| Confirmed
Speakers |
|
| Daryl Ball | Co-chair of Friends of Ball's Bridge and member of the Ball Family, for whom the bridge is named, Daryl will discuss the history of the bridge and its importance to Huron County |
| Nathan Holth | The collapse of a closed truss bridge in 2002, near his home, ignited a passion in Nathan that drove him to find, photograph and research truss bridges. His website, HistoricBridges.org is regarded as one of the finest of its kind. He will discuss how diverse truss bridges and historic bridges in general are, as well as how at-risk they are. Nathan currently attends Western Michigan University with a secondary education major in political science and minor in history. |
| Catherine Nasmith | Catherine is an architect, the editor of Built Heritage News, and the President of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (AC0). The ACO is a registered charity, incorporated in 1933, to preserve buildings and structures of architectural merit and places of natural beauty or interest. |
| Confirmed
Attendees |
|
| Bert Dykstra | From Central Huron, Reeve Dykstra is a member of the Planning & Economic Development Committee, Environment and Utilities Committee, Protection to Persons and Property Committee, and Executive Committee. |
| Heather Boa | Heather is the coordinator
of the Heritage and Culture Partnership (HCP), a committee of the Huron
Tourism Association. Maintaining the unique heritage features of the county,
such as Ball's Bridge, helps to enrich the lives of its residents and to encourage new residents and tourists. |
| Laurel Armstrong | Laurel represents the Huron Tourism Association (HTA). The mission the the HTA is to make Huron County a vacation destination for seekers of charm, culture, beauty and endless possibilities. |
| John Thompson | John is resident of Goderich and Chair of the Maitland Trail Association. The Maitland Trail runs along the north side of Maitland River Valley for 45 kms. Ball's Bridge is important to this trail because it provides one of only two ways to access the trail from the southern side of the valley. |
| Roger Dorton | Roger has over 50 years of experience in bridge engineering. In 1975 he was appointed Head Bridge Engineer by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, a position he held until he retired in 1993. In 1993 he joined Buckland & Taylor Ltd. and was the project manager of the joint venture design team for the twinning of the international Blue Water Bridge at Sarnia, and the rehabilitation of the original structure. When with MTO he was involved with the Ministry of Culture in developing the Ontario Heritage Bridge Program. He has been a long term member of the History Committee of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, with a particular interest in bridge history. In 2004 he was a co-author of the MTO’s Aesthetic Guidelines for Bridges document. He is an active member of several engineering societies and is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. The author of over fifty papers in bridge engineering, Dorton has been the recipient of a number of awards, culminating in membership of the Order of Canada in 2004. |
| Heather Lyons | Heather has 10 years experience with multi-national corporations both in Canada and the USA; with a focus on advertising research, marketing, design, sales and tourism. She has enjoyed living and working in places like Windsor, Stratford, Guelph, Sudbury, Ottawa, Honolulu, Detroit, Montreal and Toronto; but says "a deliberate and well planned move to Huron County has rewarded us with a wonderful lifestyle for our family." Her recent volunteer experience includes a project with the Ministry of Culture; resulting in comprehensive tools and guidelines now easily accessible to municipal councils, heritage groups and the general public – to assist the work of “Strengthening Ontario’s Heritage”. |
| Alex MacDougall |
A relative newcomer to Huron County, Alex's first exposure to Ball's Bridge was about a year ago. As a civil engineer, he believes the bridge is a beautiful example of fundamental structural engineering; functional, ellegant, simple, and demonstrating very economical use of materials. His opinion is these kinds of understandings are not being adequately taught in universities today. He believes that a properly thought out plan could be developed to use Ball's Bridge to teach the fundamentals of structural engineering to today's students. Alex has polled some civil engineers and all have expressed an interest preserving this unique example and contributing money toward doing so. |
| Gary Davidson | Gary is formerly of the Huron County Planning Department and resides in Bayfield. He has an amazing background and was part of a group in the 1970’s that brought attention to how significant structures were deteriorating. Along with Architect/Historian Nick Hill, he pushed to identify these locations all around the county and lobbied for at least minimal upkeep and maintenance, if restoration was not possible. |
| David Armstrong | David is the Vice President of the Huron County Historical Society. The Historical Society meets four times per year - featuring special presentations of regional historic interest. An annual edition of "Huron Historical Notes" presents a collection of articles on an historical theme of general interest |