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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1954-12-29, Page 2I , 4-l * »1 PAGE TWO WEDNESDAY, DEC. 29th, 1954 ————■. . —■—1 ' 1 ........... ... . THE LUCKNOW SENTINEL, LUCKNOW, ONTARIO , VT-’.......-................... ■ New Assessment Received A Blast At T Nomination Meeting On Monday Night turned ovqr to help - run that building. Likewise there was the arena debenture, arid an operate ing deficit, plus a $200 furnace- to be taken care of, and Council has a $500 expenditure at hand to put a heating system in the Fire Hall. The park situation is more rosy, with; improvements there ...............- — - . being at comparatively little cost firs as evidenced by their pres- l and with an $850 provincial grant ence/..............................................(having been received on accum- Clerk E. H, Agnew presided during the nomination hours With a late flurry of nominations 1 being received that saw thirteen nominees proposed for the' five 1 council seats, 'and seven nom­ inees from which to select three school trustees. Ex-reeve W. B. Anderson was appointed chairman for a two- hour ratepayers’ meeting^ in which village and schopl business was discussed frankly, but with- — r'out -any- heated arguments.:------ Reeve Stuart E. Robertson dealt with the new Bruce Coun­ ty assessment equalization x plan,’ which, is part of the provincial program of obtaining a uniform assessment which A^ill qive equal­ ity of subsidies to 'municipalit- ies, he/said. The first manual on the cubic foot basis has been re­ placed by a square foot manual. The local Council has little free­ dom in the matter, although we are the ones you “get your hands on”, Mr. Robertson stated. Ass­ essment appeals "may be taken to the County Judge, the Muni­ cipal Board and ■ the Supreme Court. "This is^tKe^privilege-of not only ratepayers, but also the ■ assessor.' A County Committee is. being set-up”~to~help-“smopth-out the ’ system, which he likened to a board Which has yet to be planed and sanded, and it will take tinie to smooth off all the rough spots. Get Capital Grant Mr. Robertson pointed out that for the first time fih the history of Bruce County a capital grant was made to a hospital outside the County, it having been made to assist Lucknow, Kinloss, Cul- ross and Teeswater, in meeting . their share of the Wingham Hos­ pital building fund, quota. Mr. Robertson gave W. B. Anderson credit for the idea. The County grant is for $2$,000. Lucknow’s share is $7,222.23, and the cheque | *Mrs. Roy Black asked Why the for this has now been received. — ^This-wilLreduce-Lucknow’s-quota of $13,000 to less than $6,000 bp raised locally. Building Upkeep Councillor S. B. Stothers, chairman of property, stated that we have more public hall accom- . odation for our size than any place he knew. Repairs needed at the Town Hall include a ceil­ ing in the Library and a furn­ ace. There has been a slump at the Recreational Centre v and $400 of municipal’ .funds (had to be The new assessment system •<,.was the main target for criticism . at Monday night’s nomination meeting in Lucknow when the Council room of the Town Hall Whs packed to capacity by the ■ biggest crowd in years. The gath­ ering included a goodly number of women, •. who received the plaudits of several speakers for their interest in municipal af- ulated expenditures in the past few years. Mr. ’iStothers referred to in­ creased village and school ex­ penditures . which amount to some ,$6,000 more than last year. Social welfare is the biggest fac­ tor, representing almost half the increase, , Industrial Picture Mr. Stothers, who is chairman qf the Bruce County Industrial Committee, said that frankly they could not claim to have accom­ plished much, • but he was very optimistic about the future. Locally there is no one but who is anxious about the idle factory here. There have been prospects, although not manyi but there seems to be a differ­ ence of opinion as to the value of .the plant. . , Mr. Stothers said he planned to retire as municipal affairs in­ terfered with his other business. He appreciated the relations he had enjoyed on the Board for two years. The chairman paid tribute to Mr. Stothers as being an asset to the municipal, church and^daTTife^oMhencommunityr \ Councillor Alex ■ MacLeod, as chairman of Roads and Bridges, gave a detailed review of» expen- rditures, In connection with snow­ plowing he said that Huron County came into town from the south and in exchange the Vill­ age was responsible for snow- plQwirig at Greenhill Cemetery. Mr. MacLeod felt that Ashfield Township should pay a share of this. ■ Gordon Montgomery again will do the Village snowplowing at $5.50 an hour, and has improved his equipment to do even a bet* ter fob this year; : ? Art, Breckles queried about sanding the sidewalks and said they had badly needed attention ' on Christmas eve. 1 to as three trees had been cut dn; front of-their-lhomeand^aidthe^Reeve had been top busy to discuss the matter. Mr. MacLeod said there- had been a misunderstanding and and wouldn’t like the trees to come down in front of his home. Low Debenture Debt •* As chairman of the Finance Committee, Councillor V. A.„ Mowbray’ said' there. were many' things over Which they had no control and it was very difficult to try to hold to a budget and give reasonable service. T . i ■ at «s • we.’d Ltfzti to extend io out many, ftlendi’and au£T. tome.tki out l&attfelt tlianfil lasting loyaLtyJand tHen ioh tUfaj wtiH out cot­ dialwh/lei tfiat eac/i and tv tty one, of you volLL lately enjoy . . . . eft efta^y, , UPtoijietoui cNew tyeai! | Thomas Hackett & Sons I Fire equipment costs have been high, but he' felt the Bri­ gade was now in real good shape, and expenditures could be cut in thi^ department, The town will pay $500 of a new $750 heating system at the hall?., for it is im­ portant that no freeze-up occurs there. The Provincial subsidy of $1.50 per capita isn’t all that it seems, as other subsidies h$ve blsen cut off: He felt the system wasn’t fair as the -big places are get­ ting a higher per capita grant. , iMr. Mowbray pointed out the .excellent position of. the . Village from a standpoint of. debenture debt which is only about $15,000 and with the Wingham Hospital issue, will total only a little over $20,000. ■ The Water System is building' up a nice ..surplus and he hoped that they would soon be able to reduce the hydrant rental to the Village, which has, been a means of paying off' the water system. Utilities Show Profit - Councillor Archie Smith said that garbage collection costs were up slightly due to a year- round service now being provid­ ed. ■' He gave a financial resume of the operation of the Water and Hydro Systems. The Water Sys­ tem showed a profit of $1,633.00 during the year. During the first nine months of the year the Hydro System profit was $1,751. The System has $9,000 secur­ ities as a contingency fund and is-in good shape. -— __i_ Mr. Smith said that the cost of tree removal in front of' tl^e Black residence was shared by the Hydro, Bell Telephone and Village. He hadn’t known That’ the three trees were going down, but that they were decaying and the Hydro and Bell systems were interested in protecting their property. . > Would Discard Assessment Alex opposed system Council adopt. He cited one, assessment which had been more than doubled, and said that by logic, manual or what-have-you, it didn’t make sense; ' '1 He referred to information he had received from the town of Trenton where the 1954 Council had rescinded the equalized ass^ essment by-law and' the use of the manual* and h&d given a new assessor full power to re­ assess and evaluate as he saw fit. Mr. Hamilton said that he thought what should be done was discharge the assessor, throw out the manual and revert to the . 1952 basis of assessment. “You can’t eliminate the inequal­ ity of the present system. Let us attend to pur own assessment affairs here0, he recommended, and promised that if he. had any-: thing to do/with the Council in the coming year he would do all in his power to dispense with the manual. He said he wouldn’t mind an election and always had enjoyed election week in meet­ ing the old and. young ladies and ■men. ■ . ‘ _ J.. „1. Chairman Anderson humorous­ ly tossed out a tip to Mr. Ham­ ilton' that, if he <vas electioneer­ ing to. keep in mind “there aren’t any old ladies”. Not Fairly Assessed George Joyht, a nominee for council, said his two-year-old beef was ih connection with the assessment which ihepfelt was not assessed fairly with 6bher towns. He-did -hot—say he would runr 'but it he was on the board “would do everything in his po\v- it should be”. . Should Study Roll Mr. Cecil-Attridge said he be­ lieved in giving’ credit where it was due, and felt that Council had done a -good job in many respects,. but had fallen down in regards to the assessment.- He felt thd manual was out of the ques­ tion for Lucknow and that not ondugh cognizance was being taken of the obsdicnscehcc/dvbr,- built, what is the value, etc., which are deduction factors pro­ vided for in the assessment act. He said that on the manual’s' square foot basis, sheds were be* ing assessed like living1 rooms. Hp? felt that the Council has pot spent sufficient time in studying the roll before accepting it. There were old folk and others. who could not present their case to a Court of Revision, and for this reason the Board , jsjiould have looked it over very carefully. Mr. Attridge said he felt he had not been a resident of the Vill­ age sufficiently long to give his best service as a ipember of the Council. He based his assessment comments on a knowledge he had gained while serving on the Goderich Council, and his obser­vations of numerous bases in .Lucknow where the assessment in his opinion was not equitable; Other council nominees who spoke (briefly, were, W. G. Web­ ster, non-committal; Fred Jack- son, no intention; Innes Mac- Sween, away too much; Alex Andrew, not likely; and - Clare Johnston, not going to stand. Too Much On Frills Mr. Robert Rae; who is retir­ ing from the High School Board, ~Was called” on and cautioned- against . spending too much on frills. He said that good teachers which are essential, rtaean high salaries, but in his opinion too much had been spent on frills at the new school. He said they o i SEASON’S GREETINGS NEW WISHES FORTHE At this season of goodwill Hamilton was strongly, to the new assessment which he claimed the was not obliged to , Cl UilV’ 1*VW OVliVVAl had a good building but that there are, some features still to be ironed out. . / ■ . Public School Nominees Gerald Rathwell, who has ser- ft we pause to express our sih-3 J* cere appreciation of your fl flgenerous patronage through-^ |jout the year. ’ > • § ” •S * •S AND BEST WISHES | s S fl to Everyone in the Commun-fy j§ity for a New Year Blessed ft ft with Pehce, Prosperity, GoodS 2 Health and Happiness. fl 5 ..■ ............—-’—-■-^-7 I HENRY'S | | FRUIT MARKET 1 ’s’ fl X School Board, was quite willing ved for six years on the Public (Continued on Page 7) g fl » fl Of 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL Brussels Motors *1 • • • •• b ■ ■ • $ & ■ • fl a It has been oilr, good fortune to do business With the , this community and at this season we take the r —— .. . ------------------ , May the New Year bring to One an.d All the fullest S measure of Health, Happiness and Prosperity. S ' fl • fl Si - <■ r fl opportunity to express appreciation of your patronage and ft ■t -....... ■ ■ ' ■ *,•«at ’fl fl fl I Webster & MacKinnon , ■ ■ * . pleasant association's.