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Bike lane to park will require ‘property’ By Mike Thibodeau Leamington Council is continuing to expand its marked bicycle lanes within the town, and at its April 9 meeting agreed to spend another $77,400 on that program. But councillors learned that connecting town bike paths to a very popular destination, Point Pelee National Park, will be a challenge. The discussion on that route arose as Council approved a “functional design” contract to Dillon Consulting, which has been doing the work on the sewer and road projects on Point Pelee Dr. That design only covers the bike path from the Sturgeon Creek bridge to Mersea Rd. 12. Administrator Peter Neufeld told Council that it is anticipated the remaining distance will have to go “off-road” on properties on the north side of the road. From Road 12 to the park gate the road is too narrow, said Neufeld. He said the town will “really have something going when it can offer safe passage” for bikers and walkers right up to the park gate. To build that path, he said the town will have to acquire property alongside the drain that accommodates farm properties to the north. The Dillon contract was worth $100,000, of which $60,000 will be paid by the town and $40,000 by the County of Essex. Those paths are not expected to be done until the final paving of the road in 2019. Design studies were also approved for three other urban road bicycle lanes at a cost of $29,000, the town paying $17,400 and the County of Essex paying the remainder. The county is involved through its County Wide Active Transportation System (CWATS), the effort to expand biking and hiking trails throughout the seven municipalities. That contract went to RC Spencer which has already completed a number bike lanes here. The new lanes will go on: Talbot West from the trail to Albert St.; Talbot St. East from Victoria to County Rd. 33; and along Seacliff Dr. from Erie to Branton Dr.
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Leamington resident Kevin O’Neil reads through some of the messages left by Leamington Kinsmen Recreation Complex visitors on a registry provided by Reid Funeral Home. The registry was set up as part of a display in the LKRC’s main lobby featuring memorabilia O’Neil collected while serving on the board of directors and as an assistant trainer with the Humboldt Broncos from the late 1970s to mid 1980s. (SUN Photo)
Broncos tribute on display at LKRC By Bryan Jessop A local connection to the Saskatchewan junior hockey team devastated by a highway collision has allowed for a fitting tribute to those affected by the tragedy. Leamington resident Kevin O’Neil, a former member of the board of directors and assistant trainer for the Humboldt Broncos, has made arrangements to have memorabilia he collected as a representative of the team placed on display in one of the trophy cases along the south wall of the Leamington Kinsmen Recreation Complex main lobby. Items include a team jacket, jersey, pucks and banners O’Neil acquired while he served with the team for about six years from the late 1970s to mid 1980s. The Friday, Apr. 6 crash involving the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League team’s bus and a transport that claimed 16 lives of players and support staff has triggered an outpouring of sorrow across the country, but has had a particularly strong affect on the O’Neils. “This has been a very sad week for us,” said Kevin. “The community of Humboldt will always be special to me. They welcomed us with open arms. The people there are so warm and friendly.” O’Neil, originally from Windsor, arrived in Humboldt for his first posting as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer in 1978. As an avid sports fanatic, it didn’t take him long to gravitate towards Humboldt’s Elgar Petersen Arena and become a fan of local teams. With his wife Judy quick to take on a job at the local credit union, Kevin soon joined the Broncos as a member of its board of directors.
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“The RCMP always liked its officers to become involved in their communities,” he explained. In the early 1980s, the Broncos brought aboard a new coach whom O’Neil explained set out to build a tough, physical team. To assist with that objective, the born and raised Windsorite — along with his RCMP partner Ian McLean who originally hailed from Alberta — established a dry land training regime for players similar to the program organized for RCMP officers. “It was an unusual thing to do at the time,” O’Neil explained. “The players had no idea how strong they had become from it, but they saw the benefits — they became a strong team from the start to the end of every game.” During his tenure with the Broncos, O’Neil also submitted game reports to the Humboldt Journal and recorded statistics for the team’s coaching staff. “People don’t understand how important junior hockey is to a lot of towns across the country,” he noted. “Here, we have professional hockey, baseball and football teams that aren’t too far away and we take it for granted. In Saskatchewan, we had two TV channels and a lot of people in agriculture with no farming to do in the winter. They spend a lot of time at the local rink. For many, it’s hard to understand how devastating something like this is for the entire community.” After about six-and-a-half years in Humboldt — where Kevin and Judy’s children Stephen and Kristine were born — Kevin received an RCMP transfer to Broadview, Sask., about 340 km southeast of Humboldt and 120 km west of the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border. He remained stationed there for about three years before his family moved back to Essex County, (Continued on Page 8)
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