Observer september 28, 2013

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09 | 28 | 2013 VOLUME 18 | ISSUE 39

YOU NEVER KNOW WHO'LL BE THE PLUS FOR THE TWO THE ARTS PAGE 15

COMMENT PAGE 6

WHO'S PROTECTING PUBLIC FROM THE BUREAUCRATS?

Woolwich maintains its opposition to Hunsberger pit

FOOTBALL / EDSS

Lancers take to the gridiron for another season

Director of engineering and planning provides testimony this week to protracted OMB hearing

ELENA MAYSTRUK The energy was palpable when Elmira District Secondary School seniors walked onto the football field September 20 for their opening home game, winning an impressive victory and paying tribute to a fellow player and former Lancer Brandon Nickel, who passed away in July.

“They are giving nothing but 100 per cent in his honour. They are playing with a lot of pride on his behalf, they are wearing his number on their helmets,” said seniors’ coach Steven Karn this week.

The 20-year-old Conestogo man, who died in a car accident in July, was a graduate of the school who loved to play football. The fifth-year students on this season’s squad were his teammates.

Nickel’s jersey is kept in a display case at EDSS, to be presented to his family at a future game.

The team’s determination may pay off, with seniors Kyle Wideman, Mitch Kernick, Alex Weber and Jordan Frey taking the lead as key players. Last week’s opening game saw the Lancers achieve an unheard-of victory, beating Waterloo Collegiate Institute Vikings for the first time by a score of 28-14.

“Offensively and defensively they did exceptionally well.

LANCERS | 10

6

www.OBSERVERXTRA.com

STEVE KANNON

The senior EDSS’ Lancers enjoyed a 28-14 win against the Vikings on September 20, beating the Waterloo Collegiate Institute team for the first time. [WILL SLOAN / THE OBSERVER]

th

In the midst of a protracted hearing, Woolwich hasn’t changed its tune about a gravel pit proposed for a site near Conestogo, continuing to call the plan unsuitable.

Given the unacceptable impacts on the area, including visual and noise, the application for the so-called Hunsberger pit “does not constitute good planning and is not in the public interest,” Dan Kennaley, the township’s director of engineering and planning, testified at an Ontario Municipal Board hearing Tuesday afternoon.

The quasi-judicial proceeding, underway since September 3, is expected to run through mid-October, with lawyers for the township, Region of Waterloo, the Conestogo-Winterbourne Residents Association and the applicant, Hunder Developments, poring through thousands

of pages of documents related to the project.

On Tuesday afternoon, Kennaley was being questioned by the township’s lawyer, Eileen Costello, about the process that led to Woolwich council voting against the Hunder application, which dates back to discussions in 2007. Despite talks over the years, including revised reports covering such issues as visual impacts, noise and dust levels, township planners remained unconvinced the gravel pit could be compatible with the surrounding residential neighbourhoods, Kennaley said.

The Hunder application calls for aggregate extraction on some 150 acres of land on two farm properties located at 128 Katherine St. S. and 1081 Hunsberger Rd. The operation would see some 500,000 tonnes of gravel extracted each year, with a 4.3 million tonnes available.

The pit would be borOMB | 4

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2 | NEWS

SIZZLEFEST PRESENTS $4,000 TO FIRE DEPT.

THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

EQAO releases regional results The Waterloo Region District School Board’s results from the Education, Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) show steady numbers in mathematics and a continuing improvement in literacy. Students taking the applied math as-

sessment increased their performance to 44 per cent (up 2 per cent) at levels 3 and 4 and 90 per cent of students in applied math achieved a passing level (levels 1 through 4), an increase of 4 per cent from last year.

Results for academic

math are stable with 84 per cent of students achieving at levels 3 and 4 and 99 per cent of students in academic math achieving a passing level.

Regional results for both the WRDSB and the Waterloo Catholic District School Board:

Grade 3 Reading Writing Mathematics

WRDSB 61 % (no change) 68 % (down 1%) 59 %( down 3%)

WCDSB 69% (up 2%) 77% (down 1%) 67% (down 3%)

WRDSB 75 % (up 1%) 72 % (down 1%) 53 % (down 2%)

WCDSB 76% (up 1%) 75% (up 4%) 54% (down 2%)

Grade 6

Organizers of this year’s Sizzlefest in St. Jacobs were at Woolwich council chambers Tuesday night to present the Woolwich Fire Department with the $4,000 proceeds from the August 17 event. Front: Dean Wittie, Marlen Boisvenue, Marilyn Wideman, Linda MacLeod-Biglow, Craig Miller. Back: Keith Snider, Dave Gromeder, Kevin Radford, Brent Raynor, Ron Lorentz.

[STEVE KANNON / THE OBSERVER

Reading Writing Mathematics

NEWS | 3

THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

Cyclists take to local roads Saturday for Tour de Hans ELENA MAYSTRUK Polka, pretzels, pilsner and … pedal power?

Getting an early jump to earn a few Oktoberfest indulgences, cyclists are taking to regional roads Saturday for the festival’s fourth annual Tour de Hans. A pair of routes will take them through roads in

Woolwich, among others.

“Oktoberfest wanted to create more opportunities for us to bring the experience and spirit of Gemuetlichkeit to new people who may not have experienced it before,” event organizer Laurie Davidson said this week.

Putting a Bavarian twist on the famous Tour de

France, “Onkel Hans,” Oktoberfest’s goodwill mascot, will work off the beer belly, feel the wind in his glorious moustache and bring the festive experience to a different demographic by combining traditional aspects of Oktoberfest with the popularity of cycling.

Riders can choose from

Wellesley looking at logistics of proposed road cycling event

two routes: a 100-kilometre ride that circles Woolwich’s Katherine Street, around West Montrose and on to Alma, or a shorter 50km ride. Cyclists will take off from the Kool Haus tent at Bingemans during a rolling start and pick up speed at the official start at Schaefer Park on Bloomingdale Road.

“We take care to create a route that is both interesting for the riders and also challenging for those who are racing. They can look forward to a traditional Oktoberfest experience at the finish line, including Bavarian food, live entertainment and a traditional keg-tapping ceremony,” Davidson said.

Today’s Tour de Hans also features a junior circuit. The Jump Start junior cycle is open to kids 9-15, with $5 from each registration fee going to the Canadian Tire Jump Start sports program. The excitement doesn’t end there, Davidson added, as TOUR | 4

ST. JACOBS PS STUDENTS RUN FOR TERRY

Organizers looking at race using roads around Hawkesville, but Sunday date raises some concerns for council WILL SLOAN Can Wellesley’s Sunday horse-and-buggy traffic coexist with a bike race? Wellesley councillors faced this question on Tuesday, when Cycle Waterloo announced plans to bring its annual KW Classic O-Cup race to Hawkesville.

The event, typically held in Kitchener, is expected to bring 500 cyclists and another 400 spectators, and council is looking at ways to integrate them with the township’s well-trafficked roads.

In a presentation, Cycle Waterloo executive members Malcolm Steven and Blake Ellis described the 11-kilometre route, proposed for June 8, 2014. Beginning and ending at the Hawkesville Community Centre, an expected 500 riders in eight age/genderdivided races will ride south to Ament line, east to Three Bridges Road (edging into Woolwich), north to Hemlock Hill Drive, and past Broadway Street.

Steven went on to describe the logistics of the event, noting the organization had received an “amber light” from the

Cycle Waterloo members Malcolm Steven and Blake Ellis address Wellesley council Tuesday night.

[WILL SLOAN / THE OBSERVER] Region of Waterloo on the use of Ament Line. Steven suggested a “yellow line” solution (dividing the road between racers and traffic), and traffic management safety plans (including first-aid and on-site ambulances).

Steven also assured council that the group would seek community support, getting in touch with local churches and residents in advance of the event to ensure awareness.

Coun. Shelley Wagner raised concerns of how one lane of traffic could accommodate both cars and horse-and-buggies, the latter of which could

HOW TO REACH US

CYCLE | 4

The St. Jacobs Public School Terry Fox Run went off without a hitch Thursday, as Johnny DeGanis (top centre) ran like Terry with Natalie Erwin, Marley Waring, Alecia Menary, Mya Fiander, Emma Pog, Sara Andersen, while Jaiden Krupicz showed off her tattoo and Tiana Bender and Lily Devries (centre) took a breather.

[ELENA MAYSTRUK / THE OBSERVER

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4 | NEWS

THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

The ABCs of having a good time Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese Festival sees visitors flock to village WILL SLOAN

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The Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese Festival, which takes place today (Saturday) throughout Wellesley Village, has been a township mainstay since 1975. For festival committee chair Bob Reid, its dependability has contributed to its durability.

“We don’t change it much,” said Reid. “We get comments on how well it’s run, and how smooth everything seems to go. My wife and I take care of the information booth on the main street, and people are amazed we can get that many volunteers to work at all the different booths we run on the main street of Wellesley.”

He added, “We’re a small village so we can’t grow much bigger, as far as the venue goes. But the fact that we get more people

The following establishment has applied to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario for a liquor licence under the Liquor Licence Act: Application for a Sales Licence WOOLWICH COMMUNITY CENTRE 24 SNYDER AVENUE SOUTH ELMIRA (Indoor area) Any resident of the municipality may make a written submission as to whether the issuance of the licence is in the public interest having regard to the needs and wishes of the residents. Submissions must be received no later than October 20, 2013. Please include your name, address and telephone number. If a petition is submitted to the Commission, please identify the designated contact person. Note: The AGCO gives the applicant copies of any objections. Anonymous objections are not considered.

The personal information gathered is collected under the authority of the Liquor Licence Act. The principal purpose of the collection is to assess eligibility for the issuance of a liquor sales licence. Copies of all objections are given to the applicant. The information may also be disclosed pursuant to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Questions about this collection should be directed to the Manager, Licensing and Registration, Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario at the address, telephone numbers or e-mail address listed below.

Submissions to be sent to: Licensing and Registration, Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, 90 Sheppard Avenue East, Suite 200, Toronto, ON M2N 0A4.

Tel: 416-326-8700 OR Toll-free in Ontario: 1-800-522-2876.

Fax: 416-326-5555. E-mail: licensing@agco.on.ca IMPORTANT NOTICE Effective September 30, 2013, Notices of Liquor Licence Applications will no longer appear in local newspapers. Please visit the AGCO website at www.agco.on.ca to view applications in your municipality. The applicant must still post a placard at the establishment notifying the public about the liquor licence application.

local musicians Makayla Patey, Amy Rola, and Paige Warner, who are competing in the finals of the Wellesley Idol competition.

Year after year, the festival keeps attracting the same stable of reliable volunteers. “Most of them are from Wellesley, so they either belong to one of the clubs in town or they’re just contributing so that the festival is successful and we can continue to improve,” said Reid.

As always, money raised by these volunteers will help better the community, said Reid. “We’ve helped out with the arena building maintenance, we’ve helped out with the lions and their splash park. Now they’re putting in a new multi-purpose pad so the teenagers have someplace to go and play, and that’s something we’ve contributed to lately.”

CYCLE: Organizers to consult with residents FROM | 3

Notice of Liquor Licence Application

out, and they come back year after year, is a good thing for us.”

There might not be much change, but as the festival returns today, regular attendees can expect to revisit most of their favourite attractions.

After a pancake and sausage breakfast at 7 a.m., festivalgoers can take part in a tour of Jantzi’s Apple Butter and Cheese Cider Mill, various farm tours, and a street mall and farmer’s market on Nafziger Road. There will be live music and dancers, a puppet show and ubiquitous local musician Erick Traplin for the kids, and an antique car and tractor parade at noon. If the pancakes weren’t enough, you can cap the day off with a smorgasbord lunch from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The event will also include performances by

be plentiful due to Sunday religious services.

Wagner also noted that Ament Line is busy on Sundays with travellers returning from cottages. When asked if the event could be moved to Saturday, Steven and Ellis called the possibility unlikely, given that all O-Cup races are held on Sundays.

Mayor Ross Kelterborn said Wagner’s concerns were well taken.

“In past bicycle events, I have had calls about the problems between traffic and horse-and-buggies. …

Horses don’t always just stand there and do what they’re told.

“It was mainly from the car drivers that I heard the complaints. The horses are

in a lineup, they’re very close together, and there start to be problems,” he said.

“My suggestion would be: you’re going to put [notice] in the paper. … I would suggest that everybody receive, in the mail, a sheet of paper indicating [the time and date], especially the people that are going to churches and so on.”

This would include residents of the roads used during the race, as well as other residents of the areas in question, he suggested.

Ellis confirmed this was standard practice.

The possibility of rerouting roads was also raised at the meeting, but no definite plans were made.

Hawkesville recreation service board chair Dan Bender said he would work with

Cycle Waterloo to bring the event to the attention of Old Order Mennonite churches well in advance.

The KW Classic O-Cup race is one of three annual events organized by Cycle Waterloo (including the Tour de Waterloo and the Woolwich-based Steaming Nostril), with the Grand River Hospital Foundation and K-W Counselling as major charity partners.

Though usually held in Kitchener’s Hidden Valley district, that area was deemed too heavy with traffic.

This will be Cycle Waterloo’s second year organizing the KW Classic since taking over from past organizer Brad May. They hope to make Hawkesville a long-term location of three to five years.

In other words, the 2013 ABC Festival will look a lot like the 2012 ABC Festival, and plenty that came before. That’s as it should be, Reid explained.

“It’s a family day where they can come and enjoy our little village. Everybody seems to have a good time at it; everybody seems to be enjoying themselves in the different booths that we run.

“I think a lot has to do with the friendliness of the village. We’ve actually had some people who come to the festival and ended up moving here from Toronto!”

TOUR: Cyclists

on local roads Saturday FROM | 3

all winners of the Tour de Hans race will be invited to ride in this year’s Oktoberfest Thanksgiving Day parade (October 14).

“Taking something that is very popular out there in the community such as cycling, running and culinary events, we’re partnering it up with what the festival does best, which is the Oktoberfest experience. We’re bringing people to a world-class cycling event, but it’s got a really unique twist,” she said.

“Onkel Hans’” tour heralds the 45th KitchenerWaterloo Oktoberfest, which runs October 11-19.

It will be a closed course with assistance from police. Riders can register Saturday before the 9 a.m. start of the 100km race and 10 a.m. for the 50km race at www.tourdehans.ca. For general festival information, visit www.oktoberfest.ca.

OMB: Proposed pit does not represent good planning: Kennaley FROM | COVER

dered by four residential neighbourhoods, including Golf Course Road in Conestogo and Sunset Drive and Meadowbrook Place in Winterbourne.

Through the process, neighbours, many organized under the banner of the Conestogo-Winterbourne Residents Association (CWRA), repeatedly aired a long list of concerns they say remain unaddressed, including longstanding issues with noise, traffic and visual impacts, as well as the loss of prime agricultural land.

Experts hired by CWRA to review the studies submitted by the applicants found a long list of shortcomings, including overall nonconformity to the township’s planning documents. Those deficiencies were echoed by Kennaley in his testimony this week.

Of the changes a gravel pit would make to the landscape, for instance, he said, “There will be numerous unacceptable visual impacts.”

Studies submitted by the applicant have failed to satisfy his concerns about not only visual impacts, but also the negatives around noise and traffic,

particularly the troubled Crowsfoot Corner. As well, the township is not convinced the applicant's plan for rehabilitating the agricultural land will be sufficient once the pit is decommissioned.

Worries about just how long the pit would operate have the township pushing for a sunset clause should the OMB overturn council’s decision and allow the pit to go ahead, Kennaley added.

The open-ended nature of allowing asphalt and concrete recycling on the scene, which has the possibility of extending the operation indefinitely, is

another concern. The recycling option was not part of the pre-application consultations between Hunder and the township, so its inclusion in the application itself caught planners offguard, he noted.

Given a projected 4.3 million tonnes of gravel and a permit to extract 500,000 tonnes a year, the pit would be expected to last nine years. Providing some flexibility for market demand, a 15-year timeframe would be a “reasonable limit,” Kennaley argued.

The OMB hearing will continue into next month, with testimony from all sides.

NEWS | 5

THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

Skate Elmira now part of Aviva competition Organizers of a skateboard park for Elmira are looking for votes now that their application to join the Aviva Community Fund Competition has been accepted. Voters are asked to vote electronically daily. The charity with the most votes moves on to the semi-finals.

The Skate Elmira group hopes to follow in the footsteps of Kate’s Kause, which won $60,000 from the fund to

help build an accessible playground in Elmira.

Public voting for the Aviva Community Fund Competition starts September 30. Visit www.AvivaCommunityFund.org for news, to sign up for campaign updates and to learn more about how to get involved.

The easiest way to vote, say organizers, is to “like" the Skate Elmira Facebook page at https://www. facebook.com/SkateElmira. Daily reminders will be posted starting September 3rd and running until October 14. One vote per day per email address is allowed.

Kate’s Kause to get boost at Ti-Cats game And speaking of Kate’s Kause, the organization has been entered into the Scotiabank GameChangers/CFL granting program.

The group has a one-in-eight chance at $25,000, says founder Kelly Meissner.

The competition, 50 per cent voting and 50 per cent judging, ends October 13.

This weekend, Meissner will be

identified as a finalist at the Hamilton Ti-Cats game in Guelph. She’ll be called out onto the field at halftime, where she’ll receive a $1,000 cheque for Kate’s Kause, along with a Ti-Cat jersey with her name on it.

For information and to vote online, visit https://www.scotiabankgamechangers.com/Nominee/NomineeD etails?nominationid=702.

Expanded format for Sutherland Cup playoffs The playoff format for the Junior B

championship Sutherland Cup changes this season, with the introduction of a wildcard spot to add a fourth team.

The three conference Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League (GOJHL) has historically run a round-robin with the winners of the three conferences playing each other twice. The top two from the round-robin would play a best of seven series to establish the winner of the Sutherland Cup. This year, a fourth or “wildcard” team will be determined based on playoff winning percentage only.

The runner up from the Conference Final with the best playoff winning percentage will become the wild card

team. They will automatically face off against the first-placed team from a different conference, based on their winning percentage.

The Ontario Hockey Association board of directors announced the changes Tuesday.

“Adding a fourth team into the mix is something that I think really makes a lot of sense for the league,” said GOJHL chairman Shawn McKelvie in a release announcing the changes.

“In past years we’ve found that during the round robin, attendance had diminished. A fourth team will help maintain the momentum from the conference finals.”

POLICE BLOTTER

Police looking for suspect after robbery at Conestoga Mall The Shoppers Drug Mart at Conestoga Mall was the scene of a robbery shortly before noon on Monday.

A man entered the store and passed a note indicating he had a gun – one was never seen – and demanded a specific drug.

The pharmacist complied with the demand and the suspect left on foot. No one was injured.

The suspect is described as male, white, 6’ tall, thin build, reddish hair and was wearing light blue jeans with lettering on the back pocket, white running shoes, a longsleeve sweater and a black baseball cap with white lettering on the front. Anyone with information is asked to contact North Division detectives 519-650-8500, ext.6397 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

SEPTEMBER 16

tion while eastbound on Church Street when she was struck by a vehicle making a right turn from Arthur Street onto Church Street.

The vehicle, described as a newer model GMC van, beige or brown in colour, then fled the scene. The van likely sustained damage to the rear driver side. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Elmira detachment of the Waterloo Regional Police Service.

5:53 AM | A business owner reported that an attempt had been made to break into his establishment on Arthur Street North in Woolwich Township. Nothing was taken as the suspects were likely scared off by an alarm before entering the building.

8:28 AM | Two Dodge pickup trucks collided at the Arthur Street roundabout in St. Jacobs. Both vehicles were southbound on Arthur Street when the first vehicle slowed for traffic and was struck from behind by the second vehicle.

There were minor injuries. The driver of the trailing pickup was charged with ‘following too close.’

Both vehicles sustained severe damage and had to be towed from the scene.

SEPTEMBER 17

9:25 AM | A blue Dodge Ram pickup truck left the roadway and struck a hydro pole in the 1500 block of Scotch Line Road in Woolwich Township. Witnesses said the accident occurred at 7:30 a.m. and there was significant damage to the vehicle, which was also hauling a trailer. The driver left the scene without making a report.

A police investigation is ongoing and charges pending.

9:16 AM | Police are searching for the perpetrator of a hit-and-run at the intersection of Church and Arthur streets in Elmira. A female driver was entering the intersec-

6:09 PM | A three-vehicle collision resulted in charges for a male driver who wasn’t paying attention to traffic at the St. Jacobs

VEHICLES COLLIDE WITH HORSE-DRAWN BUGGY

SEPTEMBER 18

10:53 PM | A woman driving on Sawmill Road near Maple Bend Road in Woolwich Township struck a deer. There were no injuries to the driver and no charges.

SEPTEMBER 20

Two vehicles hit a horse-drawn buggy from behind on the morning of September 25 on Ruggles Road, near Floradale. There were minor injuries. No charges have been laid, but police are continuing to investigate.

[JOE MERLIHAN / THE OBSERVER]

CAR COLLIDES WITH TRUCK NEAR BRESLAU

A car and truck collided on September 24 at the intersection of Shantz Station Road and Kossuth Road in Breslau. There were minor injuries. [WILL SLOAN / THE OBSERVER]

Celebrating 60 years of Livestock trucking to the farming community

Saturday October 5, 2013 11 – 2pm

THE TWO 5 PLUS WHO

$

Lloyd Haffner 3434 Herrgott Rd., St. Clements, ON (Formerly Haffner Transport)

6:53 AM | A Honda Civic and a flatbed transport truck were both northbound on Arthur Street in Elmira when they collided near the roundabout. The Civic had to brake suddenly for traffic in the circle and was struck by the truck on the rear passenger corner. There were no injuries and minor damage to the vehicles. No charges were laid.

12:42 PM | A Kia was stopped on the northbound shoulder of King Street near Bridge Street south of St. Jacobs and was pulling into the roadway when it was struck by the northbound Ford truck. The driver of the Kia was charged with ‘start from stopped position – not in safety.’ There were no injuries.

Keeping The Summer Concerts Alive LYNN RUSSWURM PRESENTS

Cordially invites you to attend a

in honour of

4:13 AM | The driver of a PT Cruiser travelling eastbound on Lobsinger Line near Moser-Young Road in Wellesley Township struck a deer. The driver was not injured and there were no charges.

SEPTEMBER 22

Vernla Livestock Inc.

Retirement Open House

roundabout. A southbound vehicle was stopped for traffic on Arthur Street waiting to enter the roundabout and was rear-ended by the distracted driver. A third vehicle failed to stop in time and struck the middle car from behind. There were no injuries. The driver of the middle vehicle was charged with ‘careless driving.’

Cover

IN A MONTHLY CONCERT WITH Grant Hayward, Harry Busby, Lance Russwurm

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 | 2-4PM at Woolwich Memorial Centre 24 Snyder Ave. S., Elmira

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6 | COMMENT

THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

JOE MERLIHAN PUBLISHER STEVE KANNON EDITOR

COMMENT

DONNA RUDY SALES MANAGER

ELENA MAYSTRUK REPORTER

WILL SLOAN

PAT MERLIHAN PRODUCTION MANAGER

JAKE STALLARD GRAPHIC DESIGN

REPORTER PUBLICATION MAIL AGREEMENT NUMBER 1004840 | ISSN 12039578

OUR VIEW / EDITORIAL

THE VIEW FROM HERE

No one seems to be looking out for the public interest THE FIRING THIS WEEK of a Guelph transit manager after less than three weeks on the job is a clear example of why bureaucrats need more oversight. And why each addition to the public payroll should be vetted completely, with jobs added only reluctantly.

In this case, the man was fired after the results of a sexual harassment arbitration came to light, revealed to his new employer by the media. The manager had been fired from his previous position with the City of Hamilton. The grievance arbitration awarded $25,000 to a female employee who complained Bill Richardson, then her supervisor, had sent her pornographic and lewd emails, made sexual comments and gestures, and touched her against her wishes over a period of several years.

Upon his firing, Richardson received a severance package of some $200,000, the Guelph Mercury reported.

His new employer, the City of Guelph, says it received two glowing references from two of the man’s former bosses in Hamilton.

In a similar vein this week, another media report brought to light the case of two University of Regina IT workers who were overpaid $380,000 in the past 11 years.

Authorized for one year of special overtime pay 12 years ago, they were never cut off – and never said anything – until more than a decade later, and only due to a tip-off.

The university never informed the province or its auditor, and made no attempt to recover the money.

These stories should set off warning bells to anyone in the public concerned about how municipal government is run.

In these instances, the notion that bureaucracies are self-serving rather than protecting the public interest seems very much justified. Nor are these isolated issues.

In Woolwich, we saw a lack of diligence in the hiring last year of a communications assistant – again brought to light by the media – and in other recent cases.

Each example reinforces the notion that bureaucrats protect their own, not the citizens.

As we’ve pointed out on more than one occasion, the underlying problem starts with the ever-expanding payroll, both in terms of numbers and remuneration, which usually comes without either merit or accountability to the taxpayers.

As last year’s hiring mess indicates, in Woolwich there are few challenges to staff’s assertions that yet another body is needed to bloat the payroll, despite the addition of jobs providing no benefit to taxpayers footing the bill for the generous salaries.

Looking at the numbers, councillors should constantly be pushing for a review of all pay levels, recognizing that the payroll makes up half of all expenditures and increases have outstripped inflation, padding an already overlygenerous pay scale.

Such a review has been conspicuously absent in budget deliberations As we’ve also noted, bureaucracies have a tendency to expand – bureaucrats beget more of themselves – but it’s council’s job to push back against the inclination. We’re not seeing that in Woolwich, where growth in administrative staff has easily eclipsed the outside workers who actually deliver services to residents. Of course, there’s a need for office staff, but busywork should be kept to a minimum. Again, that’s where councillors are supposed to come into the equation.

Real needs, the importance of reducing staff spending and reining in taxes -- already lost on Woolwich administrators — already out the window.

WORLD VIEW / GWYNNE DYER

Assad regime likely to continue: U.S. has no pretext to attack WORLD AFFAIRS It was already looking likely that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime would survive – it has had the upper hand militarily in the Syrian civil war for at least six months now – but the events of the past two weeks have made it virtually certain.

Syria has already complied with the two initial demands of the RussianAmerican deal concluded over Assad’s head last week. It has signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, and it has given a list of all Syria’s poison gas facilities and storage depots to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. That means that the United States cannot attack it for at least a year.

President Barack Obama’s ability to order such an attack was already in doubt because of opposition in Congress. Now he could not bomb without endangering UN inspectors, who will be all over

the regime-controlled parts of Syria by November to take control of the estimated thousand tonnes of chemical weapons. Syria has a year to destroy them all, and until and unless it fails to meet that deadline, bombing is out of the question.

Even if there are delays, the United States will be uniquely ill-placed to use them as the pretext for an attack, as it is far behind schedule itself. In 1997 the U.S. agreed to destroy the 31,000 tonnes of sarin, VX, mustard gas and other lethal gases that it owned within 10 years.

That’s 30 times as much as Syria has, but 10 years should have been enough.

It wasn’t. In 2007 Washington asked for five more years to get rid of all its poison gas, the maximum extension allowed under the Chemical Weapons Convention. It didn’t meet that deadline either, so last year it announced a new deadline: 2021. Given its own record, the U.S. will find it hard to use Syrian delays as an excuse for resurrecting its bombing threats.

The civil war will probably continue during the

coming year, and possibly for a good deal longer.

Assad’s troops have been winning back territory in the centre of the country, but they have yet to make much progress in the north, the south or the east.

They lack the numbers to finish the job now, but the tide is running in their direction.

Close to a thousand separate rebel units are now operating in Syria, but there is no unified rebel army. The armed groups can be roughly divided into jihadists (many of them foreign) who want to create an Islamic caliphate in Syria, and more moderate groups who originally took up arms hoping to create a democratic Syria freed from the Baath Party’s tyranny.

Most of the less radical groups want an Islamic republic too, but they are repelled by the extremism of the jihadists. They hoped that the West would destroy Assad’s forces and put them in power instead (while keeping the jihadists out), and they are now very angry at the United States for letting them down. But they are also deeply disap-

pointed, for the realists among them can see no other way to win this fight.

Many of these fighters would now be open to a regime offer of a ceasefire, an amnesty, and a gradual transition to a less corrupt and repressive political system, and the Baathist regime is likely to make such an offer soon (whether it means it or not). It would not neutralize the jihadists and restore peace to the country, but it might seduce enough of the other rebels to shift the military balance sharply in Assad’s favour.

Much cruel fighting would remain to defeat the jihadists, but at least the country would emerge intact. Or the war may just go on and on, ending eventually in partition. But at least we have been spared the spectacle of the United States and its sidekicks attacking yet another Muslim country, only to realize in the end (as in the case of the imaginary “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq) that its excuse for doing so was false.

The pretext this time was DYER | 8

COMMENT | 7

THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

THEIR VIEW / QUESTION OF THE WEEK

What are you looking forward to at the Wellesley ABC festival this weekend?

»»Erin Krueger

»»Cameron Kraeuter

»»Emily Kruger

»»Erin Zyta

»»Christina & Claire Holst

I’m looking forward to the apple fritters.

Just all of the fun stuff, almost everything.

I think the food.

The bouncing castle

I’m looking forward to watching the boats race; all of the food and all of the vendors.

"The only long-term solution is full source removal of all contaminants in both gravel pits" Sebastian Siebel-Achenbach | page 8 HIS VIEW / STEVE KANNON

Manmade climate change or not, extreme weather could cost us plenty EDITOR'S NOTES A meeting this week in Sweden of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working group was already generating a great deal of speculation well ahead of its report, which will assess the evidence for climate change and its causes.

Much of the online and media chatter centers on the growing skepticism about so-called anthropogenic global warming, not skepticism from credible scientists, but from industry-backed lobbyists and a growing number of us simply tired of all the talk.

Of course, the work of the deniers has muddied the waters, which is precisely what they’re after.

Still, we’re worried about the growing anecdotal evidence of changes in the weather, especially extreme weather events – there just seem to be more of them.

Wild weather seems to be more common, as report-

ing in the media highlights natural disasters from all over the globe, including current stories from the likes of Colorado and Mexico. The type of flooding we saw this summer in Calgary appears to be more frequent.

Beyond the disaster itself, such weather-related calamities also come with a financial cost, another source of worry. This week, the Insurance Bureau of Canada reported the insured property damage from the Alberta flood passed $1.7 billion, making it the most expensive natural disaster in Canadian history.

Insurers, of course, have a real interest in monitoring climate change given the potential impact on their bottom line.

Munich RE, one of the world’s largest re-insurance companies, has been studying the subject for some four decades. Today, it’s issuing warnings about the consequences of more extreme weather, calling it a major threat to the global economy.

Flooding such as we saw in Alberta, for instance, dominated the insurance

HOW TO REACH US

conditions that lead to such flooding are becoming more frequent and that such weather systems tend to remain stationary for longer. With this higher persistence of weather patterns, the potential for heavy and long-lasting precipitation within a trough situation, for example, increases. The counterparts to this are stationary highpressure systems which in summer increase the risk of heat waves and periods of drought.

“Debate in climate research is currently focusing on what the causes of such changes in weather patterns could be and what role climate change might play in this. But it is naturally not possible to explain single events on this basis.”

The second most expensive event in the first half-year was a squall line with severe tornadoes in the U.S. last May. On May 21, a tornado of category 5 (maximum strength) hit the town of Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City. The tornado reached peak wind speeds of up to 300 km per hour and was unusually large, with a width of

nearly two kilometres. The destruction was enormous: well over 1,000 buildings were completely destroyed in Moore alone, including seven schools and a hospital. 26 people were killed and more than 370 were injured. The overall economic loss amounted to more than US$3 billion, about half of it insured.

More extreme weather events would have consequences for the property insurance industry and possibly for disaster-relief agencies. Changes in human health could affect the health and life insurance and pension industries.

Changes in the hydrologic cycle may result in more variability in water supply for hydroelectric power production.

Additional damage to forest ecosystems by pests and diseases, and increased frequency and intensity of fires may occur. Species currently threatened with extinction face the greatest risk of extinction in a changing climate.

Ontario falls prey to a number of natural hazards: drought, heat waves, floods, rain, snow and ice

storms, tornadoes, and even hurricanes, although they’re rare. Small changes in average climate conditions are expected to generate significant changes in extreme events.

Experts anticipate fewer extremely cold days and more extremely hot days and severe thunderstorms, which can cause injury and property damage.

In this part of the world, the consequences are likely to be tempered, at least in the short-term, though not without cost. Globally, the threat to food and water supplies will be much greater, likely leading to massive migrations of people, especially in parts of the world that continue to swell the planet’s population, expected to grow to 10 billion by the middle of the century.

Firm believer or skeptic when it comes to man’s influence on climate change, it makes no difference what the root causes are if we’re forced to deal with the fallout of the kind of extreme weather some are forecasting. We’ll have to brace ourselves for change, and a hit to our wallets.

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statistics through the first half of the year, causing billions of dollars in losses.

Munich RE reports that around 47 per cent of the overall losses and 45 per cent of the insured losses derived from inland flooding that occurred in Europe, Canada, Asia and Australia.

Total losses from natural catastrophes amounted to about US$45 billion.

By far the most expensive natural catastrophe in the first half-year was the flooding in southern and eastern Germany and the neighbouring states in May and June, which gave rise to an overall loss of more than US$16 billion and an insured loss in the region of US$3.9 billion.

The flooding in Germany and the neighbouring countries to the east was caused by an atmospheric trough across central Europe, drawing moist air from the Mediterranean and southeast European area northwards over eastern Europe, meteorologists say.

In a recent report, Prof.

Peter Höppe, head of Munich RE’s geo risks research unit, notes: “It is evident that days with weather

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8 | COMMENT

THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

THE MONITOR

VERBATIM

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

On July 1, 2013, Canada's population was estimated at 35,158,300, up 404,000 (+1.2%) over the last year. This increase was equal to the one observed from July 1, 2011, to July 1, 2012, and similar to the average annual gains for the last 30 years (+1.1%).

"Parents expect boards to put the best teachers in the classroom for the good of our students. Regulation 274 prevents us from doing that, while handing the keys to the education system over to the unions."

A long-vacant industrial site west of Elmira - formerly used for wood products and egg grading - became the new home of Tube-line Manufacturing, as Woolwich council cleared the way for the move by approving the necessary zone change.

»»Statistics Canada

»»Bob Murray of the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association speaks out in

»»From the Sept. 24, 2011 edition of the Observer

favour of a Tory private member's bill that would kill a rule that forces Ontario schools to hire teachers by seniority instead of competency and skill.

DYER: Moscow steps in to save

NATIONAL VIEW

Obama's bacon over Syria FROM | 6

going to be Assad’s use of poison gas against his own people. But the timing was weird. (UN inspectors had just arrived in Damascus when nerve gas was fired at the rebel-held eastern suburbs). The target was pointless. (Why civilians, not rebel fighters?) And why would Assad use a weapon that might trigger Western bombing when he was already winning the war without it?

Now the Russians are saying (off the record, so far) that the serial numbers of the rockets that delivered the nerve gas reveal that they did not belong to the Syrian army. They were

made in Russia in 1967 and sold to Yemen, Egypt and Libya’ s Colonel Gaddafi – who filled some of them with nerve gas. He had about a thousand tonnes of the stuff.

A lot of Gaddafi’s arsenal went missing after he was overthrown two years ago, sold off by the victorious rebel militias. Some of the nerve gas-filled rockets could easily have ended up in Syria, in rebel hands, and the temptation to use them in order to trigger Western military intervention would have been hard to resist. If that is really the case, then President Obama should be even more grateful to Moscow for saving his bacon.

WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR editor@woolwichobserver.com YOUR VIEW / LETTER

Don’t leave kids unattended in parking lot To The Editor, I feel it would be an invaluable service to our community to print this warning to the mother of a small child I saw Wednesday in the Elmira Foodland parking lot, and to all other adults who think nothing of leaving their children in vehicles while they go shopping.

I pulled into my parking spot only to find the cutest little boy looking at my big, shiny truck wheels. He was in an unlocked silver van two spots over, all alone.

He said “hi” and waved. I, too, said “hi” and asked if he was with his mommy.

He said “Yep, she’s getting her groceries and I get to stay here, but I’m not supposed to get out and talk to strangers.”

My reply was, “Wow, you’re a pretty good boy.”

This child would have to be no older than three or four.

Rather than approach, as I was a stranger, I stayed in my truck and tried to look busy to avoid interaction.

Fifteen minutes went by and still no mommy. God knows how long he had been there before I arrived. Honey, if I would have asked your little darlin’ if he wanted to go for a quick ride in my cool truck til’ mommy comes back, I could have had him out of that parking lot and out of town by the time you made it to the deli department. I would never forgive myself if I had not watched over your precious little guy and later saw his photo on the evening news in an amber alert. What were you thinking?

In hindsight, I should have called the police and was considering it when you finally returned. Hopefully my glare when we made eye contact and this

letter are enough for you to wise up. On a lighter note to my little buddy, you were a very good little boy. You have very nice manners and I am glad you are safe.

ANN GIRLING, ST. CLEMENTS

Chemtura should completely remove all contaminants To the Editor, Susan Bryant’s letter in the last week’s Observer hit the nail on the head. At the moment, Chemtura is partially excavating one of the two gravel pits on its property while the other is merely being capped. Both gravel pits were dumping grounds for some of the most toxic substances produced at this plant over decades. The contaminants leached into the aquifer which forced authorities to stop using this as a source

for Elmira’s water supply from 1989.

They continue to leach outside of Chemtura’s property. The company disputes this, arguing that the toxins are hydrophobic and therefore do not get into the water supply in any quantity. Under this rationale, only the top 30 centimetres of soil in one of the pits needs to be excavated while the other pit only needs to be covered with a water-resistant membrane to prevent rain or flood waters from unsettling the contaminants.

If they do not leach, why excavate anything? If they are hydrophobic, why bother with a tarp as running water logically should not disturb anything that has allegedly bonded with soil and stones?

By undertaking a partial remediation, Chemtura has indirectly answered these questions. If there was no issue of onsite pollutants leaching off-

site, the company would not be spending millions even for a limited cleanup and cover-up. Chemtura knows it has a problem with contaminants moving off its property and into the aquifer, precisely what will call into question Chemtura’s stated objective of having Elmira’s aquifer up to Ontario drinking water standards

by August 2028. (We are at exactly the half-way mark in the 30-year remediation project that technically started in 1998.)

While Chemtura is to be commended for agreeing to a partial cleanup, as some contaminants will be removed, Susan Bryant is absolutely correct in arguing that this is insufficient – a typical “duct-tape solution,” as she termed it. The only long-term solution is full source removal of all contaminants in both gravel pits. If we want potable water by 2028, the only way to truly

secure this is to physically remove all the pollutants that could contaminate the aquifer, now and in the future.

This has been the position of the current Chemtura Public Advisory Committee, the former CPAC, and the independent APT Chemtura Committee – a stated desire stretching back a decade now. Chemtura should be prevailed upon to resist half-measures and instead do what is in their own long-term interest by removing all contaminants from these two sites. Let the excavators complete the task fully.

The current CPAC is in complete agreement with Susan Bryant on this, and we would urge all levels of government to add their voices to this objective for the long-term health of this community.

SEBASTIAN SIEBEL-ACHENBACH | CPAC MEMBER

THE ARTS | 15

THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

THE ARTS ON STAGE / LIVE MUSIC

Finally, a chance for a proper collaboration After decades of crossing paths, Lynn Russwurm and Bob Tremblay get it together with The Two Plus Who WILL SLOAN “How long have you two known each other?”

I ask local country musicians Lynn Russwurm and Bob Tremblay, who collaborate in the band The Two Plus Who. “Oh, gee,” says Tremblay.

“A number of years. How many years? Goes back to…”

“Bob played for me one time back in 1958, I think it was,” says Russwurm. “ ‘57 or ’58…”

“I must’ve been real young. I remember that one, but… I did play, as a matter of fact, they were playing at one of the pubs at the station…”

“That was in the ‘70s, I think…” “…I knew him before that, but I walked in to hear their band…”

“The Jamboree Reunion Band.”

“Yeah, I walked in to hear their band. He said, ‘You gotta hear us some time.’ I say, ‘Yeah, OK,’ so I walked in. Well, lo and behold, his drummer got sick and he had no drummer!

So I’m sittin’ there lookin’ and thinking, well, this doesn’t sound right with-

out the drums, y’know?

So he said to me, ‘You play drums?’ And I said, ‘Well…I keep a beat’….” – Tremblay rhythmically taps the table – “… ‘I can do that.’ So I got up and played drums for him – never played drums before!”

Russwurm and Tremblay were in the same orbit, and collaborated occasionally over the years, but never at a sustained level until forming The Two Plus Who. Now entering their fourth year as a band, Russwurm (on bass) and Tremblay (on Dobro guitar) join a guest performer (usually on rhythm guitar) to perform traditional country music.

Their new monthly concert series, beginning Sunday at the WMC, will attempt to sustain the momentum of Russwurm’s popular Elmira summer concert series.

“I was in a gospel group called The Crossover Junction,” says Russwurm, “and we got Bob in with us a few times to do a recording …”

“That’s where I first got started with Lynn I think, when we started with that Cross Road…”

“Crossover Junction…”

Lynn Russwurm and Bob Tremblay are the Two, and their guests are the Who, in their new concert series at the WMC. “…Yeah, Crossover Junction, and…”

How, then, did this lead to The Two Plus Who? “Well, we started playing up there in Neustadt, and

we kept getting new singers,” said Tremblay. “Lynn would turn around and get ahold of different people, I would get ahold of people. … We’re playing up in

[WILL SLOAN / THE OBSERVER]

Neustadt, and we started to think, ‘We have to have a name.”

“Bob just said it off the cuff one time, ‘Two Plus Who’…”

“Yeah, I figured, ‘Two Plus Who’… whoever we get, y’know, that’ll be the ‘Who.’” TIME FOR TWO | 21

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16 | THE CLOCK TOWER

THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

REPURPOSED /ELMIRA WELLNESS CENTRE

Building is history in the making With major renovations to house the Elmira Wellness Centre, former post office, police station and township hall finds yet another use as a key part of downtown core WILL SLOAN

FOR A CENTURY, IT has been one of Woolwich’s most iconic and recognizable structures. Over the years, it served as a police station, a post office, and, most notably, as the Woolwich Township hall. Following the township’s move to new digs on Church Street, 69 Arthur St. S. remained vacant for a few years, with only its famous clock tower remaining active.

Juliane Shantz bought the Elmira landmark from the township. Now with a health and wellness theme, its businesses offer hypnotherapy, holistic nutrition, fitness, massage, and other services. [WILL SLOAN / THE OBSERVER]

That finally changed in July, when the building got a new lease on life. The Elmira Wellness Centre brings together local health specialists in a one-stop destination for fitness, hypnotherapy, massage, holistic nutrition, naturopathic medicine, bra fitting, and nail painting.

“It’s nice to have us all under one roof,” said Juliane Shantz, owner of the building. “And I love healthcare, so I really am truly loving having us all here.”

With a grand opening set for October 26, the Elmira Wellness Centre is finally bringing to a close a yearlong renovation process designed to preserve the building’s historic integrity while also bringing it headfirst into the 21st century. *** An Elmira native and doctor of audiology, Shantz ran her ear and hearing clinic for 16 years in Elmira, not far from her new home, before deciding she needed to take over the long-vacant building.

“I started at the Elmira Medical Office just across the street,” Shantz remembered. “I just quickly ran out of space there, because it’s tiny there, and I needed another place to go to.”

She continued, “I was looking around town for an office, and I met [massage therapist] Krista Sandelli, who I share this office with – we’re the co-owners of

Elmira Wellness Centre.

We didn’t know each other prior to that, but we both needed a place to go.”

Shantz and Sandelli spent 13 years renting space behind W.C. Brown & Sons Menswear in Elmira, and then started looking at other options. “I just decided it was too tight there,” said Shantz. “We only had 900 square feet for about 15 staff, and it was just way too small.

“Then I started looking around town,” she continued. “I was looking for a long time – there had been nothing available that was suitable. Then this building was for sale for quite a while, about three years, and I finally just took a look at it and said, ‘Hey, I like this.’ I got Van-Del Contracting involved to see how much it would cost to renovate the building, and if I could afford it, and go from there.”

The town hall had been for sale since 2009, after Woolwich declared the building surplus. Council heard bids from various private business owners at their meeting on February

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THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

7, 2012, eventually settling on the proposal from Shantz and Sandelli.

“I loved the historic features of it,” Shantz remembered. “It was a really good project to work on.” *** With help from Bloomingdale-based VanDel Contracting, work began on renovations later that year. When asked to describe the construction process from beginning to end, Shantz and supervising contractor Andrew Robinson become overwhelmed.

“From the beginning, we had to more or less clean out all the old,” said Robinson.

“Old cupboards, old carpets, old ceilings…” interjected Shantz.

“There were bathrooms back here in the office that we re-arranged…” “…the little stall bathrooms had to be removed…” “…gut everything, every room, down to the original,” said Robinson. “Especially where the elevator shaft was, we had to take the old down and take the floors out, then build it back up as we were renovating the rest of the building.

“Upstairs more or less stayed intact,” he added. “We never really touched the upstairs, we just painted.” They did, however, re-install a flagpole to the roof that had been present 100 years ago, but had been out of commission for

decades.

The most time-consuming challenge involved replacing the building’s badly-dated elevator with a newer, faster model – a process that took six months.

“The elevator was a huge challenge, because it was too small and we had to make it bigger,” said Robinson. “We had to dig down and undermine everything.

It was a long process, but that was the main structural change.”

These challenges paled in comparison to dealing with an enormous safe left over from the building’s post office days, which had to be moved to clear the way for a reception desk.

“It was right in the centre of the floor plan,” said Shantz. “Andrew and his team had to take it apart, piece by piece, which took a long time.”

The door now hangs in the building’s main foyer.

“The door was an inch and a half thick, solid steel,” said Robinson. “We had to actually wench it up and weld it to the wall, and it had to be structurally engi-

THE CLOCK TOWER | 17

Andrew Robinson, supervisor from Van-Del Contracting, made sure to preserve the building’s historic legacy (including a vintage safe door) during renovations. [WILL SLOAN / THE OBSERVER]

Congratulations Juliane Shantz on the completion of your ClockTower project in downtown Elmira and the relocation of your office..

We are proud to have been part of the Construction Team that renovated this Elmira landmark.

The inner works make the clock in the tower tick even after all these years.

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ELMIRA WELLNESS | 18

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THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

ELMIRA WELLNESS: Preserving the building’s historic character FROM | 17

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neered.”

Care was taken to preserve as much of the building’s historic value as possible. The unique wood paneling of the former council chambers remains intact, and much of the discarded material found new life. “The bricks and everything we took out of the original elevator shaft, we re-used those all the way up through the project,” said Robinson.

Staying in touch with the building’s historical legacy is what led to a call from Elmira resident Joe Kelly – the keeper of the clock tower.

“He comes in and winds it twice a week,” said Shantz. “He said, ‘I’ll continue to do it if you want.’ I said, ‘Great.’ He and his family have been doing it for generations already.”

“My father-in-law had done it since 1970, and I took it over in 1984,” said Joe Kelly. “It’s one of those things you can take

for granted, but I love it, because it’s a piece of art.

You go to a gallery and you see a piece of art, and you see the brushstrokes. Well, I see the brushstrokes of the man who had to cut the gears all in sequence, from seconds to weeks to an hour.

“This brass was the last of the brass before the First World War. There wasn’t a clock made like this in 1915.

There was in 1914.” *** Once the renovations were done and the building was ready to open, getting the various health and wellness businesses onboard was “super easy,” said Shantz.

“I don’t know if it’s just being in a small town with word of mouth, but people just keep calling and looking at this space, and we’re all in the same area of interest.”

Businesses have been operating out of the Elmira Wellness Centre since July, but the grand opening is scheduled for October 26, 1-4 p.m. Guests

are expected to include Woolwich Mayor Todd Cowan, Woolwich CAO David Brenneman, Region of Waterloo Chair Ken Seiling, Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Michael Harris, and MP Harold Albrecht. There will be live jazz music, a ceremonial council meeting in the old chambers led

by Cowan, and the eight tenants will be on hand to greet visitors from the community.

“Come on in and take a look around and meet everyone,” said Shantz. “By meeting everyone, you’ll be in a very relaxed environment, and it will feel very welcoming.

“It’s open for anyone,” she continued. “And actually, we do have a boardroom upstairs that can be rented by the community.”

As for the future, there is still space available for one or two more businesses on the second floor. She hopes to expand into tinnitus retraining therapy and dizziness and balance areas. There are still

signs to be installed in the front of the building, and there is the option of doing something with the basement (which, once upon a time, was a firing range for the Elmira police). “There’s always sort of something to be done,” said Shantz. “Just little things here and there, maintaining it.”

For history buffs, the best is yet to come: Shantz is hoping to create a historical wall in the main foyer, with pictures of the building’s 100-year history surrounding the preserved safe door.

“I would love it if anyone from the community would offer more history, or show me pictures. I’m looking for input on that,” she said.

Along with those plans for building, she’ll also be concentrating on the centre’s primary goal: wellness.

“I think to just keep doing what we’re doing,” she said of the day-to-day focus. “Just helping and serving people in a healthcare environment.”

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THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

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LIVING HERE | 27

THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

LIVING HERE CHEF’S TABLE/ DIERRE ACHESON

EDUCATION / EXPANDED WORLDVIEW

There’s more to soup than the basics

Quickly learning the value of gaining a new perspective Five foreign exchange students at EDSS adjusting to the North American way of life WILL SLOAN Elmira District Secondary School has once again opened its doors to five foreign exchange students from Europe. Now that Alix Trémoureux, Léa Fournier, Adèle Sage, Melina Schònemann, and Leonardo De Flaviis have had time to adjust to life in Elmira, they can weigh into whether North America lived up to their expectations.

“Before leaving, I thought coming here was like going to an American country,” said Leonardo De Flaviis, from Italy. “So I was waiting for things that I have watched in films and telefilms. And that happened, actually.

For me, it’s like living in a film.

“So, at school: all the lockers. I watched for many years TV shows with the lockers. And the yellow school bus!” he laughed.

“I’ve got 300 pictures of yellow buses,” said Alix Trémoureux, from France, with a laugh. “We’ve seen all these kind of American things in movies, and we wanted to take part in it. It’s like the American dream – but North American.”

You heard it here first: there might be global tensions but that idea of “the American dream” is still a powerful – if vaguely

RECIPE NOTES

EDSS foreign exchange students Alix Trémoureux, Léa Fournier, Adèle Sage, and Leonardo De Flaviis point to where they came from. They’ll be attending school in Elmira until November.

[WILL SLOAN / THE OBSERVER]

goofy – concept across the pond.

“Even the idea of the newspaper in the morning,” laughed De Flaviis.

“You open the door – oh, a newspaper! It’s so strange.”

In other words: it’s “so far, so good” for the students. Living here until November with local EDSS students (Sophia Harder, Sonya Martin, Haley Bauman, Em-

ily O’Connor, and Aidan Reid, who will join them in their home countries in February), the Europeans have plenty of praise for school staff and students.

“They really want us to understand what they are saying,” said Trémoureux. “When we don’t, we can just ask and they’ll repeat it a bit slower for us, and change the words to be sure we’ll really understand what they’re

saying.”

Not to say there hasn’t been an adjustment. “It takes a long time to get used to it,” said De Flaviis of the North American customs. “Just things like the meals – for me, it’s unusual eating supper at 6. Here we eat at 8, 8:30.”

“I have never lived in a small town, so there are things that are different,” added Trémoureux. “In the morning, I need more

time to go to high school, whereas at home I just walk seven or eight minutes and I’m at school.

Here, you have to take a car for everything.”

For Stathoula Paleshi, the exchange coordinator at EDSS, such revelations are part of what make foreign exchange programs important.

“They enrich both the

In our kitchen, soup is always on the list of items to make. For some reason, all week I have been thinking about smoked items to play with: smoked turkey, sausage or ham provides another layer of depth and flavour to soup and pot pies. We are currently enjoying the company of a butcher who provides his local ingredients for us to make signature items for his shop.

Soup seems so basic, but to make a good one takes time, skill and love.

Nurturing a good pot of soup starts with the basics: onions, flavour agents such as herbs and garlic, and a tasty stock. Soups can be thickened in many ways; some include flour but my favourite are thickened with vegetables, potato, sweet potato or tomato.

The flavour is clean and fresh, and the ingredients shine through. This method of cooking allow vegans,

STUDENTS | 29

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28 | LIVING HERE

THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

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SEPTEMBER 28

OCTOBER 3

BOARD GAMES IN BRESLAU! Enjoy or interested in playing board games? Come out and meet others in your community who share a similar interest. There will be a wide variety of games to play including “euro” games, war games, strategy games and party games. Bring your favourite games to play and learn some now games; 1-11 p.m. at Breslau Community Centre, 100 Andover Dr., Breslau; $2. Questions: boardgamers@rogers.com.

Children under 16 are welcome to attend and participate if accompanied by a parent who is participating.

CAREGIVER SUPPORT – FIRST Thursday of the month (September to June) 10-11 a.m. at Woolwich Community Health Centre, 10 Parkside Dr., St. Jacobs.

An informal group of caregivers who are acquainted with the struggles you experience. Come and talk or just listen while enjoying a cup of tea. For more information, call Lorraine at 59-664-3794, ext. 229.

ST. MARYS, LINWOOD AND St. Josephs, Macton Beef and Pork Dinner, Linwood Recreation Complex. Doors open at 5 p.m. Dinner at 6 p.m. Door prizes. Adults $14 in advance, $15 at door, kids 5-12 $7, under 5 free For tickets contact Gloria Kittle at 519-698-2577 or Bonnie Denstedt at 519-698-2222.

WHILE AT THE WELLESLEY Apple Butter and Cheese Festival, visit the WTHHS Historical Room at the Old School, 1137 Henry St., Wellesley, on Saturday, September 28, between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. and enjoy displays and interesting historical facts about Wellesley Township. The Historical Room is open on the last Saturday of every month except in December. Free admission.

STRESS REDUCTION & PREVENTION of depression & anxiety based on mindfulness. Tuesdays, Oct. 8 to Nov. 26, 6:30-9 p.m. at Woolwich Community Health Centre. Open to all residents of Woolwich and Wellesley townships. No fee. Contact Joy at 519-6643534, ext. 230.

ME? BREASTFEED? – 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Woolwich Community Health Centre, 10 Parkside Dr., St. Jacobs. Find out about breastfeeding, how it can fit your lifestyle and how to be successful. Led by Breastfeeding Buddies who are expert trained mothers. For information: Michelle Buckner at 519772-1016 or email to mbuckner@kdchc.org.

THE LIONS CLUB OF Elmira Bingo – 7 p.m. at Elmira Lions Hall, 40 South St., Elmira. All proceeds go to support the many projects of the Lions Club of Elmira.

For more information call 519-572-2669.

DRAYTON UNITED CHURCH TURKEY Supper from 5-7 p.m., P.M.D. Community Centre, Drayton. Tickets at the door. Adults $15; children 5-12 yrs $5; preschoolers free.

PARTICIPATE IN A BOTTLE drive fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald House near McMaster Hospital.

Funds to be presented to family of local Elmira girl with recent brain tumour surgery. Bottle drive to take place in Elmira. Bottles can be dropped off at 76 Duke St., Elmira or call Kevin at 519-669-5329 for pick-up.

Bottles can be placed on front porch if you wish to participate.

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OCTOBER 6 WOOLWICH COMMUNITY SERVICES KICKOFF event for the sometimes ... capital campaign. The event will take place form 2-4 p.m. at Lions Hall in Elmira.

Presentation on future plans will take place at 2:30 p.m.

All welcome. Live music, face painting, light snacks and refreshments, and other activities will be available.

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OCTOBER 9 SENIORS COMMUNITY DINING AT noon (doors open at 11:30 a.m.). Calvary United Church, 48 Hawkesville Rd., St. Jacobs. Cost: $11. Community Care Concepts invites you to join us for a hot noonday meal, fellowship and entertainment. Call 519-664-1900 by Oct. 7 to sign up.

OCTOBER 5

OCTOBER 10

BRESLAU LIONS CLUB WILL host its second annual fundraising family fish fry serving a delicious perch dinner with all the fixings. Dinner runs from 5-6:30 p.m.; adults $20; children 6-12 are $12; kids under 6 eat free. Reservations are strongly encouraged.

Contact Dennis Lougheed at 519-213-1397 or visit the Breslau Community Centre to obtain tickets.

NEW HORIZONS WELCOMES ALL zoomers, boomers and seniors. Enjoy coffee or tea and a delicious snack. Speaker: Jennifer Moss – Positively Powerful, the Smile Epidemic. Be inspired and socialize; $2 per person; 10-11:30 a.m. at the Maryhill Community Centre. For more information call Joan Haid at 519648-2742 or email at jehaid@explorenet.ca.

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LIVING HERE | 29

THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

STUDENTS: Gaining from their exposure to the different way we do things in North America FROM | 27

students who participate, but also our schools. It brings a new perspective to our school. It allows us a chance to appreciate everything that we have – like we heard about the yellow school buses – but also reflect, because of the experience these students bring, how we can improve our schools.”

They can also bring new insight to familiar school subjects, she added.

“Hearing their opinions in a history class, for

In February, the European students will host Sophia Harder, Sonya Martin, Haley Bauman, Emily O’Connor, and Aidan Reid in their homes across the pond.

[WILL SLOAN / THE OBSERVER]

example, is an easy one.

Grade ten history tends to be the Canadian perspective; hearing an opinion on World War I from a French or German or Italian perspective is totally different.”

“In a history lesson, we had to imagine the most easy way for Germany to take France,” said Trémoureux. “We’ve never experimented with this!”

As for the EDSS students, they’re excited about the prospect of immersing themselves in a foreign country. “I like the

idea of living in another culture and learning,” said Sonya Martin. “Because it’s one thing to go and stay somewhere for a few weeks, but it’s another to actually experience it for a few months.”

“I think it allows students to open up their minds to different things,” said Paleshi of the program. “Their values will be challenged while they’re abroad, because things are done differently in different countries. It enriches the individual.”

CHEF’S TABLE: It’s the extras that really help make the soup FROM | 27

and those with wheat allergies to enjoy our soups as well.

So whether you enjoy a stick-to-your-ribs soup or something light and tasty, these recipes will inspire you to get out the soup pot and wooden spoon. Don’t forget some crusty bread and crackers. Happy cooking!

Smoked Ham Hock Soup Sautee 1 onion 1 leek, sliced into rings 1 carrot, diced

2 stalks celery, sliced 2 cloves of garlic, chopped 2 bay leaves 8 sprigs of thyme

Season with salt and pepper.

Add-ons 9 cups of pork hock stock 1 can tomato paste 1 can diced tomatoes 1 can of mixed beans Salt and pepper Chopped parsley

In large pot, sauté onions, leek, carrot, celery, garlic, bay leaves and thyme. Sweat vegetables until translucent; Add tomato paste, stir until bright orange (turn the heat down); Add broth, and diced tomato; simmer until vegetables are tender; Add canned beans, shredded pork hock;

Smokey Tomato Soup 2 tbsp olive oil 2 roasted red peppers 1 onion, julienned 3 cloves of garlic 1 tbsp smoked sweet paprika 2 tbsp Italian seasoning

2 bay leaves 1/2 can of tomato paste 2 cans of plum tomatoes 1 can of tomato juice 1/4 tomato juice can of water Season with salt and pepper

In preheated pot, put in olive oil, onion garlic, spices and bay leaves. Sauté until onions are translucent; Add tomato paste, stir to combine; Add tomatoes, tomato juice and roasted red pepper. Simmer for approximately 25 minutes, remove bay leaves and puree; Season with salt and pepper.

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30 | LIVING HERE

THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

STRANGE BUT TRUE / BILL & RICH SONES PH.D.

It may be America’s pastime, but baseball may not have been invented there WEIRD NOTES

Q. Is it possible that

America’s “National Game� could have been invented somewhere else?

A. Actually, scholar David

Block has discovered proof that “base ball� (two words) was being played in England in 1755 and was mentioned in English books as early as the 1740s, answers Dorothy Seymour Mills in “Chasing Baseball: Our Obsession with Its History, Numbers, People and Places.�

The earliest evidence of play in the U.S. points to the 1790s, although an

English book mentioning the game of base ball came into print in the U.S. in the 1740s.

This discovery has startled scholars of the game. Although they knew that the English were playing base ball very early, they couldn’t be sure the English created the game, since for centuries people around the world have enjoyed a game uncommonly similar to it, including the Germans, the Russians and the Finns. In fact, simple sketches show ancient Mayans, Greeks and Egyptians playing some version of an older stick-and-ball game.

Furthermore, games like baseball, hopscotch and others may boast even more ancient origins, prehistoric rather than his-

toric. “So the modern game of baseball that Americans like to consider their own creation may have truly primitive ancestry in spiritual and religious rites. It could have evolved from there into the polite social game played in eighteenthcentury England.�

Q. He was 82 when he died of complications from a stroke and heart attack, on the very day in 2002 that he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, having already been enshrined in the Automotive Hall of Fame. To a curious world, his family offered assurances that “Yes, he had used it every time.� Used what?

A. Hired by Volvo as its first safety engineer in 1958, Swedish engineer

Nils Bohlin took barely a year to devise, engineer and test a double-strap, triple-anchor seatbelt, cited as one of the eight most important patents of the century, says editor and contributor Randy Alfred in the book “Mad Science.� “It was simple and efficient.� It restrained the upper body and could be buckled securely with one hand while keeping the buckle away from the passenger’s soft abdomen.

Previous auto seat belts hadn’t restrained the upper body and often even caused internal injuries in high-speed crashes.

The three-point belt started saving lives almost immediately, with numbers now exceeding a

million! And as the Bohlin family assured the world after his death, “He had buckled up every time!�

Q. Did calling junk mail “spam� hurt the sale of Spam?

A. Our thanks to Amanda

Green and Matt Soniak of “Mental Floss� magazine for that “pressing question,� the kind that keeps deep thinkers awake at night.

To get some sleep, begin with the fact that Hormel Foods introduced its “delicious portmanteau of spiced ham� in 1937. The email version, on the other hand, is harder to trace. Internet legends peg the term “spam� to a Monty Python sketch and early chatroom banter. “When Usenet adminis-

trator Richard Depew in 1993 accidentally posted the same message to a discussion group 200 times, a computer nerd named Joel Furr called it ‘spam,’ and the term caught on.�

Though the canned meat titan lost a 2007 trademark lawsuit with the software company “Spam Arrest,�

Hormel saw its revenues shoot up by 24% in the first quarter of 2013, and it recently launched its first digital campaign, “meaning we could be on the brink of getting spam from Spam.�

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Bill is a journalist, Rich holds a doctorate in physics. Together the brothers bring you “Strange But True.� Send your questions to strangetrue@compuserve.com.

OBSERVER CROSSWORD PUZZLER

ACROSS 2. Mourning ID 8. Arsenic element 10. Fungal spore sacs 13. ___ spumante 15. Correcting 18. Associate degree in Nursing 19. Of me 20. Delivery vehicle 22. Devices to measure weather 24. Enclose for support 27. Twigs of willow tree 28. Bad tempers 31. Software program, briefly 33. Male pronoun 34. Male title 35. Set to zero 37. The C in “CMYK�

39. Store convenience, for short

41. Not much 43. Knack 45. Plural of “I�

46. Exemption based on prior history (2wrds) 51. Tiny amount 52. Earlier in time than 53. Half width of em dashes 55. Opposite of “out�

56. Type of sausage 57. Staggering gait 58. Two-four of beer 60. Passport, license 61. June 6, 1944 63. Chuck 66. Central part 67. “Get your hands off me!�

DOWN 1. A person’s reputation 2. Atomic number 85 element 3. Contestants you hope to defeat 4. Type of payments 5. Morning 6. Beak of a bird 7. Genetics 8. Andy’s radio partner 9. Study of linguistic flow 10. Light to insect 11. “Wheels�

12. Present moment (short) 14. Exact reflection 16. Refuse 17. Literally born 21. Against 23. Catch a glimpse of 25. “To __, or not...�

26. Album by Peter Gabriel 29. Habeas corpus, e.g.

30. Infernal 32. Dog’s “dogs�

33. Beldam 36. “Snowy� bird 38. Destitute 40. Master’s degree 42. Bleat 44. Member of Red Hot Chilli Peppers 47. 90 48. Hairstyle 49. Victorian, for one 50. ___ Today 54. PH under 7 55. Iland abbrev.

59. Make sense, with “up�

62. Bridal path 64. Paired with “aah�

65. Blue hue

SIGN LANGUAGE?

OPEN 24 HOURS | 7 DAYS A WEEK

DELIV SER ERY AVAILVICE Call fo ABLE rD

etails

315 Arthur St. S., Elmira | 519-669-5403

SUDOKU CHALLENGE

HOW TO PLAY: Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9 only once. Each 3x3 box is outlined with a darker line. We have got you started with a few numbers already placed in the boxes.

Toying around with ideas for controlling parking on Snow Goose Drive in Elmira, perhaps the township was taking aim at clown cars given the gap between the parking and stop signs.

LIVING HERE | 31

THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

MAKING IT OFFICIAL AT THE EDSS U

STORE CLOSING SALE! SALE ENDS SEPT. 28 @ 5PM

EDSS graduate Margaret Stinson and EDSS student Matthew Schwendinger, along with members of Landscape Ontario Waterloo chapter, cut the ribbon at Wednesday morning’s grand opening of the EDSS U. Inset: students Megan Meisener, Alanna Metzger, Samantha Riedeout Ashley Schmidt, Nicloe Playford, and Matt Schwendinger. [ELENA MAYSTRUK / THE OBSERVER]

ELMIRA LOCATION ONLY

25%OFF

*

LEGION RECEIVES FUNDING

ALL IN-STOCK ITEMS

• Hockey • Bicycles • Softball * In-stock, Off Regular Price

KITCHENER 519.579.2453

ELMIRA 519.669.8799

www.brauns.com

Waterloo-Wellington Community Health Centres (CHCs) celebrate Community Health and Wellbeing Week from September 30th to October 6th Gordon Moore, Dominion president of the Royal Canadian Legion, accepted a $20,000 donation for the 2014 Dominion Track and Field event from Program Insurance Brokers, RWAM, and Home Hardware at an open house event September 19 at the insurer’s Elmira head office.

www.OnceUponAChildKitchener.com

Get your kids ready for going

[WILL SLOAN / THE OBSERVER]

THANKS for making us the #1 Weekly in Canada, Ontario, Region of Waterloo.

BACK to SCHOOL!

Community Health Centres (CHCs) are accredited, non-profit organizations that have provided primary health care in Ontario for more than 30 years. CHCs employ interdisciplinary teams of health providers such as nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers, dietitians and health promoters, and physicians on salary. CHCs provide primary health care and a range of health promotion, illness prevention and community development programs and services. For more information about CHCs, please check out our websites today!

Thousands of the Thousand s of the COOLEST CLOTHING

AND ACCESSORIES to choose from!

www.guelphchc.ca 519 – 821 -6638

Kids clothing

www.kdchc.org 519 -745 -4404

from newborn to girls youth size 16 & boys youth size 18

www.langs.org 519 -653 -1470

Mon.-Fri. 9:30am - 8:00pm Sat. 9:30am - 5:30pm Sun.12:00pm - 5:00pm

Located in the Forest Glen Plaza 31-700 Strasburg Rd. Kitchener Kitchener |519-208-2233

Supported by:

www.wchc.on.ca 519 -664 -3794

32 | BACK PAGE

Artist’s Concept

THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

Perfect

In Every Way!

Intimate, Affordable, Secure, The Allan Suites Condominiums in Historic Elora At last, a condominium with suites large enough to actually accommodate your needs priced at less than other condominiums smallest suites. Located in the historic village of Elora, the Allan Suites Condominiums offer a carefree lifestyle in close proximity to shopping, dining and a variety of recreational amenities.

Priced from the mid

$200s

1.800.881.3787 www.keatinghomes.ca

Condominium living gives you a freedom most other homeowners do not have, as you can travel for extended periods of time without having to worry about maintaining your home.

The Allan Suites Condominiums offer additional amenities, as well, including an exercise room, guest suite, indoor bicycle storage and a spacious common room ideal for large parties or family functions.

What’s more, the Allan Suites Condominiums are very eco-friendly as heating and cooling is provided through geothermal energy by means of a ground-source heat pump that also provides substantial savings on utility bills.

Suite sizes range from just over 1,000 sq. ft. to well over 1,800 sq. ft. with professionally designed gourmet kitchens, covered verandas and huge windows for lots of natural light.

Best of all, the Allan Suites Condominiums are developed and built by award-winning James Keating Construction, a trusted name in new home construction for nearly six decades!

Be among the first to tour the model suite currently under construction and slated for completion in November by calling or registering on line.