Frequently asked questions
Straight answers about what Ramara Hub is, who runs it, and how it works. Still have a question? Email russellcolevop@gmail.com.
Is this the Township's official website? Is the mayor involved?
No. Ramara Hub is an independent, free community resource — a project of the Ramara Civic Forum, a resident group. It is not the Township of Ramara's official website, and it is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or speaking for the Township, its council, or the mayor.
The official township website is ramara.ca ↗. The Hub simply gathers public township information into one place and links every answer back to its official source, so you can check it yourself. For anything official — a service request, a complaint, a permit — contact the Township directly (see below).
Who runs Ramara Hub?
Russell Cole, a Ramara resident, built and maintains the site himself. He founded the Ramara Civic Forum after the December 2025 wastewater forums to give residents a standing place to be heard, sits on the board of the Concerned Citizens of Ramara, and was a 2022 candidate for mayor of Ramara. He's been working on how this township runs for years.
Questions about the site go straight to him: russellcolevop@gmail.com. Read more on the About page.
Is it really free? What's the catch?
Completely free, and there's no catch. No accounts, no charge, no ads. It's a volunteer community project — built to make Ramara a little easier to navigate.
What does it cost to run, and how is it funded?
Very little, and that's on purpose. The public site is static and does not require a paid application database. It's independent: not funded by the Township, not funded by advertisers, and there are no ads. If that ever changes, you'll read it here first.
Where do the answers come from? Can I trust them?
The Hub's everyday answers and issue briefs are curated from bylaws, council highlights, studies, plans, service pages, court records, and credible reporting. Each published answer links back to its source so you can verify it.
Everything published here has to clear one bar: every claim is sourced to a primary or credible published record. If it can't be sourced, it isn't said. See exactly how the Hub decides what to publish.
Will this be kept up to date, or will it go stale?
The static pages remain available, but they do not update themselves. Each issue brief shows when it was last verified, and time-sensitive details should be confirmed with the Township. New facts require a reviewed site update.
Can the person who runs this control the narrative?
Any resource reflects choices about what to include. The safeguard here is that curated answers and issue briefs link back to their original sources so readers can check them. Deeper issue briefs also draw on court rulings and independent journalism, not only Township material.
The rules are public: facts only, every claim sourced, both sides and the real numbers on contested issues, no grades, no endorsements, and when there's no sourced answer the site says so instead of guessing. We're also not hiding who runs it. The About page says plainly that Russell Cole built and maintains the site and ran for mayor in 2022.
The honest part: any resource involves choices about what to include, and we won't pretend otherwise. The safeguard isn't a claim of perfect neutrality. It's that everything is sourced, everything is checkable, and anyone can flag something to be fixed or added. Holding the site to that standard is exactly how it stays honest.
What guardrails keep the Hub honest?
Search runs locally against curated answer cards, not a generative model. Answers link to their sources, avoid guessing, and name uncertainty where the checked-in record is incomplete or one-sided.
Those guardrails do not make the Hub perfect. They make it checkable. Corrections and meaningful changes are logged on What's new, and the site code is public on GitHub ↗ so people can inspect how the site changes.
Doesn't the Township control the source data? Couldn't that bias the answers?
An honest yes-and-no. The everyday answers are built mostly from documents the Township itself publishes, because that's what's publicly available to collect. So where the public record is incomplete, the Hub inherits that gap — it can only point you to what exists.
Council minutes are summaries, not transcripts, and public meeting audio and video are not posted as searchable transcripts. The former database-backed document index is unavailable in read-only mode.
That's exactly why the deeper issue briefs go outside Township-controlled sources. They're built from court rulings and independent journalism, not the Township's own framing. The clearest example is the shore wall brief: it lays out the Ontario Superior Court's finding that the Township acted in bad faith, and the later contempt finding against it — sourced to the court record and to OrilliaMatters and BarrieToday. A tool spun to favour council wouldn't surface that.
We also name what's missing instead of papering over it. Some council business is handled in closed (in-camera) sessions, which keeps it off the public record. Where the record is thin, withheld, or one-sided, the site says so rather than filling the gap with any one party's version.
Do you track me? What about my privacy?
There is no question box, account system, or advertising tracker. Ramara Hub does not collect submissions while it is read-only.
The site uses Cloudflare Web Analytics for aggregate visit counts. Cloudflare says Web Analytics does not use cookies, localStorage, or fingerprinting to collect usage metrics: Cloudflare Web Analytics ↗.
The site does not collect email addresses while it is read-only.
I found a mistake, or something's missing. What do I do?
Tell us and it gets fixed or added — that's how this site grows. Reach the Ramara Civic Forum through our Facebook group ↗, or email russellcolevop@gmail.com.
How do I get updates?
Email updates are unavailable while Ramara Hub is operating as a read-only reference site. For current Township notices, use the official news page ↗.
How do I contact the actual Township of Ramara?
Call the Township at 705-484-5374 (Mon–Fri 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m.), use the official Report a Concern portal ↗, or visit ramara.ca ↗. For emergencies, call 911.