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.

The County of Haliburton is replacing the worn down 94-year-old Little Hawk Lake Road bridge in Algonquin Highlands after confirming over $1.8 million in funding for the project.  

Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP Laurie Scott announced the province would commit $750,587 to the project June 1, representing one-third of the approximately $2.252 million total cost.

The county anticipates the federal government will cover half the funding at approximately $1.126 million.  

The single-lane bridge was last rehabilitated in 1993 and has an average of 230 vehicles per day.

However, the county said it has significantly deteriorated. The load restriction also prevents firetrucks from crossing, requiring them to take a 12-kilometre detour.  

“We really need it,” Warden Liz Danielsen said. “We can get firetrucks over the bridge, the plows can travel easier, quite a bit better water flow here. It helps in so many ways to get this project done.”  

Scott said this was a major priority.

 “The bridge is desperate, it had to be replaced. It’s very hard for small municipalities to do all the projects that they have to do,” she said. “Haliburton County has been asking for help for several years because it is a large amount of money. Two million makes a big difference for a budget of this size.”  

The new bridge will remain single-lane but be widened to better accommodate plows.

The structure will also be elevated by half a metre to provide for greater water capacity beneath it.  

“It really is such an important part of our sustainability,” county chief administrative officer Mike Rutter said.  

The federal government has not yet confirmed its contribution to the work but Scott said she expects their funding will come soon.  

The county plans to tender the replacement structure in the summer, with construction taking place in the fall.  

“I’ve crossed this bridge all my life. I know we have very big routes in this part of Haliburton County,” Scott said. “I’ll feel more secure when we get a new bridge.”

Haliburton School of Art and Design 2019 valedictorian Taylor Luecke did not expect to deliver a speech as the voice of more than 35 graduates.  

The school hosted its annual commencement ceremony May 31.

The graduates of 12 different art and design programs were honoured as they received their diplomas in front of their peers and families.  Luecke said graduating as her class’s valedictorian was a surreal experience.  

“I love that school so much and I never thought I’d find a place as cool as that. I feel super proud to be that person,” she said. “I am one of the first in my family to graduate from post-secondary school, so I feel like it’s a big thing.”  

The Millbrook native graduates with an alternative design diploma and a digital image design certificate.

Although she said she always knew she wanted to create, she did not always know she wanted to graduate from college.  

“It brought me a lot of joy and it eases a lot of my anxieties,” she said about her art. “I saw lots of doctors about it (anxiety) and all they wanted to do was prescribe me medication.”  

Instead, she looked inward for solutions. After high school, she travelled to British Columbia, moving from place to place and doing odd jobs to connect with herself. She found that connection through her art. 

 “It was kind of like my way to take a feeling, freeze it in time and explore it and understand it. Be able to work through it,” Luecke said. “That form of therapy has always come natural for me.” 

She came back home and soon after accepted an offer to attend HSAD.  

“The community is really my favourite thing,” Luecke said. “I was able to be completely myself and create from my soul. Be able to dance down the halls and people would dance with me. It was just amazing, the support that runs through that school.”  

Fleming College president Maureen Adamson said the school’s experience leaves its mark on students.  

“The relations you already made in your time in Fleming will enhance your future in ways you may not even recognize just yet,” she told graduates. “You are a part of our Fleming and our future.” 

Fleming College professor of Indigenous Studies Liz Stone told students there is more to life than the pursuit of wealth.  

“Oftentimes we’re asked ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’” Stone said. “Initially we think, ‘I’m going to have a big, big house. I’m going to have a big, big bank account’… We have to get out of our head. We have to be aware of what’s going on around us and we have to live within our heart.”  

In her commencement speech, Luecke said for her and her classmates, art is the way they tackle tough subjects.  

“It’s difficult to tell someone that art is your therapy, your drive and your passion,” Luecke said. “For us, art is a form of communication. A way to translate our ideas into reality.”