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The Citizen, 2012-11-22, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2012.Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Acting Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny ScottAdvertising Sales: Ken Warwick & Lori Patterson The CitizenP.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Ph. 519-523-4792 Fax 519-523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. N0G 1H0 Phone 519-887-9114 E-mail info@northhuron.on.ca Website www.northhuron.on.ca Looking Back Through the Years CCNA Member Member of the Ontario Press Council The Citizen is published 50 times a year in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $36.00/year ($34.29 + $1.71 G.S.T.) in Canada; $115.00/year in U.S.A. and $205/year in other foreign countries. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca November 26, 1965 Plans for an addition to the Brussels School were brought forward at the Nov. 10 Morris Township School Board meeting. The plans were presented by Donald Snyder. A further study of the CN rail service through Brussels had been completed and was set to be presented at a meeting on Dec. 1. The meeting would take place at Wingham and District High School and representatives from CN would be on hand to answer any questions residents had. The Brussels Lions Club agreed to join forces with the Brussels, Morris and Grey Recreational Committee to raise funds to pay off the balance of the arena debt. While over $25,000 had been paid to date, $3,500 remained outstanding. According to The Brussels Post, a door-to-door canvas was in the works. November 18, 1987 The Brussels Hotel was scheduled to re-open on Nov. 20 after being closed for 16 months. Brussels Reeve Gordon Workman was to be on hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony, after which the hotel would be completely open for business. The hotel had been purchased by June Warwick and Gerry White the previous spring in what The Citizen called a “dismally run-down condition”. The pair, however, restored the building back to its “original glory” as the New American Hotel, one of five “fine establishments” in Brussels described by the Belden Atlas of 1879. Going forward organizers hoped that the hotel would host live music on a regular basis, with the country and western band Nashville Bound set to perform on the night of the re- opening. The band’s scheduled performance was of historical significance as they were the same musical act that played at the hotel’s final engagement in July of 1986 before it was closed by then-owners Ken and June Webster. Nashville Bound was a three- member band that consisted of Steve Marks of RR4, Brussels on vocals and guitar, Lisa Glanville of Brussels on bass and Mike Jardin of RR1, Belgrave playing the drums. Bodmin Farms Ltd. of RR5, Brussels captured four championships at Toronto’s Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, re- affirming its position as one of the country’s premier market hog producers. November 30, 1994 Members of Huron County Council blasted CKNX Television due to its lack of coverage of the local election. A motion to “protest the lack of coverage” was made by Usborne Reeve Pat Down, but the first to speak on the issue was Hullett Reeve Tom Cunningham, who said “there wasn’t one peep on the townships.” Cunningham had spoke on the issue before, saying that since CKNX had closed its Wingham studios and was being broadcast from London, coverage within Huron County had dropped significantly. That motion, however, had resulted in a quick reaction from George Clark, the station’s news director, who promised council better service in the future. Cunningham and other members of council agreed that coverage had since improved, but that it still wasn’t where they hoped it would be. In a display of good faith, members of the Huron County Board of Education rejected a motion that would have increased their remuneration in January of 1997. The increase would have brought local trustees up to par with the average remuneration rate of trustees on other local education boards. The motion would have added approximately $670 per trustee to the base amount that was set at $5,600. “At present, we are several hundred dollars below the others,” said retiring Seaforth and McKillop Township trustee Graeme Craig. November 22, 2007 Parents concerned with the twinning of East Wawanosh and Blyth Public Schools voiced their worries at an Avon Maitland District School Board meeting, being told that the twinning was only a temporary measure. The twinning resulted in a multitude of job changes among principals and vice-principals throughout the school board’s coverage area. “[Concerned parents] look at it as an accommodation issue – that their school is going to be closed,” said North Huron trustee Colleen Schenk at the Nov. 13 meeting. “I assured them that’s not the case, and that this is a short-term measure.” The schools’ moves sent Blyth Public School principal Jane Morton to take over top administration duties at East Wawanosh Public School, while still spending the majority of her day in Blyth. This resulted in the move of Wendy Armstrong-Gibson from her vice- principal position at Clinton Public School to the same position at East Wawanosh Public School. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright How things change A debate last week at Huron County Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting shows how, over time, attitudes about what’s bad can become good (and vice versa). In a debate over surplus farm residence severances, Ashfield- Colborne-Wawanosh Reeve Ben Van Diepenbeek found himself out of step with the majority of council while defending a position that has long been held as correct in Huron County. “It seems like we’ll just sever anything,” Van Diepenbeek said. “We have no regard for what farming is all about anymore.” Huron County was a leader, in the 1970s, in implementing planning rules to protect the precious resource of its farmland. Pressed by the Huron County Federation of Agriculture, the county adopted a policy to direct residential development to urban areas so there wouldn’t be conflict between non-farm rural residents and farmers carrying out normal farming practices. Huron County planners like Gary Davidson and Wayne Caldwell became experts in the area of protecting farmland, in demand to speak across the province. Concepts developed in Huron County were adopted by the province in its policy statement about protecting farmland from urban development. But people change and times change. The people who pushed to protect farmland are no longer active in local politics. Meanwhile farms keep getting larger and farm families, smaller, so the rural population keeps dropping, leaving fewer people to support schools, churches and other services. While farm groups are still concerned about the unexpected consequences of having non-farmers living in former farmhouses, individual farmers who are paying up to $1 million for a single 100-acre farm, are happy to be able to recoup some of their investment by selling off the house and a few acres. And while the drive for farm expansion a decade ago was large livestock operations that might bring complaints from neighbours, today farmers are buying more land to plant crops like corn and soybeans that create fewer complaints from non-farming neighbours. Now, instead of Huron being one of the most restrictive counties for non-farm encroachment on farmland, it is becoming one of the most relaxed, certainly compared to its neighbour Perth which alows no surplus farm residences to be severed. Who’s right? Certainly it’s a shame to see perfectly good farmhouses torn down while at the same time the rural population dwindles. On the other hand, Huron County is the largest farming county in Ontario, farming is our largest single industry and our farmland is a precious resource. It’s a debate that’s likely to continue for many years. We can only hope we get it right.— KR What if they’re wrong? Speaking in India last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper once again repeated his belief that Canada is an energy superpower ready to power the world. Also last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted that the United States, largest customer for our oil and gas, would soon become the largest oil-producing nation in the world. The IEA points to new oil fields in North Dakota and elsewhere in the U.S. which have been developed using new technologies, which, it says, may make the U.S. self-sufficient in petroleum in the near future. The new oil is cheaper to produce and easier to transport and refine than the heavy bitumen being dug out of the Alberta Oil Sands. After decades of saying we must learn to be more than producers of natural resources, Canada has climbed on the natural resources bandwagon in recent years. International trade agreements have made it more economical to import manufactured goods than make them here. Meanwhile a high Canadian dollar, fueled to a large part by natural resource exports, has made it hard for our industries to compete. We’ve hitched our wagon to the Alberta Oil Sands and other natural resource developments. But if the major market for our oil is to become self-sufficient as the IEA says, what is our future? — KR & Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise.