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The Citizen, 2011-05-12, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 12, 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 May 10, 1950 The finals for the Belgrave Music Festival were held at the Wingham Town Hall and the event drew a capacity crowd. Over 200 contestants were entered in the competition with nearly 50 contestants entering into the girls’ under nine category alone. Police were in the midst of investigating the vicious killing of two local dogs that had been discovered on a local lot. The dogs had allegedly been beaten with clubs to the point that they were unrecognizable and then buried on a vacant lot. In a separate section of The Brussels Post, Mr. S.B. Elliott, the owner of the vacant property on which the two dogs had been buried, warned against repeating the offense again, saying, “Anyone disposing of dead animals or garbage of any kind on my premises will be persecuted according to law”. Tenders were being called for the insulation at the Brussels Public School until the end of the day on May 18. The Wingham and District High School held its third annual open house. May 8, 1974 The Huron County Federation of Agriculture held a meeting where the group was told that marketing was the key to success in the farming world. The federation received a presentation from Phil Durand, head of the Ontario Bean Marketing Board and Durand said that in recent trips to Europe and Asia, those areas were looking for Ontario-grown product, but marketing would be the key. Blyth Village Council said that the village’s budget would be set in the next few week and residents would know the size of their tax bill for the coming year. A 12-unit seniors’ apartment complex was approved for construction in Blyth. A letter was received by Blyth Village Council from the Ontario Housing Corporation notifying them of the good news. Engineer A.E. Clark of Wingham said that repairs scheduled for Memorial Hall could get underway as soon as July. There were concerns, however, over the future of the building’s bell tower, with costs to retain the tower reaching close to $1,000 (while some councillors were skeptical and felt the cost would be closer to $2,000). Mrs. Inez MacDonald had just returned from a trip to British Columbia to visit her daughter. She had spent the winter out west before making her way back to Blyth for the spring and summer. May 7, 1986 Free money was on the table and there were no takers. The Blyth Agricultural Society, faced with making its account active or losing the funds, offered the money to an local organization with a project that needed funding. The only condition was that the project would have to serve the society’s mandate: to better agriculture in the Blyth area. Two weeks after the announcement had been made, the society still had no takers for the “free” money. The offer would stand until May 10, with members of the society hoping for an organization to stand up and take the generous gift. After a lengthy closed-door meeting, Brussels Village Council approved the construction of a new wading pool in Brussels by the Lions Club. The vote, which considered a potential legality, was the big question while the issue was debated for nearly an hour in closed session. Mrs. Inez MacDonald of Blyth celebrated her 101st birthday on April 29. A party was held where Inez was surrounded by her family and friends and everyone enjoyed tea and snacks. The Village of Brussels recorded a $23,000 surplus at the end of 1985, which came in large comparison to a $14,000 deficit that ended 1984 in Brussels. May 23, 2003 A car show had been added to the village-wide yard sale scheduled for Brussels for the upcoming weekend. Approximately 25 cars from the Kitchener/Waterloo area were expected to make their way to Brussels for the show. Paul Coultes, president of the Huron County Beef Producers, said that effects from the recently- announced BSE outbreak in western Canada were already being felt. Coultes said that cattle prices were dropping by as much as 25 per cent and the price of cows was down as much as 41 per cent after the first BSE news broke on May 20. Trinity Anglican Church in Blyth was in the midst of undergoing renovations in its 125th anniversary. The Rebekah Morning Star Lodge in Brussels celebrated its 70th anniversary at the Brussels Legion with a party that brought dozens of members to Brussels to mark the occasion. Member of the Blyth Legion Crystal Taylor was named deputy- commander for the zone on May 14. The Blyth Festival hosted its fifth annual golf tournament at Woodlands Links in Clinton. The afternoon of golf was followed by cocktails and a steak barbecue. 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 What to do with Main Streets A property standards debate at North Huron Council last week raises issues that all small urban municipalities are going to be facing in the coming years: what to do with main street. The discussion revolved around storefronts which are zoned commercial but are being used for living quarters. As more and more commercial buildings on our small town main streets sit empty, there are bound to be more landowners trying to get some revenue from these spaces by using them as residential areas. Nearly everyone, probably even including the landowners of main street buildings, would prefer to see thriving retail or office uses of these storefronts, but the reality is it’s not going to happen without extraordinary efforts. The days when the municipality and the community in general could just sit back and wait for enough entrepreneurs to come along to keep all the buildings filled has sadly departed. In the age when people travel to regional shopping centres for so much of their needs, many towns and villages will no longer be service centres for their geographic area. Given this situation, how long can the community expect landlords to sit with empty buildings and not try to get some revenue to help pay the taxes and the upkeep? If we don’t want storefronts to be turned into residences, as they have been in so many once-thriving hamlets that now have no commercial districts, then we have to come up with a plan to change the economic conditions of our main streets. It’s a project too large for one or two individuals. It will take a partnership by municipal governments, local businesses, landlords and even members of the general public who care about their community. It’s going to take creativity to develop a new reason for each community to still have a main street. Communities that can come together to recreate themselves will continue to have commercial cores. Those that can’t have to look at other viable uses for storefronts. — KR The sad part of elections Such is the international reputation of Michael Ignatieff that he had a new job at the University of Toronto within days of resigning as leader of the Liberal Party following last week’s crushing defeat. Other losing candidates from all political parties won’t be so fortunate. Politics is a cruel business. We ask the best people to run for office, then reject them for reasons that may have nothing to do with anything they have said or done themselves. Conservative cabinet ministers got overrun by the sudden, mysterious tide of NDP support in Quebec. Liberals got caught in the combination of the collapse of votes for their party in Ontario combined with enough growth in support for the NDP to turn Conservatives into winners. We’ve seen it before such as when longstanding, and beloved, MP Murray Cardiff was defeated in 1993 with the overwhelming rejection of Kim Campbell’s Progressive Conservative government. And so, in this election, good people lost to the winds of change such as London Liberal MP Glen Pearson. He’s the kind of person we should want representing us in parliament: a co-founder and volunteer executive director of the London Food Bank for 20 years and former chairperson of the Ontario Association of Food Banks. In 1998, along with his wife, Jane Roy, Pearson worked on human rights and development projects in Sudan. This work included building schools and infrastructure, general community development and campaigning against slavery. The couple adopted a Sudanese-born daughter and in 2007, they were able to reunite her with her twin sister, Achan and brother Ater, who were previously thought to be dead. If we have three or four candidates in every election in every riding, it means that two or three people, often outstanding members of our community, will be rejected. Given the harshness of that treatment, it’s amazing we have as many people volunteer to run for election as we do. Whether we support them or not, we should thank them for trying. — 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.