Catégorie : Tribune-Express (Hawkesbury)

After purchasing the ticket from The Smoke Shop on Hawkesbury’s Main Street, 69-year-old Patricia Clouthier was overjoyed to realize she had won the grand prize on Instant Money Match. She travelled to the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto to collect the $100,000.

“I was jumping up and down with my daughter at the news,” Clouthier said of the moment she found out she won. “I had to tell my hairdresser who was ecstatic for me, and I also shared the news with my neighbour!”

Although she’s a regular lottery player, Clouthier said this is the first big prize she’s won. She wisely said she’s going to save most of it, only paying off a few bills and sharing some of the money with her daughter. “All I feel is joy and happiness. This is so crazy!”

Hawkesbury OPP responded to a residence on Laurier St, whose occupant reported that three individuals forced the door open and assaulted the occupant. The suspects fled the scene before police arrival, running down Laurier St and using a light grey SUV to speed away.

The suspects are described as three French-speaking males between the ages of 20 to 30 years old. No other identifying information was reported.

Any information regarding these individuals should be reported to the Hawkesbury OPP at 1-888-310-1122. You may also anonymously contact the Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222- 8477, where you may be eligible to receive a cash reward of up to $2,000. Visit www.CrimeStoppers.ca for more information.

The Windsor Tavern hosted a benefit concert to raise money for the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO). The CHEO Foundation Jamboree featured several local musicians, and Vankleek Hill’s classic rock band 50 PROOF headlined the event. 

The event was hosted by Gord Nixon, who kicked off the jamboree with an intimate acoustic show. After him, entertainer Gary Carpenter performed standards by classic artists like Elvis and Dean Martin, and then Jeff Holtby from the Windsor’s Strings ‘n Wings Facebook page played an acoustic performance. Finally, the Lemieux Brothers played pop, rock, and country classics, and then 50 PROOF hit the stage and played for the rest of the night before closing out the show. 

The jamboree is the latest in a long line of fundraising events. The Windsor holds an annual jamboree each July to raise money for the Vankleek Hill Food Bank, although the event was cancelled the past two years because of COVID-19. They’ve been doing other smaller events throughout the summer, and they decided to put on this smaller jamboree both to help the hospital and give local families a chance to enjoy the festivities once again. 

“We really wanted to have a family jamboree again,” said Windsor Tavern co-owner Mike St-Denis. “This is going to be an opportunity for people to get outside on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and evening and just have a beautiful day, while supporting a worthwhile cause.” 

The CHEO Foundation Jamboree was a roaring success. “Thank you to everyone who came out yesterday afternoon and evening to The Windsor Tavern’s CHEO Jamboree,” they posted on their Facebook page. “Thanks to your support we raised more than $1,200 for the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario!” 

L’ingénieur municipal Jonathan Gendron a présenté au conseil, lors de sa séance du 17 août, un rapport sur une source possible d’aide financière pour aider à couvrir les coûts de conception d’un plan directeur de l’eau potable pour le canton. 

«Le système d’eau potable de Lefaivre fournit de l’eau potable aux villages de Lefaivre, Alfred et Plantagenet», a déclaré M. Gendron dans son rapport, ajoutant que le système fournit également de l’eau à Saint-Isidore, dans la municipalité de La Nation. 

La Fédération canadienne des municipalités (FCM) dispose d’un fonds de subventions de soutien pour aider les municipalités à planifier la gestion de leurs actifs. Le gouvernement provincial exige de toutes les municipalités qu’elles créent et tiennent à jour des plans détaillés de gestion des actifs pour leurs infrastructures, afin de l’aider à prendre ses propres décisions concernant les demandes de fonds d’aide à l’infrastructure présentées par les administrations locales. Les projets qui sont considérés comme étant «prêts à démarrer» peuvent être considérés comme prioritaires par la province. 

M. Gendron a recommandé de demander une subvention de gestion municipale de la FCM, pour aider à couvrir 80 % du coût d’un plan directeur de l’eau potable et d’un rapport d’examen de l’état des infrastructures pour le canton. Il estime qu’il faudra environ un an pour réaliser l’ensemble du rapport, qui permettra de déterminer les mises à niveau nécessaires du système d’approvisionnement en eau de Lefaivre, qui alimente les quatre villages. 

«Un plan directeur actualisé fournira une vision claire de l’état actuel de l’infrastructure, a déclaré M. Gendron, et fournira des recommandations actualisées concernant les exigences du système pour répondre à la croissance future d’Alfred-Plantagenet.» 

Le conseil a accepté la recommandation de M. Gendron et lui a demandé de solliciter une subvention à la FCM. 

A film crew from TVOntario (TVO) was in Vankleek Hill from August 19 to 24, interviewing business owners in the area for an episode in a new documentary series. The show will visit six towns on the brink of a boom or bust, with one hour-long episode per town, and detail what happened to them after their biggest industries closed, what have they done since then, and if they will be able to recover. 

Despite the obvious assumption to make, the show doesn’t focus on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, although producer Jennifer Horvath admits it has impacted some communities more than others. The series also doesn’t just focus on communities experiencing a decline, Vankleek Hill itself was chosen because it hasn’t experienced a bust at all. 

“Vankleek Hill initially interested us because of the success of Beau’s Brewery,” said Horvath. “[But] once we started researching it, we found something that we weren’t expecting: unlike some of the other towns we’ve filmed in, Vankleek Hill doesn’t seem to have experienced a bust cycle.” 

The town appears very stable in terms of population and multi-generational businesses, and the new housing development suggests that Vankleek Hill is in a bit of a boom right now. 

“We interviewed not just business owners but residents new and old, including a few people who left Vankleek Hill when they were younger, only to return as adults,” said Horvath. “All of them talked about the aspects of life in a smaller community that they really love: getting to know your neighbours, feeling community support for their family and businesses, pride in the town’s history and specifically in its historic homes and buildings.” 

She noted that population isn’t the sole factor in avoiding an economic bust.  

“In all our locations, it’s often been a combination of individual vision and effort, and being the right place at the right time,” Horvath said. “It’s also been fascinating to see the impact that the (past) Harris government’s amalgamation of municipalities had, and continues to have, on the outcomes for individual communities. Whether a place became the centre of the new municipal government or not has had a big impact on a number of the towns we’re featuring.” 

Horvath also noted, however, that fears of economic busts may become less relevant as time goes on. 

“We’re in a period where more people are considering leaving cities for smaller towns,” she said. “Increased housing costs, the option of remote work thanks to better internet access and changing values are making rural and small towns a more appealing option than ever before.” 

The series will air on TVO in early 2022. Neither the name nor the exact date are decided yet.