2008 : Sign wars, water woes, big cheese, Hill and a Rose

Literally! Signs made news like never before in the form of a mandatory bilingual commercial signage bylaw now in effect in Russell Township which had detractors objecting … and not always politely.

Long-time French and English residents said never in their experience was so much animosity created between the municipality’s two founding cultures. Former mayor Gaston Patenaude said he would never have allowed the new regulation to be considered, much less approved.

Passed in June following a recommendation arising from a mini-protest at the unilingual English-signed Beer Store in Embrun, an amendment to the township’s existing bylaw requiring equal prominence of two official languages on all exterior signs is being legally challenged on two fronts: By outside activist Howard Galganov and by the township’s own Jean-Serge Brisson, a former council member (see updated story in this edition).

Down the way in Maxville, water woes were front and centre in 2008 – as they have been for at least 20 years - with North Glengarry Township finally deciding to move forward in seeking federal-provincial help with a project to alleviate stagnation in the village arising from the fact there’s no potable water to sustain development.

The plan is to hook up by pipeline at a cost of $23 million to a fresh water circuit which begins with treatment at Lefaivre on the Ottawa River and already connects to St. Isidore only a few kms away from Maxville.

Some of the biggest news in 2008 was some of the most recent news, with St. Albert Cheese Factory receiving a $1.3 million Eastern Ontario Development Fund allocation towards a $9 million expansion and modernization project which, over four years, will add 10 jobs to 75 already in place.

The St. Albert cooperative has enjoyed a banner year, buying out a small cheese factory in the Rideau Lakes, initiating retail sales into the Toronto market, and launching its expansion with construction of a 2,000 square-ft. building behind the original factory.

A retail store previously opened in Orleans is doing well and there eventually could be others in the works, possibly even in Toronto, said plant manager Rejean Ouimet.

Speaking of big cheeses, Russell Mayor Ken Hill, warden for the United Counties of Prescott-Russell during 2008, continued to build his reputation as one of the most outspoken politicians in Eastern Ontario during the signage debate, along with an unsuccessful move to almost double his municipal salary, and in questioning the effectiveness of Conservative MP Pierre Lemieux during the recent federal election campaign.

And speaking of wardens, 2008 marked induction of the first female warden in the 158-year history of the United Counties of Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry, North Dundas Township councillor Estella Rose.