Essa Salmon Festival another success
By Richard Blanchard

This year's Essa Salmon Festival was another success, Essa councillor Sandie Macdonald said Sunday at the closing ceremonies in Angus.

"Though we don't have the final figures in, we should be showing a good profit," she told the audience.

The fifth annual Salmon Festival saw Roger Daoust win the top prize of $3,000 for the 84.5 cm salmon which he caught Sunday morning. Ben Hardy took the second prize of $500 for his 77.7 cm salmon.

Township mayor Dave Guergis told the crowd that, in addition to providing a weekend of enjoyment to sports fishers, that the economic benefits of the festival were becoming more apparent each year.

"Before the festival, we were having problems with maintaining our river front area in Angus. People were throwing garbage on the banks, trees were damaged and it was not good for the river at all," he said.

He said that with the revenues from the fishing passes issued by the township and the profits from the Salmon Festival, the township has been able to embark on improving the area with picnic tables, fishing stations and reforestation.

"It's only getting better with the recent announcement that the TD Canada Trust will be providing funding for river restoration here," he said.