HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2015-06-11, Page 1CitizenTh
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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, June 11, 2015
Volume 31 No. 23
CHURCH - Pg. 12
Walton’s Duff’s United
celebrates 150 years
FESTIVAL - Pg. 10
Organizers work to get
new festival off the ground
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:
Twice the training
While some firefighters trained on the weekend as part of
the “Managing Agricultural Emergencies” program put on at
the Emergency Services Training Centre, Fire Department
of North Huron Chief David Sparling got to enjoy the
training twice as he sat in on Huron Christian School’s farm
safety program at the centre on Friday. Sparling, left, is
shown being bandaged up by Ryan VanDorp of the school.
Behind VanDorp and Sparling, Breanna Heyink, left, and Emily
Damsma are getting some one-on-two tutelage from program
organizer Wayne Bauer, who also administered the program to
Hullett Central and F.E. Madill students last week. The event was
sponsored by Townsend Tire, Sparling’s Propane, Howson Mills,
Huron Tractor, the Huron County Federation of Agriculture and the
Huron Farm and Home Safety Association. (Denny Scott photo)
N. Huron
approves
new CBS
Council supports ambitious Brussels barn project
Grey resident Bryan Morton has
an ambitious plan for Brussels
involving transporting a barn to the
former site of the Brussels Hotel that
he hopes will address a number of
needs in the community.
Morton spoke to Huron East
Council about the project at
council’s June 2 meeting, saying that
Brussels is a community that “needs
help” and he hopes to give back.
Morton has farmed in Grey for
over 40 years and he feels that it’s
time to provide the community with
a project that will help it in its hour
of need. He hopes that the project
will be self-sufficient within a short
time period and he is not seeking any
profits from it.
The barn, he envisions, will house
a number of things – including an
indoor home for the Brussels
Farmers’ Market, which will enable
it to run year-round. He also says he
hopes it will include a restaurant, a
courtyard, a venue for events such as
weddings and eventually a bakery.
The L-shaped barn, he said, would
run along the back side of the
Brussels Library and then towards
the village’s main street. There will
be no frontage on the main street,
however, although there will be
eventual plans that will see an
enclosed garden face the main street,
Morton told council.
Mayor Bernie MacLellan said that
he and council were excited about
the proposal and wondered aloud
what council could do to help
Morton and his plans along.
The first step, Chief
Administrative Officer Brad Knight
said, is that the municipality owns
one of the lots on which this new
building would sit. Morton said he
would like to buy the property from
the municipality, to which Knight
responded that council will have to
decide how it wants to proceed.
The first step, he said, would be
for council to declare the lot as
“surplus” to the municipality’s needs
and then the sale process could
continue from there.
Knight said the property could be
opened to public tender, or there are
other avenues council could decide
to pursue.
“We love the concept and we love
the investment in downtown
Brussels,” MacLellan said.
He added that council would also
support the project through selling
the land.
“We certainly don’t have any
objections to selling the property,”
MacLellan said.
The project will involve three
properties. Two have already been
purchased by Morton, in deals due to
close soon. The third is the
municipal property.
MacLellan said that Morton and
his team will have to get their ducks
in a row and then come back to
council, because there isn’t much the
group can do for them at this point.
Morton said that he has had the
concept in his mind for a long time,
but that it was nice to see it actually
progressing and that it was good to
have council’s support.
MacLellan also added that there
will be a number of planning criteria
that the project will have to
North Huron’s new cross-border
servicing policy, which gives the
municipality more options for
negotiating services, was approved
in draft form at the township’s June
2 meeting.
Chief Administrative Officer
Sharon Chambers explained that the
new policy was definitely necessary.
“The old policy was a one-size fits
all approach,” she said. “However,
each individual development outside
our border may have different
requirements. The cookie-cutter
policy style may not make sense
here.”
She said the focus of the new
document is to make sure
negotiations are fair, ensure the
value in capacity comes back to the
municipality and that agreements
make financial sense for all
involved.
“Currently we have different
arrangements with different
neighbours,” she said. “With
Morris-Turnberry, we have an
agreement where we have shared
services but with Central Huron
there are no current agreements that
are contributing to any services in
North Huron. These different
services need to be recognized.
“The policy needs to be flexible to
deal with these situations when we
have a development on our borders,”
she said.
The policy requires the host
A letter written by Huron East
Mayor Bernie MacLellan has stirred
up a hornet’s nest of controversy
among his fellow councillors, who
said they found themselves between
a rock and a hard place as a result.
The letter, titled “A Message from
the Mayor”, was sent to councillors
and released to the public late last
month when it was included in
council’s agenda package for the
June 2 meeting. It detailed a vote
that took place in a closed-to-the-
public session, naming the six
councillors who voted against seeing
new information pertaining to an
issue upon which MacLellan would
not expand further and that is
protected under closed-to-the-public
session privacy.
While the letter had initially been
filed as correspondence for a closed-
to-the-public session at council’s
June 2 meeting, MacLellan
subsequently requested that the
letter be part of the public portion of
the agenda, therefore making it a
public document.
“Should council have the right to
The Citizen
Celebrating 30 Years
1985~2015
MacLellan’s letter causes stir
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 16
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 18
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 19