Gary Colwell asked North Frontenac for one weekend of camping at the astronomy club's Festival of Stars this year. On August 13, council approved camping at every festival from now on, trailers included. It also directed staff to ask Ornge to close a township air ambulance helipad for each one.
The North Frontenac Astronomy Park is the township's Plevna air ambulance helipad. In the camping by-law, that land appears only as "Helipad Site (Airport Hill)," under Fire and Protection. It's one parcel. The township's Community Risk Assessment lists both its helipads immediately above the sentence "There are no hospitals located within North Frontenac Township."
The North Frontenac Amateur Astronomy Club is a volunteer group, and its festival is free. Colwell emailed Brooke Ross, the township's Manager of Community Development, in July. He asked to allow camping at this year's festival and to close the helicopter pad from Friday morning until Sunday at noon. That's the whole request. No trailers, and no future years.
Councillor Fred Fowler moved the resolution, Councillor Vernon Hermer seconded it, and it carried. It approves an exemption from the camping by-law, permitting tent and trailer camping "for the 2026 Festival of Stars as well as all future Festival of Stars." I read that by-law end to end, and it has no clause allowing exemptions. The club covers a $250 fee, alcohol isn't allowed, and the Manager of Community Development approves security and the layout of sites before the event.
I laid the last three years' resolutions side by side. In 2024 and 2025, council allowed "tent camping only at the Astronomy Park" for each year's festival weekend. This year "only" is gone, and so are the named location and the end date. Trailers are in, and so is a standing direction about the helipad.
Those changes were already in the resolution printed in the agenda a week before council met, and the minutes match it word for word. So who wrote them? There wasn't a staff report, and the only document attached to the item was Colwell's email.
The township has done this properly before. Last fall, Hydro One asked to use the helipad and the ground around it as a staging area. That request got a written staff report, a plan to "contact ORNGE regarding helipad requirements," and a fee that council raised to $500 a week.
For emergencies, the resolution notes that Ornge "has the ability to land at helipads in Ompah, Northbrook or Sharbot Lake" during the festival. Northbrook is in Addington Highlands, and Sharbot Lake is in Central Frontenac.
And the township is paid to keep the Plevna pad available. In January, council authorised signing helipad agreements with Ornge for Plevna and Ompah, and the staff report says Ornge provides $5,000 a year for each pad to help with maintenance and repairs. Seven months later, the same council resolved to ask Ornge to stand one of those pads down every September. Whether Ornge agreed isn't on the public record.
On September 25, the Astronomy Park's page on the township website still told residents: "Overnight camping is not permitted as the site is shared with a functional helicopter pad used by Ornge in the event of a medical emergency." The township's published reason for banning camping there is the pad council voted to ask Ornge to close.
Every council after this one inherits the exemption. Undoing it takes a vote. Leaving it takes nothing at all.
Fred Fowler has been acclaimed as a Ward 3 councillor in the 2026 election.