HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2007-10-25, Page 1The CitizenVolume 23 No. 42 Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 $1.25 ($1.18 + 7c GST)Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County
Inside this week
Pg. 2
Pg. 7
Pg. 8
Pg. 13
Pg. 36
Donation comes to
Brussels PS
Avon Maitland
program in Brussels
Local hockey
season underway
Fall ‘On the Road’
begins
Locals among
award recipients
The Huron United Way wants the
people of the county to get to know
their mayors and reeves a little
better, and maybe even poke some
fun at them as well.
On Wednesday Nov. 21, Huron
United Way will be holding its first
annual Mayor and Reeves Dinner at
the Knights of Columbus Hall in
Goderich. All nine of Huron’s
mayors and reeves have confirmed
that they will be there.
Tickets are $50 per person and
there will be a silent auction, but the
main event will be having a laugh at
the expense of your local dignitaries,
who have all agreed to be the subject
of nine different mini-roasts
throughout the evening.
The next few weeks will be spent
researching the backgrounds of the
county’s dignitaries, searching for
little known facts that their citizens
might find funny.
“We’re looking to make it an
annual event and we’re looking to
have a little bit of fun at the mayors’
expense,” Kimberly Payne,
executive director, said.
“They will be the entertainment
for the evening and they have agreed
to this. So we’ll be talking to their
colleagues, friends and family over
the next few weeks, finding out
some little-known facts about your
local dignitaries. We’re going to be
having a little mini-roast with all of
them.”
In addition to the roasts, there will
also be a “really good” silent auction
to raise funds for the United Way.
“There’s going to be a really good
silent auction based on really good
local product. Items will range
anywhere from entertainment to
food,” Payne said. “There’s going to
be a “Chair-ity” auction, where
items could go from an office chair,
fully-loaded with all the gadgets to a
wooden chair that someone’s
painted.”
The Huron United Way is hoping
to branch out from the success that
they already saw with a previous
program they launched, but after
seeing a lack of a connection
between citizen and politician, those
heading up the events thought up the
dinner.
“We did the Community Matters
Consultation, which has been a big
part of the United Way’s work for
the past two and a half years and we
found that people didn’t feel as
connected to their local
representatives as they would like to,
particularly on a more personal
level,” she said.
“I think citizens would like an
opportunity to know a little bit about
who their local politicians are as
people, not just faces they hear from
Pumpkin time
It’s the time for pumpkins and three-year-old Aliya and two-year-old Lana are eager to see
these ones transformed to jack-o-lanterns in time to greet the ghosts and goblins out for
Halloween fun Wednesday night. The girls are the children of Mike and Michelle Dauphin of
Brussels. (Bonnie Gropp photo)
Around this time every year,
thousands of area children are
suiting up as ghosts and goblins for
Halloween. Before pounding the
pavement in search of candy, safety
should always come first.
There has been no shortage of
outreach in the community in
regards to safety on Halloween
night. As Const. Joanna Van Mierlo
tells it, the OPP have been working
in the schools and with Block
Parents making presentations to
make children more aware of the
risks.
In addition to school visits and
community presentations all
throughout the county, there will
also be a much-increased police
presence on Halloween, with
cruisers patrolling through urban
centres deterring inappropriate
behaviour and just being visible to
children who may need help.
“Especially when it’s early and the
kids are out, everyone on duty is on
patrol somewhere,” Van Mierlo said.
In her presentations, Van Mierlo
makes sure children know that police
cars will be in the neighbourhoods
and encourages children to approach
cruisers or officers if they are
distressed.
“We deter inappropriate
behaviour, but we also let kids know
that we’re out there,” she said. “
Obviously we don’t have hundreds
of officers out there, it’s a given
night shift and if service calls come
in, we may get pulled away, but
being out there is usually how we
handle Halloween.”
Van Mierlo says the police
presence will be limited to urban
With it’s contract with Bluewater
Recyclables for collection of
garbage in urban areas coming up
for renewal, Morris-Turnberry
councillors agreed to explore the
idea of curbside pick-up for all
homes, urban or rural.
Councillors’ response to the idea
was initially negative, when they
saw it on the agenda. Mayor Dorothy
Kelly suggested there would be a lot
of unhappy rural resident if they
were hit with the fee urban residents
pay for curbside pick up.
But administrator clerk-treasurer
Nancy Michie said if curbside pick
up was extended to all residents, the
extra fee would likely be dropped
with the cost absorbed in taxes.
The additional costs would be
partly offset by savings in other
areas. Deputy-mayor Jim Nelemans
noted that the transfer station at the
now-closed Turnberry landfill site
could be closed if people had
roadside pick up.
As a rural resident, councillor
Paul Gowing said he could see the
benefit of the move, noting “I have
trouble getting to the landfill on a
timely basis.”
Council will ask for proposals to
provide pick up only for the urban
residences and all residences.
Charity
to roast
mayors,
reeves
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
OPP serve and protect on Halloween
Continued on page 6
M-T looks
at curbside
pickup
By Keith Roulston
The Citizen
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 6