Commit to a 2014 Membership & Golf the Rest of 2013 FREE!* $
Junior | Student | Couples | Seniors | Adult Flex Memberships Available Promo begins Aug. 19, 2013 —*25% downpayment on 2014 membership required. Payment options available for membership. Contact Director of Golf Jeremy Logel for details
50
+HST
Cart & Golf Monday’s in August
Celebrating 50 years 1963-2013
40 Eldale Road, Elmira
Book your tee-times on-line
www.elmiragolfclub.com |
519.669.1652
08 | 10 | 2013 VOLUME 18 | ISSUE 32
PUTTING MUSIC TO DICKENS' A TALE OF TWO CITIES THE ARTS PAGE 16
COMMENT PAGE 8
RUSSIAN CONTROVERSY HIGHLIGHTS OLYMPIC NEGATIVES
Conestogo Park to get a makeover
NOTHING TO FEAR HERE
CPAC / COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL
Council denies bid to return Al Marshall to CPAC Contentious past actions likely helped scuttle plans to reinstate outspoken critic despite committee’s wishes
STEVE KANNON Long overdue upgrades are coming to the park in Conestogo. An unusable tennis court will be replaced, joined by a new multi-use sports pad that will serve as a hockey rink, in both summer and winter, and a basketball court. Meeting this week, Woolwich councillors approved spending $336,000 to make the project happen. The project calls for a refurbished tennis court and a multi-use pad with rink boards that will allow for all-year use. Along with the boards, there would be new hockey and basketball nets, and all of the applicable ground markings. The playing areas would be surrounded by a new chainlink fence. As well, the project calls for new light standards and lamps, perimeter fencing and other site improvements. The scale of the project is contingent on the final arrangement with Endure Sports Management Inc., chosen from among two applicants who responded to the township’s request for proposals (RFP) for overhauling the Evening Star Lane park. The $336,000 expenditure is well above the $130,000 initially budgeted, though that figure was something of a placeholder, covering only the PARK | 2
www.OBSERVERXTRA.com
STEVE KANNON
SUMMER FUN Not much to be afraid of in Summer Playground’s “fear factor” August 8 at the WMC, just chocolate and gunny worms dug up by Alexis and Wade McKenzie, Atlantis Walter, Monique Bertrand, Maddy Cruichshank, Carlee Mueller, Mackenzie Acheson, Stuart Sinclair, Tianna, Rylea and Tayler Schade, Seth Snyder, Jayden Stanley, Hailey Mueller and Wesley GoerzenSheard. [ELENA MAYSTRUK / THE OBSERVER]
Outspoken environmental advocate Al Marshall’s on-again, offagain relationship with the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee has warmed up again, but Woolwich council is having no part of it. The majority of committee members voted to welcome Marshall back into the ranks, but councillors voted against those wishes in a split decision August 6. Marshall, a long-time participant in the groundwater contamination saga, has been appointed to and removed from CPAC in each of the last two terms of council. His most recent stint with the group came after a new council elected in 2010 overhauled the committee, but it was short-lived due to his often-abrasive style. After his removal, he continued
to attend public meetings, and now serves on CPAC’s soil, water and air technical team (SWAT). Committee chair Dan Holt said Marshall’s knowledge of the subject matter and the history of problems in Elmira’s groundwater make him a valuable resource, adding Marshall has become less confrontational even in the last couple of years. Given the changes, the majority of those on the committee, some of whom had issues with Marshall in the past, are willing to invite him back, said Holt. That council chose to ignore CPAC’s recommendation frustrates him. “Alan brings a whole lot to the table in terms of his expertise and his knowledge of the history,” he said on Wednesday, reacting to the previous night’s CPAC | 2
WHERE TIRES ARE A SPECIALTY,
NOT A SIDELINE.
Farm - Auto - Truck - Industrial - Lawn & Garden - On The Farm Service
ELMIRA, ON | 519-669-3232
AT PARTICIPATING STORES