09 January 10, 2009 - ObserverXtra

2 | NEWS
Shantz: Remembered as a visionary
» From cover ing force” behind the nity a stronger commu-
based organizations,” creation of the interprenity.” said Larry Martin, prestive centre.
While there were
ident of the St. Jacobs “He was aware that changes to the village,
Country Inn who worked there’s a fine line be- there were many ben-
with Shantz for more tween inquisitive and efits, including jobs and
than two decades. “He invasive. He wanted to a strong tax base for the
was a man of passion be sure to be respectful township, Bauman add-
and of compassion.” of the Old Order Mennoed. Turning around a “dynites.” Those benefits were no
ing village” with the His vision for St. Jacobs accident, said a longtime
work of Mercedes Corp., caught on, and business colleague who served as
Shantz was always inter- boomed in the village. in-house legal counsel
ested in putting commu- “He put St. Jacobs on the for Mercedes.
nity first, he added. map,” said Gingrich, not- Tom Jutzi, now with a
Shantz’s vision for St. ing visitors from some K-W law firm but having
Jacobs centered on the 150 countries have passed retained professional
Old Order Mennonites, through the centre. ties with Shantz, said
whose culture many visi- The enormous success business ventures were
tors to the area marveled wasn’t always univer- entered into with the
to see. Using the models sally embraced, how- community benefit in
for support he’d seen in ever. Longtime residents mind and with a sense
use by the Mennonite who were happy to live of stewardship – “Those
Central Committee at in a sleepy little village were things he talked
work in the developing sometimes found the about a lot.”
world, he saw the possi- changes difficult to deal Though sometimes
bilities for a business in- with. But as an equilib- misunderstood, his encubator
approach in the rium set in, the tourism trepreneurial spirit was
village, encouraging ar- business has proved to channeled into doing
tisans to form the basis be mostly a boon, sug- good, on which he fo-
of what would become gested lifelong resident cused his complete at-
a budding tourist area. and Woolwich counciltention. The idea was to provide lor Mark Bauman. “Milo was a unique
a launching point to en- “He was someone who person. He was creative.
joy the Mennonite expe- had a vision, who could He was visionary. And
rience
look at something and see he was disciplined – if
Central to this plan, things others couldn’t,” he had an idea, he knew
however, was the need to he said of Shantz. “At how to stick to it and not
be respectful of the cul- the end of the day, most get distracted.”
ture, noted Del Gingrich, people would say it’s He saw opportunities
who runs the Mennonite been a positive impact others didn’t, staying
Story Visitor Centre. on the community. the course even if others
Shantz was the “driv- “He made the commu- couldn’t initially see the
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same outcome he had envisioned.
Shantz’s industrious
nature came naturally,
surfacing early on following
his birth in New
Hamburg in 1932.
At the age of 13, he
started buying and
selling pigs. At 21, he
bought 500 turkeys. By
1958, he had made it a
family business with his
father and brother, and
involved employees as
shareholders. The business
eventually evolved
into Hybrid Turkeys,
one of the largest and
most innovative companies
in the field. It was
sold in 1981.
“He had a gift of entrepreneurship,
a gift he
wanted to use … to benefit
others,” said Jutzi.
Through all his successes
and philanthropy – including
many personal
acts that he wanted to remain
private – Shantz remained
humble and true
to his roots, he added.
“Milo went through
his life with a fair bit of
gratefulness for the success
he had. He was not
a man of a big ego.”
Shantz is survived by
his wife Laura, and children
Jenny, Christine,
Sandra, Margaret and
Marcus.
THE OBSERVER | Saturday, January 10, 2009
Holiday RIDE checks
net more charges
JONI MILTENBURG
Waterloo Regional Police
handed out dozens more
12-hour suspensions during
holiday RIDE checks
this year despite stopping
fewer vehicles.
Using a new strategy
that focused less on
roadblocks and more
on random stops, police
checked 5,026 vehicles
between Nov. 28 and
Jan. 3 and handed out
55 12-hour suspensions.
That’s a significant increase
over last year,
when 6,318 vehicles were
checked and 13 suspensions
issued.
“It’s difficult to draw
any real solid conclusions
from a small sampling
like this, but any
time the numbers go up,
we’re more concerned
than when they go down,”
said police spokesperson
Olaf Heinzel.
However, he said police
aren’t sounding the
alarm just yet; the numbers
don’t necessarily
mean more people are
driving impaired.
“We cannot generalize
from this really limited
number, toward the
general population. We
know the vast majority
of people are not drinking
and driving, and this
is a small percentage of
the total. … Some of it is
the luck of the draw. It
really just depends who
comes through the line
that particular night.”
Using teams of cruisers,
often near bars and
restaurants, police were
able to spend more time
with each vehicle than
at a roadblock, where
the emphasis is on keeping
traffic flowing.
The mobile RIDE stops
also resulted in increased
charges for Highway
Traffic Act violations –
113 this year, compared to
25 in 2007. Another nine
drivers were charged
with having a bloodalcohol
content over 80
mg, and two were given
impaired charges.
“The increased suspensions
are an anomaly
given the long-term trend
has been toward fewer
drinking and driving incidents,”
Heinzel said. “Having
said that, we always
have to remain vigilant in
terms of our enforcement
and our messaging to the
community.”
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