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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2001-06-20, Page 1ESTABLISHED let. :71 aiwasommotactimiiiii. NORTH HURON PUBUSHING COMPANY INC Inside this week Pg. 3 Pg. 6 Pg. 7 'Skaters' attend council meeting Avon Maitland considers taking a stand Coaches hone skills at soccer clinic r Separate board rg• 13 empathizes with Avon Maitland Pg' 19Reviews from Blyth and Stratford Up in smoke Blyth firefighters were called to a blaze late Saturday afternoon at Dave Lee's on Drummond Street. According to Chief Paul Josling, Lee had been welding a backhoe when a spark ignited the building. Josling said the structure was lost by the time the call came in. "I could see the black smoke when I stepped out onto my porch." With the exception of the backhoe, which Lee managed to get out of the shed, it was a total loss. There was no estimate of damage at press time. Trustees accept tender e Citizen Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Wednesday, June 20, 2001 Volume 17 No: 25 HU warns about smog By Mark Nonkes Citizen staff Beware of the hot and humid weather. With it comes smog, last week two poor air quality warnings were issued for Huron County. According to the Huron County Health Unit smog is dangerous for anyone with respiratory problems like asthma. Bob Worsell, a Health Unit inspector said babies, the elderly and anyone with breathing problems should avoid excess physical activity and going outside when there is a smog alert. "Keep the physical activity down," Worse!! said.. People should try to remain indoors in a cool area, Worsell said. Although smog is often considered a city problem it is something that affects rural areas too, Mark Rabbuir of the Ministry of Environment said.- In this area, smog warnings were issued for last Thursday and Friday. More are expected throughout the summer. Weather patterns can have the smog travelling great distances, and smog produced in cities can reach rural areas, Rabbuir said. However, cities are not alone in creating smog. Smog is made up of ground-level ozone, fine particles and other pollutants. Ozone is created when nitrogen oxides, a by-product of zombustion, and volatile organic :ompounds, such as solvents in paints ind fuels, combine with sunlight. To avoid high smog levels the Ministry of Environment suggests ,eople restrict their use of gas towered equipment, avoid using >abased paint, and car pool to work. ether recommendations to decrease mog are to avoid letting the car idle, urning down air conditioners, educing electrical use and avoiding Ise of barbeques. Worsell said death due to smog is a 'ossibility, but isn't aware of any ases in this area. The Blyth Veterinary Clinic said on lose hot and hazy days pets should e able to get fresh water and access ) a well ventilated and cool spot. The lost important thing people should of do to their pets is leave them in to car as it gets very hot inside a arked car. "Use common sense," lid veterinarian Phil Garriock. N.Huron to see tax hike By Bonnie Gropp - Citizen staff With a draft budget being approved at the June 18 meeting of council, residents of North Huron can expect to see an increase in taxes this year. With the tax bylaw to be ready for the next council meeting, taxpayers in the Wingham ward will see a jump on a $100.000 assessment of 4.20 per cent, while Blyth's will be slightly lower at 3.10 per cent. The rural ward of East Wawanosh will be hit hardest at 8.81 per cent. In presenting the draft to council. Director of Finance/Treasurer Donna White referred to the unfair assessment increase and called the budget "barebones." Noting that the results are "similar to the rest of the county", White stressed that there will be a need for continued monitoring of each department to make sure that they stay within the budget amount. Also, council will receive monthly comparisons. Concluding her report White thanked council for the extra hours put into this year's budget, adding, "next year should be better." Cardiff wins . in Venice By Mark Nonkes Citizen staff A Brussels native and her husband have picked up top honours in the world's most important contemporary art exposition. Janet Cardiff, daughter of Jack and Audrey Cardiff of Brussels, and her husband George Bures-Miller won the award in Venice, Italy for a 15-minute audio and video installation piece. Their project, called The Paradise Institute, won the Venice Biennale Special Award. The Cardiff-Miller piece was commissioned by a Winnipeg Gallery. It also won Japan's Benesse Prize, worth one million yen, about $13,000 Canadian, towards a future project. The Cardiff family was in Venice for the exhibit from June 3-10. "It was just great," said mother Audrey Cardiff. At the competition there were thousands of people and many journalists, Audrey said. Going into the competition Janet and George didn't expect anything. They were just thrilled to be nominated, Audrey said. The award has won the pair much media attention, with coverage from the CBC, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and Kitchener-Waterloo Record. The Special Award marks the first time a Canadian has won anything at the art competition in Venice, long considered the Olympics of contemporary art. Cardiff lived in Lethbridge, Alberta until recently. Last fall she accepted an art scholarship in Berlin where she and her husband now live. They are currently working on an exhibit in England and plan for exhibits in Rome and Japan in the near future. By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen A step-by-step process for bringing #Wingham's F.E. Madill Secondary School into compliance with fire and life safety regulations came under scrutiny at the Tuesday, June 12 meeting of the Avon Maitland District School Board. In a 6-2 vote, trustees accepted a tender of $369,150 from Versteeg Contracting for upgrading Madill's northeast exit and improving the fire rating in the ceilings, walls, heating system and ventilation system of the school's 1959-built wing. But prior to the vote, the two dissenting representatives challenged the necessity of the project, which is a continuation of a gradual upgrade begun before the Huron and Perth public school boards amalgamated in 1998. Bringing the matter before the board, Superintendent of Business Janet Baird-Jackson explained that Madill was constructed on a hillside in various phases at a time when regulations were less stringent. As a result, the school features several different levels and numerous dead- - end ctirridors. And when the former Huron County board sought approval in 1997 for a lihrary expansion, the tire marshal) demanded upgrades throughout the building. Baird-Jackson said the board, its architectural consultant, and the fire marital negotiated a deal for the school to be upgraded in stages, thereby spreading the cost across several years. "We're trying to do this in manageable chunks," she added. But Northwest Huron trustee Butch Desjardins wondered why the board should seriously consider a four-year-old fire marshal's order, especially at a time of financial constraint in other spending areas. He argued that most such orders must be rectified within fairly short time limits. If an order has not been rectified for four years without incident, he wondered, did the fire marshall really place a high priority on that portion of the order? Central Huron trustee Charles Smith challenged the urgency of the entire project and its approximate $1 million total price tag. "There has been a lot of money spent that has little to do with upgrading programs or improving', the technical capabilities of the building," Smith argued. Director of Education Lorne Rachlis responded to Smith. "There is a student risk involved," Rachlis said. "And I think it would be in the best interest of the board to follow through on this expeditiously." Desjardins took offense to Rachlis' comments, as well as Baird- 75 Cents (70c + 5c GST) Jackson's explanation that next year's budget will probably include money for the final major step in the upgrade — a stairwell that "needs to be addressed." Stating that he doesn't "have a problem with providing safety for our students," Desjardins said that, if the upgrades are as urgent as the board officials suggest, they should have been carried out long ago. "Is there that much of an issue, as well, on the staircase that isn't being repaired yet?" he asked. "If that's the case, why isn't it being done now, too. We've got a risk management situation here." The project received strong support, however, from Vice-Chair Colleen Schenk, the Wingham-area trustee who is the only hold-over front the former Huron board which initially approved the step-byTstep upgrades. "It had been about 15 years since anything had been done at that school, and there were a lot of things that needed done," Schenk said of the 1997 library renovation. "And I appreciated. as did a lot of the other trustees, that the tire marshall did put on this timeline." Work on the current tire and life safety upgrade is expected to begin immediately, with a substantial portion of the project to be completed by Labour Day. 2001.