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Home My WebLink AboutThe Huron Expositor, 1997-02-12, Page 1mien St. Michael students head to the Dominican Republic. -bice page 2 Your Commlmity`Newsp,aper Since' 4860 - Seaforth, Ontario Briefly � r House fire Finlay The Seaforth Fire Department answered an alarm Friday night a approx- imately 10:30 p.m. for a house. fire on the southwest corner of Franklin -and East William Streets. The house is owned by Michael Hak of Seaforth but was rented at the time of the fire. .• The tenant. Chris Adair, was awakened by a smoke alarm 'and ran across the street to phone in the alarm at a rieighbour's. According to Tom Phillips, of the Seaforth Fire Department, the fire was primarily -contained to one room which suffered exten=• sive dainagc. There -was smoke and water damage throughout the house. -Firefighters were on the even for approximately four hours and members of the ' fire department returned the next morning to investigate.. the site. At.this time. there is no estimate on the amount of damage Mideitt-eatise,efithe fire is undeterminer Zoning a►n. ended At last Tuesday night's meeting, Seaforth Couitcil supported the Jan. 23.deci- sion of its planning advisory committee to amend a zoning bylaw, as it pertains to the old Hoffineyer's building on. High St., to permit Jersey Co-operative Ltd. to establish a business. • Thirty =for fires There were 34 fires in and .around Seaforth last year. "which is about the annual average," according to min- utes.of the Seaforth Area Fire Committee's meeting un Jan'. 30. • Hibbert Township Reeve Walter McKenzie was declared Chair for 1997. "Revenues and expendi- tures for 1996 totalled $110,884." the minutes state. "The board ended the year with a surplus of` $945. Because of the surplus, only $2,235. was transferred from the previous year's surplus leaving the accumulated net revenue at $623." Fire Chief George Garrick reported that firefighter Bill Eisler retired at,thc,end of • December. .He said two auxil- iary officers will be promoted to regular volunteer firefight- ers to bring the total to 24." Cie to -bylaw? Seaforth Council is .consid- ering again amending its recently amended bylaw that requires ratepayers who reg- ister dogs and buy tags to • provide -proof of rabies vacci- nation in the past 12 months. Because rabies vaccinations arc good for three years. "We're getting a fair amount of flak over this," Clerk/Administrator Jim -Crocker reported to Tuesday night's meeting. Owners made the munici- pality aware of the vaccina- tion's validity ,for the three- year period,.and thc.town' clerk said a check,with thc local veterinary clinic proved them right. "I haven't seen unc certifi- cate yet," he commented to council. February 12, 1997 -- $1.00 includes GST PHOTO BY OREGOR CAMPBELL. A SUNNY SATURDAY MORNING IN SEAFORTH - The .Watson elan hit the.pavement on Jarvis Street for a bit of ball hockey in the sunshine on the weekend The big guy, coach and tutor, is Jim Watson.. The goaltender all ready -tor action is son Brent, and the littler Paul Kariya clone in the,Mighty Ducks duds is son Scotty. . Provjrgs county suffers $12 -Tion tax burden for Duron BY .BLAKE PATTERSON SSP News Staff Ontario's Finance, Minister Ernie Eves was smiling last week as he announced how -well the provincial .govern- ment is doing on its promise to decrease the provincial deficit. His mood of optimism, however, was not shared by members of Huron County Council last week, as they were presented with.an esti- mated $12 -million tax burden as a result of the provincial cut-backs. At the-Fnb.;6.meeting of Huron Cqutty Council, Huron County :T,t a tirer•:Ken Nix presented council .with report of some preliminary estimates regarding the impact the provincial '.Who Does: What' discussions. The report .was the result ofxvork cone by the county's department, heads who each.tuok "a piece of ibe puzzle" and tried tosletet how the changes;,would,affect their operations. Nix was carieful.lo,make,it clear the figures,were only preliminary and basad on 'best guars' figures, .but pre- sented the ;intotmation any- way . to give an indication of what Vic county tax payers would face in the light.of the recent shifting and download- ing of government responsi- bilities. The most significant fall -out from the '.Who Does What' discussions transferred responsibility for Board of liducation 'faxes and Children's Aid to the "Who estimated *std of F.Aluwtion. taxes =-tifdren sAid -grin Tax -Rebate General Support Grant • Gross;Keceipt% Tax Business Occupancy Tax Property Assessment Costs General Welfare (CNA) family Benefits. Allowance Social Housing Huronvicw/Huronlca Other long term care horns CCAC Public Health Community Policing Water and Sewer Inspections Library Grants Highways Sasisgs 4440441140selsi 27,3 19,#10 40,000 3,168,00() 9,953,000 189.000 1,214,000 1,240,(X)0 1,195,()00 7,O00,t)00 1,100,000 1,202,000 3,658,000 3,300,000 1,456,00(1 4.318,000 82,0X) 138,000 718000 •-4$tsxredatdbr Mi4a ltl]f t 'i.,X, 0 •Net cost to Huron tl+tx payers 12,163,600 ;i jccording. to H)lr1Wt ?til it9t 11I °ay- ' ix, ,,ores are 'very preliminary' and do not include toe.' of ,possible savings frumabe Community Reinvestment or possible costs for child ore, drug benefit cards, fire inspec- ;tions or community ambulances. province. 'But in return, municipalities wore handed a host of new responsibilitcs including everything from general wel- fare and family benefit allowance to community policing and highways. In total, Nix said the county will savc approximately $27 - million, but will face addition- al costs of nearly $40 -million. in total, the burden on the county tax payers will increase by more than $ 12 - million, he said. Basically, Nix said. We. arc getting more than the province is taking." The Unknown He' said details are still needed to determine what lev- els of municipal government will he responsible for several of the down -loaded prugrams. He said it is some of those programs because various_ provincial ministries refuse to give facts or estimates relating to thc total current costs of programs in Huron County. In the list of additional costs Nix provided to council. child care, drug benefit cards. fire inspections and community ambulances All had question marks beside thein in the money column. During.the past three weeks. provincial legislation has made wide -sweeping changes to the .way this province is governed. And those changes ,have left tax payers .and ,lowor•tier muhieipal _govern- tpenas..unesinain of ;their .pow- .ers,and ability to pay. Nix said there have been "a Jot of paper prothicisi,and a. lot of questions proihu:od." Asya/f.UePe -J1lix said the only significant increase in .money which could possibly come thc coun- ty's way would be through the Cotnmunity Reinvestment Fund (CRF). The.provincc has set .aside Si -billion for CRF to ensure special ogigtnunity ncods ,arc met. Nix said this may help off- set the impact to Huron County. He added that .money from thc CRi could .be "sig- nificant" depending on hew the county qualifies, unfortu- nately. few details sate known at this time regarding this fund. $317,886 decrease Hospital shocked over transfer cut The ahicf extcutive officer of .Sal forth Community Hospital, flill Thibert,-is "shocked and iiisappointed" with lett -aveeMs announeer ment from f niario'sillfinisiry of Health that this year's transfer has been cut 1.1 per .:cent from its funrirgisae: This works out to a .$3I74886-decrpaae froth SCH's current funding base of $4,467,300. - This "brings the hospital's total funding reductions from - theministry to approximately $645,000 -over the past four years," a puss release from the local hospital says. • "He (Thibert) noted many small rural hospitals were hit with large reductions (up to eight -per cern) which will -be very difficult to absorb since they already -Operate et Inani- mum staffing levels. "He indicated that no spe- cial consideration was given this year to the unique needs of small hospitals, ,as blase level of funding reductions -(four to eight per cent) was the same as for larger urban hospitals." LAYOFFS? The press release also says Thibert is- frustrated that the cut was done "in isolation" from -the Huron/Perth District Health Council's, ongoing hospital restructuring study. "He stressed that hospital planning is to be conducted on .a district or regional basis but these cuts arc inappropri- ately being implemented on an individual hospital basis." The ministry's deadline for receiving SCH's 1997/98 operating plan is March 27. Thibert expressed "confi- dence" in the press release that the local hospital's "learn", _ approach will be equal to this latest challenge. "Though no ruling out the possibility that staff layoffs may need to take place to achieve this ministry - imposed target. Thibert stressed that everything pos- sible will be done to maintain existing staff positions while ensuring thc continued deliv- ery .of excellent quality patient carr." # yron Board 'Savings 'wool come out 4t classroom' pY .T1il$H -WIW 1NSON SSP News Staff The just over $1 million in estimated savings in this year's Huron County Board ut`,J ducation budget will not cotne out of the classroom. inµcald, Superintendent of B latter Baird.J,ackson said tote. savings ,arc out from cutting programs, but from the new staffing models that have been implemented. "We have boon really profi- cient so we couk1 maintain programs," said Baird - ,Jackson. "(Toe trustees) focused ;on ,a ,thew staffing model so Oral watt1d decrease Costs. CONTINUED on page. 2