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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1995-04-26, Page 1wEiixurpon •�sto 70 cents plus 5 cents G.S.T. (75 cents) SERVICE A localBroker The service club Alternative • blV OBVIOUS honours long 1 service. see pages J`► ZIS The Huron Expositor, Seaforth, Ontario, April 26, 1995 527-0430 Af! Roads Lead to six, seven. � Briefly Governor-general to award service medal to Eisler Canadian Governor-General Romeo Leblanc will give Meritorious Service Medals to Seaforth-native Lloyd Eisler and his figure skating partner Isabelle Brasseur. He announced five recipients Friday. The others are figure skater Elvis Stojko, rower Marnie McBean and veteran rowing coach Al Morrow. "These five individuals have brought international acclaim to Canada," the Governor-General stated in a press release. Eisler and Brasseur were world pairs champions in 1993 and bronze medalists at both the I992 and 1994 Winter Olympics. They now skate professionally. Dynamite found in Huron County A cooler containing 96 sticks of dynamite and 75 electronic detonators was found by provincial police on a sideroad east of Fordwich in northern Iluron County early Saturday. Police cordoned off the area and explosive experts detonated what experts describe as badly deteriorated explosive material. Police hearing on Wednesday The Ontario Civilian Police Commission on Police Service will hold a disbandment hearing in the Council chambers at Scaforth's Town Hall tonight, Wed. April 26 at 7:30 p.m. I Ratepayers and the public are invited and may have their views taken into consideration. Hensall Co-op to build new bean storage facility Hensall District Co-op Inc. (HDC) announced plans Wednesday to construct a new coloured bean receiving, drying and storage facility at the company's Hensall site. The $1,500,000 project will include 5,000 bushels per hour receiving capacity, a specialized edible bean dryer as well as storage for 109,000 bushels for several varieties of coloured beans. HDC president Martin Van Raay said the new facilities will be based on the latest tech- nology developed to help ensure that the highest quality edible bean products are marketed. "The expansion into coloured leans will enable HDC to increase the volume through thc new world class bean processing facility constructed last year. It will also allow HDC members and producers to diversify their cash crop production acreages," Van Raay said. INDEX Entertainment... pages 16, 17. Sports...page 10. Rec Preview...page 16. "Your community newspaper since 1860...serving Seaforth, Dublin, Hensall, Walton, Brussels and surrounding communities." BICYCLE TOUR These people are going to travel 1,200 km see page five. COMMUNITY Cubs from Huron, Perth meet in August 3 — 6, 1995 GREGOR CAMPBELI. PHOTO IN FAST COMPANY - Area Cub Scouts were occupied at the local arena Sunday at their annual Kub Car Rally. Contestants were given a block of wood, four wheels and some nails for axles, then built miniature cars that raced these ingenious creations against one another. The competition featured 10 area packs and 49 cars. Robbie Hamilton of Cromarty had the fastest entrant after the dust settled on the afternoon event. Catholic board blasts Ontario plan BY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff The provincial government's much ballyhooed new directions in education are heading in the wrong direction. That is the gist of a pamphlet, in response to the recent Royal Commission on Learning, approved for distribution to parents and ratepayers by the Huron -Perth County Roman Catholic Separate School Board at Monday night's meeting at St. James School in Seaforth. Trustees and board officials feel Catholic concerns are getting short shrift. "Much to our dismay, Ontario's educational agenda for change has not been based on the Royal Commission Report," it states. "Much of our initial excitement and enthusiasm with thc Royal Commission's_Report has now been tempered by the realization that the government has its own agenda somewhat divorced from the recommendations of the Royal Commission. Perhaps we arc not surprised by this but to say that we are disappointed would be an understatement." Director of Education Dr. James Brown said this is an "injustice to the public". Trustee John Devlin of Stratford underlined concerns of the Board, expressed in the pamphlet, about developing Catholic curriculum guidelines for each subject arca: "We strongly support the establishment and funding of regional Catholic curriculum consortiums to develop specifically Catholic curriculum for the province's publicly supported Catholic schools." Monday night's regular public meeting at Seaforth was the third time the area Board has recently met outside its offices in Dublin, its third "show on the road" in the words of Chair Louise Martin, to better acquaint ratepayers with its function and operation. Previous meetings were at St. Marys and Godcrich. The Board granted its Education Committee the authority to confirm the appointment of a high school vice principal, who will first be placed at St. Michael School in Stratford but who could become vice-principal of St. Anne's at Clinton now under construction, following a selection process next week. Ciderfest BY TIM CUMMING Expositor Editor Ciderfest is back! After a number of volunteers stood up to be counted at the annual meeting of the Van Egmond Foundation, the annual event was given a new lease on life. The popular celebration of cider, which has taken place for the past 22 years in Egmondville, was in jeopardy of being cancelled. In a March Iluron Expositor newspaper interview, chairperson Dorothy Williams said 15 new volunteers would be required to stage the event, which is held every year on the last Sunday of September. Ciderfest annually draws hundreds and hundreds of spectators. It is The Board's next scheduled meeting is not until May 22. "Why the rush?" asked Trustee Ben Brown. Committee Chair Michael Dack and the Education Director, Dr, Brown, both stressed urgency to secure the best "high-quality" candidate, who might not be willing to wait and go elsewhere in the interim. The Board also approved a policy statement from its Education Committee confirming all persons promoted to teaching leadership positions must be baptized and practicing Catholics, with the exception of non-Catholics employed before May 1995 "who demonstrate a commitment to Catholic education". see Catholics, back page • still alive in '95! held at the Van Egmond House and has the feel of a country fair, com- plete with apple -pressing and apple - cider making demonstrations, enter- tainment and booths selling a wide variety of goods. On Wednesday evening 18 people attended the annual meeting of the Van Egmond Foundation. "This is the biggest crowd we've ever had," said Dorothy Williams. "Thank you for coming." Several people at the meeting agreed to help prior to the event and work in food preparation and other jobs on the day of Ciderfest. Milton Dietz said he had received five or six responses from prospec- tive volunteers after the word went out that Ciderfest was in danger. The 23rd annual Ciderfest will be held on Sept. 24, 1995. * * * The annual meeting of the Van Egmond Foundation, held on Wednesday, was told that an appli- cation has been made for a grant for an energy efficient furnace in the Van Egmond House. The Foun- dation has not received any word about whether the grant has been approved. The Foundation is also seeking a grant for a summer student. The executive of the Van Egmond Foundation is Chairperson Dorothy Williams, Secretary Irene Okahashi and Treasurer Jean Fox. Phil Malcolm, of Plant Paradise in Vanastra, spoke to the annual meet- ing about older plants and shrubs which might have grown in the 1800's. Liability claims push municipal insurance rates skyward BY TIM CUMMING Expositor Editor The high cost of liability claims has increased Tuckersmith Township's insurance costs by more than thirty per cent. The township's 1995-96 insurance premium is almost $27,000, an increase from about $20,330 last year. Deputy -Reeve Larry McGrath said a letter should be sent from the township to the upper tier govern- ment members urging moves to prevent the high claims currently being awarded. "It's kind of hard to swallow," agreed Reeve Bill Carnochan. A representative from the Frank Cowan Company said the insurance companies have to raise their pre- miums because of the increased cost of liability claims. "It's the courts that are causing the problems, we don't want (to increase rates) believe me," said Randy Fisher, insurance representa- tive. The quote of another insurance was close to $30,000. Tuckersmith Township awarded contracts for calcium chloride and brine for township roads at the April 18 meeting of council. The winning tender for calcium chloride was Pollard Bros. at $205.98 per flake imperial ton. It was the lowest of two tenders but a significant increase from last year, when the cost was about $144. The lowest tender for brine was Cliff Holland at $22.47 per metric tonne. This is an increase from last year's figure of $21. * * * A contracting firm was "annoyed almost to the point of laughter" at the suggestion that infrastructure spending was boosting the cost of road work by contractors. The suggestion was made in a Iluron Expositor article which appeared on March 15. The article relayed the comments made at a council meeting that the federal - provincial infrastructure program was creating more work for con- tractors ontractors and boosting prices. In a letter to Tuckersmith Council the construction firm said that the cost of its 1995 bid, compared to its 1991 bid, was actually lower when taking into account inflation. "Some of our pipe prices have gone up as much as 60 per cent since that time," the letter reads. Lavis Construction had the lowest of four tenders for road reconstruc- tion of Quebec Street at $95,322. The engineer's estimate, however, had been $80,000. Reeve Bill Carnochan said the question now remains, where was the engineer wrong in the original estimate? Fish to battle flies in Harpurhey BY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff Residents will be rooting for the fish rather than the flies when both soon do what comes naturally at the lagoon just south of Harpurhey. And experts and officials are hoping nature doesn't throw them another unforeseen curve in this latest attempt to do battle with the long problem that began as a big stink. Problems came to a head about a half-dozen years ago because many a soft summer night was ruined by unpleasant smells wafting from the local lagoon, which is in Tuckersmith Township but run by Seaforth. The town didn't often escape without more than a whiff of this effluent either but Harpurhey, being right next door, bore the brunt of it. So piles of provincial and municipal cash were spent cleaning up the water. But it got so clean the water started attracting midge flies, because they like to lay their eggs in that kind of environment. Soon the little winged devils became almost as big an annoyance as the smell was to start with. Tuckersmith officially complained to Seaforth about it last summer. Now rather than spray these many microscopic midge flies into oblivion, officials hope to solve this latest pesky problem naturally with both trees and predator fish. The Seaforth Public ' Works Department has been putting in long hours planting 1,000 seedlings around the lagoon since suppliers delivered them earlier this month. Administrator Jim Crocker says 130 larger trees will also be planted in an attempt to "create a dead -air space and keep the midge flies contained on site". The second phase of this latest solution, which will cost about $37,000 - 76 per cent of which is funded by the provincial governmentrthrough its clean water agency, involves stocking the lagoon with predator fish who are far from averse to feasting on the eggs and larvae of the midge fly. Exactly what kind of fish will be filling their faces remains to be determined, according to Crocker, officials are working on that now - perhaps perch but maybe minnows or bullheads (catfish). The Seaforth Administrator says the original five-year project to clean up the lagoon began in 1989 and involved a three -pronged program that cost roughly $3 - million, again with the province picking up 76 per cent and Seaforth issuing debentures worth S900,000. It involved the installation of a new pump station, a new forced main and treatment plant. All this was completed last fall.