Category: LOCAL

MEDICINE WHEEL DELAYS FULL OPERATION OF BAFN CULTURAL CENTRE

So this was the big secret that couldn’t be pried out of the hands of the gatekeepers over at Town Hall?

For a year now, I’ve been asking about the status of the Bonnechere Algonquin First Nation, or BAFN, particularly as an entity that partnered with the town to snag an indigenous-specific cultural grant as part of the Ma-Te-Way expansion effort.  That partnership led to the significant presence of BAFN as part of the new Ma-Te-Way at what is now known as the yourFM Centre.

The place was always closed, and always empty, despite BAFN taking control of the premises in September 2024 and remaining there to this day, paying a rent of a single Canadian dollar a month until December of this year, where the rent will jump substantially to $25,000/year, or approximately $2,083/month, less than most folks pay for apartments here in town.  Both the Town and the BAFN agree that this rent is below market value, something indicated in the founding documents released as part of an agenda dump in preparation for tonight’s council meeting.

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DIRECTOR THROWS A TEAM AT “THE BUMP.”

I’ve been walking past the spot every day for over four years and I first identified it as a splash hazard for walkers on a rainy day.

No big surprise there since walking along Veteran’s Memorial Boulevard is a splash hazard generally, although most of that hazard exists across the boulevard in front of the Fairgrounds, as opposed to this one located along the fence line of Queen Elizabeth Public School.  The one in front of the Fairgrounds is significant and runs continuously for maybe twenty yards or so.  If you keep your wits about you while walking on that side of the road, you can navigate the hazard without getting drenched, although there is the occasional need for a bit of a sprint to get ahead of traffic approaching from the Hall/Raglan intersection.

The one in front of QEPS is more sharp, smaller in area than its cousin across the street, but definitely more of a jarring experience for motorists as it makes up for its lack of size with some depth.  Currently, the Town of Renfrew employs all manner of tools and practices to manage this “bump,” which is actually more of a short, sharp depression.  Nevertheless, as I walked, and as I drove, I noticed that motorists familiar with its presence would employ strategies of their own, chief among them swinging precipitously into the other lane, other motorists be damned.

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STRUCTURED TOWN HALL

Okay, so maybe eight?

As in that’s how many people I think attended both sessions of the Structured Town Hall that was organized and hosted by Renfrew Town Council and some key members of the town’s administrative staff on Tuesday.

All we were missing was the creaking saloon door and the tumbleweed bouncing down Raglan.

Billed as an exercise in transparency and openness, it apparently wasn’t something that caught fire among the local citizenry, as three people attended the morning session ( if I can rely on the camera angles ) and another five people in the evening session.  Both sessions were scheduled for two hours apiece, but neither made it much past the one-hour mark.

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MAYOR TAKES LEAVE. WILL HE LEAVE HIS POWERS BEHIND?

Mayor Tom Sidney has taken a leave of absence for “personal” reasons, which leaves Renfrew with an interim Head of Council in the person of Reeve Peter Emon.  As indicated in an earlier article, I wish the mayor the best as he navigates those personal concerns.

From the very beginning of their inception, I’ve commented on the use of Strong Mayor Powers as a theoretical construct, as well as looking at them with some greater detail as they are applied right here in town.

I’d like to know what happens to those powers when a mayor, any mayor, leaves Council under these conditions, to wit the taking of a personal leave of absence?

And honestly, where would I go to ask?

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MAYOR SIDNEY TO TAKE LEAVE OF ABSENCE

Under the Municipal Act, a member of a municipal council can take a leave of absence for a period of three months and still be able to retain their seat on Council.

So it is for Mayor Tom Sidney, who announced Thursday afternoon that he was taking just such a leave to attend to family matters.  The leave takes effect after the mayor concludes his duties today, Friday October 10, and will extend to December 12, 2025.

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PLAN ACCEPTED FOR ABANDONED WASTEWATER PLANT

So, what are we to do about that old wastewater plant that’s just sitting there like something out of a really bad Stephen King movie?

Decommissioned some years ago, the facility stands along a bend of the Bonnechere River, and now that it’s been replaced in function by something else, it just sits there, a problem waiting to become a bigger problem.  As with all abandoned buildings, you’re going to find broken windows, open windows, degraded material no longer safe for anyone, and three gawdawfully large tanks that were once filled with water, now standing silent, with water without purpose.  And as with many other abandoned buildings, there’s almost a siren call that can be heard by anyone who claims membership in Renfrew’s homeless community.

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DEATH BY E-SCOOTER

Man, that kid was flying.

When I was a kid myself, I used to have these little fantasies involving me as a cop or soldier fighting the bad guys.  I’d even entertain my own demise, sometimes as a result of a huge gunfight with a dozen robbers where I would single-handedly bring them to heel with my revolver that never seemed to run out of bullets despite it being a six-shooter and the math of the situation not looking good.  And yes, sometimes bad stuff happens, even in the imagination of a child.  One of those bad guys would get a lucky shot in, it would kill me, and I’d immediately go into visuals of my state funeral with throngs of weeping citizens lining the street on both side, not a dry eye anywhere.  And all of this before my mom called me in for lunch.

So, like any kid, I visualized myself as a hero, and in this particular case a dead one, with all society grinding to a halt at the loss.  Man, I still get teary-eyed just thinking about it.

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DAYCARE SAFETY: PROTECTING KIDS FROM TRAFFIC

It was less than a month ago that a man in his seventies lost control of his SUV and plowed into a daycare in Richmond Hill, killing a toddler and injuring six others.

And this isn’t the first time this has happened, either.

The man behind the wheel faces one count dangerous operation causing death and three counts of dangerous operation causing bodily harm.  The parents of the 17 month-old boy killed, Liam Riazati, face a crushing loss.

Nobody will argue that, when we send our kids to schools, or daycares, they ought to be safe.  Yet some of those same people design daycares, or complexes including daycares, and do so in such a manner as to be seemingly oblivious to the potential for this sort of thing happening.

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CAMERAS MAKE A COMEBACK. UNTIL THEY DON’T.

There are sometimes in life where you get a stain on something and, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t get it out.  Or maybe it’s a church tune that you can’t get out of your head, and it’s gotten so bad that you find yourself whistling Be Not Afraid in the shower.

My point is that sometimes there are things that never go away, as much as you might like them to.

So there’s these cameras.

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DRBIA SEEKS PERMISSION FOR HISTORICAL SIGN AND NATIVITY SCENE

The Downtown Renfrew Business Improvement Area — DRBIA.— is an arm’s length group that operates under the auspices of the Town of Renfrew, and as such receives a budget from the corporation to pursue initiatives and planning dedicated towards improvement and promotion of the town’s downtown core.

What makes such a group particularly effective is the fact that it’s composed exclusively of business owners and commercial property owners that all share a keen interest in the viability and economic success of downtown, the heart of almost any community.  These business and commercial interests all contribute to the DRBIA operating budget as well, as they’re all assessed a membership levy, something that presents a bit of an issue on another topic, but not to this one.

The point is that we have people who are invested doing the day to day stuff, but there’s also a financial and legislative tether that means that Renfrew Town Council is the supreme authority when it comes to DRBIA decision-making.

Two items related to DRBIA caught my attention recently in a way that made me want to comment.

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