HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-11-10, Page 22PAGE 22. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2016.
Progress
Blyth Cowbell Brewing Company hit another milestone in
the construction of its new headquarters at the corner of
London and Blyth Roads with the erection of its first timber
frames. The frames are several storeys high and needed a
crane to place them. The company hopes to have the
building open to the public early next year. (Dennyscottphoto)
Howick Mutual to build new
office on former school site
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
but beyond that we haven't done
much planning."
When asked, Inglis said the
The former Turnberry Central building would be pleasing to the
Public School property, which was eye.
purchased nearly five years ago by "That's our plan and we're
Morris-Turnberry Council, has extremely excited about it," he said,
found a new owner and purpose with adding that working with Morris-
Howick Mutual Insurance. Turnberry and Huron County has
After the township passed an been a good experience.
Official Plan amendment and zoning The property's zoning had to be
bylaw during its Nov. 1 meeting, the revised, according to Huron County
company explained it was looking to Planner Susanna Reid, as the current
use the site for a new office building. VC2 special zone would not permit
The site, which is currently home a professional office. The property
to several soccer fields, may still would also be under a special zone
have some soccer fields, as well as a that would allow some of the
12,000 -square -foot building. existing soccer fields be used.
Kevin Inglis, the president of Reid explained that normally with
Howick Mutual Insurance, said the a facility and accompanying sports
company has been located in field, parking would need to be
Howick Township for a long time, adequate for both, however she said
but they are looking to consolidate that since the office and sports
their Hanover and Wroxeter sites to field will not be used at the same
the new site in Wingham time, the parking need wouldn't
"We're a fairly large company be as high.
with revenues in the $20 -million The property had proved to be a
range and assets in the $46 -million contentious issue for Morris -
[range]," he said. "We employ 23 Turnberry which ran into issues
people from the general area." preparing it for development when
Inglis told council the land had archaelogical artifacts were found
come to the attention of the on the site.
company board of directors when The area containing the artifacts
they decided to start looking for a has been cordoned off from
new site. development and is not included in
"We're extremely excited about any of the plans for Howick Mutual.
the potential of coming to Morris- As far as neighbours, Henry van
Turnberry," he said. "We see a Heesch, owner of Eurohome, which
professional office facility at the recently opened its retail location on
location and see it as a blank canvas a neighbouring property, said he was
at the time. It will be 10,000 to in favour of the development.
12,000 square feet and one storey, Jonathan and Ainsley Morrison,
also neighbours of the property,
were happy with the development
provided it wouldn't force
neighbouring properties to switch to
municipal sewer or water.
Administrator Clerk -Treasurer
Nancy Michie explained the services
to the property were existing and
wouldn't impact neighbouring
properties.
Mayor Paul Gowing was happy to
see the property fulfilling the vision
council had for it when they
purchased it.
"That property was purchased by
Morris-Turnberry in 2012 with the
idea of the municipality being in
control of it to take it to its highest
and best use and benefit the
community and this proposed
development is doing exactly that,"
he said. "I'm very excited to see this
happen. It's a great fit... This is one
of the best properties in the area,
near the crossroads of Highways 4
and 86, for accessibility... It's a great
fit for what's proposed."
Councillor Jim Nelemans asked
Inglis if the company would be
building right away, to which Inglis
said they would.
"That's the plan," he said.
"Currently, we're operating out of
two offices and the real desire is to
get everything under one roof. If
everything lines up for us, we see the
process starting immediately."
With the municipality approving
the changes, the issue will be going
to Huron County Council to be
approved before any changes
happen at the site.
Letters to the Editor
Long-time Festival collaborator critical of decision
THE EDITOR,
Recently the Board of the Blyth
Festival decided not to renew the
contract of their long-time General
Manager Deb Sholdice.
Deb had wide contacts within the
community, a detailed knowledge of
a very complex organization and her
financial expertise has been all that
has been keeping the place going.
Her successor will have grave
difficulties mastering the myriad
duties of a General Manager, while
at the same time learning how to
navigate what has become the
snake pit of village politics.
As I'm sure Deb was keenly
aware, things are at a critical stage.
Last year the audience was
10,000. This year it was 14,000 — far
from the 25 to 30,000 it should be or
the 40,000 it was under former
Artistic Director Katherine Kaszas,
or even the 17,000 under Marion de
Vries which the board deemed
insufficient.
The board membership is
truncated and feeble — nine members
when there should be 19. Their
donor base is being steadily eaten
Writer supports
councillor's letter
THE EDITOR,
I want to voice my full support for
the letter submitted by Councillor
Sharen Zinn in last week's edition of
The Citizen. It is clear that
Councillor Zinn fully understands
the gravity of the potential impact of
the topic that triggered this
discussion — mailed out postcards of
notice of amendments to the Official
Plan — and wanted her constituents
to be fully informed.
Many recipients of the postcard
sent out by the municipal office
treated them the same as they would
any other advertising — threw them
out without a second look. In fact,
the postcard strongly resembled
many other pieces of unsolicited
junk mail and, really, how many
hearing aid flyers do we want to look
at?
Without making any accusations,
it could be said that the notification
format chosen by the municipality
left much to be desired as a tool to
bring such an important topic to the
attention of those whom it affects.
Why would the municipality (or the
county) not find a more effective
means of telling private property
owners that they (the municipality
and/or county) are almost arbitrarily
putting significant limitations to
what the property owners may do on
their own land? When a question of
this nature was raised recently at a
public meeting, the response was
"let the courts figure it out". Lovely.
So, a big "thank you" to
Councillor Zinn for her
conscientious service.
John Schwartzentruber,
Brussels.
away and the renovations are raising
expectations, which will be very
difficult to meet.
Given all this, one wonders why
the board would decide to fire two
key people — both suddenly and in
secret and in circumstances where
14/19 was allowed to play a role.
In the case of Deb Sholdice,
why was it so important to the
board that 14/19 be given
the management of Memorial Hall?
In the case of Marion de Vries,
why did Board President David
Armstrong insist on retaining his
seat on the Board of Directors of
14/19 even though he could see
that this was creating much bad
feeling?
And why, for all its vast wealth
and expenditure, does 14/19 remain
so obscure?
What is it? Is it a Banff School of
Fine Arts? Is it Fogo Island? Is it a
Centre for Rural Culture? A Craft
School? A Rural Retreat? A
Platform for Peter Smith's shows?
Who knows?
What we do know is that the
festival has lost a key administrator,
and the theatre is in mourning.
Yours sincerely,
Ted Johns.
A handful of local beauties volunteered their services Saturday as the Brussels Agricultural
Society held its first-ever ladies night at the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre. One
of the main attractions of the night was a fashion show with outfits supplied by Marita's Fashion
Boutique in Clinton and The Cowboy Loft in Brussels. Lending their modelling talents to the
society that night were, from left: Julie Harrison, Dale Chesher, Abi Corbett, Jennie
Schimanski, Annette McCutcheon, Rhonda McArter, Olivia McArter and Donna Bauer. (Vicky
Bremner photo)