The Citizen, 2010-09-30, Page 1CitizenTh
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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, September 30, 2010
Volume 26 No. 38FALLFAIR- Pg. 6The best of the Brussels Fall Fair PLOWING - Pg. 28 McGavins win gold at Plowing MatchCITIZENS- Pg. 2-3Citizens of the Year for 2010 are revealedPublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:C e l e b r a t i n g 25 YearsTheCitizen1985-2010
Strutting their stuff
Lexi Smith (left) and Heidi Bachert posed for a quick photo during the parade at the 149th
Brussels Fall Fair while their two friends avoided the fame game. The parade ran from the
Brussels Community Park, down Sports Drive, up Mill Street to Turnberry Street and then zig-
zagged through town to the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre, where the fair’s
main events were held. (Denny Scott photo)
ACW to revisit fire coverage with North Huron
Brussels appeal
denied by Ministry
Councillors in Ashfield-Colborne-
Wawanosh (ACW) have decided to
attempt to bring a close to the
ongoing saga that is fire coverage in
Auburn by attempting to negotiate
fire protection with North Huron.
After a meeting with Huron
County Mutual Aid Fire Co-
ordinator Paul Josling, Fire Chiefs
Steve Cook from Central Huron and
Peter Steer from Lucknow and
residents from the ACW portion of
Auburn, the councillors decided that,
since mutual aid wouldn’t guarantee
the best coverage for Auburn, they
would meet with representatives
from North Huron and Central
Huron to attempt to work out a deal.
Councillor Barry Millian, who has
stood by council’s original decision
to let Central Huron cover Auburn,
stated that his decision was changed
by the differing nature of
information presented at the
meeting.
“When we first agreed [to
Auburn’s current protection system],
I knew that you were going to get the
best protection, that is why I agreed
to it,” Millian said to the Auburn
residents in attendance. “Now, I
have doubts though, I have doubts
and I need to know what laws
regulate this.”
Steer, Cook and Josling all stated
that there is no rule, or law, that
dictates who must respond.
“You set up the rules and laws, and
we enforce them,” Cook said. “If
you want an agreement with Blyth,
you tell us, and we go out and do it.”
Millian was still concerned,
however, by the different accounts of
dealings with North Huron’s fire
department, though.
In an e-mail to council, Cook
stated that he and North Huron Fire
Chief John Black had agreed on
coverage methods.
“Black and myself have discussed
this and agree that with the high
value properties in our adjoining
area, immediate initiation of the
Mutual Aid Plan will take place for
any high value structure fire,”
Cook’s e-mail stated. “I also have
similar understandings with the
Goderich and Seaforth fire
departments at this time.”
Cook went on to state, at the
meeting, that Black had said he
would send a full fire protection
contingent.
Jacqui Laporte, representing
concerned Auburn citizens in ACW,
reported, however, that Black had
stated he would only send what was
requested or required of him, and
that threw doubt over the
effectiveness of the agreement.
Josling added to the concern,
saying that retaining Automatic Aid
with Central Huron and not
including Blyth’s fire hall could
result in the township being liable
for damages.
“Not having the closest fire hall
(Blyth) respond could be easily
challenged and used in court against
you,” Josling said.
Mutual Aid isn’t applicable to
ACW, according to Josling, and
Automatic Aid isn’t truly automatic
aid unless there is a contract in place
with monetary coverage.
Josling added that it’s very rare to
send a full complement of fire
fighters on a mutual aid call because
of an ‘unwritten policy ‘ in Huron
County that a hall should never be
emptied on a mutual aid call.
As for the call being made
immediately, Josling stated that it
can be activated off-scene, but it
isn’t usually done that way.
ACW isn’t going to seek a Mutual
or Automatic Aid agreement
however. The council already has an
automatic aid agreement with
Central Huron, and may be
proposing a pay-per-use contract
with North Huron’s fire department
at the upcoming meeting.
An appeal of the Accommodation
Review process that resulted in the
pending closure of Brussels Public
School has been denied by the
Ministry of Education.
The appeal, launched by local
community members Jim Prior,
Charlie Hoy and Glenda Morrison,
charged that several aspects of the
Accommodation Review process
were flawed, but according to Hoy,
the Ministry was having none of
the appeal. In addition, an appeal
from residents of the Zurich
area, who are also facing the closure
of their school, Zurich Public
School, was also denied by the
Ministry.
Hoy says he is unsure where he
and the rest of his team will go from
here, but that he feels some of the
finer points were missed by the
Ministry when the appeal was being
considered.
He said that, in addition to some
other aspects of the denial that he
felt weren’t reviewed thoroughly by
the Ministry, simple points made in
the appeal were confused by the
reviewer, that resulted in the denial.
Hoy said that the economics of the
school board were confused with the
general economy of the Brussels
area, which led to the Ministry
saying that the appeal “contradicted
itself”.
In response to the contradiction
allegation, however, he says that
when the appeal discussed the
economics of the board and how the
appeal’s authors felt the decision
was based simply on money from
the board’s perspective, the Ministry
thought they were referring to the
Brussels economy, which should not
be a factor in the decision, according
to the Accommodation Review
parameters.
It was slip-ups like that, Hoy says,
that make him believe that the
appeal was not reviewed as
thoroughly as it should have been,
considering all that is at stake.
Hoy said he received word of the
denial just before the end of the day
on Sept. 22.
“I’m very disappointed,” Hoy
said. “There was a whole list of
reasons why, but I think they missed
a lot of our points.”
He said that while the board may
have technically followed the rules
throughout the process, it still
doesn’t make the decision right.
“The rules are wrong,” he said.
Hoy says that after regrouping
with the rest of his team, he isn’t
quite sure what the next steps will
be, but they very well could include
going to Huron-Bruce MPP Carol
Mitchell for help, in addition to
local municipalities as well as
Huron County.
With a municipal election looming
in October, all-candidates meetings
are popping up across Huron
County.
Central Huron Secondary School
(CHSS) is trying to encourage its
students to get involved and know
the issues so when they get their
chance to vote in a few years, they
will be ready.
As part of the Grade 10 Civics
curriculum, the school will be
hosting the Student Votes program,
and will be inviting all candidates for
Central Huron, as well as mayoral
candidates from Huron East, to an
all-candidates meeting on October
15 at 9:40 a.m.
Following the meeting, students
will vote and the results will be
tallied as part of the province-wide
program. Results will be released
after the Oct. 25 election as not
to influence the result of local
voting.
In Huron East all-candidates
meetings are set for each of the
municipality’s five wards. Local
meetings are set for the Brussels
Ward at the Brussels, Morris and
Grey Community Centre on October
12 at 7 p.m., in the Grey Ward at
Grey Central Public School on Oct.
13 at 7 p.m. and the McKillop Ward
at Cavan United Church in Winthrop
on Oct. 14 at 7 p.m.
Morris-Turnberry will be hosting
its Morris all-candidates meeting in
Belgrave at the Community Centre
on Oct. 14 at 7:30 p.m.
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Candidates to speak
at upcoming meetings
Continued on page 28