HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1998-06-10, Page 1Vol. 14 No. 23
Wednesday, June 10, 1,998
70e + 5t GST 750
The North Huron
itizen
OPP special services
may cost, says Martin
Young Megan Miners, right, was all smiles as she and partner, Kendall Jutzi of Brussels
Public School participated in the Jump Rope for Heart campaign to raise funds for heart
disease. Though Friday was chilly and winds blew across the parking lot and yard as the
children jumped, it didn't seem to cool their spirit for the worthy cause.
Profile
Carroll recalls
30 years in
education
See page 6
Sports
Brussels Barracudas
gear up and get back
in the swim
See page 8
News
See page 13
Former
hospital on
Melville tour
Dry weather slows crops
By Janice Becker
Citizen staff
Crops in the area have been going backwards for the last three weeks as
temperatures dropped and rain refused to soak the ground.
"It had been phenomenal before the last few weeks," said Brian Hall, soil
and crop consultant with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and
Rural Affairs Clinton office.
"Up to and during planting, conditions were excellent," said Hall. "It was
dry, but there was enough moisture for the winter wheat. The hay was ahead
with good quality and yield."
However, with the conditions cold and dry, Hall said the crops will be
affected by moisture stress.
"The hay is suffering from lack of moisture which could impact the
second cuttings. It is also a critical time for wheat flowering. It could begin
to hurt the yield and shorten the straw."
The corn and soybean crops were generally good, said Hall, but they need
moisture for growth.
The corn is short for the number of leaves and there has been spotty frost
Continued on page 12
Huron County's municipalities
still don't know what OPP special
services will continue to be provid-
ed by the province and what they'll
be expected to pay for but they
don't like some of the things they
have been told.
Speaking to the June 4 meeting
of county council, Goderich
Detachment Commander Gary
Martin said the province would
continue to pick up the cost for
policing special events like air
shows but he has still not been
given a list of what special services
will be billed to municipalities and
which will continue to be provided
as a provincial responsibility.
Meanwhile Chief Jim Dore of the
Wingham Police Service told coun-
cil he had been informed by Fred
Peters, assistant deputy minister in
the Solicitor General's office that
all special services that had been
provided free of charge in the past
by the province will continue to be
provided free in the future to
municipal forces.
Dore was speaking to council
because he feared the county might
try to prevent the Wingham force,
the last municipal force in the
county, from continuing. "I'd like
assurance that we'll be allowed to
keep our police force," Dore said.
The county is currently negotiat-
ing with the OPP for a county-wide
policing contract. The Town of
Goderich, which recently disband-
ed its own force and signed on with
the OPP, had made a presentation
that there should be no mix of OPP
and municipal forces in the county
with the OPP to police the whole
county.
But Dore argued that removing
the last municipal police force
would remove the last bit of com-
petition for the OPP. With a
monopoly in the county, he said,
municipalities might see their bill
for policing rise from the current
The Huron County Library
Branches in Brussels and Blyth will
receive new computers thanks to a
$87,000 legacy left to the county
by a Morris Twp. native.
The new computers are just part
of a proposal to use the money left
by Susannah Lattimer of Missis-
sauga. After growing up in the area,
Lattimer became a school teacher
estimate of $90 per household to
the $370 the OPP is charging some
municipalities in the province.
Dore said his department didn't
want to police the whole county but
had reached agreements with four
other north Huron municipalities to
provide police services, including
community policing offices in
Blyth and Brussels.
The $90 per household police
cost figure is just a dream for
Goderich Twp. where revised fig-
ures, tabulated based on actual OPP
activity in the municipality, have
seen the township's policing costs
soar from the original estimate of
$127,080 to $477,575. The addi-
tional activity is caused by the pres-
ence of the Bluewater Centre, a
provincial detention centre for
young offenders.
The township has pointed out the
revised amount is greater than the
taxes it collected for all services in
1997. The township won't face the
higher costs for the time being
because of a freeze on costs but
could have to pay the higher
amount down the line if the situa-
tion doesn't change. Martin said he
agreed the township shouldn't have
to pay the policing of the Bluewater
Centre but it is beyond his control.
Lynn Murray, county clerk-
administrator, said she had been at
a meeting where Solicitor General
Bob Runciman had promised the
downloading of police services, to
Goderich Twp. would have a. neu-
tral impact despite the presence of
the centre.
Meanwhile, Martin assured
municipalities along provincial
highways that their costs would go
down from the most recent esti-
mates because OPP activity on
provincial highways will be billed
to the province. This does not
apply, however, to highways the
province has turned over to the
before dying, in 1993 in her 90s.
She remembered her old communi-
ty in her will.
The largest portion of the legacy,
$51,000, will go to a new 1,220
square foot Lattimer Memorial
Gallery at the Huron County Muse-
um which will trace the develop-
ment of local government in the
Continued on page 6
county.
Blyth, Brussels libraries
to benefit from legacy