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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1996-11-13, Page 7BRUSSELS UPHOLSTERY For all your upholstery needs • Furniture • Auto • Machinery seats etc. Sample and estimates free of charge Brian & Sandy McKnight Mill St., Brussels 887-6056 THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1996 PAGE 7. Councillors fight to get county out of landfill business The county should get out of the landfill business once the Waste Management Masterplan is com- pleted and not get involved in co- ordinating use of the Morris Twp. and Exeter sites, several councillors told Huron County council Thurs- day. Councillors were reacting to a proposal that $250,000 a year for the next three years be set aside for waste management. The money would help Morris and Exeter buy new equipment and change proce- dures to optimize use of their land- fill sites so that they could begin to accept garbage from other munici- palities whose landfill sites had been filled_ But Colborne Reeve Bill Van- By Janice Becker Citizen staff Effective Nov. 9, there were changes made at Sparling's Propane, Blyth which sees Great Western Resources take over the haulage of liquefied gases. "Sparling's will continue to have their own fleet of trucks to ship their product," said David Sparling. The SLT fleet will continue to ship other companies' products as they Continued from page 1 the county is going to keep taking the money and putting it in a reserve. Tom Cunningham, reeve of Hul- lett agreed with the need to exam- ine all expenditures. He said it wasn't good enough to simply say we're going to have a zero per cent increase and that the departments need to be examined to see if there are other savings. The proposal to continue to col- lect the $1.25 million came about in part because of provincial cut- backs to road grants and the fact the province is handing over Hwys. 83, 84 and 87 without providing enough money to bring them up to county standards. Although the province has offered a one-time grant of $4.46 million to help upgrade the roads, the county esti- mates it will cost an extra $1.96 million to repair the roads and bridges. Also, because the county road department would have 70.6 km. of extra roads to maintain, it would require $250,000 in improvements to its Zurich yard and improvements to the Wroxeter yard. County Engineer Sandra Lawson also warned council that the Crom- stone said taxpayers in some municipalities have already paid a lot of money to develop their own landfill sites and shouldn't then have to provide money for the other two sites. Gary Davidson, director of plan- ning explained that Morris and Exeter need to be compensated for the shortened life their landfill will have and helped to make the changes needed to serve as zone landfill sites for the north and south of the county. Day-to-day opera- tions will be funded by tipping fees, he said. Mason Bailey, reeve of Blyth, argued that with so much up in the air with the government pushing for municipal amalgamation, there had before. After an analysis of where they were going and the growth of the company over the years, Sparling said they decided to concentrate on their own customers and the core business of product supply and dis- tribution. Sparling's Propane sold SLT (Sparling's Liquid Transport, a for-hire transportation subsidiary) to Great Western Resources, allow- ing Great Western to continue their commitment as a dedicated com- mon carrier and become the largest bie "Who does What?" Commis- sion has recommended the province turn over even more highways to local municipalities. There is some suggestion here, however, that a portion of the tax on gasoline be devoted to helping offset mainte- nance costs. Mickle said he understood that as long ago as last May the county was aware that there might be more highway transfers including Hwys. 86 and 4 and perhaps even portions of Hwy. 8. "I understand that if they transfer their highways there is no compensation at all." Given that, he said, the county should be going back to demand fair compensation from Minister of Transportation Al Palladini but if the county has already transferred money from its capital fund to meet highway needs the minister will think they have the money. More- over, he said, it's wrong to take money that taxpayers thought was going for one purpose (a landfill site) and now give it to roads. Warden Bill Clifford said he felt the provision to reallocate the reserve and continue to collect the $1.25 million was indicative of the good financial planning the county has undertaken in recent years to have financing in place for projects before the projects are undertaken. should be a moratorium on spend- ing for the next three to five years until the new ground rules are clear. Davidson, however, said that in three to five years some munici- pal landfills will be full and those municipalities will need the use of Morris or Exeter. Talk about the county not spend- ing money angered Bert Elliott, reeve of Morris. The county had saved millions of dollars, he said, but now councillors were arguing over money to help his township improve its landfill to accept other municipalities' waste. "If the coun- ty can't come up with money upfront to equip these sites then I'm afraid they are going to find some independent tanker fleet in eastern Canada. "I was delighted when Sparling's called me about the opportunity to purchase SLT," said Gerald Stephens, owner and operator of Great Western Resources, Etobi- coke. "We will work with the employees to build on the business and reputation of SLT. They are well-trained, experienced people who are part of the value-added package." The purchase will not result in the loss of any jobs as Great West- ern will hire the SLT employees, 12 in total. Great Western has also made arrangements to park the fleet, on an interim basis, in one of Sparling's sheds. Eventually Stephens said he plans on having a stand-alone facil- ity in the area, with enough fleet to keep the business humming. Sparling believes the sale works well for staff and their jobs remain close to home. Belgrave Co-op Bob Foxton Fuels Boyd's Elevators Bruce Tile Brussels Agri Services Brussels Agromart Brussels Livestock Dauphin Feed & Supply Fritz Concrete Huron Feeding Systems Huron Tractor John Ernewein Ltd. very tough negotiations," he warned. But Clinton Reeve Carol Mitchell suggested Morris and Exeter could work with municipali- ties, the way municipalities using the Central Huron site at Holmesville have, to finance improvements and leave the county out of the issue. Jack Coleman, reeve of Stanley, reminded council that at public workshops held earlier this year the message was loud and clear that the county should get out of waste management. Davidson said the county is get- ting out of waste management once the masterplan is finished in the next few weeks, but those meetings had also said the county should co- ordinate waste management among the municipalities. The county is trying to set up a system to allow other municipalities to use the Mor- ris and Exeter sites once their own landfills are full, he said. Warden Bill Clifford suggested the money used to improve the Morris and Exeter sites could be treated as an advance to be paid back from tipping fees at a later time. "I don't care if the money is loaned to us or given but there will be money up front before the site is used," said Elliott. The issue of tak- ing waste from other municipalities has never been put before the Mor- ris ratepayers, he said and they won't pay for upgrading the site for the use of others. "If we're going to have to charge for the municipali- ties to come in here, it is going to be a pretty high fee," he warned. Bill Carnochan, reeve of Tucker- smith, said management of the Central Huron site has been improved and could last 34 years, meaning the municipalities using it would never need the Morris or Exeter sites and it was unfair for them to have to pay the money. However, Reeve Bruce Machan of Wingham said, "I find it's inter- esting that the people who are com- plaining are the people who have the longest life left in their dump." The county has shared costs in the past when not everyone benefited equally, he said, citing the case of urbanites who don't use county roads as much as rural residents. Bill Weber, reeve of Stephen, suggested more clear budget fig- ures were needed and that perhaps the $250,000 was unnecessarily high and the three-year-term too long. Eventually councillors voted to send the report to the Administra- tion, Finance and Personnel com- mittee to study the financial implications. Engineer warns county may get more highways Changes occur at Sparling's McGavin Farm Equipment McCall Livestock Molesworth Farm Supply Oldfield Pro Hardware Radford Farm & Auto Stoltz Farm Equipment Teeswater Concrete • Cardiff & Mulvey Real Estate & Insurance Cook's Division of Parrish & Heimbecker Hensall District Co-op FEET FIRST Nurse will come to your home to trim nails and care for your callouses or bunions.Pedicures also provided. Gift Certificates available Stacey Meade R.P.N. (519) 662-9261 or 1-800-405-1591 2nd Annual Brussels Optimist Harvest End Stag Friday, November 15, 1996 BMG Community Centre Many thanks to our sponsors... Steak Dinner $20/person Dinner 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Bar open 6:00 to 1:00 a.m. Cash prizes/auction/door prizes Landmark Builders Your Choice Meats McDonald Home Hardware & Lumber LMS Equipment Heritage Builders Howson & Howson Beuermann Construction Vincent Farm Equipment Ltd. Maitland Valley Conservation Pat Langlois - Avon