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Serving the Mapleton Community
Community News Volume 46 Issue 34
Drayton, Ontario
1 Year GIC - 2.05% 3 Year GIC - 2.25% 5 Year GIC - 2.55% Daily Interest 1.55%
Friday, August 23, 2013
Mapleton competitors earn gold at World Masters Games in Italy Cowper tops on the squash court Lynch manages team to softball gold by Patrick Raftis MAPLETON – Moorefield area resident Kathy Cowper returned from Europe last week with a gold medal and a world championship title. Cowper won all five of her squash matches at the World Masters Game in Torino, Italy, defeating a competitor from Auckland, New Zealand in the final to claim the gold medal in the 50-plus division. Cowper took up competitive racquet sports while attending the University of Waterloo. She was on the varsity badminton team in her first year of school, but switched to squash in her second year and played varsity the rest of the way. For the past dozen years she has played out of the Elora Racquets and Fitness Club. Cowper was a Canadian Masters champion in 2010, a U.S. Open champion in 2012 and a runner-up at the competition in 2011, so she was confident she could be competitive in Torino. Cowper noted that there isn’t a qualifying process for the World Masters Games, “but usually people don’t enter unless they’re at a certain level of play.” The event wasn’t Cowper’s first endeavour at globallevel competition, but it was her most successful. Last year she entered the World Masters Squash competition
WORLD CHAMP - Mapleton resident Kathy Cowper won a gold medal in squash, competing in the 50-plus category of the World Masters Games in Torino, Italy from Aug. 2 to 11.
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in Birmingham, England, but broke a bone in her foot during her second match and had to withdraw. The most important thing in masters sports is to keep injury free, that’s everybody’s aim,” she noted. Injuries kept Cowper’s husband out of the games in Italy this year. Bruce Cowper was set to compete in triathlon and duathlon events, but tore an Achilles tendon before the games.
“So he had to relegate himself to the sidelines on this trip. It would have been exciting for us both to have competed.” The World Masters Games are held every four years and involve about 20,000 competitors in 20 different sports. There is also a healthy contingent of Canadians at the games. “Canada was well represented. It was really kind of neat to walk down the street and Continued on page 6
MAPLETON - It appears Mapleton’s public works director manages a softball team as shrewdly as he manages a roads budget. Larry Lynch and his team earned a gold medal at the recent World Masters Games (WMG) in Torino, Italy. Lynch was the field manager at the games for the reunited Toronto Gators. “This squad was my nemesis in the 1990s when I was head coach and general manager for the Waterloo Twins,” said Lynch. “We had an epic rivalry in that era.” The Gators won the ISC World Championship in both 1993 and 1995, the first Canadian team to ever do it. They also won three Canadian national championships between 1993 and 1996. Lynch says the Gator’s pitching ace Darren Zack was “the face of the game in the ‘90s and remains the most loved player of the game today.” This year marked the 20th anniversary of the Gator’s first world championship and their owner Jack Fireman approached Lynch a couple years back asking him to lead a reunion squad to Italy to try and win another world championship as masters. Lynch had also joined Fireman in Israel at the 2009 Maccabi Games as the head coach of the masters men’s team, which fin-
Master manager - Mapleton public works director Larry Lynch, left, pictured with his club team the Hill United Chiefs at an exhibition game in Moorefield on June 26, was the field manager for a Toronto Gators squad which earned a gold medal at the World Masters Games held in Italy from Aug. 2 to 11. Community News file photo ished with a silver medal at that event. “I was fortunate to have played and coached with many of the members of the Italy bound team and we shared many fastball memories in the half dozen tournaments over 2012 and 2013 as the buildup to the WMG,” said Lynch. Lynch says the WMG event was a special experience for everyone involved, noting, “The country was fantastic, the food delightful and wine was cheaper than buying water.” The softball event was broken into three categories; recreational, competitive and elite.
Likewise age groups were 35plus 45-plus and 55-plus While the average age of the Gator team was 50, the team entered the 35-plus elite level which meant roster players were those with national team and or international experience. This was to be the best and youngest division of competition, but as it turned out, the Gators were the only team to register, so they played a division setup against the other teams in the competitive and recreational divisions. After being surprised by New Zealand in game one, the Gators fought to a 0-0 tie Continued on page 6
Bill for municipal office mould issues expected to exceed $250,000 by Patrick Raftis MAPLETON – A plan to halt water infiltration which has lead to major mould problems in the basement of the municipal office here is about to be put into action. Mapleton Council directed staff to prepare tender documents and proceed with pricing of the project, after reviewing a report from R. J. Burnside and Associates at the Aug. 13 meeting. The engineers presented council with five options for dealing with the infiltration, with costs ranging from about $14,000 to just over $1 million. The most expensive solution was to fill in the basement and construct an addition of approximately the same size, coming in at $1,010,000. That option was suggested by councillor Andy Knetsch, who inquired about the potential cost at the July 23 meeting after learning it was going to cost at least $200,000 to solve the problem through improved
drainage of the existing structure. “I’m not sure that filling it with stone, councillor Knetsch - a million dollar building…” quipped Mayor Bruce Whale at the Aug. 13 meeting.. “Hold off on that thought,” responded Knetsch. The other options presented differed in cost from $13,900 to $27,750, but all included common costs of an additional $191,000 for work including digging a trench around the building and installing a new system of larger tiling. The report identified three locations where the foundation system could be drained by gravity. The lowest cost option involved directing foundation drainage to a pumping system from which water could be pumped to the north side of the site. Although this was the option recommended by the engineers, all members of council preferred a gravity drainage system, rather than electing to rely on pumps.
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Council agreed to proceed with an option involving gravity discharge to the north/east corner of the property, crossing Sideroad 16 and neighboring farmland. The engineers noted arrangements would have to be made with the property owner in order to proceed with this option. However Whale said the owner had indicated a willingness to work with the township in previous discussions. Whale also noted the possibility of hooking into existing drainage in the field might reduce costs of the project. “From your discussion with the property owner, it sounds like they are a willing partner,” said Councillor Mike Downey, who advocated the selection of the north/northeast gravity drainage option. Councillors Downey, Knetsch and Neil Driscoll all voted in favour of proceeding with the option. Councillor Jim Curry was absent.
Combined with the $191,000 worth of work common to the four drainage options, council’s decision makes the estimated cost of the project about $219,000. That figure is in addition to just under $40,000 worth of mould remediation work on the
basement and contents, previously approved by council and already underway. While the projected cost of the project continues to rise, Whale noted council was looking for a permanent solution to the water infiltration and mould problems, not necessar-
ily the cheapest fix. “We’re doing this repair for the worst possible scenario, we’re not looking at the best case scenario,” he said. “We’re going to solve this one yet. I guess we’re just trying to make sure a council down the road doesn’t have to resolve it.”
Topsoil mountain getting cut down to size by Patrick Raftis DRAYTON – A pile of dirt that has been called “a mountain of topsoil’ is slowly being moved from the backyards of residents of a subdivision here. Public works director Larry Lynch reported at the Aug. 13 council meeting that some of the soil has been moved from the Drayton Heights subdivision, after developer Activa Holdings allowed it to be taken away for free. Lynch said 160 loads have been moved to local soccer fields and County of Wellington workers have taken away another 75 to 80 loads. “We’re trying to take as
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much away as we can and then we’ll have Activa come in and level it down to a suitable height –10 feet instead of 25 feet,” said Lynch, who reminded council the original agreement with Activa requires them to keep the topsoil on site until the subdivision is completed. “Rome isn’t built in a day and we’re trying, but in all honesty the agreement says that it’s supposed to be there.” The soil pile issue came up during discussion of a request from the developer for a reduction in the amount of security required to ensure satisfactory completion of the subdivi-
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sion, from close to $300,000 to $50,000. An engineer’s report from R. J. Burnside presented at the meeting indicates servicing work required under the subdivision agreement has been “for the most part completed.” Councillor Andy Knetsch initiated the discussion about the soil, asking about the time frame for removing the dirt, which has been in its current location since 2007. Council accepted a report from CAO Patty Sinnamon recommending the reduction in the security deposit. Continued on page 3
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