HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1986-04-16, Page 1 (2)Brussels
Reeve
resigns,
reconsiders
For four days last week Brussels
was without a reeve but Monday
night Reeve Hank Ten Pas met
with council and agreed to with-
draw his resignation.
Reeve Ten Pas had submitted a
one -sentence letter of resignation
Thursday night and council used a
joint meeting of council and the
Public Utilities Commission which
had been called to consider
applications for the clerk -treasur-
er's job to consider it.
Before the meeting Deputy
Clerk -Treasurer Ruth Sauve read a
prepared statement in which she
expressed disappointment in the
council for its inability to get along
and said the council had so much to
do at this time with a clerk -treasur-
er to be hired, the budget and mill
rate to be set in the next two weeks
and major development projects
underway to be without a reeve.
She urged the councillors to
persuade Mr. Ten Pas to comeback
for at least a month.
In addition she circulated a letter
which had been signed by 20
village residents and delivered to
the office late Monday afternoon
calling for Mr. Ten Pas to stay on as
reeve.
After considerable discussion
Mr. Ten Pas was telephoned and
asked to come to the meeting and
explain why he had resigned.
Mr. Ten Pas said that his four
months on council had been very
disappointing to him, that he had
hoped things would improve and
organized a couple of special
meetings to try to talk problems out
but instead things seemed to be
getting worse. "I was dreading
going to council, wondering what
fight I was going to have to
referee."
Casting tie breaking votes as he
had had to do at most recent
meetings didn't bother him, he
said, but he didn't know how to
handle the screaming, yelling and
cursing.
"It bothered me no end to the
point it was effecting my health and
my relations with everyone of
you". Given the situation he didn't
see any sense in trying to stick out
his three-year term and it was
better to get it over with.
Commissioner Harold Bridges
asked if any of the problem was the
PUC and Mr. Ten Pas said no.
After questioning, he said he
was willing to withdraw his
resignation if people felt that could
make a new start.
Councillor Gordon Workman
replied, "It's very easy to blame
somebody else but there were a lot
of things that got kicked out of
order in here, a lot of things that got
laughed off or kicked under the
table."
He brought up the subject of a
proposed use of the old fair-
grounds. (Ealier in the meeting the
council, without Mr. Ten Pas, had
agreed to hear a presentation to
turn the old palace at the old
fairgrounds into a stable.)
Councillor Betty Graber who
chaired the meeting, said that the
management committee seemed
to be one of the matters of
contention and she would agree to
the disbanding of the committee of
which she is chairman.
Councillor Workman said he
couldn't stand the constant bicker-
ing either and couldn't face it for
three years.
Councillor Dave Boynton said
that problems arose because a lot
Continued on Pg. 2
Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel,
Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships.
VOL. 2 NO. 16
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 1986
40 CENTS
Colborne township reeve Russell Kernighan shows reporter Wilma
Oke the route of thg perferred alternative for anew bridge and county
road to replace Ball's Bridge. About 50 people attended a meeting in
Auburn Friday night to learn more about the bridge replacement
program.
County proposes
new highway
About 50 area residents attend-
ed a meeting at the Auburn Com-
munity Hall on Friday night to con-
sider the alternative routes propos-
ed by Huron County to replace
Ball's Bridge.
After those present had a chance
to peruse aerial photographs show-
ing the five alternatives and see
profiles of the preferred route, Bob
Bell, chairman of the county's
roads committee called the meet-
ing to order. Bob Dempsey, county
engineer, explained that Ball's
Bridge comes under county juris-
diction because it is on the
boundary between two townships
even though the roads 100 feet
from either side of the bride are
township roads.
Currently, he said, there are
only two other river crossings, one
at Auburn and one at Holmesville
which means that large parts of
Colborne and Goderich townships
do not have easy access to the east
side of the river. For Londesboro
businesses which do business west
of the river (T.B. Allen Ltd. was
mentioned) this means thousands
of extra miles a year.
He pointed out that there is a
good county road system from
Blyth Council donates $1800
to Clinton Hospital fund
Blyth village councillors got the
answers they wanted about the
Clinton Hospital obstetrical wing
addition and Clinton hospital
fundraisers got the grant they were
looking for.
Last month council had postpon-
ed action on a request from the
hospital for a grant of $1,800 this
year and a similar grant next year.
Instead council had asked that
representatives from the hospital
explain more about the project and
how they had arrived at the
allocation they werc asking Blyth
to give.
Appearing at Blyth council on
Tuesday night last week, Doug
Coventry, former hospital admini-
strator and chairman of the
fundraising committee and Bar-
bara Howson, Blyth member of the
Clinton Hospital Board of Direc-
tors, outlined the plans. The
addition will provide a seven -bed
obstetrical wing, Barbara Howson
explained which will allow for
a more natural birthing environ-
ment for mothers. There will be
two labour delivery rooms equipp-
ed with birthing beds so that
mothers will not have to be moved
from the labour room to a delivery
room. In addition there will be a
sterile delivery room for more
difficult cases.
Mrs. Howson explained that
Doctors Steed and Salisbury and
their expertise in obstetrics has
drawn people from all over the
county to have their babies at the
Clinton hospital. More difficult
births which would formerly have
gone to London hospitals will be
able to stay closer to home with the
facilities offered by the new
addition, she said.
Once the addition is completed,
the chronic care section of the
hospital will be moved into the area
formerly occupied by the obstetri-
cal department. This will improve
the chronic care facilities, moving
them into an area more easily
evacuated in case of emergency
and will be better in terms of noise.
That move will free up the
former chronic care area for dining
facilities for chronic care patients.
Presently there are 34 active
beds and 13 chronic care beds at
the Clinton hospital.
Total cost of the project is
$800,000 and $400,000 will be
provided by the Ontario Ministry of
Health. A further $150,000 will be
paid by Huron county.
Of the remainder, $48,000 has
been budgeted to come from the
municipalities served by the hospi-
tal.
Mr. Conventry explained that
since Dr. Hay has come to Blyth,
admissions from Blyth have in-
creased to 6.5 per cent of total
admissions compared to 5.48 per
cent before. Because some pa-
tients using the hospital are from
Huronview and some from other
communities that already have
their own hospitals and would not
be likely to donate to Clinton
hospital, the cost formula was
divided among the 85 per cent of
the hospital users from area
municipalities.
Thus, Mrs. Howson explained,
the costing formula took the
original allocation to municipali-
ies of $48,000, divided it by 85
percent and multiplied by the 6.5
per cent of users from Blyth for a
total allocation to Blyth of $3,600.
This in turn was spread over two
years for a cost of $1,800 per year.
Reeve Albert Wasson asked if
this was a one-time cost or if it was
just the first of a number of
additions planned for the hospital.
Mrs. Howson said that there are
other projects being considered
such as a new operating room but
nothing as large as this project.
Mr. Conventry said that after the
hospital was nearly closed several
years ago there were a lot of things
needed to bring it back up to
today's standards.
Councillor Bill Manning congra-
tulated the representatives on
their presentations saying it was
nice to have such a presentation
from Clinton since Wingham
hospital had always made a
presentation when they were
undergoing an expansion.
Later in the council meeting
council voted to grant $900 in June
and another $900 in December to
meet this year's allocation.
20 page Farm
Supplement included
in this issue
Kitchener to Londesboro but there
is a gap before the system picks up
again at Benmiller. The replace-
ment for Ball's bridge gave the
opportunity to do something about
that, he said.
He said the existing bridge has
been posted with 2 tonne load
limits after Ken Dunn of B. M. Ross
and Associates engineering firm
hadmeasuredthebeams, etc. and,
taking into account the possible
deterioration of the materials, had
decided the two tonne limit was the
safety limit. Later the Ministry of
Transport and Communications
had tested the bridge using
weights on a multi-axled truck. The
truck had held 32 tonnes but by the
time the MTC took into account the
number of axles and the fact the
truck was barely creeping across
the bridge and the regular traffic
goes considerably faster (putting
more stress on the bridge), it
recommended two tonnes be the
limit for a two -axle vehicle and
more weight could be allowed for
more axles.
The old Ball's Bridge is being
considered by the Ministry of
Citizenship and Culture for possi-
ble heritage value and latest
correspondence says that there is
some value in it, Mr. Dempsey
said.
Kenn Dunn then explained to
the meeting the five alternatives
that have been considered. Alter-
natives four and five meant
virtually parralleling the old bridge
with another 50 meters up or
downstream. Both were not fa-
voured because they would mean
two bridges in the water within a
few feet of each other which might
cause ice build up problems. In
addition the new bridge would not
be part of a good east -west
interconnecting road system, since
both would use the old township
roads.
Alternative three would see a
bridge built farther downstream to.
connect with the Londesboro road
(Hullett concession 8 and 9) but
would use the old Colborne
township road and would require
considerable reconstruction a-
round the "little lakes" area of
Colborne to make the road capable
of carrying more traffic which
would probably destroy this scenic
area.
Alternative two would have seep
the original bridge replaced with a
new four -span bridge. The bridge
itself would cost $1,072,800 which,
with extra road work needed on the
approaches, would increase to
$1,217,900. This alternative would
give no better road access since it
uses the old road, would destroy
the old Ball's Bridge and the scenic
drive around the Little Lakes if the
road was later upgraded to im-
prove traffic flow.
The preferred route is alterna-
tive one which would see a new
bridge built 1.5 km. south of the
current bridge and a new road built
as an extension of the Benmiller
road which would cross the river
and link up with Hullett concession
Continued on Pg. 3