The Citizen, 2008-11-20, Page 1Blyth has got an exciting historic
project in the works.
It was announced at the annual
lighting celebration that the Twp. of
North Huron, the Blyth Business
Association and the Blyth Idea
Group are working towards the
automation of the village bells at
Memorial Hall.
Blyth Memorial Hall was built by
the community to commemorate
those who fought in the First World
War. The hall has remained a symbol
for those who have since gone on to
represent their country in times of
unrest.
The building was used as well as a
place for people to meet and
celebrate community. It was host to
receptions, court and council
proceedings as well as local and
family events. The main auditorium
was a venue for musicals and local
talent to perform.
Most recently the Hall has become
home for the Blyth Festival, which
showcases Canadian theatre. It
annually brings 35,000 people to
town during the summer months.
The bell atop the Hall was
historically rung manually to mark
the noon hour. In the late 1970s this
practice was discontinued.
In recent years the BBA and BIG
have been working diligently to
market the village to the more than
50,000 visitors it attracts annually.
Their main goal has been to improve
the downtown core and BIG has
adopted the Historic Village of Blyth
tag line. It has worked to recapture
the village’s historic past.
The community plans to restore
the bell now as a nod to the past. The
automation will add to the historic
flavour of the village.
The total cost is $8,022.50, with
the expected time of completion to
be in the spring of 2009.
The BBA will undertake
fundraising initiatives throughout
the next several months, There will
as well be fundraising from the
township.
The Belgrave and District
Kinsmen Club is setting your
thoughts to Christmas decorating.
On Friday and Saturday of this
week, four Belgrave and area homes
will open their doors for a tour.
Visitors are invited to take
themselves on a tour with a map
provided on the back of the ticket. At
their leisure they will visit two
restored historical and two new
homes.
Outside of town, to the east, at
40693 Brandon Line is the stately
farmhouse of George and Elizabeth
Procter.
Back in the village in the newer
subdivisions you will find the home
of Jamie and Susan Robinson at 19
Jordan Drive, and the home of Gord
and Nancy Folkard, located at 41
Hamilton Street.
At the first sideroad south of
Belgrave turn west and follow it to
the impressive country home of
Kevin and Melissa Scott at 39370
Nature Centre Road.
The Gift Cupboard in Blyth,
Flowers on Main and Finishing
Touches in Wingham, and Details by
Debbie Jardin and the Huron Bay
Co-op in Belgrave are putting their
festive touches on the houses.
The tour begins at 6 p.m. Friday
and runs that evening until 9 p.m.
Saturday’s tour begins at 10 a.m. and
finishes at 4 p.m. Tickets, available
at the Belgrave Variety, Huron Bay
Co-op and contributing decorators,
are $10. A map to the homes is
printed on the back. Following the
tour, visitors can return to the
Belgrave Community Centre for
snacks and refreshments.
Area homes on tour
The bell shall toll
Cuddle time
It was the time to get a jump on Christmas shopping as St. John’s Anglican Church in Brussels
hosted its bazaar and bake sale on Saturday. A cuddly bear appears to have won the heart of
13-month-old Amelia Fenton, though she didn’t get to take her home. (Vicky Bremner photo)
If this winter is anything like last
winter, Huron-Perth Student
Transportation Services’ new website
should be a lifesaver.
The organization, which provides
transportation for the Avon Maitland
District School Board (AMDSB) and
the Huron-Perth Catholic District
School Board (HPCDSB), recently
launched a website with RSS
capability to keep the public informed
of school bus delays or school
cancellations with winter right around
the corner.
RSS is a feeding format for
information over the internet that
people can subscribe to in order to
receive constant updates on a
particular topic. Updates and alerts
can be sent in the form of the browser
the computer uses or straight to an e-
mail account.
While the website has been
launched and is currently available at
www.ourschoolbuses.ca, there is a
quicker, more direct way parents can
keep on top of school cancellations.
The website’s home page, however,
will feature information pertaining to
all of the two boards’schools, whereas
with the RSS updates, parents can
choose the specific schools that apply
to them.
In addition to making the
information more readily-available to
parents, this idea was meant to service
the media as well, to ensure
information is on the radio and
television before it might have been a
year ago.
“We wanted to create a system for
the people who are responsible for
circulating the information, so it was
easier for them and easier for the
media to get the information and put it
out in a timely fashion,” said Steve
Howe, manager of communications
for AMDSB.
Subscription to RSS alerts will be
free and accessible with any internet
browser. For those who sign up for e-
mail alerts, they will be sent straight to
their inbox, which can now be
accessed on many cellular phones.
Howe said the newly-structured
website and RSS capability came out
of direct requests from parents, who
said they were ready for this
technology. The notification system,
with decisions working their way
down from the regional
representatives from all of the board’s
regions to the schools to local media
outlets had been working, Howe said,
but the new system will speed up the
process.
Decisions on bus cancellations and
snow days have to be made very early
in the morning, with many factors
taken into consideration, such as
possible road closures and potential
good weather for the drive to school
and a storm throughout the day that
may make the drive back dangerous.
The faster the process of
communication gets with these issues,
Howe says, the better.
“We’ve had a system in place for a
number of years that has recently been
undergoing some evolution to make it
real easy to get information out to the
necessary people. Obviously we need
to reach the parents, the media and
now have it on the internet,” Howe
said. “As this system evolved and new
technology has come to the forefront,
we rebuilt our transportation website.”
Howe says the system began with
the regional representatives making
decisions whether to hold school on a
particular day, then calling a school’s
principal, who would then call the
school’s employees and the local radio
station. Eventually faxing became the
wave of the future, followed by the
internet, then notification by e-mail
and now to RSS.
While Howe is excited about the
inclusion of RSS on the new website,
he says www.ourschool-buses.ca
remains comprehensive and easy to
use for those with access to the
internet, but without the computer
savvy to operate the RSS system.
“It’s a totally inter-linked system.
People are free to subscribe to one
school’s RSS feed, or to more than
one. The website is set up so that if a
specific school would have to shut
down for a reason other than weather,
the school’s principal has the ability to
log in and post an announcement
about that specific school,” Howe
said.
For more information, visit
www.ourschoolbuses.ca or e-mail at
info@ourschoolbuses.ca
School bus information available on new website
CitizenTh
e
$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008
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The Citizen