“`json
{
“articles”: [
{
“title”: “Ex-Bruin, Cowley dies at age 81”,
“content”: “Bill Cowley, who played for the Boston Bruins from 1935 to 1947, died Friday, January 14, 1994, at the Pontiac Community Hospital. He was 81.nMr Cowley spent all of his retirement years in Shawville.nMr Cowley, a native of Bristol, played all of his minor hockey in the Pontiac Minor Hockey Association. In 1935, he joined the Bruins. In 1941 he won the Hart Trophy as the National Hockey League’s most valuable player. In 1943 he was the recipient of the Elizabeth C. DuFresne trophy as the most gentlemanly player and the most outstanding in hockey.nMr Cowley retired from hockey in 1947. During his career, Cow-ley was the first hockey player to ever score 100 points in 100 games and was the first player to accumulate 25 assists in one season. His career goals totalled 195 goals and 353 assists. His career totals earned him a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1968.nUpon retiring, Mr Cowley went on to coach in the area. He was also an honourary director of the Shawville Minor Hockey Association and was actively involved in their hockey program.nMr Cowley is survived by his wife Betty (Patterson) Cowley; one daughter, Margaret (Robert) Beattle of Shawville; two grandchildren, Sheri and Robert Beattie, both of Shawville, and one brother, Edward Cowley of Quyon.nFuneral services were held early January 18 in Shawville. He was buried in Shawville.”
},
{
“title”: “Murphy in CJHL All-Star game”,
“content”: “Shawville native, Shaun Murphy, will play for the Central Junior Hockey League all-star team tonight, January 19, 1994, in Brockville.nMr Murphy will play with the best in the league against the Brockville Braves. He will play for the Ottawa side.n“I’m very proud to be chosen,” he said, but this is the first time he’s ever been in the all-stars. He has been playing in the league since he was 18 years old. Now 20, he is a veteran.nThe 18 year-old centre is one of the top scorers, but he has never been picked, even though it is his third year in the league.nHe admits he was a little surprised to have been chosen this year. He didn’t really expect to be picked. He says maybe he was overlooked.nHe is looking forward to the game tonight, which he expects to be very competitive. This is his final year playing in the CJHL.n“The competition, the speed of the game will be good,” he said.nMurphy is now living in Hawkesbury. His parents, Bob and Lois Murphy, live in Shawville.n“I’m sure they’ll be cheering loud for me,” he said.nAn all-star is usually chosen in the first or second year in the league so I’m already passed up,” he said. He will be playing with the best in the league against the Brockville Braves. He was surprised only 10 members of his team were chosen for the all-stars. He thought other teams would get more players.nHe said the Braves have five players for the all-stars. “The players will be good and I know they have a pretty good goalie,” he said.nHe is hoping to get a scholarship to an Ontario Hockey League or an American college. This adds pressure to tonight’s game. “I have to play good, I have to make no mistakes to be chosen by a scout,” he said.nMurphy said he has been contacted by some teams to play in the United States. He is hoping to get a scholarship.nTonight’s all-star game will be played in Hawkesbury.”
},
{
“title”: “Fires destroy three buildings in Pontiac”,
“content”: “Fire has taken its toll on three Pontiac families this week.nSince Sunday, three fires have destroyed property in Campbell’s Bay, outside of Quyon and in Pontiac Station.nFirefighters are blaming electrical problems for starting a fire that destroyed a barn and killed 13 head of cattle Monday morning.nThe barn fire at the Sutton proper-ty on the Wolf Lake Road, about 15 miles outside of Quyon, started early January 17. The Quyon Fire Department received the call at 5:15 a.m.nQuyon Fire Chief Leo Ladouceur reported that when the fire trucks arrived 20 minutes after receiving the call, all that was left of the barn were beams and a shell.nThe barn was completely de-stroyed in the blaze and 13 beef cows died. Another 10 cows sur-vived the blaze, although some were burned. No injuries were re-ported.nChief Ladouceur did not know the value of the damage to the property, but did say the property was in-sured. There was no insurance on the cattle.nIt took 17 firefighters about 90 minutes to get the fire under con-trol. They left the scene almost six hours later.nFour trucks were sent to the blaze, one pumper, two tank trucks and one equipment van. The Luskville Fire Department sent two men and one truck.nChief Ladouceur said the bitterly cold weather created a few prob-lems for the firefighters. He said it was about -21 degrees at 9 a.m. and some of the hoses kept freezing up.nThere was a south-easterly wind blowing that helped keep the fire from spreading to the buildings on the property.nChief Ladouceur does not expect an investigation to be conducted.nThe Bristol Fire Department re-sponded to a call at a garage in Pontiac Station early January 18.nAssistant Fire Chief Lawrence Kluke said the call came in at ap-proximately 12:35 a.m. When fire-fighters arrived on the scene, the garage was destroyed.nTwo vehicles in the garage were destroyed. No injuries were report-ed.nAbout 20 firefighters were at the scene. Two trucks and an emer-gency van were taken to the fire. Firefighters had the fire out and were back at the fire station by 3 a.m.nAssistant Chief Kluke said the cause of the fire is unknown, but the police were called in, as they are called to every fire.nAssistant Chief Kluke does not know if an investigation will fol-low.nOn Sunday, fire tore through a Campbell’s Bay home, completely destroying the building.nFire Chief Raymond Shea could not be reached for comment.nCampbell’s Bay detachment of the Quebec Police Force, reported the house was destroyed. He did not know if it was insured.nPolice are continuing to investi-gate.”
},
{
“title”: “First baby of the year”,
“content”: “Katina Petkoglou, weighing 8lbs, 12.6 ounces, was the Pontiac Commu-nity Hospital’s first baby of the year. Born at 11:03 pm, on January 12, 1994, Katina is the first child for Nicolas and Christine Petkoglou of Otter Lake and the first grandchild for Nicolas’ parents who live in Toronto.”
},
{
“title”: “Province urges municipal amalgamation”,
“content”: “”A diamond inside a dollar” is how Clarendon Mayor Gary Hod-gins describes the relationship be-tween his municipality and the municipality of Shawville.nThe mayor was not making ref-erence to the relative financial status of the two townships, though. He was merely pointing out that the one-mile-square village of Shaw-ville is completely surrounded by the 196-square-mile rectangle that is the municipality of Clarendon.nBecause of their hole-in-the-donut geographical configuration, Shawville and Clarendon were se-lected by the Quebec Ministry of Municipal Affairs as being possi-ble candidates for amalgamation.nJames Simpson, of the Ministry’s Hull office, met the councils of both municipalities January 11, to pro-vide information on the subject.n”I don’t see too much coming out of it, so far,” says Mayor Hodgins.n”The idea has been kicked around at MRC for a number of years,” he says, but it seems that “there’s not too much advantage to it.”nNevertheless, he says, one should not rule it out entirely as a possibil-ity sometime in the future.n”Things are going well just as they are,” says Shawville Mayor Randy Beattie.nAt MRC level, amalgamation wouldn’t help us at all.” With only one mayor representing them, in-stead of two, the ratepayers of Shawville and Clarendon would lose one vote at the MRC council table.nCow and horsenAt the present time, there are ap-proximately 1,500 municipalities in Quebec. The government has decided that it would be more effi-cient if some of these would merge. The prime target of this reform are the cases where a village munici-pality is surrounded by a rural mu-nicipality.nCampbell’s Bay and Litchfield have both been contacted about the new proposal.n”Our municipality would be ready to sit down for an informa-tion meeting,” says Campbell’s Bay Mayor Denis Larivière.n”We can’t really see any benefit for us,” says Litchfield Mayor Mi-chael McCrank.nHe feels that the needs of villages are so different from those of a ru-ral municipality that merging the two would be “sort of like hitching a cow and a horse together.”nThe government, he says, is “messing with our autonomy.’n”They give the Indians self-government, but they try to take ours away.nToo early to tellnRichard Vaillancourt, who serves as secretary for the munici-palities of Chapeau and Allumettes Island West, confirms that his of-fice has been contacted by the Mini-stry about a possible three-way merger involving the Municipali-ty of Allumettes Island East.n”They’ve all agreed to meet with the Ministry,” he says, but it is is “too early to tell” what the outcome might be.nNot interestednFort Coulonge Secretary Ken Rose says that he is not aware of any recent contact from the Mini-stry on the question of amalgama-tion with the rural municipality of Mansfield. He says that, last year, his village was ready to adopt a resolution authorizing a feasibility study on the question, but that Mansfield council did not seem in-terested.nMansfield Secretary Don Marion confirms that his council passed a resolution last year saying that they were not interested in amal-gamating.nVoluntarynJames Simpson of Municipal Af-fairs says that his ministry’s new policy is being promoted strictly on a voluntary basis.n”There’s nothing that forces mu-nicipalities to amalgamate,” he says, but there are many incen-tives being offered.nThe Ministry will assume the en-tire cost of doing a feasibility study on amalgamation for any two mu-nicipalities that express an inter-est.nFor a feasibility study done by outside consultants, the Ministry will pay half the cost, up to $5,000 for municipalities whose combined budgets are less than $1 million.nFor municipalities whose com-bined budgets are between $1 mil-lion and $10 million, the Ministry will pay up to $10,000.nWhen two municipalities choose to become one, the government will help them through the transition by paying a one-time grant of $10,000, plus $18 per resident for the first year of union.nIn the second year, the payment is reduced to $14, followed by $