NEWS |
THE OBSERVER | Saturday, December 05, 2009
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With Christmas comes the holiday entertainment.....................................»28 EDSS students at career fair
»15 VOLUME 14, ISSUE 48
SATURDAY, December 05, 2009
www.ObserverXtra.com
Traffic-calming measures for Barnswallow?
» OnlY minOR injURies
PHOTO | jOe meRliHan
STEVE KANNON
LEFT oUT In THE FIELD Four children under the age of seven were among the injured Wednesday morning when a van travelling on spitzig Road left the roadway and rolled over into a cornfield. Firefighters had to extricate the driver, a 29-year-old Woolwich Township woman. all of the vehicle’s occupants were taken to hospital, where they were treated and released. investigators believe that icy road conditions contributed to the collision; no charges will be laid.
Contemplating traffic-calming measures for Elmira’s Barnswallow Drive, Woolwich council will be looking for public feedback on a variety of proposed changes. Under consideration are the installation of two four-way stops, the reduction of the width of driving lanes and the addition of more trees along the boulevard, among other improvements. Barnswallow Drive, a major collector road on Elmira’s west side, is essentially a wide-open strip from Whippoorwill Drive to Church Street. Traffic surveys show drivers average a speed of 63 km/h in an area posted at 50 km/h, director of engineering and planning Dan Kennaley told councillors meeting Tuesday night. While that’s not overly excessive, there is concern because of two school crosswalks on the route, he added. The township is looking at all-way stops at the intersection of Barnswallow Drive and First Street and at Barnswallow and Kingfisher drives. The former was the subject of a mail-out to 164 residences in the vicinity See BARNSWALLOW »page 02
Water fluoridation becoming an issue once again Watchdog group says proper procedure not followed in decision to pipe water to Woolwich JONI MILTENBURG Residents of Elmira and St. Jacobs are drinking fluoridated water they never asked for, and are getting more than just fluoride in that water, argues a local activist challenging Waterloo Region about its procedures. Robert Fleming heads a citizens’ group that opposes the
fluoridation of water in Waterloo. He contends that the science supporting fluoridation is out of date and the process adds traces of lead, arsenic and other contaminants to the water. “We want to see fluoridation turned off until science proves the ingestion of fluoride reduces cavities and the ingestion of co-contaminants over our lifetime is safe.”
Residents in the City of Waterloo who receive fluoridated water will be asked to vote on whether fluoridation should continue in a plebiscite during next fall’s municipal election. That vote will include residents of Elmira and St. Jacobs, as well as a handful along Country Squires Road and the farmers’ market area who get water from Waterloo. Water in Elmira and St. Ja-
cobs has been piped in from Waterloo since 1992, after Elmira’s aquifers became contaminated with chemicals from the Uniroyal (now Chemtura) plant. Fleming said the residents of the two towns were never consulted on whether they wanted fluoride added to their water. Regional clerk Kris Fletcher, who was clerk of Woolwich
Township at the time, said the issue of fluoride was raised in the early 1990s, but was of secondary importance. “The priority was to ensure that water was received in Elmira during that time frame … I was in Woolwich Township at the time that all that was going on, and I do remember discussions with the public saying they would See FLOURIDE »page 02
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