The Citizen, 2001-05-02, Page 1Pg. 2
Pg. 6
Optimists present
big cheque
Cape Canaveral trip
'awesome'
pg. 18 Blyth folk artist wins
first at major event
e Citizen
Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County
Volume 17 No. 18
Wednesday, May 2, 2001
75 Cents (70c + 5c GST)
[NORTH HURON PUBLISHING COMPANY INC
Inside this week
Parents
left
hanging
By Stew Slater
Special to The Citizen
The council of North Huron held a
meeting on Monday night to begin
budget talks.
The process is expected to take
several meetings, according to
Director of Finance/Treasurer Donna
White, thus it will be some time before
the impact to ratepayers will be known.
"Obviously there will be no type of
projection for tax rates as yet, because
we haven't got all the department
budgets in," said White.
Clerk-Administrator John Stewart
explained that it had been decided the
best way to attack the process would
be to go through the entire budget first.
"It's like getting the wish list of each
department, then putting it together to
see what we can actually proceed with
this year."
At the April 30 meeting, which took
close to three hours, councillors
reviewed road operations, road capital,
drainage, sanitary sewers, sanitation,
and water.
Stewart said much of the discussion
was for information as Blyth and East
Wawanosh councillors had questions
regarding certain Wingham items and
vice-versa.
The next budget meeting set for May
10 will be dedicated to recreation,
which White assumes will be the
biggest, as it involves many different
areas, including the Wingham airport
and Blyth Memorial Hall.
A third meeting will deal with
remaining departments, such as
recycling and planning and
development. Then, White said,
council will meet to consolidate the
information, after which a final
meeting will be set to look at the tax
rate.
Despite the work ahead, White
hopes that the process will move along
smoothly. "A lot depends on how the
next meeting goes."
Both Stewart and White were
pleased with how well the meeting
went. "But until we get the whole
picture we won't know what the
impact will be." White re-iterated.
Recently the Toronto SkyDome
made headline news when large
sections of the roof were peeled back
and showered the stadium floor with
debris. One man paying particular
interest to this story was Matt Lee,
because he will soon have a major
part to play there.
At 7 p.m. Friday, May 18 the
SkyDome is hosting the first
Supercross event in several years
and Lee has responsibility for track
design, construction and
maintenance during the event so any
hint of disruption is cause - for
apprehension.
The day before the event he will be
getting off his tractor at his sheep
farm near Auburn and getting onto
another tractor at the SkyDome with
a whole different purpose. Overnight
he will mastermind the sculpturing
of the stadium floor into a closed
offroad race course using four
thousand cubic yards of soil, a crack
team of his favourite heavy
equipment operators and a
meticulously designed blueprint.
The track must be designed to
protect the stadium floor, challenge
the talents of some of the best
supercross riders in North America
and showcase them to over 50,000
rabid fans. The difficulty of the
layout and obstacles must reward the
most daring and skilled racers and
allow the side-by-side bar banging
high flying action that thrills
spectators.
Then, before dawn, it must be
dismantled and everything removed
in a matter of hours.
The original Toronto Supercross
that enjoyed a 16-year run, first at
Exhibition Stadium and later at
SkyDome, died in 1996. In its
heyday the event attracted an
average attendance of 42,000
spectators.
The 2001 event features a full
program of real stadium motocross
racing. The classes include 250cc
Pro, 125cc Pro-Am, ATV Pro, a 50cc
PeeWee support class and an
extreme jump contest.
A few confirmed stars are Blair
Morgan, Chuck Mesley, JSR, Mike
Craig, Craig Decker, Josh Woods,
Sean Hamblin, Brad Hagseth, Darcy
Lange, Doug Dehaan and Marco
Dube.
The new supercross is a joint
initiative of Montreal Supercross
impresario Pierre Corbeil and
CMRC President Mark Stallybrass.
For Lee, being designated track
manager for such r. high profile event
is one of the highlights of a 10-year
career which has included being a
pro motocrosser, motocross teacher,
track designer and promoter of the
annual Walton TransCan National
Championship, Canada's premier
outdoor motocross event.
For more information on Toronto
Supercross visit
http://www.torontosupercross.com
or call 905-642-5607.
The hopes of a group of Walton-
area students and parents were left
hanging on results from a meeting
on May 8, after debate on their
concern was cut short by what Avon
Maitland District School Board
chair Wendy Anderson called a
point of parliamentary procedure.
Val Pethick, spokesperson for the
group, made a scheduled delegation
to the board at a regular meeting
Tuesday, April 24. She asked
trustees to consider a refusal by the
board to provide specialized
transportation next year for three
students within the Seaforth District
High School (SDHS) catchment
area, who have been accepted to
attend Central Huron Secondary
School in Clinton.
Following the delegation, Pethick
answered a question from Stratford
trustee Meg Westley, explaining
that her son and two other students,
currently in Grade 8, wish to attend
Central Huron because it offers a
wider range of technical-based
courses than SDHS.
She also told Wingham-area
trustee Colleen Schenk she would
like the board to provide some
reason not to give up on the
transportation issue and seek
admittance and transportation to the
Huron-Perth Catholic District
School Board's St. Anne's
Secondary School, also in Clinton.
"We'd kind of like to know where
we stand for September," Pethick
said. "If a motion could be made
tonight, that would be great."
Following that response,
Northwest Huron representative
Butch Desjardins proposed
deferring the issue to the May 8
meeting, while directing board staff
to gather relevant information in the
meantime. Desjardins' motion was
approved, then Anderson obliged
Seaforth trustee Charles Smith in
his request to speak.
However, after Smith had only
succeeded in introducing a desire to
discuss the board's border-crossing
policy, he was interrupted by
Anderson and asked to stop.
Anderson claimed she had made a
procedural error in allowing Smith
to speak, stating the matter must be
officially closed after a motion to
defer.
Following the meeting, Pethick
explained she was told by Avon
Maitland staff the only solution
would be to drive 20 miles per day
to take her son to a predetermined
pick-up point for students destined
for Clinton.
However, she is aware of one
other student from the Walton area
who already gets bused to
Winthrop, then transfers onto a
Clinton bus, through a cooperative
effort with the Catholic board. She
wonders why a similar arrangement
couldn't be devised for next year's
three prospective border-crossers.
"We would prefer not to change
systems. We would prefer to stay
with this WIN." Pethick said.
Appreciative grist
With a plate full of food, a grin and a twinkle in her eye, young Jessica Procter was just one of
the many residents who enjoyed the ham and scalloped potato supper held at Knox United
Church Belgrave, April 24.
Lee to design track at Dome
Pg'
Pinsent discusses
19 Blyth premiere
School bds. say
Pg. 20 gov't. should heed
recommendations
N. Huron
talks
budget
By Bonnie Gropp
Citizen staff