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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2004-10-07, Page 4Publisher, Keith Roulston Editor, Bonnie Gropp Advertising, Heather Armstrong & Capucine Onn The Citizen is published 50 times a year in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $30.00/year ($28.04 + $1.96 G.S.T.) in Canada; $80.00/year in U.S.A. and $100/year in other foreign countries. 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. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 PUBLICATIONS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM REGISTRATION NO. 09244 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON NOG 1H0 email: norhuron@scsinternet.com Canadq We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) Toward our mailing costs. The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0, Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 FAX 887-9021 E-mail norhuron@scsinternet.com Website www.northhuron.on.ca ocna +CNA Member of the Ontario Press Council INEZ[6111 We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are C Copyright NESPOLON tak e4; 1/C /1"' 4e; • ;OA = Looking Back Through the Years Oct. 8, 1952 The Sky Harbour, Air Services in Goderich was holding a transport approved training course because the Canadian government was offering $100 to anyone who completed the course. The North Huron Plowman's Association held its 26th annual plowing match and 41 contestants participated. A Grey Twp. man was so badly injured after being severly crushed between a tractor and a plow, that doctors had to amputate his right leg. Area farmers showed the true spirit of neighbourliness when 15 tractors arrived at his farm and in three hours completed his 35 acres of fall plowing. Parkway police in Winchester County tried a new radar camera in clocking speeding cars. The camera took a picture of the speeding vehicle on a 16 mm movie film. Oct. 9, 1969 Dr. C. F. Doorly of Goderich was appointed home physician of Huronview, replacing Dr. J. C. Ross who had recently retired. Chester Archibald, formerly of Brantford, replaced Harvey Johnston, a retired administrator. Formation had started to create a snowmobile club in Brussels. Dave Jones, vice-president of the Ontario Snowmobile Confederation attended a meeting at the Brussels Legion to inform people how to get one started. About 500 visitors showed up for the 42nd annual Huron County Plowing Match held in Goderich. Oct. 11, 1972 The Health of Animals held a free rabies clinic in Brussels and it was very well attended. Rain that came down steadily from early morning until late afternoon forced the cancellation of many of the activities of the Brussels Fall Fair. Some events that were abandoned because of the weather included the parade, races, children's sports, livestock judging, other than cattle which was held insia the building on the fair grounds. Candidates for the riding of Huron in the federal election got a chance to reveal their party's agricultural policies, but few farmers turned out to listen. Less than 100 farmers showed up due to late bean harvest. Elmer D. Bell, 63, a former Seaforth lawyer practising in Exeter, took over as chairman of the Ontario Police Commission succeeding Robert Milligan of Cornmwall. The Small Farms Development program was implemented in Ontario. Oct. 8, 1986 Kevin Wheeler, 20, from Brussels and his I4-year-old pairs partner Michelle Menzes of Preston, captured the silver medal in the senior freestyle pairs competition at the international level at St. Ibels, near London, England. They had been bumped to senior standing by their coach, the world- famous Kerry Leitch, ;n order to have the team noticed by international judges. A 1982 Yamaha motorcycle sustanined damages of $1,400 after a collision with a car at the intersection of Hwy. 12 and Market Street in Brussels. A Londesborough man was in good condition in Clinton Public Hospital after a truck in which he was riding overturned, killing the driver. Sunshine and shadows made a very welcome appearance, just in time for the annual Fall Colour tour through the lovely Wawanosh Conservation Areas. An agreement was reached between the Huron County Board of Education and its clerical secretarial, teacher aide and audio visual technician employees, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees. Both parties ratified the one-year collective agreement for a four per cent increase to all salaries. The average hourly rate under the new agreement was about $9.40. Oct. 12, 1994 Many area students were celebrating the arrival of October and the harvest of fall with tours through the Blythe Brooke Orchard Pumpkin Patch where they were treated to some apples and had the chance to pick their own pumpkin for Halloween. A mysterious legal document complicated a tendering issue at a Blyth council meeting. Councillors had just opened tenders for snow hauling in the village when one of the councillors expressed his reservations about farming out work that village employees could do. The clerk-administrator, however, said that the hauling of snow was never done by village employ- ees. Harvey Sillib of Blyth was the first resident to drive over the newly constructed village bridge on Hwy. 4. Silib who turned 90, said it was just something he has wanted to do since construction began. Oct. 13, 1999 Doris McCall unveiled the plaque renaming the Brussels Dam as the McCall Dam in honour of her late husband, Bruce. It took a jury in Goderich less than two hours to find a Blyth man not guilty of a charge he had stolen more than $50,000 in proceeds from the Nevada ticket sales at the Blyth Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2004. Editorials Opinio n s Is divorce possible? Recently courts in Ontario ruled that same-sex couples have the right to divorce (even before the Supreme Court definitively decides if they have the right to marry). In a time when a growing number of Ontarians have become upset with the marriage of their municipalities in municipal amalgamations, will municipalities be given the same rights to divorce? When 140 people in a township the size of Grey turn out at a meeting to express their frustration with their current municipal structure, as they did last week in Ethel, something is obviously wrong. It certainly wasn't this easy to get people to come out to a meeting when amalgamation was being discussed in the first place. Huron East is perhaps the most obviously artificial of the municipal unions negotiated four years ago. Heeding the province's strong signals that it felt municipalities should have a minimum of 4,000 electors, and unable to join with their neighbours to the north or west, Brussels and Grey joined McKillop, Seaforth and Tuckersmith to the south. Those three municipalities made a natural union with Seaforth as the centre. Brussels and Grey, long-time collaborators, made a natural marriage. But the marriage of the northern group with the southern group created a municipality that stretches 50 km from Molesworth in the north to Hensall in the south. Off in the corner as Grey is, residents were bound to feel isolated and ignored by a Seaforth-centred government. The amalgamation of various communities has also brought a "lowest common denominator" style of government. As Bernie MacLellan, Huron East deputy mayor pointed out in Ethel, if one community offers a program — say ballet— that is going-to cost taxpayers in the other municipality money, then the program has to go. If the residents of the original municipality had felt this was a worthwhile project they -were willing to fund that's too bad: if everybody can't have it, nobody can. Across Huron people in many communities are finally taking an interest in amalgamation and in most cases- they've decided they don't like it and would like to get rid of it. But officials in Queen's Park who pushed for regional governments and amalgamation for 30 years, through governments of all stripes, aren't likely to make it easy for de- amalgamation to happen. It's in the interests of the province to have fewer municipalities to deal with and officials don't really care if that's in the interest of local residents or not. Based as they are in the nation's biggest city, they can't understand why rural residents should have a government that's closer to them than people in the city. So those who want municipal divorces are in for a tough fight and will have to .be determined and tireless. Still, if people of the same sex can eventually win the right to both marry and divorce, perhaps there's hope for those caught in dysfunctional municipal unions too. - KR At least the environment wins On the face of it, an expected provincial government decree this week that all gasoline must contain at least five per cent ethanol blend by 2007 and 10 per cent by 2010 would seem to be a good deal for the province's farmers. Currently the main source of ethanol is the distillation of corn and Ontario has barely entered the ethanol age compared to Europe and the U.S. South of the border the manufacture of ethanol has been the biggest single growth area in the market for corn. A third of gasoline sold in the U.S. contains ethanol. The impact for the environment from the provincial move could -be stunning. A federal government study said if 35 per cent of the gas sold in Canada contained 10 per cent ethanol, the reduction in pollution would be like removing 400,000 cars from the road altogether. A 10-per-cent blend is estimated to reduce carbon monoxide emissions by as much as 30 per cent and cut particulate emissions because fuel burns cleaner. If 1.5 billion litres of ethanol are to be produced to meet Ontario demand, it should increase demand for Ontario corn but in the short-run that's unlikely to happen. Brian Doidge of the Ontario Corn Producers Association told The Globe and Mail that since there aren't enough ethanol distilleries in Ontario to meet the demand, it's likely ethanol will be imported. And since border states are giving incentives for ethanol production, the distilleries may stay there, creating a market for U.S. growers, not Canadian farmers. Oh well, at least the air should be cleaner for our sons and daughters when they have to leave the farm to live in the city. - KR Letter to the editor THE EDITOR, skating registration down and also The Brussels Skating Club is pay for increasing ice time. We holding a Silent Auction in would like to involve the community November at the BMG Community to help our young skaters. Centre. Brussels. - If you would like to donate contact We are always looking for new Jill Sholdice at 887-6836. ways to help keep the costs of Brussels Skating Club.