Port Post: October 2025
Spooky season.
Good morning Newcastle! Welcome to the 2nd edition of your brand new community newsletter.
Let’s start with upcoming events around the Port:
👟 Every Thursday: Newcastle Run Club
📖 October 22: Port Prose Book Club Meeting
🎃 October 31: Halloween! Little trick or treaters will be out & about.
Have something to add? 📩 portpostnewcastle@gmail.com
Halloween fun under the stars✨
Thank you for making it a night to remember!
What an incredible evening we shared together at Pearce Farm Park! Even with a few hiccups, it was so special to see our community come together for a night of movies, hot chocolate, and laughter.
Our pet profile this month is Clifford the Bernadoodle! 🐕
At 18 months old, Clifford is a fluffy ball of charm straight out of Palmerston, Ontario. He’s basically a toddler in a fur coat—he loves long walks, playing tag with his two favorite humans (ages 4 and 6), and giving unsolicited face washes via enthusiastic licking. Clifford has a quirky hobby: carrying around your shoe like it’s a priceless treasure… don’t worry, he never chews it, he just believes footwear deserves to travel.
Social butterfly? Absolutely. Clifford thinks every dog is a potential best friend and every human is a snack dispenser. He also has a “signature move”: barking until he gets his way—because negotiation is for amateurs. Friendly, goofy, and just a little dramatic, Clifford is living proof that big personalities come wrapped in fluffy doodle curls.
Guess what? Newcastle Pet Supply has hopped on board to provide a swag bag for each month’s pet profiled! Featured friends can stop in to the store to pick it up!
Our street story for October takes us to Belsey Lane.
Corporal Jarvis Belsey was born April 8, 1927 in Dover, England. His father, Edward (Ted), served in the Royal Navy for 27 years. Jarvis left high school before graduation and enlisted with the Royal Marines on his 18th birthday in 1945, just before the end of the Second World War. In 1947, Ted and his wife Gladys immigrated to Newcastle, Ontario. Jarvis served in the Royal Marines in England and could not join the family in the move to Newcastle, but in 1949, he had three months of leave and stayed with his family, helping his father build their home.
Jarvis married Joyce West in August 1950 and was deployed to Korea in November. His unit joined the United Nations advance into North Korea, where they served with the United States Marine Corps. A bitter cold streak plunged temperatures into the minus 30s, causing thousands of casualties due to frostbite.
On November 29, 1950, Jarvis’ unit came under attack. He died when struck by shrapnel while riding in a troop truck. Jarvis was buried in a military cemetery in South Korea.
Although a resident of Clarington for only three months, family members still reside locally. Jarvis’ name is on the cenotaph in Newcastle.
NEW! The Port Prose Book Club 📖
The Port Prose is a gathering place for people who love great stories, good conversation, and a glass of something to sip while we turn the page. We meet to share books that spark connection—whether it’s fiction that sweeps us away, memoirs that hit close to home, or the guilty pleasures we can’t put down. Come for the prose, stay for the laughs, and leave with a few new friends (and probably a longer to-be-read list).
Find details of the book club on Facebook.
The first book is Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney, and the first meeting is taking place October 22 at 7pm at the Snug.
Our bylaw reminder this month relates to noise levels. 📣
The Corporation of the Municipality of Clarington BY-LAW 2007-071 states, in part:
3.3 A noise curfew shall apply to any noise from any excavation or
construction work whatsoever, including the erection, demolition, alteration
or repair of any building from 9:00 p.m. until 7:00 a.m. the following day,
(Monday through Saturday), 9:00 p.m. Saturday until 10:00 a.m. Sunday,
and from 4:00 p.m. Sunday until 7:00 a.m. Monday.
Looking back, check out the former Waltona Park, just south of the 401 at what is now our four-way stop. The park had camping, trailer facilities, showers & flush toilets, a swimming pool, hall and store.
Take a look at this month’s real estate trends brought to you by new Port resident and realtor Brandon Hebert:
Monarch tagging event recap 🦋
Did you know? Monarch butterflies migrate 4,500km each year from Canada to Mexico, and, lucky for us, the Samuel Wilmot Nature Area in Newcastle is ideally situated along the migration route.
On Saturday September 13th, the SWNA Management Advisory Committee held its 9th annual Monarch Tagging Day. This popular event attracted more than 100 people to assist the Committee in the catching, tagging and releasing process.
Once captured, the monarchs are brought to one of the trained Committee members who carefully remove the butterfly from the net, and affix a tiny sticker or “tag” to the underside of the butterfly’s hind wing. Each tag bears a 7 digit alpha-numerical code which is recorded on a data sheet and submitted to Monarch Watch, the international organization that oversees the data collection and analysis and monitors the annual migration.
The tag numbers of monarchs that are caught again en route to Mexico or recovered over the winter are also submitted to Monarch Watch, who posts this information on its website. This allows participants to determine if, when and where any butterfly that they captured completed its journey.
205 butterflies were caught, tagged and released in less than two hours!
Read the full story by Brian Reid here.
The Port Post is now on Instagram! 📷✨ Follow along here.
Know your representatives! This month we focus on our federal & provincial representation.
Philip Lawrence is our Member of Parliament (MP) for the federal riding of Northumberland–Clarke (formerly Northumberland–Peterborough South).
As your MP, his office can assist with navigating federal programs and services such as Employment Insurance, Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, immigration and citizenship processes, veterans’ services, and more.
David Piccini is our Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Northumberland–Peterborough South. He currently serves as Ontario’s Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.
As your MPP, his office can assist with navigating provincial government programs and services such as healthcare, education, social assistance (like Ontario Works), WSIB claims, and more.
What’s going on here: Newcastle Water Supply Plant
The Newcastle Water Supply Plant and Port of Newcastle Sewage Pumping Station is a multi-level structure with underground water storage facilities and the above ground levels housing water treatment process equipment including chemical, electrical, mechanical, HVAC, instrumentation and controls, and administration facilities.
The project also includes replacement of the existing pumping station for the water supply plant. The new sewage pumping station consists of an underground wet well and an aboveground control building with electrical and mechanical control equipment.
The project was contracted to North America Construction by the Region of Durham.
THANK YOU to our generous and encouraging sponsors, Newcastle Smile Dental Centre, Sensational Seams, Newcastle Pet Supply and Brandon Hebert. 🙏
Information about sponsorship opportunities can be found here. We also have a Port of Newcastle Business Directory.
You can find a print edition of the Port Post in your mailbox (or on your porch…) later this month, and we’ll be back here with another digital edition in November.
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