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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 2007-04-05, Page 1The CitizenVolume 23 No. 14 Thursday, April 5, 2007 $1.25 ($1.18 + 7c GST)Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Inside this week Pg. 3 Pg. 6 Pg. 8 Pg. 9 Pg. 26 Canada Post honours employee Local students win at regional science fair Girls teams win championships Seaforth Hitmen bring home gold Clean sweep at Zone for locals It was a happy gathering of appreciative local residents at Ball’s Bridge on Saturday when Huron- Bruce MPP Carol Mitchell presented a cheque to Ashfield-Colborne- Wawanosh for $242,000 to rebuild the historic structure. Several members of the Friends of Ball’s Bridge met with Mitchell in August, to discuss how they might be able to save the bridge, which was slated for closure by the county. A Friends’ member said that Mitchell had expressed support at the time and they are grateful for her support. The bridge has since been devolved to the municipalities of A- C-W and Central Huron. A-C-W reeve Ben Van Diepenbeek said that the grant will let them proceed with the repairs. The money is from the McGuinty government’s $140 million Rural Infrastructure Investment Initiative. This is part of the 2007 budget in which an additional $70 million was allocated to provide safe and reliable local infrastructre in communitions. “The people of our area have shown that perserving part of our history is important,” said Mitchell. The McGuinty government is pleased to support this local initiative. The Rural Infrastructure Investment Initiative is a one-time application-based program. In addition to a number of Friends, Van Diepenbeek and Central Huron reeve Bert Dykstra were on hand as well for the announcement. Van Diepenbeek says it is hoped that they will have the bridge open to light vehicular traffic by the end of the summer. Grey firefighters do test run A-C-W gets $242,000 for bridge repairs The issue of a single school system for Ontario resurfaced at a March 27 meeting of the Avon Maitland District School Board, courtesy of a letter-writing campaign initiated by another board. And just as a different set of trustees did about five years ago, the current Avon Maitland representatives came down squarely in favour of the concept. “I’ll admit, this is something I feel passionately about,” said Stratford trustee and past-chair Meg Westley, following the meeting. Among the eight trustees in attendance, Westley spoke most energetically in favour of a single school system, when the issue came to the table during the meeting’s “correspondence” section. The Brantford-based Grand Erie District School Board has sent letters to member boards of the Ontario Public School Boards Association (OPSBA) asking that “the OPSBA renew its petition to the Government of Ontario that there be one publicly- funded school board system in the province.” At the meeting, trustees voted in favour of supporting the motion. But comments about the issue were made only by Westley and South Huron representative Randy Wagler – interestingly, the only two trustees in attendance who were on the board the last time a similar motion was passed. Wagler said, “it’s about efficiency, not religious rights . . . Why is the province making us form a consortium (with the Huron-Perth Catholic board) now for transportation? Because it’s more efficient.” Speaking to reporters after the meeting, however, Westley suggested her support for a single system runs a little deeper. “A lot of it is about efficiency but I also think if you’re going to allow one religious group to have their school system publicly funded, then you have to have it for all. And we’re not going to do that,” she said. “It’s a bit discriminatory.” Westley added a committee of the United Nations has ruled Ontario’s public/Catholic approach discriminates against other religious groups. The Avon Maitland past chair said she has talked to Catholics who agree with her stance. But she has no illusions that the provincial government will move to unite the Catholic and public systems anytime soon. “It would be politically difficult for a government to do this,” she said, adding the right of Catholics to a separate system is enshrined in the Constitution. “It would be a very uphill battle.” Grey firefighters met last week for their annual CPR recertification, but this time, with a twist. The firefighters got to take their new defibrillator for a test drive before it went on the their firetruck. The firefighters worked with dummies and a simulator to familiarize themselves with the new machine. “The machine is very easy to operate. It more or less tells you what to do. But of course, CPR is a major component of the service. You have to know your CPR and the machine just assists you in getting the heart going again,” says Calvin Semple, Grey’s fire chief. The group practised their CPR, then set the defibrillator up on a dummy and connected it to the simulator. The simulator then creates a situation for the firefighter to try it out on prompting by voice command when to administer CPR, when to do nothing and when to deliver a shock to the patient. The simulator is a training tool for the defibrillator the department purchased with the proceeds from their fundraising volleyball tournament. The story of how a defibrillator came to the Grey fire department, includes these details. “An anonymous citizen came forward and wanted to donate some money towards the unit, but they wanted to know if we had a defibrillator. We didn’t, so they asked if we’d be interested in getting one,” Semple said. “We had thought about getting one, but we always thought this equipment was more for a first response fire department. When they came forward, we looked into the matter and decided we wanted a machine that would indicate when to shock so we didn’t have to make that determination.” The firefighters had time to work with the machine in different scenarios as well as ask any questions that they might have. The defibrillator is now on the department’s pumper, all of the firefighters are trained with it and it is fully-operational. Making for happy Friends With a $242,000 cheque from the province’s Rural Infrastructure Investment Initiative the Friends of Ball’s Bridge have a reason to celebrate. The cheque presented to Ashfield- Colborne-Wawanosh will be used for bridge reconstruction. Among those on hand for the good news, delivered Saturday by Huron-Bruce MPP Carol Mitchell, centre, were a number of Friends as well as Central Huron reeve Bert Dykstra, left, and A-C-W reeve Ben Van Diepenbeek, right. (Vicky Bremner photo) Huron East council, after two failed attempts at finishing their budget without a deficit, scheduled a separate budget meeting on their off- week. Councillors met in Seaforth on March 27 to see if they could take treasurer Brad Knight’s recommendations and put the budget to bed for 2007. Councillors had left the second draft of the budget on the table with nearly $250,000 left to cut. Knight came prepared with cuts that would leave only a $3,316 deficit, leaving it all but eliminated. Knight’s five points that would get the municipality to this point, included deleting the Oak Road construction, $30,000 more from the tax levy, removing work on Louisa and Ord Streets, $23,000 in proposed cuts by mayor Joe Seili and providing funding for a backhoe, which would come completely from equipment reserves. Seili’s proposed cuts included a cut to council’s meeting allowance, a cut to grader maintenance, a cut to equipment maintenance and a cut from economic development for a total of $23,000. Knight’s numbers for the third draft of the budget were based on a 12.2 per cent tax increase, slightly lower than deputy-mayor Bernie MacLellan’s proposal of 13 per cent at the last meeting. Knight compared Huron East’s tax rates to all other municipalities in the county and said that Huron East is still very low, even with the increase. “Our rural wards are the lowest in the county,” he said. “I don’t mind them going up to where they are in By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen AMDSB debates single-school system By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen Huron E. looks at 13% increase By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Continued on page 7