Council to look into ‘Wall of Fame’ project in honour of Shelburne’s ‘Mr. Baseball’

September 26, 2019 · 0 Comments

Written By PETER RICHARDSON

Shelburne Mayor Wade Mills would like to see the municipality do its part to recognize a long-time volunteer who spent years attempting to further the sport of baseball in the community.

During Monday night’s meeting of Council, those in attendance heard a request from Paul Smith to provide official recognition to Gary Galbraith for his service to Shelburne in the field of baseball.

Mr. Galbraith was well known for many years as ‘Mr. Baseball’ in town. Harv, as he was affectionately known, was an active player, coach and fan who loved the game and devoted a majority of his time to seeing it prosper and grow in town. Mr. Galbraith, passed away unexpectedly in 2011, after playing in a 3-Pitch tournament, which his team, the Diggers, won.

Paul’s petition called for Council to approve naming a ball diamond named after Garry, or, an alternative, to have a Wall of Fame erected to honour Gary and the many other athletes and coaches who have supported baseball in Shelburne, both in the past and the future generations.

Mayor Mills affirmed that he felt this to be a good thing for Shelburne and would support the Wall of Fame project over the naming of a baseball diamond. Mr. Smith stated that fundraising efforts could be organized to support the project if Council approves it.

Mayor Mills stated that, while there is a process to be followed, he feels the idea was a strong one and worthy of support.

Georgian College presentation

First up at Shelburne Council on Monday evening was a delegation from Georgian College, who presented Council with an overview of their services in Dufferin County.

Gerry Holden, a Georgian College representative, prioritized the presentation on their re-training courses and assistance in finding new employment strategies. He also emphasized the College’s job fairs and job postings, as well as upskilling initiatives. In 2018, over $600,000 was distributed to Georgian’s employers and job seekers in Ontario.

The presentation went on to touch on the local emphasis on business and health care programs offered at the Orangeville campus. Mr. Holden explained that Georgian tailored it’s offerings to the needs of each of it’s many campuses across the province.

Coun. Walter Benotto questioned the group on what they offer those who cannot get to a campus and asked about local co-op initiatives. Mr. Holden admitted that transportation was an issue in the region and outlined the services the schools offered to help students get to class.

In the end, however, there is certainly a problem with the lack of local transportation, even in Orangeville itself, where students sometimes have difficulty getting from one side of town to the other in time for class. It should be noted that transportation is hardly a college responsibility and that despite their valiant efforts, ultimately, this is a municipal and provincial area of responsibility.

On the matter of Co-op, Georgian College is the the number one supplier of co-op opportunities in Canada. Co-op opportunities are offered in all their courses at all their campuses. Coun. Benotto wanted to know if any Shelburne businesses were co-op suppliers currently, to which the presenters responded that if a business wants to be a co-op location, they need only apply to the college to be be considered.

They also said that assignments were not locally based but rather the best fit was offered to the students involved. Georgian has co-op opportunities all across Ontario and even out of province.

Coun. Lindsay Wegener asked about online opportunities and was told that both online courses and online conferencing was available currently. All the available courses could be found on the college website.

Following this, Alethia O’Hara-Stephenson made a presentation concerning the Youth Advisory Council at the CDDHS. As Chairperson for the YAC, O’ Hara -Stephenson has spent a considerable amount of time and effort on the programme, not to mention personal expense and was before Council to outline their programme and achievements as well as ask for financial support in the amount of $2,500 . The Council is comprised of 20 young leaders from grades 9 through 12 and each meeting is supervised by a teacher during school lunch hours. There were six sessions last year and the results were exceptionally enlightening for all. During the year, students met with local politicians, travelled to Toronto to visit the legislature, organized the CDDHS Black History Month participation and were part of the community’s Annual Multi-Cultural Day festivities.

The students registered a large number of concerns and requests during the year, including, but not limited to, overcrowding in the school, transportation problems for students and the community, recreation and entertainment issues and wants and cultural events. In 2019-2020 the goal is to create more opportunities to connect the students with local leaders and council and to have their voices and concerns heard in their community. Council accepted the presentation and will look at the request for the 2020 budget preparations.

Town Planner Steve Wever followed this with a report concerning the site alteration permit application by Stella Jones Inc. to begin preparing the lands at 201 Wellington for the new distribution centre they wish to build. Stella Jones Inc. purchased the treated lumber business at this location and this site alteration, will allow the plant to return to full operation, prior to the building of the proposed distribution centre. The centre, when completed will bring approximately 20 new jobs to Shelburne. The first phase, includes earthworks, grading and paving on some three hectares of land . Council granted the permit, subject to the outlined requirements being completed. According to Mayor Mills, Stella Jones, which is a huge player in the treated lumber industry is planning to move all of it’s distribution efforts to Shelburne once the Distribution centre is completed.

In other business, Council received a request from the Police Services Board for a maximum of $50,000 to facilitate a services review of the police force , by an outside party. This review was requested by Council when they opted to retain the existing force, to find ways of better providing service, in a more cost efficient manner. It was noted by the Treasurer that funds for this existed in a reserve, set up to finance police accommodation matters, with the 2017 budget surplus. The request was approved.

Council approved a request fro the Extreme ALS Ice Dunk committee, to waive rental fees for the mobile stage and provide garbage cans, for their fundraising event in October. The event will raise money for ALS as well as help a local resident who has the disease. Volunteers will be dunked in a tank of ice water while raising funds for the event. In addition there will be entertainment, local vendors and a BBQ. To date, only Mayor Mills has volunteered to take a dip. He suggested that the rest of Council were welcome to follow suit.

The Legion was granted their request to raise the Home Town Hero Banners early this year in support of their hosting the District Fall Convention on October 4th through 6th and a request to name a street after Samuel Russell Allen was approved also. Mr. Allen’s name will be added to the Town’s list of appropriate street names for use as streets are created.

Several notices of motion were also adopted, including having the Town Firefighters recognized form their service at a future meeting and the playing of Oh Canada at the opening of all future Council meetings.