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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1992-07-15, Page 4YAU83VI03W J^SITIO 3HT PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 15,1992. What is going on? What is going on in (and out of) Blyth Village Council these days? First there’s the case of the tenders that were or weren't called by council at their June 10 meeting for repairs on one or two streets. No motion appears in the minutes of the meeting to call for tenders, only a motion to accept a grant from the Ministry of Transportation for the Morris St. portion of the tenders. Notes from The Citizen's reporter at the meeting show no discussion of the calling of tenders. Then there's the matter of what was in the tender call. Bids for work on Morris St. and Drummond St. were included in the tenders. When Councillor John Elliott asked about the Drummond St. work being included in the tenders when he couldn't even remember any discussion about the street improvements at all, no other member of council or the administration said he was wrong. They said instead that discussion had taken place in the previous council, before Mr. Elliott came on council. The Citizen's reporter's notes confirm there was no discussion at the time about Drummond St. At the July 6 meeting, after Councillor Elliott's discussion about the lack of information about the tenders being called or the work included in the tender call, a motion was made to accept the tender of Lavis Construction of Clinton. No mention was made by the mover of the motion, Councillor Steven Sparling, or the seconder, Councillor Shirley Fyfe, that the work on Drummond St. was not included but the motion as now recorded, reads "the tendered contract for Morris Street" be accepted "in its entirety". What's being accepted, the entire contract which included the Drummond St. work that was never discussed by council, or just the Morris St. portion of the work? Rumour has it there have been a number of special meetings, closed to the public at which no minutes were taken, to decide just what was in the original motion which wasn't written down by the councillors who made it. Are the decisions being made by informed councillors or by staff and consultants? Might taxpayers be saved the expense of regular council meetings since the decisions seem to be made in private anyway? Is it time for Blyth council to join the rest of the world using written motions and reading the final motion out loud so everybody knows what the motion is when they vote on it and there isn't any possibility what they thought they were voting on can turn up as something else in the minutes of the meeting? Taxpayers deserve the answers to these and many questions in what seems to be an increasingly expensive village administration that seems to do less and less for the money.-KR Now is not the time! Even those optimists who were searching hard to find signs the country is on the way out of the recession have been starting to get scared lately as unemployment continues to climb. Given the circumstances, then it's hard to swallow policies of both the federal and provincial governments that seem certain to put more people on the unemployment line. The federal government has been signalling that the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is just days or weeks away, news that is hardly designed to restore business confidence in the land. Even supporters of the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement must admit that so far we've got most of the pain and haven't reaped much of the gain we were promised. NAFTA seems likely to bring more hardship before it brings the good part (if any). Even many people who supported Free Trade with the U.S. are afraid of what they might see with Mexico brought into the puzzle. The free-market dogma of the federal Conservatives, however, send them crashing ahead into unknown territory...and dragging the rest of us reluctantly behind them. Meanwhile dogma of the left is on view in Ontario where, despite furious business resistcnce, the provincial NDP government keeps forging ahead with its pro-labour changes to the Ontario Labour Relations Act. Last week a study conducted by the firm of Ernst & Young, predicted a loss of 295,000 jobs if the legislation goes through as worried companies decide not to locate in Ontario, not to expand in Ontario or to close down and move out. That number is scarily similar to the number of jobs that were attributed to critics as being the cost of the Free Trade Act. Get real folks. Dogma doesn't matter. People's lives do.—KR Photo by Merle Gunby Looking Back Through the Years ONE YEAR AGO July 17,1991 Grey Township Council passed a resolution requesting the County of Huron to replace the yield signs in Walton along County Road 25 at the intersections of County Road 12 South (Seaforth) and County Road 12 North (Brussels) with stop signs. Leona Cunningham of RR 1, Auburn, Anita Gross of RR 1, Auburn, Theresa Knox of RR 1, Blyth, Cathy McDonald of Blyth, Kim Medd of Blyth, Jennifer Roul- ston of RR 3, Blyth, and Jane Whit­ more of Blyth were among the 18 Ontario Scholar graduates from Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton. The Brussels Mosquitoes soccer team won the "B" championship at a tournament in Kincardine. THREE YEARS AGO July 12,1989 Eight-year-old Phillip Hiuser of Ethel won first place in the 12 and under male class at the 15th Annual Canadian Open Country Singing Contest in Simcoe. He won a tro­ phy and $300 for winning the con­ test. Blyth firemen battled a field fire as it swept through a dry hay field owned by Gerald Jefferson of RR 2, Auburn. About 17 freshly baled round bales were destroyed. Blyth Centre for the Arts received two grants from the Min­ istry of culture and Communica­ tions; $5,000 to assist in the purchase of computer hardware, and $15,000 to hire a person in the arts Management Training Pro­ gram. FIVE YEARS AGO July 15,1987 An accident at J. L. McCutcheon Motors Ltd. sent Harri Holthuysen of Walton to University Hospital in London, after a truck tire he was inflating blew up in his face. Mr. Holthuysen was knocked uncon­ scious and suffered internal bruis­ ing to his chest as a result of the impact of the compressed air. Cheri Taylor and Kelly Bosman of Londesboro placed first in their piano duet category at the Canadian Music League Festival in Kitchen­ er. The pair won the adjudicator's award with a mark of 92. Gordon J. Workman was named as the new reeve of Brussels fol­ lowing the resignation of former Reeve Hank TenPas. CitizenTheNorthHuron P.O. Box 429,P.O. Box 152, BLYTH, Ont.BRUSSELS, Ont.Publisher, Keith Roulston N0M1H0 NOG 1 HO Editor, Bonnie Gropp Phone 523-4792 Phone 887-9114 Sales Representatives, FAX 523-9140 FAX 887-9021 Jeannette McNeil and Merle Gunby The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $20.50/year ($19.16 plus $1.34 G.S.T.) for local; $31.03/year ($29.00 plus $2.03 G.S.T.) for local letter carrier in Goderich, Hanover, Listowel, etc. and out-of-area (40 miles from Brussels); $60.00/year for U.S.A, and Foreign. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. 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