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By: Vanessa Moss | Posted: on August 02, 2008

FIT FOR A KNIGHT Bruce Miller dons his official dress Wednesday at his house in Elmira a few weeks before he will be awarded the Masonic Knights Templar’s Knight Commander of the Temple designation. Miller is being honoured for his over 30 years of service to the organization and his future dedication to the group.

After 30 years of commitment to the Masonic Knights Templar (MKT), Elmira’s Bruce Miller is being honoured for his past service … with more to come.
Only 33 members across Canada hold the Knight Commander of the Temple designation, which is given to a person for life; Miller will take over one of these coveted roles from a member who passed away.
At the organization’s annual meeting on Aug. 25, Miller and two others will receive collarettes (ornamental collars with jewels attached) as representations of their new positions.
“It’ll be quite an affair,” Miller said of the evening, set to take place in Toronto.
“It’s a great honour because not only is it an honour for me but an honour for the preceptory [his home branch] and for the district because it really stresses the amount of contribution that you had made to the organization itself.”
Visitors from around the world and MKT members from 76 preceptories in 15 districts across Canada will be on hand to congratulate Miller at the ceremony later this month.
He earned this award after his preceptory (Valette) nominated him and his résumé was deemed more impressive than those of the other two in line for the position.
Over the years, Miller has acted as Provincial Grand Prior and editor of the group’s newsletter, The Beauséant, co-authored a variety of manuals and publications used to instruct fellow fratres (brethren), and sat on the grand executive.
In his new role, Miller will again sit on the executive, this time as chairman of one of the committees. He will also be challenged to help other preceptories across Canada if they are in need.
The MKT is a Christian branch of the Freemasons, a worldwide fraternity consisting of members from various religions. The group’s overall goal is to promote brotherhood and support good works in the form of scholarships for students going through the Christian ministry, and financial support of local youth activities and medical research. The MKT generates money for these programs through individual donations from some 8,000 members nationwide.

By: Steve Kannon | Posted: on August 02, 2008

Woolwich administration has pegged Sept. 19 to make the hop from Arthur Street to Church Street. The push is on to finish renovations at the former Glencree building, once home to the Mennonite Savings and Credit Union.
To complete the move to the new township hall, staff will wind down operations at the current building on Thurday, Sept. 18, opening for business at the new facility on the following Tuesday.
With a date set, the race is on to complete the $3.9-million construction project.
Chief administrative officer David Brenneman is confident enough wiggle room has been built into the date to ensure the move goes ahead as scheduled. The date was nailed down Monday.
Renovations are expected to be completed a week before moving day.
“We wanted to give ourselves that week to make sure all the little things are done,” he said.
The move will provide township personnel with much more space. Currently in cramped quarters – former storage closets in the basement have been turned into office space – staff will have better working conditions. As well, there will be more room for dealing with residents accessing municipal services, and a more spacious council chamber.
“Things are proceeding really nicely at the admin. centre. The inside is going well. The outside is on schedule,” facilities manager Brian Detzler said Wednesday, noting some of the exterior cladding may not be in place until early September, but the building will be ready for occupancy.
The opening of the administration building will be preceded by the new $1.3-million fire station in Floradale, slated for occupancy Aug. 25. Likewise, the expansion at the arena in St. Jacobs is expected to be completed at about the same time.
While it’s one of the smaller projects – a budget under $500,000 – the changeroom addition to the arena has been a longtime coming. Construction will be wrapped up before the start of hockey.
“The work will be done in time for the new season.”
The largest of the township’s building projects, the Woolwich Memorial Centre in Elmira, is well underway and running on schedule, he added. The multi-use facility is to open in September 2009.
With these buildings underway and coming on stream, the township this week added another staff member: Andrew Poste assumes the newly created position of building and property supervisor.
“The timing is ideal on his starting,” said Detzler. “We’re getting him up to speed … and he’ll be ready to launch a preventative maintenance plan for the new facilities.
“People say, ‘these are new buildings, why do you need preventative maintenance?’ But preventative maintenance is key right from day-one if you want to keep the buildings in top condition.”
And on the horizon is the new community centre in Breslau. The architects are currently working on drawings in advance of the tender process, expected to begin early in the fall.
At that point, the township will learn just how realistic the $2.2-million budget is at a time of skyrocketing prices for materials.
Erratic budget estimates and some creative financing have been the name of the game ever since Woolwich jumped into construction mode.
Keeping track of all the money is director of finance Richard Petherick. Each of the projects now underway is within budget, but the totals under discussion today are a long way from the figures discussed earlier in the process, he acknowledged.
In the case of the administration building, the initial figure was $2.5 million, but as work got underway, the price tag quickly blossomed to $3.9 million. There were similar changes in all seven construction projects approved in short order.
The Woolwich Memorial Centre currently has a budget of $22 million, up substantially from the $12 million originally forecast – even without the addition of a second ice pad, the project would still be set at $18 million. The latest construction estimates put the cost of the facility at almost $23 million.
While smaller in scale, the other projects all experienced cost overrun issues.
The Breslau community centre’s original budget of $925,000 has been revised to $2.2 million.
The fire hall in Floradale, forecast at $360,000, will come in around $1.3 million.
At the now-completed Heritage Park Community Centre, the original budget of $350,000 swelled to $876,000, though actual tendered costs came in under that, at $660,000.
What was to be a small upgrade at the Woolwich Township Arena in St. Jacobs blossomed in scope and cost. With a budget that eventually hit $210,000, new estimates saw that figure revised upward to $467,000.
The project to install an elevator in the Elmira Library also grew, now requiring an additional $50,000, raising the cost to $184,000.

By: Vanessa Moss | Posted: on August 02, 2008

MORE MEMORIES TO COME The former EDSS teacher celebrated his 100th birthday Aug. 1 at Chateau Gardens with family and friends.

Five days before his 100th birthday celebration, Ernest “Ernie” Kendall spent some time reciting poetry that he had learned in high school.
The longtime Elmira resident voiced Cecil Frances Alexander’s “The Burial of Moses” Monday afternoon in his room at Chateau Gardens as though he were up on stage, only pausing once during a brief moment of forgetfulness.
“Gosh that’s funny, once in a while I get a lapse like that,” he said.
Born in Guelph on Aug. 1, 1908, Kendall grew up near the University of Guelph where his father taught in the fine arts and agriculture departments.
During his fourth year there himself studying zoology, Kendall failed and switched to agricultural sciences.
Upon graduation, he took the first job he could get: teaching at Elmira District Secondary School (EDSS).
“There were 570 students in the [graduating] class and there were only a few jobs to be gotten in those days – I happened to have the qualifications,” he said of his decision to take the position.
When he moved to Elmira in 1933, Kendall began a teaching career that would span 50 years: 35 in science at EDSS and another 15 as a supply teacher.
That was quite an achievement for someone who never planned to become an educator.
“If you had told me I was going to be a teacher when I was even at graduating time … but I liked it so much and everybody was so nice to you that I just stayed there.
“That (EDSS) is the only place I ever taught because that was the nicest place.”
Many of Kendall’s former students have invited him to visit and vice versa over the years, and have only good things to say about their time with him.
“He could tell you stories that are incredible,” said former student Marilyn Mitchell.
“[He is] a wonderful, nice person.”
In his 35 years at the school, Kendall said his greatest accomplishment was developing Teen Town, a weekly dance program that ran for 15 years.
For 15 cents, students could learn various dance routines, including the polka. At the start, Kendall received criticism from community members because the low lighting at the dances was deemed inappropriate.
But, after seeing shy farm kids learn to dance and develop self-confidence, even Kendall’s harshest critics changed their tunes.
Dancing was what brought him and his wife Grace together in 1931. She was a student at Guelph’s Macdonald Hall girls’ college and he was in his last year of university. Kendall invited her to a dance and the rest was history.
“I took her and I married her; she was a lovely girl.”
In their 73 years of marriage, the Kendalls had three children – John, Amy Grace and Jane – and now Ernie has eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren who all play big parts in his life.
The whole family is good to him, he said.
Over the years, the family most enjoyed trips to their cottage on Lake Muldrew in the Muskokas. Kendall has fond memories of swimming and canoe adventures there, dating back to the early 1900s when he first visited the area.
“It was far more wonderful when I went up there in 1915,” he said of the less than 10 cottages on the lake at the time.
Kendall’s passion for canoeing led to one of his favourite memories of the past 100 years. At 17, he and a friend decided to paddle across Lake Ontario just to see if they could do it.
“We were out about three miles when a thunderstorm came out,” he said. “I didn’t realize I was afraid until I saw the big tower on the corn syrup plant at Port Credit – then I was scared as hell.”
In a $10 canoe without a compass or life jackets, the duo made it to Toronto by nightfall, having started at 8 a.m., Kendall recalled.
Sixty-five years later at the age of 82, he made another long trek in a canoe, this time from Whitehorse down the Yukon River for two weeks. Age hasn’t seemed to slow him down.
Besides his canoeing, Kendall was known for his great garden on Second Street. He helped build the house there after a four-year stint in the army as a weapons instructor at the age of 35.
From that location, Kendall moved into Chateau Gardens when he was 91 and is still enjoying life there at 100.
“I’m feeling quite well,” he said.
As he pointed out a picture of himself at age two, Kendall remarked at how excited he was then and still is today.
When asked what stands out in his memory about his 100 years, Kendall had a logical response.
“I remember an awful lot of birthday parties,” he said with a smile.

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Storm was short, fast and furious

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