HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2010-05-13, Page 1Huron County council decided to
pass a motion that expresses regret
over Warden Bert Dykstra’s
comments regarding the current
Huron East/North Perth
Accommodation Review Committee
(ARC).
At Huron County council’s May 5
meeting, Central Huron’s John
Bezaire moved a motion that stated
Huron County’s support for all of its
schools, regretting the comments
made by Dykstra at an ARC meeting
earlier this year.
This motion came after council
received a presentation by Susan
Alexander and Alicia Deitner,
concerned members of the Grey
community, as well as members of
the ARC, condemning the
comments.
While Dykstra made no effort to
meet with members of the Grey
community or anyone involved with
the student body of Grey Central
Public School, Alexander said, the
recommendation was made that if
given the choice, council would
prefer to see Brussels Public School
remain open over Grey.
Alexander said the only
conclusion she could draw from
Dykstra’s comments, which were
said to represent the whole of Huron
County council, was that they had
chosen sides in the argument,
preferring to preserve the area’s
urban schools and not its rural
schools.
“You cannot take sides,”
Alexander said. “Your job is to work
on behalf of both of our schools.”
In a letter sent to the school board
and presented live at an ARC
meeting by Dykstra, under the title
“A Message from Huron County
Warden Bert Dykstra” he appealed
to the Avon Maitland District School
Board to keep Huron East’s urban
schools open, if both schools were
faced with closure.
“I am appealing to you this
evening to please consider that if
you must close schools in Huron
County, that you consider keeping
the urban schools operational. Urban
schools afford some of the students
the opportunity to walk to school.
This is vitally important today with
the skyrocketing rates of juvenile
diabetes; many of our youth are
overweight simply due to inactivity.
You will soon receive a delegation
from our Health Unit extolling the
virtues of regular, sustained activity
within our youth,” Dykstra’s letter
stated.
“Keeping the schools open in our
urban communities will also make it
more feasible for the students to
participate in extra-curricular
activities. In our society today, we
have so many single-parent or dual-
working-parent families struggling
with the stress of raising their
children in a normal, active and
functional home. Families need the
support of their extended
communities to ensure a healthy and
happy home life.”
While Dykstra’s comments had
been received by the school board
and even used subsequently by staff
through its comments and eventually
its official recommendation to close
Grey Central Public School in favour
of a potential expansion of Brussels
Public School, Alexander said that
the trustees had not yet made their
final decision and that there was
time to clarify those comments.
She asked that council draft
another letter to clarify its position
and that Dykstra take ownership of
the letter, saying it was his opinions
that were outlined in the letter, not
those of all of Huron County council
and certainly not those of all Huron
County residents.
Deitner followed up Alexander’s
questions by asking who it was that
Special fire meet
draws big crowd
County Council ‘regrets’ Dykstra’s ARC comments
More than 150 people attended a
special council meeting on Monday
evening, to talk about fire coverage
in the north Hullett region of the
Municipality of Central Huron.
Reeve Bert Dykstra called it an
important issue.
He told the audience negotiations
with North Huron have reached an
impasse so a third party consultant
has been called to reach a decision.
According to the reeve, Central
Huron presented two scenarios to
North Huron for fire coverage, but
both were turned down.
The biggest stumbling block
seems to be the $105,000 North
Huron is requesting for fire
coverage from the Blyth station for
the northern Hullett region.
While many of those in attendance
said it was not a matter of the
money, but rather one of safety and
fire protection.
Jacqui Laporte said there are a
number of issues that are concerning
to the residents of the Auburn area.
“Our number one concern is
response time,” she said. “We are
closer to Blyth than we are to
Clinton.”
When distances are involved it
should be the distance by road, not
“as the crow flies,” she said.
She noted that the Blyth Fire
Department provides first medical
response and most of the calls to the
Auburn area are medical calls.
“When there is a medical
emergency in the Auburn area, we
want the closest emergency
response unit sent,” said
Laporte.
When doing a comparison
between the Blyth and Clinton
departments, she said “we want
apples to be compared to apples.”
She said council is responsible for
the health and safety of all its
residents and to make sure they are
covered by emergency response
units.
Franklin Snell said since
amalgamation the people and
businesses of the northern Hullett
region have been receiving fewer
services while taxes are going up.
When it comes to providing
emergency service to an area, it is
common sense to have the closest
Guilty verdict in murder plot
CitizenTh
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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, May 13, 2010
Volume 26 No. 19HEALTHCARE- Pg. 12Huron Perth HealthcareAlliance holds meeting AGRICULTURE - Pg. 13 Farmers forecasted to losehundreds of millionsSPORTS- Pg. 8Local girl wins Niagara’sfemale athlete of the yearPublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 PAP Registration No. 09244 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
Wishes for a safe trip
Kurt Elliott, centre, was deployed for Afghanistan earlier this week and as a show of
appreciation and respect, members of the Blyth United Church congregation presented him
with a Canadian flag to take with him and return with upon completion of his tour. From left:
Blyth United Church Reverend Gary Clark, Secretary Joan Clark, Kurt’s mother Sandra Elliott,
Kurt, Blyth Legion representative Thelma Johnston and Blyth Legion representative Andy
Lubbers. (Vicky Bremner photo)
By Jim Brown
Special to The Citizen
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
A Wingham couple has been
found guilty of Conspiracy to
Commit Murder after they
unknowingly hired an undercover
police officer to kill the man’s wife.
Serena Benninger and Anthony
Terpstra were arrested and charged
in March of 2009 with Conspiracy to
Commit Murder and Counselling to
Commit Murder. The trial, held in
Goderich, lasted just over two weeks
and the nine-woman and three-man
jury took just under 10 hours to
reach its verdict on May 4.
Testimony revealed that
Benninger and Terpstra began
having an affair in 2004 when Tony
and Serena’s husband Gerald were
both working for Canadian Crane.
The court also heard that Tony’s
wife Sheila was the intended victim
in the pair’s murder-for-hire plot.
Testimony also revealed that Tony
and Sheila had both had affairs
during the early stages of their
marriage. They separated for
approximately one year before
reuniting and moving to Wingham.
Sheila also asked Tony to sell his
share of the family farm business
because it was taking too much of
his time away from his marriage.
Tony testified that he received $2
million for his share of the farm
business.
At one point, Serena told Tony she
had proof that Sheila had cheated
once again and offered to get a
recording of the man involved,
admitting to the affair.
Tony provided the recorder and
played it back to Sheila. She denied
the relationship and called the man,
who claimed there was no affair.
Tony testified that he didn’t know
who to believe. By this time he had
his own successful concrete pouring
business, so he went to a lawyer to
find out what a divorce might cost
him. From that meeting he
concluded that he would probably
lose his house and possibly Sheila’s
truck and camping trailer. He
testified that he could live with that
but continued to tell Serena that he
couldn’t divorce Sheila because a
divorce would “break him”.
Tony claimed it was Serena who
then suggested another way to get
rid of Sheila that wouldn’t cost that
much. She said she could hire
someone to murder Sheila and it
would only cost about $10,000. Tony
responded that that would be nice.
He later testified that he was only
going along with it because he
considered it idle chatter and didn’t
believe it was possible to hire a
hitman for $10,000.
In August of 2008 Serena
approached Owen Curtis of
Wingham about murdering someone
she first described as a friend’s wife
and Curtis testified he knew the
By Bob Montgomery
Special to The Citizen
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