NEWS |
THE OBSERVER | Saturday, November 14, 2009
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Eloise makes her way onto the stage for Christmas...................................»22 SJK girls claim oFSAA title
»15 VOLUME 14, ISSUE 45
SATURDAY, November 14, 2009
www.ObserverXtra.com www.ObserverXtra
You can fight city hall ... And win
Family displaced as blaze guts Elmira home Faulty light fixture pegged as likely cause of fire KATIE EDMONDS
See FIRE page »08
Woolwich drops plans to develop subdivision in Victoria Glen Park STEVE KANNON
PHOTO | jOni milTenburg
A tire swing hangs from a tall tree in the front lawn of a home at 17 Duke St. in Elmira, but rather than the typical pile of fallen leaves and some leftover Halloween decorations, alongside it are crisp burnt flowers and broken glass. An old fluorescent light fixture is believed to be the cause of a fire that started in the kitchen during the early hours of last Saturday morning. The residents, a family who had just purchased the house in July, was forced to flee their home. Jeff Sharwood and Isabella Jajkowska, along with their pet dog managed to escape unharmed, though pet tortoises were destroyed in the fire. Their daughter had spent the night at her grandparent’s house and was not present when the fire broke out. Woolwich Township deputy fire chief Dale Martin said the homeowners reported the blaze just before 3:30 a.m. By the time the firefighters arrived, the flames had travelled into the attic and were “rolling out through the front door.” The couple’s neighbour, Sharon Hollinger, heard the police cars and fire trucks pull up outside her home after she had gone to bed for the night. “I ran downstairs, looked out the side window and the two windows facing us were totally engulfed in flames.” Going out onto the street to see what had happened, Hollinger met with several other concerned neighbours, while the couple waited in the police car with only the clothes they were wearing and items they had time to take from the house before leaving. “The fire seemed pretty hard to control,” said Hollinger. “It would look like it was out and then it would start up again. It moved very quickly.”
BACK tO NAtuRE matt greene, Wyatt Whitby and Cole Donkersgoed take a seat on a stump in Victoria glen Park Thursday afternoon. The grade 6 classes at Park manor School have been studying biodiversity and got to examine it up close with a hike through the forest. With Woolwich council’s decision to preserve the woodland, future students will get to visit the site.
The end was something of an anticlimax, but residents went away happy Tuesday night as Woolwich council scrapped a proposal to build a residential subdivision in a portion of Elmira’s Victoria Glen Park. They filled council chambers again, however, waiting for confirmation councillors would go along with a staff recommendation to halt development plans. The report circulated quickly following its release Tuesday morning, prompting a more subdued response that evening. “Everybody’s happy with the result. We were excited when we got the staff report, but we wanted to be there – you never know until it comes right down to the vote,” said Karen Orr, one of the organizers behind the Preserve Victoria Glen Park movement. Given the content of the staff report, only two people spoke briefly in favour of preserving the park. Councillors did not deliberate for long before voting unanimously to drop the proposal. A report presented by Laurel DaviesSnyder, the township’s economic development and tourism officer, concluded See VICTORIA GLEN page »06
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