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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1977-11-17, Page 1& North Larnbton Since 1873 Serving South Huron, North Middlesex One Hundred and Fifth Year EXETER, ONTARIO, NOVEMBER 17, 1977 Price Per Copy 25 Cents Ian Town law er rejects plaza 'freeze' If Exeter council Members follow the advice of Stratford solicitor Michael Mitchell, they'll decide to rescind last week's motion to place a "freeze" on the development of the proposed new shopping centre nerth-east of the Highway 4 and 83 intersection. Council approved a Motion last week to place a freeze on the development and have the Stratford law firm of Mountain, the surfacing of such areas and driveways. — Walkways and all other means of pedestrian access„ — Removal of dirt, dust, litter and snow from access ramps, driveways, parking, parking areas and walkways, — Grading or change in elevation or contour of the land and the disposal of storm, surface and waste, all buildings and structures to be erected on the land and the location of other required facilities, — Perspective drawings and plans showing building elevations and cross sections of the buildings on the site, — Require conveyance to the municipality of lands for park purposes or payment in lieu of such conveyance as provided in — Conveyance to the municipality without cost, of easements required for the constructicei, maintenance or improvement of any existing or newly required water-courses, ditches, land drainage works and sanitary sewerage facilities on the land, — Floodlighting of the land or of any buildings or structures thereon, Section 3$b of '11 m PLANNING ACT. — Set charges fer the. provision, maintenance and use of sewers, roads and other similar .municipal services, In his comments to this newspaper this week, Mayor Shaw said "it looks like the first phase (of Sprackm.an's development) will go through. — Walls, fences, hedges, trees, shrubs or other suitable ground- cover to provide adequate land- scaping of the land or protection to adjoining lands, — Vaults, central storage and collection areas and other facilities and enclosures, as May be required for the storage of garbage and other waste materials. — Plans showing the location of FACT FINDER'S REPORT Suggests third party needed in negotiation GB phone system to be improved USBORNE WREATH LAYERS — Representatives of all grades par- ticipated in the wreath (aging ceremony for Remembrance Day at Usborne Central School, Thursday. Above, Exeter Legion member Per- cy Noels assists students Steven Heywood and Bernadette Verberne. In the background' are flag bearers, Terry Heywood and Henry Dyck. Hay residents seek access to beaches TOWN HALL DONATIONS — The Exeter Heritage Foundation receiv- ed two donations of $1,000 for restoration of the town hall shortly after the belfry was lifted into position Wednesday, Above, Founda- tion officials Gwyn Whilsmith and Bev Read accept cheques from Vic- toria and Grey manager Dennis Smith, left, and Len Veri of Exeter Produce. Photo by Vol Gould Hill, Monteith & Hastings draw up the necessary bylaw. However, when. Reeve Si Simmons and Councillor Derry Boyle met with the represen- tative of that firm this week, they were advised that such a plan would leave them open to a law suit by developer Gerry Sprack- man. "Mitchell rejected that proposal," Mayor Bruce Shaw said in a comment to the T-A this week on the proposal to freeze the development. Council had decided to proceed on the freeze after listening to the comments of London lawyer George Plaxton, who appeared before them last Monday to represent a group of merchants in the downtown area. Plaxton had recommended that council place the freeze on the land and prohibit any develop- ment until they had studied the viability of such a development. Councillors were told at that time that the developer should be expected to produce facts to back up the viability of the develop- ment And the local merchants should also be given an op- portunity to present a feasibility study on the impact of such% a shopping centre on the com- munity. "Then you decide whether there is justification for the development," Plaxton advised council. He had noted in his presentation to council, that a development the size of which is being planned by Sprackman, would not be needed in Exeter until 1986. The Stratford lawyer advised Boyle and Simmons that council acted within their rights by passing a bylaw last week which requires the developer to pay for most of the costs involved in providing services to the development. That bylaw, which outlines the area north-east of the in- tersection specifically, calls for the developer to undertake all, or any, of the following conditions: — Widening of highways that abut on the land that is being developed or redeveloped. — Subject to the Public Transportation and Highway Improvement Act facilities to provide access to and from the land such as access ramps and curbings including the number, location and size of such facilities and the direction of traffic thereon. — Off-Street vehicular parking and access driveways including Stephen gives $600 for recreation use The Hay Municipal Telephone System has approved a contract for the construction of a telephone duct and manhole system in Grand Bend. Con- struction of the underground conduit system has been awarded to Thor B & 0 Limited of Thorn- dale at a contract price of $92,747.32. The consulting engineering firm of M. M. Dillon Ltd., London developed the detailed plans and specifications and are also supervising con- struction of the system. The 4" P.V.C. duct, manhole equipment and other materials are being supplied by the Hay Municipal Telephone System. Construction of the duct system will take place on the following streets; Ontario street from the South Village Limit north to the Walker Drain opposite the Grand Cove Estates entrance; Lake Road from Ontario Street west to Pines Parkway; Main Street from Ontario Street west to Morenz Lane; Hiway No. 81 from Ontario Street east to a point approximately 250' east of Gill Road opposite the ,Patio Motel. The new system will allow placement of nature feeder cables to serve expansion of telephone service within the Village and outlying areas with a minimum amount of'construction required. Present feeder cables; in service since 1960, are filled to capacity. New cables will be installed in the duct system upon its completion in May 1978. The Hay Municipal Telephone System has approximately 1600 customers in , the Grand Bend Exchange with extended area service calls to Port Franks, Dashwood and Zurich, In recent years, Crediton has expanded but the boundaries were not altered. Stephen will be investigating the possibility of obtaining financial help in establishing water and sewage systems in their three police villages. The Ministry of the Environ- ment recently sent out a fact sheet which announces that provincial monies will be made available to establish private water and sewage systems in smaller communities. A request has been made to the Huron Board of Education and the Huron-Perth Separate School Board to continue requisitions on June 30 and December 15 until the resolution is amended. Four tile drain loan ap- plications totalling $49,700 were approved subject to provincial funds being available. At a regular meeting Tuesday night, Stephen township council approved a grant of $600 to the South Huron Rec Centre Board to be used for general recreation programs. At the same time ,council agreed to pay the salaries of the two teaching professionals of the Exeter figure skating club. These monies will be returned to the municipality when grants are received by the figure skating club. Clerk Wilmer Wein said this was at least the third year that a neighbouring municipality has assisted the skating club. Usborne participated last year and Stephen the year previous. Council will be making ap- plication to the Ontario Municipal Board for an order under the Quieting Orders Act to extend the boundaries of the police village of Cr editon. $15,900 in the, same situation. On another bone of contention, the cost of living allowance, Samuels felt that logic as professed by the board, in that that the cost of living affects the middle income wage earner less than those below him, to make little sense, The Fact Finders Report stated that it is not necessary to have a cost of living clause in a one year contract considering that 'the rate of inflation can be predicted fairly accurately and that this can be taken into account in the establishment of the salary grid,' With regards to the pupil- teacher ratio,Samuels made few recommendations aside from the fact that the parties had engaged in little meaningful dialogue on this subject. For schools with over 500 students the teachers desire a P,T.R, of no more than 17.2 to 1. The Board says that the hiring of 5 more teachers would be required which considering the fiscal constraints inposed by the province is not feasible. Tenure was one. area where both parties were in basic agreement but could not come up ".,With any formula to determine what constituted tenure. The Hebert recommended the establishment of a committee of board members and teachers to draft a document which would be submitted to the parties for final approval, In his conclusion, Samuels attributes the lack of success in negotiations to mutual distrust between the board and the teachers and that the in- troduction of a third party would appear to be the only way in which negotiations will progress. A fact finder's report authored by Professor J. W. Samuels of the Faculty of Law of the University of Western Ontario was released by the Huron County Board of Education last week. The report, which was requested by the Board and the local branch of the Ontario Secondary School Teacher's Federation, after negotiations had reached a stalemate,dealt with 32 areas where the board and teachers were in disagreement, In the introduction to the report, Samuels states that 'it is clear to me that the negotiation process thus far has been fruitless. I am convinced that the reason for this does not lie with either party individually but it is the overall spirit which is at fault.' A third party chairman, agreeable to both sides is the avenue which the Board and the teachers must pursue if negotiations are to be wor- thwhile, according to Samuels. This third party should open up the channels of communication, stated the report. In terms of salary, the report says that figures provided by the board and the amount offered have more validity than those figures provided by the teachers. Seniority increases should be adjusted on a downward scale `if a fair overall cost increase leaves the teachers at maximum, in an unfair position,' In the Boards salary proposal a category 2 teacher with four years experience would be making $15,219 at the end of the agreement. The teacher's proposal calls for a salary of A sour. note? Workshops on the proposed Hay township secondary plan continued with recreation being the topic of discussion at Thur- sday night. The audience of over 90 people discussed topics of a wide range of recreational oriented topics with the general consensus being that recreation should continue to s play an important role in Hay i township's future plans. Many members of the audience were concerned about access to public beaches. It was pointed out that the Planning Act permits municipalities to claim 5 percent of land area of new subdivisions for public use and that the use of this tool could insure more access to beaches in the future. It was felt that members of the public held not been made welcome by' land owners ad- jacent to the public areas at Port Blake and St. Josephs and tbat this had contributed to the under- utilization of those facilities: Does the area have a frustrated musician? Exeter,OPP have been unable to come up with any answer to an unusual fire they investigated in the Greenway area this week. A guitar and case, along with a microphone, were found burning on County Road 31 south of the hamlet. The owner o;f the equipment is unknown, Other recreational facilities are readily available in Hay, it was felt. Once again the Ausable- Bayfield Conservation Authority came under attack, this time for the number of beavers in Hay swamp. It was the strong con- census of the crowd that this area should be maintained as a natural area with no develop- ment occurring. Orderly growth for the area should occur in Hay while problems of full-time residential growth and continued summer residences should be resolved. Full time residential would mean eventually that water and sewer systems would have to be in- stalled with the resulting in- crease in the tax burden. Questions were raised as to how these services should be paid for. Tonight's topic of discussion for the workshops is urban renewal. The meeting starts at 8 p.m. at the Hay township hall. , Vent frustration over unfinished rec centre Criticisms, suggestions given board They'd be happy to have George do it While the fact the South Huron Rec Centre has not been com- pleted was the major complaint aired at Monday's public meeting held by the , board of management, their operation of the facility was also criticized In broaching the subject, Ron Bogart said he wanted to be critical in a 'helpful way and was of the opinion that the board members were interfering too much with administrator Dirk Armstrong, Bogart said it was the board's job to set policy and then let Armstrong carry it out, but added that he gets the idea that the board have not only been setting policy but have been trying to run it too. "I don't think the guy (Arm- strong) has been given the op- portunity to run the job and it's not fair that he has to answer to seven people." Chairman Bruce Shaw said the board had a policy whereby the administrator answered only to the chairman. He then asked Armstrong if he felt he was answering to, too many people, adding that if the board of management for communicating with the engineers, suggesting it was "not proper procedure" and they had "over-stepped their grounds by a good margin". Stephens noted that the building committee members were aware of the deficiencies and had drawn them to the at- tention of the engineers. "I'm disappointed you felt you had to take action over us," Stephens told the board, adding that they owed an apology to the contractors, engineers, building committee and council, Shaw appeared to disagree with that contention, saying the letter had the desired effect by speeding up work on the facility, Secretary Den Finkbeiner said the board felt it would speed things up and that was the intent of the letter. Boyle re-entered the discussion to say he agreed with Stephens and commented that he has felt all along that the board had over- stepped their authority, and Please turn to page 3 He said that there was little the board could do to correct the situation as the only lever they had was to not make any further payments to the engineers or contractors. Bogart said Naom was the person at fault as he had promised a show-piece and it wasn't delivered. To back up that contention, the SHDHS teacher noted that holes were drilled incorrectly in the boards for the glass supports and small pieces of lumber had.to be nailed to the seats when it was found the gaps were too large. "Tell the engineers they won't receive any further payments because we're not happy," Exeter' Councillor Derry Boyle suggested. John Stephens, general chairman of the SHRCC, reported that a meeting was scheduled with a representative of the engineering firm this Thursday. He added that the building committee members were aware of the problems. He was highly critical of the answer was in the affirmative he would discuss the matter later with the adminstrator, Armstrong's reply to the question was "yes". Shirley Pratt said the im- pression she got from various employees was that they didn't know what their jobs were. In answer to a question from John Stephens, Armstrong said he felt the job descriptions for the employees were satisfactory, but said his own job description was unsatisfactory and that he was not given enough authority to carry out his duties. "That's news to me," Shaw commented, adding it was the first time Armstrong had made such a stiggestiOn to board members, although they had met with him regularly. Shaw said the board would discuss the matter after the public session. Another topic raised by Bogart was his opinion that the bpard members appeared to be greedy and were too concerned that the facility make a profit and be operated similar to a business. He said if the facility could Thieves enter two homes in Hensall Madness strikes, Friday also reported in Hensali. An aerial was broken off a car owned by Terry Mattson. The wind- shield wipers were also damaged. Total damage was set at $24, In Crediton, John Pritchard reported that vandals broke a window in his home. Damage was listed at $20 in the Friday In- cident. A boy's 10-speed bicycle valued at $150 was taken from the farm of Robert Galloway, RE 1 Crediton, Two Ilensall residents reported the theft of cash from their homes this week. The incidents are being investigated by the Exeter OPP, On Friday, Gladys Cooper reported the theft of a wallet from her home, It contained $22 in cash and personal papers. John Fisher reported a break and enter at his nettle on Sunday, About $60 in cash was taken. Thieves gained entry through a window, One incident of vandalism was Exeter's downtown merchants are offering shoppers of the area something special this Friday evening in the form of a "Midnight Madness" promotion. The majority of stores in the Downtown Business Itn-, provement Area will remain open until midnight on • November 18. The merchants will be offering extra values during the additional hours from 9:00 until midnight as an added inducement to Shoppers to Stay downtoWn for the ex- • tra opening period. While some stores will be offering specials, Others will be 410 providing discounts off merchandise during the extra three hours. A full list of the stores involved in theproMotion and their specials are contained in the pages of this week's T-A. BETWEEN PLAY WARMINGS Bonfires were used behind each players bench during Saturday's Huron-Perth football junior final to keep participants a little wormer than the elements would tallow. Above, spectator Rob Smith watches as Panthers Greg grout, Steve Sardras and Peter Tuckey fry to absorb sohie heat. T-A photo It may be a long way between Exeter and Edmonton, but George Naom of Cambrian Facilities should have felt some tingling in his ears Monday night. Naom, who is president of Cambrian, is in Edmonton, but some people who attended a meeting in Exeter to discuss the operation of the South Huron Rec Centre would like to see him here, Several complaints were raised about the new rec centre, arid while the operation of the facility came under attack, it was generally agreed that the main problem stems from the fact the building is not yet completed and has resulted in people becoming most frustrated. Ron Bogart, chairman of the finance committee for the facility, broached the subject as the initial speaker at the public meeting held• by the board of management, and suggested it was time to "get on that guy's (Naom) tail and put some pressure on". Bogart said it was "ridiculous" that the building was not yet completed and that there were so many problems with it, such as the wrong furnace being installed in the hall and the wrong dehumidifiers being put in the arena, "It's causing a lot of problems for everyone using the facility," Bogart concluded. Chairman Bruce Shaw said the board members Were of the same opinion arid the answer they received on their coMplaints was that the problem stemmed mainly from the sub trades, who it was suggested were "lacking in moral cemmitment to anything," Shaw reported that on Sep- tember 27, the board sent a letter to the engineers advising that ea further payments would be made until a list of 25 deficiencies were corrected, break even, everyone should, smile, and opined he couldn't see why it had to make a profit. When asked for an example of why he felt the board members were greedy Bogart said some free skating sessions had been cancelled and questioned' why kids couldn't skate without paying admission on occasions. "We know we're not going to make a profit, but we hope to come close, " Shaw remarked. Councillor Lossy Fuller questioned the policy of charging spectators a 25 cent admission to public skating, suggesting it was unfair to mothers who came to watch their children and tie skates. Armstrongsaid the policy had been instituted to stop older youth from going into the rec centre because it wag found they were vandalizing the facility, "If the controls get lenient, you get problems," councillor Ted Wright agreed. Carol Arthur questioned where the money came from to pay for the financial loss experienced by the board in Friday night's Ronnie Robins show. Shaw said it would have to be made up from the operation of the centre in Some way. However, Jerry MacLean, said the booking agent had agreed to help out by providing another group in the spring on a special deal that would help the board recoup some of the losses. He said F'riday's event was a flop. Bill Batten asked what the cost of the flop amounted to and Armstrong said it was in the neighborhood of $1,700 to $1,800. About 25 people attended, most of them being board members, "We're not going to plan any More private parties," MacLean facetiously suggested. Please turn to page 3