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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1990-09-19, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1990. Looking at gift horses Blyth Festival took its show on the road this week after closing out another hugely successful season at Blyth Memorial Hall. Not only did 45,000 people see Festival productions this year and push hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Huron County economy but the Festival literally changed the face of Blyth. While many people worried about the huge addition to the south side of Blyth Memorial Hall and what it would do to the venerable building and the streetscape it should now be agreed that the building has been a magnificent addition to the look of Blyth’s main street. The court yard created by the building adds an interesting variation to the street. The architecture manages to tie in the lines of Memorial Hall with the storefront of the Festival’s administration building next door. The Festival has also been a good corporate citizen. Its proposal to give space occupied by the old box office and art gallery in the north wing would provide Blyth, for the first time, with a decent library. It’s a generous move that seems to be lost sometimes in the wrangling by the village council and the Huron County Library about how much space will go to the library. While there’s no doubt the library will serve the needs of the village much better if the whole 900 square feet of the lower north wing can be turned into a library, the attitude of the two senior groups that it’sail or nothing seems arbitrary. Even without the one room the Fefstival wants to keep, the space available will be much larger than the current library branch: inadequate perhaps, but still larger. If the offer space isn’t large enough just where else does the village or the county library propose to get more elsewhere in the village? Lost in the debate is the fact the space the theatre would give up would be worth upwards of $100,000 if the village was to build on its own. Does anybody seriously think village council would be willing to spend that much money tobuild a library from scratch when it has put up with the glorified closet the library now occupies for so many years? The theatre is giving up space when it still owes $300,000 for its own expansion over the last two years. Council and the Festival have gotten along so well over the years that it’s disappointing to see the current squabble even if voices have been kept at a moderate level throughout. There’s no doubt the village council is right in that the village will benefit from a much larger library if the whole lower floor can be turned over. Still, it seems unfortunate to see the Festival is treated like a skinflint for not wanting to give up the whole space when it’s ready to make such a huge donation to the people of the village, a gift paid for by thousands of hours of volunteer work and donations from theatre supporters over the years. It might be called looking a gift horse in the mouth. Strange priorities One of the most damning condemnations of the Liberal government of David Peterson during the Sept. 6 election was the lack of education funding. The accusation was often made by education officials, trustees and teachers. Yet it’s hard to take the complaint seriously when you look at things like the recent secondary school teachers’ contract settlement in Perth county. There teachers, principals and vice principals agreed to a pay increase of 6.45 per cent for 1990-91. The increase is nearly two per cent over the cost of living and increases the minimum and maximum for teachers to $27,310 and $59,612. One trustee said the increase was more than the cost of inflation but took into account the possible effect of the Goods and Services Tax next January. Surely the Perth county farmers who are going broke under high interest rates and low comrpodity prices, the autoplant workers who are getting laid off, and the small businesses wondering how they’re going to survive the GST on top of a recession and high interest rates andFreeTrade must be grateful to know the teachers are going to be protected not only against inflation but against the possibility they might be hurt by the GST. They must wonder, however, where the concern for getting enough money for computers in the classrooms and new roofs for schools disappeared. Since the major part of the education goes to salaries, that extra two per cent over the inflation rate translates into a lot of money that could have gone toward hardware. Supposing the average Perth teacher earns $45,000, the 300 teachers could have effectively put $270,000 into the school budget just by getting along with the inflation rate in their settlement. It would be nice if this was an isolated case of greed on the part of the teachers and stupidity on the part of the school board in Perth but be prepared: Perth’s education superintendent said settlements of six to seven per cent are the norm in the province this year. Picking time Mabel’s Grill There are people who will tell you that the important decisions in town are made down at the town hall. People in the know, however know that the real debates, the real wisdom reside down at Mabel 's Grill where the greatest minds in the town [if not in the country] gather for morning coffee break, otherwise known as the Round Table Debating and Filibustering So­ ciety. Since notjust everyone can partake of these deliberations we will report the activities from tn timp MONDAY: Hank Stokes says things just never make sense. Here the Russians’ country is falling apart because there isn’t enough bread and meat in the stores and here in Canada the farming part of the country is falling apart because there’s so much the prices are rock bottom and farmers can’t make money. Billie Bean was wondering how much it would cost to rent a ship and take some of the Canadian surplus over to Russia and sell it. Hank said the thing that’s really puzzling is how the Russians can be out of bread when part of the reason Canadian’s can’t sell their wheat is that Russia and everybody else in the world had a bumper crop this year. Maybe, said Ward Black, their transportation system is as bad as our postal system and they’re shipping it back and forth across the country a few times before they get around to delivering it. TUESDAY: Tim O’Grady was chuckling about some Toronto councillors wanting to get rid of rickshaws that have been using the streets. The councillors feel it makes Toronto look like a Third World city that supports slave labour. Continued on page 5 Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1H0 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $19.00/yr. [$40.00 Foreign]. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisment will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright. Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. 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