The Citizen, 2018-03-08, Page 1INSIDE
THIS WEEK:
HOMELESSNESS - Pg. 6
What can be done about
the homeless population?
DONATIONS - Pg. 9
IPM begins rolling out
donations to local groups
FESTIVAL - Pg. 19
Blyth Festival production
heads for National Arts Centre
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Volume 34 No. 10
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Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, March 8, 2018
Coming at you
The Blyth Brussels Novice Local League Burgundy Crusaders were on the ice early Saturday
morning to continue their push in the late weekends of the hockey season. The locals were in
action at the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre against a team from Lucknow and
in the end it was Blyth Brussels who managed the 4-1 win. (Quinn Talbot photo)
NH to keep Wingham Police
Daylight Saving
Time Begins
Clocks go ahead one hour
Sundayarch 11 at Y m
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
North Huron Council laid the
debate to rest on Monday night,
voting to keep the Wingham Police
Service in Wingham
In a recorded vote, all council
members except Wingham Ward
representative Councillor Trevor
Seip voted to keep the Wingham
Police Service over switching to the
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
Seip, prior to the vote, said he
would respect the decision of
council but feels that North Huron,
and specifically Wingham
ratepayers, are at a crossroads and
difficult decisions need to be made
regarding servicing in the future.
He said that the only way taxes
can be addressed in the ward is to
look at reducing services, however
he said the process that led to the
vote was good, because it showed
what ratepayers wanted.
Councillor Bill Knott reminded
those watching that this decision
was about Wingham's policing and
that any changes to Blyth or East
Wawanosh's police services weren't
part of the discussion.
Knott went on to say the feedback
he had received from Wingham
ratepayers had been
overwhelmingly in support of
keeping the Wingham Police
Service, despite any potential
savings the OPP might provide.
The decision puts to rest months
of debate and special meetings
regarding the issue, however council
now has to face the request from the
Wingham Police Association to
double the number of active officers,
a change which will have a $400,000
impact on the municipality's annual
budget.
IPM confirms local
impact of $4.5 mil.
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
The committee behind last
September's International Plowing
Match (IPM) held its final all -chairs
meeting last week and whether it
was attendance figures, banding
together in the face of adversity or
donating money to local charities,
there were plenty of reasons for
members to pat each other on the
back.
IPM Chair Jacquie Bishop emceed
the event and shared some survey
results with the assembled
volunteers that painted an
encouraging picture of those who
attended the match and its impact on
Huron County.
Thanks to over $3.5 million in
non -local spending on
accommodations, merchandise,
concessions, tickets, etc. and nearly
$1 million in local spending, mostly
on tickets, concessions and
merchandise, the match had a local
economic impact of $4,498,824.
That doesn't take into account the
tens of thousands of dollars that will
be donated to local charities in the
coming months.
A total of 520 visitor surveys were
completed on the site by
agriinsights — the company was
unable to reach its goal of 600 due to
the cancellation of Sept. 20 — and,
surprisingly, nearly 60 per cent of
those surveyed at the match did not
work in the agricultural field.
Even with the weather-related
closure on Sept. 20, 76,562 people
passed through the IPM's gates in
Walton. Agriinsights found that each
person averaged 1.5 visits and that
the match saw just under 50,000
unique visitors.
Visitors were split 51 per cent to
49 per cent between local (living 40
kilometres or less from the site) and
non -local (over 40 kilometres from
the site). In addition, over 8,200
visitors came through organized
school group visits.
Over 70 per cent of those who
visited the IPM in September were
born before 1970, with just 28 per
cent being born after 1970. Fifty-
eight per cent of those who attended
the match were male, with 42 per
cent of visitors listed as female.
Thirty-six per cent of the match's
total visitors came from its home
county of Huron, followed by 15 per
cent from Perth, nine per cent from
Bruce, eight per cent from
Middlesex, six per cent each from
Wellington and Grey, four per cent
from Lambton, three per cent each
from Waterloo and Oxford, two per
cent from Toronto and one per cent
from Dufferin. The report also made
note of several international visitors,
making their way to Walton all the
way from New Zealand, Ireland,
France and the Netherlands.
The vast majority, 65 per cent, of
visitors came to Walton for one day,
while 14 per cent attended all five
days of the match, despite the
closure.
Thirteen per cent of those who
attended the match were at an IPM
for the first time, while 22 per cent
were visitors who go to the IPM
every year.
When the question was asked
whether or not visitors would return
to the IPM for Sunday, if it were
open for an extra day given the
weather-related closure on Sept. 20,
over three-quarters of respondents
said they would have.
The lunch committee said they
made 4,700 sandwiches over the
course of week, while Matt
Townsend, head of the RV park, said
they nearly sold out of campsites
with 1,326 sites sold, only nine short
of a sell-out.
At the special meeting of the
committee chairs, held on Feb. 27 at
Blyth Cowbell Brewing Company,
Bishop said that in the six months
since the match, the committee's
impact had been felt throughout the
community.
"Not a day goes by that I don't
hear a comment thanking us for
what a great job we did," Bishop
said. "I'm very proud to have been
involved and we did make a
difference."
Over the course of the night,
Bishop and Secretary Lynne Godkin
called up committee chairs to share
some of their memories of the match
and accept cheques portioned out
from the IPM proceeds. Each
committee was given $2,000 to
donate to a charity/charities of their
choice within Huron County for a
total of over $100,000. That is in
addition to $42,000 that has already
been handed out to local service
groups that volunteered at the IPM.
Bishop, however, said that she
expects there will be even more
money to be handed out, although
with the financial statements yet to
be finalized, she said that couldn't
yet be confirmed.
The committee donations are as
follows:
• Huron 4-H Tent Chair Jolande
Oudshoorn is donating $2,000 to the
Huron County 4-H Leaders'
Association
• Accessibility Chair Charlene
O'Reilly is donating $1,500 to the
Huron Respite Network and $500 to
Dream Big 2018 — Foundations
Huron
• Accommodations Chair Cindy
Fisher is donating $2,000 to Huron
Residential Hospice
• Administration Chair Corrie
Forbes is donating $1,000 to the
Huron County 4-H Association and
$1,000 to Community Living
• Airport Chairs Kevin Melady
Continued on page 12