Former township hall to find new life

On the eve of its 100th birthday, the former Woolwich township administration building at the corner of Arthur and Wyatt streets in Elmira has a new lease on life. The historic building located at 69 Arthur St. S. has been sold to Juliane Shantz, an Elmira resident and a doctor of audiology who has owned and operated Elmira’s Ear and Hearing Clinic for 15 years.

The building sat empty for nearly four years after township staff moved to their new building on Church Street, and Mayor Todd Cowan is pleased that it was bought by a local business owner.

“I’m impressed, not just because Juliane is local, but also because Juliane has a vision for that building,” he said.

Shantz was unavailable for an interview this week, but said in a press release that she has a “fondness for the former town hall” and that she “looks forward to sharing its familiar, welcoming atmosphere with my patients.”

Built in 1912, the building served as a post office then briefly as a police station. Starting in 1966 it served as township hall and municipal administration building until 2008. Additions have been made to it over the years to increase the amount of space, notably the rear addition in 1985, but the building has always maintained a distinguished presence in downtown Elmira.

That presence was the main selling point that the township and their real estate company Coldwell Banker pushed on this property, starting last fall when the township assembled an advisory task force with the goal of selling the property.
“It’s something that stands out. It’s not just a box on the street,” the mayor said.

In the end Shantz and one other bidder placed an offer on the building, with a third coming close, Cowan said. Real estate laws prohibit the details of the sale to be made public prior to the closing date at the end of June, but the township was asking $625,000 for it.

“When we looked at the tenders we didn’t accept the highest bid for the building,” said Cowan. “We also more or less did a questionnaire to ask what they see with the building and where do they want to go.

“We did the same thing a year ago with the swimming pool. We had two offers on the table, one was to bash it down and put up condos, and the other one was the Waterloo Region synchronized swimming. That offer wasn’t the highest one, but they had the best vision from a community point of view”

Those concerned with how the sale will impact the façade of the building need not be: the original portion of the 11,687 square foot building was designated a historical structure in January of 2010, meaning the clock tower and its original mechanism from 1914 is protected, along with the triangular-shaped gables, the keystones over every window and doorway, along with the square-cut doorways, said Peter Benninger of Coldwell Banker.

“I think it was really important to establish that the person that was going to buy it did have a vision, and did have an interest in keeping it as an historic building,” he said.

Little prep time as province begins gravel pit review

Area residents, community groups and politicians are calling on the provincial Liberal and NDP parties to reconsider the amount of time and assets being dedicated to a review of the Aggregate Resources Act.

The review got underway this past week with meetings of the standing committee on general government on May 7 and 9 and it continues next Monday and Wednesday. The all-party committee has allocated a mere 12 hours to the hearing of deputations and presentations over those four days, and has not given any time to travel to affected communities such as Woolwich Township.

“What’s most troubling is that these dates are all in Toronto,” said Kitchener-Conestoga MPP and PC environmental critic Michael Harris. “We are concerned about that and our caucus has called for the committee to consider taking these deputations out to areas where aggregate extraction occurs.

“As you are well aware, it does not happen in Toronto.”

On Wednesday PC member Laurie Scott tabled a motion to committee members to seek the authorization of the house leaders to allot more time to the review by having the committee meet in June after the House rises for as many days deemed necessary to hear from all stakeholders, to take the committee on the road to affected communities, and it would also allow the committee to visit current, proposed, or decommissioned aggregate sites.

The motion was supported by all committee members but still must be passed by the three house leaders – Liberal John Milloy, Gilles Bisson of the NDP and PC Jim Wilson – to take affect, and it must be done soon, since this past Wednesday was the deadline for presentation requests related to the evaluation of the aggregate act, which is currently scheduled to wrap up next week.

The review was formally approved unanimously on Mar. 22 by all three parties unanimously, following through on a Liberal election promise made last September by then-Liberal incumbent Leeanna Pendergast.

While the opposition NDP and Conservatives form a majority on the committee, Harris said that up until now the New Democrats and Liberals have formed a de facto majority to “stonewall” the attempts of Harris and Scott to expand the review and get it on the road.

What’s just as troubling for Harris is the way the government advertised the meetings through ads in just a few newspapers, including the Globe and Mail and Ottawa Citizen, last Monday.
“They had ads the day of when deputations were to begin. They’ve given little to no notice to people, so we’re disappointed,” Harris said.

One of the communities likely to be impacted by and changes to the resources act is the historic settlement of West Montrose, home of the last remaining covered bridge in the province and the BridgeKeepers who have fought against proposed quarries in their community.

The promise of the review was actually made by Pendergast and Milloy on a plot of grass beside the bridge.

One of the BridgeKeeper’s spokesmen said that the poor manner in which the meetings were advertised and the fact the committee is not visiting affected communities could skew their findings. The only reason they knew the meetings were to get underway was via an email from Harris last Friday.

“It certainly raises the risk that they’re not going to get much significant input from the rural communities where much of the aggregate production happens,” said Tony Dowling. “The early indication was that the review was probably going to go on the road and go across the province, so yeah, we were surprised.”

Minster of Natural Resources Michael Gravelle, however, said that the standing committee and his government are committed to being actively engaged in the review, and that the scheduling of the meetings and whether or not they travelled was in the hands of the committee members, not the MNR.

“It’s a very interesting issue, in the sense that the standing committee themselves make the decision about when the committee sits, how long the committee sits, how many days it sits, and they make decisions related to those issues,” Gravelle said.

“It’s not a decision of the ministry.”

The precedent of a standing committee travelling around the province to consult with municipalities and stakeholders is normally reserved for pre-budget consultations, said Woolwich Mayor Todd Cowan, who has years of experience in Queen’s Park, yet he believes that this topic is of such vital importance to communities that travelling should be part of the review.

“I feel that you don’t just want to hear from the Ontario Stone, Sand and Gravel Association, Gravel Watch, and the other big players; I think you need to hear from the municipalities on this.”

Cowan, along with Dowling and other community groups, are trying to schedule a deputation for next week, but should they not get a spot in the already-crowded schedule, the government is accepting written statements until this Wednesday at 5:00 p.m.

“When you look at the magnitude of the review of the act, and the magnitude of how many people would want to be at that table, there are a lot of people that would want to be at that table and who have every right to be there and would have a very good argument,” said Cowan, who said this review is more than the Liberals going through the motions of following through on an election promise; he believes real changes can still come from it.

“I don’t think they’re doing it just because they said they would. I do think they’ll listen and make some changes, much like the FIT (Feed-In Tariff) and microFIT review last year.”

Spring drive tops up supplies at food banks

More than 52,000 lbs of food was donated to the Waterloo Region food banks during the annual Dig In food drive. In Woolwich Township close to 2,500 lbs were collected over the one-day event. The Woolwich Community Services also received $354 in cash donations, which will be used to purchase additional food.

Combined with the totals from other food drives and campaigns across the township, WCS is confident it will have adequate supplies to support those in need over the summer months.

“This is such a great drive for us to hold in the springtime because in the summer people tend to go to the cottage, out doing other things and perhaps not shopping as much and we don’t get a lot in the way of donations over those months. So this drive allows us to top everything up now a lets us get through the summer,” said Don Harloff, executive director of the WCS.

In Elmira, Chemutra Co. held an employee-initiated food drive within Erb Street plant located, collecting two large bins of food.

“We are always looking for community events to participate in and I saw the Dig In for the region’s food banks and thought this would be a good thing for our employees to be a part of,” said Monique Lippert of Chemtura.
Plant manager Jozef Olejarz said he would contribute $500 on behalf of the company for each bin the employees managed to fill, resulting in a $1,000 donation to WCS.

“We had a great turn out for this event,” said Lippert. “We haven’t done anything like this for a few years because of the recession. We were focused on business and now that it looks like the recession is ending or is over we are looking forward doing more for the community.”

Students from John Mahood PS participated in a school-wide food drive as part of Hunger Awareness Week, with their Dream Big initiative bringing in more than 2,000 items of food, which were dropped off at WCS on Tuesday.
“We wanted to raise awareness in the school,” said Jenn Catton, a Grade 2 teacher at the school. “This project has really brought the kids and their families together and we have more food than we expected. It is a great life lesson for the students to help others in need especially on the local level.”

With the amount of food received from the Dig In over the weekend and the food still coming from other sources WCS will be in better shape than they were at this time last year.

“Our stocks do go down over the year. Typically Christmas and Easter are our biggest time for food donations and the spring Dig In really helps us get through the summer months until Thanksgiving,” said Harloff.
For more information about the food drive or to help volunteer contact WCS in Elmira at 519-669-5139.

New hire does not appear to line up with job requirements

Woolwich officials are standing by their decision to hire an executive assistant despite the fact her experience does not appear to meet the requirements set out in the job description. Saskia Koning, a young woman from South Africa who was in the country on a temporary work visa, beat out more than a hundred applicants to get an administrative assistant’s job that pays almost $50,000 a year. While the township has refused to discuss her qualifications, publically-available information shows a résumé that doesn’t line up with what Woolwich was looking for in an executive assistant to the mayor/council and corporate communications assistant.

The posting for the three-year contract position reads, in part, “Reporting to the CAO and mayor, you will provide confidential and professional senior administrative support to the Mayor and Council including coordination of a variety of administrative, recordkeeping and public relations functions. You will act in a liaison capacity for the mayor/council with all township departments, government officials, outside agencies and the general public.

“Complementing your post-secondary education in office administration, business administration or related disciplines you have a minimum of three years experience in office administration, business administration or executive assistance, at a senior level preferably in local government. A post-secondary education or experience in corporate communications would be considered a definite asset.

“Your noted strengths in organization, communication, public relations and customer service are complemented by your knowledge of local government, municipal procedures, protocol and relevant legislation.”

Koning is listed has having graduated from the University of Cape Town in December 2010 with a degree in film and media production. In an online forum for ex-patriots, she listed her profession as video production assistant. In Canada on a temporary visa that was to expire next month, she had been working as a waitress at a Kitchener restaurant prior to joining township staff on Apr. 26.

Woolwich’s senior bureaucrat, chief administrative officer David Brenneman, would not directly address apparent discrepancies between the job posting and Koning’s qualifications, citing privacy concerns. He maintained she was the best-qualified candidate for the position.

“The Township of Woolwich conducted an open and competitive recruitment process. The candidate selected at the conclusion of the competition was chosen because of her diverse work experience in office administration, project/event management and media/communications co-ordination,” he said this week in a written statement. “The successful candidate’s post secondary education in media, broadcasting, as well as office administration complements her background and experience.”

The township, however, has not made Koning available for an interview, nor released any documents to back its assertions.

Woolwich is currently going through the hiring process for a similar administrative assistant’s position, this a one-year (maternity leave) contract. That job, too, pays $43,000 to $53,000, plus a generous benefits package.

EDSS students up all night to do their part in battle against cancer

Cancer never sleeps. This notion of the disease is what led the students at EDSS to host the fourth annual Relay for Life at the Woolwich Memorial Centre in Elmira May 11. Beginning at 7 p.m. and running through until 7 a.m. hundreds of students walked the running track to raise funds for the Canadian Cancer Society.

This year the school had 62 teams sign up for the 12-hour event, with each team donating a minimum of $1,000 for the cause. The school set a goal of raising $75,000.

“We believe as Lancers we will see our school step up to the plate as they usually do when we have this event. At our last event two years ago we raised over $78,000 so we know we can do it again this year,” said Jocelyn Lubert, co-chair of the event.

The night began with the opening ceremonies followed by a survivor’s victory lap, where the school invited cancer survivors to walk around the track at the WMC leading all the students. The event also included a survivor’s reception where the students thanked them for attending while participating in few activities with them.

“After the victory lap participants and students keep walking around the track throughout the night. The goal is to have at least one person from each team always walking around the track,” said co-chair Holly Boyne.

During breaks from walking students were invited into the Woolwich Memorial Centre to play games inside the Dan Snyder Arena. Many of the students took part playing video games, foosball, cards, and making their way through obstacle courses. Outside in a tent a DJ spun tunes for dancers and in the early morning the tent became a make shift movie theatre.

Around 10 p.m. the students lit their luminaries and placed them around the track. Luminaries are fire resistant covers placed over a candle. People purchase a luminary to write an inspirational message on them for a loved one to commemorate and celebrate those who have fought cancer.

“It is usually the most emotional part of the night,” said Boyne.

During the luminary ceremony a photo slide show was projected of family members who have or are currently fighting cancer.

The closing ceremonies were held between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m.

“Relay for Life does not have to be an end we can all continue to fight against cancer,” said Lubert.

Chairing the event is quite an undertaking for the two high school students who have been tirelessly working on the project since January.

“At the last event it really moved me and I really loved it,” said Boyne. “I never expected that much could come from one night over 12 hours. I really wanted to recreate that experience again and hopefully other people will be able to experience it the same way.”

“It is a really special event and I wanted to step up and take that leadership role and help others have the same experience,” said Lubert.

“There is just something about walking with so many people around the track late at night when everything is quite. The track really mimics the track that someone with cancer is on. At first you are all pumped up saying I can do this, I can fight this, but then in the middle of the night you are tired and exhausted and you just want it to end but you know that morning is coming and that it will end and you made it to the other side,” said Boyne. “It is really empowering and really amazing.”

Chemtura pledges to meet 2028 cleanup deadline

An Elmira chemical company says it’s committed to cleaning up the town’s contaminated groundwater by the provincially-set 2028 deadline, arguing its current approaches will be sufficient to reach that goal.

The township’s environmental watchdog, however, wants the Ministry of the Environment to force Chemtura Co. to do more, including the digging up and removal of source material, to ensure the work gets done.

In voting on the issue this week, Woolwich councillors sided with the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee, despite a call from the company to stay the course. They did, however, welcome Chemtura’s commitment to the cleanup project.
The company has been using a pump-and-treat process to remove a pair of toxins – NDMA (nitrosodimethylamine) and chlorobenzene – from the former drinking water aquifers underneath Elmira. Discovery in 1989 of the carcinogenic NDMA precipitated the water crisis in Elmira, leading to the construction of a pipeline from Waterloo, which supplies the town with water to this day.

An MOE control order sets out the company’s responsibility for dealing with the contaminants in the municipal aquifers, with a deadline of 2028. More than two decades past the start of the crisis, CPAC is worried the timeline won’t be met, calling for provincial intervention. It wants the company to remove contaminated source material rather than simply treating the groundwater. The resolution endorsed May 8 by council also ask for the province to review the funding formula outlined in a 1991 agreement between the MOE and Chemtura, to make money available to CPAC to pay for studies, consultants, legal advice and other experts, and to establish a trust fund that would continue to pay for groundwater cleanup if Chemtura fails to meet the 2028 deadline.

“CPAC represents the residents of Elmira, the injured party in all this, and needs to have a budget that is adequate to the job,” new committee chair Dan Holt told councillors. “In addition, we need to impose a penalty so that if our aquifer is not cleaned up there is a price to pay.

“[...] now is the time to change directions and make sure that we have clean, drinkable water again by removing the sources of contamination. Currently we are only treating the symptoms; we need to remove the cancer.”
The company, however, says its current pump-and-treat process is working, and will clean the groundwater by 2028.

“We will meet that deadline,” said plant manager Josef Olejarz. “We have no reason to believe we won’t meet this date.”

Pointing to data that show contamination levels continue to drop, he said the pump-and-treat method would get the job done.

“There is nothing better on the market right now,” he said of the technology.

Peak concentrations of contaminants offsite from the plant have been reduced by 10-fold or more, said Olejarz. There’s been a 20 per cent  reduction in the size of the NDMA plume in the municipal upper aquifer since 1998, covering 174 acres; a 41 per cent reduction in the chlorobenzene plume in the municipal upper aquifer in that timeframe, a decrease of  34 acres; and a 25 per cent drop in the chlorobenzene plume in the municipal lower aquifer since 1998, some eight acres.

“We consider this as a good success story.”

His rosy outlook was tempered, though, by CPAC volunteer David Marks, a hydrogeologist, who called the company’s forecast for pump-and-treat “overly optimistic.”

That technology, he explained, works in limited circumstances, but is not likely to fully remediate groundwater in the complex geology found underneath Elmira.

“Personally, I hope that happens. Professionally, I have my doubts,” said Marks, adding the pump-and-treat system is containing the contaminants and would have to be part of any stepped-up plan to treat the pollutants.
Supporting the resolution calling for greater MOE involvement, Coun. Mark Bauman said a more diverse approach would help get the cleanup efforts back on target.

“Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket,” he said of simply sticking with the pump-and-treat process.

He also called for more cooperation and less of an adversarial relationship between all the parties, stressing the need for a backup plan if the 2028 deadline is in jeopardy, though hoping not to need it.

“It’s always nice when you don’t have to go to Plan B.”

Street addressing to replace P.O. boxes in St. Clements

Residents of St. Clements and surround routes face mailing address changes, as Canada Post is doing away with the post office box numbers. Canada Post is currently reviewing mailing addresses using the St. Clements post office with the intention of converting customers’ current P.O. box mailing addresses to their civic address. This conversion initiative by the crown corporation is scheduled to take place over the next five weeks, coming into effect on June 18.

The address changes will ensure each customer will have a uniquely identifiable mailing address, reflecting the customer’s physical location. Each address is unique to a specific property.

Canada Post representative Tom Zadorsk addressed the issue at Wellesley council Monday night.

“We are upgrading some of the equipment in the (St. Clements) post office. Canada Post wants to civically address every address in Canada, and right now we are working through out Ontario towards that goal,” said Zadorsky. “This is not going to be an overnight process. It will take a while but with the changes happening in St. Clements it is a natural opportunity for us to do it.”

There will be some problems with some addresses in the town especially if a house has a basement apartment because it may not be a recognized address by the municipality.

These people were given a P.O. box in the past but they should not have received one, he explained.

Canada Post has to provide one free method of mail delivery for every valid address.

For the municipality it means that residents will not have two addresses anymore. The street address will be the mailing address and no longer will addresses have P.O. numbers.

Residents will also be able to see their address online as the initiative takes place, allowing package delivery companies the ability to deliver packages to doorsteps and not box numbers.

St. Clements is the first in the region to receive the address change, as Canada Post is not really focusing on southwestern Ontario; instead, they are working in the Toronto area and northern Ontario.

“As opportunities like this present themselves we want to take advantage of them. From what we have seen most people put both addresses on their mail as it is and now they will be able to drop the P.O. box number. This should not be a huge shock for them,” said Zadorsky.

“As always, change is hard for some and there could be complaints but this is the system that is going into place across the province.”

The only physical change will come from within the post office, making it easier for employees to sort the mail right in the buildings.

The rural routes around St. Clements will not be changed this summer, just the P.O. boxes, he added.

Having your civic address as your mailing address means only having one address to give out to correspondents. Canada Post will be using the already established civic number, street name and municipality name issued to customers by the province.

Canada Post will be sending letters to all the residents affected about the change in their mailing address.

Federal government shows its contempt

Democracy as we know it has evolved over thousands of years. The Canadian version stems from Britain’s Westminster system, which provides the foundation for our Parliamentary structure and procedures. That’s what’s under attack in the omnibus budget bill now under debate in Ottawa.

Breaking with tradition, the Harper government has funneled its budget into an omnibus bill, joining it to a range of measures, including gutting the environmental assessment process, in an all-or-nothing format. As it’s done many time before, the Conservatives are limiting debate and attempting to do an end-run around Parliament and its committees.

More than 70 different acts are to be amended, largely without public input or political debate. It’s Stephen Harper’s way or the highway.

Omnibus bills are not unheard of, having been employed by past governments, but typically link legislation with a common thread – see, for instance, this government’s ill-considered crime bills. In this case, however, there is no common ground, only the government’s intent to push through sweeping changes while stifling debate. That’s hardly democratic.

Much of the focus has been on the environmental provisions, which take up some 150 of the bill’s 420 pages. Critics say the changes will destroy five decades of environmental oversight. The impetus, it appears, is streamlining the environmental assessment process for tar sands projects, especially pipelines that would carry raw  bitumen for processing in U.S. or overseas markets. It’s a hewers-of-wood-and-drawers-of-water, resources-first strategy, which has thus far proven detrimental to Canada’s long-term economic health.

Harper argues the changes are needed to keep “foreign-controlled” environmental groups, natives and others from holding up megaprojects that are, ironically, typically carried out by foreign-owned companies.
Environmentalists, not surprisingly, have been critical of the move. This week, they launched a counterattack in the form of a national campaign.

Known as Black Out Speak Out, the campaign invites organizations, businesses and citizens from across Canada to darken their websites on June 4, and speak out against changes introduced in the federal government’s budget act (C-38).
“These changes – hidden in a budget bill in the hopes that Canadians wouldn’t notice – are threatening the core values all Canadians hold dear: nature and democracy,” says Sidney Ribaux, executive director of Equiterre. “We are compelled to speak out and we’re inviting Canadians from all walks of life to join us.”

Opposition to the gutting of oversight provisions has brought together a variety of organizations, including the David Suzuki Foundation, Ecojustice, Equiterre, Environmental Defence, Greenpeace, Nature Canada, Pembina Institute, Sierra Club Canada, West Coast Environmental Law and WWF Canada.

The groups argue the government is putting the future of our land, water and climate at risk with its budget implementation bill. More than a third of the budget is dedicated to weakening Canada’s most important environmental laws, including measures to make it more difficult for environmental charities to participate in the public policy process. The groups are asking Canadians to join them in speaking out and letting the government know that silence is not an option for those who care about what could be lost.

“The attacks on environmental charities and gutting of environmental review processes aim to silence Canadians of all sectors and many backgrounds who participate in decision-making about large-scale industrial developments,” says Peter Robinson, CEO of the David Suzuki Foundation. “This is not only undemocratic – it will undermine the government’s ability to make sound policy decisions and to protect the environment.”

“Powerful oil interests aren’t just changing the rules, they’re disqualifying any player not on their team,” argues Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence. “We’re going black for a day, but we’ll be speaking out for as long as it takes.”

The budget bill, C-38, replaces the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, empowers the federal government to crack down on charities, including environmental groups, that advocate for better laws and policies, overrides National Energy Board decisions, rushes projects through a weakened environmental review process to speed up approvals, and shuts citizen groups out of environmental reviews for pipelines.

While the circumventing of environmental checks and balances warrants action, the omnibus bill is more troubling for its attempt to bypass our Parliamentary system. This is no anomaly, as the Harper government has shown itself willing to use chicanery, bullying and, when all else fails, prorogation to avoid debate in the House of Commons. The government’s disregard for our system of democracy led to the leveling of contempt of Parliament charges against the Conservatives, a first in the long history of the Westminster system.

The circumstances that caused the charges, including the withholding of budgetary information such as the cost of the F-35 fighter acquisition and the full price of the government’s law-and-order program, were also identified as problems by the Parliamentary Budget Officer and later upheld by the Auditor General.

The omnibus bill shows contempt for Parliament yet again, and extends that sentiment to all Canadians.

Members of the public coming out to provincial hearings, such as the aggregate review, suspect their input may not be given the importance it’s due.

Time for attaboys and goodbyes

A band of brothers gather around a small table inside the Waterloo Rod and Gun club where they hug, laugh, share stories and reminisce about days past. The very recent past, in fact, as the this group of Elmira Sugar Kings put the cap on the 2011-12 season at their annual awards banquet May 6.

Accolades and trophies were handed out in healthy measures.

Although the team was eliminated from the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League playoffs in the second round against Stratford, head coach Dean DeSilva believes his team had a good year on and off the ice.

“People may look back and say we did not have a successful year because we did not win our last game but if you judge success on that, there are 25 teams in our league that did not have a successful year. I dare you to say that to teams that made it to the playoffs for the first time or went further than they have ever gone in the playoffs,” said DeSilva.

Over the course of the season the Kings broke many long standing club records, including starting the season with a 14-0 winning streak. The team had 40 wins over a 51-game season, earning 82 points to set a new club record.

“These guys worked very hard everyday they were at the rink, it was incredible. They played through bad shoulders, bad backs, wrists, knees, everything and never once made an excuse for it,” said DeSilva. “Success is measured in different ways and the guys here need to take some time and appreciate some of the success they have had.”

In the month of November the team raised $5,500 for prostate cancer, only three hockey teams across Canada and each of those are major Junior hockey clubs with a lot larger fan base, raised more money than the Kings.

There are eight players leaving the squad this year and they are either heading to the CIS, OHL or the NCAA and that is a huge success for the organization, said DeSilva.

In celebrating the season, the Kings also said goodbye to some key individuals.

Those leaving the team include goaltender Nick Horrigan, who played 111 games as a King. Forward Brad Kraus played 153 games in the league, while forward Riley Sonnenburg wore a Kings jersey for 170 games. Scott Nagy racked up 192 games, forward Andrew Smith played 196 as a King, while forward Lukas Baleshta played 206 games for Elmira, putting up more than 200 points. Brett Priestap played 230 games in the league for Elmira and Cambridge. Captain Colton Wolfe-Sabo successfully played 266 games in the league between Waterloo and Elmira.

“This has been an incredible run playing four years in the league, the last two with Elmira,” said Wolfe-Sabo. “I will say that the support from the community in Elmira is phenomenal: it is so good here, especially for a smaller town you could not ask for more from a community. I will miss the guys, for sure, and playing in the rink, but I have to say the fans in Elmira are the best in the entire Junior B league.”

After all the awards were handed out DeSilva spoke to his team with an emphasis on the players leaving the squad.

“Opportunities don’t come along everyday and when they do you should embrace them, acknowledge them, be willing to change for them and don’t ever take them for granted because it is not how long you do something that matters but what you do while you are doing it that counts,” he said.

“The guys that are leaving us should be able to look back on their time playing in the league as a success. When they look back at their time with the Sugar Kings, I know they will smile,” said DeSilva. “All these guys will have success in everything they do.”

This weekend the club is holding its annual spring training camp at the Cambridge arena where officials will be looking for the next generation of Kings.

It will be a rebuilding season next year and DeSilva will be looking for players that have a hard work ethic and discipline on and off the ice.

“I am basically looking for a team of Cass Frey’s,” said DeSilva, who offered the vacant captaincy to the 19-year-old Frey last week. “We are looking for players that come in, work hard and never give up.”

There are more than a few holes to fill in the team next year and DeSilva said that players coming to the training camp will have a lot of opportunities to impress him and the other coaches.

“We will be getting back to old-fashioned Sugar King style of hockey next year.”