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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, September 9, 2010
Volume 26 No. 35WHITE BEANS - Pg. 15Percentage of crops couldbe lost due to disease FESTIVAL - Pg. 22 ‘Homegrown’showcasesFestival’s historySCHOOLS- Pg. 13Students return to areaschoolsPublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
People get ready...
It’s time! The 49th annual Reunion of the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association is
upon us and crews were out on Labour Day Monday, as is the tradition, setting up for the
annual gathering. Reunion regular, Highgate’s Mark Clarke, left, was in Blyth bright and early
to unload one of his steam engines with the help of Edgar Daer. (Vicky Bremner photo)
While the annual Belgrave, Blyth
and Brussels School Fair is
celebrating its amazing 90th year
next week, some can’t help but focus
on the bleak and sober reality that
this may very well be the final in a
long line of school fairs in North
Huron.
The fair, which will be held at the
Belgrave Community Centre on
September 15, will be celebrating a
milestone in this, its 90th year. There
is, however, a cloud looming as
several area schools are marked for
closure at the end of this school year
and fair volunteers are at an all-time
low.
Secretary Melissa Coultes says
that it is currently looking like this
will be the last in decades of school
fairs in Huron County. The fair,
which has been one-of-a-kind in
Ontario for years now (Coultes
thinks the fair is the only one of its
kind in Canada, but says she can’t be
sure), is facing the “very real
possibility” of its last year in 2010.
There is still hope, however, but
some things would have to change,
or the Avon Maitland District School
Board would have to make a
shocking decision and decide to not
close Blyth and East Wawanosh
Public Schools.
Coultes says that if the schools
close and students begin to attend
the proposed “super school” slated
for Wingham, a fair may be able to
continue if the enthusiasm and
volunteers are there, but because of
government red tape, the name
would have to be changed.
However, she said, with a
dwindling number of volunteers, it
looks more like organizers will hold
the last fair next week.
“Because we’re listed as a non-
profit, if it changed, we would have
to have a new name and a new
identity for the fair,” she said. “Some
people said that perhaps only
Belgrave children could participate,
but that would work against the
whole idea of a community-oriented
school and I’m not sure that it would
be appropriate.”
Coultes says that because of the
delays with the Wingham site for the
new school, it is possible that there
may be one more fair under the
current system, but that it’s unlikely.
This year, already, she said, the
lack of volunteers has affected the
flow of the fair.
Under normal circumstances,
Coultes said, school work would
have been judged by now, but due to
a lack of volunteers, judging was just
completed last week, cutting the
work dangerously close to the
deadline as the fair was just weeks
away.
Coultes says that through her
experiences with the community,
people have said they’re upset when
thinking that they may lose the fair,
saying that no organizations or
elected officials have reached out to
help the fair.
Coultes, who has been involved
with the fair for eight years, said that
a lot of tradition and nostalgia will
be lost if the fair doesn’t appear on
Belgrave’s calendar year after year.
“It’s one of those traditions,” she
said. “There’s a sense of pride in
raising a calf or raising a lamb and
then showing it off to your friends,
whether they live on a farm or in
town.”
In this monumental year for the
fair, Coultes says it’s unfortunate
that many minds have to turn to the
negative aspect of the situation.
Coultes says that volunteers for
next week’s fair are still needed for
Following a spring and summer of
uncertainty punctuated by Ontario
Municipal Board (OMB) challenges
and a deadline for withdrawal from a
proposed site for a new elementary
school, the Town of Wingham and
the Avon Maitland District School
Board – albeit not entirely
unanimously – finally seem to be
singing from the same book.
And, after a special school board
meeting Monday, Aug. 30, long-
serving Wingham/North Huron
trustee Colleen Schenk
acknowledged the renewed unity by
deciding she’ll seek a sixth term in
office.
“I registered (for the Oct. 25
municipal election) yesterday,”
Schenk confirmed Sept. 1.
Easily the board’s longest-serving
trustee (the next in line for seniority,
four-term veteran Meg Westley of
Stratford, will not seek re-election),
she cited an Aug. 30 board decision
to rescind an Aug. 31 deadline for
enhanced Education Ministry
funding for a proposed
Kindergarten-to-Grade 6 school on
property adjacent to F.E. Madill
Secondary School. The deadline had
been put in place July 28, with the
board explaining at the time that it
needed an extra $1 million – over
and above the $8.8 million
announced in June, 2009 – to
overcome what were described as “a
number of hurdles.”
Chief among those hurdles were
four separate challenges to the
OMB. One, originating from the
town of Blyth, contends the
community’s well-being will be
unduly affected by the school
board’s decision to relocate students
from four small elementary schools
into the new school. The other three,
originating from Wingham, revolve
around issues related to vehicles
getting into and out of the proposed
site.
In an interview, board chair Jenny
Versteeg offered that she doesn’t
believe the Blyth challenge will be
heard by the OMB. But she referred
to the access-related challenge as “a
real one. But I don’t think it’s
significant. I believe (the board) will
be successful.”
She admitted, however, that it’s
tough for any proponent to know
how long their project might be
delayed by an OMB challenge. So,
at the Aug. 30 special meeting, there
were arguments that it wouldn’t be
prudent to put in place a deadline
when the delay is beyond the control
of either the school board, town, or
perhaps even the provincial
government.
“The Ministry likes to see you go
to tender before they guarantee an
amount of funding,” she explained.
“But we’re looking for things to
happen the other way around: we
want to see a guarantee of funding
before we decide to go to tender.”
The big change since July 28,
however, has been an elevated level
of support from the public and
politicians in the Town of Wingham.
On the political side, municipal
councillors have agreed to come
with Avon Maitland officials in a
hoped-for meeting with Education
Ministry decision-makers. And on
the public side, a supportive petition
– spearheaded by the owner of a
Josephine Street photography
business – has been gathering steam.
“There were so many things that
happened (between July 28 and Aug.
30) that were hopeful,” Versteeg
said. As for the community, “instead
of being in a position where
they didn’t even know if they
wanted a new school, they have
gone to saying they definitely want
one.”
Schenk revealed she “has been
approached” to run for political
office outside the school board, but
provided no further details. She
noted, however, that she is past-
president of the Ontario Public
School Boards Association, and “I
still feel I have a passion for
With the deadline to file for
nomination in the upcoming
municipal election coming at week’s
end, Central Huron Deputy Reeve
and former Huron County Warden
John Bezaire announced that he will
not be running for a position on
Central Huron Council this fall, but
rather will focus his attention on
becoming the Progressive
Conservative candidate for the
provincial riding of Huron-Bruce.
“While it has been a tremendous
honour serving the people of Huron
County for the past number of years
as a member of council, I believe
that my time will be better spent
bringing new ideas and a fresh
approach to Queen’s Park,” he said.
“There are a tremendous number
of issues that greatly affect the
people of Huron-Bruce that, quite
frankly, the municipal governments
cannot solve until a new relationship
and partnership is created with the
Province of Ontario. They (the
province) set the rules, control the
purse strings and ultimately create
the environment that councils must
work in. While that environment has
changed drastically in the past
decade, the tools needed by
municipalities have not been
Trustees discuss deadline
Belgrave hosts
90th School Fair
Bezaire will seek
PC nomination
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 13
Continued on page 21
By Stew Slater
Special to The Citizen
Continued on page 21