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The Observer | Saturday, August 23, 2008
New funding means more support at long-term care homes................... »16
The boys of ‘54 give a bit back VOLUME 13, ISSUE 34
SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 2008
Shoeless Joe’s eyes Elmira location
www.ObserverXtra.com
It’s a rough ride ... but short
»18
PRICELESS
Infrastructure tab set to top $11 million
Restaurant could join Canadian Tire site in development by 2009
Woolwich to look at funding necessary improvements to slate of bridge structures
MARC MIQUEL HELSEN
STEVE KANNON
Add a Shoeless Joe’s restaurant to the list of retail and service outlets looking to snap up a space on the long-vacant commercial strip in the south end of Elmira. If all goes as intended, the Concord, Ont.based restaurant chain will open a 5,000square-foot facility in 2009. “We would love to be able to do a site for next year: we are looking for a franchisee,” said Joel Friedman, senior vicepresident of franchising and real estate for Shoeless Joe’s. “We think Elmira is a good opportunity. Our record shows that we do very well in smaller towns,” he said, highlighting Napanee and Orangeville as examples of communities where Shoeless Joe’s restaurants “do really well.” Currently, there are 36 Shoeless Joe’s restaurants across Ontario. Though deeming it premature to comment specifically on the restaurant/ sports bar’s plans, township planner Jeremy Vink said he’s hopeful that such a facility might help keep local diners in town. “It may keep people here in Elmira versus driving to Waterloo … to get to something a little nicer, an upper scale chainstyle restaurant – it will, at least, keep people here, hopefully.” The long vacant lot adjacent to the Price Chopper store – set to close down next month, with the downtown Foodland store moving there around Nov. 1 – in Elmira’s south end promises to be the site of a flurry of construction activity in 2009, as a number of businesses See MARKET VILLAGE page »06
JUST HANG ON A rookie rider gets one spin on Wire the bull, but then is quickly bucked off during the finale at the 2008 Western Rodeo Weekend Aug. 17 in Breslau. Proceeds from the two-day event benefitted the Canadian Diabetes Association.
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The prospect of dealing with the township’s aging bridges now comes with a price tag: $11$13 million. Woolwich’s next step is to figure out how to pay for it. A long-term plan will be part of the 2009 budget process set to get underway shortly. Required by the province to inspect bridge structures – bridges and culverts – every two years, the township last year had an engineering consultant determine the state of its inventory and then come up with a cost for tackling any deficiencies. The 30 bridges and 12 culverts were examined, with remediation work ranked as high, medium or low priority. Six are deemed high priorities, with remedial work or replacement estimated to cost $5.5 million. None is in such bad shape that work must be carried out immediately, director of engineering and planning Dan Kennaley told councillors meeting Tuesday night. The timeline falls in a one- to five-year period. The six most pressing projects include a Floradale Road culvert ($525,000), a bridge on Reid Woods Drive ($375,000), a steel truss bridge on Weisenberg Road ($1.5 million), a culvert on Halm Road ($200,000), a steel truss bridge on Glasgow Street ($2.5 million) and a structure on Bisch Street ($350,000). “There’s no indication these structures are not safe.” As a precaution, annual inspections will be carried out, however. Eleven were identified as medium priority. Five would require significant remediation or replacement, with a price tag of $600,000 or $2.5 million respectively. Five have been found to require replacement, at a cost of $4.5 milSee BRIDGES page »06
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