Trees 4 Peterborough, a community planting event in Peterborough on Saturday (September 23), saw 520 trees planted at Bears Creek Woods Park at 1210 Franklin Drive to increase the City of Peterborough’s urban canopy.

The 520 trees included maple, oak, spruce, and other native species.

They were planted with help from community volunteers, members of the Rotary Club of Peterborough, and students from the Trent University Community Research Centre.

The event was sponsored by RBC Dominion Securities, Excelsior Group, Peterborough Homes, and Merritt Home Hardware and supported by Peterborough GreenUP and the Rotary Club of Peterborough,

RBC Dominion Securities donated $10,000, Excelsior Group donated $5,000, and Peterborough Homes donated $2,500, with Merritt Home Hardware lending an auger for the planting.

Trees in urban areas improve air quality, reduce heat build-up, and provide benefits for mental and physical health. They are also crucial for mitigating climate change and reducing flooding, since one 15-diameter tree can absorb 22 kilograms of carbon dioxide and absorb almost 2,000 litres of rainfall per year.

Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay has announced its obstetrics unit will be closed for just over two weeks beginning Saturday, September 30th.

According to a media release issued by the hospital on Friday (September 21), the Dr. Gargi Bhatia Family Birthing Centre will be undergoing “necessary renovations” from September 30 until Monday, October 16th.

The hospital’s emergency department will remain open to treat pregnant women in need of emergency care. For non-emergency situations, pregnant women should consider alternate options for care such as their primary health care provider, pharmacist, after-hours clinic, virtual care, or calling Telehealth Ontario at 1-866-797-0007.

“If you are pregnant and nearing your due date, consider contacting your primary health care provider or midwife to coordinate alternative care options for the duration of the closure,” the hospital states.

The hospital adds that neighbouring hospitals, local stakeholders, and paramedic services have all been notified in advance of the closure.

“Ross Memorial Hospital recognizes the inconvenience this may cause families and thanks our community for their understanding,” reads the media release.

With a growing number of Peterborough residents lacking primary health care, three local family doctors participated in a “fireside chat” panel discussion on Thursday (September 21) at the Peterborough Public Library to advocate for a community health centre (CHC) as part of the solution.

Retired family physician and former Hospice Peterborough medical director Dr. John Beamish, Rapid Access Addiction Medicine Clinic physician Dr. Jaclyn Vanek, and second year family medicine resident Dr. Andrea Zukowski participated in the event, which was moderated by Jonathan Bennett, board chair of the newly formed Peterborough Community Health Centre, a non-profit organization dedicated to launching a CHC in the Peterborough area.

According to that organization, with the local population growing and an increasing number of family physicians retiring, around 20,000 Peterborough-area residents currently do not have primary health care. With 10 additional local family physicians indicating they will likely leave their practices in the next two years, that number is expected to grow to 31,000. People without a family doctor or another primary health care provider often visit their local emergency department to address health concerns.

“If we want to prevent (our emergency department from being overwhelmed) and physician burnout in Peterborough, then we need a model that adequately supports complex patients and health care providers,” said Dr. John Beamish. “A CHC is that model. It confounds me why Peterborough doesn’t have one.”

There are more than 100 community health centres across Ontario. Not-for-profit organizations governed by a community board, they offer a wide range of health and social services including medical clinics, dentistry, wellness programs, and mental health support groups provided by a team that includes salaried clinicians.

In traditional family practices, physicians run their own businesses and bill for services. According to the Peterborough Community Health Centre, research suggests salaried compensation has become increasingly attractive to family physicians.

Since graduating from medical school seven years ago, Dr. Jaclyn Vanek has worked part time at Peterborough Regional Health Centre’s Rapid Access to Addiction Medicine Clinic in Peterborough. She also travels to other locations in Ontario to provide primary health care in a salaried model. She believes the community health centre model will attract physicians who could work part time at a CHC while also working elsewhere such as the hospital’s emergency department.

“It’s easy to commit to work in a CHC because it offers diversity of work and work life balance,” said Dr. Vanek. “I don’t want to be bogged down running my own businesses and feel locked into doing something past when I want to retire, which is what we’re seeing locally.”

With fewer graduating physicians opting to practise traditional family medicine, having alternative options available would help Peterborough recruit new physicians.

“The fee-for-service model is a dinosaur heading to the tar pits,” said Dr. Beamish. “No one in five and 10 years is going to want to practise (traditional family medicine). And it’s what we have in Peterborough. Unless we develop a diversity of models, we will be bereft of family physicians.”

Dr. Andrea Zukowski, who is completing her second year of a family residency in Peterborough and has practised at the CHC in Lindsay, agrees with Dr. Beamish.

“If Peterborough had a CHC, I would definitely want to stay here and practice,” said Zukowski, adding she appreciated the team environment at the Lindsay CHC.

With the Ontario government expected to announce new funding for interprofessional primary health care teams this fall, the Peterborough CHC is seeking $8.2 million to employ over 40 health care providers serving 6,000 complex patients.

“I truly believe we will be able to fill these positions,” said Dr. Vaneck. “If we can get a CHC funded, they will come.”

She added that Peterborough is losing doctors because it lacks a CHC.

“I have a colleague who lives here and commutes to the CHC in Lindsay,” Dr. Vaneck pointed out. “I work elsewhere as well. We are all losing out without this and it’s not fair to our community.”

“The CHC model is available in many other communities,” Dr. Beamish added. “It’s proven. It delivers. Peterborough’s been missed before. This is not the first ask. It’s our turn.”

For more information about the Peterborough Community Health Centre initiative, visit www.ptbochc.ca.

On National Tree Day (Wednesday, September 20), 25 community volunteers and staff from the Peterborough Humane Society and Otonabee Conservation planted 125 native trees and shrubs at the Peterborough Humane Society’s new animal care centre at 1999 Technology Drive in Peterborough.

The tree-planting project, one of the last components for the overall construction phase of the animal care centre, was supported by funding from Tree Canada, BMO, and Peterborough Humane Society.

“Our ongoing partnership with Otonabee Conservation has led to a total of 925 plants in the ground at our new facility to benefit wildlife and naturalize the property, while enhancing our outdoor facilities with shade and natural beauty,” says Peterborough Humane Society executive director Shawn Morey in a media release.

The native species planted at the animal care centre include red osier dogwood, ninebark, honey locust, and freeman maple.

The newly planted trees and shrubs will help to increase biodiversity and habitat at the site, provide shade for both people and animals at the centre, and create a visual and auditory barrier between the road and the outdoor areas used for animal rehabilitation and recreation.

“Community engagement and support is key to the success of stewardship projects like this,” says says Janette Loveys Smith, CAO and secretary-treasurer at Otonabee Conservation. “We are committed to planting trees across the watershed which also helps us locally adapt to climate change. When the community and our corporate partners collaborate to plant trees, we all benefit.”

Ontario’s police watchdog has cleared a Kawartha Lakes police officer of any wrongdoing in a May arrest in Lindsay that broke a man’s ribs.

The SIU is a civilian law enforcement agency, independent of the police, that conducts criminal investigations into circumstances involving police and civilians that have resulted in serious injury, death, or allegations of sexual assault.

At 7:54 a.m. on May 23, the Kawartha Lakes Police Service responded to a call from a home near Colborne Street East and Verulam Road North in Lindsay, with the caller claiming a man was threatening to burn down the house. The occupant of the home said they were concerned for their safety and wanted the man removed from the home.

One of two Kawartha Lakes police officers who arrived at the home spoke with the man inside the home and eventually decided to arrest him for uttering threats. As the two officers were escorting the man out of the home, they found themselves in a struggle on the living room floor with the man.

The officers eventually handcuffed the man behind his back, lifted him off the floor, and took him outside where he was placed in the backseat of a police cruiser. At the police station, the man complained of pain and was transported to hospital where he was diagnosed with multiple left-sided rib fractures.

“On my assessment of the evidence, there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the SO (subject officer of the investigation) committed a criminal offence in connection with the complainant’s arrest and injuries,” reads a report from SIU director Joseph Martino released on Thursday (September 21).

“According to the body of evidence proffered by the officers, the Complainant resisted his extraction from the house, eventually falling to the floor in the living room. Once down, he refused to release his arms from underneath his torso to be handcuffed, and kicked out with his legs. The WO (witness officer) controlled the Complainant’s legs as the SO wrestled control of his right arm. The SO then delivered a knee strike to the Complainant’s left side, which assisted in freeing the left arm to be handcuffed. No further force was used against the Complainant.”

Martino states the officer’s knee strike against the man “constituted legally justified force,” as the officer had wrestled the man’s right arm free and had tried to do the same with the left arm (so the man could be handcuffed) before resorting to the knee strike.

“That, in my view, was a proportionate escalation of force that was reasonable in the circumstances,” Martino writes. “It is also alleged that the Complainant was repeatedly punched to the left rib area by the SO while he stood handcuffed by a police cruiser outside his home. The video footage, however, does not capture any such force. Nor was force of this nature observed by a civilian witness to the events in question.”

Martino concludes that, while one or more of the man’s rib fractures “may well be” the result of the officer’s knee strike, “I am not satisfied on reasonable grounds that any part of the injuries are attributable to unlawful behaviour on the part of the officer” and that there is no basis for proceeding with criminal charges.

A life well lived is a life well worth remembering.

Ernie Ferguson has been blessed with the former, and, at age 95, is equally fortunate to still have extraordinarily clear memories of his life journey.

To be clear, Ferguson struggles at times to connect the dots but there are a lot of dots; countless episodes and interactions that, when recalled with any level of clarity, provide a most welcome glimpse of a Peterborough that was slower, simpler and, arguably, more content.

The logical step for Ferguson was to get down in writing his memories so they will survive his passing. At the urging of his daughter Cindi, who had gifted him with a book titled Dad, Share Your Life With Me for his 90th birthday, Ernie began that process on January 1, 2022.

The result is Thanks for the Memories, a collection of wide-ranging reminisces, committed to paper “with guidance from Mona,” Ferguson’s wife who died peacefully in 2022, just days shy of her 91st birthday.

“After Mona passed away, the kids said it was more important than anything that I write the story of my life,” recalls Ferguson. “It’s all just stuff that came into my head. It’s not really in any good form.”

Regardless of that critical self-assessment of the end product, Ferguson is clearly proud of his 70-page collection of memories, and is equally delighted to share it with anyone who wants to come along for the ride. As for the dedication to Mona, well, that was a no-brainer.

“I was unsure of a title, but one morning I woke up and to my mind came ‘Thanks for the Memories,'” marvels Ferguson, adding “That was my Mona communicating with me. She was thanking me for the memories.”

A turning point for Ferguson on his way to adding author to his list of many life accomplishments was his receipt of Dying To Be Me, Anita Moorjani’s memoir that tells the story of her cancer fight and a subsequent near-death experience that was followed by a complete recovery. Reading that book proved to be nothing short of an epiphany for Ferguson.

“When she (Mona) passed away, it was a wonderful experience,” says Ferguson. “I know people say it was sad, but it wasn’t anything like that. It was a happy experience. People ask me ‘Do you miss her?’ I don’t really. She’s here. If I’m wondering about something, I get the answer from Mona. People ask ‘How do she communicate with you?’ Well, it just comes into my head. That’s just the way it is.”

There are several dates embedded in Ferguson’s memory but one — January 31, 1948 — has always been, and remains, special on a level all the other dates can’t compete with. It was the date he met Mona Peirson, who he would eventually marry.

“I invited Mona out on her 17th birthday,” recalls Ferguson, noting the occasion was a dance at the old Brock Street Arena featuring The Tommy Dorsey Swing Band.

“I was 20 (years old). Four of us guys bought tickets and asked girls to go. I can’t remember much about them. All I remember is Mona. She was the first girl I ever asked out. My mom and dad (Ruth and Ernie Ferguson) had a skating club at the Peterborough curling rink. When I was looking for a date, I saw Mona there and thought ‘That’s my date.'”

Ferguson chose wisely, his first intuition leading to 74 years of being rarely apart from Mona, if ever.

Married on May 12, 1951 at George Street United Church, the couple had two children early on — Heather Jane and Clarinda (Cindy) Catherine. In January 1970, the couple welcomed Marcus Charles, whom they adopted and brought to Peterborough from Ottawa.

He didn’t know it at the time, but Ferguson’s work life was predetermined in March 1941 when he was in Grade 8 at King George Public School.

“Dad worked at Goodyear in Hamilton when he got married but he only stayed there for six months … he said all they did was work and drink,” says Ferguson, who was born in the Steel City.

“The family moved to Peterborough and Dad delivered for Lansfields Cleaners on Louis Street. One day, Ivan Lillico, who owned Lillico Motors where dad bought his vehicles, said ‘You’re working for Lansfields and he is making all kinds of money but you’re doing all the work. You should start your own business.'”

After accepting Lillico’s offer of space at a building he owned on Water Street, the couple opened Ferguson Cleaners, a laundry and dry cleaning business. Young Ernie worked there along with his brother Wayne and sister Arlene, alongside a host of longtime loyal employees.

When, in 1959, Ferguson’s dad decided to incorporate the business, he brought Ernie and Wayne in as partners. Ten years later, when Twin Cleaners on Monaghan Road went up for sale, the brothers bought the business, which Wayne ran. With time, the laundry and dry cleaning ’empire’ grew with four buildings — the last being at 128 Hunter Street East, today home to Ashburnham Ale House.

The last day of 1990 saw Ferguson sell the business, freeing up time for him and Mona to do what they did for years and still loved to do — volunteer.

“Mona started volunteering with her mother at the old Civic Hospital; she took a cart around and sold books and treats and stuff,” says Ferguson. “Next thing you know she’s volunteering with Community Care (Meals On Wheels) and then got into volunteering with the Food For Kids program. It’s something we loved to do together.”

At age 88, Mona marked an incredible 50 years as a Community Care volunteer. Her husband, by comparison, was a newbie, helping out for 29 years following his retirement from the dry cleaning business.

“Mona was that kind of person … I just went along for the ride,” says Ferguson, deflecting, as he habitually does, attention from himself.

Asked for one nugget that close to 96 years of life has taught him, Ferguson answers quickly.

“Everybody gets a soul and that soul communicates with you all the time,” he says, adding “I know a lot of people will have some trouble with that, but that’s what Mona and I learned.”

“You put a tulip bulb in the ground and it grows and becomes a beautiful flower. If our maker, our creator, could do that for a tulip bulb, he could do the same thing for a human being. We had all we needed to live our life. We just had to pay attention and listen. Whatever we needed to do, it came to us. We didn’t have to think about it. It’s as simple as that.”

“Mona and I communicate all the time. Whatever is in my head, I get an answer from Mona. I don’t understand it. All I know is if I’m trying to figure out something, the next thing I know is I have the answer. That’s my Mona helping me out.”

Clearly, this article serves only to scratch the service of Ferguson’s long and fruitful life — a full and vibrant life that continues, as evidenced by a recent get-together with family and friends at Swiss Chalet to celebrate the much anticipated ‘launch’ of Thanks for the Memories.

“I thought ‘Isn’t it a shame? I’m going to die and take my memories with me.’ Well, here we are, able to share them with others.”

For a copy of Thanks for the Memories, those interested can message Ferguson via his Facebook page.