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Municipality :
Community : Bradford West Gwillimbury
Lot :
Concession :
Description : Mayor Gordon: "I'll be tough"

"I'll be tough when I have to be tough," Bradford Mayor Roy Gordon said after taking the oath of office in the community centre Monday night.

Mayor Gordon succeeds Joe Maganni Bradford's mayor of 16 years who announced his retirement last fall.

"I want the people of Bradford to get involved in the operation of the town," Mayor Gordon told the 60 people who braved snowy streets to attend the inauguration. "We need to be told if we're doing things right or wrong."

Mayor Gordon, along with the rest of council, was sworn in by lawyer Charles Evans described by Mr. Magani as the "Father of Bradford."

Councillors sworn in were Zyg Fenik, Sandy Hudson, Rick Wright and John Zima. Reeve Ken Wood and Deputy-reeve Milt Hambley also took office Monday night.

Budd Robson, Gordon Bantam, James Church, and Keith Stevens were sworn in for another term on the Bradford Public Utilities Commission.

Municipality :
Community : Holland Marsh
Lot :
Concession :
Description : 1976 Was a Year Most Vegetable Growers Would Like to Forget
By Matthew Valk

The end of the year is a time when most of us look back on what we have accomplished and look forward to better things to come. 1976 was a year that many growers would like to forget.

The first few months were a struggle to sell a large crop of carrots which never brought more than $1 per bushel; in many cases, it was far less.

A large volume was fed to cattle. There were some hopes that the stabilization board would help to reduce the large financial losses, which most growers were facing. However, after several months of negotiations, Ottawa came across with a measly $2.25 per ton which would not pay for the seed.

The 1976 growing season was also less than desirable. Apart from a warm month of April, the early spring was cold and wet. June was more like what we were looking for, warm and dry, but the months that followed produced cool temperatures and lots of rain.

Diseases were more prevalent than usual, particularly "blast" in onions. Harvesting weather was deplorable; rain and cloudy weather hampered field operations which were mostly stop and go. Although storage temperatures were fairly good for carrots, the high humidity caused a lot of headaches for onion growers.

The market situation has made some compensation for all these problems. The price of carrots and onions has been somewhat better than last year and prospects for the new year are good.

The reason for this is that growers in other parts of the world have had and are still having still bigger battles with the weather than we have had. Everyone has heard about the drought in Europe and the shortages.

In particular, potatoes and onions have been in great demand by European buyers and large quantities have been going overseas. Although most of the onions have been shipped by U.S. shippers, the effect has been a steady market for us as well.

Recent abnormal rainfall in the southern USA, mainly Texas, is affecting the growth of onions and carrots and the volume that may be expected in the next few months.

The acreage of these crops will certainly be down from normal and the quality could be affected due to the wet field conditions so far. So as we go into the new year, there seems to be nothing new as far as marketing our produce is concerned.

As usual, our marketing problem is really a production problem. The weather factor continues to play a big role in the volume of production. Growers usually say that they are better off if we all produced less and received more. No one can argue with this philosophy.

Since no one will volunteer to reduce production (this is against a grower's nature), the weather is left to do the regulating for us.

As we go into the New Year, I would like to wish friends and readers a healthy, happy and prosperous 1977 and good markets.

Municipality :
Community : Bradford West Gwillimbury
Lot :
Concession :
Description : He Helps Plan Area Growth

Art Kneeshaw was appointed to the Bradford planning board in 1969, just when growth began to surge in town.

The appointment to the Bradford board was followed two years later by his being named to head the joint planning board with West Gwillimbury.

"The idea behind joint planning is to make Bradford and West Gwillimbury work together," Mr. Kneeshaw said recently in an interview.

The pressure on the town of Bradford to develop never lets up, he said.

"With gas prices so high, commuters to the north are suffering," he said. "People are moving closer to Toronto. Because we're not that far away, we're getting hit by that."

The Simcoe-Georgian Task Force has suggested that the population of the town of Bradford should grow to 12,000 by 1991.

"Even at the present rate it's going to be ahrd to hold it," Mr. Kneeshaw said. "Right now we have enough development approved to take us up to 7,800 people."

The official population for Bradford in 1975 was 4,566. "We're still in the process of going from 5,000 to 7,500," he said. "It's going to be busy for the next two or three years anyhow."

The main limit to growth right now is the delay in approval of the proposed sewage plant extension. Council asked the Ministry of Housing for approval 18 months ago.

"It appears we're getting in more industry than we should," Mr. Kneeshaw said. "The plan is set up for 75 percent residential and 25 percent industrial."

"This town can someday handle 20,000. We're very fortunate that we'll never have to annex for years."

When asked what has been the toughest problem he has faced while sitting on the planning board, Mr. Kneeshaw replied:

"The time element. A developer always feels there is a time delay from the time he makes application until he get approval to go ahead."

An area resident all his life, Mr. Kneeshaw is the Land Registrar and Master of Titles for the County of Simcoe.

He has worked for the county for 25 years.

He and his wife, Ruth, have two grown children, Brian and Faye.

Mr. Kneeshaw's numerous interested include curling, golf and the Bradford Lions Club.

Municipality :
Community : Bradford West Gwillimbury
Lot :
Concession :
Description : Area Historical Society Formed

The first major steps to preserve the heritage of the Scotch Settlement and area were taken last week when about 20 people officially founded a historical society.

Known as the Scotch Settlement and District Historical Society, it will seek to preserve the historical record of not only the struggles of the Scottish settlers but those of Bradford and West Gwillimbury as well.

Philip Baker, a representative of the Ministry of Culture and Recreation was on hand to describe the procedure in setting up a historical society, the grant structure, and the initial problems that will have to be faced.

DISINTEGRATE

He told the group that the common mistake of most historical societies is to concentrate all activities on one particular project in the beginning and then disintegrate when it is completed.

He urged members to set up a variety of projects that could be tackled over the years.

The next step in the formation of the group is to adopt a charter, Mr. Baker said, and consider affiliation with the Ontario Historical Society.

He commended the society for its decision not to concentrate activities only on the Scotch Settlement, because of the danger that it would then be too limited and not self-perpetuating.

Funds for the immediate future would present the group with its first major hurdle.

Grants from the ministry and Wintario are of the matching variety and the group will first have to acquire funds on its own.

With this in mind, the society will probably ask the councils of Bradford and West Gwillimbury for a grant.

The maximum grant available from the ministry is $550 a year.

WINTARIO

Mr. Baker said other grants are available through Wintario, but also on a 50-50 basis.

The society elected its first officers that same evening, with Eleanor Reid as president, Andrew Rettig secretary-treasurer, George Brown in charge of architecture and historical buildings, and Ruby Fairs, program director.

A fee structure was also approved, with a $5 annual fee for a family, $3 single, and $1 student.

Don Beatty of the Innisfil Historical Society was also present at the meeting, and he related experiences of his own group, especially financial and the difficulty of maintaining an adequate number of members.

The society will meet again later in the fall at a date to be announced.

Event Date: May 11th, 2017
Event Type: Newspaper article
Municipality: Bradford, Ont.

Description: Bradford Times article describes creation of Canada 150 quilt and its creation and donation.

Bradford Witness
Volume 111, Issue 6
February 9, 1977
p.1

Description: Celebrating Yonge street's 200 years of existing.