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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, March 3, 2011
Volume 27 No. 9
SPORTS - Pg. 9Ironmen season ends ingame seven loss BRIDAL - Pg. 11Matrimony is celebratedin guide to tying the knotAUBURN- Pg. 6Councillor clarifies hiscomments on AuburnPublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
North Huron won’t participate in turbine study
Changes refused
for North Huron
coyote policy
Going for a ride
The Londesborough United Church’s Sunday School held its annual skating party on Sunday
at the Blyth and District Community Centre and there was plenty of fun to be had with no
skates required as Ashley Radford, left, and Macey Adams, right, both four years old, take care
in pushing two-year-old Mika Adams around in a buggy. (Vicky Bremner photo)
North Huron Township Council
decided that their time and energy
could be better spent addressing
issues other than wind turbines and
low frequency noise because of the
lack of the former in their township.
As a result of direction given by
Huron County Council, the Planning
and Development Department is
attempting to establish a group
comprised of lower tier and Huron
County representatives as well as
members of the Huron County
Health Unit to investigate low
frequency noise.
North Huron won’t be supplying a
member however, as councillors felt
that it wasn’t an issue that directly
affected North Huron.
“A number of people question
whether new developments cause
health problems, and whether newer
[sound producing developments]
could also cause low frequency
noise,” Vincent stated. “This group
won’t be just studying wind
turbines, they will check a number
of developments to determine the
cause of health affects.”
Councillor Alma Conn was the
first to state that she believed that
time that would be spent on this
project could be better spent on
some of the projects already on
North Huron’s “full plate”, and
wondered if someone hadn’t already
addressed low frequency noise.
“Our time is valuable, both as a
municipality and a county, and I
don’t want to waste money re-
inventing the wheel,” she said. “I
don’t think this is a good investment
for us.”
Councillor Brock Vodden agreed,
stating that the issue of wind
turbines was one that wasn’t on
North Huron’s radar at the time.
“It’s not an immediate thing in our
field of concern at the moment,” he
said. “We can support the research
our neighbouring communities will
be doing, but it isn’t something that
is affecting us.”
Vodden suggested that council not
send a representative, and, finding
no opponent, Vincent took the lack
of objections as consensus to not
send a representative to the group.
Central Huron Council will now
be investigating partnership options
for the Auburn Community Hall
with Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh
after North Huron has said it has no
interest in such a partnership.
Chief Administrative Officer
Kevin McLlwain said that the
municipality had received
correspondence from North Huron
in response to request regarding cost
sharing at the Auburn Hall and that
North Huron was “not interested”.
The issue was discussed at the
second half of Central Huron’s
Committee of the Whole meeting on
Feb. 24. The first half was held on
the evening of Feb. 23 where the
majority of the agenda had been
discussed.
The alternative now is to go to
Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh
(ACW) who McLlwain says has
expressed interest in a partnership as
over 50 per cent of the village lies in
ACW.
While the hall actually sits in
Central Huron, McLlwain said that
ACW would be willing to pay
Coyotes are becoming a more
prevalent nuisance for farmers, and
members of North Huron Township
Council feel the policies suggested
by the Ministry of Natural Resources
(MNR) don’t adequately address the
problems that the canine animals can
cause.
Several councillors, who are
hunters, stated that the suggestions
made by the MNR and then passed
to North Huron by Huron County
Council were unrealistic and
wouldn’t work.
“This was not the intent when we
set out to tackle [coyote predation]
originally,” Reeve Neil Vincent
stated. “[The fact that hunting]
requires a coyote to kill livestock
before they can have bounties
collected on them isn’t right.”
Vincent said that needing a carcass
caused by coyotes has made life
difficult for people who hunt coyotes
in the winter, and that the
stipulations are unrealistic.
“The five kilometre radius [from a
kill] is ridiculous, a coyote can
easily travel five, 10 or 15 kilometres
quickly,” he said. “And the real red
herring I see here is that they suggest
capturing or killing a coyote within
48 hours of the coyote killing
livestock, when the MNR doesn’t
usually get permits for bounties
processed within five days.”
Vincent explained that an MNR
director needs to sign off on permits
to collect bounties, and that directors
are often hard to track down.
“The directors are only in
Guelph,” he said. “The bureaucracy
and red tape are some of the worst
I’ve ever seen.”
Other conditions on hunting
coyotes include a maximum bounty-
collection time of four weeks, and an
end to hunting period extentions.
While there are some who claim
that farmers who are dumping
deadstock in bushes are to blame,
Vincent doesn’t believe that to be
true.
“Under the disposal act, that can
costs thousands of dollars if you get
caught,” he said. “It’s far to vivid an
act for a business person to be taking
a chance on.
Deputy-Reeve David Riach
explained to councillors questioning
the hunting of coyotes that there is
no season under which they can be
hunted. They are fair game all year
round.
“I have a small games licence,” he
said. “I can hunt on your property
with your permission all year
round.”
The suggestions, according to
Vincent, are what the MNR would
like to see Bruce, Huron and Perth
counties use.
“None of the counties are happy
with these suggestions,” he said.
Councillor Ray Hallahan said that
the practices are unlikely to be
effective.
“As a hunter, I don’t agree with
any of these suggestions,” he said.
“We should get back to someone and
tell them we don’t want any of this.”
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Central Huron seeks ACW
as partner for Auburn Hall
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 22