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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2013-10-03, Page 24PAGE 24. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2013. Fair delivers despite midway setback says Noble Council looks ahead Running for special people Hullett Central Public School students ran hard during the Terry Fox Run on Friday, Sept. 27. Some of them ran for Terry Fox while others had special family members and friends in mind for the fundraiser which helps support the fight against cancer. Shown here are, from left, Chloe Elliott running for her great-grandma, Reid Button running for Kim Hunking and Jason Eckert running for the man himself, Terry Fox. (Photo submitted) The Brussels Fall Fair was a unmitigated success according to Brussels Agricultural Society President Nicole Noble. “It was excellent,” she said. “We had two beautiful days of weather which always help with the crowds. Numbers were definitely up for people who attended the fair.” Noble also said that entries in the fair competition categories were up and the parade entries had also increased over last year. The dog show, which is still one of the newer attractions at the event, was also a great success. “It was a huge hit,” Noble said. “We had so many dogs, we didn’t know what to do with them.” While most of the fair remained the same, one big unplanned change occurred when the company that provides the midway rides and attractions pulled out just five days before the fair started. That change, however, wasn’t anything that was going to slow down the celebration according to Noble. “We were able to get three different inflatables on Tuesday,” she said. “People were shocked to see them, but everyone loved them.” The inflatables, which didn’t come with a cost, allowed the funds that would have gone to the midway to be saved for future considerations. Noble also said the inflatables and their operators were incredibly well received. “It was good, just really good, everyone had a lot of fun,” she said. “The operators were a bit younger too and they really got along well with the kids.” Students from both Maitland River Elementary School and North Woods Elementary School attended the event. Noble said that North Woods attendance was fantastic and that their presence really “makes the fair.” She also said it was great to see students from Maitland River make the trip for the event despite the fact that the school itself isn’t officially involved in the fair. Noble said that the fair committee would be meeting in the future to decide if any changes would be made in regards to the midway and inflatables for next year and said that, having just finished the event late last month, the committee was very happy with the way everything had turned out. Continued from page 1 to the issue of potentially merging the Brussels and Grey Fire Departments into one fire hall. Huron East Fire Chief Marty Bedard, however, said that logistically, in terms of response times and service to the northern portion of Grey Ward, a move like that wouldn’t make sense. When it came to efficiencies and level of service, MacLellan said that one of his pet peeves has been the municipality losing money on services that only a very small percentage of the public uses. Community centres and arenas, he said, will always be money-losing enterprises, but because such a large percentage of the municipality uses them, he sees community centres as a worthwhile service to provide to the public, despite the inevitable loss. Daycare, on the other hand, is something he’d like to see the municipality bow out of. “I don’t think it’s a service the municipality can afford to offer,” MacLellan said of daycare, specifically in Vanastra. The loss the municipality experiences every year as a result of the daycare, MacLellan said, isn’t worth the hit to all taxpayers to subsidize a service only used by a handful of families, half of which come from Central Huron. Councillor Nathan Marshall, who was instrumental in setting up the level of service meeting, said he’d like to see Huron East’s three recreation boards abolished. He felt the three recreation centres would run smoother if they were headed up by one board for all three centres. Marshall’s concerns, in addition to the level of streetlighting in Brussels, were two issues that were scheduled to be brought to council at a future meeting. Knight suggested that community centres would be an important issues to discuss further. Through his research, Knight told councillors that revenue at the three centres has been dropping in the last 10 years, which is a cause for concern. At the conclusion of the meeting, new Councillor Allison Dekroon asked councillors if they felt they had accomplished all they wanted to with the meeting. MacLellan said they had, but that the meeting was the first in a series of steps in regards to the municipality’s level of service. He added that staff will prepare a report detailing council’s outstanding issues from the meeting with a plan on how to tackle those issues going forward. There was also discussion about a strategic planning session that could take place as early as December. No exact date has been set. 7-Day Weather ForecastElliott Nixon Insurance Brokers Inc.Monday Tuesday WednesdaySundaySaturdayFridayThursday Brought to you by Elliott Nixon Insurance Brokers Inc. ~ 519-523-4481 • enib@himginsurance.com 13°16°13°21°22°21°14° By Denny Scott The Citizen