09162011

Page 1

The Creemore

Echo

Friday, September 16, 2011 Vol. 11 No. 37

Inside the ECHO

Walk N’ Wheel-a-Thon

107 and Going Strong

Creedan Valley’s annual fundraiser.

Alice Mackay celebrates a birthday.

PAGE 12

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News and views in and around Creemore

Publications Mail Agreement # 40024973

DRIVER JUMPS AND GRAVEL TRUCK CRASHES ON DUNTROON HILL by Brad Holden A tractor trailer hauling a load of sand ended up on its side about 20 metres off the north side of County Road 91 west of Duntroon Friday, after its 68-year-old driver from Nova Scotia jumped out of the truck’s cab further up the road. After a trip to General & Marine Hospital, the driver was airlifted to Saint Michael’s Hospital in Toronto with serious life threatening injuries. While speculation is that the driver bailed because the truck’s brakes failed, an investigation is ongoing with the aid of the Central Region OPP Technical Traffic Collision Investigation. The Echo was unable to confirm whether the truck was hauling from Walker Aggregates, but nevertheless the crash will loom over the company, since the safety of County Road 91, which is steep and undulating right into the village of Duntroon, was a major topic at last year’s still unresolved OMB hearing regarding the planned expansion of the Walker site. “From our point of view this is exactly what we were talking about,” said Janet Gillham, a member of the Clearview Community Coalition, the residents group that fought the expansion. “There have been many incidents and many accidents on that road and this is another one. Thank God there wasn’t a car coming up the other way.” The Echo put a call in to Walker Aggregates but had not heard back at press time.

The upturned truck in a field beside County Road 91. The driver had bailed further up the hill.

Council passes amendments to DC Act by Brad Holden In an effort to encourage commercial/ industrial growth in the Township, Clearview Council voted to introduce several discounting measures in its Development Charges Act Monday night, despite concerns from the audience and at least one Councillor that the move might have some effect on property taxes. In a rush to get the changes through, Council held a public meeting on the matter Monday night and then voted on the amendments later in the meeting. During the public meeting portion, Township treasurer Edward Henley gave a presentation that attempted to explain the proposed amendments as well as why they were needed. Clearview’s Development Charges Act was last updated in 2009, when there was a vastly different view about how much growth we could expect over the next 20 years. As a result, Clearview’s DCs for

commercial and industrial development are some of the highest in the County. In Stayner, you pay $12.46 per square foot; in Creemore, $13.26; in New Lowell, $8.77; and in Nottawa and all rural areas, $4.34. The problem is that, with the economy now in the doldrums, the Township is experiencing almost no growth. For example, in 2010, projections show that Clearview should have gained 3,798 square metres of commercial/industrial space. Instead, only 33 square metres arrived. More showed up this year, but in several cases the applicants told Council that they found the development charges unfair. Smith Brothers Baseball, for instance, a planned indoor baseball facility for New Lowell, was going to have to pay tens of thousands of extra development charges to cover the extra square footage needed for the facility’s playing field. That application, and a few others, had been reduced (See “No promise” on page 3)

VOLUNTEER LABOUR Pat Raible and others have been working hard “chinking” the old Log Cabin. For more information, see page 12.

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