The Voice, May 27 2020

Pelham’s COVID-19 infection rate page 3 Town finances shaping up page 11 High school sports in limbo page 17 EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS

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Vol.24 No.21

May 27, 2020

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Canine bliss back in town Centre Street leash-free dog park reopens

BY DON RICKERS

Special to the VOICE

Who let the dogs out?

Looks like it was Ontario Premier Rob Ford.

The mandatory restrictions associated with COVID-19, enacted on April 2, when the provincial government closed non-essential businesses and outdoor recreational facilities, were partly lifted as of last Tuesday, May 19. That means Niagara Region’s leash-free dog park on Centre Street is once again a place to release the hounds.

In a Town statement, Pelham Mayor Marvin Junkin said, “We’re starting to see a return of familiar activities and daily experiences.

We are eager to get going again, but we also want to be smart about how this is done. We continue to follow the advice of Public Health in our decision-making. Our priority is, and always will be, the safety of our residents.”

At the dog park, residents must still abide by restrictions limiting groups to no more than five people and maintaining two metres of physical separation. Best safety and hygiene practices should still be followed, including frequent hand

washing, and owners should remember to “pick up” after their dogs.

The Centre Street park includes two fenced, leashfree areas—for small and large dogs—a covered pavilion, a picnic area, and free parking lot. It is open from 6 AM until 9 PM.

He missed all his little friends Darlene Edwards of Fonthill generally visits the park twice a day with her two-year old Cocker Spaniel, Charlie. During the closure, she was forced to build a fence in her back yard to contain Charlie.

“He missed all his little friends,” Edwards said with a laugh.

Don’t forget about licensing your pooch. The Town of Pelham has not supplied tags for some time, sending owners instead to the Welland and District Humane Society. Registration is also possible online.

Darlene Edwards and her Cocker Spaniel Charlie.

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Page 2

The Voice, May 27, 2020

TOWN COUNCIL NEWS

PUBLISHER’S CORNER

by Dave Burket

That’s a lot of flour—and dough: During a special pancake breakfast fundraiser last Tuesday, the Pelham Street Grille saw 340 pancakes and 340 sausages (two each per order) fly out the door, raising a grand total of $2414 for Pelham Cares.

That works out to an average $14 donation for each order— customers were told they could give as much or as little as they wished. Co-owner Catherine Lafreniere says that several people pushed large bills into the donation box, including at least one $100 bill...Still technically a month away, but whoa: Summer sure arrived with a humid splat over the weekend.

From snow squalls on Mother’s Day to 30 degrees in the shade on Sunday, what a trip May has been. I thought I still had plenty of time to clean the air conditioning condenser coils before we’d need to run the hydro-sucking monster, but no, it’s been fired-up since Sunday with little relief in the forecast...Of course, golfers are loving it: Not only have the dog parks reopened, but so have the golf courses. Golf pro John Piccolo is back with his column this week, but makes no promises it will be a weekly gig. There’s a month or two of work for him to catch up on. He does have some wise counsel, however, that any golfer ought to consider (p. 12)...Arch reaction: Town Council has taken a temporary pass on rebuilding the arches above Pelham Town Square. Not only has COVID-19 disrupted fundraising, but there are now reservations about the proposed design. While the original arches featured relatively graceful curves that narrowed in width the higher they climbed, the new design—meant to last a decade or two— looks distinctly more industrial. Councillor Bob Hildebrandt says it calls to mind a Quonset hut, and unfortunately that pretty much nails it. You wonder whether the entire concept might be worth revisiting. Maybe a series of beautifully carved posts, instead, supporting a seasonal, fabric canopy. The old arches were one-of-a-kind, and letting them go might be the wisest choice...A treasure trove of goodies: Major thanks to three readers who dropped off various historical items last week. Sharon Cook brought in a thick file folder of community centre design committee agendas and newspaper clippings dating back to 2001. Gail Juhle brought in some historical calendars and old Pelham Heralds. And Brian Garrard has loaned us an enormous album of Fonthill photographs dating back decades upon decades. It’s going to take us awhile to scan those, Brian! Many thanks to all for your thoughtfulness...Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes: It was one of those days trying to get the paper finished. Due to the unforeseen arrival of a late ad, a few pages needed to be taken apart and put back together again. That’s why this week we regretfully had to dispense with the crossword. Don’t worry, it’s back next week. But what we didn’t have time to do was deal with the crossword answers. So, just a little oddly, you’ll still find those on page 18. Puzzle solved! See you next week. ♦

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Cost of COVID coming into focus

Pelham Town Council heard the Town’s COVID-19 financial impact forecast during its May 19 meeting, and it’s not good.

Pelham is forecasting a tax levy operating deficit of $408,666 by the end of June, and $849,820 by the end of the year if the present situation remains unchanged.

“If we don’t receive any relief money from [higher levels of government] by the end of June, then we don’t have a stabilization reserve to cover that, so this would be added to the 2021 tax levy,” Treasurer Teresa Quinlin told council, again meeting via video conference.

For the fourth straight meeting, Ward 2 Councillor Ron Kore did not participate.

The Town has already taken some steps, such as deferring substantial public works projects until 2021, and increasing its line of credit to $11 million.

Delaying two of the works projects alone — road and sewer upgrades on Foss and rehabilitating Sulphur Spring Drive — will save $1.5 million. However, Director of Community Planning and Development Barb Wiens said that the sewer upgrades for Foss Road cannot wait forever, with new developments set to come online in the future.

“It’s not going to be impacted immediately,” Wiens said, but adding, “we cannot delay it more than a year.”

Another issue comes with

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Councillor Lisa Haun, lower right, reacts as Mayor Marvin Junkin casts the lone dissenting vote on Haun’s volunteer flower bed planting proposal.

YOUTUBE the absence of development charges. No building permits were issued in April due to the pandemic, resulting in a loss of revenue from fees. That money is usually earmarked to pay down debt on the community centre.

“If we don’t receive that money through the in-year revenues, then we’re going to have to draw on our reserves,” Quinlin said. She said those reserves total $1.7 million.

Niagara Regional Council has supported all local municipalities going to higher levels of government as one voice in an effort to get relief. The most common relief measures for ratepayers currently being implemented by municipalities, including Pelham, are extending payment deadlines

Arches a victim of COVID?

Despite the gloomy forecast, the organizers of the effort to rebuild the arches previously erected above Pelham Town Square took their shot at asking the Town for a $15,000 loan to cover fundraising shortfalls due to the pandemic.

Local business operator and Rotary member Frank Adamson made his pitch.

“What I request is, at this point in time … as council has supported the request by the Concert Series for the landscaping of the park as a loan … we’re asking your consideration to do the same thing,” said Adamson.

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Tricia and Duncan McNaughton, discovering Angra do Heroismo, Terceira, with Vasco da Gama, back in January. It was the third of the nine Islands in the Azorean Archipelago that was discovered.

“We think —not positive — but we think we can provide $3,000 a year over five years.”

Adamson said that the inability to hold public fundraisers has hindered plans for the fully privately-funded arches, as well as seen support wither from companies forced to tighten their belts. He added that the late Councillor Mike Ciolfi had indicated he could provide crane services for construction at no cost, something now unknown.

In total, the cost of the project including a reserve maintenance fund and taxes sits at $123,430.

Arches committee member Bill Gibson said the price is a bargain, citing working

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The Comfort Maple myth

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Column Six

Growing up British

BY JULIE MANNELL

Special to the VOICE

W

BALLOONING INTEREST Grade 6 student Jinja Shepherd explains her experiment on static electricity at the Glynn A. Green Public School's annual science fair last Friday. See story, page 3.

NATE SMELLE PHOTO

Public meeting tonight on school issues

BY VOICE STAFF As questions continue to mount regarding an email that Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn quietly sent to a District School Board of Niagara trustee last summer, Augustyn has agreed to address the issue at a public meeting scheduled for this evening, Wednesday, Feb. 8, in Fenwick.

Nancy Beamer, speaking for “Names Matter,” a Pelham citizens group lobbying the DSBN to reverse its decision to rename a local public school, confirms that the meeting will be held at Fire Station #2, known locally as the Fenwick Fire Hall, starting at 7:00 PM. While the Mayor has agreed to ap-

Under pressure, Mayor to address email revelation, other E. W. Farr matters pear, says Beamer, DSBN officials associated with the school-naming process have either declined to attend or have not yet responded to the group’s invitation.

DSBN Chair, Dale Robinson, to whom Augustyn’s email was addressed last June, has declined to appear, says Beamer, asserting that she would be

“on holidays.” The Voice was unable to independently confirm Robinsion’s intentions. She did not respond to repeated requests for comment on E.W. Farr-related matters before presstime.

Beamer, whose group maintains an email list of some 580 residents, says that all members of the public are invited and encouraged to attend the meeting.

“We would especially welcome parents and children who are unhappy with the name change,” she says, referring to the contentious decision by the DSBN to consolidate two Pelham See MEETING back page

HEN I WAS young, my father and I would go for long drives along the rural routes of Pelham. We’d blast George Thurgood and roll down the windows because we loved the smell of the breeze, the sensation of crisp Niagara wind beating our cheeks and tangling our hair against our summer-kissed skin.

My father was not a sentimental man. He worked in factories and had a Gordon Lightfoot mustache and never shed tears over injuries.

Yet something about the Pelham landscape, the hilly backdrop to his childhood and the childhoods of our ancestors, drew him in. He’d stop by a farm or a gathering of woods and, surrendering his manly veneer, tell me a story about the town.

This place is precious. This is the earth that granted us life. Here is the place where we happened upon love or here is a site of devastation.

On one particular drive sometime in the late ‘90s we stopped at a tree with a plaque.

“This tree looks dead,” I said to my father.

“It sure is getting there, Julie.”

The Comfort Maple is supposedly Canada’s oldest See COLUMN SIX Page 14

Part 2 of 2: Coronation to embarkation

Vol.20 No.32

BY VOICE STAFF

A construction error was discovered following the opening of a traffic calming chicane on Haist Street north of Hwy 20 last Monday that prevented large vehicles from passing through.

One resident living in the neighbourhood said he contacted the Town after seeing a small schoolbus get stuck as it tried to get through the new traffic calming measure. Later that day while driving behind a cement truck, he said that he became concerned for the public’s safety when the truck had to turn around because it couldn’t get through.

“If a small school bus and a cement truck can’t make it through what about a fire

BY HEATHER McLAREN ROHRER

Special to the VOICE

A

Repair measures underway last week to correct a construction error in the chicane. truck or an ambulance?” he said.

While waiting for the contractor to return to fix

the mistake, the Town has taken measures to temporarily allow passage for vehicles through the neigh-

VOICE PHOTO

bourhood in the short-term.

Manager of Public Works Ryan Cook said that after discovering the issue with

the chicane the morning it first opened, the Town See CHICANE Page 5

Petition-inspired changes coming to 2017 Summerfest

BY NATE SMELLE

The VOICE

Representatives from the Pelham Summerfest committee Candy Ashbee and Bill Gibson presented council with a final report on the 2016 Summerfest at the Council meeting on Monday, Nov. 21.

Prompted by a story in the Voice in August about a merchant petition to move Summerfest from Pelham Street, in September Town staff met with various stakeholders to hear their complaints, promising at the time that changes in the way Summerfest was mounted would be con-

sidered.

The main concerns identified during the community engagement process were security, parking, ensuring customer can access all businesses in town, and liability for damages. How to get all Pelham Street businesses to participate and finding ways to make it beneficial for them to set up a booth were also determined to be of high priority for the committee as they plan for next year’s event.

Gibson told Council that the committee is addressing these concerns in a variety of ways. To improve parking, they intend to create bet-

ter signage for out-of-town visitors to designated parking areas and shuttle services. To make participation in Summerfest more enticing to local businesses, they plan to implement a tiered-charge for booths. Under the new system, Pelham Street business owners will be charged the least, other local businesses will pay a slightly higher fee, and vendors from outside Pelham will pay the most. In response to more specific issues for individual businesses, they will also slightly alter the footprint of the event and make adjustments to security.

Another way the committee plans

to improve the 2017 Summerfest is by sponsoring and working with the organizers of the Thursday Night Bandshell Concert series to select the artist performing on the first night of Summefest. They also intend to make more use of the smartphone app they launched in 2016.

"We are really going to push it this year," Ashbee said.

“It really helps to get people to see what events there are so they can plan out where they are going.

We will be able to actually help the merchants and local businesses adSee CHANGES Page 5

FTER LUNCH ON Saturday, Mum and Dad had my afternoon cut out for me. Mum had more brass than anyone I knew, and it had to be cleaned. In addition there was the set of silver fish-knives and forks which were never used, but which had to be cleaned and put back in their velvetlined box.

Next was a walk to the newsagents to pay for the daily delivery of the Daily Mirror. As I said, Dad was a printer, but when he was 37 he had been rejected for a job, as being too old, by the printers of the Beano.

For that reason, my favourite comic was not allowed in the house, but while I was paying the papers, the newsagent let me have a 'shoofty' at the Beano. I'd explained my predicament and he understood completely.

Sundays were different again. Dad would play golf on summer mornings and billiards in winter. Then he'd stop for a 'refresher' at the local and would pick up the prawns, cockles, winkles or whelks we'd be having for tea later. Meanwhile, Mum was roasting the 'joint' and potatoes. I got to make the Yorkshire pud, and mint

Wednesday October 12, 2016

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See COLUMN SIX Page 14

BY VOICE STAFF

The goal is to have these youth develop into confident and well-rounded individuals

ceives them, enabling youth to have experiences that build character, challenge them, and allow them to try new things. The goal is to have these youth develop into confident and wellrounded individuals, better prepared for success. Apple Day helps to achieve that.”

“Any money raised during Apple Day goes towards improving the Scouting program by providing more outdoor adventures for youth, camping equipment, canoes and paddles, training and many other endeavours that the youth want to experience,” says Marie.

Scouts Canada has some 100,000 members across Canada, and carries out programs for boys, girls

Joining their principal, Karen Simpson, at the Sept.

19 Council meeting as part of a delegation from EL Crossley Secondary School, students Abby Loewen and Neenah Williams presented Council with a list of reasons that they should immediately approve the construction of the new sidewalk proposed along Hwy. 20. The asphalt side-

walk/trail is slated to be built between the south side of the road from Timmsdale Crescent to the high school.

Because of the large volume of motor vehicle traffic travelling at high speeds through this area, and because of the necessity for students to tread this path on a daily basis, many residents would like to see the sidewalk go in sooner than later.

After delivering to Council a petition containing

Many residents would like to see the sidewalk go in sooner than later the names of 450 students calling for a safer walk to school, Simpson handed the

podium over to Loewen and Williams to plead their case.

Loewen told Council that because there are a lot of students who have work placements and coop placements during the school year, this is the only route for many of them to travel.

As one of the students facing this predicament, Williams said she has had no other option but to walk along the dangerous highway.

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VOICE Correspondent

and youth ages 5-25. This year the 3rd Fonthill Group, which includes Beavers to Ventures (youth ages 5- 25) will be hitting the streets to drum-up support.

Over the weekend, Scouts will be set up in Fonthill outside Sobeys, Tim Hortons, Target Gas station, Fonthill Shopping Plaza and the Pioneer Gas station at the corner of Hwys 20 and 24.

Town Council approves sidewalk to serve E. L. Crossley

BY NATE SMELLE

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Second year Beaver with the 3rd Fonthill Group, Russell Letford offers a fresh apple to shoppers in Pelham during the 2015 Apple Day campaign.

SUPPLIED PHOTO A longtime Canadian tradition, Apple Day began in 1932 in Saint John, New Brunswick, when Scouts handed out 21,000 apples as a way to say thank you to the community. In return for their generosity, many people offered them donations. From then on Scouts have reached out through Apple Day to raise funds for their programs.

Office 905.892.1702

Column Six It doesn’t get better than Autumn

Longtime Scouting tradition dates to 1932

While shopping in Fonthill between Friday and Sunday, keep an eye out for Beavers, Cubs and Scouts in front of local stores with bushels of apples.

As part of the annual Apple Day campaign, Scouting youth of all ages will be trading apples for donations.

The yearly fundraising drive is an important way for young Scouts to connect with the communities they are serving, says Leah Marie of Scouts Canada.

“The Apple Day campaign holds a great tradition of being able to have youth interacting within the communities they live in,” she says. “All of the Apple Day donations stay directly within the group that re-

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BY VOICE STAFF The District School Board of Niagara is requesting that the Town of Pelham cede a portion of Cherry Ridge Park for use as a soccer field to serve the students of the new Wellington Heights Public School, formerly the E. W. Farr Memorial Public School, in Fenwick.

Currently under renovation and expansion, the new school will combine students and staff from the previous school and Pelham Centre, where classes are being held while construction continues.

Two letters, containing virtually identical text but signed by different authorities, were sent last week to nearby residents of the park, as well as to parents of Pelham Centre students.

“The DSBN is currently building onto Wellington Heights Public School on Alsop Drive,” states the letter. “The size of the school's addition means the existing small soccer field will be eliminated.

The Town and the Board have been discussing the possibility of working together to create a field for both the school and the

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“I start work at 2:30 PM and school lets out at 2:15 PM so I can’t take any other route,” Williams explained.

“I have had friends, family, teachers and other community members reach out to me in the past about how this is unsafe and how there should be another alternative for us.”

Looking ahead to winter, when she will need to walk this path three or four times See SIDEWALK Page 2

HERE IS NO BETTER time to cycle than Fall. It matters not whether you’re new to the sport, a seasoned recreational cyclist, racer, touring rider or mountain biker; we all have reason to look forward to autumn.

Summer’s heat has faded, and the streams of sweat that ran from soggy helmets into our eyes are now just slight perspiration. Fitness is peaking from lots of saddle time, making those tough climbs of Spring a breeze in Autumn.

It’s hard to beat the feeling of beginning a crisp, cool Fall ride with a slight shiver, knowing your efforts will soon warm you perfectly.

The hues of Autumn are outstanding.

A Pelham route as simple as following our southern boundary is one that would make most Toronto cyclists jealous, especially when our forests and fields are ablaze with colour.

Begin from Harold Black Park, and zig-zag south along Effingham Rd toward the Welland River.

If you’re new to cycling, it’s important to know south is the direction away from any hills.

If you avoid the morning and evening weekday rush hours caused by those travelling through Pelham between Wainfleet See AUTUMN Page 3

www.thevoiceofpelham.ca

The Voice, May 27, 2020

Page 3

Pelham has second-highest rate of COVID-19 infection in Niagara Stats don’t support Public Health claim that travel is largely responsible

Pelham exposure by category

BY VOICE STAFF According to statistics released

by Niagara Region Public Health on Thursday, May 21, the municipality of Pelham has seen the second-highest rate of historic COVID-19 infections on the Niagara peninsula since the start of the pandemic.

Pelham’s rate is 17.8 infections per 10,000 residents, far exceeding lower rates seen in eight other Niagara towns.

Welland is highest, with 37 infections per 10,000 residents.

West Lincoln’s rate is the lowest, at 5.1. Six communities have an infection rate of below 7 per 10,000 residents.

Only Niagara Falls approaches Pelham, with 17.2 infections per 10,000 residents. However, in Niagara Falls, 60 percent of cases are tied to healthcare facilities.

There is currently one active infection in Pelham, and the town’s current infection rate is the third lowest in the Region.

“Part of the reason why Pelham has a higher cumulative proportion of cases is that it had proportionally more international travel-related cases in the early weeks of local COVID-19 transmission,” Public Health spokesperson Kerri Stoakely told the Voice.

“Beyond that it is likely due to statistical variation as we have not seen any large clusters of linked infections.”

Yet the Health Department’s own numbers don’t support

Stoakley’s assertion.

In fact, the number of travel-related cases in Pelham is less than half of the non-travel-related cases.

Niagara-on-the-Lake, with similar demographics to Pelham, has by far a proportionately greater number of travel-related cases than does Pelham. And Fort Erie turns the tables entirely, with more than double the number of travel-related versus non-travel-related infections.

COVID-19 cases by outbreak category are also notably different in Pelham.

In other Niagara towns, a relatively larger percentage of outbreaks are categorized by Public Health as having occurred in healthcare facilities.

In Pelham, however, nearly 9 in 10 infections have occurred among the general public, with just 13% occurring in healthcare facilities, which include long term care and retirement homes.

The only other community with a higher infection rate among the general public is again the demographically similar Niagara-on-the-Lake, where just 1 in 10 infections were tied to healthcare facilities, while 9 in 10 were among the general public.

As of the 2016 census, 17,100 residents called Pelham home.

Public Health says that there have been some 32 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the municipality

Graph showing categories of Pelham COVID-19 exposures. There are more than twice as many non-travel-related exposures than travel-related exposures. Percentages are of all Niagara cases.

NIAGARA PUBLIC HEALTH since the start of the pandemic.

Four individuals who later tested positive for the virus shared the same enclosed space, during Pelham Town Council’s meeting of March 23. Councillor Ron Kore, Councillor Mike Ciolfi, and two senior administrators all later tested positive for COVID-19. The two staffers and Kore experienced varying symptoms and recovered.

Councillor Ciolfi died ten days later. An official cause of death has not been made public.

On April 22, news broke that Kore, who is also the Fonthill Sobeys franchisee, had continued working in his store and attending council while exhibiting symptoms of a respiratory illness.

A Sobeys corporate spokesperson said at the time that under public health guidelines the store employees didn’t need to be tested.

That week and into the weekend, Mayor Marvin Junkin and Pelham Regional Councillor Diana Huson made repeated requests of Niag-

ara Public Health to offer testing to all Fonthill Sobeys employees regardless of whether they were symptomatic. A conference call on Sunday, April 26, between them, Regional Chair Jim Bradley, Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr. Mustafa Hirji, and others, ended the way it started. There would be no exception made to the testing criteria then in place.

Junkin told the Voice that if he knew then what Public Health has released now, he would have lobbied harder for testing.

“I am very disappointed that I have not been kept in the loop by Niagara Regional Health. Not once have I been contacted by this organization to inform me of this startling statistic. Ms. Huson and I pressed for testing of local Sobeys workers to no avail. If we had known before [the April 26 conference call] that Peham had that many more cases than our neighbours, Diana and I would have pressed harder for more

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testing.”

Huson said that in her view the data did not point to any clear conclusion.

“It could suggest a number of things,” said Huson. “Our numbers could skew higher due to our proximity to Welland, who have seen the largest number of cases.

Alternatively it could be because our population skews towards an older demographic, who have been affected at much higher rates.”

Like Junkin and Huson, Pelham CAO David Cribbs had not been informed of the data by Public Health before being contacted for comment by the Voice.

“The Town did not have previous access to this data and the data can only be described as an unpleasant surprise,” said Cribbs.

He echoed Huson’s concerns about drawing conclusions.

“The Town has no context for the data—did these cases occur See RATE Page 8

Page 4

The Voice, May 27, 2020

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OPINION

The opinions expressed in submitted commentary and letters to the editor are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the Voice of Pelham.

The Voice of Pelham is a 1211858 Ontario Limited publication David Burket, Publisher 2-1428 Pelham St., P.O. Box 1489, Fonthill, ON L0S1E0

As We See It Back in the black, and loving it

A

mid the recent chaos on Council— Ron Kore’s conduct while visibly ill, Lisa Haun’s muzzling meltdown—it is nice to report some good news for a change. Last year, the Town managed to run a nearly $1 million surplus in its annual budget, marking somewhat of a return to financial stability after years of uncertainty. With tax revenue unexpectedly high and operating savings found at the MCC—much credit for this going to the dogged persistence of Councillor Bob Hildebrandt— the Town’s cash balances grew solidly last year. What’s more, the debt came to be a little more under control, even if the outlook still isn’t ideal.

Town staff, especially Treasurer Teresa Quinlin, Assistant Treasurer Charlotte Tunikaitis, and CAO David Cribbs, deserve credit for carrying out policies that made the turnaround possible.

There has been a small but vocal undercurrent of anti-staff sentiment among the farther-right fringes in recent years, a toxic froth that bubbled over during the 2018 election in some campaigns, and which appears

to have continued percolating in a minority of councillors’ guts over the last 18 months.

This needs to stop.

Town of Pelham staff, particularly at the senior level, have several decades of experience among them.

These are professionals who carry out the tasks assigned to them to the best of their abilities. They are simply doing their jobs, carrying out the will of council and the Mayor, and deserve to be treated with respect.

Speaking of whom, Mayor Marvin Junkin deserves some credit as well: his campaign platform revolved around financial prudence, and after a year and a half on the job he is making good on this promise. The Town’s previous administration claimed, with scant credibility, that money would start pouring in to dig the Town out of the MCC money pit. But it was always going to take new, more transparent leadership to put new policies into place to address Pelham’s financial peril.

Case in point is one of the Junkin-led council’s first actions—the cancellation of the Station Street roundabout. While the former CAO

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and mayor persisted, for unclear reasons, in trying to build the roundabout, the new administration cancelled the plan, immediately saving $800,000 dollars.

Only when you can admit the mistakes that left you in the red can you turn around and start heading for the black.

(On sensible traffic management, look for the Haist chicane to be history any week now.)

Junkin and council also established new committees to oversee most aspects of Town spending. The results have been rewarding, particularly those coming from the Utility Sustainability Committee.

Still, the pandemic’s impact on Town finances is a sobering reminder of our situation. With revenues projected to fall several hundred thousand dollars, if not more, 2020 could well wipe out much of the progress made last year. And with a recession—if not depression—looming, all the counted-on development revenues remain far from a sure bet. More belt-tightening, and higher taxes all around, are almost certainly on the horizon for the foreseeable future. ♦

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Accepts Kore’s most recent explanation I was pleased, when I received my copy of the May 20 Voice, to see that the statement from Ron Kore that had appeared on the newspaper’s website was run in the print version. After seeing and hearing all the reactions to the situation involving Ron and his actions relative to COVID-19, it is a good thing that his most recent statement appears in the print version for all to see.

Most of the reactions to his actions have been negative. Many people have criticized him for not issuing an apology. And to some extent the criticism may be justified. However, his statement in the Voice includes

acceptance of responsibility for his actions, an apology, and an expression of his sincere desire to work hard to regain the trust of the Pelham community.

Did Ron make mistakes? Undoubtedly he did and he understands that.

But will we find it in our hearts to recognize and forgive this man— our Citizen of the Year a couple of years ago, this man who supports the community with donations to uncounted good causes, this man who hires and mentors uncounted young high school See EXPLANATION next page

CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS Member of Federal Parliament

Electoral District: Niagara West

Mayor of Pelham Marvin Junkin mjunkin@pelham.ca 905-658-2986

Dean Allison, MP 4994 King Street Beamsville, ON L0R 1B0 Dean.Allison@parl.gc.ca 877-563-7900

Members of Pelham Town Council

Member of Provincial Parliament

Ward 1

Electoral District: Niagara West

The Voice

Letters

Sam Oosterhoff, MPP 4961 King St. East, Unit M1 Beamsville, ON L0R 1B0 sam.oosterhoffco@pc.ola.org 905-563-1755 Members of Niagara Regional Council Councillor Marvin Junkin mjunkin@pelham.ca 905-658-2987 Councillor Diana Huson diana.huson@niagararegion.ca 905-324-3094 Town of Pelham 20 Pelham Town Square P.O. Box 400 Fonthill, ON L0S 1E0 905-892-2607

Councillor Marianne Stewart mstewart@pelham.ca 289-821-0840 Ward 2 Councillor Ron Kore rkore@pelham.ca 905-933-3805 Councillor John Wink jwink@pelham.ca 905-892-4475

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The Voice, May 27, 2020

Page 5

OPINION Appreciates support

PELHAM AND COVID-19

We would like to thank everyone who came out to our “Fryday” on May 18th and supported us.

In these unprecedented times, many of the special events that we have been at for years have been cancelled this season. Our business has lost our main revenue stream this year and it looks like there may not be

events until 2021 or later.

With that being said, we are planning "Pop Up Days" through the summer. Thank you for supporting local businesses, and hope to see everyone again soon.

Teresa, John and Sherry Rusin Country Boys Mobile Food Service Fenwick

Gun ban undemocratic We live in a democracy, I thought. An Order in Council is not democracy, but dictatorship. Given special powers to deal with this COVID crisis does not give the right to dictate legislation. I could care less whatever the government passes as legislation,

legitimately. Offer the government buyback of handguns, long guns or whatever, but please try to keep this great country a democracy. We are not the U.S.A. David Cairns Fenwick

Comments symptomatic of public, government approach I think your article on the federal gun ban provided excellent, objective coverage of the topic [Shooting sports advocates fire back against gun ban, May 20, p. 7].

My only criticism (if you can call it that) was the inclusion of the comments by a ban supporter who by his own admission is not a "gun expert.”

His comments are symptomatic of exactly what is wrong with the creation of firearm legislation in Canada. People who know nothing about a topic have no problem expressing an uninformed opinion about it.

For example, he fails to explain how it is "too easy" to kill someone with an assault style rifle or handgun given that: (1) ballistically they are significantly

inferior and actually less lethal than the vast majority of hunting rifles; (2) assault-style rifles are limited to 5 rounds, the same as hunting rifles; and (3) owners of restricted firearms (some assault rifles and all handguns) are subject to even greater police scrutiny both in licencing and purchasing which makes them an even lesser public safety risk.

Accidental shootings in Canada are extremely rare and, interestingly, disproportionately committed by law enforcement. I have researched accidental shootings at gun clubs (the only places where handguns and many assault style rifles like AR-15s can be legally discharged) and have only been able to verify one fatality at

a civilian club in the entire history of Canada—that's one fatality in over 150 years of use.

Compare that to the number of deaths in bicycling, skiing, snowmobiling, fishing, golf, hockey, etc. Why is there no outcry to ban bikes and skis?

There are over 80,000 AR15s registered in Canada and they have been available to the public since the 1960s. I See BAN Page 10

The Audit Committee, paying dividends

O

ne of the major planks in my platform when I was running for mayor was the creation of an Audit Committee, which I envisioned complementing the Town’s finance department.

After the election, I was gratified to learn that Town Treasurer Teresa Quinlin was all for this idea. Her former employer had one, and she saw firsthand the benefit of working hand-inhand with that group.

Other staff on the Audit Committee are Charlotte Tunikaitis and CAO David Cribbs. Cribbs has stated that having a finance and audit committee has allowed the Town to have a dedicated focus group with business and accounting expertise take an independent, systemic look at the Town’s financial position and financial operations.

Cribbs states that the committee is now looking at a risk framework for the Town and specific issues such as interest costs, debt management, and asset management. The bottom line is that the Town

The quality of their work was evident and jumped at the chance to serve on the committee.

After a year and a half, they both say that the work has been interesting, and both are in agreement that the Town’s finances are heading in the right direction.

Chairperson Wink is quick to concur with this assessment. Finance department staff and senior management have been working diligently at replenishing reserves and reducing the overall debt of the Town.

The quality of their work was evident when the Town’s external auditors gave the report a clean bill of health, with no notes or comments attached.

As the Treasurer has stated, the Town had an operating profit of $962,338 in 2019, which will be applied to the Town’s reserves.

Until next week. ♦

We are open—With new hours WELLAND Tuesday, 9am-2pm Friday, 9am-2pm FONTHILL Monday, 8am-1pm Thursday, 8am-1pm

Paul V. D’Amico

continued from previous page

The road to financial independence begins with a few simple rules

continues to have problems around high levels of debt and low reserves, but the finance department is Marvin Junkin operating in an efficient, forthright and diligent fashion.

Councillor John Wink is chair, an obvious choice with his banking background. Also on the committee are Councillors Stewart and Kore. Councillor Wink sees the committee providing an additional layer of oversight to the Town’s finances. Over the last year and a half the committee has also made numerous suggestions to improve the financial reports made to council, and has recently revised the terms of reference for the committee, which have been approved by council.

Also on the committee are two residents of the town, both being chartered accountants.

Bill Crumm and Michael Cottenden were both looking to give back to their community,

Nick’s Cleaners

EXPLANATION

students, this man who has taken responsibility for his mistakes?

Would we not want people to understand and forgive us if we made a mistake like he apparently did? How many of us men of a certain age don’t go to the doctor when we don’t feel well and don’t stay home because we must go to work because that’s what “real men” do.

One of the comments on the Voice website following his statement quoted a very apt biblical passage: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Those of us who know him know that his actions, while not well-considered, were not undertaken with any malice. Can we give him a break and move on? I hope so.

Bill McInerney Fonthill

Mayor Marvin Junkin

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OBITUARY

HURST, Donald Albert

Sales Rep.:

5259 MLW-Wilson Pamela-SPC CLAStation Street Rationale unclear for Phone: tree removal Fax:

PROOF

The purpose of this letter is to discuss the reasons why classified@thespec.com Email: a perfectly good public tree was removed at the location 06/08/2018 PMgreat respect Entry date: identified as 1379 Station Street. It 02:17 is with and no ill regard we reference 5295thatDeath Notices this location simply to Class.: identify where the tree was removed from and the possible reasons.

Requested By: Reason #1 On the morning of Saturday May 16, residents in the vicinity of 1379 Station Street woke to the noise of a chainPO #: saw. Oblivious to many neighbours was the fact that the KBARRO Entered By: was chainsaw being used by contractors to cut down a hearty (as we knew) mature tree at that site.

06/09/2018 Start Date:and healthy In disbelief, residents attended the site and asked why 06/09/2018 End Date: the tree was being cut down—specifically since we could Nb. ofidentify Inserts: not it2 was being done by Davey Tree, our official contractor awarded the Region Tree Dailies Maintenance Contract for CLA Niagara Publications: 2019, 2020 and 2021 (with council approval).

The contractors on site indicated to us that the Supervi$81.95 approved the removal of the tree due Totalof Price: sor Beautification to interference with hydro lines. As seen in the picture $10.65 HST below there are many trees along Station street that cas$92.60 Final Total: cade above the hydro lines. Also, as per NPEI, all trees are $0.00 Paid Amount: assessed by an NPEI- qualified arborist and only branches would be removed $92.60around the lines as can be seen around Balance: Pelham. This, in accordance with NPEI standards, saves Page 1 of 2 the mature tree. In addition, if work is done on the line, the power is turned off for safety reasons. This information can be found at NPEI.ca.

Reason #2 Residents then learned of another reason the tree was approved to be removed from the location, and that was to allow for a double driveway. As this was learned, we obtained policies and guidelines of the Town that provided the reasons why a tree would be removed.

In January of 2016, the Town adopted a Tree Management Policy which states that WEDNESDAY that a tree may -be removed SERVED SATURDAY due to safety, location, utilities, tree health, liability, and other factors.

In the year 2000, the Urban Forestry Guidelines were deBREAK FA S Pelham T veloped in collaboration with the Operations De-

Donald Albert Hurst, M.A.

Donald Albert Hurst M.A. September 19, 1935 - June 1, 2018 God saw you getting tired, a cure was not to be He put His arms around you and whispered, "Come toitMe." Even though has been

June 1, 2018

DAJKA, Stephen

Sadly, sharewethe twoweyears, stillnews feel that Donald passed away at the Welland pain emptiness.

Hospital in and the early hours of June 1st. Each Dear husband for 50him years of illness took Mary Jane (Litwiller), devoted dad to Susan (Todd) of Fonthill from Jeffery us little by little, and Andrew Hurst (Jae) of Burlington. and hegrandpa was gone Proud andthen adored of Emma Kate, before Tessa, Samuel, Lydia, we could say Rachel Jeffery and Mackenzie Hurst. Don goodbye; the sorrow of touched so many lives as an educator, coach, author, mentor, farewell. historian and parting without volunteer. Don taught secondary Husband, grandpa, school with the dad, Hamilton-Wentworth Board of Education for 34role years. As educator, author, he said, he loved his first day, his last mentor, ourinhero. daymodel, and most of the days between!

In keeping with Don's wishes a Thankfully private cremationwe hashave takensoplace.

Thanks to Juravinski Oncology many memories: we and Radiation; CCAC and his PSW Nadia. cry, wedonations love! to If solaugh, desired,we memorial the charity of your choice greatly appreciated by in theour family.

Always hearts,

Strong, tolerant, gentle, supportive, caring. These are just a few words that describe the exemplary life lived by our dear Dad, Stephen Dajka, who passed away on May 20th in his 90th year. Although he was not afflicted with the COVID-19 virus, it certainly impacted the last months of his life. Rather than have his family by his side, which was all he ever wanted, he was alone. Dad was born in Lestock, Saskatchewan on August 29, 1930 to Peter and Eleonora, Hungarian immigrant pioneer homesteaders. In 1935 the family moved to Port Colborne.

Dad attended DeWitt Carter Public School, then Port Colborne High where he designed the school crest that is still in use to this day. He graduated from Queen’s University in 1956 and, in June of the same year, he married our beautiful Mom, Alice Sherk. She predeceased him by less than a year - they will never spend an anniversary apart.

They moved to Fonthill in 1959 where they lived out their lives. He was also fortunate enough to have his sister Emma (Szeman) move in and raise her family across the street, with whom he maintained a very close relationship until her passing in November 2018. He worked in Research at Inco for a period of time before entering the educational system which he was passionate about. He started as principal of South Pelham School, moved to Port Robinson School and ended his career at Welland High, where he was head of the mathematics department for many years. He was a talented amateur/ semi-professional photographer and worked on the school yearbook with students for years, photographed many weddings and chronicled our childhoods, a gift which we now realize we are very fortunate to have. He had a very disciplined lifestyle and became known around town for his long early morning walks. Dad was fiercely proud of his home and of us, his children, Bryan (Marina), Cathryn (Jim), Glen and Stephen (Kristen) and his grandchildren Karley, Sydney, Jacob, Anandi and Lyndsay. He was loving and giving and we are all so proud of him and his thoughtful ways. Dad aged very gracefully, with a disciplined approach to remaining physically fit, healthy and young looking.

In his most recent years, his mind and body could not necessarily keep up with his will and determination as he continuously strived to remain sharp and strong. He remarkably battled a series of health issues5.50 along with the loss of our Mom and finally let go of a body that he would no longer have been happy to live in. Some may have 7.50 referred to him as “frugal” in some ways, however that allowed Dad to be very generous when it came to the steadfast support he extended 6 family and friends so please, if you feel so inclined, to many charities, make a donation to a charity of your choice in his name. There will be 6 a private, restricted ceremony and burial. A celebration of Dad’s life will be announced at a later date. Online condolences may be shared at www.pedlarfuneralhome.ca

On-line condolences Mary Jane at www.lampmanfuneralhome.com

(nee Litwiller) Susan (Todd), Andrew ( Jae) Emma Kate, Tessa, Samuel, Lydia, Rachel, Mackenzie

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BROWN, Tammy Lynn It is with broken hearts that we announce the passing of Tammy Lynn Brown on Wednesday, May 20, 2020 in her 49th year. Loving partner of Todd Looby and devoted mother to Hillary and Danielle. Tammy will be lovingly remembered by her parents Bob and Sue Brown and her sister Jenny (Rob) Jensen and brother Cliff (Yolanda) Brown. Daughter in law to Morris (Julie) Looby, sister in law to Sandra (Brent) Sodtke, Alan (Vicky) Looby. Dear niece to Tom (Rose) Skinner, Richard Brown, Lanny (Audrey) Brown, Elizabeth (Carl) Porritt. She will be fondly remembered by all of her cousins. Tammy loved all her nieces and nephews, Ethan (Kristina) Brown, Tanner Brown, Ashley, Emma and Ryan Jensen, Liam and Grace Sodtke, and William and Paige Looby. Tammy was fortunate to meet her great niece Adelina and loved her to pieces. She was predeceased by her grandparents Ernest (Elsie) Brown and Bill (Alice) Skinner. Tammy was a graduate of E.L. Crossley Secondary School. She graduated from Guelph University with a BA in History. She completed her Masters of Education at Brock University. After graduating from Guelph, she worked at Windsor University as Department Head of Residence Life, before accepting a position in 2007 at Brock University.

She was currently the Manager, Residence Admissions and Administration. Tammy was beautiful, kind, caring person who thought of everyone else first, her loss cannot be put into words. A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers a fund has been set up for the girls at the Royal Bank (Fonthill) #08562003-502-152-2. A special thank you to the staff at Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton, Walker Family Cancer Clinic, Wellspring Niagara and the staff at the St. Catharines Hospital Oncology Department for their compassion and care to Tammy in her time of need. Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Lampman Funeral Home. www. lampmanfuneralhome. com

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Page 7

Green Card rejection had Fonthill native seeing red Dr. Julia Iafrate uses social media, press, to tell her story

BY DON RICKERS

Special to the VOICE

It’s nice to receive some good news during a global pandemic.

New York City doctor Julia Iafrate, who was born and raised in Fonthill, was contacted just last week by immigration authorities in the US and told that her work permit was finally in the first stages of renewal. Previously, she had been told that she would be expelled from the country, a victim of President Donald Trump’s recent temporary suspension of visas for foreign nationals amid the pandemic.

Iafrate was featured on CBS News in early May, when she went public with her story of how her green card application had been denied by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), even as she was serving on the front lines against the coronavirus, and has been studying and working in the US since 2008.

Even though her professional focus is not on infectious diseases, when the pandemic hit New York City and her hospital system asked for volunteers, Iafrate stepped up to work in intensive care units.

She had been working on obtaining an EB-2 visa — an employment-based green card for those with “advanced degrees or exceptional ability” — since 2019.

In December, she received a re-

quest for further evidence to clarify her merit, which she submitted in March. In April, her application was formally denied.

Iafrate first made her plight known on social media after she posted a photo of herself with a message that said: “I am an immigrant and a doctor fighting COVID-19 on the front lines.”

Iafrate graduated from St. Alexander school in Fonthill and Notre Dame in Welland. She attended McMaster University in Hamilton for her undergraduate studies, culminating in a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology. She moved to the United States, where she earned her medical degree from the Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine. Thereafter she completed a residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic, followed by a Sports Medicine Fellowship at the University of Iowa.

During her fellowship, she worked as a team physician for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes football, men’s basketball, and men’s and women’s gymnastics teams.

Iafrate specializes in Sports and Dance Medicine, and currently works out of the Columbia University Medical Centre. Her primary clinical interests include all types

of musculoskeletal injuries, college and professional-level sports coverage, dance medicine, diagnostic and interventional ultrasound-guided procedures, global health and nutrition, and resident teaching. She is also the team physician for the US ski and snowboard team.

Iafrate told the Voice that her waiver petition has been approved after being reopened by the USCIS. This does not yet mean that her green card is a slam-dunk, but it clears the first hurdle, which was the initial stumble.

The second phase is an adjustment of status which will likely still take weeks to complete. But the silver lining is that Iafrate can continue her important work as an attending physician in New York City hospitals.

Asked about the emotional toll on her medical colleagues during the pandemic, Iafrate said candidly, “To put it very bluntly, it’s exhausting work. And there are a lot of unknowns. In medicine, you pride yourself on knowing what to do next. That’s why you went to school for such a long period of time….you’re supposed to be the expert. And with COVID-19, we had ideas of what to do based on other viruses we had seen in the past, but

Pelham transit shifts to Dial-a-Ride service during COVID-19 pandemic Pelham Transit is operating as a Dial-a-Ride service until further notice.

Dial-a-ride service is available 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

All rides are to be booked with at least 48 hour notice. If booking a ride for Mondays or Tuesdays, please call the Friday before. Dial-a-Ride is a door-to-door transit service that picks up and drops off anywhere within Pelham boundaries and to the Seaway Mall/Niagara College in Welland. No interaction with the fare box is required by our riders until further notice.

All rides can be pre-booked by calling Karen Blake at 905-892-2607 x347. Phone calls will be answered Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. If you are booking a ride for Mondays or Tuesdays, please call the Friday before.

Rides must be booked at least 48 hours in advance.

www.pelham.ca/transit

Dr. Julia Iafrate on the job.

nobody knew the precise answer. I think that’s frustrating for a bunch of Type A personalities like you see engaged in medicine.”

Safety supplies appear to be adequate at the present time, said Iafrate. She wears the same N-95 mask for the entire 12-hour shift because they are in limited supply, and a surgical mask on top of that.

There was a shortage of surgical

gowns for awhile.

Her life in New York City is pretty much all-consuming. Standard shifts at the hospital are normally at least 12 hours. Her family came to visit frequently prior to the border closures. While waiting on her green card, Iafrate actually hasn’t been able to leave the country since

SUPPLIED

See IAFRATE Page 15

Seniors Centre Without Walls Get Involved!

The Town of Pelham, in partnership with OACAO and sponsored by the Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility (MSAA), has created the Seniors Centre Without Wall program. This program provides Seniors with the opportunity to participate in activities & stay connected with their community over the phone.

For more information and the monthly program calendar, please visit:

www.pelham.ca/55-programs.

What is a Senior Centre without walls?

It’s a free telephone program with group activities and presentations from the comfort of your own home. Programs include health related information, brain stimulating activities, conversations, discussion topics, and connections with peers.

Register by calling Julie Cook at 905-892-2607 x329 or email jcook@pelham.ca

Page 8

The Voice, May 27, 2020

COUNCIL

continued from Page 2 with vendors who believe in the project. “[But] these people can only be benevolent for so long,” Gibson said. “You’re getting a heck of a deal here at 120, even if it costs 130.”

Still, one arch opponent eviscerated the loan request.

“I don’t see any numbers in this at all except for your inability to pay for these in the time it would take to construct them,” Councillor Marianne Stewart said.

“I suggest to you that you get your money, then come back to us to build the arches.”

Stewart also objected to design

RATE

continued from Page 3 at the start of the pandemic, are they very recent, or has there been a consistent rate of infection? Has there an outbreak that was not identified or reported? Are the Town’s demographics of being older than the Provincial and Niagara average a contributing factor? The raw data provided simply does not tell the full story.”

“It should be remembered that numbers in many municipalities, including Pelham, are small,” said Public Health spokesperson Kerri Stoakley, “and so large variations can be apparent with only a few cases.”

Dr. Mustafa Hirji, Acting Medical Officer of Health for the Niagara Region, told the Niagara-on-the-Lake Local that the numbers don’t

changes that give the latest arch renderings a more circular shape, unlike the original’s more graceful, flowing design.

“I looked at the drawings you provided and I find that they are not in the least aesthetically pleasing,” Stewart said. “And now, this is your third time coming to us.”

Councillor Bob Hildebrandt concurred.

“To me the appearance you have now looks like a Quonset hut or greenhouse design,” he said. “That’s not what the people signed up for. You’re changing the appearance, which I think is critical.”

Ultimately, council decided there just isn’t money right now to facilitate a loan.

“This is a project that wasn’t

identify where the virus was contracted, but where those with the virus live.

“They could been having coffee in St. Catharines, gone to work in Thorold and then done some grocery shopping in Niagara Falls on the way home,” Hirji said, and have no idea where they contracted it.

“There are limitations of what we can interpret from the data. This represents the cases we know about, and not where they were exposed to it.”

The main takeaway from the statistics, Hirji said, “is that people in every municipality have been infected, and it’s still out there. We still have a small number of cases every day. As businesses are opening up, and we have the potential for interacting, we have the potential for the virus to

put forward by the Town,” Stewart said. “It’s not something the Town needs in any way to be successful. Perhaps it’s better to defer the whole thing for a year, two years.”

Mayor Marvin Junkin, a supporter of the arches, was more tactful.

“In this uncertain time that we’re into now … unless this project can be guaranteed to be 100 percent funded, I just don’t think this council has an appetite to go further,” he said.

“And especially when we think of the taxpayer out there that is laid off, wondering when his next mortgage payment is coming from. As much as I love this project … if we do take it back another six months … do you think [the project] can stand that kind of a

spread.”

From the beginning of the outbreak, despite pressure from elected officials across the region, Hirji had refused to release COVID-19 statistics per municipality, citing privacy concerns.

The small numbers in most municipalities might have made it possible to identify individuals, he said.

About two weeks ago, Hirji told the NOTL Local that cases might be getting to the threshold where he would be willing to release that information. Niagara crossed that threshold last Wednesday, the day Wainfleet reached five cases.

He is not breaking down the numbers of deaths per municipality.

Hirji said he may in coming weeks consider releasing more numbers related to deaths, such as those in retirement

Accepting New Patients

www.thevoiceofpelham.ca setback?” he asked Gibson.

“I’m not opposed to putting it off for a while,” Gibson replied. “[If] costs go up a little bit, I guess they go up. It’s not like we have signed contracts with anybody right now.”

Planting compromise

Council embraced Lisa Haun’s idea to turn over the planting of nine Pelham flower beds to the public. Essentially, residents would compete to build the nicest public garden bed, and win prizes at the end of the summer.

“It would engage citizens during this unprecedented time,” Haun said. “Called ‘Hope Grows’ or something of the like, the Town can select prominent flower beds … and organizations or families

can purchase locally-grown Pelham plants...community plants to plant and retain their Town flowerbed.”

Haun estimated the budget for the endeavour at $5,000, a figure Town CAO David Cribbs agreed was “more than ample.”

“It’s a great compromise under the circumstances,” Councillor John Wink said.

Not factored into the calculations were costs for watering, which presumably will continue to be borne by the municipality.

Citing how much of the spring growing season has already passed, and the additional delay in organizing nine resident groups to do the planting, former farmer Mayor Junkin cast the lone dissenting vote.

Pelham cases by outbreak category

There are limitations of what we can interpret from the data

homes, long-term care homes, hospitals, and even by age group, “in the interest of transparency,” but he doesn’t expect to release numbers per municipality.

Although the numbers represent positive tests, not the overall infection rate among those who may be positive but asymptomatic, Hirji said he was confident they are a realistic indication of “the big picture.”

If people started showing up at the hospitals and require intensive care, there might be concern that the numbers are not accurate, “but we’re not seeing that.”

Hirji stressed that the best advice now is for people who are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms to reach out to assessment centres or their physicians

for advice about whether to be tested.

With sufficient capacity for testing now available, he said, anyone who has symptoms can be tested.

“We really do want to find any cases that are out there.”

David Cribbs and Diana Huson both pointed to the statistics as a reminder that the pandemic hasn’t gone anywhere.

“Certainly this reinforces the need to continue practicing all of the personal hygiene and social distanc-

ing guidelines recommended by health authorities,” said Cribbs.

“All we really know,” said Huson, “is that it is vitally important to continue with thorough hand washing practices, physically distancing from one another, and staying home when possible to help prevent a second wave from further crippling our communities.”

With reporting by Dave Burket, John Chick, and files from the NOTL Local.

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www.thevoiceofpelham.ca

The Voice, May 27, 2020

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Page 9

Page 10

The Voice, May 27, 2020

SURPLUS

Three new committees were established by council to address MCC operations—User Group, Hospitality, and Utility Sustainability.

“They all worked to make the centre more profitable,” said Quinlin. “I’ve got to say that it’s almost unheard of for a facility of that size to actually cut costs and increase revenue in its first year of operation. It is really something to celebrate.”

Additional savings will be achieved in the near future, Quinlin said, when the arenas get a refrigeration upgrade, converting to a system that uses cold water rather than hot to maintain the ice.

“The refit will pay for itself in the first year of operation, and thereafter we’ll have continuous savings.”

A recent Ontario Recreation Facilities Association audit heaped praise on the MCC. “They told us, with regard to facilities, this building is one of the nicest facilities in the province,” said Quinlin.

She also wanted to highlight two aspects that have been of ongoing

continued from Page 11 Transit revenues were slightly below budget, although ridership in 2019 was approximately 17% higher than the prior year.

There were significant savings achieved at the community centre. The biggest economies were in utilities, where hydro billings alone were almost $279,000 lower than anticipated.

“This was a result of the research and work done by our Utility Sustainability Committee,” said Quinlin. “They really focused on our hydro rates, and all the infrastructure at the community centre. Plus, the MCC revenues were over $170,000 higher than budgeted, which speaks to the huge usage of the facility. It has been absolutely incredible the number of people and tournaments that actually went through the building.”

Quinlin asserted that there are wait-lists for both youth and seniors programs. She noted that the MCC is a designated Seniors’ Hub. Federal and provincial grants also contributed to the increase in revenues at the centre.

BAN

continued from Page 5 bought my first one in 1973.

From the time they were introduced up to 1991 they were non-restricted, which means anyone with a Firearms Acquisition Certificate could buy one. Despite their

large numbers and relative ease of acquisition there has not been a single homicide committed with an AR-15 in Canada by a licenced owner and only one verified homicide committed by a criminal.

The ban-supporter’s comment about "... inno-

www.thevoiceofpelham.ca

taxpayer concern—cash balances and debt balances.

By the end of December, the Town’s cash balance has increased by some 500 percent—from $1.3 million in 2018 to $7.8 million in 2019.

“It’s been a priority for the Town to replenish its cash balances. It’s wonderful to be able to transfer $862,000 of the surplus to the reserves, and allocate $133,800 towards COVID-19 contingency.”

Quinlin said that new policies, including a reserve and reserve fund policy, and a capital financing and debt management policy, will help guide staff and council to maintain adequate reserves and reserve funds to replace and rehabilitate major capital assets, and also to provide for new capital assets that have been identified in the long-term capital plan.

Other highlights? A new Finance and Audit Committee was established in 2019, which includes two non-staff chartered professional accountants (CPAs) in its membership. As well, council approved two budgets in 2019, one for that year, and the budget for 2020.

Quinlin was perhaps most

cent children getting their hands on a pistol, and killing themselves or shooting someone else" may be true in the U.S., but in Canada it is pure fantasy. Firearm storage laws are such that restricted firearms such as handguns and AR-15s must be stored trigger-locked and

The refit will pay for itself in the first year of operation

pleased that the Town’s net debt has decreased from some $41 million to under $33 million.

“We're moving in the right direction, and have established really good policies to help guide council and staff on reserve funds and debt reduction,” she said.

Sadly, it’s not all good news.

COVID-19 will play a big role in 2020 revenues, as presented in a May 19 report to council. If restrictions are still in place by June 30, the negative impact on the budget will approach $409,000. Should Pelham be in lockdown until the end of December, the anticipated loss will be close to $850,000.

Quinlin said that all the municipalities in Niagara Region are working together with the Region

in a locked container, which makes access by "children" a near impossibility, unless the owner is completely irresponsible, which is very seldom the case.

As for suicides, studies have shown that when the number of firearms is reduced, firearm-related sui-

cides do decrease. The problem is that the total number suicides does not, as people simply seek out other means of harming themselves. Is the ban supporter okay with suicides as long as they are not by firearm?

The poll results show exactly what is wrong with

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to lobby higher levels of government for supplementary funding.

In a statement released on Friday, May 22, the Town identified the most significant drivers of the projected deficit as: • Lost recreation revenues from the Meridian Community Centre, which are partially offset by program/service delivery cost savings, including the temporary layoff of staff.

• Lost development revenues.

• Lost tax and water interest and penalty revenues.

• Lost park operation revenues.

The Town is projecting that operating budgets will be negatively impacted by COVID-19 regardless of how long the situation lasts throughout the year.

“Given the amount of uncertainty around timelines and availability of funding sources, said the CAO, “it is difficult at this time to quantify the full impact of individual items as well as the overall impact on the Town. As the COVID-19 pandemic impacts are quite fluid, staff will continue to monitor its financial impacts and report back to council on a regular basis.”

• Qualit Workma y nship • Proper Buildin Methods g

polls. First, I will bet $1000 that a minimum of 90% of the respondents who voted to support the ban could not define what an "assault-style" weapon is.

Remember that this is not even defined in Canadian law, and the accepted U.S. military definition dictates that it must be capable of "selective fire"—i.e., full auto, which has been banned in Canada since 1978. So one must ask, how can people be queried about banning something when they don't even know what it is.

Secondly, the results of the second poll question actually negate the results of the first. Since 71% of people felt that firearm ownership should not be banned, and "assault-style" firearms function exactly the same as non-assault firearms, and have the same magazine capacity, what purpose is served in banning them? This is about the same as asking if red cars should be banned because they look fast but the same cars in other colours should not because they look more sedate.

It is ironic that while most people would agree that getting hit by a car doesn't make them an expert in automobile safety or having their appendix out doesn't make them an expert in surgical procedures, the same people are more than happy to express their opinion about firearm law and firearm safety even though they have absolutely no basis to do so other than what they have seen on TV or at the movies. The trouble is the government does exactly the same thing and that should make people very concerned.

I am thoroughly fed up with such ban-supporters of the world telling me what I should or shouldn't be doing when they know absolutely nothing about it.

Thanks again for the article. I doubt I'll see anything that objective in the Toronto Star.

Gerry Gamble President Niagara Regional Sportsmen Gun Club.

www.thevoiceofpelham.ca

The Voice, May 27, 2020

Pelham’s million-dollar view

Page 11

PROPERTY TAX IN PELHAM: WHO WANTS YOUR MONEY AND WHY AVERAGE ASSESSED PELHAM HOME VALUE

2019 PROPERTY TAX BILL

Year-end audit shows municipality with $348,359 near-seven-figure surplus, cash and reserves increasing, debt decreasing

$4,469

BY DON RICKERS

Special to the VOICE

Tunikaitis are the ones who took the lead in these undertakings, and each has performed huge amounts of work. These staff, both professional accountants, have the capacity to make arcane accounting issues accessible to a wider audience.”

Given her opportunity to do so, Quinlin launched right in.

“It has been a very good year for the Town to end up in a large positive surplus. This is a result of the hard work done by staff and also the volunteers on our committees.

It has been very effective having experts on our committees providing input. It’s a great collaboration.”

She explained that the reason there is an operating budget surplus of $962,338 and a consolidated financial statement surplus of $6,098,731, is that the budget is prepared on a “modified cash basis,” to ensure the Town collects enough tax revenue to cover its cash needs.

The budget is presented in the financial statements in accordance with Public Sector Accounting Standards, and there is a note in the financial statements that reconciles the approved budget to the budget presentation in the statements. In addition, there are some items which are not included in the budget, including amorti-

Set by the Region: 48% PAYS FOR

Set by the Town: 40%

Set by the Province: 12%

Planning and Development, Community Services, Regional Roads, Public Health and Emergency Medical Services, Police Services, Niagara Regional Housing, Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, Court Services, Corporate Administration and Governance, Waste Management

PAYS FOR Education

Collected by Town on behalf of the Province, sent to local school boards.

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Over half of Pelham’s property taxes are set by upper levels of government and are beyond Town Council’s control

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zation and the gain on disposal of land and assets held for sale.

On an annual basis, the Town prepares a balanced budget, so that revenues and expenses equal each other. Where were the actual savings last year? Supplemental tax revenue exceeded the budget

by $156,800—a bit of extra incoming cash as growth exceeded expectations. As well, the Town took out a debenture of $4 million (a loan certificate, backed by credit rather than specified assets), and repayments were lower than forecast by $115,000.

PAYS FOR

General Government, Fire Services, Public Works (Roads, Sidewalks, Winter Control), Street Lighting, Non-Recreation Facilities, Parks and Recreation, Community Planning and Development, Libraries Collected by Town on behalf of the Town.

$1,779

Two other notable savings included $42,000 through conversion of some streetlights to LEDs, and $69,000 in salary/benefit savings due to vacancies and other organizational changes.

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BOB LOBLAW GRAPHIC

Pelham CAO David Cribbs’ call to the Voice last week was a pleasant but unexpected surprise in the midst of the pandemic.

His message? The Town’s Corporate Services Department had reported a net tax-supported operating surplus for the year ended December 31, 2019 of $962,338.

Revenues exceeded budget by $413,511, which is approximately 2.5% of the 2019 budgeted tax-supported revenues. Tax-supported expenditures were approximately $575,061, or 3.4% lower than budgeted.

The Building Department is supported by building permits, and its operations had a surplus of $253,205. Revenues exceeded budget by $212,760, or 42.5%.

“Finishing 2019 a million bucks in the black is a major accomplishment,” said Cribbs.

“This was done in the context of the new financial policies approved by council on debt, reserves and use of cash.”

“It’s proof positive that a primary objective of both the council and the community has been achieved.

If it weren’t for the coronavirus, I would literally order a cake and balloons— this is party-worthy.”

Cribbs directed the spotlight to staff.

“Town Treasurer Teresa Quinlin and Deputy Treasurer Charlotte

Call to order 905-892-0782

Page 12

The Voice, May 27, 2020

REMOVAL

ANOTHER ROUND

continued from Page 6

by JOHN PICCOLO

Some thoughts as we head for the links

W

elcome to the start of golf season.

Never thought I would write those words in the middle of May in Niagara. Of course there are many things I have seen done and said over the last few months I never would have thought. As you belatedly get into the season here are a few thoughts.

What is it about golf that turns your crank? Have you ever thought with any depth why you play this game?

Among many things this pandemic has done is given us time to think. Golf is a luxury. None of you have to play it. Do you like the physical challenge? The mental challenge? Being around those friends you love to hate and hate to love but are glued to them anyway? Too many people who play this game aren’t getting from it what you should get from your hobby:relief from the things you have to do.

When you start playing again, have some perspective as to how lucky you are to able to play. Be patient.

As the weather turns and things start to seem normal, remember they are not. This virus doesn’t care what you feel. It doesn’t read calendars. It doesn’t follow election cycles. You cannot pray it away no matter which God you try. It cannot be shot with an AR-15. It doesn’t care about the economy.

I know some don’t think it’s a big deal, and there’s risk in everything we do, and it’s mostly old people dying anyway. “We have got to get back to work and get things back to normal.” I’ve had the opportunity with the extra time afforded to watch some telly. I have avoided this as

much as possible for many years due mostly to the fact most of what is broadcast is crap. However with diligence from my lovely bride, we have come across some brilliant shows out of the UK. I’ve known who Ricky Gervais is for a few years and he gets this kind of reverence from the powers that be that I never really understood. I do now.

When you start playing again, have some perspective as to how lucky you are to be able to play If like me you have, embarrassed to admit it or not, occasionally thought maybe we are taking things to an extreme for a virus mostly affecting those closest to death anyway, watch these shows. One is a few years old called Derek, which is completely centered around the goings on in a seniors home.

You will have liquid coming out of both ends as you pee yourself laughing and, within a few minutes, will be pretending your allergies are acting up as you wipe your eyes with your sleeve.

The other show is still running and called After Life, and happens to be set— nominally, anyway—at a small weekly newspaper in a small English town. Much broader perspective but same vibe. Watch these and if you are still of the mindset

that certain people in society are less worthy of our efforts, please apply to Elon Musk to be on that one-way trip to Mars.

The powers that be have not been perfect in dealing with this pandemic.

These are very smart people(mostly) who are trying to make decisions with the best information they have at any given time and taking all stakeholders into consideration.

Incredibly difficult to do. Some of the rules may seem silly at the moment and may turn out to be a waste of time in the end. For now, however, this is the best we got. Not many businesses out there trying to make your life difficult on purpose. They are doing their best to keep you and others as safe as possible.

If this interferes with your freedom or takes up a few more minutes of your very important time, we’re sorry.

The people who are getting sick and dying from this are not someone else.

This doesn’t just happen to someone else. They are our grandparents. They are our parents. They are our aunts and uncles. They are our brothers and sisters and friends. And yes, they are also our children. They are us and we are them. Our actions are all interconnected.

What each of us does matters.

If golf is what you use to escape the things you can’t escape from and it brings you pleasure(for the most part), great, keep playing. If you find you are often more frustrated after your hobby than before, then get some help. Life is too short to read bad books, watch bad TV, and play games that don’t bring you joy. ♦

partment and the Pelham Tree Conservation Society.

These guidelines similarly qualify reasons for removal of a mature tree, which include safety to person or property, health of tree, stability, among other reasons.

The policy and guidelines both reference the importance of preserving all trees and only when no other alternative is feasible should a public tree be removed.

Residents searched the website for a copy of the policy and the guidelines but were unable to locate one. We believe that a copy of these documents can be obtained from the Clerk at the Town of Pelham.

Reason #3 Finally, we learned a third reason that the public tree was removed, and that reason was that the tree branches had voids and ants in them, and branches had fallen on occasion and damaged the adjacent home and vehicles.

Below is a picture of the tree’s branches on the driveway of the home. If the tree’s upper branches were decayed why was the whole tree removed and not just the decayed branches?

To understand decay by voids and ants we researched any remedies to use to remove the ants and prevent voids.

Residents learned that voids occur in many mature trees and they usually harbour many animals such as squirrels, raccoons, and birds, among others, depending on the climate. Residents can see voids in many of the mature trees surrounding the area of the removed tree.

We also learned that ants typically do not harbour in trees as they tend to prefer stumps of trees. However, we learned that carpenter ants will live in voids on occasion but typically they do not harm the tree and special sprays and other maintenance activities can help to remove them from the tree.

Finally, we learned that the homeowners could not wait for Davey Tree to be available for the removal and contracted their own arborist and paid for the removal on Saturday May 16.

Noted is that Davey Tree was removing a tree

www.thevoiceofpelham.ca near the corner of Station and College Streets on May 19, just three days later.

Residents have received a response from the Director of Public Works. The response has provided residents with more questions and opinions rather than satisfying compliance to current Town Policies and doing everything feasible to save public trees.

The response from the Director provides a fourth reason, stating that the tree was removed due to decay from deadwood, significant sightline issues, “possible” root damage caused by construction of the sidewalk and installation of culvert, and damage to vehicles as a result.

Why weren't the complaints about the tree provided to Davey Tree Service as part of the annual Tree Management Program?Why was the tree not marked with an X by Davey, as is done when a tree removal is required?

Why did the homeowners indicate they could not wait for Davey Tree Service to remove the tree?

Why did the homeowners pay for the removal if the Town agreed that the Tree was decayed as indicated by Town Arborist?

Why was Davey Tree Service on College Street the following Tuesday removing a tree that was marked with an X? Why would waiting three days make a difference to the homeowners, especially with the cost of removal being borne by them?

Why did the type of decay change from the verbal staff response to the one received in writing?

Originally, we were told

by Town staff that there were voids and ants that caused damage in the branches in the trees. Why are we now being told its the result of deadwood?

And if only the branches had decay why was the whole tree removed?

As concerned citizens, we did take pictures of the branches once they were removed from the tree, an arborist then reviewed the tree, and could not see any possible decay. Again, if we can see the assessment made on the inspection report by the both arborists that would be helpful for residents understanding.

According to Town Tree Management Policy, the

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Fonthill Plaza (905) 892-5443

Town is responsible to ensure no net loss of trees.

When will a tree be planted in the location where this tree is removed?

The Policy for Tree Management S802-01 was approved on April 4, 2016.

The Urban Forestry Guidelines were approved into record in 2000. Both are clear about tree preservation. If, as staff are now indicating, sight lines are an issue, approximately eight years after the house was built, why now defending the removal with this reason? Why at the approval of guidelines and policy would you not have deemed a sightline issue? Or even at the time of construction?

Based on Town staff's reasoning about significant sight lines being an issue, we take exception to this reason to remove the tree.

The homeowners bought the lot approximately eight years ago knowing the mature and healthy tree was in the public space at time of purchase. The blueprint of the home to be built at that time was submitted to the Town for approval.

The blueprint design was their choice and does not constitute the approval to remove the tree. The Town approved the blueprint and visited the site for inspections on multiple occasions, also knowing the tree was in the public space.

The homeowners at time of purchase of the lot could have designed the home around the tree, or even now be creative in placing a culvert on the other side of the tree to have a semi-circle driveway which would have saved the tree.

Also, "possible damage" done by the sidewalk and culvert does not constitute the removal of the tree when by "possible" it implies that you do not have factual information to present to us that proves the damage. Clearly the stump that remains has no damage. Sidewalk repairs are done on an annual basis by qualified contractors that would ensure the depth of the sidewalk does not interfere with the tree.

Isn’t this correct? Along Station street there are many sidewalks that wrap trees, are these trees also in danger of removal?

Finally, as indicated by Davey Tree, when trees become an issue (due to branches falling etc.) they are notified of the address and as part of their annual inspections attend the site to assess the situation. As stated, we are still waiting for information that Davey Tree assessed this tree.

As Pelham residents can appreciate from the above questions and opinions, we have significant concerns as to why this healthy, mature tree was removed given we have received four different reasons from multiple sources.

Also, without logical reasons, the Town’s own tree management contractor was not involved in the assessment or removal of the tree, and this is troublesome. We have asked Town staff to correct our assumptions with appropriate documentation.

Cari Pupo Mike and Carol Jones on behalf of Ward 2 residents

www.thevoiceofpelham.ca

The Voice, May 27, 2020

Page 13

2018

THE KNEELER Reader John Graham spotted this cautious fellow on Willson Crossing.

JOHN GRAHAM The official ribbon-cutting to open the 2018 Pelham Farmers’ Market. From left, Ann Durst, vendor; Fred Arbour, market clerk; and Bev Yungblut, market treasurer and vendor.

STACY DUNCAN

Scaled down Farmers Market returns in June

BY DON RICKERS

Special to the VOICE

Fred Arbour has been the Pelham Farmers Market clerk for a dozen years, organizing the vendors who participate. This year, he will be the bearer of bad news.

“Niagara Health has provided direction with regard to social distancing during the pandemic, and given our space limitations, we reluctantly have to reduce our vendor numbers from 23 last year, to 13 in 2020.”

Further, only 13 shoppers will be allowed access in the cordoned-off market area at once. The Market is set to start on June 11.

“There won’t be coffee available, or anything that would entice people to stop and be social,” said Arbour. “With only 13 customers allowed in the market at once, we have to move people

through relatively quickly.”

The entrance and exit points will be marked, as well as the flow of foot traffic.

Food vendors will have priority, so don’t expect to see any flowers or knickknacks for sale when the market opens on Thursday, June 11. There won’t be any customer handling of food products, and the vendors will have a table separating them from potential buyers. No food sampling will be available, and people won’t be able to collect produce in their reusable shopping bags brought from home.

Most products will be pre-packaged by the vendors.

Vendors have been encouraged to put together a catalogue of their products, and when the produce will be in season, thus allowing customers to place orders for pickup at the market.

As usual, cash and credit will both be

accepted for payment.

“In past years, we have been open from 4 PM until dusk. This year, the market will run from 4 PM until 8 PM…strictly enforced…so there’s no sense in showing up early, expecting to get in,” said Arbour.

Families are encouraged to have only one member present inside the market area. Handwashing stations and hand sanitizer will be available to market patrons.

The Town of Pelham previously announced that the Thursday night supper market and Bandshell concert series have been cancelled.

“The Farmers Market was intended as a kind of a social gathering for Thursday nights. Unfortunately, that won’t happen this year,” said Arbour.

“Restrictions might be eased throughout the summer, but for now, this is what we’re dealing with.”

OUR DOORS ARE OPEN AGAIN!

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OUR CURRENT STORE HOURS: Monday - Friday 11-7 • Saturday 10-5 • Sunday 12-5 You can also call in your orders at 905-892-3733 or email us at orderfonthill@ruffinspet.com for curbside pick-up!

We will still not be accepting cash or returns at this time.

Please help us in keeping Ruffin’s a safe and enjoyable place to shop!

Latest chapter in cannabis producer CannTrust’s downfall

BY JOHN CHICK

Special to the VOICE

CannTrust announced May 15 that the company has initiated a Sale and Investment Solicitation Process (SISP) as it tries to save what’s left of its operations.

SISPs are designed to solicit interest in, and opportunities for, a sale of or investment in all or part of a company’s assets and/or business operations.

Such a sell-off could theoretically include any number of the company’s assets, including its Fenwick facility.

CannTrust filed for creditor protection March 31 after an eight-month corporate tailspin that began when a former employee blew the whistle on illegal growing in Fenwick.

On May 8, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, which granted the credi-

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CannTrust was delisted from both the New York and Toronto Stock Exchanges this spring, and has not filed any official financial statements in a year. With its Health Canada growing licence still suspended due

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to the federal violations, cannabis is not being grown and little to no revenue has been flowing into the company.

Still, a CannTrust spokesperson told the Voice in April that the company would continue to operate in a “business-as- usual mode” as it went through its reorganization process.

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Page 14

The Voice, May 27, 2020

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GRAND MOVING SALE Grand upscale yard (moving) sale will be held from 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. at 27 Buckley Terrace om May 30 & 31. Lots of unique & quality items. Please bring change with you & follow Pelham’s Covid-19 rules that will be posted on site.

Each item will be priced.

OLD PAPERS Do you have old issues of the Voice published from 1997 to 2007? How about the Pelham Herald (any year). We'd love to add them to our archive. Contact: publisher@ thevoiceofpelham.ca

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phrase “requires additionhealth and legal experts to ensure any risks are mitigated to the greatest extent possible,” appeared ominous.

This led me to review the 2020 insurance renewal quote for our club. Clearly typed under the Special Notes section at the conclusion of the insurance quote was, “NEW – Communicable Disease exclusion added.” It appeared our insurer had excluded liability protection from COVID-19 related issues.

This column is not meant to alarm volunteers and their organizations. Ontario has a long history of protecting its volunteers in the courts, thereby recognizing their contribution to our communities and lifestyle, and we all hope and expect that this will continue.

It’s just that there are a lot of you out there in similar situations, and I thought I’d share my story about this small part of our new normal. Play safe. ♦

Kayaking al consultation is to beand printed by all Association, participating Ontario papers with

risk. These risks are generally inherent and understood as a consequence of participation, and may be detailed for clarity on activity-specific waivers.

Morasiewicz’s concerns regarding traditional waivers arises from the fact that at this time there is no legal precedent in Canada which states the possibility of being infected by COVID-19 is an inherent risk of many activities.

He writes, “The Canadian courts have simply not yet had to address 1) a business’s liability for a customer’s injuries resulting from COVID-19 infection at their activity/event, and 2) whether a “standard” liability waiver would be effective in such circumstances.”

This article led me to inquire what the position of our kayak club’s provincial sanctioning body, the On-

was on the issue.

ORCKA had not finalized their position as of the time of writing, so I moved on to see what the Ontario Cycling Association, Ontario’s governing body for the sport of cycling, had to say.

On their website, in a May 14, 2020 General News article titled “Return to Sport Update Following Premier Doug Ford’s Announcement,” the OCA stated the following: “There have been many discussions and planning has already taken place to help expedite a return to cycling as restrictions are eased. However, fully understanding the parameters to allow these activities to take place safely requires additional consultation with health and legal experts to ensure any risks are mitigated to the greatest extent possible.”

As a member of a club attempting to understand if and/or how COVID-19 may increase liabilities, the

FAITH LIFT

continued from Page 19 the Soviets would win the series having scored more goals. With 34 seconds left, Foster Hewitt’s voice rose with excitement — “Cournoyer has it on that wing.

Here’s a shot. Henderson made a wild stab for it and fell. Here’s another shot.

Right in front, they score!

Henderson has scored for Canada!” Chills still go down my spine. His third game-winning goal had been scored and Canada won the series.

A search for fulfillment

Henderson and his teammates returned to Canada as national heroes. And everyone wanted to see, hear and congratulate the man who had scored the “goal of the century.” He had it all — fame, fortune and family. But as the 1972 NHL season got underway, he felt a strange emptiness.

A hockey chaplain reached out to Henderson and gave

him a Bible. His spiritual search began. Peter Mueller, a committed believer and former tight-end with the Toronto Argonauts, told me a few months ago that he was part of a Bible study with Paul during that time of searching. “Boy, he had a lot of questions,” Mueller said with a laugh.

Henderson committed his life to Christ in 1975. After retiring from professional hockey six years later, he studied for the Christian ministry. After graduation, he founded a men’s ministry called “Leader Impact,” and became a popular speaker for “Athletes in Action” (a ministry of Christian athletes).

In 2009 Henderson was diagnosed with leukemia.

Buoyed by his faith and the prayers of many people, he’s been fighting it since. “I’m not afraid to die, I know where I’m going,” he says.

He has found a prize worth far more than a hockey trophy or ring. Scripture says, “What good is it for some-

The magic moment.

FRANK LENNON/CANADIAN PRESS

one to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul.” (Mark 8:36) Paul Henderson has found his real goal in life. It’s one that will last a lot longer than a century. It’s for eternity. ♦ Rob Weatherby is a retired pastor who loves hockey and still cheers for the Maple Leafs (which proves how much faith he has).

www.thevoiceofpelham.ca

The Voice, May 27, 2020

Page 15

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IAFRATE

right now, same as in New York. But people have to be really careful, because I THE VOICE PELHAM think we OF might be rushing October. a little too quickly. There is Creative Director “I couldn’t go home for Tarjaprobably Barton going be a second Christmas,” she said.

The Big Apple clearly ap-email peals to Iafrate. graphics@thevoiceofpelham.ca “New Yorkers have a reputation for being tough, andMarketing Director roughTHE around the edges,Dave Burket and not really caring aboutemail anyone but themselves. Butadvertising@thevoiceofpelham.ca I think they’re some of the 905.892.8690 most caring people thatApproved By: I’ve ever worked with. They mind their own business, yes, but they also care about what other people need,” said Iafrate.

“After 9/11, we saw how wave. It’s just a matter of strong the people of New how big the wave will be.”

York City are. And it’s the Iafrate stressed the imsame thing with this panportance of self-isolating if demic. The attitude is that a person exhibits symptoms we’re going to get through of coronavirus, but noted this together. The support that one can be asymptomfor us in the medical field atic and still have the virus, has been incredible.” and still be infectious.

Iafrate laughed when she “Ebola was more deadly. reflected on news items It killed people very quickly. of people in the suburbs COVID-19 is less deadly, but that are complaining that it still has the potential to self-isolation is like being infect and kill a lot of peounder house arrest. “At least ple, especially those with they have a backyard. Most compromised immune syspeople in New York City don’t tems. Symptoms can take a have backyards,” she said. long time to appear. It’s imAsked about the situation portant not to let your guard closer to home, Iafrate redown,” she said. sponded, “I know that the There is no doubt that government in Ontario is COVID-19 is going to be slowly opening things up continued from Page 7

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around for a while, likely into 2021, and maybe beyond that, said Iafrate. DevelAdvertiser opment of a vaccine would Fonthill Rlectric obviously beLtda massive game-changer.

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Contact email “I think we’re I think we’re going to start info@fonthillelectric.ca bowing or nodding at each other, and there’s not going to be a lot of touching. Not Date: anytime soon.”

Iafrate is not the only one in her family helping out during the pandemic.

Her brother Mark Iafrate is also supporting the cause as president of Niagara Water-Jet in St. Catharines, which provides precision cutting and custom component manufacturing with industrial, automotive, and aerospace applications. He has teamed up with one of his company’s partners to produce 10,000 pieces of personal protective equipment (clear, flexible plastic face shields) which will be used by healthcare workers across Ontario.

“Nobody caring for the sick should go without the necessary protective equipment,” said Mark Iafrate.

“At Niagara WaterJet, we are racing against the clock to do our part.”

See you in September

The Voice of Pelham ad size Service Directory ad w:2.5” x h: 1.75”

Ontario schools closed until fall term

Color Info black only

Due Date Friday, March 18 at noon

BY DON RICKERS

Special to the VOICE

Rocker Alice Cooper’s 1972 hit School’s Out Rundate(s) pretty much captures the reality.

Mar. 23, Apr. 6, 20, May 4, 18, During his daily COVID-19 news conferJune 1, 15 and 29. ence at Queen’s Park. on May 19, Ontario Premier CostDoug Ford announced that schools will not for the remainder of this ac$42reopen per insertion plus HST. ademic year, and overnight summer camps Terms: Due on publication will remain closed.

“After careful consideration, after consulting with the health experts, it is clear that we cannot open schools at this time.

I’m just not going to risk it. This wasn’t an easy decision to make, but it was the right decision. We’ve made the decision to put our kids’ safety first, and at the same time we have a plan to ensure that our children’s education can continue outside of the classroom,” said Ford.

Online learning will continue until June 26, and all students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 will receive June report cards. Ford said his government is working hard to ensure that childcare centres will open in the second stage of his plan, and that parents will be supported as they return to their jobs as workplaces reopen.

Although overnight summer camps will not operate, the province is reopening indoor and outdoor summer day camps for the months of July and August. Minister of Education Stephen Lecce told the Canadian Press that, “We are strengthening summer learning opportunities, reopening sum-

mer day camps, and will continue to make the case for synchronous, live, and dynamic learning.”

Niagara MPP Sam Oosterhoff, who is parliamentary assistant to the education minister, said, “We are working with our medical and education stakeholders to ensure we can provide as much support as possible in these difficult times, and I want to thank our education workers who are doing everything they can to provide innovative education support from home.”

Unions representing Niagara’s teachers support the decision to close schools. Classes have been cancelled since just before the March break.

An item in the St. Catharines Standard indicated that the District School Board of Niagara will deliver a summer learning program with a large and varied number of online credit courses. A similar statement was announced by the local Catholic board.

Writing in the National Post on May 21, Ottawa political commentator Randall Denley said that the Premier’s decision was no great surprise, but came with little reassurance for parents.

“When Ford said of reopening schools this year, ‘I’m just not going to risk it,’ a reasonable person would conclude that the risk is great, or at the very least substantial. And See SCHOOLS Page 20

Page 16

The Voice, May 27, 2020

www.thevoiceofpelham.ca

SIDEBAR

Deep into the weeds with Pelham’s 2019 financial statements

BY DAVE BURKET

The VOICE

Given the intense scrutiny that Town of Pelham finances came under during the construction of the community centre, as well as during the 2018 municipal election campaign, the Voice reached out last week to chartered accountants with experience in municipal finances to see what questions they had for Town Treasurer Teresa Quinlin, now that the Town seems to be back on a fiscally responsible path. The Voice forwarded the questions to Quinlin, and we present her full answers below.

It appears the expenditures on the new parks in Lookout and Weiland Heights were not paid for with Parkland Development charges collected when all of the houses were built—why not?

The development of Weiland Heights and Lookout parks were originally approved in the 2018 capital budget to be funded from Parkland Dedication Reserve Funds. Subsequently, they were approved by council to be funded from the Development Charge (DC) Reserve Fund as part of the DC Background Study, and so this superseded the original approval.

The eligible portion of the Weiland Heights Park development was funded from the DC reserve fund and is included in the Annual Treasurer’s Statement of DC Reserve Funds in Attachment 1. The development of Lookout Park was funded from the Parks Reserve and the DC eligible portion will be corrected to be funded from the DC reserve fund in 2020.

What interest rate is payable on the loan payable to Infrastructure Ontario regarding the community centre? How much roughly in daily interest is paid on this loan in 2020 when it remains outstanding?

The Town has a floating rate construction bridge loan. The rate

is subject to change but at the time of writing this response it is .773%.

As of May 2020 the Town was paying approximately $190 per day in interest but this will decrease as the proceeds of land held for sale are applied against the loan. The cost of this interest is expected to be funded by the remaining funds in the MCC reserve until the land is sold and any remaining unpaid portion of the construction bridge loan is debentured.

Does the Development Charges Act allow the Town to borrow from these funds to finance any expenditures that are not backed up in the Town's development charges study?

DC reserve funds from one service can be borrowed/loaned between any other DC service —DC funds may not be used to fund the “non-growth” portion of the DC projects nor may they be lent for any other non-DC purpose.

Has the Town not been historically in violation of the Development Charges Act by borrowing funds to use them in non- DC-supported expenditures?

In the previous years, the Town did not appear to have cash equal to its reserve funds and reserves.

The cash balance did fluctuate significantly during those years between January and December.

However, as at December 31, 2019, the Town has the cash set aside for all the Obligatory Reserve Funds, which includes the DC Reserve Fund. The Town is in compliance with the Development Charges Act. How did the MCC fund earn so much interest on its balance?The rate of return seems way out of line.

We are uncertain what this question pertains to. The MCC reserve did not earn any interest during 2019. Additions to the reserve resulted from the Hydro One High Performance New Construction grant collected in the year.

The capital asset management plan has been talked about for years now, going back to the prior council—when will it be done and made public.

The Town is in compliance with provincial timelines.

Requirements for the development of an asset management process are also outlined in a regulation of the IJPA (O.Reg 588/17): 1. A Strategic Asset Management Policy by July 1, 2019. Done in 2019 2. Municipalities would be required to prepare an asset management plan in three phases: a. Phase I would address core infrastructure assets (i.e. roads, bridges, culverts, wastewater, water, and storm water) and would be required to be completed by July 1, 2021. The Town is working on this.

All the assets listed are inventoried and in the Asset Management System. We are on track in meeting the timeline. b. Phase II would expand on Phase I by including all infrastructure assets in the plan by July 1, 2023. The Town expects to have this completed by the end of 2022. c. Phase III would require further details to be provided for all infrastructure assets by July 1, 2024. We will address this in 2023.

Since the new council took over, have they not been relying on drawing down on reserves to minimize increases to 2019 and 2020 tax rates? How much did this amount to? Did the aggregate reserve balances to do this even exist, or did they just push reserve balances into negative territory?

Several reserves are in a deficit position (negative balance). These reserves have been drawn down primarily because of capital projects that were committed against those reserves, as a great number of projects have been completed in recent years. In addition, the budgeted capital spending from reserves in recent years has been from in-year transfers to the reserves in the same year to address

cash flow needs. There are several actions that council and Staff have taken to address the reserves: 1. On January 13, 2020, council approved the Reserve and Reserve Fund Policy. This policy provides a framework and guiding principles moving forward and was presented to council in 2019 along with reserve and reserve fund projections based on capital forecasts to indicate the need for reserve funding in the future. Under the policy, inter-fund lending between reserves and discretionary reserve funds is permitted, and inter-fund lending from obligatory reserve funds is prohibited.

2. In both the 2019 and 2020 budgets, council has supported the staff recommendation to increase transfers to reserves to begin addressing the need for additional reserve funding of capital infrastructure. Overall budgeted reserve transfers increased by over $600,000 from 2018 to 2019 and by over $780,000 from 2019 to 2020, including rate supported budgets.

3. On May 19, 2020, council approved staff’s recommendation to allocate $862,000 of the 2019 operating surplus to reserves, with particular attention to those that are in a deficit (negative) position.

Reserves are not being used to minimize increases to the tax rates. We need larger allocations to reserves in order to meet the future capital needs of the Town.

Of the total estimated $108 increase in average annual taxes from the 2020 budget, $36 was for increased transfers to reserves.

This was the largest single item that contributed to increased taxes in 2020, because of the focus of staff and council on the financial sustainability of the Town.

What were DC charges collected in 2019 versus budgeted collections? Where will funds come from to pay DC debt payments if DC charges are lower going forward? Is this not a big risk for the Town going forward? Is the

contingency plan to defer any future expenditures that require DC charges?

Total development charge collections in 2019 were $1,430,586.

The total transferred out of the reserve for debt servicing and capital expenditures was $1,887,234. The Town, along with most municipalities, has a DC background study completed with expert advice from consultants. We will continue to obtain advice as needed regarding the timing and amount of collections.

In addition, the new Capital Financing and Debt Management Policy was approved by council on January 13, 2020. This policy includes the phase-in of internal debt limits and indicates that the Town will strive toward the target that a maximum of 50% of the anticipated obligatory reserve fund collections will be spent on debt, in order to maintain a minimum cash balance in the Reserve Fund.

We will strive toward this target but it will take time because of previously approved DC debt projects.

Are recreation funds in the DC fund supposed to be broken down by indoor and outdoor recreation?

Can you provide a breakdown between the two?

Indoor and Outdoor recreation were combined on the Annual Treasurer’s Statement of DC Reserve Funds as it had been in prior years, but we do track indoor and outdoor recreation separately and forecast them separately in the budget presented to council.

Of the total balance of $913,572 in the Parks and Recreation DC Reserve Funds at December 31, 2019, outdoor recreation had a balance of $1,584,965 and indoor recreation had deficit balance of ($671,393). Since this appears to be of interest to the public, we will also disclose those two sub-sections separately in the 2020 Annual Treasurer’s Statement of DC Reserve Funds.

A community clothesline Local artist creates messages of hope during pandemic

BY HELEN TRAN

Special to the VOICE

Anyone driving through Pelham these days, particularly along Canboro Road, might come upon an interesting sight: a clothesline at the end of a driveway, decorated with colourfully painted cedar shakes that spell out an inspiring word or phrase.

The creator of this “community clothesline” is Angie Geiss, former programmer at The Happy Place and In the Orchard Programming for the Arts. Geiss is an artist with many years of experience in the community arts. For ten years, she ran arts programming for the Pelham community before a spine and tailbone injury forced her out of the community loop.

In the midst of chaos and uncertainty, Geiss has used her time during self-isolation to create art to maintain connection with her neighbors and in the hope of

bringing the community together. In the first few weeks of the lockdown, Geiss did what many did— she started cleaning her house. Discovering boxes of paint and other art supplies, Geiss was inspired to create something to cheer people up and “remind them that we are in this together.”

Since “an artist tends to focus not on the negative but the positive,” and “not having an outlet during these times would be tough,” Geiss decided to contact her neighbour John Vandenhaack for help to bring her idea to life.

They collaborated on the project while maintaining social distancing, with designated times and locations for contact-free drop-off and trade of supplies.

Even though they had to work on elements of the project apart, together they created the first “community clothesline” at the end

One of Angie Geiss’ clothesline messages. of Geiss’s driveway. Vandenhaack dug the holes for the two poles to support the clothesline wire, while Geiss painted the cedar shakes and supplied the old-fashioned wooden pins to display the first word: “Together.”

Since then, Geiss has changed the word or phrases weekly to highlight specific things about Niagara that are beautiful or inspiring.

The message as of this writing was, “Caterpillar, Butterfly,” to symbolize the renewal of spring during Easter. Previous phrases included “Strength and Grace,”

to honor the frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and “No Rain, No Rainbows,” representing the beauty of life after going through hard times.

Geiss’s hope is that people will stay positive at this time by supporting the community, local businesses, and artists, in any way they can while maintaining physical distancing.

“Being a community means reaching out to people who may need support and supplies, if they are in quarantine and especially if they are vulnerable,” said

Geiss.

Ultimately, Geiss’s wish is for the clothesline to bring colour and joy to the community. The striking visual of the clothesline represents a “back to basics,” as more people spend time at home, and is something fun to “keep people positive.”

“I really want this clothesline to help people to be taken out of this fear and into better days ahead. Art is what’s getting us through all of this,” said Geiss, maintaining that local artists and businesses will need community support more

ANGIE GEISS

than ever during, and after the pandemic. “The arts are essential, and artists live to create for others, not just for themselves.”

Those who wish to participate can create a clothesline for the end of their driveway, yard, or even to hang in the window. Those who create their own community clothesline are encouraged to post to social media. Updates on Geiss’s “community clothesline” can be found on the official Instagram account, which can be found at https://www.instagram. com/communityclothesline

www.thevoiceofpelham.ca

“Ain’t no chance, if you don’t take it.”

Guy Clark

The Voice, May 27, 2020

Sporting Green The Niagara

Page 17

John Piccolo on some thoughts to think before taking a swing

12

The Voice and TheVoiceofPelham.ca | May 27, 2020

High school sports in limbo

Both Niagara school boards await news on pandemic

BY BERNIE PUCHALSKI

BPSPORTSNIAGARA.COM

Like every other sporting administrator in Ontario, local high school convenors are in the dark as to when sports will be allowed to return to normal.

“There is nothing yet,” said Rina Rode, the District School Board of Niagara sports convenor. “OFSAA [Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations] is having its AGM on June 2 and 3 and they have a rather large order paper.

There are a number of motions that are being covered and I assume there will be some sort of discussion on moving forward at that time.”

Niagara Catholic Athletic Association sports convenor Chris McLean is also awaiting news.

“No one really knows what is going to happen so we just plan as if the season is occurring in the fall,” he said. “It is the same thing we were doing with the spring sports. We were planning and just waiting for every announcement to come out. You want to have kids involved in sports but it is a difficult situation and no one can predict. You just have to wait on the government and health officials.”

McLean typically doesn’t work on schedules until June when the schools have indicated what teams are being run in each sport.

“There are a lot of unknowns, so I might do a six-, seven-, or eight-game schedule and once we know the schools, we just have to punch them in,” he said.

“It’s not complicated and I don’t find that the difficult part. The difficult part moving forward is if sports are allowed, what will be the changes that are going

BERNIE PUCHALSKI

to occur with that? No one can predict it.”

The DSBN won’t be making any decisions until it has guidance.

“There have definitely been some ideas tossed around and we are moving ahead with finding convenors as per normal and we are thinking about having a SOSSA [Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association] AGM as well, but it is a waiting game,” Rode said.

The SOSSA AGM is sched-

uled for June 23, according to the association’s website.

Rode is staying busy despite the pandemic.

“Some things are getting done. I cleaned up the website and I have to update the constitution and the playing regulations,” she said.

“Once the OFSAA AGM is over, I will have a bunch of motions that will have to be placed in our local regulations.”

A meeting will be held in the next little while which

will include Rode, McLean, Zone 1 convenor Mike Grobe and SOSSA executive administrative director Brian Fuller.

“We will find convenors for each of the various activities and we are moving ahead as if everything is going to be normal, but we are just waiting it out,” Rode said.

Fall sports at the high school level includes football, girls basketball, boys volleyball, cross country,

golf, field hockey, tennis and ultimate Frisbee.

McLean and Rode are hoping for the best.

“For kids, it’s important to be moving for their health and well-being,” McLean said. “A lot of kids really depend on it and that is their enjoyment with school. Hopefully things can get up and running but it’s tough in today’s culture.

I am sure everyone is struggling a little bit.”

Rode agrees with that

sentiment.

“But at the same time, if professional sports and university sports aren’t going, I don’t know how we find a way to make high schools sports go. It is all from a health perspective at this point in time,” she said.

“Mentally it is a huge loss and what about the kids who are coming back for 12B because of sports? Will they even come back? And what about those trying to get scholarships?”

Belt-tightening for Niagara IceDogs

BY BILL POTRECZ

BPSPORTSNIAGARA.COM

It has been anything but a normal off-season for the Niagara IceDogs.

Since the Ontario Hockey League cancelled the 2019/20 season in March, the IceDogs have been flying by the seat of their pants on the business side of the operation, attempting to figure out the best course of action during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s tough, it’s something none of us have ever been through,” IceDogs owner Bill Burke said.

Burke is meeting daily with wife and co-owner Denise Burke and

team controller Tracey Findlay going over budgets.

“We do whatever we can do to streamline things,” Bill Burke said.

Bill Burke indicated the IceDogs normally operate on revenue between $3.5-$4 million per year, depending on playoffs, and that expenses are generally between $3.4-$3.5 million.

“There are so many things we’ve tightened up on. We’re just trying to get the numbers down to $3.1, $3.2 (million), something like that,” he said. “We feel revenue is going to take a hit so we’ve got to get our expenses down.

“For the business side, it’s driv-

ing down numbers and working out ways to try and do things better and be more efficient, staff and staff costs, trying to get our number down.”

The IceDogs laid off their entire staff of 17 full-time workers a couple of weeks after the season was cancelled.

With the start of the 2020/21 season still not 100 per cent sure, Bill Burke indicated the organization has not asked season ticket holders to renew their seats at this time.

“We consciously waited,” he said.

“Everyone’s finances are too fragile and we don’t want to be bugging someone and getting a hard no.

“There is zero coming in, a little bit from our retail store. We don’t want to bug anyone till everyone feels they have their job back and maybe made up for some of the lost money.”

Ticket sales account for about two-thirds of total revenue while corporate partnerships make up the bulk of the remaining onethird of revenue. The team also receives $60,000 per season from the Canadian Hockey League’s TV deal with Sportsnet, Burke said.

In the letter sent to season ticket holders, the IceDogs indicated they hope to start the season by the end of September or by the Canadian

Thanksgiving. The Memorial Cup is being pushed back two weeks so there is some flexibility. Burke said there has also been talk of weighing the second half of the season with more games than the first half so people can get used to going back to the arenas.

“There’s no come back and put masks on and sit six feet apart,” he said. “Until there’s some kind of treatment, that would be the first step towards getting people feeling better about going into bigger events, or a vaccine.

“This thing blew up in March See ICEDOGS Back page

Page 18

The Voice, May 27, 2020

www.thevoiceofpelham.ca

FROM THE HANDLEBARS

by John Swart

Does COVID-19 affect your club’s release waiver?

H

elp!” and a huge splash are all I hear.

Twisting hard left in the direction of the shout, I see my kayaking friend Dave clinging to his upside-down boat in chilling Lake Erie.

Our small group of paddlers strokes toward him swiftly but calmly, knowing we’ve practiced our self-rescues and will assist Dave back into his boat without a great deal of worry or drama — as long as he signed the new COVID-19 Release Waiver.

“Hey Dave, did you sign the COVID-19 waiver today?” I shout as we paddle toward him.

“Nope, didn’t bother,” Dave replies. “Get me out of the water before I freeze.”

“Sorry, buddy, if any of us have COVID-19, and you catch it while we’re breaking provincial social distancing guidelines to rescue you, you might be able to sue the club and directors.

I’ll throw you a two-metre tow rope, and hope you can hold on until we get you to shore,” I reply.

Of course, the situation above is fictitious, but many in sports clubs and other volunteer organizations are beginning to realize that the question of COVID-19 liability is real, and needs to be understood.

Caveat before continuing: I have zero legal training, and nothing that is relayed via this column should be considered as legal or any other type of advice. My purpose is to share information only.

This issue finds its way into “From the Handlebars” because of my continuing personal experiences as an executive member of a sports club.

Pelham is rich with a huge diversity of volunteers and volunteer organizations, including many who hold executive positions within these organizations.

It may be cycling, kayaking, tennis, horticulture, bridge, whatever, but if your club brings folks together, protection from liability for infection by communicable disease may be part of your insurance policy, or it may have just been excluded, as it was for our club.

Dave Smith and Els Swart on the Welland River, pre-COVID-19.

Even before social gathering and physical distancing guidelines were established by the province weeks ago, our kayak club had suspended all our activities—paddling, trips, and socials. As boat launches and marinas are now being reopened in Ontario, our club is considering how to work within provincial guidelines and

get back on the water legally and responsibly.

During this process I became aware of an article posted May 11, 2020 on the website of MLT Aikins, a Western Canada law firm with expertise in outdoor/ adventure businesses, by Ryan Morasiewicz, titled, “Should an Outdoor/Adventure Business Adopt a COVID-19-Specific Liability

JOHN SWART

Waiver?”

In my opinion, his premise may apply to clubs and organizations as well.

Those of us in outdoor and sports-related clubs are well familiar with the requirement of members to sign waivers of liability when participating in events that have a degree of See HANDLEBARS Page 14

Voice

HOROSCOPE

ARIES – Mar 21/Apr 20 Something is stirring in your life, but you can’t zero in on what needs to get done at this point in time, Aries. But you will get your focus and be able to zero in on the tasks at hand.

TAURUS – Apr 21/May 21 A conflict between your personal values and those of a larger group may not make you popular with everyone, Taurus. That is alright, as you need to stick to your beliefs and feelings.

GEMINI – May 22/Jun 21 Hold your tongue when others ask for your opinion this week, Gemini.

You may not be able to take things back once the words are said. Bow out graciously instead.

CANCER – Jun 22/Jul 22 Cancer, do not feel bad about caring for yourself this week, even if you must put your needs above the needs of others. How can you help others without first helping yourself?

LEO – Jul 23/Aug 23 It is okay to be skeptical from time to time, Leo. Just do not let negative perceptions bog you down. Realize there are moments when things are right and you can forge ahead.

VIRGO – Aug 24/Sept 22 Virgo, you may have an idea of what your relationship should look like, but it may be built on unreasonable perceptions.

LIBRA – Sept 23/Oct 23 Libra, it may take a leap of faith to get to the next level in your career.

Instead of taking the safe path, you might need to change things up a bit to ensure action.

SCORPIO – Oct 24/Nov 22 A project that once inspired you,

Scorpio, may no longer seem worthy of your time. You’re not fickle; you just want to maximize productivity.

Something new will turn up.

SAGITTARIUS – Nov 23/Dec 21 Love isn’t always easy, Sagittarius. Oftentimes you have to work at it to make it stronger. If you’re willing to put in the effort, you will reap the rewards.

CAPRICORN – Dec 22/Jan 20 Clear and concise conversations will compel others to see your side of the story, Capricorn. You will probably gain a few extra supporters in the process.

AQUARIUS – Jan 21/Feb 18 This week you will get a chance to express your values in a new way, Aquarius. Convey your feelings with gusto so that you can get the message out to as many people as possible.

PISCES – Feb 19/Mar 20 How you are feeling inside may be at odds with the way you are portraying yourself on the outside. You don’t always have to hide feelings, Pisces.

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS MAY 24 Bob Dylan, Singer (79) MAY 25 Aly Raisman, Athlete (26) MAY 26 Lenny Kravitz, Singer (56) MAY 27 Paul Bettany, Actor (49) MAY 28 Seth Rollins, Wrestler (34) MAY 29 Mel B, Singer (45) MAY 30 Idina Menzel, Actress (49)

SOLUTIONS DOWN 1. BCE 2. Alas 3. Tegu 4. Agas 5. Sailor 6. Impanel 7. Duodena 8. Easel 9. Blare 10. Biro 12. Gnu 14. Moab 19. Saps 23. Tae 24. Atonal 25. Tao 26. RBC 27. Ash 28. NCR 29. Sierra 34. Ads 35. Jet 36. Are 37. SSR 39. Mercies 40. Auroras 41. Thy 42. Ross 44. Palate 45. Dacca 46. Ichor 47. Shew 48. Ease 51. Aar 52. Bias 53. Elba 54. Rebs 58. Dis

CROSSWORD ANSWERS

SOLUTIONS ACROSS 1. Bata 5. Sid 8. Ebb 11. Clegg 13. Amu 14. Mali 15. Eagan 16. IPO 17. Osar 18. Susus 20. Lad 21. Aero 22. Atoneable 25. Transparent 30. Abscise 31. Lao 32. Ochre 33. Najas 38. RMA 41. Traders 43. Reupholster 45. Disarrays 48. Each 49. Col 50. Saber 55. Ache 56. IRA 57. Ailed 59. Scow 60. Eat 61. Rabbi 62. Ear 63. SSE 64. Sass

Enjoy out Take-out Fish & Chips Fridays!

From our family to yours...stay safe

www.thevoiceofpelham.ca

The Voice, May 27, 2020

Page 19

NOW OPEN

FAITH LIFT

by Pastor Rob Weatherby

The goal of his life

S

ome people are chosen as “athlete of the year” for their school, city or even country. But what about achieving something that covers 100 years? What happened on September 28, 1972 catapulted Paul Henderson to that level. I met and heard Paul tell his story in Sudbury many years ago. Here’s how it happened…

A boy in small-town Ontario

Henderson was born in 1943 near Kincardine and grew up in Lucknow, both small Ontario towns. He was actually born on a horsedrawn sled on a frozen Lake Huron after a terrible snowstorm blocked the road to the hospital. He likes to quip, “I guess you could say I was born on ice and on blades.”

Henderson showed exceptional skill at an early age and starred on local teams. He played his junior hockey for the Hamilton Red Wings and was called up by the parent team, Detroit Red Wings, in 1964. He had made it to the NHL and his boyhood dream had come true.

sians. The scouting reports led Canadians to believe our best players were far superior to the Red Army team.

After the first four games in Canada, the Soviets had won two, tied one and lost one.

The country was in shock and Team Canada demoralized.

The final four games in Moscow were highly anticipated. The Soviets won a hard-fought game five. Then the tide turned. Henderson scored the winning goals in both games six and seven to keep their hopes alive. He describes his game-winner in game seven as his best.

Mobbed and being tripped

by Soviet defensemen, he raised the puck over Tretiak’s shoulder to score.

The series was now tied at three games a piece plus one tie. Everything rested on game eight. Fifty million Russians watched on TV. Almost every Canadian did the same. I remember one of my teachers at E. L. Crossley rolled in a mobile TV set so my class could see it. No one complained.

As the third period started, Canada was down two goals. Esposito and Cournoyer evened the score at 5.

If the game ended in a tie, See FAITH LIFT Page 14

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A star in the NHL

Henderson began his promising career playing with greats like Gordie Howe, Alex Delvecchio, Norm Ullman, and Terry Sawchuk. He was their young, rising star. But then came the blockbuster trade between Detroit and Toronto in 1968. Norm Ullman, Floyd Smith and Henderson went to Toronto in exchange for Frank Mahovlich, Gary Unger and Peter Stemkowski.

Henderson did well in Toronto. He became a star and one of their best players, but not a superstar.

A superstar in Moscow

Henderson made Team Canada because they needed some hard-working, gritty players to play the Rus-

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The Voice, May 27, 2020

ICEDOGS

continued from Page 17 and it’s two months later and a lot has changed. There’s a lot of research by some bright, bright scientists and doctors working on a vaccine and you hope in the next two months there is something we can look forward to.”

Bill Burke said playing without fans is out of the question.

“We don’t want to ask for any money although we have absolutely none. It’s horrific, for sure, but the problem is coming back to empty stadiums.

“We go from probably $31,000$32,000 a month when no one is there in fixed costs and taxes, and as soon as everyone is back it’s $275,000-$280,000 a month, and with no fans, we’ll all run out of money real quick.”

Despite the uncertainty, Bill Burke said he has no plans to sell the team.

“No, it never crosses our mind.

We’re all in to win this thing,” he said.

That doesn’t mean, however, there hasn’t been interest in the

franchise.

“You’d be amazed at how many people are always interested in getting a good franchise and a good base of support like we have here in Niagara,” he said. “We’ve got great support, great fans, a great base but we’ve worked so hard to get to where we are — we’ve gone through the lumps of last year and I can’t wait to get started whenever that is — because we’ve got some great days ahead and everyone is working so hard to be successful.”

Ice cubes: Assistant coach Mark Mancari and will not return next season. “Unfortunately Niagara and I have mutually agreed that I will not be returning next season, as the commute from London to Niagara everyday became a challenge,” Mancari said. “I would like to thank the Niagara IceDogs organization for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the coaching staff. I would like to thank the coaching staff, training staff and all the players for their hard work and dedication all year.

A lot of friendships have been made and I will cherish them.”

www.thevoiceofpelham.ca

FUN WITH HELIUM Reader Ken Steingart sends in these shots of impressive balloon birthday announcements on the same day on the same block recently in Fonthill. He says that neighbour Shannon Bryan, who runs Party Legend, was the artiste behind a 50th birthday and a 13th birthday display.

KEN STEINGART

SCHOOLS

continued from Page 15 yet, the evidence we have about the risk of COVID-19 to children suggests the opposite,” wrote Denley. “But if schools aren’t safe with professional educators in charge, why are your children safer in the hands of teenage camp counsellors?”

Denley reported that in

Europe, 22 countries have reopened schools, with no significant increase in infections among children.

“Even the World Health Organization, oft-cited by our federal government as the source of all wisdom, noted relatively few cases of COVID-19 reported among children, and advises ‘If your child isn’t displaying any symptoms such as a fever or cough, it’s best

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Only 2.9 percent of those testing positive for the virus in Ontario are age 19 or younger.

There seems to be a growing debate that some form of summer school is needed to prevent students from falling behind academically.

The New York Daily News reported last week that New York City is formulat-

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North Star windows help keep your home cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Call or visit our showroom today for a FREE ESTIMATE on your home!

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High efficiency Gas Furnace and Air Conditioning packages at GREAT PRICING!

BOB REID Heating & Air Conditioning RESIDENTIAL - COMMERCIAL

905-892-7787

FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED

905.562.5831

3435 King Street Vineland WINDOWS & SIDING SINce 1966 • WWW.lOuWeS.ca