HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1976-11-04, Page 3Something to Say
by Susan White
My days on the phone
If you haven't seen me •
around on the streets latel y and "
perhaps have wondered if I've
joined the rambling siblings in
Europe, let me assure you that
I'm still, here.
I've just been spending all my
spare time the past couple of
weeks in my office on the phone,
Yes, I've got a cauliflower ear
from phoning and I expect the
people I've been calling are as fed
up with me as I am with my
repeated calls.
In -what is perhaps a futile
attempt to stir up some, interest in
the December 6 municiapl
election. I've been calling area
councillors and school board
trustees to ask about their
election plans. There are
probably only about 40 people
involved in all, but the problem is
to get them near a phone in what
is 'a very busy time for a rural
community.
When I've plunged bravely into
what seems like a self imposed
sentencee very Thursday morning
for the past few weeks, I get no
answer s and I get busy signals.
Sometimes I get a spouse who is
very sympathetic and would help
me if she knew what her
husband's plans were.
Once in a rare while I hit the
rackpot and get the sought after
councillors on the line., Usually
they would tell me their plans,
but it was getting them that was
the problem.
Unlike some people I know I
hate the telphone. I have a sister
who was addicted to telephonitis
at an early age. She and her best
friend Peg used to,spend hours on
the phone, although they lived
about two blocks apart.
One Christmas my brother
Alan tape recorded a call between
the two of them and that tape kept
visitors to our haute for the rest of
the festive season entertained.
The tape was notable not for the
chattering that they, did once in
awhile but for long, long periods
of silence. Presumably both of
them were staring off into space.
but unwilling to hang up the
phone.
After a quiet minute or two
"Mag?" "Yeah Peg?" broke the
silence. Thus reassured that
everybody was hanging in there.
silence conti for ' a while
longer to be broken only by an
improtant comment like, ' Peggy.
are you 'still there?".
But I don't like phoning. Th at s
why 'I have every sympathy for
one councillor who I heard in the
background as his Wife called him
to come and talk to me. Hewas
saying ' I'm going to get rid of
that blankety blank phone."
'Between my calls and those of
John Miner, who worked his way
down the list on Saturdays, we
finally made contact with just
about every council mem ber and
trustee in our area. This week, we
have stories in to prove it.
To them goes thanks for their
patience. I'm sure their families
don't like the repeated calls any
more that I like making them. But
I still think that their purpose..a
pre-election story that will stip up
some interest.. is a good one,
You can't write these stories
until you get hold of every
councillor in a particular
municipality. There seemed to be
one or two in every area that were
notoriously hard to reach.
I was moaning about my days
on the phone to a friend and her
reply shook me up a bit. "Who
cares?", she said.
That unfortunately, .may be the
answer to a great deal of the
digging and leg work, or in this
case, phone work, that a
newspaper, reporter does.
les hard to create interest and
excitement about the minor fact
of who's going to hea d our local
governments fOr the next • two
years,
It's ten bad, but there it is. Is
our apathy an invitation to
regional government?. If it's really
"who cares", we've got nobody
to blame but ourselves, both for
the quality of representation we
get and for a regional government
which might step into a vacuum.,
And finally. the "who cares"
attitude that most of us probably
have must be, especially
disheartening -tb the men and
women who give up time and take
the trouble to' run for office.
Accident
damage
$2,700
Collision between two cars
early Saturda morning on Main
Street North resulted in damages
amounting to $2,700.
The accident occurred at 2:35
a.m. when a southbound car
driven by Paul Coyne, 19, of RR
2. Siaffa, was in collision with a
car driven by Stephen Seymour,
16, of RR 4. Seaforth, which was
turning left onto Duke Street.
Mr. Coyne and a passenger in
, his. car, Shane Fell, 20, were
treated for minor cuts and bruises
at Seaforth Community Hospital.
Nursery school
on in Mitchell
Nursery Co-operative School
for ages 3 - 5 is being held at
Upper Thames School in Mitchell
Monday to Thursday 9:00 a.m. to
II A.M. Further particulars are
available from Mrs. Sandy
Falconer, R.R.1, Dublin, Phone
345-2555.
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Seaforth., Ontario
The
"tax payer in Seaforth should take
that much interest 'or they only
have themselves to blame for
conditions like this carrying on
indefinitely."
the completion of a storm drain en
James St, and increased parking
for the Seaforth Community
centre through the co-operation
of the Seaforth Curling Club,
Other projects are: The
formation of a development
committee to promote industrial
expansion; the formation of a
local Architectural Conservancy
Advisory Committee to advise
council on buildings and sites
worthy of protecting for the future
and the signing of a subdivision
agreement for housing.
'These projects were dealt with
along with ensuring the day to
day responsibilities of an effective
His statement concludes:
Whether they run
themselves or just encourage
suitable candidates,,I think every
appointment of a PUC represen-
tative on the Board.
The 'past two years have been
the busiest and most interesting
for me since I joined. the board
eight years ago. •
The several committees I have
been on were the Education, the
Trainable Retarded, the Trustee-
Teacher-Administration-Liaison,
Special Education, Chairman's
Advisory, • County Council
Liaison. Computer Studies,
French,' Position of Responsi-
bility, Utilization of Education
Facilities, Budget, Joint Board
Committee with four other boards
and Salary Negotiations for fOur
contracts.
Last year I attended 84 meet-
ings and up to November 1 this
year,, there have been 71 meet-
ings. There are also various other
activities to attend. These are to
meet new teachers, judge
debates, attend retirement
dinners. Honour Banquets,
seminars for the Associations we
belong to , tour schools, attend
Professional Development days,
concerts and meetings with
Ministry officials.
Some of the accomplishmenti
of the Board have been to set up a
Preventative Maintenance Pro-
gram in the schools, employing
three craftsmen, a swimming
program for grade 4 classes, a
grade 13 Theatre Arts course in
South Huron H.S. and Grade 10
r Bet y C
electricity and wft.W.,hit
May I take this, .opportunity to
mention the support anti help I
received from my cenneil, the
dedication of all. the town
emplpyees, who endeavour to
follow the policies„of council, to
'all the appointed representatives
who act on the Recreation
Committee, the Planning Board,
'the Committee of Adjustment,
the local Architectural and
Conservation Advisory Commit-
tee, the Development Committee,
the Seaforth Hospital' Board and
the Conservation Authorities,
Without these willing volun-
teers, the responsibilities of the
council would be extremely diffi-
cult to carry out
May I request, on behalf of the
incoming council, names of
anyone who would he intrested in
any of the committees mentioned.
May . also express my
appreciation to the local press
who have listened to many long
session of council and PUC
meetings and have reported the
respective decision in the paper.
Without a diligent press, it is
difficult to keep everyone
informed on council decisions.
. May I take the liberty to
Vlore. 9.0J,Y ole 'better
w#y to be. informed and that is.
attendance at council meetings,
held, every 5g.c911.4 Monday at 8
PM , • •
Serge council nembers- have
indicated they are not running for
office again, due to the amount 'o
time it involves; but I humbly
.. request they' reconsider 'their
decision or 'encourage other
people to run for office.
A responsible council is the ,
result of all of. the 'town citizens
taking the responsibility of
nominating and voting for candi-
dates of their choice.
Let us on November 15' have
enough men • and • women
nominated, so that there is an
election for every position on
council, PUC and school board.
THE. HURON' EXPOSITOR NOVEMBER44
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PUC chairman Ed Daly says
Trustee Molly Kunder says
(Editor's note: Because
Seaforth won't be having a
ratepayers' meeting this year,
Edmund Daly, • chairman of the
PUC, asked the Expositor to print
his comments on the issues the
PUC has handled this .year. The.
Expbsitor will be happy to publish
reports from any other municipal
politicians or candidates for
office.) •
Mr. Daly is upset about what
he considers a lack of co-opera-
tion from council and says that he
won't be a candidate for PUC this
year if the present mayor, Betty
Cardno, is the council representa-
tive to the PUC, since he claims
the mayor did ,,not present the
PVC's viewpoint to council. Mr.
Daly says: "In 1969, seven years
ago, the town paid consulting
engineers $2,000 to undertake a
study of the water supply system
in Seaforth, The 60,000 gallon
overhead reservoir "at therear of
the town hall was erected in 1920
56 years ago."
''Recommended in 1969 -
replacement with a 500,000 gallon
capacity at the latest -.1972 - four
years ago. Well and pumping_
system located in the rear of the
town hall with same "equipment
installed in 1931 45 year, old
equipment - recommended
closing .and out of service and
replaced with new well and
equipment. Latest addition - well
east of the Victoria Park with
equipment in 1948-28 year ago."
"The survey outlined a year by
year recommendation of under-
ground lines improvement that
has been followed, as finances
permit, and which are in good
condition, generally speaking,
although, if we had the money
we'd like to update the whole
system."
We did sink a new well south of
the tracks a few years ago and are
still waiting for the town 'to
decla re the west end of Brantford
Street as a recognized street so
that, pipe can be laid to the new
well , - a three year wait.
We have $30,000 in pipes in •
stock waiting. As far as any
discussion on replacement of
reservoir, and installation of
pumping equipment at the new
wellsite, we are Still at the mercy
of the town council be cause the
PUC has no authority to issue
debentures on it's, own - they
must go" through council as a
municipal debenture even though
it is paid for by the PUC."
"In four years on the
Commission, the only answer to
any requests for, discussion with
the Council has been "the
Community Centre is top priority
and any mention of a further
debenture would jeopardize this
project."
"My answer many times has
been, "what will you do with your
half million dollar skating rink if
there's no water to flood the ice?"
How long can you expect a 56
year old tank and a 48 year old
pumping system to last?"
"Early in the year, we found
that almost daily we had to hire a
digger at $20 to $25 per hour,- and
pay two or three hydro employees
$5 to $6 an hour to stand by and
watch the digger operating.
When the digger rentals got up to
over $1000 a month, (plus our
watchers pay), we sat down and
figured what our saving would be
if we had our own equipment."
"Conservatively we estimated
at least a $1000 a month saving
especially if we had our own
dump truck with both pieces of
equipment being operated by our
own employees who would be
paid whether they were working
or watching."
"Even though the new equip.
ment has only been in operation a
few months, our estimates have
proven correct.
The request for $15,000 loan
authority from council was held
up so PUC only required a loan of
$11,000. Since that time, loan was
reduced to' $7000 at last meeting
and this will be reduced in half by
the time of publication of this
report. The final payment in
'December will at least clear off
this loan and hopefully the
commission will end the year with
a slight surplus.
decisions and to pass the
necessary by-laws to manage the
affairs of the town. One of the
difficulties of municipal life, is to
recognize the demand for
increased services without
increasing costs.
Some of the major projects
completed are: The completion of
the sanitary sewers; the approval
of a site for a 14 unit Senior
Citizen apartment complex on
John St.; the approval and
financing of a $250,000 renova-
tion to the Seaforth Community
Centre without any additional
funding through taxes; the pave-
ment of James St. to Wilson St.;
"The Council asks why we ran
over budget. We have worked
closely with the contractor, and,
whenever, any defective water
lines were discovered, in our
estimation it was more econom-
ical to fix them while exposed •
rather than wait till the roads
were restored and then later, to
rip up the streets at twice the
cost. It's been the great number
of these repairs that have put us,
in a tight spot from a financial
standpoint putting our expendi-
tures two to three months ahead
of our anticipated revenue."
"What kind of shape would we
be in now if we had "obeyed" the
Councils orders and left our water
rates at 8 cents a day. You'd be
running down to Silver Creek for
your pail of water. The disruption
of our water mains has been
costly and much credit is due to
our loyal staff which has never
been called on so much to give up
. weekend's and holidays to make
sure you had your water supply
uninterrupted."
"I realise that council's
resentment was started a year
ago last spring when, looking into
the future costs, the Commission
considered .tripling the water
rate. The Council took it on
themselves first, to order the PUC
to only double the rate. After- a
month at the new rate, they again
ordered the PVC to revert to the
old rate and refund any . money
collected."
"It was .time for the Commis-
sion to find out who was running
the PUC. We got legal advice
which . emphatically told the
council it had no buginess in the
affairs of. ,the PUC except in
Capital Debentures and loans,
and remuneration of Commiss-
ioners. This only left the poWer to
criticise which has kept up ever
since."
"The original rate was 8 cents
per day. The double rate a year
ago last July put the price up to 16
cents per day, and the further
rate increase last January soared
up to 24 cents per day.-almost the
price of a soft drink:"
"Last spring when we
considered purchasing a digger
and dump truck, the Commission
authorized the, Manager and
Chairman to look into costs. Over
a period of a couple of weeks, Mr.
Scott and I looked over many
types of both pieces of, equip-
ment. Some of our first contacts
included diggers from $20,000 to
$40,000. Some of the sample used
trucks, from 1970 to 1972 models
ran as' high as $12,000 for a four
year old truck." •
"After days of seaching, truck-
ing and trading, and bidding, we
got the latest model backhoe from
a dealer whc0 gave us a price of
less than $18,000. Other dealers
of the same make and model had
asked as high as $27,000. We
discovered a two year old 14 yard
dump truck which we road-tested
ourselves and went over its
condition, .and were able to get
the dealer down to $8,500."
"In other words, if we hadn't
done this chasing around and a lot
of old-fashioned dickering, we
might have paid as high as
$55,000 for the two units where
we finished up less than $27,000.
Sure we could sell the digger, as
one councillor suggested. and I'll
guarantee we could get more than
we paid,for it."
" 1 here is a planning board in
Seaforth. Because of a heavy
agenda, the PUC had to wait
months to get a hearing before
this board. Finally last spring, we
were invited. The particular
matter to be discussed was heard
by the Beard. There was a
representative from the ' County
Planning Board." " •
"In discussing the general
work of the Board, I asked this
representative how any town 1
planning could be done without
taking into consideration two
basic requirements that only the
Public Utility could supply - thk
is water and hydro facilities.
When pinned down, he admitted
they ha'dn't though of that when
Setting up a planning board and
something should be done about
that matter."
"Sik mehths have gone by and
there still hasn't been any
police 'AVM pnWic Worits,
employees to , maintain the
streets, sidewalks and Sanit#0
disposal site, both summer and
winter, the Community Centre •
and recreation programs.
Some projects still pending for
the incoming council to deal with
are: completion of the renova-
tions to the Community Centre;
development 'of a mobile home
park; sidewalk renovations due to
sanitary sewer installation; and
the Huron Street storm sewer to
provide an adequate outlet for the
southwest .section of the town.
These are just sore of the
decisions to be dealt with by the
men and women who are elected
on December 6.
I, as Mayor and automatically a
member of the PUC commission,
would like to see a better working
relationship developed between
the Town and the PUC. Both' the
Town Council and the PUC were
and are elected to provide
services to the Town of Seaforth
and funds fer the respesctive
services come from the same
people, but in a different manner.
The services for the Town of
Seaforth come through taxes, the
PUC revenue through the
Music in the Seaforth H.S. North
Ashfield P.S. was closed and the
pupils were sent to Brookside
P.S., an Audio-Visual Technician
was hired for the Media Centre,
Night School was extended to
Seaforth D.H.S„ conversion to
Metric Measure in thesecondary
schools, renovations and altera-
tions to the Exeter P.S., new rates
for school facilities, and we
petitioned the Minister of Educa-
tion for Core Curriculum
guidelines.'
The Budget committee drasti-
cally cut all school budgets and,
our Director of Education has
been asked for a Performance
Review System for all employees.
It has 'been noted in the preSs
that school boards should be
spending more time on the
education part of the system, but
it must be pointed out that if the
various committees of the board
did not do some of these other
tasks, we would have to hire
many more administrative people
at an extremely high cost to the
ratepayers.
Boundary changes have been
looked into in the Vanastra area
and facilities are being reviewed.
1 am disappointed that my area
has been changed from. Seaforth,
Tuckersmith, Stanley and
hayfield to Seaforth. McKillop
and Hullett, as I have made many
You're
Invited
Mrs. Frank Burch, R.R. 2,
Bayfield is to be the guest
speaker at the November 10
meeting of the Seaforth Horticul-
tural Society at 8 p.m. in the town
hall.
She is planning to talk about
the Bluebird program carried out
in the hayfield area.
* * * * * *
Seaforth Hospital Auxiliary
meeting will be held Wednesday,
November 10 in the hospital
board room at 8 p.m.
**** **
• Members arid friends of the
Seaforth Women's Institute are
invited to their November meet-
ing being held at the home of
Mrs. Audrey Cameron on Tues-
day evening, November 9 at 8
p.m. Mrs. A. Taylor and Mrs. F.
Hunt are in charge of the
program. The roll call is to be
answered with "Name a little
thing that makes life beautiful."
The motto is "Travel broadens
our Horizon." County rally report
will be given. Lunch conveners
are Mrs. L. Lawson, Mrs. L. Dale.
Mrs. A. Turnbull and Mrs. J.
MacLean.
Members are reminded of the
invitation to meet with:Brusseis
Women's Institute on Wednes-
day, November 10 at 8 p.rn, in the
basement of the Brussels United
Church.
new friends from this area,
especially Tuckersmith.
Hopefully I can do an equally
good job in representing the new
area if I ant elected to'the board.
Children from McKillop now
attend' both the public and high
schools in Seaforth and the
ratepayers from McKillop have
felt that I have been their
representative for the past few
years. Most ratepayers from
Hullett will not know me person-
ally hut I 'hope that they will feel
free to contact me at any time.
I feel I can keep" close contact
with the two schools in Seaforth
as a representative and a parent,
as I have one child in each
system, ,
The government budget cut
backs curtailed any new programs
we had hoped for. An austerity
.program was needed but I felt
that it ; was a?nounced at the
wrong time. We had already
settled contracts for the .1915-76
year, which runs from Sept. , 1 ,
1975 to Aug. 31, 1976 and
therefore the ratepayers were
taxed much heavier than usual.
The municipalities were hit in the..
same way so it hasn't been an
easy year.
.If I am re-elected, my greatest
concerns will be in the field of
Special Education and Improved
Curriculum.,
As your Mayor for the past two
years, I would like to take this
opportunity to express my thanks
for allowing me to serve you as
Mayor. It has been a challenging
and rewarding experience.
I would also like to give you a
short report on some of the major
projects accomplished over the
past two years.
These projects would not have
been accomplished without the
backing and dedication I received
from the• present members of
Council, who attended many
extra council meetings. (not
without some complaining), but
did attend to make the necessary
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