Yourway
June 6, 2013
Vol. 13, No. 22
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Opening of new school delayed
Potts drops bombshell about Sharbot Lake Algonquins
by Jeff Green
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iting the impact of a roofers’ strike on the construction schedule, Sharbot Lake High School Principal Heather Highet said last week that the Granite Ridge Education Centre will not be fully operational at the start of the school year in September. “Until the roofers’ strike, construction was ahead of schedule,” Highet said, “and now the roof is finally going up, but even the contractors will have to wait until it is up and everything is completely dry before they move on to the next step.” Highet told a group of parents at a meeting in the cafeteria of Sharbot Lake High School last week that the Limestone Board has developed two scenarios for next fall, Plan A and a Plan B. Under Plan A, the new school will be substantially completed by September and the current building will have been demolished. Students in grade 5 or 6 and up will attend Granite Ridge in September, “but students from Kindergarten to grades 4 or 5 will attend at the current Sharbot Lake Public School building until construction is completed,” said Highet. This includes students who are attending Hinchinbrooke Public School this year and are slated to move to Granite Ridge. Plan B is a more complicated scenario. It will be put into place if the new building is not substantially completed by September. In that instance students between grades 6 and 12 will be accommodated in the existing Sharbot Lake High School (SLHS) building. Under Plan B, the existing school will be demolished sometime during the school year. Highet did not know how long the demolition and clean-up would take and SLHS needs to be removed in order for the parking lot and landscaping plan at the site to be completed. Within the next two weeks a decision is
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The current state of construction at Granite Ridge EC - Completion could be many months off expected concerning which plan will be put into place. School staff are particularly anxious to find out which plan will come into effect. “Either we have to pack everything up and put it into storage because this building is being torn down, or we have to prepare to receive students here in the fall, and then move everything over to the new school when it is ready,” Highet said. Whichever stage the new school is at come September, the bussing for the students to Sharbot Lake will be in place. Gord Taylor, the Executive Director of the Tri-Board transportation consortium, said that most of the students throughout the wide region that is covered by the new school will be picked
up at about the same time they were in the past. He acknowledged that a small number of students will be facing a bus ride of over an hour, “but not any more than previously.” James MacDonald, who is currently the vice-principal at Hinchinbrooke, will be the new vice-principal at Granite Ridge. He said that based in part on a survey of all the students who will be attending the new school, the new school colours will be blue, green and silver, and the school’s mascot will be a Gryphon. “The choice of colours and of the Gryphon, which has three parts, both recognize the fact that the new school is a coming together of three schools,” MacDonald said.
but there was a lot to learn about how a rural township works,” he said. He added that he feels the township is blessed with exceptional senior level staff and an excellent road crew. As far as what has been accomplished during the 2½ years he has served on Council, the first point Mark Tinlin made was that, “In the opinion of some long-serving councilors there has never been a South Frontenac Council that has gelled together like this one has, and I hope that I have helped out with that. We took a pretty businesslike approach, streamlined our committee structure, and council meetings have become quite short and efficient.” In his own Bedford district, Tinlin is particularly pleased that Council has decided to make an investment in the Bedford Hall, to bring it up to a better standard. He is also pleased that Council has agreed to an external review of council members’ pay. A citizens’ committee that is being constituted this spring will look at the salaries and make a recommendation to Council. On the other hand he said he was disappointed when Council decided not to review its own composition, preferring to leave the status quo in place. “I thought there might be at least an opportunity to have a debate about the number
of councilors, and so forth,” he said. And then there is the coat of arms, which is something that he brought forward to Council. “That was something that I wanted to see the township have, and I am happy that the coat of arms has just arrived, and it will be framed and displayed in a public area.” Tinlin hopes that the township will invest in a larger version of the coat of arms to hang on the wall behind the mayor in the council chambers. At their Council meeting this week, Council considered how to replace Mark Tinlin. The municipal act gave them quite a bit of leeway. Council decided to go back to the election results from 2010, when Tinlin was elected along with Del Stowe to represent Bedford. The third candidate from Bedford in that elecPat Barr tion was Pat Barr. Barr was in attendance at the meeting, having received a call about Council’s likely intentions. Council decided to offer the position to Barr, and after the meeting Mayor Davison did just that. Her appointment will be formalised at the next Council meeting.
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By Jeff Green he Algonquins of Ontario (AOO) have been conducting an information/public relations campaign of late. They have been reassuring nervous municipal officials, hunting and cottage groups, as well as neighbouring landowners, that the Draft Agreement in Principle for the Algonquin Land Claim will not cause undue harm to their various and varied interests. As part of that campaign three meetings with municipal and provincial representatives were held. One of them was held at the Civitan Hall in Perth on June 3. Robert Potts, a lawyer with Blaney McMurtry in Toronto who is the lead negotiator for the AOO, spoke at the meeting “From the start of the process, 22 years ago, the Algonquins have been trying to find solutions. That’s why they said Algonquin Park would remain a park right from the start, and that they would leave privately held land alone. They will bring the same spirit to finding solutions to problems that arise from the agreement,” Potts said. North Frontenac Councilor Fred Perry, who attended the meeting, asked how municipalities are going to cover the added cost of providing fire, ambulance, and other services to some of the remote lands that are going to be transferred. “As Crown lands they are covered by the MNR, but once they are transferred, it falls to us. I’m afraid that when all is said and done, the governments will disappear and leave us holding the bag,” said Perry. “Well, the Algonquins aren’t going any where. They are going to be here, as neighbours, and as neighbours they will have to work out arrangements with the municipalities, with the loggers, with everyone,” Potts replied. He said that the AOO is hoping to bring the Draft Agreement in Principle to a vote by the end of 2013. That will be followed by a four to five year process towards a final treaty, which will give the Algonquins time to work on developing a governance and administrative structure to handle the financial and land aspects of the deal, which calls for a $300 million cash transfer and a 117,500 acre land transfer. “The money will be a tax free payment. It will be held in trust and invested, so the amount will grow over time,” Potts said. After the formal meeting was over, Bob Potts was available for short interviews. It was then that he revealed that the appeals process for Algonquin electors has been completed, and in one of the largest appeals, the ruling by Former Justice Chadwick, who was hired to conduct the process and make rulings, is that the descendants of Simon Jude Bedard and Simon Gene Be-
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Tinlin resigns from South Frontenac Council by Jeff Green iting personal family reasons, first-term Bedford District Councilor Mark Tinlin has resigned from South Frontenac Council, effective June 1. Tinlin informed Council at an in camera session that was held after their regular Committee of the Whole meeting on May 28. “My wife Beverly and I are relocating our home out of the municipality of South Frontenac. I am deeply proud and thankful to have been given the opportunity to serve the residents of Bedford District and take this opportunity to wish my Council colleagues continued success and best wishes for the Mark Tinlin future,” Tinlin is quoted as saying in a township press release that came out on May 29. “Mayor Davison responded offering his sincere appreciation on behalf of Council. He extended best wishes to both Mark and Beverly in the years ahead,” the release concluded. The News contacted Mark Tinlin over the weekend from his new home in London. “I thoroughly enjoyed my time on Council. I looked forward to going to the meetings. I had been involved in federal and provincial politics on the administrative side of things,
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