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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, February 16, 2012
Volume 28 No. 7
HOCKEY - Pg. 8Wingham Ironmen beatKincardine in first round WEATHER - Pg. 15Warm weather causingproblems with roadsLETTER- Pg. 6Lions Club clarifies itsrole in celebrationPublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
Petition being circulated
M-T presents
cost projections
Holiday for ‘Citizen’
Boogie time
The international day of love has rolled around once again and The Wilbees filled the
community hall of the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre with the sounds of love-
inspired music for the Valentine’s Day dance at the centre on Feb. 11. Dozens braved the cold,
stormy weather to come out and shake a leg with their significant others. (Denny Scott photo)
In 2007 Premier Dalton McGuinty
celebrated winning the election by
giving all Ontarians a day off on the
third Monday of February.
The first Family Day in Ontario
was observed on Monday, Feb. 18.
So here in 2012, it’s the fifth
anniversary of that lovely day that
granted the people of this province a
holiday in the month of February.
Staff at The Citizen will be
observing the holiday and spending
time with their families on Monday,
Feb. 20, altering the deadlines for the
Feb. 23 issue slightly.
If you wish to submit any copy or
advertising for the Feb. 23 issue, the
deadline at The Citizen’s Brussels
office is 2 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 17.
The deadline at the Blyth office is at
4 p.m. that same day.
The staff at The Citizen wishes all
of our readers a happy and safe
Family Day.
Blyth residents Greg Sarachman
and Brock Vodden have decided to
take their fight to keep Blyth Public
School open and to change the way
the school board operates to the final
forum; the Ontario Legislature.
Vodden and Sarachman have spent
time talking to other activists
throughout the province who are
facing a similar problem. The groups
realized that they had similar
stories and feelings of being
ignored and that they needed to act
on it.
“We spent a long period of time
writing to each other telling each
other of the dreadful stories of how
the school board treated us,” Vodden
said. “Then we realized that, through
sharing notes, we were really
preaching to the choir. It became
clear to us that dealing with the
school board wasn’t getting us
anywhere so we needed to look
somewhere else.”
To that end Sarachman, Vodden
and groups in the Niagara Region,
Cobalt, Owen Sound, Welland,
Sudbury and Colborne formed
People for Accountability and
School Sustainability (PASS) and
have all initiated petitions calling for
the following:
• An immediate moratorium on all
disputed school closures resulting
from the Accommodation Review
process and continuing until June
30, 2015.
• The immediate striking of a truly
independent third party committee
with the authority to review and
reverse all disputed school closures
found to be detrimental to the
community or in conflict with other
provincial programs or regulations.
• Revision of the Education Act to
require school boards to work with
their municipalities and
communities to ensure school
closures comply with the principles
and practices of sound community
and educational planning.
The group creates unity among
those concerned but allows
individual members to represent the
concerns in their own areas,
according to Vodden.
He said that one of the major
concerns for the group as a whole is
that school boards are entities like no
other in that they can act without
approval and without answering to
anyone.
“This is a serious situation,” he
said. “The model doesn’t mesh well
with democracy or fair play and
violates community planning. No
other body could make this kind of
decision without clearance and
having to face appeals.”
The petitions will be available
until Feb. 21. Vodden said that he
had thus far collected 200 signatures
in three days and hopes to have
around 1,000 by the time he and
Sarachman are ready to send them to
the Ontario Legislature.
Legally they only need 25
signatures for the issue to be
discussed during the Legislature’s
petition section but they would like
to show how many people believe
this situation is wrong.
“If we have an astonishing number
of signatures it will carry more
weight than a list of 25,” he said.
With the change in governance as
a result of the last provincial election
Vodden hopes that change can be
With more than 20 people in the
visitors gallery for its Feb. 7
meeting, Morris-Turnberry council
revealed its cost projections for a
proposal fire service.
The projections were part of the
first public presentation of plans for
a new Morris-Turnberry fire service
that were revealed in a press release
following the Jan. 24 council
meeting.
Mayor Paul Gowing explained to
the gallery that the press release
involved only the purchase of the
land in Belgrave and Lower Town
Wingham for the two proposed fire
stations. Land purchase is handled in
closed sessions. Now that the
purchase was complete, he said, the
discussion could be continued in the
open about the proposal to start a fire
service effective Jan. 1, 2014.
Nancy Michie, administrator
clerk-treasurer, made a short
presentation and copies of the full
60-page report where handed out to
most of those in the gallery (the full
report can be found on the
municipality’s website
http://www.morristurnberry.ca).
The full report projects the cost of
setting up the fire department at $1.8
to $1.9 million. There is $400,000 in
reserve from Morris-Turnberry’s
share of the breakup of the fire area
boards for the former Wingham and
Blyth departments, leaving new
financing of $1.4 to $1.5 million
required.
The municipality proposes to
finance this amount through a loan
from Infrastructure Ontario to be
repaid at a rate of $79,202 in
principal and interest each year.
The capital budget includes
$247,620 for the purchase of land
and associated costs. It projects the
cost of building two fire stations at
$750,000, estimated according to the
$100 per square foot it cost to build
new fire halls in Lucknow in 2010
and Blyth and Port Burwell in 2011
as well as the $120 per square foot
Clinton spent on its new fire hall in
2010.
The budget puts the cost of fire
trucks at $400,000, firefighters’ suits
and equipment at $180,000 and
communication equipment at
$30,000.
Among the start-up costs would
include 18 months of training for 32
volunteers, beginning in mid-2012.
The budget projects annual
operating costs for its own
department at $200,000.
In addition, it proposes a trade of
services with North Huron with
Blyth station continuing to cover the
south end of Morris Ward while
Morris-Turnberry would cover part
of North Huron’s Wawanosh Ward
that would be most quickly served
by the new Belgrave station.
Morris-Turnberry would reduce
the area covered by the Brussels
station of the Huron East Fire
Service and pay $40,000. It would
continue to pay Howick to cover a
portion of Turnberry Ward at a cost
of $15,298, bringing total costs of
$334,500 per year, a per capita cost
of $98.29.
Under the five-year proposals for
fire coverage from North Huron,
Huron East and Howick which was
received last summer Morris-
Turnberry would have had costs of
$342,676 in 2014, a cost of $100.69
per capita. The proposed Morris-
Turnberry fire service becomes
$41,824 more expensive if it
includes both the current capital
costs and setting aside money for
capital replacement, a total of
$384,500 a year, or $112.98 per
capita.
Council had received a letter of
concern from Jeff Howson,
President of Howson and Howson
Ltd. of Blyth and Archie McGowan
of Braemar Retirement Centre in
Turnberry Ward, north of Wingham,
had sent letters to councillors
individually, questioning the
wisdom of the proposal. Neither had
asked to be a delegation.
Gowing gave Howson, who was in
the gallery, a chance to speak on the
issue but he said would wait to study
By Keith Roulston
The Citizen
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 7
Continued on page 13