The Brussels Post, 1977-04-13, Page 2Dig that sun
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 1977
BRUSSELS
ONTARIO
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community..
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario.
by McLean Bros, Publishers, Limited.
'Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Dave Robb Advertising.
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
ABC
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association
CNA
Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $8.00 a year. Others
$14.00 a year, Single Copies 20 cents each.
tiTABLINNo.
117;
Brussels Posy
Brussels -
The mill town?
It's not an exaggeration to say that Thursday
night's meeting about the Logan Mill could have a
great impact on the future of Brussels.
The Maitland Valley Conservation Authority,
which owns the mill, is asking you, the public for
ideas on how the mill should be used. The mill and
its riverfront site could be a lovely picnic park and
tourist attraction in the future.
Brussels could become known far and wide as "the
mill town on the Maitland" and the revenue and
visitors a restored mill would generate could do a lot
of good for the whole village.
As Brussels Post reader Ben Yolleck points out in a
letter to the editor on this page, the mill should be
developed as a people place and there are many ways
that the conservation authority • could meet this
objective.
In a story on page one, MVCA says it sees four
broad alternatives for the mill's future. It could be
restored and maintained by an active local group,
perhaps an historical society or a senior citizens
group. Grants and donations would be available and
the MVCA would lease the building for a nominal
sum to the local group.
A second possibility would be for MVCA to sell the
mill to a private developer who could run some sort
of commercial business there. Mills have been
successfully renovated as country inns in Benmiller
and Elora.
These two possibilities and any other ideas for
action, like Mr. Yolleck's, will depend entirely on the
enthusiasm of Brussels people who attend tomorrow
night's meeting. If they have a use for the mill and
are willing to work to preserve it, a restored mill, a
tourist attraction and an important historical site will
result.
MVCA's last two alternatives won't do much for
the future of Brussels. Repairing the mill so that it
won't fall apart further and then continuing to use it
for storage is really a make-do choice that could be
expensive. But it's better than nothing and it could
be argued that although there may be no interest in
renovating and using the old mill now, there could be
some in a few years.
That's where the fourth alternative, demolishing
our mill before vandals burn it down or a trespasser
gets hurt, comes in. Here it could be argued that if
no one in Brussels and area is keen to do anything
with the mill, a lot of heartbreak and expense would
be avoided by simply getting rid of the thing.
If there's no enthusiastic, realistic support from
local people for renovating the mill at tomorrow
night's meeting we're afraid that tearing the mill
down is the choice for economic reasons, that MVCA
will have to make.
The Post thinks that would be a shame. The mill,
the dam and the river were all important to the
development of this village. As part of a booming,
attractive, restored site they could be important
again. We owe it to the energy and foresight of the
early settlers here and to the future of our children to
show cornmittment and independence ourselves and
see that the mill is restored.
Come to the MVCA's Meeting on the mill, armed
with your ideas and your qUeStionS. It's up to u8 if
"the mill town on the Maitland" iS tb become more`
than just a slogan.
Amen •
by Karl Schuessler
Forty-eight is a good round number.
Easy to remember. Even. Right down the
middle.
It's an okay number. It might even be a
great number. The only trouble is it's my
age.
Yup. That's the great number I scored
on .my last birthday.
The people at our house were good
enough not to ask how many years old I
was. And my wife was kind enough not too
smother the cake in candles. She didn't
even try the guessing game trick--one big
candle to stand for so many years -- and
then all the little ones for something else.
None of that. Just one lone candle -- for
any one's guess.
But age is no guessing game. Everyone
knows how old you are. Just take a look at
your kids. You can't have a 23 y ear old son
and try to pass yourself off as 40. Of
courses you could harp on your 12 year old,
but she's the last of the brood. Everyone
knows that.
And if people can't nail your age by your
kids, then they should take a look at your
skin.
That's what my mother always told me.
Forget about the hair--whether it's thin,
receding or greying. And don't get
sidetracked on bifocals and false teeth. In
this life, there are lots of premature
everything. But not skin. It never lies.
It 's the great age betrayer. There's not a
thing y ou can do about it --lined, wrinkled,
crepe papered and brown spotted. It's all
there--hanging out and not doing a good
job of covering for you.
But I'm not complaining. I want you to
know Fm .proud of forty-eight. Forty-eight.
I kicked over the youth cult long ago.
Aside froni all Me ads. telling me that
young is beautiful, I can't see what's so
great about those early years. Insecure.
Unstable. Unsure --a zit king--if I ever did
see one. What's the glory of youth? When I
can have me? -- mellowed, matured,
To the editor
I have read with interest the letter of Mr.
Lorne Murray, Chairman of the Maitland
Valley Conservation Authority, in y out issue
of 23 March '77 concerning The Brussels`
mill.
By way of citizen - in put which the letter
requests I would like to comment as one who
has known this property since the 1920's.
Restoration is a must but not as an
operative mill as the costs and upkeep would
be enormous and the money could be better
employed. It would not be wise to restore the
mill building alone at the expense of the dam.
The mill and mill pond are complementary
and each is diirtinished if One is retrieved
.Without the other:
The porid ; Mill and dam Were one grand
, organic people-place in past years and should
be developed as a people-plaCe, The building
Forty-eight
seasoned and reasoned.
My wife tells me I'm better than ever.
She's had to wait a long time for me to
ripen. She's not ready for any trade-in now
at 48.
And I'm not buying this "It's-no-matter-
how-old-you-are-just-so-long-as-you're-
young-at-heart."
Bah. Humbu g. It's still perpetuating
the notion that young is beautiful. 48 is
great. Forty-eight is great.
And just to prove it, let me tell you what
I got for my birthday: Twenty years ago I
got stuck with ties; shirts and a hammer-,
all very practical and useful' gifts. But not
this year. It brought me more laughs. Fred
Youngs of the Mitchell Advocate sent me
over 26 pieces of yellow paper -- to write
my column on. Someone else gave me a
cool chick--a frozen roasting hen she raised
on the farm. Another fellow brought me
some mellow Yugoslav wine. Someone else
gave me tennis balls-- so I can play -- not
work.
And my family gave a travel, alarm and
an hour glass. Yes, an hour glass. Now I
can sit and watch the sand and think up
good reasons why we need two more time
pieces.
We have already two old wooden
gingerbread kitchen clocks ticking away,
two broken alarm clocks, a wrist watch,
and an electric clock:
Maybe my family is trying to tell me
something. Maybe they want me to
number ,my days. To let me know that time
is slipping underneath my feet, that time is
money.
But I'll have none of that. I'll mock the
times and say there's no time like the
prese nt. I'll say these are good times,
Good days, Great forty-eight days.
Not every man can claitet an hour of
piano practise to the trickle of sand running
through his hour glass. You have to be
forty-eight -- old enough -- to do a thing
like that.
with its magnificent chaff - polished hardwood
floors, ever-interesting flume and two-tiered
height could accommodate arid serve
a) Community groups, senior citizens, clubs,
etc, b) Serve handicraft, artifact8 and culttiral
exhibits. c) Supply a much needed MCVA
information centre in the Brussels area.
Thetnill pond, properly preserved and
ejcploited could be developed as = a) An
aquatic sports centre stressing Skating, an ice
regatta, (in the 1930's we rode an ice, boat fet
miles up the river from the dam) Polar Daze,
swift-miming and canoeing: b) Pishitig,
ladders, fly casting tournaments, etc. c) River
bank park-paths along the shore, bird
Watching areas complete with plantings.
Properly treated the old Logan mill and dam
could' be a gem kik years, a fate it well
deserves.
Ben. A .Yolldcli
Suggests uses for Logan mill