A new entertainment venue is coming to downtown Haliburton next month.

Partners Anna Lowes, Mark Christiano and Craig Titus have been working through winter to turn their dream of establishing a new musical space in the village into reality. The trio are launching The Music Room, a 150-seat event space inside Castle Antiques on Highland Street, in early May.

“We’ve been talking about this for quite a while now. It’s always been in the back of my mind to bring something new to the downtown scene… after working closely with Anna the past few months, the door opened,” Christiano told The Highlander.

For the past six months, Castle has hosted regular shows on Friday nights – providing an opportunity for local musicians to perform in front of a live crowd. The events, first dubbed ‘Friday Night at the Castle’ and later ‘Tacos and Tunes’, have been wildly successful, Lowes said.

“We ran shows almost every week through winter and it was great – people have had a lot of fun. Now we want to ramp things up,” Lowes said. “Friday nights was kind of the stepping stone, but after seeing how well everything was going, we knew the longterm goal was to have a permanent music venue and do larger concerts here.

“The goal of Castle has always been to be a destination and offer as much variety and things for people to do as possible. I think this is just another way of doing that,” she added.

Renovations are ongoing, with a new stage and sound system being fitted in the antiques side of the store. Christiano said he’s planning to incorporate many of the shop’s vintage musical items in his design for the space, showcasing classic jukeboxes, phonographs, and instruments.

“It’s going to be a really cool vibe,” he said. A first concert has been pencilled in for May 6, with Canadian country singer Marshall Dane bringing his talents to the Highlands. Tickets are $32 and can be bought at Castle and The Hair Lounge in Haliburton.

Titus said there are six further concerts confirmed for the summer, with Christiano adding he hopes to put on at least one show per week. This is in addition to the Friday night offerings, which Christiano says will continue, noting they provide opportunities and experience for up-and-coming local performers.

The space can also be booked for workshops, seminars, and corporate events, he said.

Lowes feels this new space has the potential to benefit all businesses in the downtown.

“I’m hopeful this will kickstart more of a lively evening atmosphere – bring more people into Haliburton during times when it’s usually starting to quiet down,” she said.

“We’re not limiting ourselves to one night a week – this will really be driven by public demand. If people want to see more, then we’ll do more.

“I think this is going to be really popular, and I’m just excited to see where we can take this,” she added.

For more information about The Music Room and upcoming shows, follow them on Facebook and Instagram @ themusicroomhaliburton. To enquire about tickets, email themusicroomhaliburton@ gmail.com.

Toronto-based designer Debra Salmoni said Haliburton County has long been one of her favourite destinations while filming material for HGTV’s hit show Scott’s Vacation House Rules.

Season four premieres April 23, with the first two episodes featuring properties in Coboconk and Algonquin Highlands. While filming last year, Salmoni said her return to the Highlands was something of a homecoming.

“I have such an emotional connection to Haliburton – my mother’s side of the family had a cottage on Eagle Lake, so I’ve been heading up there ever since I was in utero,” she told The Highlander. “I spent a lot of time in the County while I was growing up… I remember trips we’d take down into Minden, we’d go out to the dump just to see all the bears. Some amazing memories, for sure.”

Salmoni has offered her expertise on the hour-long show since its debut in 2020. Hosted by contractor Scott McGillivray, it provides a road map to renovation and rental success for homeowners, she said. The episodes often see the team transform a rundown property into something more befitting its natural surroundings.

In a previous interview with the paper, McGillivray said he tries to strike a delicate balance with every one of his redesigns.

“We don’t go and do anything that’s going to destroy the environment. We’re not interested in helicopter pads,” he said.

“We’re not a show that goes in and says, ‘let’s tear this down and build something that’s a 100,000 sq. ft. mega mansion’. Our show is way more grassroots than that.

“We’re here to support the local community, be balanced with what we do, be respectful about it, and find affordable ways for people to have a slice of that dream too,” he added.

Episode one features a cliffside cabin in Coboconk, owned by a long-time friend of McGillivray’s.

“It was quite a long renovation, it ended up taking us closer to six months to complete. We were fighting some of the elements throughout that project, but that’s what I love about the show. We’re not putting this high gloss vision of perfection out there, it’s all real-life stuff,” Salmoni said. “Scott encounters some major challenges with his renovations, and we like to show how we deal with those head on.”

The second episode captures a waterfront property overlooking Halls Lake in Algonquin Highlands. The owners are cottagers from the city, who wanted to spruce up the place so they can rent it out and help cover some of the costs associated with running it.

“I think their situation is very relatable for a lot of millennials,” Salmoni said.

The bungalow has been transformed on the inside to incorporate more of a “techie” theme, with local contractors assisting with the rebuild. The episode will air April 30. A third episode featuring a Highlands property will be released in the fall.

Aside from the lakes and natural beauty, Salmoni said a key attraction to filming in the County is the people.

“We have never had a bad experience up there. When we pull up to a property, the neighbours are always so gracious. A lot of times we don’t have running water, or space for parking, so we’ve had neighbours let us use their washroom, park in their driveway, offer to feed us,” Salmoni said. “This is a very welcoming community.”

Scott’s Vacation House Rules premieres April 23 at 10 p.m. on HGTV Canada, and is available to stream on StackTV.

Chris Kranyak stands on the front step of her Anson Street, Minden, home having a cigarette and warily watching the Gull River across the street.

Orange sand bags line the boat launch a stone’s throw away.

Kranyak has only lived in the house for two-and-a-half years, and not experienced a Gull River breach, but her sister, who lived in the home for 30 years, has.

“When they put the sandbags down the other day, our first thought was, of course, they’re expecting floods, but they put out on the Minden Hills website that it was just a precaution,” Kranyak said on April 18.

“But we watch the water go up and down every day,” she added. “I don’t think it will flood. We went through those torrential rains on the Sunday two weeks ago. It didn’t end up being anything.”

Nevertheless she is keeping an eye on the large culvert out front as well as water levels in the backyard. After all, it’s that time of year. Minden Hills and other County residents are watching the Gull and Burnt River for rising waters and other Highlanders are keeping an eye on lakes as the Trent Severn Waterway manages dams for spring run-off.

Minden Hills mayor Bob Carter said the township has another week or two to worry about potential flooding, but as of April 18 conditions were stable.

The MNRF gave notice April 14 of the potential for flooding based on weather forecasts calling for heavy rain, snow melt, high winds and other conditions. The water conditions statement – flood outlook bulletin remains in effect until April 21 at 4 p.m.

Carter, who has spoken with Parks Canada and the MNRF a number of times over the last week or two, said he’s been told there’s still a lot of snow in the northern areas. As a result, he said the melt has been significant but the good news is, “we didn’t have all of the rain that was forecast.

“So, as long as our rain levels remain somewhat normal, or slightly above normal, we’ll be fine.” However, if there is another big rainstorm like the recent one, the mayor said, “that would be problematic. So, we have another week or two to worry about it.”

Township staff confirmed they have placed sandbags across the boat launch on Anson Street as a precaution. The boat launch is closed until further notice.

In its statement, the MNRF advised of hazardous conditions near water, localized flooding on access roads, and told people to prepare accordingly.

“MNRF is closely monitoring the weather and developing watershed conditions. Further updates will be issued as appropriate,” they said.

The Haliburton Highlands Outdoors Association (HHOA) is conducting nightly walleye counts along the Drag River this month, with the species’ spawning season in full effect.

Organization president Dan Smith said it was “vital” to get a sense of how one of the County’s top spawning ground is performing after local anglers reported a marked decrease in fish population in recent years.

The HHOA resurrected the walleye count in 2021, following a six-year hiatus. The program was initially launched in 2000 and managed by local volunteers.

“The walleye in the Kashagawigamog system need our help,” Smith said. “The counts are down significantly since the early 2000s… back in the day, people would say there were so many fish in the river here that you could step in the water and almost walk across them. We’re not seeing those numbers anymore.”

Walleye were first introduced into the Kash chain of lakes in the 1950s, Smith said. HHOA, working in partnership with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF), stocked walleye in the Drag River from 2010 to 2015. Stocking was stopped after 2015 and the fishery is now totally dependent on natural reproduction.

Smith noted Drag River is the main walleye spawning site for the entire chain, with the primary spot by the Emmerson Dam. To monitor the progress, Smith said volunteers have been gathering along the bridge on Maple Avenue in Haliburton every night since April 10. They will continue meeting through April, manually counting the number of fish observed swimming down river.

In 2021, volunteers counted 1,334 fish, while last year that number grew to 2,100. Smith said it would be nice to see that number grow to around 3,000 this year.

“That would show that we’re seeing some progress.”

Smith said the effort takes place at night as it’s easier for volunteers to make accurate counts.

“When we shine our lights at the water, their eyes glow gold right back at us… it’s much more effective than trying to get out and do it during the day,” he said.

The most important factor for a strong spawning season is ensuring consistent flow rates of the river, with no dam closures. Smith said this must be maintained during the spawn and for at least two weeks postspawn to ensure the greatest success for egg incubation, hatching, and survival.

Eggs will latch onto rocks below the water line, but if levels drop and they end up above water they won’t hatch, Smith said.

Looking long-term, Smith said he’d like to see the MNRF complete a comprehensive study of the Kash chain of lakes to properly assess natural fish reproduction levels.

“We’re not equipped to do that kind of work… for now, our goal is simply to improve the fishery in Haliburton County, and we can do that through initiatives like the walleye count,” Smith said.

For more information, visit hhoa.on.ca. To assist with the count, Smith said volunteers typically gather in the parking lot by the bridge on Maple Avenue at approximately 9 p.m. each night.

Major changes are coming to several landfills across Haliburton County as all four lowertier municipalities prepare to make sizable investments to reconfigure their largest sites and change the way they process materials.

Algonquin Highlands is the furthest along, having committed around $1.5 million to improve operations at the Maple Lake landfill. The township’s environmental manager, Melissa Murray, said a new operations centre, located beside the existing landfill site, will come online this summer.

She said there will be new drop-off areas for garbage, recyclable materials, construction and demolition waste, brush, batteries and mattresses.

“We were constantly having to shift where our collection areas were before, because they were right on the landfill mound. It was very time consuming and expensive for the municipality, and confusing for residents,” Murray said, noting the project has been in the works since 2019.

Another key feature will be the installation of a weigh scale – the first in the County. Murray said this will allow the township to get a more accurate reading on the amount of waste collected. She expects it will be operational by late summer.

County landfills to finally get weigh scales

“We were seeing a huge disparity in the amount of materials we recorded coming into the site and the amount of materials being hauled away,” she said. “Because we charge materials by the cubic yard and pay by the metric ton, the numbers never added up.”

She couldn’t provide an estimated cost savings, but noted the transition would allow for several operational efficiencies, while also improving customer service.

Murray noted the landfill at Maple Lake has a remaining lifespan of 46 years.

Investment elsewhere

John Watson said Dysart et al was planning an approximate $1 million redevelopment of the Haliburton landfill, located on Industrial Park Road.

Dysart council signed off on a $300,000 project, to be completed this year, to cap the landfill and re-naturalize the space, which was deemed at-capacity in 2019. The facility was redesignated as a transfer station in January 2020.

A second phase is planned to reconfigure the site and install a weigh scale. Watson said this may necessitate moving the entrance. He’s been working with a consultant on conceptual designs and hopes to bring a plan to council later this spring, with a view to starting work late this year or early next.

He noted any changes would first need to be ratified by the Ministry of Environment.

A huge increase in the amount of construction and demolition (C&D) waste, up 38 per cent over the past year, has meant Watson has had to change his thinking for the site. He’s proposing a larger drop-off and storage area for all C&D waste and said there could be a case for routing all C&D materials to the Haliburton site in future. Currently, the township accepts C&D waste at its Harcourt and West Guilford locations.

“Once the weigh scale is installed there, there will be some big questions asked, because having use of a scale will definitely benefit us when it comes to hauling out C&D waste,” Watson said.

Mike Timmins, director of public works at Minden Hills, said there have been tentative discussions between staff and council about enhancements at the Scotch Line landfill. The installation of a scale is a major one, while Timmins said he also wants to see some separation between work areas and publicly accessible space.

“We’re looking at the future and how we can improve and make the best use of the landfill that’s available. We’re trying to be as prudent as we can because we realize the value of these landfills. Once they’re full, that’s it,” Timmins said.

He said staff are working to come up with a schedule and system that addresses the needs of the community during the peak summer months, without being “overkill” and a cost burden during winter.

Timmins said he doubts there will be much movement on any work this year, with council pushing the project off during 2023 budget deliberations. An RFP put out last August, looking for bids to construct a new transfer station, garnered one response, with WSP saying it would complete the project for $8 million.

In Highlands East, council set money aside in its 2023 budget to clear a four-acre area at the Tory Hill landfill to be used for future expansion. Deputy CAO Brittany McCaw said there is no timeline in place for that development.

Looking to the future

Watson said there has been greater collaboration between the four townships over waste services in recent years and expressed his excitement over the single-tier waste management plan process the County initiated in March. That could see the upper-tier government establish a single program encompassing all four municipalities, which Watson said would bring efficiencies and cost-savings. A report is due back at County council later this year.

Addressing the idea of incineration, Watson said it would be far too expensive to bring a system to the Highlands and that the four municipalities combined don’t generate enough waste to make it worthwhile to ship to the new incinerator plant in Durham Region. He said that could be a possibility long-term if the County partnered with neighbouring municipalities.

“We have watersheds to manage our lakes and ecosystems, but what if we think about something like a ‘wasteshed’. Where the County partners with areas like Kawartha Lakes and Peterborough County – that would allow us to be more creative with our waste strategies, and would make us more appealing to service providers,” he said.