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The Citizen, 1991-08-21, Page 1I Roaring to go Walton hosts Motosport provincial meet Special 8 page section Visitors from afar Local families host Junior Farmers from abroad See page 27 Closure of Toronto plant costs jobs in Blyth Closure of a large manufacturer of pasta will mean job losses in Blyth, at least temporarily. On Sept. 9 Borden Limited will close its Lancia plant in Toronto, moving production to Montreal and Lethbridge. The Lancia plant has been the largest customer for How- son and Howson flour mills in Blyth for 20 years. Jim Howson, president of Howson and Howson Limited, said his firm has been working to find alternative markets for its pasta flour but "in the short term it will be slack". Four people will be laid off at the plant and a job-sharing proposal involving another eight or nine employees has been submitted to Canada Employment Centre. Under the agreement employees will share a diminished workload and have their pay topped up with benefits from Canada Employment. There will still be one to two days a week of work at the mills, he said. The situation does not involve the farm feed milling or elevator side of the operations. The company is busy seeking new markets. "The business is out there but it takes a while to develop it," Mr. Howson said. Tw'o loads have been taken into other plants and there’s hope of developing a market in the U.S., he said. But in all cases companies already have other suppliers and the local com­ pany will have to win the business away. The slow-down at Howson an.d Howson will have a spin off for J. and H. Campbell Transport of Blyth but Bill Campbell of the firm said he didn't know just what the future is. "We don't even know for sure what is going on," he said. Campbells have several bulk lank trucks dedicated to hauling flour from the Howson mill to pasta fac­ tories around the province. Mr. Campbell said flour hauling made up about 80 per cent of his firm's business. Bordens, which also owns Catelli and has recently purchased several other pasta makers, bought Lancia less than a year ago. It has asked for concessions from workers al the Toronto plant and when they weren't forthcoming, announced the plant was closing permanently. Tenders called Tenders will be opened Aug. 27 for the reconstruction of the south end of Morris St. in Blyth. The street, the main north-south street in the east end of the village, is scheduled for reconstruction over the next few years, starting with the section from County Road 25 to just north of Hamilton Street this year. Reeve Albert Wasson explained that the decision to make that the first phase came after a meeting with Ministry of Trans­ portation officials and the village engineers. There is a a change of grade at that point that makes it a natural point to hall for the first year. "It's a small enough distance so we can be sure we can complete everything we tear up," he said. The project will involve tearing up the old street, installing sub­ drainage, refilling the street, build­ ing curbs and gutters and repaving the section tom up. VOL. 7 NO. 33 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1991.60 CENTS Minister of Agriculture honours Festival Festival honoured Carol Irwin, president of the Board of Directors of the Blyth Festival accepts a plaque from Elmer Buchanan, Ontario's Minister of Agriculture and Food honouring the Festivial for its contribution to rural development. Also on hand for the presentation Aug 13 was Festival Artistic Director Peter Smith. Mr. Buchanan was in Blyth to attend a performance at the Festival. Rutabaga committee gets advice Blyth village councillors, Wednesday night, offered their moral support but said they couldn't get involved offering financial sup­ port to the Blyth Rutagaba Festival committee at this time. Committee members appeared before council to get an answer to their request, made at the July 17 meeting of council, that council make a sizable donation tn »he Fes­ tival. "We seriously kicked (the idea) back and forth and talked about it but the feeling of council was that in light of the fact it's an election year, we are not entitled to encum­ ber another council," Reeve Albert Wasson said. However, he said that councillors would hope and expect that the new council would at least follow the precedent of the present council and expend a $5000 interest-free loan to the committee to help it gel started with its planning. Reeve Wasson said that likely the best way for councillors to help the Festival would for each to become individually involved. Councillors agreed there should be communica­ tions between the committee and council. .Lynn Logue of the Rutabaga Committee asked if the committee could be assured it could still have its $5000 interest free loan. Reeve Wasson said he couldn't guarantee it, since it will be up to the new council after the Nov. 12 election, but he thought it likely the new council would go along with the established precedent. "Il's safe to say," added Council lor Steven Sparling, "it's our opin­ ion that we would recommend to the next council to at least go along with the loan." Council hoped that business people would rally around the weekend festival as they had Continued on page 3. Ontario Agriculture Minister Elmer Buchanan was in Blyth Tuesday, Aug. 13 to present the Blyth Festival with an award and attend the theatre. After attending a dinner at the Blyth Inn, Mr. Buchanan and mem­ bers of his staff presented a plaque to Carol Irwin, Board President and Peter Smith, Artistic Director. He praised the Festival for its contribu­ tion to rural development in south­ western Ontario. The plaque reads: "in recognition of the Blyth Festi­ val's continuing excellence in pre­ senting the dramatic arts and for enhancing rural life in Ontario". Mr. Buchanan made the presenta­ tion on the lawn of Memorial Hall before attending The Two Brothers starring Ted Johns who had been a guest at the dinner. The night at the theatre was part of a two-day visit to Huron in which Mr. Buchanan visited Cen­ tralia College, Hensall Co-op, the location of the new Ontario Min­ istry of Agriculture and Food build­ ing in Clinton and spoke to the Goderich and District Chamber of Commerce. Brett Lee 2nd in U.S. Nationals A Walton-area youth is riding high after finishing second in two classes at the U.S. National Ama­ teur Moto-cross championship in Tennessee last week. Brett Lee, 16, who rode in both the 125 Novice modified class and the 125 Novice stock class, finished jehind a rider from Texas, after the lomplelion of six races. "He actu- illy beat the winner in one race, but couldn't beat him often enough," says Breit's father, Chris, who also competed at the event, finishing fourth overall in the 40 plus class. They earned the right to compete after each placed in the Canadian Nationals; Chris in first, Brett in the top seven. About 1000 riders from virtually every comer of the United States and parts of Canada, participated in the U. S. event, which is held yearly at Loretta Lynn's dude ranch. For Brett it was a thrilling victo­ ry. A more popular sport in the slates than here, most of the lop rid- Continued on page. 8.