The Citizen, 2009-06-25, Page 1A pie face
Chelsey Terpstra certainly seemed to be enjoying the chance to throw a pie at teacher Cory
Hernden’s face. The event was one of several at the Grey Central Public School’s family fun
night on Friday. (Vicky Bremner photo)
After a turbulent two months,
Huron East council put the brakes on
a wind energy project in St.
Columban at their June 16 meeting,
at least for the time being.
At the recommendation of a group
of concerned citizens calling
themselves HEAT (Huron East
Against Turbines) and the group’s
lawyer, Kristi M. Ross of Fogler,
Rubinoff LLP, council passed an
interim control bylaw, limiting any
activity on the proposed St.
Columban wind project, or any other
action involving wind turbines on
agricultural land in the municipality,
for at least one year.
Council passed the motion,
limiting any action pertaining to wind
turbines throughout the municipality,
pending a review. This will be
undertaken by the municipality, in
respect to land use planning policies
and to assess and recommend
appropriate policies, setbacks and
related provisions for wind turbines
in light of proposed regulations.
These include setbacks and transition
provisions under the Green Energy
Act.
The move garnered applause from
the 60-plus crowd of supporters in
the audience and the several who
waited until the end of the meeting to
watch the actual bylaw get passed
after a lengthy in-camera session.
An interim control bylaw was
really the only card Huron East
council had in its deck in regards to
this situation. The bylaw will freeze
the project in its tracks while some
health concerns regarding setbacks
get ironed out.
In addition to the interim control
bylaw, council also passed a
resolution to lobby the provincial
government for a study which would
investigate adverse health effects
associated with wind turbines, a topic
that was potentially too big to just be
studied by Huron East, suggested
Huron County head of planning Scott
Tousaw.
Several weeks ago, a deputation of
over 100 people made its first
appearance to council, presenting
findings of adverse health effects
related to wind turbines for over two
hours. Since then, the group appeared
twice more, the last time with its
lawyer, who gave a presentation
about what council could legally do.
In addition to the interim control
bylaw, another option, Ross said, was
to lobby the provincial government
for assistance in the matter, which
would take a lot of the pressure off
the municipality.
When the idea of an interim control
bylaw was first proposed, councillors
were skeptical. Once enacted there is
a set time limit and a municipality is
not permitted to use the bylaw again
for a period of time.
Originally, councillor David
Blaney spoke up, saying that if the
information he had received was true
and the company had yet to purchase
the actual wind turbines, the timeline
for the project may be longer than
first anticipated. He then said there is
currently a long waiting list, that
would result in almost 18 months
before the turbines could be obtained,
let alone installed, thus making the
interim control bylaw a potentially
moot point.
The interim control bylaw,
however, takes care of one crucial
point of concern for HEAT. The wind
turbine group has had its wheels in
motion for over a year, and began the
process under the old regulations.
Even if regulations were changed
under the Green Energy Act, or any
other provision, the project could be
grandfathered in, leading to the
possibility of wind turbines as close
as 350 metres to residences, under
the current regulations in Huron
East.
The Blyth Festival kicks off the
2009 season, its 35th, this week with
an affectionate tribute to the
communities of Huron County.
Asked by artistic director Eric
Coates to write something in
celebration of the Festival’s 35th
Season, Ted Johns embarked on the
journey of The Bootblack Orator.
Characters infused in traditional
Johns’ style, with mountains of
charm and humour, tell the story of a
“most impressive and pathetic
speaker” of 1886.
John R. Clarke toured the hamlets
and villages of Huron County in the
1800s entertaining people with jokes
and homilies while presenting his
illustrated lectures with a magic
lantern. He called himself the
Bootblack Orator. (Rev. John Gray of
Clinton, who also toured at this time,
was known as the Sledgehammer
Orator).
In the 1880s the little communities
of Huron County were alive with
culture and a desire for improvement,
a great hunger for news and ideas
about Canada and the world. Public
lectures were a popular form of
entertainment and were paralleled by
the growth of literacy societies,
debating groups, reading rooms, and
societies for mental improvement –
A Reform Club in Winthrop, The
Marnoch Literary Society, the
Belgrave Debating Club, a Benmiller
Society for Mental Culture and A
Young People’s Improvement
Society in Varna.
It is interesting, Johns notes, that
just 60 short years prior to this, one
settler lived this side of Guelph,
making these thriving little
communities even more remarkable.
The character of Bootblack has
been developed from articles gleaned
from the archives of The Clinton
News Record, The Clinton New Era,
Goderich Signal-Star and Exeter
Reform, making Bootblack’s life
even more complicated. Bootblack
saw himself as a sort of cultural
missionary.
Some of his lectures were called
Representative Canadians, Among
the Masses, The Moral Heroism of
the Temperance Movement, To and
Fro in London, Famous Boys and
Girls, and Hits and Misses (which
was apparently an evening of
jokes).
Riddled with charming prose of
the past, Johns’ play pays homage to
the wit of the writers and speakers of
the time. He describes life in
picturesque Londesboro – “There are
marriages and rumours of marriages
around here; also fights and rumours
of fights, and black eyes are all the
fashion.”
And up the road a report from the
Marnoch Literary Society: “The
working of the Literary Society this
fall has been like a pull uphill owing
to the grumbling of a few of the
church members on account of the
meetings being held in the
church.
They have not laid their complaints
before the proper authorities, hence
the meetings have continued.
Notwithstanding the outcry against
the use of the church, the meetings
have been very interesting and it is
our opinion that if the society is
allowed to die out, which will be the
case if it is not allowed to meet in the
church, it will be detrimental to the
social, moral, and intellectual
welfare of the young people of the
neighbourhood.”
Johns plays Bootblack and his
wife, a former artistic director at
Blyth Janet Amos plays all the
women in the play. Each woman
symbolizes a part of Bootblack:
Mary Shelley represents his thirst for
knowledge, Susie Twentycents
symbolizes a need for adventure and
lust, the Witch of Marnoch embodies
the future, while Edyth signifies
domestic desires. The characters,
along with their invented stories, are
completely fictional.
Coates directs the production,
which opens at the Blyth Festival on
June 26.
HE halts turbines
CitizenTh
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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, June 25, 2009
Volume 25 No. 25A CHAMP - Pg. 11Local takes top juniorprize at national match GOOD WORKS- Pg. 22Donated bicycles arrive in NamibiaNEWS- Pg. 6400 attend wind turbineinformation meetingPublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 PAP Registration No. 09244 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
Bootblack Orator opens Festival’s 35th season
The Citizen will be closed
Wednesday, July 1 Canada Day.
Deadlines for the July 2 paper have
been changed as a result. Copy for
advertising and editorial must be in
to the Brussels office by 2 p.m.
Friday, June 26 and 4 p.m. in Blyth.
Citizen offices
closed July 1
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen