In January, there was the installation of brand new Ministry of
Transportation signs for Apsley on both northbound and southbound Highway
28. This is a nice improvement and will provide
more recognition for the village of Apsley, by those travelling on Highway 28.
On Saturday, February 4th,
the Apsley Tyke hockey team participated in the Campbellford Colts 2012 Senior
Tyke Tournament. Apsley entered the
tournament with a record of 4 wins, 13 losses and 2 ties. Against all odds, Apsley won all three of
their games and clinched the championship title, the “Crosby Award”. Also in February, another excellent Apsley
Winter Carnival took place with events sponsored by the Apsley Lions and Apsley
Legion. On the Friday night, there was a
Casino and Wing Night and on Saturday, there were all of the outdoor activities
including Dog Sled races, ski-joring, snow sculpture contests and other games. On Sunday, brunch was offered and from what I
hear, no one left hungry.
March brought the 36th
Annual Trappers Carnival and the North Kawartha Skating Carnival to the ice
surface at the community centre. There
were excellent performances by all of the skaters including a special
performance by Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, the 2012 Canadian National Bronze
Medalists. We saw the ice officially out
on Chandos Lake on March 23, 2012, which was the earliest “ice out” date
recorded in several decades.
April brought warm spring
weather to Apsley and our area lakes.
The weather was beautiful on Easter Weekend and I launched our boat and
floated our dock back into position with the help of Darryl Sanderson of
Cottage Docks for the upcoming season. This
was also the earliest we have been able to do this since buying our cottage in 2007.
On April 13th, the Apsley
Gymnastics Club held a gymnastics show and tumbled to a “Springtime in the
Kawartha’s” theme and the event had a great turnout for all who participated.
In May, the Lions held their annual
Mother’s Day brunch at the community centre.
The annual Walk for Guide Dogs was held on May 27th and this
walk is held to raise funds for the Lions supported school in Oakville ON. It is absolutely amazing to see how these
very special animals can be trained to perform seizure response, guide for the
blind, dog for the deaf and special needs dogs for children with autism and
other medical conditions. It costs about
$20,000 to train just one dog so these fundraisers are extremely important to
the program.
June weekends saw the Apsley
Market in full swing, with local vendors offering their products in the centre
of Apsley. The Township of North Kawartha Council
approved switching their legal business to the firm of Ewart O’Dwyer. The decision was made because the new legal firm’s
rate, to process shoreline road allowance purchases will be significantly less
than the previous legal firm.
July was welcomed in with more beautiful summer weather. The Lions ran another excellent Canada Day Parade in Apsley which was followed by children’s games and other festivities at Lions Park. The day ended with a tremendous fireworks display to fully celebrate the July 1st birthday of Canada.
In August, we continued with
great summer weather. The Apsley Legion
held a very successful Horseshoe Tournament with 62 players participating in
the event. Council gave its support to a
proposed solar panel project that is in its early stages and if approved, the
project would consist of 2200 to 2400 ground mounted solar panels, generating a
total of about 500KW. The panels would
be located on the south side of Jeff Road, East of Hwy 28. The project will have to meet strict setback
requirements so that there is no visual impact to area properties.
September saw a very
successful CIBC Run for the Cure in Apsley and our local group of participants had
a goal of raising at least $15,000. They
successfully raised a total amount of $17,100.00. An outstanding job to a very committed
group! After a very dry summer,
September brought some much needed rain to our area, and even though the
weather was not the best, the autumn Apsley Studio Tour, saw another successful
year.
The dry weather throughout
the summer had many people predicting that there would be a very poor display
of fall colours this year, but they were wrong.
In fact, it appears the
substantial amount of rain we had throughout the month of September, helped to produce one of the most stunning
fall colour displays in years for the area.
October saw a major personal change for me when I made the decision to join
Re/Max in Apsley.
November brought colder
temperatures and we saw the tail end of hurricane Sandy. Fortunately for us all, we were spared any
extensive damage from the significant storm that wreaked havoc in the eastern U.S. On November 10th, my wife Debbie,
and I, along with a group of very committed volunteers, held our 22nd
Annual Children’s Wish Car Rally. This
is an event that Debbie started and this year was record breaking in both
attendees and donations. We had 278
attendees and raised in excess of $35,000.00.
In addition, we had another surprise donation of $90,000.00 that came
through a co-executor that contacted Debbie because the money had to go a
Children’s charity. We are so grateful for
all the donations and grant some very special wishes.
Now some interesting Real
Estate statistics for 2012, where we had the following MLS sales on our area
lakes:
Lake Sales Average Price Median Price Percentage of List
Anstruther 6 $293,667 $224,000 92.6%
Chandos 25 $493,320 $398,000
95.1%
Eel’s 2
$263,500 $263,500 95.8%
Jack 6 $338,750 $321,250 93.9%
Paudash 3 $238,500 $225,000 94.3%
Wolf Lake 1
$295,000 $295,000 98.6%
I'd like to invite you to the 2013 Spring Cottage Life Show where we can chat about what North Kawartha has to offer you, your family or even your friends. Whether it’s on Jack, Chandos, Anstruther, or other lakes in our area, we can help you find something that will fit your lifestyle and budget.
If you are thinking of buying or selling, please call me for a free, no obligation opinion of value. The 2013 Cottage Selling Season begins with the Spring Cottage Life Show from April 5-7, 2013. Property listings will be extensively promoted at the show.
I look forward to what 2013 will bring to the town of Apsley and am very happy to be part of the community. From my family, to yours, have a happy and safe holiday season and a healthy and prosperous New Year.
Sincerely,
Clark Breuls
Re/Max in Apsley, ON clark@northkawarthacottages.com
www.northkawarthacottages.com
705-656-1044 Direct
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