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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, March 22, 2012
Volume 28 No. 12
SYRUP - Pg. 16Maple syrup productionslowed by warm weather TURBINES - Pg. 20 MPP says Atwoodmeeting was productiveFIRE- Pg. 10North Huron discusses M-T fire departmentPublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
Deer overpopulation causing problems locally
North Huron
approves budget
Naile... er Pegged it!
The Huron Chapel Evangelical Missionary Church in Auburn held a special one-day event for
March break called Game-a-Palooza where human-sized board games were played and
participants got to make their own games. Shown are Reese, Isaac and Cory enjoying making
their own peg-based game at the March 14 event. (Denny Scott photo)
North Huron Township Council
convened for a special budget
meeting prior to the regular council
meeting on March 20 to discuss the
budget with interested stakeholders.
More than a dozen individuals
filled the gallery in the council
chambers and, opposite 15
representatives from North Huron
including council members and
staff, participated in discourse
regarding the budget.
Finance Director Donna White
explained the budget which includes
a 2.93 per cent increase in the tax
levy resulting in an additional
$120,065.39 in taxes being
collected.
The final budget indicates total
estimated expenditures of
$13,892,507.38 and $9,258,028 in
revenue. Less surpluses, area rating,
flat rates and other income sources,
it results in a $2,900,038.38
necessary tax levy to balance the
budget, up from last year’s
$2,846,500.99 levy.
Final tax increases based on an
average assessment of $120,305 will
result in increases of 1.09 per cent in
the Wingham Ward, 1.03 per cent in
the Blyth Ward and 1.69 per cent in
East Wawanosh Ward based on draft
budget numbers from Huron County
and the Avon Maitland District
School Board.
White started the budget meeting
by handling some of the frequently
asked questions that often
accompany a budget in North
Huron.
“A lot of people ask why taxes are
so high in North Huron,” White said.
“People want to pay lower taxes, but
the problem with that is the services
we would have to cut may not be
important to one person but could be
to another. Our goal is to provide
balance.”
White explained that North Huron
provides a wide range of facilities
that are similar to much larger
centres. She said the closest local
comparison would be Goderich,
which has a population of
approximately 7,400 to North
Huron’s 5,000.
Another barrier to lower taxes in
North Huron is a low average
assessment.
“Homes should be assessed higher
than they are after they are sold, but
The Ontario Provincial Police
(OPP) recently reported that the
number of deer collisions for the
first two months of 2012 were nearly
double that of the same period in
2011.
With an estimated 65 incidents
occurring in the past two months and
only 35 occurring during the same
period last year, the OPP are
warning drivers to be on the lookout
for deer and be aware.
Bob Trick, an animal control
officer for several different area
municipalities, stated that he
anticipates a very high population of
deer for this spring and summer due
to the warm weather.
“I figure they will be in excellent
condition this year,” he said. “They
will have a higher population unless
the coyotes begin getting to the
fawns.”
Trick said that the extremely mild
winter helped the deer population in
several different ways.
First, they were able to eat
comfortably as corn and soy beans
were more accessible with the lack
of snow cover. Typically they feed
on bark during a conventional
winter.
Secondly, he stated that they
would have more success in the
winter avoiding predators like
coyotes as the deer will be able to
travel fast throughout the area.
“With a winter like this they can
get away from coyotes and
predators,” he said. “This will make
their condition so much stronger
come the spring.”
He said that the first two
conditions will lead to the third: a
better mating season.
“If they mate and they are in good
condition as they will be due to their
stronger diet, it is more likely they
will have twins instead of single
fawns and more likely they will
survive,” he said.
The warm weather will have
caused the deer to leave their yards
and begin searching for areas to have
their fawns according to Trick,
resulting in more of them being on
the road at this time of the year.
Provincial Constable Jamie
Stanley stated that the public is
required to report any collision that
results in an injury to anyone in a
vehicle or more than $1,000 of
damage to the vehicle to the OPP
He also stated that, if there are no
injuries, the OPP hopes individuals
will call the non-emergency line to
report the incident at 1-888-310-
1122.
“That will put people in touch with
the communications centre in
London who will dispatch an officer
as soon as possible,” he said. “The
officer will then verify the damage
and complete a collision report.”
Stanley said that he had spoken to
a local Ministry of Natural
Resources (MNR) officer who stated
that the number of deer collisions
will likely balance out soon and
retain some normalcy for the rest of
the year.
“[The MNR officer] stated that the
snowfall usually limits the range of
the deer and that since there was no
snow, they are expanding their area
and crossing roadways,” he said. “As
the year progresses he said we won’t
likely see these numbers continue
though.”
The rise in deer will likely
continue until the fall when
controlled gun and bow/crossbow
hunts are called for the area
according to Mike Malhiot, a
biologist with the MNR.
He stated that the data from last
year’s hunt hasn’t been made
available yet but it will have little
bearing on the number of deer until
the next hunt.
“We set our quotas in June, July
and August,” he said.
Malhiot stated that if the number
of deer is high, this year could be
another where hunters could kill up
to seven deer individually.
“We used to follow a system
where one hunter could kill one
deer,” he said. “In the last decade,
however, we switched to a different
system. Seals are available to
hunters and they can hunt as many
deer as they get seals. Each
individual hunter could have up to
six deer beyond their first.”
The number of deer that seals are
issued for, or the number of deer that
can be killed by hunters, is set based
solely on existing information
according to Malhiot.
“The hunt is all based on the
number of deer and past
information,” he said. “We can’t
know how the winter is going to be
when we’re setting our quotas six
months in advance.”
Malhiot said that the deer herd in
Huron has stabilized over the last
decade and has had a high density.
Pairing that with the lack of winter
effects they faced over the past
months and the numbers might be a
bit off.
“It’s not surprising that we’ve
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 17
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Just as The Citizen’s Citizen of the
Year Awards are an annual tradition,
so too is the firm reminder to
nominate someone you feel is
making the community around you a
better place.
To date The Citizen has not
received a single nomination for
either the Blyth and area or Brussels
and area communities.
Last year two wonderful,
community-minded winners were
honoured in the late Rev. Cathrine
Campbell in Brussels and Kay
Hesselwood in Blyth. We here at The
Citizen know there are citizens out
there who deserve to be honoured
this year and we want to hear about
them.
On page 18 of this week’s edition
of The Citizen you’ll find a
nomination form. The deadline
for nominations is April 30, 2012.
A decision will be made by a
panel of past Citizen of the
Year Award winners shortly
thereafter.
Please take the time to search your
brain for someone who has gone
above and beyond the community’s
call of duty this year and who
deserves to be recognized. We look
forward to reading your
nominations.
Citizens wanted
Continued on page 11