Bancroft this Week

Response to Mayo Schmidt, CEO of Hydro One

Recently you wrote a letter to residents in our area telling them you take your charges for electricity delivery in our area seriously. You and your team are working hard to get things figured out on how to do things better — or at least make your charges understandable on the bill.

What does it cost Hastings Highlands to sell lakeshore land?

The surprise ending at last Wednesday’s council meeting in Hastings Highlands left a packed gallery of ratepayers speechless. At the previous meeting Councillor Alex Walder made a motion to raise the sale price of lakeshore road allowances to abutting landowners — which passed in a recorded vote four-three, with Councillor Nancy Matheson, Deputy Mayor Gregg Roberts, and Councillor Tracy Hagar voting nay, and Mayor Vivian Bloom voting yes to break the tie. The new cost raised the current price three-fold for the remaining ratepayers, estimated about 80 per cent who may need to purchase their abutting lakeshore land.

Thank you, municipal staff

Just a brief note of thanks to Adrian Thomasini, Denver Mayhew and our Hastings Highlands treasurer David Stewart and all the crew who worked to repair Hwy 62 between Maynooth and Maple Leaf last summer.

Take time for our elders

If you’ve been reading This Week with any regularity this past month, you may have guessed that January is Alzheimer’s awareness month.

Remembering to hope

Some years ago, I went home at Christmas to visit my parents. At first, everything seemed normal. Then I found my father trying to do up the zipper on a coat. He looked at me with a rueful expression and said “I’ve been trying to do this for almost 15 minutes and I can’t remember how the damn thing works.” My heart sank. I knew this was the start of a long slide into the total darkness of full-blown Alzheimer’s. Eventually the disease shut down his whole body. He died when his breathing just stopped.

NHHS teacher is Canada’s music teacher of the year

Bancroft can now lay further claim to musical excellence. Dianne Winmill of North Hastings High School has been proclaimed MusicCounts Teacher of the Year. MusiCounts is a division of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (the people who hand out the JUNO awards). It was established about a decade ago to “recognize the hard work and dedication of music teachers in keeping music education available to young Canadians.”

McKees announced as citizens of the year

The McKee family of Monteagle (Larry, Rose and Michael) were honoured as the Maynooth and Hastings Highlands Business Association citizens of the year.

Smashing good time to be had on Hwy 28

“It is so satisfying to smash stuff,” said SIRCH Community Services executive director Gena Robertson. “It’s not bad manners here.”

Gardens coming to Maynooth

Harvest the North wants to garden in Hastings Highlands. The North Hastings Community Trust initiative has begun planning community gardens for Maynooth and its public school students this spring — when it’s hoping to have received close to $700,000 in Ontario Trillium Foundation grants.

Leveque Brothers/Rock Breakers Peewee Girls bring home the gold

The gold medal game saw the Jets facing off against the Kitchener Rangers in a rematch from a tournament earlier in the season that saw the girls on the losing end and they were out for revenge.