The Voice
Larry “BILKO” THE Bilkszto PAPER THAT PELHAM READS
CELEBRATING OUR 20TH YEAR
Your Local Sales Representative 905-563-3330 • 905-641-1110
DEBBIE PINE
RE/MAX® Garden City
SALES REPRESENTATIVE 905.892.0222 SELL phone: 905-321-2261
Niagara Real Estate Center, Brokerage Independently Owned & Operated
debbiepine@royallepage.ca
Realty Inc., Brokerage
Larry “BILKO” Bilkszto Your Local Sales Rep.
LOOKING TO BUY OR SELL?
Since 1989, “BILKO” has been working overtime assisting clients with all of their Real Estate needs. Call today and put “BILKO” to work for you!
905-563-3330 • 905-641-1110 WWW.BILKO.CA BILKO@RGCMAIL.COM
www.bilko.ca
bilko@rgcmail.com Vol.21 No.2
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
FREE
Cherry Ridge 1, DSBN 0
Column Six Mr. Peanut has it in for me
In soccer field tussle, memo to school board is resounding no BY VOICE STAFF At its last meeting, Town Council voted unanimously not to engage in further discussion with the District School Board of Niagara over the Board’s request to acquire a portion of Cherry Ridge Park, situated next to the former E. W. Farr Public School in Fenwick, now undergoing renovation to reopen as the controversially renamed Wellington Heights school. Having witnessed a formidable amount of opposition, not only from residents of the Cherry Ridge neighbourhood but also throughout the entire town, and taking into consideration concerns raised by Town staff, Council decided that the wiser course was to effectively rip-up the memorandum of understanding it quietly reached
with the DSBN last summer. “Last meeting, or the meeting before, we received a petition from pretty much every household,” said Mayor Augustyn. “We listened, and we heard, and the petition was a clear ‘No.’” Councillor Gary Accursi took a tour and didn’t like what he saw. “When I went out there and looked at the park and the implications for it, I think taking a soccer field out of part of that park would personally destroy the park and really lower its usability,” he said. “Quite frankly, just around the corner we have wonderful soccer pitches that had been developed in Centennial Park and have easy access from the school.” See TUSSLE Page 11
BY JILLIAN EMERSON
Special to the VOICE
Arrival at A. K. Wigg.
VOICE PHOTO
Contest winners are Fire Chiefs for the day BY VOICE STAFF Pelham’s Fire Prevention Officer, Will Underwood, dropped off the winners of the Fire Chief for a Day poster contest, Jayne Stefanik, Grade 7, and McKenna Halsted, Grade 3, at A.K. Wigg Public School on the snowy morning of Friday, April 7 (see additional photo, page 8). The contest encouraged kids to create a drawing based on the theme, “Working Smoke Alarms Save Lives.” The two winners were celebrated by the Town at the beginning of the April 3 Town Council meeting. Underwood said the kids put a lot of effort into their posters, and came up with creative ways to help educate the public about fire safety.
“Schools are the first place we need to start educating people about fire safety,” said Underwood. Smoke alarms need to be maintained regularly, he said, which means they should be tested once a month, and batteries should be changed when Daylight Savings Time starts, and when it ends. Smoke alarms should also be replaced every 10 years, and residents should have a rehearsed home fire escape plan with two ways out of every room to ensure they don’t get trapped in a fire, he said. Underwood also said for people to be safe they need to have working carbon monoxide alarms, as they are the only way to tell if the odourless, tasteless, and colourless deadly gas is present.
A Day in the Life: Bob O'Hara hates the cold BY SAMUEL PICCOLO
Special to the VOICE
B
OB O’HA R A HA D JUST returned from his winter break and was in, for him, a bad mood. During his two-month absence, his friend Bev had taken good care of his junk shop, but her efforts to keep the interior tidy had led her to leave the larger items outside, covered by tarps and sheets. O’Hara was worried that the multi-coloured plastic patchwork would lead to complaints to the Town, and the Town would complain to his landlord, and his landlord would com-
Today is as good a day as any to let life happen, one deal at a time plain to him, and, maybe, not lease him the adjacent warehouse into which O’Hara wanted to expand. “I’d hate to lose this corner. It’s a good spot. And I’d like to get that warehouse.” Having spent two months in the Dominican Republic, where satellite television was cheap, Tennis Channel included, O’Hara had upgraded his cable package when he
returned home and was dismayed to learn that it would run him $40 a month. He said, “How is it that a third-world country has better and cheaper television than us?” And it was snowing. He was bent at the waist, shovelling with a shovel far too short. The spidered blood vessels of his face were accentuated by the cold, and his eyes, blue and aqueous on
the driest of days, had acquired in the weather an advanced degree of liquidity that made them seem almost artificial. After depositing each load of snow onto an enlarging bank, he stood upright and shook his hands to send blood to his arthritic fingers. “It was supposed to be warm when I got back. I guess I shouldn’t have run out of money so fast. It doesn’t feel good to be broke.” Still, he didn’t dwell on the negative. Instead of talking about the Tennis Channel’s expense, he talkSee A DAY IN THE LIFE Page 3
DEBBIE PINE
E
VERY PA R E N T’S worst fear is that their child will fall ill. This was a reality my own mother faced in November 1996. My father, Stephen, and his friend Mike Vaughan had gone to a cabin in Baysville, Ontario to go hunting for the week, and my mother, Sandy, and Mike’s wife, Chris, decided to join the men, each bringing their young child with them. I was just over one year old at the time, and the Vaughans’ son Lucas was almost two. Lucas was older, so he could eat toast with peanut butter, a treat I had not yet experienced. Since I was stuck eating my toast with normal butter, Lucas generously gave me a bite of his toast when our moms weren’t looking. When my mom turned back to check on us she saw me chewing on Lucas’ toast. Almost instantly I broke out in big red hives all over my body. The nearest hospital was 35 KM away in Bracebridge and the men had taken the car when they went hunting. Not knowing what else to do, my mom put me in her bed and sat beside me for hours and just watched me sleep. Thankfully after a very long nap I woke up and See ALLERGY Page 10
NIAGARA REAL ESTATE CENTER, Brokerage 1815 Merritville, Hwy 1 FONTHILL, ON
SALES REPRESENTATIVE
905.892.0222
NIAGARA / FONTHILL, ON Cremation/Burial
RE/MAX®
GARDEN CITY REALTY INC., BROKERAGE
debbiepine@royallepage.ca SELL phone: 905-321-2261
We can help you get your ducks in a row
James L. Pedlar Funeral Home (905) 892-5762
Our family serving your family