Barber hangs up his scissors after 47 years

Jan. 2, 2009

It was a busy morning as a steady stream of customers stopped by Ken Woods' barber shop for a trim Tuesday.

Most of them didn't know it would be their last cut in the small shop on Pleasant Street, but after 47 years as a barber, Woods is retiring and closed his doors for good Wednesday.

Woods started a shop with his brother Harold in Moncton back in 1961, but when he met his wife, she didn't want to stay in Moncton so he moved to the Miramichi.

"I was in love."

Almost 40 years later, the shop's floor is worn in a half circle around the barber's chair from where Ken walked around his customers during their haircuts and shaves.

A wooden sign that says Kens Barber Shop hangs in the window and calendars from local businesses are scattered along the wood panelled walls.

As customers come in, they sit on the old bench seat, avoiding the sunken cushion and torn vinyl at one end worn down from years of use.

Fred McKay was there for a cut Tuesday and didn't know Ken was retiring. He said Ken has been cutting his hair for a long time and he will have to start to looking for a new barber.

"He deserves it."

Before he stepped outside after his cut, McKay shook Ken's hand, wished him well and told him he would be missed.

"Another landmark gone."

With each customer that morning, Ken explained how he started out with his brother and that Harold stayed in the business for 50 years.

"I was gonna try 50 too, but my legs and hips won't let me," he said.

Last year, when his back started to bother him, he decided it was time to retire.

"It's just been getting a little worse and a little worse," he said.

Even with his back problems, Ken was quick with his clippers and scissors. He worked away as customers climbed in and out of his chair, setting to work without even asking what they wanted.

"Most people just want a regular hair cut," he says.

Martin Bohan has been one of Ken's customers for over 30 years and said he was a good barber with a nice personality.

"You get used to him."

Although he was surprised to hear Ken was retiring, Bohan said it was nice to be one of the last to get a hair cut from him at the shop.

"Pretty priviledged."

But he wasn't the only Bohan to get a cut from Ken over the years. His daughter used to go to the shop with him when she was younger and when she was two he had Ken cut off a curl on the back of her head.

Bohan laughed when he said his wife didn't know until they got home and she wasn't very happy about it.

"My wife still talks about it yet."

The buzz from the clippers droned on as Ken chatted with his customers about happenings around the Miramichi, while a radio crackled from a bad reception.

When a Prince song comes over the air, it seems out of place in the old barber shop where Ken still uses a straight razor to shave his customers necks.

People used to get a shave with every hair cut, but Ken said he gradually gave fewer and fewer until he finally stopped because he wasn't getting enough practice.

In those days, he used to sharpen the razor with a strap, but was never good at it so he switched to disposable blades.

"It was never good for me because I could never get it sharpened right," he said.

When John LaRocque sat in the chair, he laughed when asked how long he has been going to Ken.

"A long time."

He said he lost his wife around this time last year and he likes that Ken is easy to talk to.

"I sit here at ease."

Natalie Daigle, Ken's daughter, said she has mixed feelings about her father's retirement because the shop wasn't just a place of employment for him and he will miss the social aspect of it.

"I think it's a well deserved retirement, for sure."

But even though he is closing the shop, there will be a bright circle on the floor left behind by the barber's chair Ken took home with him so he can do a bit of work there.

Daigle said her sons will still get their hair cut by their grandfather, even once he retires.

"I wouldn't take him to anybody else."

Doug Shanahan was a regular visitor to the shop, even if he didn't need a hair cut. He said it was the centre of town and he used to stop in every day.

"We'll miss that."

When he saw him last, Ken told him to drop by the house for his cuts and Shanahan said he won't lose any customers.

"But you can't go there and loaf."

Ken's nephew J. D. Woods has been going to his uncle for regular brush cuts since he moved back to the Miramichi in 2000 and said the retirement is going to be a loss for that part of town.

"I think that's quite a thing for downtown Newcastle."

Ken said he enjoyed meeting the people who would stop by his shop and will miss that part of the job.

"You meet some awfully nice people."

But things have changed since he started. Back then he wouldn't get out of the shop until 9 or 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays when the buses would come in from Red Bank and Blackville.

"Busy, busy, busy," he said.

After so many years, he has a lot of dedicated customers and said he hates to leave them.

"I hate to give it up."

Biathletes head to provincials

Jan. 2, 2009

Local biathletes will get a taste of competition this weekend as they head to provincials in Charlo.

The new Miramichi club is sending four biathletes to race in the New Brunswick Biathlon Championships. Braden Koops, Denis St. Germain and Bernard Wierzchoslawski will compete in the junior boys and girls division, and Miriam Wierzchoslawska will race in the senior girls division.

Coach Yves St. Germain said the four biathletes have been preparing by training with the provincial team in Charlo. "It's going well."

Biathlon is a combination of skiing and shooting, with competitors racing around a track before stopping to shoot at targets.

On Saturday, the club members will race in individual events at different distances, and depending on their age group, will shoot prone or both prone and standing. Sunday's race is a sprint event with two bouts of shooting.

Biathletes in the divisions the Miramichi youth will compete in don't carry their rifles as they make their way around the course.

St. Germain said all the members of the Miramichi club can do is their best and added the main part is getting experience in the competition. "That's new for them."

The four youth won't be the only ones from the Miramichi racing Saturday. St. Germain said he will compete in a coach's race to get the experience and see how it works from the competition side. "I always am up for a challenge."

The Miramichi biathlon club is one of four to receive a $5,000 grant from biathlon Canada. St. Germain said the money will go toward program development, equipment and training for coaches. "We have the large potential to develop biathletes in the Miramichi."

The club held a registration last weekend and five people joined. Their goal is 20 youth and St. Germain said it takes a while for word to spread. "We'll have to wait and see."

Ray Kokkonen is a former biathlete who lives in the Miramichi and will help the club with training in the new year. He said he hopes to get some interest from local cadets to bring the numbers up. "I think we'll achieve it."

The key to keeping kids interested in biathlon is to make it fun, he said. "You can't drag things out."

Kokkonen said bringing kids into physical activity is one of the best things they can do for society, and will benefit the kids throughout their lives. "For the kids it's just fun."

The kids he has seen so far are committed and one shows promise as a selection to the Canada Games team, he said. "There's quite a bit of promise."

Kokkonen said it's nice to be able to pass on his knowledge and experience to the kids he helps train. "This is kind of coming back to the grassroots for me."

Miramichi woman fights for lost citizenship

Jan. 2, 2009

When Theresa Kenny left her nunnery in Boston after 26 years, she said it was because she wanted to be able to travel and do what she wanted. "I wanted freedom," she said.

That freedom eventually led her back to the Miramichi, where she is fighting to get her Canadian citizenship.

Kenny was born in Miramichi, but after her father died, her mother moved the family to Boston so she could find work. Kenny was 13 at the time.

By age 20, Kenny was a nun and teacher with the Sisters of Charity of Vincent de Paul. When she left the order in 1960, she moved to New York City with only $500 to her name.

Kenny said she got a job as a teacher in Times Square, but didn't know about rent or other things people need to get by. "I needed exposure."

After four years in New York, Kenny went back to Boston and retired from teaching in 1986.

She spent a few years in Florida before moving back to Miramichi in 2003, where she lives by herself in a small rented house.

Even though Kenny was born in Canada, she lost her citizenship when her mother became a U.S. citizen. Kenny said she was still a minor at the time and wasn't old enough to make the decision.

"I didn't even know what it was about."

With no citizenship, Kenny doesn't have medicare and lives off social security from the U.S. and a pension she gets from teaching in a public school.

Now that she's back in Canada, Kenny wants to get medicare and said she isn't eligible for the Canada Pension Plan so that shouldn't be an issue in getting her citizenship. "It's not money."

Kenny said she gets letters about her case from Ottawa and Sydney, N.S. where her case worker is, but she doesn't understand everything she gets.

"See, it's very hard to understand what's going on."

One option is for her to apply for permanent residency, which would allow her to get medicare if she is eligible, but Kenny said it's not even guaranteed.

"I'm a very proud woman and I hate surrender."

Her father is buried in the Miramichi and she said she wanted to come back while still able so she could be buried in a plot next him.

"This has bothered me," she said.

Kenny said she thought at the end of her life being buried beside her father would give her comfort.

"I want either my citizenship back or nothing."

Bunny Dempsey is with the Knights of Columbus and met Kenny about two years ago when he was collecting for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. He also brings her communion every Sunday.

For months he has been trying to help her and said he has spoken to politicians to see what they can do to help her with her citizenship problems.

"I don't understand why she can't get it back."

Dempsey said he thought anyone born in Canada would be a citizen forever unless they renounce it. "It hurts me."

For now, his Knights of Columbus council has given her five weeks of meals on wheels and he said they found her a doctor who is on salary so she could get treatment for a problem with one of her legs.

"We'll keep an eye on her."

As she sat in her living room, surrounded by works of art collected from her travels around the world, Kenny said she is getting tired of the citizenship problems and is too old to worry about it.

"I'm up in a bind now."

With the cold Miramichi winters, Kenny thought about going back to Florida, but said she doesn't think she would be able to come back if she left the country.

"That's what I'm worried about."

Miramichi-Bay du Vin MLA Bill Fraser said he was aware of Kenny's case, but there wasn't much he could do to help. "It's a federal issue."

He spoke with MP Tilly O'Neill-Gordon's office, with former MP Charles Hubbard before that and the Department of Intergovernmental Affairs on her behalf, but said he wished he could do more.

"I've done everything in my power that I could."

Fraser said it is his first experience with a case like Kenny's and he thinks the government needs to come on board to help her. "I'd certainly love to be able to help her."

Kenny said she loves both Canada and the U.S. and would like to have a dual citizenship, but she can't get it. "They don't give it."

She loves her house, the Miramichi and New Brunswick, but said she would have stayed in the U.S. if she had known she was going to run into the problems she has.

"I can't get through it emotionally."

Big change in Miramichi real estate industry

Jan. 7, 2009

When Pauline Sweezey's husband decided to retire for the second time, she had to make a decision about her own career.

He was a salesman with her real estate company Nordic Sun and she had to decide if she wanted to grow the company or look at other opportunities for herself.

Around the middle of December she decided to close up shop after 14 years and work with a different company because she said she enjoyed the sales more than the management aspect of the business.

"I'm very people oriented."

The desire to work with people lead Sweezey and her 30 years of experience in real estate to Remax where she joined the company with the biggest share of real estate sales in the Miramichi.

"Here on the Miramichi it is the leader," she said.

Annette Comeau is the owner of Miramichi's Remax franchise and said she has known Sweezey for over a decade.

"She's extremely committed to the real estate industry."

That commitment shows in Sweezey's past roles as president of the Northern New Brunswick Real Estate Board and the New Brunswick Real Estate Association, along with being a member of the Canadian Real Estate Board.

Comeau said the other Remax salespeople are excited about Sweezey joining the team.

"It feels great."

The goal for Remax is to grow, but Comeau said she wants to grow the quality of her salespeople instead of just the number of them.

"She's a good compliment to our team."

Sweezey's move comes at a time when the real estate market is good in the Miramichi and Comeau said they had more sales in 2008 than 2007, although the total value was down.

"When that happens we're thinking big."

For Sweezey, she said she didn't want people to think she closed her business because of financial problems or the current economic turmoil.

"It was just a good, sound business decision."

Remax offers tools she wouldn't have access to on her own, she said.

"In order to compete in a global society you have to have a brand name."

Sweezey's first day at her new job was Jan. 5 and she said she was looking forward to working with Comeau and her staff.

"We haven't had too many days of work yet."

Because she ran her business out of a home office, it was the first time in 14 years she had to go into an office to work instead of staying at home, she said.

"It's exciting."

As she talked about her new job, she told the story of someone she knew who closed his home-based consulting business because he found it lonely working at home.

"You won't be lonely here," Comeau said.

Before Sweezey started her first day, Comeau went around the office and asked her staff what they thought of their new co-worker. The staff wrote their thoughts down.

Comeau brought them in and as Sweezey flipped through the pages of compliments, she said they were nice.

"I wouldn't have expected anything less from them."

Local biathlon design on Olympic stage

Jan. 7, 2009

When Ray Kokkonen was growing up in Finland, he was raised on stories of soldiers on skis fighting the Russians.

"To a kid it was a very glamorous thing," he said.

Those stories led him to take up cross-country skiing and eventually biathlon while he served in the Canadian military.

His last competition as an athlete was in 1983 and he now serves as an official with Biathlon Canada, where he still plays an important role in the sport.

After he stopped competing, Kokkonen coached off and on, but then a commander in the military asked him to design a biathlon facility in Wainwright, Alta.

From there, someone contacted him when Calgary was bidding for the 1988 Olympics and he has been involved in Canadian Olympic bids ever since.

When the 2010 Olympics start in Vancouver, one of Kokkonen's designs will be on the world stage once again.

Kokkonen said designing the facilities involves more than just laying out the course. It has to be designed so the spectators can see what happens to the targets at the shooting.

"Everything's pretty well centred on the shooting range," he explained.

The facilities for an event like the Olympics have to be bigger and designed to make room for things like a TV village for broadcasting the event, he said. "It's difficult."

After the Calgary games, Kokkonen was appointed a technical delegate for the Albertville games to make sure Biathlon Canada's standards were met.

He said he made four trips to France a year for four years to look at the course location and help design the biathlon facilities.

"A lot of that was beating my way through the woods to decide where the trail would go."

When Quebec City bid on the 2002 games, Kokkonen was involved in the biathlon course design there, too.

And when Vancouver was bidding on the 2010 games, the bid committee contacted him. Kokkonen said they picked the top person in each sport to help with the bid. "It's humbling in a way, but it's certainly satisfying in another way."

Kokkonen said the Vancouver committee put an emphasis on going green, which meant not disturbing the forest when he designed the facilities. "We were already green in Canmore."

Canmore is where the Calgary games held their biathlon events.

As he designed the facilities for Vancouver, Kokkonen said he had an environmental guy walking along with him to make sure he stayed green in his design. "That's part and parcel of it."

A team of seven or eight people put the design he laid out on paper in place and Kokkenen said things changed from his initial drawings.

"You take everybody's input."

Kokkonen has been writing biathlon rules for 15 years and has been honoured with a place in the sports officials Canadian Hall of Fame. His picture hangs in military gyms across the country after his induction into the Canadian Forces sports Hall of Fame.

But he said one of his biggest honours was his induction into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame as a builder.

"In that kind of company I do feel humbled," he said.

Local biathlon coach Yves St. Germain said Kokkonen brings a lot of knowledge to the area and his experience travelling all over the world benefits the whole the province. "That's great."

Kokkonen was a competitor and shows his passion and dedication to the sport, he said.

"It's an inspiration."

With the Miramichi biathlon club still in its early stages, St. Germain said the kids involved haven't had a chance to meet Kokkonen yet to learn about his experiences.

"It might open up their eyes."

Idling train bothers Chatham residents

Jan. 9, 2009

The Miramichi is known for its peaceful beauty, but a train interrupted that peace for residents near Water Street yesterday.

An East Coast Railway train was parked on the tracks with its engine running near Miramichi Senior Citizen's Home.

Park Drive resident Frank Kane said the train was there since about 5 p.m. Wednesday afternoon and ran all night. It was still there as of noon yesterday.

The steady rumble of its diesel engine could be heard a few streets away as the unattended train idled near the Centennial Bridge.

It wasn't the noise that bothered Kane as much as the fumes and smell of diesel that came off the train.

"It depends on which way the wind's blowing," he said.

Blowing snow made it easy to tell the wind was moving away from Kane's home and the smell wasn't noticeable, despite how close the train was to the house.

The tracks run along Water Street, only a few feet away from the road and there was only one house between Kane's and the end of his street.

Kane said it is about the third time one of the company's trains parked near his home and he contacted them when it happened about four or five months ago.

"They said it wouldn't happen again," he said.

Chris Daigle is another Park Drive resident who was concerned about the train. She said the company is running the train while people are trying to do a lot for the environment and added the noise wasn't as much of an issue for her.

"I can put ear plugs in, but I can't handle the smell," she explained.

Bill Campbell, another neighbour, said there are a lot of rural areas where the company could have parked the train where no one is around.

"Why does he have to put it in one of the nicest areas of Chatham?" Campbell asked.

The noise from the train is so loud Campbell said it bothers him and his neighbours because it has been going on for so long.

"You can hear it all night long," he said.

East Coast Railway was contacted for comment, but was unavailable as of print time.

Wait and see about federal money, says woodlot owner

Dec. 19, 2008

Forestry is an important sector in Canada comparable to the automobile industry, says a Northumberland Forest Product Marketing Board representative.

Jean-Guy Comeau, the board's president, said both sectors have been in Canada for a long time and the effect of the auto sector in big cities is similar to forestry in rural areas.

"Forestry in New Brunswick plays a big role in rural communities," he explained.

With the country caught in a global economic crisis, the federal government announced last week they planned a $3 billion cash infusion for the struggling automotive sector.

The Conservatives' previous economic statement didn't include a stimulus package to help boost the economy, but recent parliamentary turmoil led to an about face from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

His government is now talking about giving money to the struggling forestry and mining sectors. Comeau said forestry is one of the sectors that needs an infusion. "We're going through a very tough time."

The automotive and forestry sectors are two of the most important industries in Canada, he said. "Even though we're down we shouldn't think that we're dead."

Comeau said stakeholders need to sit down with the government to discuss where the money should go and assess the forestry sector's future, because it will be different.

"As it is there now it's not very good."

Northumberland County Woodlot Owners Association president Frank MacLaughlin said in the past, millions of dollars in government money went to big industry instead of private woodlot owners. "My reaction is wait and see."

In the last provincial budget, the government made deep cuts to silviculture funding throughout New Brunswick. MacLaughlin said it's one of the big issues he sees for the woodlot owners. "We haven't given up."

MacLaughlin said silviculture is important to woodlot owners because they need to work on the spacing of their trees and the improvements would create jobs. "You have to look at your land."

CEP Local 689 president Chris Allison said companies will be looking for government handouts, but they should be held accountable and have money come back to taxpayers. "Otherwise these bailouts are going to continue."

Recent new job announcements, like with Dew Enterprises, won't replace all the jobs lost in the forestry sector and the area needs manufacturing jobs, he said.

"We need new job creation around here if it's not going to be in forestry."

Allison said he thinks Harper got cocky and needs to start playing ball with the other parties to make things work. "I think Mr. Harper's going to finally start to listen."