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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1995-05-10, Page 1HOCKEY Seaforth Junior Hockey Team gets new blood. Investment and Tax Planning - ` "Seaforth RRSP tr Specialists" gcj inKali= 96 Main St., Seaforth 527-0420 COMMUNITY A Seaforth resident represents Canada on senior exchange to Wales. see page six. TRAINING Class from Seaforth ready to start new businesses after course. see page nine. Briefly 1 J Vice Principal moves to Exeter school Scaforth Public School's Vice Principal Tom Lyon will head to Exeter Public School for the 1995-96 school year. He was one of several Principal and Vice Principal placements announced by the Huron County Board of Edu- cation. It was also announced that Helen Crocker will become Principal at Walton Public School, a promotion from Vice Principal. Larry Black, Vicc Principal at Huron Centennial Public School becomes Vicc Princi- pal at McCurdy Public School. Niall Straw, currently Principal at Stephen C.P.S., becomes Vicc Principal at Huron Centennial Public School. Couple's grandson wins art award The grandson of Seaforth's Cleave and Peggy Coombs will have his art work hang- ing at Pearson International Airport. Joel Coombs, a grade six student at Northdale Public School in London, was one of 21 elementary pupils from across Ontario chosen a win- ner of the Air Ontario Art Exhibition, a poster contest featuring scenes of the artists'„ home towns. Feds allege unsafe truck practices As part of a campaign against unsafe trucking practises the Ontario government is naming those trucking operators who put "put the bottom line before safety." A Dublin operator was one of the people who had a truck removed for what the Ontario Ministry of Transportation claims is a "safety defect." The most common of the 467 charges laid were for failure to maintain the vehicle, defective brakes, defective tires and insecure loads. Story hour tops at local library Seaforth Branch Library has the most well-auended story hours for children, according to information distributed at the Library Board meeting in Goderich. Seaforth had five story hours with 208 in attendance. Only Wingham had more story hours, at seven, with 102 attending. Fordwich and Goderich both had five story hours but aucndance was 91 and 39 respectively. INDEX Years agone...page 8 Sports...pages 9, 12. Rec Preview...page 18. "Your community newspaper since 1860...serving Seaforth, Dublin, Hensall, Walton, Brussels and surrounding communities." TIM CUMMING PHOTO THE BELLS OF PEACE - In the past week, the people of the local area remembered the 50 -year anniversary of Victory in Europe during World War II. For the first time, church bells were sounded at .the end of that war. Here, Seaforth Legion Branch 156 service officer Cleave Coombs rings the bells of St. Thomas Anglican Church while Rev. Gordon Redden looks on. McKillop's mill rates up The mill rate in McKillop increased five per cent over 1994's when Council passed the township's budget last Tuesday night. The increase will raise additional revenue of $18,554. The increase in the municipal rate, when coupled with increases in the school board mill rates, means public school supporters in McKillop will see their overall mill rate increase by 6.8 per cent this year and the separate school supporter mill rate in the township will increase by 2.35 per cent overall. The public elementary mill rate increased 17.60 per cent for 1995, and the public secondary rate went up .95 per cent, according to a breakdown provided by McKillop clerk/treasuerer Marion McClure. The separate school elementary mill rate increased 1.99 per cent, and the separate secondary rate mill rate increased 2.0 per cent. Tenders for asphalting and grass cutting were also opened and accepted at the May 2 regular meeting. The three-year tender for cutting grass went to Carl Gower for $28,890. The asphalting tender from Lavis Contracting for $275,809.80 was accepted. Council gave first and second readings to bylaws to proceed with repairs to two municipal drains in the township: the Kistner and Elligson drain at Woman volunteers at site of Oklahoma bomb blast, Seaforth native A Seaforth native was one of the only Canadians working as a nursing volunteer at the federal building in Oklahoma, the site of the recent bombing tragedy. Linda Matthews, the daughter of Gord and Marion MacDonald who live on Goderich Street East in Seaforth, is now a nurse in the emergency department of Woodstock General Hospital. She and another nurse from the unit, Janice Koekebakker, called it a "knee jerk" decision to go to Oklahoma as volunteers, perhaps motivated by memories of serving as volunteers when a tornado ripped through the Woodstock arca in 1979. "When President Clinton said 'America carea,'I thought to myself 'this has nothing to do with borders. We all feel the paint", Matthews told a reporter from The London Free Prev. The two nurses spent a week, about 12 hours per day, in a tent about 50 metres from the Oklahoma bombing site. They registered volunteers, did some first aid, handed out supplies and helped lift the spirits of rescue workers. As far as they know they were the only two Canadian volunteers at the site. Local authorities appreciated it. A Oklahoma sheriff chauffeured them to and from their hotel every day, and some Georgia police drove 21 hours to put on a barbecue for rescue workers. The pair received $600 support from Woodstock council, and a donation from the local Rotary Club before. going to Oklahoma April 26. an estimated cost of $15,000, and the O'Rourke drain with an estimated cost of $3,897. The township approved an application from the Seaforth Agricultural Society for a special liquor permit during Homecoming, Aug. 5 and 6. Council also passed a motion to "build up" Huron County Roads 2 and 3, west of County Road 12, and from County Road 12 to sideroad 30. Tile -drainage loan applications totalling $16,500 were approved, and general vouchers for $8,486. The road's superintendent's voucher for $17,335 was approved, and Council accepted the 1995-96 insurance proposal from Frank Cowan Insurance. Council considers tougher bylaw BY TIM CUMMING Expositor Editor Tuckersmith Township Coun- cil will see if it can make its proposed anti -stripping bylaw more restrictive. Councillors feel they can't stop the current strip club in Vanastra from operating but would like to make sure no future club re -opens at the site if it closes. On Tuesday, May 2 Council considered a bylaw which would prohibit any future adult entertainment business from opening in the township. The current strip club, Tops, would become a legal non -conforming use. Under the bylaw, if some- one closes the strip bar another strip bar could be opened at that site if it was done within two years. Council asked Huron County planner Cindy Fisher to seek a legal opinion on whether the two-year period could be reduced. Fisher cautioned coun- cil that the change might affect all other non -conforming uses in the township. A group of nine Vanastra-area residents attended the May 2 meeting of council. They asked if there was something council or indi- vidual residents could do to stop stripping at Tops. "There's got to be some way to shut this place down," was a comment made by one person in attendance at last Tuesday's meeting. Reeve Bill Carnochan said that because the strip club is already operating the township can't retroactively close the 'adult' entertainment establish- ment. He said the council feels the same frustration as the residents at not being able to eliminate strip clubs. The township council itself can only do so much on the issue, he said. "We're going to try to do everything we can with the land use issue," said Carnochan. "It's a council problem and it's (also) a com- munity problem." Diane Ryan, a 22 -year resi- dent of Vanastra, said that Vanastra had put forward a great deal of effort to build up a good name and now it is becoming synonymous with a strip bar. "We fought too long to build up this community to let it go down the drain." She said the news that a new owner could re -open a strip club at the site within two years of its closing was differ- ent information than that given at a community policing meet- ing. Planner Cindy Fisher said zoning bylaws can only apply to land and not individual owners. The zoning "travels with the property when it's sold." One woman said she had beeii inside the strip bar and said acts inside were not illegal "til .y should be." Camochan told the residents that if they witnessed any illegal acts they should contact police. The police act on com- plaints, he said. After the delegation left, the council voted unanimously to pass the bylaw for first reading only. The decision was not made without some discussion. Coun. Rob McLeod said the adult entertainment type of establishment drew a clientele which could lead to drugs and crime. Coun. Doug Vock agreed that the public generally didn't want the establishments. Deputy -Reeve Larry McGrath said he would vote in favour of the bylaw but he worried about society being "legislated to death." "Sooner or later smokers will be bussed to the lakefront to have a cigarette," he said. "I will support this bylaw but I also have mixed feeling about this...where do you draw the line?" Coun. Bernie McLellan said there were few official com- plaints about the Tops bar brought to the council table. In an impassioned speech Reeve Bill Carnochan said the adult entertainment businesses go against what the township is trying to accomplish in Vanastra. He said the township has helped improve the parks and services in Vanastra to foster the perception of a viable, growing community. "I do not think this kind of business is part of that object we're working to," he said. In response to remarks by McGrath, Carnochan said "I wouldn't want one next to me in Brucefield, you wouldn't want one next to you in Egmondville...l will vote for this bylaw." Council gave the bylaw restricting future strip clubs first reading. A bylaw doesn't take effect until after third readin . TIM ct MNINo PHOTO HOT DOGI - These parent vokmteers help make Hot Dog Day possible at Seaforth Public School. Holding up trays of buns are (front row) Lesley Ash, Lisa Campbell, Janette Holmes, (back row) Barb Shannon, Elaine Brown and Wendy Currie. The Hot Dog Days are organized by the Parents' Advisory Council.