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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-03-17, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2011.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 $34.00/year ($32.38 + $1.62 G.S.T.) in Canada; $115.00/year in U.S.A. and $175/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: norhuron@scsinternet.com March 15, 1950 The issue of calls to the Brussels Fire Department was discussed at Brussels Village Council and the resolution was eventually amended. It read that the department would get paid $50 per call, per hour and $50 for each additional hour spent at a call. The rate included a pumper truck and six firefighters. The firefighters would also earn $1.25 per hour that they were away from Brussels on a fire call. The annual Ethel Skating Carnival reported having a large crowd at the event which was emceed by George A. Dunbar. One of the event’s biggest draws was what The Brussels Post described as a “battle royale” of a broomball game that pitted married men against single men. The married men won, but not without a fight, winning by the narrowest of margins by a score of 2-1. The annual St. Patrick’s Day Winter Carnival in Belgrave was slated for March 17. There were awards for best couple in Irish costume, best comic costume and best imitation of a nursery rhyme character. The Brussels Lions Club held their annual ladies’ night celebration on March 13 at St. John’s Church. Upon arriving, each woman was presented with a carnation corsage and were eventually served a chicken dinner by the men of the Brussels Lions Club. March 13, 1974 The Blyth Standard changed to a four-column format in order to be more appealing to readers. It was said this would increase the amount of text that would appear on each page. Barbara Walsh of BJ Fabrics was in the final stages of preparation to open her shop, which was scheduled for grand opening on March 18. Walsh was planning on operating the store with her mother, Mary Holland in the building formerly known at the Arcade store, which now holds an antique dealer, which had been sitting vacant for several years. Hullett Township Council held a marathon meeting on March 4. The meeting began in the early afternoon, breaking for dinner and then running until midnight. Several tenders were being discussed that night which incited a large amount of debate. Despite farmers protesting in Wingham, Ontaro Hydro said that it wouldn’t budge off of a hydro line to Bruce County. There was to be an environmental review of the power corridor that would run power from the new Bruce power facility to Georgetown. Premier William Davis, however, after seeing the protests, said that there were portions of the corridor that could be negotiated. Hullett Central School showed 30 students enlisted for kindergarten in 1974. The soon-to-be students met with principal Mr. MacLennan and school nurse Mrs. Martene. March 12, 1986 The northern portion of Huron County was closed down earlier in the week due to the most vicious storm of the winter. Temperatures plunged into some of the coldest of the year while winds brought in harsh snowsqualls closing nearly all roads in Huron County. Some of the areas hit the hardest across the county were those in Brussels and Blyth, as the Blyth Lions Club had to postpone its annual novice hockey tournament, which was set to hit the ice on March 8. The Blyth architectural firm of Christopher Borgal was chosen as the architects for the design of the Huron County Pioneer Museum Project. The recommendation to choose the Blyth firm was made by the Huron County Museum Committee at a meeting of Huron County Council in Goderich. April 2, 2003 After new regulations brought in after the Walkerton incident, Brussels experienced an over- $400,000 deficit in the village water system. The water system’s reserves, at the time, totalled just over $50,000. East Wawanosh Public School received a $1,000 grant from the Toyota Evergreen Foundation to enhance the Belgrave-area school grounds. The funds were allotted for the purchase of trees for the yard, which would provide more shade and help beautify the new outdoor pavillion that the school council would be building in the spring. Huron East Council held a meeting on the municipality’s official plan at the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre. Just under 35 people were in attendance to ask questions and find out more about the plan. A Japanese theatre troupe was in Blyth to take in a performance of Educating Mad Persons at Memorial Hall. F.E. Madill Secondary School students were busy organizing the fifth annual Coffee House for Cancer on April 11. Organizer Jessica Mann said there would be entertainment, door prizes and a silent auction in addition to an event called ‘Spare Hair’. “[Spare Hair] is when people with long hair donate some for wigs for cancer patients,” Mann said. 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 So how do we get safe energy? On Monday night a meeting of the Saugeen Shores municipal council overflowed with protesters demanding council find a way to halt the expansion of wind farms. This was happening in a municipality sitting beside Bruce Nuclear Power, on a night when the focus of the world was on the worry of a nuclear meltdown at a Japanese nuclear plant following the tragic earthquake and tsunami. People in this region have become untroubled by nuclear power after living next to a nuclear plant for 40 years. No doubt, however, fears of the potential for disaster at a nuclear facility will be rekindled, just as they were after the spill of radiation from the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in Ukraine in 1986 and the near meltdown of the Three Mile Island plant in the U.S. in 1979. The provincial government’s plans to make additional nuclear plants a big part of the supply of Ontario’s future energy needs will undoubtedly face far more opposition as media attention to what’s happening in Japan revives worries about nuclear plants in Ontario. So where do we turn for safe energy? The McGuinty govenment has been working hard to keep its promise to close coal-fired electrical generating plants after doctors said the pollution is killing thousands a year. One of its solutions has been electricity from wind, but everywhere you turn people are up in arms about wind farms. Last year, sensitive to public opinion in the lead-up to a provincial election, the government listened to protesters and cancelled a gas-fired generating station west of Toronto. Recently the province has added solar energy to the mix, but many people are griping because they feel the cost that’s being paid will drive up electricity bills. About the only form of electrical generation people can agree on is hydro-electric, but there are few developable sites remaining and when a new power dam is being built we then hear about the dislocation of local residents whose land is flooded by the dam. The only really safe, environmentally-friendly power, is the conservation of the electricity we already generate through existing means. Most of us don’t want to reduce our electrical use if it means cramping our lifestyles. Even if we do reduce, we can’t conserve ourselves back to zero consumption, unless we’re willing to adopt the lifestyle of our Old Order Amish neighbours. It’s time for the provincial government to engage the public in the discussion of Ontario’s future energy needs and plainly put the cost of the various electrical generation options (both economically and environmentally) on the table. There’s no perfect solution, only hard choices that the public needs to buy into. — KR Making it work Belgrave has always been an example of a community that finds the necessary ways to make things work. The Belgrave Community Centre Board seems to be another case of local residents finding a local solution. Divided between two municipalities, Belgrave residents can’t turn to a single council to solve their problems. With their independent nature, they have also set out to find a different way. The tiny Belgrave arena, run by volunteers and with only natural ice, is out of sync with the modern idea of what a community centre should be. In the past, some recreation officials in North Huron, which owns the building, have questioned how a volunteer-based facility could fit into a professionally-run organization like the one that runs the Wescast Centre in Wingham and Blyth and District Community Centre. Faced with being a square peg in a round hole, Belgrave’s inventive residents created the not-for-profit corporation which leases the Belgrave Community Centre from North Huron, and runs it in a way that involves the community to provide the services the community needs. As Jonathan VanCamp and Bruce Higgins of the Belgrave Community Centre Board explained to Morris-Turnberry last week, since the board was formed the volunteer base has more than doubled. In a time of larger municipalities, the Belgrave solution could be a model for the fact there’s more than one way to accomplish things.— 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.