From the Advocate – 35 years ago (1983)
Daring daylight holdup
Two young men escaped
carrying $4,000 in cash from the Toronto-Dominion Bank in Erin, after a daring
daylight holdup on Feb. 10. Guelph OPP said the men entered the bank about 2
p.m. and approached a teller with a note saying they were armed, and “this is a
robbery”. No weapons were seen. Officers from Guelph, Snelgrove, Mount Forest,
Shelburne, Orangeville and Halton set up roadblocks, and an OPP helicopter
joined the search, but no arrests were made.
From the Advocate – 25 years ago (1993)
No more police villages
Hillsburgh’s status as a
police village will soon vanish – along with all the other police villages in
Ontario. Police villages were established to allow small settlements with more
than 150 residents to provide urban services, such as water or street lighting,
and to collect a special tax to support the services.
Erin Township Council voted
its support for a recommendation from the Wellington County planning department
to dissolve all six police villages in the county, saying they had outlived
their usefulness.
Community hall opened
Erin’s new community hall at
the arena was officially opened on Sunday afternoon, with a large crowd of well
wishers on hand to view the facility, and enjoy three hours of free skating.
The following dignitaries participated in the ribbon cutting: Carolann Osborne,
Frank Gray, Ivan Gray, Jim Shuttleworth, Ted Arnott, Duncan Armstrong, Robert
Wilson, Terry Mundell, John Pritoula, Reay Sutherland, Paul Phillips, Doug
Follett, Floyd Longbottom and Deborah Sutherland.
Pavement appeal
Residents of Erin
Township’s Sideroad 5 have asked the municipality to pave a section of the
road, saying “cavernous potholes” are wearing out vehicles and dust is
affecting plants and animals. They submitted a 19-name petition requesting that
the pavement be extended from the Eighth Line to the Ninth Line. Road
superintendent Tony Wagenaar will report a traffic count to council before they
consider a change to their five-year roads forecast.
From the Advocate – 20 years ago (1998)
Young girls in high-speed chase
Two young girls from a
youth treatment centre in East Wellington got themselves into water hotter than
they bargained for last week after locking up a case worker in a kitchen pantry,
stealing a van and leading police on a high-speed chase on the 401.
Guelph OPP said an
11-year-old and a 14-year-old at the centre near Hillsburgh stole money and
took off in the centre’s van with the 11-year-old at the wheel. They made it to
Cobourg, where police spotted them.
There was a brief chase
with speeds up to 140 km per hour before they were stopped. The 14-year-old was
charged with possession of stolen property and breach of probation. The
11-year-old is too young to be charged, and was returned to the youth centre.
Caledon quarry plan raises fears
A 150-foot deep quarry
proposed by James Dick Aggregates for the Caledon side of Winston Churchill
Blvd. (at Olde Baseline Road) promises big problems for Erin, according to
Penny Richardson, President of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens.
“That gigantic sucking
sound we’ll all be hearing is going to be our well water filling up the hole
they’ll leave behind,” she said. “Erin residents are about 100 feet away from
where they’ll be blasting away at the countryside for the next 45 years.”
