Owen Sound Sun Times

The owners of Sutton Park Inn have been left devastated by a fire that ravaged the 60-room hotel Wednesday, but say they hope to rebuild the family-owned business in Kincardine. “We all came from Toronto originally – my family had businesses there – and we fell in love with this town and we all decided […]

Grey County council is giving staff the go-ahead to sell some of its housing units on 7th and 8th avenues west near Alpha Street in Owen Sound. On Thursday, during its committee of the whole meeting, county council authorized staff to issue a tender for real estate services and negotiate the sale of two of […]

Grey County will look into policies to make it easier to preserve heritage barns in the region. On Thursday Wesley Wilson of Ontario Barn Preservation asked council to support the organization’s goals of saving the more than century-old structures, some of which are disappearing from the rural landscape. “Although our heritage barns may not have […]

Ontario has begun consultations on how to beef up code of conduct rules and penalties for municipal members of council and some boards. Last month Owen Sound council reprimanded one of its councillors for breaching two sections of council’s code of conduct. Last year Northern Bruce Peninsula’s integrity commissioner advised free dinners and trips to […]

Three people charged with first-degree murder in the death of a 22-year-old Holland Centre man remain in custody after their charges were adjourned to June 15 in Owen Sound bail court Friday morning. Charges against Christie Currie, 39, of Chatsworth Township, Robert Jackson, 21, of Owen Sound and Megan Hopkins, 27, of Owen Sound were […]

Owen Sound police are seeking surveillance footage and information from the public following a rash of thefts overnight Tuesday in which garden and outdoor decor items were targetted. The culprits stole a range of items, from mulch, potted plants and gardening tools to a large bloodstone-coloured vase with plant, terracotta-coloured bird bath and stone and […]

John Foris says he never heard a complaint about the quality of the handcrafted white cedar chairs, tables, beds and other furniture created at International Woodworking in the 32 years he owned the small Wiarton business. “I had more than compliments all the time,” he said Thursday, after handing over the keys of the Claude […]

The Grey Bruce Health Unit reported one new case of COVID-19 Thursday, in Huron Kinloss. There are now 30 active and confirmed cases in the two counties, including 22 involving a variant of concern. Four COVID-19 patients being followed by the health unit are hospitalized locally, and five who were transferred from other health units […]

Concerns raised by a group of residents about speeding and traffic volumes along their road were echoed by councillors from across Grey County on Thursday. And the matter will come back before council in early July when a report is presented on the county’s traffic control and parking bylaw that will look at speed limits […]

The Four County Labour Market Planning Board’s Connect2Skills program will soon offer free training for those who hope to enter the construction industry. Additional funding from the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development has enabled the planning board to train new labourers and then strive to connect those workers with local employers. “We want […]

Kincardine fire officials returned to the fire-ravaged Sutton Park Inn Thursday to begin an investigation into the cause of a large, wind-driven blaze that caused extensive damage to the 60-room hotel. Chief Brad Lemaich said Wednesday’s fire is not considered suspicious, with preliminary information indicating it was “accidental in nature” and likely involved an electrical […]

Grey Highlands council has set another special meeting Friday where they’ll hear from a delegation with a sprawling resort proposal for the Beaver Valley Development Project lands. Westway Capital, a Greater Toronto Area-based capital management and development firm, proposes to “develop a world-class resort that will promote health, wellness and follow the principles of sustainable […]

South Bruce Peninsula plans to reapply for a Grey Sauble Conservation Authority permit to cut back a section of dunes and install a retaining wall to address parking safety concerns along part of Sauble Beach’s Lakeshore Boulevard as soon as a review court releases its reasons for quashing a previous permit for the work. That’s […]

Main street patios are returning to Meaford this summer. The municipality announced it would start to prepare for a repeat of the pandemic-induced parking-spot patios along Sykes Street in the coming days. Parallel parking spots between Collingwood and Nelson streets will soon be barricaded and converted to patios in anticipation of Grey-Bruce entering Step 1 […]

Grey-Bruce’s medical officer of health would like to see students return to the classroom as soon as possible. On Tuesday, Ontario’s top doctor, Dr. David Williams, advocated a return to in-person learning before the province enters Step 1 of its reopening strategy, projected to happen June 14. “My position has been always, like our public […]

The SweetWater Music Festival is launching its 18th season with a virtual concert featuring two artists who first performed together more than 20 years ago. The spring musical event, Up Close and Personal with Edwin Huizinga and Philip Chiu, is set to premier Friday at 7:30 p.m. “Philip and I performed together for the first […]

The Grey Bruce Health Unit is again warning of opioid overdoses in Grey-Bruce, after at least nine non-fatal overdoses were confirmed in the past week. The health unit sent an opioid alert to its system partners on Sunday after six overdoses were identified in the previous three days. Since the alert at least three more […]

Grey County has halted all activity related to a proposed transportation depot on a property adjacent to the Old Durham Road Black Pioneer Cemetery after concerns were raised by the committee that oversees the historic site. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the county said it had heard the concerns raised by the committee that […]

More than half of Grey County’s 122 paramedics have taken on additional responsibilities – from providing COVID-19 testing to helping out in long-term care homes – since the pandemic took hold in Ontario nearly 15 months ago. The remaining Grey County Paramedic Services’ staff supported those paramedics by picking up extra work when the additional […]

If there’s a Holy Grail of hockey cards it’s likely a mint-condition 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky rookie card – – The Great One. An almost perfect version of the famous blue-bordered hockey card featuring a boyish-looking Wayne Gretzky on the front and his eye-popping rookie-season stats on the back sold for over $1 million at […]

For the first time in over two months, the Grey Bruce Health Unit reported no new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday. The last time a health unit situation report disclosed zero new cases of the infection was on March 18. Dr. Ian Arra, Grey-Bruce’s medical officer of health, said he doesn’t expect a surge of cases […]

Police in Grey-Bruce charged a number of people with stunt driving over the Victoria Day long weekend. On Monday, just after 9:30 p.m., two drivers were stopped on Highway 26 near Woodford Crescent in Meaford after two vehicles were following each other at a very high rate of speed, Grey-Bruce OPP said in a release. […]

A South Bruce Peninsula resident has been charged with impaired driving after getting stuck in the sand at Sauble Beach. Just before 9 p.m. on Thurday, police responded to a vehicle that was stuck on some rocks and sand at the beach in South Bruce Peninsula, Grey-Bruce OPP said in a news release. The driver […]

A woman from eastern Ontario faces numerous charges, including impaired driving and assaulting police, after colliding with a police cruiser in Chatsworth on Sunday evening. Just before 10 p.m., police stopped a vehicle that was going more than 170 kilometres per hour in a posted 80 km/h zone on Highway 10 south of the village […]

Police have arrested a third person in connection with the death of Kody Hunter last week in Owen Sound. Megan Hopkins, 27, of Owen Sound, was arrested on a charge of first degree murder, according to an OPP news release issued late Monday afternoon. She was arrested Sunday as part of the Grey Bruce Ontario […]

Three more COVID-19 cases were reported by the Grey Bruce Health Unit on Victoria Day Monday. There were two in Southgate and one in South Bruce Peninsula, bringing the cumulative total for Grey-Bruce to 1,336 cases, 38 of which are active. Cases reported were current up to midnight Sunday. There have been 378 local cases […]

The postponed Bruce Peninsula Sportsmen’s Association’s first Lures N Lines Spring Trout Derby is back on. The event will start at 12:01 a.m. Friday and run through June 6 at noon, club president Kevin Harders announced in a news release Saturday. “With the opening of golf this weekend we are confident that this can be done safely for the […]

Scattered pockets of people lounged on the sand at Sauble Beach Sunday, when the damp long weekend’s grey skies began to clear. But numbers were small, especially for a holiday weekend, and waits for ice cream and fries were short. Under the landmark Sauble Beach sign was another sign which read: “Beach Open. Gathering Max […]

Grey-Bruce added four cases of COVID-19 Sunday — two in Southgate and one each in Owen Sound and Grey Highlands. That brought the area’s cumulative, confirmed total to 1,333, of which 39 are active cases and 33 of those are variants of concern. In all, 378 variants of concern have been found in Grey-Bruce. The […]

A Durham man is the first recipient of the Walkerton Clean Water Legacy Award. Connor Maxwell, who will be entering his second year in environmental engineering at the University of Guelph, received a $1,000 scholarship. The Sacred Heart High School grad earned an environmental high-skills major there, competed nationally in several Canada-wide science fairs and […]

Police have charged a 39-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man with first-degree murder in the death of Kody Hunter last week in Owen Sound. Police charged Christie Currie, 39, of Chatsworth Township and Robert Jackson, 21, of Owen Sound. They remain in custody pending a bail hearing, an OPP news release issued early Saturday evening […]

It was a quiet Saturday with just two cases of COVID-19 reported by the Grey Bruce Health Unit. One confirmed case was in Owen Sound and the other in Kincardine, which brought Grey-Bruce’s cumulative and confirmed cases to 1,330, 44 of which are active. There are 156 active, high-risk contacts. Daily case counts were current […]

The 2021 Tommy Cooper Award winner, Lorie Smith, made a mark by expanding the 55th annual Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week and taking it fully online this year due to the pandemic. “Lorie has been the strength behind the Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week for the past 16 years, and she has built each year, strength upon […]

Hibou Conservation Area has been without a playground for a number of years. New equipment is coming though and could be installed this week, thanks to an initiative of the Optimist Club of Sydenham and District. After the site gets inspected, it will ready for the kids. The popular park just east of Owen Sound […]

Northern Bruce Peninsula’s integrity commissioner has found that evidence “falls far short” to support accusations that councillors colluded to dismiss Deputy-mayor Debbie Myles’s daughter from her town hall job. Myles’s complaint to town-appointed integrity commissioner, lawyer Harold Elston, alleged the dismissal “without cause” of her daughter, Cheri Hofstrand, was payback after the deputy-mayor earlier complained […]

Grey County’s Crown attorneys, like Crowns across the province, are struggling to keep up with a backlog of cases because COVID-19 ended trial work for several months last year. “Doesn’t matter to a lot of people, but it explains why we have difficulty responding quickly,” Grey County Crown attorney Leger said during a virtual court […]

A group seeking to preserve at least part of the 200-plus acre former Talisman Resort property presented its vision for the lands to Grey Highlands council Friday. The Friends of the Beaver Valley group, which has the backing of the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy (EBC), is requesting a three-month delay of any potential sale of the […]

The Grey Bruce Health Unit reported three new cases of COVID-19 Friday, with two in Southgate and one in South Bruce Peninsula. There are now 50 active and confirmed cases in the two counties including 41 involving a variant of concern. Two COVID-19 patients being followed by the health unit are hospitalized locally, and four […]

Owen Sound police charged an unlicensed 31-year-old woman after finding her slumped over the steering wheel of a car Thursday morning, according to a police news release. A caller reported the car in the 300 block of 14th Street West at 7:30 a.m., after noting it had been there for more than an hour and […]

The company behind a massive proposed waterfront development in Meaford said it will return to council with some changes after hearing several concerns from the public at a May 17 meeting. SkyDev, part of the Guelph-based Skyline Group of Companies, is proposing a development featuring a five-storey hotel and spa and nine residential buildings at […]

Many outdoor recreational amenities, including golf courses and tennis courts, will reopen Saturday in Ontario, and outdoor gathering limits will expand to five people. Premier Doug Ford made the announcement during a news conference Thursday afternoon while revealing a three-step “roadmap to reopening”. The gradual approach to reopening lessens restrictions as vaccinations in the adult […]

Residential Hospice Grey Bruce will have a new executive director next week. Janet Fairbridge succeeds Alex Hector, who will become executive director of South East Grey Community Health Centre in Markdale. Hospice board chair Paul Rowcliffe announced the appointment in a news release. He said Fairbridge was the foundation director of Hospice Georgian Triangle and […]

A third of the way through 2021, and in the midst of COVID-19’s third wave and vaccine rollout, Grey-Bruce’s medical officer of health is still working around the clock and unable to delegate legislated responsibilities to anyone else at the Grey Bruce Health Unit. Last year, while keeping watch over the public health unit “24/7” […]

A former director of operations and program development at the Grey Bruce Health Unit is suing the board of health for nearly $500,000, citing wrongful dismissal, breach of contract and moral and aggravated damages. In a statement of claim filed Jan. 15, 2021, in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Karen Sweiger says she was […]

Lake Huron beach town officials are warning people to stay home this holiday weekend to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, as Ontario’s stay-at-home orders require most people to do. “Unfortunately, the pandemic is not over and as we work to get more of the population vaccinated, we all need to do our part by […]

The Grey Bruce Health Unit reported seven new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday. The newest cases were found in Kincardine (2), West Grey (2), Southgate (2), and South Bruce Peninsula. There are now 54 active and confirmed cases in the two counties including 41 involving a variant of concern. Three COVID-19 patients being followed by the […]

A proposal to purchase and install a CT scanner at the Southampton hospital has taken a step forward. Ontario Health has confirmed that the proposal “is well aligned with both Ministry and Ontario Health priorities and sufficiently meets all identified requirements.” The government agency’s endorsement is required for the Ministry of Health to approve Grey […]

Owen Sound city council on Monday extended an exemption to the noise-control bylaw to allow construction equipment to operate on worksites on holidays between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. until Nov. 1. It’s a move in recognition that bad weather can reduce construction workers’ income and of lost time due to COVID-19. City staff recommended […]

Bruce Power is providing its fire training facility for Brockton’s new fire training centre. The facility, which is already available for training free of charge to municipal fire departments in Grey, Bruce and Huron counties, will help the centre with live fire training for volunteer firefighters, according to a news release from Bruce Power. “We […]

The need for emergency housing in Grey County soared in 2020 by 160 per cent over the previous year. COVID-19 was a factor in that increase, Anne Marie Shaw, Grey County’s housing director, told Owen Sound city council during a presentation Monday night that included an overview of her department’s work. There were 395 emergency […]