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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, May 19, 2011
Volume 27 No. 20
INSPECTION - Pg. 14Septic programapproved by county BLOOD DRIVE - Pg. 24 Blood Drive returns to Blyth in July SPORTS - Pg. 8Hockey amalgamationbecomes officialPublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
Fall Fair kicks off its historic 150th year
Taking a look
On May 10 the Brussels Cadet Corps made a change that hadn’t been made in five years
when Captain Louise Wegg transferred command of the Corps to Captain Paul Dawson. Wegg
had been the Commanding Officer for five years, two years longer than the norm. For a full
story, see page 22. To mark the occasion, members of the Corps were also inspected that
night by Corporal Perry Bast, centre, who is the Area Cadet Officer for the London
Detachment. (Vicky Bremner photo)
Elliott reacts to
appeal denial
Because this is a special year in
the history of the Brussels Fall Fair,
activities are beginning before the
fall, starting next Friday.
With the Brussels Agricultural
Society celebrating its 150th
anniversary, 2011 will be a year like
few others in the organization’s
history. Planning for this year’s fall
fair began years ago and lead-up
events will help to stoke the interest
of area residents.
The start to the fall fair’s
anniversary year begins on May 27
at the Brussels Legion with the
official kick-off party.
Nicole Noble, vice-president of
the society, says that there has been
no shortage of excitement
surrounding the anniversary and
she’s hoping that excitement will be
extended to the community with
these events.
“We’re all very excited,” Noble
said. “One hundred and fifty years is
something to celebrate, especially in
agriculture.”
May 27 at the Brussels Legion
will just serve as a big party for the
community, Noble says, but that the
main attraction of the night will be a
theatre component, supplied by
Theatre 311, a theatre troupe out of
Listowel.
Hors d’oeuvres and socializing
will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Legion
and the performance begins at 8 p.m.
Tickets are $20 and anyone
looking for them should contact
Mary Douma at 519-887-6687.
In order to add some more colour
and community spirit to the fall fair,
which will take place on Sept. 20-21,
a beautification/decorating
competition will also be taking
place, Noble says.
This year’s fair is entitled
“Reflections of our Past – Spotlight
on the Future” and organizers are
hoping that community decorations
will help spread the word about the
fair while keeping that title in mind.
There will be three different
categories and each category will
carry with it a $200 first place prize,
a $100 second place prize and a $50
third place prize. The categories will
be Business, Service Club or
Church, which will be sponsored by
the Brussels Hydro Trust Fund;
Residential, sponsored by the
Brussels Optimist Club; and Rural,
sponsored by Brussels Agromart
Limited.
The rules of the contest are that all
decorations must remain until after
Sept. 21, the final day of the
Brussels Fall Fair and the property
must be in Morris-Turnberry or
Huron East. The property must be
visible from a public road or a street
and the decorations have to use the
traditional colours of the Brussels
Fall Fair, which are red and white.
Finally, the decorations have to
include “150th Brussels Fall Fair”
and the fair’s dates.
The entries will be judged on their
creativity and originality and the
winners will be announced at the
Brussels Fall Fair.
Those interested in registering can
contact Mary Douma by phone, or
by e-mail at maryedouma
@gmail.com
Noble, who will take over the
presidency of the agricultural
society next year, says that this
competition was inspired by the
integral role that the community has
played in the fair’s 150-year history.
“We’ve always appreciated what
the public does for us and for the
fair,” Noble says. “We really
couldn’t do it without them.”
This year several special events
have been planned for the actual fall
fair, including a cooking
demonstration by Blyth native Erin
Bolger (also known as The Happy
Baker), a dog show and a question-
answering robot from the Ontario
Farm Animal Council.
Also available this year for the fall
fair history buff is a plaqued poster
for this year’s fair, which celebrates
the fair’s 150-year history with a
collage of photographs from
different eras from the fair’s time in
Brussels.
These plaques are $25 and can be
purchased by calling Mary Douma.
The Ontario Municipal Board
(OMB) recently ruled that the
technical problems with a zoning
bylaw related to the new public
school proposed to be built in
Wingham were insufficient reasons
to repeal the decision made on it.
Rick Elliott, a resident of Blyth,
filed an appeal with the OMB
against a zoning bylaw that will
allow the school to be built based on
the fact that the Township of North
Huron did not properly represent
several aspects of the zoning bylaw.
The appeal was based on the fact,
according to a release from the
OMB, the Township of North Huron
had made two mistakes in its
notification of the bylaw stating the
wrong day of the week, but having
the numerical date accurate, and
quoting the wrong section of a
government document.
The OMB felt that, while valid,
these complaints weren’t sufficient
to repeal the decision made by North
Huron Township Council to approve
the zoning bylaw and allow the
school to be built.
Reeve Neil Vincent of North
Huron stated that the township
wasn’t without blame, but that the
ruling from the OMB made sense.
“The important thing was that we
had the numerals for the date
correct,” he said, referring to the
misprinting of the day of the week
which led to the appeal. “Small
mistakes were made, but they didn’t
take away from the process.”
Elliott feels that this has been a
miscarriage of the law as the OMB
disregarded the fact that rules had
been ignored. This enabled the Avon
Maitland District School Board to
neglect one of the four stated criteria
that the Ministry of Education set
forward when considering closing a
school: economic impact.
The realization of the public
school will result in the closure of
schools in Blyth, Brussels, Belgrave
and other surrounding communities.
“Our objective was to ensure the
local economy is not overlooked in
the planning process,” Elliott said.
“Economic impact is one of the four
pillars recognized by the Ministry of
Education and it was neglected by
the Avon Maitland District School
Board.”
According to the OMB report,
errors were made in the public
notices for the zoning bylaw public
consultation period and, according
to Elliott, proper steps were not
taken to ensure that this infraction
had been remedied.
Elliott and others have funded the
appeal “to give a voice to the people
of Blyth”, as he feels that there
wasn’t proper representation of their
concerns in the decision-making
process.
“The laws were broken, not in my
opinion but according to the OMB’s
own ruling,” Elliott said. “Laws are
in place to provide for due process
and to protect people, both affected
citizens and those making these
Sure Queen Victoria was born in
1819, but that doesn’t stop us from
celebrating her birthday all these
years later with a day off of work.
It’s how she would have wanted
it.
It’s that time again, it’s Victoria
Day and the folks who work at The
Citizen will be enjoying a long
weekend. The Citizen offices will be
closed on Monday, May 23 to
honour Queen Victoria, which will
result in a deadline shift.
The deadline for the May 26 issue
will be moved from Monday to
Friday, May 20. The deadline at the
Brussels office will be 2 p.m. and the
deadline at the Blyth office will be 4
p.m.
The staff at The Citizen wishes
everyone a fun and safe long
weekend.
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Holiday for ‘Citizen’
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 22