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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, November 10, 2011
Volume 27 No. 44
REMEMBER - Pg. 12Locals, natives sharetheir stories OFA - Pg. 18 Wayne Black takes run atOFA presidencyFIRE- Pg. 7Smoke alarm saves life inBelgrave-area firePublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
Coates says 2012 season will have ‘guts’
New centre officially opens in Central Huron
A bunch of cut-ups
From left, Huron County Warden Neil Vincent, Central Huron Reeve Jim Ginn, Huron-Bruce
MP Ben Lobb and Central Huron Councillor Burkhard Metzger, standing in on behalf of Huron-
Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson, cut the ribbon to officially open the Central Huron Community
Complex on Nov. 4. The day began with a parade of flags from the old arena to the new centre
and wrapped up with a Toronto Maple Leafs Alumni game. The event raised upwards of
$75,000 for the Goderich and Area Disaster Relief Fund. (Denny Scott photo)
Blyth Festival Artistic Director
Eric Coates is excited about the 2012
season and what it has to offer to the
people who made the Festival
successful in the first place.
Coates says farmers and rural
Ontarians are at the heart of the
Festival’s 2012 season and it all
began around this year’s annual
reunion of the Huron Pioneer
Thresher and Hobby Association.
“In the last few years I’ve begun
getting so excited for the Thresher
Reunion,” Coates said. “I’m
obsessed with antique tractors and
seeing the pride that people have in
these machines. It’s part of their
culture.”
Coates says it’s that exact pride
that is at the core of the Festival
season’s opening show The Fred
Eaglesmith Project. He says that
while the collaboration is funny, it
also tells a story with “real guts”.
The production was written by
Harvest playwright Ken Cameron
and it is based on the work of
Canadian folk legend Fred
Eaglesmith. Coates said he knew
Cameron was crafting a story around
the work of Eaglesmith, but he
wasn’t sure what he was going to
find when Cameron’s first draft
arrived at Coates’s Blyth office.
“This was as good a first draft as
I’ve come across,” Coates said. “So I
knew it was more or less fully
formed and we could go ahead with
it right away.”
At the heart of the story is an
antique tractor that means
everything to a family. The time
eventually comes for the family
members to consider selling the
tractor and the machine quickly
becomes the focal point of the play.
Coates calls the decision to sell the
tractor a real tipping point in the
family’s timeline that carries with it
a lot more importance than just a
tractor.
“There are big, powerful emotions
in this play,” Coates said. “It’s very
sad, but it’s very funny.
“This is very definitely the
centrepiece of the season.”
The season’s second show is a
very personal one for Coates, but it’s
also one of the greatest success
stories to ever grace the Festival
stage.
Having Hope at Home,a comedy
by David S. Craig was a play that
Coates directed 10 years ago in his
first season as Blyth Festival Artistic
Director. And now in his 10th year at
the position, he wanted to revisit the
project.
The production made its premiere
in Blyth in 2003 and then went on to
have successful runs at some of
Canada’s largest theatres.
“This is very much about life on
the farm,” Coates said. “It’s all very
authentic. The people in it are all
very real.”
Again the story follows a family
farm with three generations. There’s
the old farmer, his son who became
a doctor to get as far away from the
farm as he could and then the
doctor’s son who makes his way
back to the farming lifestyle.
“It’s a play about family strength
and the family dynamic,” Coates
said of the comedy. “It was such a
hit, it was an easy choice to make.
It’s been so popular and it’s had this
kind of happiness associated with
it.”
The Festival’s third show brings
Festival favourite Beverley Cooper
back to Blyth for Lonely Diner: Al
Capone in Euphemia Township.
Based on true accounts, Cooper
fell in love with the stories she had
heard of Capone lurking around
southwestern Ontario in the 1920s
and produced a work of fiction based
on those accounts during the days of
prohibition in the U.S.
The story is told from a diner in
Euphemia Township run by a
farming couple who decided to quit
the farming grind and try their hand
at owning and operating a diner.
“What Capone was doing was
legal in Canada, but when he took
whiskey from Canada over to the
States, it became illegal,” Coates
said.
Coates says when Capone is
spotted in this diner, he is essentially
on a manhunt for whoever is stealing
his whiskey in Canada.
The romanticism associated with
mobsters, however, takes centre
stage when the diner’s Lucy
becomes desperate for a more
exciting life and she “gets a little
more than she bargained for” Coates
says.
“This comes from the point of
view of this generation of women
who were born in rural Ontario
“I have to try to represent the
village and people of Blyth, but
apparently they don’t count here.”
Those words, spoken by North
Huron councillor and Blyth Ward
representative Brock Vodden, ended
a discussion about a lack of
communication with the Avon
Maitland District School Board
(AMDSB) during Monday night’s
North Huron’s regular council
meeting.
The issue began when Vodden,
who said he had been approached by
ratepayers both from Blyth and other
wards with issues regarding the
Blyth Public School closure, asked
council to lend its support to
concerns raised by the people they
represented.
Vodden said that he wrote Ted
Doherty, the AMDSB Director of
Education, who responded with an
acknowledgement of his letter, but
no answers.
“I have a list of questions I would
Local dignitaries, supporters and
users of the Central Huron
Community Complex gathered in
front of the EastLink Arena entrance
to celebrate the grand opening of the
centre on Nov. 4.
Kevin McLlwain, Central Huron’s
chief administrative officer, acted as
the master of ceremonies, inviting
local politicians as well as those
who donated their time and money
to share their thoughts on the
occasion.
MP Ben Lobb attended the
ceremony and brought greetings
from the federal government.
Lobb stated it was great to have a
centre like the complex built in
Clinton and especially great to have
it built using no tax dollars
whatsoever. The entire cost of the
build would not cause an increase in
Central Huron taxation, and Lobb
congratulated the municipality on
doing that.
While newly elected Huron-Bruce
MPP Lisa Thompson was unable to
be at the centre for its opening due to
her swearing in ceremony being held
at the same time, Burkhard Metzger,
a councillor from Central Huron,
passed on her best wishes.
Warden Neil Vincent stated that
sports and activity were very
important in Huron and that this
centre was a “giant step into the
future” for both Central Huron and
Huron County.
Reeve Jim Ginn of Central Huron
said it was a proud moment for him
as he was happy to see everyone
pulling in the same direction to
cause the opening of the centre to
happen.
He congratulated the local service
clubs, local community sponsors
and all the corporate sponsors, but
said that most of the thanks needs to
go to the citizens for their support.
“We need community support to
make projects like these work,” he
said. “The municipality has been
pressured heavily in the past 10
months to come up with $1.1 million
to build this centre, but we’ve come
together to get it done.”
Ginn also thanked municipal staff
saying that the project had touched
nearly every department.
He also made a point of thanking
Facilities Manager Steve Campbell
for his work but also for his own
personal donation to the project.
Campbell was one of several
donors who sponsored dressing
rooms.
Ginn stated the project would
provide opportunities for every
demographic.
Major donations were made by
such companies as Eastlink, the
Huron Fish and Game Club, the
Clinton Kinsmen, Huron
Commodities, the Metzger Family,
P.A. Roy Insurance, Donnely and
Murphy, the Kinettes and B.M.
Ross.
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Vodden questions
Blyth representation
Continued on page 27
Continued on page 22
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen