In a four to three recorded vote, Aylmer councillors at their Feb. 3 meeting approved receiving and filing a request from Malahide council to consider looking into locating a new library at East Elgin Community Complex. Receiving and filing correspondence amounts to a municipal council not taking any action on the matter. Mayor Jack Couckuyt, Deputy Mayor…
St. Thomas Police thanked the public after a missing St. Thomas teenager was located on Tuesday, Jan. 28. Bailey Kellestine left her residence in St. Thomas on Jan. 25 and police had asked for the public’s assistance in finding her. Police wanted to find Ms. Kellestine as soon as possible in order to ensure she…
Elgin councillors at a meeting Tuesday, Jan. 28, started the ball rolling for an eventual shift of Dexter Line west of Port Bruce to the north to escape Lake Erie erosion. They’ve authorized the start of land acquisition and engineering, which is expected to cost $500,000 out of the $4.5-million projected cost of the move.…
Central Elgin councillors on Monday night, Jan. 27, unanimously approved a 2014 budget that will increase the municipal tax levy from just under $11-million last year to $11.4-million, a 3.75-percent increase. About the only changes made during the course of Monday’s budget session were to shuffle some reserve fund money around, to give $15,000 to a…
Malahide councillors, at their first 2014 budget meeting Monday, Jan. 27, approved increases of five percent annually for sewer rates and seven percent for water rates this year and next. An average residential water bill will increase from $680 a year to $730. An average sewer bill for Springfield residents, who have the only municipal…
Fourteen residents of Brookside Manor Retirement Home in Aylmer were forced last Wednesday, Jan. 22 to find new homes by the end of the day on Friday. Staff from South West Community Care Access Centre were at the Talbot Street East home on Thursday and Friday, helping residents and their family members ensure appropriate care…
St. Thomas Police are asking for the public’s assistance in locating Bailey Kellestine, 13. Ms. Kellestine left her residence on Jan. 25. She has lived in St. Thomas for her entire life and is familiar with the city. Police are asking for help in locating Ms. Kellestine in order to ensure she has shelter from…
Aylmer Police picked up a Malahide man, 21, just four hours after a masked knifepoint robbery at Downtown Convenience Monday, Jan. 27, at 9:30 a.m., and an hour later charged him with robbery. Police Chief Andre Reymer said this was the fourth robbery in as many years at the store. Three had resuled in charges laid by…
Several rural schools in the area were closed on Monday, Jan. 27 due to overnight snow that had created poor road conditions. Thames Valley District School Board closed New Sarum, Port Stanley, South Dorchester, Southwold, Sparta and Summers Corners public schools due to bus cancellations. East Elgin Secondary School and McGregor Public School in Aylmer…
Grade 5 pupil Jocelyn Drenth returned a serve during a two-hour “Volleyball Extravaganza” at New Sarum Public School, Wednesday, Jan. 22. Grade 5 through 8 pupils participated in the event, which was raising money for a planned Grade 8 graduation trip to Camp Celtic in the Bruce Peninsula in the spring.
Brennan Piché-Leclaire, 13, of Aylmer is hoping to become a junior counsellor for The War Amps of Canada CHAMP (Child Amputee) program starting this summer. “They’re awesome,” he said with feeling about the organization and the help it has given both to him and his parents over his lifetime. For Brennan, who was born without…
Elgin County councillors on Tuesday, Jan. 14, unanimously rejected a request from Elgin Federation of Agriculture for a rejigging of property tax on agricultural land. Councillors unanimously rejected a request from EFA to have the tax rate for farm fields lowered from a quarter of what residential properties paid. Local farmers saw the value of…