HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1993-06-23, Page 1See page 6 See page 12
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Vol. 9 No. 25
Wednesday, June 23, 1993
600 GST included
Even at the best of times it's not easy to catch a greased
pig, but with the constant drizzle on Saturday it was even
harder as this exuberant group of youngsters soon found
out. The event was part of the Belgrave Kinsmen's
fundraising "Piggy Day". Proceeds from the event are
going towards the arena debt. Close to $12,000 was raised
in all.
CBC host to speak at theatre opening
Environment
Blyth students
clean up
Blyth Brook
See page 3
Business
Designing couple
takes their talent
to St. Augustine
News
Nostalgic memories
mark Farm Radio
Forum Reunion
Monique Lund
sparkles as
Stratford's Gypsy
See page 31
HCBE meets to
quell rumours
A guest host on CBC's Morning-
side and a director of broadcast
journalism at the Ryerson Polytech-
nical Institute Stuart McLean will
be the featured guest speaker at the
dinner prior to the opening of Blyth
Festival's Ceili House on Friday,
June 25.
A native of Montreal, Mr.
McLean is an ACTRA Award win-
ner for best documentary. He has
also won the B'nai Brith Human
Rights award for a report on hunger
in Canada and was nominated for
the Gordon Sinclair Award for
Excellence in Broadcast Journal-
ism.
After graduating from Sir George
Williams University in 1971 Mr.
McLean worked for a few years as
director of student affairs at Mon-
treal's Dawson College then began
freelance writing for local CBC
radio and TV. In 1976 he became
associate producer of Morningside
and in 1981 was named executive
producer at Sunday Morning, CBC
radio's flagship current affairs pro-
gramme. By the time of his depar-
ture, Sunday Morning was being
carried in over 35 prime US mar-
kets.
Mr. McLean was co-writer, along
with Kevin Sullivan of the feature-
length movie, Looking for
Miracles. He also contributed to the
"The New Morningside Papers",
published in 1987.
His own book, "The Morningside
It took Many Hands to do it, but
the two weeks of performances for
the Blyth and District Community
The board of directors of Huron
United Way recently announced the
appointment of its first executive
director.
Connie Argyle, of Clinton, is
enthusiastic about the appointment
and looks forward to the fall cam-
paign, she says.
Now two years old, the Huron
United Way raised $60,000 in its
1992 campaign, which was dis-
tributed among 18 agencies. That
was an increase of about $25,000
over the previous year, according to
Bill Thompson, chairman of the
HUW board of directors.
People donating have the option
World of Stuart McLean" was pub-
lished in 1989 and his next book
"Welcome Home" was published in
October 1992.
Mr. McLean is also the host of
Play, which ended Saturday night,
not only met budget, but overshot
the projected attendance by 10 per-
of designating where their money
goes, even if the agencies are not
members of United Way, Mr.
Thompson says.
Argyle's position was created
because, although United Way is
run mainly be volunteers, the local
branch is growing, Mr. Thompson
explains.
"We needed somebody full-time
to deal with-the operations of the
office," he says.
Argyle, who describes herself as
a real "people person" will con-
tribute much enthusiasm to the
agency.
To avoid the problem of rumours
regarding the social contract talks
which are now taking place with
the provincial government the
TV Ontario's Science Edition.
Also attending the opening is the
new Executive Director from the
Ontario Arts Council, Gwen Setter-
field.
cent for the final four shows.
Blyth Festival Director of Mar-
keting/Communications David Pea-
cock says the intention had been to
shoot for an 80 percent full house
for each night of the play's run.
Opening night began well, he says,
but the traditional with community
plays is that the attendance slows
down somewhat in the middle of
the run. However, press coverage
was phenomenal, he says, with the
play being heralded across the
country as an unbelievable theatre
experience. "By the last four nights
we had to add 50 seats to each per-
formance to accommodate the
demand," Mr. Peacock said.
Even Mother Nature co-operated
with this past Saturday being the
only night the parade couldn't be
held from Memorial Hall.
"In terms of the beginning of the
Continued on page 31
Huron County Board of Education
held a special meeting on June 21.
In an interview following the
meeting, Mr. Paul Carroll, director
of education said the board is in an
"extremely serious " financial situ-
ation, possibly the "greatest in the
history" of the board.
The information meeting was'
called to discuss the situation that
faces the board.
Mr. Carroll said the board would
have a deficit of $1.5 to $2 million
to continue providing 'the services
they do at present. This includes a
carry over from 1992 as they must
honour the collective agreements
that are now in effect.
With the implementation of the
latest budget, costs have increased
with respect to sales tax, insurance
and benefits to employees. The
grants offered to the board will also
decrease.
The second piece of information
discussed was the legislation that is
now in the draft stage, the social
contract deal.
The proposal was presented by
three employees of the board, giv-
ing their interpretation and what the
options would be for each of the
groups involved.
The effects of the three year
wage freeze and the mandatory 12
days off with no pay was discussed.
In addition to the initial shortfall
mentioned there could be a finan-
cial "claw back", said Mr. Carroll
that would increase the deficit by
$2.48 million. However, there were
incentive programs introduced that
could reduce this figure to $.5 mil-
lion.
Another incentive program avail-
able to the employees is the intro-
duction of a job protection fund.
After the information was pre-
sented the crowd of over 400 peo-
ple questioned the panel. Mr.
Carroll said he was very pleased
with the reaction he saw. The peo-
ple were "rational and sensitive"
with regards to the issues. The
crowd was "very interested" in the
information.
Mr. Carroll commended the
employees and trustees alike for
their professional approach to the
problem. It is hoped that through
discussion, the groups involved can
find a way "to come through this
crisis and protect the quality of
education as well as the ability of
the teachers to interact with the stu-
dents."
We're
having
a holiday
July 1 comes on a Thursday
this year so the staff at The Cit-
izen will be taking the day off.
Business will resume as
usual, on the Friday. Deadlines
for both offices will remain
unchanged.
United Way names director
`Many Hands' a good start