Huron East BIA Receives Grant from Huron County's SLED Programming

By Bob Montgomery

The Secretary of the Huron East Business Improvement Area says their applications for grants through the Huron County Economic Development's SLED or Supporting Local Economic Development program have been approved.

Maureen Agar says one of things they wanted to do is add lighting to the mural that was put up this summer on the north wall of Everspring Farms building in Seaforth. Agar says the mural looks great during the day but this time of year it gets dark fairly early so they wanted to be able to light it up at night. Agar says at this point they're still waiting for the lights but she says they're expecting to have them up in the next couple of weeks.

Agar says the grant they received was for four-thousand dollars and the BIA had another 35-hundred dollars to add to that so they've got 75-hundred dollars to work with. Agar says they don't have a lot of trees on the main street in Seaforth so last year they put some bushes along the main street. But she says this year they wanted to plant something that would attract butterflies and bees to make the main street more of an environmentally friendly area. So they've used some of the money to get perennials that will attract bees and butterflies.

Agar says another project will remind Seaforth residents and visitors about the history of the town and how it was known in the pioneer days as Guide Board Swamp. So Agar wanted to create metal birds and animals to be placed around town to show people the kind of wild life that existed in the town at one time and she's enlisted some of the Manufacturing and Technology students at Central Huron Secondary School with creating the plants and animals. Agar says she expects to place them along the main street next spring and there will be a plaque to go with each animal explaining their history in the Seaforth area.