The amount that community groups have asked for in municipal grants is three times the amount Trent Lakes has available for that purpose.
Twenty one community organizations are asking Trent Lakes Municipal Council for more than $220,000 in grants for 2026. Trent Lakes has just over $68,000 available for grants this year which is .6 per cent of the municipal levy.
The requests came to council at a special budget meeting this week.
Most of the organizations made presentations to council at the meeting and also filled out a municipal form outlining what the money will be used for and how they will be affected if they do not receive the funding.
The organizations and the amount they are requesting and how the funds will be used:
• BCBM Cottage Owners Association ($4,580), updating equipment needed for regatta
• Terry Fox Run ($1000), promotion
• Buckhorn Community Centre ($40,000), help provide programs
• Buckhorn District Snowmobile Club ($11,000), improve parking lot
Logan from Minden was taking part in a hockey tournament on Saturday morning which is part of the Apsley Winter Carnival hosted by the Apsley Lions Club. Logan was visiting Thomas the tortoise during one of his breaks.
Fire Departments across the East Kawarthas have received funding from the provincial government to help with protecting the health of their firefighters.
The Ontario government has doubled the funding available to local fire departments through the Fire Protection Grant which is an application-based program that provides municipal fire services with the resources needed to address contemporary safety challenges. This year the provincial government has invested $20 Million to enhance to prevention of cancer in Firefighters and improve emergency response.
Dave Smith, MPP for Peterborough-Kawartha, announced last week that many local fire services will receive $316,565 from this investment to purchase life-saving equipment, enhance cancer prevention initiatives, and improve responses to lithium-ion battery incidents.
• Selwyn have received $82,225 for Advanced Decon & PFAS-Free (free of “forever” chemicals) Gear
• Douro Dummer have received $68,141 for Station Air Quality and Hose Care
• Trent Lakes Will have received $65,780 for Modernization & SCBA (Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus) Care
With the start of the new year, Kawartha Land Trust (KLT), the Kawarthas’ regional, charitable land trust, celebrates 25 years of protecting and caring for natural and working lands for future generations.
Originally named Kawartha Heritage Conservancy (KHC), Kawartha Land Trust was founded in 2001 when a group of concerned citizens came together with the goal of permanently protecting nature and working lands in the Kawarthas.
A quarter of a century later, those first conversations and steps toward conserving nature have grown into a leading regional land trust that has been supported by thousands of volunteers and donors throughout its history.
KLT’s first protected property was the Schipper Gamiing Nature Centre Conservation Easement Agreement (CEA) in 2002 with their first donated property being the Dance Nature Sanctuary in 2006).
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.
