Vandalism has The Gardens eyeing surveillance

After several acts of vandalism on his business property the owner of The Gardens in Elmira is working with another local company to make the scenic space more secure.

Last week the garden portion behind Mooder Horticultural Inc., the design and project management firm on Dunke Street, was broken into by unknown suspects. The perpetrators broke into a storage shed housing plants and supplies and threw them outside the building.

Though this is not the first break-in to occur at The Gardens, owner Doug Mooder is now looking to add video surveillance equipment to the site.

“I have to. I’ve got two kids at home: I can’t be sitting down here babysitting the place all the time,” said Mooder.

The Gardens is a plot of landscaped land featuring stonework, ponds, trees, shrubbery and creeks located behind the company’s office. An interactive outdoor space that offers potential customers a virtual display of the firm’s services, it also offers local residents …Read more

Eyes on our feathered friends

On a trip to Alaska shortly after finishing high school, Mark Bauman noticed a little grey bird hopping around in a mountain stream. It was a nondescript bird, a bit fatter than a sparrow, but it wasn’t anywhere in his bird guide. Bauman was intrigued and bought another guide, where he learned it was a Dipper, a bird that walks on riverbeds and dives underwater in search of bugs and fish eggs.

That little grey bird turned Bauman into a dedicated birdwatcher. He has a life list of birds he’s spotted that reached 500 this year and includes exotic species like painted buntings from Florida, trogans from Costa Rica and todies from the Caribbean.

But Bauman does most of his bird watching closer to home. His house in St. Jacobs is a stone’s throw from the Health Valley Trail, and he has a backyard list of birds, spotted within half a kilometre of home, that numbers 154.

“I just think how fortunate we are to be able to walk five minutes from our house and be …Read more

Fire destroys Breslau-area barn

Police have ruled out arson as the cause of a barn fire on Kossuth Road east of the Waterloo airport Tuesday afternoon.

Ten horses, three dogs and a pig died in the fire, which destroyed the two-storey barn. The horses in the barn were recovery horses, scheduled to go to the slaughterhouse but rescued instead.

Police spokesperson Olaf Heinzel said Thursday that police investigators aren’t considering the fire suspicious.

“From a police perspective, we don’t believe there’s any reason to believe there was any criminal activity or criminal offenses committed,” he said.

The fire was reported around 1:20 p.m. by tenants living in the adjacent house. By the time firefighters arrived on the scene, the barn had partially collapsed. Shortly after, a 45-gallon drum containing motor oil exploded, sending a cloud of black smoke into the air.

The strong west wind carried burning embers across to a nearby field, starting a grass fire that blackened 10 acres and …Read more

Always up for a good debate

Canada should bring its troops home from Afghanistan. Evil is a necessary part of human nature. Up is better than down.

If your response was “Well, that’s debatable,” you’re entirely correct. Those are just a few of the resolutions tackled by the Elmira District Secondary School debating society.

This weekend, the question is whether Canada should apply to join the European Union, and debaters from across Ontario will be making their case at Kitchener’s Eastwood Collegiate during the provincial championships. Elmira won’t be making an argument, as the debating team missed the provincials this year, but EDSS student Tristan Neill will be taking part as a judge.

Neill and his debating partner, Wren Laing, excelled on the debating team for four years. After they graduated last June, Laing headed to McGill University while Neill returned to EDSS for a fifth year. In September, Neill decided that he’d prefer to judge this year.

“I want to debate at the university level and I thought looking at it from that other perspective would be really valuable,” Neill said.

Taking a seat at the judges’ table wasn’t hard; four years as a debater taught Neill what a good argument sounds like, and new judges are paired with older judges at tournaments to offer guidance as necessary.
There are two rounds to high school debating; teams first argue in favour of a resolution, and then they turn around and argue against it.

“The ability to see both sides of an issue is really important,” said teacher supervisor Caroline Knapp. …Read more

Specialist to address local farmers

Dr. David Kohl, one of North America’s leading agricultural economists, will be in Drayton Apr. 1, a featured speaker at the annual farm show.

A professor emeritus in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia, Kohl will share his …Read more

Darkness to descend for today’s Earth Hour

Residents of planet Earth will get a chance to show their support for their only home today (Saturday), as the world gets set to take part in the second annual Earth Hour at 8:30 p.m.

Last year the World Wildlife Fund event, which got its start in Australia in 2007, grew into a global sustainability movement, bringing together some 50 million participants from around …Read more

Potholes tax our patience with neglected infrastructure

Winter officially behind us, we’re firmly ensconced in the season that follows. No, not spring – well, yes, spring – but more pressingly for drivers, pothole season.

Somewhere between snow-covered streets and the serious thaw, we’re in a no-man’s land of dodging craters and the occasionally spray of cold patch, awaiting the arrival …Read more

Red Cross home care workers begin rotating strikes

Red Cross home care providers across Ontario began a series of rotating strikes Monday, demanding the provincial government compensate them for travel costs associated with the job.

The 3,000 workers are members of the Service Employees International Union. Cathy Carroll, secretary-treasurer for SEIU Local 1, said they came up with a system of one-day strikes to get the attention of the …Read more

Sittler takes on advocacy role for Colon Cancer Canada

His wife having succumbed to colon cancer, Darryl Sittler knows firsthand the importance of early detection in fighting the disease. That experience made the hockey hall of famer an eager recruit for Colon Cancer Canada’s public education campaign, which features other celebrities such as Anne Murray and Pamela Wallin …Read more

Ending seasons on a festive note

It proved challenging, but the coaching staffs of the Elmira Sugar Kings and the Wellesley Applejacks were able to come up with a list of winners for their respective awards banquets last weekend.

“It makes for difficult choices because you certainly want to recognize significant performances or achievements but you don’t want to leave anybody out. We have a tough time with it because in hockey we’re not supposed to recognize the individual, it’s such a team game that that contributes to making it hard to pick anybody,” said Elmira head coach Geoff Haddaway.

“You won’t find a bad kid on the Elmira Sugar Kings.”

While neither team ended the season the way it wanted to, there was more than enough camaraderie and positive vibrations throughout the organizations – including players, coaches, staff, parents billets, and fans – to warrant one final celebration.

“It means a lot to me: we all walked out that afternoon [with] a good feeling … it was a good way to wrap up the season,” said Haddaway.

For the Kings, an extended regular season might have seen things play out differently as they turned a seesaw first part of the …Read more