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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-04-14, Page 5Other Views All creatures great and small am privileged to live in a house with a window that lets me look out to sea — which I do a good deal. The ocean is a mesmerizing spectacle, like burning logs in a fireplace or a Saskatchewan sunset. Except a sunset lasts just a few minutes, a log fire a few hours. The ocean is an on-stage extravaganza that plays from dawn to dusk — even longer under a full moon. I see a fair bit of wildlife, looking out to sea. Salmon jumping, the odd harbour seal, occasional convoys of river otters, flocks of Canada geese, mergansers, seagulls. Yesterday I saw a deer swimming ashore. What the...? Deer don't swim — at least not by choice. But this one was, coming right toward me from a headland which is a good two miles away. Deer aren't great swimmers, what with the cloven hooves and all, but this one managed to chug ashore eventually. It looked skinny and bedraggled, stumbling and obviously exhausted. It was also young — a yearling at best. The deer staggered a few feet up the beach then folded itself like a collapsing ironing board and lay in the sand, shivering violently. What do you do with a hypothermic deer? Arthur Black It's a wild animal. You can't wrap it in a blanket or bring it in the house. The sight of a large pink biped rushing toward it would not likely improve its chances of survival. I looked up Wildlife Rescue in the phone book and dialed the number. A recording asked me to leave a callback number. I did, and minutes later the phone rang. A woman's voice, French -accented, asked me for details, then directions. Twenty minutes later she was in my driveway. I led her down to the shore, where the deer had tucked itself into a spot out of the wind. A good sign, the wildlife woman said — also a good sign that the deer had its head up and seemed alert. She figured a dog had probably chased the deer into the water and panicked it into its marathon swim. She kept us well away from the animal, explaining that it was already under great stress and human contact, even well- THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2016. PAGE 5. meaning, could prove fatal. She decided to let nature take its course. Check it first thing in the morning, she said. We could call her and she would return, try to capture the deer and take it to the wildlife refuge centre. At breakfast time the phone rang again. It was the wildlife lady asking after the deer. "He's gone," I told her. "I mean — he left. I guess he recovered" It was true. The deer had vanished, probably into a nearby orchard. "Bon," she said. End of story. A sea -side mini -melodrama. A near -death experience for a deer; for me, an anecdote to relate down at the cafe. Or in a newspaper column. Nothing earth -shaking. Deer are hardly endangered in my neck of the woods. One yearling more or less would make little difference. And yet.... In a world polluted with Putins and Palins, Trumps and Cruzes, Kardashians, Kanye Wests and other colossal wastes of ego -driven protoplasm, I find it oddly comforting that a simple phone call can mobilize the ministrations and expertise of a wildlife expert on behalf of a helpless, shivering creature thrown up by the sea. Merci, Madame. Arena suggestion a reversal of roles While I could use this space this week to talk, again, at length about how important hockey, broomball and ringette are to the development of a healthy mentality for children and how taking the ice out of our community arenas is a very, very bad idea, I decided to tackle this particular issue from another standpoint. North Huron Township Council and staff have worked hard to present a budget with a minimal spending increase despite several tough realities including the increase in Ontario Provincial Police coverage costs for East Wawanosh and Blyth and a lower contribution from the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund. It really is going to take some thinking outside the box to figure out a way to make sure the municipality spends what it needs to without bleeding its ratepayers dry. However, there is thinking outside the box like the shared services agreement that has been established between North Huron and Morris-Turnberry and then there's gutting the community to try and reach budgetary goals. For the sake of imagery, Councillor Brock Vodden's idea to consider removing ice from the Blyth and Wingham community centres to save money is like trying to reduce the weight of a car by taking out its engine. Sure, you may achieve one goal, but you're going to hurt yourself in every other way. When Vodden presented his idea I was taken aback by the audacity of it not only because I've recently started playing (or trying to play) hockey in that arena but because Ashleigh and I will soon be welcoming a child that we hope will enjoy the opportunity to play ice -based sports. However I was struck by a second peculiar sentiment; Vodden was suggesting the municipality do exactly what he has suggested the Avon Maitland District School Board has done with local schools. In case you've missed it, Vodden has been a staunch opponent of North Huron Council approving any donations to the Building Bridges to our Future (BB2F) group, which is trying to enrich the grounds at Maitland River Elementary School and F.E. Madill Secondary Denny Scott riallik Denny's Den School with both grounds improvements and playground equipment. Vodden believes (and for reference's sake, I'm not saying he's wrong in believing this but beliefs have to be tempered for reality) that the school board should be financing these improvements and placing the equipment because it has, in the past, taken equipment that was fundraised for at the schools they closed in Blyth, Brussels, Wingham and Belgrave and that equipment has disappeared. While I don't particularly agree with Vodden's statements that the schools and the playground equipment were "fenced" by the board, since they did technically own it all, I understand his concern. What I don't understand, however, is how he can't see that he is suggesting the municipality study doing exactly the same thing. Years ago in Blyth, people started fundraising to build a better arena. They wanted an ice surface for their children to play hockey on in the winter and a great big open space for events in the summer and, like other projects, they fundraised and worked together and, in the end, they built it. People in Wingham have just recently seen the North Huron Wescast Complex paid off thanks to some moving of money by North Huron Council. Groups fundraised and worked to make that site a reality. These communities banded together to make these community centres (hence the name) a reality despite the fact that the centres would be municipally owned and maintained because they trusted that then -individual villages and towns would work to make sure the spirit of those centres were maintained. So just as the people donating money to the BB2F are trusting that the equipment and enhancements made will be utilized and stay at the school, the people of Blyth and Wingham are trusting that council makes the right decisions to maintain the infrastructure they helped to pay for. They did not donate to those centres so that councillors looking to save a buck could gut them and turn them into something else, or suggest studies that would allow them to gut them to save a dime. To boil it down; members of the community didn't hand over their hard-earned money so council could tear down what was built with it just like members of the community didn't hand over their hard-earned money to local school fundraisers so the school board could tear it down. Vodden, in his attempt to save money, could become an analog of an entity he disparages every chance he gets: the school board. I'm guessing that this is a situation where he can't see the forest for the trees because, as a member of the Blyth Community Centre Board, he knows exactly how much money is donated to the centre. He knows just how invested the community is in having that asset. Regardless of how Vodden is becoming the personification of the Avon Maitland District School Board, I am going to urge everyone to make sure council knows this is a bad idea. Not only is the idea to remove the ice an unpopular one (trust me, I've been to the coffee shops, I've heard the responses, no one likes it), having such a study done will take staff time and municipal resources, both of which are going to cost the taxpayers even more money and, if it weren't for the fact that includes my money, I'd find it hilarious council would consider spending money on a fruitless study to try and save money. Tell your council members (or, if you don't feel comfortable telling a particular one, just send a letter to council) that Blyth has already lost enough with the school being closed. We don't need any more challenges than those we already face. Taking away something like an arena will result in Blyth becoming a less desirable place to move. Trust me, I wouldn't be here if there wasn't an arena. 411. Shawn 0051 Loughlin Shawn's Sense Can't buy me love While it's true that our rural municipalities are facing significant financial pressures, in my mind, we have to remember that we're communities of people, not balance sheets full of numbers. Conversations around local council tables are getting more and more worrisome as the years go on. As a (relatively) young man looking ahead to one day having a family of his own, I worry what The Citizen's communities will look like in the future. As I said to someone on the street one day, it feels like some local councils are content to kill their communities in favour of a balanced budget. Yes, I was being overly dramatic in making that statement, but the more I think about it, the further from fiction it feels. With local councillors discussing everything from removing ice from local arenas, closing communities centres and the continued negativity towards community -building initiatives such as the Blyth Arts and Cultural Initiative 14/19 and the Blyth Cowbell Brewing Company, I sometimes wonder what we have to do to make some councillors see the worth or potential of something that's not a new piece of public works machinery. I have written numerous pieces defending municipal councillors, for they have a hard job and don't get paid much to do it. However, attitudes like those just mentioned show a shocking disconnect from the residents these men and women have sworn to serve. They also represent what I feel is a shift in governmental style from the grassroots level of government rural residents know and love — where what the community wants is made the priority by its representatives — to councillors dictating their opinions down to their residents, thinking they know better than those they've been elected to represent. While drastic times do indeed call for drastic measures, I fear that some councillors may have blinders on as they view the job they've been elected to do. Yes, keeping taxes low is a priority, especially in North Huron, where taxes have been the highest in the county for years. However, just because something is a priority, that doesn't make it everything. So if Huron East or North Huron, two municipalities considering removing ice surfaces from local community centres, decide to close these local centres (and don't, for a second, tell me that repurposing an arena into an indoor soccer facility is not "closing" it — at least in the opinion of residents, which is an opinion that should matter to councillors) at what cost will this move be made? Back to me looking ahead to the future — what kind of community will my children grow up in? Will they be able to play hockey? Will they see a Blyth Festival show? Will they see the thriving arts community envisioned by those behind 14/19? Will they be able to have a pint of Blyth Cowbell beer (when they're 19)? Or will the efforts of local councillors squash these forward -thinking projects and plenty of others like them? When Jess and I bought our house in Blyth, we called it our forever house. We hope to grow into the house, raise our children there and then release them into the world as products of Huron County. What legacy will they inherit? Will it be a community full of active movers and thinkers, thriving thanks to the efforts of community champions and visionaries? Or will they inherit a no-frills bedroom community where they are unable to be active, artistic or bold — but with one hell of a balanced budget?