Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2000-10-11, Page 1Serving the communities ot Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Volume 16 No. 40 Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2000 75 Cents (70c + 5c gst) Inside this week Brussels people get jail time for fundraiser Local CHSS, SDHS grads, among award recipients Blyth boys on ice with Ironmen Donations pour in for gala auction Dn 10 Dufflebag brings rg. I? peter Pan’ to Blyth Blyth plans parade for Santa By Janice Becker Citizen staff Santa Claus will be coming to town and for the first time in many years they’re going to be throwing a parade in his honour. Blyth councillors were very receptive to the idea of a village Santa Claus parade after hearing a presentation by co-organizer Phil Black at the Oct. 3 session. Black, Candice Howson, Bev Blair and Fran Cook have volunteered to organize the long- absent event, hoping to co-ordinate it with many other holiday activities in Blyth. A dinner and show at the theatre are planned for that evening and the parade committee has booked an hour and a half of ice time for a free family skate following the parade. Set for Dec. I at 7 p.m., Black said there are already seven floats booked as well as bands. In an effort to promote the parade, encourage involvement and possibly hire the Shriners to participate, Black asked council for financial support for the endeavour. Council appointed the four residents as an ad hoc committee ot council and contributed $800 towards the parade. Black also told council of a plan to install a speaker system along the main street so that music could be piped in during events such as the Santa Claus parade, Threshers Reunion or theatre nights. It was hoped sufficient money could be raised through donations from businesses to purchase the system. Council agreed to allow wiring for the speakers to be installed at the time village workers decorate for Christmas. New regulations could cost county New provincial water regulations, adopted in the aftermath of the Walkerton E.coli water tragedy, could increase the cost of operating small rural communal water systems beyond the breaking point, according to some Huron County councillors. Under new rules, all water systems down to those serving just five households, will have to undertake the same testing procedures as a large urban municipal water system. Howick Reeve Norm Fairies said under the old system small systems had to have a test done for pesticide residues every couple of years at a cost of $600 per test but the new regulations require that test to be done four times a year. That's a cost of $2,400 to be shared among the users of the well, he said. In one case that cost would have to be borne by just 30 customers, he said. Reeve Laurie Cox of Goderich Twp. said there are other problems with the requirement that there be a certified operator for communal wells. In one case there are eight customers on a system and the new costs of testing and supervision will work out to an estimated $3,000 per customer, per year. The province is totally inflexible, Cox said. “The regulations are there. There are no exceptions.” Cox worried that the higher costs would lead to more people drilling their own wells because wells serving only one property don’t need to meet the regulations. But more wells could cause more problems for the environment. “We don’t want a hole punched every 250 or 100 feet ■ into the aquifer. We don’t want a whole lot more points for contaminants to get into our aquifers,” he said. Gary Davidson, director of planning and development, said his department is recommending that municipalities take care with any new communal water systems being proposed. “Make sure the system is put in at the standard,” he said. That standard now also" includes a chlorination system which will add to the cost for small systems. Many developers of small rural enclaves are ready to turn over their water systems to the municipality, Davidson said, but municipalities may not want them because of the cost of bringing them up to the new standards and operating the new testing procedures. What’s more, it appears the government regulations will apply to increasingly smaller communal systems, from five to four, then three and finally, two households per well. Because of that the municipality may want to take over ownership now, he said. But Jack Coleman, reeve of Stanley Twp., noted this too could be a problem because many of the wellsx are located on private property, with one owner supplying his or her neighbours with water for a small charge. “It’s a problematic situation,” Davidson agreed. “In many places there aren’t any easements and they don’t even know where the (water) lines are.” • In places where an individual is supplying his neighbours, “I can see a lot otpeople walking away from it (agreements with neighbours),” he said, pointing to the cost of chlorination and testing. That could mean rural councils will be filled with people seeking solutions to their water problems. Mason Bailey, reeve of Blyth, worried about the effect on development in the county. The combination of water and development, he said, “is probably Taking it seriously It’s been time for emergency preparedness at local schools lately with Huron OP? and the Avon Maitland District School Board teaching bus students what to do in the event oi specific situations. While transportation manager Dennis Harris shows these Brussels Public School children (from left: Chris Ulman, Justine King and Tyler Jutzi) how to get out quickly, Sr. Const. Don Shropshall was telling others what to do should a problem arise inside the bus, for example if the driver became ill. one of the most serious issues we’re up against. It’s important to make (the province) know we can’t live with (the tighter regulations). We’re going to die.” County council must stand up for the interests of people, he said. Fairies also felt the county should take its complaints to the Ministry of Environment (MOE). Warden Carol Mitchell said appealing to the MOE probably wouldn’t do a lot of good. “I think this is coming from the premier’s desk,” she said. She agreed with others in saying “driving people to put in wells is not the direction we want to go. We have to find the balance between safe water and economic development.” She suggested that every committee of council examine the problem later this month and bring the issue back to council next month.