Setting the stage 

The Ontario’s Highlands Tourism Organization (OHTO) the regional tourism organization encapsulating the Haliburton Highlands revealed its new brand platform to local stakeholders late last month. It’s a vast improvement over the branding the organization tried…

Dockheads 

A new requirement for provincial approval for docks and boathouses of a certain size needs comprehensive dialogue between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and the province’s municipalities before any reasonable approval framework is put…

Arresting costs 

By Chad Ingram Published April 21 2016 Haliburton County council has voted to appeal to the Ontario Ombudsman on the OPP billing model and while that’s something the municipality should not rule out investigating the…

Agricultural awakening 

By Chad Ingram T here’s a joke about Haliburton County and farming the punch line being that the poor settlers who came to the area in the 19th century with visions of bountiful crop yields…

Flood of emotionBy Chad Ingram

S pringtime is flood season in Haliburton County particularly in Minden where the hearty pioneers who settled the place God bless ‘em built the community on a flood plain. It’s common this time of year…

Wieners 

When are government officials acting in the public interest and when are they just trying to justify their own positions? It’s difficult to tell sometimes. Case in point: a Minden Hills small business owner getting…

Arrive alive

Smart phones have changed our lives in myriad ways. The way we communicate the way we use the Internet the way we shop and date and get directions. They’ve also made our roads more dangerous.…

Just imagine 

By Chad Ingram It’s difficult impossible really for those of us living here in the comfortable 21st century with our automobiles and propane heating and pocket-sized devices capable of holding the sum total of human…

Themes 

By Chad Ingram Imagine for March which is maple-tapping time in Haliburton County Minden’s downtown decked out with sap buckets and spring kites. It’s a vision that will come to fruition very shortly as Minden’s…

A little help

By Chad Ingram O ntario’s municipalities are in trouble. They are camels whose backs can’t handle much more baggage. Years of the province downloading costs from infrastructure to social services to security has left many…

Beggars 

By Chad Ingram Think of critical infrastructure and one may picture roads bridges and culverts. Think of essential services and ambulances and fire trucks may come to mind. In 2016 the Internet also belongs on…

Cutting culture 

By Chad Ingram Just what to do about the Minden Hills Cultural Centre – how to make it more economically viable and how to bring more people through its doors which are of course linked…

Metamorphosis

By Chad Ingram Haliburton County council has decided the county will close its tourist information centre along Highway 35 in Minden at the end of the year and that’s OK. Actually it’s a good progressive…

Those left behind 

By Chad Ingram I lost a friend to suicide last year. I didn’t find out until months after it happened. My friend was also a co-worker of mine when I lived and worked in the…

Let it snow (please)

By Chad Ingram As I write this it's minus 11 degrees outside but it wasn't so a couple of days ago. A couple of days ago it was plus eight. This winter if you can…

Reformatting the fair

By Chad Ingram 2016 will be a year of changes for the Haliburton County Fair as organizers alter its format. The fair will be held earlier than usual this year on a single day in…

The top 10 

By Chad Ingram As has become an end-of-year tradition around here these are the top 10 news stories of 2015 for the western half of Haliburton County. With an intake window for the province's feed-in-tariff …

A fine balance

T hey say the only constants in life are change and beer. Well they say something like that. The Beer Store recently announced it will be moving its Minden location from Water Street where it’s…

Event of default

By Chad Ingram The province has the ability to terminate its contract with Carillion. This is not earth-shattering but is something I can write with stone-cold certainty now that I have a copy of the…

Time of the season

By Chad Ingram D uring the weekend I attended not one but two Santa Claus parades because well my life is just really exciting like that. The annual parades in the villages of Minden and…

Race to the bottom 

During the weekend someone set fire to Peterborough’s sole mosque. Police are investigating the arson as a hate crime and while there is no proof it was some kind of  response to the horror that…