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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1997-06-18, Page 1SPorts First season for St. Columban women's soccer. Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 -- Seaforth, Ontario Total project cost of $1,650,000 from conception to creation New water towere aDDroval g June 18, 1997 $1.00 includes GST is Comet° decision before decision made for county BY BLAKE PAITERSON SSP News Staff Briefly Fee for births Seaforth Council unani- mously carried a motion at last Tuesday night's regular meeting to charge a fee of $10 to register births and deaths. a new power granted to municipalities by the Ontario government's Bill 126. Town awarded Clerk Jim Crocker reported to council last Tuesday that - the lawsuit brought against the town by Robert Bell -Industries has been adjudicat- ed. resulting in $2,500 and costs being awarded to the municipality. Car goes off peer with kids inside • A car with two young chil- dren in the back seat rolled from the pier into the river at Bayfield Saturday morning. The father, 32 -year-old Bradley Hymers. who ponce report had "left the keys in the ignition and his two chil- dren in the back seat... entered the water and rescued the two children as the vehi- cle was sinking." The Huron County detach- ment of the Ontario Provincial Police says at ."approximately 10:50 a.m. on the south shore marina in - the village" the car "was parked facing north on the, pier." Brittany Hymers.. 3. and Courtney Hymers, 2. "some- how put the vehicle in motion causing it to roll into the Bayfield River." accord- ing to the OPP. Offer for Ault Foods from Italy Ault Foods . Limited announced June 9 that. Parmalat Food Inc., a huge international food processor based in Parma, Italy has offered $415 -million for the company. It isn't known what the future holds for Mitchell's plant, formerly Stacey Bros., but Ault president and chief executive officer Graham Freeman says the merger. if shareholders agree. "adds to the compatibility of the two company' s strengths - fluid milk and cheese." He tektite positives far out- weighed the negatives of the deal. Parmalat is active in Europe, both east and west, Latin America and the U.S. with sales of S4 -billion (U.S.) and 22,000 employees. Fatality in Hullett A 52 -year-old Tiverton -area man was killed in Hullett Township on lune 6 when the pick-up truck he was driving went through a stop sign and collided •with a truck -trailer and trailer unit at Huron County Read 8. Provincial police say Francis Warden of RR 3 Tiverton was weatbotuod en Huron County Road. 15 when he went through the intersec- tion at 12 p.m. The 20 -year-old driver of the truck -trailer from Granton was treated and released at Clinton hospital. BY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff The town's new water tower is a "go." Council okayed the more than $1 -million construction phase of the project for the bigger and better tower Tuesday night. The Seaforth Public Utility Commission asked for approval of this final phase, "funded solely by the water department." after it met the night before. on Monday.. It started setting funds aside for a new tower in 1983. and has been putting away. approximately $70,000 per year. PUC manager Tom Phillips told council. As of the end of last December it had about 5750.000. This reserve will increase during the construc- tion, which hasn't been ten- dered. in the current fiscal year. The utility "doesn't plan to increase rates." he added. "Next year maybe we'll -need some borrowing or internal debentures to finish." IN A YEAR The manager said the Seaforth PUC hopes water will flow from the new tower at the west end of Elizabeth Street in about a year, next May or June. It will be higher. hold more water and give more pressure than the current tower, behind Town Hall, just off Victoria Street. When all is said and done, the total cost of the project from conception to creation, including phases one and two to do with such things as engineering, environmental assessment and public con- sultation (offset in part by transfers from the provincial government), Phillips esti- mated to be in the neighbour- hood of $1,650,000. "Funding for the construe - tion will be borne entirely by this municipality. "Nothing (government funds) is available and noth- ing is on the horizon,- the PUC manager told council. He said the local utility hopes to have the tower up in three months of construction (probably August to October) but with no water in it until spring. BIGGER & BEI FER New controls. at an estimat- ed $50,000 to $60,000 will be installed next year too. The controls for the old water tower are obsolete, good only for parts he added. Phillips told council the PUC hopes the new tower can be painted in Seaforth colours. To paint .the shabby old one in the interim would cost $180.000 he noted. which makes no sense so won't be done. The outer appearance doesn't hurt the quality of the water. The cost of taking down the old tower will be in the $40 -thousand range, which has been includ- ed in the overall total cost of the.p'+yject. He said the old tower may be sold and interest has been expressed in it. The current tower holds about 60 -thousand gallons of water, and on occasion is hard-pressed to deliver the minimum standard pressure of 38 to 40 psi on its out- skirts. and in emergency situ- ations. • The big fire on Main Street the Canada Day weekend last year took about 300,000 gal- lons to fight. and emptied the tower a couple of times. Pressure was also boosted The new.tower will have a volume of about 425 -thou- sand gallons, and because it is higher (each extra 20 feet equals about 10 additional pounds of pressure) will deliver at minimum about 20 more pounds of pressure. Some would call it a scare tactic. but it seems to be working. Prompted by the provincial _ government's recent forced amalgamation in ,Kent County; Huron County municipalities now, seem eager to restructure. Coun. Mason Bailey of Blyth said Huron County municipalities better come to some kind of consensus or face the same unenviable fate as municipalities in Kent County. Kent County municipalities could not reach a consensus on amalgamation and a com- missioner was called in to make the decision for them. The commissioner's decision was to merge the county's 23. municipalities into one, some- thing none of them wanted. Bailey said, "If that happens (in Huron County), we. will have something that none of Us wants." • Coun. Tom Cunningham of Hullett Twp. agreed with Bailey and said, "We should be proactive in getting hold of our own destiny." At the regular monthly meeting of Huron County Council June 5 in Goderich, CONTINUED on page 3 Technology to replace texts , . " for Grades 7, 8 BY TRISH WILKINSON SSP News Staff NEW WATER TOWER will look similar to Thamesford's. a • a • ,e Municipalities sok at all optionsr detail, and costed out, they will be looked at in respect as to where the municipalities will be in five years. The study, while looking at the future of restructured munici- palities, will not be looking at costs to reach that end, and the committee chair noted, "The transition costs could be significant." The transition costs are unknown, she con- tinued, because the study has not looked into the expenses for such items as severance payments, or the costs for a computer to be used by restructured municipalities. "We haven't looked at any of that." The options will be "articu- lated in quite a bit of detail" during a presentation to all councils involved in the restructuring next Wednesday, Lobb said, 'noting they will look at the savings in different .areas. along with the coats for the options, Without gi vitt 4s Alp the options, sbeattAbd''iile obviously, major savings will end up being related to per- sonnel." She later added, "We all have concerns for she ven- ting of council and/or staff, but ultimately the word `restructuring' says it all.' Peronnel concerns aside. • decision to :study three in BY DAVID EMSLIE detail. `"Those are the ones SSP News Staff they are then going to Cost out," Lobb stated. to Central Huron municipali- tiesi One the status of the sfor is the will be taking a close look mp ,q at three restructuring altema- municipalities, and.informa- ►ives, and .seeking public tion provided explains this input into those options• will mean "retaining . the Alison Lobb of Goderich existing local government Township, chair of the structure(ie. seven munici- entral Huron Municipalities polities) but identifying addi- estructuring Committee, tional efficiencies beyond explained that the Towns of those already achieved." Clinton, Goderich and Commenting on this option, Seaforth, along with the Lobb noted that it was ,Townships of Colborne, thought that the member •Krich, Hullett and municipalities were operating illop started working as efficiently as possible. and with consultants The this was backed up by the dolph Group earlier this report. "They had very few r on a restructuring study. recommendations • for ',The consultants, she contin- change." , gathered information on The possibility of having municipalities, and they two municipalities is another $ok the data collected and option. Under this option, Warne up with six restruetur- there would be ,a Central ing scenarios. With the addi- Huron blest municipality. to of three scenarios from comprised of Goderich and member municipalities, the Townships of Goderich they reviewed the and Colborne, and Central 14111dOlnielline possible Huron East, with Hullett and tructuring options. McKillop 'Ibwpahips, it would have proven Seaforth and Cintot. sive to Cost all of those The third option would ace s, the municipalities all seven municipalities oke up into discussion merged into one. ilroups, sad debated Ole best Lobb explained that when ,,nationscoming LID with a the options are studied in Lobb also noted that there is a concern regarding municipal- ities and their councillors keeping their public identity. She pointed out that if there is a problem in a municipality, ratepayers will want to know who to turn to with their con- cerns. The councils will meet fir* she said, to ensure all court members are knowledgeahl about the options, and able I10 answer questions front ratepayers, whether at the meeting, or for those unable to attend the public meetings. The councils meeting, she said, will make sure "every- one is up to speed on what the results are." At the same time, cowl* in reviewing the options will have the opportunity to clari- fy any points that might need changing, before the options are made public. The opinions of ratepayers will be sought before a deci- sion regarding restructuring Mt reached, as following the 444 conseitestaieting, three public' metttli int scheduled. Councils are hoping ti[* municipal ratepayers will attend the public meetings, "and take a look at the opti " with an open mind," I CONTINUED on peip Huron County students going into Grade 7 and 8 in September will be the first to try a new curriculum that replaces textbooks with tech- nology and hands-on activi- ties. Deb Homuth, principal of Goderich District Collegiate Institute and Bluewater Secondary School, stated at Monday's Huron County Board of Education meeting that two writing teams of about 20 teachers have com- pleted the creation of a cur- riculum for math, science and technology, as well as Canadian studies for Grades 7 and 8. "1t is independent of text- books. It uses the world wide web, it uses CD-ROMs, it uses a lot of hands-on," Homuth said in a Tater inter- view. "It is highly activity orientated. Every day there is an activity that kids are involved in." Homuth said that the new curriculum not only clarifies program expectations in the transition years, but will also help prepare the students for the eventual loss of OACs. "We wrote it in anticipation of the loss of the fifth year," she noted. The principal added that altbouch the level of expecta- tion will be higher for the stu- dents in Grades 7 and 8, they have taken a lot of time to plan a program that is suited for their age group. "This is r not about mushing everything CONTINUED on page 3