September 3, 2024

September 3rd is the 247th day of the year. There are 119 days remaining until the end of the year.

Back to school today!

Schools across Chatham-Kent open their doors for another school year this morning. Keep an eye out for students and buses on the roads today.

Mostly cloudy skies for day one, the humidity will make it feel like 30.

With kids going back to school, some safety tips for students, drivers and bus drivers:

• Slow down. Speed limits in school zones are reduced for a reason.
• Come to a complete stop. Research shows that more than one-third of drivers roll through stop signs in school zones or neighborhoods. Always come to a complete stop, checking carefully for children on sidewalks and in crosswalks before proceeding.
• Eliminate distractions. Research shows that taking your eyes off the road for just two seconds doubles your chances of crashing.
• Share the road with bicyclists. Children on bicycles are often inexperienced, unsteady and unpredictable. Slow down and allow at least three feet of passing distance between your vehicle and a bicyclist.
• Talk to your teen. Car crashes are one of the leading causes of death for teens, and nearly one in four fatal crashes involving teen drivers occurs during the after-school hours of 3p.m. to 7p.m.

For Pedestrians:

• Pay attention at all times. Avoid texting or wearing headphones, so you can detect nearby traffic.
• Use sidewalks where available. If not, walk against the direction of traffic so you can see oncoming vehicles.
• Make yourself easier to be seen by wearing reflective, bright coloured clothing.

For Bicyclists:

• Wear a helmet and neon or bright colored clothes.
• Ride in the same direction as traffic and stay as far to the right as possible. Use bike lanes when you can.
• Do not wear headphones so you can detect approaching traffic.
• Cross the street at intersections. Do not pull into the roadway from between parked cars.

For Students at the Bus Stop:

• Arrive at least 5 minutes before the bus is scheduled to arrive.
• Stay five steps away from the curb.
• Be alert and remove headphones so you can hear oncoming traffic.
• Wait until the bus comes to a complete stop and the bus driver signals for you to board.

The Chatham-Kent Public Library is once again running their Grows Seed Library, beginning today.

The Seed Library will offer a variety native plant seeds for many popular local plants.

The seed library provides free seeds for residents to borrow so they can grow healthy gardens, have access to affordable flowers to create beautiful spaces in their own backyards and communities. All you need is a valid C-K Public Library card, and you can check out five packages of seeds.

Also today at the Chatham Branch, it’s Movies @ Your Library.

Book your spot today to see Dear John starring Channing Tatum.

Movies start at 2pm.

Heads up, garbage and recycling will be delayed by one day this week because of the Labour Day holiday.

Download Chatham-Kent’s handy Waste App “Recycle Coach” for reminders on your waste collection schedule.

Download it here for Android and here for Apple.

Donors are needed!

There’s a blood donor clinic today in Blenheim at St. Marys Hall 1-7p.m.

No walk-in appointments are available. Book your appointment at Blood.ca, call 1-888-2-DONATE or use the apps.

Sunday was the last day with a sunset after 8 p.m. for nearly the next seven months.

As of last night, the sunsets will be before 8 until the beginning of April.

We will lose about three minutes of daylight each day over the next month, with the sunset scheduled two minutes earlier every day. By the end of September, the sunset is scheduled for 7:15 p.m.

Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday, November 3rd.

Categorised in: 5 Things You Need To Know

This post was written by Chris McLeod