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The Citizen, 2016-04-21, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2016. PAGE 5. Other Views Where's Myrtle when you need her? My son has a new cell phone. Aside from making and receiving calls, it takes snapshots, records videos, accommodates messaging, features a calendar, plays music, connects to FM radio, offers a browser, a homepage, a library, a voice recorder and e-mail. It also syncs with WAP, GPRS, EDGE, 3G and MMS. Whatever the hell they are. My son's new cell phone weighs less than a pack of cigarettes and fits in the palm of his hand but when I look at it, I don't think `magic'. I think `Myrtle'. Myrtle was my connection to the first telephone my family ever had. Myrtle didn't live with us; she lived in a box on our kitchen wall. The box was our telephone. It was made of wood, about the size of a hotel room mini -fridge. To activate it you pulled the receiver off a hook and clamped it to your ear; then you cranked a handle and said into the mouthpiece: "Hello, Myrtle, give me Walnut five, three - oh -eight -five" — or some other number. Myrtle, sitting somewhere in a room with a switchboard the size of a dining room table, plugged in the requisite cords and made the connection for you. We didn't know it then, but Myrtle the Arthur F Black Operator's days were numbered. Soon both she and the box on the wall were replaced by stand-alone black telephones made of heavy Bakelite with a rotary dial and an ear -to -mouth receiver heavy enough to knock out a burglar. That model lasted for years but it too was destined for the trash heap of history, supplanted by the first `mobile' phones (circa 1980). They were clunky and awkward, about the size of a shoebox. Fast forward to my son's phone, 100 times more powerful, 1,000 times more versatile and tiny enough to carry around in a shirt pocket. Which he does, as does just about everyone nowadays. No excuse for being 'away from the phone' anymore. Or away from everybody elses' phones, come to that. That's why the cops busted Dennis Nicholl. Mister Nicholl is a Chicago financial analyst who takes a train filled with other commuters, most of them blabbering noisily into their cell phones. One day Mister Nicholl boarded the train carrying a mysterious gizmo festooned with several antennas. Pretty soon, nobody's cell phone worked. Mister Nicholl was jamming the calls. He was arrested and charged with `unlawful interference with a public utility'. He hasn't been sentenced yet, but if I was the judge I think I'd give him... oh, I don't know — a Citizen of the Year plaque perhaps, and maybe a couple of BlackHawks playoff tickets. I'd at least like to buy him a beer. Meanwhile, the cell phone continues to morph into new and harrowing configurations. Very soon Americans will be able to buy a brand new product: a .380 calibre, double- barrelled pistol that will fit snugly into pocket or purse. But here's the beauty part — it looks just like a smartphone! Now when somebody whips out their cell and points it at you, you won't know whether to smile for the camera or say your prayers. The U.S. government hasn't decided whether the cell phone/handgun will be subject to federal firearm restrictions. I miss Myrtle. Memorial Hall a township asset There was an awful lot of hate during a recent budget meeting for Blyth Arts and Cultural Initiative 14/19 because of the $500,000 that North Huron Township is donating to the organization. Blyth 14/19 Inc. was formed with a three - prong mission of creating the Canadian Centre for Rural Creativity, creating a perpetuity fund for the centre and upgrading the Blyth Community Memorial Hall, which needed to be done. While there are some disagreements about what upgrades are necessary and what upgrades are being done because they are instead wanted, there is an underlying agreement among most people who educate themselves on this issue: Memorial Hall is in need of some tender loving care. What isn't an underlying agreement, but instead is pure fact, is that Blyth Memorial Community Hall is owned by the municipality. Somewhere between that underlying agreement some folks are getting lost. They seem to either forget or don't want to hear that Memorial Hall is a municipal asset, and, therefore, the municipality is responsible if anything goes wrong with it. The municipality is also responsible for keeping the facility in working order and, when renovations are necessary, they must be completed or facilitated by the township. The alternative is to close Memorial Hall and before anyone thinks that isn't something that could happen, North Huron Council was forced to close the Wingham Heritage Theatre, which is just upstairs from council chambers, because of the amount of money necessary to maintain and repair the space. Memorial Hall could close if the repairs and maintenance become too costly. Fortunately, for North Huron and for Blyth, some people, including those involved with 14/19 Inc., aren't ready to let that happen. If 14/19 Inc. hadn't come along, the municipality would eventually be looking at paying for these repairs themselves or shutting down the hall. Let me repeat that. A (likely significant) amount of that more -than $4 million renovation would still be necessary if 14/19 Inc. wasn't there and would instead fall to ratepayers or result in the hall closing (and Denny ti y Scott Nis& Denny's Den likely the loss of the Blyth Festival). North Huron Township is getting one hell of a deal to have these renovations done for its investment of $500,000 (a little more than 10 per cent of the value of the entire project). As a matter of fact, I have it on good authority (I asked the folks in charge) if North Huron was getting a good deal with the proposed 14/19 Inc. project and was told that all the proposed renovations would eventually be necessary and that the township and ratepayers are definitely coming out ahead. The delegation from East Wawanosh are absolutely right; the roads are bad (though I will point out thinking that's limited to East Wawanosh is wrong. With fire calls, interviews and pictures, I travel throughout the entire municipality and bad roads are all over). Roads are the lifeblood of a community. They take everything and everyone everywhere. However, using the blood analogy, if you spend all your time worried about your blood vessels, the rest of your body is not going to survive. You can have gleaming roads, but if you don't have industry the community won't survive. You can have industry out the wazoo, but without some kind of arts and culture to attract and retain people, you will have businesses with no community around them. There needs to be balance in all things. So those saying North Huron giving $500,000 to Memorial Hall but balking at the same amount to the Wingham Hospital Foundation are being silly. I'll remind you that North Huron doesn't own the hospital. The township isn't responsible for it falling into disrepair and isn't responsible if someone is injured there and decides to sue. The township isn't responsible for keeping it open, as much as they might like to. Normally at this point in a column I would say I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with the folks that I'm writing about but as a taxpayer, I have to say that giving money to people who are going to increase it nearly tenfold seems like the best use of tax dollars possible for a facility that needs the maintenance, repairs and upgrades. I'm very much a bottom-line kind of guy, and only paying $500,000 for more than $4 million in necessary upgrades seems like a win to me. If only I could be so lucky and have someone fix my house up while only charging me 10 per cent of what it costs. During council's most recent discussion about the budget, several different donations to non -municipal groups (and one municipal) were cut because various council members couldn't justify taking tax dollars that could be used on municipal infrastructure and giving it to groups where they have no oversight as to how the funds are spent. Some council members have drawn a parallel between donating to 14/19 Inc. and other non -municipal organizations because they have no control over how the organization will spend the money, however, in the end, does it really matter? The $500,000 is part of a multi -million - dollar plan that, if recent events are any indication, will likely come to fruition. Whether the $500,000 donation is used for Memorial Hall or whether it is used elsewhere doesn't matter as long as the Memorial Hall portion of the project is completed. As Councillor Trevor Seip said during North Huron Council's budget deliberations, it doesn't matter if a $500,000 donation is made to any particular group, taxes in North Huron are still going to be high. The municipality offers infrastructure and services that aren't justified by the number of people living here and, unless every ratepayer in the municipality can agree on a service that can be cut, the amount of money it costs to run the municipality is going to stay the same. So while it's easy to point at a large value item in the budget and complain about it, the true expense of living in North Huron isn't determined by a donation here or there. It's determined by the quality of life we have and I think it's worth it. Shawn 10•15iii" Loughlin Shawn's Sense And the winner is... As some of you may have seen on our website on Friday, or read in this newspaper today, The Citizen is the best in Canada at what it does. This can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. For reporter Denny Scott and me, it's an affirmation of a number of things. It validates the work we do, the hours we put in and the direction of the steps we take, both in and out of our comfort zones. An announcement like this also tells us that the compliments we receive on the street or in the coffee shops from readers and community members on a regular basis are being echoed on a Canada -wide scale. So often you hear something is the best kept secret in a particular community/industry/sport/market. We couldn't be more proud that our secret is out. But, the North Huron Publishing universe expands to the far reaches of the community and beyond to do what it is we do. In a way, what follows is almost like an Oscar speech. I promise not to go over time. There are folks in The Citizen office like Joan Caldwell and Dianne Josling who work tirelessly to make things run smoothly here. I'm pretty sure the only thing they don't do is clean the place. And then there's Jill Roulston who is the captain of the office's ship. These folks are complemented by a dedicated sales staff that ensures the office lights stay on, supported by our local businesses and organizations that see our worth and appreciate our spot in this rural patchwork. We have a number of community correspondents — established community members who bring us the faces of our communities week after week. Then there are people like Vicky Bremner who dedicate their weekends to turning the camera lens on our communities at play. There are countless other people behind our success and these springs all run into the pond of goodwill that makes The Citizen possible. We have a hard-working mailing crew and we have community members who, because they're driving to this community or that, will deliver The Citizen for free, so that we might keep our costs down. People like Brad Knight, Matt Cardiff and others do us this kindness because The Citizen is about pulling together. No small contributor, of course, is Publisher Keith Roulston who forever remains committed to the "community" half of the term community newspaper and works hard and sacrifices to give The Citizen the tools it needs to flourish. Whether that means saying yes where many organizations might say no, or lending his intelligence and experience to what we do on a weekly basis, Keith is always in our corner to do what's best, what's right and what's necessary. And, of course, I have to mention the company's board of directors and shareholders. Local ownership is at the very core of what we do, as local faces put our work ahead of the bottom line — starting from our very first investors all the way up to today. But of course no list such as this would be complete without the members of The Citizen's communities. No story can be great if the subject matter itself is not great. So whether it's a man who engraved the Stanley Cup, the award-winning Blyth Festival, champion hockey teams, well- spoken public school students, business leaders, visionaries, farmers or community champions — thanks for welcoming us into your homes and offices. You all are, in no uncertain terms, the blood that runs through The Citizen's veins.