ASCII 239 problem

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]
I know this thread is long since dead, but I had the same kind of problem using a different php framework and I wanted to post a solution for others.

The cause of the problem is that the template file is encoded in UTF-8. Changing it to a different encoding, like ANSI, makes the mystery character go away.

There may be another way, like setting php to play better with UTF-8 files, but this solved my immediate problem.