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.”