In this issue you’ll find important information about:
- Looking Back and Looking Ahead
- 2022 Membership Drive Results
- How About that 10th Annual Poker Run 2022!?
- Regatta 2022 – So Great to be Back!
- Invasive Species (Phragmites) Removal
- 2022 Municipal Election in Hastings Highlands and MV
Useful Links:
- KAPOA AGM 2022 – link to minutes and presentations
- FOCA Guide to Responsible Renting
- Lights Out for our Songbirds – a reminder
- Pleasure Craft Licensing Changes may be coming
- Ontario Nature Wetland Conservation Webinar opportunity Nov. 22
- Calling all Anglers: FMZ 15 Fishing Regulations Survey is Still Open
- Windstorm Damage – Practical Advice for Salvage and Clean-Up
Plus: We Can’t Say This Enough, Volunteers are Always Needed!
Looking Back and Looking Ahead
First off, how great was it to finally be back together this summer for our in-person AGM, Poker Run and Regatta?! What a pleasure to get back, if only temporarily, to what felt like normal community interaction and having fun by the water. This fall continues to test our endurance (and more so for those less fortunate) as further mutated strains of COVID impact our gatherings, our hospital wait times and emergency availability, and many other aspects of daily living. We wish you and your families good health and safe travels whatever you are doing for the remainder of 2022 and early 2023 and are keeping our fingers crossed that we will again be back in person and enjoying the company of our KAPOA member community next summer.
On another note, I’ve just returned from my first trip since the start of the pandemic, an expedition to the Canadian Arctic and the west coast of Greenland. The trip was educational, the sites were beautiful and awe-inspiring and the messages were thought provoking. Nowhere are the effects of climate change more evident or urgent than in the Polar Arctic region. We were introduced to evidence of receding and thinning glaciers (they have receded as much in the past 10 years as they did in the previous 100 years.) Educational posters remind local Inuit hunters to test the ice before venturing out on foot or on snowmobile. Arctic wildlife is having to evolve to live in a warmer climate at a faster rate than is possible. The list goes on.
How does this apply to us down south and why should we care? While we won’t feel the effects as dramatically and as soon, we are experiencing climate change already and more will come. Our storms are more devastating to our power lines, rural roads and homes, spring runoff has adversely affected our water levels in recent years, and invasive pests are already here (like spongy moth) and more will come (ticks from Eastern Ontario, blue green algae blooms in our lakes to name just a few). If rising seasonal insurance rates are any indicator, insurance companies are already preparing for rising costs from flooding, wildfires and other climate induced hazards. It’s coming.
Is there hope? I must think that there is, and I’m starting by protecting what I can close to home – the lakes, rivers, forests and the natural inhabitants that reside within. I am consciously trying to eliminate plastics and non-recyclables from my daily life and discouraging guests from using soaps near the water. I avoid fertilizers that leach into the lake, pump my septic regularly and compost wood ash from my woodstove. I support local businesses. I don’t move firewood between cities, I pull out invasives and plant natives. I try to chip in and help when I can with local cleanups at the beach or along cottage roads and trails. Above all, I’m learning to accept imperfect solutions, because if we keep waiting for the perfect, carbon free solution, we will never make any progress. Two steps forward and one step back is better than not moving forward at all. That’s what is keeping me positive.
On the topics of community and environmental stewardship, there is no louder voice for property owner associations than FOCA. KAPOA is rejoining FOCA effective Nov 2022 to add our support to this organization whose purpose is to protect thriving and sustainable waterfronts across Ontario. In addition to loads of useful resources at FOCA online there are benefits to KAPOA members that you can enjoy immediately such as a reduced subscription cost to Cottage Life magazine, discounted membership fees for the Canoe Museum in Peterborough, and preferred seasonal residence, home and auto insurance rates. Refer to the FOCA site for these and other offers Benefits | FOCA.
Another way that KAPOA supports the communities in which we reside is to give a small donation annually to local worthy causes. This year we made the decision to give to a charity in each of our municipalities given that our membership resides across both. In Madawaska Valley we are again supporting the MV Foodbank (Renfrew County Food Banks) with a $100 donation where the need has grown, and in Hastings Highlands we are supporting Maggie’s Resource Centre (MaggiesResourceCentre) in Bancroft with the same amount for the first time. Maggie’s serves women and children in need in North Hastings with a wide range of supports (housing, transportation, safety, counselling) and services (legal, health, income, advocacy). We encourage our members to check out these organizations if you are looking for a place in need of your support.
Please read below for summaries of our successful 2022 events and ways in which you can continue to support your local community, responsibly rent, protect our natural environment, and provide your input along with other links we thought worthy of sharing. We are always looking for volunteers, and suggestions for how KAPOA can better meet your property ownership needs so please reach out to kapoacares@gmail.com when you have something to share. I look forward to your suggestions and feedback!
Kerra Wylie, KAPOA President
2022 Membership Drive Results
188 members have paid a membership fee for 2022, thank you to everyone who supported KAPOA this year after 2 years of pandemic upheaval! Fees were collected in person at Bay Days (46 memberships), AGM (16), Poker Run (7) and Regatta (15). Area reps collected 37 membership fees going door to door for the first time in several years, while also answering questions and promoting our Poker Run fundraiser. We only have 4 representatives and need more to cover the roads on which they live. If you are interested in assisting for a few hours in the early summer, please send a message to kapoacares@gmail.com.
Remaining memberships (nearly 40%) were renewed through pay.kapoa@gmail.com, by far the easiest option for the online savvy.
A very special thanks to Peggy Olbrycht for stepping in just days before our first and largest membership drive event to take over as the Membership Director, and to Lynne MacLean for assisting with that transition.
Please encourage all of your family members who enjoy time spent by the water to sign up to receive our bulletins and spring and fall newsletters. Your membership fee provides you with information and resources that we want to ensure is shared directly with everyone in your family. Additionally, we are increasingly finding emails and phone numbers to be outdated, so we’d appreciate your help to provide your most current information. (KAPOA Membership Information Form).
How about that 10th Annual Poker Run 2022!?
Our Poker Run event was a great success this year! Many thanks to our new Chairperson of the event, Bruce Willmer. Bringing on sponsors and the use of social media was a way to reach out to so many more folks. We raised an amazing $31,725 for the SFVH Foundation. Those funds will be used to purchase a portable digital respirator which will aid in the safe transportation of patients in our area.
In our ten years, the Poker Run event has contributed $149,189 to the SFVH Foundation for the purchase of equipment at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in Barry’s Bay. A big thanks to all our volunteers and sponsors and to all those who have participated either in person or virtually.
A big thanks goes out to our volunteers, Bruce Wilmer, Lynne and Duncan MacLean, Mark Lyon, Ed Ragan, Peggy and Andy Olbrycht, David Kardish, Chris and John Chaplin and Wendy McCourt. A special thanks to Joanne and David Wilson for the organization of a great lunch at Hinterland Beach as well as to their helpers, Kathy Willmer, Pam Lyon and the Carre Family and also to “Eddie and the Other Feller” for the great music.
Thanks to our sponsors, Team Roche, Graves Kuiack Real Estate Group, York Power, Superior Propane, Haden and Son, Burchat Homes, Crosstown Construction, Welk Electric, Tom Schmidt Construction, Kam Keg Marine, Kelly’s Propane, Home Hardware Building Centre, Madawaska Coffee and R&J Machine.
Thanks to the folks who provided our 7 dock stops and who dressed up for the occasion. They were the Pyz family, the Coe family, Chippawa Shores, Sharon Mahussier, the Wylie/Horne family, the Wilson family and Henson/Feaver family.
1st prize winner was John Lagerquist winning $750.00. 2nd prize winner was Carolyn Armstrong winning $500.00. 3rd prize winner was Patricia Schlatman winning $250.00. The winner of the 50/50 draw was Scott MacLean. Our early bird winners were Patricia Schlatman, Cathy Pitts and Joey Haden-Powlowski.
Regatta 2022 – So Great to be Back!
After a 3-year break from hosting a regatta, we felt a little rusty but the sunshine and smiles hid it all! Huge thanks to all that helped to make it a spectacular and fun filled day – Lynne MacLean, Peggy Olbrycht, Vince Steepe, David Wilson, Bruce and Kathy Willmer, Sean Capstick, Tchad Joiner, Deanne Farrar, William Cahoon, and Kerra’s family and friends (Michel, Russell, Gabriel, Lisa, Maverick, Amanda, Jason, Cindy, Max, Frenchy & Gisele). Special mention to those who jumped in to help at the beach – Dante, Landon and friends who organized our drink coolers, and Shannon Bradley Beaudoin who helped with the finish line in the water!
We could not have hosted this event without the continued generous support from our event sponsors – Cathy Pitts of RE/MAX Country Classics, Chris and Isabelle Pyz, Yuill’s Valu-Mart, and Sand Bay Camp. Many thanks to you all for continuing to support this long-standing and always highly anticipated KAPOA event.
Everyone took home ribbons for participating in the events again this year, and our sandcastle participants were all winners across a wide range of castle categories. To our delight, we had some new swim and overall competitor trophy winners:
- Best Male Swim – Dante Chaplin (age 11-14), Landon Ives (age 10 & under)
- Best Female Swim – Cheyenne Williams (age 11-14)
- Overall Competitor – Landon Ives
- Sailing – John and Marie Craig
The 50/50 draw totally $335.50 was won by Chris and Isabelle Pyz, who promptly handed it back to KAPOA to fund future regatta expenses. We are so grateful for such acts of kindness that continuously remind us that we’re lucky to be a part of such a fun, caring and generous community within KAPOA.
Next year is Kerra’s last regatta as the head organizer. Anyone who is interested in assisting next year with the day’s events and the preparation activities should contact kapoacares@gmail.com, with the plan that the following year you will take over the head position. The time commitment prior to the event is minimal, and the necessary skills are only to be organized, patient and able to think quickly on your feet. Without volunteers like you, there would be no regatta. Thanks for giving this due consideration.
Invasive Species (Phragmites) Removal
We made the front page of the Valley Gazette this summer! The Carson Trout Lepine and Greenan Lakes Association (President Wendy Wolak leading the initiative) requested assistance from their neighbouring associations – KAPOA and the Kaszuby Cottagers Association – to mitigate a stand of invasive phragmites located on County Road 62 just south of the Ashgrove Inn. Funding of black tarp, garbage bags and equipment was provided by a grant from the Federation of Ontario Cottagers Association (FOCA) Green Shovels Campaign (in coalition with Ducks Unlimited Canada, Invasive Species Centre, The Nature Conservancy of Canada, Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, and Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre).
As you might have read in the Valley Gazette 2-page feature, phragmites is a prohibited plant in Ontario because it is an aggressive reed that spreads quickly by its seeds as well as outcompetes native species for water and nutrients. Its roots are toxic to surrounding plants such as bull rushes. It is considered the number one invasive plant in Ontario as it threatens our wetlands and our shoreline ecosystems throughout the Valley. It destroys habitats for ducks, frogs and species at risk such as turtles, and it costs the province and municipalities millions of dollars to mitigate.
Special thanks to John Briggs, KAPOA member, who saved the day by bringing his brush cutter out to lop off those pesky phragmites! The spades (and their operators) were struggling to do the job manually, and it was looking pretty bleak until John and his equipment arrived.
Thanks as well to the Madawaska Valley Municipality for waiving the disposal fee for the nearly 100 bags of phrags that were collected.
The tarps will remain in place, with thanks to the permission of the Laurin family who reside behind the county property, until November 2023. With any luck and a good deal of cooking under the black tarps, we should see a significant reduction in the phragmites stand.
2022 Municipal Election in Hastings Highlands and MV
KAPOA would like to recognize the efforts of the Interlake Committee for their efforts in organizing the Hasting Highlands All Candidates Meeting (ACM). The Interlake Committee represents 7 lake associations in Hasting Highlands, including KAPOA. They coordinated the ACM, its logistics, the questions and managed the moderator duties of the question and answer period.
We would also like to offer thanks to the Madawaska Valley Library for their efforts in getting the Madawaska Valley candidates front and centre. Thank you as well to our local press agencies for keeping us informed and up to date.
Throughout the electoral period there were some requests for KAPOA to provide guidance on who to elect in each municipality that would best reflect the needs of our membership. This has been provided in the past when KAPOA had political action committees, but we’ve heard since then that it’s not the preference of a majority of members to be provided such recommendations, which were perceived as how to vote. As we have seen during recent bylaw discussions in both municipalities, our membership can have vast differences of opinion on a variety of topics, making it difficult for KAPOA to make recommendations. We opt instead to continue to provide our members with information that can be used in their own personal decisions.
Hasting Highlands 2022 Municipal Elections Results
| NAME OF CANDIDATE | OFFICE | INCUMBENT (Y/N) | PREVIOUS POSITION |
| Tony FITZGERALD | MAYOR | Y | Councillor |
| Tammy DAVIS | DEPUTY MAYOR | ACCLAIMED | Councillor |
| Keith BUCK | COUNCILLOR | Y | Councillor |
| Roger DAVIS | COUNCILLOR | N | None |
| Tracy HAGAR | COUNCILLOR | Y | Mayor |
| Nancy MATHESON | COUNCILLOR | Y | Councillor |
| Joan NIEMAN | COUNCILLOR | N | None |
HH LINK: https://hastingshighlands.ca/municipal/elections/
Madawaska Valley 2022 Municipal Elections Results
| NAME OF CANDIDATE | OFFICE | Incumbent (Y) | PREVIOUS POSITION |
| Mark WILLMER | MAYOR | Y | COUNCILLOR |
| Mary BLANK | COUNCILLOR | N | NONE |
| Shelley MAIKA | COUNCILLOR | N | NONE |
| Joseph OLSHESKI | COUNCILLOR | N | NONE |
| Dave SHULIST | COUNCILLOR | Y | COUNCILLOR |
MV LINK: https://www.madawaskavalley.ca/township-hall/elections-2022/
Useful Links:
KAPOA AGM minutes and presentations – for those who missed the in-person meeting, please go to our website to view the meeting minutes and see the “Forestry 101” presentation made by Julie Edwards, Communications Forester, Bancroft Minden Forest Company. 2022 Annual General Meeting – Kamaniskeg Area Property Owners Association (kapoa.ca)
FOCA Guide to Responsible Renting – If you’re thinking of renting your place when you’re not there, here are some tips, reminders and thoughtful considerations: Responsible-Rental-Ownership.pdf (foca.on.ca)
Changes could be coming to pleasure craft licencing in Canada (cottagelife.com) – submitted by Mark Lyon
Ontario Nature Wetland Conservation Webinar Nov 22 – Sign up to learn about the myriad of benefits of having healthy natural wetlands & drivers of wetland loss in Ontario. You will be introduced to ways that Ontario Nature, local community groups and passionate individuals can take action to protect our province’s wetlands. The free webinar will be held from 2 – 3 p.m. on November 22, 2022 – register even if you can’t attend as it will be recorded and you can view anytime. Webinar Registration – Zoom
Calling all Anglers: FMZ 15 Fishing Regulations Survey is still Open – You can read about proposed changes to fishing regulations in our area on the Environmental Registry of Ontario and provide feedback until November 28, 2022.
Windstorm Damage – Practical Advice for Salvage and Clean-Up – following the tree and woodlot damage that was sustained on the May long weekend in so many rural areas south of Kamaniskeg Lake (we were thankfully spared in our membership area), the Forest Health Network in partnership with the Ontario Woodlot Association and Eastern Ontario Model Forest presented the webinar: Wind Storm Damage – Practical Advice for Salvage and Clean-up – YouTube. It covers how to deal with the aftermath (powerlines, phonelines, road damage), chainsaw safety when cutting in blow-down, and explains directional (Dericho) windstorms such as this one and how this latest storm has ranked against prior wind and ice storms in Ontario/Quebec. For anyone interested in other webinars related to forest management or would like to become a member of the Renfrew Chapter of the Ontario Woodlot Association, go to Ont. Woodlot Assoc. – Home (ontariowoodlot.com)
We Can’t Say this Enough – Volunteers Are Always Needed
KAPOA is always on the lookout for positive and energetic volunteers to continue to deliver on more of what is important to our membership. Please consider putting up your hand to join the KAPOA team as we still have several vacant positions. Send a note to kapoacares@gmail.com and we’ll happily set up a time to discuss your ideas and where you might like to help out. Here’s a sampling of what we need:
- KAPOA Executive (Vice President, Event Chairs for existing and new events, Communications Director, Youth Representation +++)
- Membership Area Reps (we cover a large area, so we need representation upstream and downstream from Kamaniskeg Lake)
- If you’re interested in helping for an afternoon or on a committee, we have lots of opportunities with the Regatta, Poker Run, and a variety of new events we’d love to undertake.
- Please consider giving back to your community by volunteering with KAPOA, the benefits are a win for everyone!
We’ll continue to be in touch by email for important information over the coming months. See you in 2023 – it will be here faster than you expect!
Your KAPOA Team
For general KAPOA inquiries: kapoacares@gmail.com
Find us on Facebook! Kamaniskeg Area Property Owners Association (KAPOA)
