Cottagers on Comak Crescent in Algonquin Highlands had what would have been an ordinarily quiet summer weekend disrupted as OPP, on May 25, detonated explosives found inside a summer home.

The weekend began when paramedics were called to a cottage just south of the Frost Centre late Friday afternoon. Sources told The Highlander Orange air ambulance was summoned to Haliburton hospital to take a patient who had injured his hand in an explosion at the cottage.

OPP on site May 25 confirmed, “there was an individual who was injured in the area of the property where we’re standing now.” They would not elaborate. However, an OPP media release issued May 27 said police were called to assist fire and EMS at 5:04 p.m. “after an individual received an injury from a homemade explosive device.” They said the man was taken to hospital for serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.

Sources said after responding to the call, firefighters kept a distance while OPP were called. Algonquin Highlands Station 80 was summoned to secure the scene. The paper was told the OPP bomb squad was then contacted and four surrounding properties evacuated. The Highlander was informed the situation escalated to a full bomb threat and OPP planned to explode the devices on-site Saturday.

Blasts ‘shook the whole cottage’

Monday’s OPP media release said, “as the investigation continued, neighbours were evacuated and the OPP Explosive Disposal Unit (EDU) attended, recovering and securing additional explosive substances and devices from the residence.”

In a follow-up email from The Highlander for clarification, OPP confirmed, “EDU technicians located explosive substances and devices and disposed of by rendering safe techniques. In addition, materials were seized for further analysis by the Centre of Forensic Science.”

The site was cleared Sunday with OPP adding, “there are no explosive substances or devices remaining at the location that would pose a threat to public safety.”

A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said two blasts on Saturday “shook the whole cottage.” A plume of smoke could be seen over the area from Hwy. 35.

The neighbour said she and another neighbour had just gotten back from town Friday night when a fire pickup truck arrived, followed by a second one, about 5 p.m.

“Things sort of progressed and we saw the caution tape up the road. And then a bigger fire truck came. My friend next door heard the word evacuation.” The woman said they walked up the road to try to see what was going on and first responders yelled at them to stay away.

She added emergency services came again Saturday morning, stopped vehicular traffic around 10 or 10:30 a.m., and the bomb squad arrived. She said a neighbour was informed about a “redneck bomb.”

She said, “we just stayed vigilant. Paid attention.” She added police asked cottagers Friday night if they had an association so they could get word out that vehicles would not be allowed down the road Saturday.

The neighbour said it was an “exciting and interesting” weekend, but in hindsight scary. “He never seemed like a threat to anybody around here. I would not know him to see him,” the cottager said.

OPP said they had arrested and charged Kevin Brown, 36, of Mississauga, with making or possessing explosives for an unlawful purpose and breach of recognizance.

The release added, “the investigation is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to call Haliburton Highlands OPP at 1-888-310-1122, or submit tips anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).

“The OPP takes all threats to public safety seriously and provides resources necessary to assess and respond to the threat. If you have information about a possible explosive device, call 9-1-1 and provide as much information to police as possible about the threat.”

After months of dealing with dust clouds and loose gravel that has damaged property at their Wonderland Road home, Haliburton residents John and Sharon Sinclair have reached the end of their tether.

The couple appeared before Dysart council May 28, armed with a petition signed by 45 neighbours, calling on the township to revisit roadworks completed in the area last fall.

“The road is a mess, it’s deteriorating as we speak – there’s still lots of potholes, loose gravel,” Mr. Sinclair said. “I took three wheelbarrows full of gravel out of my ditch a few weeks ago [that had been dumped there] by snowplows over the winter – that’s municipal land, but we try to keep it looking nice.

“When workers brushed the road recently to take the sand off, they also took a lot of gravel and filled the ditch again. That’s not very fair,” he added.

Sinclair said he contacted Dysart’s roads department earlier this year to ask what could be done. He noted vehicles travelling down Wonderland Road will usually send gravel flying 15 feet up his driveway.

“Many people on this road own fine automobiles that are now subject to possible stone chips to the car’s paint and windshields,” he said.

Sinclair added many of his neighbours have stopped walking their dog along the road due to the loose gravel.

In the petition, Sinclair is calling for Dysart to redo the road surface using materials that will create a smooth and dust-free surface; lay down an environmentally-safe dust inhibitor to eliminate health hazards and property damage until work can be completed; and remove a pile of surplus gravel and garbage that has been left near the entrance to Autumn Lane.

Township responds

Public works director, Rob Camelon, said staff have been working on a solution. While there have been calls for Dysart to repave the road, Camelon said it has never been paved.

“Wonderland Road was originally resurfaced in 2015 using a class two double surface treatment – the same aggregate that is in place today. It… takes on the look of a hard surfaced road as traffic travels over it,” Camelon said, adding the road was treated with a slurry seal topping in 2018, which smoothed the surface. He noted the township hasn’t used slurry seal on its roads for six years.

“It’s very weather-dependent and we found on more than one occasion our work was not completed in time before the weather window closed [in] mid-to-late fall,” he said.

Camelon said he does expect the situation to improve.

“It’s common for stone to become loose after resurfacing – it happens to all the roads we resurface every year. It’s simply a part of the process,” Camelon said. “The road has been swept in response to the loose stone, which is also a routine operation for our department.”

Councillors Barry Boice, Pat Casey, and Nancy Wood-Roberts say they have all driven the road recently and admitted it could use some work. Boice said the issue is like one experienced on Haliburton Lake last year.

“The dust would choke you; it was terrible. It’s relieved itself now, but the first summer was really bad,” Boice said.

Deputy mayor Walt McKechnie asked if a slurry seal could be installed now to rectify the issue – Camelon said it could, and the township could re-evaluate the type of aggregate it’s using to resurface roads, but that costs would go up between 40 and 50 per cent. He said that would severely limit the number of roads staff could fix year to year.

He added that, if council were to direct staff to push through a quick fix for Wonderland Road there would likely be similar requests from other residents.

“My concern is we are setting the bar [if] we go back and resurface this one particular road, because you are going to have concerns [from people] on Curry Drive [which we just resurfaced] as well,” Camelon said.

McKechnie said it was important that council “get ahead of this situation,” indicating he’d like to see the work done. Casey said if the class two aggregate is causing more problems than it’s solving, council may need to make a change – even if it means cutting back on the number of roads it fixes each year.

Camelon will return to a future meeting with some recommendations.

County council will establish a staff working group to look into the possibility of incinerating garbage in the Highlands – and report back to council in September.

The move came after County councillors dismissed the idea of one-tier waste management services delivery at its May 22 meeting.

Instead, they opted for the four townships to keep working together.

CAO Gary Dyke pointed out how Coun. Walt McKechnie had asked whether alternative waste management solutions were considered by the consultant. He said it had not been part of their work. However, he said staff could look into it if directed by council.

“I think there’s merit in looking at alternative methodologies,” he said. “Keeping up to date with modern technologies, as opposed to just burying all of our garbage in the ground.” He noted there are incinerators in Ontario as well as European models.

Warden Liz Danielsen said, “I think you’ve heard some encouraging words over the last few meetings urging council to look at incineration. I would welcome staff doing some advance research,”

Coun. Jennifer Dailloux said she’d like staff input from the lower-tier before going to a consultant, as “there is a wealth of information out there and staff have been doing a whole lot of this thinking already.”

Danielsen and Dyke indicated it would be an internal look. Dyke called it a “white paper” with alternatives for Haliburton County.

Coun. Cec Ryall said a council decision to investigate incineration would be “controversial.

“There’s going to be a lot of discussion about it. A fact-finding mission is the right thing to do to get the rules of how it works, the actual challenges and advantages clearly defined before we start getting the emails on the pros and cons of what people think of it.”

McKechnie said he was “passionate about another alternative to our landfill site issue.”

He said he had been working on the incineration file behind the scenes and, “there are definitely some things that have really improved with regard to the product that is out there.”

He added landfill sites are being closed, forcing waste to be trucked on highways to alternate sites. However, he foresees that ending, with high costs of trucking and recipients no longer wanting to accept garbage.

“I think there is going to come a time here really soon where we are going to have to start being responsible for our own garbage. The only way you do that is the model that, especially Sweden and Norway, have been following for the past 50 years.”

He said there is a company in Norway that builds incinerators for Singapore that are capable of getting rid of between 15 tons to two million tons of garbage.

He said the biggest question is environmental pollution “and I am 100 per cent against that.

“I think there is an opportunity here for somebody to be the pioneer in rural Ontario. We need to start thinking about another alternative here really soon.”

County coun. Bob Carter’s wish for a bus between Minden and Haliburton has stalled – with the lone bidder for the job pitching a yearly cost of $685,344 on top of start-up costs of $45,000 and the County paying for gas.

Director of economic development and tourism, Scott Ovell, delivered the bad news to council at its May 22 meeting.

On Sept. 27 last year, Carter called for a request for proposals for a two-year pilot project. In December, staff outlined a draft for the service. The project was put out to tender in March, closing in April. Staff received a single, qualified response from BTS Network, a company with service in southern Ontario, including the Region of Peel, Niagara Transit Commission, and Fort Erie.

Ovell said their pitch was for a fixed route service with two vehicles operating in opposing directions, hourly, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week, excluding holidays. The firm identified six stops in each community and approximate pick-up and drop-off times.

Multiple vehicle options were given, with staff identifying an eight-passenger van with wheelchair access as their preferred choice.

BTS Network also provided alternate transit options, including a fixed route but with booked online stops, and a full on-demand service in the towns, but staff did not consider these options.

“Given the cost of the proposed transit service is significantly higher than the funds currently available in the transit reserve, staff are not recommending that council proceed with this project at this time,” Ovell said.

The County has $182,601.52 in its transit reserve. Gas tax funding is not available in first years of operations. Ovell said in year two, they could get up to $68,523 from the province. Year three could see up to $126,020.

“Staff are proposing to continue to gather information related to possible transit solutions and share them with council when available,” he added.

Carter said, “I cannot begin to express how disappointed I am in this, and for a number of different reasons.

“We’ve kicked this around for years and done little or nothing about it,” he said. Carter added he believes previous attempts failed as they were “idealistic” offering “everything for everybody.”

He said his request was for a “bare bones starting point. Get something started and see if we can make it grow. The idea was not to run a service that also included wheelchair access and all of the extras.” For example, he was envisioning one bus, not two. He said the extras had driven up the cost and there was no accounting for ridership fees.

He urged council to strike a committee “to look at how to make this happen.”

CAO Gary Dyke said he appreciated Carter’s comments and frustrations but “transit in rural areas is hard.” He added the RFP was approved by council and based on his experience he was not surprised at the cost.

He favoured a committee but said they should not dismiss the rideshare idea. “Other small, rural municipalities have invested in the rideshare program to great effect.” He cited Prince Edward County as an example. He didn’t think a single bus would work, and suggested accessibility was important for the area’s aging demographic and potential ridership. He said council has to establish a clear mandate before proceeding.

Carter said, “this is something that we incredibly need in this area. But I think we need to start right at the basics.”

Warden Liz Danielsen took exception to Carter commenting nothing had been done for years.

“There have been working groups established, there have been studies. We have funded small trials in efforts to try and see how this would work,” she said. She agreed to a working group, saying she could not accept a nearly $700,000 annual spend for a service for two of four townships.

Coun. Cec Ryall has sat on past transportation working groups and said, “the bad news is, every time something came out of it, it was too expensive.” He urged council to use information already gathered “so we have a place to start from as opposed to let’s go and reinvent the whole thing.”

Council voted to strike a transit working group and will discuss the matter again on June 12.

Kevin Dunlop stands outside a portable shed in front of the Thrift Warehouse in Haliburton, working on a cedar chest.

He bends over a table doing marquetry – a decorative inlay of a canoe reflected in water.

People might know Dunlop from his days on the Studio Tour, when he was known as the Marquetryman.

As he works on the chest, he says he’s been in the Highlands since 1981.

“My wife’s more local than I am,” he says with a grin that shows laugh lines around his mouth and eyes. “I’d never get that kind of credential.”

SIRCH has hired Dunlop for a new pilot, ‘last chance project.’ Marketing manager, Laurie McCaig, said for the next few months, the warehouse will be accepting wooden furniture that would normally be turned away, and end up in the landfill.

“We’ll determine whether it’s worth it to improve it and sell it by repairing, restoring, refinishing, repurposing or upcycling,” McCaig said.

Dunlop tells the story of the chest. It came in with loose veneer on the top, as it had been water damaged. It was rejected at the receiving door. They called Dunlop over for a second opinion. He was hesitant, recognizing it would be a big job. However, he said staff challenged him, “and I decided to take on the project.”

He scraped the bad veneer off the lid, made the marquetry panel, sanded it, put a new finish on it. It took about three days, but the time was an anomaly.

“For the most part, the pieces I’ve been able to save have been under two hours of work,” he says.

He added he spends a great deal of time in conversation with people while he works, educating them on how, they too, can fix furniture destined for the landfill.

“We’re not only trying to rescue the furniture, but we’re trying to stimulate peoples’ imaginations, so they can now go into the thrift store, look at something that’s not quite ready for main street, and can imagine what they might be able to do with it. They can pick my brain and get some ideas on technique.”

Dunlop said he’s “loving it.” McCaig added Dunlop is the man for the job. “He has a fantastic reputation in the area. That friendly face gets it every time, but his wealth of knowledge of woodworking, with him having a studio tour booth for many years, he was just the perfect fit. We were happy to bring him onboard.”

McCaig said he’ll be there until October. “We’re just trying to divert as much as possible from landfill, and we’re trying to teach, that’s what we’re all about. Someone might see a piece like that and say ‘oh, I don’t know’ and just toss it. Instead of tossing it, either bring it here and donate it, help the community, or take on the project yourself, because maybe Kevin can give you an easy solution for a problem. That’s what the program is all about.”

Dunlop said the public is enjoying the program as well.

“Half the people already are quite interested. They’ve been talking about things they’ve brought back to life. I’ve been inviting them to bring before-and-after pictures. I’d like to put up a bulletin board with peoples’ projects. And, people are really picking my brain for techniques.”

He adds, “at this point in my life, it feels good. In my career as a furniture maker, I’ve been responsible for cutting down some trees, now it feels kinda’ good to be making sure that the one’s with good bones are not going to the dump. For me, it’s a process. It’s been a nice headspace when I’m doing the work. Once it’s done, that’s just a byproduct.”

The Thrift Warehouse is at 128 Mallard Rd. in Haliburton.