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Times-Advocate, 1988-09-07, Page 1$20,000 BOOST - Gary Bean of RB Dominion Securities. in Exeter presents a cheque.for $20,000 to Lions Club Youth Centre committee member John Norris. At the left is club president Ross"Mathers: 4 Proposed youth centre needs public support EXETER - If support from. the public and other service organiza- tions in the area matches the en- thusiasm of the Exeter Lions club, youth facilities. in Exctcr will be. getting a $334-,000 shot in the. arm. - The. Lions Club has opened tend- ers for construction of the building on John St. next to,the present Scout Hall which -they have operat- ed and supported for Several years. Lion Ji hn.Norris told the T -A the project could be completed by June.'89 if support and fundraising develop as many club members think it will, . - At present the Lions have about S75,000 including two legacies which they accepted recently with the stipulation the funds must be spent to benefit young people in the .community. . A provincial grant of S91,259 has also been approvedand the town of Exeter will be kicking in S20,000. Exeter Lions club member` Gary Bean who represents RBC Domin ion Securities in the area is con- vinced the project will be a real benefit to our. youth. The present Scout Hall which Bean described as "worn out and cramped" series up to 150' young people. "With in- volvement from other service clubs and organized youth programs this number could increase dramatical- ly;" Bean said. . In fact, the stock broker believes so rnuch in the project he has made the first .public donation to the building fund. His S20,000 contri- bution leaves S128,000 to be raisedby the club. • A few years ago when local resi- dents were faced with the abrupt closure of the arena, the necessary funds were raised in a combination of public -donations and fund rais- ing events. "We're counting on the generosity of. local citizens and we're also prepared to contribute a great deal of hard -work ourselves in raising the balance," accountant John Norris said.. • - "The Lions Club, which has contributed substantially to other local projects such as: 1be south Huron Hospital, The Lions Park, The Tennis Courts, The South Hu- ron Rec. Centre, Scouts and Guides, baseball lighting, ctc. will not be lessening its commitment to the C.N.I.B., Easter Seals and the Thames Valley Childrens' Cen- tres" said club .president Ross Mashers. Former Lions president Don Mousseau is the building chairman. "It's going to take a lot of work but I think the club is up to it," he said. A youth centre has been a major project of. the club for the past two years with club members approving going ahead with the building last- year at ':an estimated cost of $285,000. Since then raising buird- ing costs and revised architect's esti- mates have climbed to $334,000. Alldonations•will be tax deducti- ble. For further information or to show your support call John Norris (Bus) 235-0101 or Gary Bean (Bus) 235-2241, (Res) 235-2140. Serving South Huron, North Middlesex One Hundred and Seventeenth Year cate & North Lambton Since 1873 EXETER, ONTARIO, September 7, 1988 Price Per Copy 60 Cents Report shows need for housing assistance EXETER - Exeter council re- ceived a municipal housing state ment and assisted housing survey Tuesday night from Richard Zclinka of Jean Monteith and Associates Limited. The report shows there is a need . "and demand for assisted senior citi zcn and family_ housing in the town. Of the total of 14 senior units needed, eight would require some levelof assistance to pay the. rnohthly rent. Of the eight family units, four would require some fi- nancial help. • Zclinka said, " Demand for 22 rental units as identified in the as- sisted housing survey should be great enough to prompt thc munici- pality to become directly involved, or to promote the involvement of others within the community in the various federal and provincial hous- ing programs". Council members will be given two weeks to check over the report and make any comments or sug- gested changes. The'survey indicated the majority of Exeter's residential dwelling structures arc in good to excellent condition. For comparison purposes, the huilding condition survey was orga- Two Michigan cyclists killed EXETER- Two Michigan resi- dents arc dead as the result of a hit and run accident Sunday evening, near Greenway. The two were cycling on Huron road 15, about a mile,west of Greenway when they wcrc struck by a westbound truck driven by a 17 year-old. Marilyn Ruth Larkin of Bcrkly, Michigan was pronounced dcad on arrival at South Huron Hopsital, Exeter and the second cyclist Harsha Vardam of Detroit died Monday at University Hospital•in London. Thc 17 year-old young offender and three passengers were not in- jured. He was held in custody pend- ing a court appearance facing charg- es of impaired driving causing death, driving with an alcohol read- ing over .08 and failing to remain at the scene of an accident. Officers of the Exctcr detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police in • - vestigated. Four other accidents were investi- gated by Exeter OPP officers. On Saturday, August 27, a vehi- cle' driven by Wilfred Ormandy, Dashwood went out of control on Sideroad 20-21 at Concession 4-5 of Stephen township and struck a concrete bridge. Damage to the ve- hicle was light. • Vehicles operated by Eleanore Connolly, Bayfield and Grace Knoll, RR 1. Port Colborne collid- Pleasc turn to page 2 nized by using three areas. They were north of the river,- east of Highway 4 and west of Highway 4..• • In the overall picture for the town of Exeter, 75.3 perccnt, of residen-' .tial structures werc listed in the ex- cellent and good categories. - The greatest percentage of dwell- ings in thc lower rating categories was in the arca west of Highway 4 with 36.1 percent listed as fain and 1.3 percent of the housing stock rated as poor. In all of .Exctcr the fair condition percentage was 23.8 and poor at only 0.9 perccnt. - In this regard, thc report noted, "It is important to note that the histor- ic value and potential for renovation should be carefully considered prior to any redevelopment". • The vast majority of .existing housing is in the form of single de- tachcd dwellings and also owner- -occupied. A total of 1,075 structures were surveyed. Residential units. over commerical establishments wcrc not included in the residential build- ing condition survey. In a review of the rental housing market in Exeter, the report revealed the overall vacancy rate is currently very low. Comments from rcaltors included, " Little to no vacancies available", "probably less than one perccnt" and "hard to find any ren- tals". " . Tlic demand for rental accommo— dation, especially in two and three bedroom units is very high while supply is very hw: A. similar situation is presently` being experienced in many other Ontario municipalities as develop- ers arc less enthusiastic about build- ing rental units while rent c mtrols are in place. Local real estate agents were asked about the demand for homes and activity of home sales in three price ranges. They felt the highest demand for homes was in the under S60,000 range, good demand in'thc S60,000 to S100,000 bracket and "Very little call" for homes valued at over S100,000. Older home prices ranged from S65,000 up to SK0,000 while ser- vicediots in Exeter were selling for S15,000 to S22,000. The rcaltors noted that property taxes were be- lieved to be.. high for a small 'com- munity ranging from S750 to •S1,100. • Average family incomes in Exctcr will be used in assessing the current affordability of housing in thc Based on projection of the last census figures, thc average family in Exeter earned S32,147 in 1987. The Ontario avcragc at the same time was 536,371. The -report said using average family incomes for calculations, about 50 perccnt of the households in Exctcr will have an income below S32,147 and 13 perccnt have an income of less than $13,199. According to the Mortgage -Insu- rance Company of Canada -, 30 per- cent of -a family's income is sug- gested to be acceptable or tolerable for housing costs. This would mean that 13 percent of Exeter's families have less than S328 per month to spend on hous- ing. . The survey reports that the aver- age monthly rent in Exctcr ranged. from S200 to 5550 per month for a Please turn to pagc,2 Opposition voiced against changes in _Ontario conservation authorities EXETER - "We got more than we expected". - That was thc comment by Ausa- blc Bayfield Conservation Authori- ty general manager Tom Prout whcn reporting to Exeter council Tuesday night on recommendations made by a review of the Conserva- tion Authorities program. - Prout went on to say, "Our role is not clarified the way we would like it to be and we are embarassed with the provincial funding proce- dures. We would like to see changes in the provincial commitmcnt to funding". He continued, " We send in our town. I bud:ct in Jul and dont find out how much money we will get until March of the next year. Whcn we -receive late approval for capital pro- jects, then we have to tell the mu- nicipality how much their share is and they may not have it in tbcir budget. That takes away our credita- bility" The review suggests ,supplemen- tary grants should be eliminated and regular grants of 40, 50 or 70 per- cent should be provided for all pro- grams of a Conservation Authority. Currently the ABCA receives 80 percent for administration, 85 per- ccnt for water related programs and 50 percent for recreation. Prout add- ed, " All we can do is nc ,otiatc for as high a grant ratc as possible. If it is lowered, we will have to obtain extra monies from the local munici- palities". Thc general manager continued, " We have no control over capital projects. We submit a "wish list" and sometimes we get approval for the bottom one on the list and the one at the top is taken off'. Thc review also suggests the number of authorities in the prov- ince be reduced from 33 to 18 by way of amalgamation. When Reeve Bill Micklc suggest- ed the local authority may be asked to join with thc St. Clair region, Please turn to page 2 Express are Ontario Champs GENERAL HOMES New Mortgages mean market expansion Page,5 CELEBRATION - Kevin Drager (left) and trainer Bev Birtch celebrate a tvsrett in the anal game of the double knockout tourney. Story and plc . run in the final genie of the Ontario Senior D tournament on the weekend. toms on pages 1A and 3A. Express won the championship for the second time in three years, downing GET SET Plan your entries for the Exeter Fair Page 6 HISTORY Books finally ready at Lambton Museum Page 10 GREAT SHOW At• Huron County plowing match Page 12, 13 CHAMPIONS Exeter Express take OEA title Page 1A