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THE NEW TANNER Council rejects relocation of Everton development ?????????????????? ????????????????????? ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ????????????????????? ????????????????????????? Wellington O.P.P. ReportReport A 33-year-old Eramosa man was lucky to escape mandatory jail time for possession of child pornog- raphy in a Guelph court last Wednesday and will serve a one-year conditional sen- tence under house arrest. Before Shaun Walker plead guilty to possession of child pornography, the crown agreed to change the date of the offence from Janu- ary 3, 2006 to a period from January 1, 2003 to August 30, 2004, to prior to passage of Bill C-2 in 2005, that ended conditional sentences for possession with minimum 45-day jail sentences. Walker was charged with two counts of possession of child pornography, un- safe storage of a firearm and possession of a fi rearm without a permit on January 17, 2006 after offi cers with Project P, the OPPs child pornography unit raided his residence on Highway 7, west of Crewsons Corner, seizing a computer contain- ing images of child porn and a .22 calibre rifl e. By Frances Niblock In an agreed to statement of facts, the court heard that on January 3, 2006, Walkers ex-girlfriend found a compact disc containing 145 images of young girls involved in sex acts with men, and called police who raided his home on Highway 7 two weeks later, seizing two computers with 180 images of child pornography. Walkers lawyer argued the CD was made in 2003 with material that came with pornography that was legally downloaded from the Inter- net. He said Walker viewed it and then erased from his fi les, but not from his hard drive, where police found it. The Rockwood MILLER Police, fi refi ghters to compete in Camp Brebeuf fundraiser This Saturday, Sept 22 between 9am to 10pm there is a community fundrais- ing fall fair and concert at Camp Brebeuf, just north of Rockwood, on Wellington Rd. 27. During the event the Wel- lington OPP will enter a five-person team compet- ing against a team from the Guelph-Eramosa Fire Depart- ment. The competition will include an obstacle course on the high ropes, a rock wall competition, archery and a canoe race. In addition to the Adven- ture Race, there will be a bake sale, garage sale with a barbecue lunch and dinner. An outdoor concert will complete the evening, with the band 8ight Past Nine providing the music. Pro- ceeds go to CYO Camp Brebeuf. Cost is a donation at the gate and $12 in the evening for the concert. For more information visit www.campbrebeuf.ca/fair. html. The crown dropped three charges including one of the possession of child pornog- raphy charges and the two weapons offences that related to an old rifl e found during the search. Walker received a one-year conditional sentence, two years probation and a 10-year fi rearm prohibition. He cant leave home except for work, medical appointments, reli- gious observances, and for four hours on Saturdays to get personal necessities. He cant use the Internet except for work, and will be registered as a sex offender for 10 years and must submit a DNA sample. Everton residents want the hamlet to remain quiet. There was lots of input at public meetings and their voices were heard, said Guelph/Era- mosa Mayor Chris White. Council unanimously re- jected a private application for a zoning amendment that would allow farmer Robert Eilers to relocate five rural residential lots from the south- west side of Wellington St. to the extension of Market St. If approved the former lots would have been rezoned prime agricultural and the new lots would be rezoned from prime agricultural to hamlet and slated for residential de- velopment. According to Eilers, the change would have resulted in a net gain of about 2.5 acres of prime agricultural land in Everton. There is probably a good argument why the five lots (Wellington St.) should not exist, but they are already there. If we move them, then we would disrupt those who bought properties with that understanding. It would be the wrong thing to do twice, said Councillor Doug Breen, Everton residents want it left alone. There was some development on the corner of Market St. and thats enough already. Councillor John Scott, who represents the hamlet, said he received considerable cor- respondence, and two public meetings were held. The residents want to maintain the sanctity of the hamlet. The high number of people speak- ing against the amendment is evidence of the community ideals and wishes, he added, I took their concerns to heart, educated myself on the issues, and am respecting the wishes of the electorate. White said that there are pros and cons of the proposal; I can see both sides of the argument. It is not an easy job. Were going with what was already on the ground. He told Eilers that he recognizes his hardship, but you bought what you bought and this is the decision of council. SHUT DOWN Eilers had attempted to add what he called new informa- tion before the decision was made but White shut him down, saying the process is complete and all information in the application and from the public meetings over the last two years was consid- ered. The planning process was finished last week and I found that I am even more constrained as to where I can put a new horse barn due to its dimensions, layout and manure location following the provinces minimum sepa- ration distance regulations [from wells and homes], said Eilers. He asked for the changes so he could expand a horse boarding and training facil- ity bordering Wellington St. without losing the income potential in developing fi ve residential lots. Those lots would have been taken out of development forever. Build- ing the barn now means I wont recover the investment for at least fi ve years, and it would take another five to match what I would make developing the fi ve lots, so I may have to do so with the fi ve existing. Eilers said his main busi- ness is cash crops. To remain viable, he looks for side busi- nesses such as the horse farm. With the proceeds from its expansion and the residential development, he had planned to buy more prime agricultural land to farm. Revenues per acre drop every year so, to sur- vive, I need to farm as much land as possible, he said, There is big competition, such as Woodrill and Sharpe, who also deal in seeds, crop sharing and combining. My business is straight cash crops and I have to buy as much land as the competition to survive. Everton residents that op- posed the zoning change were afraid of opening the door for further development. At the public meeting in June, Peter Ledwith spoke on behalf of those opposing the applica- tion. The proposal should be turned down because it is in- consistent with the history of Everton, it will be detrimental to the people in the commu- nity and it will negatively impact the environment of the hamlet, he said, adding that further modern develop- ment would detract from the historic beauty of Everton, a designated heritage area. Swapping designated areas represents the fi rst step to cap- italize on the land surrounding the hamlet, and over time, we would see Evertons person- ality destroyed fi ve lots at a time., Ledwith maintained. Eilers disagreed. I wanted to make the fi ve current lots part of a beautiful horse farm. It would be protected that way, because who would want to ruin it? Now the door is left open for unattractive devel- opment there. The issue will keep coming back, regardless of the owner. My plan would have created a prime agri- culture box around Everton, drawing a hard line against further development. I live there too. I dont want to see my fi elds surrounded by big subdivisions. We could have discussed ways to go about developing and make com- promises to meet everyones objectives. Eilers said he invited community participation in developing the proposed lots in a historically consistent and environmentally friendly way but nobody responded. Eilers claims he is not in the business of development, but rather farming and has invested a lot of money to make it viable and has big plans for the future. He is currently in the process of getting off the grid in powering his own buildings. They are geothermally heated and cooled and he is consid- ering adding solar or wind power. He is also looking at establishing side-businesses in bio-fuels, such as harnessing energy from pig manure. He said he learned a lot while living in Europe about new technologies for more environmentally friendly farming, septic systems and energy sources. Now 37, he left Canada at age of 17 but returned home to take over the family farm after his father passed away in 2000. He told of a friend in Switzerland, an old farmer, who was looking out over Geneva and pointed to the ugliest development, and said he used to own all that land. Eilers asked him, Would you have developed it this way if you still owned it? To which the old farmer replied, Absolutely not. Eilers said Ontario needs a better long-term vision to con- trol development and urban sprawl to prevent such regrets. He gave the example of the re- quired one-acre rural lot sizes. There are technologies for septic systems that require less land. This change alone would help curb the sprawl,