Concerned residents of Highland Grove questioned the Highlands East Fire Committee over fears about the future of their community fire hall.  

The committee answered a series of questions from a resident delegation during its May 13 meeting.

The delegation spoke to their concern the municipality could decide to close the Station 2 fire hall in Highland Grove as part of a service delivery review. 

 A group of 10 people sat in on the meeting. Resident Angela Lewis said attending and asking questions sent a message.  

“Us being here, fighting for this, whether it happens or doesn’t, shows how important it is to us,” she told the committee.  

Residents spoke about the 2010 Peter Corfield and Associates Master Fire Plan Report, which recommended closing and merging fire halls to save costs, including Station 2.

Although the reports recommendations were not all acted on, it resurfaced at the fire committee’s first meeting March 11.

Previous fire chief Bill Wingrove also brought up the report in December 2016 and spoke to council in support of its recommendations.  

Council has tasked the committee with completing a fire service delivery review. But Mayor Dave Burton said he did not understand what the residents are fighting about, given the committee has not yet brought forward any recommendation. 

 “This isn’t a committee to go closing fire halls,” Burton said. “I’ll stand here as mayor and say that … we’re here trying to make a good service better.”  

He added his own concerns about the need to improve fire services and how a possible amalgamation at the county level might impact them.  

“You might have one fire hall in Highlands East if you amalgamate,” Burton said. “If we don’t do something, I guarantee the province will come in and do it.”  

Station 1 fire chief Wayne Galloway said the Corfield report was brought forward as background information, as many fire service members never saw it.  

“It was never intended to be used to make a decision,” he said. “Everybody here at the table will agree there’s information there (in the report) that was lacking.”  

Acting fire chief Chris Baughman said he does not want to reduce the level of service to save money.  L

ewis said she did not feel her discussion with the committee accomplished anything.  

“We’ll just keep fighting,” Lewis said. “We made our point, we’ll just keep going.” 

Committee discusses vehicle cuts

 
The committee also discussed how to start working toward a service delivery review.

 
“What’s driving the need for this?” Station 4 fire chief Brian Woods asked. “Is it we can’t afford the status quo?” 

Baughman said past studies have suggested that and the municipality is doing the review to find out for sure. 

Chair Cam McKenzie said the review would be a lengthy process. But he suggested one of the things worth exploring was whether the municipality needs three emergency vehicles at each of its five fire halls. 

“The major budget of a fire department is buying trucks,” McKenzie said. “Maybe we’re over-equipped to carry on the same service and we could do it with less vehicles.” 

Baughman later said he is also compiling updated statistics on fire calls at each station. 

Organizers of the TraX4 Breast Cancer ATV ride were carrying a torch as they hosted the 10th edition of the event May 4.  

The annual fundraiser for the Kelly Shires Breast Cancer Foundation was co-founded by Tracey Guthrie. She lost her 19-year battle with breast cancer three years ago.  

Despite that, Guthrie’s friends and family have continued the event in her stead and reached the decade milestone. Co-founder Suzy Stenoff said Guthrie would be glad to see the event carry on.  

“This is really her baby, her brainchild and she would have wanted to see this group,” Stenoff said. “I know she’d be really proud to have all of you here today representing the event.”  

The co-ed event’s 42 participants raised $42,000 for the foundation, which helps breast cancer patients cover living and travel expenses.

This was the first time the event has been held in Haliburton, with ATV riders taking off from the Pinestone Resort to hit county trails.  

Volunteer Lindsay Draper said participants were looking for a change in atmosphere for the event, which has previously been held in Sequin and Parry Sound.  

“It gives us an opportunity to open up this event to others who are not able to travel and also bring more awareness to the event and the charity with new surroundings,” Draper said.  

Brooke Creighton participated for her fourth time. She said the cause is an important one to support, with the foundation getting seven to 10 applications from people seeking financial assistance every week.  

“The more the awareness grows for the charity, the more applications we get and there’s just not enough money to go around,” Creighton said. “We want to be able to help as many people as we can. There’s a great financial need when you’re going through breast cancer.”  

Lori Mathers said she was participating for the first time in honour of two colleagues battling breast cancer.  

“I love them and they’re an inspiration to me,” Mathers said. “We’re all touched by cancer in some way.”  

Draper said people in the Haliburton area have embraced the event and organizers hope to continue to expand it.  

“We’re keeping Tracey’s dream alive of this event and growing it and just keeping that awareness out there that this charity is here,” she said. “Everybody in the community has just really jumped on board.”

Haliburtonians joined people across the country to raise funds for palliative care at the annual Hike for Hospice May 5. 

 Dozens of participants hiked through Head Lake Park for the event, one of many happening throughout the country.

The funds raised stay within their communities, with Haliburton’s hike raising money for the Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS) hospice and palliative programs.

The services offer patient and family support during serious and life-limiting illnesses.  

Beth Archibald is a patient navigator with the palliative care community team. She said she participated in the event for the first time to honour her father, who passed away 11 years ago after a fight with cancer.  

“This is a meaningful day for me,” she said. “I work with courageous individuals and their families every day and so I want to honour their journey. I’m just really honoured to be able to do this.” 

 HHHS president and CAO Carolyn Plummer said the community support for the event is strong.  

“It’s great to see how many people have joined us and how many people are hiking with us today. It’s a real sign of how much importance the community places on hospice, palliative and health services,” Plummer said. 

Brian Daoust has participated in every Hike for Hospice in Haliburton. He said the event also acts as an important way to raise awareness for the services.  

“We have high school kids talking about hospice whereas five to six years ago, that never happened. The awareness is as important as the money raised,” Daoust said. “It’s really important to have it public.”  

This is the second year of the reborn hike in Haliburton, which went into a hiatus for three years after a decade running.

Plummer said the hike being tied to a national event will help it continue into the future.  

“It gives us a lot of support we wouldn’t otherwise have. Given the turnout and given the commitment that people show to this event and to our services, I think we have a chance to keep this going for the long haul,” she said.

The Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland Drug Strategy is reminding people of the dangers of drug and alcohol use as it relates to sexual assault with a social media campaign May 6-10.  

The drug strategy is participating in the provincial Sexual Assault Prevention Month with the campaign, which aims to highlight the involvement of alcohol and other substances in reported sexual assaults.  

The organizations behind the strategy said between 25 and 50 per cent of sexual assaults involve alcohol or other drugs.

Strategy co-ordinator Megan Deyman said the hope is for the campaign to raise awareness and connect people with supports.  

“The campaign will also give people information about boundaries and consent and to encourage conversations free of shame and blame,” Deyman said.  

Strategy media and communications worker Nick Adams said the range between 25 and 50 per cent is due to the different sources the stats are pulled from, with the upper-range coming from campus-based studies. 

 The campaign discusses issues such as people’s misunderstanding of consent and how alcohol and drugs can impair one’s ability to consent.  “

There’s real confusion it seems with what consent even means. The fact that consent can even start at one point and can be withdrawn at any time,” Adams said. “The fact is if someone is intoxicated, they can’t give consent. Whereas our culture, talking about young people, it’s a hook-up culture where you’re meeting in bars, you’re meeting in social settings where alcohol’s involved.”  

The campaign notes 27 per cent of sexual assaults occur in bars or restaurants.  Adams said rape myths are still prevalent.

In his previous capacity as a youth minister, he said he has seen them perpetuated in the community.  

“Thinking about incidents in our own community, I think there’s this idea that these are good boys that wouldn’t do something like that. This idea that the victim was lying in some way … that’s unfortunate, it really is,” Adams said. “Nobody asks to be assaulted.”  

Adams said it is important for young people to understand consent and he hopes to spread the campaign’s message to the local high school amidst prom season.

He added it is important for bystanders to be active in potentially dangerous situations involving drug and alcohol use.  

“We need to be able to speak up and speak truth to these situations,” Adams said.

Boshkung Brewing’s Terri Mathews said they’d like to install a food truck or trailer at Boshkung Social on Water Street in Minden but want the township to first amend its bylaw.  

Mathews, appearing at an April 25 Minden Hills council meeting, said they’d invested more than $250,000 in the business and have had two successful seasons, with a third coming up.  

“We believe we have brought numerous customers into the downtown core and created a great deal of excitement in Minden,” she said.

She added they have a social media following of more than 20,000 and “happily” post about #myhaliburtonhighlands on a regular basis. 

However, she said they have limited space in the location and have been unable to add a kitchen. Last season, they had a tent set up serving hot food as well as cold snacks.

However, she said the situation was not always ideal as weather could be dangerous for staff. 

 “We would like to install a food truck or trailer to use for the summer months only.”  However, she said the bylaw presently is that you must get permission from any other food service provider within 1,000 feet.

She said her research has found that Algonquin Highlands has no such requirement and Dysart et al requires a 30m setback from another food service provider. 

 “We would like to ask that this bylaw be amended to read 100 feet instead of the current 1,000 feet,” she said. 

Mathews told councillors the bylaw was “a little bit out of whack” and “definitely different.”

She said she even wondered if there had been a typo. She added they wanted to open something in good taste and “not have to get permission from the entire town of Minden.”  

She added that they hoped to one day take over the LCBO building on Water Street.  

Mayor Brent Devolin said it was a 17-year-old bylaw. He said he did not know the logic behind the 1,000 feet but that the intent of bylaws is always to treat everybody fairly.

He said there would be a report from staff coming back to council.  Earlier this year, the company announced on its Facebook page that long-time Haliburton County cottagers John Watts and Jost Rittershaus have purchased an interest in Boshkung Brewing Co.  

“The addition of these dynamic men will allow Boshkung to increase job creation and guide the company to greater growth and prosperity,” the post said. It added, “We are currently expanding both locations which will be finished this spring. We are adding new brew systems, retail space and tasting rooms to both locations and we will now be able to sell retail beer out of the new brewery in Minden, at 20 Water Street.”

With demand for its existing van skyrocketing over the past year, the Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS) has welcomed the recent arrival of a new accessible vehicle.  

HHHS was able to get the new Dodge van, that seats seven people plus two wheelchairs, thanks in part to funding from the Central East Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) and Haliburton Highlands Health Services Foundation.  

Stephanie MacLaren, VP, community programs said the van will help Community Support Services to meet the growing need for medically-related transportation.

This includes group travel to regional dialysis, adult day and mental health programming. She added it will be instrumental in addressing transportation needs for the Haliburton County Youth Hub.  

“Transportation is such a challenge in rural communities such as ours,” MacLaren said. With ever-increasing demand, she added, “We are very pleased to be able to better address the needs of our community. Through transportation programs such as ours, clients are able to attend programming that not only supports them with their medical needs but also helps to reduce isolation and provide respite to caregivers.”  

She said HHHS hopes to be able to continue to grow this component of their programming.  

Foundation executive director Lisa Tompkins was on hand to welcome the van.  

“Being able to attend medical appointments and supportive programs is a key component of the health and wellness journey for so many, and the Foundation is pleased to be able to support HHHS’ delivery of service with the addition of this accessible van,” she said.  

Through a combination of the volunteer driving program and the accessible van, the HHHS transportation program provided 13,500 rides to 545 residents of Haliburton County over the past year.  

The program is offered to adults over 55 years of age and adults 18 years or older with a disability. Client fees apply.

Call the HHHS transportation coordinator at 705457-2941 for more information.