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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1987-03-18, Page 2a Page 2 Times -Advocate, March 18, 1987 CounciI, red board spar over fees, d�snin Want to stay clear Members, f the South Huron .rec centre board of management decid- ed to stay clear of the issue of sur- charges for minor sports participants outside the four contributing municipalities when the matter made its way onto the agenda in two pieces of correspondence, Thursday, but at the end of the meeting decided to work on a policy regarding those surcharges. The issue was -first broached in a letter from Exeter council to rec directory Lynne Farquhar that "directed" that she set up a meeting of each minor sports group (both winter and summer sports) to discuss. council's directive that the groups charge a surcharge on registration fees to any partieipatns living outside Exeter, Stephen, Usborne and Hay. Ken Oke opened the discussion by asking if the board should be making a policy regarding surcharges. Exeter council representative 'Dorothy Chapman explained that there already was a policy whereby those outside the four contributing municipalities should pay extra on their registration fees. When Pat Down asked whose policy it was, Mrs. Chapman responded that it was Exeter council's. "Then council should call the meeting," Mrs. Down responded and presented that as a motion that was- seconded asseconded by Ken Oke. Mrs. Down said it was a political issue and the political representatives. should take the flack and not board members, especially those from Ex- eter who received no remuneration for serving on the board. - She said the board would cooperate by providing council with the names of those involved in the minor sports groups. "Her point is well taken," board chairman Jim Workman said. - - The motion was approved on .the vote of Mrs. Down. Ken Oke, Phyllis Johnston and Kathy Whiteford. Mrs. Chapman -and Peter Snell did not sup- port it. Facilities -nranatger-Cam-Steward=-_. son then asked if staff members were to -take directives from council or the board, noting that the letter from council had been sent directly to the rec director and had "directed" that she set up a meeting. Workman, who several times last year decriedthe fact council. members failedto follow proper com- munication procedures, said the let- ter should have been sent to the board and not to the rec director directly. A copy of a letter from Stephen Township to Exeter Minor Hockey Association president Gary Dolphin was also on the agenda and noted that a township ratepayer had been sent a request for an additional'.$50 for registraiton with the EMHA. . . Stephen advised that their 1987 grant to the board had stipulated that it was being made on the basis that no user fees were to be charged township residents. - "We suggest that the extra funds be taken out of grant money already donated by the Township of Stephen to this board," the letter concluded: Workman said he was "not thrill- ed" with that last paragraph but said it was a matter in which the board should not get involved. "It has nothing to do with us," Oke replied and received an affirmative response from Workman. At the conclusion of the Thursday meeting, Mrs. Down asked if the board wanted the general govern- ment committee to work on a policy - regarding surcharges, explaining that board members and staff were in a better position than council members to get some of the needed information. Noting recent adverse .publicity generated from user fees im- plemented by the City of Chatham. she said that perhaps the publicity received wasn't worth the few bucks generated by the added fees. Mrs. Chapman said that she was sure that the committee could come up with some good sound -ideas. anyone working on the matter would welcome them. "Sit down and look at the whole mess and decide where we're going," she -urged -as -the -board -endorsed a motion to have the committee look at the issue. Seek professional cleaner he South Huron rec centreboard anagement agreed this week to st the services of a professional to n several areas of the facility and that current staff will then be to keep cleanliness to that in the future. bate over hiring extra staff to the building was held in closed n and stemmed from a recom- ation from the facilities ittee. s to be cleaned include the hall, kitchen, dressing rooms, con= , washrooms and offices. board gave facilities manager tewardson authorization to hire perienced cleaner at a rate of r hour. e original recommendation, mittee had envisioned hiring me person on a regular basis specific areas with that per- ork 15 hours per week in the nd five in the summer. er, the board favored a one - I. o their meeting, members ishrooltts, dressing --room& tchen to ascertain the pre - tion after complaints had arthe February meeting act the facility was not be - to previous standards. d also adopted a recom- romfthe facilities commit- tal1 a vending type skate machine. Universal Skate T of m enli clea hope able dard De clean sessi mend comm Area foyer; cessio The Cam S an ex $5.50 pe In th the com a part -ti to clean -son to w winter a Howev time tria Prior t toured wt and the ki sent condi been aired about the f ing cleaned The boa mendation tee to ins sharpening Sharpening Ltd. will install and main- tain a universal coin-operated skate sharpener and•pay the rec board 10 percent of gross revenue. - In the past two years, revenue from the board's skate sharpening service provided by staff members has been slightly over $3,000 per year and that revenue is expected to drop to bet- - ween $500 to $1,000 under the new system. Patrons wishing skates sharpened will also face a 25 percent increase in the cost as the machine will charge $1.25 per skate. The present rate is $2.00 for a pair of skates. Four reasons for the recommenda- tion were listed as follows; less dust drom sharpening, free up man hours to maintain facility, less interruptions Ln &her work, and more consistency in sharpenings. Stewardson said the dust -generated by the present machine was a par- ticular problem and it was being spewed throughout the building through the heating and ventilation systems. He also said that there were com- plaints about the present qualty of servrce-that-stemmed-from the fact staff were often rushed in the taskof - - sharpening skates because they had other duties awaiting them. The board also learned the commit- tee wotfld continue to investigate solar heating for the swimming pool and the cost -of an energy audit for the facility. After a three -month --delay; the - South Huron rec cente board held an election of officers, Thursday, nam- ing Jim Workman as chairman again. The board held off elections in January on the basis of rumors that Exeter council'members planned to disband the group and take over operation of the facilities and pro- grams themselves. However, that failed to materialize. Kathy Whiteford was elected as vice-chairman of the board. On the recommendation of Dorothy Chapman, it was decided to leave the membership of the two standing com- mittees thesame as last year. "We're just starting to get rolling", she explained. However, one switch was made when Peter Snell said he had been thinking of requesting a change from Election finally held NEW STO A new business eter's Main street April 1. Allan Stubbs who has been operating a successful television and satelite business in Thedford is expan- ding to Exeter and will be located in the building recently vacated by Becker's Milk Store Stubbs says the m to provide better sere customers he has in He added, "The st ed by local people. hired a store manag The store will carry dishes along with dec line of Hitachi televi VCR's, cameras, etc. RE OPENS will open on Ex - during the week of eve to Exeter is ice for the many this area. re will be staff - i have already r„ lJniden satelite oders and a full sions, stereos, —the -genera vernmentcommittee to the facilities committee-Phylli Johnston agreed to change with him and that was approved in the motion. A letter was received from the Ex- eter Minor Softball group apologizing for the fact last year's diamond charges have still not be forwarded to the board. The amount owing is $265. The Minor Hardball Association had sent a similar letter in January. The board agreed to write back to the softball organization noting that payment for last year is expected as soon as funds are available from this year's registration and that the 1987 fees are to be paid when the league lists are finalized. A brief discussion was held on a let- ter from the South Huron Ministerial asking that no special weekend everts be staged on Sunday mornings and that the starting times be delayed un- til at least 1:00 or 1:30 p.m. Mrs. Whiteford suggested it was not up to the.board to tell people when they can play, while Mrs. Johnston noted that not everyone goes to church on Sundays': "Some go Saturday nights", added Ken Oke. Rec director Lynne Farquhar also noted that church services were in- corporated into several of the special community events which are held throughout the year. Miss Farquhar told the board that an application has been presented under the Challenge '87 SEED pro- gram for summer sports and play program grants. She said that if the grant'is not received, the program should be dropped due to Zack of funds in the budget. ENDURANCE TEST — Kathie Monk clocks Exeter Public School stu- dent Naomi Prest to see how long she can keep her arm in a pail of water as cold as local lakes and rivers in the spring. Monk was at the school as a representative of the -ARCA to talk to the students about the dangers associated with thinning ice and crumbling snowbanks at the water's .edge at this time of year. (Naomi Iosted 19 seconds). Concern expressed over delays, costs Delays and the costs involvedin the bandwagon," he said. sten by the board and she didn't feel court case adjournments were Mrs. Chapman said that as soon as the decision they reached was wrong. criticised by members of Exeter a person is placed in a jail cell. that Council members were also-confus- council, Monday. _person should become -award_ of-the-=--ed-abouttheboard's decision --that Ex- . Councillor Morley Hall broached province and the latter should pay thesubject in relation to an accident in Exeter that has still not come before the courts although it occurred late last year. He said he was considering writing the Ontario attorney-gen€ral to ex- press his concern and opined that it appeared lawyers put cases off as long as possible in the hope that witnesses would forget details. Councillor Dorothy Chapman. a member of the Municipal Police Association, said the high costs of court delays was a concern across the province and noted that in northern Ontario it was "just phenomenal" as prisoners had to be transported over long distances to appear in court and then returned -to jail if their cases were set over. She advised that a study of the situation was currently underway and speculated that there may be some recommendations for beneficial changes. in Exeter's case, she explained, it took two officers to go to the Stratford jail to pick up a prisoner for court appearance and the two officers, usually having to work on overtime. then had to return the prisoner. "We shouldn't have to pay for these expenses," Councillor Ben Hoogen- boom suggested, urging that council lobby to have changes made in the system. _ _"Every municipality should get on Feels like ping pong Dorothy Chapman lamented Mon- day night that she's beginning to feel like aping pong ball in her dual role as a member of council and the South Huron rec centre board. Her comments came as council members questioned and criticised some of the action taken at Thurs- day's board meeting regarding sur- charges for residentsoutside the area of the four contributing municipalities and a plan to undertake a cleaning project at the facility. The board authorized facilities manager Cam Stewardson to hire a professional cleaner at the rate of $5.50 to undertake a thorough clean- ing of the rec centre in the hope that the staff will then be able tq maintain the facility in comparable condition. However, Councillor Ben Hoogen- boom said he thought the rec centre staff .should do the cleaning themselves and he was joined in that opinion by Councillor Tom Hum- phreys. "Why spend the money?" - Humphreys asked regarding the hir- ing of additional help. It was also suggested that it would be difficult to get a professional cleaner at the rate of $5.50 per hour. Deputy -Reeve Lossy Fuller jumped on a comment made by Peter Snell when he gave the rec board meeting report at Monday's session and refer- red to the cleaning project as "spring cleaning". Mrs. Fuller said spring cleaning was much different than regular cleaning chores and if the staff were to base their time for cleaning on that recorded by a professional doing spring cleaning rituals, it would not be very realistic. "You have to set some guidelines," she opined. . When she then asked Mrs. Chap- man if the latter had any response, the board member replied, "No, it's - not worth it". However, she said later the matter had been the subject of a long discus - ENTERS NAME Sombra Township council member Steve Arnold has been the first can- didate to toss his hat into the ring for any costs involving in transporting people back and forth between court and jail. r eter council should call a meeting with minor sport groups to discuss surcharges in that the matter -is political and shouldn't be handled by the board. Councillor Gaylan Josephson said that appeared inconsistent with a later note in the rec board report that indicated the board's general govern- ment committee was going to meet to try and set a policy on surcharges. Snell said the board would look at the issue in an effort to have something to contribute to any discus- sions should they (board) be asked to do so. Clerk Liz Bell said she had advised . Mayor Bruce Shaw of the board's decision to have council call the meeting before he left on a vacation. Shaw asked the clerk to set up a meeting for March 24. She indicated the rec board members had not been extended an invitation to attend that session. Tuesday was collision date All three collisions investigated by the Exeter OPP this week occurred on Tuesday. Total damage was $4.700. One of the three was at 8:45.a.m., when Meryl Glanville, Seaforth, pull- : ed into the parking lot at the Petro Can station in Hensall and exited the vehicle. However, the vehicle con- - tinued to reverse and struck a phone booth, causing damage of $400. • At 10:35 a.m., a vehicle driven by Helen Thompson, HR 2 Ailsa Craig. turned onto the Mt..Carthel Road and collided with a vehicle driven by Gregory Fortin. Kincardine. Damage in that was listed at $3,000. The other Tuesday crash occurred at 12:30 a.m. when a vehicle operated by Kevin Riggs, London, was south- bound on the south access road to - Huron Park, went into the ditch and struck a fence. Damage was estimated at $1,300. During the week, the detachment officers investigated 33 general occur- rences and laid 37 charges under the Highway Traffic Act, seven under the Liquor Licence Act and -One under the Compulsory Insurance Act. There were four drivers given 12 -hour suspensions -as a result of . roadside tests for drinking drivers. ,, moo.. ... ... OUT OF AFRICA — Elinor Clarke, London, visited grandson Geoffrey Maver's class at Exeter Public School to tell the children about a two-week safari she and her husband enjoyed in Tanzania. She shows Cam Sadler (lef t), Natalie Amerong'en, Crystal -Ann Davis and grandsons Geoffrey and Andrew Mover some of her etchings of the animals she saw. Coun#i/-mwst trim costs or face 1.1 percent hike the Progressive Conservative Faced with a possible 11.75 percent However, at the regular March nomination in Lam'mon. budget increase for 1987, Huron Coun- meeting last Thursday in Goderich, The nomination will be held at ty council has been asked for budget council was told by Tuckersmilh Petroliaon April 2. cutting direction from its executive Township Reeve Bob Bell, a member The riding is presently held by committee. - of the executive committee, that the Liberal Dave Smith. The committee has the formidable committee was not prepared to live Arnold is an employee at Dupont task of preparing a final budget pro- with such an increase. "if we can get s dodotTg rms-27s-eeres--Hs joinerf-.`.po j for council's. approval at a some direction (with the budget cuts). Sombra council in 1985. special meeting arc Tg:"`--' we4do.the- b " he . id.l Exeter Reeve Bill Mickle, however. preferred to toss the ball back into. the. committee's court. Referring to an executive committee decision to make Family and Children's Services stay within a four to five percent in- crease', he said the committee should be just as firm with its own departments. Goderich Township Reeve Grant Stirling, another executive committee ,member, indicated some of the pro- blem was that no department was volunteering to make its own cuts. "If we gave .all the departments what they ask for, that's what the increase would be (11.75 percent )'' he said. The executive committee. however. would like to see the increase limited to 5.5 percent, but cuts would have to be made in most department budgets, he said. While the social services department has kept its budget pro- posal to within the 4.5 percent range, the roads department was the only department to make its own cuts in order to meet that request. To attract industry to this area, Mickle said, it is important for the county to be competitive in its taxa tion requirements by showinu operating restraint. even if it means cutting staff to aphieve this purpose. in a letter circulated to members of county council, Mickle pointed- out that Huron County is the fourth highest among eight counties in pro- perty tax demands per household. Huron is also the second highest in spending per household and receives the third highest number of grants per 4 PCs set for nomination The Huron Progressive Conser- vative Association will hold its nomination meeting Tuesday, April 14 in Huron Central Secondary School at Clinton. In making the announcement, Don- na Wood of Clinton said there are at least three potential candidates for the nomination as the Tory standard bearer in the -next provincial election. However, since they have not publicly declared their candidacy, Mrs. Wood would not release the names of the potential candidates. All nominations must lie received by the association secretary, Jane Webtter of Vanastra, no later than 48 hours before the meeting date. There are 26 municipalities with the new provincial riding of Huron, created when new legislation in- troduced electoral boundary changes in Ontario. instead of being divided into two separate ridings of Huron Middlesex and Huron -Bruce, the county is now all one riding, Huron. WINNING PUBLIC SPEAKERS — Top winners in the three -school public speaking contest held at Precious Blood Separate School in the intermediate category were (back left) Aimee Gelinas, St. Boniface, first; Joanne Regier, St. Boniface, second and Jason Coalman, Precious Blood, third. Junior winners were Erin Kraftcheck, Precious Blood, first; Christopher Glavin, Mt. Carmel, second and Jim Ruffen, Mt. Carmel, third. household. Besides Huron, the other counties in Mickle's comparison are Oxford. Bruce. Elgin, Grey. Kent, Lambton an Perth. "'low long can we keep i in- creases) to four or live percent," McKillop Township Reeve Marie Ilicknell asked. "It's good to keep to _that hut there is going to come a day w en we are going o ave o r e bullet and pay a whole lot more." • The biggest single increase in the budget is a $400,(sto reserve for the proposed Ifuronview expansion. coun- cil was told by Stanley Township Iteeve Clarence Rau. "When we're putting money into a reserve account for hospitals, we should think of our own hospital first." the Iluronview management committee chairman said, however. He was referring to the $197,902. which the county currently holds in reserve for hospital. A pori ion of that is already earmarked for the Clinton Public Hospital, council was told. However. Bell pointed out the -I1.75 percent increase was without provi- sion for 1987 reserve funds for hospitals. To make such provision would Mean an additional four per- cent increase. he said. Hay Township Reeve Lionel Wilder said the county had to establish and build up its reserve accounts in order to pay for future t 'T)jvcts 'ouncil is already e, .,, r 1 lei the Iluron Coon \ \' .qui,. tluronview a', 11. ,ne tribulint' he said. • NI( ors con- )dgco ,dilemma, Clerk Tre,* 1.1.1 Ilan]) told coun- cil, is that a tile the county's expen- ditures are ,ing, its resource grants have only gone up about two percent. Council must approve (he budget at its March 19 special meeting in order to meet approval deadlines for federal and provincial grants. •