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Mercury
Inside
Year 142, Issue 25
Thursday, December 27, 2012 • 28 pages
www.yourottawaregion.com
Wishes for a happy new year from the staff of the Renfrew Mercury EMC.
LUCY HASS/METROLAND
Angels among us, all year round The Renfrew and District Christian School held its annual Christmas concert Dec. 19, celebrating the reason for the season. Reminding us that there are angels among us are, from left, Adrianna Van Lindenberg, Violet Gauthier and Emma Brydges. St. Joseph’s Catholic High School receives the Dr. Bette Stephenson Recognition of Achievement Award from the Ontario Ministry of Education. – Page 10 –
Sad 70th anniversary Greater Madawaska council to Tragic Almonte train wreck 70 years ago today modify garbage pitch-in program By Tiffany Lepack tlepack@perfprint.ca
Steve Newman steve.newman@metroland.com
Competitors were flying high in pro class snowcross action at Calabogie Peaks. – Page 13 –
It was 70 years ago that unsuspecting Valley residents boarded an eastbound train two days after Christmas for a trip that would end in disaster down the track in Almonte. The North Lanark Historical Society marked the sad anniversary with a memoiral tribute last Thursday. The crash on Dec. 27, 1942 was at that time considered the second worst railway disaster in the history of Canadian railroading. The collision killed 36 people and injured more than 200. A memorial in Almonte has the names of 39 deceased, as three more died after the crash. “The condition of many of the victims was horrible in the extreme, some of them being mutilated beyond description,” says a report on the crash in The Almonte Gazette. “The injured suffered all sorts of dreadful wounds including fractures where the bone had burst through the flesh; body wounds and head wounds that cannot be described.” The scene was the result of a crash between the Upper Ottawa Valley train, which was crowded with local Christmas holiday travellers, and a troop train loaded with soldiers from across the country headed to Halifax for overseas duty. See CRASH, page 7
Greater Madawaskaʼs most recent garbage-pickup programs havenʼt been subscribed to as well as council would like. But after a two-year hiatus, council is looking to continue the once annual tradition. There were more than 18,000 Pitch-in Canada projects across the country in 2012, according to Pitch-In Ontario chair Alice Johnson. Greater Madawaska wasnʼt among them, but the township may enter literally pitch in with an annual pitch-in campaign, starting in the early summer of 2013. Former campaigns came with complaints about how
wet, messy and bug-infested the May event was. At the time, Greater Madawaska was spending about $200 to purchase the annual Pitch-In Canada kit that included bags, posters, promotional material and t-shirts. In fact, Emon says the township may again purchase the package, but modify its own program and run it at a later date. Some safe-guards may have to be put in place as part of any new program. At the Dec. 13 council meeting, Mayor Peter Emon said incidents suggested people were misusing the program, by collecting their own household garbage. A report is expected back to council in January or Feb-
ruary, from the environmental sub-committee chaired by Mayor Emon, on recommendations for a new, modified program. Peopleʼs first impressions when visiting the township is critical, so itʼs important to have a clean-looking township, says Coun. Glenda McKay. “It promotes pride in the community,” said Emon, “and it also speaks to a level of cleanliness that is important for a premier tourist destination.” Whatever form the program takes, the mayor says it will up to the township to assign some resources from the public works department, including a project co-ordinator.
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