News

OPP are in the midst of a distracted driving campaign that includes public education and targeted enforcement.

Twelve distracted driving-related deaths have already been reported this year.

The OPP’s 2015 collision data is shaping up to see a seventh consecutive year in which inattentive driving surpasses impaired driving as a causal factor in the fatal collisions it investigates.  

Both of these fatality categories are dangerous, preventable driving behaviours that result in the senseless loss of life on Ontario roads every year. 

OPP collision data reveals that driver inattention was a causal factor in 12 of this year’s 51 fatal collisions to date. 

In five of the fatal incidents, it was the driver who was found to be driving inattentively who died.  

In two incidents, the driver who died did nothing wrong and was driving properly at the time of the collision.  

Three of the incidents involved a pedestrian being struck by a vehicle. 

Nine of the deceased were males, three were females and their ages range from 33 to 88 years old.

Locally, Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry (SD&G) OPP officers are focusing their efforts on curbing this dangerous habit on area roadways in the Untied Counties.

“Distracted driving is a danger to all road users. Fortunately, these same road users are in a position to help put a stop to it. We want to see everyone develop and maintain a complete intolerance for distracted driving and make it the socially unacceptable driving behaviour that it should be,” said Chief Superintendent Chuck Cox, Commander of the OPP Highway Safety Division.  

What can you do to help?

• Be mindful that distracted driving  poses a significant  threat to the well-being of your family and friends; 

• Start conversations about distracted driving with your family, your friends, your colleagues and shed the negative light on it that it deserves;  

• If you are in a vehicle being driven by someone who is driving while distracted, always speak up. Be firm and say: “Enough! Too many people are dying because of distracted driving.  It needs to stop and you need to stop”. Make this your new attitude every day. 

• If you see someone driving in a dangerous manner while driving distracted, call 9-1-1 to report them.

• Be self-disciplined every time you get behind the wheel; do not allow yourself to be distracted in any way while you are driving. 

[…]

Campers at the Iroquois Municipal Campground haven’t seen a rate increase for seven years, but that will change this year.

South Dundas council approved a 5.4 per cent increase to daily site rentals, during recent budget deliberations.

With the increase, unserviced sites will go up to $22.15, 15 amp serviced sites to $24.90 and 30 amp sites to $27.67.

“We’re low compared to everyone else,” said South Dundas clerk Brenda Brunt. Weekly, monthly and seasonal rates will see similar increases.

The campsite makes money for the money for the municipality. Some of the revenues will be rolled into needed service upgrades, and it has been suggested that surplus could help support the efforts of the Iroquois waterfront committee.

[…]

Ontario Power Generation wishes to advise hunters, anglers and recreational boaters on the St. Lawrence River that ice booms will be removed from narrow stretches of the river, starting on Mar. 23, 2015.

These booms, which were placed in the river off Galop Island, in the North Channel, near Johnstown and at Prescott, are chain-and-wood devices used to prevent the build-up of ice during the winter. They ensured an even freeze on the river, helping to improve power generation during the winter months.

All users of the river should take extra care in the narrow reaches where the work is being undertaken to remove the booms.

Ice booms are placed in the same narrow reaches of the St. Lawrence River each November and removed in the spring when the ice has melted, before the St. Lawrence Seaway shipping season commences.

Ontario Power Generation would like to remind boaters to take every precaution around its dams and generating stations, and to practice safety on Ontario’s waterways.

To learn more about water safety, please visit www.opg.com/watersafety and www.stayclearstaysafe.ca

[…]

The Morrisburg Canada Day Committee is getting ready to have a laugh to support the fun-filled Canada Day event that they are planning for July 1, 2015.

The commitee is bringing back the popular Yuk Yuks comedy show, with proceeds going towards Canada Day 2015 in Morrisburg.

The funds support the general activities of the day, which include a petting zoo, rides and more.

The Yuk Yuks fundraiser was so popular last year that it sold out, so organizers recommend that those planning to attend book their tables, and buy their tickets early.

“It was really well supported last year, so we hope everyone who joined us last year, will do the same again this year,” said Canada Committee member Viviane Martin.

The Yuk Yuks comedy show, headlined by returning favourite Chris Quigley, takes place March 28, 2015, 7 p.m., at the Morrisburg Legion. 

Tickets can be purchased in various locations throughout the community. Entire tables can be reserved by contacting Jim and Viviane Martin at 613-543-0779.

Viviane and Jim Martin are part of the Canada Day Committee, which is a stand alone organization with the mandate of hosting Morrisburg’s Canada Day festivities. It is not affiliated with any other service organization or the municipality.

“We do this strictly to volunteer for this for the community,” said Jim Martin. “This day wouldn’t happen, if it weren’t for these volunteers,” added Viviane.

The committee has recently lost some of its volunteers due to various life circumstances, and is in need of some new members. They welcome anyone willing to join the group, and are open to new ideas. 

[…]

With food bank usage reaching unprecedented levels, the cost of food rising, and the ongoing project to move the Morrisburg location of the Dundas County Food Bank, the new board of directors have turned their focus to increasing donations.

Food bank volunteers stepping down from the positions they held with the food bank, reiterated the fact that donations need to be the boards focus going forward, at the organization’s annual general meeting held March 9, at the Hartford Retirement Residence in Morrisburg.

“I have projected an increase in donations, as the board hopes to encourage more as they go forward,” said Dave King, who will be stepping away from his duties as treasurer.  

Last year, just over $96,000 worth of monetary donations were received by the Dundas County Food Bank.

“I must emphasize the importance of our donor base,” said Alvin Runnalls, in his last report as chair of the Dundas County Food Bank. He too will step away from the DCFB. “Everything hinges on donations of cash and food from corporations, business organizations, service clubs and many individuals. We are extremely thankful for the generosity.”

While the money donated amounted to $96,000, the value of the food that went out the door to families in need was $173,343. 

That food was included in 2,063 boxes of food that fed 6,231 people over the year, 40 per cent of whom are children. 

Of the families who received food items last year, 36 per cent receive disability income, 24 per cent Ontario Works income, and 18 per cent fall into the category of working poor.

According to Judy Hilson, coordinator for the Winchester location of the food bank, the value of food is up about three per cent over the previous year, while the total amount of food distributed was about 14 per cent more than last year.

About one-third of food in the food boxes distributed is purchased from the food budget. The other two-thirds are food items donated to the food bank.

Last year, $60,000 was budgeted for food purchasing, but $73,600 was spent on food. With the 14 per cent increase in food bank visits seen over the last year, the food purchasing budget was increased to $80,000 for 2015. 

The Morrisburg food bank location continues to see its numbers rise at a faster pace than Winchester. About 58 per cent of food boxes were distributed from the Morrisburg location.

Work is progressing on the renovation of the food bank space at the Morrisburg arena. According to Brian Cox, who delivered the building committee report, the move into the new space is likely to take place towards the end of May. The Municipality of South Dundas has arranged an interest free loan for the food bank for the renovations.

“Our client base has grown substantially over the past year and we project the same increase this year,” said Ian McKelvie, DCFB administrator. “If we are to overcome deficits in the future, we need to become more assertive in our fundraising efforts.”

Following the AGM, the 2015 board of directors was elected. The executive includes, Terry Triskle, chair, Jim Millard, vice chair, Celeste Guse, secretary, and Wendy Weagant, treasurer. Directors are Terry Green, Laura Harbers, Bill Steele, James Tripp, Arie Vandodewaard, Jim Wilson and Joanne Havekes.

[…]

 

 “This community is fantastic,” said Bill Britton, as he greeted people at the fundraiser held for his family on Saturday, March 7, at the Morrisburg Legion. “All these people have come out to show that they care, and it’s just overwhelming. Many of these are people Ethel and I don’t even know, but they have called us and mailed notes and donations to us. Thank you is just not enough for this kindness. We are very thrilled.”

Bill and Ethel Britton lost their barn in a fire on January 27, an accidental blaze which also claimed the lives of a lama and several breeding angora goats. A horse, other goats, pot-bellied pigs and lamas were rescued at the time. There was no insurance to cover the loss of the live-stock and the structure.

At this point, Kim Lalonde and Lindsay Wells, co-workers of Ethel’s at the Woodland Villa, stepped up to organize a fundraiser called Help the Brittons, which took place at the Morrisburg Legion all day Saturday, March 7. With the help of many other co-workers and volunteers, the event was five weeks in the planning and featured live entertainment, a silent auction, a yard sale, baked goods, a home-made chili dinner, raffle tickets and a table for donations. Saturday’s event raised $12,229.30  towards the cost of a new barn on the Britton property. However, funds are still coming in, and donations can still be made at gofundme.com/10yk64.

“Ethel and Bill are really kind-hearted people who have always given to others,” said Kim Lalonde. “We felt that it was their time to receive.”

The organizers were also overwhelmed by the response to their fundraiser. “It’s been an unbelievable turn-out. And the support from the community was just amazing. We had 140 auction items given to us by businesses and individuals, and there were all kinds of things at the yard sale. The generosity of the community just blew me away. We are thrilled with the support shown to this fundraiser. Everything we raised will go to the barn building fund.”

There were several entertainers on hand throughout the day. Marc Rivette did an Elvis tribute, John Mondoux provided karaoke, Graham Jacques and The Sons of Gord entertained with songs live on stage. “The entertainment was terrific,” Lalonde said.

Ethel Britton found it hard not to have tears in her eyes as she talked about the fundraiser. “The organizers of this event are angels,” she said. “Small towns are just great places to be. What a wonderful community.” She hopes that the foundations of the old barn are still good, but the burned remains on the site will have to be buried. “We are really hoping for a spring start to re-building,” she said. “Actually, everyone we’ve talked to wished that the community could turn out for an old-fashioned barn raising.”

The rescued animals are all doing fine, the Brittons said. They are currently keeping six bottle baby angora goats in their home. Friends and neighbours took in the Britton animals following the fire.

“The pigs went to Kemptville, the horse and sheep to Toy Storage. The male goats are at the Tuxedo Llama Ranch, the females at Greg DeJong’s. Some of our animals were taken in by the Vanderland Petting Zoo,” explained Bill Britton.

The fundraiser brings the hope of a new start in the spring for the Britton family.

“I’m still overwhelmed,” Ethel said, tearfully. “There has been such kindness and love shown to us, with people constantly saying, what can we do for you. We’re going to have a lot of ‘paying it forward’ to do in the future.”  

[…]

EDP Renewables will pay almost $2.7 million to compensate for road deterioration caused from the construction of the South Branch Wind Farm.

South Branch project manager Ken Little and South Dundas council and staff gathered Monday at the South Dundas Municipal Centre in Morrisburg to announce the  figures determined through an extensive road user agreement between EDP, the United Counties of SDG and the municipalities of North and South Dundas.

As a result of the agreed upon formula, SDG will receive $1.697 million.

“This money provides fair compensation for the deterioration to the roads,” said Benjamin de Haan, County Engineer, United Counties of SDG. “The Counties appreciate the cooperation and corporate responsibility shown by EDP throughout the evaluation process.”

“Today’s settlement with EDP has enabled us to protect our county and municipal roads system. We wanted to make sure taxpayers in SDG were compensated for any damaged roads and infrastructure during the construction, and this agreement does just that,” said Eric Duncan, Warden, United Counties of SDG.

According to United Counties councillor, South Dundas deputy mayor Jim Locke, it is intended that those funds will go towards counties roads infrastructure in South Dundas. 

However, it will be up to Counties council to determine where best to allocate the settlement funds.

The Township of North Dundas will receive $118,590 for local roads compensation.

The Municipality of South Dundas, where the bulk of road use occurred for the Brinston-area wind project, will receive compensation of $868,500.

According to South Dundas mayor Evonne Delegarde, those funds will go into South Dundas reserves, until council receives a report, including recommendations from public works manager Chris Bazinet about how the money is best spent.

Bazinet said that Irish Headline Road received the most damage during the wind farm construction, he revealed that his recommendations for expenditures, will be based on the details of the asset management plan. 

Ken Little said that this amount of payout for road use is probably higher than normal for a project the size of the 30 mW South Branch Wind Farm, but it is reflective of the length of road they needed to use. 

“This was a long delivery route,” said Little.

The South Branch Wind Farm delivery route encompassed about 35 km of Counties roads, 23 km of South Dundas roads and 3 km of Irish Headline Road, which is a boundary road shared between North  Dundas and South Dundas.

The allocation of the money received is at the discretion of council, not necessarily meaning immediate roadwork to the delivery route routes. 

This week, work on one of the northern turbines of the South Branch Wind Farm is taking place, with the replacement of a main bearing.

EDP is working towards future wind farm projects in North Stormont and South Dundas.

Little said that if capacity is available, they are looking at an area east of the South Branch Wind Farm. 

Available capacity will determine the size of the project proposal.

Next week, a committee formed to make recommendations to council regarding the $30,000 annual South Branch Community Fund will hold its first formal meeting.

[…]

Dundas Soil and Crop Imporvement Association of Dundas County hosted the annual  Seed, Forage and Agriculture Show March 6, at Matilda Hall.

Perrenial Premier Exhibitor award winner Francis Henderson of Terrdale Farms was once again awarded the title.

Terrdale Farms took home numerous awards including;  Premier Forage Exhibitor, Champion Forage Exhibit, Reserve Champion Forage Exhibit, Champion Haylage Exhibit, Champion Dry Hay Exhibit, Premier Seed Exhibitor, Champion Corn Silage, Champion Cereal Exhibit, First Place, Wheat in Field Crop Classes and Champion Special Shelled Corn Bin Classes.

Reserve premier exhibitor was Ian and Tracy Porteous of Ayrporte Farm. They were also Reserve Forage Exhibitor.

Tracy told The Leader, that they had a decent growing season last year, resulting in the produce submitted for judging at Friday’s show.

“For us, we grow IP (identity protected) beans so we had none of the mould problem that ocurred throughout much of Eastern Ontario.

“Hay, as always, it was a challenge to get it off dry,” she added.

For corn, she said they experienced a good season having adequate heat units.

“In the end, we got everything off in good time. We had a good fall. There was lots of opportunity to get the crops off in the fall, because the snow didn’t come until later.”

Tibben Farms Inc. picked up the Champion Shelled Corn and Champion Soybean Exhibit awards.

Dave Chambers of Riveredge Farms won the Champion Ear Corn Award.

Olivia Mudde was Premier 4-H Exhibitor.

This year’s baking contest featured apple pie.

Of the eight pies entered in the contest, that of Amy Tibben was selected the winner in a blind taste test by guest judges South Dundas mayor Evonne Delegarde, North Dundas mayor Eric Duncan and John Roosendaal of the Ottawa Valley Seed Growers Association.

Asked what’s so special about her apple pie, Amy said, “The crust – I think.” 

She went on to explain that she uses and old-fashioned shortcrust. “It’s an old recipe – butter, flour, sugar and water– the butter makes it better.”

The prize winning apple pie filling was half McIntosh apples and half empires. Amy explained that she really loves Macs but, at this time of year they are a little soft, so she chose to add the empires. She also baked the pie, immediately prior to the contest, so the filling was still warm when the judges had a taste.

The happy judges all agreed on the winner, though admitting that the competition was close, with only a few points separating the top pies.

[…]

Monday, March 2, the newly elected council of South Dundas kicked off 2015 budget deliberations.

“Nothing here is in stone,” South Dundas mayor Evonne Delegarde told council, urging them to ask lots of questions and take time to consider what’s presented. Council plans to spend the rest of this week discussing the budget, and expects deliberations to conclude Thursday.

The ‘wish list’ – if all that each of South Dundas’ managers requests is approved, would amount to $750,000 more tax dollars than last year.

From the managers’ budgets, South Dundas treasurer Shannon Geraghty and South Dundas chief administrative officer Steve McDonald pared the budget down considerably. 

The budget tabled for council Monday, if approved as presented, represents a 7.27 per cent dollar for dollar increase over 2014.

That increase would mean a 2015 budget of $5,611,220, up about $380,000 from last year.

Such an increase would mean about $18 more on the municipal portion of an average residential property, with a home valued at $176,000. That would be added to the approximately $23 increase already proposed to the Counties portion.

The rest of this week, South Dundas council will be looking to make budget cuts to reduce the size of the proposed increase.

Every $52,300 that council cuts from the budget, drops the 7.27 per cent proposed increase by 1 per cent.

At Monday’s budget meeting, council was unsuccessful at making any significant cuts, in fact, adding more money into the budget. They suggested that the allotment for legal fees be increased, recognizing that this year, the budgeted amount of $15,000 will not likely be sufficient.

[…]

Charles Crober and Christopher Rowntree, representing Concerned Citizens of South Dundas, are the applicants appealing the issuance of a building permit that will allow for the construction of a new grain elevator/storage facility at the UTI property owned by Morrisburg Dock Expansion Inc., located at 11610 County Road 2, Morrisburg.

The permit issued January 30, 2015, is for the construction of a new grain elevator/storage facility on the M1 zoned land, with a construction value of $2.8 million.

According to Lesley Rowntree, Concerned Citizens of South Dundas, is supported by over 600 signatories on a 2013 petition.

“We communicate with about 40 people on a direct basis when something actually occurs in the way of new information and to ask for their ideas and opinions,” says Lesley, who with her husband Chris, “have served as a sort of ‘office’ for the group and been spokespersons for them.”

Because the grain terminal issue seems to be a divisive one, Lesley says, “We have tried to respect absolute privacy and confidentiality for those who support us with resources of time, effort and money.” She would not say exactly how ‘many’ people are financially supporting the effort.

Chris and Lesley live less than one kilometre from the proposed grain terminal site, and have been there about 3.5 years. They say many of the people they are representing through the concerned citizens group have lived in the area much longer and most are a much greater distance from UTI. 

“We need to dispel the erroneous idea that this group of people all live close to the proposed grain terminal,” says Lesley.

As a core value of the group, Lesley says, “We are working to try to reaffirm in our community the democratically mandated voice of all citizens to express their own interests and concerns, based on honest and open information.”

“We are being driven to court as the only way to prove that the proposal does not fit the zoning. Once that is established, proper procedure can be initiated whereby proponents make an application which requires zone changes and thus enables the proper process mandated by the Ontario Planning Act to come into operation.”

[…]