Several years ago, Erika MacInnis travelled to The Netherlands and remarked there were many tracts of open space with wind turbines, but never any turbines all in one space.

“We were driving past an open field, and every so often, we would go past a few wind turbines, but they didn’t seem to be arranged in any particular fashion,” said MacInnis, a Grade 8 student at Westwood Junior High School in St-Lazare.

MacInnis, 14, teamed up with her friend, Olivia Cardillo, 13, and they decided to figure out the optimum configuration of wind turbines in a confined space of one square kilometre for their science fair project.

Now, that research has been recognized as one of the top student projects in the country.

The St-Lazare residents returned from Lethbridge, Alta., last week with a bronze medal from the Canada-Wide Science Fair. The award came with a $1,000 scholarship each to Western University, and $100 cash to be shared.

The awards have been piling up for the pair. In March, they won a Hydro-Québec prize at the provincials in Chicoutimi, which is a trip to James Bay in August to see the hydro dam installations. At the regionals in Montreal, Cardillo and MacInnis also took the top prize in the junior category: $400 cash to split.

They started the work last August. By January, after nearly 1,000 hours of work, the two had come up with some original research. They built five identical wind turbines, made from scrap metal parts, and the rotors from old computer fans. They then tested several different configurations using a fan blowing onto the turbines and measured how much electricity each configuration generated.

MacInnis figures that if wind power is going to to be a viable energy source, future wind farms will likely have to be built in more confined spaces.

“It’s something not a lot of people have thought of already, but they will have to because there’s less and less green space available,” she said. “Soon, large spaces of land won’t be available for wind farms.”

The pair found that an inverted V configuration of turbines seemed to generate the most energy. But coming to that conclusion was no easy feat.

“In order for our results to be significant, we had to control for a lot of variables,” MacInnis said.

Science teacher Gail Stanworth said she was impressed with how the pair was able to control for all the variables.

“That’s really impressive,” said a beaming Stanworth, “especially at this level.”

She added she has only had a few students make it to the provincials. Cardillo and MacInnis are her first students to make it the nationals.

Cardillo said it was great to get the honours, especially considering how much work the pair put in to the project.

“We were really amazed to be one of the people to get bronze medals out of all the people who participated,” Cardillo said.

While the science fair circuit is finished for this year, the girls say they’ll likely continue their work for next year’s science fair. While it was a compulsory activity this year in science class, next year’s participation is optional.

Stanworth said she’ll continue to act as a guide for the girls, if they want to enter next year.

The pair say they’ll try to answer more questions about their experiment, and build on the work.

While they have figured out the optimum configuration for the turbines, they haven’t figured out why that configuration is better than the others. The judges of each of the contests gave them other aspects to consider, like using smoke to examine how turbulence from one turbine affects the others.

They are also considering better simulating real-life turbines, by building small-scale versions of the standard three-blade rotors in use by utilities around the world.

Cardillo said the project has sparked her interest in pursuing a career in science.

“We were always interested in science, but maybe not as much as we are now,” she said.

“This enlightened us,” MacInnis added.

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For on that day, with beaming parents and staff standing by, representatives of the Lester B. Pearson School Board announced that in appreciation of Chalmers’s passionate commitment to John Rennie and its drama program, the school was renaming its highly regarded theatre in her honour.

And with that the Louise Chalmers Theatre came into being. An elegant plaque crowned with a lovely photo of Chalmers was placed at the entrance and the moment was sealed.

“It was extraordinary,” Chalmers recalled recently.

Extraordinary perhaps, but profoundly heartfelt – gracious and appropriate acknowledgement of the unmeasurable contribution she made to John Rennie throughout her career, especially to the teaching of drama and to the husbandry of the theatre.

“Louise did amazing things and really deserves a ton of credit,” says James Colley, her successor as head of the program. “For me to be able to carry on the unique drama program she developed is a gift.”

The inspiration to rename the theatre was ignited by then-principal, Nancy Sweer, currently head of school at The Study in Montreal, and buoyed by a groundswell of parent and student support.

This way, even though Chalmers was retiring, she would forever remain close by – in both spirit and substance.

Which was fair enough, because the fact is that Chalmers, who began her teaching career at John Rennie and never left, always held deep respect for the theatre, recognizing just what a rare and wonderful facility it is.

To begin with, it’s the real thing.

“For a high school theatre, it is amazing,” Chalmers says, listing off the features that make it so. “It has 450 seats, an orchestra pit, even a shop underneath where we can make props.”

And best of all: “It includes a fly-rail, which means that during a performance the scenery can be pulled up and down at will.”

All of that notwithstanding, when Chalmers first started teaching drama and English and turned to the theatre as an important resource, it needed attention.

So, as is her nature, she stepped in, overseeing its use and fostering step-by-step improvements. It took 35 years, but today the Louise Chalmers Theatre simply glistens.

Until the early 2000s, the facility was primarily reserved for in-school activity. But under Chalmers’s leadership it began reaching out to community groups, and today serves as home base for both the Lakeshore Players and the Lakeshore Light Opera.

And then there is the John Rennie High School Actors’ Studio, a program initiated by Chalmers in 1999 and premised on the question: “Is it conceivable that the business of putting on a play can take the shape of a course for which students obtain credit?

The answer was a resounding yes! As Colley describes it, the 64 student-strong Actors’ Studio presents two major productions per year – around Christmas time and in the spring.

This past year they preformed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – “we sold out very soon after the program was announced” – and a full-scale version of Macbeth.

These days, even though Chalmers is no longer on the scene, her presence is still felt backstage. “She is still our guiding light,” Colley says. “There is no question but we are always trying to impress her.”

Which helps explain why Louise Chalmers has a theatre named after her.

Oh, by the way, Chalmers graduated from high school in New Richmond, a small community that hugs the shores of Baiedes-Chaleurs. At the time I happened to be the school’s principal.

Happy anniversary, Louise!

Bill Young is a longtime Hudson resident and erstwhile baseball historian.

The city posted a surprising $8.4-million surplus in 2012, according to the financial report deposited at Tuesday night’s council meeting.

The surplus was much higher than expected, partially due to a hot real estate market, which brought $700,000 to the city’s coffers in welcome tax. The city was also reimbursed $2.4 million from the local bus service, CIT Presqu’Île, because it had overpaid for the service.

That’s a situation that won’t recur, said Vaudreuil-Dorion Mayor Guy Pilon.

The city will divert some of the money into a reserve fund that will likely be used on much-needed upgrades to city-owned buildings. Some of the money will also go into the city’s working capital fund, which is used to make equipment purchases. About $1 million of the total surplus will remain after those sums have been diverted.

More to come.

If you’ve been following this blog or news in the Off-Island Gazette, then you will know there has been no shortage of coverage about the need for revitalization. To be blunt, the island requires far more than a facelift. Its wrinkles and visible signs of age have been showing for some time.

This week Pincourt made some very positive formal announcements that should help. Mayor Yves Cardinal announced on May 14 that a large-scale renovation store has committed to building and opening a 70,000-square-foot outlet on Du Traversier Blvd. Construction of Centre de Rénovation Patrick Morin will begin this summer.

In addition, the town council has also authorized the establishment of a car detailing business and a café in the old Video Super Choix building at the corner of 5^th Avenue and Cardinal Léger Blvd. The building will be renovated and transformed to better align with local businesses, according to the town’s web site.

Our local mall, Le Faubourg de l’Île, is undergoing renovations currently, and is being “modernized,” while word has it that the closed and crumbling restaurant L’Étoile de Pincourt will be demolished soon, then rebuilt and reopened.

Meanwhile, the future of the dilapidated and abandoned arena still remains unclear. And stalling by Transport Quebec for improvements on access via Highway 20 continues to frustrate local councils, business associations, merchants and residents.

In other news, and as a follow up to last week’s blog on an abundance of waste sitting roadside, the towns have done a great job cleaning up the visual and reeking blight of garbage that was everywhere for weeks on end. Town workers were out in force on a rainy and muggy holiday and they should be congratulated for a job well done. Today, green waste is being picked up en masse, too.

I received my first visit from a hummingbird on Monday having just performed the annual ritual of planting flowers over the weekend. Joy! However, something else has arrived with the hummers. Residents are reporting large-scale invasion by white grubs that wreak havoc on lawns. At our house, we, too, have been struck severely and efforts to control and replant are under way. Our local municipal websites all have good information on how to combat these hungry grubs and there will be an information session on controlling them on Thursday, May 30, at 7 p.m.

A white grub conference will be held at the community center in Ile Perrot. Places are limited, so the town is asking those that what to attend to register in advance by calling 514- 578-1079 or by email at ligneverte@saenviro.com

“Mayor Marie-Claude Nichols said she’s proud the town has been able to keep property taxes steady over the last four years while continuing to pay down the town’s debt.

She said the town has been setting aside money into reserve funds so that it doesn’t have to borrow as much.

The town’s debt now stands at $12.9 million, which works out to $1,647 per resident of the town. That compares with the average debt load for a town in Quebec which is $2,337 per capita.

The new agreement comes after 1½ years of negotiation, and will see an average salary increase of 2.42 per cent annually over five years.

The increase for 2011 was 2.8 per cent. The increases for the next four years are two per cent, 2.35 per cent, 2.45 per cent and 2.5 per cent.

Île-Perrot Mayor Marc Roy said he was pleased with the agreement, because it allows the town some flexibility in managing its expenses. As a result of the agreement, the town will be permitted to hire summer students to work in its roads department.

Five men arrested for car theft

Another five men were arrested in Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot on Thursday morning, about 1:30 a.m., as police searched their cars and found items from 10 cars that had been robbed in the area. Police believe the suspects, all in their early 20s, were also responsible for vandalizing 20 cars in the area. Four of the men hail from Kirkland, while the fifth lives in Rigaud. Police are asking anyone who was victim of theft or vandalism in their cars to call them, because they may be able to recuperate their belongings.

Police nab robbers in store

Police were quick to respond to a robbery, and arrested three suspects at a store on Harwood Blvd. in Vaudreuil-Dorion last Thursday. About 8:45 p.m., two men entered the store and threatened the clerk with a sharp object. They proceeded to tie the clerk up, and started grabbing objects from the store. When police arrived, they arrested one of the men just outside the store, and apprehended the two others who were still inside. The men are aged 17, 18 and 21 years old.

A wrecking crew Wednesday morning was destroying the building on the lot, which was recently purchased by the Harden Group. The site at the end of the popular shopping area in Vaudreuil-Dorion is expected to be redeveloped.