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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2010-07-15, Page 10PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 15, 2010. Brussels appeal gets up to $10K M-T hears about 211 Young boy dies after being pinned by pole Continued from page 1 information on that point back to council for its July 20 meeting, where council would decide to keep its motion, dedicating money to the cause, or to rescind the motion, retracting the contribution if it might indeed result in the closure of Grey Central Public School. “I don’t want to appeal to open Brussels and close Grey Central and then have Huron East residents pay the bill,” said Deputy-Mayor Bernie MacLellan. Originally, Hoy said, the group of citizens from Brussels and Grey worked towards a common goal of keeping both Huron East schools open. He said that the appeal could help to make the group’s original intention a reality. Hoy called the initiative a Huron East initiative, saying that he’s not doing this to close Grey Central, but to keep Brussels open. “This is for Huron East,” Hoy said. Hoy says that in addition to Huron East council, he hopes to also approach the Brussels Community Trust and Huron County Council. Because the appeal is time sensitive, Hoy said, he hoped that council would listen to his presentation and make a decision that would allow him to proceed with the appeal if they chose to contribute. An appeal on a decision by the school board would have to be filed within 30 days of the decision, which was made on June 22, making the deadline for an appeal next week. Hoy said that he has no interest in using the appeal as a delay tactic. He said that if they have the grounds for an appeal, one will be filed, but if there wasn’t grounds, that he wouldn’t bother. He did say, however, that he has been told by his legal counsel it is a very real possibility there are grounds for an appeal. The next step, Hoy says, would be to proceed with a petition that concerned members of the community would have to sign to authorize the appeal. Initially, however, MacLellan was skeptical, saying that he wouldn’t feel comfortable committing funds to the project until he knew the basis for an appeal. “There’s nothing I’d love more than to throw this back in the trustees’ faces,” MacLellan said. “But I’m uncomfortable committing fiscally until I believe in the grounds for the appeal myself.” Seili said that he felt the attention of angry community members should be directed to the school that is proposed for North Huron. He said that he attempted to stop the construction of the school any time he could at Huron County Council, but was unsuccessful. “If we kill that school in North Huron, we can save all our schools in Huron County and send the trustees a message,” Seili said. Councillor Bob Fisher asked what would happen if a sizeable investment was made by Prior and Hoy before July 20 and then the contribution was retracted by Huron East at its next meeting. MacLellan said that while it may sound callus, to spend that money would be “their problem”, but added that he had heard enough in closed session to comfortably contribute the money to the cause. “I would be uncomfortable spending good money after bad on this,” MacLellan said. “But with this we could send a message to the board that we won’t take this lying down.” In a recorded vote, the motion passed with seven votes for the contribution and three votes against it. Councillor Larry McGrath was absent for the vote and Councillor Frank Stretton had to abstain, declaring a conflict of interest due to his position as a public school principal with the Avon Maitland District School Board. On Saturday July 10 atapproximately 8:25 p.m., police andemergency personnel were called toa residential property on MarnochLine, northwest of Blyth, where athree-year-old boy had been seriously injured as a result of a mishap involving a small wind turbine. Investigation revealed that the three-year-old boy was playing in a yard with a group of children arounda 110-foot residential wind turbinestructure. The wind turbine, on its30-foot generator pole, wastemporarily anchored to its cementpad by a strap while under repairs. The force of the children playing on the the pole resulted in the strap loosening and caused the weight of the turbine to lift the generator pole off the ground. The three-year-old boy who was sitting on the generatorpole closest to the turbine, slid downthe pole and landed on the pole. Asecond pole fell on top of him,pinning him.Parents of the children, who were nearby, ran over and tried to stop the generator pole from lifting, theywere unable to do so. The parentsimmediately pulled the boy frombetween the two poles and the childwas transported by ambulance to theWingham Hospital. After initial treatment, preparations were made for his transport to Children’sHospital of Western Ontario inLondon, but at 10:30 p.m. LoganHallahan of Belgrave succumbed tohis injuries.The Huron County OPP is continuing to investigate. Morris-Turnberry councillors got a briefing on the benefits of the 211 information service at their July 6 meeting. Jennifer Jones of the Perth-Huron United Way and Alice Grottoil of the Community Connections/211 service, based in Collingwood, told councillors that people requiring information on a number of social, health and government services can get it by simply dialing 211. Counselors, operating on a basis of confidentiality, are trained to draw out the information necessary to help put people in touch with the right service, Jones said. (Just prior to attending this meeting the pair had visited Huron East council to make a similar presentation.) The service helps people who may have language issues as well as those dealing with poverty or personal difficulty. The 211 service can relieve pressure on 911 services during an emergency, Grottoil said. It helped in last year’s Grey County tornado and the storm earlier this summer in Midland area by providing information to tornado victims about what to do if they’d lost their home or needed help, freeing up 911 lines for emergency calls. Currently 60 per cent of Ontarians have access to the service and this is expected to increase to 90 per cent next year and 100 per cent by 2012. Marching up to Zion Zion Mennonite Church held its annual Vacation Bible School last week, finishing up on July 9. The children had just finished a physical recess where they played tag before they headed back into the church for class. (Shawn Loughlin photo)