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Thursday, M arch 19, 2015 - The IFP - H alton H ills - w w w .theifp.ca Page 3 e-mail: hassellsauto@bellnet.ca www.hassellautomotive.com Spring is back, and so is our 9th Annual Super Spring SpecialBEGINS MARC H 20 - Oil & Filter and complete top to bottom check over (Excludes synthetic Oil) - Installation of summer tires (already on rims) included. - $5.00 Tim's Card - Windshield Washer Fluid EXTRAS Only $4995Call for anAppointment NEWS A Grade 5 student is spreading the word about how designating a 'Buddy Bench' at Park Public School has made its playground a more inclu- sionary environment. Ten-year-old Rachel Arsovski came up with the idea for possibly bringing the meeting place to her school last summer after seeing the web- site of a boy named Christian who had erected a Buddy Bench in his school's playground near Philadelphia. She approached Park P.S. principal Toni Marlow in the fall about the bench and wrote a letter detailing the benefits of setting one up. Because there are already a few benches in the playground, all that was needed was the ap- proval of Marlow and the student council, along with a banner costing $50 to mark the location. "It was popular right from the start," said Ra- chel, who has since discovered that the Buddy Bench concept was created by a boy in Germany. "I put up the banner and pretty soon the whole bench was crowded. There was nowhere left to sit. Most of the older kids invited the younger kids to start up games like tag or hide and seek or soccer." To illustrate the Buddy Bench concept, Ra- chel helped produce a short video with dad Ivan, a freelance director of photography/cam- eraman who also does work for the CBC. Overcoming her own shy side, she also made verbal presentations to each classroom at Park to explain what few rules were involved with the new bench. Rachel mentions in the video that the bench isn't just for the meek or those without many friends. Perhaps your schoolmates aren't play- ing a game you're interested in, or some of your friends aren't there that day. And while a frigid start to 2015 meant that most nutrition breaks were spent indoors, principal Marlow said the bench has had a noticeable effect on the play- ground dynamic, in that students are more will- ing to make friends outside of the grade they're in. "As an inclusive school, we are always looking for new ways to ensure everyone has something to do and someone to play with. In previous years we have tried strategies such as PROPS (Peers Running Organized Playground Sports) to ensure students are not without playmates," said Marlow. "At Park, we are fortunate to have students such as Rachel with such a strong social con- science who also demonstrate leadership skills and initiative." Rachel has sent e-mails off to the other local- area elementary schools on how they can go about establishing a Buddy Bench. Rachel Arsovski (left) and friend Jillian Thrush spent part of their nutrition break on a specially designated bench in Park Public School's playground. Arsovski's idea to establish a Buddy Bench at the school has been well received. Photo by Eamonn Maher An early morning hydro pole fire knocked power out for nearly 5,000 Halton Hills Hydro (HHH) customers Tuesday. The fire on the pole at Eighth Line and Miller Dr. was caused by salt water (due to road salt on the insulators) conducting electricity into the wooden part of the pole, which then caught fire. Crews had hydro restored to most of the affected residents by shortly after 6 a.m., and everyone had their power back on just before 8 a.m. HHH President and CEO Art Skidmore says there have been six outages since Saturday in Halton Hills, three from fires due to road salt, and three from trees touching the lines. Over the past week he said nearly every customer in Halton Hills has been affected by power out- ages. Skidmore says salt has built up on the hydro infrastructure along the roads and in moist, misty conditions it has become a conductor of electricity causing arcing and pole fires. "It happens every year, but it's particularly bad this year because we haven't had the thaw we typically have in January or Febru- ary," said Skidmore. "A couple of days of rain or snow-- it's that weather event that basically cleans our system." He said it's been an issue since the begin- ning of March, but most intensely over the last three days. HHH Operations Manager Don Matthews said Halton Hills is not the only area dealing with the salt issue, as pole fires and outages have been occurring right across the GTA. Matthews said, "the possibility exists we could see additional outages until we have some sort of weather event" to help clean off the salt. HHH has put a letter to customers in today's newspaper thanking them for their patience during the "very challenging season." HHH outage information is available on its website at www.haltonhillshydro.com and its Facebook and Twitter accounts. Weather, salt causing numerous outages By Lisa Tallyn ltallyn@theifp.ca A fire on this hydro pole caused an outage on Saturday morning. Halton Hills Hydro photo By Eamonn Maher emaher@theifp.ca Park School's Buddy Bench is popular spot to meet new friends