The fire ban has been lifted. Fires between 7PM and 7AM are once again allowed.
Back at the lake (so updates will be daily) and monitoring the Rogers Internet service. Getting the usual 40Mbps down and 10 up around noon Wednesday. Hope it stays that way.
Had a nice morning drive through Tweed and across the 7 to avoid the Hwy 62 construction when pulling my boat. The way I see it, 37 to the 7 was only 9 minutes longer than straight up 62 when there are no construction delays.
So far, I have not seen much intelligence in "Artificial Intelligence." Answers and things composed are very often wrong. And so is the case of the upcoming Rally of the Tall Pines. In spite of what Google AI is saying when people search for the event, it is NOT cancelled. The event will go on at its regularly scheduled weekend in November. The organizers are scrambling to get the word out that the "cancelled" information is incorrect.
Attended the September Limerick Council meeting Monday afternoon. A few things of interest for residents. The municipality will be returning to the discussion of "ADUs" or perhaps you are more familiar with "SDUs" Either way, it is about adding a second dwelling on a lot. It has been the policy that SDUs not be allowed on waterfront lots and that will not be changing. Currently SDUs are only allowed on MA zoned lots as they are 15 acres or more. Staff will investigate what neighboring municipalities have done and return to council with recommendations. Council approved allowing the fire chief to dip into reserves to purchase 3 or 4 more beathing apparatus (some demo units are currently available at about a 50% discount) as we now have 10 fully trained firemen and only 4 breathing setups. Scott Carrol is the new dump attendant. Kevin has retired. There is also a new form with small changes for applications for driveway entrances onto on municipal roads. Council also passed a new Greenbush Cemetary management by-law that conforms to provincial rules. The cemetery is currently undergoing expansion that will add 4 acres and a hundred or so more plots. Not much to report in the way of cottager news. Off the record, our councilors seem a bit tense with each other these days. Guess the post-election honeymoon is over after 3 years.
Current status on boating access to Dixon Lake: The creek is no longer open and navigable as the lake level continues to drop. There was a meeting with municipal officials and representatives of the LWRA on August 14th to discuss the on-going situation. The municipality was less than helpful, with Councilor Glenn Locke holding up documents from the municipal lawyer as though they were some sort of bullet proof shield. Wish I had better news. The LWRA Board members who attended have begun efforts to address the problem on our own. Contact has been made with the Bancroft MNRF office and an in-person meeting is scheduled for later in September. Also working to get Transport Canada to a meeting through back channels at FOCA. The lack of help from the municipality will definitely affect who we support for re-election in 2026.
The Rogers 5G tower on Sutton Rd. is operational. The Rogers / FOCA special pricing plan for internet service is $60 per month this year. (unless you have a Rogers phone in which case it remains $50 per month) Even at the $60 price it is the best internet service for us on the lake. It appears they throttle the 5G connection to 40MBps down, and 10MBps up. That is plenty of bandwidth for any single-family use.
The dump is now on Winter hours. It is open Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday and holiday Mondays from 11AM to 4:30PM.
The 2025 fishing regulations are available on the Ontario.ca website. The Limerick chain of lakes remains at the very south end of fisheries zone 15. Pages 104 to 114 of the regulations book. I had a chat with our local minnow trapper and just a reminder that it is forbidden to transport minnows across fishery zone boundaries. Bass season opened June 28 and closes November 30. Lake trout season opened January 1 and CLOSES SHORTLY on September 30. The Limerick chain of lakes has a "slot size" for lake trout that MUST be returned to the lake if caught. It is roughly 16 to 22 inches. It is also a "one line" lake when ice fishing.
