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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, January 6, 2011
Volume 27 No. 1OBITUARY- Pg. 20Local veteran dies onNew Year’s Eve FESTIVAL - Pg. 23 Blyth Festival posts smalldeficit for 2010 seasonREVIEW- Pg. 19‘The Citizen’ looks back at a memorable 2010Publications Mail Agreement No. 4005014 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
After the shine of the swearing-in
ceremony had worn off, Huron East
Councillors were ready to get to
work at their Dec. 21 meeting,
greeted by two delegations regarding
wind turbines.
The first presentation was made by
Central Huron Against Turbines
(CHAT) member David
Hemingway. Hemingway had
attended the first-ever symposium to
discuss the adverse health effects of
wind turbines, which was held in
late 2010 in Picton.
He took video of many of the
presentations and wanted to share a
couple of them with Huron East
Council, specifically regarding low-
frequency noise (LFN).
Each of the video presentations
were approximately 30 minutes in
length and Hemingway hoped they
would help clarify what LFN is. He
said that at the inter-council
information meeting held late last
year, there was a significant amount
of confusion surrounding LFN and
he felt the presentations could help.
Experts were brought into the
symposium from all over North
America to discuss the alleged
adverse health effects associated
with industrial wind turbines.
There were also presentations on
the history of the wind turbine
movement. One expert spoke to the
turbine boom of the 2000s and how
it was set up by actions in the 1980s
and 1990s.
Hemingway, who is currently in
the process of making a
documentary on the subject with his
son, has attended meetings regarding
wind turbines all over the province.
He agrees that the answer to the
“problem” of wind turbines isn’t a
simple one, but he said that when 20
per cent of the population, when
situated near industrial wind
turbines can experience adverse
health effects, it is a problem that
needs to be addressed.
“It’s not a simple answer. It’s
complex,” he said. “If you figure
conservatively, in Goderich with a
population of 8,000, 10 per cent, 800
people could be affected.”
Members of Huron East Against
Turbines (HEAT) also brought forth
a delegation, reviewing the events
that brought both the group, and
council to its current point.
HEAT co-founder Gerry Ryan
asked council to hold an
informational meeting, in which an
invitation is circulated to
neighbouring municipalities. They
could attend the meeting, possible
options would be discussed and
financial support would be
considered.
Several councillors, however,
were miffed at this request, as many
of them noted, a meeting of that
nature had already been held with
several representatives attending, but
no one coming forward with
financial support for a provisional
bylaw.
Ryan said he wanted the
invitations to be sent out by Jan. 4,
with a potential date to be set for
February sometime.
This way, he said, councils would
have two meetings in which they
could decide if they want to send
someone and/or contribute
financially to the cause.
“When a bylaw is in place, we’ll
believe that you’ve made an effort to
protect Huron East residents,” Ryan
said.
Only then, Ryan said, would the
municipality be absolved of liability,
after councillors had admitted, by
acknowledging HEAT’s cause, that
there are health effects that residents
should be concerned about.
Several councillors, including
Brussels councillor Joe Seili found
this statement to be threatening,
asking if HEAT was planning
potential legal action against the
municipality.
“So if other councils don’t buy in,
HEAT’s going to sue council?” Seili
asked. “Because that’s what I’m
getting.”
Ryan said that there had been no
discussion about a lawsuit and that
he was not threatening any such
thing. He said he was simply stating
that if a Huron East resident felt that
he/she wasn’t protected sufficiently
by the municipality, that they could
come back and sue.
“A ratepayer could come back to
you and say you did nothing to
protect their health and threaten a
lawsuit,” he said.
Councillor Bill Siemon, who was
elected to a second term as Huron
East’s third representative at Huron
County Council, said he would be
bringing a wind turbine motion to
Huron County Council at its Jan. 5
The controversial $5 charge to
take garbage to the Morris-
Turnberry landfill site is no more,
after being killed by councillors at
their Dec. 21 meeting.
In the end, the vote was
unanimous, despite a report
presented by staff that appeared to
show the amount of recycling
increased and amount of garbage
decreased, following the
implementation of the fee.
A report from Bluewater
Recycling Association showed that
for the quarter ending June 30, 2010,
49.24 per cent of materials the
company picked up were for
recycling, compared to 43.73 for the
period ending Dec. 31, 2009 while
garbage had been reduced from
56.27 per cent to 50.76 per cent.
But Deputy-Mayor Jason
Breckenridge noted that the fee had
only been in use for less than two
months (it was imposed May 15,
2010) so it was unclear how much of
the change could be attributed to the
entry charge.
Councillor Neil Warwick, who
had given notice at the Dec. 7
meeting that he intended to
introduce a motion, brought his
motion forward, calling for an
immediate end to the $5 fee to enter
the landfill.
“It’s been such a thorn in people’s
side,” he said.
The motion was seconded by John
Smuck.
Gary Pipe, director of public
works, warned of the danger of
having too many people visiting the
landfill site. “The landfill is a hazard
to come to and the fewer people who
come to it the better,” he said. “I’ve
seen people in sandals walking at the
landfill.”
Some landfills have faced lawsuits
from people hurt on the site, he said,
and Elma instituted a $10 fee to try
to discourage people from visiting
the landfill.
Warwick said the safety issue
needs to be addressed but he didn’t
see the $5 fee changing the way
people dressed at the landfill.
Councillor David Baker noted that
people in rural areas have garbage
that won’t be picked up and they
have to take it to the dump. Then
there’s the problem of two weeks
between pickups in summer months
Central Huron councillors were
privy to a long-awaited meeting with
North Huron’s fire chief on Dec. 21.
Chief John Black, who had to
cancel two previously scheduled
appearances, appeared before
Central Huron Council, after cutting
into his vacation time in Gravenhurst
in order to field questions.
Some councillors were eager to
pepper Black with questions because
of concerns with a controversial fire-
service agreement that was
eventually endorsed by Central
Huron and North Huron Councils in
June. At the crux of the controversy
for the Central Huron contingent
was a new price tag of about
$100,000 when the fee had
previously been about $35,000. In
contrast, North Huron argued the
new fee more accurately reflects the
true cost of fire and First Response
services provided by North Huron
firefighters to the northern portion of
Central Huron.
While presenting statistics
collected from Jan. 1 through to Oct.
27, Black notes the fire coverage
model is “new” to firefighters but it
has been employed by ambulance
and police services for some time.
Black notes he is “proud” of area
firefighters for their efforts,
dedication, co-operation and
perseverance, and that the
department’s biggest “failure” over
the past year has been three
incidents involving firefighters.
“An injury or death is
unacceptable,” says Black.
In reviewing statistics for the
Black presents in
Central Huron
HEAT members request second turbine meeting
A long time coming
Stones belonging to the Brussels Curling Club have been making trips up and down the ice for
40 years, and while they haven’t been retired, they got a facelift with a little help from the
Ontario Trillium Foundation in the form of a $19,900 grant. A new running surface was installed
on the rocks in addition to new handles. Additional sponsorship of the handles completed the
funding for the project. Al Harrison, a Grant Review Team Member with the Ontario Trillium
Foundation (third from left), was in Brussels on Monday night to make the official presentation
to the club. The club received their refurbished rocks just in time for the 2010/2011 curling
season. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
Morris-Turnberry
kills landfill fee
C e l e b r a t i n g 25 YearsTheCitizen1985-2010
By Keith Roulston
The Citizen
Continued on page 6
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
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Clinton News Record
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