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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-03-22, Page 1CitizenTh e $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