HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-09-20, Page 1CitizenTh
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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, September 20, 2012
Volume 28 No. 37
EDUCATION - Pg. 18Thompson protest held in Blyth ART BANK - Pg. 19 Exhibit collects best of Art Bank’s 12 yearsSPORTS- Pg. 8Wingham Ironmen start theirseason with a winPublications Mail Agreement No. 4005014 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
John Black, the late chief of the
Fire Department of North Huron,
has been chosen as the firefighter
recipient of the Warden’s
Emergency Services of the Year
Award.
The decision was made at the
meeting of the Warden’s Task Force
in Goderich on Sept. 5, but the
formal presentation will be made at
Huron County Council chambers in
Goderich on Wednesday, Oct. 3 at 9
a.m.
Also being recognized will be
Elizabeth Brown, in the paramedic
category. This year there were no
nominations in the police officer
category.
The awards were created two
years ago after OPP Const. Vu
Pham was shot and killed during a
routine traffic stop on County
Road 12 near Winthrop.
Bluewater Mayor Bill Dowson
suggested a set of annual awards that
would honour the county’s top
police officer, firefighter and
paramedic.
Pham was honoured as Huron
County’s top police officer that
year.
After her first full year in office,
Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson
says she has learned a lot, but she
hopes she’s handed out some
education of her own as well.
While Thompson spent her first
year learning about Queen’s Park,
she was seldom silent on issues she
felt passionate about. She says she
has raised several motions pertaining
to wind turbines and renewable
energy and she’s always talking to
other MPPs about Huron-Bruce
and what rural Ontario means to
her.
It has been hard work, she says,
but meeting people and talking with
them has been the “shot of
adrenaline” that she needs.
Thompson has been very active
throughout the riding, appearing at
many community events over the
last 12 months, including the
opening of the Blyth Festival, the
annual reunion of the Huron Pioneer
Thresher and Hobby Association
and the Brussels Homecoming,
which was one of her proudest
moments.
“Not falling off the horse during
the celebrity challenge,” is
Thompson’s answer when asked
about her proudest moments over the
previous 12 months. Thompson
participated in the Boothill Bash
portion of the Brussels Homecoming
program as a celebrity participant.
All joking aside, Thompson says,
she has plenty to be proud of over
the last year. There is still a lot of
work left to do she says.
Looking a year into the future,
Thompson says, she hopes to be
serving whatever position is set out
for her while PC leader Tim Hudak
presides over the province as its
premier, saying that might mean
there is an election on the horizon.
However, in her day-to-day duties,
she says she just hopes to be “an
ambassador for all the good things”
going on in Huron and Bruce
Counties.
She says her presence at
community events throughout the
riding just harkens back to her
childhood and how her parents
raised her in the Belgrave area.
“It’s a throwback to how I was
raised. Those things are important,”
Thompson said. “You need to be out
there to lend support.”
Thompson also added that many
of these community events are not
new to her, as she remembers
twirling a baton as part of a
performance at the annual Threshers
Reunion in Blyth decades ago. She
also said she remembers showing
her calf at many of the area fall fairs
when she was younger.
“You have to lead by example,”
she said. “So it’s not an effort for
me. This is what really matters.”
In continuing to represent her area,
Thompson says it was her
recommendation to Hudak that
potential policies be written up
specifically for rural Ontario, similar
to the treatment of northern Ontario.
Hudak told Thompson he thought
her idea was good and he was
interested to read what she had to
say. Thompson has since been
tapped to put something together
and she has been talking with area
experts and residents to craft policies
that would work best for the people
of Huron-Bruce.
One person she has already talked
to is Wayne Caldwell, a professor at
the University of Guelph, a Huron
County native and a former summer
student of Thompson’s mother, she
laughs.
When Thompson began her time
at Queen’s Park last October, she
said, she was lucky to be seated
around MPPs she could really learn
from. She says she sits beside an
expert on protocol, a fantastic orator
and an MPP who knows the history
of Queen’s Park inside and out and
all three of them have helped her out
Douglas Barrill, an economic
development specialist with Huron
County, is hoping to complete a
county-wide business retention and
expansion study by January.
Barrill presented his proposal to
Huron County Council at the Sept.
12 Committee of the Whole
meeting, saying that with all of the
work that has already been done,
completing a county-wide study
would just be a matter of filling in
the blanks.
Such studies had already been
completed in Exeter, Bayfield,
Goderich and Seaforth/Brussels,
while recently studies have been
conducted in Howick (Gorrie,
Fordwich and Wroexter), Bluewater
(Zurich and Hensall), North
Huron (Blyth) and Central Huron
(Clinton).
Studies will soon be conducted in
the remaining communities of
Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh
(township-wide), Morris-Turnberry
(township-wide) and Huron East
(Vanastra and an update on
Seaforth).
Seaforth was one of the
first communities in Ontario to
complete a business retention and
expansion study in 1999, so it will
need to be updated in order to be
relevant.
Costs associated with the Seaforth
study, however, will be covered by a
commitment by the Ontario Ministry
of Agriculture, Food and Rural
Affairs (OMAFRA). The budget for
the Seaforth portion of the project is
$12,000.
Because of the use of volunteers
and the quick work, Barrill said he
was able to save the county
thousands of dollars that will be
applied to signs throughout the
county.
Projected costs for the study were
approximately $40,000 Barrill said,
but actual costs were $3,800 (plus
the $12,000 for Seaforth from
OMAFRA). In addition, Barrill said
he was able to reduce the amount of
volunteer hours that were used as
well. Projected volunteer hours for
the projects were nearly 1,100,
which was reduced to 124. These
savings resulted in $34,000 extra
and over 950 volunteer hours that
were saved.
Barrill said that with the
savings commerce maps can be
produced for municipalities
throughout the county, something
that North Huron has already taken
advantage of.
A freestanding sign would cost
$1,600, while a mountable version
for inside municipal buildings, such
as town halls or community centres,
would cost $850.
The signs would be a one-time
cost to the municipalities, Barrill
said, with the Huron Economic
Development Partnership covering
half the costs.
Barrill said two signs have already
been placed in Blyth, one in
Belgrave and one in Wingham. He
said North Huron was a “great
municipality” to start the program
with.
He said he hopes to have
commerce maps installed in most
communities throughout the county
by the end of the year.
Barrill said that between the signs
and the business retention and
expansion study, Huron County has
positioned itself on the “leading
edge of rural economic
development”.
Thompson reflects on first year
Speak up!
The Grade 6B class at the newly-formed Maitland River Elementary School is apparently “all
ears” or at least they were last week at the first-ever Elementary School Fair, a continuation of
the annual Belgrave, Blyth and Brussels School Fair that had been held in Belgrave for
decades. Mrs. Decker, formerly of Blyth Public School, accompanied her class at the fair’s
parade before the rest of the day’s activities got underway. (Denny Scott photo)
County-wide study
ready for January
John Black to receive
top Huron County
firefighter award
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 15