Don’t feed the pigeons

Also, updates on the broadband rollout and ER hospital service

With no seeds, the pigeons are pecking the grass.

It’s not illegal to feed the pigeons in downtown Campbellford, but it’s dumb, so don’t do it.

That’s the official Trent Hills policy was developed during the council meeting on Tuesday, April 22.

During last summer and fall, some people (actually one woman) fed the pigeons by dumping seed on the ground in the park at Bridge and Front streets. This led to pigeon poop and left-over seeds making a mess.

The issue came to council on Tuesday because Councillor Daniel Giddings asked whether a bylaw could be introduced to ban the feeding of wild life in Trent Hills.

Chief Building Inspector Stevphen White, who oversees bylaw enforcement, said that enforcing any such bylaw would be difficult since you’d have to catch someone in the act.

During the discussion, Giddings, who is council’s representative on the business improvement area, was clear that his concern was the pigeons in Campbellford and complaints from business owners over bird carcasses on the sidewalk and pigeons moving into some attics.

White said that under existing bylaws someone could be charged if they fed pigeons that then damaged municipal property such as benches and flower gardens.

But he suggested the best approach was to educate anyone feeding birds about the dangers of the practice. White said he’d instruct bylaw officers to keep an eye out for anyone feeding birds.

Chatting with Giddings after the meeting, I told him that on my regular morning dogwalks last fall, I had seen a woman dumping seed in the park. He acknowledged that she had been a major source of the problem. But she’s since moved away and even offered part of a bag of left over seed to the town.

Too bad she left before the education team swung into action. By the way, there are few pigeons in the park these mornings.

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Broadband coming soon, really

Axle Telecom will soon be offering broadband service to rural residents of Trent Hills, council was told by Kate Campbell, director of communications for Northumberland County.

The company will start marketing to customers over the next few weeks to two months, Campbell said. I wrote about the long delayed broadband plan in January when work was getting started on installation of the fibre optic cable. At that point, the company involved had not announced what company would be marketing the service.

You can read more about Axle on its website, including details on the internet and phone packages it will offer. Internet service will range from $64.95 to $99.95 a month, with home and internet bundles from $84.95 to $114.95.

Here’s how the company describes itself online: “Axle is part of a family of local telecom networks owned by the WPC Infrastructure Fund, which is managed by Windsor Private Capital (WPC), a Toronto-based investment firm with a breadth of experience in a wide range of industry sectors.

“WPC has recently expanded the fund through investments in telecommunications providers EH!tel Networks, Bruce Telecom, GBTel and Axle Telecom on behalf of LiUNA Pension Fund of Central and Eastern Canada, one of the country’s largest private sector union sponsored pension funds. Together, these local networks bring reliable, affordable, high-speed internet services to homes and businesses in unserved and underserved areas of Ontario including Northumberland, Grey, Bruce, Dufferin, Southgate, Wellington, and Middlesex counties.”

You can read more about the broadband plan, which is financed by the federal government, on the county website.

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ER pay update

Two weeks ago I wrote about funding uncertainty for the emergency department at Campbellford Memorial Hospital due to the end of a provincial program.

That issue was being negotiated by the province and the Ontario Medical Association and a Canadian Press story says it has now been settled.

“The new commitments come out of negotiations between the government and the Ontario Medical Association for a new Physician Services Agreement,” the story says.

Negotiations continue on the broader agreement but they have reached a deal that should see doctors continue to come and fill shifts at our emergency department and others around the province.

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