August 14, 2015

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The Creemore

Echo

Friday, August 14, 2015

Vol. 15 No. 33

thecreemoreecho.com

News and views in and around Creemore

Inside the Echo

CORE values

Bear Necessities

Jamboree raises funds to fight gravel pit

Know how to deter visitors

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Publications Mail Agreement # 40024973

Ron Hawkins among Copper Kettle performers by Trina Berlo Ron Hawkins, of Lowest of the Low fame, will be part of the day’s entertainment line-up at Mad River Park during Creemore Springs’ Copper Kettle Festival August 22, along with six-piece horn band Turbo Street Funk, jazz singer Tia Brazda, country band Big Tobacco and the Pickers and Not Ottawa, featuring Roly Platt. Hawkins has released more than a dozen albums in his 20-plus-year career as a musician, first as frontman for Lowest of the Low, then with the Rusty Nails and now with the Do Good Assassins. Lowest of the Low’s debut album Shakespeare My Butt , released in 1991, was placed in the top 10 of Chart Magazine’s Top 100 Canadian Albums of All Time three times. Hawkins is now promoting his 2015 release Garden Songs, a collection of 10 ballads recorded live-off-the-floor in just one week. “The Do Good Assassins, previously we made our debut album, which was a double album made in the way that most records are made over a period of time with overdubs and stuff like that. It was a big undertaking,” said Hawkins. “The band is so tight and capable that when it came time to make the next record I had a whole other big adventure planned.”

Hawkins said in the meantime, his manager encouraged the band to record the old school live-in-studio album

with no overdubs, in two tracks. “Just to sort of experience that thing and see if we could pull it off and so

as it turned out it was four or five new songs and we went to the back catalogue and took some ballads out and made that record,” said Hawkins. “So it was a bit of a left turn for me. I wasn’t planning to do that.” The intent was to make a stripped down recording that focuses on Hawkins’ abilities as a singer and songwriter. As a lyricist, Hawkins is among Canada’s best with his earliest songs remaining long-time favourites, partly because of their poetic portrayal of life in Toronto in the 1990s. The Lowest of the Low has had several break ups over the years but last month the band played Toronto’s Festival of Beer without co-founder Stephen Stanley. “It felt good and it felt weird for me. I think it’s the first time in 25 years that I have walked onto a Lowest of the Low stage without Steve but for the most part I guess we now have to decide who we are doing it for. Do we not do it, out of respect for our past or for Steve or do we play for those fans who were having a great time and singing all the lyrics? Like always with Lowest of the Low, we are in a holding pattern and we don’t really know… A long time ago with that band, I learned to never say never.” (See “Full” on page 3)

System Operator (IESO) under the large renewable procurement (LRP) request for proposals, due Sept. 1. Although Clearview Township is not the approval authority, council has been asked for its support of the projects and to help facilitate public meetings as part of the provincial LRP process. The Clearview Sun Solar Project near New Lowell is proposed on seven properties associated with Somerville Nurseries, totalling about 277 acres at Sunnidale Concession 2 and 3-4 Sideroad, between County

Road 9 and Hogback Road. Prepared for opposition, project manager Geoff Fallon said they have been working on the project for four years and made commitments that there would be aggressive buffering and setbacks to minimize the visibility of the solar panels. He said the area would be a sanctuary for birds, monarch butterflies and even bees while preserving trees and maintaining trails, which property owners have allowed the public to use. Concession 2 resident Ron Sterling

called it smoke and mirrors. “Mirrors is what they are putting in the backyard and smoke is what they are blowing in your face,” he said. People voiced concerns about what noise will be coming from transformers, how the power will be transmitted, the affect on property values and health effects. Landowners Fred Somerville and Paul Fraser spoke in defence of the project. Somerville said they are coming at the project from an environmental (See “Solar” on page 7)

Ron Hawkins and the Do Good Assassins are performing at Creemore Springs Copper Kettle Festival on Saturday, August 22.

Residents oppose New Lowell solar project by Trina Berlo Although a large-scale solar project proposed in Edenvale received no objection at a public meeting in July, it is a different story for one proposed near New Lowell. About a dozen people voiced opposition and concerns about Invenergy Solar Canada’s bid for a 50-megawatt solar project in front of a packed house at town hall in Stayner August 10. Both solar projects are being submitted to the provincial government’s Independent Electricity

Taking care of buyers and sellers in Mulmur and the Creemore hills for 39 years

RCR Realty. Brokerage

Ginny MacEachern

(705) 444-1414 10230 Highway 26 East, Collingwood E-mail info@collingwood.toyota.ca

B.A., Broker

The Town & Country Agent with the City Connections 1-800-360-5821• 705-466-2607 • maceachern.ginny@gmail.com www.ginnymaceachern.com


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