HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2009-01-22, Page 6PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2009.A drop in the bucketThree Blyth Public School students (at left) are making adifference in Huron County and eventually, Kenya. DaltonRichmond, left, Wyatt Carey, centre and Alex Peters, allGrade 7 students at Blyth Public School kicked off the KidsGiving Water program through Free The Children at apresentation to the rest of the school on Friday. The goal is$5,000 to build a well in Kenya and provide clean water to
a village of people. The school is already raising funds for
Free The Children with the Pennies For Millions campaign
as well as the Change For Change campaign. The students
are also in the process of planning a 24-Hour Famine,
which would raise funds for the project. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
THE EDITOR,
The Wingham and Area Health
Professionals Recruitment
Committee is seeking a number of
community-minded volunteers to
help us meet our fundraising goals
for 2009. F
undraising helps us maintain a
consistent recruitment effort and
creates goodwill stories about
community spirit to share with
potential practitioners.
The commitment to this position
is at a minimum two hours per
month, but could be more for the
ambitious. We wish to form this sub-
committee as soon as possible and
ask all interested individuals to
contact Verna Steffler, committee
chair at 519-357-1184.
We look forward to having
volunteers from all corners of our
catchment area (North Huron,
Huron-Kinloss, Morris-Turnberry,
South Bruce, Ashfield-Colborne-
Wawanosh and Howick).
Dianne Harrison, Recruitment
Officer.
Continued from page 1
funds and one of the ways we’ve
targeted is to increase economic
activity within the area. Frankly, we
don’t care who we have to partner
up with to do that. It’s a good goal
and it’s something we intend to
strive for.”
McClinchey and North Huron
economic development officer
Connie Goodall have visited the
councils of the municipalities of
Howick, Ashfield-Colborne-
Wawanosh and Morris-Turnberry,
all garnering a positive response.
McClinchey said with this
initiative he specifically targeted
inland municipalities. He said the
county’s tourism often focuses on
Lake Huron as a drawing point, so
he was attempting to help those
municipalities who don’t have the
lake at their direct disposal.
“The Huron County Tourism
Board, when they’re marketing their
material, and rightly so, focus on the
biggest asset we have: Lake Huron,”
he said.
“But as inland municipalities, we
have thousands of people literally
driving past us to get to that
tremendous asset and we think it
would be great to pool our efforts
and to do something to attract and
retain and organize businesses and
tourism opportunities for inland
municipalities. That’s what this is all
about.”
Right now, North Huron is
working on several areas to help
attract people to the area, one of
which is the revival of the Richard
W. LeVan Airport.
Goodall has been researching
ways to better use the existing
airport structure and to maintain it as
an asset for future development as
well.
There will also be continued
partnership with the Blyth Festival,
one of the county’s biggest money-
makers, coming in with an over
$175,000 surplus in 2008.
The Festival’s surplus was
welcome news at the end of a year
with so much panic in the economy
leading into a year that could be
hard on many sectors.
“We hear all of this awful news
every day and there’s this collective
knee-jerk reaction and people
thinking it’s all coming to a grinding
halt,” said Jan Hawley, Huron East
economic development officer. “You
can’t though, you can’t develop that
type of thinking. You’ve got to keep
going.”
Hawley has also been taking a
web-based approach to her ideas,
bringing a concept she developed
during her days with the Goderich
Business Improvement Association
to Huron East to be used on Seaforth
as well as Brussels.
Hawley has been working with the
GIC mapping department in
Goderich to develop an interactive
map of the businesses and available
properties for Seaforth, a project she
will soon begin work on for
Brussels.
These maps will include property
profiles for every business and
available property in the village. The
profile will include dimensions,
location and potential uses and well
as zoning information, all at a
glance.
Hawley is also continuing work
on the business retention and
expansion program in Brussels,
saying that the program in Seaforth
done over 10 years ago still has a lot
of valid information.
She is also looking forward to the
annual Huron County brochure
swap in spring, something she says
is vital to the co-operation of the
county when it comes to economic
development.
Pullen says the brochure swap is a
perfect example of a county moving
all of its weight in the same
direction and working together. He
is supportive of McClinchey’s
proposal, saying a year like 2009 is
a perfect opportunity for Huron
County to band together for the
greater good.
While McClinchey says he wants
the unification to have been done
yesterday, he says his realistic goal
to begin the ball rolling is sometime
in February.
He says the timing for this
initiative is not accidental and that
he’s hoping to catch councils as they
begin their budget deliberations,
hoping municipalities will commit
funds to the project.
“With the financial hardships
facing this county, why wouldn’t we
do something at a local level to
combat it?” McClinchey said.
North Huron representatives
visiting their neighbours
Letter to the editor