A PART OF BLYTH YOU'VE NEVER SEEN

This was Blyth's Queen Street about 1910 to 1915. The two buildings in the foreground were occupied by Munro's Hardware from 1922 to 1936. Elwyn Munro had purchased the business from Lew Williams in 1922. In addition to the usual sales of hardware products, Elwyn did a great deal of tinsmithing and glass work, hence the need for a relatively large space. Mr. and Mrs. Munro and their two daughters, Lena and Alma, lived in the apartment above the store.

The location of this building was directly across from Blyth Memorial Hall, between the CIBC bank and Sharon's Miniature Museum. Today, the space is occupied by a small lawn and garden near the street, and an extension of Sharon's building at the rear.

On December 17, 1936 Munro's Hardware was totally destroyed by fire. That's why it is unlikely that readers of this article will recall seeing this building.

My parents operated the Home Bakery next door to Munro's. It is amazing that their building had no significant damage from that conflagration. The lot stood empty for many years.

A copy of the above picture was given to us by Tim Saunders of Three Squirrels Antiques, and it is one of the most treasured photos in our collection.

We visited Alma (Munro) Curry, the younger daughter, at her home in 2008. She told us many stories about growing up in Blyth and the great attachment she still feels toward the village.

The Administrative Review re: School Closing

Most of us are very casual when it comes to voting for municipal and school board representatives - deciding for whom one should vote, or whether to vote at all. Tonight I was reminded that our collective decisions really matter and that terrible things can happen when we fail to make good choices.

Case in point: Choice of school board representatives.

I attended the meeting of the petitioners objecting to the procedures followed by the Avon Maitland District School Board in deciding to close Blyth Public School. The only persons allowed to speak were those who signed the petition, which was a reasonable limitation. There were a few contribitions from the public gallery, but fortunately these were minimal. Those who spoke were very well spoken and much more polite than I would have been had I had the right to speak.

There were excellent presentations among those that I could hear, but to me, sitting in the public gallery, many of them were completely inaudible. The facilitator, Ms. Margaret Wilson I am sure received a very complete, clear, and reasoned set of objections to the AMDSB handling of the accommodation review.

It was somewhat disconcerting that she argued against some of the points raised, and provided explanations for some of the things that were done or not done - explanations that could be interpreted as "supporting the bad guys". For example, with respect to the opposition towards sending grade 7 and 8 children to a high school, she pointed out that this is normal practice in many Canadian provinces and many countries around the world. Does that mean that we should do the same?

But the most disconcerting information that I received at this meeting, leads me to doubt the chance of blocking this terrible decision for Blyth.

Let me put it this way:

Suppose Ms. Wilson agrees completely with all of the petitioners objections, and
Suppose she reports to the Minister that the board did not follow its own policy, and
Suppose she reports that their procedures also failed to follow the guidelines set out by the Minister of Education, and
Suppose she recommends that the Board be forced to reconsider and change its decision, and
Suppose the Minister accepts the recommendation of the facilitator.

THE MINISTER HAS NO POWER TO FORCE THE BOARD TO CHANGE ITS DECISION.

The Board has full and sole power to close any school it chooses to close.

Now you see what I meant at the opening of this article. All those who voted for the members of this board have a great deal to answer for.

There were numerous examples given tonight about the lack of responsiveness of our local board representative, about indifference, about lack of communication. One person questioned why no one from the board has spoken to our community to explain why they decided to close Blyth Public School. Indeed why did our representative not do this. (Silly question, I know.)

Even the facilitator mentioned that it would be normal for the board to give the community some sort of explanation for changes like this.

So here we are stuck with the people we elected. With the higher population density in this municipality in the north, we are in clear danger of remaining unrepresented following future elections, unless we encourage worthy and responsible candidates to come forward.

Small rural communities like ours face many difficulties these days. We cannot afford to continue with representatives who represent no one but themselves.

Blyth School Review - A Hoax?

If the Ontario Ministry of Education and the Avon Maitland District School Board thinks that the announcement of a review of the decision to close an essential school is putting us off our guard, they should think again.

Sure we will discuss the matter with a "facilitator" in good faith, but we know now that the track record for these events is not encouraging. The stated purpose of the review according to the press is to determine whether the process followed by the board was consistent with their policy.

We really don't care about AMDSB policy. If it was policy that made the decision then the policy is wrong because closing the Blyth School is WRONG FOR BLYTH. We question this board's competency to formulate a reasoned policy, let alone follow one.

If past history is repeating itself here, then the following statements will be true:

* The board has no intention to reverse the decision regardless of what comes out of the review
* They have already decided on the wording of the announcement to confirm their decision

Pay attention, AMDSB. These facts are also true:
* if by chance the review surprises us and seems to offer hope, we are not going to relax, but will watch you like hawks now that we know what kind of people you are.
* if the closure is confirmed, you will not have put this matter to rest. You will have merely lit a new fire which will haunt your organization until matters are set to rights.
* you will have spawned a movement which will be prepared and skilled at thwarting all kinds of assaults from governments at all levels which, like yours, has no comprehension of community values and integrity.
* that movement will spread across this province and this country so that its power will surpass the power of our large urban areas.

Brock Vodden