HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1997-10-08, Page 6PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8,1997.
Councillors give consultants’ proposal a rough ride
A consultant proposed a private
public corporation be set up to
maintain all county, township and
town and village roads in Huron,
but reaction by Huron County
Councillors at their meeting Thurs
day was distinctly negative.
Hans Muntz of CSL Infrastruc
ture Management Inc., which had
been hired by the county to look
into alternatives in the management
of county and municipal roads, told
councillors there are savings to be
made by either the county taking
over maintenance of all roads or the
municipalities taking over mainte
nance. The greatest savings, how
ever, would be if a privatized
company was set up to handle
maintenance.
He estimated continuing the cur
rent system would cost $20.8 mil
lion, or $7,000 per km versus $19.7
million $6,900 per km) if the town
ships, towns and villages took over
all roads; $18.3 million ($6,400 per
km) if the county maintained all
roads and $17 million ($6,000 per
km) if a private company was set
up to do the work.
Munz proposed creating a Huron
Road Service Corporation (HRSC)
made up of a partnership of the
public and private sector, to work
as an arms-length service provider.
Munz said the savings would
come from making better use of
staff and equipment. His proposal
would divide the county into four
service areas with one central
garage and perhaps one sub-garage.
But one after another, county
councillors worried about the level
of service that would be provided.
Bob Hallam, reeve of West
Wawanosh, worried that the service
to the "hub" of the new districts
might be good but the service to the
"rim" would be diminished. After
an ice storm, he pointed out, it
takes two graders in a township to
gel over all the roads scarifying
them to rough up the service and
make travel safe.
Munz claimed the same level of
service could be maintained by
using shifts of workers to get
greater use from fewer machines
such as graders.
Leona Armstrong, reeve of Grey
Twp., wondered how many road
superintendents Munz had talked to
when he proposed each grader
could cover 150 km.
"Nobody says you have to own
all the graders," Munz said. Addi
tional graders could be hired in
such emergencies as ice storms, he
said. "I didn’t say I wouldn’t have
available other graders. I just said
we wouldn’t have them in the orga
nization."
But Brian McBumey, reeve of
Turn berry Twp., saying he had read
the report twice, felt the report gave
a fair picture. “I think you’re a pro
moter of privatization." Huron, he
said, has had a service-based orga
nization, not a bottom-line based
organization. He said he didn’t
know how the same level of service
could be maintained under the pri
vate company. He accused Muntz
(whose company also does this
kind of public-private maintenance)
or taking advantage of the current
funding shortage. "I think it’s a bit
of carpet-bagging, taking advantage
of the upheaval there is now," he
said.
Mason Bailey, reeve of Blyth,
said the report seemed to make six
assumptions:
1) That reducing the amount of
staff could be done without expen
sive severance packages.
2) That the new company
wouldn’t be unionized. If it was, a
strike could shut down the entire
road system of the county.
3) "That the general public no
longer cares if the roads are plowed
and sanded before breakfast"
4) That all the excess buildings
of the county and townships could
be sold at a fair market value (as a
real estate agent, Bailey said he
didn’t think it could be done).
5) "That Huron would never
again experience blizzard condi
tions." (With longer routes to travel
plows might not even be able to gel
to some parts of their areas, he
said.)
6) Thai lower-tier councils won’t
become more efficient and be able
to cover the cost of downloading.
Caro! Mitchell, reeve of Clinton,
wondered what account had been
taken in Muniz’s study for the other
work that roads crews do like
cleaning sidewalks. Munz said
municipalities would have to nego
tiate separate deals with the HRSC
for such work. There’s also the
opportunity to sub-contract the
work out, he said.
Bill Camochan, reeve of Tucker
smith, said all such additional
duties municipal work crews did
like fixing waler systems were
missing from the report and would
have to be factored in before a true
picture of the savings could be
assembled.
Norm Fairies, reeve of Howick,
felt Munz was wrong in thinking it
would be easy to get additional
graders in times of emergency.
"We’ve tried to bid for the last
three or four years for extra
graders and there aren’t any out
there. It lakes four graders eight
hours to scarify the roads of How-
Teachers demonstrate at MPP’s
By Janice Becker
Citizen staff
Though all apparently fighting
for quality education, the teachers'
unions, Huron County taxpayers
and provincial government are
often at odds.
On Oct 1, more than 425 teach
ers and education workers from
across the county gathered in
protest in front of Huron MPP
Helen Johns’ Exeter constituency
office.
The group was protesting Bill
160, which they say will remove $1
billion from the education system.
However, responding to the
protest, Johns said in a press
release that this "bill is focused on
a fair funding system with
resources directed to the classroom,
it limits class size, focuses teachers*
expertise in the classroom, provides
students access to specialists and
provides a greater role for parents
though school advisory councils."
"The fairer funding system cov
ered by Bill 160 is something
Huron County taxpayers have
asked for through thousands of
petitions," said Johns.
"Students of Huron County will
now have access to the same educa
tion dollars as their colleagues in
Toronto," she said.
As for the other aspects such as
class size and teachers’ classroom
focus, Johns said this is what par
ents have been telling her is impor
tant to their children’s quality of
education.
Both Johns and the teachers*
unions, said they have one goal and
that is to provide children with
quality education.
The message being spread by the
protesting teachers and education
workers at last week’s gathering
was "We are willing to strike if if is
necessary to protect our students
from further cuts in education fund
ing. Our working conditions are our
students’ learning conditions. We
Continued on page 28
report go to all municipalities and
to the Road Superintendents Asso
ciation before council consider it
more. The motion carried.
ick Twp." he said.
Following the discussion on the
report Jack Coleman, reeve of Stan
ley Twp., made a motion that the
Close encounter
Getting down to nature was on Ryan McCUnche/s mind
as he visited the Wawanosh Nature Centre on Sunday
afternoon tor the annual Fafi Colour Tour.
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