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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1993-11-10, Page 1itizen Vol 9 No, 45 Wednesday, November 10, 1993 600 CST included To remember Members of Blyth Branch #42 of the Royal Canadian Legion were special guests at the Londesboro United Church this past Sunday in recognition of the upcoming Remembrance Day. Led by piper John Jewitt of Hullett Township, the colour party and legion members paraded to the church after meeting at Hullett school. Information Directory gets party County council streamlines committees See page 6 Remembrance Area residents share personal war time stories See page 12 Sports Trainers meet in Brussels for sports clinic See page 13 Blyth church choir gets behind Frank Mills See page 23 County delays action on request from CAS Huron County council hasn't said yes, but it hasn't said no to a request from the Children's Aid Society (CAS) of Huron County for a $200,000 grant toward the con- struction of the society's new head- quarters building. Councillors Thursday confirmed a motion of the county executive committee to have Clerk-Adminis- trator Lynn Murray investigate the funding proposal with CAS execu- tive Director Tom Knight. Council- lors tabled a motion that would have supported, in principle, the CAS expansion program. The county's executive commit- tee at its Oct. 25 meeting, had host- ed a delegation from the CAS that included Mr. Knight as well as Graham McEwan, treasurer of the CAS board of directors and Joan Van Den Broeck, director of the fundraising campaign. The society is currently in the middle of a fundraising campaign to cover a shortfall in funding for a new head- quarters under construction in Goderich's industrial park. Wingham Reeve Bruce Machan made the motion requesting sup- port in principle for the project, saying that some funding agencies were hesitant to lend their support when the county council had not been more supportive. But others were not so charitable. Exeter Reeve Bill Mickle pointed out that the county must pay 20 per cent of the operating budget of the CAS but was not consulted at all before the society embarked on its building project. "If there is a major need for funding they should seek our co-operation before they go ahead. I sometimes wonder if we're getting dragged into this by our nose." John Doherty, reeve of Goderich explained that when the project had begun, the CAS felt the $1.2 mil- lion grant from the provincial gov- ernment would cover all costs, but unexpected expenses had driven the project over budget, bringing the need for fundraising. Blyth Festival appoints interim manager The Blyth Festival has appointed Napier Simpson, a Huron County business consultant to the interim position of business manager. Mr. Simpson, a graduate of the University of Western Ontario's MBA program, has lived in Huron County for six years. A former Director of the Blyth Centre for the Arts Board, Mr. Simpson says, "The Festival has grown considerably over the last few years and we are currently re-organizing to address that growth." His interim appointment comes on the heels of the announcement that Janet Amos will be returning as artistic director. The 1994 season, the 20th for the Blyth Festival promises, in the words of Ms Amos, to be ". . . a season of plays which will celebrate Blyth's past and at the same time create new directions for the Festival." • Bill Clifford, deputy-reeve of Goderich said the motion of sup- port in principle would be wrong. It might give the impression that the county could give its financial sup- Continued on page 6 The Huron Community Service Network is holding a special "Coming Out" .event to celebrate the publication of their first Huron Information Directory. On Wednesday, Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. the printer, Don Stephen from Exeter,will deliver the newly printed directories to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food Office, 100 Don Street, Clinton where a reception will be held to celebrate the event. Directories will be on sale (only $22 each) and persons who have already ordered the book may pick it up on this day. The public is welcome to attend along with service providers and all members of the Huron Community Service Network. Members of the information committee will be on hand to answer questions. Funding for this project came from OMAF, but the directory was put together by the Network's Information Committee. "This direCtory is an example of true collaboration between many organizations to make something good happen," says Karen Lehnen, chairperson of the Network. "Our information committee is made up of representatives from the Library, Children's Aid, Centralia College, Board of Education, Community Information Services, Planning and Development, Women Today, Canadian Mental Health Association, the local MPP's constituency office and Survival Through Friendship House. These people have worked incredibly hard to produce a very useful directory for the people of Huron County." Right from the beginning of the Huron and Perth county officials will meet Nov. 18 to begin the first discussions to see if a joint district health council can be formed but already some potential problems are rearing their heads. Officials of the Perth County District Health Council steering committee have been invited to attend the Huron executive com- mittee meeting next week but Exeter Reeve Bill Mickle already is worrying that Huron might find itself under represented on a joint District Health Council (DHC). The Huron County DHC steering committee has only recently recom- project, the Network insisted on an electronic format which would allow for easy updating of information in the database. "This directory will allow anyone to access up-to-date information and listings of organizations, professional persons, institutions or businesses," says Bev Brown, chairperson of the Information Committee. "Many hours of work mended that Huron set up a council and advertisements have been placed in county newspapers call- ing for nominations for council members. The Ministry of Health, however, prefers DHCs have a pop- ulation base of at least 100,000, meaning the two counties would have to join together to reach that requirement. But Reeve Mickle worried that if the 20-member council were divid- ed on the basis of population, Perth would have about 11 members to Huron's nine. Huron should not be involved if it doesn't have equal representation, he said. will be eliminated for people who own a copy of this directory." Jane Muegge, Rural Organization Specialist with OMAF, reports: "We already have orders for 50 directories and more orders are coming in every day. The Network is hoping that everyone will come and pick up their directories at OMAF on Nov. 17 and 18 which would save us the shipping costs." He also questioned the break- down of membership of the DHC which would see 40 per cent of the representatives be consumers, 40 per cent be medical providers and only 20 per cent be from municipal councils. "I think we should seri- ously consider one-third, one-third, one-third," he said. With tax money being involved there should be more accountability to the elec- torate, he said. "There is a concern even in existing DHC's that munici- palities should have more say." DHCs are not elected but are appointed by the Ministry of Health. Counties to discuss joint DHC