Page 14 The Colebrook Chronicle Friday, February 17, 2017
Around The Region
About a foot of fluffy white snow has coated everything north and south of the border this week. Corey Bellam photo.
UPCOMING SHERBROOKE WINTER CARNIVAL
The 51st edition of the Sherbrooke Winter Carnival is just around the corner. The fun all kicks off on Saturday, Feb. 25, with three venues to include downtown Sherbrooke, Parc Jacques Cartier and Mont Bellevue Parc.
All will be alive with activities for both young and old to include blow-up games, snow tubing, dog sledding, zip line, euro-bungee, horse-drawn wagon rides and much more to experience all weekend long. Admission is $ 10 and all are welcome to attend.
– Corey Bellam
FLU STRAIN HITS EASTERN TOWNSHIPS While out and about this past weekend, we decided to stop in at the Centre Intergre Universitaire de Sante et de Services Sociaux de l ' Estrie Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke at 110 Lafontaine Street in East Angus. It is a rest home that offers short-term and longterm care to its patients, as well as therapy in one side. This rest home opened last fall and is now offering care to many up above the border.
There has recently been a very severe flu breakout that packed all hospitals, so many patients were brought to this rest home to make room at the hospital. Around a dozen were brought to this site, and many are still there.
The flu seems to have a tight hold on the Eastern Townships and most of Quebec. Last week, the amount of flu-related cases went down, but this week it is rising again at Sherbrooke Hospitals.
The flu bug that is hitting the Townships so hard is the H3N2 strain of the flu. This strain is covered by the flu shots many of the population received last fall. This shot covers the H3N2 and is said to be 42 % effective. Last year, the flu shot was 0 % effective. The situation at the hospital is stable but extremely fragile and can change very fast from day to day. The hospital emergency rooms are full to capacity, and very often overfilled. The rate of flu changes hourly. It is advised that the best way to avoid the flu is hand washing hand use of hand sanitizers.
– Corey Bellam
TEN YEARS AFTER FAMED SNOW STORM This reporter has just finished shoveling out after the last snow storm that dropped very close to a foot of the white stuff on the Eastern Townships and Northern New England this past week. It gave us reason to stop and think about Feb. 14, 2007, when well over two feet of snow fell in less than 24 hours, amidst high winds. The roads were blocked solid in most of Southern Quebec that day. The streets in Sherbrooke were full of snow. Plows were stuck. A young lady was stranded in a car in the heart of Sherbrooke and having a baby. Rescue workers used snowmobiles to reach her and transport her and baby to the hospital.
We remember that day all too well. We plowed snow all day and half the night that day back in 2007. We remember seeing deer in our field trying to cross, stuck in the snow storm, some of which unfortunately froze right in their tracks. It certainly made this past week’ s storm seem bearable in comparison.
– Corey Bellam
The rest home in East Angus has seen an influx of activity with overflow patients from local hospitals being placed here, to make room for flu treatment at the hospitals. Corey Bellam photo.
Steam was rising at the former Cascades Paper Mill, now Graphic Packaging International, in East Angus, Que. This huge paper production plant employs many from East Angus and the surrounding towns. Corey Bellam photo.
Obituaries
Claire G. Owen
CLAIRE G. OWEN
COLEBROOK – Claire G. Owen, 96, of Colebrook, passed away early Saturday morning, Feb. 11, 2017, at the Coos County
Nursing Hospital in W. Stewartstown surrounded by members of her loving family.
She was born in Bath, Me., on July 7, 1920, a daughter to the late Matthew and Adelle( Moore) Greenleaf. Claire was raised in Sanford, Maine, and graduated from Farmington State Normal School in 1941. She began a long teaching career at the Cone School in Columbia that same fall.
Claire came to the Colebrook school to teach 6th grade in 1943. Her teaching career in Colebrook continued for the next 34 years, where she had three generations of students from many local families. She married Frank Owen in 1944. Since 1961, she enjoyed many wonderful times at Kamptukumtu on Diamond Pond with her family.
She was a member of the Monadnock Congregational Church in Colebrook, the American Legion Auxiliary, and a member and Past Matron and Past Grand Ruth of the Eureka Chapter # 2, Order of the Eastern Star, also serving as secretary for the chapter for 17 years. She was also active in the local PTA when her children were in school. She was a member and past president of the Metallak Retired Teachers Association. Following her retirement from teaching, Claire continued to do volunteer work at UCVH, for the chamber of commerce, and the blood bank. She was an avid bridge player, as well.
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