HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1991-03-13, Page 1r
County mill rate to increase 8.3% in new budget
After combing department bud
gets for nearly four hours Huron
County Councillors Thursday left
intact a county budget that will see
VOL. 7 NO. 10
Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel,
Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1991.60 CENTS
Blyth Library
opens Tuesday
Blyth’s branch of the Huron
County Library will close from
Thursday, March 13 to Monday,
March 18 while library staff move
books to the new location.
Starting next Tuesday, March 19
the library will reopen in its new,
larger location in the north wing of
Blyth Memorial Hull. The new
library branch is the result of
co-operation between the Village of
Blyth, Huron County Library and
the Blyth Centre for the Arts which
erected the north wing of Memorial
Hall in 1980 and had used the space
as a box office and art gallery until
last summer when the new south
wing of the hall was built.
Meanwhile the Huron County
Library last week received a cheque
for $5,000 from the Ontario Mini
stry of Culture and Communica
tions to assist with purchase of
equipment and furniture for the
new library.
The grant is from a program that
assists libraries to improve the
equity of access for library users.
The new branch qualifies because
it is accessible to handicapped and
will include a handicapped wash
room. The county has also set aside
$8,000 which, together with the
grant, will purchase shelving and
furniture for the new library. The
new shelving will be of maple with
adjustable shelves and provide four
times the capacity of the old
library.
Included in the new branch will
be a children’s area which will
include child-sized furniture and
shelving. The reference area will
provide a study table and seating
for six people. The Public Access
Catalogue computer will be located
in this area and will also have a
printer attached for easy prepara
tion of bibliographies and accurate
interloan request forms.
In the reading area there will be
comfortable upholstered seating
and a newspaper rack will be the
focus of the area. Display towers
will hold paperbacks, videos and
future audio-visual material.
All of the extra features are
available due to the trippling of
space available in the new location.
The new space had 900 square feet
of space compared to 250 in the
present location in the municipal
office.
the mill rate for county purposes
increase 8.3 per cent.
Councillors spent hours attack
ing relatively minor details in the
Brussels on camera
Kevin Lund, host of TVO’s Ontario Lottery Live watches a camera crew film action at the Brussels
Optimist Atom Tournament Friday night. The crew spent the day in the village filming a segment
on Brussels to be broadcast Sat., April 6 at 10:30 p.m.
Brussels Livestock change official
Brussels Livestock changed
hands officially on March 5 and this
new division of Gamble and Rogers
held its first sale on March 12,
following a special ribbon cutting
ceremony. Local dignitaries were
on hand for the event and CKNX
farm editor Murray Gaunt was the
department budgets, items that, if
deleted would have saved money
but had little effect on the bill to
county taxpayers.
master of ceremonies.
Leonard Gamble, owner of Gam
ble and Rogers said that there have
been some changes made in sale
dates. Fat sales will be held at 10
a.m. on Tuesdays, followed by
cows. The reason for this change,
he says, is that buyers want to buy
“1 sense a degree of frustration
at not being able to do much (to cut
the mill rate)” Nigel Bellchamber,
county clerk-administrator said.
early in the week in time for
slaughter. Stockers sales will be
held onFriday at 1 p.m. and there
will be a special sale of lambs on
March 23.
Mr. Gamble said they are also
working on the possibility of a veal
sale if they can find a day for it.
Part of the reason was the thorough
budgeting procedure of the county
under which staff set a preliminary
budget, the budget is whittled
down by each committee then
passed on to the executive commit
tee which tries to find more cuts.
By the time the budget gets to
county council most possible cuts
have already been made. ‘‘There’s
very little fat in the budget. You
can cut $100 here and $100 there or
you can make significant service
cuts but there’s not a lot to cut.”
The main cause of the 8.3 per
cent increase, aside from normal
inflationary costs, is an increase in
the amount of money set aside for
the building of the two new
Huronview homes, one south of
Brussels and one at the present site
at Clinton. Last year the county set
aside $1 million for this project and
this year has increased that to $1.5
million. That and other increases
bring the total county budget to
$9,668,355.
That increase in the reserve fund
for Huronview was one major area
that cuts were suggested. Exeter
Reeve Bill Mickle made a motion to
reduce the allocation for the Huron
view reserve fund to $1.25 million
instead of $1.5 million. He sugges
ted the county could phase in the
reserve for capital needs, increas
ing it by another $250,000 next
year, so the jump in taxes wouldn’t
be so sharp. It would mean a
budget increase of only 4.6 per cent
this year, he said. The measure
would have meant the county could
have to borrow more money than
projected to complete Huronview
until it raised the rest of the money
and the provincial government
money becomes available.
The motion was opposed by
Turnberry Reeve Brian McBurney,
saying he wasn’t for higher taxes
but he was for sticking with the
reserve increase. ‘‘As unusual as it
may be for me to say it, I don’t
think 8.3 per cent is too high with
what we’ve taken on,” he said. “It
would be nice to have a five per
cent increase but we are doing it for
Continued on page 21
County
welfare budget
soars 65 °/o
With the economy in trouble
Huron County’s welfare budget has
increased 65 per cent for 1991 over
the 1990 budget.
The county’s share of the Huron
Social Servics budget will be
$486,767 compared to the budget of
$294,255 last year. The total bud
get will be $2,204,742 with the
province paying $1,705,126.
Although the increase is huge
over last year’s budget, the in
crease over what was actually spent
last year was not as large. The
worsening economy sent costs into
a spiral late last year that saw the
county’s share increase to $335,457
a 35 per cent overrun.
County clerk-administrator Nigel
Bellchamber pointed to the in
crease as one of those things that is
beyond the power of county coun
cillors to control.
“January 1991 was the highest
(number of people drawing wel
fare) we’ve ever had in our
history” John MacKinnon, admini-
Continued on page 23