HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2013-12-19, Page 1Festival posts small deficit for 2013
Rescue
truck
approved
Dance! It’s Christmas time
Hullett Central Public School students held their annual
Christmas concert on Tuesday night, warming up with a
dress rehearsal on Monday morning. With a nip in the air
and snow on the ground, students certainly were in the
mood for Christmas and they weren’t afraid to dance about
The Blyth Festival is in a small
defecit position after the 2013
season, North Huron council was
told at its Dec. 16.
Festival General Manager Deb
Sholdice led the presentation with
assistance from new Artistic
Director Marion de Vries. Sholdice
also took the opportunity to
introduce the recently hired Director
of Marketing John McHenry and his
associate, Marcie McLean.
While the Festival finished with
what Sholdice referred to as a minor
deficit, $2,000 on a $1.2 million
budget, she said there were
mitigating factors and the
organization was very proud of its
season. Sholdice added that the
Festival’s end-of-year standing had
not yet been discussed with the
Festival’s board of directors because
its annual general meeting had been
delayed due to weather.
“We had very expensive shows to
put on,” she said, adding musicals
cost more than non-musicals.
She said the Festival had, for the
second year in a row, been a finalist
for the Premier’s Award for
Excellence in the Arts and
experienced a 30 per cent increase in
paid attendance over 2012.
The latter is likely due to changes
made to the season, she said.
“We brought back Dear Johnny
The Fire Department of North
Huron (FDNH) found a good deal
on an aerial rescue truck that will
save them money on their 2014
budget.
The truck, which has been used
and is currently in Cape Canaveral,
represents a huge savings according
to Fire Chief David Sparling.
Sparling noted that the
department has been without an
aerial truck since its inception
several years ago and if equipment
was necessary, they had to wait for
neighbouring municipalities to help
with equipment.
“Right now the Fire Department
of North Huron has no operational
aerial fire truck apparatus,” he said.
“We use ground ladders to go above
35 feet. I can candidly tell you that
we have buildings that we don’t
have the ladders to get people out if
in case of an emergency.”
Sparling stated that firefighters
can’t go on roofs, as they can
collapse and, at the end of the day, if
they have to wait for an aerial truck
from a neighbour municipality, it
may hamper their ability to save
lives.
The last aerial truck, which was
owned by the Wingham and Area
Fire Board, was well beyond its
serviceable years according to
Sparling and was retired
immediately upon establishment of
the joint department.
Since then, the department has
been saving up to purchase new
equipment.
Through research, Sparling found
that a new truck was financially out
of the question. A new vehicle
would cost them $800,000 and $1.5
million and that wasn’t something
the department could fund.
They did determine that for
$450,000 they could find a used
vehicle, but Sparling said it’s
$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, December 19, 2013
CitizenTh
e
Volume 29 No. 50
Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0
Best of the season
to you and yours
from all of us at 14/19.
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 36Continued on page 46
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
it. Shown getting their groove on are, back row, from left: Tyson
Finch, Bryce Shortreed, Alana Stewart, Myra Caldwell,
Kaitlyn Bauer, Cal Taylor and Olivia Decker. Front row, from left:
Kaleb Martin, Jake Bromley, Madison Lee and Jake Cullen. (Denny
Scott photo)