HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-12-22, Page 1$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, December 22, 2011
Tough year ahead says chair
Planning fees
to rise over
next five years
Elvis or Elfis?
Elvis, played by Spencer Logan, second from the left, showed up to help Santa, Mrs. Claus
and the elves become a little less traditional and a little more rock and roll during Santa Claus
Rock as portrayed by the Grade 2/3 class at East Wawanosh Public School during their Dec.
19 Christmas concert. Shown are, from left, Paige Willie, Maya Robinson, Spencer Logan and
Liz Campbell. East Wawanosh, Brussels and Blyth Public Schools all held what is scheduled
to be their last Christmas concert last week, as the three schools are slated for closure by the
Avon Maitland District School Board. (Denny Scott photo)
With the holidays upon us, the
staff at The Citizen will be taking
some time off to spend some quality
time with our families.
Both of The Citizen’s offices are
now closed as of Dec. 22 and will
reopen in the new year in preparation
for the Jan. 5 issue of The Citizen.
There will be no newspaper
published on Thursday, Dec. 29.
The Citizen’s Blyth office will
reopen on Monday, Jan. 2 at 9 a.m.
while the Brussels office will open at
10 a.m. that same day.
The Citizen wishes you and your
family a joyous, peaceful holiday.
New Avon Maitland District
School Board (AMDSB) chair Jenny
Versteeg sees a challenging year
ahead for the board.
The North Perth trustee, elected
chair at the board’s Dec. 13
inaugural meeting, said that several
issues loom on the horizon,
including crafting the board’s long-
term strategic plan.
“As well, the year will be marked
with some tough decisions about
accommodation issues and labour
negotiations both in the context of
very significant board budget
constraints,” she said.
There are currently two
accommodation reviews being
conducted in the board. One in the
Central Huron area will decide the
fate of Colborne Central and
Holmesville public schools, where
preserving a “rural option” for
students has become a dominant
issue. The second accommodation
review is in Stratford, where a
heated debate has emerged over how
to deal with the overcrowded
Bedford Public School, home of the
board’s Grade 1 to 6 French
Immersion students as well as
several English language students.
The AMDSB enters labour
negotiations with teachers and
support staff from the board’s
elementary and secondary schools in
2012 as well. In an interview after
the meeting, Versteeg said the
several transitions set to take place
in September 2012 will be another
issue. The transitions affect schools
in and around Exeter, Blyth and
Wingham, including the planned
opening of the new Maitland River
Elementary School. Versteeg, who
owns a cash crop farm in Howick
Township with her husband, first
came to the board as a trustee in
2003. She has served as vice-chair
and chair previously; her last term as
chair was in 2010.
Versteeg told trustees in a short
election speech that she had the
experience to lead the board again,
adding that with her local history of
Morris-Turnberry almost complete,
she would also have the time to
serve. Versteeg also published a
local history of Elma Township,
Elmanac, in 2000.
Versteeg defeated South Huron
trustee and outgoing chair Randy
Wagler for the position, but Wagler
was subsequently acclaimed to the
position of vice-chair after trustees
Al Sygrove and Julie Moore
declined to let their names stand for
election.
The board heard later that several
AMDSB principals and vice-
principals will also be taking new
positions in the new year. Once
schools resume in January 2012,
John Carr, principal of Brussels
Public School, will move to Downie
Central Public School to replace the
retiring Suzanne Kelly. Frank
Stretton, former principal at
Wingham Public School, will take
over as principal of Brussels Public
School at that time. When the new
school year begins in September
2012, Suzanne Irwin, current
principal at Turnberry Central Public
School, will become the Grade 7-8
administrator at F.E. Madill
Secondary School. Principal Wendy
Armstrong-Gibson will leave East
Wawanosh Public School to become
principal of the newly-named North
Woods Elementary School. Kerry
Carlyle will leave her post as vice-
principal at Huron Centennial Public
School to become Grade 7-8
administrator at South Huron
District High School.
Huron County will be increasing
its planning application fees by an
average of 14 per cent, but the
increase will be implemented
incrementally over the next five
years.
Planning fees were last reviewed
in 2005 when Huron County
Council decided to try and make the
fees more of a user-pay system,
rather than have shortcomings
subsidized by taxpayer dollars.
At the Dec. 14 Committee of the
Whole meeting in Goderich Director
of Planning and Development Scott
Tousaw said raising the fees still
wouldn’t make the system
completely user-pay, but it would be
working in the right direction to
make it happen in the near future.
Huron County councillors,
however, felt the increase was too
much for ratepayers all at once, so
councillors voted to have the rates
increased 20 per cent (of the
proposed increase) each year for the
next five years, when the rates will
be reviewed again.
A zoning bylaw amendment
application, for example, would cost
$1,500 today, but at the end of the
next five-year cycle, the same
application would cost $1,800, with
20 per cent of the increase being
applied every year for the next five,
starting in 2012. A consent
application will go from $1,600 to
$2,000 under the new increases over
the same five-year period.
Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh
Reeve Ben Van Diepenbeek was the
first to bring up the concept of an
incremental increase, saying that a
two or three per cent increase every
year would be easier for residents to
plan for than a 14 per cent increase
every five years.
“It’s hard to justify to the public,”
Van Diepenbeek said. “I think it
needs to be something more
gradual.”
Councillor Art Versteeg said that
perhaps the difficulty of the
application could be taken into
account. Versteeg used the example
of the Central Huron Vodden
consent and how much of the
Planning Department’s time it
occupied and perhaps an application
like that would cost more than a
straight-forward consent
application.
Tousaw said the rates are based on
a typical application.
Newly-installed Warden Bernie
MacLellan backed up Van
Diepenbeek’s suggestion, saying
that a scheduled increase every year
gives the people of Goderich “a
stay” in the wake of the Aug. 21
tornado and it would also allow
Huron County to publish the next
year’s rates in advance of
implementation.
Goderich Town Council was
asking for no increase to the rates
for one more year because of the
extensive damage and rebuilding
being done as a result of the August
tornado.
Huron County planner Sandra
Weber said that Huron County’s
application rates are a bit higher
than those of their neighbours, but
that’s only because Huron County
Council wanted to move to a user-
pay system. Other counties have
lower fees, but because it costs so
much to run the planning
department, the shortfall is being
paid out of the general tax levy.
“If you truly want to get to a user-
pay system,” Tousaw said, “the fees
would be very, very high.”
Tousaw then used an example of a
rural development in the Niagara
region where an application that
would cost $37,000 there would cost
under $1,000 in Huron County.
Because the fees are charged
jointly by the county, as well as the
municipality, the new fees were
circulated to all nine of Huron
County’s municipalities ahead of the
Dec. 14 meeting. Morris-Turnberry,
Howick, Central Huron and
Goderich were all not in favour of
the increases, while the rest of the
municipalities were either in favour
of the increases or they provided no
comments in response.
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Holiday for ‘Citizen’
By Rita Marshall
Special to The Citizen
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