The Citizen, 2001-01-31, Page 1W E 1..p.OME:70
/ ri P • .1-1. -
IESTABUSTIED 1877
Inside this week
Pa 6 Spending time with
the little people
pg. 10 Some skating
carnival highlights
pg 1
Id
2 Jamestown
landmark honoured
Dr, c Pork producers
I 5,1 meet in Varna
pg i"
(.; School boards apply
jointly for loan
Collision
Traffic was backed up at the corner of Queen and Turnberry Streets Brussels mid-morning last
Thursday, when a pick-up, driven by Chad Fischer of Brussels collided with a van, driven by
James Campbell, 36, of Egmondville. Fischer was taken to Listowel hospital, while three-year-
old Kiernyn Campbell, who was a passenger in the van, went to Seaforth hospital. According
to Huron OPP, Fischer failed to see the oncoming vehicle as he pulled into the intersection to
turn left.
e Citizen
Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County
J
Volume 17 No. 5 Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2001 75 Cents (70c + 5c GST)
Trustee submits weighty notices
The Total Approach Initiative
team studying the Lower Blyth
Brook is inviting residents to attend
an open house and community
meeting Feb. 1. This meeting was
originally scheduled for December
b u t
had to be cancelled -due to poor
weather.
• The open house will be held in the
lower meeting room of Blyth
Memorial Hall from 2:30 p.m. to 5
p.m. The community meeting will
run from -7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the
same location.
Alison Lobb, chair of the Total
Approach Initiative, said, "The
open house is an opportunity for
both rural and village residents to
stop by and see how the project is
progressing. At the meeting we
hope to generate interest in
developing community projects that
will improve water quality and
address other local environmental
concerns."
At both events team members will
be sharing information on the
results of recent water quality
testing in the Blyth .Brook and
summarizing responses to the recent
community survey on best
management practices.
Displays on a variety cif topics
relating to best management
practices will also be on view. For
example visitors will be able to get
information on the
Conservation authorities are still
waiting on government regulations
to determine what, if any, changes
need to be made to the water
management systems at area parks.
Phil Beard, general manager of the
Maitland Valley Conservation.
Authority said sites such as Falls
Reserve, which serve 50,000 to
60,000 people per season, has had a
chlorination system for about 10
By Stew Slater
Special to The Citizen
In a Tuesday, Jan. 22 meeting of
the Avon Maitland District School
Board in which Trustee Charles
Smith was often conspicuous due
either to his dissenting vote or his
failure to vote, the Seaforth-area
representative provided an unusual
conclusion by distributing two
weighty "notices of motion" dealing
with the future of Seaforth District
High School (SDHS).
Smith, who spearheaded a
successful legal battle to save the
school last year, distributed 148-
page packages to board
administration, fellow trustees and
the media following the regular
accomplishments and plans of the
Blyth community Greenway
Committee, find out how to
participate in the Environmental
Farm Plan, and learn about tree
planting services offered by the
Maitland Valley Conservation
Authority.
The focus of the Total Approach
Initiative is on improving water
quality in the lower Blyth Brook by
encouraging the adoption of best
management practices by village
and rural residents.
Best management practices are
defined by the Ontario Ministry of
Agriculture, Food and Rural
Affairs as "practical, affordable
approaches to conserving soil, water
and other natural resources in rural
areas" including nutrient
management, and appropriate
cropping and tillage.
The use of best management
practices has proven environmental
and economic benefits to
landowners.
The Total Approach team hopes
that the open house and meeting
will spark community interest in
developing a strategy to support the
adoption or continued use of best
management practices along the
Lower Blyth Brook.
Everyone is welcome to attend.
Light refreshments will be served
and visitors are invited to enter a
draw for a variety of door prizes.
years.
However, Galbraith Conservation
Area in North Perth, a site leased to
the local Optimists club for Camp
for Kids, may require changes, he
said, as the provincial government
sets out regulations for small
waterworks systems.
Beard does not yet know how day-
use facilities such as the Wawanosh
Nature Centre may be affected.
board meeting. The information was
accompanied by two groups of
proposed motions, one dealing with
the board's amendments to its school
closure policies in the wake of last
year's SDHS court case and the
other tackling the recent controversy
over floor repair in the high school's
gymnasium.
"You do realize we'll have to
provide copies of all this information
to anyone in the public who wants
it?" asked Chair Wendy Anderson, to
which Smith responded in the
affirmative.
The Most intricate of the two
groupings was the list of requested
amendments to the board's school
closure policy. In his set of motions,
Smith seeks 12 separate changes to
Board Policy #29, which was
approved on Oct. 10, 1999 to replace
two former policies. He also requests
that each of the amendments be
voted on separately.
Among them are attempts to give
greater influence over the fate of
threatened schools to community-
based study groups, called School
Accommodation Review
Committees in the existing Board
Policy #29. One motion asks that
these committees be involved earlier
in the process, along with affected
school councils. Elsewhere, Smith
suggests the "recommendations and
report" of both the school council
and the Accommodation Review
Committee be considered more
thoroughly at later stages. And
there's a request to allow these
community-based groups to look
beyond "currently available and
relevant school district statistical
information" into the realm of "such
other relevant information as may
relate to the general social and
economic effects on the
community."
On the issue of the SDHS
gymnasium floor, Smith's double-
barreled notice of motion came in
response to what he believed was a
contravention of his powers as a
trustee during the regular board
meeting of Dec. 13, 2000.
At that time, Smith reacted to a
delegation from concerned citizens
by attempting to gain support for an
ad hoc committee to study the gym
floor issue, but his motion was
superseded -when a majority of
trustees supported a request for
further information from staff.
On Jan. 15, Smith wrote Anderson
to complain, arguing the motion for
further information was out of order
and charging that his "fear that my
influence and power as a trustee was
in danger of becoming marginalized
. . . found very early justification."
Anderson replied the following
day, defending her actions, attaching
a list of reasons why she found the
Dec. 13 meeting frustrating, and
advising that "efforts are underway
to organize a workshop on the
subject" of parliamentary procedure.
The two letters were included as
information for the Jan. 23 meeting,
as was an update on the gymnasium.
The floor "started buckling due to
moisture under the floor boards," the
update states. A laboratory analysis
confirmed the presence of mould,
but results from further tests to
determine the source and variety of
mould "will not be known for at least
three to four weeks."
Smith's two-part notice of motion
renews his call for the establishment
of an ad hoc committee, and suggests
no action be taken until the
committee "reports back to the
board."
But included with the notice is a
series of points related to the future
use of the school, and a request that
"the committee's terms of reference
include investigation of the
feasibility of other options to retain
and enhance the enrollment at
Seaforth District High School." This
is in keeping with the concerned
citizens group's assertion that the
construction of a new gym could be
part of a larger plan to ultimately
save the school through diversifying
its use.
Smith's notices of motion are
expected to be dealt with in
February, and he has requested
recorded votes in each case.
The Seaforth-area trustee was
noticeable for_ varied reasons
throughout the Jan. 23 meeting,
including during normally routine
procedural matters. Prior to the
approval of the evening's agenda, he
Continued on page 7
Total Approach Team
reschedules meeting
for this Thursday
MVCA uncertain what
regulations may bring