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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2010-07-08, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010.EditorialsOpinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Acting Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny ScottAdvertising Sales: Ken Warwick & Lori Patterson The CitizenP.O. Box 429,BLYTH, Ont.N0M 1H0Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152,BRUSSELS, Ont.N0G 1H0Phone 887-9114 E-mail norhuron@scsinternet.comWebsite 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 thecondition that in the event of a typographical error,only that portion of the advertisement will becredited.Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth.PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: norhuron@scsinternet.com July 14, 1948 The date set by the Blyth Lions for the annual Lions Frolic for July 23. The Fourth Annual Blyth Lions Summer Frolic, which was being held at the Agricultural Park, was set to begin with an exhibition baseball game under the new lights of the ball diamond between a team from Londesborough and a hometown team from Blyth. Open-air dancing would be taking place in addition to the usual games. Over 70 guests enjoyed Grandmother’s Day at the Women’s Institute’s program for the special day, which was held at Memorial Hall. The Blyth Legionettes chalked up their first win of the season against the girls from Auburn, winning the game by a score of 15-2. The girls were dressed well, debuting their new uniforms. The official grand opening of the ball park, with its new floodlights, was planned for July 15, with a tournament in which four teams would be competing for a grand prize of $75. The official opening of the diamond began with a triple- header under the new light standards, each of which was home to new 1500-watt lights. July 11, 1968 The barn of Watson Sholdice was destroyed by fire due to a lightning strike earlier in the week during a Tuesday afternoon. Over 1,500 bales of hay were lost in the blaze, in addition to 28 pigs that were ready to ship. The Sholdices said they saw the bolt of lightning strike the barn, but said there was no immediate indication of fire. They said that minutes after the strike, the barn roof was engulfed in flames and by then, it was too late to react. The estimated damage in the incident was $10,000. While the students were already enjoying their summer vacations, teachers were still at area schools, attending summer school classes to further equip themselves for the coming year. There had been reports of vandalism, both minor and major in the Brussels area, which led The Brussels Post to write “Don’t Have the Police Calling at your Door”, pleading to parents that they should be keeping an eye on their children, ensuring that they were not getting up to trouble after the sun went down. July 11, 1990 Huron County decided to keep the majority of its government offices in Goderich, despite an option to move several offices to the newly- renovated Huronview building after a plan was delivered to Huron County Council earlier that week. Lightning was determined to be the cause of a fire at a Walton barn over the weekend that destroyed the entire barn, which was full of hay. Blyth Fire Chief Paul Josling said there was a violent lightning storm occurring in the area at the time of the fire. Brussels FunFest was a huge success in the village, with the highlight being the parade, which came down the main street just after noon on Saturday. Bessie Johnston received her Citizen of the Year plaque for Brussels and area. Johnston had been at the head of the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre’s catering group for years. In addition, she had been involved in 4- H Clubs, the Brussels Fall Fair and the Brussels Legion Pipe Band. Blyth Village Council held a public meeting to review its secondary plan (which happened every five years) and just one ratepayer showed up to the meeting. July 10, 2008 Frequent contributor to the Blyth Festival Paul Thompson was appointed to the Order of Canada. “It’s an extraordinary honour,” Thompson said. Central Huron’s Deputy-Reeve John Bezaire and Ken Oke of South Huron declared their intentions to run for the seat of Huron County Warden. Bezaire was seeking a second term, something that hadn’t been seen in Huron County for years. North Huron received good news at its regular council meeting when members from Vodden, Bender and Seebach Chartered Accountants came to council to report that the Township of North Huron had finished the year with an surplus of $259,321, therefore ending the year with an accumulated surplus of $467,184. Graduates of several local public schools received dozens of awards in each subject as they readied themselves to head off to high school in the fall. Huron County representatives were in the midst of spreading the word for the new program called The Good Food Box. The program would deliver a box full of locally- grown and prepared fruits and vegetables to residents each month when they signed up for the program. Huron East Mayor Joe Seili, at a meeting of Huron County Council, however, was curious as to how much the program was costing Huron County, saying that plenty of information could be found on how good the program was supposed to be, but that little information was available on the costs associated with the program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Pay attention people If there’s one thing that the past few months should have taught local residents it’s that you have to pay attention to what decisions your elected officials are making and get involved to make sure your own interests are considered when those decisions are made. When Avon Maitland District School Board (AMDSB) staff said it was too expensive to keep Brussels Public School open, local residents didn’t accept the verdict and went to work to prove the school wasn’t expensive to maintain. Eventually the board’s staff recommended the school be kept open but Grey Central Public School be closed instead. That upset parents of students going to Grey Central who then went to work to change the minds of trustees. When the vote finally came, they had influenced enough trustees’ opinions that their school was saved. Brussels, which many residents had felt was safe after the AMDSB staff favoured keeping it open, was voted to be discontinued. In northern Hullett ward of Central Huron, it took a huge turnout of local residents to make councillors reconsider their cost-cutting move to provide fire protection from the Clinton Fire Department instead of contracting service from North Huron’s Blyth station. People have always been too ready to leave decisions to their councillors or trustees. The situation has gotten worse since the enlargement of political structures has made it more difficult to contact decision makers directly. In a small municipality you could bump into a councillor or trustee on the street or in a coffee shop and express your concerns. It was easy to take a few minutes to drop in at a meeting that was held in your own community. Today you may not know your councillor or trustee. What’s more, the decision-makers you are closest to, your ward councillors or the trustee for your area, are a small minority in a large decision-making body. Even a well-informed and sympathetic local representative may have difficulty making the whole council or board understand the needs of one corner of the large jurisdiction. That’s why it’s important that people come together to speak with one loud voice as people in Grey and Hullett did. Take the easy way out – hope that someone else will make the effort while you stay home and watch So You Think You Can Dance – and you’ll find yourself stuck with decisions that go against your best interests. — KR Their gain, your pain All along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico fishermen’s boats are sitting idle because oil gushing from the runaway British Petroleum oil well is fouling the fishing grounds. Tourist resorts have vacancies because tourists don’t want to come to beaches polluted with oil. The mistakes of one company are hurting the lives of millions. We seem to be seeing more and more cases of this kind of collateral damage. Closer to home, for instance, the livelihoods of loggers and woodlot owners are being endangered by the Emerald Ash Borer, an Asian insect that made its way to North America in untreated wood used to make pallets to ship cheap imports from China. An importer made money, consumers saved money, and people who depend on wood for their living pay the price as trees are killed by this voracious insect. A shareholder-owned company is a strange entity. On one hand it’s a co-operative venture with thousands or millions of people pooling their investment to support a company. On the other hand, it’s the ultimate example of self-centredness. Company executives see their duty as maximizing the profits of their shareholders through dividends and increasing the value of the company. So rather than take extra precautions to prevent the disaster an oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico would cause, their incentive was to cut costs. They get the gain – everybody else suffers the pain. Of course BP shareholders are also going to suffer the pain now with cleanup costs already in the billions and climbing. Too bad they couldn’t have seen that it was in their own long-term interest to be responsible to the people around them as well as to shareholders. — 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.