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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1979-12-19, Page 15 (2)Area councils take step towards fire pact Grand Bend, Bosanquet and Stephen came one step closer to signing an agreement for fire protec- tion in the three municipalities. The three councils met together Monday night at the regular meeting of Grand Bend council. Talks for a new fire agreement began about a year ago, and they have been without a fire agreement for all of 1979. Some firemen who said they wanted to see the issue settled attended the meeting as spectators. All three councils were present in full force. The latest agreement borrowed items from several earlier drafts. In essence, the three bodies agreed that the fire department would be operated by a three man fire board, and owned by the three municiaplities. Costs would be shared at one-third each, instead of the former break -down of 30 percent paid by each township and 40 per cent paid by the village. Bosanquet reeve Charlie Srokosz said that he liked the idea of a fire board because it had worked so well in the past. Prior to the discussion the reeves and councillors joked about their prediament. Grand Bend reeve Robert Sharen asked if he could call the others by name because "first names are more congenial," he said. It was also agreed that any new buildings, land or ad- ditions that the fire depart- ment might acquire would be paid for and owned on the one-third apiece basis. Sharen pointed out that this decision did not agree with the recommendations made by the Ontario fire marshall. "I don't think the fire marshall is 100 percent right," replied Stephen reeve Ken Campbell. The agreement is to last 10 years with reviews every two years. Should there be a drastic change in the assessment of any of the three municipalities. the cost sharing would be altered appropriately. However„ they agreed that the cost of any new land or buildings acquired would always be shared on the on - third basis "forever and ever" Sharen said. But new trucks, pumpers and equipment would be subject to change if the assessments varied in the reviews every two years. The township councils agreed that to be fair to their ratepayers, they would need assurance that no changes would be made in the ownership of land or buildings. Jack McDonald of Bosanquet expressed reservations about his township owning land in another municipality. During the joint meeting the councils voted to go in camera to discuss possible new locations of the fire hall. At present only Grand Bend owns the land and the fire hall. Firemen have com- plained that the building is too small and that access to the main highway is sometimes very difficult. One of the department's vehicles has to sit outdoors - at present. One of the clauses in the drafts of former agreements was that equipment would be reverted to the village of Grand Bend when that equipment should always be owned on the one-third basis, but it was finally agreed that this break -down could be flexible if ..hanges in the assessment occured. It was decided that recoverable investments such as land would not vary from the one-third basis, while depreciable in- vestments and operating costs could change if assessments changed "drastically." No agreement was made on Bob Sharen's suggestion that a reserve fund be established for the purchase of a pumper in the future. Stephen councillor Allan Walper said that Stephen had their own reserve fund. Bosanquet reeve Charlie Srokosz said that his township didn't believe in reserve funds - "let the tax payer that's going to use it, pay for it." he said. The three councils decided to sign a new agreement covering January 1, 1979 to December 31, 1988. McDonald tried to convince Grand Bend to start the new agreement in 1980, and cover 1979 with the old agreement. "Ah. come one fellows, let's be fair," Srokosz said. AfrrNt trate' i`D'/.Pr/A :FA'YJ:',Yf'.(p fri4 -O Mary'. i-oi mu.w;0119, s BY MA1.° ALDERSON Mary's busy getting ready for Christmas this week, so I offered to do her column for her. I figured it must be simple enough - all she does is stay up late at night and bang her fingers on the typewriter. Some nights I have to put my paws over my ears to get any sleep. First, I guess I'd better tell you who I am. I'm only four months old, and I'm mostly black, with white. This typing business is harder than I thought. Do you know how difficult it is to make capital letters if you don't have a pinky finger to hit that little button that makes the thing at the back jump? Oh, yes, i was going to give you some of my background. My mother came from a fine family of well-bred springer spaniels, but Pop was a black mutt who didn't stick around long after us pups were born. The old man didn't give us any support, so Mom couldn't afford to keep all eight of us, and that's how I ended up with Victor and Mary as foster parents. Now, I could go on and on about conditions in foster homes - sure, my dog house is insulated and has ceiling - to -floor, wall-to-wall car- peting, but would you live in a dog house? I don't know why they won't just let me sleep on the satin bed spread while they're at work. And the food - after that one night when she put some left over sweet and sour sauce on my puppy chow, I simply refuse to eat it plain again. Unfortunately ail I get on my puppy chow now is maybe a drop or two of milk. And I haven't had a decent bone since barbeque season ended. But where's your caseworker when you've got a complaint? I'd better stop with my problems - Mary said i could write her column if I did it on a Christmas theme. Now that's pretty hard when you don't know what a Christmas is. I figured out that it has something to do with that tree they dragged into the house the other night. This was hard to un- derstand. You see, when I come in from being outside, I'm not allowed to go straight into the living room. So I figured that was one of the rules - things from outside do not go into the living room - but the tree did. When I do run into the living room, there's always screams about muddy feet, or shedding black hair. I don't know why they think that, i just jumped up and wiped my feet off on whoever's coat that is hanging by the back door, and as for shedding - I just rolled around in that mud and snow by the sidewalk, so i won't shed. But in comes this Christmas tree dropping bits of snow and pine needles all over the carpet. Does anybody yell at it? No. Then they put these things that looked like balls on the tree. i have a red, white and blue ball that's lots of fun to play with, so I figured that one of these really shiny yellow balls would be more fun. But when I reached for it. i got my nose slapped. Not fair. And then there was a great hubbub when 1 wanted to taste one of those tiny sparkling lights. I just wanted to touch it with my tongue, but nobody would give me the chance. (I can hardly wait until I see this story in print. I suppose i won't get to read it until the newspaper's on the floor under my dinner dish. No one has given me the paper to read since i was housebroken. After we got finished with the tree - they put on the decorations while I was busy barking at those twinkling lights - all three of us sat on the floor and looked at it. Then they scratched my tummy, and did that ever feel good. I was so warm and comfortable, especially with that fire in the fireplace, Maybe that's what this Christmas business is all about - getting the family together and scratching someone's tummy and telling them how much you love them. After the two township delegations left, Grand Bend council went on with their regular business. Sewer tenders for the work on the south side of the village were opened by the Ministry of Environment in Toronto last week. McLean, Foster Const. Ltd. had the lowest bid of $961,423.40. The highest bid entered was $1,182,630. Reeve Sharen reported that the ministry is double checking the figures, and looking at all the bids. If there are no descrepencies, they will accept the lowest tender. The work had previously estimated to cost $905,000. Councillor Bill Baird brought up a discussion on differences in wages and benefits between village employees and Public Utilities Commission em- ployees. It was decided to discuss these differences with the PUC at a meeting with them in January. At the conclusion of the meeting council went in camera to discuss their employee's wages and salaries. Council disagreed on endorsing a resolution from Oakville calling for a study on transporting dangerous chemicals as a result of the recent Mississauga diseaster. It was decided to support the resolution, with Sharen, Uniac and Craford voting for it.Baird said that he felt there would MAGIC SPELL — Lori Prout as the helper,.Tommy Turner as the pixie and Mari Ritchie as Merlin the Magnificent held the audience at Grand Bend Public School spellbound last Wednesday. T -A photo SHDHS students present talent By MARY ALDERSON There's a play making the circuit which is . excellent, but I'm afraid you may have already missed it. Colin Lowndes 400 level theatre arts class at South Huron District High School presented a limited number of engagements of "Marlin the Magnificent." You would only have seen the play if you were in kin- dergarten to grade four at Mount Carmel, Stephen, Grand Bend or Hensall schools. And that's too bad, because it meant that a lot of people missed this very professional production. It's the story of a very clever magician, a bald queen and a princess with blue hair. The problems start when the queen who is very bald, but we don't know it, hates her step -daughter the princess, because she is jealous of her long, beautiful blue hair. The princess figures everything would be simpler if she could just marry Earl, the prince, but he would rather cook in the royal kitchen. The queen makes life miserable for the princess, so she enlists the help of Marlin the magician. With Marlin, is his helper who's dressed in a pink tu-tu and a little green pixie. Things are tense for a few moments when everyone fears that Marlin's magic wand is broken, because the Easter eggs he created were rotten. Fierce looking guards threaten the magician's life. But even- tually the queen is given some beautiful blue hair and Marlin and his friends go back to magic land on a big, friendly dragon. The plot of the play and V ie fine acting held the audience spellbound at Grand Bend Public School. Marj Ritchie as Marlin and Gail Irvine as Earl, the prince were excellent. They were totally relaxed in front of the audience and the children could understand their actions and lines. Sherry Gilfillan as the princess. and Tammy Turner were popular with the audience. We know this, because between scenes a member of the acting company came forward and asked the audience questions about the action. The children agreed on their favourite characters. Lori Prout as the helper and Carol Fisher as the Queen handled the parts well. Some of the little members of the audience were actually frightened when the queen spoke. Kerry Bedard, Karen Ford, Cheryl Stewart, Karen Ross and Rebecca Jantzi were good as the queen's guards and Patti Shapton, Donna MacDonald and Adrian Vandeworp did an excellent job as the dragon. The acting was so well done, that the audience was totally involved. When the rotten eggs were cracked open and the actors were coughing and sputtering and holding their noses, I noticed many members of the audience wrinkling up their noses, even if there was no smell. One of the delights of this production was the fact that the audience was allowed a certain amount of par- ticipation. At times, the reactions of the audience was as entertaining as the play. Props that were used were very well made, but most times the imagination was called upon, and I'm sure we saw what we were told to see. Costumes were good, despite the fact that at the end of the play, the actors admitted that most costumes had just been scrounged. Ilona Schaufler was the spokesman who came for- ward between acts. She reviewed the action with the children and asked for their comments. The response was tremendous. The audience was so attentive to what she was saying, they didn't notice her severe case of laryngitis. At the end of the play, the members of the acting company came forward and answered questions from the audience. The questions such as "how did you make the dragon" or "where did you get the blue hair" were given straight forward answers. The dragon was made of paper mache, a wooden frame and chicken wire. The blue hair was purchased. But I was pleased when one question was not given a complete answer. One young fellow in the audience asked Marlin how he did the magic. Marj Ritchie simply replied, "I'm just magic, that's all!" The audience was satisfied. As it said, it's probably too late for you to catch this play, but if future produc- tions by the theatre arts class are of this calibre , I'd recommend them. titei be plenty of investigating done, and Green said that it wasn't our problem. Council decided not to endorse a housing study completed last year. The study will be referred to planning board. It was decided that an interest charge of 2 percent per month would be charged to those, Main Street businesses who have not yet paid for sewer hook-ups as had been arranged. In the summer, it was decided with help from the Chamber of Commerce that all the businesses and residents on Male Street would get sewer connections at the same time, to avoid having the side walk torn up on several occasions. These people were to pay council for the costs. Council turned down a request for help from Grand Bend United Church. The church had their parking area paved after the sewers were installed, and was told it would cost $650. When they received a bill in excess of $1000 they asked council's assistance. Sharen said council could not help, because "we weren't in- volved from the word 'go'." If disaster hits, no time to read Exeter council quickly en- dorsed a resolution from Oakville this week calling on the federal and provincial Police offices on schedule Construction of Exeter's new police office is progressing satisfactorily and payment of about one- quarter of the $98,000 con- tract price was approved by council this week for Gregus Construction. Chairman Don MacGregor told council that the ar- chitect was quite pleased with the work and its progress. On the recommendation of the building committee, council approved an extra $559.80 be allowed to the contractor for excavation and removal of unsuitable materials and replacement with granular materials to bring the excavation down to firm soil for the footings and slabs on the earth in the south-west corner. MacGregor said that top soil was found at the level of the footings and it was agreed to have it removed. The architect, who met with the committee and the contractor, Monday, agreed to pay Gregus 20 cents per brick for the extra cost of using colored mortar as the specifications in the tender were found to be vague in this regard. The Reeve said prior to the meeting it was the first time he had heard of an architect paying for this type of situation. Gregus will afsobe paid the cost of the mortar mix powder out of additional monies in the hardware allowance at $84.60 per bag with the required amount approximately four or five bags. governments to provide stricter regulations concer- ning all aspects of transpor- tation of hazardous materials by rail. air. sea and highway. The resolution stemmed from the recent train derail- ment in Mississauga which resulted in the evacuation of the residents of the municipality. In moving that council concur. Councillor Jay Campbell noted that it wasn't too long ago that Aylmer was faced with a potential disaster when an oil tank truck caught fire at a downtown intersection. The resolution led to a dis- cussion of the adequacy of local fire fighting equipment to handle such emergencies and also what plans would be followed should the need arise to evacuate people in Exeter under similar con- ditions. Councillor Ted Wright said the local fire brigade did not have equipmentto fight ma- jor gasoline spills and he suggested there was little value in the recommenda- tion that tankers be better lapelled because no one was going to climb up and read the labels if there was a fire. Several members. noting the large number of tankers passing through Exeter. said a collision could result in real disaster. Mayor Derry Boyle suggested the senior govern- ment should provide more direction in handing such situations and said they should consider forcing trucks with dangerous loads to bypass urban centres. In reply to concerns about evacuating people. Boyle said it would be his task to invoke emergency measures and quickly added "I hope it never happens in my time". it was indicated there is no local plan for an evacuation r.ocedure. Was a good year The past year was com- paratively free of major problems for Exeter council. according to some veteran members as they reviewed 1979 and there were predic- tions that the coming year could be a repeat in that regard. "It was one of the quieter years." commented Coun- cillor Ted Wright. while Councillor Lossy Fuller noted it was devoid of some of the major hassles that previous councils had faced. Wrightalso noted that municipal councils appeared better able to handle problems than the federal government "At least we keep plugging away and don't call for new elec- tions." he mused Mayor Derry Boyle said he was looking forward to the new year and suggested that if council could con- clude 1979 with a balanced budget. there would be little need for any sizeable in- crease in taxes - "That may be wishful thinking," he quickly added and said he hoped any tax in- crease could be kept in line with the increase in the cost of living index. He did note that the town employees "startled us somewhat" by their recent salary demands but he hoped for a satisfactory settle- ment. ELECT SENIOR STEERING COMMITTEE — A steering committee made up of members of all Exeter senior groups hos been established. The purpose of the committee is to co- ordinate the various activities of the existing groups within the community. Making up the committee are Garnet Hicks, chairman; Irene Johns, secretary; Leone Brock, assistant secretary; Sam Bower, treasurer; and Ruth Durand, vice-president. T -A photo Times- Advocate, December 19, 1979 YOUR BEARD TICKLES — Teresa Petch was a little frightened of Santa's fuzzy face, but all was well when she was given a gift by members of Grand Bend Lioness at lost Saturday's party. T -A photo Authority approves two major projects for area At the year-end meeting of the Ausable-Bayfield Con- servation Authority Friday, members approved two major projects. More than $200,000 will be used for expansion and improvement of the Parkhill Conservation area and some $78,000 will be expended in creating a Hay -Morrison corridor. At Parkhill 190 acres will be added to the 2,400 acres established in 1967. Included in the expansion will be a display and instructional centre, windbreaks, trails, camping areas and wildlife areas over 10 to 15 years. The Parkhill conservation area master plan calls for conservation and enhan- cement of the natural features within the area while promoting recreational activities. It will be carried out in five phases over 15 years. Land acquisition is ex- pected to be the largest expense and is estimated at $95,000. Reforestration and windbreaks are an im- portant part of the scheme. The proposed Hay - Morrison corridor is also expected to be established in three phases. The cost is expected to be $78,500 over a six year period. The corridor along a five kilometre stretch along the Ausable River from the Morrison Dam to the Hay swamp will include hiking trails, cross country ski trails, new erosion control structures, bridges and a display and instructional centre. Authority Resources manager Bill Mungall said completion of the corridor is dependent on such factors as availability of staff, capital, cooperation of landowners and changes within the corridor during this six year period. Members of the Ausable- Bayfield Conservation Au- thority were told Friday that a private landowners erasion control assistance program would begin in 1980. Resources manager Bill Mungall said assistance would be provided to for- mers on a 50-50 cost sharing Building head extends stay Building inspector Doug Triebner has agreed to delay his retirement until the middle of next year and advertisements for his replacement won't be placed by council until around March 1. That was a recom- mendation council accepted Monday night from the executive committee, which had been asked to review Triebner's resignation which was tabled at the last session. He indicated in his letter he would stay on until the new police office has been completed, as he is acting as the town's agent on that project. The recommendation stated that Triebner's resignation would be ac- cepted when he feels a new person has been able to fulfill the job as required. basis up to a maximum of $2,000 in each project. The amount the authority will spend in 1980 on the erosion control project is $12,500. The erosion program will improve water quality in the watershed, reduce the loss of topsoil from agricultural lands and install and promote an understanding of the significance of erosion problems and solutions for some. The description of the erosion control work will be kept general in the agreement to allow ad- ditional work to be done later, if necessary, in con- junction with original works. The landowner will agree to permit the authority to erect a sign on the site to identify the project which will remain in place for the life of the works. Bill Mungall added, "Even without promotion, significant demand is already being felt for this new program. In the same report Mungall said a record number of trees were planted this year under the Reforestration assistance Usborne ups interest At the regular December meeting of Usborne township council, building inspector Herman VanWieren reported issuing six building permits in November with an estimated value of $7,200 and 36 inspections made. At the same time drainage inspector John Batten reported completing nine tile drainage loan jobs for a total of $110,250 with seven other applications on file totalling $97.000. The completion of two Ontario Horne Renewal Plan projects were reported as completed with total ex- penditures of $6,050. A bylaw increasing the interest rate on tax arrears to one and one-quarter percent per month as ap- proved. Program. Watershed planner John Small added, "We already have orders for more than 3,000 windbreaks trees for 1980, thereby exhausting our windbreak budget of $7,000." He continued, "Our seedling program is also expanding with plans prepared for the planting of 180,000 seedlings on private lands and Authority properties in 1980. • discanT Oan2 Brian Hall David Conklin Presi- dent of Conklin Lumber Co.. Ltd and its retail division Discount Dave's Home Centres is proud to announce the appoint- ment of Brian Hall as manager of the com- pany's branch in Grand Bend Mr Hall. whose family has had a cottage in the Grand Bend area for many years. knows the district well Ile has been with the company for 7 Years He has exten- sive experience in the home improvement field and he. together with the other members of his staff. invite homeowners throughout the district to visit the Grand Benet branch on Highway 21 at the intersection of Highway 83 They'll do their hest to help solve your home improvement problems Still o good selection o' lodies and men pullovers and cordigonc 4noted - wool • wool blend - acrylic • sizes S, M. 1, XL