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)