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The
THIS WEEK
Citizen
Huron County’s most trusted independent news source Volume 36 No. 25
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0
Plowing Match cancelled By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen
Off to the races The Clinton Raceway held its 2020 opening day on Sunday, and it’s sure to be one for the record books as it was an opening day unlike any other. No fans were in the stands, races were streamed online and betting was conducted over the internet due to the COVID-19
pandemic. With all of those factors in play, organizers say it was a successful opening day for the raceway. There were 10 races on the track and nearly $75,000 in bets placed over the course of a day with just the perfect weather for a day at the races, even if it was a virtual experience. (John Stephenson photo)
Threshers, Repository win heritage grants By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Huron County Council approved $25,000 in Huron Heritage Fund grants at its June 10 meeting, though one of the applicants generated some controversy among councillors. Director of Cultural Services Beth Rumble presented the report, which listed seven organizations and businesses as successful applicants for grants from the fund, which will
pay for up to 50 per cent of a heritage-oriented project. Grants approved were: the Seaforth and District All Girls Marching Band, $4,700; the Blyth Repository of History, $2,000; the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association, $4,000; the Bayfield Historical Society, $5,000; Thyme on 21, $5,000; the Van Egmond Foundation, $3,100 and the Huron County Historical Society, $1,200. • The Seaforth and District All
Girls Marching Band requested $4,915 to aid in the publication of a compiled history of the band. The request also included the funding for the first printing of the book, which had already occurred by the time the application had been made. • The Blyth Repository of History requested a grant of $2,000 for a wall mural educating people about the largest unsolved string of arsons in Huron County history. The mural is planned to be eight feet by 12 feet,
COVID-19 testing nears 5,000 By Denny Scott The Citizen The Huron Perth Public Health team (HPPH) is approaching 5,000 general public COVID-19 tests in the two counties, confirming one new case since last week. According to the HPPH website, the organization had performed 4,706 tests as of Monday with 56 cumulative positive results, 119 tests pending and the rest have come back negative. Additionally, the HPPH has completed 2,840 tests on residents and staff of
long-term care homes, 738 tests on staff and residents of retirement homes and 57 tests of emergency child care centre staff not included in the 4,706 general tests performed. The one new case is in Perth County, bringing the total for Perth County to 41 while Huron remains at 15 confirmed cases. Five cases remain unresolved. In Perth, there have been 26 confirmed cases in Stratford, four cases each in St. Marys, Perth East and North Perth and two cases each in Perth South and West Perth. In Huron,
there are three cases each in South Huron and Bluewater, two cases each in Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh, Central Huron and Goderich and one case each in Huron East and MorrisTurnberry. No new confirmed cases in longterm care or retirement home cases have been confirmed, leaving the total of confirmed residents and staff across Huron and Perth County at 23. There have also been 23 confirmed cases in healthcare workers in Huron and Perth County. For more information, visit hpph.ca.
accompanied by a storyboard that would measure four feet by eight feet on the north side of the Blyth Pharmacy building. • The Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association applied for a grant of $4,000 for the restoration of a cider press, bringing it into working order so it can be included as a working display during the association’s annual reunion. Rumble’s report also said that the association had received Huron Heritage Fund grants in both 2016 for the Memorial Shed and in 2017 for the cedar roof on the log cabin. • The Bayfield Historical Society applied for a grant of $5,000 for exterior maintenance (painting and repair to the wood structure and windows) of the Bayfield Historical Society’s archives building. The report detailed previous successful applications to the fund by the society, which included grants in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2018 and 2019. • Thyme on 21 applied for $5,000 to repair and repaint brickwork to maintain the building structure and aesthetics. The application noted Continued on page 8
This year’s Huron County Plowing Match, scheduled to take place on Aug. 20-21, has been cancelled with the program to be shifted to 2021 with one major change. Pete and Leisa Albers’ Brusselsarea farm was set to host the match this year, but the Alberses won’t have wheat in their field next year, so they won’t be able to host in 2021, said Huron County Plowmen’s Association President Brian Wiersma in an interview with The Citizen. He said negotiations aren’t yet finalized, but it’s likely the match will move west, being hosted on a farm near St. Helens next August. It’s possible that the Albers family could host the match in future years, Wiersma said. Wiersma told The Citizen that discussions about the future of this year’s match began near the end of April. The association’s board of directors met in March before much of North America shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its April and May meetings were cancelled and it was around the end of April when Wiersma and members of the board began discussing potentially cancelling the match. The discussion surrounded whether the board should cancel the match outright or hold the match, but cancel the awards banquet and the Queen of the Furrow and Princess competitions and not allow any spectators onto the site, just the plowing match competitors. However, after diving deeper into the issue, Wiersma said it was clear the board had to cancel the match outright. While Huron County has been rather lucky to have few cases of COVID-19 locally, bringing in competitors from all over southwestern Ontario would have been irresponsible, he said, so the decision was made to cancel. There were a number of other factors in play as well. The board thought to the year ahead for a young woman to win either the Queen of the Furrow or Princess competition, saying that with the International Plowing Match and most fairs and get-togethers cancelled, it wouldn’t be fair to a winner this year. With this decision being made, Wiersma said last year’s Queen of the Furrow and Princess winners, Maranda Klaver from the Seaforth area and Grace Hallahan from the Westfield area, respectively, have agreed to stay in their positions for an extra year before successors can be crowned next year.