Serving Lake Erie’s North Shore Friday February 20, 2015
INSIDE Books 2 GO Elgin County Public Library is partnering with the West Elgin Community Health Centre (WECHC) Support Services to offer a mobile Library service. STORY PAGE 2
Grain Processor IGPC to Benefit from New Technology
Legislation to Protect the Great Lakes Ontario is protecting the Great Lakes with proposed legislation that recognizes the importance of the environment, economy and health of Ontarians. STORY PAGE 2
New cruise ship to sail the Great Lakes A luxury cruise ship named the Saint Laurent will embark this July from Montreal to Chicago, STORY PAGE 3
Above: The Integrated Grain Processors Cooperative (IGPC) on Progress Drive, Aylmer.
Andrew Hibbert
Port Bruce Report Again this year ice has formed along the shoreline. STORY PAGE 3
Sparta Report The Sparta & District Historical Society are hosting a fun evening for everyone. Joins us at the Forge (46316 Sparta Line) at 6:30 on Saturday, March 7. STORY PAGE 4
Keep Your 911 Address Signs Visible If your 911 sign has been damaged or is missing please contact your local Municipality or Township office to have it replaced. STORY PAGE 6
LOOK AHEAD Community Events
Page 6
Classifieds & Service Directory Page 7 Business Roladex
Page 4 & 8
Your ad in the Lake Erie Beacon will reach 6800 Homes, Apartments Farms & Businesses From Port Burwell to Port Stanley and Port Glasgow. We also Email over 700 PDF’s of the Beacon & are on Facebook & issuu.com Call Linda at 519.782.4563
If you like to drive the back roads of South Western Ontario you will see field after field of corn being grown in the summertime. You might wonder what all that corn is used for. Obviously some of the corn is for human consumption, who doesn’t love corn on the cob? Some of the corn is also used as animal feed. Livestock producers often use corn and soy as a base for their animal feed because these protein-rich grains help bring animals to market weight faster, and because they are cheaper than other feed options as a result of government subsidies. Ethanol fuel Another use for the corn is to produce ethanol. If you look up ethanol on the web you might find the following: Ethanol fuel is ethyl alcohol, the same type of alcohol found in alco-
Left: Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz was in Aylmer to announce an investment loan of $3.7 million by the Government of Canada
holic beverages. It is also used as a motor fuel, mainly as a biofuel additive for gasoline. World ethanol production for transport fuel tripled between 2000 and 2007 from 17 billion to more than 52 billion liters. From 2007 to 2008, the share of ethanol in global gasoline type fuel use increased from 3.7% to 5.4%. In 2011 worldwide ethanol fuel production reached 22.36 billion U.S. gallons (84.6 billion liters),
Ethanol fuel is widely used in Brazil, and the United States, and together both countries were responsible for 87.1% of the world's ethanol fuel production in 2011. Most cars on the road today can run on blends of up to 10% ethanol and ethanol represented 10% of the North American gasoline fuel supply derived from domestic sources in 2011. Most fuels that we use contain at least 5% ethanol although it does not say so on the pump. In some locations blender pumps allows a customer to choose between E20, E30, E85, or any other preselected blend. Continued On Page 5
The pier was where we swam and fished An early image of the pier at Port Stanley.
Jim Taylor Saw a couple strolling on the pier today. A strange sight in these times. Yet it was not so long ago that a stroll on the pier was the highlight of a summer visit to the village of Port Stanley. A place of free fun and entertainment for citybound tourists. But for many of us who lived in the village the pier was much more than that. It was where we swam and fished and, well, took in the wonders of the waters of Lake Erie. It was a time when the picnic hill played host to mammoth picnics that dotted the summer calendar. And freighters delivered goods from around
the world .... olives, wine, marble, cars ... And there was the pier. There were no barriers back then. No fences. No warning signs. Everyone, locals and tourists, were free to walk it to their heart's content. When their parents weren’t around Port Stanley kids would climb up on the roof of the
lighthouse, take a run and leap over the concrete deck into the warm water below. Well, those with the nerve did. And there was no bigger thrill than running out on the pier on a stormy day dodging between the monster waves that would wash over the concrete looking for careless thrill seekers. It was a right of passage for many of us. And there are other stories. Like one my father told me about two boys daring the waves one day and one didn't make it. His companion picked up his clothes and went to his friend's nearby Continued On Page 4