The historic Hawk Lake Log Chute won’t be getting its long-awaited makeover this year after all, with Algonquin Highlands council forced to delay the project.

Chris Card, the township’s parks, recreation and trails manager, told council at a Sept. 17 meeting two bids were received to rehabilitate the first of three sections of the damaged structure, though neither could proceed.

The first was disqualified due to “incomplete submission information,” Card said, while the second came in 200 per cent over budget. Council approved spending $94,000 to repair 50 per cent of the first section back in February.

“Because only one bid was received that was over budget, and that council is within a lame duck period, the only option is to cancel the call for tender,” Card said, noting he intends to put it back out for bids next year under direction of the new council.

When in a lame duck period, councils are prohibited from approving any new expenditures or incurring liabilities exceeding $50,000.

Card said even if the bid had come in on budget, there was no guarantee the project would have been done this year. Workers require water to be shutoff at the nearby Big Hawk Lake dam while repairing the structure, with Parks Canada offering one brief window that passed before the September meeting.

Further assessment of the second and third section of the log chute found them to be in complete disrepair, with several pieces breaking away and ending up downstream.

Card said Hawk River Construction had quoted $58,788 plus HST to remove the damaged sections, which council approved. The work began Monday (Sept. 28), with a shutoff of the waterflow at the dam taking place Tuesday. The township said resident may have noticed reduced flows along the Kennisis River from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Another shutoff is scheduled Thursday (Oct. 1), with the project wrapping Friday. There has been no public access to the log chute property all week.

With costs mounting, and a full replacement of the structure expected to cost more than $550,000, coun. Sabrina Richards suggested turning to the community to help fund whatever comes next.

“We had a report at our last meeting about sponsorship opportunities – this is one that would be very beneficial. A lot of the community wants [us] to restore the log chute, so participating in fundraising for it… is a really good opportunity for people,” she said.

Parking update

Public works director Adam Thorn presented two locations for enhanced parking in the area, with one site off Round the Bay Trail behind Big Hawk Lake Marina and the other on Big Hawk Lake Road adjacent to the log chute.

Coun. Sabrina Richards said something needed to be done to address parking in the area.

“It is chaos all the time, all summer long. It’s simply not acceptable municipal planning to let that continue. I don’t know how we’re going to get there, because we don’t have the money, but it’s something that community deserves,” Richards said.

Council learned last year it would cost between $1M and $1.5M to widen the road enough to create extra parking. Last week, council opted to move forward with a design plan for a lot off Round the Bay Trail for $15,000.

Thorn said there are two key stumbling blocks – the township doesn’t own any of the land, while the road itself is seasonal and not suitable for heavy traffic.

“We would have to do some major construction to the road… it would be an astronomical cost to build it up properly,” He said. “I have personally travelled up there… it’s not ideal for a parking lot. This is not [the site] I would recommend.”

Mayor Liz Danielsen asked Thorn to bring a range of options back to a future meeting – from maintaining the existing dirt trail and cutting down trees to make way for a parking lot, to paving everything. Thorn said it might be December before he has something prepared, noting he’ll be working with Tulloch Engineering on the project.

New CAO John Connolly said he would reach out to officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) after Danielsen raised concern over the price the township had been quoted for the Crown land – almost $150,000 to buy just over 16.5 acres on Big Hawk and at Fletcher Lake, or $18,000 a year to lease.

“To say I’m extremely disappointed… is an understatement. They’ve put us in this position, saying ‘here are some lovely docks and landings for you’, downloading them to us and now here we are not only having to experience extraordinary costs to repair the docks and landings, but now having to purchase land to be able to operate them adequately is out of sight,” the mayor said.

Dysart et al council recently crossed another bridge in its efforts to keep people moving safely through Head Lake Park. Public works director, Rob Camelon, told elected officials at a recent meeting the township received six bids for the replacement of the footbridge in the Haliburton village park.

The contract was awarded to Scarborough-based McPherson-Andrews Contracting Ltd., which was the low bidder at $370,950 plus HST. They will tear down the existing bridge and replace it with a prefabricated structure.

Other bidders included Haliburton’s Total Site Services ($393,393), A2Z Civil ($420,050), KB Civil Constructors ($427,294), Four Brothers Construction ($483,770) and Clearwater Structures Inc. ($578,703).

Camelon said, as well as bidding the lowest, McPherson-Andrews also has experience working with D.M. Wills and Associates, the engineering firm retained to manage the project. The two companies worked together on the recent bridge replacement on Barry’s Line, he said.

Although the days are drawing shorter, Camelon said he expects the project to be completed this year.

“The bridge is moving ahead for replacement this fall, but the schedule is still up in the air,” he told The Highlander, saying the structure still needs to be made, with no firm timeline in place.

The public shouldn’t expect a like-for-like swap, with council opting against an arcdesign earlier this year. Camelon presented plans in March but elected officials baulked at the minimum $590,000 price tag, instead opting for a more economic option.

The township received clearance from Transport Canada to install a Bailey bridge, with the shallow stretch of Drag River that runs into Head Lake not considered a navigable waterway.

By Adam Frisk Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

After nearly 15 years of helping Haliburton County residents access affordable dental care, Volunteer Dental Outreach (VDO) is winding down as an independent charity and putting $210,000 toward a new memorial fund.

Last Thursday (Sept. 24) at SIRCH Community Services, organizers announced the creation of the Lisa Kerr Memorial Fund, which will carry on VDO’s work while responding to the area’s changing dental needs.

The two organizations came together in 2010, when Jim Blake, with the Haliburton County Development Corporation, dropped by SIRCH to pitch an idea to founding executive director Gena Robertson: what if SIRCH helped get a free dental program off the ground?

Working with founder Bill Kerr, his wife Lisa, and Janis Parker, SIRCH took VDO under its wing. They handled the early intake setup and administrative policies so the group could get up and running.

VDO opened in May 2011 and officially branched off as its own registered charity a year later.

Dozens of area dentists, hygienists, board members and donors stepped up to support the initiative and delivered more than $4.7 million in free dental care to more than 1,300 Haliburton County residents.

“The Volunteer Dental Outreach of Haliburton County was a dream I had over 17 years ago, and I shared it with my late wife, Lisa Kerr,” Bill said during a presentation. “When I knew she wanted to help me build it, that is when I knew it was possible. What I didn’t realize was how big and wonderful it was going to be.”

With the federal government introducing the Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP), the landscape changed for VDO. While the federal plan now covers basic work for eligible residents, many still face out-of-pocket costs for treatment.

“The Canadian Dental Care Plan represents important progress, but coverage alone does not remove every barrier,” said Gena Robertson, SIRCH Community Services. “The Lisa Kerr Memorial Fund will help bridge the remaining gap so eligible residents can move from having dental coverage to actually receiving the care they need. There is something especially meaningful about this work returning to SIRCH, where Volunteer Dental Outreach’s story first began.”

The memorial fund will be managed through SIRCH and the team plans to work directly with dental offices to identify patients who have basic government coverage but still need help paying for the rest of their care.

Anyone looking to support the fund can donate online through the SIRCH.

Earning a living for the past 26 years making major noise touring the world with Canadian post-hardcore band Silverstein, Josh Bradford said he’s able to balance his loud life on the road with the peace and tranquility of Haliburton County.

One of Silverstein’s founding members, playing rhythm guitar, Bradford said he still has a hard time wrapping his head around the fact he’s spent the bulk of his adult life living his dream.

Sitting down with The Highlander during a rare break from touring earlier this summer, Bradford tells how the band got its start in Burlington in 2000 and went on to form one of the most recognizable sounds of the ‘emo’ wave that took over music at the turn of the millennium.

“We were very underground for a while – we’d go to shows that were put on in the basement of a record store… not a whole lot of glitz, glamour and prestige, but we loved what we were doing and believed in the music,” Bradford said.

This wasn’t his first foray into music. When he was a young boy, before he could even formulate words, Bradford said his parents recorded him belting out renditions of popular songs from The Beatles and The Beach Boys. He started piano lessons at seven, leaning into the classical music his grandfather played as part of the Hamilton Philharmonic, but it didn’t stick.

By the time he was a teenager, the grunge scene that exploded in Seattle, Washington with bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, started to take over the world – or at least that’s how Bradford remembers it feeling. It was a major departure from the heavy metal and rock that had dominated the music scene for well over a decade.

With new sounds becoming mainstream, Bradford started to experiment. His first band, Questionable Sushi, played a mix of ska, reggae and punk rock. They became a bit of a local sensation, one of the prominent up-and-coming voices of Burlington’s underground scene. It also introduced Bradford to his future Silverstein bandmates.

After hitting the proverbial glass ceiling with Questionable Sushi, Bradford said the formation of Silverstein allowed him to grow up and evolve musically.

“Silverstein was more purposeful – the musicians were handpicked because of their abilities. We started playing shows and it was real slow at first, but we started gaining a following in Burlington,” he said.

The band was writing original material and put out two self-released EPs, starting with Summer’s Stellar Gaze in August 2000 and following up with When the Shadows Beam that winter. Then came a successful two-week tour of the east coast, which convinced the musicians to go all-in.

Once home, they put together a press kit with information on the band and demos of their original music and sent them to every record label they could think of. In late 2002, they signed with Chicago-based Victory Records.

“They believed in us enough to finance a proper album,” Bradford said, noting he quit his job at a ski and snowboard store to focus completely on the band. That culminated in the release of When Broken is Easily Fixed in May 2003. It was filled with re-recorded songs from Silverstein’s two prior EPs and was a hit, propelling them onto the global stage.

Quarter-century

Celebrating their 25th anniversary last year, Bradford said Silverstein has now played in 45 countries. They performed on three continents during their quarter-century tour, with dates in North America, Europe and Australia. Later this year, they’re going to Africa for the first time.

Asked about markets the band sees the most success, Bradford said Silverstein is biggest in Canada, the U.S., Australia and Germany, though also has a strong following in the Philippines.

Since 2021, whenever he isn’t touring, Bradford has spent the bulk of his time in the Highlands. He credits the area with broadening his musical community, making several new connections, while also giving him the opportunity to heal after two decades on the road.

“The 26 years of late nights, non-stop travel and bad habits were catching up with me. Since moving here, I have taken my health more seriously. Finally getting sober, working out and eating well [has made a huge difference]. I got a skin cancer diagnosis and fought that living here,” Bradford said.

“I have made strides in every aspect of my life and really do think that something about this place has given me the space to explore and grow that I couldn’t find elsewhere. These hills, forests, lakes and rivers are my home, and they’ve given me a lot,” he added.

After thousands of performances over the years, Bradford said he still feels butterflies on stage when looking out at the crowd. With 13 albums under their belt, he feels the band’s sound has evolved – more mature, less angsty and mopey – and that they’re at the peak of their powers.

“We’ve already gone longer than I could have ever imagined. At this point, why stop? I think as long as people keep connecting with the music and coming to the shows, we’ll keep going,” Bradford said. “I don’t want to be the Rolling Stones of emo, but I’m still having fun.”