The Citizen, 2012-03-01, Page 1CitizenTh
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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, March 1, 2012
Volume 28 No. 9
BRIDAL - Pg. 13‘The Citizen’ includesguide to weddings TURBINES - Pg. 28 Huron East dropspotential bylawSPORTS- Pg. 8Season ends for WinghamIronmen after lossPublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
Students in Brussels working on streetscape, trail
School Fair may
continue, expand
A sappy photo
Students at Grey Central Public School got involved in a sticky situation when they were
tasked with tapping trees to collect sap in the Environmental Learning Grounds adjacent to the
school late last week. The sap can be used by most classes for lessons involving nature and
will eventually be boiled down into maple syrup. Shown checking on the flow of sap are, from
left, Tiffany Deitner, Allison Terpstra and Emma Strome. (Denny Scott photo)
The Village of Brussels will be
overrun with students from the
University of Waterloo this
Saturday, all working on a pair of
large community betterment
projects.
Twenty students from the
university, as well as their
instructors, will be in the village on
Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30
p.m. researching the projects, taking
pictures and speaking with residents
of the community.
The Municipality of Huron East
first approached the university about
the projects. The first is aimed at a
potential walking trail throughout
Brussels and the second is a
potential Cultural Heritage
Landscape or a Heritage
Conservation District.
Working closely with Huron East
Economic Development Officer Jan
Hawley, 2012 Masters Degree
Candidate Vanessa Hicks said she
felt it would be best if members of
the community knew she and the
students were coming, giving the
people of Brussels not only a heads-
up, but an opportunity to get
involved in the process.
Hawley says her partnership with
the University of Waterloo goes back
to her days with the Goderich B.I.A.
and that this current project evolved
out of the Brussels business
retention and expansion survey that
was just recently completed and
presented to the residents of the
village.
Hawley said the four main
recommendations she was hearing
from business owners were to
develop a brand for the village,
develop a streetscape plan, develop
one or more walking trails and adopt
a CIP (Community Improvement
Plan).
After receiving a $10,000 grant
from Huron County’s RED (Rural
Economical Development) funding,
an additional $5,000 was leveraged
against Hawley’s Huron East
economic development budget,
bringing the total budget of the
project to $15,000 thus far.
Hawley says the project really lays
the foundation for the development
of a streetscape, but that in reality,
the project is just in its infancy.
On Saturday, five students will be
surveying the area and
brainstorming some ideas for a
potential walking trail, while 15
other students have all been assigned
one site of historical significance
each. The students will be taking
pictures of their site and evaluating
its heritage importance in the
village. They will be documenting
the style of the building as well.
The list of sites has yet to be
released, but Hawley says it includes
some obvious choices like the
Carnegie library and two of the
village’s churches, as well as other
sites that are considered important to
the history of Brussels.
The students, who come from the
fourth-year planning class at the
university, as well as some from the
recreation and leisure program, will
be in Brussels performing what
Hicks calls “the gruntwork” of the
project.
It isn’t as bad as it sounds though,
she insists, saying that getting real-
world experience on such an
important project is a great
opportunity for them so early in their
lives.
The students working on the
North Huron Township Council
presented their draft budget for the
2012 year at a special meeting on
Feb. 24 and the highlights include a
2.9 per cent increase, or $120,000
increase in spending and an increase
in taxes across all wards.
Municipal taxation rates will
increase across the board with
Wingham taxes increasing a total of
2.98 per cent, Blyth taxes increasing
3.34 per cent and East Wawanosh
taxes increasing 3.4 per cent based
on a township-wide average
residential assessment of $120,305.
While those numbers may seem
higher than previous years, they are
independent of increases in school
board and Huron County tax rates
which have not been finalized and
may be lower than originally
anticipated according to Treasurer
Donna White.
“We’ve been informed that the
board taxation rate could be lower
than expected in their draft budget
and the county’s may drop as well,
leading to smaller overall increases,”
she said.
Councillors had several comments
regarding the draft budget but did
approve it in its entirety allowing it
While last year marked the 91st,
and then-called last Belgrave School
Fair, a dedicated group of
individuals is hoping to breathe life
into the event to make sure it sticks
around.
With the closure of the three
schools that have traditionally been
invited to attend; Brussels, East
Wawanosh and Blyth Public
Schools, there was concern that the
fair would become an artifact of
times passed.
However current Principal of
Blyth Public School and future
Maitland River Elementary School
(the new school to be built in
Wingham) Alice McDowell, North
Huron Reeve Neil Vincent, President
of the fair committee Tim Walden
and Wingham-resident and former
fair participant Anne Stainton met at
Blyth Public School on Thursday,
Feb. 23 to try and stop that from
happening.
“This has been brought up at
pretty much every transition meeting
we’ve had,” McDowell said. “People
want to know whether the school fair
will continue or not.”
In preparing for the event
McDowell found out that the
Belgrave fair had once been attended
by Brussels and Belgrave area
students as Blyth had their own, but
when the current schools were built
nearly 50 years ago the three
amalgamated their fair.
“When the new schools were built
they expanded the fair to open it to
all the students,” Vincent stated,
adding that there had always been
interest from other schools to
become involved.
Saving the fair might not be a
simple matter of keeping it going,
however, according to Walden.
“If we were to expand it to
welcome students from Wingham
the name would probably be
changed and the scope of it would as
well,” he said. “That may be a legal
problem as the not-for-profit
designation may cause legal issues.
We may need to shut down the fair
committee as it is now and create a
new one.”
This could also throw into
question some of the funds that the
fair committee has accumulated over
the year.
Despite the legal issues, the group
agreed that they should try and push
forward with the event this year
provided they can find enough
support.
Walden said that the committee for
the fair has about 15 names on it but
that sometimes it can be difficult to
find people to take charge and that
has caused some of the leaders to
take on the role for years.
“I know that most of the executive
would be happy to help but in a
slightly diminished capacity,” he
said. “We wouldn’t mind helping
people and advising, but I, for one,
don’t have the time to dedicate to it
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 30
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
NH budget may rise 2.9 per cent
Continued on page 7
Continued on page 26
By Denny Scott
The Citizen