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The Exeter Times-Advocate, 1977-03-10, Page 24Construction on the South Huron recreation centre is progressing The delay in finalizing Exeter's new Official plan and zoning bylaw is delaying the con- struction of two eight-unit townhouses on Simcoe St. John Cox of the Kleinfeldt Hay appoints inspectors Hay Council appointed B.M, Ross and Associates to inspect all the municipal bridges over 20 feet in length in the township. The inspections are compulsary and have been ordered by the provincial government. At council's meeting March 1 they also adopted the budget for the Zurich and Area Fire Board as it was presented in the amount of $8,961. Two severances were received by council, Gladys Earley requested a severance for part of lot 19, Concession Lake Rd. West, however council is recom- mending to the land division committee of the county the severance not be granted. Harry Hay ter requested a severance for lot 25 Concession south boundary and council is recommending this severance be granted. Council has also submitted a request for financial assistance from the province to help with the increased cost of snow removal this winter. The provincial government has implied such help will be available and a committee has been set up by the province to deal with such requests. Jet Miller and Lionel Wilder have been appointed as council's representatives to the Huron County Fartn Safety Association. A grant in the amount of $50 was given to the Huron County Ploughman's Association at their request, Group, who is planning the project for contractor Paul Ducharme, appeared before council this week to outline the problem. He said the firm would now like to proceed under the terms of the existing bylaw and have the committee of adjustment ap- prove a "Minor variance," That minor variance would be to have the frontages on each unit reduced from the mandatory 49' to something between 15' and 20'. The units would be sold as separate entities, including the land on which each is situated. Mayor Bruce Shaw opined that in all likelihood the committee would not consider the change a minor variance and he suggested the units be built and sold under the Condominium Act whereby only the units are sold and a board of management of the owners is established to run the entire facility. Cox said administration costs under this type of arrangement may be too high. When Cox asked council for a motion to support the firm's request to the committee of adjustment, Reeve Si Simmons said' he would support it only under terms of the Condominium Act. He suggested that selling the units and the property on which they sit could be a problem in that the various owners could have different color tastes and the units could end up being a mess in the future, He opined gt management was a better situation. Cox agreed there could be a problem due to the various tastes of the Owners but indicated they would proceed with an ap- plication for the miner variance, If you don't change direction ' you will end up where you're go- ing. ti THANK YOU To all who helped with the Snowarama for Timmy in our sec- tion of trail. Also to those who let us use their property. My sincere appreciation for a successful day. Anthony Martene FREE from Cash this month's Family Allowance cheque here and well give you a free "WHIPPING WISK" 101 Household Uses We make it easy to shop STEDMAN'S CHARGE CARD ICHAlt()EX' SAVE Whirlpool APPLIANCES 13 Cu. Ft. Frost Free REFRIGERATOR $439 Reg. Priced at $459.00 Beautiful Harvest Gold RANGE • Was $419.00 $369 PRICES GREATLY REDUCED ON • WASHERS & DRYERS WE ACCEPT TRADES • HITING'S • Warehouse Furniture and Appliances Unlimited (New and Used)Sales and Service MAIN ST. 235-1964 Exeter 2:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. Vanastro Park a WON'T YOU JOIN US THIS SUNDAY IN MRS. WATKIN'S COUNTRY KITCHEN AT OUR FULL COURSE SMORGASBORD INCLUDES Roast Beef and Gravy Roast Turkey and Dressing Sliced Ham Meat Loaf and Gravy BBQ Spareribs Sauerkraut and Sausage Mashed Potatoes Vegetable Boston Baked Beans Bread and Butter Coffee or Tea Dessert HELP YOURSELF TO Huron County's Longest Salad Bar 1.99 All You V ) AC CHILDREN Can Eat ADULTS V 0'1111 7 UNDER 12 Pre-Schoolers No Charge Planning a wedding, banquet, party or perhaps a business meeting. Take advantage of the excellent facilities, superb catering service and economical prices that await you at. THE VANASTRA SHILLELAGH CALL MRS. B. WATKINS CLINTON 482-9541 STEWART CASSILS LIJCAN 227-4406 "See You on Sunday" BAYFIELD VANASTRA RD. WINGHAM VANASTRA SHILLELAGH BANQUET CENTRE CLINTON GODERICH )66>A, SEAFORTH GRAND BEND BRUCEFIELD HENSALL EXETER THE VANASTRA Huron county school budget now over $20 million The business superintendent said his concerned was based on a decision made by the budget committee in 1976. He said the committee decided to use about $200,000 in reserves the board had in an effort to keep the budget in line with 1975 and the move had left the board walking a thin line between solvency and deficit. He said he had budgeted $50,000 for this year to be returned to the reserve fund and hoped it could be built back up without the board having to use it, The budget calls for municipalities to turn over $5,609,097 to the board which includes money needed to correct errors in the last two years' budgets. Dunlop said in 1975 the committee had overestimated grants by $89,088 and in 1976 had overestimated by $3,898 leaving the board short those amounts in its requisition totals. He said the municipalities would have to pay those costs this year to enable the board to clear the books. The other major expense faced in 1977 is the purchase of four new school buses which the board approved at its February meeting, The buses cost a total of $98,000 which showed up in an increase in capital equipment purchases. Dunlop said the committee decided last year to keep capital costs at a bare minimum and this year had met with considerable opposition in that area. He said teachers were concerned that equipment in schools was deteriorating and needed replacement and that fact combined with an increase in the grant structure urged the committee to support the in- creased capital costs. Trustee John Henderson said he felt the board needed more information on the budget before it could make a decision on it, He said the trustees who sit on the Usborne lets ravel apply for sno ex tender, nse help The gravel contract for the township of Usborne for the year 1977 has been awarded to Donegan Haulage of Listowel. The Listowel firm submitted the lowest of six bids and will crush and apply to township roads a total of 16,000 cubic yards of gravel for $23,040 and crush and stockpile 2,000 yards for $1,700. The contract is subject to approval by the Ontario Ministry of 'transportation and Com- munications. The township of Usborne will be making application to the provincial government f or financial assistance for the extra- ordinary snow removal costs during the early part of 1977. On advice of Huron-Middlesex MPP Jack Riddell an application is being made to a Cabinet Committee under the chair- manship of the Honourable John P. MacBeath for help in defraying winter control costs. Road superintendent John Batten reported costs for January and Februaryof thisyear at $43,600. This compares to $16,70076. for the similar period in 19 Application is also being made to the Ministry of Transportation and Communication for a sup- plementary road expenditure of $35,000 to provide for the pur- chase of a new grader. Tenders are being called for the supply of 10,000 gallons of road oil to be used during 1977. Council was informed by the provincial government that the tile drainage borrowing limit had been reduced to $21,400. A letter will be sent to the Honourable Lorne Henderson supporting a request that a portion of the licence fees collected under the Pits and Quarries Act be returned to the municipality to assist in main- tenance of gravel haul roads, Reports on the Copeland and Webber Extension municipal drains were provisionally adopted. A petition to extend Branch A of the Brock Creek Drain was accepted and referred to A. J. DeVos as engineer to prepare a report.. The engineer on the Prout municipal drain will be in- structed to improve as well as repair the drain. Want to proceed with town houses A LL y Board vice chairman Marion Zinn said at the board meeting Monday that over $20,000 worth of books were reported missing and made a plea to parents of students to check around the house to see if any books are there. The vice chairman broke the losses down to the five secondary schools in Huron. Central Huron in Clinton had the biggest losses of the year with $6,240 worth of books missing. F. E. Madill in Wingham is missing $5,482, South Huron in Exeter reported $5,264 worth missing, Goderich District Collegiate Institute is missing $2,080 worth and Seaforth High School is missing $1,408 worth. F. E. Madill Secondary was used as an example by Mrs. Zinn, in pointing out to the board that at the current rate of loss no new bqoks can be put in the libraries. She said the Wingham school suffered $5,482 in lost books and according to the school's pupil enrolment for 1977- 78 the school will receive $5,100 for new library books. "Some students are under the impression that the board has lots of money so what's the dif- ference, but actually it is the taxpayer of this county who is being robbed," she said. The vice chairman spoke both as a trusted and as a member of the budget committee of the board. She urged parents to look through their houses to see if there are any books around that are marked as property of the board. She said parents of students that were enrolled in the system up to eight years ago should join the search and if aby books are turned up the parents are asked to leave the books in a bag at the nearest school bus depot to be picked up and returned to the school, or return them themselves. She added that no fine would be levied for any book returned, and no questions would be asked. She offered an alternative to the board to prevent the losses. She said that the board May have to install electric scanners in the librairies to ensure librarians know who is leaving with a book. She said the scanners cost from $6,000 to $8,000 each, which in the long run would save money at present loss rates but would not be needed if parents and students would co-op rte with the board, Huron county board of education adopted a $20,529,864 budget Monday afternoon ap- proving an 11.2 percent increase in expenses over 1976, The increase will mean an average mill increase of -five in the county raising the municipal levy to 34.7 mills. The increased mill rate is an average each municipality will have to face but hoard chairman Herb Turkheim said not every municipality will suffer the same fate due to the increase. "Some municipalities will be paying two or three mills more according to their assessment," he said, "and some will be paying much more than five mills." Business superintendent Roy Dunlop outlined the budget for the board, citing salaries and benefits as the major reason for the inerease.Last year's budget slated $15,917,562 for ordinary board costs such as salaries while debt charges, transportation costs and other extraordinary needs required $2,549,$4$ to be spent. This year $17,386,920 willbe spent on ordinary items and $3,142,944 on extraordinary. Mr. Dunlop said the budget was calculated on the Anti Inflation Board remaining in operation adding that if the MB is disbanded the board could be in trouble as far as wage negotiations are concerned. He said the budget increase for salaries and benefits, which total 74.2 percent of the budget, was based on a 10 percent increase in wages. "Of all the figures in the budget that's the one I'm least happy about," said Dunlop. "If the AIB is intact and we are successful frankly we don't have enough money put aside to pay the costs." The salaries in 1976 cost tax- payers $14,055,540 and in 1977 the budget committee set aside $15,243,290 to cover increases for their the board's 650 some odd employees. education committee make decisions regularly with no idea what those decisions will cost. He said the board should have all the information possible claiming in the past they used to get that material. Shirley Hazlitt supported Henderson's claim adding that the decisions are made with no idea as to how they will ultimately affect the budget. Director of education John Cochrane . said the normal procedure is for decisions made by the education committee to be passed on to the management committee to see if the funds are available, "Salaries are the number one cost and there is nothing can be done about them," interjected Dunlop. "Maybe there is," said Hen- derson. Ashfield trustee Eugene Frayne suggested that the two committee system maybe was inadequate pointing out that the management committee will base its decision on dollars and cents without being aware of the priority involved. He suggested that some important decision could possibly be wasted despite its importance simply because there wasn't enough money on hand to pay the costs. Shirley Hazlitt added that the common answer to this problem is that any trustee can go to the meeting of their choice. She said both committees meet simultaneously and half the board sits on education and half sits on management. The Colborne trustee paid the system broke down due to that reason, "That makes my point as to why the standing committee system is no good," said Cochrane. Clarence MacDonald said he felt that the system the board used now was the best in a long time, He said he had been. a trustee for perhaps as long or longer than anyone in the room and spoke .from experience.. He said quite often in the past meetings would extend until the wee hours Of the morning over petty issues and those. days, 'are gone.. ' • • , • "The 'committeesystern stems from a. 'certain am oun t of trustand if that trust is••missing the briard. is in trouble,".• he said.. Dunlop said the material the board members were discussing '• was always available to anyOne wanting to see , it. He .said:•the committee had' been , working a long• tiine•on.the budget and the trustees should have knoWn that. He said any trustee wanting information or material used to make budget decisions had only to ask for it and it would be given Books are disappearing The Huron County Board of Education was a $20,000 victim of a combination of poor memories and quick hands in 1975-76 when library books of that value were found missing from five secon- dary school libraries in the county. Members of the Huron Perth Roman Catholic Separate School Board learned Monday night that expenses for 1976 exceeded the hoard's budget by $77,453, leaving the board with an under- levy at the end of the year of $17,709. The actual total ex- penditure in 1976 was $3,987,794, compared to a budgetted figure of $3,910,324. Superintendent of business and finance Jack Lane explained that the increase was almost entirely caused by extraordinary ex- penses, an increase in tran- sportation costs of $68,196, and an interest payment on a debenture for the gym addition at Kinkora school of $13,569, less a decrease in capital needed for the Kinkora addition of $6,523, for a total of $75,242. The net increase in or- dinary, day to day operating expenses was only $2,211. Three new busses, and an increase in bus operators' contracts ac- counted for most of the tran- sportation cost increises. The average dail2, enrolment in the Huron Perth schools was 38.55 over the budgetted figure, giving the boards more grant than was expected. Per pupil expenditure in the system in 1976 was $1,080.12, $31.11 per pupil under the grant ceiling. Mr. Lane told trustees that the cost of instruction was $17,955 below budget because of an Anti 'Inflation Board roll back of teachers' salaries. The underlevy of $17,709 will be reduced somewhat because the ministry of education is adjusting information received from municipal auditors on payments that municipalities receive in lieu of taxes on Ontario Housing Corporation properties. Mr. Lane said he was able to point out to the ministry some errors in the 11 1 1 11 1 11 11 1 11 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 Separate school cost slightly over budget municipal figures and the saving to the board might be as much as $10,000. "We should know the amount by the end of March," he said. The rest of the underlevy results from a mechanical mistake that the board made in reporting its transportation expenditures to the ministry. There is no legislation that says separate boards, unlike public school ones who must collect underlevies and give back overlevies, can't stay in an un- derlevy position, Mr. Lane said in answer to a question from Stratford trustee Ron Marcy. "We could stay with an underlevy but it's not a good idea?" replied Marcy. "Right. It's better to finance as you go," Lane said. Along with the cost of in- struction, administration costs, capital expenditures and non- operating expenditures were under budget in 1976. Tran- sportation topped the list of over budget expenses, followed by plant operation and maintenance ($17,318 over budget), the debenture debt charge, bank borrowing charges ($6,902 over budget) tuition fees and com- puter services. The 1976 closing balance sheet showed that instructional -sup- plies cost about $2000 under budget, that business ad- ministration expenses were about $14,000 over budget, in- cluding $2,485, over what was budgeted for trustees' en- tertaining. The amount paid for the board's annual Christmas party and for an annual .dinner dance for all staff, teachers and their spouses. Plant operation was only about $300 over budget and main- tenance contracts were $1,148 over budget. immuumunummanonnanuommunummounommumiummummetimummumnite .71 Suzuki Open Houie Goes the Distance Sat., March 19, & Sun., March 20 at G U L more Details Next Week Varna, Ont. iniiiiiiitiliiitttiliiiiii11111111111111111111111111111111111111I1111111III1111111111111111111111111111114111HMIR March 19 & 20 E-... Watch for details next week E., = ALLYG,ULLI r. = .7: Varna, Ont. = = miiiiiiiininnininiiiiiiiimuniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinim them. ministry of education. Mr, The budget was presented at Dunlop said the ministry placed a Monday's meeting and required penalty on the board's grants if the board's approval or a penalty the budget wasn't submitted by would have been imposed by the March 15. Page 24 Times-Advocate, March 10, 1977 Kawasaki Bike Show Coming to Hully Gully