The municipality of Carleton Place continues to serve the needs of its residents by keeping them in contact with important public information. The following public announcements were recently made in Carleton Place:

The dog tags for this year are now up for grabs. It has long been mandated that every dog in Carleton Place must have a license tag; therefore, it is vital that every dog owner must secure one. The residents can get the dog tags at the Town Hall situated at 175 Bridge Street during office hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.

Fees will be collected depending whether the dogs are neutered or not. There will also be a charge for aggressive dogs. However, owners with guide dogs can acquire the tags free of charge.

Payments beyond office hours can be given through the Ontario Provincial Police. The police detachment is situated at 15 Coleman Street. The tags shall be delivered by mail.

Furthermore, overnight parking is now prohibited until the 1st of April. Parking is now restricted throughout the Town of Carleton Place from midnight until 7 in the morning.

And finally, in the Town Hall Chambers, council meetings shall be conducted at 7 pm every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month. The next scheduled meeting will be on January 26.

The Carleton University Ravens secured their fourth consecutive win last Saturday night against the McGill University Redmen in Montreal. The McGill University men’s hockey team, the number one team in OUA East, just couldn’t keep up with the momentum set in the rink last weekend by the Ravens.

Prior to the game, the Redmen were fifth in the CIS with an impressive standing of 16-2-0; however, that didn’t phase the Ravens as they stayed tough during the game.

The Redmen were handicapped early in the second half of the first period when they found themselves in penalty trouble by accumulating three penalties in a row. Nevertheless, the Ravens weren’t able to capitalize on this opportunity as the game remained scoreless when the first period ended.

In the second period, Carleton University’s Justin Caruana scored the first goal of the game when he outplayed the McGill University’s goalie Danny Mireault. The goal was Justin Caruana’s fourth of the season which gave the Ravens an early 1-0 lead. Towards the end of the period, Ryan Berard scored his 6th goal of the year increasing the Ravens’ lead by two.

The Redmen hustled in the third period by pressuring the Ravens and outshooting them 19-5. With six minutes left in the game, McGill’s Patrick Belzile scored against Ravens goalie Alex Archibald decreasing Carleton’s lead by one point.

In the last minute of the game The Redmen pulled their goalie to even the game with a goal, but Christian Bourdeau-Mifflen, Raven defenceman, managed to score on the unguarded net sealing the 3-1 victory for the Ravens.

This win by the Ravens improved their record to 11-6-2.

For the residents of Carleton Place and Mississippi Mills, if you are 55 years or older and want to participate in the upcoming Senior Winter Games, all you have to do is to pick up a booklet and fill-out the registration form included. This booklet can be acquired at the Pakenham Curling Club, Pakenham Arena, or from Freda Somerton.

Carleton Place residents can also acquire registration forms at Branch 192 of the Royal Canadian Legion, Carleton Place Arena, Carleton Place Curling Club, or from Doug Smith.

Curling bonspiel, Bridge, and Euchre tournaments are still open for whomsoever is interested to participate in them. Competitors are still needed and registrations are still on going for the said events.

The preparatory games will start on January 23 with Duplicate Bridge, followed by Curling on January 27, followed by the 6-hand bid Euchre on January 29, and will be concluded in Febuary 9 with a 6-hand Euchre. These games will serve as preparation for the Ontario Senior Games on 2011 which will be held in Haliburton County.

It should be noted that the Euchre games are unsanctioned. This year, there will also be Hockey and 10-pin bowling teams who will participate in their respective games.

Unless an additional fee is indicated, the residents will only be charged $12 as registration for the games.

Local songwriter, singer, and musician Brea Lawrenson has decided to focus on country music and hopes to find success in this genre.

As with everyone else who try to make it in the highly-competitive music industry, Brea has been confronted with a lot of setbacks in her career, but despite her struggle, she has never given up. A few years ago, she decided to concentrate more on country music thinking that this would be the best direction for her to follow.

Brea is currently recording her fourth album with Kieth Glass — one of the creators of Prairie Oyster: a once famous award-winning country group from Canada. Her Compact Disc which is yet to be titled is now being produced by Glass in his Perth Studio.

Lawrenson said that she and Kieth met at a popular music festival that plays country music called Jam. She told EMC in an interview that Kieth seemed to “like her new stuff.” According to her, she wrote her new songs herself, and she personally thinks that doing so makes quite a difference. She also said that Kieth is taking her songs to a whole different level by developing them himself.

Despite her song “If I’m Not Here Tomorrow” being named by Universe Magazine as the best song of the month last November 2007, Lawrenson claims that her works are still “at the amateur level.” and she appreciates the support of Kieth for adding professionalism and edge to her songs.

The 23-year-old Carleton Place resident said that she has always been a music lover regardless of what genre. Considering that Lawrenson first recorded an album eight years ago, this comes as no surprise.

Long-time restaurant manager Dennis Burn has set his sights on the Deputy Mayor’s post for the municipal election this coming October. This made him the second person to announce his aim to run for office.

The well-known operator of a famous catering firm in Carleton Place is, as we speak, the longest serving town council member. He was re-elected to serve a third term as a councilor last November 2006.

Duncan Rogers, Carleton Place clerk, reported last Monday that Dennis Burn filed his papers for the upcoming municipal elections, but this time he is going for the Deputy Mayor’s post.

According to Rogers, there are still eight months before the close of the nominations. The full roster for the October elections won’t probably be known until the month of September. Many of the candidates don’t usually apply for candidacy until the last months of the nomination period.

The nominations officially opened last January 4, and they shall close at 2 pm on the 10th day of September.

Ontario’s Liberal government has increased the duration of terms preceding the elections last 2006. This time, the municipal candidates are mandated to serve for 4 years as opposed to the previous 3-year terms. The municipal election is set to occur on October 25, 2010. The current holder of the Deputy Mayor’s post is Ed Sonnenburg whose plans for the election are still unknown.

Noella Klawitter, a Carleton Place local, is off and running again this year as she headed to Australia a couple of weeks ago to train and compete.

Klawitter headed to Sydney, Australia last Jan. 6 together with a team of athletes from Canada to get on with training and start competing.

The track athlete has been setting records in her sport last year as a visually impaired runner. As part of the T12 group, Noella Klawitter has established herself in her sport by holding new records for the 80, 100, 200, and 400 meter categories in Canada.

Last year, she traveled to participate in numerous events outside the country. In July, she competed at Colorado Springs, Colorado for the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) Pan-American Games where she won 1st place in the 100, 400, and 800m run categories — breaking a national record in the 100m class. And in August last year, she traveled to the Czech Republic to compete in the Czech Open where she gathered two silvers and a bronze.

Noella owns a location both in Carleton Place and Smith Falls, and she has gathered support from family, friends, and staff from each locale. She has also gained support from Perth as well.

To satisfy the interests of the citizens from different communities who follow her pursuits, the track athlete has created a blog which she is dedicated to update every few days. The URL is www.noellarunning.blogspot.com

A full-day kindergarten program initiated by Ontario will involve three schools from the Carleton Place – Almonte area. The province of Ontario will launch a full-day learning program for an estimated 35,000 kindergartens from 600 schools around the area this coming September 2010.

One school from Carleton Place, the J. -L. Coroux Catholic School, was selected by the Ministry of Education to participate in the first wave of the provincial learning program.

Included in the criteria for the selection process were: the sites where kindergarten classes can fulfill the Early Learning Program model, readiness of the space, community need, impact of the program on existing childcare programs (Early Years), achievements of students, and inclination to implement.

According to Ted Kennedy, superintendent of school operations for the Upper Canada District School Board, he believes that the first phase of the program selected the schools that will best serve the community.

A government released information says that the parents also have the option to enroll their children on the extended day plan that provides before and after school programming for a price. And for parents who would be needing financial assistance for the extended day program, there will government subsidies available which will be based on the families’ needs.

Research says that early learning can have beneficial effects on the social and academic skills of children. A whole day of learning is believed to give a child better math, reading, and writing skills later on in life. This is the main reason why the government is trying to phase in the all-day kindergarten program this September.

Vacant homes and apartments have now become scarce in Carleton Place to the point where most people who are looking for them have dubbed the task “impossible” and “highly stressful.” Relative to most communities who have a rental population of approximately 40 percent of the residences, in Carleton Place, the rental population is now only 21 percent. This is according to Joanne Beaton, representative of ARCA Property Mgt.

She claims that in Carleton Place, there is just not enough rental spaces. Moreover, she said that this status is not likely to change soon because of the high costs in constructing new spaces for rental. She estimated that a unit’s cost could reach up to $150,000, and with that amount, there is just no way that investors could recover their money.

Lisa Young, Carleton Place’s director for planning and development, is aware of this problem. However, she suggests that this scarcity could instead be an opportunity for the community. She said that developers could look into other forms of housing for this community need. According to her, there are still parcels of undeveloped land in Carleton Place which, if utilized, can significantly reduce the time spent by those who are looking for places to stay.

Breanne Lawrenson, a resident of Carleton Place, has been trying hard to build a career in the music industry since she was 15 years old. But just recently, with the help of Algonquin College, she was able to release a DVD honoring the Canadian troops sent abroad — specifically those who are in Afghanistan.

Brea, as she prefers to be called, has a very personal motive for releasing this DVD. Contrary to the majority of the musicians across the country who are capitalizing on the patriotic trend from Canada’s campaign in the Afghan area, Brea has a deeper reason for the DVD’s release: her cousin Matthew Bradley once served in Afghanistan with the Canadian Army.

Matt and Brea met each other for the first time at their grandmother’s funeral. They weren’t really close back then since they really didn’t know each other, she claims. But thanks to the internet, they were able to acquaint with one another.

According to Brea, they found each other on MySpace (a social networking website). While surfing the internet, Bradley came across his cousin Brea’s music. And since then, the two of them became really close.

In September 2008, when Matthew Bradley’s was leaving Canadian Forces Base Petawawa to be deployed abroad, Brea, together with her mother, was there to bade him a heartfelt goodbye.

Since the Canadian mission started on 2002, more the 130 Canadian soldiers have been killed. Bradley safely completed his duty by returning home alive last May 2009. He got married on August the same year.

Her whole relationship with her cousin inspired Brea to pay homage to the Canadian troops.

Breanne Lawrenson can be found on the internet via Youtube and through her website where she can be contacted in case there is a request for her DVD.

Now that the 2010 Olympic games are fast approaching, a high demand for Olympic wear has broken out. Fields stores in Carleton Place have sold out their last pair of Olympic mittens — they were only given 18 pairs to distribute.

The Fields stores manager, Mindy Turgeon, claimed that she could have sold 1000 pairs. She said that a lot of people were searching for them, and that some would even buy ten pairs if they had the chance. Unfortunately, her supply couldn’t meet the demand. She couldn’t even secure a pair herself.

Although the $10 mittens are now out of stock, other Olympic items are still available such as: toques, pens, caps, blankets, hooded sweatshirts and T-shirts for adults and kids.

The Hudson’s Bay Company is the official supplier of clothing for the winter games. Fields, being a division of that company, is the only local business that sells registered Olympic merchandise.

Olympic merchandise continue to sell rapidly according to Turgeon. Starting from the 13th of December — the day that the Olympic torch came — up to the week leading up to Christmas, there has been a steep increase in sales.

She said that no further shipments of Olympic merchandise will be delivered to the store, and she advised people to come and buy before its too late.