St. Thomas teacher Ruth Brown rides the Polar Express into retirement

With a lull in the action at St. Thomas city hall and with most area municipal governments, what better time to present a heartwarming story about the power of believing, especially at Christmas time?
Early in December, a note was sent to the myFM newsroom about a full-day kindergarten teacher at John Wise Public School in St. Thomas who was just days away from retirement, following a lengthy career.
It’s a retirement story with an inspirational difference. Teacher Ruth Brown planned to retire only after fulfilling a long-time dream that neatly wrapped up a popular Christmas storybook, her love of teaching students in kindergarten and her pending last day in the classroom into one fairytale that came to life.

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Lots of red ink, but rest assured nothing will be written off

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With municipal councils in St. Thomas and Chatham-Kent having approved the merger of St. Thomas Energy and Entegrus, all that is required is the go-ahead from the Ontario Energy Board (OEB), likely to happen late this year with a target merger date of Jan. 1, 2018.
Oh, and there is that prickly matter of a not insignificant amount of long-term debt run up by Ascent Group, St. Thomas Energy’s parent – city treasurer David Aristone refers to it as bank debt – and in excess of $5 million owed the municipality for the collection of water bills dating back to at least 2014.
It’s not a subject open to much in the way of discussion by either Aristone or St. Thomas Energy acting CEO Rob Kent. 

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