By Michael McDonnell
michael@northern-standard.ie
Up on 200 people from mainly rural and farming homesteads attended a packed meeting on the septic tanks issue at Ballybay’s Wetlands Centre last Thursday, where the keynote speaker was Fianna Fáil’s deputy leader Éamon Ó Cuív TD.
Fear of the unknown is usually guaranteed to provoke interest, and when the uncertainty is about a possible new drain on people’s money at a time when that commodity is in increasingly scarce supply, it can be taken as read that any public meeting on the issue in question …

Pictured are Orla Mc Phillips, Lauren Murphy and Muireann O’ Rourke from Ballybay Community College, Monaghan who won the Environment Agency Special Award for their project “Septic tanks: Old versus new!” at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2012 which was held at the BT Arena at Dublin’s RDS. Pictured giving the award was Annette Cahalane,  Communications Manager   EPA.
A delighted principal Moya Lynch stated ‘We are so proud of the girls and their achievement and the EPA award bears testimony to the huge workload undertaken …

By Michael McDonnell
michael@northern-standard.ie
Anger at the ongoing problems with the town’s only ATM machine was expressed again at Monday’s meeting of Ballybay Town Council, where it was noted that the facility — which is provided by Bank of Ireland on Main Street — had been out of order for three out of the four busy shopping weekends in December.
 The councillors agreed with Therese Hamilton’s proposal that they should write to the bank again (it had not yet replied to the letter sent by the council last month) and seek a …

A man who was arrested at the graveyard in Church Street, Ballybay on Monday evening last, following an incident in which almost €700 was taken from a bookmaker’s office in the town, was remanded in custody at a court in Dublin yesterday.
Two young girls from the locality had spotted banknotes lying at the Main Street–Church Street corner, and this had helped the gardai to track him down to the nearby graveyard, about half an hour after he had allegedly made off with money from the bookies shop.
…

By PATSY McARDLE
INVESTIGATIONS continued over last weekend into the discovery of an illegal fuel laundering plant near Ballybay, and the subsequent discovery during a major search operation at the premises, of an unidentified liquid, believed to be related to the banned livestock-fattening substance, clenbuterol, more popularly known, as “angel dust”.
Two men were questioned by the Gardai following the swoop and search, which involved a team of Gardai, Revenue officers, and members of a Department of Agriculture investigations unit.
Both men were later released, …

By Michael McDonnell
michael@northern-standard.ie
Road users, pedestrians and the pubic in general in Ballybay can brace themselves for 12 to 16 weeks’ of disruption in the town as work on the major new realignment of the Clones road junction gets underway from next Monday, 20th June.
Area Engineer Declan McKernan confirmed to Ballybay’s town councillors at their AGM on Monday last that the work is to start at the beginning of next week. The length of time it will take will depend on whether there are any delays and how quickly things …

By Michael McDonnell
michael@northern-standard.ie
growing frustration with the ever increasing levels of illegal poaching of fish on local rivers and lakes came to a head at a special meeting organised last Thursday night in the Sail Inn, Shercock, where a new initiative to be known as ‘Lakewatch’ was launched in a bid to counteract the problem.
The damage being done to angling tourism by illegal fishing practices on lakes — and the littering that went hand in hand with it — was highlighted by the large gathering of local enthusiasts that …

- Bannigan reacts to farm office closure
“The decision of the Dept of Agriculture to proceed with their plans to close the Ballybay farm office to members of the public from Friday next is a sad day for Ballybay Town and the 6,000 farmers from Co Monaghan who use it on a regular basis,” according to Mid Monaghan Co Councillor Owen Bannigan.
In a statement yesterday, Colr Bannigan said he had first announced in May 2009 that the Ballybay office was to close under rationalisation plans drawn up by the …

By PATSY McARDLE
THE storm which erupted last week with meetings of public representatives, including a heated debate at a meeting of Monaghan Country Council and a meeting of local Oireachtas members and councillors over the proposed termination of the existing role of the Department of Agriculture District Veterinary Office in Ballybay, continued to rage this week, with further calls to veto the shut-down, and a plea by Fianna Fail councillor Seamus Coyle to all the Cavan/Monaghan Fine Gael Oireachtas members, to exert political …

By PATSY McARDLE
THE people of Ballybay and over a wider area of North Monaghan were shocked at the weekend by the tragic death of a 57 local resident who was found lying inside the door at his residence in the town’s Lower Main Street area, early on Sunday morning last.
It was initially feared that Mr. Oliver McEntee might have been the victim of an assault at his home but after a post mortem examination carried out by the State Pathologist on Sunday afternoon, it was established the …