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03 | 02 | 2017 VOLUME 22 | ISSUE 09
WOODLAND GIRLS TAKE VOLLEYBALL SILVER AT CWOSSA SPORTS PAGE 14
COMMENT PAGE 6
SIDEWALK DECISION A RARE BIT OF COMMON SENSE
Residents come out swinging against latest gravel pit plan for Jigs Hollow
More than just sap flowing at ceremonial first tap in Woolwich Plenty of praise for local maple syrup industry as producers and politicians officially kick off the season
Preston Sand and Gravel seeking zoning change to allow below-water-table extraction in Winterbourne Valley
WHITNEY NEILSON
STEVE KANNON IT’S A BIG CHANGE, and nearby residents aren’t having any part of it. And they’re hoping Woolwich councillors feel the same way about a bid to permanently alter the Winterbourne Valley in pursuit of gravel. Residents of Winterbourne and Conestogo turned out in droves at township council chambers Tuesday night to counter a presentation by Preston Sand and Gravel (PSG), which wants a zoning change to allow below-the-water-table extraction of aggregate at a farm on Peel Street. A legal battle having already cleared the way for a conventional pit at the Jigs Hollow site, PSG was stymied when work got underway in 2014 and the water table was too high to permit it to continue – all extraction has to be no deeper than 1.5 metres above the water table, and levels were almost at the surface. Since then, the company has been jockeying for a request for the township to lift a holding provision on the 89-acre site. PSG also has an application before GRAVEL PIT | 2
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Woolwich Mayor Sandy Shantz helped kick off the ceremonial first tap – more affectionately known as the last tap this year – at the Goetz’s farm, Shady Grove, on Feb. 24. Most maple syrup producers in this region have already had a couple boils because of the warmer than normal weather. [WHITNEY NEILSON / THE OBSERVER]
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IT’LL BE REMEMBERED AS the first tap that was more like the last tap. On Feb. 24, maple syrup producers and politicians gathered on Dan and Heather Goetz’s Woolwich farm, Shady Grove, for the ceremonial first tapping of a sugar maple. “Today we are celebrating the first tapping of a sugar maple to formally kick off the 2017 season and I said this last year, and Fred Martin said, we should be changing this to the last tapping because most of us have already had two or three boils already. It’s hard to believe. And last year we thought was really early,” president of the WaterlooWellington Maple Syrup Producers Association, Terry Hoover, said with a laugh. Elmira Maple Syrup Festival committee chair Drew McGovern welcomed the crowd and announced the winner of the festival’s maple syrup competition
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– Maple Tap Farms, for the second year running. The festival will be buying exclusively Maple Tap Farms syrup to serve at the pancake tent on Apr. 1 – a benefit that comes with the win. Hoover explained this is the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association’s 51st year, which began because of a need to collectively work together. “The maple industry contributes over $60 million to the Canadian economy, close to 2,000 direct jobs and over $12 million in taxes to three levels of government and we are growing by an average of five to eight per cent by year,” Hoover said. Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott noted in his remarks it’s impressive to see an industry growing that fast and it’s exciting for the future of maple producers. Maple is also the first agricultural group of the year, which no other commodity FIRST TAP | 28