Joanne Shuttleworth

FERGUS – The Pierpoint Fly Fishing Nature Reserve was declared a cultural heritage landscape by Centre Wellington council at its Dec. 18 meeting and is now protected by bylaw.

ELORA – Neither Mayor Shawn Watters nor councillor Kim Jefferson breached the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act nor council’s Code of Conduct when they voted on Centre Wellington’s proposed termite management program in the fall.

CENTRE WELLINGTON – This township has been crowned “Canada’s  most generous city” by CanadaHelps, a one-stop shop for Canadians to donate and fundraise online for any registered Canadian charity.

ELORA – Centre Wellington ratepayers are looking at a 7.4% increase on the township portion of their property tax bill in 2024. That adds $98.70 to the annual tax bill on an average home in the township.

PUSLINCH – By shifting some funds from reserves to the operating budget, council managed to reduce the proposed $23,354 base budget increase to $16,854, resulting in a 4.89% increase to taxpayers.

GUELPH – COVID-19 is circulating in the community and the proof is in the wastewater, says the Medical Officer of Health for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health.

ABERFOYLE – Puslinch councillors have voiced regret about their decision to reduce the budgeted amount for 2024 community grants.

PUSLINCH – Councillors here had a face-to-face conversation with OPP brass on Nov. 29, during which they hammered home concerns about speeding, speed limits, and the need for more traffic enforcement in the township.

GUELPH – Vaping is becoming a greater concern than smoking among youth for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) officials.

ELORA – Taxpayers in Centre Wellington are facing a 7.38 per cent increase in the township portion of their property tax bill after council, as committee of the whole, spent two days whittling the budget down from the proposed 8.54% increase.

GUELPH – On the evening of Dec. 6, about 50 people gathered in Marianne’s Park in Guelph to mark the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. It was a somber event to remember the 14 women who were killed in a mass shooting at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal 1989.

ELORA – All of Centre Wellington – downtowns, areas within the urban boundary, and rural areas – is now considered part of the township’s Community Improvement Plan (CIP) area and is therefore eligible for CIP grants. That was one of many updates to the CIP adopted by council on Nov. 27.

CENTRE WELLINGTON – R.J. Burnside has not completed its study of parking in downtown Elora and Fergus, but councillors are concerned a parking structure was not suggested in an interim report presented on Nov. 27.

CENTRE WELLINGTON – The province’s decision to expand the urban boundary of Centre Wellington in April threw the township and Wellington County into confusion. Its decision to reverse the expansion in October is having a similar result.

ELORA – Halloween may be long over but the nightmare continues in Elora. A section of sanitary sewer pipe on Metcalfe Street collapsed on Nov. 15 and the street has been torn up and closed ever since.