Mary Bishop Interior Design
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“Making the ordinary extraordinary”
YOUR Independent Community Newspaper THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2015
Vol. 3 Edition 37
Wrapped up in fundraising
FREE!
Baldoon blowup over grass By Jim Blake jim@chathamvoice.com
Sarah Schofield/Special to The Chatham Voice
Darren Lopes, manager of the Wellington Street LCBO location in Chatham, had his hands tied, literally, on Saturday as he and Lori Parker, the United Way Chairperson for Region 4, were shrink-wrapped in front of the downtown store as a way of raising money for the 2015 United Way Chatham-Kent campaign. All proceeds raised at the Wellington Street location this year will be allocated to the Learning Disabilities Association to help students with tutoring, and social skills training. With a goal of $6,500, Lopes and his employees are off to a good start, and will be accepting donations until Oct. 6.
519 . 354 . 6910
The foliage on 50 acres of the former Baldoon Golf Course received a stay of execution recently. Scott Kilbride stood by his Case tractor the morning of Sept. 24 waiting to see if he’d have to wipe out all ground vegetation on one section of the property. Time was ticking since the day before, when he indirectly received a notice that he was in violation of the property standards bylaw. He had 72 hours to act or face the possibility the municipality would do it for him, potentially costing him thousands. It was just the latest incident during the last year that has angered and frustrated him during his attempts to turn the former course into farmland. “It’s one thing after another and I believe there is a concerted effort to stop this property from becoming farmland and keep it as a golf course,” he said. Kilbride purchased the
course last year from Jim Hawryluk who had been trying unsuccessfully to sell it as a golf course for the past five years. Jim’s son Mike had operated it prior to his sudden death in 2009. Kilbride said if the course had been viable, he couldn’t have afforded to nor would have wanted to purchase it. “I was approached to buy it because the only viable use for the land was to turn it back into farmland,” he said. In order to approve re-zoning the land from open space to agriculture, Chatham-Kent sought input from the St. Clair Region Conservation Authority. Hawryluk, at his own expense, hired a consultant who filed reports last fall and in the spring showing no environmental issues. The final report is to be completed shortly. “There was no report ordered, contrary to what some people have claimed,” Kilbride said. Continued on page 2
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