Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1987-08-12, Page 3THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1987. PAGE 3. Several Blyth residents were on hand to meet Premier David Peterson when he attended the annual barbecue of Jack Riddell at Dashwood last Wednesday. Here the Premier jokes with Bev Elliott while Mr. Riddell and Robbie and Carole Lawrie enjoy the joke. — photo by Zurich Advance. Fulton promises review Blyth forms committee to seek investment After about 20 people turned out to a special meeting of Bly th village council Wednesday to discuss the Opportunity Tour of Huron county in the fall of 1988, a committee of six people was set up to promote the village. Al Donaldson, Allan Thompson, Diane Wasson, Elaine Scrim- geour, as well as Councillors Bev Elliott and Bill Manning were appointed a committee to co-ordi­ nate the gathering of information on the village and spotlight business opportunities for the overseas visitors. Gary Davidson of the Huron County Planning and Develop­ ment Department explained to those present, most from the business community, that the Opportunity Tour is sponsored by the province with the county and local municipalities also involved. The tour which will come to Huron as well as Middlesex, Perth, Bruce and Grey will have 25-30 business people most likely from other English speaking countries such as Great Britain and the U.S. The visiting business people pay their own transportation costs to get to Ontario. The province pays the transportation to come to each county and the county is respons­ ible for the costs while the visitors are here. The group will likely spend two days in each county and the cost to Huron county could run from $3,500 to $8,000. The responsibility of each muni­ cipality taking part (all five towns plus Hensail, the Brussels, Morris and Grey Industrial Committee and Blyth have so far expressed interest) is to assemble the inform­ ation needed to make the visitors aware of the potential of their community. “These programs only work if Results of music exams at Blyth announced Results from the Royal Conser­ vatory of Music’s theory examina­ tions held in Blyth in May have been released. Katherine J. Procter passed grade three theory. Lori D. Millian had first class honours in grade three history. In grade two rudi­ ments, Anita Gross, Brent Weber, Angela Maria Van Den Elzen and Lisa Watson all recorded first class there is a lot of interest and a lot of hard volunteer work at the local level’’ Mr. Davidson told those present. He said that while the initial interest of the first such tours sponsored in eastern Ontario was toward manufacturing, now retail and tourism are also aimed at. Most of the people coming are small businessmen with an aver­ age of about $250,000 to invest, the kind of people who would provide employment for 10 people or less. Small businessmen like these, he pointed out, take advantage of such tours because they’re interes­ ted in relocating or expanding but don’t have the research resources large corporations have to explore overseas possibilities. Asked about the need for incen­ tives to attract such people he said most aren’t looking for handouts but will be happy to take them. There are limitations to what municipalities in Ontario can offer because, unlike some places in the U.S., the province doesn’t allow municipalities to give tax breaks to attract industry. Some municipali­ ties offer serviced land at cost and some municipalities have been able to acquire a large building and split it into small units as a place for new small industries to start. Mason Bailey, local developer, arged that what Huron County really needs is a large employer which will provide employment and in doing so will generate other smaller businesses. Mr. Davidson said Huron county’s location made it unlikely it would attract a Toyota or GM-Suzuki plant here. Doug Scrimgeour, local businessman, pointed out that large manufactur­ ing plants may be a thing of the past. He remarked on a recent story where a whole plant is run by honours. In grade one rudiments, Keith Fulker, Christa Keller, and Alison Rose Jongejan all had first class honours while Jennifer Procter had honours. In preliminary rudiments first class honours went to Jason Douglas Erb, Penny Ann Janet Clutton, Cherilyn Bylsma and Jill Wheatley. one man with his computer. Magna International, he said, builds plants that only use 100 employ­ ees. Don Scrimgeour, local super- marketowner, questioned what kind of business the village council was after, if it had a plan for the future of the village. He pointed out in a recent advertisement in The Citizen the village council welcomed people to visit the craft and antiques shops but didn’t mention the other businesses. Reeve Albert Wasson said council hasn’t spent a long time dwelling on what direction the town should be going in. “Council is hoping to stand behind anything that ap­ pears to us to be good for the community, any kind of develop- mentor industry or tourism that bringspeopleintothe commun­ ity.” See... 3LYTH for all your Back-to-School Supplies BLYTH Queen St., Blyth •Pencils *File Folders *Pens & Markers *Compass Sets *Crayons •Erasers *Paper "Calligraphy Sets •Binders •Calculators •Paper Clips *Pencil Cases •Coloured Pencils Chet Tfe/me, Sttyi- 7(k ue, (fat Tfan&fy Continued from page 1 of the highway he said that there is substantial cracking, much of it caused because the asphalt is paved over the original 1936 concrete paving. The highway is narrower than one would expect on this class of road and results in substantial drop-off conditions due to truck tires running beyond the edge of the pavement. There is poordrainageinmanyareas, he said, which likely has contributed to the pavement deterioration. The road has a reputation as being unreliable in winter with considerable drifting and whiteout conditions leading to it being frequently closed. Mr. Merrall stressed the impor­ tance of the road as the major north-south route from London to Owen Sound and the dependency of the local area on the road for access to the hospital in Wingham as well as to jobs, schools and shopping. Despite comments from Mr. Browning about the high costs of building up the road Mr. Merrall cited costs of similar road work carried out by the county to show it was not a big problem. In 1986 the county reconstructed County Road 13 south of Holmesville for 6.62 kilometres ata cost of $730,414.33, or $110,330 per kilometre, he said. While the costs of MTC rebuilding Mr. Davidson said that hope­ fully the committee would not just get together the information re- quiredfor the Opportunity Tour but would promote the village in other ways. “Often the best way to encourage development is to con­ vince the people of the community itself that it’s a good place to live, ’ ’ he said. He cited the example of Sudbury which was trying to promote growth but whenever visitors to Sudbury talked to local people they heard only what a bad place it was to live. The promotion people thensetaboutcreating a positive impression of the com­ munity to the people of the community themselves. Reeve Wasson said that council is “here to govern what is already in place ’’and that its hands are tied as to the extent it can promote the Continued on page 28 the road would likely be higher he said, the total cost of improve­ ments will be outweighed by the economic benefits to the area. Mr. Riddell said his invitation to Mr. Fulton to come and look at the road had come from a long conversation with Reeve Wasson carried out during opening night celebrations at the Blyth Festival in June. The meeting had been delayed because of a recent illness of Mr. Fulton. He said he was glad to have had a chance to see the road first hand with Mr. Fulton saying he’d travelled the road many times but unless someone had pointed out the deficiencies you often don’t notice. Some work definitely need­ ed to be done, he said, but it has to be done when the funding is available. He said Mr. Fulton’s department has been very good to Huron county putting a lot of money into county roads including $500,000 in supplemental funding this year. Joking about the election cam­ paign currently under way in which he’ll be trying to attract support from voters in the northern part of the county for the first time after riding boundaries changed, Mr. Riddell said that he had enjoyed the challenges of the last 14 years and look forward to the challenges ahead, of which Highway 4 was one. He said he’d work with Mr. Fultontotry togetthe improve­ ments carried out, if he still has a job after the election, and if Mr. Fulton still wants the job. People BY KATHY BROMLEY Numerous children have com­ pleted their swimming lessons that have been held in Vanastra for the past two weeks. A special thanks to the Lions for providing bus trans­ portation. Stewart and Mildred Ament, Blyth, and Joe and Helen Hoggart of Mitchell spent a few days holidaying in Burlington. QUOTE OF THE WEEK: The secret of happy living is not to do what you like, biit rather, to like what you do. STORE HOURS: Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri., and Sat., 1 p.m. to6p.m. Wed. & Sun. Closed 523-4910