> Fond farewell to Vineland Public School from former teacher / Pg. 5 >Attempted gunpoint robbery in Smithville Pg. 6 > BDSS turkey dinner Dec. 6 Pg. 9>Ag society raises cash with crop Pg. 10 Thursday, December 4, 2014 Vol. 3 Issue 31
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Up Front Santa Claus is coming to town Come early to downtown Grimsby on Saturday afternoon to get a roadside spot – Santa will be putting in an appearance at the 57th edition of the Grimsby Santa Claus Parade. The parade begins at 5:15 p.m. from town hall on Livingston Avenue and will make its way east along Main Street to Ontario Street. The theme of this year’s parade is an Old-Fashioned Christmas. Side roads along the route will be closed from 4-7 p.m. Please bring along non-perishable food items for the Grimsby Benevolent Fund’s Christmas Hamper drive. Grimsby residents will find a bag inside today’s NewsNow newspaper from the Grimsby Firefighters Association – the food drive sponsors – to fill and bring to the parade. Firefighters will be walking the route collecting food so help them fill their float to overflowing. For more information, please go to grimsbyparade. ca
Smithville’s Christmas in the Village Lori-Anne Dinga, with her husband and children, wave from the Dinga family float. The Dinga family got into the spirit of this year’s Santa Claus parade, the theme of which was Christmas in the Barnyard.
About 8,000 people lined the streets of Smithville to watch the parade, hundreds of others took part in the many other celebrations during Christmas in the Village. For story and more photos, Pages 12-13.
West Niagara Ag Society lands $20,000 grant By Katherine Grant NewsNow It may not look like much now but that big open field up at the corner of Mountain and Mud streets in West Lincoln just came $20,000 closer to the bustling agricultural centre it will be by next fall. The funds are the results of a successful grant application to Farm Credit Canada (FCC) by the West Niagara
Agricultural Society. “We knew they (FCC) would want to see the money go to the greater good, so we were specific in how we worded the application,” said Steven Capell, agricultural society president. The funds, he said, will be used for furnishings and equipment for the kitchen of the new multiuse hall that will be built on the site.
Capell, together with representatives from FCC and West Lincoln Mayor Doug Joyner, gathered at site of the future agricultural centre and fairgrounds for a cheque presentation on Monday afternoon. “This is a very exciting project,” said Ian Tate, relationship manager with FCC. Tate compared the new agricultural centre to the new modern
fairgrounds facility in Ancaster. Like Ancaster, the West Niagara site will be open for use year round for commodity groups, said Capell. “We want to see every commodity group using that hall,” he added, for example, on farm equipment demonstration days or for horse or poultry shows or kennel clubs. See FARM, Page 3