Pedal for Hope tour arrives at North Easthope

North Easthope School students surround the cycling team from the Pedal for Hope Cops for Cancer tour on Friday morning where they presented a $10,000 cheque to the Huron-Perth branch of the Canadian Cancer Society. The 150-student school raised the money by hosting a garage sale, spaghetti dinner, chocolate bar sales and bake sales. Principal Teresa Sargent had her hair cut and dyed into a red mohawk when the school reached its $10,000 goal. The school that raises the most money per student will earn a smart board from the tour. The smart board is an interactive electronic teaching tool with a large, touch-screen display that connects to the Internet.

Doug Coxson, Independent staff

Legion gives back to TCP

Celia Jones, president of The Community Players gratefully accepts a cheque in the amount of $300 from Doris Bast, treasurer of the Ladies Auxilliary, Royal Canadian Legion’s New Hamburg Branch. The Community Players intend to use this generous donation to purchase additional letters and punctuation for their highway sign to further serve all groups that use the sign to promote their activities.

Photo submitted

Principal goes punk to raise funds for Cops for Cancer

North Easthope School principal Teresa Sargent prepares to say goodbye to her normal haircut Saturday and hello to a new mohawk. Sargent agreed to the new do to encourage students at the school to raise money for Cops for Cancer. After Saturday’s Garage and Bake Sale, the school met its $10,000 goal. Not bad for a small school of 145 Students!
The proceeds will be donated to Cops for Cancer pedal for hope tour.  The Pedal for Hope Tour is schedule to arrive at North Easthope this Friday at 10 a.m.

photo sumbitted

Forest Glen spruces up the Wilmot Arboretum

Brandon Stanley, Fordd Worborski and Gryphon Myers, from Cathy Williams Grade 4 class at Forest Glen, pitched in to help clean up the Wilmot Arboretum last Friday as part of Earth Week activities at the school. The students made quick work of the cleanup that saw them build mounds of broken branches and picking up garbage and recyclable material throughout the park. Wilmot Township staff will pick up the piles and chip it into mulch.

Doug Coxson, Independent staff

Litter, graffiti creates eyesores for Earth Week

New Hamburg resident Judie Bowlby emailed the Independent recently with some ideas about where she’d like to see private property owners and Wilmot township  spend some time cleaning up.

“While walking yesterday, enjoying our beautiful town and streets, I spotted these areas which seem to be loaded with garbage,” she writes.
Bowlby described the property behind Cerwood Cabinets on Arnold Street as an area that needs attention. The business owns the land down to the river, but much of the junk and scrap wood that’s been dumped immediately behind their fenced-in property is visible from the other side of the river.
The vacant lot adjacent to Formatop on Hamilton Road is another spot that Bowlby says attracts significant amounts of litter, as well as the walking path across private property from Victoria Street to the parking lot at the John Bear Automotive Repair Centre near the corner of Hamilton Road and Highway 7/8.
The graffiti that appears under the Highway 7/8 bridge in Riverside Park is another location that needs attention.
“Hopefully, these areas can be cleaned up,” Bowlby says.

Private property owners are subject to the Property Standards Act enforced when a complaint is made. Upon hearing a complaint, bylaw officers order property owners to clean up the offending space and follow up to make sure it is done within a certain amount of time.

The township is also responsible for maintaining parks and completes annual assessments to determine what needs to be done. Graffiti is usually painted over or removed with chemical cleaners once a year.

The Indy Blog and the New Hamburg Independent would like to highlight things that need fixing in the community in an ongoing feature called The Fix is On.

If you have a concern, or question about something in a public space that is broken, in disrepair, is an eyesore, or poses a hazard, contact the Independent and we’ll look into it and write about it here and in the newspaper.
The Independent wants to help make our communities the best they can be, so drop us a note, give us a call, or send a message detailing your concern and its location.

Rotting seafood appears on Wilmot farm

What smells and looks a giant sea creature’s barfed-up lunch?

If you guessed a huge, rotting pile of lobsters and king crab, you’d be right.

But this isn’t a photo snapped on some Maritime beach. This expensive mound of spoiled seafood showed up on a Wilmot farm property this week.

To read more about this illegal dump that has the property owners scratching their heads in disbelief, pick up the April 28 edition of the Independent.

Happy Earth Day!

Cleaning up pays off

New Hamburg Optimist Doug Miller had some practice for the upcoming Optimists’ Road Cleanup on April 24 from Forest Glen School to the Baden town limits.  On Wednesday morning, with the help of wife, Mim, and neighbour, Elizabeth Halliday, as well as canine friends, Griffin and Benjy, he collected all the litter around the perimeter of the ‘lost’ (last) concession of Wilmot Twp.  This included Diamond Road south of Bridge St., Waterloo-Oxford Rd., Oxford Rd. 5 (south of Punkeydoodles Corner), and Concession 4 Wilmot on Bridge Street back to Diamond Road. He used his trusty John Deere tractor to pull the homemade ‘little red wagon’  holding a Blue Box, as well as additional litter bags.  Two hours later the crew arrived back home with the results. However, he left behind the car tire, abandoned last summer, on the south side of Bridge Street, for the Township crew to pick up hopefully sometime this summer. Anybody can easily volunteer to do the same type of litter pickup in their own area, thus beautifying our Township. The pop cans are gratefully accepted by the Heritage Fire Dept. museum members in Baden.  The beer cans and bottles can be taken to any Beer Store and provides gas money for John Deere tractors or a bit of pocket cash, as well as a great deal of satisfaction in a job well done.

Submitted by Mim Miller

International ambassadors visit New Hamburg

Kitchener-Conestoga MP Harold Albrecht accompanied, Georges de La Roche, Ambassador of Guatemala to Canada, and Manuel Schaerer Kanonnikoff, Ambassador of Paraguay to Canada, on a tour of area businesses of interest to the two countries last Thursday. Here, CEO of Ontario Drive and Gear Joerg Stieber, second from right, greets the ambassadors with ODG’s William Linares, International Sales Manager Latin America / Caribbean, far right.

Photo submitted

Waterloo-Oxford’s Star Search crowns winners

The winners of Waterloo Oxford’s Star Search competition, which took place April 13 at Waterloo Oxford was “Jemmy Jam and the Funky Bunch.” The group performed a song and dance act and won $200. The members of the group are Jem Mcwhirter, Matt Beauvais, Matt Mcgrath, Brock Yantzi and Scott Malloch. Carly Kowalik (accompanied by Emily Clarke) placed second for singing and Maggie Michaelis placed third for dancing. Both the group and Carly Kowalik are now going to compete in Waterloo Region’s Got Talent competition.

Photo by Everett Bumstead

Controlled burn draws spectators

East-Zorra Tavistock volunteer firefighters watch closely as a controlled burn east of Tavistock sends black smoke into the morning sky. The property owner was clearing the old barn and other debris from the property Monday.

Doug Coxson, Independent staff