The following are briefs of a Dysart council meeting on Monday, Aug. 27.

Summer is a busy time in Haliburton, but it was made even busier for Dysart fire chief Miles Maughan because of a 33-day fire ban.
Maughan said they did everything they thought to do in his report for July.
Some people just didn’t listen despite advertisements on the radio, posters through town and signage.
Maughan and deputy chief Don Stephenson said renters were part of this problem, as some did not receive the fire ban message from local media. The fire department eventually told landlords to pass on the ban information to renters. They also emailed cottage owners’ associations to get the message out. For the first time Twitter was used.
It represents the longest fire ban in Maughan’s 21 years as chief. There were two charges laid during the ban. The department responded to eight fires and 14 campfires.
When the department conducted a door-to-door smoke alarm check on July 23 found 80 per cent compliance. They visited 175 homes (although owners were home in only half of the properties). The balance of homes received a smoke alarm. For places where no one was home the fire department left tags with the department’s number for more information.
Secondary buildings such as bunkies were often without smoke alarms, which is just as if not more important than primary residences, Stephenson said.
They visited part of Kennisis, Redstone, Cranberry, Moose, Eagle and Coleman lakes.

Volunteers needed
for Colourfest
Colourfest co-ordinator Gail Stelter told council she is in need of help for the Sept. 29 event.
With 21 volunteers, she needs many more.
Councillors pointed out the Minden Hills Bluegrass Festival had 100 volunteers and the Haliburton Art and Craft Festival had 75.
Stelter acknowledged the challenges the streetscape construction would pose, but was not discouraged.
She said if there was heavy machinery on Highland Street she would find the biggest cornstalk to decorate it with.

Cost of applications rises with cost of doing business
The deposit and the administration fee for subdivision and condominium planning applications are going up. These increases are necessary to cover the costs to the municipality for processing planning applications.
The deposit increase will address the increase of fees by the municipality’s lawyer.
Until this change, the municipality was not covering costs to process these applications.
Application fee increase will occur with plan of subdivision/condominium, deeming bylaw, severance and site plan agreements and peer review expenses and legal and/or professional advice. See specific costs at haliburton.civicweb.net and follow corresponding prompts for Dysart Ccouncil agendas.
Instead of making the increase effective immediately, council said this increase would be effective by its next meeting on Sept. 24.

A gesture of good will
Dysart is donating $500 to the Thunder Bay and Area Disaster Relief Fund.
Flooding after a rainstorm on May 28 caused extensive damage to the area.
Reeve Murray Fearrey said this was a nice gesture and Dysart could very well be in a similar situation.
Donations can be mailed to the Disaster Relief Office at 500 Donald St. E.
All donations will be matched 2:1 by the province.