Owen Sound Sun Times

A crumbling cenotaph, a rotting mural and a need to refresh the Berford Street war memorial property were officially brought to the attention of South Bruce Peninsula council earlier this month. Joe Vanderzand is a volunteer with the Royal Canadian Legion Wiarton Branch 208 and also owns properties beside and behind the town-owned cenotaph land. […]

The Owen Sound Downtown Improvement Area’s 2021 budget contains no levy increase for the 265 properties within the DIA, but includes added funding to begin implementing an action plan for “The River District.” The $282,000 spending plan, approved by city council Monday night, includes a $40,000 transfer from reserves to cover costs associated with putting […]

Kincardine-area farmer Stan Eby says he is surprised and honoured to be joining an elite group of individuals with his upcoming induction into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame. Eby, 76, is one of seven inductees who will enter the hall during a planned virtual ceremony on June 13. It will bring the number of […]

There were no new cases of COVID-19 reported in Grey-Bruce Tuesday for the second time in less than a week. The region last blanked the pandemic virus Feb. 4. The Grey Bruce Health Unit reported nine probable cases, however. Probable cases are people with symptoms of COVID-19 who are close contacts of confirmed cases but […]

While saying she’s “disappointed” council has denied Owen Sound Little Theatre’s request to waive the rental fees for 10 outdoor performances at Kelso Beach’s amphitheatre this summer, OSLT’s board president says the group is still planning to ensure the shows will go on. Cathie Locke said the events are a way for the organization to […]

Work is expected to begin soon to demolish the historic rectory at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Owen Sound and make way for a new single-storey church residence. Neil Devlin, chair of the local parish’s building committee, said a contractor – Allen-Hastings Ltd. – has been hired to undertake the demolition, part of a project […]

The slopes at Blue Mountain Resort couldn’t be more ready to welcome back skiers and snowboarders. With Monday’s announcement by the Ontario government that pandemic restrictions would soon be relaxed, the resort will once again open its hills on Feb. 16 with health and safety measures and capacity limits in place. “Nobody has been on […]

An Owen Sound man has been charged with several drug offences after running over signs at a city shopping mall and stopping in the middle of Highway 26, the Grey Bruce OPP said in a news release. Grey Bruce OPP officers responded to a report of a motorist stopped in a live lane of traffic […]

A hydrogen technology company is setting up shop in Owen Sound. Hydrogen Optimized Inc. is moving into the former Tenneco plant in Owen Sound where it plans to continue work on developing its technology, with hopes to one day manufacture large-scale green hydrogen production systems there. Hydrogen Optimized Inc. president and CEO Andrew T.B. Stuart […]

The provincial government charted its path out of the provincewide shutdown and back to the colour-coded regional approach known as the COVID-19 Response Framework Monday. The provincial emergency declared under section 7.0.1 of the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act (EMPCA) on Jan. 12 will be terminated by midnight Tuesday. The province’s stay-at-home order will […]

All were safe after a minor collision involving a school bus in Dundalk Monday morning. Grey Bruce OPP responded at 8:40 a.m. to a report of a collision involving a First Student School Bus and a pickup truck at the intersection of Victoria Street West and Young Street. There were five students on board with […]

The jobless rate for the economic region including Grey-Bruce remains the lowest in the province despite a slow January for full-time, manufacturing, and construction workers. The unemployment rate for the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula economic region climbed 0.7 percentage points to 6.3 per cent in January. The provincial unemployment rate increased to nine per cent from 8.5 […]

Grey-Bruce is ready to start reopening as soon as the province decides to loosen lockdown restrictions, Grey-Bruce’s medical officer of health said Sunday. If the province begins this week, as media have reported it will, Arra readily agreed this area is ready to relax COVID-19 restrictions. The provincial state of emergency is set to expire […]

Bruce County has posted documents to its website from the latest set of its meetings criticized by an investigator as having been held behind closed doors improperly. But there may be another investigation of county conduct ahead. Three independent investigations over the past year found 18 Bruce County meetings were improperly closed to the public […]

More snowmobiles are leaving marked trails and entering private property this year, jeopardizing the inter-connectedness of the trail system for “generations to come,” a local Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs district manager is warning. Grey-Bruce trails are accommodating thousand of riders every weekend, not hundreds as would be typical, Karen Buratynski said Saturday. The pandemic […]

Snowfall helped Owen Sound police track down suspects in separate incidents this weekend. Police arrested a 36-year-old Owen Sound man just after 9 p.m. Saturday after police say he fled from them on an ATV. Officers saw the vehicle driving along 10th Street East, contrary to a city bylaw which prohibits ATVs on that street, […]

A probable case of COVID-19 is associated with Highpoint Community School’s Kids Club Before and After school childcare program in Dundalk, the Grey Bruce Health Unit said Saturday. While this person is associated with a cohort at the childcare centre, “there is no evidence of transmission within the childcare centre environment,” the health unit said […]

Someone “associated” with a school bus route who is not a student has COVID-19, the Grey-Bruce medical officer of health said Saturday. So far, investigations have found “transmission did not take place within the bus or school environment,” the Grey Bruce Health Unit announced by news release Saturday. No bus routes, schools or childcare centres […]

A young Owen Sound family was alerted to a late-night fire in their house by their dog and all got out safely Friday. Troy Nadjiwon was gaming while wearing a headset when his dog Lexi’s whining persuaded him to see what was the matter. He’s already let her out so at first he wasn’t too […]

The Grey Bruce Health Unit reported seven new cases of COVID-19 Friday, one day after posting a clean slate. The newest cases were found in Grey Highlands (2), Huron-Kinloss (2), Southgate, Saugeen Shores, and Kincardine. Three of the new cases were reported in healthcare workers, according to the health unit’s daily situation report. There are […]

Owen Sound native John Lewis says he expects his biotechnology company Entos Pharmaceuticals will start within a few weeks Phase 1 human clinical trials of its DNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, designed to protect people against the virus as well as its variants. Lewis, the Edmonton-based firm’s CEO, said Entos has used $5 million in federal funding […]

A 49-year-old male of no fixed address has been charged with weapon and drug offences after threatening an Owen Sound resident with a knife Thursday evening. According to an Owen Sound Police news release, a man was brandishing a knife and threatening a resident in an upper-westside neighbourhood heavily populated with children just after 5 […]

A 24-year-old Scarborough woman has been charged with assault causing bodily harm after biting a restaurant worker in Owen Sound Thursday afternoon. According to an Owen Sound Police news release, a female suspect refused to follow the directions of the upper-eastside eatery’s staff member and instead threw a bucket of ashes and cigarette butts inside […]

Thousands of doses of COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive in Grey-Bruce this month. The Grey Bruce Health Unit said in a news release Thursday afternoon it has been advised by the Ministry of Health that a number of shipments are headed its way in the coming weeks. The expected shipments include 700 doses of […]

No new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Grey-Bruce Thursday, the first day that’s happened since Nov. 5. “Way to go people of Grey Bruce!” Dr. Ian Arra, the region’s medical officer of health, wrote in the health unit’s daily situation report. There are now 26 active and confirmed COVID-19 cases in the region with […]

Alicia Sylvest has long been passionate about helping people in need. The 36-year-old Owen Sound native remembers donating as a young teen to local Christmas toy drives before starting, years later, her own holiday donation campaigns. She has also organized drives for Syrian refugees – once filling a community centre with items – and raised […]

Chatsworth firefighters fought two house fires back-to-back Wednesday. Neither fire resulted in injuries, neither was suspicious and so far no specific cause has been determined in either case, Chatsworth fire Chief Mike Givens said Thursday. The first fire call came in about 2:20 p.m. concerning a residence along the Holland-Sydenham Townline, about 1.5 kilometres east […]

The region’s largest job fair is going virtual this year. Grey County is teaming up with Bruce County, Owen Sound, Georgian College and local organizations to hold the event March 10 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. using the career fair software Brazen. Jacinda Rudolph, an economic development officer at Grey County, said organizers decided […]

A 28-year-old man has been charged after an SUV struck two vehicles and a parked snowmobile before colliding with a house in Teeswater. A photo of the collision, supplied by the South Bruce OPP, shows a black Chevrolet Equinox wedged about halfway inside of the home. The crash happened at about 8:40 p.m. Monday. The […]

An Owen Sound man faces several charges after police say his car struck a 67-year-old woman, causing her to fall to the ground, before he left the scene. Emergency crews responded to the collision at 9th Street and 3rd Avenue East around 11 a.m. Wednesday. The Owen Sound pedestrian was taken to hospital by ambulance […]

A 34-year veteran of policing has been named the Grey Bruce OPP’s new detachment commander. Acting Inspector Debra Anderson was welcomed into the new role Monday. Anderson first became a member of the Grey Bruce OPP in late 2018 on a temporary assignment. In late 2019, she earned the full-time post of staff sergeant within […]

An abandoned school will soon make way for a new 128-bed long-term care home in Meaford. The former Meaford Community School at 186 Cook St. is set to be demolished later this month. An anticipated start date for the new construction has been set in March. The home is expected to take 14 to 18 […]

Wiarton Willie’s conspicuous absence from his own Groundhog Day virtual event Tuesday got people wondering why. Wednesday South Bruce Peninsula issued a statement that raised questions about the prognosticating albino marmot’s own prognosis. The town issued a news release which began: “Is Willie dead or alive? Would you question the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus?” […]

At Wiarton’s Salvation Army, Capt. Mary Millar said the damage COVID-19 has caused over that past 11 months is overwhelming. People who were struggling before the pandemic, financially and personally, are finding it harder, she said. A lot of it has to do with isolation. Last week for example, an elderly woman fell while outside. […]

The Grey Bruce Health Unit reported two new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, in Hanover and Owen Sound. It’s the third straight day the case-count in Grey-Bruce has remained in the single digits, and a graph at the Grey Bruce Health Unit’s website is showing a spike in cases – which began in early November – is […]

The head of South Bruce Grey Health Centre says the organization is continuing efforts to address a nursing shortage at its Chesley site that prompted it to suspend overnight service in the hospital’s emergency department nearly 18 months ago. “Our goal and our board’s goal is to reopen the Chesley emergency department to 24/7 service. […]

Work has already started to prepare local arenas to turn them into Hockey Hub mass immunization centres. Grey-Bruce Medical Officer of Health Dr. Ian Arra said Tuesday afternoon that work is ongoing to transform the P&H Centre in Hanover into one of the health unit’s sites that could potentially immunize 4,500 people over a 10-hour […]

A South Bruce Peninsula man charged in the death of another man after a boat sank in Colpoys Bay in 2019 was committed Monday to trial in the Superior Court of Justice. Christopher Solomon, 40, appeared by audio link into a courtroom videoconference before Justice Julia Morneau, who committed him to trial after a preliminary hearing in […]

The many friends of a well-liked local hockey coach are mourning his loss and sharing their stories of a fun-loving man who loved life at the rink. Bill Brown passed away from cancer at Listowel Memorial Hospital on Jan. 31, he was 67. Several loving messages have been left alongside Brown’s obituary at the Eaton […]

The Grey Bruce Health Unit reported three new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, all in Hanover. The new cases, confirmed in the 24-hour period prior to midnight on Monday, brings the total number of confirmed cases in Grey-Bruce since the beginning of the pandemic to 652. There remains 27 active cases and two active probable […]

Ontario’s ski industry – which has seen thousands of layoffs and millions of dollars in lost revenue since a provincial shutdown of ski hills – is urging the province to allow a safe reopening of the slopes with strict pandemic-related measures in place. The Ontario Snow Resorts Association (OSRA), Blue Mountain Village Association and Blue […]

Wiarton Willie’s prediction came in his absence. South Bruce Peninsula Mayor Janice Jackson, decked out in her white suit, purple vest and cape and black top hat with feathers, announced an early spring in a most unusual way. This year, Wiarton Willie’s annual prediction event was pre-recorded and released to media outlets shortly before the […]

The Grey Bruce Health Unit has released a plan for mass immunizations set up in hockey arenas, called The Hockey Hub, that will allow for 4,500 vaccines to be administered in a 10-hour period once enough vaccine is available. The plan is based on a standard size hockey rink. It can be scaled up or […]

The Grey Bruce Health Unit reported just one new case of COVID-19 on Monday. The case, which was confirmed in the 24-hour period prior to midnight on Sunday, was in The Blue Mountains. There have now been 649 cases of the virus confirmed in Grey-Bruce since the beginning of the pandemic. That is down from […]

Arran-Elderslie has kick-started the process to recruit a new top municipal staffer after its current chief administrative officer Bill Jones announced he’ll be leaving the municipality March 28 to become South Bruce Peninsula’s new CAO. Arran-Elderslie Mayor Steve Hammell said council voted during a special meeting Monday to direct staff to immediately initiate the process […]

A Clarksburg resident is dead after a collision between a snowmobile and a sport utility vehicle on Saturday. The 56-year-old resident, the rider of the snowmobile, died of injuries sustained in the collision in The Blue Mountains, which police were called to at approximately 2:46 p.m. The initial investigation found that the snowmobile was travelling […]

Owen Sound has launched an online survey to gather public feedback on a group’s proposal to create a community garden – with plots for growing produce – at Stobbe Park. The survey, along with a six-minute video presentation on the proposal, will be available until Feb. 12 at 4 p.m. by clicking the green Stobbe […]

A Hamilton man is dead after a snowmobile crash in Northern Bruce Peninsula. David Hunt, 58, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash on Forest Road, near Cape Chin Road North, Grey Bruce OPP said in a news release on Monday. Police arrived at the scene at 4:44 p.m. Thursday, where the operator […]

A man has been charged with assaulting two snowmobilers on a trail in Chatsworth on Thursday. Just before 1 p.m. Grey Bruce OPP responded to an incident that had occurred on the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs trail near Highway 6 and Sideroad 3 in Chatsworth Township. Two snowmobilers were assaulted by a hiker who […]