The Voice of Pelham, March 22 2017

Page 1

The Voice

Larry “BILKO” THE Bilkszto PAPER THAT PELHAM READS 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

CELEBRATING OUR 20TH YEAR

Realty Inc., Brokerage

www.bilko.ca

bilko@rgcmail.com Vol.20 No.54

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

FREE

New arena user agreements may not be binding In some cases, language used seems not to obligate usage BY ZACH JUNKIN

See ARENAS Page 6

RE/MAX® Garden City Realty Inc., Brokerage

www.bilko.ca bilko@rgcmail.com

Column Six Empathy versus scorn

BY SAMUEL PICCOLO

Special to the VOICE

H

INCOMING, 2 O'CLOCK HIGH Joshua and Kaylee Loc gave as good as they got in a snowball fight at Marlene Stewart Streit Park after last week's winter-capping snowstorm. SCOTT HOOPER PHOTO

Timmsdale demolition imminent

Jeffs in race for PC nomination

BY VOICE STAFF The process of demolishing the Timmsdale House is underway, according to Director of Community Planning and Development, Barb Wiens. The appearance of a large storage container on the property at 202 Hwy 20 West has reignited public interest in what the new owners have planned for the building, which was originally constructed in 1942 by Reg Timms. Last July, Council received a request to designate the property as a heritage site from residents and neighbours concerned about the preservation of local history. Council decided not to apply the heritage designation after receiving a report from Shoalts Engineering that the necessary repairs to the structure would cost an estimated $2.2 million. The fact that the Municipal

Your Local Sales Representative 905-563-3330 • 905-641-1110

How to improve your hometown

Special to The VOICE

Last week, the Town of Pelham announced that four user groups have signed five-year agreements for use of the Pelham Community Centre. According to a press release put out by the Town, these partnerships ensure that the Community Centre will exceed initial revenue goals. “These agreements exceed the Town’s revenue goals for the Centre, confirming the demand for a second arena in the new facility,” reads the release. The arena user groups consist of the Pelham Minor Hockey Association, Pelham Jr. B. Hockey Club, the

Larry “BILKO” Bilkszto

BY VOICE STAFF

The Timmsdale House, Hwy. 20 in Fonthill. Heritage Advisory Committee deemed the building a “modern house” that did not possess significant value in terms of local cultural heritage, also contributed to Council’s decision to not designate the property under the Ontario Heritage Act. A demolition permit was issued last summer, but

there has been little action on site to date. Wiens said the Town has yet to see any plans, or engage in discussions with the new owners regarding their intentions with the development, other than a brief telephone discussion with them last fall before they closed on the purchase of the property. At that

VOICE PHOTO

time, Wiens said they had indicated that they wanted to create a seniors’ care and housing facility that would remain in compliance with the institutional zoning of the property. Town staff are anticipating a presentation by the owners of the property, however they have not received notice of when this will take place.

Two-term Wainfleet Mayor and Regional Councillor April Jeffs has declared her intent to stand for the Progressive-Conservative nomination for provincial parliament in the new Niagara Centre riding. An election must be called by June 2018. Jeffs, who holds a degree in tourism from Niagara College, has operated a wedding and portrait photography business for the past 16 years, and has lived in Wainfleet since 1991. “I’m proud to put my name forward to represent you, and all of the hard-working families of Niagara Centre,” said Jeffs in a news release. The nominating meeting is set for Sunday, April 9, in Welland.

A D the Progressive Conservative party won a majority in 2014 and installed thenMPP and party leader Tim Hudak as premier, Niagara-West Glanbrookians of all political persuasions would have found themselves in the centre of provincial politics, even if only by association. Instead, Niagara made its mark in a different way two years later. We elected the youngest MPP in Ontario’s history: 19-year-old Sam Oosterhoff. In fact, the MPP will turn 20 in August, meaning he was barely past 18 when elected last autumn. Whether this electoral distinction is a positive one is, evidently, dependent upon who’s doing the distinguishing. The voters who sent Oosterhoff to Queen’s Park would likely call it an honour. Others, such as writer Julie Mannell, apparently see it as a horror. In “The Comfort Maple myth,” which ran in the Voice on February 8 and is surely one of the most debated articles in the paper’s history, Ms. Mannell is grim about what Oosterhoff’s election signifies. “Something is going awry in the community,” she writes. “Something ugly.” This is not the first time Mannell has written about her hometown. In 2016, in the online magazine The Puritan, she published, “Small Town A**hole,” a confessional memoir that focuses primarily on her relationship with Fonthill. Mannell is nothing if not a persistent provocateur. To understand more fully how she feels about Pelham, and See EMPATHY Page 14


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