HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-11-17, Page 1INSIDE
THIS WEEK:
CENTRE - Pg. 8
Architect named for new
CCRC building in Blyth
FUND - Pg. 9
Cowbell fund will benefit
children's hospitals
HISTORY - Pg. 10
Local's aunt honoured
as hero in Holland
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Volume 32 No. 45
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Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, November 17, 2016
An act of Remembrance
The Brussels Legion held its annual Remembrance Day
ceremony on the lawn in front of the Branch and in front of
the village's spectacular cenotaph. This year's service
featured the inclusion of 47 hand -made ceramic poppies
made by Huron County volunteers. The poppies, 550 of
them, had been placed in Goderich in front of the town's
cenotaph, to mark the 100th anniversary of the 161st
Huron Battalion in World War I. The poppies were then distributed
amongst area Legions according to how many names were
engraved on each Legion's cenotaph for World War I. The
Brussels Legion received 47 of those poppies. Hundreds were in
attendance for the village's service, which began at the cenotaph
and was followed by a church service at Brussels United Church.
(Shawn Loughlin photo)
Three premieres in Festival 2017 season
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
The Blyth Festival will tackle
some of the country's most serious
issues, while also hitting a
celebratory note, as it welcomes
patrons into the newly -renovated
Memorial Hall for the 2017 season.
Artistic Director Gil Garratt told
The Citizen he wanted to kick
off next year's season, in the
year of Canada's sesquicentennial
anniversary, on a celebratory note
before exploring some pressing
Canadian issues.
The 43rd season of the Blyth
Festival will begin with Mr. New
Year's Eve: A Night with Guy
Lombardo, written by David Scott.
Scott, who last wrote The Ballad
of Stompin' Tom for the Blyth
Festival, has been working on Mr.
New Year's Eve for nearly 10 years,
Garratt said. The production was
originally planned for The Grand
Theatre in London, but didn't find a
home after multiple workshops.
Lombardo was a London, Ontario
native who, with his band The Royal
Canadians, sold over 300 million
records internationally. He also
hosted the biggest New Year's Eve
broadcast in North America.
Scott, Garratt said, is a devotee of
old vinyl recordings and he fell in
love with the music of Lombardo
and his band. Garratt attended one of
the early workshops of the play in
London and now that so much time
has passed, he feels the show is the
perfect way to welcome Blyth
Festival audiences into the new and
improved Memorial Hall.
Garratt says that by today's
standards, it's difficult to
comprehend the "meteoric success"
of Lombardo from 1929 to the mid-
1970s. To this day, Garratt says, it's
Lombardo's recording of "Auld
Land Syne" that is played in
Manhattan as the ball drops to usher
in the new year.
It was many of the behind -the -
scenes stories, however, that
interested both Scott and Garratt.
Lombardo's father, a musician in
his own right, insisted that his
children learn to play music.
Lombardo's career took off, while
his father's went nowhere.
Between the two men there was
also a great struggle as Lombardo
began playing jazz music, a decision
his father strongly opposed.
In addition, Garratt said that
Lombardo and his band still had a
deep, grassroots connection to
Huron County.
After playing the Grand Band
bandstand for many summers, when
the band hit it big, Lombardo and the
band would religiously return to
Huron County for shows,
performing in communities like
Bayfield and Seaforth up until the
1960s as Lombardo's career drew to
a close.
Garratt has lofty expectations for
the production, which will take the
form of one of Lombardo's famous
New Year's Eve productions. There
will be performances with an eight -
piece band while the "show" is "on
air" and during "commercial breaks"
the production will delve deeper into
Lombardo's history and his life.
The reason Garratt chose Mr. New
Year's Eve to open the season is
because he wanted to present
something celebratory in the year of
Canada's 150th, Blyth's 140th and
as the new and improved Memorial
Hall is reintroduced to audiences.
For opening night, Garratt hopes to
host a dance in the hall after the
premiere of the show to cap off the
celebration.
The season's second show will be
Continued on page 18
Hospice
debate
persists
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
The issue of hospice beds in
Huron County continues to be a hot
topic, as Lisa Penner, South West
Hospice Palliative Care Lead, spoke
to Huron County Council last week.
Penner, who updated council on
the ongoing hospice initiative at its
Nov. 9 committee of the whole
meeting, said that the need for
hospice and palliative care has been
identified in Huron and Perth
Counties. A report, which will
identify a preferred location for the
beds, among other things, is
expected earlier next year.
In her presentation, Penner said
that a residential hospice solution
must provide a unified approach to
care, not a separate solution for
communities in isolation of one
another.
Many area councils are waiting
for the report before making any
decisions. Huron East Mayor Bernie
MacLellan asked about the report
and Penner said it is expected later
this month in draft form, but once
recommendations are made based
on the report, it will be presented to
the public likely early next year.
MacLellan and his lower -tier
council of Huron East are waiting on
the report before they support any
one hospice solution. This decision
came after the council received a
presentation from the Jessica's
House hospice proposal, planned for
Exeter.
MacLellan also said that while he
supports the concept of hospice and
palliative care, he feels it's yet
another example of lower -tier levels
of government having to pay for
health care, which should be funded
by the provincial and federal
governments.
Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh
Reeve Ben Van Diepenbeek
expressed his skepticism regarding
hospice, saying that in many cases,
when patients are in need of intense
care, a hospital is where that patient
needs to be.
Van Diepenbeek says he's been
through end -of -life care before with
a loved one and the care that a
patient receives at a hospital is
invaluable.
He was also skeptical about the
fundraising model, saying it was all
well and good for the hospice
committee to forecast hundreds of
thousands of dollars raised by the
community, but if and when those
efforts fail, it will be the county and
municipalities that have to pick up
the bill.
Bluewater Mayor Tyler Hessel
Continued on page 15