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The Citizen, 2003-12-24, Page 1Volume 19 No. 50 Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2003 $1 (93c + 7c gst) Three shepherds Bringing gifts for the new baby during the Grey Central Public School’s Christmas concert are three shepherds, Emily Baker, Evan Smith and David Egger. The students presented their annual Concert last Week. (Elyse DeBruyn photo) Festival has deficit for 2003 Bloom committee presents budget to North Huron Declines in tourism through fears caused by SARS and to the farm economy through the BSE scare helped diminish audiences at the 2003 Blyth Festival and lead to a $157,000 deficit for the year. The annual general meeting of the Blyth Centre for the Arts was told Thursday that with attendance down, box office revenues were only $424,528, well down from the projected $529,330. Government grants were also down nearly $30,000 from the budget. In delivering the bad news, Ron Burt, of the auditing firm of Takalo and Burt said while the deficit was serious, “it’s not the end of the world.” Noting the Festival still has net assets of $282,086 he said “(the situation) isn’t as bad as it looks but it is challenging.” Artistic director Eric Coates noted that the most popular plays in the season were the final two productions of Having Hope at No more second chances for irresponsible dog owners By Bonnie Gropp Citizen editor North Huron’s animal control officer Bob Trick gave his annual Update to council Dec. 15 - and made a request for less leniency. Sorry, our mistake The cutline for the ‘Ground­ breaking ceremony’ picture on the front page of last week’s Citizen may have caused a wrong impression. The correct name for the facility being built in Blyth is the Emergency Home and Bamboozled and wondered aloud if putting two such plays at the beginning of the season might have created more momentum. He said many of the people who attend the Festival are “fiercely loyal” to the point they express discontent if they don’t like what’s on stage. While rewarding the loyal audience the Festival must also build new supporters, he said, noting only five per cent of those attending the Festival this year were newcomers. While acknowledging that 2003 had been a difficult year, President Carol Oriold spoke excitedly about the 30th anniversary season upcoming in 2004. Also with the arrival of Jane Gardner as the new general manager in April, Oriold said she was so excited about the new management team at the Festival that she had decided to stay Currently, if a dog owner is caught not scooping, they are given a warning for the first offence. However, Trick stated that he has a problem with this as it’s difficult to catch people in the act. Storeowners have complained about people Services Training Centre (EST). The centre is not to be used primarily for Blyth firefighters or crew, but will be a regional centre. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. on for another year (her fourth) as president. Aside from the theatre season, other branches of the Centre for the Arts reported a good year including the Blyth Festival Art Gallery, Blyth Festival Singers and Blyth Festival Orchestra. Elected as directors were: Eugen Bannerman, Stratford; Ron Deichert, Stratford; Wendy Hoemig, Benmiller; Ila Mathers, Exeter; Carol Oriold, Wroxeter; Keith Roulston, Blyth; Dave Scott, Seaforth; Deb Sholdice, Clinton; Annie Sparling, Blyth; Paul Thompson, Toronto; Sara Trainor, Listowel; Donna Watson, Gorrie; Margaret Webster, Wingham; Bruce Whitmore, Seaforth; and Joe Wooden, Grand Bend. Oriold was re-elected president with Wooden and Sholdice vice- presidents, Deichert as secretary, Roulston as treasurer and Webster as executive member at large. stepping in the messes left behind on municipal streets, then tracking it into the businesses. “I’d like to issue a ticket on the first offence.” Councillor Archie MacGowan agreed. “I think you should. And you’ll only have to issue a few because word will get around.” The motion passed unanimously. Trick stated that he had caught several sick animals as well as a llama. He had the OPP attend with him on one call and the Wingham jtolice Continued on pae 3 By Bonnie Gropp Citizen editor Delegates from Blyth’s Communities in Bloom attended the North Huron council meeting, Dec. 15 to discuss ideas for 2004. And to present a projected budget for these ideas of $18,200. Bev Elliott, chair of the committee, asked for council’s support in order for Blyth to maintain its national Five Bloom rating. She explained that the committee has selected the Friends Division of Communities in Bloom for 2004 which is non-competitive, but commits to local programs or initiatives that would relate to the program. “We can't stop,” said Elliott. “We need to keep doing what we’ve been doing to keep our rating.” Because next year is the 30th anniversary of the Blyth Festival, much of the committee’s strategies centre on Memorial Hall. “It’s a pretty big year for them, a pretty big year for Blyth.” In the budget it was suggested that the benches be replaced for an estimated figure of $4,500. “The old ones are in bad shape. This is the focal part of our community.” The proposal is for granite benches which would, Elliott said, stand up to abuse. Another idea was the automating of the town bell. “It’s been on the program for some time. I think it would be just awesome to bring this back to the ‘Citizen ’ to become Thursday paper Beginning Jan. 8, The Citizen will be reaching local readers on Thursday instead of Wednesday. The changes are necessitated by staff cutbacks at the printing plant where The Citizen is printed. With a night shift being eliminated, printing times for all newspapers were rearranged. The Citizen is normally printed at 2 p.m. on Tuesday afternoons. The two options under the revised printing times were 9 a.m. Tuesday or 9 a.m. Wednesday. “Our first priority in trying to decide which direction to go was what would allow us to maintain or improve the quality of the news we could deliver for readers,” said publisher Keith Roulston. “Printing early on Tuesday would require a deadline for news and advertising of very early Monday morning. With such a deadline, many happenings on the weekend would not be community.” The high estimate is $7,000. Unbudgetted items included the removal of two flag poles with the cross bar at the front of Memorial Hall and replace them with the pole from the water treatment plant. Elliott also mentioned the decorative molding over the front doors, fixing the water fountain and painting the narthex of Memorial Hall. The brick on the north side is in need of replacing. “I think it would be awfully nice to spruce the place up.” In addition to the work around Memorial Hall, the committee budgetted $2,000 for hanging baskets, bridge planters and other flowers; $1,500 for the lights on the crabapple trees, Christmas trees and wreaths, $200 for stepping stones at the Memory Garden and the painting of garbage cans for the Greenway Trail; $300 for contests; $1,000 to refurbish the club signs and $1,000 to send two delegates to the Communities in Bloom ceremony in Charlottetown, PEI, Sept. 17 and 18. There is also a registration entry fee of $300. Councillor Archie MacGowan explained that people now approaching council for budget consideration will have a form to fill out through the economic development department. Council did support the payment of the registration fee and the hanging baskets as these must be ordered early to allow time for growth. included in that week’s newspaper. In order to continue to have a meaningful and timely newspaper for readers we felt the option of printing on Wednesdays was the better one.” The changes will mean deadlines for news and advertisements will remain the same: 2 p.m. Mondays in Brussels and 4 p.m. in Blyth. Ironically, the Thursday publishing date is a return to the tradition of community newspapers dating back to when the Brussels Post and Blyth Standard served the local community. In the early 1980s community ' newspapers began publishing on Wednesdays at the request of some customers who wanted news of their weekly specials to reach customers sooner. Despite those changes, most of those customers now use flyers any- . way.