It took one look from Haliburton Forest and Wildlife Reserve’s Hershe the Moose to make a powerful impression on Maureen McCarthy.

 “I was compelled to sit there,” the Whitby native said, describing her first encounter with him last September. “I sat there for probably close to two hours, just looking at each other … I could see into his heart and soul. He was just a magnificent, kind guy.”  

McCarthy joined hundreds on social media in mourning the death of Hershe, announced June 11. The eight-year-old animal passed after a months-long battle with illness.  

“It hit me hard,” McCarthy told The Highlander. “I’m starting to tear up now. It was as if somebody told me a close friend had passed away.”  

Hershe arrived in Haliburton Forest in 2011, after his mother was killed in a vehicle accident near Pembroke, according to the organization’s blog.

He and his sibling were three-weeks-old and with slim chances of survival, they were brought to Haliburton Forest for care.  

Tourism and recreation general manager Tegan Legge said it was a quick decision to take them on.  

“Nobody really thought about what it’s going to cost to have these moose. They just felt this love and responsibility,” Legge said.  

Although Hershe’s sibling died within hours of arrival, he made it through. Elke and Minna Schleifenbaum raised him, feeding and sleeping alongside him.

Legge attributed Hershe’s well-known friendliness to his development.

 “He was raised by Minna and Elke who were very compassionate humans. He just got so used to people and never needing to fear humans,” Legge said. “That’s partly why we couldn’t put him back in the wild, he got so used to humans.” 

 Hershe went on to become a famous attraction for the reserve, perfectly willing to trot up and interact with his many visitors. It was that personality which made him so beloved, Legge said. 

“It’s one thing to go to a wildlife reserve or a zoo or something and see an animal from afar,” she said. “He was actually approachable … he was coming right up to the fence and saying hello to everybody.” 

 But his carefree days came to an end when he came down with sickness earlier this year. Legge said treatments proved ineffective and veterinary experts estimated he only had two weeks to live.

With Hershe struggling to breathe and walk, they decided to put him down before the illness got worse.  

Tests have ruled out any fear his illness could spread to other animals. But the cause of the sickness has yet to be determined.  

Hershe’s passing went viral, with hundreds of well-wishers sharing the news on Facebook.  

 “He’s definitely had this legacy at the forest that I think is going to live on for a very long time and touched a lot of people,” Legge said. That legacy stretches far and wide.

Although McCarthy only met him once, she said Hershe spoke to her. 

“It was like love at first sight. I can’t tell you what that connection was but I couldn’t leave his side.”

Organizations across Haliburton are partnering with the new Haliburton County Youth Sailing Association (HYSA) to provide a new sporting outlet for at-risk kids.  

Partners met to discuss the start of the association June 4 at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 636 Minden.

The group plans to offer youth a chance to sail with one-on-one instruction to help improve mental health.

The association will take referrals from youth agencies for kids at-risk but will be inclusive to all who want to participate.  Director Robin Carmount, who also works with Haliburton Highlands OPP, said the community needs more things for youth to engage with. 

 “A lot of our calls, every day, deal with mental health,” he said. “If we can kind of get to these kids, get to these people when they’re younger – there’s not a lot of stuff for kids to go to here. Not only can we work with mental health but it also gives kids in crisis, or not, something to do.” 

 About 19 people representing different organizations attended the meeting. Groups included the Canadian Mental Health Association, the Kawartha-Haliburton Children’s Aid Society, Trillium Lakelands District School Board, the County of Haliburton, Haliburton County Development Corporation and the Kawartha North Family Health Team.  

HYSA director Andrew Hodson said the idea is to focus on sailing as a vehicle to teach “soft skills.”  

“This is more about resiliency and life skills and social inclusion,” he said. “This is just real organic mindfulness … the whole idea of this isn’t to over structure it. It’s simply to put a life jacket on a kid, put them on the water and get the mind to literally be mindful. Not in the past, not fear of the future. In the moment on the water.”  

Hodson said directors thought it an original idea to combine mental health work and sailing. But they found a number of studies linking the sport to positive mental health outcomes.  

The association is trying to gather funding and volunteers to start sailing this summer. It does not yet have official non-profit status but Carmount said he plans to get that in time.  

The goal will be to work with a small number of youth to start. The group has chosen to work primarily out of Twelve Mile Lake at the Red Umbrella Inn, which is donating space. Carmount said he expects the association

can get enough funding through donations to operate. But he identified transportation as the biggest challenge. 

“Kids that are in Cardiff, or Dorset, or Haliburton. If there’s a struggle with (transportation), that’s a problem,” he said. “I think that’s going to be our biggest cost.” 

Director Tom Oliver said the association will be completely inclusive. 

“We want to be inclusive to anybody and everybody. It certainly isn’t directed towards a particular group or particular gender,” he said. 

Carmount said he is pleased about all the different organizations who are willing to contribute. 

“We got water, we got fantastic people, we got it all.” 

More information is available on the group’s website mindoverwater.org .

A special award was given at Haliburton’s Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUWHH) 15-year celebration June 6. 

 A one-time $1,000 scholarship was presented to Haliburton Highlands Secondary School student, Karley Wilson to celebrate not only the 15 years the club has been in Haliburton, but the 100 years it has been in Canada.  

“Our number one goal is to empower women and support education,” said Jane Adams, member of the CFUWHH scholarship committee. “So, we knew we wanted to have a special award or project for the 100th anniversary.” 

According to Adams, students had to write an essay on either of three topics for a chance to win the scholarship.

The topics were: a notable woman in Haliburton, a woman making a difference today or a woman that is moving women’s rights forward. 

 Wilson said she wrote about Dragons’ Den judge and entrepreneur Michele Romanow. She chose the dragon because of how she helps women and youth kick-start their careers.  

“She is kind of focused on the youth perspective and wants to help people better their life and keep moving forward,” she said.  

Wilson will be studying psychology and linguistics at Brock University next year in the hopes of becoming a speech therapist.  

The club also gave two awards to members in celebration of their 15-year anniversary in Haliburton.

The Sage Award was given to Heather Lindsay, the longest member of CFUW in the Haliburton chapter.  

Seven other women were recognized as charter members for being with the chapter since it opened 15 years ago. Those women are: Dawn Brohman, Cheryl Grigg, Ann Mahar, Dorothy Owens, Margaret Risk, Nel van der Grient and Stella Voison.

Dysart et al is bringing its landfill maintenance in-house through a series of moves staff said will improve service levels for a similar or reduced cost.  

The municipality terminated its contract with Schwandt Aggregate for services at the Harcourt landfill May 3 due to non-compliance.

This follows the municipality taking steps in April to take over maintenance at the Haliburton landfill.  Director of public works Rob Camelon said staff have been planning to do all landfill work internally after another round of contracts expired in 2020.

But staff accelerated the timeline at Haliburton and Harcourt after issues with contractors.  

“It’s just something we feel we could manage better in-house. Ultimately, it’s our liability anyways,” Camelon said. “We just feel buying our own equipment and hiring our own staff, whenever they’re not working on landfills, we can always use them on the road side of things.”  

Schwandt Aggregate managed the Harcourt landfill for several years. Camelon said the contractor was recently not doing enough cover work, which involves moving soil over new deposits of waste.  

“That just wasn’t getting done,” Camelon said. “We take our landfills pretty seriously and to keep it in the good graces of the Ministry (of Environment, Conservation and Parks), we decided to take it into in-house.” 

 However, Camelon said the two sides mutually ended the agreement on good terms. The contractor could not be reached for comment before press time.  

Dysart took over the Haliburton landfill after the years-long contractor there declined to take on the work. Council subsequently directed staff to take steps to take on the maintenance there.  

Schwandt Aggregate has also provided winter maintenance in the Harcourt area. But public works recommended the work be done internally as well, requiring the purchase of a heavy-duty snow plow.  

Staff are also exploring whether the work can be done by county or Highlands East municipal plows.

For the municipality’s other contracted landfill sites in Kennisis Lake and West Guilford, the plan is not to renew when the contracts expire in 2020. 

Highlands East’s fire committee will investigate ideas to close down fire halls and build a new central hall as part of its probe into fire services.  

The committee decided June 10 on five options it will present for council consideration as part of a fire service delivery review.

Council mandates one of the options be maintaining the status quo but the other options will include reducing from five fire halls to three and shifting equipment for efficiency.

The building of a new, central fire hall makes up the two other options, with one entailing closing other halls and the other being to maintain some of them.  

“I’m going to go outside the box,” Station 1 fire chief Wayne Galloway said as he suggested the building of a central fire hall.  

Chair Cam McKenzie said the committee will investigate the options and give them to council to decide upon at a later date.

Council mandated the committee provide a minimum of three options.  

“This doesn’t mean that’s going to happen,” McKenzie said, referring to an option to downsize from five to three fire halls.  

Acting fire chief Chris Baughman proposed cutting the number of halls and said it would amount to having one hall for each of the municipality’s three response areas.

If approved later by council, the option would combine Station 1 in Cardiff with Station 6 in Paudash.

Station 2 in Highland Grove would also combine with Station 4 in Wilberforce.  

The committee approved the option on a 4-2 recorded vote, with Station 2 chief Doug Bowen and Station 6 chief Brian Woods voting against it.

Co-chair Mayor Dave Burton, Baughman, Station 3 chief Brian Horner and Station 4 chief Gary Mount voted in favour. McKenzie abstained as committee chair.  

“The service we have in our area now, leave it the way it is,” Bowen said.  

This option is similar to a recommendation made in the 2010 Peter Corfield Associates and Master Fire Plan Report.

It recommended reducing the number of stations to save costs. Highland Grove residents have raised concerns about the future of their fire hall after the report resurfaced at the fire committee meeting March 11.  

Baughman said he would be doing a comparative cost analysis of the various options, including maintaining the status quo.

He is also gathering call data on all the fire halls.  

“I have to look at costing of what we have now to maintain it. It has to be adequate for our fire service,” Baughman said.

Haliburton’s female entrepreneurs might be getting more support as PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise looks toward the county for expansion.  

The not-for-profit organization held its first information session May 30 at the Haliburton County Development Corporation (HCDC) to try and expand its peer lending circles initiative.  

Linda Cryderman, a business growth advisor for PARO, said the “circles are not about money, but the support for women in business.”  

The process works like this: groups of four to seven women called ‘circles’ get together once a month to support each other and their businesses.

Circles can apply for loans and grants through PARO for two of their members who need them, and no loan has ever been denied.  

Cryderman said circles will act as mentors to each other as well as the approval board for loan applications.

This means loans are approved by the circle, not a bank. PARO also helps women find lenders if the loans they offer aren’t enough. 

Although the information session only had two local business owners participate, both were looking into starting a circle in the county. 

Terri Mathews-Carl, owner of Rhubarb Restaurant and co-owner of Mathew & Madlyn, said there were a few women she thought would be interested in the project besides herself and other attendee Pat Bradley, owner of Mind Your Inn.

 
Women who join or start a circle must be 18 and older and only have to pay an annual fee of $20 to join.

Entrepreneurs can contact Cryderman at 1-807- 577-9260 or businessgrowth6@paro.ca for more information.

Haliburton’s Pregnancy and Family Support Centre wants to help families as a whole. That’s why they offer the Nurturing Fathers Program.  

The 13-week course is designed to help fathers, grandfathers, step-dads and more learn nurturing and parenting skills in a calm environment. 

 Doug Ross, one of the co-facilitators of the class, said it focuses not only on teaching necessary skills such as patience and emotions.

It also focuses on teaching fathers who didn’t have good examples that they can be good parents. 

 “I grew up without a father,” Ross said. “I absolutely wish there was something like this around when I had my first two boys because I had to teach myself everything.”  

The course has been offered for five years and has had approximately 25 participants see it through to graduation.

The men involved get together once a week and share a meal at the centre before their classes start. Ross said they are more open to sharing once they’ve all eaten together.  

Terry Goodwin, another co-facilitator and former corrections officer, said most of the referrals for the program come from corrections, Children’s Aid or the centre itself.  

He said most of the men who participate see progress not only in their relationships with their family, but outside of it as well. 

 “They’re taking the same stuff they’re applying with their children and applying elsewhere,” he said. “Like with their coworkers and bosses.”  

Lindsay Lester, employee at the centre, said the program was brought to Haliburton because there needs to be courses for both parents to create better communication and help a family.  

“The hope is that more dads that need this program will hear about it and see the end of it,” said Ross.  

The Nurturing Dads Program runs year-round depending on enrollment numbers.

More information can be found at the centre, bottom floor of Stedman’s Mall in Haliburton or by calling 705-457-4673.