Proposed residential development on land currently owned by the Elgin County Railway Museum is an opportunity to revitalize that portion of downtown St. Thomas, stresses Doug Tarry.
The St. Thomas developer made that observation almost three years ago, and this past Tuesday (Feb. 20) city council unanimously agreed to declare certain parcels of land that partially comprise Jonas Park to be declared surplus to the city and those parcels will be sold to Doug Tarry Limited (DTL) for future residential development west of the Elgin Country Railway Museum.
Back in the summer of 2021, Tarry sought to purchase eight acres of railway land immediately west of the museum at $300,000 per acre for a low-rise residential development that would front onto a new street to be created off Ross Street and north of Jonas Street.
Tag Archives: Paul Jenkins
‘The year ahead represents, to me, a bridge to prosperity and a critical shift from past to present’ – Central Elgin Mayor Andrew Sloan
The St. Thomas & District Chamber of Commerce Lunch with the Mayors gathering is typically a non-controversial State of the Union-type event, more jovial than jousting.
That all changed with last year’s get-together which came on the heels of Bill-63, the St. Thomas Central Elgin Boundary Adjustment Act.
Central Elgin lost hundreds of acres of farmland to St. Thomas for that municipality to assemble 1,500 acres for what would become the Yarmouth Yards industrial park and ultimately the home of Volkswagen/PowerCo and the EV battery giga-plant.
Much of the question-and-answer time slot was put to good use by former Central Elgin Mayor Sally Martyn to hold St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston’s feet to the fire on her municipality’s lack of involvement in the land deal.
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The city of St. Thomas to focus on equity, diversity and inclusion both in hiring and the provision of services
Coun. Steve Peters delved into a bit of family history at Monday’s (Feb. 7) council meeting.
Specifically about his grandfather.
But, best we let Coun. Peters recount it in his own words.
“As someone who was born and raised in St. Thomas, and considers himself coming from an immigrant family.
“A lot of you don’t know, but my grandfather, who was born and raised in Canada, had to change his name from Dmytro Pidwerbeski to Dick Peters because he was a foreigner.
“And that has always stuck with me that my grandfather had to do that and he was born here but considered an immigrant.”
The glimpse into Peters’ family tree was a preamble to serious discussion related to discrimination in St. Thomas and Elgin county.
It stemmed from a survey undertaken by the St.Thomas-Elgin Local Immigration Partnership (STELIP) that was an item on Monday’s agenda.
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Closing the hospital labs? We’ll notify you about that
An upbeat interview in Friday’s Times-Journal with Paul Jenkins, the new executive director of the St. Thomas-Elgin General Hospital Foundation.
He is the individual who assumes the position previously held by Allan Weatherall who, like Malcolm Hopkins, didn’t fit into the long-term game plan of hospital CEO Paul Collins.
Well Paul’s fundraising endeavors may become that much more difficult based on information forwarded to City Scope on Friday.
As we understand matters, the downsizing/outsourcing may very well continue with pathology labs now housed at the hospital possibly about to be shuttered at the end of the year.
We don’t have a handle on number of people who might be impacted, although some of the work undertaken could be moved, possibly to Woodstock General Hospital. The remainder of the work would likely be assumed by a London facility.
A bit of a complication here though. The St. Thomas jobs are unionized whereas the Woodstock workplace is non-union so some negotiating would be in order.
The union – which has to be given five months notice – was apparently notified of this situation on July 11. That would mean the final day of employment in the STEGH labs would be on or around Dec. 11.
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