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The Citizen, 2009-11-26, Page 28The people of North Huron have amuch clearer picture of what the newelementary school to be build justbeside F.E. Madill SecondarySchool will look like after an information meeting was held last week. The meeting, held at F.E. Madill, was attended by nearly 100 concerned residents who took a calm approach to the plans for the addition to their community. The school, said architect Terry Marklevitz, will very closely resemble the school recently built by the Avon Maitland District School Board in St. Marys, saying the schools will be “sister schools.” While the plan is to make the schools as similiar as possible, there will be some subtle differences and at this time, there have been no building designs made for the North Huron school. The new school will feature 26 classrooms including five to seven junior kindergarten rooms. While the North Huron school will have six more classrooms than the St. Marys school, it will also have a double gymnasium, where the St. Marys school just has a single gymnasium. The new school’s library will also be slightly larger than its sister school in St. Marys. There are, however, two options for the physical layout of the school, neither of which will alter the plan in terms of classrooms or floor space. The first, and preferred, option is a school that when viewed from above, looks similar to a hockey stick, while the second option is what the board’s superintendent of business Janet Baird-Jacksonreferred to as the “boomerang”option. This option includes theschool making a sort of U shapewhen viewed from above.Baird-Jackson said the boomerangoption is not beneficial when itcomes to monitoring the children, with one of the concerns being what is going on in the middle of the playground with the school building wrapped around it. The building will also be flat, one floor all around in order to increase accessibility. The parking lot will be shared with F.E. Madill Secondary School and the site will have a large amount of green space. Marklevitz said that municipal requirements are often that buildings maintain approximately 30 per cent green space, but the new school will be approximately 30 per cent building, with nearly 70 per cent of the property being green space for the children to play on. The open space, however, will also have a function, as it will assist with the natural drainage of the property. The parking lots would be modified, however, to include a bus turnaround space and parking would be extended in what is now the additional parking lot for F.E. Madill Secondary School. The board decided on building the new school in Wingham, as opposed to other sites that had been discussed that are already owned by the board, such as the Turnberry Central and East Wawanosh Public School lots, Baird-Jackson said they looked at several sites, but felt this was the best choice. She said the Turnberry Central site would have involved several property owners making itcomplicated and resulting in anoption that the board could notafford to pursue any further.In addition to F.E. MadillSecondary School’s existing track,there will also be soccer fields addedfor the public school students. The new soccer fields and proximity to the track opens up many possibilities for crossover education throughout the two schools Baird-Jackson said. While high school students may be able to use the soccer fields, she said, public school students may be able to use some of the technological classrooms that F.E. Madill affords. She said it will involve less busing, with all of the students coming to the same site and that the board felt it was a good educational solution to the problem it was faced with.The proximity to the North HuronWescast Community Centre wasalso mentioned with now nearly 600public school students being able towalk to the centre for activities.One concerned parent, however,asked about the increased traffic going to the school and asked if there would be an additional road allowance opened that would run from the school down to Hwy. 86. Marklevitz, however, said there are no plans to open up that road allowance in the near future. Another traffic concern was the start times for the different schools. A second question was asked regarding the start times and if they would differ from school to school in order to break up the traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian running towards the school just before schoolstarted and just after it ended everyday.Baird-Jackson, however, said thatstart times will be discussed witheach of the school’s principalsinvolved.In an effort to calm the traffic running up and down John Street in the future though, Marklevitz said, a traffic-calming zone is currently being considered. Over the next few months, however, he said the transportation manager will be working on it in order to make the roads around the school run better and more efficiently. However, Marklevitz was very clear that the construction of the school was the group’s top priority, saying “we build schools, we don’t build roads.” Morris-Turnberry councillors voted at their Nov. 17 meeting to begin a process that would put them into a partnership for generating electricity from the sun. It was an offer they couldn’t refuse when Bill King of KW Power Logic Inc. made a presentation that showed council how it could earn revenue with no investment of its own money. King explained to council that under Ontario Power Authority’s new Feed-In Tariff (FIT) for micro power generation, solar power projects of up to 10 kw will receive 80.2 cents for every kilowatt hour (kwh) of power generated (compared to 12 cents that customers pay to Hydro One). A 1,000-square-foot array of solar panels will generate 10 kwh. If mounted on a roof in a fixed position, that would cost $75,000 to $80,000 and generate $9,200 to $9,500 worth of electricity. But King said his company had found a tracker technology in Europe that will allow solar panels, mounted on a moveable stand to follow the brightest spot in the sky throughout the day, generating more electricity from the same number of panels. On a cloudy day this system can generate 58 per cent more electricity than a fixed panel on a roof. The cost of this approach is about $100,000. There is also a federal grant through the Southern Ontario Economic Development Fund for up to 25 alternative energy projects in the Huron-Bruce riding. King proposed Morris-Turnberry could apply for a grant of $50,000 which would cover half the cost of installing a moveable solar- electrical generating system on municipal property. His company would put up the remainder of the cost and would split the revenue evenly over the life of the 20-year contract under the FIT program. KW Power Logic Inc. would do the installation and hookups and maintain, operate and insure the unit. The project would be a model installation to show how solar power can work. If the municipality’s grant application was not successful, King said Power Logic Inc. would still be interested in having the solar power unit on the municipal property but would provide 100 per cent of the funding. In discussing the proposal, councillor Paul Gowing pointed out it would cost the township nothing to get half the revenue from the project if the grant goes through. “I think it’s a step in the right direction,” said mayor Dorothy Kelly. Council approved a motion to apply for a FIT agreement and start the process rolling. Field work The Belgrave Community Foodgrains Project recently harvested its 25 acres of corn. This is the eighth year for the project which has previously raised over $117,000 to be used by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank for world relief. While this year’s crop was affected by the cool growing season, those working on the project couldn’t have been happier about the excellent harvest conditions. (Photo submitted) PAGE 28. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2009.AMDSB shares plans for new North Huron school M-T to explore power generation By Shawn LoughlinThe Citizen By Keith Roulston The Citizen Classified advertisements published in The Citizen are now available on our website at www.northhuron.on.ca