HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2013-07-11, Page 20PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2013.
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over at the Festival Box office,” he
said. “I’d like to add a shameless
plug for people to continue dropping
shekels into my jar rather than in the
other two. My appeal is based on an
attempt to keep some dignity and a
sense of decorum in my life.”
Smith was apparently also volun-
told by Blyth BIA council
representative and North Huron
Township Council Deputy-Reeve
David Riach that he would be
involved.
Smith’s family from abroad is
even sending in donations, no doubt
due to the connection with the pork
industry that they have.
“My family is all over this,” he
said. “I didn’t ask them to be they
jumped in when they heard some pig
kissing was going on down here in
the county and that I was involved
somehow. I have a cousin who was
president of the Pork Producers of
Canada for a while and swine has
been on the Smith farms for many
years.
“This activity is in keeping I
suppose with a family tradition,” he
continued. “Now to be clear I’ve
never kissed a pig unless eating
bacon constitutes such. It should be
a fun event and it's all for a good
cause.”
The silent auction is also
generating a buzz around town as the
silent auction forms have been out
for several weeks now.
Davies said that the event was
brought together by two primary
forces; the BIA committee that she
is leading as well as local businesses
that are helping out.
“Most businesses are participating
in the silent auction but some , like
Blyth Printing, are going above and
beyond,” she said, indicating that the
business had donated the posters for
the event.
For more information, contact
Fraser at 519-523-9687.
Huron East Council has initiated
the process of launching an appeal
against the much-maligned St.
Columban Wind Energy project.
The project received its
Renewable Energy Approval (REA)
on July 2 just hours before council’s
scheduled meeting that night. There
is a 15-day period in which an
appeal can be filed, so councillors
stated that they needed to act fast in
order to have their appeal heard.
Councillors were handed a copy
of the approval document during the
meeting. The document spans 25
pages and its official issue date is
July 2.
Mayor Bernie MacLellan said that
since the municipality has never
filed such an appeal before, he has
no idea what the process entails, but
he didn’t want to wait until council’s
next meeting, leaving just one day.
He said he wanted to file an
appeal because not a single one of
council’s concerns with the project
were addressed in the document.
“I’m a little disheartened with the
amount of work we put into this,”
MacLellan said. He added that if
council’s concerns were addressed,
but couldn’t be accommodated, that
would be one thing, but to not even
take the host municipality’s
concerns into account is another
completely.
Council then approved a motion
to proceed with the appeal.
MacLellan instructed staff to
proceed with the appeal, e-mailing
councillors along the way, apprising
them of any developments or snags
along the way.
The REA document can be
viewed online at http://www.
downloads.ene.gov.on.ca/
envision/env_reg/er/
documents/2013/011-7629.pdf
North Huron Township Council
has officially decided the township
is not a willing host when it comes
to wind turbine projects.
While Chief Building Official
David Black said that the move
wasn’t necessary at the moment due
to the fact that, in his nearly 10
years, no one had shown any
interest, council decided to proceed
with the issue.
Black came to council for the July
2 meeting with a basic policy to help
the township deal with developers
who wanted to look at North Huron
as a possible site and, while council
did pass that, the discussion led to
the decision to label North Huron an
unwilling host.
“The policy might get a wind
developer in the door and help us
enter into a discussion with any
possible companies interested in this
type of energy,” Black said. “As it
stands, we have nothing to deal with
them in terms of these issues.”
The policy is very general
according to Black and will be
updated with specific numbers and
information when it becomes
available including specifications
from pending health reports and
official plans.
Black provided, as a means of
background, a map that is available
online that showed how many
municipalities in southern Ontario
have declared themselves “not a
willing host to wind turbines.”
While the policy was passed
unanimously, the “not a willinghost” statement had one councillor
opposed.
Councillor Bernie Bailey was all
for the policy, being the driving
force behind it as of late in hopes
that council would not be caught
unprepared if and when a wind
energy group looked at North Huron
as a potential site. However, he
didn’t understand why people were
so concerned with the wind turbines.
“We’re going to go against wind
turbines here and I know there is a
lot of uproar around them,” he said.
“But 25 miles north of us we have
the biggest or second biggest nuclear
plant in the world, 25 miles south of
us we have someone willing to take
the radioactive material from that
plant. I don’t understand why we
would want to shut ourselves off
from an opportunity.”
Councillor Archie MacGowan
clarified the issue, stating that the
willing host statement was a
temporal one and that, in time, it
might change.
“We’re not a willing host at this
point,” he said. “I’d like to see the
issues cleared up before the
municipality opens up to wind
energy. That’s not saying never,
that’s just saying that I would like to
see some of these issues worked
out.”
Reeve Neil Vincent spoke to the
issue, stating that he knows people
who have faced the hotly debated
health issues and that there are
problems that need to be addressed.
“I know people who have health
issues and, while they might not be
in a [document or study] some place,they do face those problems daily,”
he said. “I know people who have
built wind towers on the properties
then had to move off the land due to
the effects of them. If you build
them, you have to believe in the
technology, but there is a small
group of people that will be affected
by them no matter what.
“It’s prudent to move forward
slowly,” he said, lending his support
to the “not a willing host” statement.
Councillor Brock Vodden stated
that it’s about more than health
concerns.
“There are economic conditions
that need to be taken into account as
well,” he said. “There are basic
questions that haven’t been
addressed like what do you do when
the bearings wear out and you have
to replace the entire mechanism on a
turbine? The word is it would cost
more to repair them than to just
build a new one. The economic
issues are not adding up.”
Vodden pointed out that there is a
turbine that experienced a fire of
unknown origin in neighbouring
Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh
Township and that turbine is still
standing months later.
Vincent added that the materials
used to create the propellers are also
not accepted in a number of
municipal landfills and that might be
a concern as well.
The motion to become an
unwilling host of wind turbines was
carried with Councillor Bailey
dissenting while Councillor James
Campbell was absent.
Contest generates interest
St. Columban
project approved
North Huron not a willing host
Blue Jays royalty
World Series champion with the 1992 Toronto Blue Jays
Kelly Gruber hosted a baseball camp in Clinton on Monday
and Tuesday, but on Sunday he was at the Clinton
Raceway where he signed autographs for fans. (Vicky Bremner
photo)
Floral Arrangements
398 Queen St.,
Blyth
519-523-4276
BUY? SELL?
TRY CLASSIFIED
By Denny ScottThe Citizen