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.