The Citizen, 1985-11-06, Page 1Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Beigrave, Ethel,
Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships.
VOL. 1. NO. 3 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1985
Bruce Hahn of the Brussels Lions Club presents Brussels reeve Cal Krauter with a cheque for $5000, the
first installment in the Lions Club's pledge to pay the building cost of the new swimming pool.
Brussels to hold ratepayers
meeting November 20th
Tuesday
is election
day
Tuesday is election day for many
across the northern part of Huron
county. While many areas have
filled their municipal slates nearly
everyone has a vote at least for
school board representatives.
The fullest competition is in East
Wawanosh where there will be a
run off between incumbent Neil
Vincent and former reeveErnie
Snell. In the last election .they
ended up tied.
Running for council will be
incumbents Fred Meier, Don
Schultz, Jim Taylor and Vaughn
Toll challenged by John A. Currie
and Ray Hallahan.
Hullett township will see a vote
for one council position with three
candidates: Doug Bell, Hugh
Flynn and Vic Stackhouse seeking
it.
West Wawanosh voters will
have a full slate to choose, almost.
One council position has already
been filled by acclamation, that of
Rhea Hamilton-Seeger. There are
three contenders for the two
remaining positions: Gordon H.
Brindley (who is the current
deputy-reeve), Cecil Cranston and
Harold Menary.
There will be an election for
reeve between incumbent Jim
Aitchison and former councillor
Kathryn Todd and for deputy-
reeve where two incumbent coun-
cillors, Joe Hickey and Bruce
Raynard will go against each other.
In Grey township four people are
seeking three council positions:
Fred Uhler, Graeme MacDonald,
Dale Knight and Helen Cullen.
SCHOOL BOARD
Incumbent John Elliott will face
a challenge from John Gaunt to
represent Blyth, Morris and East
Wawanosh on the Huron County
Board of Education.
In West Wawanosh and Ash-
field, incumbent Tony McQuail is
being challenged by Donald Alton.
For separate school supporters
in the wide area of Hullett, Morris,
Howick, Turnberry, Kinloss, Cul-
ross and Grey, the village of
Brussels and the town of Wingham
there will be a choice between
incumbent Vincent McInnes of
R.R. #2, Wingham and Adrian
Keet of R.R. #3, Wingham.
Polls will open at 11 a.m. and
close at 8p.m. on Tuesday. Results
will be available too late for next
week's paper so watch for the week
following.
All candidates for office in this
area were offered a chance to say
something about themselves and
the issues in this issue of the
Citizen. Information submitted is
on pages six and seven.
It seemed to be a case of
once-bitten, twice-shy when the
subject of a ratepayers meeting for
the village of Brussels came up at
Monday night's council meeting.
In a meeting that was generally
taken up with housekeeping and
with kibitzing between the council-
lors who were staying on and these
who were in their last council
meeting, the one subject that
raised a little steam was Councillor
Hank Ten Pas' proposal that the
council should hold a ratepayers
meeting before the council finishes
its term at the end of November. He
won support from Reeve Cal
Krauter and Councillor Gordon
Workman who said that with a
newspaper in town again, if the
meeting was advertised there
would be no excuse for saying they
didn't know the meeting was
coming up.
Not in favour of the idea were
councillors Betty Graber and Jerry
Wheeler, who had chaired the hot
and heavy meeting over the
swimming pool issue last month.
Councillor Wheeler felt there
might be a reason for the new
council to hold a meeting and
outline its plans and ask for input
but felt there was little point for the
present council to rehash business
of the past. "We were already
cursed at and everything else. 1
don't want to go through another
one."
He had support from Councillor
Graber on the issue but when it
came to a vote the council was split
2 - 2 and Reeve Krauter broke the
tie by voting to hold the meeting. It
will be held on Wednesday,
November 20 at 8 p.m. at the
Brussels, Morris and Grey Com-
munity Centre in the upstairs
auditorium.
Speaking of the pool, there was
both good news and bad news as
council received a delegation from
the Brussels Lions with a cheque
for $5000 for the first installment of
the club's portion of the pool costs.
At the same time, council warned
the pool committee not to proceed
with work further on the addition to
Continued on Pg. 2
Cardiff
off to China
Murray Cariff left for China on
Friday, November 1 to open the
Canada Pavillion on November 5 at
the China Agricultural Exhibition
in Peking. He will be speaking on
behalf of the Federal Minister of
Agriculture.
Among the 45 exhibitors from
Canada representing Canadian
agriculture are Potash Institute,
W. G. Thompson, The Canadian
Swine Exporters Association (Jim
Donaldson), The Canadian Hol-
stein Friesian Association and
Semax of Canada. Canada has the
greatest amount of floor space at
the China exhibition.
A new committee, Joint Agricul-
tural Committee (J.A.C.), has
been formed made up of represen-
tatives from Canada and Chinese
governments. They will meeting in
Peking to discuss future trade
agreements. A long term heal
agreements concerning live anim-
als and semen was signed in spring
of 1985 between Canada and
China.
"The Canadian government is
putting specific emphasis on the
Pacific rim countries to maintain
our trade balance of over $1 billion
with the possibility of increasing
this trade," Cardiff said .
Reporters
wanted
With seven township councils
and two village councils to cover
it's obvious our staff can't be
everywhere at once. So, we're
looking for part-time reporters.
Our reporters should have a
good command. of the English
language, a quick, enquiring mind
and hopefully a good memory.
We'll pay on a per-meeting
basis. If you're interested, please
call 523-4792.
'Sick trees concern Blyth Village councillor
Even if ratepayers at the annual
plyth ratepayers meeting had been
angry enough to come to blows
with their representatives they
would have thought twice about it
last Wednesday: they were so few
they were outnumbered by the
politicians.
About eight members of the
general public (none of them
female) showed up to hear memb-
ers of council, the public utilities
commission and school board.
As might be expected, the
meeting went quietly. Nearly all
reports had been written ahead of
time and were given both orally
and in the form of a brief passed out
to all present. The questions were
for the most part polite.
One of the few reports that was
not distributed in printed form was
Councillor William Manning's re-
port on "the sick tree problem".
Trees cut recently in Blyth, he said,
have been from 95 to 115 years of
age and there are some 600 mature
trees in the village (110 on Dinsley
street alone). Of the 600, 100 show
some ill-health and 67 should come
down next year.
Mr. Manning said that the
village needs to replant 35 to 50
trees a year or "we'll look like a
prairie town by the year 2000".
Mr. Manning suggested that
instead of giving wood away as has
been the policy in recent years, the
village should perhaps look at
tendering for the wood in the trees.
He had, he said, got the wood from
two trees himself in the past and
got 14 cords of wood from them. He
had been payifig $30 a cord for the
wood at the time. If, he said,
council got even $15 a tree (which
would give someone wood at about
two dollars a cord) it would mean a
substantial amount of money for
the council to use for replanting.
Over the years as the 600 trees
had tocome down, he said, they
would generate $9000 for replant-
ing replacements or about $1000 a
year. •
Jim Howson, Public Utilities
Commissioner said the problem
with taking down trees is that
everybody's happy to get the part,
of the tree that will burn but they're
not keen on cleaning up the tops
and saw dust.
Tree cutting has become a major
problem for the PUC, he noted and
the cost .can be enormous if a tree
takes out a poWer line and even
worse if it takes out a pole with a
transformer on it. One tree damag-
ing a transformer, he said in his
commissioners report can cost
$7000 to repair let alone the great
inconvenience involved.
Councillor Albert Wasson, re-
porting on the Blyth-Hullett Waste
Disposal Site outlined the recent
history which saw the village and
township purchase 26 acres in 1984
for future expansion of the dump.
The municipalities split the
$48,262 purchase which will give
the site an extra buffer zone on the
north and west.
Mr. Wasson also announced
that the two councils are also
negotiating to purchase property
across the road from the site as an
additional buffer zone on the east
side of the dump. The biggest
concern in waste disposal sites, he
said, is the leachate, or waste from
the dump that can get into the
regular groundwater supply. Own-
ing a buffer on the east of the site,
he said, is good insurance for the
future.
Currently the municipalities are
renting out the extra land they have
obtained at $1000 a year and will do
the same with the new acquisition.
Councillor William Howson in
giving his report on the Blyth and
District Community Centre said he
had been preparing a speech but
since all councillors were returned
by acclamation, he didn't havetto
give it. He did praise the work of
Tom Cronin as reeve for the last
five years and said he was sad to
see him step down as reeve but
happy to see him remain as a
councillor.
Mr. Howson outlined changes at
the Community Centre in the past
two years including the new score
board, air conditioning, heat
pumps and propane stoves and hot
water tanks and the hiring of a
year-round auditorium manager
who alsooversees the arena during
the summer months. He pointed
out that a decade ago with the old
arena, village taxpayers had had to
contribute $9-10,000 a year in
operating costs. Today with much
Continued on Pg. 3