Hostages
Editor’s note: At Tuesday evening’s meeting, Councillor Ernie Margetson spearheaded a motion to send the file back to staff and seek legal advice before accepting terms on a new bulk water agreement with the City of Belleville. A majority of his colleagues agreed. It is a bad deal. But the 4,000 County households and businesses […]
Welcome to the County
A young Wellington family enjoys the Hillier beaches. It is an escape. Their two young children, ages two and seven, are free to run ahead, to explore and play. For a busy young family, the Hillier dunes and beaches are accessible, liberating and free. Well, not quite. They wandered a bit further last week. It […]
Something
Someday this week, a crew of County workers will be assigned the task of packing up the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald from Picton’s Main Street and putting it in storage. The move is temporary, according to County council. Until consultation. There will be many high-fives. Some hearty online self-congratulations. Some quiet celebration. County […]
Reacting
The absurdity is in the title. Tourism Management Plan. Why not the Cat Herding Plan? Or the Let’s-Bring-Peace-to-Middle- East Plan? Does anyone actually believe that issuing identity cards to sort the locals from the rest of humanity on Wellington Beach will make life better? For whom? Will taking a net loss of $20,000 this year […]
Hardball
When the village gathered in the basement of CML Snider school 11 years ago to consider how Wellington might grow, no one imagined this. No one raised their hand in favour of doubling or tripling the village population in two short decades. Neighbours talked about what they love about Wellington, about the values and character […]
Too many questions
An aircraft lifts off from New York bound for Paris. Passengers settle in for an uneventful flight—despite the likelihood that none knows how much fuel is onboard. Whether it is enough? Or what condition is the plane? When was it last serviced? And by whom? Were they distracted by troubles at home or an irritating […]
A more realistic plan
Too many roads. Too few people. It was true 22 years ago when the province walked away from its duty to maintain municipal roads and bridges in rural communities. It remains true today. Worse, actually. For a few years after the split, our deadbeat province paid support to the municipalities it abandoned. But soon enough, […]
Revival
About 200 folks fanned out across the County on Saturday to pick up other people’s trash. Under blue skies and embraced by warmer-than-usual springtime temperatures, an army of volunteers mustered to prowl the ditches of the countryside roadways and lanes. They were hunting for coffee cups, paper bags, pop cans and the like thoughtlessly discarded […]
How did this happen?
Correction: Two young girls made allegations of abuse against their foster parent in 2005, not two boys. They were horrific crimes. Children. Sexually abused. Over many years. By people, we entrusted to care for them. In our community. Sadly, we may never know the full extent of these crimes or the toll exacted upon […]
Mother
Mary Ursula Walsh was born into the Great Depression. Though more muted than in some regions, the hardship of this era reached deep into the farming community near Westwood, Ontario. Her family clung mightily to their Irish roots; they all knew the details of the boat upon which their ancestors had arrived in 1825 under […]