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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1961-03-30, Page 84,41:1"4 MON EXPOSITOR, SI;<AFORTH, ONT., .MARCH 30, 1961 ET tURON TAX RATE AT 14 MILLS (Cg:tinned from Page 5) gnneetion with the plan. . We are looking forward to a very • interesting meeting in April of this year, a ,.t which time members the Department of Planning and 7►evelopment will conduct a work - hop m .0 -operation with regular !Tuna County Municipal Officers' A1,ssociation spring meeting. This Will lace in Goderich and plans are w underway, but at the present ti a the final date has not been set. We anticipate a two - lay meeting commencing in the evening and following through for the full next day. We feel that vain - Ole information will be received ,end we hope that a full turnout will be on hand for this occasion. It is also noted that several coun- ties are now undertaking the pro- gram under the Emergency Mea- sures Organization. I believe that we are to hear more about this at our June session, although there again I have been waiting for in- formation from Toronto. However, whatever plans are made for the future in connection with extend- ijig the county services, I would ask that you bear in mind that the capacity of the offices within the Court House are now complete- ly filled and any further extension of the program on a county level would mean acquiring office space elsewhere, outside of the Court House itself. Following is a review of the va- rious divisions of the budget and the proposed program for the forth- coming year: 1. General Government: Under the heading of General Govern- ment there are' three schedules, Schedules 2, 3 and 4 which cover executive and legislative, admini- strative and other costs. These it- ems deal mainly with the cost of operations so far as County Coun- cil is concerned, committee pay, council 'sessions, administration costs in connection with the Clerk - Treasurer's office, assessor's of- fice and -the. general cost of oper- ating the Court House and the caretakers and maintenance and upkeep. This actual cost remains reasonably constant as any main- tenance work ,is usually planned well in advance, 2. Protection to Persons and Property: Under this heading we have Schedules 5, 6 and 7, This includes the cost of operating the, County Jail, protective inspection which refers to weed inspector, weed program, fox bounty; rabies, etc., and of course administration of justice being the actual cost of the courts. There again the cost is relatively constant, although the figures do vary depending on the situation each year. Administra- tion of justice can fluctuate as you are well aware, depending on the number of court actions, etc. 3. Public Works, Highway and Bridges: This program is a full program, for the year as outlined by the County Engineer, but the overall total cost is down consid- erably due to the fact that there is less money being spent on the development road. 4. Public Welfare: This includes Child Welfare as shown in Schedule 9 ; Hospitalization and County Home operations as shown on Schedule 10. The total this year is $105,000. Now this is a rising cost due mainly to Child Welfare ex- penditures being greater and of course your County Home opera- tions being that much larger. The County Home program is rather an uncertain item since we will be moving into the new section early in the year and will have no guide as to operating costs. If you will recall last year, however, we operated at a loss as far as county revenue is concerned,as.. the funds were available in the bank. Therefore, it was not nec- essaey to transfer monies from the general account; however, this situation has been fairly well rect- ified and we now shall proceed in a regular manner as far as fin- ances are concerned. Child Wel- fare costs are increasing due main- ly to the fact that the per diem rate for all societies in Ontario is on the increase. This is due to the continual increase in the cost of living and cost of operation throughout. 5. Grants: In this schedule we have shown the various grants as they apply to the different sections of the budget. These grants are fairly well in line with the past year and no great change has been made. 6. Debt Charges: In connection with these items your debenture debt payment is slightly decreas- ed ,this year. Temporary borrow- ings we have reduced due to the fact that last year our borrowing costs on the general account were very small. Discount on county rates remains about the same. It is possible that some alteration should be made in connection with By -Law No. 29, 1959, clause 3 re- garding discount allowed in con- nection with prepayment of county sates. This clause stipulates that no discount allowed for a portion of a month. In view of the fact that many councils meet the first week of the month, this means that it is of no advantage to a council to prepay for that current month. Some consideration might be giv- en to this situation and possibly could be reviewed with the thought in mind for allowing for part pay- ments during a month, (Assess- ment Act, Chapter 23, Sec. 230 (2.). 7. Reforestation: There is rela- tively no change in the program for reforestation in 1961 over 1960. 8. Registry Office: The program for the year is outlined in Schedule 13 and is drastically cut over last year during which time we had heavy expenditures. 9. Health Unit: We have prepar- ed a proposed budget—for the year for the Huron County Health Unit. In 1960 our allottment from county funds was $44,000, of which we used $43,541. This year our pro- posed program will require county finances to the amount of $46,900, • We anticipate that during this year We will have a full staff which has been a major problem for a num- ber of year and with this full staff we can give the service that is required of such a unit. 10. Museum: There is relatively no change in the program' at the Museum other than Mr. Neill is continuing to do a good job and to add exhibits and do the regular maintenance work in connection with the building. 11. Library Co-operative: The grant required from the county for Library purposes this year is the same as in 1960, that of $12,500. We note with interest that the pro- vincial grant has increased and this assists the Library in extend- ing their services without added cost to the county. 12. Reserve Fund: As instructed at the January session of County Council an allocation of $50,000 has been set aside in the budget to be applied to the reserve fund in connectionwith grants to coun- ty hospitals for construction pur- poses. This is in addition to the fund we have already set up of $55,000, which has been reinvested in drawing interest at the present time as follows: (1) $12,000 at 6%r, County of Lambton, debenture due July 1, 1961; (2) $13,000 at 41/4%, County of Haldimand, debenture due July 2, 1961; (3) $29,000 at 61/4%s, City of Hamilton, debenture due De- cember 15, 1961. 13. Huron County Home Build- ing Fund: The building program at the County Home is progressing very rapidly and all major con- tracts have been let. The Provin- cial Government has paid to date $505,000 in grants in connection with the building program. We an- ticipate further funds as we make final plans to complete this pro- gram and this should amount to approximately an additional $40,- 000. At the present time we have invested $100,000 in deposit with the Canadian Bank of Commerce drawing interest at 3%; this mon- ey will become due in April. We have $50,000 in treasury bills due in the month of May and $50,000 in treasury bills due in the month of June. This money has not been required for financing the program up until this time, and therefore has been drawing interest to as- sist us in our expenditures. It would appear that when the final program has been completed at the Home that we will be well within our financial allottment. We have had considerable work to do in this progl-am and the commit- tee have been most co-operative and also the provincial officials in connection therewith. 14. Retirement Fund: Perhaps many of the members of Council will not 'know of this fund, known as the Huron County Retirement Fund. In 1952 this fund was estab- lished to act as a pension fund for county employees, whereby the county contributed 5 per cent and the employee 5 per cent of the salary. HBwever, this was not an approved pension plan for income tax purposes. The plan grew very rapidly and on the suggestion of your former Clerk -Treasurer, a regular registered pension plan was taken up with an insurance company. However, the money that had accumulated in the re- tirement fund was reinvested .and this money is now becoming due and payable to the retirement fund. As the money is paid into the fund it is being transferred to the Reg- istered Pension Plan and credited to the various employees concern- ed. Certain employees, however, who -timeof the over age at the pension plan was taken out, have remained in this fund and are be- ing paid off accordingly. At the present time there are only three employees in this category: Mr. Joe Riley, Mr. James Doig and Jvlrs. M. P. Chaffee. These people are now on retirement and will draw out their money as they re- quire same. Very shortly, howev- er, this fund will no longer exist and all the moneys due will have been paid into the pension fund. I thought I should mention this to council in the event that it was discussed some time and the mem; bers might not be aware of the situation. You will note from the comments ori the auditor's report that there is no legal basis for this fund; however, the situation will correct itself in the near fu- ture. 15. Remarks: - Another item which has been taken care of and which was referred to in the audi- tor's report is the matter of car loans for the County Health Unit. From time to time it is necessary to loan a new employee sufficient funds• to purchase the initial car; however, this matter has been dis- cussed with the bank officials and as a result different arrangements will be made in the future and it would appear that the county will not be involved. The situation at the Huron County Museum has been corrected as you will see by the report of the Historic Commit- tee and in future tickets .will be sold in connection with admissions and this will give us proper con- trol on the Museum receipts. In view of the, fact that many of our filing ,cabinets are becoming overcrowded, I would recommend that a by-law be passed authoriz- ing certain records to be destroy- ed under authority of the Munici- pal Act, Sec. 377 (21). These re- cords cannot be destroyed until our by-laW has been approved. This by-law would only apply to records from 1954 and prior. The final item which I should bring to your attention is in con- nection with our present sick -leave by-law. Under the by-law, employ- ees on retirement or leaving the county, are entitled to certain ben- efits after so many years of ser- vice. It would appear advisable that in the immediate future a Re- serve Fund should be established, setting aside certain monies each year and from each department in order that we will not be found with a large expenditure in any one year. The yearly cost would be relatively small but without this provision a major expenditure could arise at a ater date. For the current year I antic'. THE CANADIANS won the ]peewee series at the annual Legion Minor Hockey Night at the Arena on Saturday. Front (left to right, Jimmie Phillips, Ferg Quinn, Gunter Wipperfurth, Paul Hildebrand and Murdo MacLean; rear, Frank Brugger, Roger Bennewiess, Peter Kling, Dennis Hodgert and Wayne Scott. (Expositor photo by Phillips). • IN THE FINAL two -game series at Legion Minor Hockey Night at Seaforth Arena on Saturday, the Ti -Cats captured the Bantam crown. Shown are, front row (left to right): Greg Rau, Kerry Campbell, Sam Little, Mill MacLennan, Rod Wylie; back row, Chuck Haney, Gary Grey, Ronnie Hildebrand and Doug Wright. Expositor photo by Phillips). pate a surplus of $32,324.00. This figure, however, is subject to var- iations and will depend on the out- come of operations for the year. You will'note from the past two' years that the general account has operated with a surplus where the highway account has had a deficit, We sincerely hope that with the open winter possibly the highways department will be able to meet their obligations and stay within the budget allotted to them. We realize that on a million dollar op- eration a small deficit is certain- ly not out of line; however, it does reflect in the overall result for the county in each year. At this time, in closing my re- port I would like to thank the warden, the chairman of the eom mittees, members of council and the department heads for their co- operation in making possible the report which is presented at this time. We sincerely hope that all de- partments may operate within their" allottment for 1961 and that we will finish the year with the surplus as indicated above.—John G. Berry," Clerk -Treasurer. 1961 BUDGET • Revenue County Rates . ... $ 859.510.00 Licenses and Permits .... , 500.00 Dominion Gov. Grants Provincial Gov. Grants Other Municipalities .. Other Sources ., Fines Registry Office Fees .., Rents General Government Museum Miscellaneous .... Surplus, 1960 4200.00 628.464.00 2 300.00 5,000.00 1,500.00 5,000.00 6,600.00 5,500.00 5.500.00 150.00 10,000.00 Total Revenue $1,534,224.00 Summary of Rates General Acct,: 7 mills on $61.393.691 assessment $429,755.00 Highway Acct.: 7 mills on $61 393.691 assessment 429,755.00 Total: 14 mills $859,510.00 Expenditures General Government: Executive, Legislative $19,000.00 Administration 35,000.00 Other .. 31,000.00 $85,000.00 Protection to Persons and Property: Gaol 28,500.00 Protective inspection 720000 Administration of Justice 41,000.00 Public Works: Highways and bridges, maintenance and con- struction 1,022,000.00 Public Welfare: Child Welfare 53,000.00 Hospitalization 25,000.00 County }-Tome 27,000.00 $ 76,700.00 $105,000.00 Education: Grants ' . 4,900.00 Debt Charges: Debenture 77,300.00 Temporary borrowings 2,000.00 Discount on County Rates 4,000'00 Agricultural Grants 7,100.00 Patriotic Grants 4,100,40 SMALL ATTENDANCE FEATURES BYTH TELEPHONE ANNUAL The annual meeting of Blyth Municipal Telephone System, held in Memorial Hall Saturday after- noon, was noted for the small num- ber of the 692 subscribers present. Chairman Archie Young read the auditors' report, which was ac- cepted. James Phelan, senior com- missioner, in his brief address, stated, "The commissioners have gone ahead with plans for the -con- version of Blyth System to dial op- eration, acting on a decision made at the 1960 annual meeting. Commissioner Albert Nesbitt said, "That while he had only been a commissioner a few months, having filled a vacancy on the board, he had discovered there had been a lot of extra work and meetings with the conversion of Auburn to dial." In referring to conversion to dial for, Blyth, Lineman Donald Young said: "Not too much new wiring would be necessary for dial in the rural areas," and in reply to questioning, Lineman Young stated, "The tentative and earliest date for conversion to dial for, Blyth would be December, 1962, Reforestation 3,600.00 Registry Office 3,800.00 Health Unit ... ... 46,900.00 Museum . ... 7.000.00 Library 12,500.00 Reserve Fund 50,000.00 Total Expenditure $1,511.900.00 Estimated surplus, 1961 22,324.00 Total $1,534,224.00 and even then the date would be dependent on the completion or. the trunk lines by the Bell sys- tem." The present commissioners were all returned to office, namely, Archie Young, James Phelan and Albert .Nesbitt. A vote of confi- dence was given the commission- ers, Lineman Donald Young, Sec- retary -Treasurer Mrs. Arnold Ber- thot, and all other employees of the system. Following the public meeting, the commissioners met in the tele- phone office and again chose Archie Young chairman of the commission. Mrs. Lorne Scrimgeous and Mr. and Mrs. 'Mrs. Charlie Johnston opened their home Wednesday af- ternoon • for a meeting of Blyth Horticultural Society, when many plans were made for a successful year for the organization. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Cook were re-engaged as caretakers of the Horticultural Park, street intersec- tions, or any other project under- taken by the society. A Maytime tea and exhibit and arrangements of seasonal flowers was planned; also a flower show in mid -summer. The hostess serv- ed refreshments, "I wouldn't worry too much if your son makes mud pies," advis- ed the doctor, "or even if he eats them. Sometimes that's quite nor- mal." "Well, I don't think so," replied the woman, "and neither does- his wife.' 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