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By Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press

The Harrow Early Immigrant Research Society (HEIRS) volunteers have recently completed a scanning project in cooperation with the Town of Essex’s Clerk’s Department.

With a mission to promote and advocate for the preservation and study of genealogical and local history in the original Township of Colchester, in part, through the collection and preservation of print artifacts and written materials related to local history, HEIRS volunteers set out to scan and digitize as many of the handwritten minutes and by-laws that could be located.

To date, HEIRS has scanned and digitized 28,111 pages of handwritten records. That includes minutes and by-laws of Colchester North, minutes of Colchester South, minutes of Colchester Township, minutes and by-laws of the Village of Essex Centre, Essex Town by-laws and minutes, and Harrow minutes.

The range of years goes back to as early as 1859 to the most recent being 1964.

Laurie Brett, Secretary/Treasurer of HEIRS, explained she approached the Town’s Clerk’s Department around a year ago and received permission to undertake this large-scale project.

HEIRS scanned from three different record types, including large bound books into which the Clerks would write with pen, binders of quasi-official and looseleaf minutes and by-laws some of the clerks maintained, and microfilm reels of early Colchester South and Colchester North that were in the HEIRS resource collection.

Throughout the course of undertaking the scanning project, Brett said it was discovered many young people, including some of HEIRS’s volunteers, cannot read cursive writing, which was used in record keeping.

“Advances in handwriting technology have made it possible to scan these pages, transcribe them, and make them searchable,” Brett explained to Essex Council at the July 16 meeting when explaining the project.

Unfortunately, technology can’t always compensate for faded type, ink blots, or damage.

“A poor choice of a pen 100-years ago often means we are dealing with faded type today. More tragic than that is when pages start to decompose, due to adverse environmental factors,” Brett added.

The good news is that HEIRS has been able to make the vast majority of these records searchable.

Brett acknowledged the cooperation of the Town’s Clerk’s Department on this project. “They were critical to making this project successful,” Brett said, adding the books are heavy and not easily hauled-around. She also recognized the Board members and volunteers at HEIRS, who supported this project.

With this project complete, HEIRS has turned its sights on scanning a very large collection of photographs.

She also spoke of how the 130-years worth of Essex Free Press archives was recently transported to the Leddy Library Archives and Special Collections at the University of Windsor.

“Preserving the original print copies of our local newspapers has become a pressing issue in the face of significant challenges to the industry related to financial viability, ownership changes, and newsroom closures,” Brett said, who once served as Editor and Publisher of the Essex Free Press. Her family owned the newspaper from 1896 to 2011.

She credited her husband, Art Rhyno, for his interest in ensuring the local newspapers have been digitized. He also ran the Town’s minutes and by-laws through handwriting recognition software, making them searchable.

On behalf of the Town’s Clerk’s Department, Joe Malandruccolo, Director of Legal and Legislative Services, said they are thankful for the material and the efforts.

“We have already started using some of it, especially for drainage by-laws that were hard to find and not digitized. They were hard to get through,” Malandruccolo said.

Council received the delegation, with Mayor Sherry Bondy acknowledging HEIR’s efforts on this project.

By Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press

The Town of Essex’s “Report a Problem” online platform – that allows residents to relay issues related to Town-owned infrastructure, parks, facilities, and concerns with Short Term Rental Units and town by-laws – has been updated.

Essex Council learned of the revamp, and received a presentation on the changes, at the July 7 meeting.

The online portal, powered by CityWorks, was historically managed, supported, and fully funded by the County of Essex for all local municipalities, Marc Tortola, Essex’s Manager of Strategic Communications, explained.

In 2024, however, Essex was informed the County would no longer be providing – or funding – this service, leaving municipalities to manage their own service independently.

“In anticipation of this change, the Town of Essex proactively included an upgrade to this service request portal in the 2024 Capital Project Budget,” Tortola added.

Those funds covered the cost of migrating to a standalone platform, including the initial setup fees and operating costs.

After looking into the matter, Tortola noted Essex’s administration determined continuing with CityWorks was the most cost-effective and practical solution, as it offers the necessary tools and functionality to maintain a high-level of service for residents and is familiar to Town staff.

Previously, Essex’s data was hosted on the County’s servers, and Essex’s administration worked with the CityWorks team to migrate to a cloud-based solution, which resulted in improved performance, enhanced security, and greater long-term sustainability, he added.

In addition, Tortola relayed that several system enhancements have also been made to improve the overall user experience.

Residents can access the “Report a Problem” portal as usual. There is a “Report a Problem” tab at the top of www.essex.ca, or they can log directly onto. https://www.essex.ca/en/live/report-a-problem.aspx.

This online tool allows users to not only submit a request, but they can now check on the status of their service request.

It also includes a step-by-step instructional video to help residents through the process, and a Frequently Asked Question section.

Using the tool, residents can choose the category under which the matter they are reporting to the Town falls, and allows them to provide a graphic or image of the problematic issue to help relay their concern to Town staff.

When providing the exact address of their concern, there is a tool that allows the user to draw where exactly the issue is located on the property they indicated. They can also provide additional text to describe details, giving specific direction to staff, Tortola explained.

Residents wanting to use this tool will be required to use an email to send the service request. Once uploaded, they will receive an automatic email noting it has been submitted.

An upgrade to the website, Tortola said, allows residents the ability to check the status of their service request. They can do so by going back to the “Report a Problem” page on the Town website and selecting “Check Service Request Status.”

They will need to enter their service request number, provided through email when they initially submitted the application, and their last name.

Tortola added Town administration is working with CityWorks to allow Town staff to be able to add comments to this section in the future.

In answering Councillor Joe Garon’s question on how large of a file can be uploaded and if video could also be added, Tortola believes any file type can be dropped. He will look into it and check to see if a video will indeed work as he too sees that as a helpful resource.

Garon would like to see adding a phone number and address of the individual submitting the request be mandatory to ensure seriousness of complaints, and that the system require residents to type in their email twice to ensure it is correct.

He also believes Councillors should be notified of complaints made in their wards, so they will be in the know. This system was made to allow residents to go directly to Town departments with issues, and he noted Council has a right to know about the issues.

Councillor Katie McGuire-Blais would also like to be informed of complaints in her ward, and suggested that could be done in a monthly summary.

Tortola noted information can be pulled into a spreadsheet to create a report. Director of Legal and Legislative Services, Joe Malandruccolo, noted staff will have to ensure any data shared with Council complies with the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

CAO Kate Giurissevich added that the Town already reports annually on the summary of tickets, and she believes this enhancement will allow for that to be done more frequently and provide Council with an idea where problem areas are.

McGuire-Blais also suggested a new page be automatic when telling residents their submission was successfully uploaded, so they do not miss it as that indication line opens up and disappears quickly.

Tortola said there is no way to change that currently, but the feedback was sent to CityWork to perhaps look into creating that option in the future.

Deputy Mayor Rob Shepley liked that the Town was moving in the right direction, and also would like a report sent to Council with data that can be shared on issues.

In answering Mayor Sherry Bondy’s question on whether this will be easier to use on a phone than the former version of the tool, Tortola said the new system is much more mobile-friendly.

In addition, Bondy asked if there is anything on the website about confidentiality, knowing some residents may want to complain about property standards of a neighbour, for instance. Tortola noted there is a confidentiality statement on the Report a Problem website.

Bondy had concerns with identifying information and ensuring confidentiality.

“I think we have to be really careful what format that information comes to Council in,” Bondy said.

Council received the presentation for information.

By Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press

The Town of Essex will install a new air conditioner and generator at the Harrow and Colchester South Community Centre.

These upgrades will ensure the facility can be used as an evacuation shelter, should the need ever arise.

During the July 7 meeting, Council for the Town of Essex awarded the supply and install of a generator at the Harrow and Colchester South Community Centre to Anchor Hydro for $146,784.73, including non-refundable Harmonized Sales Tax. Of the cost, $97,300 will come from the Green Municipal Grant Funding provided through Federation of Canadian Municipalities for this project.

In the report Director of Community Services, Jake Morassut, prepared for Council on the matter, it highlights that back in 2023 the Town of Essex endured several natural disasters and extreme weather events.

“In response to these events, and to help the residents in our community, the Town opened Emergency Relief Shelters at both the Essex Center Sports Complex and the Harrow and Colchester South Community Centre. During one of these events, power was lost to the facilities and the shelters had to be closed.”

After reviewing the situation, Council asked administration to investigate options for the installation of back-up generators at the Town’s arena facilities.

Upon looking into the matter, Morassut noted the cost to connect the entire facility to the generator was extremely high. Administration worked with electrical contractors and engineers to develop a design that will power the essential portions of the facility if the Emergency Relief Shelters were opened.

“This greatly reduced the financial cost of the project,” he outlined.

Anchor Hydro was the lowest compliant bidder, meeting all the technical requirements, of the seven received, the report adds. As this capital project falls within the approved budget of $160,780.80, there is no financial impact.

“Sounds like a great project,” Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy said, asking administration to look into how to send a letter of thanks to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for the financial contribution.

By Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press

Staff for the Town of Essex will provide Council with a written update regarding the Essex Sport Fields project during the 2026 Town of Essex budget deliberations, which will take place in late fall.

Councillor Kim Verbeek first presented this matter at the June 16 regular Council Meeting as a Notice of Motion, and Council supported it at the July 7 meeting.

What drove Verbeek to introduce this motion to Council came from concerns she heard from the local soccer community. She said rumours were circulating that soccer players would be without somewhere to play in Essex Centre, as the Hanlan Street extension was going to start long before the Essex Sports Fields, located on Batten Side Road on the south-side of Highway 3, were ready to be in use.

“I think there will be wholesome discussion in a few months when we get a full report,” Verbeek said, adding an update to Council on this matter would be helpful.

Jake Morassut, Director of Community Services, said in the foreseeable future there is nothing that would interfere with use on the current fields.

The Town has taken steps recently to provide a water line to the developing Essex Sports Fields to help allow the specialty grass to grow, which did not take last year. Relying on Mother Nature to provide a sufficient water source in the form of rain, he added, was tough to rely on.

The Town of Essex is anticipating a soft opening of the Essex Sports Fields next year, where both the current and new fields will be in use, so the Sports Fields are not over used in its early stages.

He added that because the Town was recently made aware it was unsuccessful in getting a grant to help support the development of the Essex Sports Fields, he is working on a long-term funding model. That will be presented to Council around 2026 Budget deliberations.

Councillor Katie McGuire-Blais believes what sparked the aforementioned rumours was that concrete barriers were put up next to the existing soccer fields. She asked Town staff why they were placed there.

Director of Infrastructure Services, Kevin Girard, explained the concrete barriers were put up because the road between the soccer complex and Holy Name Catholic Elementary School is not a public road, built as a construction access for the Woodview Subdivision. At the request of the school and the Town’s Public Works Department, the concrete barriers were put in place to limit risk of liability and injury.

When they were put in place, Girard said there was a lot of ice, posing potential risks of students and parents slipping and falling, so the decision was made to block the road off.

McGuire-Blais asked Verbeek to clarify what she wanted in this report because “when we say ‘can we get a report,’ it doesn’t quite give us what we are looking for.”

Verbeek would like the report to lay out a timeline, and clarify each piece associated with the future facility as they will need to be addressed in future budgets in looking at what the Town can afford without counting on grants. If the Town receives grants in the future, that could potentially speed up the project.

“I think the community has got this grand picture, and they are just like ‘when is this going to happen,’” Verbeek said.

The Essex Sports Fields will be completed, but it will be over a great deal of time, one piece at a time.

Councillor Joe Garon said there is already a plan in place in that there is a need to have the new soccer fields across Highway 3, the Capital Roads Plan has the Hanlan Extension scheduled tentatively in 2028. He believes baseball will follow there.

The difficulty from administration’s end is knowing how aggressive Council wants to be in its approach on the matter, Morassut added. He noted a 10-15-year plan could be created, or a funding model could come back to have everything done in a year or two.

He said they will do their best to come up with a plan believed to be reasonable. When it is presented, Council feedback will be sought as to how the funding model and timeline should look.

Mayor Sherry Bondy thanked Verbeek for bringing the matter forward, noting it is key, heading into budget time, what projects are going to cost. This will also help outline the tax increase that could impact residents, if anyone provides grief on the slower approach.

In garnering public feedback at budget time previously, the majority of responding residents have noted roads is the top priority. That makes it difficult to justify spending millions of dollars on recreation.

“People assume the Town has lots of money, but when you are sitting here, we understand that there are a lot of priorities and not a lot of money,” Bondy added.

The report, she continued, will be helpful in showing what amenities planned for the park will cost. Then, the Town can go after naming rights, which will help save taxpayer dollars. It will also help to outline information for when the Town finds another grant for which it could apply.

By Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press

Council for the Town of Essex supported Mayor Sherry Bondy in directing Town administration to draft a letter to the Windsor Essex County Health Unit, asking when and why they shut down County beaches and measures the municipality can take to avoid beach closures this summer and in the future.

As the matter was minor and urgent in nature, Bondy was able to raise it under New Business during the July 7 meeting, instead of having to go through the Notice of Motion process, which would have delayed a decision two-weeks, when the next regular Council meeting is scheduled to take place.

This is a matter about which Bondy believes a conversation needs to be had.

She would like to ask the Health Unit what its methodology is in terms of determining when a beach should be closed, and if its reps know how the Town of Essex could prevent future closures.

“I know we have only had one warning on our beach this summer,” but she wanted to start dialogue with the Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA) and Source Water Protection in seeing what the municipality can do to prevent closures at its Colchester Beach.

That can look into seeing if fishflies, goose droppings, or sanitary septic systems that are hot tapping into the lake are the issue.

“We worked so hard to bring people down to our beach,” she said. For example, last summer family members of hers from out-of-town rented rooms to stay in the area and the beach ended-up being closed.

“It is kind of a kick in the gut when you can’t use the beach,” she said.

Councillor Jason Matyi thanked Bondy for bringing this matter forward.

“Our water protection is kind of lacking right now,” he said, noting conversations used to be held freely with the neighbours to the south about source water protection. “To get more eyes looking at it, to get the Health Unit involved to find out if there are things we can do to help at the municipal-level, I think this is a great conversation to have. I am really looking forward to the information we are going to get back from this.”

By Pam Wright, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Chatham Voice

Leaders at the forefront of Chatham-Kent’s accessibility movement have been recognized by the C-K Accessibility Advisory Committee.

The annual awards, presented at council, acknowledged three individuals for their efforts.

Rachel Guerin was presented with the Sheila Lindsey Powers Accessibility Advocate Award. According to a municipal media release, Guerin has a “proven track record of advocacy” through the Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent, including creating workshops on becoming an effective advocate, something she strives to teach others while acting as an advocate herself.

The Sid Ebare Perseverance Award was presented to Benjamin Guerin for standing out as a person who perseveres beyond their limitations to participate in community life.

Guerin has overcome multiple types of personal challenges while continuing to fight for accessibility in C-K, initiating a barrier-free garden, advocated for curb cuts, inclusive sports and more.

A third award went to Wanda Bell of Mrs. Bell’s Tea Room. Bell was presented with the Dr. Veronica Vaughn Accessible Business Award, recognizing the “significant” efforts she has made to ensure her new location was renovated to be barrier-free and welcome to all.

Upgrades at the Grand Avenue site in Chatham include a ramp, accessible washrooms and ample space allowing for mobility.

Accessibility Advisory Committee Council member Alysson Storey said presenting the awards is a highlight of her council experience.

“We have a wealth of individuals and business owners who work every day to make Chatham-Kent more inclusive, accessible and welcoming to all,” Storey said.  “It’s a highlight of every council year for me to recognize and celebrate people like Ben, Rachel and Wanda making our community a better place. I’m deeply thankful for their work, and I hope their examples continue to inspire others to do the same.”

The opening of nominations for the 2026 Accessibility Advisory Committee Awards will be announced in early 2026.

Accessibility Advisory Committee meetings are held monthly from September to June and are open to the public.

For more information, contact Storey at Alysson.Storey@chatham-kent.ca or 519-350-5689.

By Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press

Essex County Council approved the 2024County of Essex Consolidated Financial Statements, in addition to the 2024 Sun Parlor Home Residents’ Trust Fund Statements, during the June 18 meeting.

Last year, the County of Essex ended up with a surplus of just over $561,000, which went into the Rate Stabilization Reserve.

The 2024 County of Essex Consolidated Financial Statement report provides a snapshot of the County’s financial position as of the end of December 2024, Melissa Ryan, Director of Financial Services/Treasurer, explained. That includes the Essex County Library system and its 50% share of the Essex Windsor Solid Waste Authority (EWSWA).

KPMG LLP, Ryan explained, provided the County of Essex with a clean (unqualified) audit.

“This means our statements are accurate and follow Public and County sector standards,” Ryan said, adding no concerns were raised with internal controls, fraud, or financial reporting. “So, everything is in good shape.”

In 2024, the County adopted three new accounting standards. Those changes, however, had no material impact on the County’s financial results, Ryan added.

In addition to the surplus last year, the County’s total reserves increased to $316.4M, a $24.1M increase from the prior year.

“The positive change in reserve balances is a function of timing in infrastructure expansion work, including roadways, facilities and active transportation, as well as the continued commitment to managing the County’s capital assets and the funding of the New Windsor-Essex Hospital System,” Ryan detailed in her Report to County Council.“

We are in a strong position, in terms of sustainability, flexibility, and vulnerability,” Ryan added. “We have more than enough assets to cover our liabilities, our debt is low – less than 9% of total revenue, our debt service is less than 1% of revenue, which is very manageable, and we are not overly reliant on outside funding.”

Only 22% of the County’s revenue comes from government transfers from the federal and provincial levels.

The County does have a few long-term commitments, including the $100M to the future regional acute care hospital. At the end of 2024, $51M was already set aside in reserve for this. By the end of this year, it is anticipated to be around $60M.

The County also has a $2M commitment to Erie Shores HealthCare, $200,000 annually over the course of a decade, beginning in 2024. The County also has a $960,000 commitment to The Bridge in Leamington, which accounts for $48,000 a year for 20-years, beginning in 2023.

“The 2024 Financial Statements show the County continues to be on solid financial footing. Thanks to careful financial planning, healthy reserve levels, low debt, and transparent accounting, we are in a strong position for the long-term” Ryan said.

In answering LaSalle Deputy Mayor Mike Akpata’s question on if she had any concerns County Council needs to be aware of, Ryan said neither she or KPMG had any concerns, which is always a good thing.