March 24, 2022 Vol. 22, No. 12
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Workplace Accident Claims Life of Verona Man by Jeff Green aniel Vanheyst was working at a site in Oshawa for Eco-Tree Care, a Kingston/Frontenac based company, on Wednesday morning (March 16), when he was killed in a workplace ac-cident. He was 22. The Ministry of Labour is investigating. A family friend, Mimi Haws, published a statement on Facebook on the day of the accident. “My friend and Congolese compatriot Jeanine along with the Vanheyst Family in Verona, are saddened to announce the sudden death of their first son Daniel Vanheyst today,” Haws said. “Daniel was only 22, lived with his parents in Verona and until his death this morning he was healthy, alive and well. “My heart aches for his family, Andrew Vanheyst and Jeanine. Please remember this family in your prayers. Trauma and shock to lose its grip over the family at this time of deep griev-ing,” she wrote. Dan Vanheyst attended Sydenham High School, where he was a middle distance runner on the track team, among other activities. He was also in the fabricating and manufacturing pro-gram and worked on a bike stand project for South Frontenac Rides back in 2017. He is be-ing remembered as a "super positive and well liked young man" in the words of a staff mem-ber at Sydenham High School. He studied Forestry & Arboriculture at Sir Sandford Fleming College after graduating High School..
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"He was a true family man, the oldest of 3 siblings. He was larger than life and known and loved by his family, his girlfriend, friends, coworkers, teachers. The list goes on," said Kim Perry of Local Family Farms in Verona, which is located just down the road from the Vanheyst family home. Eco-Tree Care is a full-service tree care and removal company owned by John Madden, based in rural Kingston. Madden’s father was the owner of JR Tree Service, based in the Burridge area of Godfrey. The company was under contract with the City of Oshawa to remove Ash Trees as part of the city's Emerald Ash Tree Borer mitigation strategy. The day after the accident, Eco-Tree Care posted the following on the company Facebook page. “It’s with a heavy heart and extreme grief to share that yesterday, March 16, 2022, one of our brothers didn’t make it home. Dan Vanheyst was the most personable and caring human be-ing that you could ever wish to meet. Dan always had a smile on his face and was willing to go that extra mile for anyone, regard-less if he knew you or not. This weighs extremely heavily on us, we’re more than a company that does tree work, it’s actually a family that gets to live their passion day in and day out. “Our heart goes out to his entire family including his coworkers ... We truly appreciate the support that everyone has sent our way. This was a very unfortunate accident
Storeowners Cautious As COVID Mandates End By Jeff Green toreowners in the region are treating the end of the mask and distancing mandates as another COVID pivot, rather than the end of the pandemic. They are not selling off their supply of masks at bargain prices in response to the end of masking mandates in their establishments. “We have a supply of N-95 masks coming in,” said Gordon Dean of Mike Dean's Local Grocer, which has a store in Sharbot Lake. Dean said that he will not be telling his staff, or his customers, whether they should wear a mask in his store or not. “We will follow Health Unit rules, just as we have done throughout the pandemic. We followed the rules before the pandemic, and will follow them after the pandemic.” What the meant on Monday, the 21st, the first day in postmask mandate Ontario, was about 75% of staff and customers at all three Mike Dean's Ontario stores (Winchester, Bourget, and Sharbot Lake) were wearing masks. “I expect it will stay like that for a while, and masking will slowly drop off unless there is another wave of COVID coming,” he said. “We can quickly make any changes that the Province, or the Local Public Health, bring in, we have learned how to do that over the last two years.” Clint Reid, at Reid’s Foodland, is taking the same approach as other retailers. When contacted on Tuesday, he said “I would say that about 90% of our customers are still wearing masks, and almost as many of our staff. I’m not sure how long it will last, but for now people are still being cautious. Chad Van Camp at Verona Hardware pegged the ratio at 70% masked, 30% unmasked, and said that “people are continuing to keep a good distance between themselves and others” Gordon Dean, Clint Reid, and Chad Van Camp all said they will continue to be wearing a mask when in public areas of their stores for the time being.
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“I don’t know when that will change,” said Clint Reid, “but it will change eventually. I think we are waiting to see what happens over the next 6 weeks or so.” Supply chain issues and pricing concerns, are a bigger day to day concern for all three retailers that we talk to than mask mandates. Gordon Dean. “We have about an 80% fill rate from suppliers now, and you never know what items will be back ordered from week to week, and that has been an issue that has persisted and will persist,” said Gordon Dean. But pricing is going to continue to be a big issue for us, and for our customers, for a long time to come. I don't think we've seen anything yet. And the price of fuel plays into everything, for us and for our customers.” Supply issues are less of a concern for Clint Reid since his store is affiliated with Sobey’s, a national chain, but pricing is another story. “The price increases are hard to get used to, for us and for our customers,” said Reid, “especially when it hits staples like pasta and bread. But pricing is tight for everyone, and with profit margins already being very thin, there is not much that anyone can do about that,” said Clint. At Verona Hardware, some of the supply issues have been addressed in recent months, and business continues to be strong, although it is different than it has been during the pandemic. “We are seeing less customers but they are spending more,” he said. He said he might be seeing a bump from newly arriving full time residents who have arrived. “We are selling more appliances than we usually do at this time of year,” he said. ■
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Daniel Vanheyst.
and we ask that everyone please give us and the family time to grieve. The gofundme campaign was founded for the Vanheyst family last week, but it has been re-placed with a direct bank account to save on fees. Donations can be made by e transfer to vanheystmemorialtrust@hotmail.com. ■
Addington Highlands facing 5% tax increase
by Craig Bakay ddington Highlands Council held three meetings last week, the regular meeting (March 15) and two budget meetings (March 16). As the budget meetings kicked off, CAO/Clerk-Treasurer Christine Reed told Council that the 2022 draft budget contained wage increases (7.11 per cent) for administrative staff and Council and a 20 per cent increase for insurance premiums as well as a $10,000 contingency for cyber insurance. There were also funds for web site redesign, replacement of laptops/ipads for the new term of Council as well as the installation of microphones, a webcam and televisions for the Addington Highlands Community Centre — Denbigh to provide the ability to livestream Council meetings from Denbigh. (It is proposed that funds be taken from reserves to cover those expenses. In all, the budget proposed expenses of $969,250 as opposed to 2021’s $904,910. That would have represented a 4.62 per cent tax rate increase and a 5.23 per cent tax increase. “Five point two three is large,” said Reed. “But I do have some suggestions to reduce that.” “How about the $3,000 for street lights?” said Reeve Henry Hogg. “That’s a 100-per cent increase and we turn them off at 10 o’clock.” “What’s good target?” asked Coun. David Miles. “There’s a lot of people hurting and they’ve been through a lot in the last two years.” But there wasn’t a major appetite for slashing the budget. “Everything is going up, up, up,” said Dep. Reeve Tony
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