Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-03-22, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2012.Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Acting Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny ScottAdvertising Sales: Ken Warwick & Lori Patterson The CitizenP.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. N0G 1H0 Phone 887-9114 E-mail norhuron@scsinternet.com Website www.northhuron.on.ca Looking Back Through the Years CCNA Member Member of the Ontario Press Council The Citizen is published 50 times a year in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $36.00/year ($34.29 + $1.71 G.S.T.) in Canada; $115.00/year in U.S.A. and $205/year in other foreign countries. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca April 1, 1965 L.E. Cardiff of Brussels became a member of the exclusive 25-year club at the House of Commons in Ottawa. The Brussels Post reported that in order to be inducted into the 25-year club the inductee would have to have a “proven ability to win elections and hold a Commons seat for a quarter-century.” Members of the Brussels Girl Guide troop took a hayride on the afternoon of March 27 which was followed by lunch served by the Brussels United Church. The Brussels Minor Hockey Tournament was deemed an unprecedented success. An estimated 300 hockey fans were in attendance for the March 27 tournament. The tournament opened at 10 a.m. that day with a game between two Squirt teams and ended with a Midget game that began at 11 p.m. that night. An unusually small number of spectators made it out to the annual Skating Carnival in Brussels on March 26. Sharon Willis was named queen of the carnival, while Neil Campbell’s snowman was one winner of best cartoon costume. Campbell was joined by Ray Hemingway’s Woody Woodpecker costume along with Nancy Adams who attended the event in her skunk costume. March 25, 1987 Lottery tickets sales had skyrocketed at Brussels Variety since the second big-winning ticket in two weeks was sold to Alan and Barb Bragg. The Braggs visited the store on the usually unlucky Friday the 13th of March to purchase a ticket for the provincial lottery draw to take place the next day. However, it wasn’t until St. Patrick’s Day, March 17 that they were told they had won $500,000 on the first provincial lottery ticket the couple had ever purchased. It was just two weeks earlier, on March 1, that Ken White won a Lincoln Town Car, valued at over $30,000 on the scratch and win portion of a Super Lotto ticket given to him by his son for his birthday. The ticket was also purchased at Brussels Variety. A fire at a McKillop Township pig barn killed hundreds of animals. The damage done to the property and the loss of 30 sows and hundreds of baby pigs and weaners was estimated by Blyth and District Fire Department Chief Irvin Bowes was valued at about $50,000. The Citizen’s Blyth office was slated to be closed from March 25- 30 for renovations. Due to the rapid expansion over the previous 18 months at The Citizen, the office set- up where the majority of the production was being done was left “totally inadequate” for the needs of the staff. A number of smaller offices would then be created for staff members during the closure. Despite a special session in which 14 changes were made to the Huron County budget, resulting in a bottom line decrease of over $205,000, the budget was still going to increase by 7.38 per cent. March 23, 1994 The extreme cold weather and the increased use of wood stoves in the area was to blame for a higher number of emergency calls to the Blyth Fire Department, said Chief Paul Josling. “The Blyth Fire Department has spent 43 hours at calls so far this year and the total for 1993 was just 53 hours,” Josling said. Josling said the majority of the calls being made to the fire department were because of heat sources, whether they be wood stoves or electric heating. “They are not being looked after properly,” Josling said. Huron MPP Paul Klopp was scheduled to make a trip to Brussels on Friday night to announce a health promotion grant from the province for The Ark, a youth drop-in centre in Brussels. March 22, 2007 Warmer temperatures resulted in a drastic spring thaw in Huron County that caused several area watercourses to rise. The Maitland Valley Conservation Authority was monitoring the situation 24 hours a day through the flood watch in an attempt to stay ahead of any situation, should one begin to develop. Blyth Minor Hockey had a great day on March 18 raising over $5,000 for the program. It was the Blyth Bulldogs alumni game that pulled in the most money, which was accompanied by a chuck- a-puck competition, tricycle races and a silent auction among others. “I think it was successful overall,” said Blyth Minor Hockey President Kendra Prescott. The item that brought in the most money for the program was a signed Justin Peters jersey. The jersey from the local NHL goalie brought $500 into the program. “[Peters] is our hometown boy. That was impressive for us, so that was great,” said Prescott. Maplewood Manor, a retirement home in Seaforth, closed its doors, forcing Seaforth Manor and Queensway Residence to open their doors to the 21 seniors who suddenly needed a new home after Maplewood Manor’s sudden closure. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Nice weather, but . . . After enjoying a week of summer weather before spring even arrived, Ontario residents might be pardoned for thinking: “If this is climate change, we’ll keep it.” If only it were that simple. While we humans tend to think of nature as simple compared to what seem to be complicated urban lives, nature is actually the world’s most delicate balancing act, and one change can throw so many other things out of sync. Recently, for instance, a wildlife expert said that the earlier arrival of spring, if it becomes a common practice, could actually endanger some species of migratory birds. Over long periods of times, these birds have learned not to arrive in their northern breeding grounds too early or they may perish because of cold and lack of food. However, if they arrive at their normal time and spring has come early, the insects they depend on to feed their young may have already completed their cycle (caterpillars already turning into moths and butterflies, for instance). If this happens too many springs in a row the population of these birds will decline. On the other hand, as animal control officer Bob Trick points out in a story in our farm section this week, some animals will thrive. He suggests the populations of coyotes and wild turkeys could explode because they are entering breeding seasons in such good health after a non-existent winter. While farmers may have an opportunity to get planting started much earlier, they may face new challenges from diseases and pests that have been controlled in the past by our harsh winters. Already we’ve seen an economic impact for all those businesses that depend on serving snowmobilers and those who make their living from snow removal. Maple syrup season has also been disrupted. Of course we can’t count on this year being the model for the future. A mild winter of 2009-2010 was followed by a long hard winter in 2010- 2011 which in turn was followed by this extraordinary winter. Perhaps climate change should be called climate uncertainty. How the delicate balance of nature is interrupted by this unpredictability is something we won’t fully understand until after it has happened. — KR Is bigger better? The rush toward concentration of power continued last week when Bell Canada announced the $3.38 billion purchase of Astral Media Inc., a Quebec-based conglomerate of radio stations and specialty television channels such as The Movie Network and HBO Canada. In 2010 Bell paid $1.3 billion to buy the rest of the CTV assets it didn’t already own. Together with the Astral properties it now dominates the media and telecommunications industry. Fueled by the Occupy Movement, Canadian society took a brief time late last year to consider whether it was such a good thing that a smaller and smaller minority of people controlled a larger and larger part of the economy, but that seems to have died. Of course since it’s the media that normally leads these discussions, it’s perhaps naive to expect a discussion of media concentration by a concentrated media. There was a time when giants like Bell and Astral getting together would have been a concern for government regulators fearing monopolies but apparently no more. Today we call it “convergence” and think we need huge corporations to bring the media revolution about so we don’t worry about turning our lives over to big business. In fact it may be smaller businesses that are seen as a problem. At the recent Huron County Federation of Agriculture Members of Parliament briefing day, Rob Van Aaken, general manager of Tuckersmith Communications Ltd., a co-operatively-owned telecomunications company in Kippen, said efforts to create “competition” by Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission will actually pit small independent telephone companies against market giants. Huge cable companies can sell telephone service to their urban customers while leaving them the expensive job of serving rural customers with highspeed internet, etc. Where once there was concern over size and balance in our society we now seem to have embraced “bigger is better”. — KR & Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise.