A little about Beachburg, Ontario

Beachburg is a village of about 900 people in the amalgamated township of Whitewater. The primary industries served by the village are farming (dairy, beef, cash and staple crops), Timinco metals and a few smaller shops and businesses.

Costs of living in Beachburg are extremely low, compared to the more urban areas of Ontario. Property values range from $50,000 to $150,000 on average, with a few houses being much higher. It is possible to live comfortably in Beachburg on a salary of $20,000 - something you can't say for an urban centre like Ottawa or Toronto :)

Homes have city water, which is treated and chlorinated, but not fluoridated. Sewage is by individual unit, or septic systems. Beachburg is has a full service telephone company which fully supports 911 services. Out of all the villages that make up Whitewater, only Beachburg has access to DSL/high speed internet - up to 4 Mb/Sec DSL. For telecommunters, Beachburg is ideal given the extremely low cost of living, compared to urban centres such as Ottawa or Toronto.

The people of Beachburg are warm, friendly and outgoing. You'll notice that most people walking or driving down the main road will wave to other passers-by, whether walking or driving.

Beachburg is extremely welcoming to the handicapped. The local public school is fully handicap accessible and currently deals with two severely handicapped students (One of whom is my son - the school is amazing!)
The pharmacy is handicap accessible, as is the library. The two main stores in Beachburg do have a 3" / 8 cm lip/step to get up, which might be difficult for someone in a motorized wheelchair unassisted. The hardware store (Lumax/TimbrMart) is wheelchair accessible. The bank, as well, is wheelchair accessible.

You might want to read a few of my thoughts on the community life of Beachburg.

Beachburg is served by the Whitewater-Bromley Community Health Centre, which is staffed by one doctor and two nurse-practitioners. As with many small towns, we are somewhat under-served, medically, although the city of Pembroke is only a twenty minute drive away. Of some concern to those who may have need of ambulance services is the fact that response time for an ambulance is roughly twenty-four minutes from Pembroke. If you rely on emergency services, this is important to keep in mind when making the decision to move to Beachburg or Whitewater Region.

Beachburg is also served by an on-call fire department (Official Whitewater Fire Department site is here), with eighteen members currently on the crew. I am proud to say that our response times are amongst the very best in Ontario and property savings are extremely high, due to the dedication of the members of the fire force.

For shopping, all the basics are covered in Beachburg, although a drive to Pembroke (20 minutes) is common when you want a little more variety. Within the village, there are:

For recreation, there is something around the village for all ages:

• 1 Telco / ISP (NRTCO) - 6 Megabit DSL, website hosting, local & LD calling
• 1 convenience store (Pronto)
• 1 grocery store (Fresh Mart)
• 1 car mechanic (Whitewater Service Centre)
• 1 chip truck (the Wright Fries - French fries, pogos and poutine!!!)
• 1 classifieds newspaper (Penny Pincher Newspaper)
• 1 hardware store (Lumax/TimbrMart)
• 3 gift/craft/hobby stores (The Hen House, Simple Things)
• 2 restaurants (Smokeys (Pizza!), Beachburg Restaurant)
• 1 pharmacy (Rexall)
• 1 Bed and Breakfast (The Beachburg Inn)
• 3 churches (Anglican, Protestant and United - Roman Catholic church is in Lapasse, Jehova Witness in Cobden)
• 1 bank (Scotiabank)
• 1 Lyons Club
• 1 Martial Arts Centre (Whitewater Martial Arts)
• 1 senior's residence
• 2 hair salons
• 1 medical centre (Whitewater-Bromley Community Health Centre)
• 1 fire station (Whitewater Fire Department station #4)
• CanadianISP.com

• Baseball diamond
• Hockey rink (Beachburg Bull Pen)
• Playground (at Beachburg Public School)
• Library (at Beachburg Public School)
• Soccer field (at Beachburg Public School)
• Swimming pond (Little Lakes)
• Martial Arts Centre (Whitewater Martial Arts)
• More snowmobiling trails than you can shake a stick at
• Gun range/Sportsman's club
• Tons and tons of crown land for hiking, ATV's, hunting, exploring

Beachburg is also served by a sand and gravel company (Buchanan's) and one concrete products (Macgregor Concrete Products). The local telephone company, NRTCO is within a kilometer of all houses within the village, so DSL speeds are both extremely high, as well as stable. If you're used to the service response times of large carriers like Bell, you're in for a very pleasant surprise with NRTCO: When I moved here, instead of the usual two week install time from other telcos, NRTCO had both my telephone and broadband internet connection up and running within half an hour of my call.

Employment in Beachburg is both seasonal, with the adventure tourism industry (River Run, Owl Rafting, Wilderness Tours), as well as mining, factory work (Timinco, etc) and retail employment both within the village, the township (Whitewater) and the cities of Pembroke and Petawawa.

With the military base so close by (Base Petawawa - about 25 minutes away), Beachburg is both proud and honoured to see our armed forces right in the village during their training excercises and as a part of every day life. When you see our soldiers, give a smile and a wave to let them know that we know they're all heroes! :)

Algonquin College has a campus in Pembroke, only 20 minutes from Beachburg - Post secondary education at the college level is well served for our community. Algonquin Pembroke cambus also offers many interest and additional-credit courses for those seeking to improve their credentials or simply to expand the mind.

Many residents commute to Ottawa or outlying areas for work. Travel to the west end of Ottawa is about 1.5 hours. Given the insanity of rush hour, many find they have more time and more money by living in Beachburg and commuting to Ottawa, rather than pay the extremely high taxes and costs of living in the capital.

With many beef, pork and sheep farmers nearby (the very backbone of Canada - Thank a farmer for the food on your plate!), filling your freezer with meat is not only far less expensive than trying to do it in an urban centre, but you haven't tasted a real steak unless it's come from a Whitewater farm!
If you consume beef or pork on a regular basis, you would be surprised at just how much money you can save by buying your meat directly from a farmer (Many people also pool together with friends, neighbours or family members to go in together on purchasing a side of beef/pork or a whole cow/pig, making stocking your freezer a lot less expensive than if you were to buy your cuts from the grocery store!)

With Ottawa only an hour and a half away via the 17, we are seeing many more IT folk moving here - An hour and a half from Beachburg to the West End is better than two hours in rush hour from Orleans - and you get the benefits of massively reduced cost of living, compared to Ottawa and surrounding cities.

Summers here tend to be warm and extremely pleasant. There is a lot of fishing and water sports nearby, with many adventure travel businesses nearby. Summers see a *lot* of tourists from the states staying in Beacburg for the white water rafting, which is less than 20 minutes away. There is quite a bit of local sport with slow-pitch, softball and soccer in the village, with other sports being available within a twenty minute drive.

Winters tend to be a little harsher than those experienced in the larger cities, simply because there isn't near the same amount of concrete and steel to help with latent heat and snow-melting. In Beachburg, snow-tires on the vehicles and a snow-blower in the garage are highly recommended :)

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