The Citizen, 2016-03-31, Page 20PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2016.
Service
Sheron Stadelmann of Blyth, right, was presented with an
Ontario Volunteer Service Award last month in Stratford.
She was honoured for her 35 years of service with the Blyth
Festival. She is seen here with Audience Services Manager
Lisa Harper. The awards are handed out annually ahead of
National Volunteer Week, which this year is April 10-16.
Other winners from the Blyth Festival included Donna
Govier and Donna Moore, 15 years, Marris and Martina
Bos, 10 years and Diane Palm, five years. (Photo submitted)
Budget proceeds despite concerns
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
In at least one councillor's mind
Huron East Council needs to take
one more long, hard look at the
budget before it's ready to be passed.
Seaforth Ward Councillor Bob
Fisher, at council's March 15
meeting, told councillors that he was
receiving a lot of backlash on the
street in regards to the budget.
Several ratepayers, he said, felt
council was rewarding the
community centres for failing and
taking money away from other, more
profitable sectors.
John Lowe, a member of the
Brussels, Morris and Grey
Recreation Board, said he found the
comment offensive. He has been on
the front lines, he said, and has seen
the efforts and thriftiness at the
arena and resented that the centres
were being "rewarded for failure".
Fisher said he wanted to revisit the
recreation centres' budgets before
the budget was finalized, and also
felt that increased ice time rates (an
addition of $15 per hour at both
arenas that had been discussed, but
not implemented) should be
included in this year's budget.
Chief Administrative Officer Brad
Knight said that if the ice rates were
to increase by $15 per hour, $5,400
of added revenue would
theoretically be made at the Brussels
arena, while just over $9,000 would
be made at the Seaforth arena.
Mayor Bernie MacLellan
disagreed with Fisher, saying that he
felt the budget should stay the way it
Cousins passing to be mourned:
PEOPLE AROUND
WALTON
By Jo -Ann
McDonald
Call
887-6570
It was a week of weather that
changed often. Cold, warmer, wet,
rain, snow, freezing rain, lots of ice,
sunshine and even warmer. It was
hard to keep up with it all. But
Easter weekend made up for it with
a beautiful day on Sunday. There
was lots of sun and warm
temperatures. Families who
gathered could spend time outdoors
in the nice weather enjoying the sun
or maybe an Easter egg hunt! Our
little ones searched the yard for
hidden Easter eggs and it was lots of
fun.
We hope everyone had a good
Easter and had a chance to gather
with family. Our family gathered at
the home of our daughter LeeAnn
and had lunch and an afternoon of
visiting.
Our condolences to Emily
Cousins on the passing of husband,
George. He will be missed by his
children Tim, Laura, Lynne, Donald
and Patricia and families. George
was a custodian at the Brussels
Public School when I came to
Brussels and a friend of my friend,
Betty McDonald. We had many a
conversation when we would meet
at her home. A to -the -point kind of
guy, it was always a good time.
George would attend the Legion
dinners and at the end of the season
of dinners, it would be George who
would rise and thank the cooks for
the meals. He will be missed by
many and our sympathies to all.
The Cranbrook Dart Club had 20
players out on March 23 to shoot at
the board. Three teams captured four
games each. They were the team of
Ern Lewington and Marita LeFor,
the team of Steve Bowers and Jim
Blake and the team of Brad Speiran
and Pat Gillis. Top shooters was Ev
Blake hitting 109 and Rob
VanderVeen, 111; lucky shot of the
night was by Jane Zwep.
Welcome back to Betty
McCutcheon who has returned from
her stay in Florida. We may be a
little behind, but it is nice for Paul
and Dianne McCallum to be back in
their home. They suffered an
explosion and fire last fall and the
house has been renovated and
repaired during the winter. I'm sure
they are very happy to be home
again!
Congratulations to Patty Banks
and Jim Cook on becoming
grandparents again. Brandy Leslie
and John Upshall have welcomed a
new daughter to their family. Ali
Jane will also be welcomed by
siblings Jax, Tyler, Brooke, Jessica
and Ashley. Congratulations to all.
Returning from their fourth annual
motorbike trip are George and Harry
Zwep. They went to the sunny south
during March Break. They headed
out early Sunday morning and
arrived in Carrollton, Kentucky,
where they left their truck and
trailer. During their four-day tour
they travelled through seven states
which included Kentucky, Indiana,
Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma,
Arkansas and Tennessee. During
their travels, they went past the
childhood home of Abraham
Lincoln in Hodgenville, Kentucky
and stopped to see the Corvette
Museum in Bowling Green,
Kentucky. The unique part of the
visit was seeing where the sinkhole
occurred two years ago and eight
rare and unusual cars were
swallowed up. Three of the cars have
been restored and the other five are
on display.
Lots of beautiful countryside was
seen as well as thousands of acres of
flooded land due to heavy rains. At
one point a farmer was seen in a
motorboat checking out his flooded
fields. After travelling 2,700
kilometres they loaded up the
bikes again and returned home on
Friday night. It was another fantastic
trip.
Congratulations to Murray Pepper
on his reitrement from Genex, I
believe the former United Breeders.
Murray worked for them for 40
years or so and now can relax and
enjoy his free time and
grandchildren.
Now that the snow is gone, the
ditches have revealed what they
gathered during the winter. I would
say the most popular item to throw
away is plastic water bottles. Cans of
is for 2016. However, in terms of a
long-term vision, MacLellan said a
discussion on the municipality's
approach to recreation definitely
needs to take place at some point.
At a recent conference, MacLellan
said, he learned that in today's
world, it takes a population of
60,000 to support an arena to the
point where it may turn a profit.
Geographically it wouldn't make
sense to have one arena in Huron
County (which has a population of
approximately 60,000), but that the
municipality's approach to
recreation needs to change.
While Councillor Larry McGrath
said he felt work needed to be done
on the budget, he told councillors
there would be some fall -out as a
result of an increase, should council
decide to implement one.
A local ringette association that
normally plays in Seaforth informed
the municipality that if the rates
were to rise, the organization would
takes its business to Hensall where it
would get a better deal.
Recreation, however, wasn't
Fisher's only issue with the budget.
He said he felt the municipal tax
levy increase, which currently sits
above 20 per cent, was far too high.
"I can see 10 [per cent]. I can't see
20," he said.
While he felt the increase was too
high, he also said he didn't have a
solution on how to lower it, or fill in
various holes left by funding cuts.
He simply felt the increase was too
high to impose on the ratepayers of
Huron East.
Knight reminded Fisher, however,
that in order to simply get back to
the 2015 level and account for losses
in Ontario Municipal Partnership
Fund (OMPF) money and the annual
increase in OPP funding, the
municipal portion of the taxes must
rise 15.4 per cent.
Fisher suggested reducing what's
being given to the recreation centres,
given their ongoing losses.
Councillor David Blaney said that
while the recreation centres may not
be generating revenue under their
current budgets, that certainly isn't
going to change if further budget
constraints are imposed upon them.
Despite Fisher feeling that the
budget needed more work,
councillors agreed to keep the
budget on its current trajectory, with
a public meeting set for April 5.
McDonald FROM WALTON
all kinds and bottles look like the
next popular items. Surprisingly,
Tim Horton cups are not the popular
item like other years. Some folks
have been out cleaning up the
ditches along their properties and
the bottle collectors have also been
out as well. It makes our countryside
much nicer to look at if the litter is
cleaned up, but better yet, don't litter
at all.
Celebrating birthdays this past
week include Christopher Gulutzen,
Ashley Hoegy, Wyatt Dale, Ken
Dalton, Dalton Hamilton, Janet
Bachert, Andrea Gingerich, Judy
Shortreed, Weston Murray, Connor
denDekker, Nicole Williamson
Murray, John Baan, Brandy Leslie
and Jack McLachlan. Happy
birthday to all.
Obituaries
ELLTA MARGARET KUC
Ellta Margaret Kuc, of Newmarket
Place, Tisdale, Saskatchewan and
formerly of St. Front, Saskatchewan,
passed away on March 18, 2016
with her daughters Lorraine and
Connie at her side. She was 93.
Ellta was the beloved wife for
72 years of the late Michael Kuc
who predeceased her in 2013.
She was the dear mother of
Lorraine Park of Lumsden,
Saskatchewan; Phyllis Ralph
(Douglas), Milton; Connie Kuc
(Tom Black), Belgrave and Kathy
Lyons (Clayton), Stoney Plain,
Alberta. She was the cherished
grandmother of 12 grandchildren, 18
great -grand -children and one great -
great -grandchild. Ellta was the
mother-in-law of Dennis Swahn.
She was predeceased by her
daughter Leila Swahn, one
grandchild, one great-grandchild
and her brothers Lawrence and
Orville Jennett.
Ellta lived a long rich life and
will be sadly missed by her
family and friends.
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