When Joanne Barnes was manager of the Minden food bank, she did intakes to get client information, and two stories really upset her.

One was a young mother with four or five little kids. She told Barnes they had to live in their snowsuits from when they came home Friday night until they went back to school Monday morning because the parents had to choose between feeding the children or keeping them warm.

Not long after, she met an elderly gentleman who told her he was staying in bed most days with all the blankets he owned, while cuddling with a cat and dog to try to stay warm.

“Faced with those two incidences, it made me feel this shouldn’t happen in Canada. What could we do and how could we do it?” Barnes recalled.

She went to her church, Minden Bible Church, to see if they would be interested in the initiative since they would need to give out charitable tax receipts. They agreed and in 2009 Fuel for Warmth was born.

The partnership lasted five years, with the church recording donations, paying fuel bills, and sending tax receipts.

By 2014, it was growing and the work became a lot on top of other church duties. So, they decided it was time for Fuel for Warmth to become its own entity. Barnes went to lawyer Ray Selbie, who helped her to get a charitable tax number and also recommended incorporation. He provided his services free of charge, because he believed in the mission.

She then started looking for a treasurer and Lorne McNeil had not long retired as an accountant. His wife, Lorraine, then joined the team, as did Mike and Jane Jaycock. The Christmas Shindig was the result of that collaboration, Fuel for Warmth’s biggest fundraiser, which is still running.

“From there, we went ahead with leaps and bounds because we had the money,” Barnes said.

In that first year, 2009, she said they had about eight clients. Now, they support around 100 families a year. Originally, the gift was $200 and now it’s $500. It includes money for oil, propane and wood – as well as physical wood.

Along the way there have been many helpers, such as Barkley and Sandra Cooney, who led the wood initiative, and now Dan Farnell.

“It’s become such a needed thing. The need is continuing to increase,” Barnes said.

She added that one of the most rewarding things are unexpected calls. There was a senior converting from oil to propane who donated the oil from his tank. A bunch of cut down hardwood trees were donated from another person on Kennisis Lake.

She said they get several personal notes from clients. One person, who was helped in the past, sent a thank you note with a donation, saying Fuel for Warmth helped him when he needed it and he wanted to pay it forward.

“It’s rewarding. It’s not why I do it. You don’t expect that, but it just makes you realize that’s why you do it,” Barnes said.

She added she wasn’t planning to retire from Fuel for Warmth – after earlier stepping down from the Minden Community Food Centre – but family health issues forced her decision.

While not in it for recognition, she has been honoured for her work. In 2010, the YWCA gave her a Guardian Angel award. In 2015, Fuel for Warmth won a not-for-profit award at the chamber awards, as well as Barnes being named that year’s Highlander of the Year. MP Jamie Schamle spoke of her in the House of Commons. She was recently interviewed by CBC radio about the food centre and Fuel for Warmth.

She is staying on as consultant-advisor for now and hopes to draw up a plan to teach other communities about creating Fuel for Warmths of their own.

“I’m proud of the accomplishments. My brain, my head tells me that the time is right … that I have to step down … my heart is having a bit of an issue with it.”

After 12 years of meetings, Coun. Jean Neville won’t be returning to Minden Hills’ council chambers next term.

“I’ve enjoyed it. I’m approaching my mid 70’s. I have five grandkids I want to spend time with.

“I just want to spend more time doing some other things,” the Ward 3 councillor said.

From the start, Neville said she wanted to represent the interests of Minden Hills’ smaller rural communities.

“I wanted to do what I could to help the community of Snowden. I was excited to be on council and learn something new,” she said.

According to Neville, she became known for her frequent comments about events going on in Irondale, Gelert and her home of Snowden.

“I kept reminding them about the little ward of Snowden. We have the smallest number of taxpayers, but we’re important too.”

She said council expected her to speak up about events and issues happening in those hamlets.

“It got to be a joke among councillors that I would speak up,” she said. “They began to understand there was more to Minden Hills than the town of Minden.”

For example, she said it was only fair to provide funding for the smaller hamlets community centres when those communities finance investment in Minden.

“Community centres started to get some funds from the general levy. That has certainly helped them survive,” she said.

Neville said aspects of the township that have received criticism during the last four years, such as perceived slowness of planning or bylaw departments, are being remedied.

“We’ve hired several people in the last little while. We’re busy working on that,” she said.

“We hired a [planning] consulting organization to get through the backlog and we were criticized about that. We’ve gotten through tons of old files our municipality couldn’t get at.”

She said one regret from her time in office is council disagreements over the amount of funding for the new Minden Hills arena meant it was built without some facilities, such as a snack bar.

“Even though it passed, the councillors that weren’t in favour of it really dug their heels in. It really hampered additional things we needed in there at the time, which we could have gotten done more cheaply during COVID when interest rates were so low,” she said.

“There are things we ended up putting out more taxpayers’ money on now we could have done a lot more cheaply through debentures.”

As of Aug. 17, no one is running for election in Neville’s ward but she’s been chatting with people who might put their names forward.

She said it’s been a rewarding job.

“I’ve met some wonderful people,” she said. She added the key was being willing to learn about the ins and outs of council meetings, budgets and all facets of municipal processes.

“Your whole life is a learning experience, there’s nothing you can participate in that you shouldn’t be learning from.”

The Haliburton County Public Library will soon have its own vehicle.

At an Aug. 10 meeting, the board approved spending up to $40,000 to purchase a van capable of hauling books around the County and providing a more cost-efficient way to move staff and resources from branch to branch.

CEO Christopher Stephenson said a new vehicle will save the library mileage fees, decrease financial burden on staff and make it easier to hire couriers. It will be funded by the library’s surplus, which currently sits at more than $200,000.

“It’s normal and it’s good that an organization that crisis-crosses the County all-year-round has regular vehicle access,” Stephenson said. He estimates the vehicle would drive 27,000 kilometres a year. Couriers drive 400 kilometres a week.

Currently, staff and library couriers use their own vehicles or borrow a County of Haliburton SUV, which is soon to be taken off the road due to safety concerns.

“Our staff… assume a lot of risk,” Stephenson said.

He added that it’s difficult to fit materials into a smaller car or SUV.

“Our capacity for moving books in transit is set to grow,” Stephenson told the board. He said it’s more economical to pay mileage on a corporate vehicle. According to his estimates, operating a library van could cost about 28 cents a kilometre.

It also means the library can hire couriers who might not have a vehicle appropriate for hauling books.

He said it would enhance the library’s public presence too.

“Some of the best advertising that we do is when a kid says to their mom ‘look there’s the library vehicle going through our town’.”

Warden Liz Danielsen said, “I was a little bit hesitant about the idea of purchasing a vehicle… I have heard and accept the arguments you’ve made. It can be a very beneficial thing for us to do.”

Nearly all board members said they’d prefer an electric vehicle but cautioned that few electric vehicles are large enough to be suitable for hauling large quantities of books.

“I think we’ve reached the point where we really have to have a van, otherwise a car doesn’t cut it,” said Highlands East deputy mayor Cec Ryall. It seems likely the library will opt for a small gas-powered van.

Stephenson said a designated library vehicle is “going to be a huge game changer for what we’re going to do.”

After three Highlands resorts had their hot tub facilities closed, owners say Ontario’s hot tub regulations unfairly target small operations in the Highlands.

In July, the Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes, Pine Ridge District Health Unit (HKPR) issued orders to close multiple hot tubs at Buttermilk Falls Resort, Sandy Lanes Resort and Lakeview Motel and Resort.

Richard Ovcharovich, a manager with the health unit, said the Ontario Building Code and Ontario Regulation 565 Public Pools “do not permit the use of private backyard domestic spas (whirlpools) to be used at hotels, travel accommodations or resorts that have six or more units or suites.”

The regulations have been in place for decades but were updated in 2018, mandating these whirlpools be equipped with timing devices, have no food or beverages close by, are made inaccessible outside of a daily use period and have a landline phone nearby, even if they are only accessed by residents of the suite. All three resorts have had hot tubs in operation since before 2018.

“We’ve had hot tubs on this property for over a decade and nobody has ever gotten injured or gotten sick as a result of these tubs,” said Stephen Orr of Buttermilk Falls Resort.

Private tubs ‘main attractions’ at motel

In a written document outlining his concerns, Orr wrote: “With no outreach, no warning, no education program, and most importantly no new health and safety related issues, the resorts are being told to shut down an important revenue stream, one that they have used safely for literally decades. Coming into compliance would be prohibitively expensive for any small business, and as a result they are closing down a critical feature of our business with no practical way of reopening, for no health and safety related reason. This is completely unfair.”

Ovcharovich said “no compliance period was granted as these specific spas were missing many of the required safety features and they were not being maintained accordingly… The orders were issued as the public health inspector deemed these spas as being a health hazard and the direction was necessary to eliminate the health hazard.”

Ovcharovich said multiple infractions meant the closures were necessary, including no chemistry records being taken, water chemistry not being balanced, the units not having emergency stop buttons and missing safety signage.

The enforcement of the regulation in Haliburton County seems to have been sparked by a July inspection of Lakeview Motel in Haliburton. After coming to the property on another matter, inspectors returned to close the motel’s hot tubs used by private rooms. Lakeview Motel appealed the decision, which was then upheld by the Health Services Appeal and Review Board.

“Our hot tubs are one of the main attractions,” said co-owner of Lakeview Motel Harsha Manani.

She said the hot tubs have been in operation at the motel for years. Staff drain and refill each room’s hot tub after each use.

Orr said the regulation is unrealistic for private hot tubs, including having no food or drink nearby, closing the hot tub after use at night or installing landline phones in each unit.

“Everybody we’ve talked to outside of the health unit has said.. there’s no way this should be applied this way,” said Orr. He said multiple guests who have come to expect use of hot tubs over the years have voiced disappointment.

Orr said he’s spoken with resort operators in districts such as Muskoka and Hasting Highlands. In both cases, he said operators claimed they had not heard of this regulation being enforced, even though it is an Ontariowide regulation.

HKPR staff are responsible for enforcement of the regulation in this area.

Ovcharovich said these rules have been enforced outside of Haliburton County. He said the inspections are investigated on a complaint basis.

At all three resorts, private hot tubs have been in use for decades. Orr and Manani estimate the loss of their private hot tubs will cost them tens of thousands of dollars in missed revenue.

“I take in phone calls and emails, and I hear guests upset and disappointed,” said Manani.

Orr wrote: “The best way forward is to work to amend the regulation in a manner that would allow the resorts to go back to operating their hot tubs as they have done in the past, either by clarifying the regulation to exclude portable hot tubs entirely.”