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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, March 5, 2015
Volume 31 No. 9
BUDGET - Pg. 16
North Huron Council
continues to tweak budget
PIPELINE - Pg. 6
Councillors discuss potential
for natural gas delivery
Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0
INSIDE
THIS WEEK:
Blyth BIA’s vision to lean heavily on 14/19, ESTC
A valiant effort
Try as he may have, Blyth Brussels PeeWee Rep Crusaders goalie Max Newson just could
not keep this particular puck out of the net on Saturday as the Mariposa Lightning beat the
hometown heroes by a score of 3-0 on Saturday at the Blyth and District Community Centre
in the first game of their Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) semi-final series. The
Crusaders, however, as their name suggests, came right back on Sunday with a shutout of
their own, evening the series at one with a 4-0 win. The local Midget AE team was also in
OMHA semi-final action over the weekend, posting two wins and taking a commanding series
lead over the Tweed Hawks. Both teams are on the road this weekend, hoping to return to
Huron County victorious. (Jasmine deBoer photo)
Midget, PeeWee Crusaders inch closer to OMHA final
Rick Elliott, a past-president of the
Blyth Business Improvement Area
(BIA), says there are plenty of
exciting and interesting things going
on in Blyth in terms of business and
that the future looks bright.
While it’s true, Elliott said at the
BIA’s annual general meeting last
week, that 2014 saw some Blyth
businesses close their doors, 2014
also saw a number of new businesses
open theirs, including the Wonky
Frog, the Purple Poodle as well as a
number of other unique businesses.
“People are looking to this village
to invest and to invest significantly,”
Elliott said during his presentation
entitled A Business Year in Review
and a Vision for 2015 and Beyond.
“People are looking to build in rural
Ontario, but there’s value added to
Blyth specifically.”
Elliott also pointed to the re-
development happening at the
former site of the Grandview
restaurant just south of Blyth in
Central Huron as what should be a
source of pride for residents and
fellow business owners.
For further evidence of thinking
outside the box in Blyth, Elliott
pointed to GS Consulting and Huron
Adventures, both run by Central
Huron Councillor Genny Smith,
which are centralized at the former
Blyth Public School building. He
also highlighted ongoing indoor
soccer workshops by former
professional soccer player Poncho
Melo that are also being held at the
former school.
Elliott told those assembled for the
meeting at the Bainton Gallery at
Memorial Hall that there are also a
number of businesses that are in
various stages of locating their
services in Blyth.
The two focuses of his 2015
vision, however, are Campaign
14/19 and the Emergency Services
Training Centre (ESTC), both of
which hold immeasurable potential,
both for the village and for other
village businesses.
14/19
In its first official year, Elliott said,
Campaign 14/19 generated a lot of
interest and excitement and it shows
no signs of slowing down.
Last year saw three of the
initiative’s events impress, such as
the Follow The Light artistic walk on
the Blyth Greenway Trail, the Huron
Art and Sound Festival at the
Clinton Raceway and August’s
Fare on 4, which saw nearly
1,500 fed outdoors on Blyth’s main
street.
Fare on 4 specifically, Elliott said,
was an event that really proved the
strength of Blyth.
For a village with a population of
1,000 to feed 1,419 on its main
street, Elliott said, proved that Blyth
and its people are more than capable
of executing initiatives that are
bigger than the village itself.
The moment when chefs Peter
Gusso and Jason Rutledge received
an impromptu standing ovation from
the collected diners, Elliott said, is
one that will forever be etched in his
memory.
He said that later this year, a
number of courses will be held at the
former Blyth Public School through
the Canadian Centre for Rural
Creativity, an educational venture
beginning as part of Campaign
14/19. Courses will include
photojournalism, documentary
filmmaking and fashion design, as
well as others.
The hope, Elliott said, is that the
former playground of the school will
be repurposed to facilitate a
community garden. The garden will
be just the beginning, however, of a
culinary course at the centre taught
by Kathy Douglas and Laura Peach,
both of Blyth.
Elliott also discussed the Rural
Trust being established. The hope,
he said, is that it will create a fund
that will help young, rural
entrepreneurs with a vision, but not
The deadline has been extended
and the pot has been sweetened for
The Citizen’s latest contest, asking
readers to finish the sentence, “It
was so cold...”
While the weather may be starting
to warm slightly, we’re sure the
memories of -28ºC haven’t melted
away just quite yet and we want to
hear them and see them.
The Citizen is asking for pictures
and stories from its readers that
illustrate just how cold the months of
January and February have been for
our readers.
Up for grabs for the top three
entries is one litre of Part II Bistro
Chef Peter Gusso’s pre-made soups.
All you have to do is tell us a story or
send us a picture that brings back
those ice cold feelings.
E-mail a story or a picture to
editor@northhuron.on.ca for a
chance to win and entries will be
featured in an upcoming issue of The
Citizen. The deadline for entries has
been extended to Friday, March 13 at
5 p.m.
It was so cold... How cold was it?
That’s where you come in. The
Citizen can’t wait to hear your
stories!
After impressive starts, two local
teams are seeking continued success
in their Ontario Minor Hockey
Association (OMHA) semi-final
championship games and perhaps a
berth in the finals.
The Blyth Brussels Midget AE
Crusaders and PeeWee Crusaders
are two of four teams from the area
that found themselves competing at
the Western Ontario Athletics
Association (WOAA) championship
level so far, and are the only teams
currently competing for OMHA
championships.
Both teams started their semi-final
series this weekend with the Midgets
taking on Tweed while the PeeWee
squad faced off against Mariposa.
PEEWEE CRUSADERS
The PeeWee squad took on
Mariposa over the weekend in two
games on Saturday and Sunday
evening, posting a loss and a win,
respectively.
Saturday, the squad lost 3-0 in the
first match of the series but the team
turned it around and managed a 4-0
win on Sunday.
Coach Andrew vanVliet explained
that Saturday the team ran into some
problems with penalties which led to
the loss.
“We knew going in that they had a
good team,” he said. “They are fast
and we didn’t stay out of the box.
Discipline was a bit of an issue there,
but that’s how it goes.”
Sunday, however, the team
benefitted from avoiding the sin bin.
“We stayed out of the box on
Sunday and definitely had a better
effort,” vanVliet said. “Saturday we
gave up two goals to the power-play
but Sunday we got two power play
goals and two even strength goals.
It’s just a matter of staying out of the
box.”
This week the remainder of the
six-point series will continue with
three games scheduled in Little
Britain on March 6, 7 and 8 and a
match scheduled in Brussels on
March 10 if needed.
VanVliet and fellow coach Joshua
Nurse both felt the team had been
playing well since the beginning of
the season, which is how they ended
up in the OMHA semi-finals.
“We’ve been doing really well,”
Nurse said. “I kind of knew we
would do well against the last couple
teams [Wingham and West Grey].
Mariposa is a pretty tough team,
however, so we’ll hopefully be able
to get past them and move on to the
championships.”
“The kids have really done well all
season,” vanVliet said. “We’re not
going to overlook our competition
this time of the year, but everyone
has been chipping in, which helps
this late in the season.”
The coach went on to say that the
team really does work well together.
“They’re just a great bunch of kids
and they have all been on board
since the start of the season,”
vanVliet said. “They pretty well do
everything we’ve been trying to tell
them and when they started doing
that, that was where everything
we’re doing today followed from.”
The team has done well since the
beginning of the season posting 30
wins up to the beginning of the
weekend, nine losses and four ties.
In the previous series against
The Citizen
Celebrating 30 Years
1985~2015
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 9
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
‘How cold was it?’
Continued on page 19