09 January 10, 2009 - ObserverXtra

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4 | NEWS »FrOm THe eDiTOr | STeVe KAnnOn Another year, another crop of celebrities to mourn There’s something about year-end wrapups that gets me thinking about death. Apparently I’m not alone, as lists of celebrities and other notable people who’ve died in the past calendar year abound as one year rolls into the next. For 2008, as with every year, I was caught off guard by some of the names on the list. I’d caught the fact that Heath Ledger had died of an accidental drug overdose – pretty hard to miss that one. George Carlin’s passing was much sadder: we’d be much better off if he was here to continue his biting and always funny critiques. Speaking of funnymen, Harvey Korman’s death was another great loss. Also well publicized was the passing of Paul Newman, of course. And of Jeff Healey. Put Chuck Heston in that category too. A big fan of The Bob Newhart Show, I hadn’t realized Suzanne Pleshette had died last January, just shy of her 71st birthday. She had been married to another Newhart fi xture, Tom Poston, who was on the list in 2007. What brought it home this time around was seeing the name Ivan Dixon: Sgt. James ‘Kinch’ Kinchloe on that classic series, Hogan’s Heroes. The actor/director died of kidney failure Mar. 16 at the age of 76. Stuck in the time warp of rerun TV, he couldn’t be 76, let alone dead – but there the name was on that list. Reading that caused Your input is important! Come and have a say! The Draft Regional Official Plan (ROP) is a legal document, required under the Planning Act, that contains a variety of goals, objectives and policies to guide land-use planning in Waterloo Region over the next 20 years. The Region is developing a new ROP to address the many challenges and opportunities affecting our rapidly growing community, including new Provincial policy and legislation that affects where and how we plan. Reviewing the Draft ROP now will allow Regional Council to consider adopting a recommended new ROP in June 2009. Draft Regional Official Plan (ROP) is available at www.region.waterloo.on.ca/newrop Regional Council would like to invite all community members to come and share their thoughts on the Draft ROP at a public meeting on: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 6 p.m. 150 Frederick Street, Kitchener in Council Chambers No decisions will be made on the Draft ROP at this meeting. If required, an additional Public Meeting will be scheduled for Thursday, January 29, 2008 so that all delegations may be given the allotted amount of time to be heard. If you wish to register as a delegation and speak at the public meeting, please register in advance by calling the Regional Clerk’s Office at 519-575-4420 by noon on Thursday, January 22, 2009. www.region.waterloo.on.ca/newrop Publication: Woolwich Observer Size: 1/4 page (5.0375” x 6.9”) a little piece of childhood to suffer a cold, hard kick. Those of us born in the TV age grew up with a wide social circle invented by Hollywood and beamed into homes round the clock. In many ways, we’re more attached to the people we see on TV than to those around us – our Friends are more real than our friends, in some instances. And when they die, either as actors or characters, the grief can be as real as if somebody close to you had died. While movies had launched the notion of celebrity, our attachment grew in leaps and bounds with television, which brought them into the intimate confi nes of our homes. The phenomenon is linked to the suburban growth that followed the war. Television families “helped ease what must have been for many Americans a painful transition from the city to the suburb. But more than simply supplying a tonic for the displaced suburbanites, television promised something better: it promised a mode of spectator pleasure premised on the sense of an illusory – rather than a real – community of friends,” according to Lynn Spigel, a professor in the School of Communication at Northwestern University in Illinois. “It held out a new possibility for being alone in the home, away from the troublesome busy-body neighbours in the next house. But it also maintained ideals of community togetherness and social interconnection by placing the community at a fi ctional distance. Television allowed people to enter into The Draft ROP is available at www.region. waterloo.on.ca/newrop or by contacting any of the Regional Staff listed below. If you would like further information on the Draft ROP or if you require any special assistance to participate in this meeting please contact any of the following staff: Kevin Curtis cukevin@region.waterloo.on.ca T: 519-575-4794 F: 519-575-4449 John Lubczynski lujohn@region.waterloo.on.ca T: 519-575-4532 F: 519-575-4449 Cushla Matthews mcushla@region.waterloo.on.ca T: 519-575-4087 F: 519-575-4449 Bridget Coady cbridget@region.waterloo.on.ca T: 519-575-4500 x.3112 F: 519-575-4449 Or write to us at: Draft Regional Official Plan c/o Region of Waterloo Planning, Housing and Community Services 150 Frederick Street, 8th Floor Kitchener ON N2G 4J3 PHOTO | jOni miLTenburg an imaginary social life, one that was shared not in the neighbourhood networks of bridge clubs and mahjong gatherings, but on the national networks of CBS, NBC and ABC.” Beyond just reacting to television, the growth of celebrity worship and attachment is also well studied as a sociological and psychological development. There is a certain irony in that the more crowded and populated our cities become, the more isolated we are from others. That’s especially true as families become smaller and more prone to spreading out across large distances. For professor Michael C. Kearl of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Trinity University in Texas, “the rise of celebrity also corresponds with a public increasingly devoid of total relationships with others, individuals’ connectedness with others and the broader society dampened by the anonymity of urban life, reduced civic involvements, increasing rates of singlehood and living alone, and by the instrumental relationships demanded »AbOuT FACe PETE GALWAY Breslau Art Glass How long have you worked here? 25 years. How did you get started? I needed a job and I got a job here. Ever since then, I’ve been doing it for a living. What do you like about the job? Every project’s a bit different; it blends craftsmanship and creativity. What are you working on right now? It was an old window. A fellow fell down his THE OBSERVER | Saturday, January 10, 2009 by the workplace and marketplace.” Celebrities are seen as living more interesting, glamorous, or important lives. Thus the public may know more about the celebrities’ stories than they do of those of their neighbors and associates. “But the grief over celebrities … the sense of loss is more like that of a friend because these are not so much role models as refl ections of who we are or who we want to be. These are individuals whom one has paid to see or who have been frequent televised ‘guests’ in one’s home.” We spend more time with fi ctional characters – and the actors portraying them – than we do with many of the real people in our lives. When old aunt Cora, who you saw occasionally at family functions over the years, passes away, you’re likely to feel little, if anything at all. It seems that’s not the case if the actor you watch daily in reruns shuffl es off this mortal coil. People who don’t shed a tear at a family funeral might bawl like babies over the death of a character on TV or in the movies. stairs and damaged it beyond repair, so I’m remaking it. What do you like to do in your spare time? I’m a collector of all kinds of different things. I like to play darts, I like to play golf. Probably put golf ahead of darts. I’m president of the Elmira dart league. How do you deal with stress? Get together with friends and try to do things that aren’t stressful. Anything you’re looking forward to right now? Spring. Golf season and spring.
THE OBSERVER | Saturday, January 10, 2009 NEWS | 5 Wellesley to benefit from gas taxes Wellesley Township will receive just over $300,000 per year from 2010 to 2014 in federal gas tax funding. The four-year extension to the gas tax agreement was officially signed Dec. 23. under the agreement, Wellesley Township will receive $301,109.64 each year in two equal payments made in july and november. Woolwich Township will receive $604,680.08 per year over the four-year period. The City of Waterloo will receive $2,998,331 per year, while the City of Kitchener is slated to get $6,295,587.68. Linwood gets two recruits Council approved the appointment of two new volunteers to the Wellesley Fire Department’s Linwood Station at the request of district chief Frank Karley. Catherine Steckly is enrolled part time in the pre-service fire fighter program at Conestoga College. The other new appointment is matt Karley, a resident of Linwood. The two new recruits will bring Linwood fire station up to a full staffing complement; Linwood currently has 18 fire fighters, while the township’s level of service normally supports 20 fire fighters. Sudden retains vice-chair role Former Woolwich councillor grace Sudden was re-elected this week to the position of vice-chair of the Waterloo regional Police Services board. Tom galloway, a regional councillor, was re-elected chair. Sudden has been a member of board for the past nine years; 2009 will mark her seventh term as vice-chair. The other members of the board include regional Chair Ken Seiling, Wilmot Township mayor Wayne roth, brian Heggie, Patti Haskell and myrta rivera. The Police Services board is a civilian oversight body that governs how police services are provided. The board is made up of three elected members from regional council, three provincially appointed members and one community-at-large member appointed by council. Wloo workers talking strike City of Waterloo outside workers voted unanimously Wednesday night in favour of strike action if they can’t reach a deal with the municipality. The members of the Canadian union of Public employees local 1542 could be in a strike position as early as jan. 15. A strike could affect snowplowing, arena operations and other services, including water distribution and park operations, carried out by unionized workers. Council’s latest financial mess – $1.8-million in retroactive wage top-ups for managers and nonunionized staff – has come back to bite it again, as the union calls offers to its members unfair by comparison. mediation talks are scheduled for Tuesday. The 110 workers’ last contract expired on Dec. 31. »SOmeTHing eXTrA in THe STOCKing Fundraising push nets an extra $10K Challenged to raise $100,000 by year’s end, Gale congregation meets that goal JONI MILTENBURG After being challenged to raise $100,000 in a little over a month, the congregation of Gale Presbyterian church stepped up and met the goal. In late November, an anonymous donor approached the church offering $10,000 toward the construction of a new building – provided the congregation could raise 10 times that before the end of the year. By Dec. 31, the final total was $100,215.76. “It was a stretch, that’s for sure,” said fundrais- JONI MILTENBURG Wellesley is looking for ways to recover its expenses following a drug-related fire at a duplex in the village last month. Township firefighters spent a total of 273 man hours battling a blaze at 1020 Molesworth Rd. Dec. 9. All three stations responded to the fire, which was reported shortly after 8 p.m. Wellesley station had 14 men at the blaze, some until 1 a.m. St Clements » From cover tario, where they went swimming. At that time, the shoreline was slumping into the lake, taking with it a series of summer cottages. And a few years later, swimming in Lake Ontario was banned because of polio. “People were getting it – some people I knew had polio – from pollution in Lake Ontario. So I became aware of the health risks of the Great Lakes,” he explained. Regier finished his B.A. at Queen’s University in 1954. One of the professors there, Wes Curran, was interested in conservation and encouraged him to take a job with the Ontario government studying streams in the Toronto area. “I caught the bug to be an aquatic ecosystem freak from those surveys.” ing chair Vicky Hammell. “I think everybody dug deep to make us get there. In fact, I heard that somebody had called who wasn’t in town to make sure we had made it because if we hadn’t they were going to donate some extra that they planned on doing in January.” The church has now raised more than $500,000 toward construction of a new church, which will cost an estimated $2.3 million. The land, located at Church Street and Barnswallow Drive, has already been paid for. The congregation has After a short stint teaching high school, Regier completed his PhD at Cornell University in 1961 and took another job with the Ontario government, this time researching fisheries in Lake Erie. Many of the problems facing the Great Lakes today, he first encountered in the 1950s and ‘60s. While studying streams flowing into Lake Erie in 1955, he learned about the problems caused by exotic species. Smelt, a non-native species of fish, was moving into Lake Erie and causing problems for commercial fishers by tangling in their nets. At the same time, dead zones started to appear in the shallow waters of Lake Erie. The colder, bottom waters were being starved of oxygen by been looking at building a new church since 2003. The present location is landlocked, with no parking, and not very visible. Kim Denstedt, co-chair of the church’s steering committee, said the anonymous donor isn’t a member of Gale, but was impressed with the congregation’s energy and support of the new church. “It was extremely generous of this person to do that,” she said. Gale rallied behind the fundraising drive; there were a large number of donations, ranging in size up to $15,000. decaying organic matter falling from the warmer surface water. Lack of oxygen forced out coldwater species such as trout. The surface water was overly fertile, fed by phosphates coming from sewage, industrial chemicals and agricultural runoff. In the early 1970s, there were major programs to reduce the amount of phosphates ending up in the lake. Those efforts were partly successful; the dead zones were reduced in size, and coldwater fish started to come back. In the late 1980s, a new non-native threat moved in: zebra mussels and their relatives, quagga mussels. Carried in the ballast water of ships, the mussels are prodigious eaters and rob a lake of nutrients, while depositing waste on the “We were very happy and pleased that we were able to end the year on such a high note,” Denstedt said. “Our next major step will be at our annual meeting when we present an idea of what it could look like and costs and so forth.” Currently, the building committee is looking at draft plans and offering feedback to the design process. Fundraising is ongoing, as the church still has a long way to go toward the final total. “We’d like to keep it to two or three major fundraisers and then there’s lake floor. A new type of dead zone started to appear. “Just about the time the lakes were coming back from the phosphate overburdening, this thing happened,” Regier said. “The Lake Erie story is far from over. Billions have been spent on trying to rehabilitate it and many things have been done. It’s not over.” After he retired in 1995, Regier and his wife Lynn, a psychotherapist, moved to Elmira. Regier had long associations with people at Wilfrid Laurier, Waterloo and Guelph universities, but they were looking to get away from the city. One of their daughters lived in Elmira and the other wasn’t far away in Georgetown, so they settled here. After moving to Elmira, Regier got involved with a bunch of smaller things that we’re doing as well, so we’re not taxing people too much. We do a lot of “fun-raising” as well as fundraising.” Planning for the new church has brought people out to meetings and committees, which has helped bring people together, she said. “I’m meeting people that I’ve sat across from in church for years, but I didn’t really know. I think that’s happened for a few people. When you do things together, you get to know each other and that builds community, builds caring.” Wellesley seeking to recover fire costs Council hoping to recoup expenses related to suspicious Molesworth St. fire backed up the Wellesley station with 18 men and Linwood responded with 16. Wellesley station also had four people assisting Waterloo Regional Police in investigating the suspicious blaze. That investigation is still ongoing. Until charges are laid or insurance coverage determined, the township is left footing the bill for fighting the blaze. Volunteer fire fighters are paid for the time they spend at a fire or accident, and any supplies used in fighting the fire, such as oxygen cylinders, will have to be refilled or replaced. “We don’t at this point know whether there’ll be any compensation coming back to the municipality,” said township chief administrative officer Susan Duke. “It has to be a specific set of circumstances for the insurance companies to come forward with compensation.” Duke said she can’t estimate the cost of battling the fire because she doesn’t yet have all the figures related to the man hours and the equipment used. “We haven’t done the breakdown on who’s being paid what amount,” she said. “The district chiefs and captains are paid different rates. There’s a whole calculation that has to go into that, as well as the equipment.” A 28-year old woman escaped the blaze and was taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. Two males were seen emerging the house with flames coming from their clothes. They rolled in the snow to extinguish the flames then fled, one on foot and the other in a darkcoloured pickup truck. The investigation turned up five containers of marijuana and equipment used to extract hashish, hash resin or hash oil. Police spokesperson Olaf Heinzel said at this point no arrests have been made and no charges laid. “We’re still looking for any tips and any information that could help us. That’s still an ongoing investigation.” Regier: Early exposure to issues led to career path a citizen’s group pressing for cleanup of the former Uniroyal Chemical site. He also works to restore First Nations fishing rights, which he says have been “grossly abused,” and continues to write papers and editorials. Regier has also done work on climate change, writing his first paper on the subject in 1984 and authoring a chapter of Climate Change 1995 for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Trying to get action on environmental issues can be a frustrating prospect, he said, but there is greater awareness these days of the health cost of pollution. “It may be that the climate change issue will be the first major environmental issue that can’t be set aside by anyone.”
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