A look at Georgina's top movers and shakers in 2020

River Glen Haven, closed beaches, Pefferlaw dam and Black Lives Matter major issues in 2020

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 4, 2021
Amanda Persico

This year was one for the books -- the book of anguish -- from heartbreaking stories coming out of River Glen Haven, to residents marching down Woodbine Avenue in solidarity.

COVID-19 dominated headlines locally, provincially, nationally and globally, and rattled the Georgina community. But York Region's Medical Officer of Health Dr. Karim Kurji sees the light at the end of the pandemic.

Here's a look back at some of the Georgina movers and shakers who jolted the community in 2020.

Maureen McDermott -- River Glen Haven
The COVID-19 pandemic took its toll and left a devastating mark on the Georgina community. There were 90 confirmed COVID-19 cases among residents at River Glen Haven long-term care facility, including 36 deaths -- representing about 20 per cent of the region’s COVID-19 related deaths in LTC facilities.

Southlake Regional Health Centre was mandated by the province to step-in and manage the home, which ended the 66-day, COVID-19 outbreak.

Maureen McDermott hosted a protest outside the home in Sutton, called on the province to end for-profit care in LTC facilities and fought to extend Southlake’s mandate by another month.

A number of families are part of an ongoing lawsuit against ATK Care Group over its management of the COVID-19 outbreak at River Glen Haven.

Georgina opens beaches

Fire Chief Ron Jenkins -- Georgina’s EOC director
The town’s Emergency Operating Centre (EOC) was tasked with the heavy decision of when and how to open the town’s beaches safely -- they opened mid-July.

Keeping the beaches closed created a have-and-have-not situation where lakefront residents could enjoy the lake while others were locked out.

The EOC decided to open only one of the town’s public beaches -- De La Salle Park -- with a multitude of COVID-19 safety protocols in place. While beachgoers complied with safety regulations on site, getting there was another issue.

Strict capacity limits often meant tardy visitors were parking willy-nilly on side streets, road ends and private driveways and in retail parking lots, creating other parking issues. As a result, the town wants to increase parking fines around the lake.

Karen Wolfe -- Friends of the Dam
The usual rush of the spring melt didn’t flow along the Pefferlaw River and residents took charge.

Karen Wolfe, along with other residents abutting the river, created an online petition, made presentations to town council and put up a fight against the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) to install the stoplogs to get the river flowing again, which was completed in August.

The LSRCA deemed the truss bridge over the 200-year-old dam unsafe and in need of being reconstructed.

Recently, the LSRCA voted to discontinue operation over the dam, transferring ownership, management and operation of the dam and stoplogs to the town by the end of 2021.

The town also pushed for the Pefferlaw Dam to be listed on the province’s heritage roster.

Heather and Becky Rose Cameron -- Black Lives Matter
Responding to international events, the Georgina sisters posted an event on social media calling on the community to come together and march in solidarity with the Black community in Georgina. More that 200 residents responded to the call and marched along Woodbine Avenue holding signs, chanting and waiving fists in the air.

Mayor Margaret Quirk, together with the town’s equity and diversity advisory committee, made a charge to residents to call out racism, stop being bystanders and to make Georgina a better place.

With a growing diverse community, "racism has no place in Georgina,” Quirk said in a statement.