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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, June 28, 2012
Volume 28 No. 26
MURALS - Pg. 18‘Now and Then’ muralsadorn Brussels windows FESTIVAL - Pg. 19Blyth Festival opens with‘Dear Johnny Deere’DOG SHOW - Pg. 13Kennel Club dog show returnsto BlythPublications Mail Agreement No. 4005014 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
In order to celebrate this great
nation we live in, The Citizen will be
closed on Monday, July 2 to honour
the Canada Day holiday.
Deadlines for the July 5 issue will
be moved up as a result. If you wish
to submit copy or advertising for the
July 5 issue, it must be submitted to
The Citizen’s Brussels office by 2
p.m. or the Blyth office by 4 p.m. on
Friday, June 29.
We apologize for any
inconvenience this may cause and
the staff at The Citizen
wishes everyone a happy Canada
Day.
Seven years after there had been
much concern from landowners over
the beginning of the process to
protect the sources of water to
municipal water systems, only about
40 people showed up at a series of
three open houses to discuss the
draft of the Proposed Source
Protection Plan for the Ausable
Bayfield and Maitland Valley
Source Protection Areas.
At the final open house at
Wingham’s North Huron Wescast
Centre Tim Cumming,
communications specialist with the
Ausable Bayfield Conservation
Authority explained that about 850
letters had been sent out to people
with properties within the areas
showing the most vulnerability to
affect drinking water from a
municipal water system. Of these
only about 35 were farmers, the
group that had been most concerned
about regulations.
Larry Brown‚ chair of the Source
Protection Committee explained that
since the process began, the scope of
the plan had been reduced to the
area of greatest vulnerability, a
radius of about 100 metres around
each municipal well. This reduced
the number of landowners involved
and most of those are in urban areas
near the well heads.
The open houses were the final
stage in the consultation for the draft
plans. Next the draft proposed plan,
with public comments, will be
submitted to the province for review.
The plans are to be implemented in
2013 when each municipality must
appoint a risk management
official.
The reports available at the
meeting included maps of each of
the municipal water systems in the
Maitland Valley and Ausable
Bayfield watersheds and the areas of
highest vulnerability directly
adjacent to the wellheads as well as
areas of lower vulnerability farther
afield depending on where the water
that feeds the well comes from
under ground.
Brown said that most farmers
would be able to deal with
restrictions because of their
proximity to well heads with a
nutrient management plan. Part of
the reduction in concern over the
process came when prohibition was
replaced with best management
practices to be followed if farming
near a wellhead.
“If people are using best
management practices the risk to
water is reduced.”
The committee began seven years
ago with developing the terms of
reference and identifying the
municipal wells involved. It moved
on to assessing threats to the water
and vulnerabilities of the water
source. This is the final stage,
developing plans to deal with
significant threats to the water
supply.
An added bonus of this and other
plans across Ontario, Brown said,
was creation of a water budget,
looking at the supply and the use of
water. This will give the province a
handle on the water resource when
making decisions on large water
taking projects, Brown said.
Keith Black of Belgrave, who
represented agriculture on the
committee, said in the beginning
committee members who
represented everything from
municipalities to environmental
groups to the public at large and
First Nations began with widely
separated viewpoints.
“It’s certainly been a learning
curve right from the start.”
As a farming representative he
was satisfied with the resulting
plan.
“All in all I don’t think it will be
that onerous for the agricultural
community,” he said. “Most of it can
be handled with a risk management
plan.”
Despite the closure of the
traditional three participating
schools, the Belgrave, Brussels and
Blyth School Fair will live to see its
92nd year as the Elementary School
Fair on Sept. 12.
A meeting was held earlier this
month and nearly 20 people were
there and expressed interest in
keeping the fair going. One of those
people was Steve Hallahan, a man
who had never before participated in
the fair at any level, but he knew it
was important to the community and
needed to carry on.
“This is a community event that
you want to participate in,” Hallahan
said. “I would hate to see it die after
over 90 years.”
Hallahan went to school in
Wingham when he was young, so he
never participated in the fair and his
children are too young to have yet
been invited to the fair.
He said that just in time for his
children to be welcomed to the fair,
there was talk of it being shut down,
which is something he didn’t want to
see.
This year, however, Hallahan and
the rest of the executive for the event
decided that due to the new school
structure in the area, the best way to
keep the fair going was to go even
bigger, inviting students from
Wingham and Turnberry Central
Public Schools as well.
All of these students will be
attending Maitland River
Elementary School and its various
campuses this fall and Hallahan said
he felt it was important to be all-
inclusive when inviting area students
to the fair.
With students from all five schools
being invited to the fair, well over
600 students will be eligible for
participation, Hallahan says, which,
if all of the eligible students
participate, could bring the number
of students up to the levels the fair
saw in the 1940s before enrolment
began to decline in the area.
Hallahan says he has already seen
a high level of support for the fair.
Members of the committee have
been out raising funds for the fair
and their target was $10,000, a
number which they achieved within
the first three weeks of fundraising.
Hallahan has been blown away by
the support and encouragement from
the community.
As far as the actual fair is
concerned, little is planned to
change, says Hallahan.
All of the categories for
submissions will remain the same
and the event will include a parade
and opening ceremonies just as it has
in years past.
On the day of the fair students will
be bussed into Belgrave to
participate. The students will parade
with the students from their own
original school, but the parade route
will be changed slightly to
accommodate the higher volume of
students. The parade will now begin
at the south end of Jordan Street and
make its way north to the baseball
diamond.
Once students arrive at the
baseball diamond there will be the
opening ceremonies, which will
include the MP and MPP for Huron-
Bruce.
The fair has also set up a page on
Facebook to be viewed where
schedules, pictures and general
information about the fair will be
posted in the coming months.
Hallahan says books celebrating
the fair are in the process of being
printed.
The fair’s new executive is: Steven
Hallahan, president; Margaret
Vincent, vice-president; Ron Taylor,
second vice-president; Erin Gaunt,
secretary and Rob Gordon,
treasurer.
Hallahan says the fair will be a
good chance for today’s students to
embrace rural values from around
the area. He says it’s a one-of-a-kind
event that allows children to present
artwork and schoolwork, while at the
same time grow flowers and
vegetables and show livestock at the
same show.
He is looking forward to the fair
this fall, saying that the new
approach to the show should help
invigorate students from around the
area.
Committee plans workshops
for Source Water Protection
Holiday for ‘Citizen’
Beginning with a bang (backfire)
Antique trailers making their way down Blyth’s main street marked the beginning of the Blyth
Festival’s theatre season on June 22. The season opener, Dear Johnny Deere, a play based
on the music of Fred Eaglesmith, features a prominent focus on rural life making the tractors
fit well with the play as well as with the Festival staff’s “Actors on Tractors” and Tractor Pin-up
Friday events held through the pre-season. (Denny Scott photo)
Elementary Fair
will continue,
expand this fall
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
By Keith Roulston
The Citizen