Trent Lakes Council will consider making funding for the Buckhorn Community Centre (BCC) a line item in the municipal budget if they can legally do so.
Councillor Peter Franzen put forward a Notice of Motion at this week’s council meeting proposing the change.
In his motion Franzen said that by doing this the BCC would know how much they would be getting from the municipality rather than applying for a grant each year and having to wait to see how much they are getting.
He said the BCC is a not-for-profit centre that costs approximately $21,700 a month to operate. It has a small full time staff but is predominantly run by volunteers.
Kevin Kelly, owner of Village Pet Food & Supply, stands beside a SPARK Photo Festival display by Linda L.. Tatler at Kelly’s store just outside of the Village of Lakefield. The Spark Photo Festival runs until the end of April with many local exhibits and artists on display. Check out sparkphotofestival.org for more details!
Trent Lakes is launching a public consultation on licensing Short-Term Rentals in the municipality.
In 2022 council approved a three-year phased in program to recognize and address the issues with STRs. Phases one and two are complete and staff are proposing that the third phase, licensing, be put in place in 2025.
Planner Adele Arbour, a member of the municipal STR working group, told council that over 50 municipalities in Ontario have already implemented STR licensing.
The bylaw will require all property owners who rent
their property for less than
28 consecutive calendar days to get a licence. Applications will be accepted each year from October 1 to December 15th and licences will be valid for the next full calendar year.
The initial application fee will be $1,000 and there will be an annual renewal fee of $500.
There will be a public consultation on the bylaw that will include posting a form for individuals to submit input on the municipal website and there will be two public meetings on Saturday, June 6th from 10 am to 12 pm. and on Thursday, June 13th from 6 to 8 pm.
The Township of Douro Dummer has received funding to create an informational campaign to help residents mitigate the risk of wildfires.
Douro-Dummer, along with 12 other municipalities across Canada received funding through the Wawanesa Insurance Community Wildfire Prevention Grants.
These grants was developed in partnership with FireSmartTM Canada and the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) and will go toward a range of wildfire prevention activities, such as creating wildfire buffer zones around homes, home assessments with sprinkler kit incentives, public education, community wildfire protection plans, and more.
Douro Dummer received just over $6000 to create and install informational signage about mitigating the threat of wildfire on homes. These signs will be placed in areas of high foot traffic.
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.
