HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2001-01-24, Page 1C
Yeariol C wnership
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Inside this week
Pg. 6 Cruising for a day
with OPP
pg n Beef producers
-I" meet in Brussels
Pg 11 Ag. producers
hold joint meeting
Blyth Festival Pg. 17 announces 2001
season
Brussels couple Pg. 20 earns provincial ag.
contest
Having snow much fun
This winter has provided plenty of the fluffy white stuff for snowmobile enthusiasts. This past
weekend there were perfect conditions as participants turned out in droves to enjoy the
scenery and the sport during the annual St. Helens Poker Rally, Saturday.
Acre T trial begins
e Citizen
Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County
Volume 17 No. 4
Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2001
75 Cents (70c + 5c GST)
Huron E. looks at pay for road staff
Huron E.
looks at
policing
By Janice Becker
Citizen staff
The amalgamation •of one larger
urban centre with a village and three
rural wards has resulted in a tough
policing decision for members of the
Huron East council.
Preliminary discussions were held
at the Jan. 16 meeting to decide
whether Huron East should select
enhanced police coverage as
Seaforth had had or go with the
lower level of coverage used by the
other former municipalities.
One level of service would see 5.1
officers covering all of Huron East
during a given shift with no
regularly-staffed office in Seaforth.
An office could still be made
available, but would be used more as
is the Brussels room -at the library,
just as a stopover office.
The enhanced service would put
8.5 officers in the municipality with
an office in Seaforth. There- is
currently an officer in Seaforth 18-
hours a day.
There would also be the option of
joining Central Huron for the
purchasing of an enhanced service.
This would provide the same
coverage at a cost savings of
approximately $45,000 for each
municipality as one less officer
would be needed.
Questions were raised about the 25
per cent increase for coverage for the
entire municipality. Clerk-
Administrator Jack McLachlan said
the cost is higher because there are
more officers in the municipality.
When asked about the need for
enhanced service in the rural areas,
McLachlan said the province has
dictated that there cannot be different
service in different areas of the same
municipality. If Seaforth has
enhanced, everyone has to have
enhanced.
When amalgamation began, it was
thought lower coverage in the rural
areas could be continued with
enhanced service in the urban
centres, said McLachlan. "That
Continued on page 12
By Janice Becker
Citizen staff
A lengthy and sometimes heated
discussion ensued when a
suggestion to alter the pay policies
for Huron East road employees was
brought before council Jan. 16.
In spite of the recent hirings and
contract signing, some employees
had approached Public Works Co-
ordinator John Forrest regarding
overtime pay and weekend tasks by
working foremen.
The major stumbling block arose
when administration recommended
that the foremen, - who had been
salaried employees for the former
municipalities, be compensated for
working weekends or beyond their
40-hours.
Overtime for foremen would have
to be approved by the public works
foreman.
While it was suggested the
preferred option would be for these
employees to take time off in lieu of
extra pay, Forrest said the men had
been unable to do that because of the
heavy snowfall.
Clerk-Administrator Jack
McLachlan pointed out that the
foremen are working long hours
with no remuneration.
Councillors noted this was an
unusual year and that accumulated
time off could be taken when things
slow down.
The grader operators are paid on
an hourly basis. It was suggested
they earn time and a half for
overtime beyond their 88-hour pay
period and for Saturday and Sunday
hours.
It was unclear whether the
foremen had been hired strictly on a
salary basis 'or if that salary was
based on a 40-hour work week.
Several councillors voiced
opposition not only to the
recommended increase in pay for the
foremen, but the fact that they had
accepted the jobs on the salaries
stated and now, just three weeks into
the new administration, there had
already been two requests from
employees for increases.
Tuckersmith Councillor Larry
McGrath said all this was happening
too fast. Neither the council nor the
road crews have had time to settle in
and determine what would work and
how things would gel.
McLachlan said the administration
was trying to set up a policy so that
all employees were treated fairly.
Grey Councillor and former
transition board member Alvin
:McLellan recommended council
look back at the basis on which the
foremen were hired.
McLachlan asked council for
another week to work through
concerns and return with another
recommendation.
There was far less opposition to
the suggestion that 4 a.m. weekend
winter road patrols to determine if
plows or sanders were needed, be
handed to the road crew from the
foremen, thereby freeing up a few
foremen hours and adding
responsibilities to the employees.
The men would rotate on a five-
week schedule with one patrol in the
north and one in the south of the
municipality. The pay would be $60
for the two-day job rather than
included as overtime. It would be up
to the supervising foremen to
determine if it was late enough in the
season or conditions were such to
call off the early morning patrols.
Responsibility for two northern
Huron County manure spills may
soon be determined as the trial of Joe
Terpstra, president of Acre T Farms
Ltd. began in Goderich, Jan. 15.
Though Terpstra has pled not
guilty, the Ontario Ministry of the
Environment alleges pig manure was
discharged into the Logtenburg
Drain, Lot 4, Conc. 7, West Division,
Ashfield Twp., by Acre T, between
May I and May 4, 1999.
A second charge refers to an
When a question of overtime
hours for recreation employees was
broached by Recreation and
Facilities Manager Graham Nesbitt,
council had no difficulty agreeing
with the recommendation as all
incident May 12 and 13 at the
Pentland Drain, Lot 5, Conc. 3, East
Division, which flows into Nine
Mile River andiake Huron.
The first witness for the Crown,
Elizabeth Durnin, described her walk
to the lake on May 1 and the murky,
odorous water flowing from a gully.
Durnin did not report the incident
immediately because she was
unaware of the Ministry's 24-hour
spills line. A call was finally made
around 4 p.m., May 3, by Dumin's
recreation employees were hired on
an hourly basis.
Final approval of all
recommendations will go before
the council at the next regular
meeting.
mother-in-law.
A second witness, former
landowner Ray Brown, testified with
regards to the tiling on the land in
question. He had .sold the property to
Acre Tin 1997.
The crown expects to call 14
witnesses and complete testimony by
the end of last week
With a con vicion comes a
potential fine of $1 million to the
corporation and $100,000 to the
individual plus two years in jail.