Douro-Dummer took another look at the township’s Discretionary Sewage System Maintenance Inspection Program (DSSMIP) at the Tuesday evening council meeting. At the June 4, 2024 council meeting the building department presented a report to council regarding the system and in response council asked staff to return with a report which researched specific questions.
The issues in question included:
• Dividing the Township into specific focus areas
• Legal consideration including high-risk areas, waterfront systems, high-density hamlets,
• Maintaining minimal property records, and
• The Township’s liability in issuing certificates
The report on Tuesday evening was presented by CBO Don Helleman. His opening remarks explained the difference between mandatory septic inspections and Discretionary Sewage Systems and assured council that this report only dealt with Discretionary.
The present DSSMIP in the Douro-Dummer is applicable to everyone with a sewage system and the systems are to be inspected every ten years with a price tag of $150 per inspection. It is a user pay system that was put on hold during COVID.
Helleman first addressed council’s ability to determine specific areas for inspections.
Levi and Vera got the chance to meet with Santa Claus after the Douro Dummer Parade on Saturday Nov. 30. Kids were able to sit with Santa after the parade and before the tree lighting at the Municipal office in Warsaw.
The province of Ontario has announced they will be providing over $77 million to municipalities to help cover increasing costs associated with Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) services.
Last June, the province and the Ontario Provincial Police Association (OPPA) ratified a new uniform and civilian collective agreement that included general salary increases for 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. This agreement will have a direct impact on all 330 municipalities that the OPP service.
This agreement would see municipalities increase their OPP costs anywhere from 14 to 40 per cent across the province.
Locally, most municipalities are looking at increases between 14 to 20 per cent.
The $77 Million will include:
• A 3.75 per cent bill reduction on 2023 total reconciled costs,
• A 44 per cent bill reduction on 2023 reconciled overtime costs, and
• A 10 per cent bill reduction on amounts invoiced for 2025 policing costs. This means that locally:
While searching through my dad’s files, I found a Christmas card of Christ Church from 1959. Prominently placed on the front lawn of the church is a painted wooden display depicting one of the founders of the village, Samuel Strickland, attending Christmas service with his family a hundred years before. A photograph of this lovely old church in the heart of Lakefield, and the Victorian family gaily celebrating the season was taken to mark its centennial. Intrigued, I wondered not only who may have made these Victorian figures, but how.
In the 1950’s, the Douglas Fir Plywood Company created whimsical Christmas ‘you build’ patterns for families to create amazing holiday lawn art. It was a genius idea and a wonderful way for the company to sell lots of plywood! A sturdy pattern (in paper suitable for outdoor use) was glued on the plywood and then cut out with a fine blade on a jig saw. The last step was to seal your masterpiece and protect it from the elements. Alternatively, if your mom or dad was artistic, they could do design it themselves and custom make their own handmade pieces of outdoor Christmas décor.
This short documentary is a portrait of a tiny town, Lakefield, Ontario, and its independent weekly, the Herald. Across North America, newspapers are dying, but in Lakefield, Terry McQuitty, the town paper’s publisher, carries on a rich, 150-year-old tradition. Set to the pace of small-town life, Unheralded is a testament to the vital role newspapers can still play, and the close bond between reporter and reader.
