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Home My WebLink AboutThe Huron Expositor, 1997-10-22, Page 1Cross -Country St. James cross-country team cleans up at meets. See page 7 Don't forget to set your clocks back an hour when you go to bed • Saturday night. Time officially changes at 2 a.m. Sunda Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 — Seaforth, Ontario Briefly Charges laid in seatbelt campaign Ontario Provincial Police say 162 charges' were laid and 163 warnings issued out of the 14,305 vehicles they checked in Huron County during their seatbelt cam- paign from Oct. 4 to 17. The compliance rate for Huron County in September was determined to be 85.3 per cent. Action needed on police board Something will have to be done with the town's police services board now that Lin Steffler has been acclaimed to the next Seaforth Council, deputy -reeve Bill Teall point- ed out at its meeting Tuesday night. She was a member of the three-member board and its secretary until.resigning upon - her acclamation, Teall, who-.; is the current Chair and also the town's representative on the PSB, reported. The other member is Bob Dinsmore. Teall told council Tuesday night that the loss of a board member makes it kind of absurd for the other two when it comes to procedure, to for instance move, second and record motions and be functional. He said it was no big deal at the moment because the police services board was not scheduled to meet again right away. Council agreed to get the proper wheels in motion for a PSB replacement and address the matter as soon as possi- ble. Legion buys adjacent property Seaforth Branch 156 of the Royal Canadian Legion bought an adjacent property at 29 Huron Street via munic- ipal tax sale on Sept. 11. Meanwhile, a municipal tax sale certificate on a burnt out property at 23 Coleman Street was cancelled after taxes, penalty and costs were paid Oct. 8, the same day it was sold. The new owner "has agreed to demolish and remove the building as soon as possible," according to clerk/adminis- trator Jim Crocker's report to Seaforth Council last Tuesday. For the previous several months, complaints from neighbours had focussed the town's efforts to have the damaged building demol- ished and removed. October 22, 1997 - $1.00 includes GST IN FASHION - Andre Durand, left, and his sister Ginelle, right, of Zurich, were Just a few of many models displaying chiTO BY DAVID t dren's clothes in the Raggedy to Riches "All Dolled Up" fashion show Friday night at Seaforth Public School to raise money for the Seaforth Co-operative Children's Centre. The show was organized by Dens and Friends of Seaforth and local cottage industry businesses. Jasmine Foreman was dressed as Raggedy Anne. `Government making things up,' BY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff "It simply can't be done!" That's what administrator Jim Crocker reported to Seaforth Council last week, on calculating the budgetary impact for this municipality of the 101 pages of down- loading worksheets couri- ered to Town Hall on Oct. 7 by the Ontario government. Exact dollars and cents figures become more neces- sary the closer the town gets to budget time, early in the new year. "There is nothing in the 101 pages we did not already have in our posses- sion (which is very little)," the administrator's report delivered Tuesday night reads. "Now we are told to bring the worksheets to an all -day seminar (Friday, Oct. 24). I don't have high expecta- tions of being able to calcu- late impact costs following the meeting. "SEAT OF PANTS" "This government is clear- ly making things up as they go along 'flying by the seat of their pants' when it comes to their downloading agenda." He wrote his biggest con- cern is what the province means by "revenue neutral," which it claims the structur- al reforms to existing trans fer arrangements will be. "The bottom line here is that the province has hand- cuffed local municipalities by taking away our ability to plan for next year and there is nothing we can do about it because local municipalities are truly creatures of the province," Crocker's report concludes. The definition of "revenue says clerk neutral" is a concern, text of the administrator's report reads (the emphasis was included in hiswritten report), because "the province has not calculated the cost of other transfers of responsibility when they do their calculation. "An example is the trans- fer of highways to lower tier municipalities. In Huron County, if the county assumes responsibility of services for the new high- ways, the county and their taxpayers will have to pick up an estimated additional CONTINUED on page 17 Community policing committee forms IIY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff If you are interested in 'community policing, volun- teers from, as many concerns as possible are needed on a Seaforth committee says Ontario Provincial Police Const. Dave Dale. It's about interacting. "If we don't know what the community wants we can't 4o effective policing for tem," he says. an OPP initiative across the province. Similar community policing committees have been up and running for some time in surrounding Huron County - for instance in Tuckcrsmith Township where there has been one for about two years. Actually Seaforth has had a community policing commit- tee for about six months. It now wants to get bigger. The committee was behind the emergency contact Mick- ers downtown) sineoses, (lows. A simple idea, mutually beneficial. "If they're starting to fade we've got lots more," Const. Dale says. NO VIGILANTES Councillor -elect Lin Steffler, who until she takes office next month rernains a member of Seaforth's police services hoard, and Peter Taylor have also been on this unofficially -named local community policing commit - committee might get toge every second or third mo maybe four or five times a year, thc OPP officer es s!,, mates. He stresses this is not a ilante group or duplication any service that exists in town. It is something that ideally will evolve. "In short it is the communi- ty and police working tog cr to make Seaforth a bet place to live and work, Council amends zoning bylaw BY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff Seaforth Council passed without comment a bylaw finally amending its zoning bylaw at last week's meet- ing, as recommended by the town's planning advisory committee (PAC) on Sept. 23 after lengthy prior dis- cussion and public meeting. The bylaw is three pages, single-spaced and deals with "numerous general text changes." Charles Smith, president of Robert Bell Industries Limited in town objected to a couple of the amendments Tuesday night at_council. He said the zoning bylaw as it stood protected ratepayers, and opposed two particular amendments to it that he feels waters it down. He termed the changes "too broad," "nebu- lous" and "needless," implying the town's intent went further than general text change. ONGOING FEUD In particular Smith takes issue with changes to high- way commercial zoning, reducing minimum lot size from 2,000 to 900 square metres. Minutes of last month's PAC meeting state: "The town's solicitor (Mike Mitchell) is confident that the amendments are reasonable and defendable before the Ontario Municipal Board since they are realistic and have been arrived at after due consid- eration of all the usual fac- tors." The Bell Industries presi- dent said Mitchell's corre- spondence was "not a legal opinion" and Smith knows better *hat that means hav- ing just spent $15,000 for one. "With respect to Mr. Mitchell's opinion that I should pursue my views by running for council I would comment that such action would be inappropriate at this time because conflict of interest issues are still a fac- tor," the Bell Industries president notes in an Oct. 9 correspondence to council, after it informed him and George Ring of thc town's intent to push on and pass the bylaw. SIMPLY THE BEST...CARLSON WAG ONLIT ELLISON TRAVEL ANC July 4/9 Now JUNE BALL LAURIE RUSSELL KRISTYN DARLING BONNIE SITTER SARAH DARUNG JUUE CAMPBELL Visit our website at www.ettravel.com *Click on Travel Library 1-800-265-7022 or 235-2000