The Citizen, 2008-04-17, Page 1The CitizenVolume 24 No. 16 Thursday, April 17, 2008 $1.25 ($1.19 + 6c GST)Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County
Inside this week
Pg. 6
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Pg. 24
County ‘s municipal
officers gather
New industry
comes to Brussels
Polar Ice cap
season with title
Cloggers Hit the
Road at Blyth
Special ceremony at
Huronlea
A male young offender has been
charged with assault, stemming
from an incident at Central Huron
Secondary School in Clinton on
April 7.
According to the Huron OPP, at
approximately 1 p.m. an altercation
broke out between two students.
Police said the teenaged victim was
taken to hospital and treated for
non-life threatening injuries, treated
as a precautionary measure and
released that day.
The youth was arrested at the
scene and was later released with a
date to appear in court.
As reported by the Huron OPP
and by A-Channel News, video
footage of the assault had made its
way onto the internet, on YouTube
and MySpace. Onlookers took video
of the incident with cell phones and
posted the videos on the internet.
Since then, the content of the video
was flagged and the video has been
removed from YouTube.
“It’s all over the place now, not
just on YouTube anymore,” said
Const. Joanna Van Mierlo. “That’s
why this won’t go away and die a
quiet, little death. It’s being re-
glorified all the time, which is
unfortunate, because all it does is re-
victimize the victim.”
Due to young offender laws, very
little information has been released
regarding punishment handed down
by the school. However, Steve
Howe, of the Avon Maitland District
School Board says that there are
initiatives ongoing in all the board’s
schools to combat bullying at all
levels.
“There are ongoing programs in
place at all schools to prevent
bullying. This includes cyber-
bullying, physical, verbal, all of
these areas,” he said. “So these are
ongoing all the time, but as long as
there have been schools, there will
be situations that will occur and
actions might have to be taken.”
Howe says that the board’s code
of conduct is clear, but that each
situation has mitigating
circumstances.
“We have a system-wide code of
conduct. Individual schools also
apply items specific to that school to
their code of conduct. It outlines
consequences for actions,
responsibilities for the students, the
staff, the parents, the principal and
every situation is dealt with and
investigated on its own,” he said.
“There are some situations that
are much different than others, but
every situation is looked at and there
is no automatic zero tolerance
guideline, but there are serious
situations that could result in
suspension and could result in
expulsion.”
Fight
shown
on
internet
With gratitude North Huron
council, at its April 7 meeting,
supported an offer from Morris-
Tunberry to host the gas tax funding
for Wheels Away.
Wheels Away is a non-profit
organization that provides
transportation assistance to all who
need it, by offering safe, affordable
and reliable transportation for
eligible individuals to as many
places as possible.
According to North Huron’s clerk-
administrator Kriss Snell, in order
for Wheels Away to receive gas tax
funding from the province a host
municipality must administer the
program. North Huron has been the
host since 2004.
Under the gas tax program, only
eligible expenses can be reimbursed
under the guidelines, said Snell.
North Huron has reimbursed them to
date and the balance of the funds
have been held in a separate account
to be transferred to Morris-
Turnberry.
Morris-Turnberry’s “gracious”
offer came after a delegation from
Wheels Away had appeared at the
North Huron committee of the
whole on March 27. According to
Snell there have been a number of
ongoing issues with Wheels Away
with no satisfactory resolution to
council for some time.
“Council has some concerns with
the ongoing operations and
governance issue with the Wheels
Away board. Also council is
focusing its resources on North
Huron’s core municipal functions,”
said Snell.
The recent decisions have been
reached as a result of council’s
concerns, he said.
At a meeting in June, Snell said
that in the agreement with Wheels
Away, any reduction to the
contribution required one-year’s
notice.
North Huron notified Wheels
Away Dec. 21, 2005, and re-
affirmed May 10 of last year that it
would no longer donate $20,000
towards Wheels Away, but would
continue the ridership/per capita
funding.
North Huron is also withdrawing
membership from the board.
Lana McKague of Teeswater,
chair of Wheels Away, said that
primarily a disagreement on funds
has been at the heart of the issue.
“We have only asked for what we’ve
been allotted by the Ministry of
Transportation. And we are both
accountable for that.”
The $20,000, according to Dianne
Grummett, Wheels Away’s office
manager, is something the board
believes it should still receive. She
explains that several years ago,
North Huron and Wheels Away
eventually came to an agreement
regarding funds from the province,
the community re-investment fund,
which were earmarked specifically
for transportation.
“There was a descriptive line that
said $28,000 goes to transportation.
And this is the only transportation
we have here.”
Unfortunately now funding has
changed, which she said, gave
council an opening.
“The province rolls these grants
under different names. Now the fund
comes with no strings attached.”
Therefore municipality’s can “do
what they want” with the money.
Morris-Turnberry mayor Dorothy
Kelly said their representative on the
Wheels Away board had indicated to
council there were issues between
North Huron and Wheels Away.
“We’re involved with Wheels
Away, so felt we would be happy to
take a turn as host and see how it
goes.”
McKague, for one, is very pleased
about the change.
“I have only been with the
organization for the past two years.
But, I understand there have been
ups and downs with North Huron for
some time so I think this is going to
be in the best interest of Wheels
Away. I feel it’s going to be a
positive change.”
“North Huron will continue to
support Wheels Away in the same
manner as the other member
municipalities, through directly
subsidizing North Huron ratepayers
who are eligible and use the
service,” said Snell.
In order to transfer the host
responsibilities all the contributing
muncipalities are required to pass a
bylaw. A meeting has been
scheduled for April 17 (tonight) to
begin the transition process.
Vacant stores on main street have
been a depressing reality in rural
downtowns for sometime.
But North Huron has shown
promising signs of commercial
progress that has its community
development officer feeling
optimistic.
Connie Goodall said that in 2007,
about 10 businesses were begun or
assumed new ownership within the
Blyth ward. In Wingham, there were
at least five new enterprises, while
even the rural ward of East
Wawanosh welcomed some new
business.
“It’s a very positive sign. In total,
it is estimated that well over 20,000
square feet of retail and commercial
space was created in the
municipality.”
“All of our wards have seen an
increase in commercial business,”
said Goodall. “And what’s really
great is that it’s a mix of typical
retail opportunities with the unique.”
Goodall thinks that the growth
may be attributed in part to the price
of gas. “I think there’s a trend right
now for people to stay and shop
locally. And there’s also an
increased awareness for people
wanting to support local business.”
As community development co-
ordinator Goodall said she has been
given a directive to investigate
tourism opportunities for the
township. “This is going to be a
growing field as people are going to
be vacationing closer to home. We
would like to see how we’re going to
seize that opportunity.”
The Blyth Festival gives them a
good starting point to see an
economic boost from tourism. “We
have people coming to North Huron
from far and wide. We need to give
them the reasons to come and stay
and see what else there is here.”
Bloomin’ lovely
Sylvia Nonkes, right, brought spring to the room during the 14th annual Women’s Day Out this
past Saturday in Blyth, with some of the blooms from her greenhouse. Shoppers could get an
early start on planning their gardens. (Vicky Bremner photo)
M-T to ‘host’ Wheels Away
By Bonnie Gropp
The Citizen
Good
news
on main
street
By Bonnie Gropp
The Citizen
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 6