Crude Pipeline Pump Station Okayed in Dunham: Report

A plan to bring crude oil from Canada to Maine through the Townships has gotten a green light from Quebec's agriculture commission, says this report in the Voix de l'Est. The 67-year-old, 380-kilometre pipeline, built to bring crude to Canada during World War Two by skirting the U-boat-infested waters of the Atlantic, may soon be reworked to pump oil in the other direction, from Montreal to Portland. The pipeline runs three feet below the surfare of the ground.

A pumping station near Dunham was just approved by the agriculture commission. Maine Today has reported on the project in this story. More information is available from the Portland-Montreal Pipe Line company website here.

Dunham Old-Growth Forest Cut Without Permit: Report

Hundreds of old-growth trees near Dunham have been chopped without a permit, says this Voix de l'Est story. (Also covered in this La Presse story.) Dunham mayor Marcel Poirier is said to have told the Voix de l'Est that the cutting was done without a municipal permit, but he refused to call it a violation of town regulations, describing the forestry activity as a "lack of communication." The company involved is now said to be seeking a permit.

Amazing Recovery After Accident At Dangerous Corner

Albert Nerenberg, a writer and filmmaker in West Bolton, writes in this moving Montreal Gazette feature about Alexa Tremblay, his friend and researcher, and her remarkable recovery from a coma after a car accident at a dangerous corner where Route 104 (Knowlton Rd.) meets Route 215 (the road from Bromont to Sutton). Albert says Alexa's story shows the brain's amazing power to heal.

Folks, please be super-careful at this intersection, especially as conditions deteriorate in winter. Just a week after Alexa's accident, I came across an older woman being cared for by paramedics after she was hit on her bike by an SUV at exactly the same spot. Friends tell us of lots of other accidents there, too.