Catégorie : Tribune-Express (Hawkesbury)

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) in Hawkesbury are investigating a theft from the Canada Post office in Vankleek Hill. Sometime between January and March 2022, a large amount of mail was stolen from the post office, a significant amount of which was recovered upon the arrest of the perpetrator.

Emmanuel Ménard, 41, from Grenville, Quebec was charged with theft from mail, theft of a credit card, failure to comply with a release order, and two counts of possessing stolen property under $5,000. He was detained and appeared in court in L’Orignal on September 2. Anyone with information on this investigation is asked to contact the Hawkesbury OPP at 1-888-310-1122.

Canada Post is coordinating with local police to ensure a thorough investigation. Anyone in the area missing mail can contact Canada Post Customer Service at canadapost.ca/support or by phoning 1-866-607-6301. Please be sure to reference file number ON220608-14O.

Customers worried about identity fraud should contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501.

The Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB) opened the new school year with a $5,287,200 investment in technology and classroom furniture as part of the board’s goal to engage students, staff, and community partners in real-world learning. They discussed the investment during the first board meeting of the school year on September 14.

A total of 40 elementary and 28 secondary schools are receiving new furniture to create more flexible learning spaces, as well as 1800 desktop and 730 laptop computers, complete with charging carts. The schools will receive network upgrades to support the new devices, replacements for office equipment, new tools for their tech shops, 3D printers, and a drone pilot program.

“As a result of sound financial planning, we were able to make these additional investments at the end of the last school year,” said Director of Education Ron Ferguson. “We are fortunate to have a board of trustees that planned for and fully supported these actions The implementation of these purchases and upgrades are just the beginning. We have innovative and ambitious goals defined in our overall strategic plans for our school board that we are looking forward to achieving. We want to encourage our schools to continue with this thinking and we will work with them at the central level to carry out real-world learning activities and innovative opportunities.” Rockland District High School will be receiving two classrooms worth of furniture, a 3D printer and scanner, a CNC machine, a vinyl cutter, a laser cutter, tools for the tech shop, two laptop carts, and around 45 computers.

Rockland Public School will receive three classrooms worth of furniture, a replacement phone system for the front office, two laptop carts, and around 45 computers.

Russell High School will receive three classrooms worth of furniture, a 3D printer, a CNC machine, a vinyl cutter, a laser cutter, tools for the tech shop, three laptop carts, and around 50 computers.

Russell Public School will receive a replacement phone system for the front office, 17 laptops, 23 desktops, and two laptop carts.

Vankleek Hill Collegiate Institute will receive a 3D printer and scanner, a CNC machine, a vinyl cutter, a laser cutter, tools for the tech shop, two laptop carts, and around 30 computers.

Pleasant Corners Public School in Vankleek Hill will receive three laptop carts and 50 computers.

The Hawks defeated the Rockland Nationals 3-2 in a Friday overtime match on home ice at the Robert Hartley Sports Complex to mark the weekend start of their new season in the Central Canada Hockey League (CCHL). The Hawks flew into Rockland the following night to battle the Nats on their home ice with a 2-1 shootout finish for Rockland.

The Friday night home crowd at the Hawkesbury arena numbered more than 250 while more than 800 local and visiting fans filled the bleachers Saturday night in Rockland.

Overtime win

Last Friday night’s game in Hawkesbury saw the Hawks open up the scoreboard in the first period with a goal from Jérémy Tremblay, assisted by Spencer Gallant and Landon Brownlee. The goal went unanswered to the end of the period.

Second period saw the Nats get on the scoreboard during the first five minutes with a point from Kellen Dostaler, assisted by Zachary Power and Jordan Prepszl. Rockland scored again in the last three minutes of the period with its final goal of the night from Nicolas White off a pass from Conrad Moline.

Antoine Dorion tied up the score for the Hawks in the final minute of play with a power-play goal, assisted by Felix Sauvé and Curtiss Sturgeon. Third period saw neither team able to make good on their scoring opportunities.

Almost three minutes into the over-time play and Sauvé fired in the winning goal for Hawkesbury with help from Dorion.

Shootout time

Saturday night in Rockland saw the Hawks open up the scoreboard again in the first period with a goal from Brownlee, assisted by Jakson Kirk and Tremblay. Rockland tied up the score in second period with a point by Power, with help from Bradley Leblanc and Patrick Lanthier.

Third period and the overtime finished with neither team getting a chance to score. Jakson Kirk and Nathan Gagné each took a shot at the net for Hawkesbury during the shoot-out but failed to score. Yanic Crête fired the first shot for Rockland without scoring. Lanthier had better luck with his shot and got the win for the Nats.

Hawkesbury hosts Nepean this Friday at the Robert Hartley Sports Complex. The Hawks are in Navan Sunday afternoon against the Grads.

« Today we’ve made a dream of many a reality, » said David Piccini, minister of conservation, conservation and parks, during a Thursday afternoon press conference at the trailhead of the Alfred Bog Walk.

Stéphane Sarrazin, MPP for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell and former mayor of Alfred-Plantagenet Township, expressed his satisfaction with the new status for the local natural heritage site.

« I was born in Alfred, » Sarrzin said. « It’s great news for me to hear this today. »

The Alfred Bog, located seven kilometres south of the Village of Alfred in Alfred-Plantagenet Township, receives official designation as a non-operating provincial park. This means that the focus of the new park’s existence is to protect and maintain the domed peat bog habitat, which serves as home for a wide variety of plant and animal species, that includes the Eastern whip-poor-will, a bird classed as « threatened » in Ontario, and a species of orchid that is unique to the bog.

The public is allowed to use the Alfred Bog Walk trail to view a limited portion of the 3000-hectare bog and its plants and animals so long as people remain on the boardwalk and do not wander off-trail and damage the fragile habitat. The non-operation designation means no camping is allowed in the bog and there are none of the facilities that are available to the public in a recreation-class provincial park like Voyageur Park near Chute-à-Blondeau in East Hawkesbury Township.

Protection and preservation of the Alfred Bog area has been a joint effort since the 1980s by conservation and local government groups, that include the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), the South Nation Conservation Authority, the Vankleek Hill and District Nature Society, the Ottawa Field Naturalists Club, Alfred-Plantagenet Township, and the United Counties of Prescott-Russell.

« The provincial park designation will build on four decades of work, » said Rob McRae, NCC program director for Eastern Ontario.

Police and firefighters set up a temporary traffic stop on County Road 17 several kilometres east of L’Orignal. An incident involving a moose, a small car, and a transport truck was the reason.

An adult bull moose tried to cross the road around 7 a.m. A westbound car hit the moose and then went into the ditch.

The moose staggered over into the eastbound lane and was hit by a transport truck. The moose died and the transport truck suffered two ruptured tires on the left side of its trailer due to the driver’s attempt to brake the vehicle. The driver of the car received minor injuries.

Traffic in both directions was stopped while firefighters cleared the site and paramedics checked drivers of both vehicles for injuries. Police allowed alternating traffic to pass through after about half an hour. Normal traffic resumed later in the morning.

On a cloudy Sunday morning, inside the visitor’s centre office at Voyageur Provincial Park near Chute-à-Blondeau, Linda Groulx and Ria Korno fill out their registration forms for the 2022 Terry Fox Run event at the park.

The two Hawkesbury women are doing their part September 18 to support Terry’s Dream. They are honouring pledges they made to help keep his legacy alive since they took part in the first annual Terry Fox Run in September 1981.

« I’ve missed a few, » said Groulx. « One because of knee surgery. »

Both of them have personal reasons for being part of the annual Terry Fox Run.

« I’m also a cancer survivor, » said Korno. « That’s one reason. Also, it’s to give people with cancer hope, and to honour Terry’s memory. »

« I know so many people who’ve had cancer, » said Groulx.

« We hope for a cure, » said Korno.

There were a dozen registrations, both individual and one team, on the Terry Fox Foundation website for this year’s Terry Fox Run event in Chute-à-Blondeau. More than $800 was confirmed Sunday morning towards the $1000 goal for the local event. Anyone who would still like to donate to the event can go to https://run.terryfox.ca/3403.

The Terry Fox School Run is scheduled for September 23. Anyone would like to pledge a student or class taking part in the event can contact their neighbourhood school and ask who is taking part in the Friday event.

« I want to make sure this is something we get done, » said Bogue, during a September 15 interview, regarding the state of negotiations between Hawkesbury and Champlain over a water supply agreement.

Bogue noted that the agreement is close to complete and means a secure source of drinking water for the township as part of Hawkesbury’s municipal water system. Bogue and other members of the present council have been working with Hawkesbury administration on getting the final details of the agreement in order.

« It’s a complex matter, » Bogue said, adding that he wants a second term on council so he can help see the agreement to completion. « We need to have people (on council) who know about all about it. »

Bogue, 68, sought election to Hawkesbury council in 2018. The local businessman, who is also involved in Hawkesbury’s Business Improvement Area organization, sees continued economic development as a long-term concern for the next council and those that follow after.

During his term on council, he was an advocate for creating the municipality’s own economic economic director position. He would like to see the town take more advantage of its proximity to Québec and also to the U.S. border.

« We have a lot of good things we can promote out there, » he said, adding that the next council needs to take advantage of all the consultant reports that were done and never followed up on a variety of issues related to economic development and other matters.

« There are lists of reports that been sitting on the shelves for years, » he said, citing as an example a report on future improvements to Confederation Park.

One report, Bogue noted, that did see some follow-up concerns an energy management plan for the municipality. The report prompted council’s approval for ongoing replacement of old sodium-bulb electric streetlights with more energy-efficient and longer-lasting light-emitting-diode (LED) streetlights. The LED streetlight project will help save the municipality money in its annual budget.

« There’s a big part of that (energy) report still not done, » said Bogue, adding he wants to be involved in « seeing it through. »

Bogue noted that the provincial government’s plans to shut down the Pickering nuclear power plant within the two few years and also plans changes in the operation of its other two nuclear power plants near Toronto. That could mean more potential « brown out » or even « black out » situations in future for some municipalities.

Hawkesbury Hydro looks after the municipal eletricity system. Bogue would like the next council to look getting « green energy » support grants from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities or senior government to help finance projects like installing solar panels on selected municipal buildings to help reduce costs for lighting and other electrical equipment in those facilities.

« There are all kinds of possibilities in that report » said Bogue.

He would also like to see some new and younger members of council after the October election « to help provide new vision » for the municipality.

« It’s a lot of fun, there’s a lot of people we know, » said Nikolas Ayotte, former Junior C player.

In all, 37 foursomes for a total of 148 golfers participated in the tournament.

Door prizes were given to participants, as well as food and beverages on the course.

« This is our biggest fundraiser by far, » said Franky Dopplehammer, Cougars head coach.

The funds raised from the tournament are necessary for the club’s operation, as officials try to ensure that players pay as little money as possible to play. The money will be used to rent the rinks for practices and games, pay for equipment and pay for referees.

Welden, born and raised in Vankleek Hill, says he knows his community very well and wants to make a positive difference.

“It’s time to change things, said Welden. “There is too much complacency, we are not moving forward.”

He believes current council members are not always available for the residents of Champlain Township.

“I have a certain way of thinking, a certain standard in the way I deal with people,” he said.” I want people to understand that they can talk to me, I will listen.”

He says he can compensate his inexperience in council activities with hard work, communication with township residents and members of council on issues previously faced.

“All I can promise right now, and I know this is cliché, everybody goes in and says this, I am honest,” he said, “and I promise to do my darnest to make things happen.”

Welden is concerned about miscommunication between the township and its residents.

“I’m just a little guy from Vankleek Hill, grown up all my life here,” he said. “I’ve seen parts of the community work a certain way, and another part of the community works a certain way, and they don’t work together because they don’t see what each other can bring to a table.”

Welden wants to focus on commercial development in Champlain Township to create employment opportunities.

“I’d like to have people that come to Vankleek Hill to come and live, and go to work and go back home like it was years ago,” said Welden. “There’s no reason why we couldn’t have that.”