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Monday, March 11, 2013

One Dies & One Injured After Snowmobile Crash

The Mounties are looking into a deadly snowmobile crash on MacDougall Lake in Charlotte County over the weekend.

Two men riding on a snowmobile lost control of their machine early Saturday morning and it crashed on the shore line.  


The 23-year-old driver from St. George died at the scene from his injuries and a 22-year-old man who was the passenger remains at the Regional Hospital with serious injuries.

Through their investigation, the RCMP have found that their snowmobile may have struck a large bed of rocks while they were crossing the lake which made the riders lose control of the machine.

Ottawa Gives Quispamsis $250K For Wastewater Project

You will see a lot of construction activity on the Pettingill road this summer. 

$250 thousand dollars from Ottawa will help the town of Quispamsis  to replace an ageing wastewater force main along with some other improvements. 


Quispamsis Mayor Murray Driscoll tells CHSJ News they will replace the forcemain along the Pettingill Road through Longwood Park and the lagoon.
 

Rothesay Mayor Bill Bishop says this project will allow his town to start work on a detention pond which can't proceed until Quispamsis moves a lift station.

He says this announcement means Quispamsis can go ahead with that and when they are finished the town of Rothesay can go ahead and built a detention pond to hold some of the water back at Oakville Acres.

Tenders will be going out soon for the start that will start this summer and likely be completed by the end of the year.   


24 jobs will be created during construction.

No One Hurt In Small Propane Explosion Today

A small fire at the port on the lower west side in one of the sheds just before noon today. 

The building was evacuated after a machine caught fire and a propane tank exploded.   
 

Platoon Chief Eric Garland tells CHSJ News no one was hurt.

He says crews were able to knock down the fire quickly.   He says it appears there was a release of propane possibly from the relief valve on the cyclinder which he says can be explosion-like when it goes off.

Garland says four companies responded initially but a lot of resources were released after the fire was knocked down.


He says the remaining crews were on scene between 20 and 30 minutes.

Snook Not In Court After All

Donnie Snook was not in court today.  The matter is being adjourned until late May because more charges are pending.

Snook would normally have appeared by video conference but the technology was not available due to the move to Peel Plaza.

About 50 spectators were in court today.       The former councillor faces 8 charges so far including possession, distribution and making child pornography.      Snook is due back in court on May 29th.

Fire Chief Dismisses Use Of Volunteer Firefighters

The suggestion from one of the candidates running in the Ward 3 byelection in May about using volunteer firefighters in the city has generated alot of comment on Facebook. 

Common Council has also talked about the possibility but Fire Chief Kevin Clifford warns you can't integrate volunteers without having to spend taxpayer dollars and you can only use them in a limited capacity.
 

Consultant Todd MacDonald of Performance Concepts warns the availability of volunteers at times is iffy because of their job commitments.
 

Volunteer firefighters are used in Ottawa and Hamilton because of regionalisation. 

In a recent CHSJ News poll, 80 per cent of our listeners who responded didn't think the use of volunteer firefighters in the city was a good idea.

Major Traffic Disruption On West Side

If you normally use the Reversing Falls Bridge to get to and from work, you can expect delays over the next several weeks.

The city telling CHSJ News beginning today and for the next several weeks, the Reversing Falls Bridge will be down to one lane and there will be no vehicle access to Douglas Avenue from Bridge Road or Chesley Drive. 

There will be temporary traffic lights in place at both ends of the bridge but, as you might expect, there will be continual delays. 

The traffic flow is being disrupted to allow upgrades to be done to the east-west water main below the bridge.

Deputy Mayor Wants Better Strategy For Growth

To reboot the city's true growth strategy, officials have to dissect what went wrong the first time around. 

Deputy mayor Shelley Rinehart tells CHSJ news that one of the major failings of the original initiative was that there was little linkage between the various sectors.
    

She cites ICT and health sciences as two sectors that, if combined, can create big opportunities. 

True Growth 2.0 mayors' governance task force report will be presented at Rothesay's council meeting tonight.

Snook Back In Court

Former Common Councillor Donnie Snook is scheduled to be back in court this morning on child exploitation charges. 

Snook has been in custody since his arrest on January 9th and faces 8 charges. 

His lawyer Dennis Boyle told us earlier Snook would be entering pleas today but since then Police Chief Bill Reid has said more people have come forward with allegations and additional charges are possible.

Common Councillor Wants Crackdown On Speeders

Photo radar has proven to be controversial in Ontario but a member of Common Council would like to see it tried in the city. 

Donna Reardon is suggesting overhead speed monitors be installed around town that would be used to issue tickets to the registered owners of vehicles that are exceeding the speed limit.

Reardon would like to see a maximum speed limit in the city of 50 kilometers an hour. She points out along Main Street North, the speed limit is 60 kilometers an hour but most drivers seem to be going along faster than that. The speed limit along the Causeway is 70 kilometers an hour.