Tuesday, September 26, 2006

VANDALS CAUSING DAMAGE

Batchewana First Nation, Ont.,

The Batchewana First Nation Police and the Sault Ste Marie OPP are investigating two incidents of smashed vehicle windows.

Sometime late Monday night or early Tuesday morning vehicles parked at the arena and on August Street had windows smashed out. In both cases it appears to be just mindless acts of vandalism because there are no indications that the culprits tried to steal the vehicles or anything was stolen from the vehicles.

Presentation by the CAA at Grandview School

On the 25th of September 2006 members of the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police attended a special presentation by CAA at Grandview Public School.

At 10 am, the students at Grandview Public School were introduced to the CAA’s new “electric lime” green safety patroller vests.

Leslie Rocha, who is a Traffic Safety Specialist with CAA, along with Chief Bob Davies and Mayor John Rowswell presented seven patrollers from Grandview and one patroller from Mountain View with the vests. Also on hand for the ceremony were Constable Oliver, Constable Tempesta and Sergeant Martynuck from the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service and Constable Bill Mackan from the Ontario Provincial Police. In Sault Ste. Marie the Kiwanis Club sponsors the Safety Patroller Program and Sam Bitonti represented them at the ceremony. Duane Jones represented Laidlaw Educational Services, which is responsible for a number of the school buses.

The officers from the Community Services Section of the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police train all the Safety Patrollers. These students operate as patrollers on both the school areas and the school buses. These patrollers stay on the sidewalks near their schools and help ensure that other students cross the road safely. On the buses the patrollers work with the driver to help control the flow of students boarding or exiting the bus in an orderly manner. These patrollers volunteer their time to help ensure that other students are safe and do so in good weather and during inclement weather.

Over the next three to five years it is hoped that the electric lime vests will slowly replace the current orange vests. So keep an eye out for these vests in and around the schools in your area.