Joanne Shuttleworth

FINLAND – Malin Ahlbeck was on vacation in Egypt when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began and counts herself lucky that she hasn’t seen the war close up.

ELORA – Don Kogen and Kristy Hillis have a $30-million plan for downtown Elora and it involves retaining and restoring heritage buildings and features.

GUELPH – The enemy of a robust public health care system is privatization and the time to do something about it is during the provincial election. That was the overriding sentiment of a panel of speakers in the Informed Democracy series.

GUELPH – 2022 is feeling a lot like the Second World War for Cecilia Meiering. Born in 1938 in Ukraine, she saw what happened when Germany invaded Ukraine in 1941, and then when the Soviets took over control of Ukraine in 1944.

FERGUS – A community builder, a smart businessman, a second dad to many, and a true friend, Jim Dixon died on Feb. 28 of an apparent heart attack. He was 77. The funeral will be held March 9 at 1pm at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church with a reception to follow at the Fergus Legion.

FERGUS – It’s International Women’s Day on March 8 and to mark the day, The Grove youth hub is highlighting four young women and their contributions to the local community.

ELORA – Katie Cher was astonished that so many people attended the fundraiser for Ukraine she and some friends held at the Elora Café on March 5, and that the fundraiser raised $21,000 for the Canadian Red Cross’ Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Appeal.

CENTRE WELLINGTON – If horn honking means freedom, participants in the "Freedom Convoy" that rolled through Fergus and Elora on Saturday afternoon certainly exercised theirs.

FERGUS – Fergus and Elora firefighters responded to a house fire on Rea Drive in Fergus early on Sunday morning.

ELORA – Centre Wellington Township will spend a total of $136,000 to purchase property for road improvements to Beatty Line North in Fergus.

PUSLINCH – Property owners in the township who put on large public displays – at Christmas or Halloween, for example – are now subject to a bylaw to prohibit and regulate publicized displays.

GUELPH – Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health had 22 privacy breaches in 2021, a significant increase over the nine it had the year before, but understandable given the agency doubled its staff, increased staff workloads, and condensed its training to focus on the pandemic, it says.

PUSLINCH – Council here has approved two intersection improvements that councillors say are prudent and could save lives. Improvements include adding a four-way stop at Maltby/Watson and a three-way stop at Hume/Watson.

CENTRE WELLINGTON – Fergus was the home of Paralympic athlete Patrick Anderson and three students at Elora Public School think there should be signs at town entrances to celebrate that fact.

ELORA – Legal action against Gemini Homes has commenced after the builder announced in January that the homebuyer contracts for the South River subdivision in Elora were void.