ERIN – The Hillsburgh community family fun day was cancelled last weekend due to “public safety” issues after tornado warnings were issued for southern Wellington County on Aug. 17.
Lloyd Turbitt, chair of the Hillsburgh Community committee, noted it was a “tough call” when the committee cancelled the event.
The day was supposed to be filled with live music, community vendors, face painting, a car show and more, but about an hour into the event, at 11:03am, a tornado warning was issued by Environment Canada.
“It was going along okay until the tornado warning hit everybody’s phones,” Turbitt told the Advertiser.
“It was decided then that for public safety it would be best to pull the plug.”
The OPP was at the event, but Turbitt noted they were not the ones to make the final call.
The OPP auxiliary officers brought police vehicles to the event, allowing guests to climb inside.
Once word of a possible tornado circulated the OPP helped the committee “notify, pack up and clear the site relatively quickly.”
“They (OPP) concurred with our decision,” noted Turbitt.
Family fun day in Hillsburgh is the community’s largest event. It began in 2006.
The day has never been rained out, said Turbitt.
The committee was hopeful the day would have “just a little drizzle,” so at 9am that Saturday the committee announced fun day was a go.
“Everybody was sorry and everybody understood (when it was cancelled) … we’ve had a really good run of good luck,” he said.
Ward 9 county councillor and committee member Jeff Duncan explained “there really wasn’t too much discussion” about cancelling the event.
“We were fortunate because we had the auxiliary OPP,” noted Duncan.
The committee stated there will be no rain date, as many guests and volunteers will be going on vacation before the school year starts.
“You can’t ask people to pencil in two dates and we’ll pay for one date,” noted Duncan.
“So our rain date is next year, the third Saturday in August,” he added with a laugh.
