Waterfront committee recruiting, looking towards future projects

 Sandra Whitworth, board member for the St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage, could only talk in superlatives as she described The Crooked Brothers and Manitoba Hal as totally “fantastic musicians.” 

“I saw them both at this year’s Ontario Council of Folk Festivals and was blown away,” Whitworth said. “I am personally, let me underline this, really looking forward to this show.”

The  artists will be performing  at the Stage in Morrisburg on Saturday, April 14, part of the St. Lawrence 2012 concert series.

Manitoba Hal, who will open the concert, is an accomplished guitarist, song writer and ukulele player. His is a unique and striking blues style: his ukulele finger picking and strumming has won him Canadian and international awards and election to the Ukulele Hall of Fame in 2001. 

The Crooked Brothers,  Jesse Matas, Darwin Baker and Matt Foster, are brothers spiritually and musically, brought together four years ago by a shared passion for music, song writing and performing. They have released critically acclaimed albums including 17 Horses and 2011’s Lawrence Where’s Your Knife, a mixture of old and new works. “I guess you’d have to say that, with us, music is a virus that never goes away,” explained Darwin Baker.

The Leader had the opportunity to talk to Hal and Darwin about their music.

Hal laughed when I asked him how an East Coast native, who plays a completely non traditional blues instrument like the ukulele, became Manitoba Hal. 

“About 17 years ago, my grandfather handed me a 1955 Martin ukulele and made me promise to learn to play it.  I learned to play, on my own, strictly by learning to read sheet music. I love the blues, and to me the ukulele carries a huge amount of melancholy under the surface. It creates a bittersweet sound that is utterly remarkable.”

Now using a specially built double neck ukulele, a “radio sonic” built for him by Fred Casey, Hal is able to loop his music to create a literal one man band on stage. 

“Blues is honest and true music,” Hal said. “It’s music based in raw human emotion. I think the Crooked Brothers also tap into this emotion.

After all, a bluesman might sing of evils as a way of driving them away, making listeners feel better. There’s a lot of hope in this music. Since I learned my blues at the feet of Big Dave McLean, that distinct prairie sound is still part of me.”

His newest release, January 2012, is Flirting With Mermaids, of which Manitoba Hal says, tongue in cheek, “imagine the blues meeting an East Coast side show, and you have a sense of this album.”

Manitoba Hal will also be holding a special workshop on Saturday afternoon.

“I work at the level of the  workshop participants,” he said, “because when I teach I also learn. I am passionate about making ukulele knowledge available to others.” 

The Crooked Brothers, who will soon be leaving on a European tour,  starting in Paris, are versatile western artists, for whom, as spokesman Darwin Baker put it, “music is our life.”

“Our dream has always been to be genuinely touring musicians, going to new places and new cities, keeping our music and ideas fresh.”

 In four years of performing across the country, band members got into the habit of passing instruments around. “We all play acoustic guitar (love the unique sound of wood and metal vibrating together), mandolin, banjo, dobro and harmonica. In Morrisburg we will also have Zoe on the bass.”

Matt Foster and Darwin had performed together in other bands when they were joined by Jesse Matas. “We began playing together but twisting and stretching the music a bit for a unique sound. And eventually,” he laughed, “while we were waiting for a ‘real singer’ we all began singing by default.”

The Crooked Brothers describe their music as “roots, but that is kind of a blanket term. There is a strong blue grass flavour to our sound, and we like to actively seek out new sounds and instruments.”

Baker described the Brothers’ music as a “kind of catharsis, with some sadder and darker themes underlying, but there is also a lot of imagery from nature and our travels mixed in. We all write: then our jamming sessions in the lake cabin (Falcon Lake, Manitoba) can turn into something new and exciting like 17 Horses.”

The Brothers are looking forward to the St. Lawrence Stage. “We love playing live, whether the audience is in a rowdy bar, or in a concert hall. I think we are going to perform some more intimate and introspective songs in Morrisburg. And of course,” Baker added, laughing, “we’ll also play our rockers.”

Registration for the ukulele workshop and tickets for the 7 p.m., April 14 concert, at the Morrisburg Meeting Centre ($15 in advance, $18 at the door) are available at the Basket Case, Strung Out Guitars or www.st-lawrencestage.com 

[…]

The tenders for the rehabilitation of the Morrisburg Collegiate Institute building left municipal officials with  sticker shock when the bids came in about a million dollars higher than they had expected, so much so that have not yet decided how they will proceed with the project.

Since the bids to convert the historic building into a new clinic and administrative facility were opened about a month ago, municipal staff, project managers and the design team have undertaken much analysis and research to prepare a report for council which was presented at the Aug. 14 meeting.

Municipal officials had expected to see bids in the range of $3 million, but instead the prices submitted by the pre-qualified contractors were in the $4 million range, with the lowest coming it at almost $3.9 million.

“It became apparent, as the project evolved, that it was a very complex project – maintaining the heritage aspects of the building while upgrading it to current standards,” reported Stephen McDonald, South Dundas chief administrative officer. “And, it can be assumed that the complexity of the project is reflected in the prices.”

The renovation project will consist of removing everything but the shell and will cost about $150 per square foot. The 20 year borrowing costs to finance the large scale project are equivalent to a tax increase of 2 to 3.5 percent, depending on the success of South Dundas’ Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund application. 

“The township has applied for $1 million funding under the CIIF,” reported McDonald. “This program is for existing infrastructure only and a new building would not be eligible to receive funding.”

According to the report presented to council the financial cost to construct a new building will be at least $6 million, not to mention the cost of lost time in getting such a project underway. 

South Dundas mayor Steven Byvelds asked council to state their preferred direction for staff offering up the options of; doing nothing, going with the project as presented, starting over with a new building or deferring the decision until September to allow them time to gauge the public’s reaction. 

“I don’t think doing nothing is a good option,” said the mayor.

Only South Dundas councillor Jim Graham was willing to make a decision to get the project moving. 

“Everybody was surprised by the cost, that’s for sure,” he said. “But if we don’t go ahead there’s a ripple effect to a lot of other plans. I think the time has come that we have to present an image that we are open for business. I am ready to support this, as is.”

“Going to the public, we won’t get a consensus,” said Graham. “This is a decision we, as a council will have to make. That’s what we’re here for.”

“We obviously can’t afford a new building, so it’s the old building or nothing. I definitely don’t think doing nothing is an option,” said Graham.

Every member of council agreed that doing nothing is not an option. 

South Dundas councillor Evonne Delegarde is supporting starting over and pursuing a new building. “With the rehabilitation, we’ll still have an old building,” she said. “It’s hard to believe it will cost that much more to build a new building.”

CAO McDonald pointed out that a similar new building project now taking place in Winchester shows that  the numbers presented in the report are accurate and valid.

Delegarde also suggested going back to the doctors of the St. Lawrence Medical Clinic to contribute more money to the project, now that the actual costs have come in higher than anticipated.

“It is a tough decision,” said South Dundas deputy mayor Jim Locke, who was not yet willing to make a final decision. However he did say, “If we do nothing with that building, I feel it will have to come down. We can’t leave it sit there with snow fence around it.”

South Dundas councillor Archie Mellan, like Locke, was not willing to make a decision. “I’m not prepared tonight to say one way or another,” he said, later adding that he will be prepared to make a decision at the next council meeting. “I’ll tell you then, which side of the fence I’m jumping to.”

Mayor Byvelds said, “My leaning is to go ahead and bring this project to fruition.” However, he was willing to respect his fellow councillors who have not yet decided and support deferral until the next meeting.

“We’ll let this settle out within the public sphere,” he said. “As a council, it’s our responsibility to listen. Listen well, but filter through it,” he told council. 

The decision will be made at the September 4 council meeting.

[…]

Almost $140,000 will be spent on consultants this year.

During recent budget deliberations, South Dundas council was presented with a number of different projects for which professional, expert, third party advice of consultants was deemed important.

Studies that were given budget approval were $57,000 for the expansion of the Williamsburg landfill site, and $40,000 for South Dundas’ asset management plan. Both of these studies are necessary, to meet provincial requirements.

Council chose to allocate funds of $30,000 towards a new Fire Master Plan.

This study, is a follow up on the study several years ago that resulted in South Dundas deciding to amalgamate its fire departments and to hire a full time fire chief. 

The purpose of this study is to project where South Dundas should focus its training for delivery of service. It too will focus on the distribution of equipment between the three stations.

“We are biased if we do this ourselves,” said Fire Chief Chris McDonough. “We really need a third party to come in and do this properly.”

This plan will also provide third party advice on future equipment purchases, a key component that prompted council to decide to allocate funds for this study in this year’s budget.

Another study that received budget approval is hoped to alleviate long time parking and traffic issues at the Morrisburg waterfront. Council decided to set aside $30,000 for a professional traffic study of the area. Another $20,000 was earmarked for that project for potential early implementation measures. 

Horticultural consulting, based on recommendations from the community strategic plan, was also approved by council, so $10,000 was set aside for the study and another $10,000 was set aside for the implementation of some of its recommendations.

Not all of the consulting recommendations made the cut at budget time.

A $25,000 study for the recreation programming department proposed to examine the feasibility, content and potential location for a multi-use recreation facility was cut.

Realistically, the bricks and mortar stage of such a project would not be realized for about five years, according to the mayor and CAO.

“I don’t want to spend the money now, and then have the next council put it on a shelf,” said South Dundas mayor Steven Byvelds at the March 11, budget meeting. “We should not do the study until the project is realistically within our sights,” agreed South Dundas councillor Archie Mellan.

Council agreed to wait a year to go ahead with the study to allow time to search for funding opportunities.

[…]