/Land trust director resigns

Land trust director resigns

By Angelica Ingram

The Haliburton Highlands Land Trust is once again without an executive director following Patrick Kennedy’s resignation from the organization last week.

The Land Trust issued a press release on Sept. 4 stating Kennedy had decided to step down from his position.

He was hired by the organization this June after former executive director Larry O’Connor resigned in March.

The director’s resignation came as a surprise to the HHLT board said past chairwoman Dianne Mathes who is now acting chairwoman.

“You’re never happy when this early in the game … a contract employee is leaving” she said. “We were certainly sad and we’ll miss him. He was certainly good at what he was doing.”

Aside from Kennedy chairwoman of the HHLT Cindy Sedore also announced her resignation last week citing personal reasons in the release.

Mathes said it’s unfortunate the Land Trust is losing two people simultaneously however stressed the resignations are unrelated.

“You never want that combination to happen. One doesn’t have anything to do with the other” said Mathes.

The chairwoman said the executive met last week to discuss next steps and the board will be meeting this week to make plans.

“We don’t have anybody immediately slated for an interim director” she said. “We still have close to a year on this grant that we’re on so we’re going to be rehiring somehow.”

Mathes says the organization has a strong board of directors and supporters and that all activities and events including the Wild About Nature gala scheduled for Sept. 27 are going ahead as planned.

“We’ll move ahead” she said. “We take a moment to reflect we take a moment to be sad to miss these people and then we look at the positives and move forward.”

Kennedy could not be reached for comment.