After a few weeks of soliciting public input, the township council has put the short-term accommodation by-law on hold again. There was a fair amount of push back to the fact that fees and rules were the same for the occasional renter as they were for the investor renter who rents all the time. They will be soliciting more public input and bringing the by-law back before council in February. If you have thoughts on it, you can e-mail the Clerk anytime.
The lake level draw down has been a little more successful this year than it has been for several years. The lake is very close to 313 meters which is its minimum design level. Hopefully the MNR leaves the logs out of the dam this fall and keeps the lake low as it freezes. Several years over the past two decades the logs were put back in during November or early December followed by big rainstorms refilling the lake. That is what leads to spring flooding and dock damage.
The Land Escapes re-zoning was approved at the November council meeting. As posted here earlier, it does not create any new mining rights. It just had to be written to express that there were existing mineral exploration rights that could not be zoned away. Hastings County planning helped edit / write that into the new zoning and it passed with little comment last week.
Tall Pines Rally weekend this weekend. Traffic will be heavy in the area and some side roads will be closed for periods of time. This was always one of my "funnest" weekends of the year at the lodge with lots of participants, spectators, and mostly crew staying for a long weekend. Had some of the same folks stay 16 years straight.
For those driving between the US and Canada, the restrictions and questions seem to change at random. A trip to Michigan in late October went smoothly. Use of ArriveCAN northbound became optional on September 30. Personally, I will continue to use it as I typically spend less than a minute at Canada customs if I have pre-cleared using the app.
Internet service on the lake has been handed off to Northern Rural Net. There are a few alternatives. There is a company called MapleWiFi that is offering unlimited cellular data packages that can be turned on and off on a monthly basis. Nice for seasonal use. After a lot of "site searching" I had success in installing a Starlink dish. Got it to have 98% up time. Gives around 250Mbps down and 10Mbps up. It does need a tree free view to the north. The municipality installed Starlink at their office and they are loving it too.
The Limerick chain of lakes are in fisheries zone 15. Bass season opened on June 25th and closes on November 30. Lake trout season will re-open for ice fishing on January 1.
