CEO of Accessibility at Business Summit

February 18, 2015 Editor News

Starting January 1, 2012, businesses were required to be in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act (AODA). Enacted in 2005, the AODA provides standards for accessibility in all areas of daily life.

Accessibility standards identify, remove and prevent barriers for people with disabilities in the areas such as Customer Service, Information and Communications, Employment, and Public Spaces. All businesses with one or more employees must meet a variety of mandatory requirements.

“Consideration of accessibility is not an option for a business. These days it’s a basic business practice.” explains Constance Exley, CEO of Accessibility Ontario. “We have an aging population and the numbers of Ontarians with a disability is increasing.”

Exley is one of two keynote speakers who will present at the 1st Annual South Dundas Business Summit, taking place on Thursday, February 26, at the McIntosh Country Inn in Morrisburg.

In its inaugural year, the South Dundas Business Summit will present a unique opportunity to hear expert speakers who will provide advice on accessibility for businesses. 

“The South Dundas Business Summit will provide business owners with a clear understanding of what they need to do to comply with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act,” explains South Dundas Economic Development Officer Nicole Sullivan.

“Businesses need to be proactive in their response to these changes in order to stay relevant to their customer base and to keep their competitive edge,” added Exley. “Accessibility does not need to be expensive or complicated, and there are many things you can do that are low cost or no cost.”

Exley’s workshop will specifically outline how accessibility can build profit, increase a customer base and facilitate employee engagement.

The AODA standards not only apply in the physical workspace, but also the web. 

Bernard Charlebois, Principal Consultant at Boumstrategies and Professor at La Cite Collegial, will speak on making websites and other e-business tools accessible to people with disabilities and the aging population.

The Business Summit is being hosted by the Morrisburg Downtown Business Improvement Association, the Municipality of South Dundas, the South Dundas Chamber of Commerce, and the Cornwall Business Enterprise Centre. 

It is presented by the Ontario BIA Association, with support from the Eastern Ontario Training Board and the Government of Ontario. 

To register or to make accommodations in order to attend, please contact: Nicole Sullivan, Economic Development Officer 613-543-2673 or nsullivan@southdundas.com

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Drought impacting local crops

July 18, 2012 Editor News

 

With an early spring and a dry, hot summer so far, many farmers in South Dundas are seeing significant signs of stress on their crops.
On July 11th, Archie Mellan, a local corn and soy bean farmer who also happens to be a member of the South Dundas council, shared his thoughts and concerns on the current drought situation and its effect on local crops.
“Some areas are worse than others,” said Mellan. During the last rainfall, he explained, his area in Hulbert had about three tenths of an inch of rain while a friend five miles to the north didn’t get any rain at all and friends in South Mountain had three quarters of an inch of rain.
“The rain has been sporadic, some fields are hurt worse than others,” he continued. “North of us, crops are starting to wilt pretty bad.”
“Fields are starting to dry up and if we don’t get rain in the next week, it’s hard to say what damage is done.”
According to Mellan, “hay could be at a premium, which affects dairy farmers who usually get three to four cuts of hay.”
“In some areas,” he said, “the first cut came off early and the second cut was below normal. Now, with no rain, there’s no re-growth” for the third and fourth cuts.
“The States are in the same situation as us and it’s serious enough here, not critical, but getting there.”
“Prices are going up just because of the drought in the States. What happens there sets the market for Canada.” Unfortunately, what is happening, said Mellan, is that prices are up, but yields, due to the current drought situation, are probably going to be low if things don’t soon change.
“It’d be nice to get an all day, one to two inches of rain. The lawns are turning brown and going dormant, the same as hay.”
“Corn is starting to tassel and the drought conditions have put it under stress (at this) critical stage.”
“This is sort of a critical point, in the next week or two,” continued Mellan, explaining that the yield depends on the pollen produced by the tassel (male part), which then falls onto the silk (female part) of the ears, eventually producing the cob of corn.
“We’re sort of ahead of schedule because of the early spring. For germination, the forming of that cob, you want adequate moisture there.”
“It’s not a do or die situation there,” said Mellan, “but if it continues to get dry, it could damage its potential” yield.
“In the next week or two,” he continued, “we really do need rain to ease the anxiety. It’s wilting a little bit every day.”
“The soy beans are getting along, but you can definitely see the stress out there.”
“The later planted crops are showing a bit more stress because the roots are not set down deep enough yet. Roots can go down a long way to find moisture.” According to Mellan, some farmers planted their corn fields later than others.
Another factor affecting a crop is the type of soil it’s planted in. “There’s a lot of variance in South Dundas,” said Mellan. There’s ground that is mostly sand or gravel-like that doesn’t hold moisture well at all and then there’s “heavy ground” that holds moisture really well.
“There can be significant difference in soil in a relatively short distance,” he continued, in the distance of “a mile to a mile and a half, it can go from sandy to heavy clay. That will play a big part in this too.”
Mellan also pointed out that the ground on the outer sides of the fields is always driest as well as ground near trees and fence lines.
Without some sort of irrigation system in place, Mellan explained that there’s not much to be done when “Mother Nature doesn’t want to play nice. It can have dire consequences.”
“Most of the crops have a tendency to bounce back and withstand a certain amount of drought,” he said. But, “when lawns turn brown, magnify that out to the fields. Unfortunately, you might already have some yield loss.”
He said there are some farmers who are spreading “liquid manure onto fields hoping, maybe, that the moisture will help the plants get growing, but there’s no real substitute for rain.”
He also pointed out that, legally, “you can’t just irrigate out of rivers and cricks and there’s not really much you can do to substitute for water.”
While crop insurance does exist and while it is a “valuable tool, it helps, yes, but it sure isn’t an end all, be all,” said Mellan. 
“Most farmers probably have it and it will cover your input cost, but you won’t make a lot of money. You’re farther ahead to harvest a good crop.”
If the drought doesn’t let up soon, Mellan said “it could have a very serious impact with severe financial implications.”
As for rain, he said, “we’ll take anything,” explaining that a hard, short rain is fine and “we’ll take that, but a lot of it runs off and doesn’t get a chance to soak into the ground.”
His recommendation to Mother Nature would be “a half inch, twice a week.”

[…]

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Final curtain call for Lea & Cow Patti, Boeing-Boeing to provide the last laughs

January 18, 2012 Editor News

 

It has been my great pleasure to produce professional theatre in the Seaway Valley. With this show, I will recognize and represent all things Cow Patti stands for.”

Those are the words of AnnaMarie Lea as she prepares to stage the final Cow Patti Theatre production  in the Seaway Valley at the Ramada Inn in Cornwall, this February.

For the final production, Lea has selected Marc Camoletti’s Boeing-Boeing for the last laughs of a hugely successful 11-year run that has produced 17 plays, 340 performances, 42 benefit performances, 106 actors and countless crew…and most impressively, attracted 34,000 guests.

With this upcoming show, Lea and The Ramada Hotel and Conference Centre are hoping to top $180,000 raised for various local charities through a handful of benefit shows in each of the runs. 

In addition to her Cow Patti productions in Cornwall, Lea is well known for her acting skills which she has shared and entertained us with, on the Cow Patti stage and the Upper Canada Playhouse stage in Morrisburg.

Although she returned with her family to Alberta in the summer of 2010, she was back in Cornwall last February for Cow Patti’s 10th anniversary, for which she staged Norm Foster’s My Darling Judith.

Lea told The Leader in a recent interview that her decision to make this year the final show for Cow Patti, was made so that ‘she could spend more time with her family.’

Cow Patti has successfully relaunched in Alberta, and that she suspects will keep her busy.

“We are closing the barn doors on Cow Patti in Eastern Ontario after our production of Boeing-Boeing from February 2-19,” says Lea in a press release. “We have been privileged to have produced for you for the last 11 years and are so grateful to have received such support and kindness from all of you.”

Lea promises that “first up with this production (Boeing-Boeing) will be laughter and plenty of it! This is notably one of the wittiest farces of our time and it goes without saying, we will compliment all this laughter with the Ramada’s superb buffets, which, guaranteed, will set your tummy in the mood for some great big belly laughs.”

“For the past 11 years, Cow Patti has prided itself on creating opportunity for Canadian artists and Boeing-Boeing will be no exception.”

The cast for Boeing-Boeing, which is a prequel to Don’t Dress for Dinner staged by Cow Patti in 2010, includes well known actors Garfield Andrews and Susan Greenfield, who have graced the Cow Patti Stage numerous times in the past, and Lea herself.

Joining them are actors Kate Gordon, Katie Lawson and Jamie Williams. Richard Bauer, who directed Don’t Dress for Dinner, is returning to direct Cow Patti’s last act.

In Boeing-Boeing, it’s airline stewardesses, fiancées and a romantic air traffic controller/maid, (played by Lea), and best friends Bernard and Robert who got themselves into quite a mess in, Don’t Dress for Dinner. Seems this time around, Bernard has three fiancees, who all, unfortunately, experience changes to their flight plans.

Lea says tickets sales, which kicked off before Christmas for Boeing-Boeing are ‘quite good’. The annual Cow Patti productions have become  popular Valentine’s celebrations and with Valentine’s Day this year falling on Tuesday, the celebration is stretching through the weekend of February 10-12 as well as on the 14th.

Boeing-Boeing opens on Thursday, February 2 and runs through Sunday, February 19. There is no theatre on Mondays. Dinner and brunch theatre tickets are available in addition to afternoon and evening cabaret tickets. For information or to book tickets visit www.cowpatti.com or call the Ramada at 1-877-552-9166.

If you are planning to make Cow Patti and Boeing-Boeing part of your Valentine celebration, don’t delay.

 

[…]

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$2 million Lakeshore sewer job to break ground after Tubies

July 24, 2013 Editor News

 

A $2 million sewer and water project that will see 1,050 meters of roadway from Canada Way west to the first bridge of Lakeshore Drive dug up this summer will get started as soon as possible.

The project will include sanitary sewer and watermain replacement, storm sewer improvements and the necessary road and sidewalk rehabilitations.

Although it was agreed that work should start as soon as possible, South Dundas Mayor Steven Byvelds, asked that work not start until after Tubie weekend, the 43-year old summer event that attracts large crowds to the Morrisburg waterfront and includes a parade along that stretch of road.

This sewer replacement work was identified as a high priority in the inflow and infiltration study done on the Morrisburg sewer system. 

It is expected that the completion of this work will eliminate or reduce the risk of basement flooding, for which there is a history at several residences along Lakeshore Drive in Morrisburg.

This project includes up-sizing the sewer to accommodate expansion of the collection system to the west limit of the village allowing residents currently on private septic system, as well as future developments to connect to the sanitary sewer, according to the report to council by South Dundas chief administrative officer Steve McDonald.

Todd Grant of AECOM, the project managers, said the hope is that throughout the construction they will be able to maintain a lane to let traffic flow through the area.

“This will be a mess while it’s going on, but in the end it will be worth it,” said South Dundas mayor Steven Byvelds.

The sanitary sewer work will be funded by the Government of Ontario under the Strategic Investments Funding for the sanitary sewer rehabilitation program. The watermain replacement will be funded through water capital replacement and water rate stabilization reserves and storm sewer work will be funded by the United Counties of SD&G. 

South Dundas council awarded the project tender to Cornwall Gravel at the July 16 regular council meeting. 

Four bids were received, ranging in price from $2 million to $2.5 million. Cornwall Gravel submitted the lowest bid.

[…]

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