Get ready for roadwork on Main St. By Josh Sherman
Volume 46 No. 20
January 9, 2018
CITY COUNCIL has paved the way for roadwork to take place along Main Street this summer. Last month, council approved resurfacing Main Street between Kingston Road and Gerrard Street East as well as a number of proposed changes to that stretch. “The city is taking this opportunity to make alterations at the same time to improve the safety for all road users, including pedestrians and cyclists, improve traffic flow and transit operations, as well as modifying parking regulations to permit extended on-
street parking hours,” said Randy McLean, manager of beautiful streets for the city, in a statement forward by city spokesperson Cheryl San Juan. Intersections at Kingston Road and Benlamond and Swanwick Avenues will be reconfigured as part of the construction project. “The safety improvements at the intersections along Main Street… will result in shorter crossing distances, better sightlines and provide a larger boulevard area for pedestrians,” McLean explained. Continued on Page 3
Birch Cliff woman killed by driver By Josh Sherman
A FUNDRAISER set up to support the son and daughter of a single mother who was struck and killed by a drunk driver last month has raised more than seven times its target amount so far. The fundraiser, which Birch Cliff resident Anna Dewar Gulley created on the website gofundme.com a day after the fatal incident, has brought in $71,965 as of writing, well surpassing its $10,000 goal. “Birch Cliff is a very tight-knit community – increasingly so,” said Dewar Gulley. “It’s an enormous amount of money, but it doesn’t surprise me that people were so generous and engaged,” she added. Dewar Gulley did not know Karla Groten – the victim – personally, but said she was moved to help out because “it was just something that needed to be done” and that “it was just a heartbreaking story.” Police say they responded to a call at 3:28 p.m. on Dec. 21, 2017, about a pedestrian being hit by a motorist at Kingston and Warden. A 40-year-old woman (Groten) was crossing Kingston Road from Warden’s east side when the driver of a 2006 Chevrolet Equinox travelling westbound on Kingston crashed into her. Groten was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver left the scene but was located shortly afterwards in the Chevy around Queen Street East and Kingston road, according to a news release. David Opalka, 28, of Toronto is charged with impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing death. Continued on Page 3
PHOTO: JOSH SHERMAN
Malvern goalie Emma Balazsi has led the high school to five wins so far this season.
She’s got Malvern’s back: ‘Just watch me’ By Josh Sherman
AS A five-year-old house league hockey player, Emma Balazsi kept racking up penalty minutes. “I would always volunteer to take a penalty,” Balazsi, now 17, said. Her willingness to take on the enforcer role wasn’t completely selfless. She didn’t want to be on the ice unless she could play her ideal position: goaltender, a role the Grade 12 student now relishes with Mal-
vern Collegiate Institute’s varsity team. “As soon as I started playing, I knew I wanted to be a goalie, but my mom really didn’t want me to be a goalie,” Balazsi said, noting her mother, Belinda, had been a goalie in her youth and was concerned about the added pressure of the position. That, and the risks of the role as well as the added cost of the equipment made it a tough sell. But Balazsi was determined,
something she attributes to her favourite player, current Las Vegas Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury—or, more specifically, the bright yellow pads he donned as he led the Pittsburgh Penguins to three Stanley Cup titles. “When I was five, I was like, ‘Oh, those are really pretty. I want to be a goalie so I can have pretty pads,” she said. It took a year for her to win her mom over, and the struggle didn’t end there. Her first game between
the pipes at age six was a wash. “It was pretty bad,” she said. Her team lacked a backup goalie in the lineup that day, so she had to stay in the crease for at least eight goals. Her team was not impressed. “They were like, ‘Oh, we’re stuck with her,’” she said. She didn’t play in the net again that year. Balazsi hasn’t had that problem at Malvern. Continued on Page 18
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