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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 2000-01-12, Page 20PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2000. Council recommends budget hike of 2% Huron County council has recom mended staff bring in a budget allowing for a two per cent tax increase, the first since 1993. Budget notes provided to the administration, finance and person nel committee indicate the county is looking at a number of new expens es caused by downloading of servic es by the province. In addition, with the inflation rate since 1994, the county’s resources have been erod ing at a rate of about 2.5 per cent per year. County opposes MOH’s feelings on farm buildings A suggestion from Huron County's acting medical officer of health would, if acted on, hurt the expansion of agriculture, one county councillor said Thursday. Bob Broadfoot, ree«ve of Tuckersmith Twp., was reacting to a suggestion from Dr. Beth Henning to the board of health that the exemp tion of farm buildings to the Environmental Protection Act should be abolished. “I would argue that the large (live stock) facilities constitute an indus try,” Henning told the board of health. “When has an industry will ingly self regulated if self-regulation resulted in increased costs of pro duction?” “This is almost like putting a brick wall up for agriculture,” Broadfoot warned. Lynn Murray, county clerk admin istrator, noted that the recommenda tions from the board of health did not include Dr. Henning’s controver sial suggestion. Those recommendations did include: that there should be moni toring of nutrient management plans, that the county write the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs asking for a definition of large bams and for advice on how they should be regulated, and that an County supports Seaforth plea Huron County council lent its support, Thursday, to a plea from Seaforth that the provincial govern ment and Avon Maitland District School Board take into account the social and economic impact on com munities before closing rural schools. Seaforth Reeve Lin Steffler warned councillors that the proposed closures of schools in Seaforth, Walton and Huron Park are just the beginning. “There will be more clo sures over the next three years, all in central and northern Huron.” The plan to close Seaforth District High School will mean that the new community of Huron East will be the only town in Huron and Perth not to have a secondary school, she said. The Seaforth resolution had been defeated at a committee meeting but that vote was overturned by county council. Jack Coleman, reeve of Stanley, said his township had not supported the Seaforth resolution because “If we’d allowed some small schools like Walton to close a few years ago, maybe (the school board) wouldn’t be in the spot we’re in now.” With the county scheduled to take over the operation of ambulance service, the province has down loaded some tax room for the cost of running the service but not for the cost of administering it. In addition, because of the long distances for ambulances to travel in Huron County, Huron will have one of the most expensive per-call ambulance expenses. Huron’s ambulances will often have to make calls into neigh bouring counties and those counties will want to re-imburse Huron at investigation into the safety of liquid manure application be promoted. Meanwhile Senior Planner Wayne Caldwell will attend a joint OMFRA and Ministry of Environment con sultation hearing Jan. 19 in Clinton looking into the effect of large live stock operations. Grey Twp. Reeve Robin Dunbar welcomed the hear ing, saying it’s the first chance local people had been given to tell provin cial officials of their concerns. The issue, he said, is a double-edged sword. Townships like Grey depend on agriculture but they also don’t want the environment damaged, he said. Blyth Reeve Mason Bailey was concerned with the emphasis on water quality. “It appears to me clean water is going to take over from motherhood and apple pie,” he said. Canadians still have the cleanest water in the world but society is con stantly worried about making it cleaner. The responsibility can’t be all on the farmer, he said and farmers can’t deal with more regulation and the responsibility for clean water and still provide food at the low cost society demands. “I’m all in favour of doing all the things we need to do along the waterways” Bailey said, but society has to pick up some of the costs. their cheaper per-call rates rather than Huron’s higher rates. The potential cost for Huron could be $600,000 per year. In addition, upgrading of training for ambulance staff could cost up to $750,000. The province has also indicated it wants to sell all its single and semi detached social housing units and keep the money. It is requiring, how ever, that the local upper-tier munic ipalities must keep a minimum of the same number of social housing units. At an average cost of $100,000 per unit, the county could be looking at Others take Wingham’s court challenge to the validity of Huron County’s bylaw taking over policing has opened the door for other municipalities to renew their complaints about the sit uation. The Town of Goderich and Twp. of Howick have applied to the court to intervene in the Wingham case. Both, according to a report from the county’s administration, finance and personnel committee, want to ques tion the provision of the bylaw, under which the county assumed policing, which charges policing costs according to the workload. Goderich argued from the begin- Coleman said some principals and teachers had told him that Walton should have closed years ago and that Vanastra is questionable. Steffler argued that it’s Seaforth’s understanding that the school board has enough funds to support all the schools currently in the county. It wants to close 4,000 student places so it will be allowed to have capital money to build more schools in the future, she said. Tickets on sale to public April 17 Continued from page 19 lust, infidelity, murder, ghosts and greed. It runs from Aug. 22 to Sept. 2. Tickets go on sale for members, April 3 and for the general public, April 17. Hired Man tickets will be available March 6. For more information, call the box office at 523-9300 or 1-800-862- 5984. $7.2 million to replace the 72 assist- ed-rent units. The province has downloaded its role in funding of day-care facilities to the county but that funding only covers 60 -70 per cent of daycare funding. The province had been top ping this up with an annual one-time grant. This portion of the funding is not included in the funding shift to the county from the province and county officials say there’s a poten tial for hundreds of thousands of dol lars in shortfall. In policing, the OPP’s $90 per household cap on policing costs for on challenge ning that costs should be spread evenly across the county. Rural municipalities argued it was unfair to charge rural homeowners the same cost as those in towns who get more service. Both municipalities will produce their arguments at a court hearing Feb. 11 at which Wingham will argue that the county’s bylaw is not legal. If the court supported their argu ment, however, the terms under which other municipalities approved the county assumption of policing would have changed, creating doubt about the entire process. C itizenHuronNorthThe The Citizen's New 2000 Telephone Directory Will Be Available Soon! It will have the newest listings in a convenient large type format. In one book you have the listings that you would need three Bell Canada books to find. Here is your chance to advertise in a product that stays around 365 days. Reserve your space today call Jeannette or Ruth at 523-4792 or Tammy at 887-9114 or Fax us at 523-9140. Deadline: Feb. 11, 2000. If you have a new phone number, or if you have just moved into this area, and your phone number is not included in the new Bell phone book, please call 523-4792 or 887-9114 and we'll be sure to include your listing. townships and villages is scheduled to expire this year which could boost policing costs. The report says Wingham’s court challenge of the county’s role in policing could cost the county the $900,000 savings in policing that had been budgeted for in 1999. In welfare, the province has set higher targets for participation in the Community Placements portion of Ontario Works program and will penalize municipalities $1,000 per participant below the target rate. It’s harder to find placements for many of the people, however, because they have lower skill levels and the province is not providing more money for training. The good news, however, is that Huron’s economy has been so strong in the past year that it’s expected the county will have underspent on wel fare by $500,000 to $600,000 this past year. newspapers tell the local story Canadian Community Newspapers Association 2000 ph6ne BOOK Serving Auburn Blyth Brussels Clinton Goderich Gorrie Wingham