HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2018-6-28, Page 1INSIDE
THIS WEEK:
RENOVATION - Pg. 9
Huron Christian School
breaks ground on project
4-H - Pg. 14
Marvel -us Mini -Gardeners
finish their 4-H project
FESTIVAL. - Pg. 19
'New Canadian Curling
Club' premieres in Blyth
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Volume 34 No. 26
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Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, June 28, 2018
On the run
Hullett Central Public School was the place to be last week
if you're into track and field and, thankfully, most of the
school's students were. The school hosted its annual
competition on a beautiful day outdoors, which lent itself to
foot races, long jump and ball throw. Funny enough, many
of the images from the races may be replicated later this week
when the students celebrate the last day of school and race out of
the building with only summer vacation ahead of them. From left:
Cole Mason, Bo Wharton, Pat Mahon, Jason Rozell and Sam
Rodgers. (Denny Scott photo)
Committee to `go for the gold' with BMG
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
The Brussels, Morris and Grey
Community Centre Renovation
Committee met for the first time
Monday night and they have some
grand ideas for the community hub.
The members of the committee
feel they have a handle on how they
want to proceed and will be
approaching local architect Chris
Blake in the hopes of obtaining new
plans for the renovation and
expansion of the centre.
New plans would include six
additional dressing rooms, in
addition to retaining the four current
dressing rooms. The plans would
expand the centre on both the south
and east sides, creating a new
entrance to the southeast corner of
the centre that would completely
reconfigure the centre. The entrance
would now come in diagonally from
the southeast corner to a large lobby
and players could walk to the left to
access the new dressing rooms,
while parents and fans could travel
to the right towards the rest of the
arena.
Members emphasized the
importance of having one main
entrance to funnel everyone through.
However, alleviating traffic and
congestion in the lobby so both
players and parents can get where
they need to go is also crucial to the
success of the new arena.
The new configuration would also
utilize the parking lot to the south
side of the arena, which has been
underutilized in recent years.
There has also been discussion
about the creation of a new warm,
enclosed viewing area on the west
side of the arena.
The committee, which is
comprised of Huron East Councillor
Alvin McLellan, Recreation Board
Committee member Melissa Jacklin
and citizens Joe Seili, Brett Fischer,
Josh Beuermann, Jamie Nicholson,
Doug McArter, John van Vliet and
Steve Fritz, met at the community
centre on Monday night with Fritz
absent. Members reviewed plans and
began working with a proposal that
would add significant space in terms
of storage and dressing rooms to the
location.
While McArter had originally
discussed offering up three potential
renovation concepts — perhaps a
gold, silver and bronze, depending
on the cost — committee members
decided to "go for the gold" and said
they had confidence in the Brussels
community and its willingness to
rally behind its community centre
and a renovation and expansion plan
that would bring it into the future.
Fischer said the committee
couldn't think about simply patching
up some of the known issues at the
centre. He said that if the Brussels,
Morris and Grey Community Centre
wanted to be a player and compete
for events and tournaments with
other area centres, it couldn't simply
catch up with area arenas, it would
have to best them.
With the last community centre
renovation now 40 years ago,
Fischer said that the committee
needs to be looking at constructing a
building that's going to serve the
community well for the next 40
years.
The rest of the committee agreed,
saying that if the plans were to spend
between $1 million and $1.5 million,
the project should be done right.
Plans for the centre, created three
years ago, to expand the east and
south sides and add six dressing
rooms and an expanded lobby,
totalled nearly $1.5 million If the
committee was to "go for the gold"
costs may increase from even those
estimates.
However, committee members
decided that it was best to present
one plan they could all get behind to
the public. If the public rejects that
plan, then they would go back to the
drawing board. However, presenting
two or three plans could fracture
public opinion and members felt it
was important to put their best foot
forward.
Jacklin, however, said that the
better the community centre, the
better the chance that Brussels could
again begin to attract those groups
Continued on page 15
N. Huron
accepts
proposal
for OPP
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
While North Huron Council has
oficially decided to go with the
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) to
provide service in Wingham, it's
still possible it won't happen, which
is making planning difficult for the
municipality's police services board.
Council, at its June 18 council
meeting, formally accepted the
proposal from the OPP by bylaw.
Aside from that, council also asked
the board to prepare exit costs for
the existing Wingham Police
Service.
During the board's June 19
meeting, Chair Trevor Seip said
there are many steps ahead of the
board and the municipality, one of
which could derail the entire process
according to Wingham Police Chief
Tim Poole.
Poole pointed out that North
Huron had yet to contact the Ontario
Civilian Police Commission, which
ultimately needs to rule on whether
the municipality can change
services. He cited a recent example
of another community going
through a similar process, saying it
took months.
Aside from the potentially lengthy
timeline, Poole pointed out that
North Huron may still end up with
the Wingham Police Service in
Wingham if the commission decided
that was necessary. He reminded the
association that, shortly after
amalgamation, North Huron went
through this process once before
only to have the committee decide
that Wingham should stay with its
own police service.
Due to the unknown nature of the
future of policing in Wingham, the
board was faced with some difficult
decisions to make regarding hiring
new police officers to meet its
memorandum of understanding with
the Wingham Police Association.
HIRING PROCESS
Poole was midway through
interviews to hire three new officers
to attend police college in
September when the board held its
meeting last week.
He explained he had several
interviews left, and that the status of
the department going forward has
been a topic of interest during the
interviews.
While Poole did, later in the
meeting, say it was difficult to hire
under the condition that department
may not exist in the near future, he
Continued on page 20