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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2013-02-14, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2013.Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Acting Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny ScottAdvertising Sales: Ken Warwick & Lori Patterson The CitizenP.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Ph. 519-523-4792 Fax 519-523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. N0G 1H0 Phone 519-887-9114 E-mail info@northhuron.on.ca Website www.northhuron.on.ca Looking Back Through the Years CCNA Member Member of the Ontario Press Council The Citizen is published 50 times a year in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $36.00/year ($34.29 + $1.71 G.S.T.) in Canada; $130.00/year in U.S.A. and $205/year in other foreign countries. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca February 23, 1961 Harvey McCallum, former owner of the Shur-Gain mobile feed service, made an announcement in The Brussels Post, thanking farmers who had been using his portable mill. He had recently sold the mill to Travis Feed Mill in Walton. He assured customers that they would be able to continue the same service with the new mill. “We wish Mr. Travis every success in this added service to his present Shur-Gain Feed Mill and hope our customers will continue to patronize him,” McCallum wrote in The Brussels Post. The students of Wingham District High School were set to present a variety concert on Feb. 23 and 24. The night would include a variety of music from the school’s glee club and the school orchestra and a display of gymnastics from the school’s male students and dances from the school’s female students in addition to one act from a play. February 17, 1988 Blyth Village Council signed on to support county-wide tax reassessment at its Feb. 9 meeting. Councillor William Howson attended a workship on municipal councils and reported that the he felt the county should use the Section 70 proposal for its taxes rather than the Section 63 proposal. The Brussels Lions Club finally got lucky in its attempts to host Polar Daize when the forecast called for clear skies and reasonable temperatures. However, “senseless vandalism” disrupted the runs for a number of participants by changing directional signs. “Some idiots got out on the trails and turned some of our (directional) signs around or took them out altogether,” said Polar Daize chairman Greg Ducharme. “Some of the guys got lost and some crossed fields that had been posted as out of bounds to machines. It could cause serious problems for the future of the event.” Nearly 250 people signed a telegram for Brussels-area figure skater Kevin Wheeler at the Calgary Winter Olympics. The amount of names signing the telegram came after a two-week campaign. After the annual board of directors meetings for co-ops in Belgrave and Auburn, it was announced that profits were up sharply in both areas. The annual meeting was held in Blyth where people were told that profits had more than doubled in the last year. February 16, 2006 Huron East Councillor Mark Beaven was elected chair of the board for the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority. The announcement was made at the authority’s annual meeting held in Wroxeter on Feb. 8. Stepping down from the position was Central Huron’s Alison Lobb. Lobb served in the position while the authority celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2001 and also when the authority received an award for planning excellence from the Ontario Professional Planners Institute. She was also at the helm when the conservation authority planted its two millionth tree in 2001. “My kids tell me I have big feet,” said Beaven at the meeting, “but they’ll have to grow quite a bit more to fill out the shoes Alison is leaving behind.” Knox United Church in Belgrave honoured its outgoing treasurer Lorne Campbell, as well as his wife Lillian, for the couple’s ongoing lengthy commitment to the church and its affairs. North Huron Snowarama was about to set out on its second year in hopes of raising money for Easter Seals. The event was being organized by the Blyth Snowtravellers as well as snowmobile clubs from St. Helen’s, Colborne, Clinton and Wingham. In 2005, the first year of the event, $8,000 was raised for Easter Seals. February 16, 2012 Blyth residents Brock Vodden and Greg Sarachman were continuing to fight to keep Blyth Public School open by circulating a petition around the village. Their hope was that the fight could be brought to the Ontario Legislature. Vodden said the idea came out of discussions he had with people in different communities who were fighting the same fight in an attempt to save their school. At its Feb. 7 meeting, Morris- Turnberry Council announced its costing figures for the new fire service it expected to open on Jan. 1, 2014. The full report anticipated costs of between $1.8 and $1.9 million to completely start up the new service. Morris-Turnberry Mayor Paul Gowing said that $400,000 had already been placed in a reserve for the project. Chris Stewart of Blyth was named Coach of the Year in the Western Junior C Hockey League. Stewart, the coach of the Mitchell Hawks, won the award after Chad Haggit, also of Blyth and coach of the Wingham Ironmen, had won the award just one year earlier. The students of Central Huron Secondary School presented Movember Canada with a cheque for over $2,200 to aid in prostate cancer research and treatment. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright You can’t trust those walkers! The recent movement to create a Guelph to Goderich trail on the abandoned CP rail right-of-way seems to be raising the same concerns that opponents have brought up every time the idea of a trail has been discussed since the railway was abandoned in 1988. The spectre of irresponsible trail users damaging the property of those living and farming adjacent to the trail is regularly brought up. Yet people have long since become accustomed to snowmobile trails and there seems to be little opposition to those anymore. Many municipal councils are more and more embracing the idea of trails for all-terrain vehicles, embracing the potential for tourism that would come from attracting machine operators. On the other hand, the walkers, skiers and horse-back riders who might use a Guelph to Goderich trail seem to be considered a danger to the neighbourhood. Whether or not a formal trail is organized, the danger to properties along the trail already exists. In some cases the abandoned right-of-way is being used informally by people out for a walk, skiing or snowshoeing. No doubt less responsible people have used the old rail line for parties and other problem behaviour. So what would change if a formal trail association was set up? As with snowmobile trails, there would then be people monitoring and patrolling the trail, trying to make sure that neighbouring landowners were protected from anti-social behaviour. The increased traffic, which might promote greater use of restaurants, bed and breakfasts and overnight stabling for horses, is most likely to come from hikers, bicyclists and horse-back riders. Maybe that’s the problem. We often fear strange things we don’t understand. Rural Ontario residents can understand those who use motorized transportation like snowmobiles and ATVs but maybe they feel they can’t trust strange people who actually choose to walk for pleasure. –KR Betraying a proud profession Mike Duffy is getting almost as much air time these days as a Canadian Senator as he did in his high-profile days as an Ottawa correspondent for CBC and CTV and every time his name comes up, journalists across Canada shudder. While most journalists are political junkies, few actually get involved in politics. Though they might lean to the left or the right in their own beliefs, their training tells them they aren’t to be advocates – rather to try to dig through the political spin to reveal as much of the truth as possible. They aren’t like lawyers who are taught to be able to argue either side of any issue depending on who their client is. So whenever a journalist becomes active in politics, it’s uncomfortable for other journalists watching one of their own now taking a partisan line and putting the kind of political spin on an issue he was once charged with seeing through. According to Duffy’s own version, when he was approached by Prime Minister Stephen Harper about an appointment to the Senate, he told him “I’m not much of a partisan”. Once in the Senate he became one of the most partisan of Senators. But worse, he now seems to be involved in the same kind of questionable behaviour he would once have nailed politicians on. He has long lived in Ottawa but as a Senator from Prince Edward Island, he claims his cottage there is his main residence. That’s perhaps a small misdemeanor except that he then turned around and claimed more than $30,000 in housing expenses for his Ottawa house because he was supposedly living away from home. But at the same time, he maintained his OHIP card because he wanted the better medical care Ontario can offer. Only permanent Ontario residents are allowed an OHIP card. Duffy has demonstrated the easy morality and partisanship that journalists usually deplore. That’s why he makes his former colleagues ashamed. — KR & Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise.