HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-05-12, Page 18PAGE 18. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2011.Little School prepares for spring
Walton Motocross and Joan
Karstens of Brentwood on the Beach
were presented with tourism indus-
try awards at the Huron Tourism
Association’s 22nd Annual Tourism
Event and Brochure Swap in late
April.
Each year the Huron Tourism
Association (HTA) recognizes a
member who has demonstrated lead-
ership, creative invention, partner-
ship initiative, community impact
and excellence in the tourism indus-
try. This year the Tourism
Development award, initiated by the
Blyth Festival in 1993, was present-
ed to Chris Lee and his team at the
Walton Motocross.
The Walton Motocross is an event
that has a 40-year history in Huron.
Like many good things, it started
with an idea; a family with a farm,
and a passion for motocross and off-
road riding. From the original days
of the ‘Maitland Dirt Riders’ club of
casual riders and aspiring competi-
tors, the Lee family has built an
impressive international event
attracting hundreds of riders and
tens of thousands of spectators. In
2011, the Walton Motocross cele-
brates 20 years of hosting the
TransCan event and 40 years as the
Walton Motocross track.
“The Walton Motocross is always
a leader in innovation and cutting
edge marketing,” says Cindy Fisher,
Tourism Co-ordinator for the
County of Huron. “The Lee family
has worked diligently to market not
only their event, but the entire
County by showcasing the best this
area has to offer.”
This year, the Huron Tourism
Association introduced a new
Award, the Tourism Champion
award to recognize an owner, opera-
tor, staff or volunteer of a business,
attraction or special event that
demonstrates stellar hospitality, cre-
ative marketing savvy, inclusive
partnerships, forward thinking lead-
ership, ongoing promotion
of Ontario’s West Coast and the
area’s tourism businesses and expe-
riences.
The first annual Tourism
Champion Award was presented to
Joan Karstens of Brentwood on the
Beach in St. Joseph. With over 20
years in the hospitality business in
Huron County, Joan and her team
welcome return visitors from around
the world. Joan’s hospitable nature,
her networking charm and her serv-
ice to the Huron Tourism
Association are commended.
“Joan can top ticket sales for any
tourism or community event,” said
Cindy. “She believes in partnerships
and she’s always promoting
Ontario’s West Coast and the
region.”
The tourism awards were present-
ed at the 22nd Annual Tourism
Event and Brochure Swap held at the
Seaforth Community Centre. The
Municipality of Huron East gave a
wonderful welcome to people in the
tourism industry from across Huron
County and showcased some of the
heritage, sporting and other attrac-
tions and experiences of Seaforth,
Walton, and area.
“The event provides a great oppor-
tunity to network with other tourism
professionals from the countryside
and coastline of Ontario’s West
Coast,” said Tim Cumming,
President of Huron Tourism
Association. “The event reminds us
to challenge ourselves to develop
effective tourism products and to
provide the best tourism experience
possible.”
Our association, more than 170
members strong, thanks each of
those nominated for their commit-
ment to tourism and hospitality in
Huron County. We look forward to
another year of welcoming visitors,
including friends and relatives, who
will discover the pleasures and treas-
ures of Ontario’s West Coast –
Huron County. For more informa-
tion or for a copy of the new 2011
vacation guide, please visit
www.ontarioswestcoast.ca
Finally! The weather has had
more than two good days in a row.
The weekend was beautiful to cele-
brate Mother’s Day or to just enjoy.
Many folks did some outside work
and the farmers at last spent time on
the land.
We welcome Dan Poirier and
Bridget Pennington and their three
children Torrance, Dakota and
Samantha to the village. They have
bought the Harloff house and are
settling in well.
Walton has had its share of
mishaps this past week. Ed
McClure, an employee of Cook’s in
Walton suffered a fall while at work.
He is in hospital in London with a
very serious break to his ankle and
other less serious injuries. He will be
off his feet for quite some time while
healing. He hopefully will be trans-
ferred a little closer to home, so his
family and friends can drop into
visit him.
Home from hospital is young
Carson Flood. He has also suffered a
break to the ankle/leg. He received
the injury in a collision with a vehi-
cle. We hope he recovers quickly
and is again out and about.
Howard Hackwell spent a few
days in Seaforth Hospital last week.
He has improved and is home again.
Daughters Pamela and Patricia came
up from Toronto to check on dear
old dad and that always helps to
make one feel better.
Doreen Hackwell is also a patient
in Seaforth Hospital and is continu-
ing to heal and improve from her
knee surgery. We hope she is soon
well enough to come home.
Ooops! The flyer sent out by
Bluewater Recycling concerning the
days the Walton Landfill site is open
is wrong for the month of May only.I couldn’t understand why DavidPerrie wasn’t at the dump onSaturday and then found out aboutthe mistake. David reports bringingthe mistake to the attention of HuronEast. The Walton Landfill Site willbe open in May following theBluewater Recycling pick-up, May14 and May 28 and then everySaturday beginning in June for the
summer months. I hope this didn’t
cause too much inconvenience for
many people who showed up to the
dump last Saturday.
The Walton Little School’s staff
and students spent the month of
April preparing for and observing
the arrival of spring. Activities
include creating their own “Signs of
Spring” picture book, planting seeds
and recording their growth and set-
ting up a farming centre in the class-
room. In between all the rainy days,
they have found new opportunities
to get out on the playground and
visit with the robin that has set up
her home in the shelter above the
sandbox. The children are waiting in
anticipation for her eggs to hatch.
During a special week in April,
the older children in the centre cele-
brated Earth Day. Many discussions
around recycling occurred. The class
was encouraged to get creative with
recycled craft materials and also
spent a day decorating earth-friend-
ly posters.
The Walton Little School has had
a number of new registrations in the
past month and welcome all the new
children and their parents to the
Little School family.
The first shower of the many
upcoming summer weddings was
held at Duff’s United Church on
Friday evening. The shower was to
honour bride elect, Katie Emmrich.
Katie received many beautiful gifts
from family and friends and the
members of the Walton and sur-
rounding community. Patty Banks
welcomed the guests and read a
reading on how to handle a man. Jo-
Ann McDonald composed and read
a story “Katie Dreams in Pink” and
Patty Banks dressed the bride in her
stunning pink outfit. A reading fol-
lowed and then the gifts were pre-sented for Katie and her mother,Judy Emmrich to open.A lovely luncheon cloth, made byPhyllis Mitchell was given to Katiewith the name of everyone whoattended the shower on it. Katiethanked everyone for coming andfor the many lovely gifts received. Alunch of cake and ice cream andcheesecake was enjoyed by all and
was provided by Patty, Jo-Ann, Judy
Lee and Joan Perrie. Katie and
fiancé Ryan Johnston will marry in
July.
This Friday evening is the shower
for Sarah McDonald at Duff’s
United. The date for the shower for
Stephanie Rijkhoff is June 3 at
Duff’s at 7:30 p.m. and the showerdate for Katie Williamson is June 7at St. Ambrose Church at 8 p.m. Thecommunity is also collecting foranother July bride, BrandyWilliamson. Five Walton brides inJuly.Celebrating birthdays this pastweek include Pat Melady, CameronKale, Armand Roth, Gerry Sullivan,Brian Workman, Scott
McNaughton, Doug O’Neill, Adam
Jarosz, Scott Baan, Brandon Blake,
Colin Humphries, Kyle Stevenson,
Brandon Dalton, Jim Shortreed,
Jordan Thompson, Carman Bernard,
Calvin Flood, Paul Finch and
Nathan Wharton. Happy birthday to
all.
Moncrieff park considered
as surplus by HE council
Lee honoured with Tourism Development Award
20 years strong
Chris Lee, right, and Walton Motocross were recognized by
the Huron Tourism Association late last month in winning
the Blyth Festival’s Tourism Development Award in this, the
year the raceway will hold its 20th Walton TransCan. Lee
was awarded at the Association’s annual brochure swap (in
Seaforth this year) by Huron Tourism Association President
Tim Cumming. (Photo submitted)
By Jo-AnnMcDonaldCall 887-6570PEOPLE AROUNDWALTON
NEWS
FROM WALTON
After a motion to declare the prop-
erty surplus was tabled, further
information regarding what Huron
East Council’s plans for the
Moncrieff ball park property will be
presented at the May 17 meeting.
Immediately after calling the May
3 meeting of Huron East Council to
order, councillors went into closed
session to discuss the property and a
motion was read to declare the prop-
erty surplus and to dispose of it.
There were complicating factors,
however, which were presented by
Grey resident Cindy Moyer, who
said the property that council was
intending to declare surplus was
entrusted to the municipality (origi-
nally the Township of Grey in 1920)
for a very specific purpose.
Moyer said that councillors (in
1920 and successors thereafter) were
entrusted with the property for the
purpose of making it a public park.
The original document from 1920,
Moyer said, lists a condition that the
property must be left as a public park
“forever”.
Not all councillors, however, were
in agreement with the motion.
Immediately after the motion was
read, Councillor Larry McGrath said
that he felt that since the property
was originally deeded to the munici-
pality (township at the time), that the
property should be deeded back to
the farmland it was originally taken
from.
“If it’s legal, we should do it that
way,” McGrath said.
McGrath added that perhaps the
current owner of the original parcel
of property could simply pay the
legal costs, and the land could be
given back.
Grey Councillor Alvin McLellan
also had concerns.
“Would we be breaking that
trust?” McLellan asked. “Maybe we
should get a lawyer’s opinion.”
Councillor Bill Siemon agreed,
saying that a legal opinion should be
obtained before proceeding.
Brussels Councillor Joe Seili said
that perhaps trees could be planted
on the property, meaning that it
could still be a public park, but it
could be beautified further.
Moyer agreed with Seili’s com-
ments, saying that would be an
appropriate use for the land and that
it would still be in the spirit of the
original agreement between the for-
mer landowner and the councillors
of Grey Township at the time.
Moyer said that the trust document
was very clear that the land was to
remain a public park “forever”.
“As far as I’m concerned,” she
said, “forever hasn’t happened yet.”
In a subsequent interview, Moyer
said she felt that a trust had been cre-
ated between council and the
landowner, who had granted the land
in good faith for the betterment of
the community, and that an alterna-
tive use of that land would be a
breach of trust.
“This land was a trust bestowed on
the Township of Grey,” Moyer said.
“And it was assigned to the succes-
sors in Huron East to have and to
hold for that sole and only use forev-
er.”
Information and a further legal
opinion will be provided to Huron
East Council at its May 16 meeting
where the motion to declare the
property as surplus will be raised
once again.
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen