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Lakeshore kids miffed because city fence ruins tobogganing Deborah Crandall Chronicle Staff Nineâ€"yearâ€"old Greg Owe has a bone to pick with the City of Waterloo. The city‘s operations division has erected a snow fence along a Northlake Drive greenspace to prevent snowdrifts from building up on the roadway and sidewalk. hill (more than 100 feet back for the road) because there But Owe and his friends have found that the fence gets in the way of their tobogganing. Children who live in the area use a hilled area of the greenspace in winter to toboggan down. But because the snow fence is positioned right at the bottom of the hill, the distance they can now sled is greatly limited. _ So in an attempt to do something about the situation, Owe, who belives kids can make a difference, is writing a letter to Waterloo mayor Brian Turnbull to see if something can be done about having the fence moved further away from the hill and closer to the road. Owe has the signatures of 12 of his friends on the letter that he is mailing to the mayor. _ O â€" Whitey Kurschinski, the city‘s director of parks and cemeteries, said the fence was erected at the bottom of the "This is most of my friends‘ favorite place to toboggan," Owe said. Basic data: The Economist If You Are Even Thinking About Getting In ShGpC ... _ â€"gepi A Big Mac costs local workers in Moscow-m two days‘ pay, Working time required to buy a Big Mac and large fries by an M_gico City average worker in selected cities: Cost of a Big Mac Nineâ€"yearâ€"old Grog Owe wants to know why the city had to interfere with his toboganning fun by erecting a snow fence at the bottom of his favorite hill. ‘"We‘re not trying to take the kids‘ fun away. Believe me, this isn‘t the only place that we run into problems like this," Kurschinski said. "But we certainly have to try and think of public safety as the foremost consideration." In the meantime, Owe and his friends will be waiting for a reply from Turnbull to see if there‘s any way they can have their hill back. Kurschinski said the city responded to the situation from a safety point of view. He added the children should probably not be tobogganing towards the road for safety reasons â€" that the children could just as easily toboggan down the other side of the hill, away from the road. ‘"We‘ve had a number of complaints that when school buses stop there, the children have nowhere to get off and on because of the snow that drifts in," Kurschinski said. ‘‘Because of prevailing winds that come from the west, that area gets blown in very quickly. We put up the fences to intercept the snow before it gets to the road." have been problems with drifting snow building up on Northlake Road and the sidewalk. The James Bay Workgroup formed last summer out of con: cerns for major hydroâ€"electire damn projects in James Bay and Quebec, claiming the projects are often environmentally devastatâ€" ing and pose serious health risks. The group is asking residents to use energy efficient bulbs to signify the potential of citizens to reduce energy demands, and therefore, reduce the need for A group of volunteers made up of members of the Waterloo Publâ€" ic Interest Research Group is asking area residents to use enerâ€" gy efficient lightbulbs as a symâ€" bolic action for energy conservaâ€" tion. Don‘t fight, switch â€" lightbulbs Deborah Crandall photo "A lot of people point to envirâ€" onmental groups and say, ‘Yea, they point out the problems, but what are the answers?‘. We don‘t have all the answers and we‘re not pretending to, but we are trying to show that there are some things people can do in their own homes. This is one that symbolizes the potential we have." The group is asking that resiâ€" dents use compact flourescent light bulbs instead of the typical household incandescent bulb. The energyâ€"saving bulb, which costs approximately $20 and is availâ€" mega hydroâ€"electric projects, said group member Susan Sauve. WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY According to the James Bay Workgroup, if all 85.000 homes and apartments in Kitchenerâ€"Waâ€" terloo were to use one compact flourescent light bulb rather than an incandescent light buib in an area where the light was on an average of three hours per day. the savings would equate to $382,500 per year enough electricity for 600 homes for one year. Charolette Woodley (left) and Aara Edwards, both junior _ enterpreters at Joseph Schneider Haus. tried their hands a candle dipping Sunday during the historic _ facility‘s _ anuual Tallow to Tapers event. During the activity, tat from the fall Butchering Bee is transformed into dipped and moulded candles. able in most grocery, hardware and environmental sthres, sheds a similar »>~ut of light as a 75 watt incandescent bulb. but saves approximately five cents per kiloâ€" watt hour, or $35 over the 10â€"year life of the bulb ... AND CANDLESTICK MAKERS Deborah Crangall photo