The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 42

"08 THE OTTAWA CITIZEN THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2004 CITY Tl 10 Ottawa Hospital I OtJIKfcjtKYl Fondalian do II Bpilal d'Otlawa ft3 CHRIS MIKULA. THE OTTAWA CITIZEN Bette Anne and Roy Dittburner shared a winterized cottage on a bay on the east side of Jeffrey Lake. Mr. Dittburner and his father beffore him had cleared the ice for years. Drowns: 'A great community individual' Continued from PAGE Dl Friends say Mr.

Dittburner, who had eight children and at least 16 grandchildren, was an avid sports fan, the chief of Foresters Falls' volunteer fire department and a member of the Champlain Flying Club. He spent most of his youth in the nearby town of Foresters Falls, where his father was a blacksmith and his family had a long history. Mr. Dittburner previously owned a farm equipment dealership. He was also a fixture in the Foresters Falls sports community, pitching for the baseball team.

He was very active in charities. Mr. Dittburner donated a parcel of land for a log house that would eventually become the community's museum. "He was just a great community individual," said Mr. Stone.

"There isn't a person in this community that will not be touched by this." Mr. Dittburner and his wife, Bette Anne, had seven girls and a boy: Jane, Shelley, Catherine, Melanie, Lorraine, Julie, Carolyn and Bryan. Aside from Jane, who lives in Edmonton, the other daughters have since moved to various areas across Ontario. Bryan lives in Ottawa Both of the Dittburners have been engaged in a lengthy battle to protest a plan to redraw the Highway 17 route, to make it travel past the east end of the lake and not the west end, which is currently the case. Mrs.

Dittburner objected that 3t KvW WW Si hard. "It's a very sad affair at Christmas time," said Arthur Cobb, a member of the Township of Whitewater Region council. "It's very difficult. Our hearts go out to the children and Bette Anne." Reg Leblanc lives just down the road from the Dittburners, "spitting distance here in the country," he said. "He was a very generous and kind person," said Mr.

Leblanc. "I used to call him Uncle Roy." "They are a very, very close family," he added. "It's going to be a very big loss." No funeral arrangements have yet been made. Murray Dittburner, 65, said it was going to be a tough Christmas. Despite the tragedy, though, he found some solace in his older brother's last hours.

Clearing the snow, "he was doing something that he loved to do, where he loved to do it for the children and grandchildren that he loved so much," said Mr. Dittburner. WtlHnLESFROMVITOPIUECI the plan would see the road come within 235 metres of the pristine lake, where her grandfather was one of the first residents. "We're not giving up until we're lying in front of the bulldozers," said Mrs. Dittburner in 1997.

"This lake is too precious." In 2001, Mrs. Dittburner found an ally in the Department of Natural Resources, which agreed that an environmental assessment was deficient in a number of areas. Many residents did not agree with the Dittburners' objections to the rerouting of the highway. "He and I didn't agree on that one," said Mr. Stone, who was reeve of Ross Township between 1985 and 2000.

"It didn't matter what the issue was, he didn't mind voicing his opinion and would be very emphatic about it. He did his homework well. He was a very smart man." Those who knew the family say Mr. Dittburner's sudden death has hit the community TiJS -Jf V1 HSHMftSRHW" nmmmfmm -tm- 4- i. tfPiiStt.

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holiday season help them help you. don't drink and drive. for by the Government of Ontario.