Review-Mirror

The community is ral- lying around a memorial project to honor Gord Brown with a fundraising campaign to make his dream of an outdoor refrigerated ice rink a real- ity. The campaign is being spearheaded by the Thou- sand Islands Accommoda- tion Partners (TIAP) a not- for-profit foundation with the purpose of promoting the 1000 Islands region through marketing, events, as well as some infrastruc- ture and local philanthrop- ic causes. Brown, and his brother Jeff own the Brown Hos- pitality Corporation, the largest accommodation business in Gananoque and were instrumental in the founding of TIAP. In 2017 the TIAP part- ners discussed undertak- ing a community enhance- ment project and Gord was quick to suggest that an outdoor refrigerated Ice Pad constructed in the Town of Gananoque would be the perfect pro- ject said Katherine Chris- tensen, TIAP's executive director. The project could be completed in stages with the first component being the refrigerated pad and boards with a projected cost of $300,000 and 2nd phase roof and change rooms with a projected cost of $400,000. TIAP has already con- tributed $100,000 towards the project which was dis- cussed last year with the Town of Gananoque and Leeds and the Thousand Islands which also con- tribute to the operation of the arena. Over $20,000 has been raised in five days at w w w . g o f u n d m e . com/help-gord-browns- gan-ice-pad-vision. The Review-Mirror May 10, 2018 – 16 By Margaret Brand The Review Mirror Tay Valley resident Susan Freeman and for- mer deputy reeve will be running in this fall's elec- tion to become the new reeve of Tay Valley. Freeman served 14 years as the township's Deputy Reeve but stepped back from politics for the 2014 election and did not run for a position in the current term. She was elected Deputy Reeve by the electors dur- ing the last two terms and for her first two terms was elected by the council at large. "While I have enjoyed my vacation from munici- pal politics for the past four years, I now want to work to help our munici- pality achieve its poten- tial," said Freeman who has been disappointed with the current council's leadership. "Tay Valley has so much to offer its citizens and requires a supportive and competent council to help meet its goals. We need strong leadership and a respectful municipal government to achieve the opportunities we have as a community" she said. Freeman is proud of former councils' accom- plishments of which she was a part of at the county and local level when the newly amalgamated town- ships of Bathurst, North Burgess and Sherbrooke had to grow into one town- ship. She is concerned that the current council has not been forthcoming with information to the public. "It frustrates me that not enough information is shared with the taxpayers about what is going to happen, what council is thinking of, what their plans are and how and why they spend their money, taxpayer's money," said Freeman. "People go online and look at the budget. I don't know how much it means to anybody. It's all figures. You don't get an explana- tion of what the problems were what the restrictions were what was the ratio- nale to spend money. We always used to do that before 2014. It's stopped in the last four years," said Freeman. She thinks its council's responsibility to lead the way in providing direction for disclosure. "You have to be very clear to staff what has to be shared with the public. You have to be as accessi- ble as possible and also I think you have to have accountability. You have to say this is what we were planning to do and did we do it?" she said. Freeman said she would post information to the public online as she had done during previous councils and recognize the need for public consulta- tion. "You are not serving you. You are serving the public and recognizing what it means to them," she said. Freeman running for reeve in Tay Valley Community to raise funds for outdoor rink in memory of Brown The Westport harbour has had the return of some of its regular spring visitors; the black capped and red billed Caspian Terns, above, as well as black Cormorants who have also been enjoying the fishing. The harbour sometimes also a stopover for Semipalmated Sandpipers and Bonaparte Gulls 72 7 *(7 ( +(5 :(673257 92/817((5 38//6 &/( 2-(&7 5 3 3 8 1 $ &/($ 2-(&7 12 may 2018 - town hall - 9:30am coffee before - pizza after bring gloves - wear a bright shirt McCafferty won several awards Wildfowl carver John McCafferty's awards at last month's Ward World Championship Wildlife Carving Competition weren't completely listed in last week's paper. He came first in the best of species of Ring-necked Duck. No other ducks placed. He also placed first place in the Diving Ducks category, two wins which pushed him to come in second with a Best in Division for Dec- orative Life-size Floating Waterfowl. Susan Freeman

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