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McGregor Public School pupils Grace Smith, left, Olivia Thompson, front, Adrianna Borm and Rachel Ross learned how static electricity works by rubbing cups against their hair and, in the case of what is pictured, sticking them to the top of their heads so that the cups would stick during the Mad Science after school club…

Central Elgin councillors on Monday night, March 23, and Elgin County councillors the next day unanimously backed the decision of Thames Valley District School Board to transfer some French-immersion pupils from overcrowded Pierre Elliot Trudeau Public School in St. Thomas to undercrowded Port Stanley Public School starting Sept. 1. Trudeau has just under 800 pupils,…

In an over three and a half hour joint council session on Monday, March 23, elected officials from both Aylmer and Malahide decided to take no action on sending out a request for proposals to look for an outside, private management firm to take over the operations of East Elgin Community Complex. One of the…

Carter Nevill, 9, left, Christina Funk, 12, and Community Access Program site intern Faith Braun played the Wii game Just Dance 2015 and danced to the song You Look So Perfect by Five Seconds of Summer during a Wii camp at Straffordville Public Library on Friday afternoon, March 20. The Wii camp was the last of…

A “flood watch” issued by Catfish Creek Conservation Authority on Tuesday morning, March 17 was downgraded to a “watershed conditions statement” on the morning of Friday, March 20. The change from a watch to a statement indicated that creek conditions had improved, CCCA Water  Management Technician Peter Dragunas wrote in a media release. “Flooding in low-lying…

Sisters Emily Froese, 7, left, and Lynn, 10, made green “slime” out of some water, white glue, food colouring and some detergent during the Lil’ Scientists-themed day camp at East Elgin Community Complex on Thursday afternoon, March 19. The Complex offered the camps each weekday of the March Break that week. Other activities included skating,…

Victoria Belle, 3, couldn’t resist tasting the sauce and then the cheese she and her mother Kristen Wyse were adding to mini-pizzas they were making during the “Pizza Palooza” lunch-time activity at Springfield Public Library on Thursday, March 19. The Springfield Library offered drop-in fun activities throughout March Break while children weren’t in schools including…

The first dozen or so Tundra swans of 2015 showed up at Aylmer Wildlife Management Area next to the Ontario Police College along Hacienda Road northeast of Aylmer on Thursday morning, March 19. The Tundra Swan Line, a free telephone service set up by Eastlink (the former Amtelecom) 30 years ago (1985) and managed by the…

A 77-year-old Sparta-area maple syrup producer received minor injuries and was treated and released from hospital after a pickup truck rear-ended the trailer he was towing with a tractor on Quaker Line south of Sparta on Thursday morning, March 12. An Elgin County Ontario Provincial Police spokesman said a 24-year-old St. Thomas man was charged…

Elgin County Ontario Provincial Police are still investigating a crash involving a cyclist and a transport truck that occurred just west of Orwell on Talbot Line (Highway 3) near Springwater Road in the late morning of Monday, March 16. A police spokesman said the collision happened at about 11:30 a.m. that day. A 2005 Freightliner…