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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1986-03-19, Page 1 (2)Blyth council accepts street plan Residents of four Blyth streets should be facing their last spring of muddy streets under a street­ paving program adopted by Blyth village council last Tuesday night. Council was presented with a report by Stan Telford of B. M. Ross and Associates consulting engineers outlining a possible paving program involving nine streets and a cost of $70,000. Clerk Larry Walsh outlined the financial situation showing that council had about $32,000 to spend in its budget this year. With that in mind, council chose three streets east of Morris Street: McConnell, Wellington and King, each estim­ ated to cost about $9000 and Dinsley Street from Gypsy Lane west at a cost of $5000. There was also considerable discussion about Hamilton street, east of Morris street. Councillors felt there needed to be additional construction work done on the street to widen it out before paving should be done. Council decided that if money were available, reconstruction of the street should be done this year to allow for inclusion of the streetin nextyear’s paving program. Councillor Bill Howson ques­ tioned the inclusion of some short streets with only one house on them in Mr. Telford’s proposal. He said he wondered at the wisdom of paving such streets when there was little chance of recovering the cost through the taxes paid by the residents. Mr. Walsh said that paving does save the village a great deal in maintenance costs. Last year, costs of calcium and grading were reduced by $3000 over the year before because of the paving program of the previous year and this year’s program should reduce maintenance costs still further, he said. Reeve Wasson was concerned over the current state of some of the village streets from heaving due to the frost. It isn’t a problem in the village alone, he pointed out, but in mosttownshipsand urban areas as well. One councillor speculated last fall’s heavy rains had caused the problem by saturating the soil. Reeve Wasson wondered if council should be looking at additional drains tolower the water table below the roads to keep them from heaving and cracking in winter. Brussels pool plans on schedule for June 1 opening Target date for operations at the new Brussels swimming pool to commence is June 1, pool building committee chairman Paul Mutter told Brussels council Monday night. Mr. Mutter was present at council with the two tenders that had been received for the laying of cement blocks for the addition to the building in the park. On the recommendation of the commit­ tee, council accepted the tender of Engel Construction to lay the blocks at a cost of $1.15 per block. The pool committee will supply the materials. Tenders will be opened on Friday for the next stage of the work to include renovation work to the existing building, electrical work and plumbing. /' Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. VOL. 2 - M0. 12 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 1986.40 CENTS Brussels council dismisses clerk- treasurer Fun is where you find it and for Michelle De Witt of R.R. 1, Ethel, [right] fun was in finding a balloon at the bazaar held by the Blyth Christian Reformed Church last Wednesday night at the Blyth.and District Community Centre. With games all around it was the balloon that caught the tot’s attention and it was the tot who caught the attention of Christy Pardys, R.R. 1, Auburn. Blyth council won't support salary review An attempt by Clinton town council to set aside year two and three of a three-year salary agreement between Huron County and its department heads will not get the support of Blyth council. In a letter received by Blyth council, Clinton clerk-treasurer Cam Proctor on behalf of Clinton council, called the increase “ex­ orbitant’’ and asked if such increases are given to department heads, how can other county employees be expected to settle for less. Councillor Tom Cronin, who as Mr. Mutter reported that Sharon Scott had been hiredasthehead guard at the pool and Cindy Evans as the assistant head guard. The remaining pool staff of three (with one more part time position possible) will be chosen from six candidates from the area to be interviewed this weekend. Mr. Mutter said he hoped construction would be finished by May 15 allowing time for final preparations for the June 1 opening. In other business, council ap­ proved the recreation budget of the Brussels, Morris and Grey recrea­ tion committee. The budget calls for $165,227 in expenses (includ­ ing capital expenses and repairs) and revenues of $149,772. The committee started the year with a surplus. reeve of the village last year was the Blyth representative on county council said that he was in favour of the salaries because they resulted from department heads having their salaries frozen in 1978. Salaries for Huron department heads fell behind people in similar positions in surrounding counties. The new salaries were designed to bring Huron back in line with a median of salaries nearby the mid-point of the three year pack­ age, he said. He said that the county used to The word went out to thousands of theatre goers across Canada last week about the upcoming season at the Blyth Festival. Many hands were put to work sticking computerized address labels on brochures. Helping out were Festival employess [left to right] Phillipa Bor gal, Sally Leitch, Cheryl Ackert and Jennifer HID. Following a series of closed-door meetings last week, Brussels village council and Brussels public utilities commissioners dismissed Stuart Parker Wednesday as clerk­ treasurer of the village and manager of the Public Utilities Commission. Mr. Parker, who had been hired last April 1 after the retirement of Bill King, was still in a probation­ ary period. Reeve HankTen Pas explained there were a number of personality problems and with the probationary period coming to an end. council was going to have to make a choice either to live with those problems or admit resolution of problems was unlikely and see if a replacement could be found that would be more compatible with the current situation. Tensions between some council­ lors and Mr. Parker had been growing more and more evident at recent council sessions and criti­ cism had been offered by one negotiate only yearly contracts with department heads but this left both sides in the constant turmoil of near-continuous negotiations so a three year contract was agreed to by both sides. Reeve Albert Wasson said there were some problems because the salary structure was drawn up by the outgoing council but left to the incoming councillors to ratify. He said it wouldn’t have been fair for the outgoing councillors to have ratified the contract saddling the new councillors with the costs when they had no say but “neither delegation in the infamous “dog fight’’ issue. Council held a session one recent ' Saturday morning then met March 10 with the PUC and two officials from the Ministry of Municipal affairs. Another meeting was held Tuesday with the council and PUC and the village lawyer after which a letter was drafted and approved to be given to Mr. Parker. After the reeve delivered the letter late Wednesday, Mr. Parker cleaned out his desk and went home. Reeve Ten Pas expressed sym- pathyforthepositionof Mr. Parker and his famiy and said he told Mr. Parker he would be glad to assist in any way he could with job recommendations. A temporary assistant has been hired in the office to help deputy clerk-treasurer Ruth Sauve and council will be advertising for a replacement. Since Mrs. Sauve will also be retiring in the next few months there is some urgency in filling the position. is it fair for the incoming council to decide how much people we don’t really know, are worth. I, for one, pushed hard to try to get this salary negotiated midstream (in the term of council).” “Unless 1 had a better option, 1 felt 1 had to vote forit(thesalary proposal)” he said. A motion was passed not to act on the Clinton request but council­ lor William Howson added, before the subject was dropped, “We do need to point out to our representa­ tive that we need to keep a control on costs.”