NEWS |
THE OBSERVER | Saturday, June 13, 2009
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Elmira merchants coping with Arthur Street closure..................................»13 It’s all about the music for six decades
»21 VOLUME 14, ISSUE 23
SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 2009
www.ObserverXtra.com
Tractor leads police on wild cross-country chase Many spectators watch as cruisers trail farm vehicle; Walkerton man says drugs made him to it MARC MIQUEL HELSEN It might not make an episode of COPS or World’s Scariest Police Chases, but an incident involving a fugitive tractor and two police cruisers hot on its tail in Elmira last weekend was the subject of local gossip, quickly making appearances on the popular networking sites of
Facebook and YouTube. Police in Elmira gave chase to a tractor after it was stolen from a Maryhill Road area farm on June 5. The driver of the tractor, 34-year-old Troy Victor Taibinger from the Walkerton area, led police officers in two cruisers on a wild chase that spanned the townships of Woolwich and Wellesley and lasted some two hours. He was
later arrested and charged with ‘theft over $5,000,’ ‘possession of stolen property over $5,000,’ ‘flight from police,’ ‘dangerous operation of a motor vehicle’ and ‘possession of a controlled substance.’ At a court appearance in Kitchener this week, Taibinger claimed that he had been high on crystal meth before stealing a tractor from a Maryhill Road farm in the
early hours of June 5. Later that day, at approximately 8:30 p.m., police spotted the tractor in Elmira. Responding officers first observed the New Holland cab tractor with a front-end loader near the Petro Canada gas station on Arthur Street in Elmira. Looking to fill the tractor with diesel, the driver was unable to do so at that location and subsequently drove off.
Police followed the tractor and waited until it cleared the town’s urban core before approaching the driver. They attempted to stop Taibinger but he refused, taking off and leading them on a chase through area fields. Many residents watched and videotaped the incident as the tractor, better suited See CHASE »02
PHOTO | jOE MERlIHAN
CRA makes bid for Woolwich business park Proposal requires shifting the hard boundary line keeping development on the Waterloo side STEVE KANNON The biggest battle in Contestoga-Rovers’ plans for a new head office building will be getting Woolwich councillors to cross the line – the countryside line. The consulting firm this week unveiled an ambitious plan to develop a business park near the intersection of King and Bridge streets, encompassing what is now much of the Kuntz gravel pit. The big hitch? The development would overstep the hard boundary between the City of Waterloo’s urban space on one side of Bridge Street and the protected rural area that
is Woolwich’s territory on the other. In a presentation to township council Monday night, senior partner Jim Kay said Conestoga-Rovers and Associates (CRA) wants to consolidate its six Waterloo locations into one new head office to house its 500 local employees. Some 107 acres of land would be developed as a potential high-tech business park that, once built out, could provide employment to thousands of workers and deliver more than $800,000 a year in tax revenue to Woolwich coffers. The location – close to services from Waterloo, the expressway and Waterloo Region’s proposed new transit corridor
– makes the land ideally suited to development, he argued, adding there would be few infrastructure demands on the township because of the prox-
imity to Waterloo. Woolwich, however, has historically taken a hard line on boundary issues. Councillors showed little appetite for the
CRA plan, though put off formal discussion until planning staff has had time to review the plan. While calling it a “very tempting proposal,” Coun. Mark Bauman said the company should be encouraged to look elsewhere in the township for its new office space. “Moving the countryside line along Martin’s Creek, toward the north part of their property, if we were to do that, I think we would need to put a revolving door onto the planning department because there are numerous properties that back onto Martin’s Creek … and I’m sure there would be great proposals that See CRA »02