HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2013-01-03, Page 10PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 2013.
Munro festival
deemed a success
Festival announces 2013 season, officers honouredContinued from page 9position, saying one of the things shewas most proud of was not fallingoff of her horse during the BoothillBash celebrity challenge at BrusselsHomecoming.John Black, the late chief of theFire Department of North Huron,was set to be honoured as HuronCounty’s top firefighter, an awardhanded out annually by the warden
and the rest of Huron County
Council.
Both attendance and submissions
were said to be low at the Brussels
Fall Fair, a fact that was attributed
largely to the closure of Brussels
Public School.
The former Blyth Public School
building was sold to an anonymous
bidder at the Sept. 20 auction.
Morris-Turnberry Council began
the restructuring process, moving to
reduce the number of councillors by
two and to eliminate the ward
system.
Papineau, Quebec MP Justin
Trudeau was in Seaforth to meet
with Liberal Party supporters in an
event catered by Blyth’s Peter
Gusso, owner and operator of Part II
Bistro and The Station House bed
and breakfast.
Interim Artistic Director Peter
Smith announced that the Blyth
Festival would be taking on a
Christmas play later in the year.
He said the play would be “local”
adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A
Christmas Carol, featuring any local
person who was willing to step out
onto the stage.
A business retention and
expansion report on Blyth was
presented three times in the
community to mixed reviews.
“The reaction was less than
favourable,” said Blyth BIA Chair
Rick Elliott.
McGavin Farm Equipment in
Walton and The Old Mill in Blyth
looked to the future and participated
as charging stations for the Sun
Country Highway, a project enabling
electric cars to travel across Canada.Huron-Bruce MPP LisaThompson said she was “frustrated”with the resignation of PremierDalton McGuinty, calling it “acheap, selfish way to avoid furtherscandal”.
Those involved with the Gateway
Rural Health Research Institute in
Seaforth announced that it would be
officially partnering with Georgian
College to offer joint programming
in future years.
The Blyth Festival announced its
2013 season, which will be led by a
remount of Dear Johnny Deare and
then a new visit to The Farm Show
with Beyond The Farm Show.
Three fallen Huron County police
officers were honoured with bridges
being named after them.
Vu Pham, Dave Mounsey
and Bruce Crew were honoured on
Nov. 1 when OPP Commissioner
Chris Lewis were in Goderich
to officially make the
announcement.
It was announced that a
corporation appropriately called
237 King Street had purchased
the former Blyth Public School
building. The corporation
consists of Steven and
David Sparling and Rick and Jeff
Elliott.
No further details were available
on the group’s future intentions for
the building and the surrounding
property.
The Nuclear Waste Management
Organization began its screening
process in Central Huron,
investigating whether or not the
municipality will make a good site
for a nuclear waste facility.
The Blyth Festival announced that
Canadian singer/songwriter
Fred Eaglesmith, the artist at the
heart of 2012’s runaway success
Dear Johnny Deare, would
be performing live at Memorial
Hall to help kick off the 2013
season.
Organizers said they hoped the
move would help expose theatre-
goers to Eaglesmith and Eaglesmith
fans to the theatre.
Gordon McGavin and Russel
Bolton were honoured by being
inducted to the Ontario Agricultural
Hall of Fame. Their replica
induction documents were hung in
the Huron County Museum as a
local reminder of their honour and
contribution to the world of
agriculture.
Huron East was awarded a grant of
over $65,000 for the construction of
the Brussels Library, which is set to
commence in 2013.
Blyth’s Emergency Services
Training Centre and Conestoga
College announced that they would
be officially partnering.
Morris-Turnberry Council set a
fire deal deadline with North Huron,
giving North Huron until Jan. 8 to
decide on the terms dictated by
Morris-Turnberry.
Morris-Turnberry’s history book A
Harvest of Memories was released.
South Huron Mayor George
Robertson was named Huron County
warden, ending Huron East’s Bernie
MacLellan’s bid for a second term in
the position.
After the release of Huron County
CAO Larry Adams, the county hired
a new CAO, Brenda Orchard.
A new use for the former East
Wawanosh Public School building
was approved by Huron County
Council. The building has been
purchased by Euro-Parts of
Lucknow owner Henry Van Heesch.
The Alice Munro Readers and
Writers Festival was a success
according to organizer Karen
Stewart.
The festival, which was held in
Wingham and Blyth, was a
revitalizing effort by the group after
the festival’s previous cancellation.
Stewart explained during North
Huron Township’s Dec. 18 meeting
that the future of the festival was one
of continuing growth saying that,
over the next three to five years, they
hoped to revitalize the program.
“The festival recognizes and
celebrates Alice Munro and provides
a forum for writers and offerg
opportunities for like-minded people
to communicate,” she said.
The festival had every age
represented according to Stewart,
with 52 submissions in the adult
category and five in the youth
category. Stewart explained that, for
a festival serving an area the size of
North Huron, that was an expected
turnout.
“That’s a good sign that, in the
first year, we had that kind of
turnout,” she said.
The Festival ran Sept. 28 to 30 and
was launched at Blyth Memorial
Hall featuring Munro’s former
publisher, a book fair, a gala dinner,
silent auction and the final awards
ceremony. In Wingham, a brunch
Big draws
The Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association held its annual reunion in Blyth in
September, above, while neighbouring village Brussels also held a rather large celebration in
honour of its Homecoming anniversary. Steve Scott, above, an Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh
chainsaw artist, entertained school children at the reunion, while the Ryan family, below,
celebrated nearly 140 years of farming in the McKillop community. (File photos)
October
November
December
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 14