The Citizen, 2015-12-24, Page 6PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2015.
TOWNSHIP OF NORTH HURON
WINGHAM LANDFILL
Holiday Hours
The Wingham Landfill will be Closed
Christmas Day –Friday, December 25, 2015
Boxing Day - Saturday, December 26, 2015
New Year’s Day –Friday, January 1, 2016
Christmas Tree Chipping Program
Please have your Christmas Trees to the curb
By January 4, 2016 for collection.
Season’s
Greetings
Space provided through a partnership between industry and
Ontario municipalities to support waste diversion programs.
Santa’s helpers
What’s a Christmas concert without one (or several, in
Maitland River Elementary School’s case) appearance of
Santa Claus? The school hosted three different concerts on
Dec. 16 for the Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 classes
respectively. Shown above is Santa and his elves in one of
the earlier concerts. From left: Evan Becker, Davey
Hawkins and Laura Dawson. (Denny Scott photo)
The show must go on!
When the cast of a show numbers over 100 and all of them are
under the age of eight, it requires a loud, steady voice to keep
things on track or, in Maitland River Elementary School’s case,
two loud, steady voices. The job of emceeing the school’s three
Christmas concerts on Dec. 16 fell to Alycia Coultes, left, and
Mary Sabourin. (Denny Scott photo)
Food Grain project hits $243k
The fourth Sunday of Advent was
celebrated at Knox United Church
on Sunday, Dec. 20.
On Thursday, Dec. 24 at 7:30 p.m.
there is a Christmas Eve Service at
Knox United Church. Everyone is
welcome.
If there is anyone interested in a
confirmation class, please inform
student minister Brian Hymers so
that it can be arranged.
On White Gift Sunday, thanks to
everyone’s generosity, a cheque for
$565 has been forwarded to the
North Huron Food Share. Thanks to
Kim Walker and Lila Procter for all
their work in preparing the
presentation with the children.
Another growing season has ended
for the Belgrave Community
Growing Project and the corn crop
has been harvested. Thanks to your
generous donations and the sale of
the corn, a cheque for $18,000 has
been forwarded to the Canadian
Food Grains Bank.
This is a wonderful and a very
cost-effective way for us as members
of a small congregation to
participate in alleviating world
hunger. This local Growing Project,
because of the 4:1 matching ratio of
funds by the Government of Canada
helps significantly in easing the
suffering and misery of those less
fortunate in the world.
This is our 14th year of
participating in the program and we
have contributed over $243,000 to
date from the Belgrave Project
alone, with the matching funds from
government it comes to well over a
million dollars.
Please consider making a donation
to the 2016 Community Growing
Project in the coming year. A cheque
made out to Knox United Church,
Belgrave (indicate on your cheque or
envelope that it is for the Growing
Project or Food Grains Bank) would
be very much appreciated.
By Linda
Campbell
Call
357-2188
PEOPLE AROUND
BELGRAVE
NEWS
FROM BELGRAVE
New Bluevale committee struck
The Bluevale Community
Committee will officially exist on
Jan. 1, replacing the Bluevale Hall
Board and the Bluevale Recreation
Committee.
Morris-Turnberry Council, during
its Dec. 15 meeting, passed a bylaw
dissolving the two groups to form
the new committee. The new board
will be responsible for maintaining
and operating the structures at the
Bluevale Hall and Bluevale Ball
Park, holding monthly meetings that
are recorded and provide accounting
information to council among other
responsibilities.
The group will consist of 11
members, including one member
appointed by Morris-Turnberry
Council, one representative from the
Bluevale Activity Group, one
representative from the Happy Card
Players and eight representatives at
large from the community.
From those members, a chair,
secretary and treasurer will be
appointed.
The only thing that will be taken
from the two boards that will not be
a responsibility of the new board is
managing bookings for the hall.
Councillor John Smuck, who will
represent council on the board, said
that he would like staff to do that so
it can be on the municipality’s online
calender so people can know if the
hall is available or not.
“Councillor Smuck made the
request that be dealt with
separately,” Administrator Clerk-
Treasurer Nancy Michie said.
Smuck said he wanted the issue to
be considered as a separate motion
so that council would be aware of the
change.
Mayor Paul Gowing said that,
since the building was the only
municipally-owned space for
meetings outside of the
municipality’s offices on Morris
Road, that was a good idea.
Council approved both the bylaw
and Smuck’s requested motion.By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Huron County Treasurer Michael
Blumhagen is in the early stages of
the budget process and is proposing
a 6.23 per cent tax levy increase.
In his initial report to council,
which was presented to council at its
Dec. 16 committee of the whole
meeting, he said that staff is facing
some “significant challenges” in
2016, namely provincial funding
cuts, rising labour pressures and a
past reliance on reserves.
This comes one week after
Blumhagen told councillors that the
county would be experiencing a
reduction of $422,100 in its Ontario
Municipal Partnership Fund
(OMPF) money in 2016 – the fourth
year for such a decrease.
That OMPF cut alone, he said,
represents a 1.16 per cent gap in the
tax levy that would have to be made
up. In terms of OMPF money, he
added that he expects the funding to
be cut completely to the county
within the next five years, which
would add significant pressure to the
budget process in the future.
The county is set to allocate $45
million to salaries and benefits in
2016, Blumhagen said, with grid
movements (raises) to account for
$1.482 million in 2016, which is
nearly half of the proposed 6.23 per
cent levy increase, which adds up to
$2.26 million.
He did say, however, that the
county is currently in a surplus
position of approximately $1.1
million as of September. If directed
by council, Blumhagen said he could
use some of those funds to
alleviate some of the
budget pressures, but council
would have to make that decision.
His report also touched on the fact
that the county has a “looming
challenge” in bridge infrastructure
over the next 10 years. Those
challenges are not reflected
in the budget, he said, but
council should be aware of them
going forward.
“With ongoing fiscal pressures, it
would be prudent to review the
services currently being provided to
the ratepayers and assess
discretionary vs. mandated services
and whether changes should be
made to service levels,” Blumhagen
concluded his report. “The county
can no longer rely on the province to
provide additional funds for general
operations, therefore any inflationary
pressures for these services are borne
by the ratepayer.”
Draft county budget up 6.23%