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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1981-05-06, Page 14'. rir a ter. Part of trailer still hangs from tree Truckload of canned pop litters yard t$ ; rr Handed 30 days in jail for refusing breath test A Clinton area man was sentenced to 30 days in jail after being convicted of refusing to provide a breath. sample when he appeared in Exeter court, Tuesday. Prout gets A -B post Tom Prout, a native of Usborne Township, has been appointed as the general manager of the Ausable- Bayfield Conservation Authority. The appointment was an- nounced this week by chair- man Ivan Hearn in a letter to all area municipalities in the watershed. The appointment is effec- tive May 1, the date on which the Authority converted from a resourcesmanager to a general manager system. The major difference in these positions being that the former is a liaisonperson from the ministry of natural resources in charge of the Authority's technical opera- tion while the latter is an employee of the Authority responsible for the entire program. Prout, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Gerry Prout, was formerly with the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority as land use co- ordinator. Judge W. G. Cochrane im- posed the sentence against Edward T. Helm, RR 2 Clin- ton, and ordered the sentence to be served in Lon- don where the accused works. Temporary absence will be allowed so Helm can continue in his occupation. The charge was laid on November 29 when Helm was found in his parked car on Highway 4 with the keys in the ignition. He had previous convictions. A Huron Park man, Floyd Sydney Costain, was remanded in custody for two weeks to await sentence on a charge of dangerous driving. The court learned that four times he rammed the rear of a vehicle with one he was driving on December 19. Damage to the two vehicles amounted to $5,800. Judge Cochrane com- mented that it was upsetting to think the accused was us- ing his motor vehicle as a dangerous weapon. Costain is already in custody for another offence and will be sentenced on May 12 for the dangerous driving count, to which he pleaded guilty. Two drivers were fined $300 or 30 days each after pleading guilty to charges of driving with a blood alcohol level of over 80 mgs. John Wayne Insley, Huron Park, was charged od March 28 after being stopped by 'ESSAY WINNERS — Matt McClure and Kevin Glasgow of SHDHS were winners in a recent national essay contest open high school students throughout Canada. The two winners are shown seated in the above picture. At the back are school Librarian Jerry McDonnell, English teacher Pat Wilson and Principal J.L. Wooden. T -A photo police for driving at a high rate of speed. A breathalizer test showed a reading of 120 mgs. He had his licence suspended for three months and was given 30 days in which to pay the fine. Joseph Bertram, Exeter, also had his license suspend- ed for three months for a charge laid on January 21. A breathalizer test gave a reading of 220 mgs. He was given 60 days in which to pay the fine. He was charged when police found him behind the wheel of his vehicle, which was in the ditch. Jeffrey Gore, Centralia, was fined $25 on each of two counts of making false statements under the Unemployment Insurance Act. He had received an overpayment of 8321 and the amount had been recovered in full. The accused told the court that the overpayment was due to an unwitting mistake on his part and he reim- bursed the fund as soon as he realized his error. John Barrett, Exeter, was remanded out of custody for sentencing on May 26 on a charge of making a false statement that Douglas Allan Barrett had caused wilful damage to two vehicles. Please turn to page 2 Two win writing test Two studphts from South Huron District High School are winners in a Canada - wide essay contest involving a large number of entries. Matt McClure and Kevin Glasgow will be receiving a two day all -expense paid trip to Toronto for finishing in the top 20 in all of the coun- try. While in Toronto the two local students will be able to select $250 worth of books from the warehouse of Clarks, Irwin and Company to' be used in the SHDHS library. ,They will be treated to a tour of Toronto's main at- tractions and have an oppor- tunity to participate In events that have been plann- ed in celebration of the National Book Festival. The topics were related to the general theme of the contest, "Canadian writers and Canadian writing." ss 2,600 cases of pop strewn in front yard Tree wins challenge with truck • Highway 4 south of the Crediton Road appeared akin to the aftermath of a mammoth Pepsi challenge, Monday, when a truck laden with cases of canned soft drinks hit a tree and its cargo was distributed over a wide area of the front lawn of Bert Kristofferson. Miraculously, driver Larry Mason, Dashwood, es- caped uninjured as did the drivers of the other two vehicles involved, Laurie Stackhouse, Crediton. and Joyce Dickey, Centralia. All three vehicles had been southbound on Highway 4 around' 5:30 p.m. and the Stackhouse vehicle was in the process of passing the other two vehicles when the Dickey vehicle also pulled out to pass. The Stackhouse car went out of control onto the east shoulder and then collided with the front of the truck, sending it into the ditch and on its.way towards a huge tree in the Kristoffer- son front yard. The trailer, caught the tree and the load was dumped, with the tractor proceeding on several more metres before coming to a halt. fa The trailer was totally destroyed and portions of it were still hanging in the tree, while the cases of cann- ed soft drinks from the Tuckey Beverages vehicle were strewn about. OPP Constable Wayne Charlton investigated, assisted by Constables Bob Whiteford and Bill Osterloo. Damage to the tractor trailer was estimated at $25,000. There was $1.500 damage to the Stackhouse vehicle and $150 to a fence owned by Kristofferson. There was no damage to the Dickey vehicle. Bruce Pfaff of Tuckey Beverages, said there were approximately 2,600 cases of canned soft drinks on the truck and none would be salvageable due to the danger of contamination. Passersby helped themselves to the soft drinks as a front endloaderscooped up the debris and loaded it onto dump trucks. Damages amounted to $6,- 500 when four vehicles were involved in a collision on Highway 4 just north of Dashwood Industries during a dense fog on Thursday morning. One of the vehicles was badly damaged -4n an ensuing fire to which firemen from Exeter and Huron Park responded. Vehicles involved in the original three -car were driven by Please turn to pileup Todd page 2 Crumpled remains of trailer and part of tree hyo Ames Serving South Huron, North Middlesex is< One Hundred and Eighth Year. & North Lambton Since 1873 EXETER, ONTARIO, MAY 6, 1981 Price per copy 40 Cents School budget $28 million Huron County taxpayers will have an additional $38.71 on their education tax bill this year based on an average assessment of $3100. That increase is based on an average residential assessment in the county. as supplied by the assessment commissioner, and follows the Board of Education's ap- proval of a 1981 budget in Clinton, Tuesday. • EYES POP OUT -- Ronalynn Bell shows the strain of holding herbreoth for 10 seconds as she undergoes a medical examina- tion by Terry Alexander in the Exeter Public School perfor- mance of Goofus and the Golden Goose. Prices too high? Mayor Bruce Shaw, a member of the rec centre board, said the old rates charged by the rec centre did not meet the costs and that rates were being reviewed. Humphreys concluded his comments by inviting members of council and their spouses to a tour of Northern Telecom In Lon- don, where he is a super- visor. The tour is planned for later this month to see the plant which covers about 10 acres and employs 1,800 people. The South Huron rec centre may be pricing itself out of the market as far as local service clubs are concerned. That was the message carried to council this week by Tom Humphreys, who noted the recent $50 per night increase to $300 may force some clubs to look elsewhere for facilities in which to stage dances or other fund raising events. "If the service clubs opt out, you have a problem," the council member suggested. The new budget calls for total expenditures of 828,- 630,287, an increase of 13.2 percent over the board's $25,296,061 in expenditures last year. That means the taxpayers of Huron will have to contribute $9.484.702 to the education system this year, an increase of 19.1 per- cent over the $7.964,847 rais- ed through taxes in 1960. That means the local mill rate for education will jump 13.49 mills in 1981 to 105.93. On an average residential assessment in the county the education portion of the tax bill will rise from $289 to 8328. The biggest chuck of the budget. 71 percent. is labell- ed for salaries and benefits. The salaries and benefits for teachers and administration amounts to over $20 million for 1981. The other big items on the expenditure side include $2.4 million for plant operation and maintenance and $2.3 million for transportation. This year. debt charges on debentures and interest on operating loans will amount to $983,336 So while the overall expenditure rose by 13.2 percent the amount rais- ed through taxation will go up by a whopping 19 percent. Several municipal and township clerks attended the budget meetingand Director of Educatic,n.John Cochrane Exeter tax rate established Public school supporters in the Town of Exeter will face a 17.54 mill increase in their 1981 taxes according to figures compiled this week by Clerk Liz Bell upon receipt of the Huron board of education levy. That's an eight percent hike over 1980 and is the same percentage increase for commercial property owners. whose mill rate in- crease will be 20.64 mills. The new residential rate for public school supporters is 237.12 mills residential and 278.97. commercial. Separate school sup- porters will haveanincrease of only four percent. The new residential mill rate total is 232.92 mills and the commercial rate is 274.04. The mill increases are made up as follows general municipal 1.58 mills. county 3.21, high school 2 57. public school 10.42. Separate school 2.65. For commercial property owners the increases are: general municipal 1 58 mills, county 3.78, high school 3.03, public school 12.25, separate school 3.12. The total levies are: general municipal 8591.283. county 8158.372. high school $289,043, public school $344,- 437. Separate school 817,797. outlined the budgeting procedure for 1981. He in- dicated that much of the in- crease in education taxation is due to a reduction in the percentage of provincial grants. In 1975. provincial grants accounted for 76 percent of the elementary school budget and that has steadily declined to 68 percent last year. In the secondary panel the story is much the same. Provincial grants in 1975 covered 76 percent of the cost and fell to 65 percent in 1980. Cochrane also explained that declining enrolment has limited provincial grants. "Money from the province is based on the number of students and with declinig enrolment the grants have fallen off." he said. "The provincial spending ceilings have fallen behind price in- creases." The board's committees did make cuts from original budget estimates and one of the major deletions was $75.- 000 thatwas removed from a proposed teacher sickleave gratuity fund. Cochrane said that accumulative sick -day pay for teachers with more than 12 years experience would amount to $3.3 million. Despite a warning from the auditors to establish a reserve fund. the board decided to wait on the reserve fund and delete the $75.000 from the budget. A separate motionwasalso passed to put a freeze on hir- ing in the elementary panel until the pupil -teacher ratio reflects limitations set out in the collective agreement. The board also delayed the phased implementation of special education instruction as outlined in Bill 92. A special education program is in place in the county. but the board has until 1985 to bring that up to Bill 82 specifications. In reviewing the overall budget. effectively. the cost of instruction per pupil has risen by 17 percent over last year. Enrolment is declining by a rate of 2 percent per Please turn to page 2 OLD ORGAN — Children in grades 5 and 6 at Mt. Carmel School toured St. Peters church south of Exeter Thursday. Father J. Nelligon played an old orgon to the delight of the children. St. Peters church hos not been used in recent years. Staff photo Sidewalks improve with age? Opinions are different While most sidewalks can be expected to deteriorate with age, there is a hint that Exeter's may be improving. The strange phenomenon surfaced at Monday night's council session when Reeve Don MacGregor said that an inspection tour taken by the public works committee last week revealed that the local sidewalks were "very good." Councillor Lossy Fuller was surprised at that comment, noting that in a tour of the sidewalks last year, a committee of council had found several to be in poor shape. Mayor Bruce Shaw joined the discussion to say there were several thousand feet that should be replaced. MacGregor advised that the committee had found that at least one side of the street had good sidewalks in most instances and the committee would be making a recommendation in the near future on their priorities for sidewalk work this year. Council endorsed the committee's action of authoriz ing works superintendent Glenn Kells to purchase a Cushman diesel power grass mower for the parks at a cost of 810,200. This is slightly less than the amount that had been included in the budget for the machine. The committee also recommended council write to the ('NR regarding im- tdroved sign requirements at the railway crossings in the south-west section of Exeter as suggested in a recent letter from a local ratepayer. Sharon Chappell. Another of her recom- mendations called for a hence around Victoria Park to protect youngster's using the playground and the matter is bring investigated by MacGregor and Coun- cillor Tom 'Humphreys. The committee agreed that prior to purchasing a major piece of equipment that a review of the passibility of contracting the service be completed and the report of the findings be presented to council as part of the recommendations.