News

 

In a report for South Dundas council’s March 20th meeting, manager of public works Hugh Garlough submitted a report stating: “Tentative start date at the Iroquois Sewer Plant is scheduled for March 19, 2012. The out fall pipe is the part of the project to get done first.”

As per his report, it was confirmed by chief administrative officer Stephen McDonald on March 27th that the work did start last week with the out fall pipe.

“They’re working their way from the water to the plant,” said McDonald.

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At the March 20th South Dundas council meeting, Hugh Garlough, manager of public works, presented council with a list of quotations for outsourcing, including equipment rental and various repair jobs for 2012 and 2013. 

Garlough recommended that council “accept all quotations submitted and that the public works and recreation departments use the low bids. Low bids will be used unless the contractor cannot supply the equipment on the required date. Then, we will select the next low bid to hire the required equipment.”

“We put a quotation system out in the three papers and on the website,” he continued, “this year we had 19 people respond and this is a two-year term.” 

Deputy-mayor Jim Locke commented, “there are lots of people looking for work. Prices aren’t inflated from  last year.”

Councillor Jim Graham agreed, saying, “it’s nice to see lots of people bidding on it.”

Council accepted Garlough’s recommendation.

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“Good for the body and good for the soul” was this year’s theme for Curves International’s 14th annual month-long food drive. 

Once again, Curves of Morrisburg took part in the March event. According to owner Kelly Keeler, “this was the best year ever.” 

On April 2nd, Keeler revealed that the gym collected 2,565 pounds of food and supplies for the Dundas County Food Bank, easily exceeding their original goal of 2,000 pounds. In fact, they doubled their 2011 haul of 1,230 pounds.

Keeler pointed out that “most of the groceries that were purchased, were purchased locally.”

To motivate members, Keeler drafted an incentive plan for the members of the Morrisburg gym: for every 20 pounds of food donated, they received five ballots. 

Winning ballots will be drawn sometime next week. An Avon gift basket, a Curves gift basket,  and a bracelet are just a few of the prizes available. The first place prize is a pair of Upper Canada Playhouse tickets, donated by the Playhouse.

“Kelly does a lot. She really motivates everybody,” said Curves member and former chair of the Dundas County Food Bank, Brenda Millard. “Our community is hugely generous.”

In addition to the in-house prizes for members, there was an incentive for those who wanted to join the gym during the month of March. Rather than pay the membership fee, new members had the option of donating two bags of groceries or $30 to the food bank. Morrisburg had 15 new members join the club during their March food drive.

In addition to Keeler’s in-house incentives, Curves International had some incentives of their own.

In a February press release, Curves founder Diane Heavin stated: “With a theme of ‘Good for your body and your soul,’ this year’s drive encourages Curves members to feel doubly good about themselves as they make time to exercise for good health and take time to help others in the community with a donation of nutritious food.”

“Local Curves clubs may also qualify to win cash prizes for their local food banks. Curves International will award cash prizes to the clubs that collect the most food, the clubs that show the greatest increase in donations over the 2011 food drive, and to two additional clubs randomly selected from all the clubs who enter the contest.”

According to Keeler, Curves International is expected to announce these award winners sometime in late April or early May. The prizes, all monetary, will go to the food bank associated with the winning Curves club. There is one $1,000 prize as well as several $500 prizes.

Keeler has high hopes for the final awards and said, “anything we win will go directly to the food bank.” 

“I think that my club may be in the top five or earn one of the other prizes for the food bank… I’m hoping anyway,” said Keeler.

The Dundas County Food Bank is currently looking for empty containers: juice or Ensure bottles; 250 and 500 ml containers; 2 liter containers; water bottles; and, baby food jars.

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Why it’s positively criminal how funny the upcoming Iroquois-Matilda Lions pro-duction of Monday Always Leads to Murder is!

Some of the characters die laughing.

Following in a tradition that dates back nearly 30 years, the Iroquois Lions (and friends) are taking to the stage at Upper Canada Playhouse this month with their latest theatrical offering, Pat Cook’s Monday Always Leads to Murder. 

These highly anticipated plays, which are presented every two years, are one of the major fund raisers for the Iroquois-Matilda Lions. 

Lions clubs have long been noted for their support of charitable organizations and works in South Dundas. The community often turns to area Lions for financial and volunteer support. 

Funds raised  by the productions at the Playhouse are invested right back into the South Dundas community. 

Ticket holders for the 2012 production can look forward to an evening of laugh-out-loud comedy and to ensuring that the Iroquois-Matilda Lions can continue to be a strong presence in the South Dundas community. 

The show’s volunteer cast has been in rehearsals since early February. As opening night gets closer, the production is transferring April 4 to the Playhouse.  Rehearsals  have been held at St. John’s Anglican Church, Iroquois, and the Iroquois United Church. 

The cast is having a lot of fun with the play, which is set in the seedy New York office of one Harry Monday, private eye. The year is 1939: Prohibition has lately been repealed, Humphrey Bogart is big at the box office, Al Capone is big in Chicago and women (at least where Harry is concerned) are still “stacked.”

Harry will certainly have his hands full coping with dames, would-be actors, cops, burglars, mysterious Egyptian professors and bodies that just keep popping up at the most inconvenient times when he takes on the sinister Barnstable case. 

The fantastic set for the show has been designed by John Thompson of the Playhouse and constructed by a crew under the leadership of Lion Jim Locke.  Sean Free, technical director of the Playhouse, is operating sound and lights for the show. Wendy Gibb is directing.

Tickets are $20 each for the evening shows, April 26-28, and for the Saturday matinee: they are going very quickly. Contact any Iroquois Matilda Lion, Mustard’s Variety or Upper Canada Playhouse for tickets to Monday Always Leads to Murder.  

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Upper Canada Playhouse is launching its 11th annual Charity Fundraising Event which will benefit 15 area non-profit charitable organizations on a first come first served basis.

Upper Canada Playhouse has released details about this year’s Charity Fundraising Event which assists area organizations with their important work in the community. 

This marks the 11th year that The Playhouse has held this Fundraising Event which has helped over 170 local charitable organizations.  

The Playhouse will be donating all of the tickets this year to a special August 25th matinee performance of this season’s hilarious comedy, Wife Begins at Forty, to 15 area non-profit charitable organizations. 

Interested organizations are asked to submit their group’s name, mandate, contact name, phone and fax number along with a statement that declares their organization is a non-profit organization. 

Each organization receives 18 tickets and they are encouraged to sell them at The Playhouse’s regular adult price of $32 to get the maximum benefit for their organization. 

The organizations keep their ticket sale revenue for their charitable work. 

“It’s a fun and easy way for our valuable community organizations to raise some funds,” says Artistic Director Donnie Bowes. “They receive their tickets, sell them and keep the revenue for their group’s work. It’s as simple as that.” 

Selection will be on a first-come first-served basis and organizations are asked to send in their request to The Playhouse by Fax Only at 613-543-4388. Attention: Charity Event.

E-mails and phone applications cannot be accepted.

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 South Dundas council passed a by-law for an Automatic Aid Agreement for Fire Protection Services with South Stormont at the March 20th council meeting.

The agreement went into effect immediately and is set for a period of five years. The by-law states that South Stormont has agreed “to provide or receive the initial or supplemental responses to fires, rescues and emergencies for certain properties in the township of South Dundas.”

“The area to be covered for the purpose of fire protection services is listed as follows: Ault Island, being that portion of Willbruck Drive, west of Ault Island Road and being situated in the township of South Dundas.”

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The House of Lazarus Community Outreach Mission recently received a $3,764 cheque from Kraft Canada. 

The House of Lazarus, stationed in Mountain, was one of the few food banks Canada-wide invited to participate in the Kraft Food for Families Contest that began November 2011 and ended in February 2012.

 According to food bank coordinator Kim Merkley, there were only four food banks chosen to participate from Ontario. 

Merkley stumbled into the contest by accident when she filled out an online survey. She admitted that she had no idea that anything would come of completing the survey, but is now quite happy she did so.

The contest began on November 3, 2011 with an original completion date of January 31, 2012. For each online vote of support from their community, participating food banks received $1.

Due to the overwhelming response and success of the contest, a second phase was introduced on December 2, 2011. 

This second phase lasted for 10 weeks, ending on February 10, 2012. In addition to the $1 for each online vote, Kraft Canada donated $1,000 per week to the food bank with the most votes. Each week the totals were reset to zero.

The House of Lazarus was a recipient of one of these ten $1,000 bonus wins and, as Merkley pointed out, “we were competing against some pretty big cities.”

“It was very humbling. It was quite a coup for Dundas County,” added Pauline Pratt, executive director of The House of Lazarus. “We had 2,500 votes.”

“It shows the dedication and support we get from the community. It was a great campaign.”

Of the $3,764, there was $1,000 from a weekly bonus and $150 from a separate project with Kraft. The remainder consisted of dollars for votes.

While their reported goal is to serve North Dundas families, The House of Lazarus actually serves families in both North and South Dundas as well as families in the surrounding communities.

According to Kraft Canada’s contest website, “the response to the Kraft Food for Families initiative was truly inspiring.”

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The Ministry of Finance has released the education rates for 2012. With this, the three numbers needed to decipher this year’s municipal taxes are complete and property owners can expect to pay a slight increase.

“By my speculation,” said South Dundas mayor Steven Byvelds on Tuesday, “it will be just over three per cent, but I can’t be 100 per cent positive without all the numbers.”

“There’s a small decrease from the South Dundas end.”

The Township of South Dundas completed their 2012 budget deliberations on March 12th while the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry completed their budget on March 19th. 

Byvelds pointed out that “the Counties had a 3.1 per cent increase and ours is 3.5 per cent.”

To determine the amount to be paid out by a residence for the education portion of the tax bill, South Dundas treasurer Shannon Geraghty provided a comparison example:

• A 2011 assessment at $149,090 equates to taxes of $344.40.

• A 2012 assessment with phase-in at $157,260 equates to taxes of $347.54.

The education rate, determined by the Ministry of Finance, is standard on all assessments regardless of school board, whether it be public, Catholic or French Catholic. 

As explained in the March 14th edition of The Leader, each home’s taxes are affected by the Municipal Property Assessments.

There has been a 5.48 per cent average increase on assessments due to the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation’s four-year phase in.

What all of this boils down to is an approximate overall increase of just over three percent in municipal taxes for South Dundas. 

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The results of the St. Mary/St Cecilia Catholic School Movember Campaign that centred around four teachers, Chris Veltkamp, Jeff Vynckier, James MacIntyre, and Marvel Booyink were turned over to the Canadian Cancer Society last Thursday. The Movember Campaign included a number of school activities. “Four of us grew moustaches, and we had little events throughout the month of November that involved the kids,” explained Veltkamp. “The kids designed moustaches for us and participated in their own moustache day.” Donations were collected throughout November and thanks to the generosity of the school community $825.89 was raised. The Movember event involves the growing of moustaches during the month of November and is aimed at promoting awareness, understanding and funding of men’s cancers, in particular prostrate cancer. On average 11, Canadian men die of prostrate cancer every day. Pictured  for the cheque presentation, l-r, are Chris Veltkamp, Len “Skippy” Bisson (representative of the SD&G Branch of the Canadian Cancer Society), Jeff Vynckier and James MacIntyre. Marvel Booyink was not available for the photo.

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Families and friends were delighted to meet an old friend on Sunday, April 1, when the Easter Bunny stopped in for breakfast at the Iroquois Legion. A large number of people came out and enjoyed a delicious breakfast prepared by the Legion, received a special greeting and treat from E.B. and took part in face painting and colouring. Live, gentle bunnies supplied by Lee Carruthers of Dundela were a big hit with young and old. Breakfast with the Bunny was sponsored by the Iroquois and District Festival Committee, which is using the funds to support their September 15 Festival in Iroquois, "Dundas Militia – A Call to Arms – War of 1812."

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