The Citizen - April 16, 2020

INSIDE THIS WEEK:

HOCKEY - Pg. 7

SPORTS - Pg. 11

VOLUNTEERS - Pg. 14

Atom Rep Crusaders named OMHA co-champions

‘The Citizen’ celebrates local winter sports teams

Wingham Hospital Auxiliary continues to give back

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Volume 36 No. 16

Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County

Thursday, April 16, 2020

COVID-19 found in Listowel

By Denny Scott The Citizen

Essential Today’s world is all about essential services with the dawn of a new day as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and in this new world, we’re being kept afloat by the essential service workers who still punch the clock day in and day out. Thanks to a special order signed by Premier Doug

Ford, the Easter Bunny was able to carry out special holiday work over the weekend after being declared an essential service. In Brussels, the Easter Bunny was spreading cheer over the weekend, all while keeping up with physical distancing and keeping residents safe. (Mark Nonkes photo)

Blyth Lions Club to deliver groceries

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen The Blyth Lions Club is working with the Blyth Food Market to deliver groceries to local senior citizens and others who are selfquarantining to keep safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those wishing to buy their groceries from home can simply call the market at 519-523-4551 and place the order. Market staff will

then collect the requested items and assemble the order before calling the shopper back with a total order cost.

Shoppers will then pay by credit card over the phone and the market staff will provide an approximate delivery time for the order. It will be a member of the Blyth Lions Club who will deliver the shopper’s order, leaving it on their doorstep.

The new community service was set to take effect on Wednesday, April 15.

Long-time Lions Club member John Stewart said there had been unofficial discussion among club members about serving the community in some way during the pandemic and it was member Fred DeBoer who suggested a grocery delivery service.

Stewart brought the suggestion to the Blyth Food Market a few weeks ago and there were some technological kinks to work through before the service could be rolled out.

Testing ‘reserved’ says Klassen

By Denny Scott The Citizen Huron Perth Public Health (HPPH) Team Medical Officer of Health Dr. Miriam Klassen says there are likely numerous unconfirmed cases of COVID-19 throughout the area, however putting a number on those cases is impossible.

Klassen, in an interview with The Citizen on Monday, responded to concern that doctors weren’t able to test likely COVID-19 candidates due to guidelines around testing. She explained that testing is reserved for specific situations.

Klassen explained that, when COVID-19 broke out, Ontario, Canada and the rest of the world were all looking for testing supplies

to determine who has COVID-19, including lab availability, personal protective equipment and the raw materials used for testing, which put a barrier in place for testing everyone.

As a result, priorities had to be set for testing and, over time, those priorities have been adjusted, Klassen said. Now, the priority for Continued on page 2

“It goes back to the root of our organization and its motto, ‘we serve’ and we thought this was something we could do to help the community,” said Stewart in an interview with The Citizen.

With the high number of senior citizens in the community, Stewart said DeBoer felt that keeping people at home and delivering groceries would be a helpful service to provide.

As for the logistics of the deliveries, Stewart said the store will field and fill orders over the course of the day and Lions Club members will pick up orders destined to be delivered at 5 p.m. every evening.

The deliveries will be contactless, Stewart said, with payment having been arranged prior to the delivery.

Upon arrival, the Lions Club members will drop groceries by front doors, not entering homes or apartments.

For more information or to place an order, call the Blyth Food Market at 519-523-4551.

Despite previously saying that location information would not be provided for new COVID-19 cases, the Huron Perth Public Health (HPPH) team announced that a case has been confirmed in the Listowel area.

On April 12, the HPPH announced that a female in her 70s had been hospitalized at Listowel Memorial Hospital. Karl Ellis, President and Chief Economic Officer (CEO) of the Listowel Wingham Hospitals Alliance, said the hospital was prepared for COVID-19 and will “continue to take all precautions to keep our team, our patients and community safe.”

No location information has been provided for the 12 cases outside of Listowel, St. Marys and Stratford.

The Listowel case represents a significant expansion of COVID-19 in the area with previously reported cases being established in South Huron, Stratford and St. Marys, all in the southern portion of the region.

This is the first confirmed case in the north end of the region for which the HPPH provided location information for residents.

As of Monday, there were 32 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Huron and Perth counties: 17 in Stratford, two in St. Marys, six in Perth County outside of those two areas and seven in Huron County. The HPPH has conducted 665 tests across the area with 487 negative, 32 positive and 146 pending.

In the area, two deaths have been linked to COVID-19, one in Stratford and one in St. Marys, while five patients have recovered from the virulent virus: three in Huron County, one in Stratford and one in Perth County outside of St. Marys and Stratford.

Twelve cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in long-term care or retirement homes in the two counties: six residents and five staff in Greenwood Court in Stratford and one resident in Hillside Manor in Sebringville.

The virus has struck individuals of every age in the area including one patient under 19 years old, two between the ages of 20 and 29, three between 30 and 39, two between 40 and 49, seven between 50 and 59, nine between 60 and 69, three between 70 and 79 and five over the age of 80.

The majority of confirmed COVID-19 patients are identified as female (20) while the rest identify as male.

PAGE 2. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020.

Arenas authorized for use Local arenas are being authorized for use as emergency quarantine accommodations in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak at one of the county’s long-term care homes.

At its April 6 meeting, Central Huron Council authorized the use of the Central Huron Community Complex in Clinton in the event of an outbreak at Huronview Home for the Aged in Clinton. Similarly, Mayor and Huron County Warden Jim Ginn said Huron East Council had passed a similar motion for the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre in the event of an outbreak at Huronlea Home for the Aged in Brussels.

There was little discussion about the decision during the meeting, which was attended remotely by councillors and staff. Ginn did say, however, that the plan was to authorize three arenas near longterm care homes for emergency lodging to keep staff safe, but to also

62 again!

prevent them from potentially spreading COVID-19 further. The plan for three centres was also intentional, he said, to keep workers in three different spots so if one does

happen to contract the virus, employees at the other two sites wouldn’t be put at risk. While Ginn spoke about Clinton and Brussels, the third site has yet to be identified.

Thompson named to recovery team The Ontario government is launching a new committee to help the economy prosper in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson will be a member.

Last week, the government announced the formation of the committee, called the Ontario Jobs and Recovery Committee. It will include Thompson as Minister of Government and Consumer Affairs, as well as Minister of Finance Rod

Phillips, Minister of Economic Development Vic Fedeli, Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney, Minister of Health Christine Elliott and President of the Treasury Board Peter Bethlenfalvy. There may be more members appointed in the coming weeks. Ford said that while there would be no non-elected officials on the committee, it would be consulting with many people on the impact of COVID-19 on the economy.

Jack Ryan of Walton, host of the 2017 International Plowing Match, marked his 82nd birthday over the weekend, or as the sign suggests, a revisitation of his 62nd birthday. His family had friends and neighbours passing by honk their horns to wish him well on his special day. (Photo submitted)

Majority of COVID-19 symptoms mild: Klassen Continued from page 1 testing is on people who could be hospitalized as a result of COVID19, as well as healthcare workers.

Testing will routinely fall under two different categories: surveillance or treatment.

Surveillance, Klassen said, is to help chart the course of the disease and may not be necessary right now while treatment is important.

She said surveillance isn’t necessary right now because there are still ways to compare different areas when it comes to diseases, such as how many cases are resulting in deaths and how many people have been hospitalized. She said that, as supplies become more widely available, more cases will likely come to light, however that doesn’t necessarily mean the pandemic is getting worse, only that more testing is being completed.

“The vast majority of people who contract COVID-19 will have mild symptoms,” she said. “Being able to self-isolate controls the epidemic with limited resource costs, so it’s still a good way to control the virus.”

When asked how many cases may be undiagnosed in Huron and Perth Counties, she said she couldn’t venture a guess. After the fact, by doing blood tests, the province may be able to discover how many undetected cases there were, however that’s not currently available.

In the meantime, anyone assessed with mild symptoms needs to selfisolate, however if their symptoms get worse, especially in regards to shortness of breath, they are urged to contact a medical care facility.

For more information on COVID19 in Huron and Perth Counties, visit the HPPH online at hpph.ca.

The Good Shepherd (J.C. Ryle) “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me.” John 10:11, 14 Like a Good Shepherd, Christ knows all His believing people... their names, their families, their dwelling places, their circumstances, their private history, their experience, their trials; with all these things Jesus is perfectly acquainted. There is not a thing about the least and lowest of them with which He is not familiar. The children of this world may not know Christians, and may count their lives folly; but the Good Shepherd knows them thoroughly, and, wonderful to say, though He knows them, does not despise them.

Like a Good Shepherd, Christ cares tenderly for all His believing people. He provides for all their needs in the wilderness of this world, and leads them by the right way to a city of habitation. He bears patiently with their many weaknesses and infirmities, and does not cast them off because they are wayward, erring, sick, footsore, or lame. He guards and protects them against all their enemies; and of those that the Father has given Him He will be found at last to have lost none.

Like a Good Shepherd, Christ lays down His life for the sheep. He did it once for all, when He was crucified for them. When He saw that nothing could deliver them from hell and the devil, but His blood, He willingly made His soul an offering for their sins.

The merit of that death He is now presenting before the Father’s throne. The sheep are saved forever, because the Good Shepherd died for them.

This is indeed a love that passes knowledge!

A Grace Gem Submitted by: Immanuel United Reformed Church, Listowel, ON 519-492-1359

A holiday haul The Friends of the Village of Blyth, with help from the Fire Department of North Huron and the Blyth Food Market, embarked on a food collection on Good Friday to benefit the Salvation Army Food Bank in Wingham, resulting in a full trailer of food and over $600 in cash donations.

From left: Robb Finch, Malik Patel, Annie Sparling, Lissa Kolkman, Vicky Bremner, the Easter Bunny and Greg Jeffray. (Shawn Loughlin photo)

THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020. PAGE 3.

Stop the Spread COVID-19 can be deadly.

Stay home.

Save lives.

Visit ontario.ca/coronavirus Paid for by the Government of Ontario

PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020.

Editorials & Opinions

President: Keith Roulston • Publisher: Deb Sholdice Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny Scott Advertising Sales: Brenda Nyveld • Heather Fraser

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Pandemic playbook?

What if, after the warning shot of the SARS outbreak of 2003, our national health advisors got together to put together a plan to keep Canadians safe during future pandemics? Turns out they did. Last week The Globe and Mail reported that a 550-page report entitled “The Canadian Pandemic Influenza Plan for the Health Sector” was published in 2006 by a team of doctors, scientists and public health officials led by Dr. Theresa Tam, now the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada.

The report was eerily accurate in predicting how a global pandemic would start, spread and affect millions. While the report couldn’t prevent a highly contagious virus from infiltrating every country, nor did it provide a step-by-step plan for politicians to follow, it did have many recommendations for keeping our public health care system robust, including a consistent minimum 16-week supply of everything from ventilators to N95 respirator masks, gowns, gloves and face shields.

As we moved past the heightened drama of the SARS crisis, subsequent governments at all levels became complacent and, without an impending need, it was easy to cut funding to pandemic preparedness.

The report’s urgency faded and recommendations fell by the wayside.

Let’s hope for future generations, this lesson becomes forever imbedded in our government’s budget. – DS

Lost time, found time While much of our time discussing the COVID-19 pandemic has been focused on the life-or-death aspect of the most devastating outbreak in generations, it’s important to remember the little things we’re missing out on as we retreat into our homes for the good of all mankind.

Just last week, The Citizen reported on Walton teen Luke Fritz, who was drafted by the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League.

With the pandemic stopping sports in their tracks, Fritz doesn’t know when he’ll attend rookie camp, a dream for every young hockey player.

Time will tell if an extended shutdown period will jeopardize his shot at professional hockey. Similarly, as the Blyth Festival and its art gallery suspend their seasons, many artists are being held back from plying their trade in one of Ontario’s top arts communities. Whether it’s actors and playwrights on stage or The Citizen’s own Hannah Dickie, scheduled to present her “Home Grown” photography exhibit on the gallery walls, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities are being thrown into uncertainty.

With Easter 2020 now in the past, it’s fair to wonder how much was missed with no Easter meals due to COVID-19. How many grandparents will miss a chance to hold their grandchildren? Weddings can be rescheduled, but funerals only happen once. How many will lose the chance for one last celebration of life with their loved one?

That being said, humanity is finding a way to keep a semblance of normal life. It’s not perfect, but under the circumstances, it will do and we’ll remember when we marked birthdays, holidays and get-togethers by being creative, using technology and connecting despite roadblocks.

Several weeks ago, we ran a story about Marion Stewart, a Huronlea resident who celebrated her 100th birthday with her family standing just outside of her window. We’ve since reported on drive-by birthday parties and many other ways people have connected. People are seeing each other through screen doors, or catching up at elevated volumes from one side of the street to the other. They’re using technology to connect.

People are still meeting, working and connecting. We’ve found a way.

What we have now isn’t perfect and opportunities are being lost, but the human spirit is enduring and finding solutions to problems we never thought we’d face in our lifetimes. – SL

Avoid the cycle One of the hallmarks of this era, and that’s not the COVID-19 pandemic, but the past several years, is the 24-hour news cycle.

In years past, news came daily with an hour-long local broadcast and a weekly newspaper in smaller communities, with a daily paper for larger areas. Now, between Fox News, CNN and even CBC’s News Network, there is news 24 hours a day and that’s not necessarily good.

It used to be that we had a nice steady drip of news: enough to satiate us throughout the day, but not enough to drown us. Now we have a firehose and trying to drink from a firehose doesn’t end well.

While keeping up to date with news isn’t necessarily a bad thing, having it forced upon us 24 hours a day isn’t healthy. Some psychologists say that the constant negative coverage may have serious lasting effects beyond the pessimism that accompanies it. The exposure may exacerbate stress, anxiety and depression and, for those suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, contribute to further episodes.

Do your brain a favour and limit the amount of news you take in during a day. Read a few articles in The Citizen, either in print or online, watch an hour-long newscast around dinner time and make sure you don’t watch before bed. It could do you a world of good. – JDS

Looking Back Through the Years April 21, 1971 The Blyth Figure Skating Club wrote a letter to The Blyth Standard expressing its disappointment in the lack of participation in the group’s annual meeting. The letter stated that of the 56 families involved with the club, just six were represented at the annual meeting.

The Clinton-Blyth Ladies Bowling League topped off its season with a banquet held at Pizza Patio. Mary Davey ended the season with the high average of 218. Vicki Horbanuik had the season’s high triple with 767, while also being named the club’s most improved bowler for the season.

There were reports of younger Blyth residents shooting BB guns and killing robins despite warnings from Blyth Village Council. In addition, there were a few reports of other children being fired upon.

April 21, 1999 Thomas Cunningham, a longtime Hullett Township councillor and reeve, passed away in Clinton in his 60th year. During his time in municipal politics, Cunningham also served as Huron County Warden in 1984.

Helen Johns was chosen to represent the local chapter of the Progressive Conservative Party in the next provincial election. Johns would be hoping to be the first local representative of the newly-formed Huron-Bruce riding.

Johns celebrated the win in Blyth at the Blyth and District Community Centre with her campaign manager Steven Sparling.

The mood was said to be positive and forward-thinking on April 13 when Brussels and Grey Township Councils hosted a public meeting to discuss the potential amalgamation of the two municipalities.

As part of the new Learning Partnership program, there was a labour trade in Walton with Neil McGavin spending a day shadowing Walton Public School Principal Alice McDowell to see how things at the school run. At a later date, McDowell would return the favour and spend a day working at McGavin Farm Equipment.

Don and Monique Baan of Walton were audience members for Toronto’s CityLine show, but Monique ended up earning some screen time, being chosen from the audience to have her hair cut live on the air. Monique said she was happy with the job done on the show.

April 22, 2010 Blyth’s Emergency Services Training Centre received a funding injection of $1.5 million, half of which came from the federal government while the rest came from North Huron Council.

“Expanding the services of the training centre will not only enhance it, but bring more people into the community,” said North Huron Reeve Neil Vincent.

It had been a tough season for the maple syrup industry. With colder temperatures, Susanne Robinson of Robinson Maple Syrup said there was little to no yield from their drip trees until the end of March. Not only that, she said, but when they did begin producing, they weren’t providing as much as usual.

“It was a crazy year. We haven’t seen anything like it,” Robinson said.

The impact no doubt cut even deeper after the previous year being one of the best the industry had ever seen due to a large bumper crop.

Jessica Sparling of Blyth made a splash in U.S. collegiate sports by walking on to the Cornell University

women’s crew team and earning a seat in every race of both the fall and spring seasons. She was also selected as one of just 16 female rowers from colleges across the U.S. to attend the Women’s U.S. National Freshman Camp in June.

The annual carnival and auction held at Hullett Central Public School raised $13,000 for school projects thanks to the hard work of the school’s Student Advisory Committee.

Artistic Director Eric Coates announced that some familiar faces would be returning to the Blyth Festival for the 2010 season, including actors Gil Garratt and Catherine Fitch, who would be starring in Paul Ciufo’s A Killing Snow.

April 18, 2019 Huron-Bruce MPP and Minister of Education Lisa Thompson assured residents the provincial budget delivered for them, despite criticism to the contrary.

“We have worked for many months in terms of identifying priorities and what matters most to people and we’ve landed on a very responsible path forward in which we’re protecting what matters most,” Thompson said.

Blyth’s Mikayla Ansley, the winner of the Lions Clubs International Peace Essay contest, was celebrated with Mikayla Ansley Day in North Huron. Over 160 people were at Memorial Hall in Blyth to celebrate the young woman.

Margaret Vincent of Belgrave was named the Zone 3 Director on the Ontario Plowmen’s Association Board of Directors. She would represent the zone, comprised of Huron, Perth, Bruce and Grey Counties, for the next three years.

THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020. PAGE 5.

Other Views

Pandemic a lesson in connections

W

hen this pandemic is over, everyone, from you and me to Prime Ministers and Premiers, is going to have learned that the world is a whole lot more complicated than we ever imagined.

It somewhat reminds me of finding a loose thread on a sweater and giving it a tug and having the whole sweater unravel.

That’s about what happened when, taking the advice of public health experts, governments shut down anywhere people gather in order to hinder the spread of the coronavirus. One thing led to another, which led to another, and ever since then, for weeks on end now, we’ve had leaders speaking to us daily about trying to patch one more hole in the dike.

One of the earliest changes, of course, came when the federal government originally offered a 10 per cent wage subsidy to small employers, and quickly realized this was totally inadequate for encouraging hard-hit businesses to retain employees instead of laying them off. Within days the subsidy was increased to 75 per cent.

Right from the start governments grasped the reality that when you shut down a business to prevent COVID-19 from spreading, there’s a danger it may never re-open. It’s hard to pay rent and other ongoing costs if you have no money coming in.

But the business itself is just the beginning.

The employees of the closed business lose their ability to pay for food, housing and other expenses. Even if they qualify for Employment Insurance, they probably won’t have as much income as before. As they spend less, other businesses and their employees suffer.

If a small business closes and is not replaced, the landlord may end up with an empty store. If the store stays empty long

Keith Roulston From the cluttered desk enough, its value will go down which will reduce the amount of taxes the municipality receives to provide services to the public.

Municipal services such as arenas and swimming pools, which are expensive to operate, have no income to help offset costs.

Communities like Belmore, where the annual Maple Syrup Festival raises money to support the arena, pay a double cost when the event is cancelled because large crowds are forbidden to gather due to health reasons. They lose an event that brings people together and attracts attention to their village, and they lose the money that would have supported operation of their arena.

Look at the radiating effect of the suspension of the Blyth Festival season, for example. Dozens of actors, directors and technicians who thought they had a summer’s work lined up are suddenly unemployed, with no other theatre to turn to because they’re all closed. County restaurants, bars and accommodation providers will lose their most profitable part of the year. Even Blyth Memorial Hall, where other off-season events were cancelled, will lose the rental fees that help pay ongoing costs.

Venues that host weddings will go empty as weddings are postponed or scaled down.

Businesses that catered meals or provided flowers, will lose the revenue that helped keep them going and paid their employees’ wages.

Churches are empty (in Canada, anyway) as laws prevent crowds, but that also means the weekly collection isn’t taken – and yet the lights must still be kept on and the minister needs to eat.

Universities and colleges closed early.

It complicates the last few weeks of the school year for students and staff but they’ll manage that. For many students who need the income from summer jobs to support their studies there’s concern about where the money will come from for next fall’s tuition if they can’t find summer jobs in resorts, restaurants and other closed businesses. If some students drop out, the effect will be felt for a generation.

And then there’s the plight of foreign students who can’t go home because of travel bans, but aren’t eligible for support by Canadian governments and still have to eat and pay rent.

If there’s good to be discovered among all the devastation and pain of this crisis, it’s that some workers who are normally ignored in our system are being recognized for the essential roles they play in society. The attention of the media and economists is often captured by white-collar professions or high tech jobs that are “the future”. But the people who check out our groceries, or stock the grocery shelves, or the truckers who bring food to the stores are suddenly essential workers, and heroically keep the food supply flowing.

Even the Prime Minister saluted them last week, along with front-line health care workers, as heroes.

Examples of the interconnectedness of our world could probably fill this entire paper, let alone this column. When this crisis finally ends, let’s hope people don’t soon forget how much we depend on each other.

Deaths, deadly infections a bad metric

W

e really need a new metric to measure the important things in life.

We have way too many situations measured by the number of deaths or deadly situations they cause and that way of keeping track seems to be a bit archaic.

Earlier this month the Huron Perth Public Health team announced it would no longer be providing locations of confirmed COVID-19 cases beyond major areas (Stratford, Perth County outside of Stratford and Huron County). The representatives of the organization explained that COVID-19 was likely in every community in Huron and Perth Counties and that, even if it wasn't, people should treat it that way. I was on the media call when they announced the change and, because I didn’t want to cause an undue panic, I called back some time later and asked if that was definitely the message to be sent out: that COVID-19 was likely in every community.

The answer, without hesitation, was an emphatic yes.

Over the weekend, the organization broke from that decision by announcing the first case in the Listowel area, however there are still no further locations listed beyond St. Marys (where the first two confirmed cases came from), Stratford, Perth County and Huron County.

The Grey Bruce Health Unit decided that, with 33 cases, it was time to start identifying locations. In a press release made available over the weekend, it stated that the cases were numerous enough that no one location would be stigmatized as a result of being announced to have cases. What does that mean? Well it means that, in Owen Sound, there are 17 confirmed lab cases, but in Hanover, there are zero. It means that you know whether or not someone in your community has COVID-19, which, in my opinion, would lead to heightened control measure adherence.

Denny Scott Denny’s Den What else does it mean? Well it means that not enough people had contracted this potentially fatal disease for all the information to be made public.

As of writing this, the Huron Perth team has 31 cases, and is still not reporting specific locales, except for those detailed above.

Apparently 31 people potentially dying doesn’t warrant that information being public, but 33 does. Also, a stigma is a bad thing, there’s no getting around that, but maybe it could be just what we need for people to take COVID-19 control measures seriously. If we found out that all the COVID-19 cases in Huron were in Goderich, I bet people would stop driving to Wal-Mart or Zehrs and start relying on their local grocery stores a little more.

For those of us in Blyth, those kinds of metrics are nothing new. For years, we’ve been told that not enough people suffer death or dismemberment due to collisions at the intersection of County Roads 4 and 25 to prompt the county to some kind of immediate action regarding traffic control.

It all seems pretty barbaric to me. We’re being told that not enough people are dead or dying for action to be taken or information to be made publicly available.

In decades past, people may have been able to claim ignorance about the kind of reality that requires people to die to prompt change.

Take cigarettes for example; it took decades before there were rules in place about who

cigarette producers could target with advertising, what kind of warnings need to be on cartons and who could decide to ingest the poisons that are in cigarettes. It took that long, however, because we didn’t know the dangers.

Contrast that with the problems that are being faced by e-cigarettes or vape pens. All it took was one publicized case of a younger person with some kind of complication attributed to the products and the government swung into action to try and mitigate the problem.

What’s the difference between that and the growing number of collisions in Blyth or the information that should be available to us throughout this COVID-19 pandemic? One person with lung problems changes the entire landscape of marketing and selling vaping products, but tens of thousands could die across the country from COVID-19 and government agencies are still playing their cards close to the chest.

While I believe the location information should be released, if it is held back it shouldn’t be due to a number of potential cases, in the same way that the number of deaths at a busy corner shouldn’t be the only way to measure for traffic control needs.

Either we need to know how many people have contracted COVID-19 and where they are, or we don’t need to know at all. There is no magic number of people who have died or might die that justifies dealing in halfmeasures. Find a better way.

Final Thought Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.

– Booker T. Washington

Shawn Loughlin Shawn’s Sense

Lost together

D

uring some downtime last week I took the time to watch a few episodes of Chef’s Table, a Netflix show about the world’s best chefs and, predictably, it made me yearn for a long-forgotten world populated with travel, restaurants and time with friends.

Most of the episodes follow the same basic structure. First, you’re introduced to a worldclass chef and his/her community (where they’re from, where they have restaurants, where they source their ingredients, etc.) and then the program digs deeper into the chef’s history and their creative process. The food always looks amazing, but as a worldwide show, there is also a travel element to it.

Through food, the show explores little-known corners of places like Italy, France, Spain, Peru, Patagonia and others, not unlike the late Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown show.

I watched an episode focused on Italian butcher Dario Cecchini, who has a meat shop and restaurant in the Tuscany region of Italy.

His small village of Panzano is immediately recognizable as just about the most beautiful place in the world. And then there’s dining at his restaurant Officina della Bistecca. Billed as a place for people with big appetites, the restaurant is one small, long room with a very rustic Italian feel. The cooks prepare food over an open fire off to the side of the room while diners sit together at one long table, sharing Italian staples like wine, bread and cheese.

These days it’s hard to avoid looking at the world with pre- and post-COVID-19 goggles.

I watch movies made long before the outbreak and can’t help but notice the lack of physical distancing. Replays of classic sporting events (Sportsnet is replaying full games from both Toronto Blue Jays World Series runs) give me anxiety. They feel like ancient history. You used to sit in a building shoulder to shoulder with 53,500 other people? Were you nuts?

With that being said, I count myself among those writers opining on what the world might look like when we all emerge from our selfquarantine caves, blinking to adjust our eyes to the light and taking our first steps outside.

Staying in the restaurant lane, estimates in Canada already have between 10-15 per cent of restaurants already permanently closing due to COVID-19 and it’s still very early.

There are many other establishments, small businesses and media outlets among them, that were already chuffed to turn a tiny profit each year without the benefit of millionaire owners that could be gone when the dust settles.

Looking at Wuhan, China – where the virus originated – which has just ended its lockdown after 76 days, it’s possible I’m being dramatic, but all signs point to an extended shutdown here in North America. Look no further than the Maclean’s series that was just published, “Quarantine Nation: Inside the lockdown that will change Canada forever” or the Globe and Mail column entitled “Get with the program, [Donald] Trump: Sports as we know them are over” for signs we’re bracing for a new world.

Experts have been predicting that in a postCOVID-19 world, movie theatre seats will be farther apart, restaurant tables will be distanced (much to Dario’s dismay, no doubt) and large gatherings will never be the same.

Who knows what will happen with modes of mass transportation like airplanes or trains?

One has to wonder if we’ll look back at our time before the COVID-19 pandemic as a time of innocence when we didn’t know any better.

We could be destined for a future of fear with the next pandemic constantly lurking on every surface; one in which we definitely won’t be drinking wine together at Dario’s long table.

PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020.

DeWit gathers sewing group to make face masks

With thanks Brussels’ Jackie DeWit recently started a sewing group called Sewing with Thanks to make masks and headbands.

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Jackie DeWit of Brussels has seen exponential growth in the past week and a half for her Sewing with Thanks project, making masks and headbands for essential workers throughout the community.

DeWit, who owns JD&Company and The DeWit Suites in Brussels, has put her talents to use on a project that takes her out of her comfort zone, but it didn’t take long for her to find her stride.

While she has spent her life learning one skill after another – welding, furniture restoration, soap making, etc. – sewing was never really on DeWit’s radar, but with her mother Sheryl being skilled in that world, DeWit looked to her for advice.

Sheryl had begun putting together some masks for essential workers in the New Hamburg area and DeWit thought Brussels and the surrounding communities could benefit from such kindness.

DeWit asked to borrow her mother’s sewing machine and some fabric, which she donated to the project, and it only took three or four masks for DeWit to get her technique and template down.

She began the project thinking she would create about 30 masks for the nurses and employees at Huronlea Home for the Aged, but her scope soon expanded to the entire village and beyond and soon she knew she would need some help.

In just a few days, she had created a Facebook group, called Sewing with Thanks, and recruited several people to help. Volunteers from all over the county came forward to help with sewing. There have also been others who can’t sew, but have helped to cut fabric and those who can’t do either have leant a hand in making deliveries to essential

businesses throughout the area, all through contactless drop-off and delivery by volunteers.

While the project began with DeWit distributing the masks as she saw fit, groups and individuals began contacting her through the group placing orders. The Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance, for example, said that workers couldn’t wear DeWit’s masks, but that they could use headbands to relieve pressure on nurses’ ears from the masks, so DeWit and her team got to work making headbands.

To date, the group has crafted just under 400 masks and just under 200 headbands with work still in full swing. DeWit says she has been working 13 hours a day, every day, only taking Easter Sunday off. Even her eight-year-old son Ryker has gotten into the act, pitching in where he can.

DeWit says she’s already seen a response from the work of the group.

When she was in Listowel recently to pick up groceries, many of the store’s employees were wearing her masks and when they noticed she was in the store, they all clapped for her in thanks.

The scope of the project has continued to expand, DeWit says, as she has received calls from a longterm care home in Goderich as well as other businesses in search of equipment to help keep their employees safe.

And while DeWit has quickly become the face of the project, she says many of her helpers, a number of whom are senior citizens, have

Virus marks a different Easter A NOTE FROM BETTY

By Betty Graber Watson Call 887-9231 Happy Easter!

The world is upside down, but we still celebrate the things that matter.

Rules from the health folk are keeping us safe and so we celebrate Easter in ways that seem unreal, but still meaningful. See, we can change.

Easter means connecting. This year is quite different, but a video

chat, FaceTime or a phone call all remind us of the importance of love shared. Some things don’t change; love carries us through, virus or not.

To keep calm and carry on, one needs to find the familiar in one’s life and hold on tight, only then can you deal with the issues that are mandated from the outside world.

This is a time to be humble, admit others are wiser than you, keep your contact numbers small, keep your distance, keep your hands away from your face and wash your hands often. Once again attitude rules, you can swear and fight the air or you can see and hear reason and live in the COVID-19 time of our lives. Yes, it is very strange, but it could be much worse and it doesn’t take a lot of thought to know several examples. How about the 17th floor

At the Branch

Mitchell plays at branch

By Jo-Ann McDonald We hope everyone had a quiet Easter and stayed at home. It is a quiet time at the Brussels Legion Branch because of the closure but we want our veterans and members to know that we are here to help. Call your executive contact or the Branch if you need help with anything. We are here to serve.

President Jamie Mitchell took part in a worldwide tribute to those

suffering from the Coronavirus pandemic. Piper Jamie joined pipers from around the world to play “Amazing Grace” in solidarity of their plight. Jamie played outside the Legion early Sunday afternoon with a few spectators watching the performance. The song “Amazing Grace” always brings a chill and a tear to many when hearing it played on the pipes.

Thank you Jamie!

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of a Toronto apartment or staff in a business without the needed equipment or in a tent in a refugee camp or front line staff dealing with angry, ignorant customers?

So be thankful and for heaven sake be considerate of those around you.

Blue ribbons tied on doors and around properties, stuffed animals or paper faces in windows, blooming spring flowers, Easter bonnets, hamburgers off the grill and angel cake were a few of the reasons to smile this week in this house.

Call a friend before they call you, sort those old pictures and say some prayers, all things that let our memories remind us of the good life we have here in Huron County.

Stay safe. Betty G.W.

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The Citizen 519-523-4792 info@northhuron.on.ca

Helping out Jackie DeWit’s recently started sewing group, Sewing with Thanks, has been making facemasks to help during the COVID-19 pandemic. Above, her son Ryker lends a hand.

(Photo submitted)

stayed out of the spotlight, just wanting to help without attracting any extra attention.

As the project has continued to grow, residents have continued to come forward to help by donating fabric, their time and effort or even money. DeWit insists she or any other member of the group will not take any money for the masks and headbands, so any money being donated is being collected for life in post-COVID-19 Brussels for those who need it.

For those needing masks or headbands or those looking to donate or volunteer their services, they can reach out to DeWit personally through Facebook, through the Sewing with Thanks group on Facebook or by calling her on her cell phone at 519-4923234.

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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020. PAGE 7.

Garnet making hundreds of masks for residents

By Denny Scott The Citizen

Hard at work Blyth’s Sandy Garnet has made hundreds of face masks for locals, making them available by donation to help with material costs. (Photo submitted)

Sandy Garnet of Blyth is putting her sewing skills to work to create non-medical masks for anyone who needs them and has a big start on providing them to the community.

Garnet owns Made in Huron in Clinton and has been doing alterations through the store, however, with the COVID-19 pandemic, she said she was looking for something to keep herself busy.

“I was doing masks for friends and family that requested them,” she said. “I also did some scrub caps for people. My daughter-in-law works at a nursing home in London and asked for masks.”

The request included 700 masks, however, after she was halfway done the order, the masks were cancelled due to new stipulations requiring that only medical masks be used at the site.

“Now we have a stockpile available to the people of Huron County,” she said.

Garnet has been sewing since she was 10 years old and is happy to be able to help people out in these trying times.

“Anybody in the public can use the masks,” she said. “That’s important now that the World Health Organization and doctors are promoting masks for self-protection or if you can’t socially distance yourself.”

Garnet said if she wanted to make the masks full-time, she can and has done as many as 40 in a day if the cutting of fabric is done beforehand.

“It’s easier to do them in progression with multiple at a time,” she said.

Garnet has been stashing 100 per cent cotton fabric, which she uses to make the masks, for years, and thinks she could make 500 with what she has now and what’s been given to her.

Her masks are a little different than some in the public, she said, as she adds an extra layer of fabric for protection and elastics around the edges so the mask forms to the face.

Right now, she’s asking for donations for the masks to help cover costs and says that she’s getting about $10 a piece, which she says is fair. For more information, contact her on Facebook or e-mail mihartisanmarket@gmail.com.

Atom Rep Crusaders named provincial co-champions

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen The Blyth Brussels Atom Rep Crusaders have earned their Ontario

Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) red hats after all, thanks to the Egg Farmers of Ontario, sponsors of the league’s championship red hats.

“Our goal is to be positive and

proactive in a trying environment by rewarding the players and teams who deservedly made it that far through the highly competitive playdowns,” said Ian Taylor, OMHA

executive director in a press release issued by the association. “It’s a simple gesture, but hopefully a meaningful one as well.”

The red hats are traditionally presented to the OMHA winners in each division. However, when the finals were cut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the hockey season simply ended in many cases without a winner being awarded.

Locally, the Crusaders were taking on the East Lambton Eagles in the OMHA Atom C final. The two teams had only played one game, won by the Eagles, when the season was effectively cancelled due to the pandemic.

Over 100 teams will be awarded red hats as a trophy for their successful seasons.

According to the OMHA press release, all co-champions will be recognized on the OMHA website and added to the association’s champions database. The red hats are due to be sent out soon.

For more information, visit the OMHA at omha.net.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, The Citizen is available for free at huroncitizen.ca

Let us Wash Your Winter Coats

NEWS FROM BLYTH Blyth Laundromat 191 Westmoreland St., Blyth 519-523-9687

Celebration!

When the Ontario Minor Hockey Association cancelled the season midway through provincial finals, the Blyth Brussels Atom Rep Crusaders didn’t know how their season would end. The team was recently named provincial co-champions with the East Lambton Eagles. (File photo)

Legion Ladies Penny Sale cancelled From Marilyn’s Desk

By Marilyn Craig Call 523-9318

Happy birthday to Kayden MacDonald who celebrates April 16;

Colin Howson, April 18; Bryce Glousher, April 19; Gayle Poore, April 21 and Paul Craig and Sheila Moore, Wingham, April 22. Happy birthday everyone.

Due to COVID-19, the 42nd annual Blyth Legion Ladies penny sale scheduled for May 22-25, has been cancelled. Hopefully they can reschedule it for next year.

Here it is, almost the middle of April, 2020. I hope everyone is well and staying at home, except when it is necessary to go out. Today is a

rainy day, so many of us will be looking for things to do inside.

The weatherman is promising us a little more snow in the next few days, so it will not be too hard to stay indoors and out of the cold.

It makes it harder to stay inside when the nice spring weather is here.

Call a friend or neighbour or a family member just to let them know you are thinking about them.

Keep safe and well in the coming weeks.

422 Queen Street, Blyth, Ontario, Canada N0M 1H0

519-523-9381 Online Menu can be found: http://www.blythinn.ca We are proud to provide takeout for the community of Blyth Hours of operation: Closed Mondays Tuesday - Sunday 11 am – 7 pm During this time, we ask that our customers could please call your order in ahead. The Blyth Inn provides a hand sanitizer station in our lobby. Customers will pick up order and make payment of purchase at the till or we can process credit, debit payments over the phone and are more than happy to do curbside pickup. We ask you please follow the guidelines setup in the restaurant for social distancing.

Stay Safe from the Boot Crew!

PAGE 8. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020.

Churches finding great response to online services Churches the world over are finding ways to communicate with parishioners during the COVID-19 pandemic and some are finding they are reaching far more with digital messages than their average preCOVID-19 Sunday service.

While major ceremonies, like the Pope’s Easter service on Sunday, are viewed by millions, locally we have hundreds tuning in to services hosted by local spiritual leaders.

Rev. JoAnn Todd, for example, who regularly leads services in Blyth, Brussels and Wingham, said she has seen incredible participation in the church’s online services since COVID-19 caused her churches, Blyth Trinity Anglican Church, St. John’s Anglican in Brussels and St. Paul’s Trinity in Wingham, to close their doors.

“It’s been overwhelming,” she said in an interview with The Citizen.

“We closed one Sunday before most of the other churches because our bishops for our dioceses felt it was not safe to gather in churches and we

all wondered what we were going to do.

“We had this tough question of how to be a church without the community and the gathering that are an essential part of being a church,” she said.

Todd said she was scrambling to find a way to reach out to her congregations before tapping a resource in a church member from Wingham with some technical know-how.

“I asked him if he could get us on Facebook Live, and he said he could, and from there our services have grown,” she said.

It all started with an iPhone, a music stand and a couple of hymn books to support the phone, but it’s grown from there thanks to the response.The services are being recorded in Wingham, since her Blyth and Brussels churches don’t have WiFi. “We were shocked,” she said. “We had 30 people watch live that first Sunday. I was shocked that 30

people wanted to watch live, but then, when the video was available on Facebook after that, it reached over 100, then over 200 views. Then it kept going.”

In the following weeks, Todd added music, so the entire production crew had grown to four: the technologist behind producing the show, Todd, the organist and the lay reader. Todd said she and the lay reader are both part of the choir, so they help with the music, which was a popular request.

Todd said her April 5 service recently bypassed 1,000 views on Facebook, and she attributes that to people needing reassurance in a time of fear, as well as wanting something to keep connected to the world. She said one person thanked her for bringing the church together and providing worship opportunities as it gives a sense of normalcy.

“The person said, ‘Thank you for giving us one routine happening in our lives today,’” Todd said. “With that kind of response, we’ve been

The ‘HIPPO’ in the room Cheryl Peach M.Ed., B.Ed Let’s begin our journey with an overview of the threats to biodiversity along the Lake Huron coast. Threats to both animal and plant biodiversity can be described through the acronym “HIPPO”.

• Habitat Loss: Habitat loss, alteration and fragmentation directly affect the species that rely on the habitat that is being changed.

Shoreline and urban development, agriculture and various recreational activities in ecologically-sensitive parts of the lakeshore has caused, and continues to cause, loss of habitat along Lake Huron. Lake Huron coastal ecosystems, including coastal meadow marshes, dune grasslands, bluff and alvars are among the rarest environments in Ontario, with an abundance of rare and at-risk species.

• Invasive species: Invasive species are harmful non-native species whose introduction or spread threatens our local environment, the economy and society, including human health.

Invasive species originate from other continents, adjacent countries or from other ecosystems within Canada.

We’re all familiar with Lake Huron aquatic invaders like Zebra Mussels and their cousins the Quagga Mussels. On the land, invasive plants like Common Reed and Garlic Mustard can alter ecosystems, overtaking or affecting the growth of native plants. In our forests, Garlic Mustard is outcompeting Ontario’s provincial flower: the Trillium. Along our shorelines, Common Reed, or also known as Phragmites, is choking out native shoreline and roadside vegetation. Many of these species have no natural predator or way of controlling their growth, making them dominate the landscape and the waters of our lake.

• Pollution: As reported March 16, 2020 on Global News, COVID19 hit countries like Italy and China really hard, forcing citizens to go into lockdown. As a result, people stayed indoors, businesses closed, cars stayed parked and families isolated to protect themselves from getting sick. Because cruise ships were no longer sailing into the Venice lagoon thus reducing

pollution, photos shared on Twitter by user @FolinAlberto illustrated cleaner waters were returning in the canals. Air quality also improved dramatically with a significant drop in nitrogen dioxide emissions. In China, NASA published striking satellite images of the massive reduction in air pollution in that region. Will we learn from these urgent mitigation strategies or return to business as usual?

Locally, loss of forest and wetland ecosystems that help to filter surface water pollutants from over-fertilization, improper use of pesticides, and soil erosion, leads to impairments in the quality of our lake water. In many cases, our rivers and streams are not sufficiently buffered by vegetation to filter many of the pollutants being drained off our land. The more we clear our remaining natural areas, the easier we make it for pollutants to reach our beaches.

Lake Huron, being the largest of these waterways, should have the widest vegetated buffer zone along the shoreline. In too many locations and in too many examples, it is the narrowest.

• Population Growth: As Ontario’s population grows (currently at 14 million), more and more of that population is attracted to beaches during summer, and some even becoming permanent residents. Bruce County, for example, has one-third of its population residing along the shoreline in the communities of Kincardine and Saugeen Shores.

Some of the most sensitive coastal habitats that we have (e.g. wetlands, dunes, alvars, bluffs) can simply not handle the intensity of use. We have not managed our shorelines very well to be able to accommodate more people while at the same time protecting coastal habitats and the ecosystem services they provide. But more and more of our communities are realizing the wisdom of becoming resilient and adopting better management practices.

• Over-consumption or unsustainable use: Overconsumption is what our society has been doing for the past several decades. Our over-use of plastic

and other oil-based products have led to the current reliance on our carbon-based economy. Overextraction of our resources and the harvest of species at a rate higher than can be sustained by the natural reproduction of the population has become common.

Along Lake Huron, for example, poaching of species like the Spotted Turtle for the pet trade has led to them being listed as endangered. It’s an illegal practice, but it still happens. Stories in our local newspapers as recent as 2018 have documented turtle smugglers across the Ontario / Michigan border. In fact, as of 2020, all seven of Lake Huron’s turtles are considered species at risk.

Knowing the threats to biodiversity is half the battle in protecting the ecological integrity of our coast. Though we are working to flatten the curve on COVID-19, we know over the next months nature will unveil emergencies that also will need to be addressed. Solutions will require unprecedented responses, thinking outside of the box.

Through wise investment in coastal conservation measures, learning from our enforced COVID-19 reduction strategies and sudden reduction in our materialistic lifestyle, these threats can be managed. Let your politicians, public servants, friends and neighbours know how important the quality of our ecosystems is, and why we need action on this issue. Biodiversity conservation will help improve water and air quality, protect rare and at-risk species, and make our coast more resilient to a changing climate.

Grade 7 and 8 Students, Seaforth P.S.: “I think that people are buying too many unnecessary things and throwing out items that could be fixed or reused. We need to tone down the consumerism and start being happy with less.”

“We should participate in community street cleanups…” [original article was authored by Geoff Peach April 2010, and has been updated by Cheryl Peach and Pat Donnelly - Coastal Centre staff]

working to make it better every prayer meeting at 10 a.m. that is hosted by different families every week.”

The normal services are broadcast week.

The Sunday main service is at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday on the Regional Ministry of Hope’s Continued on page 10 Facebook page, Todd said. They are a little shorter than the churches’ average services as there aren’t communion ceremonies.

“We almost have a full service, with a message and hymns,” she said.

“It’s quite exciting.”

Pastor Ernest Dow of Huron Chapel Evangelical Missionary Church said his church has experienced some great online community growth during the pandemic, both in its services which are available to parishioners and through its community outreach programs now being offered online.

The church is doing a Tying blue ribbons, bows or lights shortened Sunday around trees can show support for service, including music, essential workers during the as well as a virtual COVID-19 pandemic. John Lowe of Sunday school at 9:30 Brussels, a local councillor and a.m. that has brought 10 families together and a nurse, is showing his support.

Showing support

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PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020.

McCallum concerned taxes may be uncollectable

By Denny Scott The Citizen Morris-Turnberry Council has passed its 2020 budget, though some councillors are concerned about how the COVID-19 pandemic will impact the municipality’s plans for the rest of the year.

As previously reported, the budget includes a four per cent levy increase to the municipal rate, which totals a

1.07 per cent overall increase when blended with education and county rates.

Council members had, in previous meetings, discussed any qualms they had with the budget, leaving the document ready for approval. Just prior to accepting it, council only raised three issues: how the pandemic will impact spending and collecting taxes, the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre

renovation and a steep increase in Belgrave water rates.

At council’s April 7 meeting, Councillor Jamie McCallum asked what kind of measures were being put in place by the province to help offset taxes that residents may not be able to pay.

Chief Administrative Officer Trevor Hallam said he didn’t know of any provincial measures, but said there are federal programs in place

YouTube helps church services Continued from page 8 broadcast live over YouTube at 10:30 a.m., Dow said, and includes prerecorded scripture readings and announcements from church members. Dow estimates the service is taken in by over 100 adults and countless children.

The online service isn’t new, Dow said, as there were over a dozen households that participated in it before COVID-19.

“We did broadcast the service for 15 households before,” he said. “It was mainly for shut-ins, people that were away in Florida and could still watch the livestream and others.”

The sermon is made available on the church’s Facebook page every week, though the entirety of the service is limited to parishioners.

“We’re doing it more or less inhouse at this point for copyright issues with music,” Dow said. “We send out links for people to watch the service.”

The YouTube platform allows for interaction through a chat program, Dow said, which has allowed those putting together the services to know who is listening and what kind of questions are being asked.

“After the service, we’re doing virtual coffee hours with about three different rooms,” he said. “That’s done through Zoom or Google Hangout and different people host each Sunday.”

He said there are questions provided to help guide discussion, but sometimes people are just happy to connect with their fellow churchgoing neighbours.

During the week, Rob Campbell, the church’s children, youth and family pastor is hosting junior and senior youth meetings through Zoom, which have brought in 20 households. Dow said he feels the children are missing interacting with their peers at school, so they appreciate the program.

Dow said he has enjoyed tackling the situation and finding solutions through technology, and he looks forward to seeing how the services and meetings offered by his church will grow as a result of the experience.

Pastor Gary van Leeuwen of the Blyth Christian Reformed Church says his congregation has also been availing itself of technology, offering online streams for about a year, though he admits the services are different.

“We’ve been continuing our online streams for a year now, but it’s a little different because we can’t have people in the church,” he said.

“It’s been a little bit odd.”

He said that, when the services are being recorded, it’s his family of four in the church and no one else, and it’s bringing in between 150 and 200 viewers.

“That’s way more than our congregation, which is sort of weird,” he said. “We would have 100 from our congregation, so we’ve got 50 to 100 more people watching.”

He said there are some churches that may not have local pastors or clergy, so they are tuning in to get a

local church service.

The services are truncated, van Leeuwen said, and he says it’s odd not being in front of people, given that he can’t see who is watching when it’s being recorded. “There is a

disconnect,” he said.

While he leads the service, his son runs the equipment to record it and his wife and daughter provide some music.

to help with income. McCallum said that wasn’t going to be enough in his opinion.

“Taking a realistic approach, we’re not going to collect all this money on time and we’re not going to collect at all from some people,” he said. “[The federal government’s offer of] $500 a week per person won’t leave a lot for property taxes.”

Council had no response to the issue and moved on to a question from Deputy-Mayor Sharen Zinn who asked if the community centre renovation was going ahead.

McCallum explained that the multi-million dollar project is “in limbo” right now as the committee behind it had been waiting to see how a presentation at the Rural Ontario Municipalities Association (ROMA) conference in January was

received. Mayor Jamie Heffer asked McCallum if there was a timeline on feedback from the presentation and the answer was no.

Heffer then asked why the Belgrave water fees jumped 10 per cent to $96.95 a month per user, guessing correctly that it’s because of engineering work for a new well, which will cost $60,000.

Council approved the budget as presented.

Share your quarantine photos with The Citizen!

E-mail Denny Scott at reporter@norhthuron.on.c a to submit yours!

at

the edge of walton

wood frogs

Wood frog eggs in the

Scientific Name: Lithobates sylvaticus Rea Tract’s vernal pools 6.5 cm size: Distribution: Throughout North America habitat: Although found on the tundra in the north and occasionally in grasslands in the west, the wood frog is most commonly associated with moist woodlands and vernal woodland pools.

When inactive, this frog hides in logs, humus and leaf litter or under logs and rocks. It hibernates under logs or leaf litter on the forest floor.

Characteristics: The wood frog may be reddish, tan or dark brown but always has a dark mask under and behind the eyes. The call of this species is a series of sharp quacks, almost like those of a duck.

fun facts about wood frogs:

1.

Wood frogs can freeze! Wood frogs belong to a small group of animals that can freeze but not die. As the temperature drops below freezing each winter, the wood frog buries itself and goes into a deep hibernation, its breathing and heartbeat stop, and as much as 65% of the water in its body gradually turns into ice.

Sound uncomfortable? The wood frog doesn’t seem to mind. It spends two or three months of each winter frozen, with its body temperature ranging between -1°C and -6°C. When spring finally arrives, the ice melts, heartbeat and breathing return, and the frog is as good as new!

The female lays up to 2,000 eggs in a mass that is attached to underwater vegetation in small, fishless ponds.

Wood frogs can change their colouring from very light to very dark! The colder the temperature, the darker the wood frog will appear as darker colours absorb heat more easily.

Wood frogs eat ground dwelling invertebrates, like worms.

2.

3.

4.

Wood frogs at the edge of walton: Last year while out for a walk we heard a noise coming from across the road - it almost sounded like someone “walking” a bulldozer down the GTG Trail. Upon closer inspection, it was actually hundreds of wood frogs making their mating calls in the low-laying vernal pools of the Rea Tract! How did you know they were wood frogs? The signature black mask around their eyes! If a raccoon was a frog, this would be it (appearance-wise).

Vernal pools are small wetlands, usually not connected to streams or larger wetlands. They are filled by spring rains and melting snow, and often dry out by late summer.they are full of life and neat to explore!

Let’s make an underwater viewer 1. Find a jug or carton that your parent can help you cut off the bottom and the top.

2. Wrap plastic wrap around the bottom of the container.

3. Secure the wrap with the rubber band or tape Make sure it’s water-tight.

4. Place the bottom of the viewer (the part covered in plastic) in the water and look through the top.

5. Always make sure you’re with an adult when around water - even if it’s shallow. Practice safe exploration!

The edge of walton is a registered non-profit organization and is located at 42932 walton road in walton, ontario

THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020. PAGE 11.

WINTER SPORTS 2019~2020

A special thank you to all the people who submitted photos for the sports section.

Photo credit for the BBMHA Crusader Hockey Teams goes to Angela Smith Photography.

Photo credit for the Huron Heat goes to Picture Day Photography.

BBMHA Crusaders Preschool “White Jersey”: Back row, from left: Gracelyn Howson, Sullivan Smith, Pierce Smith, Elise Bean, Mathew Abell. Front row: Zaden Eckert, Hayden Thompson, Warren Larocque, Jack Gahan, Harmoney Howard, Jacoby Noble.

BBMHA Crusaders Junior Initiation “Black: Jersey”: Back row, from left: Gavin Gross, Connor Lyons, Carter Kellington, Adalyn Campbell. Front row: Mia HubbardBuffinga, Charlotte Greydanus, Parker Gingrich, Winston Greydanus. Absent: Coach Tyler Campbell, coach Amy Kellington.

BBMHA Crusaders Senior Initiation: Back row, from left: Shawn Bromley, Amanda Anderson, Andrew Wharton. Front row: Katie Somers, Ashlyn Greidanus, Nicola Egli, Isla Fischer, Laurelei Shortreed, Cannon Beuermann, Casey Bolinger, Lauren Wharton, Wesley Bean, Murray Bromley, Jett Broome.

BBMHA Crusaders Minor Novice: Back row, from left: Trainer Chris Blake, coach Nathan Shannon, coach Mike Ansley. Third row: Foster Blake, Mason Blake, Liam Egli, Brielle Campbell. Second row: Lukas Balon, Jordan Shannon, Maddy Marks, Kalieb Thompson. Front row: Callum Standen, Alexis Ansley, Lauren Riegling, Warren Greidanus.

PAGE 12. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020.

BBMHA Crusaders Novice Rep: Back row, from left: Assistant coach Amanda Anderson, coach Rob Johnson, trainer Chad Fischer. Third row: Mitch White, Cole Greydanus, Ty Sommers, Connor Kellington, Luke White. Second row: Hudson Greydanus, Trace Boven, Braxton Stryker, Blake Johnston, Adel Fischer. Front row: Lincoln Bolinger, Joel Fleet.

BBMHA Crusaders Novice LL: Back row, from left: Jason Cox, Andrew McCutcheon, Clint Fischer. Third row: Rileigh Cox, Mackenzie Gingrich, Claire McCutcheon, Kaleb Lyons, Miles Adams, Evan Egli. Second row: Jesa Fischer, Nate Baillie, Summer Shannon, Lukas Hubbard-Buffinga, Hayden Benedict. Front row: Carson Lee. Absent: Ben Gingrich.

BBMHA Crusaders Atom Rep – “OMHA FINALISTS”: Back row, from left: Coach Darryl DeRuyter, trainer Dwight Caldwell, coach Archie Fleet, trainer Andrew Wharton.

Middle row: Justin Fleet, Jaxon Bromley, Rodney Ansley, Colyn Hallahan, Carter Howson, Tysen Greidanus, Bo Wharton, Ayden Hallahan, Dylan Lee, Will Nesbit, Emmitt Shortreed. Front row: Everett Cherrey, Brett Caldwell, Nick White, Damon Shannon. Absent: Tristen Piper, manager Alicha Hallahan.

BBMHA Crusaders Atom LL: Back row, from left: Rob Mason, Dan Egli, Kirk Baillie.

Third row: Jeffrey Bauer, Pat Mahon, Aiden Hickey, Wes Marks, Keenan Courtney, Lia Marshall, Maxx Logan, Brianna McNichol. Second row: Kipp Johnston, Wade Baillie, Cole Mason, Adrian Egli, Liam Fischer. Front row: William Wall.

BBMHA Crusaders PeeWee Rep: Back row, from left: Trainer Pete Albers, assistant coach Dalton Richmond, assistant coach Trevor Decorte, coach Brett Fischer. Middle row: Jackson Hallahan, Reed Fischer, Landyn Hallahan, Peter Albers, Bryce Shortreed, Brady Finch, Ava Strome. Front row: Jack Riegling, Jake Bromley, Caleb Koch, Luke Fischer. Goalie: Lucas Albers.

BBMHA Crusaders PeeWee LL: Back row, from left: Erin Nesbit, Shawn Nicholson, Jason Cox, Rob Mason, Andrew Wharton. Middle row: Cohen Lammerant, Quinn Cox, Phillip Marks, Simon Wernham, Taylor Wharton, Braeden Hummel, Jack Nicholson.

Front row: Alyssa Bromley, Tyson Finch, Louis McNichol, Caden Mason, Graham Nesbit.

A Special Congratulations to the Blyth Brussels Crusaders Atom Rep Hockey team.

OMHA FINALISTS WOW. That was exciting hockey well done!!!

Congratulations to the Blyth/Brussels Congratulations teams on a great year!

Blyth Brussels Crusaders your local on afrom great year!

Pioneer sales representatives:

406 Mill Street, Blyth

Brett & Brett & Laura Laura Fischer Fischer 519-887-8253 519-887-8253

Way to Go Teams!

Howson & Howson Ltd.

Flour Mill Blyth

519-523-4241

Corner of Dinsley & Mill

www.spaessentialsblyth.com

519-523-4793

Dave Franken CONCRETE FORMING For All Your Concrete Needs!

Congrats to all the Teams!

COMMERCIAL RESIDENTIAL • Foundations • Floor Finishing • Circular Tanks • Sandwich Walls FREE ESTIMATES

RR#3 Blyth ~ Fax 519-523-9604

519-523-9971

Brussels Optimist Club Congratulations and best wishes to all the teams on another great season of winter sports!

THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020. PAGE 13.

BBMHA Crusaders Bantam Rep: Back row, from left: Shea Cox, Carson Bromley, Dawson Dunbar, John Groves, Jamie Nicholson, Kevin Dunbar, Connor Hallahan, Brett McCutcheon, Nick McDonald. Front Row: Connor Dale, Braedon MacDonald, Tyson Fischer, Tyler Groves, Brady Graf, Colby Nicholson, Brad Hummel. Absent: Ryan Verschuere.

BBMHA Crusaders Bantam LL: Back row, from left: Sam Overholt, Jacob Josling, Brody Nesbitt, Hudson Marshall, coach Matt Bromley, Justin Kerr. Middle row: Jason Kuepfer, Noah Courtney, Brady Graf, Kurtis Marks, Carson Bromley, Travis Beaven.

Front row: Landen McCraney. Absent: Noah Robinson, Colby Nicholson, manager Andy Overholt, trainer Stacy Grenier, assistant coach Scott McCraney.

BBMHA Crusaders Midget Rep: Back row, from left: Back row, from left: Devin Bridge, Ty Drennan, Liam Shortreed, Adam Shortreed, Kesler Jardin. Third row: Braden Radford, Simon Johnston, Rylee Chalmers, Dustin Fritz. Second row: Coach Nic Gowing, Nolan McCutcheon, Max Johnston, Devin Johnston, Jeff Walden, manager Steve McCutcheon.

Front Row: Joe Jacklin, Joel Nesbit. Absent: Coach Tim Fritz, trainer Melissa Coultes, Alex Coultes, Dakota Coultes, Mason Weber, Myles Johnston.

BBMHA Crusaders Midget LL: Back row, from left: Reid Button, Ethan McNaughton, Zeke Walden, Ben Jacklin, Nathan Brown. Third row: Trainer Allison Walden, Brenna Walden, Mathew McKee, Joel Howson, Troy Coultes, Hunter Dale, Kal McNichol.

Second row: John Kiepfer, Colby Dale, Mitch Townsend, Jackson Mcdonald-Inglis, Bennett Smith, Griffin Marshall. Front row: Joel Nesbit, Joe Jacklin. Absent: Logan Long, coach Troy Long, coach Jeff McKee, coach Jeff Howson.

Huron Heat Initiation: Back row, from left: Dean Wood, Curtis Meyers. Middle row: Anna Jarmuth, Emma Dalton, Milan Prouse, Sydney Prescott, Bree Regier, Raya Nimitz, Peyton Anderson, Kate Meyers. Front row: Sadie Wammes, Gracie Mahon, Rya Renning, Hannah Grant, Olivia Carnochan, Mackinley Bannon, Emma Wood, Reese Watterworth, Harper O’Donnell. Absent: Coach Devon Prouse.

Huron Heat Novice HL 1: Back row, from left: Trainer Jenny Vanhengal, coach Craig Vanstone, coach Jamie Black. Middle row: Callie VanLoon, Adele Black, Claira Olsen, Front row: Emma Vanstone, Macy Sinclair, Brynn Bauerman, Sophia Burkholder, Bree Vanhengal, Casey Crowley. Absent: Coach Mark Olsen, trainer Amy Burkholder.

Best Wishes to all the Teams!

We’re proud of all of you!

Way to go Teams!

Bernard Enterprises Authorized dealer for Central Boiler Classic Outdoor Wood Furnaces And Maxim Wood Pellet and Corn Burners Gasification units available RR #4 Brussels Carman Bernard 519-887-6405 centralboiler.com or maximheat.com

Jacquie Gowing Accounting, Income Tax and Business Management Services Personal, Farm, Business & Corporate • Monthly Bookkeeping Services • Electronic Tax Filing

Great Work by all the Teams!

Enjoy Spring at...

jgowing623@gmail.com

519-887-9248 AGRICULTURAL

RR#1 39843 LONDESBORO RD., LONDESBOROUGH PHONE/FAX 519-523-9781

RESIDENTIAL Congratulatio teams on a gr ns eat season!

Falconer Funeral Homes Good Work Teams!

Clinton Chapel Bluewater Chapel Blyth Chapel

519-523-4577 • 519-482-9521

NEW CONSTRUCTION RENOVATIONS

Christopher M. Smith Mark R. Rushton Amanda Rich

519-524-0253

The tradition of service continues...

Check out more teams on Page 16

PAGE 14. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020.

THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020. PAGE 15.

Wingham Hospital Auxiliary has been helping patients, hospital over a century

IT’S TIME TO APPLAUD THIS COUNTRY’S VOLUNTEERS.

Ready to lend a hand nation nal volunteer u week 2020 ap pril 19-2 5 . #nvw2020 vol o unteer.ca/nvw w2020

Thank You to our Volunteers It is very much appreciated.

Since 1906, the Wingham Hospital Auxiliary has been providing for the patients and staff of the Wingham and District Hospital. While that originally meant working in and with the hospital, things have changed in recent years as the group has been fundraising for purchases in the hospital, as well as

• Farm • Residential • Commercial • Automobile www.howickmutual.com

1-800-265-3033

% !'$/$ /$ " ##/)!" /! /

& / .$ / #$ ( / !' / / +#$ /

Municipality of Huron East

Heartfelt Thanks

to the countless volunteers who contribute tremendous time and energy within Huron East.

Your contribution plays a vital role in sustaining an extraordinary quality of life within our community.

Blyth Lions Club would like to give a huge thank you to everyone who volunteers their time for the betterment of our community and surrounding area.

and help with patients. We used to do a lot more, but that has kind of stopped.�

She said that members have been asked to help at the Royal Oaks Health and Wellness Centre, housed in the former Wingham Public School that has been turned into a healthcare

campus for the hospital, as well as directing people during the recent significant renovations at the Wingham hospital. “Unless we’re asked to do specific things like that, however, we’re not really involved,� she said, adding the Continued on page 24

Helping for awhile The Wingham and District Hospital has some dedicated volunteers through its auxiliary of 70 members. Above are some of the longer-serving members of the group including, from left: Jo English (60 years) Eileen McGlynn, Marilyn Wood, Gail Neil, Anita van Hittersum, Isabel Arbuckle (50 years), Barb Shiell, Marlene Leadham (50 years), Betty Belanger and Elizabeth Proctor. (Photo submitted)

United Church

BRUSSELS

HURON/BRUCE CHAPTER

United Church

Thank you to all our volunteers

Thank you to everyone who volunteers in and around our community

email: madd@hurontel.on.ca 519-357-4552 Drive SOBER - Save Lives!

Accessible Facebook: Blyth and Brussels United Churches

"Attitudes are contagious...

A Heartfelt thank you to all our volunteers who give a tremendous amount of time and energy, providing care that makes a difference for people and their families on a daily basis.

The group also hosts a poinsettia tea and bake sale in December, and runs the new gift shop at the hospital to help support the organization throughout the year.

While, in the past, volunteers were in the hospital helping out with day-today services, Thomson said those kinds of efforts are rare nowadays, leaving the group to fundraise for large purchases. Over the past several years, for example, the group has bought oncology chairs, crash carts, pressurerelief mattresses, wheelchairs, stretchers for the emergency department, vital sign monitors, patient lifts and specialized equipment for various departments in the hospital. “Over the last three or four years, we have donated between $10,000 and $15,000 in equipment to the hospital, but our main purpose is patient care and comfort,� Thomson said, explaining the auxiliary is distinct from the hospital foundation which fundraises for big-ticket items and renovations.

The group also decided four years ago to create bursaries for F.E. Madill School students going into medical fields. Each year, two $500 bursaries are awarded. “Unfortunately, over the past number of years, the auxiliary’s role in the hospital has been diminished,� she said. “We cannot go into the hospital

BLYTH

Hullett Central Public School wishes to thank all of the dedicated volunteers who work tirelessly to support our students. We appreciate all you do.

/ $/) $/$!/)!" /*$ /,!'/ /#!! / $ -/# / /,!'/ /

as handling volunteer requests from the hospital. Most recently, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the group has been working to help out front-line workers with meals. Above, at left, auxiliary member Doris Taylor and her husband Jim deliver sandwiches and veggie trays to Cheryl Foxton, at right, for the workers. (Photos submitted)

By Denny Scott - The Citizen While things have changed over the years for local hospital auxiliaries, the volunteer-driven groups are still helping to make sure patients have the most pleasant experience possible when they find themselves in the hospital.

The Wingham and District Hospital Auxiliary has been providing support for the Wingham and District Hospital and its patients for over a century. The group was formed in 1906 and, according to co-chair Trudy Thomson, is the oldest thriving auxiliary in the south-central region of Ontario. “We have around 70 members and our yearly membership is $5,� she told The Citizen in an interview. “Our main objective is to provide support to the hospital and patients in any way possible.�

The group runs some big events throughout a normal year, including their main fundraisers: spring and fall rummage sales, though this year’s may have to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic control measures.

The group also holds its Tag Day during Nurses’ Week, which celebrates those in the essential services those in the nursing profession provide. “We have volunteers out in the community with bedpans collecting donations,� she said. “That’s one of our fundraisers.�

Hullett Central Public School

The Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance offers our most sincere thanks to our amazing volunteers for their generous gifts of time, commitment and service.

www.hpha.ca

Loving Generous Caring Friendly

Vibrant Amazing

Charitable

V o l u n t e wonderful ers Passionate

Thank You Seless FUN

The Municipality of Central Huron wishes to thank everyone who volunteers their time to make our municipality a great place to live, work and visit.

Humble

HELPFUL Devoted GREAT

519-482-3997

www.blythbia.ca

www.centralhuron.com

Corporation of the COUNTY OF HURON Huronview and Huronlea Homes for the Aged

Thanks to the many volunteers who help us throughout the year.

"Kind hearts are the garden, Kind thoughts are the roots, Kind words are the blossom, Kind deeds are the fruits, A friendly word, a kindly smile, A helpful act, and life's worthwhile."

Optimist Club of Brussels

Thank you for your commitment to making a positive difference in our residents’ daily lives.

Both residents and staff appreciate your many individual gifts of time.

THANK YOU!

Friend of Youth

SPECIAL THANKS

Thank you!

Volunteers are the heartbeat of our community!

Special thanks to all our volunteers for the time and care they give so generously!

Royal Canadian Legion Brussels Branch 218 With special thanks to all our volunteers

victimserviceshuron.ca

Special thanks to all the comrades and friends of the branch who put so much time into making our branch a success

Brussels Lions Club would like to thank the community for their ongoing support and all the volunteers who help us throughout the year.

PAGE 14. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020.

THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020. PAGE 15.

Wingham Hospital Auxiliary has been helping patients, hospital over a century

IT’S TIME TO APPLAUD THIS COUNTRY’S VOLUNTEERS.

Ready to lend a hand nation nal volunteer u week 2020 ap pril 19-2 5 . #nvw2020 vol o unteer.ca/nvw w2020

Thank You to our Volunteers It is very much appreciated.

Since 1906, the Wingham Hospital Auxiliary has been providing for the patients and staff of the Wingham and District Hospital. While that originally meant working in and with the hospital, things have changed in recent years as the group has been fundraising for purchases in the hospital, as well as

• Farm • Residential • Commercial • Automobile www.howickmutual.com

1-800-265-3033

% !'$/$ /$ " ##/)!" /! /

& / .$ / #$ ( / !' / / +#$ /

Municipality of Huron East

Heartfelt Thanks

to the countless volunteers who contribute tremendous time and energy within Huron East.

Your contribution plays a vital role in sustaining an extraordinary quality of life within our community.

Blyth Lions Club would like to give a huge thank you to everyone who volunteers their time for the betterment of our community and surrounding area.

and help with patients. We used to do a lot more, but that has kind of stopped.�

She said that members have been asked to help at the Royal Oaks Health and Wellness Centre, housed in the former Wingham Public School that has been turned into a healthcare

campus for the hospital, as well as directing people during the recent significant renovations at the Wingham hospital. “Unless we’re asked to do specific things like that, however, we’re not really involved,� she said, adding the Continued on page 24

Helping for awhile The Wingham and District Hospital has some dedicated volunteers through its auxiliary of 70 members. Above are some of the longer-serving members of the group including, from left: Jo English (60 years) Eileen McGlynn, Marilyn Wood, Gail Neil, Anita van Hittersum, Isabel Arbuckle (50 years), Barb Shiell, Marlene Leadham (50 years), Betty Belanger and Elizabeth Proctor. (Photo submitted)

United Church

BRUSSELS

HURON/BRUCE CHAPTER

United Church

Thank you to all our volunteers

Thank you to everyone who volunteers in and around our community

email: madd@hurontel.on.ca 519-357-4552 Drive SOBER - Save Lives!

Accessible Facebook: Blyth and Brussels United Churches

"Attitudes are contagious...

A Heartfelt thank you to all our volunteers who give a tremendous amount of time and energy, providing care that makes a difference for people and their families on a daily basis.

The group also hosts a poinsettia tea and bake sale in December, and runs the new gift shop at the hospital to help support the organization throughout the year.

While, in the past, volunteers were in the hospital helping out with day-today services, Thomson said those kinds of efforts are rare nowadays, leaving the group to fundraise for large purchases. Over the past several years, for example, the group has bought oncology chairs, crash carts, pressurerelief mattresses, wheelchairs, stretchers for the emergency department, vital sign monitors, patient lifts and specialized equipment for various departments in the hospital. “Over the last three or four years, we have donated between $10,000 and $15,000 in equipment to the hospital, but our main purpose is patient care and comfort,� Thomson said, explaining the auxiliary is distinct from the hospital foundation which fundraises for big-ticket items and renovations.

The group also decided four years ago to create bursaries for F.E. Madill School students going into medical fields. Each year, two $500 bursaries are awarded. “Unfortunately, over the past number of years, the auxiliary’s role in the hospital has been diminished,� she said. “We cannot go into the hospital

BLYTH

Hullett Central Public School wishes to thank all of the dedicated volunteers who work tirelessly to support our students. We appreciate all you do.

/ $/) $/$!/)!" /*$ /,!'/ /#!! / $ -/# / /,!'/ /

as handling volunteer requests from the hospital. Most recently, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the group has been working to help out front-line workers with meals. Above, at left, auxiliary member Doris Taylor and her husband Jim deliver sandwiches and veggie trays to Cheryl Foxton, at right, for the workers. (Photos submitted)

By Denny Scott - The Citizen While things have changed over the years for local hospital auxiliaries, the volunteer-driven groups are still helping to make sure patients have the most pleasant experience possible when they find themselves in the hospital.

The Wingham and District Hospital Auxiliary has been providing support for the Wingham and District Hospital and its patients for over a century. The group was formed in 1906 and, according to co-chair Trudy Thomson, is the oldest thriving auxiliary in the south-central region of Ontario. “We have around 70 members and our yearly membership is $5,� she told The Citizen in an interview. “Our main objective is to provide support to the hospital and patients in any way possible.�

The group runs some big events throughout a normal year, including their main fundraisers: spring and fall rummage sales, though this year’s may have to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic control measures.

The group also holds its Tag Day during Nurses’ Week, which celebrates those in the essential services those in the nursing profession provide. “We have volunteers out in the community with bedpans collecting donations,� she said. “That’s one of our fundraisers.�

Hullett Central Public School

The Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance offers our most sincere thanks to our amazing volunteers for their generous gifts of time, commitment and service.

www.hpha.ca

Loving Generous Caring Friendly

Vibrant Amazing

Charitable

V o l u n t e wonderful ers Passionate

Thank You Seless FUN

The Municipality of Central Huron wishes to thank everyone who volunteers their time to make our municipality a great place to live, work and visit.

Humble

HELPFUL Devoted GREAT

519-482-3997

www.blythbia.ca

www.centralhuron.com

Corporation of the COUNTY OF HURON Huronview and Huronlea Homes for the Aged

Thanks to the many volunteers who help us throughout the year.

"Kind hearts are the garden, Kind thoughts are the roots, Kind words are the blossom, Kind deeds are the fruits, A friendly word, a kindly smile, A helpful act, and life's worthwhile."

Optimist Club of Brussels

Thank you for your commitment to making a positive difference in our residents’ daily lives.

Both residents and staff appreciate your many individual gifts of time.

THANK YOU!

Friend of Youth

SPECIAL THANKS

Thank you!

Volunteers are the heartbeat of our community!

Special thanks to all our volunteers for the time and care they give so generously!

Royal Canadian Legion Brussels Branch 218 With special thanks to all our volunteers

victimserviceshuron.ca

Special thanks to all the comrades and friends of the branch who put so much time into making our branch a success

Brussels Lions Club would like to thank the community for their ongoing support and all the volunteers who help us throughout the year.

PAGE 16. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020.

Huron Heat Novice HL 2: Back row, from left: Mark Calder, Joe Kammerman, Jason Watson, Jason Forbes. Middle row: Lily Livingstone, Kinley Wood. Front row: Mikenna Gemel, Breanne Carnochan, Sloan Forbes, Cali Calder, Jordyn Kammerman, Vaeda Watson, MacKenzie Finnigan. Absent: Leigha Wynja.

Huron Heat Novice B: Back row, from left: Lee Prescott, Mark Mahon, Stacey Prescott. Middle row: Reese deBoer, Lucy Mahon, Abby Wammes. Front row: Emily Colclough, Jolie Marone, Zoey Prescott, Alyse Hoogenes, Kylie Illemann, Emery DeJong, Reagan O’Brien, Katie Meyer, Kirklynn Caldwell.

Huron Heat Atom HL 1: Back row, from left: Jamie Black, Mike Haggitt, Ray Buttineau.

Middle row: Melanie Sinclair, Sophie Caldwell, Sierra Mason. Front row: Stella Shepley, Katie Rae Buttineau, Ruby Squires, Rachael Love, Stella Black, Kayci Fielder, Aliya Haggitt, Mercedes Daer, Grace Stoll. Absent: Manager Erica Black, trainer Leslie Love, trainer Mark Stoll.

Huron Heat Atom HL 2: Back row, from left: Coach Samantha Kerr, coach Everett Smith, coach Brett Stackhouse, coach Jess Dolmage, coach Sue Little. Middle row: Ella Smith, Hadley Little, Breelyn Dykstra, Lauren Kootstra, Harlow Keys, Molly Bolinger.

Front row: Naomi Pryce, Annie Davidson, Charlie Grant, Stella Thompson, Shayna Dolmage, Ava Morrison. Absent: Brook Beuermann.

Huron Heat Atom A: Back row, from left: Assistant Coach Paul Schuster, coach Curt Blake, trainer Jennifer Colquhoun, assistant coach Scott Meyer. Middle row: Teresa Schuster, Hannah Dalton, Rylee Dalton, Addison Blake, Bree Anderson, Aven Dykstra Front row: Carli Vanden Hengel, Chloe Albers, Carali Hugill, Cassandra Colquhoun, Leicia Baldwin, Lindsey Meyer, Mya Smale, Lauryn Maloney, Teya Anderson. Absent: Assistant coach Brittany Hymers, trainer Marsha Smale.

Huron Heat Atom B: Back row, from left: Coach Chris Lammerant, coach Krista Kuntz, coach Nathan Illemann, coach Dean Wood, coach Brett Martin. Middle row: Addison McAsh, Rylan Anderson, Alayna Illemann, Alyssa Hakkers, Ali Lammerant. Front row: Ruby Taylor, Claire Cowman, Brooklyn Lammerant, Harper Phillips, Abbie Wood, Kyla MacDonald, Addison Martin, Leah Kuntz.

Always proud of our teams!

Good Work Teams!

"We've Got Your Lumber" Brussels 519-887-6277

Safe, Dependable Trucking Service • Livestock • Bulk • Freight 519-887-6122

RADAR

Municipality of Huron East 519-527-0160 or 1-888-868-7513

Congratulations Teams, on another great season

AUTO PARTS “You will find it at CARQUEST”

Way to go teams!

235 TURNBERRY ST., BRUSSELS . . . . . . . . . 519-887-9661 3878 WELLINGTON ST., MITCHELL . . . . . 519-348-8485 20 KING ST., CLINTON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519-482-3445

Great Season! Way to Go!

519.606.2211

tcc@tcc.on.ca www.tcc.on.ca

401 Albert Street, Box 340 Brussels, ON N0G 1H0 Phone: 519-887-6336 Fax: 519-887-6438 www.riversidefuneralhome.ca

THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020. PAGE 17.

Huron Heat PeeWee B: Back row, from left: Coach Shawn O’Brien, coach Kent Wilson, coach Brette Boven, coach Berton Dykstra. Middle row: Riley Wilson, Clara deBoer, Lacey Heiben, Danika Dykstra, Amelia Morrison, Tyler Boven. Front row: Olivia Bachert, Ansley Durand, Heather Ogilvie, Ashlyn Edwards, Mackinley O’Brien, Emily Maloney, Teagan Hickling.

Huron Heat PeeWee HL: Back row, from left: Brya Stewart, Ella Smith, Stella Thompson, Olivia Lambers, Elise Brady, Nevaeh Little, Faith Durand, Karly Fielder.

Front row: Hailey Davidson, Sydney Dalton, Laura McGuire, Jocelyn DeJong, Casey Bernard.

Huron Heat PeeWee BB: Back row, from left: Ava Strome, Leah Charnochan, Callie Anderson, Carleigh Dale, Emmerson Coups, Zoey Collins, Hailey Beuermann. Middle row: Destiny Dunbar, Karsyn McInally, Dillyn Anderson, Emery Cook, Mallory Meyer. Front row: Marlee Strauss.

Huron Heat Bantam C: Back row: Assistant coach Jeff Gemmell. Middle row: Erica Maloney, Macy Tremeer, Brielle O’Meara, Meg Fritz, Caleigh Ditner, Sydney Kolkman, Clara Carnochan. Front row: Nyla Pawitch, Erin Davies, Kiley Nicholson, Abby Gemmell, Kyla Fisher, Ally Riegling, Maddy Bernard, Kailey Hallahan, Carly DeJong.

Absent: Coach Glen Ditner, trainer Alicha Hallahan, trainer Kate Hammel.

Huron Heat Bantam BB: Back row, from left: Mike Regier, Mark Falconer, Ken Colquhoun. Middle row: Sydney Kootstra, Cassie Elliott, Samantha Kerr, Sarah Merrigan, Chelsea Vandenheuvel. Front row: Shyanne Hubbard, Callie Moir, Monique Regier, Isabella Williamson, Addison Stevens, Brylie Campbell, Sydnee Partridge.

Allison Colquhoun, Samantha Falconer.

Another Great Season - Well Done Teams!

Londesboro & District Lions Club Congrats on a great season!

Steve Nixon Real Estate Broker 519-357-2222 Serving the area since 1999

nixon@execulink.com www.stevennixon.com

Huron Heat Midget B: Back row, from left: Steve McInally, Kennedy Huether, Maggie Price, Faith Melady, Ian Brooks, Hailee Brown, Kyleigh Burns, Olivia Goodburn, Kevin Dunlop, Kristen Scott, Sarah Knoblauch, Kevin Dunlop. Middle row: Hailee Masse, Morgan Ramer, Joy Pizzatti, Sami Regier, Maddy McNichol, Cassie Maier, Jason Carter. Front row: Olivia Wightman, Macara Brooks.

KRAEMER CONCRETE LTD.

Thanks for a great season!

From the

Jim Kraemer ~ Two Locations to Serve You! 5595 Road 130, RR 1 220 Industrial Park Dr., Brunner N0K 1C0 Brussels N0G 1H0 Congratulations

519-595-2343

Teams!

Fax: 519-595-4903

519-887-8763

Fax: 519-887-8764

Toll Free at 1-888-RING-KCL

Way to go Teams!

Recreation

North Huron Recreation staff

Blyth Printing Inc. wishes to congratulate the teams on another great season!

See us for: • colour printing • posters • brochures • envelopes & letterhead

We'll "imPress" you Blyth 519-523-9211

email: blythprinting@ezlink.on.ca

PAGE 18. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020.

Broomball 2020 Blyth Atom Broomball: Back row, from left: Coach Raymond DeBoer, Hudson Smith, Kelsey Cressman, Lucia Dale, Beckett Noble, Isla DeBoer, Addison Hoekmeijer, coach Dan Blake, coach Nicole Noble. Front row: Aiden Hoekmeijer, JT McNaught, Rylan Brown, Thomas Blake, Liam Neutel, Maddox Mann, Macy Smith. Absent: Coach Fred DeBoer, Elouise McWilliams, Dallas Dykstra, Byron Eveland.

Blyth PeeWee Silver Broomball: Back row, from left: Abby Mitchell, Tori Kennedy, Abi McNaught, Nathan Westra, Titus Buttar, Lukas Greidanus. Front row: Coach Tammy Mitchell, Aiden Mitchell, Leah Westra, Sloane Bolger, Hailynn Greidanus, coach Marc Westra. Absent: Dylan Kreuger, Eli Baxter, coach Jason Buttar, coach Lori Kennedy.

Blyth PeeWee Ice Broomball: Back row, from left: Bridget McCallum, Rachel Wilts, Myah Bos, Rowan Gaspric, Keryn Dale, Clay Hoggart, coach Sandra Hoggart. Front row: Coach Manny Taylor, Macie Taylor, Kaleigh McCallum, Leah Boven, Wyatt Hoggart, Bryce Dale, Nathan King. Absent: Aiden Albers, Greg Bell, coach Crystal McCallum.

Blyth PeeWee Bullets Broomball: Back row, from left: Coach Cam Cook, coach Mitch Harris, Ryan Beauchamp, Jack Harris, Keira Hoekmeier, Brendan Hickey, Sarah Hallahan. Middle row: Carman Harris, Emily Burkholder, Chloe Verwey, Brooklyn Bromley, Peyton Riley, coach Rob Burkholder. Front row: Trystan Patterson-Thompson.

Absent: Dylan Cowan, Noah McWilliams, coach Ashley Bromley.

Blyth Bantam Girls Broomball: Back row, from left: Back row, from left: Marley Gaspric, Brook Ohm, Zoe Verwey, Audrey Krueger, Amber Shannon, Sydney Bromley. Middle row: Coach Lori Kennedy, Jessica Toll, Kayla Cowan, Olivia Gutscher, Kiersten Bakelaar, coach Julie Cowan. Front row:Kailee Kennedy, Gabby Gowing.

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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2020. PAGE 19.

Blyth Bantam Boys Broomball: Back row, from left: Ty Hoggart, Sheldon Lee, Kaleb Johnston, Ethan Buttar, Phillip Holtzhauer, Jake Cullen, Ethan Blake, Braydon Ridley.

Middle row: Dixon Schoemaker, Carson Beauchamp, Drew Wilts, Hayden Lee, Austin South, Caleb Westra, Tyler McMichael, coach Marc Westra. Front row: Coach BJ Cullen, Landyn McNaughton, coach Matt Lee.

Blyth Midget Girls Bullets: Back row, from left: Elianna Kreuger, Breanna Blake, Heidi Badley, Sadie Squires, Paige Kennedy, Cassidy Shannon. Middle row: Shayna Hunking, Alexis Eveland, Emma Buttar, Sierra Train, Kortney Hoggart, Jillian Shortreed, Jillian Hummel, Regan McMichael. Front row: Grace Hallahan. Absent: Coach Jason Buttar, coach Dan Hoggart.

Blyth Midget Girls Ice Broomball : Back row, from left: Hannah Boven, Cara Thomson, Lauren Hickey, Ameera Pawitch, Anna Verwey, coach Casey Boven. Middle row: Coach Carla Pawitch, coach Ryan South, Chayse South, Dakotah Sarty, Sierra Sarty, Kaylyn McIver, Evie Reid, Olivia Verwey, Allison Toll, Julia Meloche, coach Marie Cook. Front row: Vanessa Marchenhowsky.

Blyth Midget Boys Ice Broomball : Back row, from left: Coach Dennis Dolmage, Alex Boven, Axeton Wright, Drew Wilts, Ryan Cowan, Kyle Bakelaar. Front row: Ben Buttar, Christopher Dolmage, Ryder Lee. Absent: Vincent Eveland, Rhys Deswart, Hayden Lee, Aiden Bento, coach Jason Buttar, coach Steve Bakelaar.

Blyth Juvenile Girls Broomball: Back row, from left: Wendy Campbell, Maleah Taylor, Brianna Graf, Jaden Shortreed, Sydney Hunking, Avery Boven, Sarah Hunking, Mackenzie Gulutzen. Middle row: Addie Treble, Luane MacGregor, Samantha Moon, Alexis Logtenberg, Anna Fear. Front row: Alaina Poland. Absent: Abby Bos, coach Kaitlyn Squibb, coach April Innes, coach Michaela Bender.

Blyth Juvenile Boys Broomball: Back row, from left: Connor Flynn, Dean Hayter, Darcy Fear, Malcolm Squires, Ethan Ducharme. Middle row: Coach Curtis Terpstra, coach Dan Hoggart, Dawson Hoggart, Cole Pollard, Travis Wilts, Tyler Johnston, Ben Kolkman, Jacob Flood, Josh Scott. Front row: Tikai Baldwin, coach Raymond DeBoer, Hugh Flynn. Absent: Colin Wilts.

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PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020.

Obituaries will be strictly enforced.

In lieu of flowers and as expressions of sympathy, donations to the Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto would be appreciated.

Cards of sympathy may be sent to Box 630, Brussels, N0G 1H0.

Condolences may be left at riversidefuneralhome.ca

SYDNEY “SYD” DIETRICH-ILLSLEY Miss Sydney “Syd” DietrichIllsley passed away suddenly on April 5, 2020. She was in her 22nd year.

Sydney was the beloved daughter of Dave and Charlene DietrichIllsley and the proud sister of Taylor (Tyson Willis). She will be sadly missed by Grandma Jocette, many aunts, uncles and cousins. Sydney is especially missed by her loving pets Shadow and Midnight and by many close friends. She was predeceased by her grandfathers Ted and Thomas.

Cremation has taken place. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, a drive-by visitation will take place on April 18 from 2-4 p.m.

Please respect the funeral home’s policies during this time by not leaving your vehicle. Follow the visitation route, which is as follows: east on Dunedin Drive turning right on Burgess Street, turning right onto Alfred Street and following to the right up Albert Street in front of the funeral home.

The procedures set out by the Bereavement Authority of Ontario

DEBBIE LEE SMUCK Debbie Lee Smuck of RR 4, Wingham, passed away on Friday, April 3, 2020. She was 49.

Debbie was the beloved wife of John Smuck, cherished mom of Garet and Ryan Smuck, the loving daughter of Lila Rintoul and the late Lee Rintoul (2018), dear sister of Carol and Stephen MacPherson and Kim Higgins and the daughter-inlaw of Joan and John Miller and Larry Smuck and Ruby Kurt. Deb was the sister-in-law of Jim Smuck and Julie and Steve Keelan. She will be lovingly remembered by her aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, extended family and by her many friends.

Due to current COVID-19 restrictions, a private funeral service was held at McBurney Funeral Home Chapel, Wingham on April 8.

Interment took place at Brandon Cemetery, Belgrave. A public

celebration of Deb’s life will be held at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations to Alexandra Marine and General Hospital Foundation for the Mental Health Inpatient Services would be appreciated as expressions of sympathy.

Online condolences may be left at www.mcburneyfuneralhome.com.

JOHN SUBJECT John Subject of Atwood, passed away peacefully in his sleep, on Monday, April 13, 2020. He was 81.

After retiring from the farm, John began a career building houses and selling OAA insurance. John was a life member of the Atwood Lions Club, having received both the Melvin Jones Fellowship and Helen Keller Awards for his outstanding service to the community for over 45 years. He was instrumental in organizing and running the weekly Thursday night bingo. John participated in the Salvation Army Christmas Kettle campaign and enjoyed helping Iola with quilting and painting saws. John and Iola spent many summers enjoying their trailer at Family Paradise Campground with family and friends.

John was the beloved husband of Iola (Bell) Subject, with whom he celebrated 60 years of marriage on

Final Barn Dance set for 2021

By Denny Scott The Citizen The Barn Dance Historical Society’s 23rd annual Jamboree and Campout in Blyth is cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and organizers hope to be able to put on the final show of its kind in Blyth next year.

Last week, the society made the announcement, saying its plans are now to host the event May 27-30 in 2021, marking the end of the traditional show that brings hundreds of campers and visitors to the Blyth and District Community Centre and Campground.

Gord Baxter, a member of the society’s board, confirmed that the event will likely not be continuing after next year’s show.

“This spring would have been our final show,” he said. “With the cancellation, however, instead of calling it quits, we’ve decided to move on one more year so we can hopefully do a final show.”

The show for next year should be similar to what was planned for this year, Baxter said, adding that the planning process will begin early next year.

“We may lose some participants, but hopefully we will gain some new ones,” he said. “We’ve already had some positive feedback for next year’s show.”

The society will not disband,

Baxter said, offering to arrange entertainment as a means of continuing to raise money, however the campout and jamboree in Blyth is proving too much for the existing board.

“All of us are getting a little bit older and we don’t have the manpower to put on the campout or the jamboree,” he said. “It takes a lot of work.”

The holding pattern in which the North Huron Museum sits doesn’t help matters, Baxter said.

The society had a significant collection of artifacts on display at the museum in Wingham when it closed its doors to the public two years ago. With plans to move the museum to a space with a smaller display area, making the society’s collection a rotating display has been suggested. In previous interviews, Baxter said the owners of the collection may want their goods returned if they aren’t part of a static display, so the issue remains unresolved.

“Everything is kind of in abeyance there,” he said. “We don’t know where we stand on that. This gives us a year to ponder what’s going to happen there.”

“We are still going to do our Barn Dance shows,” he said, explaining that, before the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in their cancellation, the society had three sold-out shows scheduled this year:

two in Drayton and one in Purple Hill.

While the society isn’t going to run the jamboree and campout in Blyth, there have been discussions with the board about providing entertainment for such an event if another group were to take it over.

Baxter said he discussed the issue with the Blyth Lions Club, but the club opted to decline.

Baxter said he was sad to see the show have to fold this way because its cancellation will be a financial hardship for all involved, including the society, the municipality which owns the campground and the businesses in Blyth.

Aug. 1, 2019. He was the loving father of Brenda McKinnon, Harold (Bev) Subject and Kevin (Wendy and family) Subject. He was the special grandfather of Jesse (Nicole), Curtis, Cody (Saunie), Bobby (Carrie), Stacey (Sean), Trevor (Marnee) and greatgrandfather of Isla, Kinzley, Michael, Olivia, Avery and Liam.

John was the dear brother and brother-in-law of Betty Szucs, Doris (Danny) Ensinger, Ella Pfieffer, Albert (Sheila) Subject, Donna Subject, Joanne Subject, Jennifer Subject, John Zinken and Sandra (Alvin) Heard. He will be fondly remembered and loved by Kyla, the extended Bell family and many nieces and nephews.

John was predeceased by his parents Christian and Emma (Marsh) Subject, brothers Kenneth, Mervin, Carl, George, Bruce and sisters Madeline, Emmaline and Elaine.

A private family service was held at Brenneman Funeral Home followed by burial in Elma Centre Cemetery. A memorial service to celebrate John’s life will be held at a later date.

As expressions of sympathy, memorial donations to the Atwood Lions Club or the Salvation Army would be appreciated by the family.

Bev was the dearly loved husband of Helen, the beloved father of Nancy Wallace (Bill Ward), Susan (Dan Proctor), Mark (Becky) Wallace and Deborah Wallace DeWolfe. He was the cherished grandfather of Matthew, Ryan, Amanda, Dustin, Hannah, Jocelyn, and Lyndsey and the loving greatgrandfather of Reagan, Brooke, Landon, Abel, Charley, Raelynn, Milo, and Beau.

Bev is also survived by sisters-inlaw June, Shirley and Agnes. He was predeceased by his daughter Kimberly Mae in infancy, parents Irvine and Dorothy Wallace, brother Howard, sisters Shirley and Irma and his parents-in-law Rolland and Clara Marks, sister-in -law Agnes and brother-in-law Robert.

Cremation has taken place. A private family service will be held at a later date. Interment of ashes is in Blyth Union Cemetery.

Funeral arrangements are entrusted to Falconer Funeral Homes, Clinton.

Messages of condolence for the Wallace family are welcome at www.falconerfuneralhomes.com

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IRVINE BEVERLY “BEV” WALLACE Irvine Beverly “Bev” Wallace of RR 1, Londesborough passed away on Wednesday, April 8, 2020. He was 86.

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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020. PAGE 21.

519-523-4311

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Agriculture

BLYTH 519-523-4244 www.hurontractor.com

Brussels Livestock report

Lambs sell steadily; sheep, goats higher Total receipts for Brussels Livestock for the week ending April 11 were 1,861 cattle and 798 lambs and goats.

On Tuesday quality fed steers and heifers sold steady. Choice steers and heifers sold $140 to $146.50 with sales to $148. Second cut steers and heifers sold $130 to $140. Cows sold easier. On Thursday veal sold on a strong active trade. Lambs sold steady. Sheep and goats sold higher.

On Friday calves and yearlings sold steady.

Chris Smith of Brussels, consigned seven limousin steers.

One limousin steer weighed 1,695 lbs. and sold for a price of $148.

Southlore Farms Ltd. of Palmerston, consigned 12 heifers.

One red heifer weighed 1,340 lbs. and sold for $145. Ron Smith of Denfield, consigned six head. Two charolais heifers averaged 1,443 lbs. and sold for an average price of $141.50.

There were 480 cows on offer.

Beef sold $67 to $75 with sales to $83; D1 and D2, $60 to $66; D3, $54 to $59; D4, $48 to $53.

Larry Reinhart Jr. of Mildmay, consigned one charolais cow that

weighed 1,735 lbs. and sold for $83.

There were 11 bulls selling $91 to $130. Mel-Matt Livestock of Kincardine, consigned one black bull that weighed 2,025 lbs. and sold for $129.

There were 80 head of veal on offer. Beef veal sold $135 to $175 with sales to $180; good holsteins, $95 to $105 with sales to $109; SL heavy holsteins, $90 to $100; heavy holsteins, $100 to $105 with sales to $110; medium holsteins, $90 to $95.

Rueben S. Martin of Wallenstein, consigned six head. One limousin heifer weighed 860 lbs. and sold for

$180. Jared Murray of Walton, consigned nine head. One holstein steer weighed 865 lbs. and sold for $110.

Lambs under 50 lbs. sold $324 to $342; 50 - 64 lbs., $333.50 to $360; 65 - 79 lbs., $298 to $319; 80 - 94 lbs., $252.50 to $300; 95 - 110 lbs., $249 to $260.

Sheep sold $117 to $152.

Goats: billies sold $150 to $450; nannies, $50 to $150; kids: meat, $325 to $452; dairy, $300 to $350.

Brian and Craig Salverda of Londesborough, consigned 56 lambs.

Fourteen lambs averaged 55 lbs. and

Milk dumping caused by system back-ups

By Denny Scott The Citizen There has been significant confusion among consumers in Ontario as grocery and convenience stores rationed milk while dairy producers were pouring out the product at their farms. However Huron County Dairy Producer Committee Chair Glen McNeil explains that it’s all part of Canada’s supply management system.

“The deal is that, because of COVID-19, buying patterns of the public have been very erratic,” McNeil told The Citizen last week.

“In the month of March, there was a great demand for dairy products.”

Ontario is in the P5 dairy group in Canada, which includes the provinces from Ontario to the east

except for Newfoundland. He says that in the group there was a recognized great demand for dairy products in March, so the directive from the P5 group was to increase production by one day’s worth in the month of March to meet the demand.

“That’s the essence of supply management,” McNeil said. “We try to match the demand.”

In April, McNeil said, the buying patterns continued to be erratic and, because of the high demand, distribution networks couldn’t get the milk products to consumers for purchase, causing back-ups in the system.

“The processors were processing, but they couldn’t get enough through the distribution network fast enough for demand,” he said. “Things

backed up at the processor end. The decision of the P5, very appropriately, was that the milk on particular routes of transports would be dumped.”

McNeil said there were two dumpdates – April 3 and April 6 – and that no producer would be asked to dump twice. The producers who dumped their product were to be compensated by the Dairy Farmers of Ontario and provincial bodies.

The backups were caused by not only the high demand but also because of COVID-19, McNeil said.

“Whenever you get a person that tests positive for COVID-19 in any of the processing aspects, be it distribution or elsewhere, it backs up through the system,” he said.

“As soon as the distribution network can get caught up to

Pork backlog being managed

By Denny Scott The Citizen Tara Terpstra, a member of the Ontario Pork board from the Brussels area, says that every effort is being made to make sure Ontarians still have access to pork products during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an interview with The Citizen last week, Terpstra said pork processing sites are stepping up their efforts and working longer while still making every effort to conform with provincial regulations around physical distancing.

Some producers have voiced concerns to The Citizen regarding the lack of processing capacity in Ontario and Quebec after plant closures and slow downs, however Terpstra said different levels of processing plants are stepping up to try and fill the gaps.

Specifically, Terpstra said facilities are trying to cover a gap left by a large plant closure in Quebec due to COVID-19. The Olymel plant in Yamachiche, Quebec was set to re-open this week, after it had been closed for over two weeks after nine employees tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, leading to the approximately 1,000 employees to be sent home for safety’s sake. Even with that announcement, however, production may not be up to its 28,000 hogs-per-week processing capacity, depending on which

employees are able to return and how they can function while still being safe. The closure has caused backlogs in the industry in Quebec and in Ontario, where producers send tens of thousands of pigs into Quebec each week.

“Ontario pork is working with producers to try and mitigate that,” Terpstra said. “Loads are being cut back and hogs are being sent to other processors who are working hard to meet demand.”

Terpstra added that, in a situation like this, Ontario Pork would hope to work with its partners south of the Canada-U.S. border, but American producers are facing problems as well.

“Ontario is looking at other avenues to deal with the backlog,” she said. “Plants are running Saturday shifts to eliminate backlogs.”

She said those measures are only going to be as successful if employees are available to work the extra shifts, which may be difficult due to childcare concerns with children out of school and daycare facilities closed down. She added those kinds of issues are also being faced by pork producers who are short employees.

As a result of restaurants doing less business than normal during the COVID-19 pandemic control measures, she said facilities are also changing the cuts of pork being produced to more consumer-based cuts.

The entire industry, from producer to distributors to the markets, is facing challenges, she said.

“Lots of pig or pork farmers are doing everything they can to keep safe and keep their pigs on the farm until they can ship them,” she said, adding that farmers are switching their hogs to maintenance feed from growth feed to keep them ready to go to processing facilities when they can.

While there has been a slow down, Terpstra said the producers, plants and transport agencies are doing everything they can to keep the food chain moving.

supermarkets, we will again be producing what’s needed and hopefully meeting the demand,” McNeil said.

He explained that supermarkets were limiting what they sold because they couldn’t get anymore in. He said he spoke to the Zehrs Markets location in Goderich and was told it was five trailer loads behind grocery orders because of the lack of dairy products.

All the processors in Ontario are at maximum capacity, McNeil said, and will continue to operate at that level as long as distribution can keep up. He added that he hoped, with grocery stores closed for Easter and Good Friday, some ground would be gained by the distribution networks and that the situation will be corrected in the coming weeks.

“Consumers should be assured we are supporting the market,” he said.

“We are supplying all the product the distributors are able to move.”

sold for an average price of $360.

Top quality stocker steers 400 499 lbs. sold $223.50 to $240; 500 599 lbs., $213 to $235; 600 - 699 lbs., $208 to $217.50; 700 - 799 lbs., $189.50 to $207; 800 - 899 lbs., $177.50 to $189.25; 900 - 999 lbs., $172.50 to $179.25; 1,000 lbs. and over, $144.50 to $157.

Top quality stocker heifers, 400 499 lbs. sold $190 to $215; 500 - 599 lbs., $183.50 to $206; 600 - 699 lbs., $174.50 to $190.50; 700 - 799 lbs., $160 to $172; 800 - 899 lbs., $157.50 to $163.50; 900 lbs. and over, $151 to $156.50.

Eric VanDenHevel of Strathroy, consigned 57 limousin steers and heifers. Nine limousin heifers averaged 711 lbs. and sold for an average price of $172. Troy Robinson of Gowanstown, consigned 65 charolais steers. Twenty charolais steers averaged 844 lbs. and sold for an average price of $189.25.

BRUSSELS LIVESTOCK Division of Gamble & Rogers Ltd.

UPCOMING SALES TUESDAYS 9:00 a.m.

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PAGE 22. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020.

13-year-old column provides hope during pandemic PEOPLE AROUND LONDESBORO

By BRENDA RADFORD Call 523-4296

More than one time over the past 20 years have I admired those journalists who, seemingly easily, churn out columns week after week.

In my case the activities of folks in and around the village are fodder for this space. But the whole world has hit a roadblock. The only news one is bombarded by these days is that of the pandemic sweeping the whole world.

There is absolutely nothing I can add. All I can do is reiterate what you are already hearing: wash your hands often and well, stay home if and when you can and keep your distance. And thank all those front-

line people who are keeping our world running.

Many of us now have the time to clean out closets, dresser drawers, etc. of all the detritus one tends to keep for some reason or other. Last week I came across one of those columns I was speaking of written by a former editor of The Citizen, Bonnie Gropp. Actually Bonnie took me on as Londesborough’s correspondent and helped me get started.

Bonnie’s column each week was called “The Short of It”. The column I kept was titled “There’s Always Hope” written for the Jan. 4, 2007 edition of the paper. As a true believer in coincidence I think this was another example.

Bonnie was working on reviewing 2006 which for her, personally, was a very difficult and sad one. She was asked why she was looking forward eagerly to a new year. Her one word answer was “hope”. She goes on to say: “It would be a pretty sad thing to not be able to look forward with

expectations, to not view the time before us with promise. What makes hope easy to believe in is that even in a year that seemed to bring so many trials, there were occasions that reminded it isn’t always like this.

Hope for tomorrow is more than wishful thinking. It sustains us when we struggle or hurt. There’s always hope.”

I felt this column was fitting for the times we are struggling through now. I will put it back in my files to rediscover another year.

In this unprecedented time people around the world are turning to their faith to sustain them. I expect most churches in Canada are reaching out to their faithful by way of social media, live streaming, etc. Certainly churches in our area are doing just that. One could find solace every day of the week by tapping into these services. Just type in the name of a church and, as they say, follow the links. Even someone as technically challenged as myself has managed this.

So, to help fill this space and,

coincidentally, keep with the church theme, I decided to Google the old expression “bandbox fresh” which I came across recently.

In one explanation I discovered the “bands” of the term bandbox actually refer to the little square linen tippets clergy wear around their neck, particularly Presbyterian ministers. The band box was actually the box in which the clergy kept their vestments so they were always spotless and fresh.

Frankly, my age is showing here, when fancy hats were more the norm for most men and ladies, hats were carried from the store in a band/hat box. And truth to tell I believe I still have one in the back of a closet with old hats in it. They are made of lightweight cardboard.

Baseball fans will recognize the term also. Any ball field which is smaller than the norm is conducive to home runs, referred to as a band box.

This comes at a time, of course, that the Major League Baseball season has been suspended until

further notice. Opening Day was scheduled to take place late last month with the season due to be in full swing by now, but the COVID19 pandemic has stopped that.

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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020. PAGE 23.

From the Minister’s Study

In this time of challenge, seek renewal

By Charmila Ireland Melville Presbyterian Church, Brussels At this time last year, I was at a pastors’ conference in Punta Cana.

Wouldn’t that be nice right about now? The theme of the conference was “Rest and Renew”.

This year, I’m personally finding it a little hard to rest because I tend to struggle with unknowns and not having a plan in place. So I have to watch my anxiety levels when I start to think too much about not knowing when our church doors might be able to re-open, when Soup and More will restart, if some of my favourite local businesses will lose their shops, if a member of my family or a friend is going to get sick, and more.

I know there are a lot of people in the same boat – and a lot of people in much more challenging circumstances.

Some other people are doing just fine though. A friend of mine is happy to have this time to spend with her husband (laid off) and her baby while they get a few needed home renovations done. A relative is enjoying the peace and quiet, tending to his property and getting through a backlog of books he had always meant to read. Some are able to take this as a time to rest and renew.

That’s not possible for all of us – especially for those in the health care and other essential services. But for those of us who can, I encourage you to look at this odd interlude as a time of rest and renewal. A time to ask the big and challenging questions, to think about your life and who you are and who you want to be, to focus on your relationship with God, to consider your relationships with the people in your life that you’re not able to see right now, to think about what is important and what simply isn’t.

This article is coming to The Citizen past the deadline (sorry Shawn!) because I had a bad case of writer’s block. So I started to think about what I really wanted to say to all of you readers in this time of challenge and (hopefully) renewal.

Here it is: God is good. God is worthy of our praise and faith. God is worth following. God is worth stepping out boldly in faith. And God gives us, yes, us, the power to do this. Us. Ordinary people.

Everyday people. In us God has planted the seeds of His kingdom. In us He has put the Holy Spirit. We can witness to the Gospel. We can be transformed, and we can share that transformation with others.

How do I know this? Because of what we see of those first Christians.

A group that was living in a time of fear, darkness and grief – yet came through it with the help of God. First, consider John 20 – best known as the passage with doubting Thomas.

Jesus died. Last week – on Good Friday – Jesus died. And on Easter he rose again. When Jesus died, the disciples were afraid. Were they next? What now? But then Jesus comes back – the resurrection. Jesus says to them, “I am sending you.

Receive the Holy Spirit.” Jesus gives them a command and the means to carry it out, but it’s a big task. Will they be up to it?

You can see the fear in this passage; the doubt. The wondering if they would be able to do what Jesus wants.

We see this same fear in us. These same questions. Are we going to be able to do what Jesus wants? Our

rural churches are usually small in numbers – and we fear getting smaller still. Our resources are stretched already – are we going to lose what we have left? Are we good enough to do what Jesus wants? Are we bold enough, strong enough, charismatic enough? Are we enough?

Turn to Acts 5:17 to see what happened with those early disciples, filled with fear for the uncertain future. Let’s see if the Holy Spirit is enough, if belief in the resurrected Christ is enough, if the disciples are enough.

The apostles were out performing miracles! They were healing the sick and more and more people were joining them. More and more people were listening and responding to their witness to the risen Christ.

Which, of course, upset the high priest and his associates and filled

them with jealousy. Keep reading Acts 5:17-33 to see what happens next.

The apostles were bold. They believed so much in God and in Christ’s resurrection power that they openly and blatantly defied the will of the authorities. They were thrown in jail and when they were miraculously broken out, they didn’t take that as their opportunity to flee.

They instead marched right back to the temple courts and started preaching again.

When they were arrested, Peter stood tall before the authorities and said “We must obey God, rather than men.” Keep in mind – this is the same Peter who denied Jesus three times before the rooster crowed. And now, when the stakes are even higher, he stood toe to toe with his accusers and pushed back. What changed? Christ. Christ is risen. So

Brussels Mennonite Fellowship Due to the COVID-19 circumstances there will be no services until further notice.

Please check back each week of any change to schedule.

BMF Mission = our church exists to GROW in the teachings of Jesus to LIVE by His example, and to CONNECT people to Him

Worship Service: 10:00 am Coffee Time: 11:15 am Sunday School, all ages - 11:30 am

250 Princess St., Brussels • 519-887-6388 • Pastor Ken Gazley

The Regional Ministry of Hope See our Facebook page 10.30 a.m. on Sundays for a live broadcast of our service.

All Anglican Churches are closed for public worship until further notice.

Rev. JoAnn Todd, Rector 519-357-7781 email: revjoann@hurontel.on.ca The­Regional­Ministry­of­ Hope

Trinity

St. John’s

BLYTH

BRUSSELS

9:00 am

12 noon

now Peter is bold because he really and truly believes. He finally understands the truth that Christ is the Messiah.

These apostles are stepping out in faith. Boldly, proudly, risking everything. We believe in the same God. We believe in the same resurrection. We have the same Holy Spirit within us. We can do the same.

For our God is an awesome God who is worthy of this sort of devotion and sacrifice. Our God is worth taking risks for. What would we, in our small rural churches, look like if we kept opening ourselves up to the power of the resurrected

Christ? The same power that these apostles had in them?

I don’t know about you – but I’m excited to find out. Because I believe in a God who is bigger than restricted budgets and aging demographics. I believe in a God who is more powerful than the apathy that surrounds so many people. We believe in a God who can fill that hole inside us that we can’t fill with worldly things. We believe in God. If you keep reading Acts 5, you hear what happens to these apostles: “Day after day, in the temple courts Continued on page 24

BRUSSELS

United Church Our Church remains closed.

May the words of Rick Warren remind you to live your faith: "Happy Moments ­ Praise God Difficult Moments ­ Seek God Quiet Moments ­ Worship God Painful Moments ­ Trust God Every Moment ­ Thank God"

Blessings for this Easter time

Church Services are cancelled until further notice Video sermons available on YouTube by searching “Blyth Christian Reformed Church”

BLYTH CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH Minister: Pastor Gary van Leeuwen Hwy. 4, Blyth www.blythcrc.ca 519-523-4743

St. Paul’s Trinity

WINGHAM

10:30 am

COME WORSHIP WITH US!

MELVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BRUSSELS Due to COVID-19 weekly church services are cancelled until further notice.

Stay safe and healthy!

Blyth United Church Due to the COVID-19 Virus the church building is closed.

Please join Rev. Gary Clark on YouTube “Forest Hill United Church Kitchener” for the Sunday Service Facebook: Blyth and Brussels United Churches

Brussels Soup and More 2 is cancelled until further notice.

519-887-6687

blythunited@tcc.on.ca ~ 519-523-4224

THE CATHOLIC PARISHES OF NORTH HURON AND NORTH PERTH

OUR SUNDAY LITURGIES ARE

CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Evangelical Missionary Church Visit HuronChapel.com for VIDEO SERMONS posted weekly!

April 19, 10:30 a.m. - Pastor Rob Campbell, “It’s All About Trust” (Rom.20:19ff, livestream) Join a LifeGroup Bible Study by Zoom or Hangouts!

(Gatherings on hold due to COVID-19)

** Let us know how we can be praying for you / practical needs ** huronchapel.com huronchapelkids.com huronchapelyouth.com 519-526-1131 ~ 119 John’s Ave., Auburn

Brussels: St. Ambrose Saturday 6:00 p.m.

17 Flora Street Wingham: Sacred Heart Sunday 9:00 a.m.

220 Carling Terrace Listowel: St. Joseph’s Sunday 11:00 a.m.

1025 Wallace Avenue N.

PAGE 24. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020.

Thieves still active despite home presences PEOPLE AROUND WALTON

By Jo-Ann McDonald Call 887-6570

Happy Easter to all! We hope all were able to speak with their family members by phone, Zoom, video chat or maybe just by text over the weekend.

Respecting social distancing from family, neighbours and friends is the only way we are going to beat this virus. Keep safe all.

The members of the three congregations of St. Ambrose, St. Joseph’s and Sacred Heart Churches are pleased to welcome Father Vargees Devos as their priest in residence. He was born in Madras, India and was ordained in 1986. He came to Canada at the end of 2004 and spent 15 years in Newfoundland. He is a welleducated, soft-spoken and very humble priest. He will be an asset to the community and a gift to the faithful. Welcome Father Devos.

Father Morrison is still recovering from his health issues and we wish him all the best in his recovery.

Celebrating her birthday this past week was Marie McGavin and although the family could not gather and shower her with hugs and kisses, they co-ordinated a virtual gathering to bring her birthday wishes. There were 27 members of the family in contact at the same time to bring her birthday greetings. They conversed for an hour with lots of laughs and stories. It was a great way to still celebrate while recognizing physical distancing. Good job folks and happy birthday Marie.

It is with sadness we report the passing of John Gaunt. John was a gentle giant of a man who was the partner and companion of Jeanne Kirkby for many years. John was a farmer, a member of the white bean board and an active member of the Federation of Agriculture. John will be remembered for his acres of naked ladies, a fall blooming crocus.

They made a beautiful sight in the fall when driving by his farm. For years he shipped bulbs all over the world. A soft-spoken and pleasant man, he will be missed by Jeanne and her son Paul, his neighbours and his extended family. Our sympathies to all.

In this trying time, it is amazing to announce the opening of the new dollar store in Brussels. It is in the former McCutcheon garage bay area. I will assume because it carries food items, it is allowed to be open.

The owners have similar stores in Seaforth, Mitchell and Clinton.

Welcome to Brussels!

Still looking for things to do?

Talking with friends, we heard that painting is a way to pass the days. A couple of them are painting rooms or hallways to freshen the look. The pair of ladies painting were using the same colour so it was just a matter of reading the label, calling the store with the order and then picking it up.

I myself worked on a different project, an over 25-year-old project.

It was many years ago that I had decided that the foot-deep windowsills of our stone house should be stripped of the old paint and brought back to the natural wood. There are 11 windows in our home and I love them. I managed to do the six downstairs windows in the first two years of the project. I never dreamt it would be so hard. The windowsills had at least four layers of paint, sticky, gooey, gummy paint.

I used the heat gun and scraped, paint stripper and scraped, then

Never stop proclaiming Jesus is Christ: Ireland Continued from page 23 and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”

That is our job. Never stop proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ.

That Jesus is risen from the dead and He is Lord. I believe that we can do it. I believe that we can be a missional church that spreads the love of God beyond these walls.

Because we believe in the living God, not a dead God who stayed in the tomb, a living God who makes

unexpected comebacks. The God of resurrection and power. I believe that we can come back from this pandemic stronger and more faithful than ever, more renewed and confident in the power of God and God’s power in us.

As you live through this peculiar season in our world’s history, continue to lean on God, continue to learn about and love God, continue to love your neighbour and dream of the future. I pray that this will be a time of rest and renewal for each and every one of you. God is with us all.

Volunteer marks 60 years Continued from page 15 the group used to volunteer to help in the chemotherapy unit, but that hasn’t happened since the renovations.

The group has some dedicated members, including many who have received accolades for being with it 25 years, 30 years and through to 45 years. Those who hit 25 years are presented, for example, a life membership award.

The group’s longest-serving member is Jo English, Thomson said. English recently marked 60 years of volunteering with the hospital auxiliary.

“She’s 100 and started way back when there was a little tuck shop at

the hospital,” she said. “She’s been involved in a lot.”

Over her time with the group, English has made diapers and sheets and helped to grow a vegetable garden.

Last June, the group recognized English, alongside other members who had been part of the group for 25, 30, 40 or 50 years.

Recently, the organization has been helping out through the COVID-19 pandemic by arranging to help the front-line medical staff with donations of food and beverages. The group has provided meals to those working in the hospital to let them know that their dedication is appreciated.

repeated again and again, then steel wool, then sand paper. When I had the downstairs six finished, I took a break; a long break of a few years. I went back at it and managed to get three more windows done before throwing in the towel again. I managed to get another window done two years ago with every intention of doing the last window, but failed.

Now, with time on my hands, I have looked at the last window long enough and I went back at it. I am pleased to say, the last window is done. Thankfully. I am a lot older than when I started this project and it seemed to be very hard work, but now all the windows are done. If I look hard, a few of them need sanding and a coat of varnish again, but that will not be so bad to do.

The thieves around the area have fewer vacant houses to hit during the day because many more people are at home, but they are still out at night. The neighbour’s truck on Moncrieff Road was stolen in the early hours of the morning on the weekend. Thankfully it was recovered a day or so later, and I do not know if there was damage. Even without damage, it will still have to

be cleaned thoroughly in case of any drug residue that could be in the truck. The owner’s driveway alarm alerted them to the movement, but the owner could only watch as the thieves drove away with the truck; the right thing to do according to police. Confronting the thieves or chasing them with another vehicle, could result in injury for you, them or others. It’s a material item that is insured and can be replaced, but it does make you darn mad when it happens.

Thieves are out there and so are the scammers. Everyday there is another scam being tried on unsuspecting folks. Remember, the Canada Revenue Agency will never call you on the phone and ask for your personal information, no matter what they threaten. Do not give it out. Calls about your hydro being cut off are false. Never give out your credit card number so they can receive payment. Banks are still open and so is Canada Post to send payments. Be wise in these trying times. Call your family if in doubt.

Never give out personal information.

No matter how many times this message is given, folks still are being scammed of their hard-earned

savings. Be wise and be safe.

Celebrating birthdays this past week include Heather Dunbar, Shannon Craig Soontiens, Cole Zwep, Katie Emmrich Johnston, Jack Ryan, Trevor Sutcliffe, Theresa Pryce, Leighton (Blake) Williams, Leah Janmaat, Tom Warwick and Murray Pepper. Happy birthday to all!

NEWS FROM WALTON

THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020. PAGE 25.

Classified Advertisements – RATES – 20 words or less only $7.00 + HST. Additional words 20¢ each + HST. 50¢ will be deducted if ad is paid in advance

Help wanted

The Township of North Huron is inviting applications for

DEADLINE 2 p.m. Monday in Brussels 4 p.m. Monday in Blyth Phone 519-523-4792 or 519-887-9114 e-mail: info@northhuron.on.ca

Articles for sale BLACK THREE-YEAR-OLD Limousin bull for sale. Priced to move. 519-955-1234, Goderich.

16-1 -------------------------------------------GERBERS FIREWOOD SERVING you for over 10 years. Your number one source of quality slabwood and bodywood. Delivery available. No Sunday calls. 519-656-2057, 519441-2085.

01-50p -------------------------------------------REPRINTS OF PHOTOS taken by Citizen photographers are available to purchase. All are in colour. 4x6 – $5.00, 5x7 – $6.00, 8x10 – $10.00. Phone to order 519523-4792 or 519-887-9114. tfn -------------------------------------------THE CITIZEN IS AVAILABLE online for free while we are under orders for physical distances. Stay safe!

Citizen-ToCitizen

Help wanted

Director of Public Works and Facilities As a member of the Senior Management Team reporting to the CAO, the Director of Public Works and Facilities is responsible for the planning, maintenance and operation of the Township's public works and facilities systems including roads and bridges, buildings, sanitary sewer and drinking water, storm sewer, and waste management.

North Huron is composed of two fully serviced urban centres linked by a highly productive agricultural area.

The successful candidate will have appropriate post-secondary education in a related field, and at least five years' experience guiding public works operations. He/she will provide advice to Council through written reports and be a key member of the Township's asset management team.

Personals

Wanted

ARE YOU EXPERIENCING AN unplanned pregnancy? Are you a young parent? Do you feel overwhelmed and have questions?

We have answers and we’re here to help. Our services are free and completely confidential.

Contact Room2Grow at 519-6060046 or visit our website www.room2grow.info e6w

SOMEONE TO PAINT THE exterior trim of a house. Call 519887-6602.

15-2p

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INCOME TAX PREPARATION – farm, business, personal. Stephen Thompson, 519-482-3244.

09-9 --------------------------------------------

FAXING SERVICE is suspended.

Will resume when COVID-19 crisis is over. The Citizen, tfn --------------------------------------------

Cranbrook Customs Ltd. Liquid Manure Spreading

Project planning and management will be a key skill for the Director as will be providing guidance and oversight to the operations staff, contractors and consultants. An accomplished verbal communicator, the Director must have a commitment to excellent customer service.

Two 6300 Houle manure spreaders with 50 km tractors

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North Huron uniquely combines rural and urban living, world class agri-business, a regional commercial centre, manufacturing with an international reach, nationally recognized cultural attractions and close proximity to some of Ontario's finest vacation lands.

Two 8-row Kuhn Gladiators with RTK

Cole Terpstra: 519-440-2558 Joe Terpstra: 519-357-0344

The municipality offers a comprehensive and competitive salary $93,038.00 - $116,293.00 and benefits package.

BE A

FACE

How to Apply Qualified applicants are invited to submit any questions and their applications marked NH Director of Public Works and Facilities no later than 4:30 p.m. on May 8, 2020 to: Human Resource at hr@northhuron.ca The Township of North Huron is an equal opportunity employer.

Accessibility accommodations are available for all parts of the recruitment process. Applicants need to make their needs known in advance. We thank all applicants for their interest and only those individuals selected for an interview will be contacted. Information is collected solely for the purpose of job selection under the provisions of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CANCER

Tenders

Tenders

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Let us help you turn that junk into $$

FOR SALE – four used Honda alloy rims, 16 x 6.5, $200. Call Marc/Cairn, 519-357-2101. 14-3 ---------------------------------------FOR SALE – two water pumps pus tank, $150; 150' welding table plus 220 welder, $200; dried fire wood, $50/cord or best offer.

519-335-6998.

14-3

HELP US MAKE CANCER HISTORY.

FARM FOR SALE BY TENDER

“One person’s junk is another’s treasure”

Call 519-523-4792 or email: info@northhuron.on.ca

Open your door and give generously when a Canadian Cancer Society volunteer comes knocking this April. www.cancer.ca

“SWAP SHOP” ad

➨ Free ad up to 25 words, person to person only (no businesses), items valued at $1,000 or less.

Your ad will run three times unless it sells faster! ➨ The Citizen reserves the right to limit the number of items or ads per person.

BECAUSE CANCER IS IN YOUR COMMUNITY, SO ARE WE.

Sniff Out a Great Deal in the Classifieds.

Shoppers with a nose for bargains head straight for the Classifieds.

In the Classifieds, you can track down deals on everything from cars to canine companions. I t’s easy to place an ad or find the items you want, and it’s used by hundreds of shoppers every day.

Approximately 199 acres in size with approx. 88 acres reported as workable, approx. 40 acres mixed hardwood and 68 softwood/wetland and 3 acre building site. Workable land is reported to have minimal drainage. Topography is sloping to rolling. There is standing timber that could be harvested from the woodlot. Approx. 1200 square foot 1960s bungalow with concrete poured foundation, aluminum siding and a newer steel roof, and a propane furnace. Outbuildings include an older steel clad stone foundation bank barn approx. 50'x60' and 2 small garden sheds. Being sold “as is”.

For more information or to arrange viewing please email Virginia Schenk at virginia@schenklegal.ca or call SCHENK LEGAL at 519-357-4500 and leave a message with your contact information.

For offer to purchase forms please contact: SCHENK LEGAL, Barristers & Solicitors at info@schenklegal.ca or call SCHENK LEGAL at 519-357-4500 and leave a message with your email or address.

TENDER DEADLINE MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2020 @ 12 PM

Go with your instincts and use the Classifieds today.

The Citizen Classifieds 523-4792 • 887-9114

Tender materials may be submitted by regular mail, fax, or email. We are not accepting hand delivered tenders.

The vendor reserves the right to choose or not choose the appropriate bid at their sole discretion.

The highest bid will not necessarily be the successful bid.

All word ads in The Citizen classifieds are put on our webpage at

www.huroncitizen.ca

PAGE 26. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020.

Auburn quilt project begins

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Brenda Empey has taken on a community paper quilt project for Auburn in the hopes of boosting spirits and documenting the mindset of the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Empey has launched the Auburn village paper quilt project, providing paper quilt squares with a house pattern at the local post office in the hopes that community members will get artsy and tell their pandemic story on their square. She thought it was a way to keep the community together and engaged while at the same time staying safe during physical distancing orders.

The idea dates back to February, Empey says, when the community held a village-wide potluck dinner.

The event was well-attended, Empey said, and many active members of the community were able to meet some of the more private members of the community in the unique setting. A village-wide game night followed and members of the community were truly beginning to take to regular village-wide celebrations just as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to take shape.

The quilt concept, Empey said, will not only keep those in the community connected to one another, but also serve as a historical document on the COVID-19 shutdown for a spring and summer people surely won’t forget anytime soon.

The background for the house quilt squares will be exactly eight inches squared and those participating are asked to use

standard or stiff paper. They can then pick up their house pattern at the Auburn post office. All houses will be the same shape, but that’s where community members are asked to be creative.

The deadline, Empey said, is April 30, 2020. She’s asking community members to put their names on the back of their squares, but don’t fold them when they submit them back to the post office. In addition, everyone who enters a square will be entered into a free draw.

Once all of the squares have been returned and collected, Empey plans on getting to work to press them together to make a paper quilt that could be displayed and preserved at the Auburn Community Hall. Once that happens, Empey says she hopes for another community potluck meal where the quilt can be unveiled.

North Huron passes budget

By Denny Scott The Citizen North Huron Township Council has passed its 2020 budget, however the document is still being treated as malleable due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated control measures.

Director of Finance Donna White started her budget presentation at the April 6 council meeting by saying she is “extremely concerned” about the impact of the virus on the budget going forward.

While she said she is focused on projects and the municipality’s ability to function, she also said that, with various programs becoming available on a daily basis to help the country and the province deal with COVID-19, the situation could change drastically at any moment.

White presented the budget and council approved it, however, at White’s suggestion, wording was included to “maintain a balance between moving council forward and limiting” expenditures in light of COVID-19.

As part of approving the budget, council also passed a motion directing staff to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 to the budget wherever possible, including evaluating and prioritizing purchases and projects and increased monitoring of year-to-date numbers for the municipal budget.

White said that, in speaking to senior management, councillors, staff and ratepayers, she said there are concerns about going forward, however the council needs to take whatever reasonable steps necessary to keep the business of the municipality proceeding.

The budget includes a 2.97 per cent increase in spending, which could result in significant changes for ratepayers depending on the ward in which they live.

Using sample properties, including an average residential property assessed at $202,750 in 2019, an average farm property assessed at $761,850 and a sample commercial property assessed at $832,250 in 2019, White gave council an overview of how the new budget would impact ratepayers.

The residential property would, due to an increase in assessment, be worth approximately $205,000 in 2020. That means that in Blyth, the owners of the property would pay $119.35 more in taxes over 2019, an increase of 3.49 per cent. In East Wawanosh, that property’s taxes would increase by $147.37, or 4.69 per cent. That same property in

Wingham, however, would see a decrease of $121.18 or a 2.81 reduction in taxes.

White explained that a significant part of the decrease in Wingham for both residential and commercial properties is a result of the municipality moving to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) instead of Wingham having its own police service. That area-rated cost reduction resulted in lower taxes.

An average commercial property, for example, after having an assessment increase of approximately $85,000 to $845,000, would see a 2.91 per cent reduction in Wingham, representing a $774.86 reduction in taxes. In Blyth, that same property would see an increase of 1.39 per cent or $313.44 and in East Wawanosh it would increase by 2.06 per cent or $439.80.

The farm property, which would have seen an assessment increase of just under $100,000 to $854,600, would see increases in taxation across the board: 16.15 per cent, or $476.60 in East Wawanosh; 14.82 per cent or $475.65 in Blyth and 7.83 or $316.38 in Wingham.

The budget includes several arearated expenses for ratepayers including OPP in all three wards ($1,244,623 in Wingham, $206,494 in Blyth and $159,226 in East Wawanosh), streetlights in Blyth ($34,000) and Wingham ($91,000) and the Business Improvement Association (BIA) levies in Blyth and Wingham set by their respective BIAs. As far as capital projects go, the road reconstruction of Carling Terrace from Cornyn Street to Diagonal Road, approximately 200 metres of road, is the most expensive project proposed and is set to cost $1,639,119. Other projects include a dechlorination project for Blyth’s water system ($400,000), the design and engineering of services for the Hutton Heights development just south of Wingham ($97,536), surface treatment on Moncrieff Road in East Wawanosh ($95,000), replacing a condenser at the North Huron Wescast Community Complex in Wingham ($80,000), Wingham standpipe design and application work ($75,000), Wingham well system control updates ($75,000) and a truck for the public works department ($75,000).

Numerous 2019 projects are included in the budget for completion including the new Blyth fire hall and public works building, including a new sand storage shed, which will cost $619,381 to complete, the public works shed roof

replacement in Wingham at $120,000 and a project directed at humidity and condensation control in the North Huron Wescast Community Complex in Wingham at $88,716.

White gave some highlights of the budget, explaining that 28.88 per cent of the budget, $5,131,253.53, goes to staff wages and benefits and the municipality pays $652,343 in electricity costs a year.

Council had several comments and questions related to the document, starting with Councillor Chris Palmer who asked what kind of control council had to prioritize projects in the light of the COVID19 pandemic.

White explained that staff will continually evaluate what can and should be done, while Reeve Bernie Bailey assured Palmer council could “pull the plug” on any project it felt wasn’t a priority.

White also explained that the municipality has already laid off 74 staff members and taken measures like reducing grass cutting to cut costs. Bailey added that the municipality will be suspending projects like having flowers on the municipality’s main streets. He added that the municipality should Continued on page 27

Easter art Natalie, Brooklyn and Alaina McClinchey, above, and their mom Stacey were out and about on the Easter weekend in Auburn where they soon took to hunting for Easter eggs drawn on the community’s sidewalks. In all, they counted 31 by the time their walk was through. The village’s holiday art came courtesy of Laura Beacom, organizer of the village’s annual Easter egg hunt at Huron Chapel, who adapted the traditional activity to reflect the COVID-19 pandemic and physical distancing. (Photo submitted)

Celebrating A Special Occasion?

Advertise it in Leadership in energy and environmental design

Devon Henry 84772 McDonald Line • Box 616 • Brussels

devonjhenry@hotmail.com 519-505-2473

The Citizen Call or email to book your ad today!

519-523-4792 info@northhuron.on.ca

MANY THANKS to all the

Essential

Workers

THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020. PAGE 27.

NH staff to lead director search

Uplifting Kaleigh and Bridget McCallum took some time out of their day last week to put smiles on the faces of residents and employees at Huronlea Home for the Aged in Brussels by putting their sidewalk chalk art skills to use, thanking the healthcare workers. (Photo submitted)

Bucking the trend of using an outside source to find its last several major hires, North Huron Township Council has decided to utilize an internally-led search for its new Director of Public Works.

Earlier this year, current Director of Public Works Sean McGhee announced he would be retiring two years after taking the position. Chief Administrative Officer Dwayne Evans said the municipality had utilized a consultant to find McGhee, but at the time the municipality was also looking to fill several senior management positions, so seeking outside help made sense. Now, with an established senior management team, he said an internally-led search would be better, costing the municipality a fraction of what a consultant was expected to cost.

Evans estimated that, with advertising, staff could complete the search for a successful candidate for between $2,500 and $3,000, while a consultant could cost between $15,000 and $20,000.

Councillor Anita van Hittersum asked if there was anyone interested in the job who was already

Interest relief offered to qualified residents

By Denny Scott The Citizen Morris-Turnberry will be offering a tax penalty and interest relief program to deserving ratepayers during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving the decision of who is deserving up to staff.

During council’s April 7 meeting, Deputy-Mayor Sharen Zinn said she would like council to consider relief measures, but only for “someone who has paid their bills”.

Councillor Jim Nelemans said it was a good idea, suggesting that the municipality’s clerk be allowed to decide who qualifies.

Zinn said it should be decided on a case-by-case basis, eliminating “people who have missed or [are] always late” paying their tax bills.

Hallam suggested the relief be offered by way of deferring, without interest, tax bills to the second tax installment, though he said interest waiving could be allowed instead.

Farm tax rate concerns Palmer Continued from page 26 added that the municipality should still set a functional budget, however, as it’s easier to cut projects when necessary than to not have the option to pursue them at all.

Councillor Kevin Falconer asked if, since the schools were closed as a result of the pandemic, the municipality and ratepayers, would be paying less for the education portion of its taxes.

White said there had been no announcements made on adjusting payments, but said that the payments

could be delayed. Palmer, however, said he didn’t see that happening.

Palmer was also frustrated with the potential of a 16 per cent increase in taxes for East Wawanosh agricultural property as White had outlined using an example farm property.

“I can’t wait for the phone to start ringing over that 16 per cent increase,” he said. “A farmer doesn’t care for most of the projects [outlined in the budget]. We pay 28 per cent of the budget, but receive $300,000 [worth of work] in it.”

Palmer said that he knows that residential has carried significant increases before and likely will again, but right now land prices are “stupid” for those still farming, and have been increasing unreasonably for 14 years.

“It’s getting worse,” he said. “That increase has been a tremendous shot in the arm to add to our tax base, but the poor souls out there know… they aren’t making any money. They might be asking for help, as it’s a tough year.”

Mayor Jamie Heffer said that, since it was early on in the pandemic control measures, deferring would be the second step after waiving interest.

Zinn said she didn’t want to see the offer advertised, but it could be offered to people who are “in a tough situation”.

“They could pay installments,” she said. “Maybe they would only need a couple of weeks.”

Council approved having the clerk dictate who qualifies for the program, which will allow the municipality to waive interest on late payments from the April 30 billing to June 25, providing the individuals fill out a form provided by the municipality.

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employed by the municipality and Evans said he was aware of some interest, however the municipality did have to go through a hiring process to determine if the necessary qualifications would be met.

Councillor Kevin Falconer said he would like to see the position advertised locally before searching further afield.

“There were good, qualified people that had worked for the municipality prior to amalgamation or [the shared services project with Morris-Turnberry] that are no longer working for us that might be interested.”

Falconer said those individuals have history with the municipality, could be uniquely qualified and would be a good fit.

Falconer said he would like to see local candidates looked at first. If that doesn’t work, he said, council could consider a consultant.

Councillor Chris Palmer said the position is a vital one and for that reason he agreed with Falconer, saying the municipality should look as locally as possible, including people both working for the municipality and those in the community, however he did say he didn’t want the municipality to “settle” but rather ensure North Huron finds the best candidate.

Council approved having the search led by municipal staff.

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Drive-by greetings Jacoby Noble celebrated his fifth birthday last week with friends, family and neighbours driving by to wish him the best, complete with signs and gifts. (Photo submitted)

Mr. & Mrs. Ryan Cook are pleased to announce the forthcoming marriage of their daughter Sarah to Michael son of Mr. & Mrs. Bill Smith The wedding will take place December 21 in London, Ontario

Drop in, call, email 405 Queen St., Blyth 519-523-4792 541 Turnberry St., Brussels 519-887-9114 email: info@northhuron.on.ca

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PAGE 28. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020.

Underwood project stopped by rulings

By Denny Scott The Citizen Delays for a minor variance could cause some major concerns for an agricultural business in MorrisTurnberry, however councillors feel their hands are tied.

The variance, requested by Nelson Underwood for Underwood Grain Limited, sought relief from zoning bylaws so they could build a new warehouse for the grain elevator operation with a reduced minimum yard setback from 20 metres to 16 metres. He also requested a reduction in the number of required parking spaces from 19 to 10.

Chief Administrative Officer Trevor Hallam presented the application at council’s April 7 meeting in place of Huron County Planner Jennifer Burns, as the county’s Planning and Development Department staff are working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hallam recommended that, due to the invocation of the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act’s suspension of timelines for appeals, it didn’t make sense for council to approve the request. He also cited Premier Doug Ford’s halting of all non-essential construction, including industrial construction.

“It’s a very explicit list,” he said of the province’s detailing of what construction is allowed and what isn’t. “The project is not covered by [the list] in our opinion. It’s in the best interest of the municipality to defer the decision.”

He said the only reason the issue was being brought before council at all was so council could defer the decision to speed up dealing with the issue later, allowing the Underwoods to proceed in as timely a fashion as possible.

The Underwoods, however, felt that, since agriculture is a provincially-recognized essential service, their project should be recognized as essential development. Nelson said that he didn’t feel council would even be considering deferring this if it weren’t for Ford’s announcement, which had been made five days prior to the meeting.

“We can’t just stop. You can’t say you’re not doing anything in MorrisTurnberry,” Underwood said. “We’re going to be dead in the water until the province makes a decision.”

The Underwoods have contracts they need to meet, Underwood added, and not having the warehouse could be problematic for that.

Hallam said he agreed the province may not have intended to shut everything down in terms of development, but council, per his recommendation, should follow what was written, not what may or may not have been intended.

“The province needs to issue clarification,” Hallam said. “I know [Chief Building Official Kirk Livingston] tried 28 times to get in touch with the province before this meeting to try and do it differently.

Until the province clarifies, I feel my recommendation must stay the same. We’re bound to follow that order.”

He said agriculture is certainly an essential business, and agricultural businesses can continue operating, but “construction is construction” and projects like the Underwood’s warehouse aren’t listed.

Councillor Jamie McCallum said

he would like to see the project approved, but felt it was best to follow Hallam’s suggestion.

Councillor Jim Nelemans asked if anyone had contacted Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson about it.

“I agree this needs to go ahead, but if you listen to the [provincial health bodies] the whole world should shut down,” he said.

Other councillors weighed in, saying they wished the project could move forward, but they had to follow provincial guidelines.

The Underwoods felt it wasn’t fair to defer the project without a timeline for return and went on to ask if a letter from Thompson would be enough to allow the variance.

While council didn’t comment on the timelines, Hallam did say that, if a letter from Thompson endorsed the variance, council could approve it and the municipality’s responsibility would then be shifted to the provincial government.

Council deferred the issue until more information was available.

For the front-line workers Dozens of vehicles, including several fire trucks, made their way around Seaforth on Sunday night, with people honking, cheering and lighting up their cars to celebrate and thank the frontline healthcare workers at the town’s long-term care homes, the Seaforth hospital and OneCare. They are seen here saluting those at Maplewood Manor. (Shawn Loughlin photo)

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