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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1996-01-10, Page 1Peacekeeping Corp. John Ryan of St. Columban returns from duty in Bosnia. See page 3 • \:() • 1076 . • wu.RID IUNIOR HOCKEY, - ' CHAMPIoNVHIJ . World Champion Local residents congratulate Mike Watt on his gold medal win. see page 13 Education Huron Board of Education reviews various schools. see page 11 Your Community -Newspaper Since 1860 Briefly Water rates to go up February Water is going to cost a .. dollar more a Month' in Scaforth beginning Feb. 1.- . The Scaforth Public Utility -Commission , has .• approved a flat -rate ilwrease to .S15- a•. month, .from the present rate of S14. for all bills issued on and alien Feb. I. • Monday's press release from the local utility .-says the money raised from the increase will- boost. its capital reser\ e land for the -construction of 'a "water- • storage facility" for, the town? as WE "by-law No. 6 proposed by Count iltMarch , _ 13. 1984." A copy. of the . new rates I. will.be in nest 'Week's The lluron, fxpo.ortur. Child airlifted - A young child in distress +' was airlifted by an emergen- cy team front the heliport at .Scaforth District Hospital 10 'Victoria Hospital in London •. early New Year's.Evc after- noon. Amalgamation- -meeting quiet Nothing dramatic hap - s pend when Scaforth and some surrounding municipalities sat down in a Closed session ai Thom Hall Ia.it Thursday night to dis- cuss possible an►algaiiuttion. -"It was very iulornial,' Mayor Irwin Johnston says. ••Everybody had an . oppor- . tunny, to speak. One of the things that we talked about was . shared • scry it cs, and - equipment that could. Ix shared by municipalities." The heads of council: and clerks frons Seafront, ton, -and the townships- of - Tuckcrsmith: McKiIlop, Hullctt and' Hibbert at- tended. • Mayor Johnston says these .. municipalities - traditionally get together near the start of -each Ncw Year, to (discuss -mutual problems and the Scaforth .tions and Fire arca, both existing shared ser- vices. He says •this .year's meeting is • scheduled for Feb. 20, and Some of the discussions began last week will probably he continued. Video sells well Thc ' Homecoming '95 video proxluccd by former Expositor editor Tim Cum- ming has sold close to 400 copies. He says it would have been far more difficult without the cooperation of local retailers who worked hard to distribute it at no cost. Brussels plans homecoming Brussels is; planning a .homecoming next year•and holes to have an official theme and logo later this month. Thc event is scheduled for the long weekend at the • start of August 1997- and possible activities include a barn and arena ( with a 1950s -60s theme) dances., barbecue; parade, school reunion, fastball tournament and Shriner's fish fry. Fortner federal MP Mur- ray Cardiff is Chair of the homecoming Committee. Seaforth, Ontario January 10, 1996 — 75 Cents Plus GST SANpRA DALE PHOTO HIBBERT HISTORY REVISITED - Hibbert Township resident Tom Melady reads from the minutes of the first council meeting held in Hibbert January 5, 1646 at the 1996 New Year Levee on Sunday in Dublin. The township celebrates its sesquicentennial this -year. The first Hibbert council was chaired by Robert Donkin and the minutes were recorded by clerk Edward Purcell. The theme of the annual levee was "Wardrobes of the Past." At right, Seaforth Mayor Irwin Johnston and Reeve, Bill Bennett enjoy,, the festivies of the levee in traditional costume. . Stores have mixed Christmas • BY DAVID SCOT"I= Expositor.. Editor than 20 per cern. Wal-Mart dian Tire dealer Brian opened in Go&rich at the Cunningham. Although the beginning of Novciiibcr. Unfor- • tunatcly he had to lay UIT cine Good, bad, • better or' worse employee and cut back the and just the same. - hours of -others. • . Scaforth merchants had This coming year Deighton mixed responses tit how salts ' -were thi oliday- season Coml. pared .td vprevious years when asked by The Huron Cxpo:vilor • recently. , - For a few, marketing giant Wal-Mart has grabbed a share of sales away Iron, local retailers: Other Main Street stores actually experienced higher salts than previous years. But generally the con- sensus was that things wcrc slow all over.• "Wal-Mart has Iiad a big, effect on mc. It really hurt," said Dave Deighton, owner of Stedmans.. His store carries a lot of similhr merchandise to Wal-Mart and Deighton noticed sales drop "substantially" in November and December, more . Two of the lines of toys the store carries won several mar, - December numbers haven't ketiiig. awards. One was the been worked out yeti, he says Thomas the Tank Engine, sales were "okay." . which won. Best. Toy from the "You always hope for more. Canadian toy testing council I'm not - disappointed," said and a Toy Profile Golden Seal • predicts he'll have to cut hack Cunningham. • dward. The other was the line the amount of. money he - He believes his sales wcrc .of 'Lamaze toys for toddlers spends on donations and advcy- ' affected somewhat by the and babies. They won the tising. "It's going to be tight." opening of Wal-Mart. "If the Parent's Choice Award, Parent- ing Magazine Best Toy and NAPPA honour award all for 1995. Thc Lamaze . line also won Toy Profile's Golden. Seal award. . "We did really well," said Shirley. Barb Betties of Box Furniture said "total sales were down slightly over last December." She also said traffic in the store was down a bit.- "But .overall we can't complain." Buttsscy Farag of Bousscy's Beauty "Boutique said sales were down about 10 per cern. this year but the last two weeks • Continued on page 3 In response to the slow Christ- 'weather is good and the roads. mas sales and the effect of arc clear, people tend to shop Wal-Mart, he -,is- going to adjust out of town. Our weekend sales the layout of his store. "I'm were less," said Cunningham.. expanding into the basics. 1 (Canadian Tire is open on both don't want 10 have to worry . Saturday-and'Sunday). about consumers going out of • New Bob and Betty's man- . town to pick up those things." He' has also expanded .his .video tape selection and says he has ' "no choice" - but to remain open for his extended hours (9 a.m.-to 9 P.M. Mon. - Sat. & 12-5 • p.m. •Sunday) which have been in effect for two years -in May. This was the first Christmas season in Seal:oriltfor Cana - ager Danica McNichol said sales were comparable to last year's numbers under previous owner Bob Beuttenmillcr. She was pleased with sales in her first Christmas in business. Randy and Shirley Brookcr were also pleased with their first Christmas in business at the Family Express toy store. "It was super," said Randy. Some cuts smaller than expected BY GREGOR CAMPBELL and PAT RAFT'S SSP News Stall Surrounding rural areas got good ncws.•to start the Ncw Year when details 01- provincial budget cuts arrived that weren't anywhere near as big as they all expected. .Ontario's actual flimsier cuts to townships in the immediate arca ranged Iron) one to six per cern. Thc clerk/treasurers of all these municipalises say they were surprised and expecting far worse, most were braced for cuts closer to 20 or 25 per cent. Hensall was -the only village around here to have its grant reduced by about this amount, 23 per cent. But up the road, Zurich's 1996 grant is bigger than last year's. McKillop's grant reduction is 52,055 or a Where one ler cent. Its total grant this year is 5307,000. compared to S309,055 last year. • Despite cuts, county sti IIs BLAKE PATTERSON SSP News Staff Word has finally filtered down from the provincial gov- ernment about the budget cuts announced Nov. 29. 1995. In his opening remarks to Huron • County Council on Thursday. Warden 13111 Clifford said unconditional grants and road grants from the pmvincc to Huron County will be reduced by 23 per cent in 1996. Unconditional grants will he cut by S 173.00() and road grants will he reduced by $948,987. Clifford said the reductions by the province will increase the tax burden on the county by just under 14 per cant, but he added the county is still alining at a icro per cent increase in the mill rate. In order to meet council's tar- get of no increase, Clifford said county departments will discuss Thc figure is "substantitilly Tess than expected" at 3.93 per cent for Hibbert, or. a' S10,072 cut, leaving this year's grant al S246,084 against 5256, 156 for 1995. Tbat's a smaller cut than Inst year's figure of. 512,000 for mails/alone. HuIIEK says Ontario has earmarked $307,570 for it. in - 1996, down slightly from the 5309,526 the township got in provincial grants in 1994. Tuckcrsniitlh loses 524,000.39 this year, or six per cent. The municipality will get S398.595 this year compared to 5422,634 in 1995. Thc cuts are all part and parcel of the recently elected Ontario government's attempt to eliminate its enormous deficit and balance provincial hooks. But cities seem to have taken by far the biggest bit, and in general say they were cepa- , ling the cuts in. transfers to be as deep. • - On average, the guts amount to 28.5 per cent tor urban Continual on page 3 11 wants zero mill rate the impact of the reductions and will consider some of the ways that service levels can he adjusted to accomrn(xlate•thcm. The reduced grants have been Combined and renamed the Ontario- Municipal Support Program and they will have fewer restrictions on how the county can use the funds. but it will still mean tough decisions will have to he made in the coming years. Clifford said the provincial cabinet plans to meet again in late January to announce over- all cuts to the health and social service • budget envelopes, which will in turn he passed along to municipal programs for implementation on Apr. 1. He said the provincial gov- ernment has also announced similar cuts will be put in place for the 1997 budgets. And as a result, said the Warden, "We will all spend a Continued on page 3 Police Report Snowmobile stolen in town A snowmobile was stolen in Seaforth Friday. Ontario Provincial Police at Ooderich say it was a 1982 Yamaha 250 "Enticer", black with red stripes, stolen on Goderich St. E., and their investigation continues. Another snowmobile was' stolen on Mill Street in Eg- monndville the day before Christmas, but Tater recovered Ma *of gas near• St. Cojumban. Provincial Police . at Goderich also report a num- ber of other incidents in the area between Dec. 24 . and Jan. 6. A 44 -year-old - man suf. fered first. and second degree burns to his hands, arms, face and back in ars explosion followed by a fire in West Wawanosh Township early Friday mor- ning. • William John Dankwardt, of Conc. 11 St. Helens was repairing a pick-up truck in his shed. Police believe gasoline fumes caused the explosion, but the provincial labour ministry 'Jtnct—fire marshall's office tire inves- tigating. Dankwardt was oaken by ambulance to Wingham hospital and later transferred to Clinton. A barbecue and propane tank valued at $60() was stolen from a residence on Conc. 8 of McKillop Township on Boxing Day. A car was stolen from the parking lot of Tops bar in Nana*tra on Dec. 24. Arson destroyed 115 hales of hay valued at $2,875 on Conc. 2 of Stanley Township on Dec. 28. Fishing gear, snowmobile helmets, hockey equipment and miscellaneous items with an estimated value of 51,650 were stolen when a residence on Sutton Drive in Colborne Township was • broken into s metime bet- ween Doc. 25 and 27.