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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2010-04-22, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2010.Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Reporters: Shawn Loughlin, 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; $105.00/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 PAP REGISTRATION NO. 09244 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: norhuron@scsinternet.com April 28, 1948 An immunization clinic was held for students of East Wawanosh Township School for diphtheria and whooping cough. Former Blyth resident Lorna Bray made her first parachute jump in Ottawa. “A young member of the Parachute Club at Carp Airport with a good deal of nerve made her first leap Sunday afternoon at 4:45 o’clock as club members applauded heartily,” The Ottawa Journal reported. “Heroine of the occasion was Lorna Bray, the 16-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Vivian M. Bray of 10 Regent Street and a sister of Miss Phyllis Bray, of Atlas Aviation. The youngster ‘hit the silk’ quite calmly and made a perfect descent and landing.” Carman Hodgins, manager of the Blyth Farmers’ Co-op Cheese and Butter Factory, suffered an eye injury sustained in an incident at the factory. Hodgins was working in the factory’s boiler room in the morning when he received a blast of lime, boiler compound and steam directly in the eyes, which would have easily resulted in a more severe injury. Hodgins was taken to the Stratford Hospital for treatment, following which, he was able to go home. The injury was described as not serious, but as painful. The Blyth Legion held its first annual banquet at Memorial Hall with over 115 Legion and Legion Ladies Auxiliary members in attendance. Scotty Forbes from the district headquarters staff was the evening’s guest speaker. April 18, 1968 The Majestic Women’s Institute held its annual meeting, installing a new slate of officers to its executive. A grass fire at the home of Cliff Kernaghan ignited the shingles and the roof of Kernaghan’s home and the Brussels Fire Department was summoned to the scene. The threat was extinguished soon after the firefighters arrived, despite high winds that were aiding the spread of the flames towards the house. A canvass of Brussels and the surrounding area was carried out by students of Wingham District High School in an attempt to raise money for the Huron unit of the Canadian Cancer Society. The objective for the area was to raise $20,000. Gordon Ross and the Lamp Lighters were the featured entertainment at the New American Hotel. The meals for both nights featured spare ribs and sauerkraut, roast turkey, southern fried chicken, fish and chips and giant hamburgers. April 18, 1990 The planning committee for the second annual Brussels FunFest was hard at work, leading up to the event, which was set to be held on July 6-8. Huron County’s municipal officers held their annual meeting in Brussels, where one of the main topics of discussion was the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act. Philip Street was awarded his cheque after his logo design for the Blyth Rutabaga Festival was chosen at the winning entry. Blyth fire chief Paul Josling was named the Blyth village chief building official by council. The Brussels Crusaders won the WOAA grand championship senior series, capturing the title for the second time in three years, beating Drayton to be the best team of 1990. April 19, 2000 The Brussels Fire Department was called to the Huronlea Home for the Aged as a result of a small fire that caused minimal damage. Fire chief Murray McArter said that a dishwasher element had overheated, which resulted in an outpouring of smoke and steam. Former reporter Janice Becker’s story on education placed third out of 55 entries in the Ontario Community Newspapers Associat- ions annual convention. The story was part of The Citizen’s Millennium Series and won in the Premier Awards category. Blyth village council authorized the $100,000 project to rebuild Gypsy Lane, saying that it would happen sometime in 2000. The Citizen published its annual spring car care section, which featured articles such as “Air Conditioning a must have for many drivers”. Waste from the village of Brussels had to find a new home after amalgamation as several councils discussed where it should be sent. Morris Township council invited Brussels councillors to its meeting to discuss the waste management issue. In the early stages of amalgamation, Morris councillors had decided that Brussels could deposit its waste in the Morris landfill until 2001. However, with waste from Turnberry Township now going to the Morris site as well, the discussion continued, suggesting that Brussels should potentially send its waste to a landfill in one of its four new restructuring partners. There was discussion about the Walton landfill and the significant drop in life span that would occur at the Walton site if Brussels began to bring its waste there, which was estimated to go from 17 years down to six years. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Patching the seams There’s nothing nastier than neighbours fighting, whether it’s between two neighbours in town, neighbouring farmers or adjacent municipalities. Recently that nastiness has been happening between neighbouring municipalities over fire coverage. but in the bigger picture, area municipal politicians must develop new ways to communicate and co-operate if we are to have seamless services that cross municipal boundaries. In times past, when small local municipalities realized they had to join with their neighbours for things like arena boards and area fire boards, there was a regular dialogue between councillors from neighbouring municipalities. As amalgamated municipalities have developed the sense they are self-sufficient, that dialogue has ceased. The outcome has been a long list of misunderstandings and disputes between municipalities in the northern part of Huron County. Often the best interest of taxpayers is overlooked as municipal councillors fight turf wars. These amalgamated municipalities were born because someone in the provincial government decided, a decade ago, that small municipalities were dysfunctional, even though you seldom heard that argument from people at the grassroots level. Ironically now, when there are real problems, nobody at the provincial level notices — and if they did their solution would likely be to create even larger municipalities. No matter how big the municipality, at some point it comes to a boundary. But the people living on either side of that boundary share interests, even if it may not seem so to people at the centre of the municipality. The great poet Robert Frost is famous for the line “Good fences make good neighbours” but in the poem “Mending Wall” from which that quotation is taken, he actually questioned his neighbour’s simplistic faith in fences and said “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know/What I was walling in or walling out, /And to whom I was like to give offense.” It’s time to tear down the walls in Huron County, to bring neighbours back together again, working in their common interest. If we don’t, a part of what has made life special in these parts will be lost. — KR Government must be fair While citizens often resent government, it’s been easy for many consumers to come down on the side of the Ontario government in its fight with the province’s pharmacies. That doesn’t make it right, however. Letters to the editor and on-the-street TV interviews with consumers, have generally lambasted the big bad pharmacies after they suggested they might have to cut hours and services because they won’t be getting funding from generic drug companies that has helped them pay their bills for many years now. The government sees stopping these payments, which are easily portrayed as kick-backs, as a way to bring down the price of prescriptions paid under provincial drug plans for seniors and others, cutting hundreds of millions off the swelling cost of health costs. But something has to give. Unless you think pharmacies are ridiculously profitable (as many consumers no doubt do), you can’t take hundreds of millions of dollars away from the pharmacies without seeing a reduction in service – or even closures in the case of small independent stores that get a significant portion of their income from filling prescriptions. Ironically, the big chains make far more of their revenue from selling everything from perfume to digital cameras and are most likely to survive. In the last round of government cuts a few years back, we’ve already seen one pharmacy close in our area. We don’t need to lose more stores now. There’s an “otherness” aspect to the public debate. It seems perfectly acceptable to think that people in business like pharmacies are ripping people off and any action against them is fair. If profits really are fat, then it’s fine to squeeze them, but many honest, hard-working pharmacists are being treated unfairly. — 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.