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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.
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