ATVers need to get organized

ATV’s are a fact of life in our mechanized world. The problem is they are sold to people who don’t have any land of their own to ride on. So they go looking for private/public land, but in Southwestern Ontario, the land is becoming so valuable as our population continues to grow exponentially. Not only is land getting expensive, so little of it is preserved to serve its ecological function of cleaning our air and water that we are quickly restricting ATV/motorbike access in order to preserve what little land left due to the loss of land from urban sprawl.

The snowmobilers are very organized and INSURED. This is a huge bone of contention. If ATVers drive on private property, even with out consent, and they get hurt or killed they can sue the landowner. So who want’s that liability??? No one. So the ATVers need to get organized in a large enough group thay they can buy land of their own or an insurance plan that removes liability from the landowner (like what the snowmobliers have)in case they get hurt (which happens all the time since there are no driver licensing requirements)and then they can approach landowners to make a deal to ride on their land.In time.

If ATVers don’t get more organized, I foresee more bans and laws inhibiting the use of these machines except on your own land, and even then, if your land is classified as wetland or has endangered species on it, you won’t be able to ride there either.

In Southwestern Ontario, ATV use is going to have less and less fun attached to a $10,000 purchase. Save your money and take a vaction or plan on travelling elsewhere to use it.

 

Terry Keep

Charity Golf Tournament for Beattie Haven & Quad County

Beattie Haven and Quad County are asking for community support by

providing a prize donation or

sponsoring a hole at $100.00 or

bringing a foursome to play. 

Please come and enjoy the day with your friends on our beautiful Wardsville course.

 

Thursday, July 17, 2008 – Beattie Haven Retirement Home and Quad County Support Services Charity Golf Tournament – Wardsville Golf Club, Wardsville, ON. 

Format: Scramble - 4 person,

Registration 10-1030am: Shotgun start: 11:00am; Dinner: 5pm (roast beef) , Entry fee: $75 per person; Includes 18 holes of golf, riding cart, roast beef dinner, bottled water, & snacks.  Excellent prize table.  

Note individual golfer registrations welcome.  For more information please contact check out our website at www.beattiehaven .com or call Beattie Haven at 519-693-4901.

 

Thanking you in advance.

 

 

 

 

 

Yours truly,

Beattie Haven and Quad County Support Services

Wardsville Kin Day June 21 from 1100 - 1700

Despite outmigration, rising energy costs, and other issues plaguing rural and small town Canada, our villages and rural neighbourhoods are determined to survive.

So let’s support them and save ourselves some money by being tourists in our own backyard this summer.  Scan the newspapers, brochures, and web-sites for the attractions close by that you’ve never taken the time to visit.  Invite your friends and family from the city; then haul them off to a celebration near by.

This weekend, it’s Wardsville Kin Day on June 21, 2008 and they are bringing back the Old Fashioned Strawberry Social.  Catch Dave’s Cafe open mike JAM session on Main Street. Cheer on the potato sack races. Watch Greg Simpson’s Weird and Wacky Science Show at 2:00 p.m.   At 3:00 p.m., there is a Kids Talent Show hosted by Tony Bycraft and “Healing Tones” that will support literacy reading kits for third world countries.  Or just go golfing.

The details can be googled at Wardsville Kin Day or your can turn up sometime between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Our American friends are not crossing over to visit, so we have to stay home, relax, and take their place.  Every weekend, take a holiday and enjoy beautiful southwestern Ontario.  By the way, those of you who love to entertain and have a great big house with extra bedrooms, think about the B&B business.  We need some more accommodations for our out-of-town guests.

Mary Simpson
Board Member, Community Futures Development Corporation of Middlesex County

Denise Corneil
Facilitator, Your Wardsville project.

Leaking electricity costs money

Standby power, also called vampire power, phantom load, or leaking electricity, refers to the electric power consumed by electronic appliances while they are switched off or in a standby mode. A very common “electricity vampire” is a power adapter which has no power-off switch. While this consumption of power may be used to provide useful functions for appliances such as remote controls and digital clocks to the user, most power consumed by non-operational devices is considered wasted. Advocates of energy conservation sometimes use the term “ wall warts” to describe devices that stay plugged in and using power without performing a useful purpose.    Source: Widipedia

Highland Hills Golf Club, Wardsville

 

Highland Hills Golf Club was last operated by Jason Pole & Jon Pole from 1997-2002.  
It was then sold to it’s present owner, Neil Osland of Gainesville, Florida

Submitted by Jamie Pole.

Conserve Water; Save Money

Wasting water not only increases the costs to run your treatment plant and pumping stations, which you are paying for in your user fees, but it also wastes a valuable resource.

 

 . Do install water-saving toilets when upgrading your bathrooms, which use less than one-third as much water as conventional toilets.

 . Do install water-saving showerheads and taps.

. Do reduce water waste (run clothes or dishwashers only with full loads).

. Do fix leaky faucets or toilets. A simple toilet float can hang up and result in over 8000 litres per day of wasted water.

 

Public Works, Municipality of Southwest Middlesex

Wardsville is Invited to West Lorne for a sneak peak

West Lorne, Ontario — The Arts & Cookery Bank’s board of directors invites you to take a sneak peek inside the future site of The Bank, located at 242 Graham Road (the old Bank of Montreal), from 12 noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 7, 2008 and leave your fingerprints all over the building!

 

The idea is to create a cultural hub that will encourage, highlight, coordinate, and promote our local talent and resources.  The focus is food and photography!  What a combination.  And Wardsville is a partner.  Come to West Lorne and find out what the project is all about. June 7, 2008  from 12 -4 p.m.

Goals:

• Promote the value of a rural lifestyle by providing a photographic gallery that makes a pictorial statement of the community’s past, captures and showcases the community’s present and visually imagines the community’s future.
• Inspire interest in the local food economy by offering hands-on cooking experiences that concentrate on traditional local culture and cuisine.
• Build community capacity to support our unique heritage by building collaborative relationships among individuals, groups, institutions, organizations that are involved in the cultural, heritage and tourism sectors.

 

The Bank: The restored building will house the “heart and soul” exhibits – family and cultural – in a permanent photographic collection and feature rotating exhibits that showcase the work of both amateur and professional photographers. In addition, digital, multi-media displays will be integrated into the gallery space. Designed as flexible space, the first floor – “The Great Hall” – will also be appropriate for a sit down brunch, luncheon or dinner, or seating for classes, lectures or discussions.

The Cookery: This new addition will provide space to “cook up ideas” for both culinary experiences and for digital photography classes. Because of the flexible design, this area will serve as multi-use space, including hands-on cooking experiences, demonstrations and catering as well as the digital photography lab.

The Reception: The Bank and The Cookery will be linked by a reception area offering an accessible entrance so all visitors enter through the same door. The reception area will house two accessible washrooms, an office and storage space, as well as the elevator offering access to The Bank.

The Photographic and Teaching Gardens: The remaining outside grounds will be utilized as an interpretive architectural/structural photography showcase area and as space for a teaching garden.

Do the Thames River a favour…

Divert Other Water Wastes

. Don’t hook-up your sump pump, floor drains, eaves troughs, etc. to your sewer outlet

Read your sewer by-law.

Dispose of Chemicals and fuels at Approved Waste Sites

. Don’t put oil, gasoline, paint, varnishes, paint thinners, solvents, photographic chemicals, weed or insect killers, etc. down a drain. They can poison your Clarifier Tank, the whole collection system and treatment plant and possibly the Thames River.

 

Don’t get paranoid but:

These hazardous chemicals can be traced back to the individual Clarifier Tanks.

 

Toxic crap must no longer be disposed of irresponsibly.  The stuff is NOT “out of sight; out of mind”. We’re drinking it!

Mary Simpson

Wardsville’s Napier-Reid Extended Aeration Treatment Plant

The effluent from the Wardsville sewage collection system flows to an Extended Aeration Treatment Plant. This plant is composed of the following major components:

 

Aeration Basin

The effluent enters a large concrete basin that has air diffusers at the bottom to continually supply air to the tank. Present in the tank are microorganisms that use the air to live on while they consume the contaminants in the sewage. The level of contaminants in the sewage is measured by the BOD. The influent sewage BOD is around 140 mg/l. When the discharge leaves the plant, it is typically less than 10 mg/l.

Clarifier

As the sewage leaves the aeration basin, it goes into a clarifier, where the solids and microorganisms settle out. A chemical called alum is added to aid in the settling of the solids and to help remove phosphates.

Filter

The filter is a final polishing step, required to get the phosphates down to a very low level. The influent sewage phosphates of 5 mg/l are typically reduced to less than 1 mg/l in the plant discharge. Reduction in phosphates is important because excess phosphate in the river causes algae growth.

Post Aeration Tank

After leaving the filter the effluent is aerated again to ensure that there is sufficient oxygen to support marine life once it is discharged to the river.

UV Chamber

Just before being discharged, the effluent passes through a bank of Ultraviolet (UV) lights that kill any remaining bacteria, including E-coli. The effluent is then piped out to the Thames River.

Municipality of Southwest Middlesex.

http://www.southwestmiddlesex.ca/PDF_documents/WardsvilleSewerManual.PDF

 

 

 

How we operate the sewage system

Let’s save taxes by operating the sewage system responsibly.

 

Your clarifier Tank is an integral part of your communities sewage treatment system and should be treated accordingly. The following is a list of Do’s and Don’ts that apply to any sewage collection system treatment plant. The best practice is not to dispose of anything, with the exception of toilet tissue and mild detergents, that hasn’t first been digested.

Dispose of Solids Appropriately

. Don’t put cigarette butts, paper towels, sanitary tampons, condoms, disposable diapers, kitty litter, coffee grounds, similar non-biodegradables or anything plastic down your drain or toilet. Dispose of them in your regular garbage.

. Don’t put cooking oils and grease down the drain. They can clog the pipes in your house and the rest of the system.

. Do compost kitchen waste instead of using a garburator. Using an in-sink garburator can increase the solids in your Clarifier tank by 40-50%, increasing the pump out costs for everyone. Please inform Public Works if you presently have a garburator installed so that solids accumulation in your tank can be monitored.

 

Information from the
Southwest Middlesex Web-site