Aylmer Mayor Jack Couckuyt lashed out this week at social media users who sparked what Aylmer Police Chief Kyle Johnstone calls a “wild fire” of frightening online innuendo about gun violence. The community leaders were referring to social media chatter about a fake threat of gun violence at East Elgin Secondary School on March 2. Chief Johnstone said the origin…
Grade 7 and 8 pupils at Summers Corners Public School, in an annual entrepreneurial showcase, started their own businesses, with products offered for sale to staff and fellow pupils during the day on Wednesday, March, 11, and, pictured here, at night for family members and the general public. The event recorded almost $14,000 in sales. At Henna Bloom, Kamryn MacInnis,…
Local train enthusiast David Harding took a crowd at the Vienna, Edison and Area Museum along on a 1980 expedition he filmed travelling by pumper car on the former Tillsonburg to Port Burwell railway line, now torn up and a utility corridor, recently. He noted that he was a founding member of the Port Stanley Terminal Railway and the Elgin…
The second round of public engagement for plans to build over 3,500 homes for about 9,000 people on the former St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital lands concluded on March 2 as Central Elgin council issued a request for proposal (RFP) seeking private sector development partners. CE council is now expected to approve the hospital lands official plan amendment (OPA) in June,…
A claim that surfaced online at 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, March 1, about students supposedly planning to shoot up East Elgin Secondary School the next day was investigated by Aylmer Police and found to be nothing but a fake. Still, the usually crowded parking on streets around the school was much lighter through Monday, and some parents reported keeping…
Aylmer Express owner John Hueston and his partner Ray Stanton, owner of London Publishing Corp. have purchased The Eganville Leader from Gerald Tracey, its owner/publisher. Mr. Hueston said The Leader is one of the best and most successful newspapers in the country. From a population of about 1,500, they sell 5,000 newspapers a week. Mr. Hueston and Mr. Tracey have…
Aylmer Kinsmen Club members Joe Gaudette, left, Al Bradford, Robert Jans, Stacey Gaudette, Andy Beck, Perry Babb, Paul Bode, Doug Waite, Jack Gaudette and Harrison Bates wheeled four grocery cart loads of food purchased from Miller’s Independent grocery store in Aylmer to East Elgin Community Assistance Program’s Corner Cupboard food bank next door on Saturday morning, Feb. 19. The club…
The 67 gymnastics team members at Assumption Catholic School in Aylmer have been practising their routines for a meet for Gr. 1 through 8 pupils in London on Tuesday, Feb. 24. Here, Gr. 2s Oakleigh Barham, left, and Atourina Barber rehearsed a partner balance. (AE/Rob Perry
This winter has been the best in 20 years for local snowmobilers, Poplar Ridge Riders Snowmobile Club President Martin Baelde said Saturday, Feb. 18… but it almost didn’t happen. Coming into this winter, the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs had expected to have to cut 20 percent of its 30,000 kilometres of groomed trails across the province to save money.…
Guests and members at the St. Thomas and District Chamber of Commerce’s annual Lunch With The Mayors bid a fond – albeit premature – farewell to Mayor Joe Preston, Wednesday, Feb. 11. at the Memorial Centre in St. Thomas. After eight years on the job, Mayor Preston announced Feb. 10 that he will not run for office in the October 2026 municipal election. About 220 Chamber of Commerce guests expressed their gratitude for Mayor Preston’s community service through applause and cheers in what…