South Dundas Seniors Enjoy Lions’ Christmas Party

“This community has, as always, been very generous, even in these difficult times, with our Angel Tree drive,” said Morrisburg & District Lion, Wayne Domanko, chair of the 2012 Angel Tree drive in South Dundas. “The drive is designed to provide gifts for area children who might otherwise not receive a present this Christmas morning.”

Helping the Lions to make this a successful drive were the Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank and SDS Kerr. The Morrisburg Legion, Branch #48, the Ladies Auxiliary, Canadian Tire, the South Williamsburg Recreation Association, St. Mary-St. Cecilia grade eights and Morrisburg Public School’s Penny Drive, all made generous donations to the Angel Tree. 

Lions and spouses will organize the gifts, make some additional purchases and deliver the presents to the Legion on December 19, to be turned over to the South Dundas Christmas Exchange. “I am deeply appreciative of the work and financial contributions all our donors have carried out to make this a special Christmas for our kids,” Domanko said. "All the schools and businesses have been enormously supportive of our efforts."

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Last week, Homestead Organics shipped out its first test batches of grain from its Morrisburg location. 

The Berwick based businesses last December bought a Morrisburg facility to expand its operations.

Operations at the Morrisburg site have started at the Allison Avenue building where they are currently focused on organic grain cleaning for human consumption, especially soyabeans.

Homestead Organics buys grain from farmers in the region and puts it through a five stage cleaning process. The cleaned grain is bagged and shipped to customers which include La Soyarie, which manufactures tofu sold in Eastern Ontario and Quebec. “We ship them 20 tonnes in bags every three weeks,” said Homestead Organics owner Tom Manley, who with his son Yannick, plant engineer, showed The Leader through the operational plant and described the process. 

Their cleaned grains are also shipped to leading U.S. and Canadian suppliers including Vita Soy,  weekly, and So Nice which is another of Homestead Organics’ main customers. Other grains including rye, wheat and corn are also cleaned and shipped to food processors, such as flour mills.

Getting the facility operational for grain cleaning involved some renovations, which took a little longer than anticipated, but the Manleys are happy to have started commissioning and testing.

Part of the renovation was the replacement of existing liquid storage tanks with new grain bins capable of holding 45 tonnes, with the larger bin having a 100 tonne capacity. “These bins are for short term processing needs, not storage,” said Tom.

Up until now, the testing has been done with produce from last year’s harvest, and they are looking forward to the new crops which should be coming in next week.

Homestead Organics currently has 2-3 people working at the Morrisburg location daily. For now, the rest of the business, which encompasses feed manufacturing and administration and sales, remains in Berwick.

Tom explains that the second phase of the move will take place when financially feasible. He suggests that the rest of the move may even be able to take place this coming year.

Homestead Organics currently has a total of 14 employees, and is growing with new growth opportunities.

Homestead Organics also has a future plan for a factory outlet at the Morrisburg site for consumer traffic.

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By the narrowest of margins, the SDG County Library Board passed motion, at the June 20 meeting that will keep a library in Williamsburg.

In a 4-3 recorded vote, the motion states that library staff will work with South Dundas to find a suitable location in Williamsburg for a branch of the SDG Library system. 

“It is now up to South Dundas to move forward on sourcing a suitable location for the Branch,” said South Dundas deputy mayor Jim Locke, who is a member of the library board. Locke voted in favour of keeping a branch of the library in Williamsburg.

“We are pleased with the result of the library board meeting,” said Kharla Ward, one of the library users who fought to keep a library in Williamsburg. 

“As time is of the essence, we look forward to working with the library board and the South Dundas council to settle into a new location before the August 1, 2013 deadline.” 

The library has been asked to vacate the space by August 1, in order for South Dundas’ new building tenants, the TR Leger School of Adult and Alternative Education to move in. 

According to Ward, committee members, along with Mayor Steven Byvelds and Deputy Mayor Jim Locke, have looked at a house, a commercial building (the former Canadian Tire) and have also discussed the possibility of a new building for the Williamsburg branch of the library at J.C. Whitteker Park. She also mentioned that perhaps T.R. Leger could still consider finding them a space.

While Byvelds and Locke did participate in one meeting, with the Friends group to discuss potential locations, it will be up to South Dundas staff, library staff and the Friends organization to choose a location and then bring their proposal to South Dundas council for funding approval.

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