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The
THIS WEEK • Anniversary • Editorials • Agriculture • Obituaries
Citizen
Huron County’s most trusted independent news source
Friday, June 17, 2022
$1.50 GST included
Volume 38 No. 24
Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, ON N0M 1H0
Land sale approved in M-T By Denny Scott The Citizen
A time to remember The Blyth Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion and the Legion Ladies Auxiliary held their annual decoration service at Blyth Union Cemetery on Sunday. Legion President and North Huron Councillor Ric McBurney presided over the ceremony, while Emily Phillips
conducted the church service portion of the proceedings, aided by Lynda McGregor on the piano. The afternoon began, however, with a procession into the cemetery by the Legion and Ladies Auxiliary members, led by piper and Blyth Festival Artistic Director Gil Garratt. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
Morris-Turnberry approved the sale of several lots created in Belgrave for residential purposes, marking the end of a years-long project designed to encourage development. During council’s June 7 meeting, Morris-Turnberry Chief Administrative Officer Trevor Hallam told council that several properties had been sold. The lands, located at the east side of the village, had been created by severing a former property which straddled the line between the settlement in Belgrave and the surrounding agricultural lands. Three of the four remaining properties had been sold. After a virtual tender opening, Hallam reported that Lots 1, 3 and 4 had been sold. Lot 2, a smaller lot located between the cemetery and the village, had a smaller building envelope and didn’t receive the same interest as the rest. Lot 2 is located just south of the extension of Jane Street. Lot 1, which was sold for $335,000, well over the minimum tender price of $250,000 went to Nancy and William Neijenhuis. The property is located between Brandon Road and the extension of Jane Street. There was only one tender received. Lot 3, a dogleg-style property that fronts on to Brandon Street and curves around where Jane Street Continued on page 11
Blyth Festival to open 2022 season next week By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Next week, the Blyth Festival will open its 2022 season, which will include four shows produced at the Harvest Stage from June to the end of September. This continues the slow and steady march towards a traditional season at the Blyth Festival after the 2020 season was forced into cancellation and the 2021 season included five, one-person shows, all produced at the new Harvest Stage. Currently, there are no plans for indoor productions at Memorial Hall, though the box office is open for the season and the Blyth Festival Art Gallery is producing a season-long community art show in the Bainton Gallery. This season, the Festival will be producing The Drawer Boy by Michael Healey, Cottagers and Indians by Drew Hayden Taylor, The Waltz by Marie Beath Badian
and John Ware Reimagined by Cheryl Foggo. First up is a remount of The Drawer Boy, one of the most successful Canadian plays ever written, which began its life when the Festival commissioned it. The show premiered at Theatre Passe Muraille in 1999 and then came to the Blyth Festival in 2000. Michael Healey’s play stars just three people and it tells the story of a young actor from Toronto making his way to Huron County to conduct research for a collective play about farming, inspired by Paul Thompson’s iconic The Farm Show, a watershed moment for Canadian theatre that led to the creation of the Blyth Festival. When The Drawer Boy was first produced at the Blyth Festival, Artistic Director Gil Garratt was one of the stars, playing a fictionalized version of Miles Potter, well-known theatre director and a member of the collective that
created The Farm Show. With his history with the show and its importance to the Blyth Festival, in the year The Farm Show marks its 50th anniversary, Garratt felt it was important for him to direct The Drawer Boy. He says that having the show at the Festival this year is a beautiful way to pay tribute to The Farm
Show, The Drawer Boy and the artists who made the Blyth Festival possible, including the late David Fox, the man who first played Angus in The Drawer Boy, who passed away late last year. Producing the show on the Harvest Stage, with its farming elements and references to the night sky, Garratt said, will be a special
aspect to this production. The show is a great testament to an idea on which the Festival has built its foundation, that not only can theatre change a community, but that a community can change theatre actors, which is what happened with The Farm Show and has continued to happen over Continued on page 2
HC to review aggregate strategy By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen The Huron County Planning and Development Department is recommending an update to the county’s aggregate strategy, as well as undertaking an educational campaign for members of the public to better understand the strategy. Manager of Planning Denise van
Amersfoort and Planner Celina Whaling-Rae both spoke to the recommendation at Huron County Council’s June 8 meeting, which was a hybrid meeting held in Goderich. The report, produced by van Amersfoort and WhalingRae, came after a discussion by Huron County Council in March, asking that the department undertake a review of the
Huron County Aggregate Strategy. “Staff believe there is value in a scoped update to the Huron County Aggregate Strategy. The update would not amend the original strategy, but rather prepare an update addendum, which would reflect policy changes since the strategy was prepared and provide recommendations for mapping updates to the designation of Continued on page 10