South Dundas hires fire chief

On October 17, 2012, at a scheduled meeting of the Canadian Club, Catherine Merkley, a Morrisburg resident, will be reuniting with her now famous former boss, Robert R. Fowler.  

Merkley worked for Fowler when he was the Deputy Minister in the Department of National Defence (DND) in Ottawa in the early 1990s.  He was then posted to be a Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations in 1995.  

Merkley went to New York for an “all girls weekend” in 1996 and visited Fowler and his family at his residence in downtown New York City.  

From 1990 to 1995, Merkley was Fowler’s Administrative Assistant dealing with the Prime Minister’s Office, Privy Council Office, Minister of National Defence, all other Group Principals within the DND and Other Government Departments, at a trying time for DND, that being during the Somalia Affair and the disbanding of the Airborne Regiment.  

When Fowler was posted to the UN, Merkley was transferred to a Staff Officer position in the Personnel Group working for Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire (now a Quebec Senator) and working with General Rick Hillier, (who later became the Chief of the Defence Staff, the highest ranking military position in the DND).  

Merkley’s next position was that of the first female civilian Coordinator after the move of the Canadian Army Headquarters to Ottawa, then she became an Administration Manager for the first DNDCanadian Forces Ombudsman, Andre Marin, and finally she was promoted to the Human Resources Manager position with the Judge Advocate General (the military lawyers for DND).   

Merkley took early retirement, after 28 years service as a civilian with DND, in 2005 to move back to her roots, near Chesterville.  

In 2008, when Fowler was kidnapped by the Al-Qaeda, Fowler’s former personal staff of 10 employees, including Merkley, most of whom are still in the National Capital Region, were in constant contact via E-mail.  The minute Fowler was released they sighed a huge sigh of relief.  

As soon as Fowler’s book “A Season in Hell – My 130 Days in the Sahara with Al Qaeda” was published, Merkley rushed out to buy a copy and hopes to have it personally autographed by him at the meeting.  

October 17, 2012 will be their first time seeing each other since 1996.  

In 2007, Merkley, with her husband, Kevin, moved to their retirement home on County Road 4 just outside of Morrisburg.  Since that time, Merkley has been a Family Law Assistant for the local law firm of Gorrell, Grenkie and Remillard, acting as Family Law Assistant to J. Douglas Grenkie.

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A September 16 letter distributed to residents in the vicinity of the Universal dock indicates that changes have been made to the proposal to build an export grain terminal at the UTI site.

The proposal has been modified to locate the proposed 105’ diameter by 90’ tall grain bins, that were met with much disapproval from area residents, on UTI property, north of County Road 4 (Lakeshore Drive), rather than on the south side as originally proposed.

According to the letter, the proposed location is on the east side of the property approximately 120 meters east of the north/south internal access road that exists on the UTI site today.

“The grain bins will be aligned in a south to north configuration so that only lone bin is located close to Lakeshore and the second and possible expansion of bins are located to the north of the first bin,” say project proponents Tom Kaneb and Ben Currelly.

The proposal includes an enclosed conveyor over Lakeshore Drive to move grain from the bins on the north of the road to the south east end of the dock. A portable conveyor and ship loading stacker will be used when ships are loaded or unloaded.

According to Kaneb, “We have proposed locating the grain bins and truck area on the north side of Lakeshore to minimize the impact on the view of the St. Lawrence River from Lakeshore Road, to minimize the impact on the view of the neighbours, and to not have trucks cross Lakeshore.”

“Ontario farmers are expecting another bumper crop of soy beans and corn, emphasizing the need for an export terminal that will enable area farmers to access global markets effectively,” said Kaneb.

“Construction must await the acquisition of the required permits,” he added. “We are in the midst of that process now.”

Asked what these changes mean to the concerned citizens group opposed to this project, Gerben Schaillee, a member of the group says, “It really changes nothing. The zoning is incorrect.”

Lesley Rowntree, who is also part of the concerned citizens group, said the group has discussed the recent changes to the proposal. “The consensus is, it doesn’t change the illegality of putting a grain terminal on land that is zoned for light industrial use.” She said that though the changes would be better, visually for the area, any discussion of the impact is purely hypothetical. 

“Yes, if the proposal was legal, it would be marginally better,” said Rowntree. 

According to Rowntree, this project, if allowed to go ahead, would negatively impact more than just residents in the vicinity of the dock. She mentioned the Lakeshore Drive is part of the Waterfront Trail, which brings those in the booming cycling tourism industry to the area. She also said that the impact of increased truck traffic would be felt much farther out than the immediate area of the UTI property.

“This whole scheme is of little advantage to anyone in South Dundas,” according to Rowntree. “It would only result in a couple of jobs, the Waterfront Trail would be ruined and noisy trucks would be travelling through our rural towns. This transforms the entire nature of the area.”

She concedes that farmers may benefit, but sees expansion of the port at Prescott, as a more appropriate alternative, since the government has already subsidized that port with Canadian tax dollars.

Should South Dundas choose to issue a building permit for the proposed development in its new location, the threat of litigation by the concerned citizens group still stands.

Despite her opposition to the project, Rowntree is thankful that Kaneb has been so open with area residents about the details of this proposed project.

Grain terminal proponents have been in contact with the municipality regarding the new site plan. “They still have to satisfy applicable law to obtain a building permit,” said South Dundas chief administrative officer Steve McDonald. He is unsure of the current status of the application for this new location.

[…]

South Dundas is a community founded on farming and the agricultural life. 

This was really evident on Tuesday, May 19, when students and staff at Seaway District High School took part in the 4th Annual Hay Day, held in the track area, a school-wide event organized and run by teacher Robert Knapp and students enrolled in the combined Agriculture/Transportation program, a specialty program at the school. There were tractors in the student parking lot, sheep, chickens, pheasants and a calf under the trees, hunting information, giant tractor tires to roll, wheelbarrows to race, hay to hurl and an hilarious variation on the horse shoe toss which featured toilet seats. (“New toilet seats,” laughed Knapp.)

“Today is a lot of fun for the teachers and the students,” Knapp explained. “My students run each of the events, and the Seaway kids and staff are all organized into teams to take part. I find that this is one of the school activities where almost every kid takes part. Events like this get us back to our farming roots, reminding people of the importance of agriculture in this community. And just to further demonstrate that, we usually hold Hay Day a little earlier in the month, but we pushed the Day back to accommodate the late planting season this year.”

The community helped out with the day. Rooneys provided the grain sacks, hay and straw was delivered by area farmers, and local callers demonstrated goose and wild turkey calls, camouflage gear and the use of wild bird decoys in proper hunting techniques.

Hay Day ran from 9:15 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. at the school. 

[…]