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The Citizen, 2017-06-01, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2017. PAGE 5. Other Views Community pride biggest gain The thing that struck me most as I toured Blyth's Memorial Hall at the recent reopening was not the perks that $4 million can buy, but the priceless shining pride on faces of the hundreds of people who came to see what had been done to their building. The attendance wasn't as large as the original opening day for the hall in 1921 when the 500 -plus seats weren't enough to hold the crowd and people had to stand outside overhearing what they could through the windows. Of course the re -opening was also held at 4 p.m. on a Friday afternoon because of the tightness of the construction deadline coming up against the need for the Blyth Festival crew to start getting the theatre ready for the upcoming season. Still the pride was there to see on the beaming faces and heard in the buzz of the crowd. Community pride is one of those things that can't be measured by an accountant or by scientific equipment or the latest cellphone app, but at times like this event you know it's real. These opportunities to bind people together into something larger than a group of neighbours and individuals don't come along everyday. We've seen it when communities worked together to build new arenas after updated regulations meant the old community arena had to be closed. We see it when a community comes together to do something extraordinary, as Belgrave does every fall with the Fowl Supper or as Blyth did with the massive Fare on Four dinner serving nearly 1,500 on main street three years ago. No doubt we'll see examples of that this fall when the International Plowing Match is held at Walton, the culmination of years of volunteer activity. I imagine the community pride must have been massive when the opening was held for Blyth Memorial Community Hall on Sunday, June 5, 1921. The community had set out to commemorate the sacrifices of so many young local residents during World War I with more Keith Roulston From the cluttered desk than the usual cenotaph. They courageously chose a much larger challenge: to build a living memorial that would be at the heart of the community 365 days a year, not just on Remembrance Day. There were few government grants back then so the weight of supporting that ambitious dream fell on the community. Clubs and individuals worked to raise the $25,000 needed to build the region's finest theatre auditorium. And so, when the building was finished, there must have been a huge sense of accomplishment and pride. I'm sure the people who led that campaign would have been smiling if they were looking down on the crowd surrounding the hall that recent Friday, patiently waiting for the re- opening ceremonies to end so they could go inside and see the results of all that disruptive construction over the last 10 months. Nearly a century later their memorial is considered so important that the Deputy -Premier of the province was there on the front steps along with lots of local leaders. Every year tens of thousands of people still make use of the facility community members threw themselves into building so long ago. Of course it hasn't always been that way over the last century. Funny how these things go — how things considered to be of vital importance at one period, can be forgotten at others. People rallied to rebuild arenas when they were threatened 40 years ago this summer, but most of us without children playing hockey or figure skating seldom enter those buildings most of the time. We tend to take for granted what we have, unless it's threatened. Memorial Hall suffered the same fate about 50 years after it had opened. Times had changed. Movies and radio and television had provided alternative entertainment to the home-grown cantatas and minstrel shows and amateur plays and gradually there had been fewer and fewer activities in the upstairs theatre that was the hall's glory. People gathered upstairs once a year for the Remembrance Day ceremony but other than that, most of the activities were in the downstairs meeting hall where the Lions Club and Women's Institute and other groups met and people held dances and wedding receptions. But just at its lowest time, the community rediscovered the gem in its midst. In 1972 volunteers came together to spruce up the theatre. When it became evident the building needed much more than just paint and polish, public opinion convinced village councillors it was worth spending what seemed like a lot of money to keep this living memorial breathing. Of course the coming of the Blyth Festival couldn't have been foreseen then. And so on the recent re -opening the pride was shared, not just by Blyth -area residents, but by a wider community. I saw people from as far away as Guelph among those present. The community for this iconic building has expanded, but the pride was still as evident on the faces of those present. In a way, the fact that our rural communities aren't booming probably helped preserve Memorial Hall in the days when it wasn't as well appreciated. If it had been a little -used building in downtown Toronto in the 1960s and early 1970s it would probably have been demolished for something more "productive". Now Memorial Hall is probably the most important building in the downtown, not just as an economic driver but as a source of community pride. Gutting [our columns] a little short Every week the editorial department deals with a limited amount of space to try and get what is on our mind onto the page and, sometimes, that can result in some confusion. Last week, for example, I had written a rather lengthy column about my feelings on certain North Huron Council members pushing to have garbage collection reduced to bi-weekly from weekly. My frustration stemmed from the fact that, despite constantly asking for direction on which services to cut and which to keep, certain council members ignored the results of the two surveys completed by the municipality and continued to push for the reduction in service. It's since come to my attention that the way I wrote about the issue may have made it seem like council did in fact vote for bi-weekly collection when, in truth, the official record states that council voted to keep the collection where it is. What frustrated me was that, as Reeve Neil Vincent explained to The Citizen, the vote was 4-3, nearly split right down the middle. My original column made reference to the fact that, despite the feedback received, a council member still pushed to follow the initial suggestion by Director of Public Works Jeff Molenhuis and cut collection back as a means of saving money on the annual budget. Unfortunately, that was among the parts of the column cut out to make it fit on the page. It's a reality that people may not realize. Yes, The Citizen is easily one of the biggest papers in the area, but we do still deal with space constraints. Sometimes we can't fit in everything we want to and the choice is to Denny Scott Denny's Den hold it for a week and chance it becoming irrelevant or cut it to fit. Sometimes, however, something can get cut and it might change the way a story, or in this case a column, looks to some readers. So let me reiterate: North Huron has, for the time being, voted to keep weekly garbage collection in its urban areas. The vote was a close one, but ratepayers like myself don't have to worry about garbage piling up while waiting for the two-week pick-up schedule. The fact that the column might not have been read that way was brought to my attention by a council member and, after some discussion, I was reminded that, while it would be wise for council to listen to ratepayers, especially when the feedback was sought by them, it's not necessary for a council member to vote as the public directs them to. Council members need to vote in the way that makes the most sense to them for the best of the community. This issue usually doesn't come up at the lower tier and is more apparent at Huron County Council meetings. Morris-Turnberry Council, for example, was primarily against the Goderich-to-Guelph (G2G) Rail Trail until concerns farmers in the municipality could be addressed. Mayor Paul Gowing, council's representative on Huron County Council, however, didn't feel the same way. What resulted was the majority of council feeling Gowing wasn't representing Morris- Turnberry, but, rather, himself at the Huron County Council table. Gowing, at the time, explained that when he is at Huron County Council meetings, he has to make the best decision for the county while keeping in mind the desires of his home municipality. So there is no absolute need for North Huron councillors to vote following expressed desires of their ratepayers, even if council approved the surveys that told them to do such a thing. Sure, ignoring your constituents and pushing for an unpopular service reduction isn't a great way to get re-elected, but it is an option if council members feel it's for the best of the municipality. Anyway, in closing, North Huron's garbage collection isn't changing and my frustration is with those who almost caused the vote to go the other direction despite the feedback from ratepayers clearly demonstrating a desire to keep urban garbage collection weekly. My apologies if any confusion resulted from what I wrote, what I didn't write, and what got left on the cutting room floor. Final Thought What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. — Ralph Waldo Emerson An artistic county This week it was great to chat with Huron County Cultural Development Officer Rick Sickinger about the art projects he hopes to roll out for this year's International Plowing Match. It reinforced what I already knew about Huron County. Much is made about how Huron County is the most important agriculture producer in Ontario and one of Canada's largest, and rightfully so. Without agriculture, it's hard to imagine where Huron County would be. However, there is more to Huron than agriculture and it's important that we don't forget that. One of these most fertile grounds is the county's artistic landscape, which has been an important aspect of life in Huron for decades. Every week you read in the pages of The Citizen the importance of a number of projects that branch out from the Blyth Festival tree. Whether it's Listowel native Paul Thompson and The Farm Show in the 1970s, season after season of Festival productions in a village of just over 1,000 or Festival alumnis who have gone on to do great things provincially, nationally and even internationally, there are plenty of stories to tell regarding the art taking place on Huron County stages. In terms of visual art, there is just as much to be proud of in Huron, with award-winning artists peppered throughout all corners of the county. First and foremost in my mind are Ron and Bev Walker, who are situated in a country setting near Auburn. The couple is credited as founders of the Blyth Festival Art Gallery and their work, Ron's paintings and Bev's prints, was celebrated recently when the gallery marked its 40th season. Jess and I always said that when we bought a home, we wanted to adorn it with one of Ron's paintings. Well, we've owned our Blyth home for two years now and my phone call is a bit overdue — but it will happen one of these days. Locally there are plenty of others, including Scott Ramsay, who is relatively new to the community, but was recognized by the Huron County Art Bank shortly after becoming a resident of the county. Ramsay was part of a run of three consecutive area artists winning the Art Bank's top prize, alongside Kelly Stevenson and Walker. There are a number of other wildly talented artists throughout the county and their works are showcased in a number of different ways — whether it be the work of Michele Miller or Anne Laviolette or any of the other resident artists at the Queens Bakery. Then there is the musical scene in Brussels, being fostered in no small part by Jim Lee and his weekly blues concerts, bringing Juno - calibre artists to the small village of Brussels. Lee was also a driving force behind the annual fiddle jamboree. Then there is the Juno - nominated Lyndon John X, a reggae artist from Brussels who has made a name for himself on a national scale. Between the music at the annual reunion of the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association, the work being done by FauxPop Media and the art being hung on walls throughout the county, Huron seems to be one of those places where art grows just as easily as the crops do. To show that off and not lose it in the shuffle of an event the size of the IPM is an admirable goal and one that will pay off with results both at the IPM and that will continue to grow and be seen for years to come.