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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2015-06-11, Page 1CitizenTh e $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