There were no injuries following a fire on Thursday night (May 18) at the Wolfe Street encampment in downtown Peterborough, although there was extensive damage and one person was displaced.

At around 11:50 p.m. on Thursday, police and fire crews responded to a report of multiple temporary structures on fire in the Rehill overflow parking lot.

On arrival, fire crews observed multiple small structures fully involved, with fire extending to adjacent temporary structures located on Dalhousie Street.

After accounting for all occupants, fire crews quickly brought under the blaze under control. However, fire and related damage to the structures and their contents was extensive.

There were no reports of any injuries, although one occupant was displaced. Police did not lay any charges.

The fire is sure to provoke discussion at Peterborough city council’s meeting on Tuesday night, when council will decide whether to approve an earlier decision by general committee to support a city staff report recommending modular temporary housing be built at the Wolfe Street site.

At the meeting, council will hear from delegations, including from residents and businesses neighbouring the Wolfe Street encampment.

Peterborough police are continuing to investigate after a Lakefield business owner lost $15,000 last Thursday (May 11) when contractors hired to repave a parking lot did not complete the work.

Since then, police have been made aware of two more incidents believed to be the same group of people, who offer to do driveway and pavement repairs.

The sales technique is aggressive and both residents and businesses have been approached. The work has been unsolicited and has sometimes begun before an agreement has been reached.

Two suspects in the originally reported Lakefield incident both had Irish accents.

Police have released photos of the suspects and the vehicles used in the incidents.

Anyone with information is asked to call Peterborough police at 705-876-1122 x555 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at stopcrimehere.ca.

For the second year in a row, Ontario Parks has collaborated with Hamilton craft brewery Collective Arts Brewing to produce a limited-edition specialty craft beer, with a portion of sale proceeds again supporting reforestation work at Balsam Lake Provincial Park in Kawartha Lakes.

Trail Loop is a honey lager, brewed with locally sourced honey, with five per cent alcohol by volume. Collective Arts Brewing describes the light-bodied brew as having “floral notes, both on the nose and on the palate,” with a “balanced dry finish that makes this beer incredibly drinkable.”

Founded by Matt Johnston and Bob Russell in 2013, Collective Arts Brewing is a grassroots craft brewery that “fuses the creativity of craft beverages with the inspired talents of artists from around the world.”

Last year, the brewery also collaborated with Ontario Parks to produce a limited-edition India pale ale called Field Guide. Sales of that beer raised almost $6,000 for the Balsam Lake reforestation project, which aims to plant as many as 1,000 trees at the provincial park, located along the Trent-Severn Waterway a few kilometres southwest of Coboconk.

Like many provincial parks in southern Ontario, Balsam Lake’s forests have been affected by the emerald ash borer. The reforestation project is inoculating healthy black ash trees to protect them against the invasive insect, as well as planting native tree species such as white birch, white cedar, and white spruce to fill in the gaps left by dead and dying ash trees. The project is also removing invasive species like Scot’s pine and buckthorn that are damaging the ecosystem’s overall health.

“The team at Balsam Lake Provincial Park is grateful to be the recipient of this collaboration,” says park superintendent Mike Cappello in a media release. “It’s heartwarming to know that Ontarians from across the province will have a hand in restoring our beautiful forest. The reforestation project is helping us to bring diversity back into the habitat that nurtures species and park visitors alike. We look forward to planting even more trees this year as we work toward rebuilding this special and treasured green space.”

Described as “a tribute to the trails that weave through Ontario’s provincial parks and the people who explore them,” the Trail Loop can design features artwork by Toronto artist Gosia Komorski, who also designed the artwork for last year’s Field Guide IPA.

Komorski has a special connection with Balsam Lake Provincial Park, having spent her childhood summers camping there as well as at other provincial parks, which she now revisits with her own daughter. The Trail Loop can design includes trilliums, thistle, and other native plants as well as bees.

The limited-edition beer is now available for purchase at select grocery stores across the province (it will be available at The Beer Store later in May) and online at Collective Arts Brewing’s website at collectiveartsontario.com, where you can also purchase exclusive Trail Loop merchandise featuring Komorski’s artwork, including a Nalgene water bottle and a hat, with proceeds also going to the Balsam Lake reforestation project.

Lindsay’s Siobhán Marie is one of 15 high school students across Canada who have received the 2023 Terry Fox Humanitarian Award.

The award provides university scholarships up to $28,000 to students who exemplify the humanitarian ideals of Terry Fox by volunteering and giving back to their communities.

A student at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School in Lindsay, Siobhán was diagnosed with Lyme disease when she was 13 years old. Although the disease has affected her physical and mental well-being, she learned to view her situation as an opportunity for personal growth and to foster hope in other young people with disabilities.

During the pandemic, Siobhán founded the ‘Stepping Stones’ healthy living program that promotes physical well-being, substance use prevention, and mental wellness among marginalized people. She has also helped families in need by providing grant-funded recreational opportunities and donating to local breakfast programs.

Siobhán has been a student trustee for the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington District School Board, representing the interests of more than 15,000 students. Along with representing student positions, student trustees take part in all public meetings of the board, participate with other trustees in discussions, and provide reports to the board.

Her advocacy for free menstrual products with the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association led to systemic change at the provincial level through a three-year grant. For the 2022-23 school year, Siobhán was appointed as policy coordinator on the Ontario Student Trustee Association’s executive council. Exemplifying her goal to create educational inclusivity, she has also volunteered extensively in the special education resource department of a local elementary school.

“My experience living with Lyme Disease, combined with my humanitarian efforts, has taught me that perseverance, empathy, and determination are instrumental in making a long-lasting impact,” Siobhán says. “In honour of Terry Fox, I will continue to persevere and find positivity in my experiences to empower current and future generations of the world.”

Siobhán has done all of this while maintaining a 98.4 per cent academic average in Grade 11 and 12. She plans to study at Queen’s University in the concurrent education program starting this fall, and looks forward to continuing her humanitarianism work.

Also an employee in the City of Kawartha Lakes parks and recreation division, Siobhán will be acknowledged at city council’s May 23rd meeting.

“I want to thank Siobhán Marie for her inspiring impact and the dedication she has shown within our community,” says Kawartha Lakes mayor Doug Elmslie in a media release. “With people like Siobhán leading the next generation in Kawartha Lakes, the future is bright. Congratulations on an incredible accomplishment. I look forward to seeing where your future takes you and the accomplishments you achieve.”

Looking outside my window, the late winter browns have started changing to early spring greens. To me, the waking of spring signals the opening of GreenUP Ecology Park’s Native Plant and Tree Nursery.

Our team looks forward to welcoming people of all ages across the region as they venture out to the annual spring opening event on Saturday (May 20). The native plants we sell may appear to the eyes of the public to pop out of nowhere.

As director of Ecology Park, this season is special to me. The emergence of bloodroot, sensitive fern, and wild ginger coincides with the return of young people to Ecology Park, who share in their love and labour of growing the park.

Here at Ecology Park, young people come in many different varieties, just like the plants we see blossoming.

Many elementary and high school students will visit the park this spring to take part in education programs. These learners will experience the thrill of a field trip out into a beautiful local green space. Simultaneously, they will have the opportunity to learn from our educators about topics ranging from pollinators to food systems. Learning programs in Ecology Park are a pathway for many of these individuals to embrace natural and sustainable studies wherever they end up.

Ecology Park welcomes older youth back into nature once that seed is planted during their younger years. Students from the Trent University School of Education complete a placement as part of the Learning Garden Program. Teacher candidates have the chance to arrive in our outdoor classroom and get their hands dirty while learning about native plants and outdoor education, amongst many other exciting topics. Many students from this program go on to become the next generation of teachers.

In fact, Parys Carr is a Trent student returning to Ecology Park for her third season as both a staff and a teacher candidate. She describes it as a beneficial opportunity for students to have a visual of what they are learning about in the classroom.

While participating in the Learning Garden Program this year, Carr says “The best learning I’ve done is out in nature, and bringing kids outside will allow them to do their best learning, too. As a teacher, you and your students both grow as individuals when you learn outside.”

Michelle Michaud, another teacher candidate, says that “through the Learning Garden, we’ve been learning about how to incorporate nature into education, which is really crucial for students especially with the way that the world is going nowadays.”

Ecology Park brings on a handful of young people as staff each year. Many students from both Trent University and Fleming College apply to work at Ecology Park to gain essential employment skills. Each student-staff member at Ecology Park has brought something valuable to Ecology Park.

This year, GreenUP has three full-time student landscaping staff that you may see at the park during the annual native plant sale and working all summer in the Native Plant and Tree Nursery.

Our three 2023 summer staff — Symon Edmead, Eve Lockhart, and Abigayle Stoddart — are looking forward to working at Ecology Park for many reasons.

Edmead, a paramedic student at Trent, is gaining valuable knowledge about science and ecology. Edmead says he would “come to Ecology Park to help out in their own time regardless of work.”

Lockhart describes how she is excited about the good experience she will gain in plant identification, which will supplement her Trent Environmental Studies program and add practical knowledge to her resume.

Stoddart is delighted to have a position that gives her the opportunity to learn more about and identify Ontario native plant species in Ontario and work with like-minded individuals.

Finally, spring brings the Ecology Park team together with some great students from Thomas A Stewart Secondary School (TASS).

For decades, TASS students have had the chance to learn about horticulture from educator Michelle Chambers. These young people have long assisted Ecology Park by planting and caring for all our spring veggies at the TASS greenhouse, located right in their high school.

Each season, I look forward to the smell of fresh basil plants, making me, and surely the students, crave pizza! I am lucky to be a part of it all as the director of Ecology Park.

I get the opportunity to learn so much from these young folks. I get to see how education has changed since my days, and how much more environmental education youth receive today.

I also look forward to learning about all the new fads and music, as well as how students today see their future in an ever-changing environment.

The youthful spirit that students bring is something I believe represents the essence of spring. Their efforts ensure that Ecology Park has many beautiful plants and their energy provides those around them, like me, with a sense of rejuvenation.

Ecology Park’s Native Plant & Tree Nursery’s annual spring opening event takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 20th, after which the nursery will be open for plant sales and self-serve compost sales on Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Ecology Park is located at 1899 Ashburnham Drive in Peterborough. Parking is in the south end of the Beavermead Park parking lot off Marsdale Drive.

With the Peterborough Petes in the OHL championship for the first time in 17 years, a free outdoor community watch party to cheer on the hometown team while they’re on the road is taking place at Quaker Foods City Square in downtown Peterborough from 6:30 to 10 p.m. on Friday night (May 19).

The Petes, who now lead the series against the London Knights 3-1 after winning a sold-out game four Wednesday night at the Peterborough Memorial Centre, head back to London for game five on Friday — one win away from clinching the championship.

Friday night’s community watch party will feature an enormous 16-foot screen, provided by Porter Sound, where game five will be livestreamed from Budweiser Gardens in London. The party will also include facepainting and a small vendors’ market with grab-and-go snacks from popcorn and candy to mini-pies and tacos.

The community watch party is being organized by the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA) in partnership with the Peterborough Petes and the City of Peterborough, which is providing financial support to the DBIA to host the party.

“As the DBIA looks for fun and unique ways to animate the new Quaker Foods City Square in the downtown, we are excited to explore what public screening events can look like,” says DBIA executive director Terry Guiel in a media release.

“Thanks to our wonderful partnership with the City of Peterborough and the Peterborough Petes, we are able to bring our community together as we collectively celebrate this special moment in Peterborough sports history. We can’t wait to bring fans into the heart of our downtown to cheer on our hometown team for the final leg of the playoffs! Go Petes Go!”

Friday night’s community watch party will begin at 6:30 p.m., rain or shine, with the puck dropping at 7:30 p.m. Fans are asked to bring their own chairs and to dress for the weather (and wear their team colours).

“Peterborough and the Kawarthas have been showing their maroon and white pride as the Petes make another historic playoff run,” says Burton Lee, executive director of business operations for the Petes.

“Our organization is very excited that Quaker Foods City Square will be a home for the many passionate community members that want to gather to cheer on their Petes.”

If the series continues until game seven, which would be played in London on Monday (May 22), there will be a second community watch party at Quaker Foods City Square on Monday night.

“Let’s cheer on our hometown Peterborough Petes in the OHL championship series,” says Peterborough city councillor Lesley Parnell, who is chair of the arenas, parks and recreation Portfolio. “They’ve already given their fans and our community an incredible run in the playoffs and there’s more edge-of-your seat excitement to come in these finals. The city is thrilled to partner with the DBIA to host a community viewing party in Quaker Foods City Square so that we can cheer on our Petes together.”

kawarthaNOW is proud to be a media sponsor of the community watch party.

Anyone who has ever moved to a new home knows how time consuming, difficult, and expensive it can be. Now imagine what would be involved in moving more than 600 historically significant canoes, kayaks, and paddled watercraft to a new home.

That’s the challenge facing The Canadian Canoe Museum as it prepares for “the final portage” of the world’s largest collection of paddled watercraft to the museum’s new home currently under construction at the water’s edge on Little Lake in the heart of Peterborough.

What began as a collection of watercraft belonging to the late Professor Kirk Wipper, who donated it in 1994 to the organization that would become The Canadian Canoe Museum and open its doors to the public in 1997, has become a cultural asset of national significance. The move to the museum’s state-of-the-art new home at 2077 Ashburnham Drive later this year will mark a new era for the collection, providing what the museum’s curator, Jeremy Ward, calls “a game-changer” for the region.

“The museum is shifting from being a hidden gem to a truly national museum through the move,” Ward points out.

This shift isn’t just a result of the many, many conceptual and structural developments that will come with the move, including world-class educational programming, unique event space, and an adjacent waterfront campus that in itself will provide a scope of opportunity that wasn’t available at the museum’s land-locked location at 910 Monaghan Road.

It also means that, with the new 20,000-square-foot Exhibition Hall and similarly sized Collection Hall, the museum’s entire collection will be under one roof and accessible to visitors for the first time in the museum’s history, with a portion of the collection on display in the Exhibition Hall and the remainder held in the Collection Hall. At the museum’s Monaghan Road location, visitors could only see approximately 20 per cent of the collection on exhibit.

“People will have the opportunity to explore the full collection and see the scale and the magnitude of how many canoes and artifacts there are,” Ward explains.

But first, the watercraft collection must be prepared for the move to the new museum, scheduled to take place over the summer in time for the museum’s opening in the fall.

As anyone who has ever portaged even a single canoe will tell you, moving more than 600 of them — many of which are massive — is both challenging and rewarding.

“Museums don’t typically make big moves like this, let alone museums like ours where the average artifact is 16 feet in length,” says Ward, adding that there are also 500 paddles and an archive and library to be moved as well. “It requires a lot of preparation.”

Fortunately, Ward explains, the museum has a committed group of employees, interns, and volunteers assisting with the move. Though the museum’s Monaghan Road location has only been closed to the public since Labour Day last year, the team first began the relocation process two years ago.

Why is the process so time-consuming?

“We want to make sure that everything is properly prepared and cared for to enter our new home, a Class A museum facility,” Ward says.

Before moving any pieces, the small team examines each object and cleans, photographs, and documents it before moving the artifact to its cradle. Then a cradle is built for each individual vessel to support and protect it during transportation and storage.

Since each cradle has been custom-made dependent on the object’s shape and size, it takes between 45 minutes and one hour for the team to build a single cradle. Fortunately, all this work isn’t temporary, as the cradles are multi-purpose and will be used to display the artifacts not on exhibit that are housed in the Collections Hall.

VIDEO: Dismantling an exhibit at The Canadian Canoe Museum

Once relocated to their temporary home at the Collection Centre at the Monaghan Road location, the artifacts must be thoroughly but delicately cleaned using brushes, vacuums, and cloths. Each one is then photographed, documented, encapsulated, placed on the cradle, and tagged with its future location to make sorting effortless when it’s time to be moved into the museum’s new home.

Between the cleaning and cradle-building processes, it takes an average of two hours to prepare each canoe, kayak, and paddled watercraft for relocation.

“It’s a lot of work, so we are fortunate to have an incredible team supporting the relocation of the collection to its new home, where the conditions will support proper caring for generations to come”, Ward points out.

With some weighing more than 1,000 pounds, many of the largest canoes must be removed from the second story of the Monaghan Road building in the same way they entered: by a process the museum lovingly calls ‘The Big Lift’.

The crew uses hoists to evenly lift the canoe onto a cart, assembling a track system below it which is then used to transport the canoe out of an open hatch in the second floor of the building. A crane then lowers it to the ground, where it can be then moved into the Collection Centre.

During the Big Lift, staff, conservation experts, and volunteers assisted in the removal of large dugout canoes made from single logs, the longest and largest of the birch bark canoes including a 36-foot replica of a Montreal Canoe, and even a section of western red cedar tree that has been hugged by countless visitors as they attempt to put their arms around its massive circumference.

Ward explains that such a careful process to relocate the collection is necessary because each artifact is a piece of history.

“It’s extremely important because the artifacts hold so many stories and meanings and are essential for our collective histories, here and nationally and across the world,” he says. “These artifacts come from all over, so it’s really important that we’re handling them with care.”

Construction of the new Canadian Canoe Museum is progressing steadily, with framing and sheathing of the walls complete and mechanical and electrical work underway. The museum is anticipated to open in the fall of this year, with exhibit installation beginning in the summer to prepare for that moment.

The first artifact to be moved from temporary storage into its new home will undoubtedly require the assistance of a crane once again. Originally built in 1876, the HBC Timber Frame structure is the largest artifact in the collection at 42 feet by 25 feet. It was the provision store of the Hudson’s Bay Company trading post in Michipicoten on Lake Superior, an important point on the canoe routes across the continent.

Adding to the long list of individuals who are helping to prepare the museum’s collection for its move, the crew had to enlist the help of specialized timber framers to carefully dismantle the structure and properly prepare it for relocation.

The Exhibition Hall at the new museum will be divided into seven unique thematic exhibits. The museum is working alongside Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members to ensure stories are accurately represented.

“We have been working with many different communities to have different voices in our exhibition hall,” explains Ward. “We want to hear stories from all across Canada, not just from where we are. The canoes and the stories come to us from coast to coast to coast. So we want to make sure that we’re hearing and sharing voices from every corner of Canada.”

Ward notes that many of the volunteers who are helping to move the The Canadian Canoe Museum’s collection have been volunteering for more than two decades, with some even from the days when Professor Wipper’s collection moved to Peterborough in the 1990s.

“It’s a lot of the same people that were supporting us back in those days, and they’re still coming back to support this big move,” he says. “The museum relies so much on volunteers and community members. They’re amazing.”

Despite the dedication of staff and volunteers, the expense of preparing and moving the collection is significant.

As The Canadian Canoe Museum prepares for “the final portage” of its treasured collection this summer, they will be launching an exciting “Move the Collection” campaign in the coming weeks to support the move.

For updates on the campaign, or to make a donation to the museum now, visit canoemuseum.ca/new-museum and follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

kawarthaNOW is proud to be the official media sponsor of The Canadian Canoe Museum’s Move the Collection campaign.

Police have arrested a 25-year-old Fenelon Falls man after a firearm-related incident Monday morning (May 15) that led to two local schools being placed in lockdown followed by a hold and secure.

Shortly before noon on Monday, officers with City of Kawartha Lakes Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) were dispatched to a disturbance call involving a firearm on West Street South in Fenelon Falls.

Officers contained the area as they investigated with the assistance of the local Crime Unit, Emergency Response Team, and the OPP Central Region Tactics and Rescue Unit.

The OPP placed Fenelon Falls Secondary School and Langton Public School in lockdown, followed by a hold and secure, as a precaution.

As a result of the investigation, 25-year-old Tyler Meredith of Fenelon Falls was arrested and charged with possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, pointing a firearm, and failure to comply with a probation order.

Meredith is being held in custody nd is scheduled to appear at the Ontario Court of Justice in Lindsay on Friday (May 19).

Hold and secure lifted at Fenelon Falls SS and Langton PS by police.

Buses are on route but behind schedule.

Thank you for your patience. https://t.co/7At86XxJaM

— TLDSB (@TLDSB) May 15, 2023