Shotyk bows out

AWARE Simcoe Janary 5 2011

Dr. William Shotyk, president of the Elmvale Foundation, has notified Simcoe County Council that his board has withdrawn from the plan to create a water research centre of the land once intended for Dump Site 41.

Foundation board members lobbied three levels of government and although their ideas were “warmly received,” funding for innovative new ideas is challenging in these times of fiscal restraint, Shotyk says in a Dec. 31 letter to members of county council. 

“Beyond this, we also faced an insurmountable challenge: on August 23, 2011, we learned that the Province of Ontario was launching the Southern Ontario Water Consortium (SOWC) – in essence, a replica of what we wanted to create in Elmvale,” Shotyk writes.

However, the Foundation remains committed to continue “leading-edge water research in Springwater Township, with a focus on the natural filtration of water by soils, and to develop the water collected at the Elmvale Groundwater Observatory as a “reference” water for scientific studies worldwide,” the letter states.

The Foundation will also work with local businesses and service clubs to build a water “info station” on Highway 27 and continue its annual World Water Day Speaker Series and the Elmvale Water Festival, now combined with the fall fair.

Text of letter 

Barrie Advance