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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2004 THE NEW TANNER ED Eden Mills store, post office closing BY MAGGIE PETRUSHEVSKY The New Tanner Eden Place owner Wendy ans has sold her store after more than three years of op- erating it as a stained glass and gift shop on the main street of Eden Mills. When Evans purchased the store it was a pottery shop with a postal outlet in one part where customers could buy stamps and money orders and mail parcels. Evans closed the postal outlet on Tuesday, Au- gust 31. The gift section will remain open until after the Eden Mills Writers' Festival on September 12, she said. Since there is no other store in the vil- lage, there was no place to which the outlet could be moved, she said. The post office had been removed and switched to group mail boxes near the community centre be- fore Evans came to the village. Barb Marshall, whose grandfather op- erated the general store and post office in The Rockwi the village from more than 40 years, says records show the first post office was es- tablished up the hill from the mill on July 6, 1851 with Adam Argo as its first post- master. Argo called the village Eden but added Mills at the insistence of postal au- thorities. A few years later the post office was moved to the three storey general store lo- cated on Barden Street and it was still in that location when Norm Marshall pur- chased the store in 1925. He continued as postmaster until 1966 when he was forced to retire because of age regulations. Then his wife assumed the title and continued the service for a few more years, Marshall says. Evans says she stamped a fist full of en- velopes for stamp collectors Tuesday looking for the last cancellation from the Eden Mills postal outlet. September 16 the new owner will take possession and turn the building into a pri- vate residence. LAYING PIPE: Drexler Construction crews were busy laying the last of the water pip- ing along Main Street by the cemetery earlier this week. Paving was to begin Wednesday. -- Maggie Petrusehvsky photo Road carnage last holiday OPP clamping down on unruly drivers Labour Day weekend has proven to be one of the deadliest holidays of the year, on roads Wellington O.P.P. point. Last year, the O.P.P. in- vestigated eight fatal incidents where 11 people were killed. Six (6) motor vehicle collisions, one (1) all terrain vehicle collision and one (1) marine incident. In 2002, there were eight (8) fatal motor vehicle col- lisions throughout the Province of Ontario and eight people died unneces- sarily. Five of those collisions occurred in West- ern Region. There was one person killed in a marine in- cident. Wellington O.P.P. will conduct extensive patrols throughout the County this coming long weekend with its efforts concentrated on traffic safety. Officers will be out in full force conducting R.I.D.E. spot checks, speed enforce- ment, as well as looking for unsafe driving maneuvers and unsafe vehicles because of their potential for serious consequences. These are drivers who demonstrate a lack of regard for those fun- damental "rules of the road", compromising their safety as well as others that use our main highways. OPP officers will be us- ing both education and enforcement to promote good driving habits on highways 89, 6, 7, 9 and the Hanlon Expressway. IT'S GONE: Eden Mills has lost its last store and its postal outlet. Eden Place craft store will close after the Writers' Festival on Sept. 12 and become a pri- vate residence. The postal outlet closed Aug. 31. - Maggie Petrushevsky photo Eden Mills Writers' Festival has stellar authors' line-up A stellar line-up of au- thors including many award winners will be at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival on Sunday, Sep- tember 12 at nearby Eden Mills. Nalo Hopkinson, author of Salt Roads, and Patricia Pearson, whose latest book is Playing House, will be among those at the festival, the fame of which grows each year. Michael Enright of CBC Radio will also be there to interview authors. Highlights of the day will include readings by Anne-Marie MacDonald, author of The Way the Crow Flies and Fall on Your Knees; Miriam Toews whose book, A complicated Kindness, tops the Bestseller List for Canadian fiction, and John Benrose who has just been long-listed for the prestigious Man Booker Prize. Canada's first Parlia- mentary Poet Laureate, George Bowering will be there as will the founder and artistic director of the festival, Leon Rooke. A complete list of au- thors attending is on the website atwww.eden mills writers fe stival. ca. it includes aboriginal au- thors Joseph Bruchac, Drew Hayden Taylor and Eden Robinson and chil- dren's authors Andrea Beck, Jean Little and Karen Little. A new wrinkle this year is the appearance of French authors Ying Chen, Monique Proulx and Elise Turcotte reading at The Cottage at 2:30 p.m. Spe- cial guests include representatives of the Bar- bados Writers' Festival, an international "twin" of the Eden Mills event. Tickets for the Eden Mills festival are avail- able at select Ontario bookstores, by calling 519-826-0876 or by e- mailing jhastings@ golden .net. 27 trucks taken off road in two Wellington blitzes A truck inspection blitz on Wellington Road 124 (Hwy 24) in rural Erin saw 12 vehicles taken out of service, a failure rate of almost '36 per cent from 34 vehicles inspected. Wellington OPP traffic management unit con- ducted the blitz in partnership with the Min- istry of Transportation on Thursday, Aug. 26, Thirty-one charges were laid and one warning was given. A similar blitz the next day (Friday, Aug. 27) in Puslinch Township in- spected 31 trucks. Police said there was a failure rate of 48 per cent and 15 vehicles were taken out of service and 44 charges were laid. Two trucks from a Cam- bridge gravel company were stopped during the blitz and both failed. The company sent out a mechanic and repair truck to get them back on the road at the scene. The repair truck was in- spected and taken out of service and the mechanic charged with not having a proper class of licence to drive the vehicle. Break and Enter On Wednesday August 25, 2004 between | lam and 12:45am an unknown person entered a residence on Watson Road South. The person gained entry through a rear patio door and stole electronic equipment and a leather jacket, Wellington OPP reported. Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call the Guelph Detachment of the OPP at 519-822- 7250 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS. The same day between | pm and 4:30pm an unknown person entered a residence on the 3rd Line, Eramosa. The person gained entry through a rear window and stole electronic equipment, a laptop computer, jewel- lery and video games. If you have any information about this crime you are asked to call theGuelph Detachment of the OPP at 519- 8227250 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.