

“If it looks like things are changing, I would recommend South Dundas hires a firm to study the area and delineate the boundaries,” said Byvelds. “I strongly feel that there are less lands in the proposed wetland and it will be up to South Dundas to prove it, not MNR.  I know this does not sound right but it is the way it is for now.”

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