The Creemore
Echo Happy Easter!
Thursday, April 21, 2011 Vol. 11 No. 16
Inside the ECHO
This Speech Goes On
Judah celebrates with Norma in Paisley. PAGE 9
News and views in and around Creemore
A Big Milestone
Morley Scriver celebrates his 90th. PAGE 10
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SHOULD WE SAVE THE COLLINGWOOD STREET BRIDGE?
Photo BryanDavies.com
GREEN THUMBS GALORE Avid gardeners Laura Jardine and Marg Rowbotham were making the rounds at last weekend’s Get Growing Creemore Garden and Home Show, picking up some pointers and products for the spring season. For more pictures from the annual event, see pages 8 and 9.
Echo Briefs Bear Alley Cleanup
A Barnraising Dance in Duntroon
Green Party candidate Jace Metheral will mark Earth Day a day late by hosting a community clean-up at local party spot Bear Alley on Saturday, April 23. To take part, meet Metheral and his team at the corner of Airport Road and Nottawasaga 6/7 Sideroad at 9:45 am.
Duntroon Central Public School will host a “Raise the Barn” Dance from 6 to 9 pm on Friday, April 29, with all proceeds going to Gord Kemp and Teza Lawrence and their efforts to erect a new barn in place of the one that burnt last month. Admission is by donation and all are welcome.Stayner bluegrass band The Gulleys will be playing and Walker Aggregates has pledged to match all donations up to $2,000.
by Brad Holden With Simcoe County getting ready to replace the 98-yearold one-lane truss bridge that helps Collingwood Street span the Mad River this summer, Creemore residents Barry Burton and John Hillier made a presentation to Council Monday night that suggested it might be possible, and cheaper, to simply restore the bridge and save a valuable piece of Mad River heritage. Burton noted that the Environmental Assessment done by the County had decided the bridge was an “irreplaceable heritage structure,” but at the estimated cost of $900,000 to replace the bridge with a twolane concrete structure similar to the Caroline Street bridge, preserving it was cost-prohibitive. Burton had gathered over 200 signatures on a petition that was submitted on the County during the EA period, and was disappointed with the outcome. And not just for the heritage value – Burton also noted that the one-lane bridge acted as a natural speed bump for people coming down the hill into town and immediately entering a school zone. However, the cost estimate for the bridge replacement, scheduled for this summer, has jumped to $2.5 million, which got Burton and his cohorts thinking. What if a full restoration could be done for less money than that? (See “Council” on page 3)
HEAD TO HEAD The Echo was unable to report on Tuesday’s federal debate at the Collingwood Legion, but we did send our photographer Fred Mills to capture some images. Above, from left to right, are Helena Guergis (Independent Conservative), Alex Smardenka (Liberal), Jace Metheral (Green), Katy Austin (NDP), Kellie Leitch (Conservative), Peter Vander Zaag (Christian Heritage Party) and Gord Cochrane (Canadian Action Party). For those of you who missed this event, there is another all-candidates meeting scheduled for 7 pm on Thursday, April 21 at Banting Memorial High School in Alliston. The Echo’s election coverage continues this week with profiles of Helena Guergis and Alex Smardenka on pages 6 and 7. Serving Mulmur & The Creemore Hills for 35 years
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