Huron Expositor, 2017-06-14, Page 88 Huron Expositor • Wednesday. June 14. 2017
Some of Huron East council felt flag initiative decision jumped the gun
Shaun Gregory
Huron Expositor
When the Brussels Opti-
mist Club caught wind of
the news last month that
their neighbouring Sea -
forth association was
receiving roughly $550
from the municipality of
Huron East for three new
flagpoles, it only seemed
fair that they be equally
compensated.
On behalf of the Brussels
Optimist Club, Doug
McArter sent a request to
council through emails; he
said there are currently two
flagpoles situated at their
baseball diamond.
These present flagpoles
are replaced with new flying
flags each year, thanks to
outside donations, McArter
is sure if three were readily
available on hand that would
be "much easier to
maintain."
"Just add(s) one more
nice feature to our already
incredible ball diamond,"
he stated in an email May
30.
As an incentive to influ-
ence council's decision,
McArter mentioned a time
when the Optimists' Ball
Park Rejuvenation commit-
tee applied for a loan for
$50,000 from the municipal-
ity to create the baseball
park in Brussels.
McArter said all those
funds were reimbursed
after the project was
completed.
Although council is
more than willing to help
with financial deeds con-
nected to both Optimist
Clubs, CAO of 1luron East,
Brad Knight told
the Expositor, if a proce-
dural by-law had been fol-
lowed properly the origi-
nal endowment to
Seaforth, may not have
been approved.
When council accepted
the request for the Seaforth
Optimist Club May 2,
Knight cited section 17.11
of the Procedural By-law
43-2015; it requires such
decisions involving finan-
cial propositions to be
looked at in a more thor-
ough manner.
Instead, council tempo-
rarily deferred the by-law
with a 2/3 majority and
voted on the initial request
of the Seaforth Optimist
Club.
"There have been times
when the requests for finan-
cial contributions are vague
and the procedure allows
council to avoid making a
snap decision or to make
inaccurate comments,"
stated Knight in a two-page
report found on the Huron
East website.
Relating to the flagpole
undertakings, Knight con-
siders the two as cosmetic
rather than necessity and
said there are multiple facili-
ties in Huron East with
"higher priorities."
Especially since in 2013,
Huron East already contrib-
uted $22,500 to be put
towards a new backstop and
Huron East council decided to give the Brussels Optimist Club money for new flagpoles even though some of staff believe it's not
necessarily a need. But since they already gave the Seaforth Optimist Club the go ahead for the same request, they felt that they must
compensate Brussels Optimist Club as well.
bleachers at the Seaforth
Optimist Club.
What's done is done and
Knight said council would
still maintain its promise to
Seaforth's Optimist Club as
well as Brussels.
"Council made the com-
mitment," he said and
added that both contribu-
tions will come out of the
respected designated
reserves from both towns
rather than the general
levy.
Early
deadline for
July 5th
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53 Albert St., Clinton
PH: 519-482-3443
Tuckersmith Coun. says municipality's
website needs to have a more clear
route to emergency contacts
Shaun Gregory
Huron Expositor
After hearing a complaint,
Tuckersmith Coun. Larry
McGrath said it's apparent
that the municipality of
Huron East's website does
not have a clear and precise
method of contact in emer-
gency situations during
after-hours.
McGrath brought this to
council's attention June 6,
upon receiving a com-
plaint from a local man
NOTICE
ANNUAL COMMUNITY WIDE YARD SALE
MUNICIPALITY OF CENTRAL HURON
The Annual Community Wide Yard Sale will be held on
Saturday, July 1, 2017. The yard sale license and fee will be
waived for this day only.
If you would like to be included in the listing, please
register at the Municipal Office, 23 Albert St., Clinton,
phone (519)482-3997 or email info@centralhuron.com, by
Monday, June 26, 2017. A complete listing will be available
for pickup at the Municipal Office or the Tourist Booth
Thursday, June 29, 2017 and will also be available on our
website: www.centralhuron.com.
ea orthhuronex + ositor.co
who had an overflow in his
basement.
"If we had a tree on the
road or we had a wash out,
who would we call,"
McGrath said while men-
tioning that most times
when this happens, it's the
councillors who are called.
"I went on the website
and there is no emergency
number to shut the water
off."
McGrath suggested the
number be added to the web-
site "at the very top" where
locals can visually spot it
somewhat easy, he said most
sites have contact informa-
tion "buried at the bottom"
It could be broken down
in two emergency contacts
for the primary concerns
from residents -road depart-
ment and sewers, he said.
CAO of Huron East, Brad
Knight called the Huron
East office number after
hours, which is 519-527-
0160 and he said it does pro-
vide the emergency contact
information through an
answering service, however
he admitted that the website
should be more "explicit"