The Citizen - Feb. 10, 2022

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THIS WEEK

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Thursday, February 10, 2022

Volume 38 No. 6

Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0

Budget passes in NH

By Denny Scott The Citizen

Back in action With the provincial government gradually easing COVID-19 restrictions, local arenas were buzzing over the weekend with hockey action after over a month away. Above, the U13 Huron Heat HL team took on

Ilderton on Sunday afternoon at the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre, but came away on the wrong end of a 60 score. The team now sits with a season record of 4-8-1.

(John Stephenson photo)

On Monday night, North Huron Township Council officially approved its 2022 budget, which will require $6,759,276 to be raised through taxation, representing a spending increase of $399,256, or 6.28 per cent, over 2021 taxation.

The total budget came in at $14,305,924.56 in expenditures.

However, more than half of that was offset by pre-tax revenue of $7,208,850 and transfers from reserves, according to the last draft presentation of the budget.

North Huron Director of Finance Darcy Chapman explained that the base 2022 budget, before any changes from council or staff were considered, was only $37,155 more than the 2021 budget. That amount, he said, would have kept the municipality’s funding at “status quo”. He explained there were both additions and subtractions to the 2021 base budget to come to the $37,155 increase. COVID-19 and pandemic-associated expenses increased the budget by $148,375 while emergency management related to COVID-19 saw an increase of $10,000 in the base budget. Other increases included insurance policy premiums ($19,150), a 2.41 per cent cost of living adjustment for full-time salaries and benefits ($64,000) and part-time salaries ($23,400), salary Continued on page 12

Huron East strikes new composition committee

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Huron East Council is moving ahead with the creation of an arm’slength committee to review the composition of council and compensation for councillors.

Council made the decision at its Feb. 1 meeting, which was held virtually via Zoom, after Councillor Alvin McLellan first raised the topic by making a notice of motion at a meeting last month.

This came after council again debated a number of issues related to its composition, including its size and whether to retain the ward system at its final meeting of 2021.

In the end, council opted to retain the status quo, pushing any future decision on council composition ahead to the next term of council, which will take office after this fall’s municipal election.

McLellan’s motion stated council

would establish an arm’s-length public advisory committee to review council composition and compensation for the 2026-2030 term of council. Furthermore, the motion stated that the committee would consist of five members of the public and that the resources of the chief administrative officer and the clerk would be made available to the committee.

Members of the committee would be Huron East residents and would be chosen through an application and council appointment process.

The committee’s purview would include public opinion surveys, a review of Huron County municipalities, a review of municipalities of similar size and population outside of Huron County and a proposed revised committee structure for the 20222026 term of council.

The deadline for the committee’s recommendations to council would

be its June 21, 2022 meeting.

The deadline had been up for debate at an earlier meeting, when Councillor Ray Chartrand suggested that the issue be discussed by the next term of council. He said the deadline could be June of 2023, but Chief Administrative Officer Brad McRoberts suggested that the

schedule remain the same so decisions can be made before council potentially enters a lame duck period ahead of this fall’s election.

Mayor Bernie MacLellan also noted that, if council wished, it could just extend the deadline, but McRoberts reiterated that the June 21 deadline would serve as a “goal”

for the committee, giving staff and council enough time to consider any recommendations before the lame duck period kicks in.

McLellan also reiterated that council would be under no obligation to follow any of the committee’s recommendations, but just take them under advisement.

Council approved the motion.

Five new local deaths reported

By Denny Scott The Citizen While the increase in confirmed cases of COVID-19 appears to be slowing, outbreaks are still a problem at local hospitals and longterm care facilities, according to Huron Perth Public Health (HPPH).

Over the past week, HPPH has reported 213 new cases of COVID19, bringing the total to 5,269.

However, as Huron Perth Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Miriam Klassen has reported on numerous occasions, testing is limited to at-risk individuals and settings, meaning there are likely far more cases than those reported to HPPH. The increase of 213 is slightly lower than it has been in previous weeks, however the pandemic is still having a devastating impact on

Huron and Perth Counties with five new deaths being reported over the past week for a total of 90 since the pandemic started.

Hospitalized cases continue to be driven by unvaccinated or partiallyvaccinated individuals with nearly 80 per cent of cases being tied to those groups. As of Monday, “breakthrough” cases, or cases occurring in fully-vaccinated Continued on page 2

PAGE 2. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022.

Hospitalizations driven by unvaccinated: Klassen

Breakdown Hospitalizations in Huron and Perth Counties due to COVID-19 continue to be driven, primarily, by unvaccinated patients (green), patients who are partially vaccinated (orange) and patients who are fully vaccinated but haven’t had enough time (two weeks) to benefit from their last shot (red) according to Huron Perth Public Health. With more than 80 per cent of the eligible population being vaccinated in the counties, only 22 per cent of hospitalized cases are in fully-vaccinated people (blue). (The Citizen image) Continued from page 1 individuals, accounted for 22 per cent of patients while over 80 per cent of eligible Huron and Perth County residents are vaccinated.

Unvaccinated cases make up 70 per cent of hospitalized cases, while partially-vaccinated and those who have been vaccinated but weren’t two weeks out from the vaccination and thus not receiving the full benefit, are responsible for four per cent of hospitalized cases each.

Two hospitals are facing COVID19 outbreaks. South Huron Hospital’s outbreak, which was declared on Jan. 27 with nine patients testing positive, now has 17 patients and eight staff testing positive. Clinton Public Hospital declared an outbreak last week with two patients

and two staff testing positive.

Four long-term care facilities are battling outbreaks right now including Huronview in Huron East which has five staff and nine residents testing positive, up from five staff and five residents when the outbreak was declared Feb. 1.

Braemar Nursing Home, in an outbreak declared Jan. 25, currently has 42 residents and 17 staff that tested positive, up one resident and one staff member from the week before.

Queensway Nursing Home in Bluewater saw a significant increase in COVID-19 cases in an outbreak that was initially declared on Jan. 17. This week, the site has 32 residents and 12 staff members that have tested positive, up from 13 residents and six staff the week

before. Kingsway Lodge in St Marys, in an outbreak that has persisted since Jan. 17, has 19 residents and 17 staff that tested positive, up from 18 residents and 14 staff last week.

During a teleconference last week, Klassen said that more than 30 per cent of Huron and Perth’s total reported COVID-19 infections have been recorded in the past month, despite the limited testing availability.

“As of Tuesday, Feb. 1, Huron Perth has a cumulative total of 5,090 confirmed COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic,” she said. “More than 1,500 of these cases have occurred since January 1, 2022.”

Klassen said those numbers are lower than the reality because of

significantly-reduced testing criteria, meaning many cases are going unreported.

She said that, while infections are starting to decline, the Omicron variant is still very transmissible and widespread and people should continue to follow public health measures to reduce community spread including wearing a wellfitted mask indoors or when physical distancing can’t be maintained, limiting interactions, maintaining physical distance, washing hands and following gathering limits.

Klassen did also weigh in on the number of COVID-19-related deaths that have occured in Huron and Perth Counties, with nine new deaths, or just over 10 per cent of the total deaths, happening in the past two weeks.

“Even with Omicron being less virulent than Delta, and even with vaccination, COVID-19 is still a serious disease,” she said, adding it’s especially serious for seniors and those with underlying diseases.

“Omicron leads to less hospitalizations in those aged 5-19, but it does lead to hospitalizations in those under the age of five, particularly under the age of 2, so we have to be cautious.”

She said the Omicron wave receding is a good sign, and is driven by vaccination, which will help the country move forward, but also noted that, for the first time in years, the life expectancy in Canada has fallen, likely due to COVID-19.

“I urge people, particularly those who are not immunized, to take it seriously,” she said, adding that families with children too young to be vaccinated need to be very careful about who they connect with as a means of protecting the children.

VACCINATION Over the past week, Huron and Perth Counties hit two milestones for vaccination, with 80 per cent of eligible residents now fully

vaccinated, meaning two doses, and more than 50 per cent having received their first booster.

Vaccination continues to climb in the area with 116,903 people having at least one shot, up from 116,864.

In total, that represents 84.1 per cent of eligible recipients.

As stated, 80 per cent of the eligible population is now considered fully vaccinated with two shots, with HPPH reporting an increase from 110,768 to 111,117 residents vaccinated.

Nearly 1,000 people received their third dose over the past week, with 69,544 having rolled up their sleeves, up from 68,560, or 50.3 per cent of eligible recipients.

In Huron and Perth Counties, 1,467 people have received their fourth dose, up from 1,301, or 1.1 per cent of eligible recipients.

During the aforementioned teleconference, Klassen said that appointments are no longer required to attend HPPH community clinics, adding eligible recipients can walk in at any time.

“Booked appointments are still available for those who wish to schedule an appointment in advance and will continue to take priority at clinics,” she said.

Klassen also said HPPH will be returning to smaller communities throughout Huron and Perth Counties this month to offer satellite vaccination clinics outside of those offered in Goderich and Stratford.

She also said that, due to the supply of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine stabilizing, mass vaccination clinics will be able to offer either mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna) to all recipients.

Finally, Klassen said vaccine appointments can be made through the provincial booking system at covid-19.ontario.ca/book-vaccine/ or 1-833-943-3900 or through the HPPH booking line at 1-833-7532098.

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Convoy A ‘Freedom Convoy’ in support of the ongoing occupation protest in Ottawa made its way through Huron County on the weekend, including the Belgrave area seen above, honking and showing signs in support of the national protest. (Photo submitted)

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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022. PAGE 3.

Council votes to limit development to three storeys

By Denny Scott The Citizen

Mixed grade Due to the mixed grade of the former Wingham trailer park, developers proposed a fivestorey building that would show only four storeys to neighbours. Council voted down a zoning amendment that would allow that, limiting it to three visible storeys. (BM Ross and associates image)

Break-in damages local church

This week’s quote to inspire readers is from Maya Angelou: “Because of our routines we often forget that life is an ongoing adventure.” So make a change in your routine this week and see what new things you might discover!

I was disturbed to discover last week that our little village is not as safe as we always felt. On their third try, someone, who obviously felt a need to break into Londesborough United Church, succeeded in doing so. The couple of items that were stolen were of very little value but the damage done to the doors will be expensive to repair/replace.

While in discussion about the church break-in, I learned that the Londesborough Community Hall was also broken into recently.

Again the items taken were of little value compared to the damage done to the building.

The thought, unfortunately, is that the culprit might be a village resident. One can only shake one’s head in wonder that someone else finds it necessary to act like this.

The time used to plan and execute these acts might be better spent helping the community rather than creating issues. We all need to be able to live in a community where common sense, decency and social responsibility govern our lives. So be alert as you drive about village streets for suspicious behaviour.

Watch and listen.

Londesborough United Church will hold its annual meeting for the year 2021 on Tuesday, Feb. 22. Plan to attend and be part of the guidance for the congregation in the current fiscal year.

Disability is an issue that affects one in five Canadians physically, mentally and economically. Of the 6.2 million Canadians dealing with a disability, 1.2 million cannot

afford aids, devices or prescriptions. That is why the United Church of Canada partners with other denominations to raise awareness and funds.

Anglican disability activist Lynda Katsuno has lived with her disability since a car accident in 1973. With the commitment of her community, principal and education superintendent, Lynda was able to return to the classroom and teach.

She became an activist for disabled persons when she realized it takes political will to change society for the better. And the world is a better place when disabled persons are included.

Your donations to the mission services of your church help create healthy, strong and welcoming communities where no one is left out. Give generously.

I expect, given the news around COVID-19 lately, this newspaper title was inevitable: “We’ll have to learn to live with COVID-19...” I don’t think it’s fair to blame anyone for the fact that all attempts to stem the spread of this pandemic have, essentially, failed. No one could know just how difficult getting the virus under control would actually be. Choices/decisions had to be made and hindsight is always 20/20.

The Ontario lockdowns have been used for longer here than in any other province or country. But

the province has failed to flatten the curve, so it seems we are going to have to treat this virus like any other seasonal flu virus. It appears destined to be endemic, not a pandemic. It may never be entirely eradicated.

That’s not to say that physical distancing, masks, ventilation and vaccinations are going to disappear any time soon. Those things work.

But we are needing to begin a more open, dare I say normal, life for everyone’s mental health and the health of the business sector.

Caution and common sense will still be the rule of thumb in regards to gatherings.

That being said, stay safe and stay well.

A portion of North Huron Council sided with a group of concerned citizens on Monday night, limiting a residential development in Wingham to address the concerns of neighbours.

The proposed redevelopment of the Wingham trailer park may not go ahead, as council voted to limit a proposed five-storey building to a three-storey building, eliminating the potential for 32 new residential units in the community.

On Monday, a truncated council, short Reeve Bernie Bailey and Deputy-Reeve Trevor Seip due to declared conflicts of interest, voted to cap the proposed apartment building at three storeys, which includes nine units on the bottom or grade floor, and 16 units per floor above that for a total of 41 units.

The proposed structure was five storeys tall and would have included 73 units, however, neighbours had several concerns,

including aesthetics, the loss of green space and traffic congestion, which led Councillors Chris Palmer, Ric McBurney and Paul Heffer to vote down the proposed zoning bylaw amendment which would allow the taller building, instead passing an amendment which wouldn’t allow the structure to go over the existing policy of three storeys.

While council did pass two motions to change the trailer park’s designation to high-density residential, when it came time to vote on several zoning amendment requirements, council was split with the above three wanting to limit the development while Councillors Kevin Falconer and Anita van Hittersum wanted it to go ahead.

Aside from increasing the maximum height to five storeys, Huron County Planner Hanna Holman also presented two other changes, including decreasing parking space requirements from Continued on page 13

John Newton’s tombstone In his old age, when he could no longer see to read, John Newton, the author of “Amazing Grace” heard someone recite this verse, “By the grace of God—I am what I am.” 1 Corinthians 15:10. He remained silent a short time, and then said: I am not what I ought to be. Ah! how imperfect and deficient.

I am not what I might be, considering my privileges and opportunities.

I am not what I wish to be. God knows my heart—knows I wish to be like Him. I am not what I hope to be. Before long, I will drop this clay tabernacle, to be like him and see Him as He is!

Yet, I am not what I once was—a child of sin, and slave of the devil!

Though not all, these—not what I ought to be, not what I might be, not what I wish or hope to be, and not what I once was—I think I can truly say with the apostle, “By the grace of God—I am what I am!”

At the age of 82, Newton said, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner—and that Christ is a great Saviour!”

John Newton’s tombstone reads: “John Newton, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy!”

“By the grace of God I am what I am!” 1 Corinthians 15:10 A Grace Gem Submitted by: Immanuel United Reformed Church, Listowel, ON 519-492-1359

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PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022.

Editorials & Opinions

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Welcome back Setting aside the myriad of controversies that create the backdrop to the Beijing Winter Olympics (a raging pandemic, climate change wreaking havoc on winter snow, the human rights record of the host country, the situation in the Ukraine), the games will be the highlight of many athletes’ career and a much needed diversion during trying times.

From perennial favourites like the Canadian women’s hockey team to the underdog medalists in the first-ever mixed ski jump event, waking up to sports stories is a welcome change to the tedium of case counts and the vaccine wars that have raged over the past 24 months. The highs and lows of Olympic competition has held our attention every four winters, and this year is no exception. Despite a lack of spectators due to the global spread of the Omicron variant, this year’s crop of competitors is providing great drama, from soaring champions like snowboarder Max Parrot who battled cancer just three years ago and stood on top of the podium this week to the heartbreaking crash during a training run that ended Elena Gaskell’s Beijing journey in freestyle skiing.

This is a good time to take advantage of the distraction, set aside our political differences and cheer on our Canadian athletes who’ve worked so hard and trained under the most difficult circumstances imaginable to get to the 2022 Winter Olympics. – DS

Loose change Crowdfunding giant GoFundMe has shut down the fundraiser for Freedom Convoy 2022, saying that the protest violates the company’s rules on violence and harassment. This comes after the more than $10 million raised had been frozen for days amid growing criticism of the company and questions about how the money was to be spent.

A GoFundMe blog post cited evidence from law enforcement that what the company believed to originate as a peaceful protest had devolved into an “occupation” with police reports of “violence and other unlawful activity”. Surely if donors want to get money to the protestors, they will - in fact, one of the GoFundMe page’s organizers has since directed donors to GiveSendGo, a Christian fundraising site that has been blocked by PayPal after it allowed funds to be raised for the Jan. 6 insurrection - and clearly there’s a lot to go around.

As restaurants, gyms, the arts, live theatre and others have suffered extraordinary losses as a result of the pandemic and associated control measures (to say nothing of those businesses impacted by the occupation), other industries have not been impacted as much. And while donors will say there is no higher calling for their money than “freedom”, it’s safe to wonder if that $10 million could have done more to improve the state of the country if it were spent in a different way.

While various levels of government and local law enforcement seem content to stand on the sidelines, allowing the Ottawa protest to spiral beyond control, GoFundMe and other private companies have stood up and said they will no longer support a situation that is destined to become more volatile the longer it goes on. – SL

No longer in the O’Toole box The Conservative Party of Canada may have lost an important implement as, with the ousting of Erin O’Toole, the party may jeopardize its chance at capturing doubtful centrists and left-leaning individuals.

While O’Toole made mistakes, many have said that, if the Conservatives couldn’t win with him, it may be a long time before they find themselves viable as a nation-leading party again. O’Toole’s exit proves that the more right-wing members of the party are taking over and, without major changes, the party will, at best, retain 2021 support.

O’Toole played the part of a more moderate Conservative, which put him in a position to attract disillusioned Liberal voters. However, he was constantly second-guessed and, likely to avoid losing support of his own party, didn’t have a chance to show much backbone to the reformists.

While the party has made a statement by removing O’Toole as leader, the real message to the people will come when they choose his replacement. Before O’Toole’s chair was even cold, Ottawa-area MP Pierre Poilievre had announced he will run for party leadership and the chance at being Prime Minister. In his announcement, he claims he will “unite” the party and wants to bring public spending under control.

However even in his announcement, where he says that Justin Trudeau has “attacked” families, businesses and truckers, he’s showing that he doesn’t agree with all his fellow party members, as Pierre PaulHus, a Quebec MP in the Conservative Party of Canada, called the trucker-led protest in Ottawa a siege and asked for it to be removed from the streets of the nation’s capital. Other Conservatives, like Senator Dennis Patterson, have even left the party or said they would.

If named leader, Poilievre has a tough task ahead of him. A unified party will be a difficult task, and finding the support for a more rightwing Conservative Party of Canada could be an uphill battle if the last election is any indication. – JDS

Looking Back Through the Years February 11, 1965 The team of Ross Veitch, Frank Carter, Don Fraser and Doug Hemingway won first place at the recent Massey-Ferguson Bonspiel, held at the Brussels arena. Wayne Lowe, Hugh Pearson, Oliver Wray and Ken Tyerman were members of the second-place team.

The first-place team earned a spot in the Massey-Ferguson Bonspiel in Hanover on Feb. 12. A win there would mean a place in the grand championship in Toronto with all the team’s expenses paid.

The first-place team above, featuring Veitch, Carter, Fraser and Hemingway, also played in a bonspiel in Seaforth and came away with a second-place finish. Each member was presented with a new dress shirt as his prize.

The Brussels Bantam hockey team advanced to the second round of its playoffs after a series win over Monkton. They won the bestof-three series with a 4-3 victory in the final game after coming back from a 3-1 deficit.

The Brussels team would then take on their cross-town neighbours from Blyth in the second round.

The Brussels girls broomball team was moving on to the finals of its playoffs. The young women had defeated teams from Blyth, Belgrave, Seaforth and Wingham on their way to the finals.

February 12, 1975 The Blyth Little Theatre was set to present its first production of the season at the newly-reopened Memorial Hall on Feb. 16 with The Wedding, starring Debbie Hicks and Rick Snell, and Blyth Spirits ’75.

The Morris Township farm of James Armstrong in the Wingham area had been chosen by the Ontario Plowmen’s Association as

the site of the 1978 International Plowing Match. The site was one of four presented by the local committee for consideration. The other three were in Usborne, Stephen and McKillop Townships.

The future of the Blyth Agricultural Society was in doubt after the group voted to not carry on after a century of hosting the Blyth Fall Fair.

Two years earlier, the group had decided to drop the annual fair, but members intended to keep the organization together. However, at a meeting the previous week, the membership decided that the society should either host the fair again or disband, with The Blyth Standard suggesting that members leaned towards disbanding. Mildred Ament, the society’s secretarytreasurer, said no final decision had been made and that residents’ suggestions were welcomed.

February 12, 1997 While the provincial government billed the proposal as an “even swap”, Huron County officials felt local ratepayers ended up with a 40 per cent increase in expenses as a result of the “mega-week” funding shift from the government.

Huron County Treasurer Ken Nix told Huron County Council that ratepayers would have to pay over $12.1 million more to municipal and county levies than they already did as a result of the downloading.

The Brussels Bulls did not have a successful playoff run, losing their best-of-five series against the Mount Forest Patriots in Junior C hockey action. The Patriots moved on to the second round against the Wingham Ironmen. The winner of that series would face the winner of a series between the Kincardine Bulldogs and the Walkerton

Blackhawks in the league final.

With hospital restructuring being discussed, the Seaforth Community Hospital learned its budget would be trimmed by 7.1 per cent, while the Wingham and District Hospital would see a budget cut of 7.2 per cent by the provincial government.

February 9, 2012 Provincial Conservative Party Leader Tim Hudak was in Blyth to help Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson officially open her new constituency offices in Blyth and Kincardine.

Hudak, who addressed a full office of Thompson’s supporters during his visit to Blyth, said Thompson was the perfect person to convert Huron-Bruce into a Conservative stronghold, working alongside Huron-Bruce MP Ben Lobb, who took the riding back from the Liberal Party four years earlier after the retirement of longtime Liberal MP Paul Steckle.

Maurice Wilson, a teacher at Grey Central Public School, was back in Huron County after a recent trip to Japan, during which he coached the Wilfrid Laurier University women’s curling team to earning a gold medal at the Karuizawa International Curling Championship. Wilson had coached the team for three years but, despite its inexperience and youth, the young women won gold.

Londesborough-area Grade 9 student Lexi Aitken had a great two weeks, winning a gold medal in the 60-metre hurdles at the Ontario Relay Indoor Championships and a gold medal at the Royal Canadian Legion Indoor Meet in the 60-metre hurdles and the Athletics Ontario multi-event, which consisted of the high jump, shot put, 60-metre hurdles and the 200-metre race.

THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022. PAGE 5.

Other Views

A 70-year-old book offers wisdom

I

t was word of a new book by a Canadian author that purports to uncover who turned in Anne Frank to Nazi authorities governing Holland during World War II that made me pull the young author’s book The Diary of A Young Girl off the bookshelf. Then Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made the timing fortuitous.

It’s at least the third time I’ve read Anne Frank’s diary, mostly kept after she, the rest of her family of four, another family of three Jews and a Jewish dentist, went into hiding in the upper floors of the warehouse business that had once been owned by her father, Otto. The diary begins on the day of Anne’s 13th birthday on June 14, 1942, and continues until August 1944, not long after her 15th birthday, when the families’ hiding place was revealed to Nazi authorities and the three families were captured and sent to various concentration camps. There, most of them would die – Anne and her sister succumbing to illness shortly before the camp was liberated by allied troops in 1945.

In her book The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation, author Rosemary Sullivan tells of a Dutch team that searched 7,500 documents over five years before concluding the person most likely responsible (they’re 95 per cent sure) was a Jewish community leader who apparently shielded his own family from Nazi retaliation by turning in others. The investigators suggest blame should be withheld from the leader because few of us can fully understand the predicament such people found themselves in during the war.

I had just begun reading the diary, however, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of the assassinated presidential candidate but also an environmental lawyer, author, conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine propagandist, made

Keith Roulston From the cluttered desk headlines at a Washington anti-vaccine rally by comparing vaccine resistors to Jews persecuted by the Nazis – but made it seem the plight of anti-vaccine advocates was worse because Jews could always hope to escape across the mountains to unaligned Switzerland.

The reaction was so swift (even Kennedy’s wife, actress Cheryl Hines, spoke out against him), that Kennedy had to issue an apology for ignoring the fact that more than six million Jews died in Nazi death camps.

Still, enough time has passed since Frank’s book gave a face and personality to the many who died namelessly in the Holocaust (the diary was turned over to her father by a warehouse employee when he survived the war and was first published in 1947), that many people like Kennedy seem to have forgotten just how horrific the Nazi goal was.

In one recent year there were 2,024 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. alone.

A Tennessee school board has tried to ban the Pulitzer Prize-winning children’s book Maus, which portrays the Holocaust in terms of mice.

Meanwhile a gunman held four people captive at the Texas synagogue last month. It’s also still less than five years ago that a gunman shot and killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue, Meanwhile, people seem to have forgotten just how horrific the Nazis were. Some of the

protesters, at the demonstrations against vaccine mandates in Ottawa, carried Nazi Swastika flags. And of course, former U.S. President Donald Trump spoke out in support of a Nazi rally in Virginia while he was in office.

Against all of this there is the simple power of the words of Anne Frank in her diary.

Though she is always wise beyond her years, you can see her grow over the two formative years, even though she can’t interact in society which always remains outside her window. Probably none of the others had a clue the serious thoughts inside her head. Even in a new Dutch movie on Netflix called My Best Friend Anne Frank from a story by Holocaust survivor Hannah Goslar, Anne’s best friend before she retreated to the secret annex, who met her again in prison camp before she died, shows Anne as a joker before she went into hiding.

Yet Anne’s diary shows the girl had deeper thoughts in her head. One section, near the end, is illustrative. “It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all of my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.

I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death. I see the world gradually being turned into wilderness. I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I can feel the sufferings of millions, and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that all will come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace will return again.”

Anne Frank wanted to be a writer or a journalist when she grew up. Had she survived, I wonder if she could ever have had a bigger impact than the story she told in her diary did?

Just my own, personal, unvetted opinion

I

f you’ve spent any amount of time on Twitter, you’ve likely run into a sentence that goes something like this: “This is my personal account, and the opinions therein are my own and not those of my [employer/political party/political riding or anyone else].” By my reckoning, it’s a statement meant to avoid problems with employers, primarily when saying things that are likely not in line with the views of one’s employers.

That kind of attitude (I’m speaking on my own behalf, not on behalf of anyone else) has really come to the forefront in the past few weeks, and was a major sticking point in a story out of London last week.

A University of Western Ontario (UWO) professor, on his personal Twitter account, has been not just questioning the efficacy of vaccination as a means of stopping the COVID-19 pandemic, but questioning every single action taken by medical professionals during the pandemic, and in doing so has gone against the university’s own stances.

Donald Welsh, a professor of physiology at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, has drawn the ire of others in the school by tweeting his COVID-19 beliefs. He has gone so far as saying that everything Canada has done in response to COVID-19 has been done without scientific backing.

Those he has frustrated include Jacob Shelley, who is part of both Western’s Faculty of Law and the School of Health Studies. He also directs the school’s Health Ethics, Law and Policy Lab. In an interview with CBC, Shelley says that Welsh is hiding behind academic freedom, which is akin to freedom of speech.

While Walsh is free to believe and say what he wants, Shelley says there is a degree of responsibility that comes with that right,

Denny Scott Denny’s Den something that I’ve long said about our own freedoms, including freedom of speech.

Yes, anyone in Canada has the right to say what they want but having the right to say it doesn’t mean there won’t be repercussions - it just means no one can stop you from saying it.

The University of Western Ontario, however, hasn’t employed any repercussions as a result of Walsh’s statements, which go against the school’s support of public health measures.

In a statement, the school said that faculty members can express their opinions and beliefs, and that fear of reprisal shouldn’t dictate their research or work. The school also stated that the beliefs expressed by him are not those of the school.

However, that’s where I think many people’s understanding of freedom of speech is flawed.

We’re free to say what we want (within reason), but we are not protected from the consequences of speaking our minds.

The reality is that, while there are measures in place to stop wrongful dismissal, anyone can be fired if they don’t fit in with the culture of the company they work for, meaning if they hold drastically different views than colleagues or superiors, they can be let go.

Like it or not, whether it’s the University of Western Ontario or a small town business, companies are judged by the behaviours and attitudes of people they employ. Plenty of people are fired because of things they say or

do outside of work because those businesses realize that, unless they take action, they’re seen, at worst, as complicit or, at best, uncaring.

Having that kind of association can be damaging, just ask the protestors in Ottawa right now.

While the protest started as a way to demand changes to vaccine mandates, it quickly became a magnet for bad actors to try and utilize the attention to more nefarious ends.

Regardless of which side of the original stated issue you were on, it’s hard to support the ongoing action because of the people who have become associated with it.

No matter how much the protest organizers declare their innocence and disconnect from the bad actors, they will be lumped together because they are a group, just like UWO; even if it does take a stand on this issue, it will be associated with Welsh’s comments.

Whether we like it or not, our personal comments reflect on other people in our lives, from our family to our co-workers and employers. People will judge those connected to us by what we do.

That’s where freedom of speech gets a little sticky. Sure, you can’t be stopped from saying that tomato chunks belong in a Caesar salad, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to take everything you ever say to me with a grain of salt afterwards.

Final Thought Everyone needs to be valued.

Everyone has the potential to give something back.

- Princess Diana

Shawn Loughlin Shawn’s Sense

One is too many

L

ast week, I was glad to write about the rift between Neil Young and Spotify while both Keith and Denny tackled the ongoing situation in Ottawa. Reflecting on it, there are similarities between the two situations that go beyond their core issue of misinformation regarding the pandemic.

Spotify was never going to side with Young.

I don’t think he thought its owners would, not after the company reportedly paid upwards of $100 million for the exclusive rights to Joe Rogan’s podcast, which now serves as a haven for vaccine misinformation and far-right nutters. But Young essentially said he didn’t want his music to be associated with a service that props up someone misleading the masses.

Young’s stance is about being proud to work with his associates. We all should all be proud of what we do every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

It’s not always that simple, of course, and the bills have to be paid, but if you can be proud of your work, there’s satisfaction in that.

I’m proud to tell people that I’m the editor of The Citizen. From its grassroots inception and community-based ownership to the work we do and the stances we take every week, I feel like I’m doing something good and important for this community and that feels purposeful to me. Of course there will always be some who disagree, quite vocally, but their opinions matter not to me. Being proud of your work and your associates is a luxury not everyone is afforded and that’s why it’s so special.

That’s why I can understand where Young is coming from in this whole thing. He’s proud of his work and he doesn’t want it tied to something with which he strongly disagrees.

That brings us to Ottawa. We have all seen the reports of bad actors who have defaced monuments, harassed and intimidated people and flown hateful symbols from history’s darkest hours. Everyone from Conservative Party leadership hopeful Pierre Poilievre to your friend selling ketones on Facebook will tell you that the media has disproportionately focused on the bad actors and not respectful protestors (with the especially-wacky ones insisting that anything bad is the work of government-paid agents provocateur).

I personally disagree with that, as outlets have been flooded with news stories about any aspect of this gathering reporters can get their hands on (including footage of the people who are so oppressed by the government that they played a game of road hockey on a street they’ve closed with their trucks).

This is where the two issues intersect. Being an individual at a demonstration or in a workplace is one thing, but can you be proud of being involved from top to tail? Young wasn’t and that’s why he got out. In Ottawa, some say they’re there for the right reasons and claim that those with Confederate and Nazi flags are inevitable barnacles on the ship; that they shouldn’t be judged alongside them.

It is absolutely fair to judge one protestor against another. Video has shown that those dug in with the anti-Trudeau crowd have no issue ripping signs from counter-protestors; do the same with someone holding a Nazi flag.

Good-intentioned or not, history judges groups and organizations as a whole (unless I missed the thoughtful collection of essays on Nazis with hearts of gold), so if people are uncomfortable with aspects of a movement, it is their responsibility to do the right thing.

Like debates on issues both local and international, seeing who else is on your side is a real window into the reality of your stance.

On your side, one Nazi is too many and if you disagree, it’s time for a look in the mirror.

PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022.

At the Branch

Catch the Ace returns

Giving back The Brussels Legion has been working to redistribute funds associated with its recent Catch the Ace draw to numerous community organizations. Among them is the Melville Presbyterian Church, represented by Mary Douma, above left. Jo-Ann McDonald of the Legion did the cheque presentation honours. (Photo submitted)

By Jo-Ann McDonald We are pleased to have the Brussels Legion Branch re-open and welcome all to drop in. The new bright look to the bar is very nice and clean looking. It’s amazing what a new paint job can do.

Thanks to Deb Ross for all her work. A reminder that COVID-19 vaccination QR codes are required for entry.

This week the light meal available is beef stew and a roll. We now have confirmation that Jelly Bean Blue is going to perform in celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in March so watch for details. It was decided to begin the new Catch the Ace draw also in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day and tickets will be in stores beginning in March.

Looking ahead we also have a special night of entertainment in the planning stage.

As long as Ontario’s re-opening plan continues as planned, we are having a musical evening with two artists performing the hits of Dolly Parton and Neil Diamond. Tickets will be available soon, as a month flies by very quickly. Book the date and look for posters and tickets to be out soon.

Watch for more details in The Citizen next week.

NEWS FROM BRUSSELS It is hard to make plans for what the future will bring, but many ideas are in the thought stages. Fish fry dinners have started to book for our travelling crew. We have scheduled a turkey dinner to celebrate Easter, in-Branch fish fry dinners and more. Hopefully the summer will be back to somewhat normal routines.

Queen Elizabeth II marks seven decades in position A NOTE FROM BETTY

By Betty Graber Watson Call 887-9231 Can you imagine doing a job, constantly in the public eye, for 70 years? Queen Elizabeth II has done just that, and done it extremely well. After Sunday, Feb. 6, seven decades of people acknowledge her as the only queen they’ve ever known. No matter your take on the United Kingdom happenings, sheer admiration has to be given to this

matriarch. To have a role landed on her as a new bride, she began her life’s work. The events involving two kings of that time set her course. The abdication of her uncle and then the death of her father brought her expected young life and dreams to a sudden halt.

Talk about a “carry on” story, she has demonstrated how to “carry on” very well over these decades. She has offered calm, quiet stability as we watched the world turn upside down several times in her 70 years of reign. Fourteen Prime Ministers of Britain have sought her audience for consultation, advice or approval. Before ”branding” was a thing, Elizabeth was always recognizable. With hat, gloves and purse, she faced the public, the media and opinions always looking

good and appearing quite placid. To Elizabeth the steadfast, God bless our gracious Queen.

Every four years, the world seems to focus and celebrate athletes at the Olympics. With big changes this time, because of the worldwide pandemic, the Olympic games have adjusted and we are watching the competition from Beijing, China.

The original games, so we are told

by Google, happened in ancient Greece over 3,000 years ago (776 BC). The world changed, history happened and that local event from Olympia was much later reintroduced to the world.

At the urging of the association of French athletes, 280 participants from 12 nations competed in April of 1896, reviving the Olympic games. Oh the world has changed

Giving back The Brussels Legion has been handing out hundreds of dollars from its recent Catch the Ace draw to numerous community organizations. Among them is the Ethel Hall, represented above by Brenda Boyer, right. Kathy Burkholder of the Legion’s Catch the Ace committee, left, made the presentation. (Photo submitted)

and grown, but the games remain a moment to be savoured. Admiration for determination, tenacity, performance and skill has remained high over those many years. To watch the muscles in action, the emotions riding high and the individual athlete’s goal in reach all make for some pretty amazing television watching. Well done.

With caution, our lives are appearing to be, almost, ready to gather in groups. COVID-19 will remain with us as an ongoing virus and we will adjust our behaviour.

To think of how we operated, say in 2019, we have been so good at

pivoting. We now know to listen to the newest science via our diligent Huron Perth Public Health and live our lives accordingly. We live to protect ourselves and others and we need to continue to do just that.

This has been two years of “we’ll see” and we’ve pivoted, most times gracefully. Good work people.

Many happenings are still tentative, the health of our entire community is fragile yet. Keep the patience.

Look after yourself, you know what you need to do. Always be safe and be kind.

Bye now, Betty G.W.

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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022. PAGE 7.

Huron Hygge box, bags highlight local goods

Highlighting local While shining a spotlight on local producers isn’t new for Eat Local Huron, a county-wide business formerly out of Westfield, the organization is stepping it up a notch this February with Huron Hygge bags. Huron Hygge is an annual celebration of winter wellbeing in Huron County, and the bags will add to that by focusing on locally-produced items, possibly including some of the brands shown above. Eat Local Huron recently reopened in Bayfield after a fire in its Westfield centre last summer. For more information, see page 12. (Photo submitted)

By Denny Scott The Citizen

To help locals and visitors alike get into the spirit of Huron Hygge, two local organizations have started putting together kits designed to keep people comfortable and cozy this February.

Huron Hygge, a county initiative focused on the Danish term

“hygge”, which means to be or keep cozy, shares activities to enjoy around Huron County during February, one of the coldest and slowest months of the year for many businesses.

Locally, two initiatives have formed around the idea of helping people enjoy the bounty of their communities: Huron Hygge boxes which are being

produced by the Three Sisters Boutique Hotel, Hotel Lux and The Old Mill and Huron Hygge Bags being produced by Eat Local Huron, which was located in Westfield and relocated to Bayfield.

In an interview with The Citizen, Annie Sparling of the Three Sisters Boutique Hotel said the boxes are available in two formats: mid-range and premium.

Missed column prompts support From Marilyn’s Desk

By Marilyn Craig Call 523-9318

No, I am not sick. Last Monday, instead of a senior moment I had a senior day moment. Last week I seemed to have skipped Monday altogether and missed my deadline

for my column. I don’t know whether it was old age or just a lapse in memory, but I will try to do better. Thank you to everyone who called to see if I had been sick.

Here are the birthdays that have been celebrated and the ones for this week: Vera Hesselwood, London (formerly Blyth), celebrated Feb. 4; Mac Brooks, Feb. 5; and Evelyn Caldwell and Jeff Josling, both on Feb. 6; Renske Ribbink-Daer will celebrate Feb. 10; Jacob Josling, Feb. 11; Shirley Nicholson, Feb. 12; Austin Martin (my great-grandson), Gowanstown, Feb. 13; Joan Clark, Feb. 14 and

Evelyn Popp, Feb. 16. Happy birthday everyone, hope you enjoyed your birthday or are looking forward to celebrating.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone; a celebration of family and love.

Today is very different from most of the Mondays we have had this year. I can see the neighbour’s home quite easily and the sun is trying to shine. The temperature is showing around -4°C or -5°C with little snow in the forecast.

Stay safe everyone and give someone a phone call to let them know you are thinking of them.

The mid-range boxes will feature the following: • Lynda Wilson’s book Walking Home, which highlights the beauty of the Goderich-to-Guelph (G2G) Rail Trail in hopes of encouraging people to walk it themselves.

• Warm socks and a pair of handmade mittens from upcycled sweater material.

• A special Huron Hygge blend of coffee from Shop Bike Coffee in Goderich.

• Handmade truffles from Sweets N’ Treats • A custom-made candle from The Old Mill.

The premium boxes will include all the items above as well as a sheepskin from The Old Mill. The mid-range boxes will cost $120 while the premium will cost $250.

“The boxes are organized and sourced by volunteers and sold at cost, as a desire to see visitors and residents benefit from investing in the hygge lifestyle philosophy,” Sparling said. “We are very fortunate to live where we do [and] we have so much available to us that enables us to live a peaceful, contented life.”

Sparling said Blyth is a perfect place to experience the hygge philosophy, especially for guests visiting from other places.

The boxes are available at The Old Mill or can be delivered for an additional $10, Sparling said, adding that 30 boxes have been made and were set to be made available on Feb. 10.

“It’s definitely a first-come, firstserve kind of thing,” she said.

The Hygge Bags, according to Huron County Tourism Development Officer Rick Sickinger, will feature “delectable treats, produce and items that have been produced and locally grown in Huron County.”

He said the bags will feature products like apple butter, maple mustard, pancake mixes, dark chocolate, coffee and others.

“It’s a great way to try different

products you may not have heard about that are produced locally,” Sickinger said. “When I go to Eat Local Huron’s website, I’m amazed at what’s produced in Huron County and how tasty it all is.”

The sampler bags can be ordered through Eat Local Huron (eatlocalhuron.ca) and were made available on Feb. 9. They cost $75.

Sickinger said more information on the programs, both those above and all that has been planned for this year’s Huron Hygge celebration, is available at ontarioswestcoast.ca.

“There’s an extensive list this year, including activities and programs happening across the county,” he said, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic will have a minimal impact on most of the programming, though it has delayed the media campaign for the event.

NEWS FROM BLYTH Broken Washer?

Blyth Laundromat 191 Westmoreland St., Blyth 519-523-9687

The Citizen

519-523-4792 or 519-887-9114

Advertise your business here!

One of the most read areas of the paper

SUDOKU Fun By The Numbers Like puzzles?

Then you’ll love sudoku. This mindbending puzzle will have you hooked from the moment you square off, so sharpen your pencil and put your sudoku savvy to the test!

Horsing around Tina Verschaeve, left, and her sister Evy, riding “The Roan”, experimented with Skijoring, a sport in which a skier is pulled by a horse, dogs or a vehicle. The two turned to the activity given the distinct lack of hills in their area. Share your winter fun photos with The Citizen by e-mailing them to reporter@northhuron.on.ca. (Photo submitted)

Here’s How It Works: Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers you name, the easier it gets to solve the puzzle!

PAGE 8. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022.

Wingham Red U9 team takes consolation prize The Wingham Red U9 hockey team took home the consolation prize at the Hanover Minor Hockey U9 Canadian Tire Cup Tournament over the weekend, posting two wins and a loss at the tournament.

The squad came back from a month-long hiatus due to COVID19 and, after a single practice, played three games in one day at the Hanover tournament, which took place on Feb. 5.

The Owen Sound Junior Attack Red squad edged out Wingham on Saturday morning, losing the game 5-4, but then bounced back to post a convincing 6-0 shutout win over the Ayr Flames later that day.

The team won the consolation prize by besting the Blyth Brussels Crusaders 6-1 in its final game of the tournament.

The team next takes to the ice against the Huron-Bruce Blizzard on Saturday in Wingham.

Trophy time The Wingham Red U9 hockey team went 2-1 during the Hanover Minor Hockey U9 Canadian Tire Cup Tournament over the weekend, capturing the consolation prize.

(Photo submitted)

Wiarton Willie in the minority PEOPLE AROUND WALTON

By Jo-Ann McDonald Call 887-6570

Every week it seems to be more difficult to write about people, events and what has happened this past week in our area. Our TV news has been blasted by coverage of the truckers protesting in Ottawa. As with every situation there is the good and the bad that can happen.

There are those who are there to protest peacefully and those who are there to cause trouble and to push their own agendas. They push the word “freedom” to make their own choices. We all have choices to make every day that not only affect our daily lives, but those of others: our family, friends, co-workers, customers, even people we do not know, because of a good or bad “choice” made because of our “freedom” to make that choice. I am not for or against the protest, but after 10 days, the point has been or should have been made. The small businesses around Parliament Hill need to get back to their business without the disruptions, caused by a choice made by others.

The weather this past week started with the famous Groundhog Day predictions by those in the animal world. Our own Wiarton Willie predicted an early spring and only one other agreed. The “new” Okanagan Okie, the Mayor of Marmot City in B.C., is still sleeping, so a stuffed groundhog was used to pronounce an early spring. The many other predictions are for six more weeks of winter according to Balzac Billy in Alberta, Punxsutawney Phil of Pennsylvania, Shubenacadie Sam of Nova Scotia, Van Island Violet of Vancouver, Fred la Marmotte of Quebec, Manitoba Merv and even Lucy the Lobster of Cape Sable Island all agreed they saw their shadow, so six more weeks of winter. We will all have to wait

until March 16 to see if spring has arrived!

How many times have you wanted to call someone and you can’t find their number in the phone book? So many people now live by cell phone only and do not have a landline. It makes it very difficult.

You can have your cell number included in The Citizen 2022 phone book by just calling The Citizen. Do it today!

Congratulations to Carolyn Somerville on 50 years of working at Howson and Howson. When you are young and starting your working career, you probably didn’t think you would be there 50 years, as that is a long time. If you enjoy your job and getting up to go to work, that is marvellous.

Congratulations Carolyn!

Congratulations to Brent and Shauna Melady on the birth of a son last week. The excited couple have welcomed Theo Gordon to enrich their lives. First-time grandparents are Pat and Cathy Melady and firsttime great-grandparents are Neil and Marie McGavin. They are so excited to have the next generation starting to arrive.

Snow days this past week meant a couple of days off school for the whole area. Mild temperatures on Wednesday caused ice to form after a quick freeze overnight so travel on Thursday was unsafe. More snow has meant snowmobiles have been out and about. Saturday was a beautiful day for a run and we saw about 50 over in Blyth in the afternoon. Not all of the trails are open, but most are. Watch for the trail signs or check trail status before heading out. Stay on the trails and that means between the posts.

Many of the trails run across farmland and underneath the snow could be a field of wheat. Farmers allow the trails across their properties and receive no compensation for damages. Do not abuse the trails by littering or tearing across the open field just because. Stay on the trails or lose them.

Celebrating birthdays this past week includes Pamela Hackwell.

Clinton Pryce, Abby McNichol, Arnold den Dekker, Katie Dionne,

George Kruse, Catherine Terpstra, Joan Lee, Emilee Bennett, Cody Nichol, Lois Todd, Mathew Coleman, Annette Lewington, Ken Shortreed, Sydney Warwick, Mike Alexander, Sheila Bauer, Kendra Warwick and Michael Beuerman.

Happy birthday to all.

Stay on target Liz Allan of the Maitland Valley Camera Club is known to Citizen readers for her wildlife photography, so here’s another avian image she captured over the winter months. (Photo courtesy of Liz Allan of the Maitland Valley Camera Club)

NEWS FROM WALTON

THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022. PAGE 9.

Sports Wingham Ironmen return to action with tie, loss

Good to be back After over a month off of the ice due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the shutdown of the Provincial Junior Hockey League, the Wingham Ironmen were back in action on Saturday, notching a tie with the Kincardine Bulldogs and a loss at the hands of the Hanover Barons at home on Sunday afternoon. (John Stephenson photo)

By Denny Scott The Citizen

The Wingham Ironmen faced mixed results over the weekend when they returned to the ice after more than a month away due to COVID-19.

The fourth-place Ironmen tied the fifth-place Kincardine Bulldogs 2-2 on Saturday, Feb. 5 in Kincardine.

On Sunday, the Hanover Barons posted a 5-2 win over the Ironmen in Wingham.

WINGHAM 2 KINCARDINE 2 In the team’s first game back, the Wingham Ironmen played to a 2-2 tie with the Kincardine Bulldogs, despite going to overtime.

The Bulldogs outshot the Ironmen 39-38, but that one-shot margin proved not to be enough to make a difference.

Scoring started in the first period with Kincardine’s Carter Servais beating Wingham goaltender Devon Carson, with assists going to Ben

Nauta and Ryan Litt. Eight seconds later, Wingham’s Chris Adlys responded with a goal assisted by Kyle Stanbury.

Neither team found the net in the second, with Kyle Dolmage of Kincardine opening scoring in the third with a marker assisted by Ryan Litt.

With less than five minutes remaining in regulation play, Wingham’s Dawson Fahrer tied the game with a powerplay goal assisted by Coleson Fischer and Evan Visser.

Carson stopped 37 of 39 shots while Kincardine’s Ryan Tanner saved 36 of 38 shots.

The Ironmen had trouble staying out of the penalty box during the game, being assessed 26 penalty minutes on nine infractions, while the Bulldogs incurred 18 minutes on 11 infractions.

Trevor Klee of the Ironmen served the first penalty of the game, a two-minute call for interference.

Kincardine’s Kent Ribey was next with a two-minute highsticking infraction, followed by teammate Brennan Long, who served two minutes for cross checking.

Wingham’s Fahrer served the last penalty of the first on a two-minute holding call.

Kincardine’s Joseph Pringle served a two-minute hooking period in the second period, followed by Wingham’s Fischer serving a two-minute tripping penalty. Fahrer had the first penalty of the third with a two-minute interference call.

An incident just past the sevenminute mark in the period saw six calls on the same play. Wingham’s Stanbury and Matt Tolton each received a two-minute roughing penalty, while Kincardine’s Joseph Pringle received the same.

Kincardine’s Gibbons received four penalties, including two minutes for roughing, two minutes for cross

checking and two match penalties for discrimination.

Less than a minute and a half later, Jonah Burley of Wingham received two- and 10-minute penalties for head contact, with the latter served by Kyle Smeltzer.

Pringle was then assessed a twominute cross checking penalty, followed by Visser being assessed the same penalty. Gavin Downs served the two-minute, too-manymen penalty that resulted in the Ironmen’s tying powerplay goal.

Kincardine’s Jordan Moulton served the only penalty of the overtime period, with a two-minute tripping call being made against him.

HANOVER 5 WINGHAM 2 The first-place Hanover Barons outshot and outscored the Ironmen on home ice in the Wingham squad’s second game back after a one month break from the ice for the league due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Barons outshot the Ironmen 17-12 and scored four unanswered goals before Wingham responded in the second period.

Hanover’s Trent Verbeek started the scoring in the first with a marker assisted by Owen Torrie and Dylan Richardson just over one minute into the period.

Hanover’s Jonah White then scored a powerplay goal assisted by Chris Ferri and Ryan Goetz.

Alex McGillivray scored the third and final goal of the first period for Hanover assisted by Goetz and Austin Griffin.

Hanover’s Ryan Colquhoun earned an unassisted marker as the first goal of the second period.

Wingham’s Visser marked a powerplay goal assisted by Tolton and Burley before Wingham’s

Stanbury scored an unassisted goal with less than one minute left in the second.

The third period saw White score his second goal of the game for Hanover, assisted by Carter Moran and Bryan Richardson.

Carson stopped 12 of 17 shots for the Ironmen while Riley McCabe earned the win in net for Hanover stopping 10 of 12 shots.

Both Hanover and Wingham served 14 penalty minutes over seven penalties each.

The first penalty of the game, a two-minute slashing call, was assessed to Wingham’s Fischer.

Teammate Klee was called for high sticking and served two minutes.

Hanover’s Richardson served the last penalty of the first period after a two-minute slashing call.

Hanover’s Moran and White both served roughing-after-the-whistle penalties during a play that saw Wingham’s Burley assessed a twominute boarding penalty.

Hanover’s Verbeek served a fourminute kneeing penalty, followed

by Wingham’s Payten Wheeler serving a four-minute spearing penalty.

Hanover’s Colquhoun was called for cross checking (two minutes) before Wingham’s David Kozak served a two-minute hooking penalty.

Hanover’s Verbeek served the first penalty of the third period, a two-minute unsportsmanlike call.

Wingham’s Josh Pham served the last penalty of the game on a twominute interference call.

This weekend, the Ironmen host Kincardine for a rematch on Friday night with the puck to drop at 8 p.m.

On Saturday, the team will then travel to Mount Forest to take on the third-place Patriots.

Citizen Phone Book Cover

Contest The Citizen 2021 PHONE BOOK

What does Huron County mean to you in one photo?

• AUBURN • BLYTH •BRUSSELS • CLINTON • GODERICH• GORRIE • SEAFORTH • WINGHAM

The winner will get the coveted cover spot

Close calls The Wingham Ironmen took on the Hanover Barons on Sunday at the North Huron Wescast Community Centre in Wingham, but ended the game on the wrong side of a 52 final score. (John Stephenson photo)

on our 2022 phone book (with credit) and a special North Huron Publishing prize package.

Submit your digital photo to: Citizen Phone Book Cover at: info@northhuron.on.ca Deadline is February 25, 2022

PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022.

Financial Planning Avoiding excessive debt is prudent at any age A failure to budget can increase the risk of spending impulsively and make it hard for consumers to see what’s coming in and what’s going out. That’s a

recipe for accumulating debt.

Avoiding certain pitfalls can help consumers avoid accumulating debt that can adversely affect their financial futures.

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Ph. 519-528-3019 dandrew@hurontel.on.ca

Staying in the black Accumulating debt can affect many people, but ensuring your debt load doesn’t become unmanageable is possible with a bit of guidance and discipline. (MS photo) MS - High consumer debt can compromise individuals’ financial futures and have an adverse effect on their overall health. Debt has long been an issue that threatens individuals’ well-being, but the good news is that certain debts seem to be on the decline.

According to the Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit released last year by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, credit card balances were $157 billion lower by the end of the first quarter of 2021 than they had been at the end of 2019. Authors of the report credit that decline to paydowns by buyers and reduced consumption opportunities related to the pandemic.

Individuals who want to avoid debt can look out for these pitfalls: • Retail credit cards: Many retailers offer their own credit cards. Consumers may be enticed to sign up for such cards by the opportunity for instant, and often significant, savings. For example, a home improvement store may offer an immediate 25 per cent discount to customers who sign up for a store credit card and use the card to make a purchase. As enticing as such savings can be, consumers should recognize that a recent study by CreditCards.com found that the average retail credit card annual percentage rate (APR) is 25.9 per cent. That’s more than six per cent

credit cards instead of cash in an effort to accumulate more travel miles or cash back bonuses.

Consumers should aspire to use cash over credit whenever possible.

Doing so ensures consumers are not spending money they don’t have, which is one of the most common ways that individuals build significant consumer debt.

• Failure to budget: A budget is the most effective way for individuals to gain control of their spending. That lesson seems to resonate more with young people than older men and women. A 2019 poll from Debt.com found that 74 per cent of consumers between the ages of 23 and 38 use a budget to govern their spending, while only 67 per cent of consumers between the ages of 39 and 54 use a budget.

higher than a general purpose credit card. Consumers who cannot pay balances in full each month could end up paying much more in interest if they use retail credit cards instead of general purpose cards.

• Too many accounts: A 2019 study from the credit reporting agency Experian found that the average American has four credit cards. Though many consumers can effectively manage that many cards, the more cards an individual has, the easier it can be to lose track of spending. More cards also means a greater potential for more debt, as each card has its own limit that is unrelated to the limits on other cards.

• Bonus hunting: Another pitfall to avoid is the temptation to use

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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022. PAGE 11.

HCWP has good year

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen It was another successful year for the Huron Clean Water Project according to Nathan Schoelier of the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority and Ben Van Dieten of the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority.

The pair, with an introduction courtesy of Project Review Committee Chair and MorrisTurnberry Mayor Jamie Heffer, presented to Huron County Council at its Feb. 2 meeting, which was held virtually via Zoom. The pair’s presentation served as the project’s annual update for council, as the county contributes $450,000 annually to the project.

Last year, the committee reviewed 318 new project applications, approving 300.

Fifteen of the project applications were denied, while three were withdrawn by their applicants.

The committee approved $393,199 in grants and the total value of the approved projects is in excess of $1.24 million, equalling a matching funding ratio of greater than three to one.

Twenty-nine per cent of the allocation went to 128 cover crop projects, followed by 22 per cent of the allocation going towards 17 erosion control projects and 21 per cent aiding 70 tree-planting projects.

The Huron Clean Water Project has continued its work even in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, with all project applications now available online and the review committee meeting virtually. The opportunity for one-on-one site visits, landowner supports and advice is still there, however, according to the pair’s presentation.

The project currently offers grants for 17 project categories: erosion control measures, maximum $6,000; special projects, maximum $3,000; rural stormwater management and wetland management, maximum $3,000; clean water diversion, maximum $3,000; fragile land retirement, maximum $4,000; livestock access restriction, maximum $3,000; manure storage decommission, maximum $3,000; community projects, maximum $2,000; septic systems and composting toilets, $2,000; forest management plans and woodlot enhancement, maximum $1,000; wellhead protection, maximum $1,250; well decommission, maximum $1,250; stewardship guide implementation, maximum $500; cover crop incentive, maximum $15 per acre; living snow fences, maximum $20 per tree, plus $500 per acre; wellhead protection area reforestation project, maximum $2,000, plus $500 per acre and wetland restoration incentive program, maximum $300 per acre.

The Huron Clean Water Project launched in 2004 and the first projects were completed the following year. Since then, 3,371 projects have been completed with a total project value of just under $14 million based on $3.9 million in grants being paid out.

Over 100 liquid manure storages have been decommissioned, 415 wells have been upgraded, 610 wells have been decommissioned, 25,000 acres of cover crops have been planted and 926 tree-planting projects and 278 erosion control projects have gone ahead.

Council received the report and Huron County Warden Glen McNeil congratulated the pair on the ongoing success of the program.

Force change, don’t wait for it: Wilbee PEOPLE AROUND BELGRAVE

By Linda Campbell Call 357-2188

Sincere sympathy is extended to Sheila Nixon in the loss of her dear husband, John, who passed away on Thursday, Feb. 3. Sympathy is also extended to Carman and Wilma Nixon, Ralph and Corrie Nixon, Wayne and Janet Nixon, Delbert Nixon and Carol Ducharme in the loss of their brother and to Calvin Nixon and Linda Knight, Glen and Karen Nixon, Marjorie and Dan McBurney, Randy and Kim Nixon and Steve and Patti Nixon, in the loss of their father. He will also be missed by Sheila’s family, Rita and Ross Heinmiller and Barbara MacDonald and Jack Bridge and families.

Mackenzie Wightman and Lila Procter played inspiring music at Knox United Church on Sunday, Feb. 6, the fifth Sunday after Epiphany. The congregation was blessed with guest speaker Gloria Wilbee. Our thoughts and prayers are with her at this time of the loss of her uncle.

Her message that change is not something you wait for or someone to bring it. Change is brought

anytime and by anyone of us. God’s calling is about to change.

In the gospels, three fishermen left their nets and boats and followed Jesus. What a change for them. Gloria also brought along her beautiful guitar and sang, “Will You Come and Follow Me”. Such a beautiful song was so inspiring.

Gloria Wilbee will again be the guest speaker on Sunday, Feb. 13.

Case counts of COVID-19 continue to rise, so wear a mask and don’t go out if you are not feeling well. Keep your distance, wash your hands and sanitize. Follow public health measures. Together we can stop the spread of the virus.

Blocker save The Blyth Brussels U13 LL Crusaders edged out the Wingham Ironmen 3-2 in another iteration of “The Battle of County Road 4” on the weekend in an early afternoon game held at the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre. (John Stephenson photo)

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THE TIME OF OUR LIVES Stories of Huron County in the PostWar Years The post-war years in Huron County have been the times of our lives. David Yates shares stories about a time of dynamic change when Huron County was at the crossroads of an older, rural way of life and a modern, affluent, technologically advanced society. $25.00

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PAGE 12. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022.

Lack of in-person budget meeting frustrates Palmer Continued from page 1 grid progressions ($49,500) and costs associated with investigations at the Wingham landfill site ($27,800). Chapman said there were several costs that were reduced or eliminated from the base budget as well, helping to offset some of those expenses, including reducing expenses related to development of the trailer park and Hutton Heights ($165,000), reduced expenses at the airport, as the township sold it last year ($55,550), and reduced spending at the Wingham Armouries Building, which was demolished ($84,520).

However, there were a number of modifications that were brought forward by staff, including contract requirements for property standards (adding $7,000 to the budget), contract requirements for drainage inspections (adding $5,000), the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority levy increase (adding $5,081), non-refundable PST charges on insurance premiums (adding $13,760) and a final revised assessment on fire protection expenses (reducing the budget by $3,869).

Council also suggested changes during various budget meetings that had an impact on the final budget, including cutting back on the wages of an economic/business development officer ($15,600 removed from the budget) due to delays in hiring and reducing museum facility funding, as it likely won’t be operational in 2022 (reducing the budget by $25,650), alongside numerous other changes.

Chapman explained staff started with the base 2021 budget, which included $6,360,023 collected through taxation, and added the $133,813 base budget increases detailed above, which represented a 2.11 per cent increase in taxation, before including several other changes, including deaccessioning costs at the museum ($70,350 or a 1.11 per cent increase over the 2021 budget), economic development expenses ($72,350 or a 1.13 per cent increase), the continuation of a human resources benchmarking program ($82,740 or a 1.30 per cent increase) and an investigation into relocating the council chamber and associated facilities ($40,000 or a 0.63 per cent increase) to come to the final 6.28 per cent increase, resulting in $6,759,276 in taxation needed to balance the 2022 budget.

Chapman broke down expenditures for council, explaining that the majority of the municipality’s spending can be found in three areas of the budget: operations (which includes roads, waste maintenance and cemetery work) at 26.5 per cent; recreation and culture, which includes parks, the municipal pool, daycare facilities and services and community centres at 24.8 per cent and policing at 17.7 per cent, totalling 69 per cent of the budget.

Chapman explained that North Huron has 2,454 properties, 1,407 of which include a single-family residential dwelling, or 60 per cent of the properties. He said, when considering those properties, the average assessment of a residential property is $200,000 and a home that is at or around that average would likely see an increase of between $94 and $118 on its tax bill as a result of the budget increases.

That increase, however, is dependent on assessment and doesn’t include Huron County’s portion of taxes or the education levy, he said, both of which are yet to be established.

Chapman also explained that 49

per cent of the municipality’s taxes are collected in Wingham, 32 in East Wawanosh and 19 per cent are from Blyth.

As part of the budget process, council also approved 7.1 per cent increases to both water and sewer expenses for users of those systems in Wingham and Blyth, which will partially cover contract increases with Veolia Water ($87,200), system maintenance and other expenses ($40,800) and capital project and reserve funds ($51,000).

COUNCIL QUESTIONS Council members had several questions following the report, starting with Deputy-Reeve Trevor Seip asking if any council or staff members had heard any comments regarding the budget.

While Chapman said no feedback had been directed to him, Councillor Chris Palmer had some complaints about the budget and the budget process.

First, he said that Chapman’s first budget “had troubles” and there was a lot of discontent in the community as a result. Chapman started with the municipality late last year.

While Palmer directed his comments towards Chapman, Palmer’s complaints were more about the restrictions placed on council meetings due to COVID19. He said he wishes that Chapman would have waited until a face-toface public meeting could be held before presenting the budget.

“I understand the why,” Palmer eventually said when challenged by Reeve Bernie Bailey on the issue.

“It’s because of the COVID situation… the timing is terrible.

That’s all I’m trying to say. With something as important as this, I think we should have waited a few weeks.”

Seip, however, felt that wasn’t the answer, saying that everyone is frustrated with remote or virtual meetings, but that every municipality is facing the same difficulties. He said he doesn’t like it anymore than anyone else, but the municipality needed to follow the provincial mandate.

He also pointed out that council has held public budget meetings in previous years and only had a

handful of people show up.

“Arguably, there is a technology issue for some right now, but I think we need to recognize there are lots of avenues to get issues across,” he said, adding that it’s no good for staff to hear about the issues right before the budget is about to be passed.

Palmer also said he had received complaints from ratepayers about the lack of a face-to-face meeting, however as Chapman hadn’t heard them, both Bailey and Seip were puzzled as to why Palmer wouldn’t share those concerns ahead of time.

“You are a sitting councillor and part of this discussion,” Bailey said.

“I would prefer that you would have had a conversation with [staff regarding what you want to change], and where you would prefer to go with staff.”

Bailey said that discussion could have been held with other senior management instead of bringing

issues out, for the first time, in front of “the entire citizenship.”

Councillor Ric McBurney said he heard from residents that too much money is being spent on recruiting and paying an economic development officer, which was an issue Palmer also weighed in on, saying he didn’t believe it was necessary.

After some debate, council and staff pointed out that no decision was being made about hiring an economic development officer, but the money was being put aside if council decided to go through with it. Seip said that, when council was faced with a job description in the coming months, the position could be scrapped if council voted that way. If that came to pass, the earmarked funds would go towards reserves or other projects.

Councillor Kevin Falconer was puzzled as to why the issue was being debated again, as council had

already voted on the issue and, while it wasn’t unanimous, council had decided to go through with including the position in the budget.

“I’m glad that we have [votes on both sides], but it’s already been brought here through democratic process,” he said. “To bring it out and flog it [makes no sense]” Palmer then bemoaned the fact that Chapman hadn’t included the total value of wages, instead focusing on what each department cost.

He said Chapman’s predecessor had always made such information available. Chapman apologized, saying he wasn’t aware that was something council wanted, but was able to say, before the budget was passed, that it was nearly $4.5 million of the draft $14,305,924.56 budget. He said that included wages, benefits and other contributions.

Council approved the budget as presented.

Eat Local Huron centre reopens

Back at it Manager Gemma James Smith says donations helped Eat Local Huron reopen in Bayfield after a fire destroyed its Westfield warehouse. (Photo submitted) Eat Local Huron (ELH) is delivering local food again from the company’s new warehouse near

Remember Last Winter?

Bayfield. The non-profit company delivered for only three weeks last summer when an electrical fire

destroyed its warehouse in Westfield.

County residents rallied in support of ELH after the fire, raising more than $8,000 through a GoFundMe campaign which covered some losses and kept the budding local food initiative afloat while owners looked for a new home.

“Everyone’s kindness after the fire was incredible,” said Gemma James Smith, ELH warehouse manager. “I cried so many times when people were donating. I was just speechless. You can really see that people appreciate what we’re doing here.”

ELH hasn’t been idle – the owners spent the downtime between warehouses signing up Huron County producers, and sourcing food that isn’t produced in Huron County from across Ontario.

The company is now working with more than 45 local producers.

Huron County residents can shop the store at EatLocalHuron.ca from 9 a.m. Wednesday until 9 p.m.

Sunday and have their groceries delivered to their homes the next week.

No Need To Go Out In That!

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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022. PAGE 13.

519-523-4311

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Agriculture

BLYTH 519-523-4244

www.hurontractor.com

Brussels Livestock report

Veal sells higher at sale; lambs, sheep, goats steady Total receipts for the Brussels Livestock for the week ending Feb. 4 were 1,290 cattle and 353 lambs and goats.

On Tuesday, fed steers and heifers sold actively on a steady market. Choice steers and heifers sold $168 to $179. Second-cut cattle sold $154 to $167. Aged and medium-fed steers and heifers sold $129 to $155. Holstein steers and heifers sold $91.50 to $133. Bulls sold $83.50 to $127. Cows sold actively at prices $1 to $2 higher.

On Thursday, veal sold at prices $10 to $20 higher. Lambs, sheep and goats all sold steady.

On Friday, calves and yearlings sold steady.

George Hinz of Monkton, consigned seven head. One red heifer weighed 1,535 lbs. and sold for a price of $176.

There were 275 cows on offer.

Beef sold $80 to $102 with sales to $112; good holstein cows, $79 to $95; medium holstein cows, $69 to $79.

There were 95 head of veal on offer. Beef veal sold $169 to $218 with sales to $230; good holsteins, $175 to $199 with sales to $200; SL heavy holsteins, $165 to $196; heavy holsteins, $145 to $172;

medium holsteins, $137 to $145.

Reuben S. Martin of Wallenstein, consigned six head. One charolais steer weighed 955 lbs. and sold for a price of $230.

Paul Pennington of Mildmay, consigned six head. One holstein steer weighed 695 lbs. and sold for a price of $200.

Lambs 50 - 64 lbs. sold $418 to $427; 65 - 79 lbs., $410 to $427.50; 80 - 94 lbs., $360.50 to $396; 95 109 lbs., $349.50 to $359; 110 lbs. and over, $307.50 to $340.

Sheep sold $100 to $260.

Goats: billies sold $300 to $400; nannies, $100 to $250; kids: dairy,

$280 to $385.

Steve Hallam of Kincardine, consigned 10 head. Five lambs averaged 64 lbs. and sold for an average price of $427.

Top quality stocker steers under 400 lbs. sold $198 to $240; 400 499 lbs., $205.50 to $245; 500 - 599 lbs., $235.50 to $238; 600 - 699 lbs., $215 to $235; 700 - 799 lbs., $217 to $226.50; 800 - 899 lbs., $213.50 to $217.50; 900 - 999 lbs., $212 to $215; 1,000 lbs. and over, $199 to $209.50.

Top quality stocker heifers, 400 499 lbs. sold $199 to $211; 500 599 lbs., $186.50 to $190; 600 - 699

Falconer, van Hittersum argue for bigger build Continued from page 3 1.5 per dwelling unit to 1.2, in addition to visitor spaces (resulting in 90 parking spaces for the original 73-unit proposal) and permitting the building to be closer than 30 metres to the top-of-bank at the adjacent watercourse at a proposed setback of 24 metres.

Council approved those two amendments.

Holman addressed several of the concerns raised by the neighbours, including pointing out that developers had undertaken studies to make sure that the structure’s design was acceptable and that any shadows caused by it would be minimal (which she classified as a maximum of two hours during either equinox).

Holman said all the concerns had been addressed by the developer since the issue first came to council last year, but some remained unresolved. The outstanding issues, she said, didn’t seem to be moving towards resolution.

She then explained that it’s important for council to listen to those issues, as her job is to provide technical recommendations, and said the development, aside from the above zoning amendments, conformed to the required provincial, county and municipal regulations.

Palmer was the first to address the development, saying he felt the five-storey structure wouldn’t be “in harmony” with other structures, citing terminology in North Huron’s official plan.

He also asked if there was a needs assessment done, saying he didn’t want North Huron saddled with a “white elephant” if it didn’t need 73 units of one type of housing.

While Holman said a development of the scale of the proposed structure doesn’t typically require it, she did say the county is in a housing crisis.

“There is a dire need and, in particular, rental is something we need,” she said, adding that the Huron County Economic Development Department has conducted a number of surveys and identified that this is something desired by residents.

Brock Hodgins, one of the two developers behind the project, said that two financial institutions involved in the project conducted feasibility and market studies and

both showed the project is worthwhile.

Palmer felt that the project shouldn’t go ahead as proposed, instead saying he would prefer a three-, or even four-storey building, citing concerns about the “high social cost” of the project.

Heffer said he was in favour of development on the land, but that the change from a 41-apartment structure to a 73 was too much for him to approve.

McBurney said he agreed with Heffer, and that his main concern was the complaints brought forward by the neighbouring property owners.

While van Hittersum said it was important for those families to be listened to, she said her concern was council was going to base its decision on eight families, instead of the multitude of residents who would be helped by the construction of a larger building.

“I’ve taken those concerns seriously,” she said. “However, as councillors, we have to look at the whole municipality, and the economic benefit [of the proposal].”

She said, as of Monday night, there were only two residential properties for sale in North Huron, both of which were “way above everyone’s budget.”

“The concerns I hear from the eight families are mostly about the [aesthetics of the building],” she said. “Maybe you like it, maybe you don’t. It’s not up to us to like it or don’t like it. That’s [developers Hodgins and Jonathan Eelman’s] design. They have done the financials, and the banks or people providing funding are happy with it and I think it’s a good plan.”

She said that the concerns brought forward by the handful of neighbours were important, but she was thinking about the 73 people or families who would live in the building, and how they would shop at local stores, support local churches and service groups and benefit the community.

She also pointed out that rental units are in dire need in North Huron, highlighting new staff at the Wingham hospital.

“Doctors looking to work in our hospital don’t have housing,” she said. “They’re living in a rental from the hospital and that’s not good. We have to look at the whole

municipality and the opportunities this will bring us.”

Falconer said he didn’t feel that capping the structure at three storeys was the answer, as any problem like traffic or loss of green space would be similar regardless of whether it’s 73 units or 41.

“The footprint of the building will be the same,” he said. “The parking lot will be the same size. I don’t agree with [suggestions to limit the development to three storeys].”

He then pointed out that, if council were to limit this development, it may result in the development not going ahead at all.

Hodgins said the financial viability of the project would require four storeys, and that, at three, it “definitely wouldn’t work out.” Later discussions between himself and Holman indicated they could build a three-storey structure facing the neighbours in the east, with a fourth storey hidden due to the grade of the ground, however that would require further engineering work. Holman noted that the first floor was two metres above the average grade of the area, making it count as a storey regardless of design, however Hodgins said that may be remedied to allow the four-storey structure to appear to be a three-storey structure due to lower grade on the west side of the structure. That change, however, would require additional cost for the developers.

“Essentially, we’ll have to go back to the engineer and get it revised,” Hodgins said. “We would definitely still want to build the building with four floors, but designed in such a way that the bottom floor wouldn’t count as a storey.”

Palmer said he would only be in favour if it looked like a threestorey building from the neighbours’ perspective to the east, with staff saying that could be handled during the site plan.

After first voting against the zoning amendment that would allow the building to be five storeys, council approved a zoning amendment with the reduced parking requirement and setbacks, as well as motions to change the property to high-density residential.

The vote on the zoning bylaw amendment saw Falconer and van Hittersum against capping the

development with Palmer, McBurney and Heffer in favour.

Council noted that concerns raised by the neighbours, several of whom spoke during the public forum section of the meeting, had an impact on that decision, citing traffic and aesthetic concerns, among others. The neighbours also criticized the process of the development, saying it wasn’t as transparent as they would have liked.

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lbs., $195.50 to $201.50; 700 - 799 lbs., $199.60 to $207; 800 - 899 lbs., $187.50 to $214; 900 lbs. and over, $180 to $196.25.

Jayme Reid of Tiverton, consigned eight head. Seven limousin heifers averaged 876 lbs. and sold for an average price of $199.25.

Elam M. Martin of Clifford, consigned 15 head. Six charolais heifers averaged 948 lbs. and sold for an average price of $196.25.

Melancthon Maple Farms Inc. of Melancthon, consigned 26 head.

Thirteen charolais steers averaged 861 lbs. and sold for an average price of $217.50.

Vernon Metzer of Paisley, consigned 60 head.

Seven simmental steers averaged 941 lbs. and sold for an average price of $215.

BRUSSELS LIVESTOCK Division of Gamble & Rogers Ltd.

UPCOMING SALES TUESDAYS 10:00 a.m.

Fed Cattle, Bulls & Cows

THURSDAYS

9:00 a.m. Drop Calves 10:00 a.m.Veal 11:30 a.m. Lambs, Goats & Sheep

FRIDAYS

10:00 a.m. Stockers Visit our webpage at: www.brusselslivestock.ca email us at: info@brusselslivestock.ca

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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 TO purchase at these locations – Auburn Co-op, Auburn Esso, Belgrave Variety, Blyth Variety, Blyth Food Market, Blyth Ultramar, Brussels Foodland, Brussels Variety, Clinton Convenience, Clinton Foodland, Dean’s Valu-Mart in Wingham, Wingham Mini Mart, Seaforth Foodland, GT Mini Mart in Seaforth, Fincher’s in Goderich, Goderich Victoria St. Shell and The Citizen Blyth.

Card of thanks In memoriam Help wanted Help wanted SIERTSEMA. The Siertsema family would like to acknowledge the many gestures of kindness and expressions of sympathy during the difficult time of Steve’s illness and passing. Words cannot express the gratitude for the support we have felt throughout this time. We have so appreciated the prayers, visits, many cards, phone calls, meals to Steve during his illness and those same expressions to our family in his passing. Our heartfelt thanks to all who attended the visitation and the funeral (both live and virtually), for the meal provided at that time, for the flowers and the charitable donations and messages of condolences. Thank you Pastor Gary for the many visits and for the comfort you provided.

Thank you Zoey of Riverside Funeral Homes for facilitating arrangements with such exemplary care, guidance and service. And thank you to Dr. Loretta, and to the hospice nurses and staff for your tender, kind and respectful care of Steve – it will never be forgotten; we are grateful for the blessing you were to Steve and are to our community. We are humbled by the care and concern we have felt from all of you; may God bless and keep you. – Ainsleigh, Doreen, Bert, Mike, Anita, Yolanda and families.

06-1p

coming events FAMILY VALENTINE’S DINNER, take-out style on Saturday, Feb. 12 at the Wingham Columbus Centre.

Choice of Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Alfredo, Roast Beef or Chicken Fingers. All meals come with either Caesar or harvest salad and a swirl cupcake. $25 includes tax, 1/2 price for kids 12 and under.

Add a hot chocolate bomb from Sweets N’ Treats for $4.50. Famous Fish Fry on Friday, Feb. 18 from noon to 7 p.m. Call 519-357-1270 to book either of these meals.

05-2 --------------------------------------------

BLYTH UNITED CHURCH PRESENTS

Valentine’s Day Supper Saturday, February 12th Roast Beef Dinner

Card of thanks CAMPBELL. I would like to give a sincere thanks to my many friends, especially my dedicated family for their loving care. The many phone calls, cards, goodies and calls at the door meant so much to me. It’s nice to be home from the hospital again.

– Betty Campbell.

06-1 -------------------------------------------HURON EASY SHARE. A nice thank you to everyone who donated or came down to help with the freedom protest in Toronto. Tax receipts will be issued. – Huron Easy Share and Stephen Webster. 06-1p --------------------------------------------

With all the homemade extras you have come to expect and peanut butter pie for dessert!

$

2000

/meal

Pre-order only Phone John Stewart at 519-525-0025 Pick up at 4 pm until 6 pm Please come in from the south and exit to the west

KLEMKE. In loving memory of a dear father and Tatta, Paul Klemke who passed away February 12, 1994.

When someone you love, Becomes a memory, The memory, Becomes a treasure.

Treasuring our memories of you.

– Love, your family.

06-1p -------------------------------------------WHITAKER. In loving memory of Grace Whitaker who passed away February 9, 2021.

Of all the many blessings, However great or small, To have had you for a sister, Was the greatest gift of all.

You went away so suddenly, We did not say goodbye, But sisters can never be parted, Precious memories never die.

– Lovingly remembered and sadly missed by sister Marie and family.

06-1p

Personals ARE YOU PREGNANT AND unsure about your future? Contact Ramoth House. We can help you discover your parenting potential.

You can get more information about our services on our website www.ramoth.ca or by phone 519323-3751 or email: office@ramoth.ca e6w

CitizenTo-Citizen FREE “SWAP SHOP” ad Let us help you turn that junk into $$

FOR SALE - used snow shoes Yanes, aluminum, 30" long, $45.

Call Cranbrook 519-887-8273.

06-3 ----------------------------------------FOR SALE - Twelve non-fiction books, as one lot, Paul Bernardo, Nicole Brown-Simpson, Max Haines, Ted Bundy, etc. Best offer. 519-357-9467.

06-3 ----------------------------------------WANTED - Royal Doultons – I will give your Royal Doultons a good home. 1-519-641-2452.06-3 ----------------------------------------FOR SALE - Samsung colour LCD video camcorder 220X zoom, 8mmwith leather bag and camera strap (like new), $75.

Phone: cell, 519-357-7240 or home, 519-357-3608.

05-3 ----------------------------------------FOR SALE - Garmin GPS navigation for vehicles, like new, $65. Phone: cell, 519-357-7240 or home, 519-357-3608.

05-3 ----------------------------------------FREE - loveseat, 64"x34"x24", pattern ranging pale to dark gray with a full-sized brown loveseat cover, first come, first serve. No delivery. Call 519-955-2682.04-3 ----------------------------------------FOR SALE - Yardmax - 2 stage, walk-behind electric snowblower, 24", brand new, $600. 519-4827262.

04-3

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY Drainage Superintendent – Part Time Visit the Township of Huron-Kinloss website to view this employment opportunity. https://www.huronkinloss.com/en/townhall/careers.aspx

Manager of IT Services 35 Hours Per Week Salary Range $76,000 - $101,000 The Municipality of Central Huron is a friendly, vibrant community of over 7,100 with a unique mix of urban, agriculture and lakeshore. We offer diverse opportunities to live, work and play. We are currently seeking qualified applicants for the full-time permanent position of Manager of IT Services.

Reporting to the Chief Administrative Officer this role will focus on the coordination of IT activities between the business units, vendors and service providers. Through collaboration with municipal staff, the position will be responsible for understanding business requirements and coordinating business solutions improvements and integration to meet these requirements. The role will also develop and manage projects to implement business solutions improvements and integrations. The role will be responsible for IT finances, governance and security.

The ideal candidate will have/be: • Post-Secondary education – degree or diploma – preferably in Computer Science or Information Technology or related field; • Project Management Certification such as PMP, CAPM or a Recognized Solutions Analyst Certification such as Associate Computing Professional (ACP) is considered an asset; • 3-5 years’ experience in an IT position; • 2 years experience in a Supervisory role; • Knowledge of MFIPPA and other relevant legislation as they relate to data storage / access; • Microsoft Office, Outlook, Excel, Word, Power Point; • Good written and oral communication skills are important to effectively achieve goals, policies and procedures to provide the services of the municipality; • Valid Ontario driver’s license and access to a reliable vehicle.

A job description for the position and information about the Municipality of Central Huron is available at www.centralhuron.ca Please submit your application by February 21, 2022 at 3:30 PM preferably by email to: Human Resources, Municipality of Central Huron Box 400, 23 Albert Street, Clinton, Ontario N0M 1L0 humanresources@centralhuron.com Terms and Conditions of employment as per all Human Resources policies and procedures of the Municipality of Central Huron. We are an equal opportunity employer and support applicants with disabilities. Accommodations are available upon request throughout the recruitment process. Please email your request or call (519) 606-1223. We thank all applicants for their interest and advise that only those selected for an interview will be contacted. Personal information being collected will be used in accordance with The Municipal Act and The Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and shall only be used in the selection of a suitable candidate.

See more “Help Wanted” on Page 15

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

www.huroncitizen.ca

THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022. PAGE 15.

Classified Advertisements Help wanted Help wanted Help wanted Services Help shape your Council’s Future!

The Municipality of Huron East is accepting applications from interested citizens of Huron East to serve on a short term Public Advisory Committee to review and provide Council with recommendations on the 2026 Term of Council composition and compensation.

This is a short term appointment running until June of 2022. The expectation will be that the Public Advisory Committee provide a summary of recommendations to be presented at the June 22, 2022 Council meeting.

The Committee will consist of five (5) public members which will receive support from the CAO and Clerk of Huron East.

Applicants must be a resident of Huron East and at least 18 years of age.

Applications, containing name, address, and reason for interest and expressing the value you believe you bring to the role in the Committee should be submitted by February 25, 2022 to Jessica Rudy, AMP, Municipality of Huron East, Box 610, Seaforth, Ontario N0K 1W0 or by e-mail to clerk@huroneast.com

Tenders

Tenders

Services

SWINE, CASH CROP OPERATION located near Brussels, Ontario is seeking a well-rounded individual skilled in the following: operating farm equipment, the ability to do routine maintenance. Knowledge of electrical work, livestock care, welding, carpentry and a Class D licence are considered assets. Experience preferred but we are willing to train a motivated individual looking for long-term employment. We offer a clean, safe, work environment, competitive wages and a benefit package. Interested persons should apply with a current résumé to monowayoffice@gmail.com or by fax to 519-887-9837.

04-3

Enbridge donates alarms to HE fire department

The Municipality of Huron East

2022 Tenders Sealed tenders marked as to contents, will be accepted until 12 Noon on Tuesday, February 22, 2022 for the following contracts: HE-05-2022

New 1-Ton Pick Up Truck

HE-06-2022

New 1/2-Ton Pick Up Truck

HE-07-2022

RFP for New 4-Wheel Drive Loader Backhoe

HE-08-2022

Asphalt Paving

The Municipality of Huron East reserves the right to accept any quotation, in whole or in part that it feels is most beneficial to the residents of the Municipality of Huron East. Therefore, the lowest or any quotation may not necessarily be accepted.

Tender Forms available upon request from the Huron East Public Works Department 72 Main Street South, Box 610, Seaforth, Ontario N0K 1W0 Phone (519) 527-1710 / Fax (519) 527-2561 Toll free phone 1-888-868-7513 cgarrick@huroneast.com

Yo Y our voice, e your community comm ommunity ty, your neews.

News M Media Canada is a passion ssion ad ssionate dvocate for the news industry. We support our mem mber m publications in their pursuit of quality jo ournalism nalism nalism.

We believe that when society has facts they can trust, better decisions will be made.

newsmediacanada.ca

A helping hand The Huron East Fire Department is the recipient of a generous donation of combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, courtesy of Enbridge Gas and the Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council. From left: Firefighter Kalen Martene, Captain James Wilbee, Firefighter Tyler Eckert and Firefighter Matt Shannon. (Photo submitted) Late last month, Enbridge Gas, the Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council and the Huron East Fire Department announced that they are all working together to improve home safety and bring fire and carbon monoxide-related deaths down to zero.

The Huron East Fire Department received 144 combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms through Safe Community Project Zero – a public education campaign that will provide over 16,600 alarms to residents in 70 municipalities across Ontario. This year, Enbridge Gas invested $500,000 in Safety Community Project Zero, and over the past 13 years, the program has provided more than 68,000 alarms to Ontario fire departments.

When properly installed and maintained, combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms help provide the early warning to safely

escape from a house fire or carbon monoxide exposure.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a toxic, odourless gas that is a by-product of incomplete combustion of many types of common fuels.

“Carbon monoxide is known as the “silent killer” for a reason, and we have proof that prevention saves lives. We know that the best way to avoid carbon monoxide exposure is to eliminate it at the source by properly maintaining fuel-burning equipment, and that the alarms are a critical second line of defence to protect against carbon monoxide poisoning,” says Steve Jelich, Director, Southwest Region Operations, Enbridge Gas. “The objective of Safe Community Project Zero is to deliver combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms to Ontario communities who need them the most,” says Jon Pegg, Ontario Fire

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

www.huroncitizen.ca

Marshal and Chair of the Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council. “It’s a program that fire departments can adopt to help educate their communities about the requirement of all Ontario homes to have a CO alarm if they have a fuel-burning appliance or an attached garage.”

“Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are a vital part of your house. These potentially life-saving devices must be installed in your home to give you and your family early warning against fire and carbon monoxide. Every second counts,” says Huron East Fire Chief Marty Bedard. “We are grateful for this partnership with Enbridge Gas and the Fire Marshal’s Public Fire -Safety Council. The fire department is teaming up with the local food banks to ensure the alarms are distributed to the people who need them the most.

PAGE 16. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022.

‘Matriarch of the Barn Dance’ remembered by son

The Heywood Family

By Grant Heywood It was with heavy hearts that we say our mom, Martha Heywood, passed away last October, 2021, age 97. I can’t thank my sister Pat enough for all the times she spent looking in, and taking care of her at Pinecrest Nursing Home in Lucknow. All the caregivers there also deserve a lot of praise as well.

Mom’s maiden name was Marion Martha Amelia Thiel. She was the youngest of two sisters, and one brother, from humble beginnings.

Her parents, Olivia and William Thiel, lived in Zurich, Ontario.

Dad, Earl Heywood, lived nearby, on a farm just outside of Exeter.

Mom became a telephone operator and one day Dad asked her to go on a date after hearing her lovely voice over the phone. And so it began, Earl was working on the farm and promoting his cowboy singing/recording career, and soon married Martha. They moved to Wingham where Earl had been hired by Doc Cruickshank to be a singing star on the CKNX live Barn Dance shows and radio programs.

They soon had baby Patricia, and lived in a small three-room cottage for a while, not long after, Grant was born. Earl’s career was blossoming, as he had signed with RCA Victor Records, and had many single recordings. He even had an Earl Heywood Week in his honour and performed with many Nashville luminaries in the U.S. The family soon moved to a duplex on Minnie Street, in Wingham. Earl then became a staff writer at CKNX radio and had several television and radio shows there as well. Money was tight in those days and to make ends meet, Martha became an award-winning AVON salesperson. She eventually became a Fuller Brush salesperson and also did well at that. It wasn’t always easy raising two children, and Dad always performing in the band throughout the week. Money was tight and Mom somehow made it work.

When I was about six years old, Mom and Dad took me to see Dad’s friend, Gene Autry, at the CNE Grandstand show in Toronto. The Three Stooges were also on the show (circa 1957). Dad had arranged for us to meet Gene Autry, but I really wanted to meet the Three Stooges.

When Mom and Dad performed on-stage, Martha was a star in her own right. She was a beautiful lead

and harmony singer and sang and recorded with Earl on stage and in the studio. When the Heywood family became a performing, recording and touring family, things really took off. I can remember when the family would perform a live Christmas radio show at CKNX studios on Main Street of Wingham.

We recorded three or four Heywood Family albums and toured and performed around Ontario and the Maritimes. Martha would perform a “Gay Nineties” act with Earl, sing gospel songs, country standards and many of Earl’s songs. She was the backbone of the family and always stood by Earl. She helped in the performance on many of Earl’s magic shows as well, doing disappearing acts, being levitated, etc. Dad did rope tricks and practised in our driveway. One day he was snapping his bullwhip at Mom, trying to whip the unlit cigarette from between her lips. The neighbours soon became concerned about what exactly was going on at the Heywood house.

But most of all, Martha was a great mom. She was an excellent cook, and I always loved her cooking and baking… well, maybe except for beets. She always took pride in her family, and was a selftaught, but very professional seamstress. She could’ve had a career making custom clothing.

Martha made all of the fancy

stage clothes that she and Earl wore on stage. She eventually kept the whole family outfitted in very stylish stage wear. She enjoyed shopping for the latest material and had a knack for finding something special. Mom also made all my stage clothes when I was playing rock and roll for many years. Both Mom and Dad believed if you were going to be an entertainer, then you should look like one on stage… and off.

Mom was the one who taught me how to drive. I remember her taking me out on gravel backroads in a 1962 Volkswagen Beetle, manual shift. One day I was driving and switching gears when the whole shift assembly came right out of the transmission. She gasped in her usual “Oooh” but we somehow made it back to town.

She always made sure we went to Sunday school, likely from her Lutheran upbringing. And she loved when Dad would take the whole family for a treat to the Nan King restaurant in Toronto’s Chinatown.

We would visit our grandparents almost every second week, in Exeter and Zurich.

It was Mom who would come out to hockey games and practices early in the morning when I played hockey. She wasn’t even a hockey fan. Dad couldn’t come as he was tired from performing with the band the night before. The Heywood family soon moved to their first home on Cornyn Street, in Wingham. It was a great location overlooking the Maitland River floodplain, and not far from CKNX studios. Mom was always the gracious host when we had Nashville celebrities visit our house for a social evening. Many wellknown stars of the time would visit our house when on tour. Her cooking was always a hit with everyone.

Mom always enjoyed entertaining with Dad, and was just as much a star as he was. I know Dad didn’t always recognize this, but she helped his career in tough times by being an equal part of the many shows onstage. Mom loved travelling and we were lucky to go many places, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Western and Eastern Canada. Mom and Dad always took us on a car trip, likely because Dad was away often playing dances or concerts. We almost always went camping because we couldn’t afford to stay in hotels. I remember when we went for a family trip to Manitoulin

Obituaries JOHN NIXON John Nixon of Belgrave, passed away peacefully at his home with his family by his side on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022. He was 86.

John was the beloved husband of Sheila (née France) Nixon and the loving dad of Calvin Nixon and Linda Knight, Waterloo; Glen and Karen Nixon, Conestogo Lake; Marjorie and Dan McBurney, Belgrave; Steven and Patti Nixon, Benmiller and Randy and Kim Nixon, Egmondville.

He was the cherished grandpa of 11 grandchildren and 12 greatgrandchildren. John was the dear brother of Carman and Wilma Nixon, London; Ralph and Corrie Nixon, Wingham; Wayne and Janet Nixon, Ripley and Delbert Nixon and Carol Ducharme, Exeter. He

was the special brother-in-law of Greta and Ross Heinmiller, Kitchener and Barbara McDonald and Jack Bridge, Goderich.

John was predeceased by his parents Isaac and Della (née Ploughman) Nixon.

A private funeral service was held at McBurney Funeral Home on Sunday, Feb. 6. A link to view the service is available on McBurney Funeral Home’s website. Interment will take place in the spring at Brandon Cemetery, Belgrave.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations to the Belgrave Community Centre or a charity of one’s choice would be appreciated.

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

Island in the 1956 Plymouth Savoy.

My sister got a bee sting and then I got my finger slammed by the car door when my sister closed it. Boy, was Dad mad. He wanted to go back home. But the composure of our mom saved the day, and the trip.

She had obviously dealt with Dad’s stubborn anger before. But those were really fun times.

When the Heywood Family toured the Maritimes, we would stay at friends’ homes. We would do a TV show one night, play a large auditorium with travelling Nashville stars the next, and then small community centres in small places like Sambro and Musquidobit. Back in Ontario, we frequented one of my favourite spots, Formosa Spring Gardens.

Sunday afternoon concerts there were magical to a kid.

Mom and Dad always enjoyed playing fall fairs, festivals, even strawberry socials. As a kid, I did too. Always yummy food. When Dad passed away, Mom and I reminisced about the many tours we did as the Heywood Family in the Maritimes. Mom told me that Dad,

Hank Snow and Wilf Carter were good friends, and all were on the RCA label. She told me that our last tour of the Maritimes came about when Wilf Carter asked Dad if we could do his tour of the Maritimes.

Wilf also had a family band and couldn’t go because he needed a minor operation. He said he’d continue his tour if we could do the eastern portion. I had never known that.

My older sister Pat was the first to leave the family band and soon went to hairdressing school. Mom and Dad helped establish my sister Pat’s first hairdressing salon in Wingham, which did very well. I started my first rock and roll band at that time. Mom took up playing piano alongside Dad on guitar in the 1960s. She was not a big fan of performing in drinking establishments and was glad when they eventually stopped doing that.

If there was one thing that Mom and Dad taught us, it was not to think you are better than anyone else. Dad bought Mom a modest fur coat one time, and she rarely wore it Continued on page 19

Remembering your loved one Honour your loved one by placing their obituary in

The Citizen.

This is a free service provided by The Citizen. We encourage you to share the story of your loved one in a special remembrance of their life.

Cards of thanks can be placed in our classified section, starting at just $7.00.

Citizen-To-Citizen “SWAP SHOP” ad “One person’s junk is another’s treasure”

Let us help you turn that junk into $$ 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.

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

THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022. PAGE 17.

From the Minister’s Study

God has offered salvation, free of charge

By Jason Hovius Brussels Community Bible Chapel If you read Psalm 8, you can easily imagine David looking up into the clear night sky and being inspired to pen this poem. From other writings of David, we can deduce that this happened often. We have no way of knowing whether he was a young shepherd at the time or whether he was the king of Israel.

There was even a chance that he was “between jobs”, running and hiding for his life from the king of the day.

As David looked at the sky, it reminded him of the glory and majesty of the Creator (Psalm 8:1).

He wrote elsewhere, “the heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). This he wrote, without a telescope or a science textbook or a model of the solar system. Little did he know that some of the stars he saw were actually galaxies, each with a million of their own stars larger than earth’s sun. He just knew that God had simply spoken them into existence and set them into place.

Thinking about God’s power and glory logically led David to ask a very important follow-up question.

“What is man that you (the Lord)

are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” In a similar context, David writes in Psalm 144, “man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow”. In other words, why would God pay attention to me? Doesn’t He have bigger fish to fry? I have this feeling sometimes after receiving a gift or a kindness, especially from someone that I hardly know. How much greater it is to have the King of the universe bestow honour on mankind by making him the pinnacle of His creation?

The glory of man is that he is set apart from the rest of God’s creation. Just as a business owner might find someone with similar values to themselves and give them a management position, God created man in His own image and delegated dominion to him. In words that echo Genesis 1, David explains the God-given authority that man has over the rest of God’s creation (Psalm 8:6-8). To be clear, the idea here is of stewardship; we are given license to use, but not abuse or squander, all that we can control.

Obviously, things haven’t panned out so well. From Genesis 3 until this very day, the human race has done a fairly thorough job of

Library awarded The Huron County Library is honoured to receive the Ontario Library Association’s (OLA) Archival and Preservation Achievement Award for the Huron County Digitized Newspaper project.

Virtually presented to library staff at the OLA Super Conference on Feb. 2, the award recognizes significant achievements in the field of preservation and/or conservation for library and/or archival materials.

Begun in 2014, the digitization project has been a collaboration between the Huron County Library, Huron County Museum, the County of Huron, and the local community.

The project has resulted in the digitization of more than 350,000 local newspaper and magazine pages from microfilm and hard copies. This collection preserves more than a century’s worth of local history from communities across the county.

“The Huron County Library has always been one of the most modern and innovative library systems in the province,”

said Huron County Warden Glen McNeil, “The Digitization Project is just one example of its leaderful and progressive Continued on page 19

ruining that of which we have been given stewardship. Our sin has rendered us and the rest of creation unable to fulfill God’s intention in creating us.

Surprisingly, a few writers of the New Testament quote this Psalm and apply it to Jesus Christ. David lived around 1000 BC. I highly doubt that David had any idea that he was writing prophecy as he wrote (or sang) the Psalms.

One example is in Hebrews 2.

The writer of the book of Hebrews emphasizes the God-given glory of Jesus, made even greater by the humble position he assumed at the Incarnation. From Son of God to Son of Man, he willingly humbled himself more than any other man.

Philippians 2 shows the progression of his stoop, from God to man to servant to death, “even the death of the cross!” Death is the destiny of all people, but death on a Roman cross was shameful. Crucifixion meant you were a public spectacle as you slowly expired over hours or days, naked and bleeding. It is for good reason the Bible says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Galatians 3:13).

The shame of Jesus’ death was not only because He was crucified, but also because He tasted death for all men. He humbly bore God’s judgment for the sins of all mankind on that dark day.

“But we see Jesus… now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death…”

(Hebrews 2:9) If this was the end of any other man’s story, it would be kind of heartbreaking. Posthumous glory is

kind of useless, even if your work has a lasting impact for people still living. But even then, how would you know about the legacy if you’re dead? But Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would see the results of His work and be satisfied. He would have a new family and brothers, brought back into a proper relationship with Him. The glory and honour with which He is crowned is not a posthumous reward, because He was resurrected, defeating death and sin and Satan himself.

The reward is not limited to Christ. The sons of men (humans) have become “sons of glory” (Hebrews 2:10). By sharing in our humanity (2:14), Jesus has given us

the ability to share in Him (3:14) and to share in the heavenly calling (3:1). This is the complete fulfillment of man’s glory that David could not have imagined as he wrote Psalm 8.

Do you believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins? Many people openly fight against God’s plan for the human race, and so they forfeit peace with God in this life and eternal glory in the next. He can’t ignore sin; that would contradict His character. But He has offered a way of salvation free of charge. You only have to admit your inability to save yourself and receive forgiveness through faith in the One who conquered death for us by facing it head-on.

The Regional Ministry of Hope Churches are now open for in-person worship.

Weekly service live-streamed at 10:30 a.m. on our facebook page or on youtube @St. Paul’s-Trinity Anglican Church Wingham.

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

Trinity

St. John’s

BLYTH 9:00 AM

BRUSSELS 12 NOON

St. Paul’s Trinity

WINGHAM 10:30 AM

COME WORSHIP WITH US!

BRUSSELS

United Church Sunday, February 13 Worship via YouTube Zoom Devotion & Fellowship Wednesdays, 10:30-11:30 Global Covid Vaccine Project Help for countries unable to vaccinate their people Send/give donations to Church treasurer

Brussels Mennonite Fellowship In­person services closed until further notice

Contact Alex at minister.brusselsandblythuc@gmail.com Website: brusselsandblythuc.ca P.O. Box 359, Brussels ~ 519-887-6259

Join us for our 10:00 am and 7:30 pm services Social distancing and masks required

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

MELVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BRUSSELS There will be no in-person worship for February.

Search “Rev. Ireland” or “St. Andrew’s and Melville Sermon” on Youtube.com for a virtual service.

May the love of Christ be with you.

Services are live-streamed and can be found by searching “Blyth Christian Reformed Church”

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

THE CATHOLIC PARISHES OF NORTH HURON AND NORTH PERTH

OUR CHURCHES HAVE RE-OPENED. WELCOME BACK.

Brussels Soup and More 2 is cancelled until further notice.

Evangelical Missionary Church

Sunday Feb. 13, 10:30 a.m.

Pastor Ernest Dow - Amos 7-8: “Pictures of Peril: The Danger of Spurning God’s Love”

519-357-5273

Blyth United Church No in-person worship until further notice.

Please join us online Global Covid Vaccine Project Help for countries unable to vaccinate their people Send/give donations to Church treasurer

Sunday School during Worship

"Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together.” (Isaiah 40:5)

In-person and online! live.huronchapel.com

Contact Alex at: minister.brusselsandblythuc@gmail.com

New Members’ Class!

119 John’s Ave., Auburn 519-526-1131

Facebook: Blyth and Brussels United Churches blythunited@tcc.on.ca ~ 519-523-4224

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. Facebook: Search for St. Joseph/Sacred Heart/St. Ambrose Live Sunday Mass, Sundays at 10:00 a.m.

PAGE 18. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022.

HE wants report on G2G McNaught trailhead project

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Huron East Council has requested a report and further costing information on a proposal to create a kiosk and rest area at the McNaught trailhead along the Goderich-to-Guelph (G2G) Rail Trail.

Chris Lee from the G2G Rail Trail Advisory Committee spoke to council at its Feb. 1 meeting, which was held virtually via Zoom, regarding the project, asking the municipality for monetary and inkind grants to aid the project, which has a total budget that exceeds $20,000.

Speaking to council, Lee said the historic McNaught station would be an ideal location for a trailhead, sitting nearly equidistant between the Walton and Monkton trailheads. He told councillors that the trailhead typically sees between 50 and 100 people pass through it per day with

even more traffic on the trail on weekends.

The area, located on the east side of McNaught Line between Blyth and Walton Roads, would include an entry lane and clearly-defined parking area, gravel for the parking areas, a composting toilet facility, roadside signage and a kiosk storyboard featuring information on both the trail and the municipality and its nearby amenities.

Other work associated with the project would include the addition of a vehicle laneway, grading, the transfer of material, relocation of one of the trail’s gates and the addition of bollards or a berm, all requested to be provided in-kind by Huron East.

Lee’s proposal states that the municipality would contribute $6,500 in cash to the project for the toilet and kiosk board, while inkind donations would include truck, loader/backhoe and gravel contributions, as well as public works department staff hours to

install gates and the kiosk, estimated at a total of $7,500 for a total contribution of an estimated $14,000 worth of cash and in-kind services.

For the remaining costs, Lee said the G2G would contribute $2,000 in cash and $1,000 in-kind, while Community Futures Huron would also contribute $3,000 to the project.

After Lee’s presentation, Chief Administrative Officer Brad McRoberts was quick to point out that, for the municipality, gravel should not be considered an in-kind contribution, as the municipality would have to pay for it.

Huron East Mayor Bernie MacLellan told council that, regardless of the breakdown of costs, the project would cost the municipality about $20,000 in his opinion when the cost of gravel is included. He also referred back to the early days of planning for the trail, when organizers said there would be no further costs to

municipal partners once the trail had been constructed.

Several councillors felt McRoberts should produce a report that would accurately reflect the monetary contribution for Huron East for the project.

Councillor Dianne Diehl noted that the municipality’s entire annual grants budget is $20,000 and committing to this project would be

the equivalent of cleaning it out in one fell swoop, so she wanted a report to truly understand the complete cost to the municipality before she made a decision.

Councillors Alvin McLellan and Brenda Dalton agreed and asked for a staff report on the issue to be brought to council at its March 1 meeting. Council carried the motion.

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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022. PAGE 19.

Library recognized for digital archives

Defeat The Mitchell Meteors proved too much for the Blyth Brussels U13 Rep Crusaders on Saturday. The visiting squad blanked the Crusaders 4-0 in a game played at the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre. (John Stephenson photo)

Continued from page 17 work. Congratulations to everyone involved in this project. The recognition received is well deserved.”

The online collection brings together newspapers and magazines, spanning from 1848 to 2019, in one convenient location that anyone can access, for free, from anywhere there is an internet connection. Over the past two years, as libraries and museums were shut down due to the COVID19 pandemic, teachers, students, researchers, historians and genealogists could still easily access Huron County history from around the world. In 2021 alone, the digitized newspaper collection received close to 20,000 visits, making it one of the most popular

online resources that the County of Huron offers.

“The digitization project serves as an important contribution to improving access to community history for researchers, historians and genealogists, who continue to expand our understanding of our rural past,” said Beth Rumble, Director of Cultural Services and County Librarian. “New content is being digitized and added to the collection on an on-going basis, further preserving our archival resources for generations to come.”

The full collection can be accessed from both the Huron County Library and the Huron County Museum websites or by directly visiting https://pubdocs.huroncounty.ca/ WebLink/.

Heywood looks back on parents’ musical legacy

MARTHA HEYWOOD Continued from page 16 out in public because she didn’t want to look like she was high class. Nothing could be further from the truth. We certainly weren’t rich by any means.

I can remember the day a stranger knocked on our front door and Mom answered. The gentleman introduced himself as Tom Connors, and said he was looking

for Earl. He had just arrived from the Maritimes and wanted to discuss how to proceed making contacts in the music business with Dad. Mom didn’t let him in as she had never seen him before. Tom told Mom he was staying at the Queen’s Hotel in Wingham and said Dad could find him there. Stompin’ Tom Connors became friends with Dad and they also recorded at the RCA studios in Toronto using the same producer. Small world.

Besides family, Mom loved getting together and visiting with everyone on both sides of the family.

Because of being entertainers, both Mom and Dad enjoyed socializing. Dad was in the midst of having a revived career with the success of his Tales of the Donnelly Feud album. Mom and Dad became a duo performing many of the songs at fairs and theatres.

Mom became quite upset when two special agents from the RCMP showed up at our door. They wanted to know about Dad performing at the Exeter Fair grandstand show, and if he had associated with any

Irish people related to the IRA. Dad had been told not to perform any Donnelly songs at his show the day before. He slipped in a verse and chorus at the show because of audience demand, even though he was told by authorities not to sing Donnelly songs, especially since there might’ve been IRA infiltrators at the scene. The Donnelly incident was still a sore spot locally. That’s why the RCMP were interested.

Being with the grandkids was always special for Mom and Dad and they always took the time to be with them. They eventually moved to a smaller house in Wingham.

Mom would help out with the local Meals On Wheels program. Dad had a CKNX country music radio show for a while and both Mom and Dad continued as special guests at various events playing and singing on TV, at theatres, and even church events.

Both Mom and Dad helped renovate our home near Wellesley, drywalling, painting, stonework, landscaping, and babysitting. In the early 1990s, Mom and Dad started selling quilts made by the Women’s Auxiliary in Wingham, to help kick start a Barn Dance Museum in Wingham. Soon, the Barn Dance Historical Society was born and Barn Dance Shows began raising money to help finance the Barn Dance Museum. As Honorary

President, Earl began the Pioneer Award program honouring those performers who had been a part of the original Barn Dance and those who continued to help in the resurrected Barn Dance.

Mom and Dad were in their twilight years. It was a monumental task for them in re-establishing the Barn Dance, and a Barn Dance Museum, but gratifying having others in Wingham to help establish the Barn Dance Historical Society.

They were grateful and inspired to have others come on board to help realize their vision.

Dad was one of the original seven who started the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) in Canada. He was also one of the first to receive a CCMA Award.

Although Mom, Martha Heywood, shared in all of Dad’s accolades, she was just as much of an award winner to both me and my sister Pat. Our mom endured hardships and happy times, but never complained. She was always pleasant, kind, loving, and everything you’d ever want in a great mom. She missed Dad when he passed on, but gained a new independence for herself.

At Blyth Barn Dance shows, she always enjoyed being singled out

by MC Jim Swan, standing proudly to do the “Queen wave” to the audience.

Our mother, Martha, will always be in our hearts. She died peacefully and was laid to rest next to Earl in the Wingham cemetery.

She is so deserving of the title, The Matriarch of the Barn Dance. My sister and our families think of her everyday. When you are young, you think your mom will last forever.

Mom was a proud, gracious lady, and the best mom you could ask for, so dearly missed by family and friends. Oh how she would’ve enjoyed holding her new greatgrandson, little Charlie. Love you always Mom. This piece originally appeared in The Barn Dance Opera Journal, printed by Powell Printing in Listowel.

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PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022.

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