The Citizen, 2019-06-13, Page 1CitizenTh
e
$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, June 13, 2019
Volume 35 No. 24
EXCERPT - Pg. 11
Sawchuk’s ‘Shine’
chapter continues
ART - Pg. 23
Festival Art Gallery to
open its 44th season
SPORTS - Pg. 8
F.E. Madill track athletes
heading to provincial meet
Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0
INSIDE
THIS WEEK:
Bailey continues push for county building in Blyth
Farm
tour on
Sunday
North Huron Reeve Bernie Bailey
is looking for support to move
Huron County’s staff offices to
Blyth.
Bailey, who first brought the issue
up after joining Huron County
Council as North Huron’s
representative, explained to The
Citizen that his plan will require
buy-in from everyone, especially
North Huron ratepayers.
“What’s happening is, when I first
got on Huron County Council, staff
said they wanted to rebuild or
relocate the Huron County
building,” he said. “They don’t have
all the staff in one building, so it
makes sense to relocate it.”
He said that, as a Huron County
resident, he was frustrated when he
had to drive to multiple places for
different branches of county
administration, highlighting the fact
that offices were located across
Goderich and across the county.
“We can’t build onto existing
buildings,” he said. “That isn’t an
option.”
When he joined Huron County
Council, the established narrative
was that the building would be
located on part of the former
Victoria Public School property,
located on Highway 21 in the middle
of Goderich.
“George Finch [Mayor of South
Huron] put a motion forward to
locate the building in the centre of
Huron County,” Bailey explained,
which got him thinking about Blyth.
He said there is a disparity in
growth in the county, with
communities located north of the
Highway 8 corridor not being the
focus of the same kind of attention
as communities like Exeter or
Goderich.
“We don’t have a port, or London
or Stratford to draw from,” he said.
“If we put that county building in
Blyth, in the centre of Huron
County, that’s going to help
everyone to the north, including
Howick, Morris-Turnberry and
North Huron. One-hundred-and-
seventy people will be working out
of that building, which will give the
main streets in those communities
more volume.”
Bailey said that, when Huron
County was first formed, it made
sense to have government
congregated in Goderich as many
people were coming into the
harbour. Now, however, with most
traffic happening on local highways,
it makes more sense to centralize the
government so that every Huron
County ratepayer is driving similar
distances to access those resources.
“Everyone north of Highway 8
should have the same rights as
everyone else,” he said. “County
Council has to understand that
Goderich is a long way to travel for
people from places like Gorrie,
Wroxeter and Belmore.”
Bailey isn’t pushing for the site to
be in North Huron as much as he’s
stating that, by his measuring, Blyth
is closest to the centre of Huron
County.
“If the county wants to put it in
Central Huron, near the edge of the
Blyth, I would suggest that North
Huron would be glad to help with
infrastructure and services,” he said,
adding the same would be said if it
was in Morris-Turnberry. “There is
no tax advantage because this
facility won’t pay taxes, but it has an
District 8 of the Ontario
Association of Agricultural
Societies (OAAS) will be
highlighting Blyth and Brussels
farms for the third year of its wildly-
popular Father’s Day farm tour
event.
Set for Sunday, June 16, there will
be one six-stop tour route with two
start points, one in the Blyth area,
beginning with registration at
Nature’s Nest in Londesborough,
and the second beginning at the Four
Winds Barn in Brussels.
Registration begins at 11:30 a.m.
with the tour running until 4 p.m.
Four of the stops are in the
Brussels area, while two are in the
Blyth and Londesborough areas.
The hope of organizers is that
those attending will leave
themselves enough time to do all six
stops on both routes.
The six stops are a closely-
guarded secret, says Brian
Schlosser, secretary/treasurer of the
Brussels Agricultural Society, but all
will be revealed that day when those
who take the tour are given their
guide pamphlet.
Schlosser says that in the first two
years of the tour, it has proven to be
extremely popular, with people
coming from Toronto to attend it.
The first year, the tour was held in
the Seaforth and Bayfield areas,
followed by Listowel, Monkton and
Milverton in the second year.
Schlosser said that the
organization is preparing for
approximately 700 people for the
tour, which is no small feat.
District 8 of the OAAS
Centre of attention
Wingham was the place to be this weekend with events
happening throughout the community. Above, the Lexi
Brown Memorial Soccer Tournament was held at F.E. Madill
School and Galbraith Field, welcoming teams from
Wingham, Lucknow, Brussels and Saugeen. In the final game at
the Madill field, Lucknow bested Wingham by a score of 2-0.
Throughout the community, the Musical Muskrat Festival brought
fun and games to Wingham all weekend. (Denny Scott photo)
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 3
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 10