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• Editorials • Obituaries • Graduation • Agriculture
The
THIS WEEK
Citizen
Huron County’s most trusted independent news source Volume 36 No. 27
Thursday, July 2, 2020
$1.25 GST included
Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0
Market to open July 2 By Denny Scott The Citizen
Devastation Late into the night of Wednesday, June 24 a passerby noticed smoke at Green’s Meat Market in Morris-Turnberry in the north end of Wingham. That suspicion would evolve into a full-blown fire shortly thereafter causing significant damage, resulting in a total loss for the local meat market and abbatoir institution, which employed 25 locals. No
dollar amount has yet been placed on the damage and investigators were still there the Friday morning after the blaze, though the incident is not being treated as suspicious. Both stations of the Fire Department of North Huron were on the scene with help from Teeswater firefighters as the blaze raged through the night. (Denny Scott photo)
With the Blyth Business Improvement Area (BIA)’s outdoor market co-ordinator resigning two weeks before the market was set to open, the group is turning to the Blyth Community Betterment Group to run the market for 2020. During the BIA’s June 25 meeting, Chair David Sparling said the coordinator had resigned and, with little time to find a replacement, the Community Betterment Group stepped up to run the weekly market. Sparling said the group isn’t interested in running the market perpetually, but said members would help out. “With less than two weeks’ notice, I think it would be great and appreciated, but we need someone to run it [going forward],” Sparling said. Colleen Jordan of Hotel Lux said the change might be a good one, saying members of the group are “real go-getters” and the market might draw more people under the new banner. “I think there might be more merchants coming with them as well,” she said. The BIA approved having the group run the market for the 2020 season, with the first day scheduled for July 2. The market has been running Continued on page 3
County ends 2019 with surplus of nearly $3 million By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Huron County has officially ended 2019 in a positive financial position with a surplus of $2.8 million, $1.6 million of which currently sits unallocated. Treasurer Michael Blumhagen presented the year-end financial review to Huron County Council at its June 24 meeting, which was attended virtually. He suggested shifting the unallocated surplus balance of $1,648,969 to the county’s general reserve for contingencies as 2020 moves along. While the county achieved an overall surplus, Blumhagen told councillors that not all departments were able to operate within their budgets in 2019. “While we had a levy surplus overall, there were a few departments that exceeded their requirements due to various expenditure pressures,” Blumhagen said in his report to council. “These were offset by surpluses generated by other departments in the county.
Some of the major surpluses were the result of overall salary savings within a number of county departments. Backfill and sick time costs were favourable in 2019 for most departments, along with some vacant positions being unfilled for portions of the year.” The county’s corporate, emergency medical services and public health departments all exceeded their budgets. While the public works department exceeded its operating budget by approximately $1.4 million, Blumhagen said it was more than
offset by savings within the capital budget. Overall, the department remained within the budget levy with an overall capital surplus of approximately $2.1 million, which has been transferred to the highways reserve. Of the surplus, $1.1 million will be transferred to the 2020 public works budget for budget mitigation, while the balance of the surplus will remain in the public works capital reserve for future use. He also told council that the county’s reserves have increased by $1.1 million year over year due to capital projects being deferred into
2020. The increases, he said, were offset by the use of the general reserve for contingency to mitigate the 2019 budget increase of $1.5 million and funding to a number of grant recipients, including the Regional Equine and Agricultural Centre of Huron (REACH), the Southwest Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) project, the Wingham & District Hospital and the Goderich Alexandra Marine and General Hospital. “In 2020, the budget included a transfer from the general reserve for contingencies of $2,170,494 to
mitigate the overall levy increase, which can be mostly covered by the 2019 surplus,” Blumhagen said in his report. “Therefore, staff are recommending that the 2019 unallocated surplus of $1,648,969 be allocated to the general reserve for contingencies to cover the 2020 levy mitigation. The remaining balance required for 2020 will be drawn from the general reserve for contingencies.” Council approved Blumhagen’s recommendation, moving the surplus to the county’s general reserve to be used for contingencies.
Homelessness concerns Grace, residents By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Goderich Mayor John Grace fears his town is descending into crisis with its homelessness problem, certain aspects of which the COVID19 pandemic has brought to the forefront. Grace urged Huron County
Council to take action in the form of providing resources and services in the town and he insisted they were needed immediately, rather several weeks or months down the road. He told council at its June 24 meeting, which was held virtually, that on a nightly basis over 10 people can be found “sleeping rough” in Goderich, while another
20 or so have been utilizing the county’s ad hoc shelter at a local hotel. There are a number of factors in play, Grace said, including mental health, addiction and substance abuse and it has created an animosity between residents and the homeless in Goderich that Grace said continues to grow.
He thanked the county for its help, but insisted that Goderich remains under a tremendous amount of pressure and that more needs to be done. Grace says he’s fielding calls every day about the behaviour of some of the homeless individuals and that some areas of the community, namely the Maitland Continued on page 25