Eric Spence is currently in Grade 12 and is planning on attending Brock University next September where he will take Business Management and Corporate Law. Lindsay will be attending the Dental Hygeine Program at Cambrian College in Sudbury.

For more photos of the people who helped make this event such a huge success, click the link below.

For more photos of the people who attended this special event, follow the link below:

   John Rodriguez enjoyed a break from his rigorous campaign to take in the St. Kevin’s Christmas Tea & Bazaar the day before residents of the City of Greater Sudbury went to the polls on November 13 to elect him to serve as Mayor for the next four years. Rodriguez is shown here with his wife, Bertilla, who is President of the St. Kevin’s CWL. John and Bertilla live in Hanmer, so he becomes the first Mayor from the “outlying area” to run the city.

   Despite all of the rhetoric about the poor job that was done during the past three years by City Council, residents of Valley East and Capreol must have been fairly satisfied with the level of service they received since all three incumbents were given a clear vote of confidence by the public by being returned to office in Wards 5, 6 and 7.

   For Ward 5, Ron Dupuis defeated Louise Portelance.
 
   For Ward 6, Andre Rivest defeated Robert Kirwan and Henri Lagrandeur.
 
   For Ward 7, Russ Thompson defeated Dave Kilgour.
 
   All in all, a total of five new faces, including the Mayor, will be at City Council for the next four years. Eight incumbents will be returning, including a core of councillors from the former city of Sudbury which consist of: Janet Gasparini, Doug Craig, Ted Callaghan, and Frances Caldarelli. Two of the newcomers, Evelyn Dutrisac and Joscelyne Landry-Altmann will bring the number of women on Council to four. Wards 1 & 2 will have new councilors in Joe Cimino and Jacques Barbeau. Claude Berthiaume of Ward 3 rounds out the council.
 
   A total of 4754 people cast ballots in Ward 6, for a participation rate of approximately 45%. In Ward 5, close to 40% of the voters turned out to cast 3982 ballots for their Councillors. The city wide participation rate of 43% was virtually unchanged from that of 2003.

   A large number of residents spent time at the revision tables because of errors or omissions on the voters’ list. There were numerous complaints of people not receiving voter cards; people being left off the voters’ list all together; children who have moved away from home still being on the voters’ list; and examples of people being on the voters’ list more than once and in more than one Ward. During peak hours, the line up at the revision tables grew increasingly long and made the process annoying for voters. Several even decided to forget the whole matter and simply left without voting. Many concluded that for the 2010 elections it would be wise to consider a full scale enumeration process in order to ensure an accurate voters’ list.

Just to drive home the importance of the campaign, the same week the sign was unveiled, Riley Richer, a five year old Hanmer boy was hit by a car as he crossed Elmview Drive after getting off his school bus. The driver of the car, Jessica Chiblow, 19, of Hanmer, is facing numerous charges under the Highway Traffic Act. Fortunately, the boy was not seriously injured and was released from the hospital that same night, but it is definitely an experience he will remember for the rest of his life. It could also have had far more devastating results. 

The driver of the truck that struck Adam Richer was convicted of criminal negligence causing death and manslaughter.

It is hoped that the signs will make a huge difference in how drivers approach school buses this year. The law states that motorists travelling in both directions must stop when approaching a stopped school bus with its upper red lights flashing. The only exception is on highways with a median, where traffic coming from the opposite direction is not required to stop.

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