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11 | 16 | 2013 VOLUME 18 | ISSUE 46
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EDSS students reach accord over Region to help tourist railway Remembrance Day ceremony Controversy forced out by LRT that flared up before Monday’s events turned into a learning experience
Waterloo Central Railway to receive $150,000 to help with move to new base of operations on city end ELENA MAYSTRUK
ELENA MAYSTRUK Remembrance Day at Elmira District Secondary School was heralded by controversy last weekend due to plans for a memorial over the public-address system instead of the full assembly held in recent years. By Monday, however, the clash between students disagreeing with the program and the student council organizers led to a well-rounded day of commemoration. “We wanted to make sure that it didn’t seem like soldiers were [just] people who killed things. I have a friend who is actually shipping out to become a soldier in the Canadian infantry and I wanted to make sure that everybody knew that he is not just going off and killing,” said student Melanie McArdle. The student council member was one of the organizers of Monday’s
Staff member Erin Westra and EDSS students Melanie McArdle, Alex Hahn and Maddie Wang hold up some war-themed images from the Remembrance Day display still in the school hall this week. [ELENA MAYSTRUK / THE OBSERVER] in-class assembly that infamily, so when I found out brance Day. Her brother’s cluded stories, music and that they were not having military uniform, from his a poem. an assembly I was taken service in Afghanistan, The live sounding of aback because I thought was displayed in the school The Last Post by a student, it wasn’t enough. Soldiers hall. She also arranged a poem by another and a spend months and years an impromptu lunchtime song followed by a moment fighting for us; we can’t presentation on Monday, of silence, all over the PA spend 75 minutes honourincluding a speaker – a system, lacked the gravity ing them? Eventually the parent formerly part of the of a Remembrance Day asschool contacted us and Canadian Armed Forces – sembly for some EDSS stuwe worked together to and a live performance of dents. Displeasure lead to throw something at lunch,” the Bob Dylan song ‘Blowa Facebook page, ‘Rememsaid Grade 11 student Alex ing in the Wind.’ brance Day Assembly,’ creHahn. EDSS principal Paul Morated by protesting students Hahn was part of the gan said this week it’s not last weekend. drive behind the protest EDSS | 5 “I come from a military leading up to Remem-
Displaced by the pending light rail transit scheme, the Waterloo Central Railway will get $150,000 from the regional government to help reorganize the operation of its popular tourist train based in St. Jacobs. Soon to be ousted from their original spot in Uptown Waterloo, WCR will use the money to establish a new location on Northfield Drive, near the Conestogo Parkway. The organization had requested $488,000, but this week the region offered up $150,000 plus a stretch of original track and two switches. “We’ve been here seven years. We have become a very widely-know and a very good family tourist attraction; it’s fun it’s educational, it’s interesting it’s old fashioned, it’s historic.” said WCR president Ross White of the operation. While the funding was significantly less than he’d
WCR president Ross White in an antique caboose at the organization’s St. Jacobs shop this week. asked for, White said he was happy with the decision. “What makes this so good is that they are additionally offering us the track that we currently have at Waterloo station. We will take up that track at some point and the two switches. The switches are worth about $70,000 each, the track is about $175 per foot.” That amounts to more than $300,000 with the 900 feet of reusable track, of which about 600-700 feet will be used for a new passing track to store the train. Rails will be removed from their location by a railway WCR | 4