HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-08-25, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 2016. Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny Scott Advertising Sales: Brenda Nyveld The Citizen is published 50 times a year in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $36.00/year ($34.29 + $1.71 G.S.T.) in Canada; $160.00/year in U.S.A. and $205/year in other foreign countries. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Mon. 2 p.m. - Brussels; Mon. 4 p.m. - Blyth. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON NOG 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0 Ph. 519-523-4792 Fax 519-523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1H0 Phone 519-887-9114 E-mail info@northhuron.on.ca Website www.northhuron.on.ca Canada ..ocna CCNA Member of the Ontario Press Council We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or Department of Canadian Heritage. photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright CMCA AUDITED Living, working side by side After lengthy discussion, Huron County Council recently voted to join the Southwest Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) initiative to bring high-speed internet connections to rural southwestern Ontario. The need is great. Here's hoping SWIFT is the best answer. The initiative will see the federal and provincial governments each contribute nearly $90 million while the service providers will chip in $72 million and municipalities $18 million According to Roger Watt, deputy -reeve of Ashfield-Colborne- Wawanosh and the county's representative to SWIFT, only 28 per cent of Huron County residents currently have access to fibre-optic high-speed internet. That's a handicap for anyone trying to do business in today's connected world. We need faster internet connectivity. But we also need the local telecoms which have been making valiant strides on their own to expand the fibre optic network. It would harm our county if the rules of the game favoured large national companies and disadvantaged our own companies. Here's hoping the problem can be solved to benefit everyone. — KR A bronze -medal country Canadian athletes returned from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro with many more bronze medals than any other colour, which is kind of typical of our country — and that's not a bad thing. Our athletes came in third 15 times, nearly four times as many times as they came in first and five times as often as they came in second. Though our medal count of 22 put us in 10th place among the 88 competing nations, we had fewer gold and silver medals than any other country in the top 14. But third place is a bit symbolic of the kind of country we are. We're good, better than many other countries (much larger countries like India, Brazil, Egypt and Mexico finished well behind us in the medal count) but we trail the countries we're used to looking up at, like the U.S. which topped the count with 115 — twice as many gold medals as Canadians took home in medals of all colours. But this kind of regular reminder that we'll never be the most powerful nation has helped develop the kind of modest national personality that Canadians show to the world. We've never been a nation that conquers others. We muddle through, trying our best and if our best is only third place, then we'll take it. On the positive side, this doesn't engender the kind of arrogance that led a group of U.S. swimmers to trash a Brazilian service station washroom and claim they'd been held up at gunpoint when they were asked to pay for the damage. Being number three, and humble, isn't such a bad place to be. — KR A trip that proves a point Some well-heeled tourists began an vacation this week that only the hardiest of adventurers could have experienced in times past, and the fact they can actually make this trip in comfort should put to rest any debate about whether or not we're experiencing global warming. The Crystal Serenity, a 300 -metre -long luxury cruise ship with 1,070 passengers and 700 crew members on board, was to scheduled to leave Anchorage, Alaska on Tuesday, travel through the legendary Northwest Passage across the north of Canada and dock in New York on Sept. 17. This would have been unimaginable before warming temperatures began reducing the ice cover of Canada's Arctic. Until recent years the Arctic Ocean has remained covered with thick ice even during the warmer summer months. Explorers such as Sir John Franklin put thir lives in peril trying to find a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific across the top of Canada (Franklin and all 129 members of his crew died when their two ships were trapped in ice in 1845). In 1909 Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen finally found a path through the ice but shifting ice meant that there was no certainty anybody else could ever follow him. So the fact that the owners of a huge cruise ship have confidence they can take their ship through the Northwest Passage speaks volumes about the arctic climate. The adventure those passengers are paying between $22,000 and $120,000 to experience is proof positive that climate change is not the invention of paranoid environmentalists. — KR Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise. Looking Back Through the Years Aug. 26, 1959 The Blyth Continuation School held its reunion on RR1, Clinton and approximately 70 people were in attendance in order to honour former teacher Fred Sloman and his wife, both of Clinton. Sloman left Blyth in 1923 to teach in Northern Ontario and had continued teaching in a mobile railroad school — which had been documented in many Canadian publications, such as MacLean's. At latest count, over 15,500 people had made their way through the Huron County Museum in Goderich. Emily Kerr of Michigan was listed as being the museum's 15,000th visitor that year. The high level of attendance in 1959 was said to be a record for the museum. It was said to be an increase in attendance of nearly 5,000 people from the same time the previous year. August 27, 1970 An unlawful barricade was placed across County Road 12 just south of Brussels which almost cost Wayne Baker of Atwood his life. Police said that Baker, travelling on the road just after 10 p.m. on Aug. 22 ran into the "unlighted obstruction" that had been erected by people "looking for a thrill". When the car struck the barricade, it careened across a ditch and went end over end through a fence and narrowly missed a pond on the property of Bill Turnbull. Wingham OPP officers reported that charges against some local teenagers were pending in connection with the event. Ned Rutledge heard the crash and immediately called the police. The car was said to be a total wreck as a result of the incident. A benefit dance held for Mr. and Mrs. William Thamer of Walton was said to be well attended. The event intended to raise money for the couple whose home had been destroyed by fire. Copies of The Brussels Post from 1899 had been found by resident Gerald Gibson. He was renovating the stairs in his new home when he found the decades -old newspapers. August 27, 1986 Police were busy waging the war on drugs in Huron County when they destroyed a marijuana crop found in a field near Wroxeter. The destroyed crop has a street value of $2 million. Police found the crop growing near a vacant barn hidden by a large stand of corn. They finally found the marijuana when it began to grow even higher than the corn crop. After staking out the plot for some time, hoping someone would arrive to harvest it, police eventually decided to destroy the crop when no one showed up. Because of the size of the crop, it took a nearby farmer hired by police six hours to harvest the crop so it could be destroyed. Some Thing Special opened in Brussels, featuring a full line of women's clothing in a main street location right beside Oldfield's Pro Hardware. Things were going well in Brussels, as the opening of the store was described as just the latest step in a boom continuing throughout the village. Five people were injured, two seriously, after a two -vehicle collision in Auburn. It was said to be a miracle that no one died as a result of the collision. Two cars, both of which contained families from RR3, Blyth, were traveling west of Auburn when one lost control and skidded sideways into oncoming traffic. The impact of the collision tore one of the cars nearly in half as a result. The Brussels Lawn Bowling Club handed out its annual hardware with plenty of competition for the Carter Trophy. Frank Carter presented the trophy awarded in his name to Mr. and Mrs. Don Haines of Auburn, a couple that represented the Clinton Lawn Bowling Club, following the tournament that had been held in Brussels. August 28, 2002 After a year of frustration and a lack of attendance in 2001, there was some talk that Brussels would no longer play host to its annual Terry Fox Run. However, organizer Waneta Leishman said she was inspired to hold the run once again in 2002 after the 2001 event still raised over $5,000 for the Terry Fox Foundation. The Huron County Health Unit announced that two more crows had tested positive for West Nile Virus, one in Clinton and the other in Seaforth. As a precaution, the Health Unit said it would no longer collect dead crows in those communities, but urged residents to remain vigilant and to continue to report dead crows to the Health Unit. Huron East Deputy -Mayor Bernie MacLellan had his say in regards to the $8,947.79 legal bill Huron East was facing after its failed legal challenge against the Avon Maitland District School Board, saying he felt it had been mishandled — but he had missed council's previous meeting. MacLellan said he thought he understood that ratepayers would be canvassed ahead of the money being spent.