Construction began on Old St. Thomas Church in 1822 and was completed two years later, and so this year marks its 200th anniversary.
We spoke with Steve Peters, who sits on the church restoration committee, on the founding of what was originally known as St. Thomas Anglican Church, located on Walnut Street.
“Daniel Rapelje, the first settler of St. Thomas, had two sons pass away in 1819 and he had buried them on this land and then in 1821, he donated land for the church and cemetery.
“Construction began on the church in 1822 and was completed in 1824 and opened when the first minister was appointed.”
It is considered an example of Early English Gothic Revival architecture.
The first incumbent, the Rev. Alexander Mackintosh, served from 1824 to 1829 and was also the village’s schoolmaster.
Tag Archives: Alma College Square
As the city readies for rapid expansion, the St. Thomas Strategic Plan is in line for a ‘refresh’
At Monday’s (Sept. 18) council meeting, members will receive an update on the city’s Strategic Plan which covers the period 2021 through this year.
The plan was originally adopted by city council in May of 2013.
The city engaged the services of Fanshawe Corporate Training Solutions in June 2019 to assist in a plan update.
At that time, the idea was to develop a short list of strategic themes for the city’s path forward.
This included a focus group of community stakeholders and a public and city staff survey which included 539 respondents and produced a list of 25 key themes.
In June of 2020 that was whittled down to the Top 10 strategic priorities.
Topping the list was infrastructure, including roads, bridges and sewers.
The Number 2 priority was emergency shelters for the homeless.
And, rounding out the Top 3 was affordable housing.
Moving forward three years, let’s look at today’s updated strategic plan.
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‘You see it all on a piece of paper, but at the end of the day the people who live in those spaces have to love those spaces.’ – Moving on to Phase 2 of Alma College Square
Exactly three years after the great concrete pour at Alma College, preparatory is underway for what will prove to be another record-breaking event.
On June 27, 2020, close to 3,000 cubic metres of concrete was poured for the footings for Phase 1 of the three-tower residential complex at 96 Moore Street known as Alma College Square.
Adam Morris of Sierra Contracting confirmed it was a record-setting pour by quite a margin, involving just under 300 truckloads of concrete in a single day.
The eight-storey building with 156 units has been well received and so the concrete pour for the nine-storey second tower adjacent to the ravine is expected to require close to 4,000 cubic metres of concrete when undertaken this fall.
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Attempting to avoid an unavoidable reality: Cyberattack directed at County of Elgin network results in a data breach impacting hundreds of individuals
A ‘technical disruption’ that plagued Elgin county through April was confirmed yesterday (May 13) as “a cyber security incident” in a media release.
The attack impacted the county’s website and email system.
And now the county is confirming some personal information has been breached, however, there is no evidence this data was used to commit fraud or identity theft.
We spoke with County of Elgin CAO Julie Gonyou yesterday for elaboration on the incident.
She advised, “From April 1st to the 27th, we were navigating a cyber security incident so we had our network down with the exception of a couple of critical functions for long-term care.
“We brought the network back up and our cyber security experts who we hired as consultants alerted us on May 3 to a data breach with information dumped on the dark web.
“By the time we found out we had resumed normal operations so we do believe there is a connection.”
As to how many individuals have been impacted by the breach, Gonyou responded, “in and around 330 and within that 330, there are two levels of notification.
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Poverty to possibility: ensuring affordable and supportive housing is on the radar of EML candidates in the June provincial vote
The first Elgin-Middlesex-London candidate forum for the June 2 provincial election was held this past Tuesday at the St. Thomas Public Library.
Hosted by the Elgin-St. Thomas Coalition to End Poverty, the two-hour session featured 10 questions from coalition members relating to poverty, homelessness, a living wage and mental health issues.
The three hopefuls present were PC candidate Rob Flack, Liberal candidate Heather Jackson and NDP candidate Andy Kroeker.
Moderated by the myFM news team featuring Kennedy Freeman and myself, the event kicked off what will be a hectic 28-day runup to the election itself.
Not present for the forum but who have now declared their candidacy are Matt Millar from the New Blue Party of Ontario, Brigitte Belton of the Ontario Party and Amanda Stark of the Green Party of Ontario.
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St. Thomas Police Chief Chris Herridge: ‘an increasingly expensive police response is the wrong direction’
It’s time to get serious and address the escalating challenges looming over the city’s downtown core, advises St. Thomas Police Chief Chris Herridge.
After a couple of phone calls this week and an exchange of emails, Herridge took the time to present a case for taking a leadership role in confronting those challenges.
“We are seeing a trend where drug and property crime has been increasing,” notes Herridge. “If we do not get a handle on the issues we are currently facing, the big city issues that quickly arrived here three to four years ago are going to turn into the serious issues occurring in larger centres across our country.
“As I have mentioned many times in the past, St. Thomas is not unique to the social, health and crime problems being experienced, but we can be leaders in addressing these issues if we focus on where the challenges are and, right now, the challenges are predominantly in and around our downtown.”
Herridge starts with a resource primer that should be pinned within easy reach for downtown merchants and their staff.
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There is no ‘bait and switch’ with the Alma College Square development
Evident by the questions raised by a couple of councillors at Monday’s (March 15) meeting, the Alma College Square development still generates concern even while the skeleton of Phase 1 reaches skyward.
While council did approve amendments to the plans for the three-tower residential development, unanswered questions remain.
Issues revolve around traffic flow, the final colours of the structures, why the site plans seemed to be in a constant state of flux, Community Improvement Plan funding and, most puzzling of all, why was a Wellington street access to the former Alma College property nixed?
Developer Michael Loewith of Patriot Properties, at times, added to the confusion, in particular as to what shades and hues the exterior of the buildings will wear.
Coun. Jeff Kohler perhaps put it best when he observed, “I’m certainly not going to accept buying a red car when I ordered a blue one.”
A reference initially alluded to by Coun. Steve Peters.
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A defining moment in the history of St. Thomas’ Memorial Arena to be written this spring and summer
It has a long and storied history. Of course, the St. Thomas Elgin Memorial Centre was long the home of the St. Thomas Stars and before that, the Pests and the Barons.
How many of you remember the short-lived Wildcats of the Colonial Hockey League who called Memorial Arena home for three years before morphing into the London Wildcats and then the Dayton Ice Bandits?
The old barn is seeped in hockey history but its defining moment may very well be written this spring and summer.
Over the past couple of weeks, the venerable facility built in 1953 has been transformed into an impressive vaccination hub where tens of thousands of area residents – certainly far more than the 2,600 or so hockey fanatics who could jam the stands and walking track for a game – will wend their way through the structure and emerge after a shot of insurance against the coronavirus.
Tremendous gratitude is owed Cynthia St. John, Jaime Fletcher and the rest of the hard-working staff at Southwestern Public Health and their community partners who have ironed out every last detail to open up the vaccination clinic Monday morning to get down to the business of corralling the coronavirus.
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From slap shots to COVID-19 shots, Memorial Arena takes on a new role
With all the knocks against the province’s coronavirus attack plan and vaccination roll-out, you have to wonder how much consultation there has been with the local health units and their medical officers of health?
In fact, how closely is the government listening to medical authorities at institutions like Sick Children’s Hospital in Toronto and other experts in the field on a safe back-to-school policy?
You can point to the federal government for their handling of the vaccine itself, but is the shortage an easy target when your own program is likewise sputtering and subject to rapid and unexpected about turns?
At the grassroots level our local health unit, Southwestern Public Health, is being proactive and has approached the city to obtain use of Memorial Arena as a vaccination hub.
The matter is a late addition to Monday’s (March 1) council agenda.
As noted in city manager Wendell Graves’ report to members, “Attributes of the site include easy access, good parking and the ability to map out an operational floor plan that would allow for the greatest number of people to be vaccinated as expeditiously as possible.”
Ian's City Scope 