CJRO Radio News - January 5th, 2026

Hello! This is Manuela Dascal and you are listening to the Beat CJRO Radio local news.

On December 2025, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (the  CRTC)  authorized the bilingual community station, CJRO Radio, to move from 107.9 to 96.3 FM to better serve the Municipality of Casselman and its surrounding areas.  A new FM antenna will be installed in the Spring 2026 on top of the Casselman water tower instead of the industrial park. This technical change will allow CJRO Radio to broadcast to a larger area using a more powerful transmitter and offer a stronger coverage for the Municipality of Casselman and for local residents to access the community station. The new FM signal will also reach the village of St-Albert in the south.

In a separate application CJRO Radio has also applied in early December to replace its current FM transmitter in Sarsfield in order to provide a much wider coverage that would include a large part of east Ottawa on 95.7 FM including parts of the Russell Township where its 107.7 FM transmission does not reach well.

If accepted, the new Sarsfield transmission on 95.7 FM would also reach Clarence-Rockland in the east such as Hammond, Cheney and Bourget, parts of Orleans on the west side and up to Limoges (La Nation Municipality) and Russell Township in the south.

The full decision for 96.3 CJRO Radio is available on the CRTC website.

Starting with January 5, 2026, solid waste collection in Russell Township is now automated, following your usual collection day. The township is asking that you use the 120L black bins that were distributed in November. The garbage tags will no longer be used as of January 5, 2026, when waste collection becomes fully automated with the black bin.

If you have unused silver holographic garbage tags, you can bring them to Town Hall at 717 Notre-Dame Street, Embrun, Monday to Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. If you purchased your tags from another location, please note that only Town Hall will provide refunds.

The Russell Township will refund unused tags until March 31, 2026. Please note that this applies only to silver holographic tags, not the year-marked tags previously used for multi-unit properties.

Stay up to date by subscribing to news alerts at www.russell.ca/subscribe. For questions, email infrastructure@russell.ca or call 613-443-1747.

The mobile Service Canada unit for processing passport applications in Casselman closed its service on December 3rd, 2025, and it will reopen at number 8 Valoris St. in Embrun on January 7th, 2026. 

Starting  Friday, January 23rd to Sunday,  January 25th the Carlsbad Springs Optimiste Club is inviting everyone in the community to take part in the Carlsbad Springs Carnival’s events and activities. Come and enjoy a warm Friday dinner, live music, curling competition, community Sunday brunch and family bingo. For more details check out the Carnival brochure on the Carlsbad Springs Optimist Club Facebook page and/or  sign up for the Carlsbad Springs monthly Communique newsletter at communiquecs@gmail.com . 

If you are looking for a knitting, sewing, crocheting, quilting, or painting club, look no further than Vars Craft Club. The Vars Craft Club is an inclusive group of people from the town of Vars and vicinity. The club meets once a week on Thursdays, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.  at the Bearbrook Community Centre. All crafters are welcome to come together to work on their crafts, and share their work with other like minded people. Children are also welcome to work on their own craft projects or they may participate in quiet play with toys they bring along. Children must be accompanied by their parents or guardians.

Russell Township winter and spring activities registration will open on January 7th for residents, and on January 14th for non-residents. Activities vary from pickleball for adults to dance and musical theatre for children and youth. For more information for dates and time, check out the Program Guide and Registration on the Russell Township webpage. 

That wraps up our local news. If you have any questions, stories or news to share, contact us at the following email address localnewscjro@gmail.com .  I also invite you to visit our website at cjroradio.com   for the latest news.