During the pandemic our library system has sustained us with all its digital offerings: ebooks, audiobooks and downloadable video and music.
And to keep us engaged with the world outside our walls it’s even provided “Home for Coronovirus — Virtual Learning and Activities,” a curated set of links for kids and adults.
So, there was this really funny post on Facebook, recently of a small dog passed out on the couch. “We walked the dog so much,” comedian Scott Faulconbridge’s caption read. “I think we broke it.”
To be sure, a dog’s life and its usual routine have, like all of us, also been turned upside down since shut-downs due to COVID-19 have forced their owners to be home 24/7. Keep Reading
In a modest way, Mickaël Durand has changed our lives. From Mickaël’s Cafe Librairie has come a steady supply of crusty baguettes, loaves of every description, buttery croissants, velvety crème brûlées, and more. The operation grew to include 10 markets last summer and added a successful outpost in Omemee. Here in the Kawarthas we can experience all Mickaël and his brother offer in their two boulangeries in France.
Just inside the doors of the city’s economic development department is a cluster of framed photos depicting the nine people who work there.
It’s conspicuous not just because the photos are an unexpected touch for a department that some might assume would be a little rigid and dry (just how exciting could “economic development” really be?) but rather because since 2018 there hasn’t been a single man to be seen on that wall.
For many people, Omemee will always be the coolest place in the Kawarthas simply on the alone of Neil Young having lived there at one time. But today, there are new reasons to like the little village that too many of us just breeze through on the way to Peterborough. One of the best is a unique union of books and brioche on the main street.
It’s been three years since Breton baker and entrepreneur Mickaël Durand opened Mickaël’s Cafe Librairie, Lindsay’s first — and still only — boulangerie, tapping into the town’s previously unsuspected appetite for croissants, brioche, sourdough breads, and baguettes.
The growth has been formidable: more selection (everything from bagels and German pretzels to Norwegian bread), expanded hours (8 am to 5 pm daily), a staff that has grown from three to 15, increased availability (including stalls at no fewer than eight farmer’s markets in a region that stretches from Sutton to Peterborough and Stanhope to Uxbridge), and the option of online ordering of the most popular items for pick-up.
While the best outcome for any community is to have the perfect balance of younger, middle-aged, and senior population, there’s no denying how important the senior demographic has become to the Kawartha Lakes area.
In fact, according to the 2016 census data more than 34 per cent of our City’s population is over the age of 60, much greater than the provincial median.
Rebecca Mustard is manager of economic development for the City. She says seniors “are incredibly important to communities.”
“From an economic standpoint, they contribute in many ways including purchasing goods and services from the community,” Mustard says.
At the last Special Council meeting, Adam Found, Manager of Corporate Assets, reviewed the new capital grant opportunities that the municipality has submitted applications for, including the following:
Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program
Rural and Northern Municipalities Stream – This is a competitive program targeted toward roads and bridges to strengthen Canada’s transportation networks. Federal and Provincial governments will fund up to 83% of eligible capital project cost subject to a $5 million cap. The Colborne St. Bridge and Colborne St. West reconstruction project scheduled for 2020-2024 has been submitted. The bridge location was approved by Council in 2015 following several studies.
For close to 15 years Dorothea and her husband, Karl, lived two doors down from us. Quieter, more considerate neighbours you couldn’t find. And kind-hearted: The feral marmalade cat we chased from our backyard invariably found a warm welcome at their back door.
We didn’t really get to know Dorothea or Karl. We did know that at some point they had emigrated from Germany, and that Karl had been a writer and that Dorothea was an accomplished and well-respected artist. We’d hear of shows she was mounting. At Art on Kent we saw some of her work and LCVI art teacher and Kawartha Arts Network co-founder Anders Widjedal told us how much he admired Dorothea for her adventurous spirit, the way she took artistic chances with her work.
A project that aims to fill empty retail space and improve existing businesses is being launched this week by the City of Kawartha Lakes.
Downtown Dreams, as it’s called, is a business and growth program designed to attract new or existing businesses to open, expand or move into the downtowns of Coboconk or Norland, Fenelon Falls, Omemee, and Lindsay.
