By Sue Tiffin

Published June 5 2018

The following are brief reports of items discussed during a May 28 meeting of Dysart et al council.

An outdoor potable bottle water refill station was funded by Haliburton County Development Corporation and will be in place at the Rails End Gallery in time for a trial run at the Trash and Treasures Sale on June 16. Councillor Susan Norcross said the station would be helpful for events held on hot days in the park and can be rented for a small amount to organizations hosting events to help supply visitors with potable water. The station which is on wheels and connects to the Rails End Gallery water supply enables users to refill their own water bottles rather than buying plastic water bottles.

‘Consistent’ audit presented to council

BDO auditors delivered a report to council about consolidated financial statements. The municipality’s financial assets are $6.5 million. Total revenues were $14472534. Capital outlays in 2017 including work in progress of building construction public works vehicles and various roads projects amounted to $4.6 million. The municipality’s net debt of $1714861 has increased from last year by $808015.

“Pretty boring” said Murray Fearrey to laughter in the room. “Not you it’s just year after year it’s almost the same every year the percentages within one per cent.”

Trina Connell of BDO Lindsay agreed. Throughout the report she had noted the consistency of numbers.

“So you didn’t find anything that we were doing anything wrong” asked Fearrey.

“No no it was a good audit this year everything went quite smoothly” Connell replied.

A full report can be found online by accessing the agenda and reports of the May 28 Dysart et al meeting at Haliburton Civicweb site at www.haliburton.civicweb.net.

Fire department to be equipped with Naloxone

Police and fire services in Ontario are able to carry and administer nasal Naloxone to opioid overdose victims through the Ontario Naloxone Program. The Dysart fire department will participate in the program with kits provided free of charge from the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit and forthcoming training to administer the medication. Dysart et al fire chief Mike Iles supported the program but said he didn’t see it as being critical as generally Haliburton paramedics would be on the scene at the same time to administer Naloxone which can be effective in temporarily stopping or reversing an opioid overdose.

“Wouldn’t think that would be a problem here but I believe it is” said Mayor Murray Fearrey.

“We have had … it certainly has been administered in the county” said Mike Iles Dysart fire chief. “And my concern going forward and some of our remote areas busy time in the summer we’re going to see more transient people in more of the tourists and with that is going to come drugs and everything else. We’d be amiss not to step up and be available and able to administer [it].”

In his report Iles said: “Although past responses are low the risk remains high (due to the influx of summer visitors). We have a high transient population in the summer many of whom are coming here from larger centres for a getaway. The risk is also high to our firefighters who may be exposed to such drugs while responding to a medical call if the patients aren’t being truthful about drug use.”

Improvement of Head Lake Trail

The Haliburton Rotary Club will improve Head Lake Trail as one of the club’s community projects this year. The project will start this June with the stretch of pathway from Harmony Road up to Pine Street.

“Work will entail better drainage clearing of some overgrowth rock removal and gravel and culverts added in places then to be topped with wood chips” said Mark Dennys project chair Haliburton Rotary Club. The same work will later be done on the pathway from Museum Road near the museum and around to the gates at the Halbiem subdivision.

The Haliburton Rotary Club will finance the project.

Fire department recognizes volunteers

At an annual awards/spousal appreciation night held by the fire department firefighters were awarded for years of service. Gord Divell has been a volunteer for 30 years while Mike Iles Rod Consack and Gord Woodman were acknowledged for 25 years. Peter McTeague was acknowledged for 15 years and Bill Frost for 10 years while Justine Bourgeois and John Hockey have volunteered for five years now.

“Just shows the dedication of our volunteers” fire chief Mike Iles told council. “It’s nice to see they’ve stayed with us so long and are that supportive of the fire department.”