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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-01-17, Page 1Snow fun Snowmobilers work hard to keep trails up See page 5 Prize winning writer Local student third in national contest See page 12 Blyth council debates twice-monthly meetings Notice was given at the January meeting of Blyth Village Council Wednesday that a motion will be introduced at the February meeting of council to have council begin to meet twice a month. Councillor Dave Lee raised the issue saying that in a year-end review of what council had done in the last year, he felt there were a lot of special meetings of council, aside from the meetings for review of the village's new zoning by-law. “We have one regular meeting but it seems at a lot of our special meetings we decide a lot of fairly important stuff,” he said. “If the public looks and sees how' many special meetings there are they’re going to say ‘what are they hiding'?” Since there was hardly a month went by without at least one special meeting, he said, he felt council should go to two regular meetings which the public could be informed of in advance. The suggestion that council might be thought to be trying to hide something angered some councillors. Councillor Steven Sparling said the idea that people of the village didn’t trust council­ lors was insulting. Councillor Lee said he wasn’t suggesting that people didn’t trust councillors, just that if people see too- many meetings they don’t know about they start getting suspicious. He said he felt there should be two public meetings a month and all meetings should be videotaped and shown on cable television. Councillor Shirley Fyfe said that if the public was really interested in council they could attend the once-a-month regular meeting. Where are they?, she asked looking at the empty council chamber. The council was elected to make decisions for the people she said. Councillor Ken Brown said he could see the point of wanting two meetings a month. With one meet- ■v ing and a full agenda, he wondered Continued on page 3 Brussels will sell tennis court for right price Brussels councillors agreed at their January 8 meeting that if the price is right, they’ll sell the Elizabeth Street tennis court for an apartment development. Whether or not the sale goes ahead will depend on a number of things, particularly whether or not the sale of the property will bring enough money to rebuild the tennis court at the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre. The Re­ creation Committee has agreed the court could be rebuilt there but council has no idea at the present what the costs would be. Also needed before the courts can be built would be a zoning change to allow an apartment building to be erected. Reeve Gordon Workman told council that he had spoken with a developer who was willing to put up a building on the land. It is expected the building would have 10 to 12 units on two floors. Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. VOL. 6 NO. 3 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1990.50 CENTS Two sides of the story There are two sides to every story, including the weather. When typical January snowbelt weather struck the area Friday the road blocks went up on Highway 4 to prevent travel (above) and snow plows struggled to keep the road open in the face of strong winds and snow squalls. Many motorists had to postpone plans for the day. Schools were closed across the area. But for youngsters like Adam (foreground) and Kristy Blair of Blyth, the day off school and the mounds of new snow just meantanewchanceforadventureas thesnow turned thewhole yard into a playground. ‘Blueprint for change’seen in education for 90’s In her inaugural address at the January 15 meeting of the Huron County Board of Education Chair Joan Van den Broeck referred to the plans of the education system in the 90’s as a “blueprint for change”. Ms. Van den Broeck noted that the province has chosen to restruc­ ture the province’s education sys­ tem and the teacher training pro­ gram instead of investing in a complementary agenda for the 90’s. In the beginning of her speech, Ms. Van den Broeck referred to the previous decade as a time when the main purpose was to “educate each and every child to the limit of his/her potential.” Handicapped children were attending regular day school in preparation for a kinder, more just generation. She referred to the drop out rate, which is though impressively lower than in the 60’s and 70’s still at an unacceptable level taking into con­ siderations the standards for com­ fortable living which society has set. “It was no surprise then,” Ms. Van den Broeck read, “in keeping with this concern and buoyed by the goal of appropriate education for all, a credit system would evolve. With focus on literacy and a liberal educational philosophy, the machine shops and extensive tech- Contirued om page 8