April 30, 2020 Vol. 20, No. 17
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Blue Skies, Canada Day festivities, Lakes and Trails, all fall to COVID in 2020
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No new COVID cases in KFL&A
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by Jeff Green
he Blue Skies Music Festival, the largest public event in the Frontenac County calendar, is able to fly under the radar at its wooded location in Clarendon most of the time, but it could not hide from COVID-19. In a Zoom meeting on Saturday with more than 100 participants, the Blue Skies collective decided to cancel this year’s festival, the first time in the 47 year history of the event. “We know that even though this is absolutely the best decision for the health and safety of our community, it is still difficult. We can clearly see that the slow return to some form of normalcy is not going to happen in time for us to safely hold the Blue Skies Festival this August long weekend,” said Dale Driver, general co-ordinator for the festival. The decision was made at this time, before much of the work on ticket sales and site preparation would have started. “We will meet at Blue Skies again, but not in 2020,” he said. “Cancelling now feels like the kindest response we can offer to the many folks who are touched by Blue Skies. There are tears and there is hope for the future.” In addition to the festival, the Blue Skies Kid’s Arts Camp, which has been running for 20 years, and the three year old Adult Music Camp, both of which were scheduled to take place on the Blue Skies site before the festival, and were both sold out for 2020, have also been cancelled. A virtual festival is in the planning stages, and will feature long-time festival emcee, Magoo. Lakes and Trails Also, on Monday of this week the decision was made to cancel the 4th annual Lakes and Trails Festival, which was scheduled for July 18 at the Point Park in Sydenham. “Given all the uncertainty, it was felt that we would not know if there would be time to plan a successful event, and either way, many might be uncomfortable about coming out,” said Ross Sutherland, one of the festival organisers. “We are looking at some smaller initiatives but they will need to be considered when the way forward becomes more clear.
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Magdelys Savigny and Elizabeth Rodriguez of OKAN - with Miguel de Armas, were one of the highlights of the Blue Skies festival last year. The Clarendon fetival site will be quiet this August long weekend
The next festival will take place on July 17, 2021. Canada Day in Harrowsmith The Harrowsmith Social and Athletic Club announced last week that in 2020, Canada Day festivities will not be taking place at Centennial Park in Harrowsmith. At this juncture, we have not heard whether Canada Day events in Sydenham, Sunbury,
Sharbot Lake or Denbigh have been cancelled by their organising bodies. We will let readers know as soon as we find out. In order for those events to take place, the parks need to be opened, which is being contemplated, and gatherings in excess of 250 people will need to be allowed by the end of June, which is increasingly unlikely based on recent pronouncements by the provincial government
Drive by in Northbrook to support front line workers
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drive by parade of community members last Friday was organised as a show of support for health care and other front line workers, The parade drove past Pine Meadow Nursing Home as well as the Northbrook Family Health Team. A caring, loving community showed its ap-
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preciation for its health care workers. They also celebrate those in the Foodland store who have worked so hard to put food on local tables and the truckers and frontline workers in restaurants, the LCBO and beer store and those in Community Services who serve the community each day.
by Jeff Green
week ago the COVID19 picture in Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington looked very good with the exception of one concerning case, a patient in the Providence Manor Long Term Care Home in Kingston. By the end of the week, that case was revealed as a false positive. The patient, who spent some time in hospital, has recovered and has returned to the home. That leaves a total of 59 cases in the region since the pandemic started, only 12 cases in the month of April, 1 case in the last week, and only 3 active cases. With no patients currently in hospital and no deaths, the situation in KFL&A is enviable. The region is at 30% of the provincial average for cases, and under 5% of the provincial average for active cases. South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal said that with the numbers in our region being very low, “we do want to open things up, but the province is dictating to us. We are opening up our waste sites, but I would like us to be able to issue building permits. Most of our construction is single family houses that are built by a crew of 3 or 4. You can do social distancing on that kind of site. But we need the go-ahead before we can do that. He said he has received some complaints about cottage owners staying in the township, but pointed out that, “as a township we have never stopped people from accessing their cottages. We don’t have that authority. The Premier suggested people stay away, but it was never an order. And really, if they go there and hunker down a bit, I don’t see any real problem. They do own the properties, after all.” KFL&A Public Health is expected to release a re-opening plan later this week.
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