Wednesday, December 29, 2021
2021 - THE YEAR IN REVIEW
APRIL CONT’D
Kingsville’s Ortaliza has good things growing Good things are growing in Kingsville, as Ortaliza Urban Indoor Vertical Farm opened their doors recently in the heart of downtown. Owners Carina Biacchi and Alvaro Fernandes, have found a niche market that has locals buzzing about the taste and freshness of their product.
Age of eligibility lowered to 40-plus for AstraZeneca vaccine The province of Ontario has now lowered the age of eligibility to receive the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine to anyone 40 or older. Effective yesterday
(Tuesday), anyone 40 or over in Ontario can now call a local participating pharmacy and book an appointment for the shot. The news comes as a welcome relief to many who have been patiently waiting to receive any of the vaccines. Minor ball groups still hope to hit the diamonds Young baseball players in this area who are anxious to play some ball, may have to wait a little longer, but the hope is that they will get to play some baseball this summer. The last weekend in May was the target start-
up for Leamington District Minor Baseball to launch their house league team bubbles, but the announcement last week by the province to restrict unnecessary travel has put a damper on the plans. Once the restrictions lift, local organizations hope to be ready to go. According to Leamington Minor Baseball president, Kevin Gale, there will be some subtle changes to the usual schedules.
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Vaccines ramp up against third wave Ontarians can expect a rapid ramp-up of vaccine supply in the next few weeks, ushering in the possibility for everyone in the province 18 years and older to have at least one dose in their arms by June. According to the Ontario Health team, those 50-plus can book their vaccination appointments starting tomorrow — Thursday, May 6. In addition, if you live in any of the hotspot postal codes, you were eligible to book a vaccination if you were 18 years or over starting Monday, May 3.
Local orchards optimistic after frosty mornings The significant snowfall that blanketed this area on April 21 was cause for alarm, but the sub-zero temperatures that followed on April 22, could have been devastating for local tree fruit growers. In fact, according to Wally Simpson of Simpson Orchards in Leamington, the blanket of snow may have helped save some buds from freezing. “The snow acted like a blanket on those buds and protected them from the temperatures,” he said. “The same thing happened last spring.” Last year’s late snow fell on May 8, and the temperatures got as low as -4 degrees Celsius that day. On April 22 of this year, the temperature dipped
to -4.4 and stayed there for a couple of hours. “Thankfully, it didn’t linger all night,” says Simpson. Changes coming to farm dwelling bylaws Despite concerns from local greenhouse growers, Leamington Council made the decision to impose heavier regulations on farm worker dwellings within the municipality. At a special meeting of Council on Thursday April 29, delegations were heard from the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers and lawyers representing growers in the region. Council was meeting to vote on recommendations from administration on on-site and off-site farm worker dwellings. Local artist helps toddler with Grinch painting A long friendship has brought a Leamington man’s artistic creation into the hands of Toronto Maple Leafs superstar, Auston Matthews. The Leamington retiree — and avid Maple Leafs fan — Frank Silveira, has been keeping busy during the COVID pandemic, creating various colourful cartoon characters in his garage. Now, through a charitable set of circumstances, one of Silveira’s masterpieces has found its way to Scotiabank Arena, where it was recently signed by Auston Matthews.
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Vaccine rollout trying to stay ahead of variants The Windsor-Essex Medical Doctor of Health says that the region is in a ‘holding pattern’ currently, when it comes to new daily cases of COVID-19. Dr. Wajid Ahmed said Monday that now is not the time to let our guard down, as Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent have made great strides in battling the spread of the virus, but variants of concern (VOC) are now making up the majority of newly diagnosed cases.
Those variants are known to spread more rapidly, with a possible higher severity, than the original version of COVID-19. Of the 482 active cases in Windsor-Essex, Dr. Ahmed says that 34 per cent of them are a variant strand, making the race to get everyone vaccinated all that more urgent.
A real estate career that lasted 55 years When Helen Featherstone entered the real estate business in 1966, she
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didn’t imagine that she’d still be selling real estate into 2021, but she fell in love with a business that she made her whole life. She and her husband Gary Sr., were operating the Featherstone Shell station in downtown Wheatley, with three young children in tow, when Helen got the idea to go into real estate. She joined A.M. Wolbers Real Estate in Leamington and began learning the craft of buying and selling homes.
