Townsend house to be demolished
Controversial home on Grand Road will be removed to make way for bridge
I have some details about Northumberland County’s plan for the new Campbellford bridge and a clarification of last week’s story .
In that story I said that the county planned to demolish three homes this fall, places it expropriated on Saskatoon Avenue and Second Street. In fact, the homes the county wants to remove include 120 Grand Road. That’s the former Brent Townsend house that Trent Hills purchased back in 2013 for $205,000.
Reading the Belleville Intelligencer story that I linked to in the previous paragraph is like stepping into a wayback machine. It notes that the dispute between Townsend and the municipality, primarily with then Mayor Hector Macmillan, started in 2007 when the home at the corner of Alma Street and Grand Road was identified as one that would have to come down when a new bridge was built.
“In 2011 Townsend erected a five-metre-high cross on his front lawn to protest the environmental assessment and decision-making process he said divided the community and destroyed his business and his marriage,” the story says.
The county’s list of properties to tear down this fall does not include the Spite House at 17 Second Street. The fate of this heritage property remains under discussion.
We will soon learn some more details about the bridge plan, but the final design is not yet complete, so the county is not ready to seek tenders yet.
“Director of Public Works Denise Marshall will be presenting details of the 90 per cent design to county council on September 17, and then to Trent Hills council on September 23,” said Kate Campbell, the county’s Director of Communications and IT. “Developments from the 60 per cent design to current have been about further refinement as we get closer to tender -– mostly minor, aesthetic changes to achieve additional efficiencies and cost savings.”
Meanwhile, work is underway along Saskatoon Ave. as utilities and services are moved to make way for bridge construction at some point.
Nurses unhappy with contract ruling
The nurses at Campbellford Memorial Hospital have a new contract almost finalized, but their association is unhappy about an arbitrator’s ruling on the province-wide elements of the deal.
The nurses’ contract expired at the end of March, and they negotiated on local matters, reaching a tentative agreement in May.
“We reached an agreement in principle on local issues in May,” said Peter Mitchell, Communications and Community Relations Manager for the hospital. “It still needs to be finalized, but we do not anticipate any issues.”
But the Ontario Nurses’ Association is unhappy that an arbitrator rejected its demands for firm ratios of the number of patients a nurse is responsible for. The association argued that nurses are endangered when too few are working.
“(Arbitrator Sheri) Price’s failure to deliver safe staffing ratios sends a clear message to Ontario nurses that we do not deserve the same safety in numbers that other front-line workers in dangerous professions – like police and firefighters – are afforded,” said Erin Ariss, association president. “It tells a workforce that is overwhelmingly women that the unchecked and brutal violence we face every day is acceptable, and our safety is not important. As nurses, as women, as workers, we will not accept this.”
Violence has been an issue at Campbellford Memorial in the past and the nurses have pushed for the hiring of security guards trained to de-escalate conflict.
The arbitration award granted wage increases of 3 per cent in 2025 and 2.25 in 2026. The association said these increases are too small. It had sought 6 per cent each year. The hospitals had offered 2.15 per cent for 2025 and 1.6 per cent for 2026.
You can read all Trent Hills News stories on my website here.