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Times Advocate, 1989-02-08, Page 1• Rick [EXETER TOYOTA 242 Main St. N. Exeter Across from O.P.P. • Phone 235-2353 Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & Lambton Since 1873 Wednesday, February 8, 1989 LIdi Gaiser-Kneale Insuravjlce Exeter 235-24420 Grand t3cnd 238-8484 t rensall 262=211'9 Clinton 482-9747 Price per copy 60 cents Ellison charges mayorwith. conflict of interest, debate continues over move to o Id Town Hall EXETER - An angry Doug Elli- son left the town council chambers Monday night not knowing for sure how much time he has left to oper- ate his travel business in the Old Town Hall. . Ellison accused mayor Bruce Shaw -of having a conflict of inter- est and he attacked council for act- ing in secrecy following their deci- sion last week to notify him he _ could be asked to leave his present location with as little as 30 days notice. - -The towrt owns the Old Town Hall and has tentative plans to move out of their rented premises back to their original building. The Old Town Hall was to bc renovated and have an addition at the rear to contain the town municipal offices and council chambers. At the moment though, the town only plans to spend S385,000 to upgrade their ncw facility pending the approval of actual cost figures to be submitted immediately by Grace Project Management:of Lon- ' don. In fact, it's possible Ellison may be forced to relocate and the town could decide not to proceed with the project although Shaw said he should have a firm answer by the end of the 'month. Ellison, who left the meeting bc- fore council announced it was strap- ping plans to relocate the works dept. and move the ncw fire hall to the works building, believes coun- cil will eventually scrap plans to move into thc Old Town Hall as well. "The town is afraid to admit they're scrapping it all," he said. "But I'll be moving anyway.- Who wants them as a landlord." Inside K -W Carnival Many events at Kirkton this weekend page 3 Sweethearts A day for cards, flowers and candy page 8 Resort event Winter Carnival begins page 27 Petition protests council plans [;TER - Int - cd apetition to counct 'rtIT92 signature's protesting council's plans announced last week to move the fire hall to the works dept., build a ncw fire hall and renovate the "Old Town Hall. Chanyi said 88% of those asked to sign the pe- tition complied. When he presented the petition to council he said hc was also offend - cd by thc way Doug Ellison had been treated. the message he had from those who signed was they were against any. tax,increase. "Read my . lips, no tax increase," he said. . Spectators in the packed gallery heard Ellison tell the mayor he .could -charge him with "conflict of interest." • -• "That's almost slanderous," Shaw replied. Ellison, who was recently married to Shaw's ex-wife, accused council of leaving him out in the dark by not notifying him early enough re= garding being evicted from his loca- tion. "There was no -warning or ad- vance notice," Ellison said. "I heard about it from two realtors," he add cd In. a prepared statement .Ellison pressed the mayor on the following 'points: - - "Is the owner of Grace Project Management a personal friend of the mayor's. -Shaw replied he has .known Bruce Martin_as a personal friend for 30 years: Ellison again re- - ferred to conflict of interest and stated the management company stands to earn about 10 to 15% for their part of the project. Shaw said he recoinmended. the firm because of who they arc and_ their rccord of building fire halls, churches and institutional homes. "They're' well respected," he added. Ellison pursed the conflict of interest theme by questioning Shaw if Martin has been involved with work on the present munici- pal office. Shaw replied he had but • it' was when Derry Boyle was mayor. Shaw correctedhis state- ment Tuesday morning by saying he, not Boyle was mayor. Martin was also connected to a project at ARC Industries when Shaw was a member of the board. - "Why wasn't I approached about the condition of the Old Town Hall," Ellison demanded: "After eight and a half years in.the location I know the building better than anyone." . Both mensuggested the other was lying as Ellison said former Heritage Society chairman Doug .. Gould had told present chairman Bob Heywood about council's plans in early November. - Shaw denied the charges calling Not going to Works Dept. Town to pay $10Q,000 for new fire hall property EXETER. - In an abrupt about face, council has de- cided to purchase property from the Exeter Co -Op and build a new fire hall on Wellington and Brock Sts. Negotiations. concluded Monday between council and the Co -Op to purchase the 131' x 198' property for $100,000 on or before March 31. Prior plans to locate the firehall in a renovated works dept. building were scrapped suddenly. Mayor Bruce Shaw said this should result.in savings of up to $200,000. Although it was not announced at the council• meet- ing, apparently the Co -Op property had been wanted all along but an agreement could not be reached re- garding the price. Councillor Ben Hoogenboom said it is an ideal lo- • cation and it has the approval of Chief Gary Middle- ton. Dave Urlin recommended council contact Grace Property Management and have them proceed with the design for a new building as soon as possible. This decision was approved unaminously. -Jerry MacLean, one of several spectators in the packed council chambers, wanted to know if local contractors will get preference for construction con- tracts: Mayot Shaw ,replied it was council policy to "go locally" unless the price difference is greater than 10%. The town will pay rent of $2,000 per month at the old fire hall until the move is made. Nabisco gets ok to store PCBs EXETER - Council Monday night accepted a request from Na-- bisco Brands to allow the storage of PCB's at the local plant.. Reeve Bill Mickle told council the PCB's will be stored in a steel vault, protected by, a berm and a barbed wire fence. The facility will bc subject to monthly inspections by the Mini- stry of the Environment. Micklc recommended council ask the com- pany for a letter saying they will acccpt sole responsibility for any Record building EXETER - The total amount of building permits and estimated con- struction value in -t $696,121 over 1987 which has been the busiest year on rccord. This was released in the. annual report of Chief Building Official avid Moyer who took over from .i ian.Jobnsloj i t04.,. Moyer listed some of the signify: cant construction projects undertak- en within the towo_iuring-1988:--- - Exctcr Youth eentrc - Litpro Management Building - Wellington/Main Plaza - 190 - 194 Thames Road East - Expansion of Exctcr Villa - Nabisco addition - Northlandcr Industries addition - Home Hardware addition -Exctcr Toyota ' ' • - (,7er4iirtvcn apartments - Stoney Ridge Condominiums - 27 single-family dwellings Times Advocate captures - premier front page award c wr - a circu a of more than 22,000. The best agricultural story and winner of the Ontario Hydro award was the T -A's July 13 full page coverage in words and pic- tures of last summer's drought en- titled Dusty Optimism. The St. Marys Journal Argus won six awards in the general ex- cellence section for papers with circulations between 3,501 and 4,500. The Times Advocate competes in the next higher category for cir- culation between 4,500 and 6,000. LAE t L' K - r WO ofttte top p v es in the premier awards category in the annual Ontario Community Newspaper Association competi- tion were won by the Times Ad- vocate. At the upcoming OCNA con- vention in Toronto early in March, T -A representatives will be receiving the Imperial Oil and Ontario Hydro awards. The Imperial Oil trophy was won for the beoadsheet front page in all circulation categories. Second prize went to the T -A's sister paper, the St. Marys Journal Argus and third was won by the problems resulting from the stor- age. Ile referred to the local compa- ny as a good corporate citizen. Spectator Niall Straw said he was . concerned about storing PCB's in town. "It could bc the beginning of something", he said. Straw suggcst- cd it would be simpler to transport the material away rather than stor- ing it here. The PCB's will be shipped here Please turn to page 2 Fire Dept. has quick response EXETER - The Exctcr and Area :Fire Department has an excellent response time according to reeve Bill Micklc who was reporting on Fire Department activities at Mon - .day's council meeting. The re- sponse time for "Exctcr was -3.38 minutes, 8.56 minutes for Us= borne, 4.61 for Stephen -and 7.12 r .iuttics for Hay township- i-e,i- dents. The Firc Department is trying to put a stop to false alarms coming from the Exeter Villa. "Whcn fire fighters get several false alarms. from one* place they could be com- placent," Micklc said. The false alarms are' not due to mechanical failure but -have beegt » -ended mantp them "off bast." - The mayor, who had little to say during Ellison's remarks reacted strongly when -he calmly told .Elli- son "Mv natural contempt and dis- gust for you as a human being has not caused any compromise of my duties as mayor. I neither initiated the proposal or voted on it," hc concluded. Dorothy , Chapman echoed Shaw's claim he played. no part in the decision. "Council decided. The name of the tenant (Ellison) wasn't even considerid," she stressed. Ellison remained adamant he was mistreated by council. "You fly people around the world to attract business to Exeter and you ignore local people whaarc already here," he charged: - - He said he had no objection tip moving but -he -was against how it was handled referring to the short notice he was given and the fact the public know he is desperate for . a new location. "By putting the word out you've made it a seller's market,"Ellison charged as he con- tinued to press for answers as _to why he wasn't told earlier. • - - "Why the secrecy?" Ellison de-. minded. Both Chapman and Shaw said there was no secrecy but meet Ings arc always held in camera when dealing with property. " I was. the person most affected and. nobody even had the courtesy to call me," Ellison said. .The town presently has fourycars remaining on their lease with the federal government with -an annual rent of -S2,200 per year. "With four years left here you're telling me I have to get out .in- as little as 30 days;" Ellison demanded. • . Ellison wanted to know if coun- cil had considered buying •their present building and expanding it. present but we •rejected the. idea,` Shaw replied. The 'travel agent wanted to know why council want- ed to come back to the 01d 'i o' n Hall. "There's no more -room' than there is here," he said. • One of the spectators, Art :Cann said he understands why Ellison is upset as he stxtkc bluntly. "You're treated him like S --t" Cann, wh(i is a senior citizen, said he was con- cerned for other seniors who arc on fixed incomes. "Council is going in debt and taxes are going up,- up, up, up," he said. Shaw stressed that no .large tax increase is planned for the project. "We're fiscally responsible and have been holding tax increases for local purposes at 4-5%. "When all the figures come in•and if it's too ex- pensive, we -won't do it," he said. He guaranteed there wrndd..be no large tax increases: Ellison asked if other husinc-:es could expect the same treatment and Shaw 'replied he didn't sec how th( could do anything difFcrent----4" . • Ellison said he still feels- it is a personal conflict. "Many people can read behind -the lines, the Heri- • tage Society was used," "If this . project goes through, Shaw's per- sonal friend could stake S1(x),{N)0, he added: "Somebody's out to get mc." • Ellison claimed -.one councilor ' told hini he went along with the de- cision to please- the mayor. • Last -•• week's -report - in the Times-..-Advocatcsaid the .project was going _ ahead but reeve Mickle said there were checks and balances that would sec the project would not -. • continue if it was unworkahlc. •. Micklc said the remarks were be- coming too personal. "I'II accept 'criticism as a councillor hut•1 will not be -a part of such bitterness,"" he said. -• Karen Pfaff wanted to know if El- - lison has- 30, 60 or �)0 days to get out. Mick re replied that ne date had been stated and that. Ellison could work with the huildine committee: "We don't want•to put anybody on the street," he said: Pfaff wanted to know what.would happen if Ellison took .his business elsewhere.-" . • We get a lot of spin-off." • • "i believe you owe meone_hell of an apology," Ellison said, referring to -council. • Councillor Hoogenboom con- curred. "Wc r %i made a ntake by not notifying him but you must. under- stand the situtation when dealing -.with properties.. - "l'rrt not getting.out until the end of "August," Ellison stated firmly: "1:11 go to court._ He referred to a closed meeting. . held by council just before the regu- .tar meeting and asked if there had been a motion to scrap thc whole - thing. Shaw said no, because. there are never motions in in -camera meetings but lloogenlxxtm told El- lison the plan could be scrapped if the figures don't work out. Shaw had no answer for 'Ellison . . when he asked if he had to fight for thc next seven months. Joanne Bowen of the IleritagcSo- cicty wanted to know if it was a , "fait accompli."•She said Ellison is a good tenant and we need the rent to maintain the building.• . Jerry Van Gerwcn wanted to know who's pushing to move so fast. "Why not give Doug another year Why alarm him so much?" If Doug could not move, what would it hold up,?_ he asked. Shaw replied, `'juga the council-chambcrs." • - • Shaw added, "We may . not go ahead for two ycars..._hut wc'vegiv= en due notice of something that - may happen." Ellison, pressing for an answer as to. what will happen, could get no clear statement and is still in the . �, _as ( hei , tbe..wil1.h move by the end of August. - - A hole In one . Ted Ravelle tries his luck in the Snow -Bird Golf Club and hit a tennis ball through a rubber tire, -which he is trying Tournament at Oakwood Inn on Sunday as part of Grand Bend's to do here, and alternate shots with a partner. Ravelle was play - Winter Camival activities. The object of the game was to use one ing with Darlene Parkinson.