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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1996-04-24, Page 1Education New contract for high school teachers & budgets. Seepage2 Response Former shepherd gives researched report on scrapie in sheep. See pages 4,5&6 Crime Huron faces wave of break-ins recently. - See page 3 Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 - Seaforth, Ontario Briefly MADD of Huron to hold meeting Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) of Huron and Bruce is having an open informational meeting at the Lucknow arena on Thursday, May 2 at 7:30 p.m.. The executive director of MADD Canada, Jim Wideman will be one of sev eral guest speakers. Others are Sharon Lee Wideman of MADD's Kitchener -Waterloo victim's services, and Paul Graf of Crime Stoppers. Education tax up 7.6 per cent for Seaforth, ipper cent ' across Huron Thc Huron County Board of Education has passed its budget for 1996 resulting in an ovcratl,tax increase of four per cent. "We arc very pleased," said Director of Education Paul Carroll. "It's lower than we. thought we, would be able to bring it down to." After eight -and -a -half months of looking at ways to reduce expenditures, the hoard passed the 1996 budget which is $2 million lower than the .1995 budget. At a special budget meeting held on April 16 at the Education Centre in Clinton, the HCBE established spending levels for the year at $60.8 million. But a "bizarre problem," Carroll said, is that although the county -wide impact is. four per cent due to market value reassessment, the edu- cation tax hill to the county's municipalities differs quite substantially. Carroll stated that while Village of Hensatl will sec a reduction of 10.1 per cent, the Village of Zurich will sec a 25 per cent increase on the education hill. Seaforth will have a 7.6 per cent increase Quebec sweeps Three of the four Quebec teams swept all the medals in the finals at the national juve- nile girls' broomball champi- onships at Selkirk. Manitoba on the weekend. This area's Central -West juveniles. with many Seaforth and arca players, finished with one win and four losses aftcr.prcliminar- ies, and was eliminated. Theteam that won the gold medal winner practises five times a week and has a paid coach. Tcn teams from across thc country were divided into two pools at thc tournament: Central West won silver medals at last year's national championships. This time around thc arca girls bcat the host team from Manitoba 2- 1. But they lost 3-1 after overtime to Saskatchewan, dropped a 2-1 verdict to New Brunswick and twice lost by scores of 3-0 to two of thc Quebec squads. Juveniles arc from 16 to 18 - years -old. Selkirk is wet these days, a disaster arca after recent flooding. • April 24, 1996 --- 75 Cents Plus GST PHOTO BY MICHAEL HAMON HIGH SCHOOL PROTEST - Judy Dolmage and Erin Jamieson set up a table in front of Seaforth District High School on Friday prior to an afternoon student protest against cuts to education. High schools across the province held similar protests Friday. However, the demonstration was cutshortby SDHS administration. Approximately $22.000 for private lib testing Government lab closures mean no more free testing for landfill BY DAVID SCOTT Expositor Editor Unexpected •closures of government run laboratories in Ontario means landfills, water treatment plants and municipalities that relied on 'free' -testing in the past will now have to pay private labo- ratories to do the same work. The Mid -Huron Landfill Site (MHLS) board learned of the news at its April 18 meeting from Jim Yardley of , Conestoga -Rovers and Associates, the consulting engineers for the landfill site. Yardley had just. been informed of the government lab cuts three hours prior to the 4 p.m. landfill meeting. in terms of cost, the landfill will likely have to pay between $22,000 to $23,000 now per year for monitoring, estimated Yardley, for a ser- vice done free by the govern- ment before. That cost doesn't include tests required for the landfill's leachate transfer facility in Goderich. In contrast, approximately $45,000 in rebate cheques were issued last month to the eight member municipalities of MHLS for past overpay- ment to the Workers' Compensation Board by the landfill board. As of -the end of April, gov- ernment lab facilities: in London won't be receiving samples, said Yardley. But that's not the only closure in the province. Labs in Thunder Bay, Kingston and Sudbury will also be shut down and the government's main lab in Toronto will be restructured and reduced. In the past, massive clo- sures like this would be announced a year ahead, said Yardley. "Now it's immedi- ately (with the Harris govern- ment)," he said. The closures leave the land- fill in a bind because under Ministry of Environment . guidelines, the April test results at the site have to be completed by the end of the month. The recent OPSEU strike halted testing at gov- ernment labs, so seasonal sampling at the site was delayed from March until April. Presently the MHLS under- goes monitoring three times a year by Conestoga -Rovers and numerous tests are done on ground water, surface water, leachate, etc. at those. times. Even water from neighbours of the landfill is tested. Monthly testing of leachate from the MHLS leachate transfer facility in Goderich which cost approximately $95 a month in the past, will now cost the board approxi- mately $250 at a private lab, close to $2,000. more per year. Chair of the landfill board, Laurie Cox, Reeve of Goderich Township, is also manager of the water treat- ment plant at Goderich which regularly sends water sam- ples to government labs for testing. He suggested the plant, the landfill and mem- ber municipalities who use ministry labs, go together on a block tender for private lab testing, in hopes of a cost savings to taxpayers. The board agreed to survey the eight member municipali- ties as to their water testing requirements and report back 'at next month's meeting in regards to a group bid for pri- vate lab services. "We probably send several million dollars (of test work) to labs each year. They tend to give good prices," said the Conestoga -Rovers represen- tative. CONTINUED on page 13 County landfill search. Mid -Huron still has 13 years left in life BY DAViD SCOTT Expositor Editor is the Mid -Huron Landfill Site (MHLS) at Holmesvillc part of Huron County's solu- tion to its landfill problem which has run up an estimat- ed $1.2 million price -tag so far'! MHLS board chair, Laurie Cox, Rccvc of Goderich Township, recently received a copy of thc Alternative Studies Report from two engineering firms which will he reviewed at Huron County •Council tomorrow. April 25. He shared some of the infor- mation with the MHLS board on April 18. "Thc study states the coun- ty doesn't need a new large landfill site. it's uneconomi- cal. Thc (landfill) capacity around thc county is nine years," said Cox. The board heard at its meet- ing from. Jim Yardley of Conestoga -Rovers and Associates that the Mid - Huron site had an estimated life of 12 to 13 years remain- ing. (The two engineering firms hired for the county's report also reached similar figures for Mid -Huron). The information was part of the MHLS' annual report. The fairly long life was due to good compaction and less waste at the site. "if that con- tinues, it could grow to 20 years," said landfill board secretary Ken Hunter of Goderich. "The population (of the eight member municipalities) CONTINUED on page 13 Education debate heats up Tri -board committee disbands when Catholic board withdraws BY MICHELE GREENE SSP News Staff A tri -board committee intended to improve co-oper- ation among local school boards was disbanded Monday night when the Huron -Perth Roman Catholic Separate School Board with- drew. Catholic trustees are react- ing to a campaign by the Huron County Board of Education to promote one publicly -funded school board in Huron County. The Huron board wrote letters to the edi- tor in local newspapers and received other press on its initiative. It is also distribut- ing postcards that are addressed -to Huron MPP Helen Johns urging her to support the idea in Queen's Park. Thd campaign is the Huron board's response to the Sweeney report released in February which recommend- ed amalgamation of the Huron and Perth school boards. The Huron board would like each county to have one school board, resulting in splitting the Huron -Perth Catholic board. "The first principle [of the tri -board committee' was governance must not be com- promised. It was felt this was being compromised by this campaign,"said Trustee Louise Martin. "The Huron board has failed to live up to that." The separate board met with Johns to discuss the issue and' will meet with P.erth MPP Bert Johnson this week. The tri -board committee was formed in January 1995 and includes trustees and administrators from the sepa- rate board, the Huron board and the Perth County Board of Education. it was intended to improve co-operation between the boards. Although, the three boards are sharing to reduce costs, - Director of Education Dr. James Brown said the com- mittee has produced very lit- tle. Trustee Ben Brown qucs- . tioned the fairness of dis- banding the committee which would penalize the Perth board, which respects thc board's rights as a Catholic school board. "The Perth beard respects us so we'll continue working with them," said Martin.. Trustees approved a motion that states its continu- ing commitment to sharing services, butin. the future, it will enter into sharing arrangements with only those school boards and communi- ty agencies that recognize the board's mandate and right to_ self -governance. It then rescinded its decision to be a part of the tri -hoard commit- tee. "We have a list we share with the Huron board and a list we share with •the Perth board but nothing is shared between the two public boards. There is no need for a tri -board committee, perhaps two double committees," said Chairperson Mikc Miller, of Zurich. CONTINUED on page 13 Public board's intent Must be way to protect `minority' interests, says Chair In answer to "media and public inquiries," the Huron County Board of Education has clarified its "intent" in support of some kind of school board "amalgamation" as a response to the Ontario government's controversial Sweeny report. "If we could just set aside the turf considerations for a momcnt, there must be some constitutionally acceptable way to respect and protect minority interests in a new system," Chair Roxanne Brown says in the statement released last Thursday. The Huron public board's recent proposal and post -card campaign has raised some hackles at the Clinton Christian School and the Roman Catholic separate sys- tem, whose Director of Education for Huron -Perth, James S. Brown, reasoned in letters to many editors last week that the separate system now spends $856 per pupil less than the Huron public board does, so a merger to cut costs could really mean reducing the public system's cost with the wallets of sepa- rate school ratepayers, among other things. in last week's press release from Huron's public board, Brown says trustees feel "if we truly seek partnership and collaboration - in thc spirit of working for academic excel lence, fiscal equity and cost efficiency - we can find a way to provide for all sectors. It was felt that ways can be found to preserve the inde- pendence of language and religious rights for Roman Catholics and other denomi- national groups, for French language students and for the broad amalgam that compris- es the existing 'public educa- tion system. A "community education authority" might he the way to combine functions which "common sense" says can reduce overall costs. The Huron public hoard's press release states: "There is no effort here to take over any other jurisdic- tion. What trustees seek is a dialogue." The concept at least deserves thoughtful discus- sion. The board's statement concludes: "Yes, there will he fewer trustees, few administrators and a small working core at the centre of such a new sys- tem. And saved dollars, if not all required to meet future transfer payment reductions. can be redirected to class- room support needs."