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The Citizen, 1994-06-15, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15,1994. The North Huron P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont N0M1H0 Phono 523-47! FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont NOG 1H0 Phono 887-9114 FAX 887-9021 CNA Publisher, Keith Roulston Editor, Bonnie Gropp Sales Representatives, Jeannette McNeil and Julie Mitchell raio The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $20.50/year ($19.16 plus $1.34 G.S.T.) for local; $31.03/year ($29.00 plus $2.03 G.S.T.) for local letter carrier in Goderich, Hanover, Listowel, etc. and out-of-area (40 miles from Brussels); $60.00/year for U.S.A, and Foreign. 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. We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright. Publications Mail Registration No. 6968 E ditorial ' ... . I Study, study, study Pressured by the Ontario Clean Water Agency (a new government agency that looks after sewer and water matters), Blyth council last week agreed to undertake a study for the future expansion of the village's sewage treatment plant. Brussels council is facing the same pressure but as of its meeting last week, was determined not to undertake the study. The cost of the study to local taxpayers is not the issue here. With a provincial grant to cover 85 per cent of the cost, local taxpayers will only have to pick up a bill of about $5,000. Councillors worry about what will come next, however. The Clean Water Agency wants them to build additional storage capacity at the plants, at an estimated cost of $400,000 for each village. Both councils agree they simply can't afford that, even if the Clean Waler Agency does pick up 70 per cent of the cost. Councillors are urged to go ahead with the study because the 85 per cent grant is already in place. Do the study now and it will be in place for the future if you should need to expand, they hear. But why waste taxpayers' money (because after all the provincial money comes from the taxpayers too) if there is no future for the expansion project, councillors wonder. They wonder if they're swallowing a hook that will see them eventually get the expansion whether they can afford it or not. Their cynicism isn't totally unjustified. While no one can argue that councils should get as much information as possible before making decisions, sometimes these studies seem to get carried away. If there has been one growth industry in the past decade it has been feasibility studies. Consulting companies have mushroomed, fueled by the urge of governments to have the security of an "independent" study to back their actions. Often municipalities and private groups seeking government funding must hire a consulting firm before the work goes ahead. Thus Huron County must hire an expensive consulting group to go through the process of finding a landfill site in the county. Thus the Blyth Festival had to hire a consultant before it would undertake its expansion process in the late 1980s. To make this more palatable, the province dishes out liberal amounts of money. While some consulting firms do a good job and earn their money, this whole business is becoming an expensive, time-consuming exercise that loo often is wasted money and effort. By urging Blyth and Brussels to undertake a study for a project they can't foresee ever building, the Clean Water Agency seems to be making this one more example of spending money for the sake of spending money. — KR Kids aren’t toys Watching television these days, listening to people talk about their desire for children, one would sometimes think children were another gadget to be added to the perfect home, not a serious responsibility. Last week the screen was filled with pictures of caring gay or lesbian couples who were proving they could be good parents. They were talking about their right to have children, by adoption or artificial insemination. Other times we've heard couples who are having trouble having children angry because government health care was going to cut back funding for programs to help them overcome infertility problems. We have couples postponing having children as long as possible while they enjoy the good life, then realizing in a panic that perhaps having a child is part of the good life and that the biological clock is running out. At the same lime we have others who say government should provide child care so they can have children without interfering with their careers. And of course we have people who want to be able to have an abortion when having a child might be inconvenient to their career or their living standard. Sometimes it seems we have loo much control over our own lives. There was a time when having a child was as much an accident of nature as a conscious decision. People accepted it. They saw children as a responsibility, not as toys to be played with when it was convenient and left to others to look after when it wasn't. Sometimes it seems that people look at what children can do for them, rather than what they can do for the children. They see children as something they need to complete their lives, like a new CD player or a winter vacation. They want it all, career, lifestyle and, just in case they might be missing something, children. It's hard work raising kids. Maybe it's time people looked at that responsibility, not just at the pretty picture of them cuddling a baby. The end is near Photo by Janice Becker Letters Treatment upsets writer THE EDITOR, I have always been pleased and proud to be a citizen of Brussels. Imagine my surprise and delight upon reading the May 25th edition of The Citizen, to discover I was being acclaimed for being just that. It is the caring and sharing of our lives with others here that has made Brussels such a special place to live and raise our families. Thank you for the honour of allowing me to be called a Brussels citizen. Joanne King. THE EDITOR, As you are aware, many ratepayers in our township have banded together to form The West Wawanosh Landfill Coalition Group to oppose the choice of our township as a site for a future Huron County Landfill or Dump. As one of the interested parties, my position has been to co-ordinate the committees and assist in pulling together all of the information to present our case to Huron County. This past weekend, Mrs. June Robinson handed in her report on the history of the farms on the sixth concession of West Wawanosh. What an eye opener...all this history on our 6 1/4 mile line! There are 21 farms on this line that have been in the same families for three generations, three farms are fourth generation and the Pentlands are fifth generation. Many of these are century farms. What great history and what a shame much of this continuity could be lost or destroyed if Huron County chooses our community on the 6th Concession for their landfill site. Huron County says they are concerned about agriculture, however they seem to have forgotten the root word of agriculture is "culture". What we are talking about here is cultural survival - the loss of family farms, many of them century farms, is not only a heritage resource lost but the backbone of the community lost. Writer, Wendell Berry, says it best - "The average North American farm is sold and reshaped every generation. To find a third generation farmer is rare. Yet, common sense would identify the third generation farmer as the best keeper of the land. The whole idea of having a succession of people or communities in one place so that there is a memory of what happened and knowledge of mistakes made - how not to repeat them is important. The third generation farmer is not inclined to overwork his land to pay off debt, nor is he satisfied with temporary solutions to long-standing problems as soil erosion - he is on his way to solving the grand relation between a farmer and his land and, beyond that, between a community and the land that sustains it". Thanks to June for the history lesson. I look forward to the publication of the West Wawanosh History book and hope Huron County stops to consider that our "heritage" is the most important thing we can leave for the next generation. Thank you! Bev Grierson P.S. The next meeting of the West Wawanosh Landfill Coalition Group is at 8 p.m. June 24 at the St. Augustine Church. Please come out - we need your support! THE EDITOR, I enjoy reading Arthur Black's column in your paper. It is quite enjoyable and usually good for a laugh. This time however, it struck a nerve. The article in question is from the June 8 edition. Mr. Black commented on a letter he received from a Ken Hertz who suffers from Parkinson's Disease. Mr. Hertz is desperately in need of money for an operation, the fetal-cell implant process, to be exact. He also tells us about the two hitches to this procedure, number one being the cost and number two, it is not covered by an Canadian hospitalization insurance. (Thank God. He forgot the third and most important hitch, however. The fetal-cell implant process requires brain cells from aborted babies if I am not mistaken. That baby might be the one who could have discovered the cure for Parkinson's, or any other disease, or could have been any other contributing member of society, maybe even someone who could laugh, love and write poetry for that matter. The odds don't matter. Mary Sanders Belgrave.