Algonquin Highlands deputy mayor Jennifer Dailloux has called time on her eight-year political career, telling The Highlander she won’t be seeking re-election in the fall.

She said her choice was to either run for mayor, or not at all; a decision she has been pondering daily for the better part of a year.

Early on, she eliminated just running as a councillor, which potentially qualifies for deputy mayor, but said, “I don’t want to be one of the members of the peanut gallery, who points and says, ‘if I were the mayor.’ So, it was all or not.

Dailloux said she had a vision for the kind of changes she could make as head of council; such as deeper community partnerships and environmental stewardship. While “lofty,” she felt she could pull it off after “hard-earned pragmatism” garnered from eight years on council.

But, “at what cost?” she asked herself.

“Throwing my ‘everything’ towards that vision has been very tempting. And to be honest, I think I’d be good at it. I know I would bring a lot of heart to the work. But there would be significant drawbacks. My life is rich and full; my creative life and volunteer work are extremely important to me. The reality is, these would have to be swept aside for four years if I made it to that chair. Life is so short, so precious, and I am just not willing to let them go.”

Dailloux said she is at peace with her decision, but will miss the work come next fall.

“What helps is knowing there are a multitude of ways I can continue to contribute to my community, and in some respects, perhaps more directly than if I were to stay on council. I look forward to that. It’s a good decision. It’s the right one.”

Dailloux would like to stay on the board of Point in Time, saying she is a “huge fan. I want to do more with them if they’ll keep me.”

She’d like to remain on the board of the Haliburton County Public Library (HCPL), but is now a council appointee.

Dailloux is also passionate about continuing her role on the board of the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust. “I love the work the land trust is doing. I really want to be a more active participant in their work, and just haven’t had the time for it, now I will.”

She is also interested in Crown land issues that have impacted Algonquin Highlands, and other parts of the County and would like to contribute in areas of water and lake health.

One of her biggest accomplishments on council was being part of the partnerships that brought the green burial section to St. Stephen’s Cemetery in Algonquin Highlands, for which there was an official opening ceremony May 31.

She is also pleased with her involvement in returning a Dorset branch to the HCPL service. She said it is rare for a community to get a library back once it has closed.

Dailloux is also chuffed council has taken a more consultative approach to decisionmaking, using its Bang the Table platform to get public input on major projects.

The soon-to-be former councillor has another title to add to her resume; that of author. Dailloux said she is in the midst of writing a book. “It’s a really important part of what I’m doing now. I’ve always wanted to write and I’m about 70,000 words in. The idea of that slipping away for four years is unpalatable.”

By Adam Frisk Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The library at Hal High became a living history museum when Second World War survivor Jim Neville spoke to students about living through the 1940 London Blitz.

The 87-year-old provided students a rare glimpse of what life was like for a child living during Nazi Germany’s bombing campaign, explaining that the reality of war was often found in “the little stuff” that wasn’t really detailed in history textbooks.

While the British government successfully evacuated about one million children from London in 1940, Neville’s family chose to stay behind. According to the Guelph, Ont., resident, many of the displaced children struggled to adapt, with the majority returning to the capital within a year due to friction with host families or a hatred for country life.

Neville explained that rural displacement was a major disruption for families living in the cities, recounting how his own grandparents openly detested being relocated to the edge of the countryside in Roehampton from where they lived for so long, opposite the Fulham Gas Works.

“They hated it there because, A, there was no pubs close by, and B, they didn’t have any gas smell,” Neville said.

To pass the evenings between air raids, Neville said his family relied on storytelling to keep spirits high. But the destructive reality of the Blitz was nearly impossible to escape, to the point where the sensory memories remain sharp to this day.

“The street behind us was completely destroyed,” Neville recalled. “Looking out the back door, I can still see those flames going into the sky and bits of debris that were being lifted by the hot air.”

Asked what the city smelled like, his answer was simple: “Smoke and fire.”

Neville explained that surviving the war meant finding routine amid chaos. He and his classmates continued to play during daylight hours.

“The kids I went to school with, we used to play in the street together, typical kids’ games,” he said.

A shift occurred late in the war with the arrival of American GIs, Neville said, explaining his neighbours befriended the soldiers, leading to a massive post-war care package from the United States.

“A couple of them sent us a great big parcel of marbles, chewing gum, candy,” he said. “Because you couldn’t get any of that stuff. Well, candy and sugar were rationed right up until 1953.”

Neville has been speaking with students for a few years now, after a casual dinner conversation with his grandson, Jake, sparked the idea to share his memories.

As firsthand accounts of the war become increasingly rare, Neville said he hopes that his stories inspire students to look beyond textbook facts.

“I just hope it makes them a little interested in learning more about the history of the war, and our country, and Britain,” he said. “And just to be a little bit more aware of what’s going on in the world as well… to form their own sort of opinions about it.” June 6 is D-Day, the anniversary of the Normandy landings.

Haliburton Rotary has relaunched its bike share program in Haliburton village for another season.

The bikes are free to use by anyone 18 and older and can be unlocked with a smart phone and credit card.

Volunteer Irv Handler noted cards will only be charged if bikes are lost, stolen or damaged.

There are six bikes available to rent for up to three hours, located in Head Lake Park in front of the bicycle caboose, which has also recently reopened.

The bikes can be signed out during daylight hours, currently between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

The program will remain in place through to Thanksgiving.

Handler said this year the bike share is running as part of the Haliburton County Community Cooperative.

Bicycle caboose volunteer Pamela Marsales said the space is open on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. She said a program schedule, including activities for youth, will be released soon

SIRCH hosted its annual rally for rhubarb last week in Haliburton in support of the non-profit’s community kitchen programs.

County residents who may have had extra rhubarb growing in their gardens were asked to consider donating it to SIRCH during this year’s collection days.

While technically a vegetable, SIRCH said the donated rhubarb “will be transformed into homemade fruit servings and comforting desserts through SIRCH’s community kitchen program, helping provide thousands of nutritious meals to seniors, families, and individuals experiencing food insecurity across Haliburton County.”

A number of years ago, Susan Tromanhauser came across a website called Humans of New York (HONY).

HONY is a massively popular photoblog and storytelling platform created by photographer Brandon Stanton in 2010. What started as an attempt to photograph 10,000 random New Yorkers has evolved into a global phenomenon, featuring intimate portraits and deeply personal anecdotes from everyday people across the globe.

Tromanhauser loved how each post featured not only a candid street portrait, but quotes or short stories from the subjects, ranging from humorous and quirky to profoundly heartbreaking and inspiring.

“I thought it was fascinating because it was regular people telling their stories and everybody had a different story,” Tromanhauser told The Highlander in a recent interview.

The former freelance writer for regional magazines in the Niagara Region, who made the County her full-time home during COVID, thought, “I could do this here.”

She then began pondering where the stories might be published and sent an email to The Highlander, to see if the paper was interested in running a Humans of Haliburton Highlands column. It was. Fast forward to 2026, and Tromanhauser recently published a collection of those columns in book form. She will be launching it at Corner Gallery, at 123 Maple Ave., Haliburton on June 6.

She said another motivator for launching the column was that even though she had been coming to the family cottage in Algonquin Highlands for 30 years, she didn’t know a lot of locals.

“Saying that I have a column gave me permission to go up to people and ask them questions,” she quipped.

“Because everybody I meet does have a story.”

Tromanhauser is out and about and not afraid to approach complete strangers at events. She’ll strike up a conversation. When she gets a response, she’ll mention her column and ask if the person wouldn’t mind being interviewed. She said that 80 per cent of the time, the subject says ‘yes’, although inevitably “everybody says ‘I don’t have anything to say. I don’t have a story’.” However, they usually do. She has some standard questions, such as where people are from, and how they came to be in the Highlands, why they stay, anything they miss about elsewhere. “Somewhere in those questions, it goes in a different direction.”

She said writing the column gives her a sense of accomplishment. So has publishing her first-ever book. “Because I do like to write, and I like to have a purpose to write. So, it gives me a purpose and it gives me a deadline.”

She is also conscious of her subjects, saying, “I’m hoping when they read it in the paper, they feel a sense of accomplishment in what they’ve done. Because sometimes people are too busy living their lives, they don’t see it.”

She recalls how her love of writing came in Grade 2 when the students were introduced to new words. They were shown a photo and had to write a story using those words. Tromanhauser loved it. “I could not wait… since then, I’ve always wanted to write a book.”

She also takes part in a writers’ group organized by Sue Reynolds of Stone’s Throw Publications. Lots of authors were talking about publishing and she thought, “if they can do it, why not me?”

The launch will be from 1-3 p.m. There will be a Q and A with Tromanhauser followed by mingling and snacks.

Two Haliburton men – who illegally used an excavator last summer to remove woody debris and aquatic vegetation along the Lipsy Lake shoreline – have been convicted and fined for unlawful use of machinery on lake shore lands.

The Ministry of Natural Resources said on May 22 that the men were fined $2,000 each after pleading guilty to unlawfully dredging shore lands without a permit.

The Ontario Court of Justice heard that on Aug. 11, 2025, the men were operating an excavator on the shore of Lipsy Lake, in Dysart et al, north of Haliburton.

“While attempting to remove woody debris and aquatic vegetation along the shoreline, the excavator was driven into the waters of Lipsy Lake,” the MNR said.

They added the lakebed was scraped and dredged using the heavy machinery, without the men having obtained a permit.

“Witnesses observed the excavator in the water and immediately reported the incident to the ministry TIPS line. The ministry’s district staff responded to the incident, completing a damage assessment before handing the investigation over to conservation officers,” the ministry said last Friday.

Justice of the Peace, Joel Kulmatycki, heard the case in the Ontario Court of Justice, City of Kawartha Lakes, Feb. 24.

Incident used for public education

There was no remediation order associated with the conviction.

As the incident happened in Dysart et al, chief building official Karl Korpela said their bylaw enforcement officer conducted a joint investigation with the MNR and, “it was determined that this was outside of our jurisdiction as all of the work was completed below the high-water mark.”

Haliburton County master gardener Carolyn Langdon told The Highlander that two weeks ago, she was able to stop a person in mid-destruction from doing a similar thing. She said she convinced the man to return the shoreline elder bushes and soil from the lake back to approximately where it was.

Check before you remove

With the recent conviction and fine, and Langdon’s experience, U-Links program coordinator Frank Figuli said it’s a good reminder for full-time and seasonal residents about the do’s and don’ts of shoreline health.

“From an ecological standpoint, shoreline and near shore areas are some of the most sensitive and productive habitats within an aquatic system. People typically perceive aquatic vegetation and woody debris as a nuisance or a hinderance to enjoying the lake. But they truly do provide important ecological functions like fish habitats, shoreline stabilization, erosion resistance, nutrient cycling, and just overall benefits to water quality protection.”

Figuli said they have done an aquatic plant inventory of Lipsy Lake, indicating an absence of invasive plant species.

He said using heavy equipment, such as an excavator, in a lake below the high-water mark can result in sediment disturbances, possible destruction of habitat, lead to shoreline destabilization – and can impact other properties and the larger lake ecosystem.

He said people should use their lake associations as a resource.

“Cooperation with lake associations should be front of mind, particularly because they are working with organizations such as the Haliburton County Master Gardeners, U-Links, Abbey Gardens, etc. You can get more informed decision-making potential by checking in versus just going off on your own.”

The Highlander asked the MNR how one obtains a permit, and how it ensures work is done properly. We did not have a response as of press time.

To report a natural resource problem, or provide information about an unsolved case, members of the public can call the ministry TIPS line toll free at 1-877-847-7667. You can also call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800222-TIPS. For more information about unsolved cases, visit ontario.ca/MNRTips.