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The Rockwood MULL LIE IR 11 : THE ROCK WOOD MILLER THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1998 CRAFT SALES: Members of the Rockwood Catholic Women's League offered a variety of items for sale at the bazaar at Rockmosa last weekend. Showing off the hand made gifts for the photographer are from the left Irene Hawkins, Shirley Zions and Agnes Coleman. - Angela Tyler photo BEST BAKING: Rockwood Lionesses participated in a bazzar at Rockmoska Community Centre last weekend. Displaying some of the tasty treats available were from the left Marian Anderson, Pat Kingdon and Marian Ostrander. - Angela Tyler photo : for business BY MAGGIE PETRUSHEVSKY The New Tanner New municipality ready With the recent election behind them the new Guelph-Eramosa Township council is ready to march straight ahead with business for the next two years, says Reeve Dave Adsett. "The past year has im- proved the municipality's reputation and gotten rid of the fighting," Adsett says. "Last election people sent us a loud message to tidy up our act. They elected people with a similar frame of mind so we were able to work to- gether quite well." This is Adsett's third term on council and his second as head of the municipality. He was first elected to council in 1994 and imme- diately bumped up to deputy reeve when the newly elected reeve resigned and the deputy reeve stepped into his shoes. He ran for reeve in 1997 and was acclaimed this year as mayor for the next two years in the newly restructured municipality of Eramosa- Guelph. Adsett said the recent election gave the new mu- nicipality a well-experienced council. Les Foote has been reeve of Guelph Township for many years and was War- den of Wellington County in 1997. Coun. Gord Dunk has also sat on Guelph Township council for many years while Gary Martin had consider- able experience on Eramosa's recreation com- mittee before becoming deputy reeve in 1997. The only new face is Eramosa resident Allan MacDonald. Along with a strong coun- cil there is "a fresh munici- pal staff with exceptional qualifications", Adsett says and this combination should see the new community well set to tackle its future. Adsett placed pressures for development at the top of his list of issues for the town- ship's immediate future. This is one of the areas where the experience of Guelph Town- ship councillors can prove so valuable. 'A second major issue will be finding ways to combine the budgets of the old town- ships so residents in both feel they are getting equal serv- ice. Grants and provincial funding have been cut dras- tically and no one has any idea what will happen to that funding in 1999, Adsett says. He sat on Wellington County council for the first time over the past year and found the experience "re- warding and frustrating." A great deal of county council's work was done in its committees but when the item came before full coun- cil the accompanying back- ground information was in- sufficient to allow for an in- formed vote. "You were expected to just rubber stamp committee's recommendation," Adsett explains, and that didn't suit him. Nor was he impressed with council's decision to pick its police services board representative by drawing names from a hat. "Council felt all the can- didates were qualified, so rather than figure out who - was best qualified they just put the names in a hat and picked one." On the other hand he is pleased with his efforts to get stop lights installed at the Brucedale corner north of Rockwood. There has been a need for lights there for some time but the county finally got the work done this sum- mer now that the road is un- der its control. Guelph-Eramosa Mayor David Adsett. well represented in the cast o: Adsett says Eramosa has a desperate need to replace five or six bridges. The Eden Mills bowstring bridge project is complete but the second bridge in that com- Te a OUTSTANDING OLIVER! The Rockwood area was f Oliver! that captivated sold-out audiences at Guelph's River Run Centre last weekend. Left to right: Jordan Smith, Christopher Willes (Oliver, of Eden Mills), Emma Tilson, Steve Johnson, Christian Landry and Lisa Myers. - Sub- mitted photo munity is tops on the list needing repairs. "We are in a situation where we may have to close bridges (over weight limita- tions) faster than we can re- pair or replace them," he said. "For sure we can't go with the old wait and save up system we have used for years for this sort of project." Amalgamating the two townships has resulted in a reduction in staff, Adsett saving to taxpayers in the long run. The one new position says, and that will be a cost: which will result from the amalgamation is that of parks and recreation director. Neither township had such a position but with Guelph Township's large park and Eramosa's Rockmosa Centre council felt it will save tax- payers money having one person coordinate the efforts of volunteers rather than hav- ing many people each do a little part. The works yards in both Guelph and Eramosa town- ships will remain in opera- tion but Brucedale will be the administrative headquarters for everything. Rockwood Digest Grace is a winner Rockwood writer Gordon Gilhuly's tale about an eld- erly woman in the early throes of Alzheimer's won the 2nd runner-up award in :the recent Canadian Au- thors' Association (Metro Toronto branch) national short story contest. The judges liked the well- crafted plot, excellent struc- ture and the likeable and be- lievable characters. Grace will be published along with the other winning stories in a collection called Winners' Circle. Gilhuly will read from his work at the Chap- ters Bookstore in Mississauga next Saturday. No one hurt No one was injured in a head-on collision on the Fifth Line of Eramosa Township at 3:10 p.m. Saturday. A south- bound vehicle crossed the centre line and collided with a northbound vehicle. Both drivers are from rural Rockwood. The driver of the southbound vehicle faces two alcohol-related charges. Almost funny The tale of three young Guelph men who tried to rip off a couple of extra cans of pop points out how easily small things can escalate. OPP were called at 2:30 a.m. Saturday when the trio started shaking a pop ma- chine outside Knechtel's food market in Rockwood. Police say they paid for one pop, then decided to see if they could shake loose an- other can or two. They actu- ally had five cans when po- lice arrived. They could have wound up in a Guelph jail cell for theft only store own- ers decided not to press charges. "For the sake of five bucks they almost landed them--- selves in jail," says OPP Const. Dale Gear. "If it wasn't so sad it would be funny."