It wasn’t a bird, nor a plane that Haliburton residents saw flying through the air May 22 – it was an old Second World War-era M4 ‘Easy Eight’ Sherman tank.

Around a dozen volunteers from the Haliburton Legion, Total Site Services, and Windy Ridge Homes assisted in moving the tank, which is to be restored over the summer.

Nick Bryant, a long-time member of the legion, said it’s been about 15 years since the vintage heavy-armoured vehicle last got an upgrade. He’s secured a Canadian War Memorials grant to have it sandblasted and repainted – work that needed to be done away from the busy intersection of Maple Avenue and Mountain Street.

Workers were busy most of the morning with the move. A crane was brought in from Peterborough Crane Rentals, with the vehicle hoisted onto a flatbed truck and transported to a shop in Lochlin, where much of the restoration will take place.

Pat Casey, Dysart et al councillor and owner of Total Site Services, said moving the tank took lots of planning. Initially, it was to be moved in late 2023, before winter, but that was pushed back once everyone realized how big a job it would be.

“It all worked out just the way we thought in the end – it was nice to be able to pull it off,” Casey said.

The tank weighs about 37 tons when fully loaded, less when not so. Bryant said, “it’s an icon of the town and of the legion.”

It arrived in Haliburton from Canadian Forces Base Borden in the early 1970s, long serving as a local memorial to Highlands’ veterans. A plaque installed on its side reads, “through the mud and the blood to the green fields beyond,” in reference to its use in multiple war efforts.

The M4 Sherman was constructed by Fisher Tank Company in the 1940s and used predominantly by the U.S. in the Second World War, and by Canadian troops in the Korean War. It was named after Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, a celebrated American Civil War general.

According to online records, the Haliburton tank was constructed in 1945. Bryant said the restoration is a long time coming.

“It’s been three years getting this project off the ground. It’s been an interesting struggle – myself and other volunteers are doing a lot of the grunt work, but we have a company coming from Bancroft to do the sandblasting and paint it,” Bryant said, noting military members from CFB Borden are also involved.

The project is expected to wrap up in the fall, with Bryant hoping to have the tank back in front of the legion for this year’s Remembrance Day proceedings.

Casey said it will be nice to see the tank given a new lease on life. Speaking of his involvement, the local entrepreneur and politician said he likes to give back to important causes in the community.

“We donated a bunch of time and resources to the skatepark last year. I have a soft heart for the legion, for the veterans – my great grandad on both sides of my family were both in the Second World War,” Casey said. “I have a 60-year legion pin that my grandad passed down… this, I think, was a great project to help with.”

The Haliburton Highlands Secondary School (HHSS) Interact club wants the community’s help coming up with potential solutions for homelessness in the County.

The group, in association with Haliburton Rotary, held a homelessness awareness event May 31 at Stuart W. Baker Elementary School. It was the final gathering of the current school year for Interact, whose mandate is to take action and try to influence change in our communities.

Co-club president, Annabelle Borgdorff, said Interact has been wanting to host an event focused on homelessness – the issues we’re seeing, and not seeing, in the County and how to best address them – for several years, but noted with the worsening economic climate it had become more of a focus in recent months.

She said hosting a community event, which invited people to speak about their experiences and float ideas for inspiring change, was a good start. The club started planning for the event last fall.

There was a BBQ to kick off, followed by presentations featuring club members. A discussion followed the presentations.

Leading up to the event, the club held a weeklong fundraiser at HHSS, with all proceeds supporting the ‘Helping Hampers’ initiative, led by Rotaract – another sister association, for young adults. ‘Helping Hampers’ is a community outreach program that provides basic needs items to individuals in the community. Rotaract prepares a hamper with basic needs for the community. Students sold rubber ducks all week, encouraging others to “give a duck a home,” Borgdorff said.

The fundraiser was a hit, with 60 per cent of the ducks sold on the first day. It raised $200 and Rotaract matched that amount, so the total from the fundraiser was $400.

Later, those in attendance heard how homelessness in Haliburton County isn’t as visible as it is in the city – with most people sleeping in cars or couch surfing, according to Borgdorff.

During the discussion, some people discussed the affordability crisis, issues with the local housing market, and how demand is currently outstripping supply, leading to more problems.

Everyone in attendance agreed one of the primary problems with homelessness in the Highlands is that people can’t see it day-today, so they don’t think it’s a major issue. One person commented how there’s a big divide between, “those who have, and those who don’t have in Haliburton County.”

Graham Borgdorff, a local carpenter, believes the housing crisis in Canada is due to “out of balance” supply and demand. He said the country needs to double the production of homes over the next 10 years, which he sees being a problem given the growing number of people retiring from the trades.

“All trades are at their maximum capacity in terms of workload as it is,” Graham said.

Rebeka Borgdorff, a teacher at HHSS, said there is a mentality shift towards communal living because people can’t afford their own spaces. That, along with the growing influence of tiny home communities, could form part of the solution in Haliburton County, she added.

Brody Bolger, another club co-president, said the second-highest cause of homelessness in Canada is domestic issues, with victims of abuse fleeing their situations with nowhere else to go. Nearly 40 per cent of the homeless population in Canada live in Ontario, Bolger added.

Darla Searle, a self-professed travel junkie, is giving County residents a once in a lifetime opportunity to live the jet set lifestyle and participate in a twoweek community trip to Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii.

The Haliburton Highlands Secondary School teacher has organized the trip for summer 2026, with participants to spend 15 days away from July 2 to 16.

It’s the latest in a long line of overseas excursions for Searle, who accompanied HHSS students on a trip to Costa Rica in 2022 and has another lined up for Europe during the 2025 Easter break. She’ll also be travelling to Africa as part of a small group this summer.

“I’ve always said there’s no better education, no better way to broaden your mind than to travel, experience new things, and appreciate different cultures,” Searle said. “I’m an advocate that you’re on the planet for a short time. And while we live in a beautiful bubble, there’s a lot more world out there for us to see.”

The trip is being organized through EF Tours, which Searle has worked with several times before. Eight people need to register for the trip to happen, with Searle saying the “sweet spot” would be 30 people.

Breaking down the itinerary, Searle said the trip begins in New Zealand, with stops in Auckland and Rotorura, where people will be treated to a sheep and dog show at the famous Agrodome. There will be a tour of a natural geothermal park; opportunity to ride the skyline gondola; learn about jade carving in a local craftman’s workshop; and visit a Maori village.

Day six includes a flight to Sydney, where guests will spend two days. Searle said there will be excursions to the world-famous Sydney Opera House, and around Watson Bay.

In Cairns, travellers will be treated to a cruise to the Great Barrier Reef for a full day of snorkeling with a marine biologist, and a scenic train ride to the rainforest village of Kuranda.

“Australia and New Zealand have been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. I really want to see the opera house, and to go snorkeling and learn all about the reefs,” Searle said. “These are the kinds of experiences you just can’t find close to home.”

The trip will end with a couple of days in Honolulu, which will feature a beach day and visit to the USS Arizona Memorial.

The cost to attend is $10,333 for adults and $8,683 for youth under 18, which can be broken down into 24 monthly payments – $430 per month for adults and $361 for youth. Searle said that covers the cost of flights, hotels, excursions, and some meals.

Refunds can be issued up to 10 days prior to leaving, minus a $400 booking fee, Searle added.

A meeting providing more information about the trip will be held in the library at HHSS June 12 at 6 p.m.

“This is a great opportunity for people to do something they would never usually do. I know people who don’t travel because they have nobody to travel with – joining a community trip like this solves that problem,” Searle said. “You could create lifelong connections – by experiencing this unique trip with other people, you’re creating a bond for life.”

Cottagers on Comak Crescent in Algonquin Highlands had what would have been an ordinarily quiet summer weekend disrupted as OPP, on May 25, detonated explosives found inside a summer home.

The weekend began when paramedics were called to a cottage just south of the Frost Centre late Friday afternoon. Sources told The Highlander Orange air ambulance was summoned to Haliburton hospital to take a patient who had injured his hand in an explosion at the cottage.

OPP on site May 25 confirmed, “there was an individual who was injured in the area of the property where we’re standing now.” They would not elaborate. However, an OPP media release issued May 27 said police were called to assist fire and EMS at 5:04 p.m. “after an individual received an injury from a homemade explosive device.” They said the man was taken to hospital for serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.

Sources said after responding to the call, firefighters kept a distance while OPP were called. Algonquin Highlands Station 80 was summoned to secure the scene. The paper was told the OPP bomb squad was then contacted and four surrounding properties evacuated. The Highlander was informed the situation escalated to a full bomb threat and OPP planned to explode the devices on-site Saturday.

Blasts ‘shook the whole cottage’

Monday’s OPP media release said, “as the investigation continued, neighbours were evacuated and the OPP Explosive Disposal Unit (EDU) attended, recovering and securing additional explosive substances and devices from the residence.”

In a follow-up email from The Highlander for clarification, OPP confirmed, “EDU technicians located explosive substances and devices and disposed of by rendering safe techniques. In addition, materials were seized for further analysis by the Centre of Forensic Science.”

The site was cleared Sunday with OPP adding, “there are no explosive substances or devices remaining at the location that would pose a threat to public safety.”

A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said two blasts on Saturday “shook the whole cottage.” A plume of smoke could be seen over the area from Hwy. 35.

The neighbour said she and another neighbour had just gotten back from town Friday night when a fire pickup truck arrived, followed by a second one, about 5 p.m.

“Things sort of progressed and we saw the caution tape up the road. And then a bigger fire truck came. My friend next door heard the word evacuation.” The woman said they walked up the road to try to see what was going on and first responders yelled at them to stay away.

She added emergency services came again Saturday morning, stopped vehicular traffic around 10 or 10:30 a.m., and the bomb squad arrived. She said a neighbour was informed about a “redneck bomb.”

She said, “we just stayed vigilant. Paid attention.” She added police asked cottagers Friday night if they had an association so they could get word out that vehicles would not be allowed down the road Saturday.

The neighbour said it was an “exciting and interesting” weekend, but in hindsight scary. “He never seemed like a threat to anybody around here. I would not know him to see him,” the cottager said.

OPP said they had arrested and charged Kevin Brown, 36, of Mississauga, with making or possessing explosives for an unlawful purpose and breach of recognizance.

The release added, “the investigation is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to call Haliburton Highlands OPP at 1-888-310-1122, or submit tips anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).

“The OPP takes all threats to public safety seriously and provides resources necessary to assess and respond to the threat. If you have information about a possible explosive device, call 9-1-1 and provide as much information to police as possible about the threat.”

After months of dealing with dust clouds and loose gravel that has damaged property at their Wonderland Road home, Haliburton residents John and Sharon Sinclair have reached the end of their tether.

The couple appeared before Dysart council May 28, armed with a petition signed by 45 neighbours, calling on the township to revisit roadworks completed in the area last fall.

“The road is a mess, it’s deteriorating as we speak – there’s still lots of potholes, loose gravel,” Mr. Sinclair said. “I took three wheelbarrows full of gravel out of my ditch a few weeks ago [that had been dumped there] by snowplows over the winter – that’s municipal land, but we try to keep it looking nice.

“When workers brushed the road recently to take the sand off, they also took a lot of gravel and filled the ditch again. That’s not very fair,” he added.

Sinclair said he contacted Dysart’s roads department earlier this year to ask what could be done. He noted vehicles travelling down Wonderland Road will usually send gravel flying 15 feet up his driveway.

“Many people on this road own fine automobiles that are now subject to possible stone chips to the car’s paint and windshields,” he said.

Sinclair added many of his neighbours have stopped walking their dog along the road due to the loose gravel.

In the petition, Sinclair is calling for Dysart to redo the road surface using materials that will create a smooth and dust-free surface; lay down an environmentally-safe dust inhibitor to eliminate health hazards and property damage until work can be completed; and remove a pile of surplus gravel and garbage that has been left near the entrance to Autumn Lane.

Township responds

Public works director, Rob Camelon, said staff have been working on a solution. While there have been calls for Dysart to repave the road, Camelon said it has never been paved.

“Wonderland Road was originally resurfaced in 2015 using a class two double surface treatment – the same aggregate that is in place today. It… takes on the look of a hard surfaced road as traffic travels over it,” Camelon said, adding the road was treated with a slurry seal topping in 2018, which smoothed the surface. He noted the township hasn’t used slurry seal on its roads for six years.

“It’s very weather-dependent and we found on more than one occasion our work was not completed in time before the weather window closed [in] mid-to-late fall,” he said.

Camelon said he does expect the situation to improve.

“It’s common for stone to become loose after resurfacing – it happens to all the roads we resurface every year. It’s simply a part of the process,” Camelon said. “The road has been swept in response to the loose stone, which is also a routine operation for our department.”

Councillors Barry Boice, Pat Casey, and Nancy Wood-Roberts say they have all driven the road recently and admitted it could use some work. Boice said the issue is like one experienced on Haliburton Lake last year.

“The dust would choke you; it was terrible. It’s relieved itself now, but the first summer was really bad,” Boice said.

Deputy mayor Walt McKechnie asked if a slurry seal could be installed now to rectify the issue – Camelon said it could, and the township could re-evaluate the type of aggregate it’s using to resurface roads, but that costs would go up between 40 and 50 per cent. He said that would severely limit the number of roads staff could fix year to year.

He added that, if council were to direct staff to push through a quick fix for Wonderland Road there would likely be similar requests from other residents.

“My concern is we are setting the bar [if] we go back and resurface this one particular road, because you are going to have concerns [from people] on Curry Drive [which we just resurfaced] as well,” Camelon said.

McKechnie said it was important that council “get ahead of this situation,” indicating he’d like to see the work done. Casey said if the class two aggregate is causing more problems than it’s solving, council may need to make a change – even if it means cutting back on the number of roads it fixes each year.

Camelon will return to a future meeting with some recommendations.

County council will establish a staff working group to look into the possibility of incinerating garbage in the Highlands – and report back to council in September.

The move came after County councillors dismissed the idea of one-tier waste management services delivery at its May 22 meeting.

Instead, they opted for the four townships to keep working together.

CAO Gary Dyke pointed out how Coun. Walt McKechnie had asked whether alternative waste management solutions were considered by the consultant. He said it had not been part of their work. However, he said staff could look into it if directed by council.

“I think there’s merit in looking at alternative methodologies,” he said. “Keeping up to date with modern technologies, as opposed to just burying all of our garbage in the ground.” He noted there are incinerators in Ontario as well as European models.

Warden Liz Danielsen said, “I think you’ve heard some encouraging words over the last few meetings urging council to look at incineration. I would welcome staff doing some advance research,”

Coun. Jennifer Dailloux said she’d like staff input from the lower-tier before going to a consultant, as “there is a wealth of information out there and staff have been doing a whole lot of this thinking already.”

Danielsen and Dyke indicated it would be an internal look. Dyke called it a “white paper” with alternatives for Haliburton County.

Coun. Cec Ryall said a council decision to investigate incineration would be “controversial.

“There’s going to be a lot of discussion about it. A fact-finding mission is the right thing to do to get the rules of how it works, the actual challenges and advantages clearly defined before we start getting the emails on the pros and cons of what people think of it.”

McKechnie said he was “passionate about another alternative to our landfill site issue.”

He said he had been working on the incineration file behind the scenes and, “there are definitely some things that have really improved with regard to the product that is out there.”

He added landfill sites are being closed, forcing waste to be trucked on highways to alternate sites. However, he foresees that ending, with high costs of trucking and recipients no longer wanting to accept garbage.

“I think there is going to come a time here really soon where we are going to have to start being responsible for our own garbage. The only way you do that is the model that, especially Sweden and Norway, have been following for the past 50 years.”

He said there is a company in Norway that builds incinerators for Singapore that are capable of getting rid of between 15 tons to two million tons of garbage.

He said the biggest question is environmental pollution “and I am 100 per cent against that.

“I think there is an opportunity here for somebody to be the pioneer in rural Ontario. We need to start thinking about another alternative here really soon.”

County coun. Bob Carter’s wish for a bus between Minden and Haliburton has stalled – with the lone bidder for the job pitching a yearly cost of $685,344 on top of start-up costs of $45,000 and the County paying for gas.

Director of economic development and tourism, Scott Ovell, delivered the bad news to council at its May 22 meeting.

On Sept. 27 last year, Carter called for a request for proposals for a two-year pilot project. In December, staff outlined a draft for the service. The project was put out to tender in March, closing in April. Staff received a single, qualified response from BTS Network, a company with service in southern Ontario, including the Region of Peel, Niagara Transit Commission, and Fort Erie.

Ovell said their pitch was for a fixed route service with two vehicles operating in opposing directions, hourly, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week, excluding holidays. The firm identified six stops in each community and approximate pick-up and drop-off times.

Multiple vehicle options were given, with staff identifying an eight-passenger van with wheelchair access as their preferred choice.

BTS Network also provided alternate transit options, including a fixed route but with booked online stops, and a full on-demand service in the towns, but staff did not consider these options.

“Given the cost of the proposed transit service is significantly higher than the funds currently available in the transit reserve, staff are not recommending that council proceed with this project at this time,” Ovell said.

The County has $182,601.52 in its transit reserve. Gas tax funding is not available in first years of operations. Ovell said in year two, they could get up to $68,523 from the province. Year three could see up to $126,020.

“Staff are proposing to continue to gather information related to possible transit solutions and share them with council when available,” he added.

Carter said, “I cannot begin to express how disappointed I am in this, and for a number of different reasons.

“We’ve kicked this around for years and done little or nothing about it,” he said. Carter added he believes previous attempts failed as they were “idealistic” offering “everything for everybody.”

He said his request was for a “bare bones starting point. Get something started and see if we can make it grow. The idea was not to run a service that also included wheelchair access and all of the extras.” For example, he was envisioning one bus, not two. He said the extras had driven up the cost and there was no accounting for ridership fees.

He urged council to strike a committee “to look at how to make this happen.”

CAO Gary Dyke said he appreciated Carter’s comments and frustrations but “transit in rural areas is hard.” He added the RFP was approved by council and based on his experience he was not surprised at the cost.

He favoured a committee but said they should not dismiss the rideshare idea. “Other small, rural municipalities have invested in the rideshare program to great effect.” He cited Prince Edward County as an example. He didn’t think a single bus would work, and suggested accessibility was important for the area’s aging demographic and potential ridership. He said council has to establish a clear mandate before proceeding.

Carter said, “this is something that we incredibly need in this area. But I think we need to start right at the basics.”

Warden Liz Danielsen took exception to Carter commenting nothing had been done for years.

“There have been working groups established, there have been studies. We have funded small trials in efforts to try and see how this would work,” she said. She agreed to a working group, saying she could not accept a nearly $700,000 annual spend for a service for two of four townships.

Coun. Cec Ryall has sat on past transportation working groups and said, “the bad news is, every time something came out of it, it was too expensive.” He urged council to use information already gathered “so we have a place to start from as opposed to let’s go and reinvent the whole thing.”

Council voted to strike a transit working group and will discuss the matter again on June 12.