Loading...
The Lucknow Sentinel, 2016-03-16, Page 3Wednesday, March 16, 2016 • Lucknow Sentinel 3 It's all or nothing for Hamish Black as he competes to be an Olympian CONTINUED FROM > PAGE 1 They didn't know where to put him on the pathway and was first denied entrance. "Then the coaches and everyone who was involved said, `Well, this makes no sense because you have to take into account he's skated five months;" Black recalls. Five months after starting on the pathway and less than a year and a half training full time to be a competitive skater, Black competited in his first event on October 2015 against some of the best skaters in Canada. "It was very, very exciting and, again, surreal is ... the best way to describe it," he said. He finished seventh in the 5,000m with a time of 6.46,78 in the World Cup Trials, los- ing the last World Cup skat- ing position by a 10th of a second. "So if I had been a 10th of a second faster I would have skated the World Cup. So for my first one, it doesn't get much closer than that," he said. Since then Black has skated in three Canada Cups and represented Canada as an alternate skater at the 2015 World Cup in Novem- ber of last year, though he did not compete. However, it was an hon- our, he said, to don the red and white. "It hit me the first time I got to put on the Canadian suit and we were doing war- mup on the ice and I was just skating with the Canadian team, and I kind of realized how far I've come. Put a lot into perspective as to, well, you never know where you're going to end up, so, as far as that moment and enjoying that part of the journey was pretty phenomenal." Most recently, Black fin- ished first in the 5,000m at February's Canada Cup #3, beating out the second place skater by 36 seconds. He now has one last event of the 201546 season in Feb. 18-19 where he will be com- peting in the 1,5000m, 5,000m and 10,000m. However, Black said it hasn't been easy. He has no guarantee that he will earn a spot on the Olympic squad. And all the training and all that he has left behind and all the family events he has missed do take a toll. "It's true," he said. "At times you kind of have to remind yourself what the end goal is. Cause there is a lot of things you have to sacrifice. It's not easy to go from a career to working at a front desk when you have experience in edu- cation ... And things like wed- dings, you miss a lot of wed- dings, you miss a lot of events. You don't get to be a part of a lot of things you enjoy' Bill Christ Lucknow native Hamish Black came to long -track speed skating much later than most but he's giving it all he's got to make the 2018 Canadian Olympic Team. However, he is the first to admit he is living a dream dreamt by most every Cana- dian at some point in their lives and he doesn't want to take it for granted. He is grateful to his home- town, he said, for the support they have shown him, and for inspiration he thinks on the mural of Canadian hockey legend Paul Henderson in the middle of town. "He's a hero for the town and it's kind of, you know, that thing is very important because you kind of see someone who has been suc- cessful and that it can happen. I definitely think of my home as Lucknow ... You do a lot of visual;7ation and you think of if I make it to the World Cup and they say your name and it comes across the screen and the hometown will say Luc - know, Ontario." To watch Black compete Feb. 18-19, visit the Olympic Oval YouTube site: https:// www.youtube.com/user/ theolympicoval Huron -Kinloss paid Council $155,000 for 2015 Darryl Coote Reporter The Township of Huron - Kinloss paid a total $155,307.02 to its council members for 2015, an increase of $17,92.74 from the year before. Of that amount $134,940.09 was paid to the five councilors, the Deputy Mayor Wilfred Gamble and Mayor Mitch Twolan in sal- ary and per diems. Each council is paid a sal- ary of $6,508.21, while the deputy mayor makes $8,514.91 and the mayor earns $12,995.62, Treasurer Jodi MacArthur told The Sentinel over the phone. The rest of their earnings comes from a per diem of $162.32 paid for each coun- cil meeting they attend. For 2015, the amount remunerated are as followed: Mayor Twolan, $27,859.10; Deputy Mayor Gamble, $25,140.59; Coun- cillor Lillian Abbot, $16,572.05; Councillor Don Murray, $15,760.45; Council- lor Jeff Elliott, $15,598.13; Councillor Carl Sloetjes, 15, 257.59; and Councillor James Hanna, $14,137.25. Expenses -- which is money paid to cover milage for when councilors have to travel for meetings -- amount to $20,366.93 with Mayor Twolan accounting for the lion's share with $11,663.03. In 2014, Mayor Twolan's expenses amount to $5,648.92. His increase in expenses for 2015 from 2014 can be attributed to his position as chair of the Great Lakes St. lawrence Initiative as well as travel for the natural gas pro- ject with Edmonton -based EPCOR Utilities., Treasure MacArthur said. "He's acting as chair to the great lakes st. lawrence initi- ative so he had extra meet- ings for that, he had extra meetings for the natural gas project, and he sits on a bunch of different things other councillors don't. He did a lot of travel this year," she said. The breakdown of the number of meetings attended by each council is as followed: Mayor Twolan, 120; Deputy Mayor Gamble, 102; Councillor Abbott, 62; Councillor Elliott, 56; Coun- cillor Hanna, 47; Councillor Murray, 57; and Councillor Sloetjes, 54. "The difference [in their per diems] is the number of meetings they attend, the number of committees they sit on will affect that," Treas- ure MacArthur said. Huron -Kinloss budget passed, municipal tax rate to increase 4.7 per cent Darryl Coote Reporter It only took the one budget meeting for council to pass the Township of Huron -Kinloss' 2016 budget. Treasure Jodi MacArthur called it "good budget year." "Overall it was definitely a good budget year for us. We were able to bring it together fairly quickly. And I think it's a pretty fair budget. We're still getting a lot of work accomplished for a fairly small budget," she said. With the adoption of the 2016, the residential municipal tax will increase 4.7 per cent. The blended rate -- which will combine the 4.7 per cent with the county and education tax rates -- will increase by a low 1.7 per cent. This equals a yearly prop- erty tax increase of $55.83 for an average household in the region costing $243,705. The residential municipal tax rate increased by 5.99 per cent in 2014. "We sharpened our pen- cils as much as we could without cutting services," Mayor Mitch Twolan said over the phone. According to the report presented to council Feb. 29, the budget presented contains requests neces- sary to maintain the cur- rent level of services. To lower the tax rate would result in a lessening of ser- vices, it read. "The initial budget that staff put forward I thought was very informative. Staff put in a lot of work. It was hard to really go against any of their suggestions or figures that they put before us. At the end of the day council was very please, passing the budget day one;" he said.