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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1989-02-01, Page 2Page 2 TimetAdvocate, February 1, 1989 Tuesday -demonstration - CAW picketers arrived en masseat the _EMAB plant in Huron Park to demonstrate their dissatisfaction at being left to walk the picket line for the pest four weeks. Talks between the company and the union have yet to materialize. Stalemate continues in EMAB strike HURON PARK - A stalemate between CAW strikers and EMAB of Canada continues in the industri- al -park after four weeks; and the company is already removing some of its production equipment from the plant. When EMAB workers voted to . begin their strike on January 3 they belonged to -Local 1620 of the Ca- nadian Auto Workers, but as of Sunday they have 'joined the Lon - PUC increases charges EXETER - A power outage last week could have had more serious consequences than cutting off some people's electricity. Roofers work- ing on a commercial building left their boom up when work stopped for the day: During the night, the wind blew some primary wires against the boom. "It's a good thing this happened through the night, and there was no wind yesterday", PUC manager Hugh Davis told the Commission at their regular meeting on January 27: Commissioners discussed Davis' recommendations for revisions in the rates for water service connec- tions and underground services. • Some utilities charge the full cost to the developer. In 1987 the cost was $1,000 a lot to service a subdivison with underground con- ductor. The charge of $325 per lot and $3.25 a foot frontage brings in - only $520 on a 60 -foot lot. "I'm not suggesting we move up Sculpting melts MILWAUKEE - Grand Bend's ice sculpting team that travelled to Milwaukee; Wisconsin for the In- ternational Ice Sculpting Competi- tion saw their hopes of winning the contest melt as temperatures soared. Jackie Schottroff, Sharon Theil and Cam Haist sculpted their crea- tion at night when the temperatures were cooler, and slept during the day during the week-long competi- tion January 22-29. In fact they were sure they were in the running for the people's choice award as they had racked up the largest num- ber of points from passersby. Unfortunately, warm weather around seven degrees caused six of the eighteen sculptures to collapse before final judging, and the,crea- tion of last year's Grand Bend Win- ter Carnival champions was one of those to fall. Dispute Continued from front page profit of $158 if the municipality had paid the first invoice of $6,642. This assumes receipt of the $6,800 subsidy. The dispute cost Usborne 52,400.60 in legal fees, and Reeve Gerald Prout docs not consider the ending a happy one. His reaction,' when contacted by phone, was "1 feel embarrassed. I expected matters to proceed to court. It looks like A -mot one rs Ir ing to cover his "traks.,, -�e+r is Prout was a newly elected coun- cillor at the time of the original de- cision on the pipeline location, and took no part in those deliberations. He is of the opinion the waterline might not have had to be relocated if it had initially been installed at a greater depth and further from the bridge. Prout said there had been poor communication between the Exeter. PUC and the township throughout the dispute. "When spending this amount of -..._-taxpayers' money, the job should have been tendered, and Usborne — sflbutd have been informed about what to expect", Prout commented. The township reeve 'went on to say that road superintendent Ken Parker had applied -for a subsidy on the relocation"easts. The request was turned down on the grounds the project was ineligible, as it had not been included in the township's budget for that year. had not anticipated any costs to themselves in moving the line", Prout said. 'Water will. likely continue to be an issue between Usborne and Exet- er. Prout voiced his concern about the present and future effect on township wells of the "enormous amount of water" the Exeter utility draws from Usbornc. "I'm getting calls from worried ratepayers' We do not object to do- mestic use of this water, but we do object to the amount being supplied to the PUC's commercial custom- ert", Prout said. -too much, too drastically, but we shouldmakesome increase. If we continue to charge less than other utilities, we will find that our rates for energygwill be higher," Davis said. - The charge will be increased to $450 per lot and $4.50 per foot frontage, bringing the revenue on a 60 -foot lot up to $720. Develop- ers had already been told, before do- ing their costing, that the charges were being reviewed. The Commission also approved an increase iQ the 3/4 -inch water service connection charge from the 1988 figure of $350 to $400. Da- vis explained that Exeter -has more and more paved streets, and the costs of service connections have exceeded $1,000. in some cases where asphalt has to be cut and re- placed. - Davis warned Commissioners that requirements in the water -depart- ment this year will "far exceed what we can finance": Two big jobs will be replacement of four -inch- main with eight -inch on Main St. north. of the river, and a section of Huron. Street West. Davis estimated the cost of the former at S70,000, and put the cost of the latter at S30,000. Both projects must be done in 1989, as both sections arc scheduled for repaving soon. This might have to be financed by borrowing or increased cost of rates: "We have nothing to be ashamed of in our rates. They have increased an average of 2.18 percent per year, not even keeping up with the cost of living" Davis pointed out. - don -based Local 27: Helen MacGregor, chairperson of the former local, explained the move as necessary since the loss of 200 Fleck manufacturing workers reduced membership to only 130. The move brings with it other for- mer Local 1620 members from Protective Plastics, Dunline and Rcstec. - MacGregor also said the Sunday meeting included demands from the membership as to why the union was not back at the negotiating table.. The workers were told the company is not yet prepared to reach a settlement with the 90 strikers. "We anticipated a short strike, but it looks like it's going to be a lengthy one," said MacGregor. Matt Berg, personnel manager at EMAB, .described the strike situa- tion as "not very good".. Berg claimed the initiative is up to the union to approach the com- pany to begin talks since the union broke off talks with the chainsaw manufacturer in December. "Why hasn't the union ap- proached the company? asked Berg. "To get back to the table you have to first get back to the table." •- Berg confirmed tumours that one of the assembly lines has been re- moved from the plant. He fears that production capacity may never - return to the Huron Park plant. "There are other moves on the go, and that's the frightening part," he said. "We have to bring the thing to an end very quickly before we're all sorry." Six accidents, 49 occurrences for Exeter OPP detachment officers - - EXETER - During this week, of- ficers of the Exeter detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police in- vestigated 49 general occurrences. These included assaults, intrusion alarms, wilful damage complaints. which resulted in three impaired driving charges, 38 Highway Traf- fic Act charges, six charges under the Liquor Licence Act, two no in- surance charges and one for and off road vehicle charge. - The first of six motor vehicle ac- cidents occurred on Monday,Janu- ary, 23 at 6 -a.m. on Wyldwood Lane at Grand Cove Estates when a vehicle operated . by - Ken Wcbb, London backed into an unattended vehicle parked at the Gwcn Minnis residence. At 5.15 p.m., Tuesday vehicles operated by Mary Kozicki, London and Elliott McRoberts, Exeter col- lided on Highway 4. Vehicle dam- age was severe, but injuries were • minor. The same day at 8.55 p.m., vehi- . cles driven by Joan Sniith, Huron Park and Barbara Conlon, RR 2, Zurich were in collision on Conces- sion 2-3 of Stephen township. A vehicle driven by Joan McCann, Huron Park left the road- way of Highway 83 at 11.30 a.m., Wednesday and entered the ditch. There was freezing rain at the time. Wednesday on the parking lot at the Kirkton-Woodham Community Centre an unidentified vehicle col- lided with the fence and fence posts and left without reporting damage to police. A vehicle driven by Russel Beer, - Ingersoll failed to negotiate a curve on Huron road 6 in Usborne town- ship•and entered the ditch at 6 a.m., Thursday. Motorists•are reminded that the RIDE program is still in effect. Please don't drink and drive, buckle up and reduce your speed during poor weather conditions. ouble ake by _ - Bruce Shaw eopte in and out of Exeter must think that it's difficult to be "up" all the time when it comes to promoting the Town and talking about what•we're doing. The contrary, however, is true: it's difficult not to be ."up some- . thing is always happening. Let's take a took at this last week, for instance. Forgetting all the deliberations, negotiations and research, several matters came to ahead, and decisions were made, all of which reflect the dynamics of this community. _ Four inquiries were made concerning our industrial land, and it ap- pears that another large chunk has been sold. We have so little Icft that I would not be surprised to sec Council authorize another pur "chase within the year. We desperately need higher industrial and • commercial assessment, and we are getting it. (As an aside, each of us can help; we need to encourage local business and industry by shopping at home; I think the Town's policy is a good one: buy lo- cally unless the product cannot be obtained here or unless the saving is at least 10 percent elsewhere.) The front page of this edition provides the' details of what else has happened, but for another perspective read on... - I don't think anyone would question thc need for a new firehall. For several reasons, we must move it: the state of the building, traffic problems, the Main Street location. Questions might rise as to where we should relocate. Undoubtedly, the people in Usborne would like the hall on Huron Street, and those in Hay and north Usborne on highway 83. Most of us would like a new building: Reality and the practical set in when we realized that most of the firemen (firepersons? there's another one) live and/or work west of Main Street. There is also, in effect, only one route to the north - end and that road crosses the bridge on Main Street. We also looked at the price of property. Io all cases, we were,directed back to our existing public works building which is ideally located and needs lit- tle thajor renovation to be converted. For all these reasons, thcn, the fireball will be moved to Nelson Street. - The location of the public work.s building is not as critical; but costs arc. Again after investigating possible sites, we settled on our r own lands. We will have more room at our disposal, and even though it may take some,industrial land out of use, it is certainly . not prime land. The costs of erecting a ncw works building and ren- ovating a building should be significantly less than building a new firchall. During the last few years, we have outgrown our present adminis- • trative offices. The Council Chamber serves as a meeting room and two offices as well as a court and work room. - Again, we considered expanding our present facilities, relocating in the -north -end of Town (on and off Main Street) and returning "home". The aim of the.founders of the Exeter and District Heritage Foundation has always been to return the Old Town Hall to Council for its active use, and when we discussed the plan with the mother and father of the organization - Val and Doug Gould - they wcrc ab- solutely delighted. Doug, in fact, who had not been feeling well, experienced an immediate recovery.. The renovation will be under- taken with the help of members of the Foundation so that the his- torical is- torical integrity of thc building will be maintained. It would appear that the taxpayers got their money's worth from the politicianslast week. (Note: My handwriting,is noted As being pretty terrible and that probably accounts for the error in one of last week's lines - the error destroys, however, the wit: the line should have read - "The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you've got it made." I hope you read Ken Lawton's letter to the editor!ast week - I rest my case.) Lions work bees help reduce expenses on new youth centre EXETER - Although the ' exterior of the new Lions Youth Centre on John St. gives the impres- sion the construction is finished there's still plen- ty happening on the in- side. These photographs were •. .r •t• • S Preparing to paint - Getting workers to assemble the scaffold - ng was easier than getting anyone to stand on it to Paint the storage room ceiling. From - the left are: Bill McGregor, Don Thompson and Gary Bean. •- - has held recently. The major portion of the building has been done by Van I3oxmeer Construc- tion but other jobs like painting, tile laying and ceramic work has been' handled by club mem- bers. • Bucket Brigade - Paul Anstett (left) and Don Thompson were in chare of mixing the bonding compound for the ceramic tile in the front exterior - - Community support for the project has been ex- t it a s reat deal of work to with fundraising. The next major event for the club will be selling raffle tickets on a Northlander Travel Trailer donated by Bob Hamather. Tick- ets will be available soon from any Lions member. 'Messy work Jon Dinney wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty doing the messy job of laying ceramic tiles. Bill Dinney and Da- ryl Kellar from Dinneys were also on hand to ensure a quality job. - •