HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1987-04-15, Page 1Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel,
Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships.
VOL. 3 NO. 15 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 1987.40 CENTS
Blyth firemen battle a fire at the bam of Alex Gulutzen near Westfield
Wednesday evening that destroyed the bam. The fire spread quickly
through an older section of the bam and into a newer portion before
firemen reached the scene. One sow was lost in the fire while three
others, including two that had just had litters, were saved. Usually the
barn houses 450 pigs but was empty at the time.
Brussels council, OPP discuss problems
Brussels
TradeFest
cancelled
The eighth annual Brussels
Trade Fest, scheduled for May 1-3,
has been cancelled because of a
lack of response for exhibitors.
“It’s kind of disappointing,
since we were the first trade show
in the area, but knowing the Lions,
they’ll come up with something
bigger and better for next Spring,’’
said Dale Newman, a member of
the sponsoring Brussels Lions
Club and chairman of the Trade
Fest committee.
Mr. Newman said that the
committee had sent out about 100
letters to businesses in the sur
roundingarea, seeking support for
the show that had attracted nearly
3,000 visitors last year. However,
by this week’s deadline, only about
20 exhibitors had replied, and the
Lions’s Club made the decision
that no trade show was better than
a poor one, and cancelled the event
by sending out letters of apology
and returning their entry fees to
the people who had committed
their support.
Mr. Newman attributed the lack
of response to the unusually high
number of similar shows schedul
ed for several larger communities
in the county this year, the first
time such a situation has occurred.
“You can’t blame a business for
not coming to Brussels when they
can go to Exeter and get three or
four times the exposure, ’ ’ he said.
Local
students off
to national
science fair
Twoarea students will take their
projects on to the national science
fair next month in Toronto follow
ing victories at the Huron county
fair on Saturday.
Tom Cull of East Wawanosh
Public School ijt Belgrave was
chosen to represent the county in
the physical scenes section with his
project on strength of construction
in wood.
Increased staffing at the Wing
ham detachment of the Ontario
Provincial Police may offer hope
for more patrolling to deter
vandalism next Halloween, Sgt. J.
McKee told Brussels council Wed
nesday night.
Sgt. McKee and community
services officer Constable John
Marshall attended the meeting
after council had expressed dis
tress about the vandalism that had
taken place last Halloween and in
recent years and asked police for
information on what could be done.
In general the reply was that
there wasn’t a lot that could be
done in the short-run. Sgt. McKee
said that for the first time in a long
while the Wingham Detachment is
uptoitsfull complement of officers
and this should allow for more
patrolling. Although plans aren’t
firm there may be a possibility that
some unmarked cars with plain-
clothed officers would be on patrol.
The detachment holds a plann
ing meeting shortly before Hallo
ween, he said, and tries to pinpoint
possible trouble spots and Brus
sels, along with Bluevale where
there was trouble last year, would
likely be included on that list, he
said.
However, he said, Brussels
wasn’t much different than a lot of
areas. It’s likely local people who
are doing the damage. No matter
how often the patrols are, few
charge^ are usually laid because
the big problem is identifying the
vandals since everybody is disguis
ed.
Asked about curfews, which the
councillors had earlier discussed
as a possible solution, Const.
Marshall said that in many North
ern Ontario towns where there are
curfew by-laws, the by-law is being
left unenforced. The police must
have the by-law enforcement
officer with them if a by-law such as
a curfew is being broken, he said.
Often the by-law enforcement
officer ends up being a taxi service
taking people home who have
stayed out past the curfew.
Sgt. McKee suggested that a
press release could be issued
shortly before Halloween warning
that police will not tolerate vanda
lism.
Const. Marshall dealt mostly
with prevention programs outlin
ing the work he has done in
Brussels Public School and other
county schools with Grade 6 stud
ents in the Values, Influences,
Peers (VIP) program. The pro
gram, which sees the O.P.P.
commit Const. Marshall for three
days a week to work in county
schools, talks with students about
everything from shoplifting and
drugs to vandalsim. The feedback
from the program has been
excellent, he said.
He also suggested that a Block
Parent plan in the village might not
only protect children, but make the
public more aware and get them
involved in reporting crimes. The
Block Parent organization in Blyth,
he said had caught two people who
had been bothering young child
ren.
There are nearly 60 block
parentsinBlyth.hesaid, but 82
people turned up at the recent
annual meeting ofthe group. Rural
Block parent organizations have
Board wants
The Huron County Board of
Education (HBE) is in strong
support of a review of Bill 100, the
1975 Act which governs the
process of collective negotiations
between school boards and teach
ers in Ontario.
On March 30, a three-man
committee of Huron trustees made
a presentation in Windsor to the
Ontario School Trustees’ Commit
tee (OSTC) which has undertaken
the review process. Art Clark,
chairman of the Huron Board of
Education and a member of the
presenting committee, told his
colleagues at the school board
meeting in Clinton on April 6 that
theirs was the only rural board to
have made a personal submission
since the review process began
earlier this year.
John Elliott, school trustee for
Morris, East Wawanosh and
Blyth, said that this was a measure
of the support his board is lending
been started in southern Huron
andone involving West Wawanosh
and Ashfield parents around Dun
gannon is also being organized at
present. x
There had been interest at one
point in Brussels of starting Block
Continued on page 2.
negotiations shortened
to the appeal, which would see
majorchangesin Bill 100 to greatly
reduce the time limit under which
board-teacher negotiations are
currently conducted.
Mr. Clark said that the OSTC
had been deluged with submis
sions from the province’s large
school boards, but that the smaller
boards had generally been repre
sented by their trustee associa
tions. The Huron board is a
member of the Ontario Public
School Trustees’ Association
(OPSTA), one of five associations
which make up the OSTC.
Mr. Elliott said that the Huron
trustees have been in agreement
with virtually every other board in
the province in support of the
position taken by the OSTC
committee, that a new model for
Bill 100 is required.
UnderthepresentBill, atime
limit on negotiations is seldom
enforced, allowing talks to drag on
Tammi Medd of Blyth Public
School, was chosen in the biologi
cal section with her project on
spiders.
In all, four students will go from
the county to the national level.
Others include Andrew Kennedy
of Seaforth Public School and
Derek McGee of Zurich.
for nearly a year in most cases,
since there is little compulsion to
reach a settlement. The Huron
board recommends that notice to
negotiate annual contracts be
given no later than January 15,
with complete proposals to be
exchanged within 30 days.
Noting that negotiations with
teacher groups take much longer
than most that are conducted
under the Labour Relations Act,
the HBE recommends that pres
sure be brought to bear on the
process by placing a specific
conclusion date on talks between
the two parties, notably September
1. If a tentative agreement is not
reached by that time, the HBE
feels schools should be closed until
an agreement is reached.
Huron trustees also believe that
the fact-finding process in labour
negotiations is counter-produc
tive, and would like to see the
Continued on page 5