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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2013-06-06, Page 1CitizenTh e $1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, June 6, 2013 Volume 29 No. 23 INTERNSHIP - Pg. 12Brussels’ Schimanski startscommunity internship APPEAL - Pg. 24 Appeal adjournmentgranted by OMBSPORTS- Pg. 8Huron County FastballLeague begins seasonPublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK: No accommodation reviews this year says Ash Festival nominated for Premier’s award Prim and proper The Brussels Cadets held their annual inspection service last week and the over 30 cadets on hand to get inspected were done so by retired Captain John Grobbo. Assisting Grobbo was Curtis Terpstra, who accompanied him as he walked through the aisles of Cadets hoping to impress. (Vicky Bremner photo) With stable enrolment, consolidation of schools and the move of Grade 7 and 8 students to the high schools, the Avon Maitland District School Board (AMDSB) will not undertake any accommodation reviews next year. “When we look at accommodation reviews we look at the enrolment, the state of the buildings and what is the immediate or pressing need. We look at the capacity of our board and our staff in order to address undertaking an accommodation review and we look at impact of an accommodation review on the surrounding schools. Based on all those considerations, staff is not recommending a review for the coming year,” said Superintendent of Education Mike Ash. Speaking specifically to the North Huron area, Ash said, “When we look at enrolment for that area Howick is stable, Maitland River Elementary School will increase and be a healthy school and we will have to monitor that in terms of capacity and use of rooms.” “F.E. Madill Secondary will decline by 200 students over next 10 years but will still be in the 600 range, which is certainly a viable school,” he said, adding Madill Elementary appears to be stable. “If you look at our trends this year, we have very few schools under 150, our consolidations have had the desired effect at getting our elementary enrolment up to a number we believe is sustainable going forward,” he said. Ash added that over the last seven years the AMDSB has seen significant decline in enrolment. “Thankfully we are at the end of our elementary decline, however our secondary will continue to decline by about 700 students over the next 10 years and that is significant,” he said. “All of our secondary buildings are above 60 per cent capacity, but that will change going forward, but when we look at overall projections it appears that they will stabilize at levels that will be sustainable for program delivery.” The data comes from the annual accommodation report – a provincially mandated process that school boards must undertake each year to review school viability – presented to trustees on May 28. The AMDSB has a number of initiatives that are still being finalized based on previous reviews. “We need to know how those enrolments are going to settle over the next two or three years to find Late last week the provincial government announced that municipalities would soon be more involved in the wind and solar approval process in their own backyards. And while some municipal officials feel it’s a step in the right direction, they acknowledge that there is still plenty of work to be done. On May 30 Ontario Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli announced that the feed-in tariff program for major renewable energy projects would be replaced with a competitive procurement system. This new system would require renewable energy developers to work with municipalities before they seek approval from the Ontario Power Authority. However, when interviewed by The Citizen, most municipal officials said they were disappointed in the program because it would only apply to new projects, meaning that projects that have already received approval will not have to consult with municipalities. In addition to that issue, there are plenty of others that have municipal officials in the dark about what the For the second time in three years, the Blyth Festival has been nominated for the title of the province’s best arts organization, a title that comes with prestige, alongside a monetary award of $50,000. While those at the Blyth Festival have known about the nomination for weeks, Premier’s Awards officials instructed Festival representatives to stay tight-lipped until now. The Festival is nominated for the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts for Best Arts Organization, the same category in which it was nominated in 2011. The fact that the Festival has now been nominated for the award several times speaks volumes about the work being done at the Festival, says General Manager Deb Sholdice, but it also says a lot about those who are involved with the Festival. “I’m just so proud of the company,” Sholdice said on Monday in an interview with The Citizen. “It says a lot about how important the work being done here is viewed throughout the province.” The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto on June 27. In the arts organization category, the Festival is up against Authors at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, Definitely Superior Art Gallery in Thunder Bay, SKETCH Working Arts in Toronto, the Toronto Fringe Festival and publishing house Prise de parole in Sudbury. Interim Artistic Director Peter Smith says it is such an honour to be nominated for the award, especially when taking into account the other organizations nominated this year. In an interview with The Citizen on Monday, Smith says that the nomination, and hopefully award, is not necessarily recognition of what the Festival did last year, or in recent years, but what it has done in its almost 40 years of existence. Smith says the nomination is a credit to those who have “toiled” with the Festival over the years, including founders James Roy, Anne Chislett and Keith Roulston all the way up to incoming Artistic Director Marion de Vries. He praised the impact the Festival has on Blyth and its surrounding community, both culturally and economically. “The Blyth story really is just remarkable,” he said. He will be travelling to Toronto with his wife Laurel for the awards ceremony. In addition to the Smiths, Sholdice and de Vries will be heading to the ceremony along with several members of the Blyth Festival’s board of directors, including David Armstrong and Wendy Hoernig. Smith says that the award goes beyond the Festival and what happens on the Memorial Hall stage. The award would justify the work being done not only by the Festival, but by the Blyth Festival Art Gallery, the Festival Singers, the Festival Orchestra and everyone else involved with the Blyth Centre for the Arts. By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen By Hilary Long Special to The Citizen Huron East Council wary of wind turbine policy changes By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Continued on page 23 Continued on page 23