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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-03-01, Page 10PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2012.Homecoming committee meetsfor seventh time ahead of event Policing costs debated by HE The 140th Homecoming Committee met this past week for the seventh time to organize the 140th celebration for the Village of Brussels at the Brussels Legion. It is only five months until the big weekend. Co-chair Don McNeil called the meeting to order and there were 13 present. Committee chairs gave their reports and things are falling into place for the weekend of July 27-29. The parade is confirmed for Saturday, July 28 at high noon. The theme for the celebration is “Come Home to Your Country Village” and celebrate western style. All businesses, organizations and groups are encouraged to start planning early and to put a float into the parade. Parade chairman is Murray McArter. The 41st annual fastball tournament hosted by the Brussels Tigers will start as usual on Friday evening and continue on through Sunday. There will be some breaks in the action to accommodate some of the other activities, like the parade, over the course of the weekend. The community multi- denominational outdoor church service and picnic has its plans in place. They have booked an exciting musical group and encourage everyone to mark Sunday, July 29 to attend the service at the Maitland Conservation Park. The Boothill Bash is a great western complement to the weekend’s activities. The event will take place at the Optimist end of the village and will feature barrels, poles, reined cowhorse, trail challenge and team sorting. The action begins Friday evening and continues Saturday through Sunday when presentation of the awards will be held. The exciting car show committee with chair Don McNeil has been very busy since the new year. They have their advertising in place and have created an exciting poster to promote the Sunday event. The event is for all cars and motorcycles pre-1985 and they expect the main street of Brussels to be full from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. People have to eat so the Brussels United Church will host a breakfast on Saturday morning for all to enjoy. The Brussels Agricultural Society is hosting a beef barbecue on Saturday evening and the St. John’s Anglican Church is hosting their pork chop barbecue on Sunday evening, both events will be at the arena. These are some of the major events planned and there are many more to learn about. A great and exciting source of information is being developed as each day goes by. Jim Prior is creating a website and hopefully it will be up and running soon. Folks out of our area will be able to keep up with all the plans and the activities via the website. Inquiries about plans at this time can also be found at www.huroneast.com or on Facebook “140th Brussels Homecoming”. After some concerns were expressed by Huron East Council about the rising police costs in the recent incarnation of the OPP contract, Huron Detachment Commander Chris Martin answered some questions councillors may have had. Martin, who has been a member of the OPP for 27 years, was at the Feb. 21 Huron East Council meeting, where he told councillors that the increases in the OPP budget have been rising along the cost of living line, it just hasn’t appeared that way because the OPP contract had only been negotiated every five years in the past. This has now changed and the budget will be presented every year now and going into the future, Martin said. Councillor Larry McGrath, however, was disappointed with the increase of 10 per cent overall in the budget presented last year, because as he told Martin, he and the rest of council is well aware that their options are limited. “We haven’t got any other options,” he said. “We either go with the OPP or we go with the OPP.” Martin said that while the increase seemed like a large one, it was because the OPP wasn’t allowed to upgrade every year as they are now. The OPP, Martin said, is now working on 2010 levels, where as before the 2010 levels came in, they Here we are at the end of February and enjoying an extra day in the year of 2012. It is a leap year and we have Feb. 29 added to the month. There are few around Walton that get to celebrate their real birth dates so an extra happy birthday to them. The weather is still bouncing between trying to be winter and trying to be spring. According to the calendar, it is only 19 days until the first day of spring. The old saying about weather in March – in like a lion and out like a lamb or vice versa, we will choose in like a lion – we would rather have wintery weather now and not in April. There are a few people dealing with health issues at this time. We wish Brad Knight a speedy recovery from his knee surgery and that he is back to his normal busy self soon. Linda Smith spent some time in hospital and we wish her the best in her recovery. Our thoughts and all the best wishes go out to little Emily Bauer, daughter of Vincent and Lindsay Bauer. She has been in a London Hospital for a week and we hope they are getting to the bottom of her health issues. The Cranbrook Dart Club had an exciting evening on Feb. 22 for all 18 players in attendance as Jane Zwep shot the perfect score of 180. It was too high a score to finish the game, but quite an accomplishment and everyone congratulated Jane on her skill. There were lots of other good scores during the evening with Annette Lewington hitting 117 and Frank Workman hitting 125. Congratulations to Brian and Jan Deitner on becoming grandparents for the first time. They have welcomed a grandson named Liam to the family. Proud parents are Kylie and Jonas. A group of snowmobile enthusiasts have returned from a week’s trail run. They travelled to Quebec to ride the groomed trails and to explore the area. Enjoying the ride were Curtis Ryan and Lauren, Matt Ryan, Ken, Brenda and Scott Dalton and Matt, Kevin and Richard Haney. They travelled about 1,100 miles starting at Riviere-du-Loup and making the loop around the Gaspe Peninsula. It was a 12 to 14-hour drive to their starting point and they had great groomed trails and lots of nice scenery. They stayed at hotels and bed-and-breakfast homes and found the people great. Celebrating birthdays this past week include Chris Lee, Carly Terpstra, Terry Nichol, Beverly Stevenson and our Leap Year babies Ryan Baan and Nathan Bachert. Happy birthday to all. By Jo-Ann McDonald Call 887-6570 PEOPLE AROUND WALTON NEWS FROM WALTON Looking for local heroes There are so many people out there who do so much to improve their community. Now you have a chance to say thanks. Nominate that special person for the 27th Annual Citizen Citizenship Awards. Each year a committee chooses an outstanding citizen from each of the Blyth and area and Brussels and area communities to receive an award for contribution to the community. If you know someone you think should be honoured, please fill in the ballot and send it in. You may attach a longer explanation of why you think your nominee should win, if you like. If you have nominated someone before and he or she didn't win, please feel free to try again. I nominate as Citizen of the year for I feel she/he deserves this award because Nomination Deadline April 29, 2012. Name and phone number of nominator ❑Blyth & area ❑Brussels & area Have A New Addition? Call for prices and details 519-523-4792 or 519-887-9114 Let everyone know about your new bundle of joy! The Citizen Locals snowmobile in Quebec By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Continued on page 31