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The Citizen, 2009-09-24, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009.Editorials Opinions Publisher, Keith Roulston Editor, Bonnie GroppAdvertising, Ken Warwick & Lori Patterson The CitizenP.O. Box 429,BLYTH, Ont.N0M 1H0 Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152,BRUSSELS, Ont.N0G 1H0 Phone 887-9114 E-mail norhuron@scsinternet.com 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 $34.00/year ($32.38 + $1.62 G.S.T.) in Canada; $105.00/year in U.S.A.and $175/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 PAP REGISTRATION NO. 09244 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: norhuron@scsinternet.com Letters to the editor Sept. 23, 1965 An advertisement prepared citizens for the Brussels Fall Fair, which was took place on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 that year. The fair was to be opened by MPP Murray Gaunt. This year the fair featured purebred and grade cattle, light and heavy horses, exhibits, a school parade and a pet show, in addition to a performance from the Seaforth High School band. The fair would also feature pony races and a dance on the night of the fair. Campbell Soup in Listowel was advertising positions available for both male and female workers. A 2 lb. 14 oz. potato was delivered to the office of The Brussels Post by Mr. A. Fox of Brussels. Wallace Ross of Seaforth advertised that he was beginning to pour clover honey. He told customers to bring their own container for the honey, which would run them 25 cents per pound. The season’s inaugural meeting of the Brussels Area Dart League was to take place in October, encouraging all members to come out to the meeting and have their say, not leaving all of the decisions up to the team captains. Knox Presbyterian Church in Cranbrook and Duff’s United Church in Walton held their centennial services, both filling their respective buildings to capacity. Sept. 23, 1981 The smallest paper in Huron County announced that it was closing its doors. The Zurich Citizens News, with a circulation of just 600, closed up shop after serving the community for 20 years. The Huron County Plowing Match was held on the farm of Viola Adams of RR5 Brussels, where Dianne Oldfield of Seaforth was chosen as the Queen of the Furrow. Don Jackson, a former world champion skater, appeared in Blyth at Memorial Hall to give some skating tips as well as autograph copies of his recent book. It was another record-breaking summer in Blyth, with the Blyth Festival posting great attendance numbers with tourism visits sitting around 27,000 for the summer. Sept. 24, 1986 Citizens in West Wawanosh were preparing to head to the polls to elect a new councillor on Nov. 17. Brussels was faced with losing its rail line. A section of the Canadian National’s Kincardine subdivision, running through Brussels, Wingham and Lucknow, was potentially going to be closed by Christmas after several years of uncertainty. One week earlier, CN had applied for permission to abandon three freight lines in mid-western Ontario. The Blyth Festival broke records once again with over 36,000 people coming to the Festival in 1986. The Citizen’s publisher, Keith Roulston’s play, Another Season’s Promise, co-written with Anne Chislett, was one of the productions at the 1986 installment of the Blyth Festival. The 125th Brussels Fall Fair went off without a hitch, with good weather, something the fair hadn’t experienced in years. The Blyth Masons moved into their new home, in the former Bell Telephone building on Mill Street. The Sept. 9 meeting was the first meeting of the Masons of the season. A special meeting was held for Blyth residents concerning a proposed amendment to the village’s official plan. The amendment was posed to set up a “Community Improvement Area.” Sept. 25, 1996 Vandals stormed through Brussels, spray painting the dugouts at the baseball field, several vehicles at McCutcheon Motors and the storefront of Maitland Valley Insurance. Windows at Brussels Public School were also broken with what police believed to be pellet guns. The Brussels Terry Fox Run raised over $4,200 for the Canadian Cancer Society, with over 70 people braving some damp weather to participate. At the top of the list was Brussels Terry’s Team Member Bob Richmond, who raised $500 on his own. This was just the third time Brussels had participated in the annual Terry Fox Run. Blyth Public School was given a special Director’s School of the Year award for 1995-1996, along with seven other schools. ‘If I was identifying one school that’s at the top of the list, Blyth would be there,” said Director of Education Paul Carroll. Five students graduating from Central Huron Secondary School who intended to continue on to post- secondary education were honoured with the Norman Parks Garrett Memorial Scholarship Award. Those awarded were Carrie Ansley, Kathy Fraser, Chris Howson, Erica Clark and Pauline Stewart. Joe Johns, son of Janet Amos and Ted Johns won the Governor- General Award, after graduating from Central Huron Secondary School and achieving the highest marks in six OAC subjects. The Irish Rovers were preparing to come to Blyth, performing at Memorial Hall on Oct. 3. THE EDITOR, This summer has seen quite an increase in use of the North Huron Community Food Share. As a result our shelves are almost empty. While we have not been forced to cut back on the amount of food each client receives, we’ve needed to dip into our cash reserves to buy almost all our food over the last few weeks. There are however a few bright spots on the horizon. Sept. 21, the four local banks in Wingham implemented a challenge to see who can raise the most non-perishable food items over a two-week period. Wingham United Church is sponsoring a Scottish Evening on Oct. 17 featuring two very talented men (one in the persona of Robbie Burns and the other playing a variety of bagpipes) with the proceeds going to the Food Share. For tickets, contact any church member or me at 519-357- 4833. Once again, if you are planning a special birthday or anniversary party please consider non-perishable food items or monetary donations to the Food Share in lieu of gifts. In the event that you might require a guest speaker or even brochures for your next meeting, please contact Gord Kaster (chairperson) 519-357- 4833 or leave a message at the North Huron Community Food Share 519- 357-2277 Ext. 4. Anyone in need of our services please call the Food Share number and leave a message. We are located at 405 Josephine St., Wingham (behind the Upper Deck Youth Centre and Home Video) and are open Wednesday mornings from 9 a.m. until noon. Remember: Hunger has no age limit. Gordon Kaster, Chairperson. THE EDITOR, October is fast approaching and with that Halloween is just around the corner. Blyth is a wonderful community with a lot of great things happening. The Witches Walk is good fun for anyone who enjoys Halloween. We have started the planning for Oct. 17. We would love to have more help with this event. We are having meetings every Monday night at the Lions Park Pavilion at 7:30 p.m. Please feel free to join us with new ideas, volunteering to create your own exhibit, making props ahead of time, helping to set up the day of the walk, helping to take down the next day, people to help take donations and people to guide. If you would like to assist the night of the walk and don’t have a costume – we could arrange one. Many hands make light work. Your help would be appreciated. Call Vicky Bremner at 519-523-4870 or Bev Blair 519-523-4964. Thanking you in advance. Bev Blair. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright A shoulder to cry on Education minister Kathleen Wynne’s appointment of Margaret Wilson to conduct a review of the accommodation review process that led the Avon Maitland District School Board to announce the closing of the Blyth Public School is little more than providing parents and community members with a shoulder to cry on. The government has a habit of setting up processes that make people think they have an ability to appeal decisions when really they don’t. Wilson herself said she doesn’t have power to change the board’s decision, just to review that it followed its own process in determining the school, as well as East Wawanosh, Turnberry Central and Wingham Public, should close and a new super-school be built to house all kindergarten to Grade 6 students. So even though the board announced those four schools and Hullett Central were part of the review, but didn’t include F. E. Madill when clearly the goal all along was to boost that school’s enrollment with Grade 7 and 8 students, there seems little Wilson can do but rap some fingers and call officials naughty. This review process sounds similar to the promise of the McGuinty government, when it replaced the Harris government, that municipalities would be allowed to de-amalgamate if they could meet the criteria. After giving hope, however, the government just never announced the protocol for de-amalgamation which meant no area could meet the requirements. The forces of centralization are in complete control and their urban- based thinking won’t recognize that rural areas may need a different way of doing things than the city model. There seems little hope to change this, even by changing the government because we’d had Liberal, Progressive Conservative and NDP governments in the past two decades and the centralization and urbanization has continued under all of them. All rural people can do is be noisy and obstinate and fight for the right to a system that meets our needs, not those of the bureaucrats. — KR Lessons in human nature Human nature can always be entertaining to watch, especially when it involves politicians and especially when an election could be involved. So we’ve seen Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals floating the idea that voters should worry about the deficit run up by Stephen Harper’s Con- servative government, when it was the Liberals who twisted the arm of Harper to get him to spend money to combat the recession. Of course there’s also Harper taking credit for fighting the recession he once denied was happening and only spent money on because of the Liberals. Then there’s all those in other parties, the media and the public who used to ridicule the Liberals for supporting Harper who are now outraged because they say they’ll vote against them and maybe cause an election. And then there’s the NDP who called the Liberals spineless, who now keep Harper in power. All you can do is laugh. — KR &