Posts with the derecho tag

Barris Beat

Surplus? Or plain neglect?

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Gerry OIdham in front of the “notice of meeting” sign posted in the King Street Parkette.

It only took a few minutes into Monday morning’s Planning Committee meeting at Uxbridghe Township offices to realize that no citizen’s protest versus the closing of the King Street Parkette had a chance of changing Council’s mind and that the outcome appeared predetermined.

Minutes into the planning meeting, Coun. Todd Snooks, the chair, called upon a township planning officer to review Council’s history with the park. She called for a slide on the screen.

“Here is the King Street Parkette timeline,” she said, and then indicated the single-lot-sized green space had first been deemed by Council “surplus in 1981.”

The slide showed type inside an information box with no identification, no source and no specific date. It just said, “Surplus 1981.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Do it locally, or lose it!

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What 10 tons of tree did to our garage and car in the derecho.

It was the worst of times for us all. The May 21, 2022, derecho struck Uxbridge, Ont., from the Sixth Concession through the west end of town, across the railway yards, devastating homes, downtown apartments, Second Wedge Brewery and Trinity United Church among many places.

Power was out for days, phone service spotty, and just the goodwill of neighbours got us through. With our garage gone and my car crushed, I turned to my insurers, who told me my car was a write-off. They offered me a cash settlement for the wreck. I agreed. Then, the agent read me the fine print of my policy over the phone.

“The car rental clause (promising six weeks of rental,)” she said, “since you’ve agreed to the sale of your (written-off) car, it ends today.”

In effect, they had terminated my coverage seven days after the storm. (more…)

Barris Beat

A town hall to remember The Storm

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A derecho has wind gusts of a tornado, but not an organized funnel like a tornado.

It came out of a conversation my daughter and I had a couple of months ago. Whitney explained that one of her children’s teachers had commented about a little-known after-effect of last year’s tornado. She said teachers at the public school from time to time have to calm down their young students when rain pelts the building’s roof or winds moan outside their classroom windows.

“Some of the kids react badly when stormy weather hits town,” she said. “And they wonder if we’re about to get hit by another tornado.”

I admit that many such winds and rainstorms over the eleven months since the derecho whipped through Uxbridge on May 21 last year, have given me pause. (more…)

Barris Beat

Trivial Tuesday

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What to do while drinking? Trivia!

The room started off sounding pretty rowdy. Many of the regulars had arrived – including Team SMRT, the 74s, Upper Mondolia, the Whatevers and Jan’s Clan – and they’d all begun settling in for Tuesday night’s festivities. A voice on the microphone welcomed everybody to the weekly gathering. And the room went quiet, everybody listening to what the MC was about to say. She paused and read:

“Question No. 1,” she announced. “What fictional doctor lives in Puddleby-on-the-Marsh?” (more…)

Barris Beat

Where have all our sentries gone?

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Spruces, pines, basswoods and maples were Ronnie’s sentry trees on our street.

I remember a sultry afternoon in the 1990s, a few years after my wife and I and our two daughters had arrived and put down roots here in Uxbridge. I was sitting on our neighbour’s porch. The July sunshine beat down on Balsam Street North with all the intensity of a mid-summer heat wave. My neighbour, Ronnie Egan, had invited me to sit for a few minutes’ rest from cutting grass. We were both enjoying the shady respite, when she pointed to the Manitoba maple trees that deflected the intense rays of the afternoon sun from both her house and mine.

“Sentries,” she said. “They’re like sentries up and down our street.”

I noted her military terminology referring to the trees – she being a Second World War veteran of the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service – and wondered why she’d chosen that word to describe the mature trees along our street. (more…)

Barris Beat

Not quite Oz

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Victoria Day weekend storm came right up my street in Uxbridge.

About midday on Sunday, nearly 24 hours after the storm that hit south-central Ontario, a cluster of people came walking down Balsam Street North toward us. My wife and I were piling a wall of tree debris in front of our home. We must’ve looked like zombies dragging branches and brush to and fro. We suddenly realized the cluster of people was our three grandsons, our daughter and son-in-law from a few blocks away in Uxbridge. My grandson ran up and embraced me.

“Just wanted to hug you,” he said.

“Me too,” I said and for the first time in hours I felt human again. (more…)