By Cecilia Nasmith

The Eastern Ontario Wardens' Caucus has come away from its annual inaugural meeting – held last week in Kingston – with a new chair and vice-chair.

Chair Andy Letham is Mayor of the City of Kawartha Lakes and vice-chair Jennifer Murphy is Warden of the County of Renfrew and Mayor of the Township of Bonnechere Valley. Their role will be to provide the main point of focus and contact for the caucus and ensure the advancement of key priorities for the 103 municipalities (and 750,000 property-tax payers) of rural Eastern Ontario.

In the press release, Murphy confirmed the group's primary focus will be to improve and enhance the cellular and mobile-broadband network across this region.

“The EOWC will continue to work with the Eastern Ontario Regional Network on its $213-million business case to the provincial and Federal governments, and the private sector, which would close the cellular-network gaps and boost mobile broadband service across the region, and increase public safety for residents,” the bulletin said.

Northumberland County Warden John Logel was pleased to hear the news.

“The EOWC and its partners have done the necessary research, and we have been having these conversations with both levels of government for several years. Let's do this together – the time is now,” Logel stated.