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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1989-12-27, Page 24Page 24 Times -Advocate, December 27, 1989 Santa and helper - Santa Claus had a very young look -a -like at McCurdy School's Christmas concert last week. Above, 10 month old Brett Leisecki is held by elf Sonya Lawrence. Two cases heard in Exeter JP court EXETER - Two cases were heard in JP court in Exeter on December 19. Michael Venner, Exeter, pleaded guilty to consuming liquor in a place other than his residence. He had been stopped on Highway 4 in Tuckersmith township on Decem- ber 1. He was fined $53.75. Richard McKinnon, RR1 Zurich, was fined $53.75 for not being able to produce an insurance card on December 13 in Hay township. He. couldn't find the card, which he was sure was in his wife's wal- let in the glove compartment. When he got home, his wife showed him the card was in the back section of her wallet. He took the proof of insurance to the police the next day. Stephen considers number of zoning, variances changes Huronview renovations Storm causes accidents EXETER - Poor driving condi- tions on Thursday, December 21 contributed to seven accidents in- vestigated by officers from the Ex- eter OPP detachment in a six -hour sPan. At 10 a.m., Herman Van Wier - en. RR1 Hensall, entered a white- out on County Road 6 and struck the rear of a vehicle operated by Pius Dietrich, Kitchener. Both ve-- tfiicles werk, severely damaged and Dietrich was slightly injured. An hour later a chain -reaction accident occurred on Highway 4 near the Usborne-Tuckersmith boundary among vehicles driven by Robert Rogers, Varna, Donald Atkinson, Kirkton and Rudy Blok- land, Wilkesport. All vehicles were badly damaged, and three persons received minor injuries. A noon whiteout south of Exeter was responsible for a collision be- tween vehicles belonging to John Klaver,; Exeter and Paul Mero, London. Klaver s vehicle was se- verely damaged. Arnold Campbell, Exeter, lost control of his vehicle on Highway 4 near the Kirkton road at 12:35. He struck two guideposts, causing moderate damage to his vehicle. A short time later police were at the scene of a rear end collision on Highway 83 near Hay Concession 14-15 between Yvonne Disano, Grand Bend and Michael Van Gie- sen, Hensall. At 2:30 p.m. Mary Pipis, De- troit, struck the vehicle of Jeff Webster, Zurich, one of a line of vehicles stopped in a whiteout on Highway 21 near Hay Side Road 25-26. The last accident of the day, on Highway 83, involved drivers Robert Chapman, Forest and Gor- don Zakoor, Sarnia, and a parked vehicle belonging to Walter Ru- miel, Clearwater. Two persons re- ceived minor injuries. Three other accidents last week were also caused by bad weather. On Monday a vehicle driven by David Negrijn, Exeter, was unable to stop on slippery roads at Mary and Frederick Streets, Zurich, and slid into a car driven by Berna- dette Cyr, RR1 Dashwood. Both vehicles received minor damage. Two accidents on Saturday on Highway 4 involved drivers Clau- dette Richard, London and Wendi Horton, St. Thomas and Sheri -Lyn Sprung, London, and Sharon McMahon, Zurich. Police will continue to operate the RIDE program throughout the holiday season. Last week Exeter detachment officers checked 473 vehicles, .charged two people with impaired driving, issued two 12 - hour suspensions and made three li- quour seizures. Have a safe and happy New Year. Come into the '90s alive, Don't drink and drive. Ready to march - Primary stu- dents at Usbome Central School get ready for last week's Christ- mas hristmas concert. CREDITON - At its latest meet- ing, Stephen township council dealt with a number of zoning bylaw changes and minor variance applica- tions. Permission was given to Everett Mellin of part of Lot 4, Concession 19 to have the side and rearyards lowered to six meters to allow con- struction of a shed. David Gibson of Crediton was de- nied in his application to build an addition to his garage on King street south as it was contrary to the township zoningbylaw and was not considered a minor variance. • A zoning change for David Hen- ry at part of Lot 19, Concession 19 was held in abeyance. Site plan control has been put on an application from Martin Shakespeaare at the Patio Motel at Part of Lot 1, Sauble Concession, near Grand Bend. A resolution from the township of Bathurst calling on the provin- cial government to take more ini- tiatives to support recycling efforts by municipalities. was endorsed. Stephen's plans for recycling scheduled to begin Jaunary 1 has been delayed. Most farme . are good at fence - mending and : rigid Pyke, president of the Ontari • Federation of Agri- culture, is no exception. Brigid was re-elected president last month for her fourth term. The fed- eration, in its zeal to promote -order- ly marketing of agricultural prod- ucts in Ontario, organized a referendum for cattle producers which the Ontario Cattlemen's As- sociation had already nixed. ' The cattlemen were disgruntled about the new method of assessing dues imposed by the federation. The OFA asked the cattlemen for $26,000 in membership fees. The cattlemen refused and effluent hit the cooling device. But the OFA needed that member- ship and the cattlemen needed the OFA. A year later, after Pyke won such an astounding victory for her fourth term -- she got 222 votes to her opponent's 110 -- the two or- ganizations started talking to each other again. A good thing, too, because gov- ernment people look at farmers fighting with each other and sit back and say: Okay, people. Get your act together and decide what you want and then, we'll talk to you. Politicians are great at that sort of thing. You cannot fault them for it. They get one group of farmer9 asking for something and another group demanding the exact opposite and they sit back and blame the farmers for not being unified in their approach to government. It is an old game and governments are experts at it. Divide and conquer. Or simply say: Hey, you people! If you cannot decide on what you want, how do you expect us to do it for you? Some people call it mugwump- ing. You sit with your mug on one side of the fence and your wump on the other. In the process, though, they be- come eunuchs. Roger George of Powassan was unchallenged in his bid as first vice-president and he even nomi- nated Wilkinson after his defeat for the presidency as a candidate for second vice-president. Wilkinson won handily, defeating Ed Seg- sworth of Halton and Nancy McGill of Middlesex, two more excellent candidates. I attended a number of OFA con- ventions over the years and I was always impressed with the friendli- ness among the candidates. Nowadays, I am content to read as much as i can get in newspapers about the convention. It has sim- ply become prohibitive for me to attend and pay all the expenses in- curred. So, I watch from the side- lines. This executive is going to have a busy year. I agree with Pyke when she said finances will be one of her top pri- orities. Without money, the federa- tion is hamstrung. It is fighting big money and big interests. It has to fight governments because most politicians do not have agri- culture as a top priority. They rep- resent urban ridings, not rural rid- ings. It has to fight the huge food chain stores and those people have more clout than Paul Bunyan's club. I wish her and her colleagues huge successes in the New Year. She is going to need all the sup- port she can get. I have a great deal of admiration for Jack Wilkinson of Temiskam- ing-Cochrane who opposed Pyke for the OFA presidency. He was a second vice-president of the Federa- tion two years ago and retired when he moved his farming future from Lambton County to Temiskaming- Cochrane. "Being away for two years has been good forme," he told the con- vention delegates. "My ego has changed ... and has been taken down a notch or two." By Bill Henry GODERICH - Huron County Council has been urged to "get out of the real estate business" follow- ing news that it would cost more than S728,000 to renovate part of Clinton's Huronview Home for the Aged to current government stan- dards for provincial office build- ings. The renovations, at ten times the original estimate, would be neces- sary before the Clinton offices of The Ontario Ministry of Agricul- ture and Food could movein, as has. been agreed to in principle by coun- cil. "It's time we got out of the real estate business and got down to the point of governing our people in the best way we can," said Exeter Reeve Bill Mickle. Mickle and others also said that the Ministry of Government Servic- es which is demanding the upgrad- ing, should pay_.at least half the cost. But instead, council agreed last week to proceed with the renovation once OMAF agrees to a lease which would recover the cost over ten years while guaranteeing to occupy the space for at least five more. Some councillors said the deci- sion is premature, in Tight of a study committee which is looking at across the board use of county - owned buildings. That study results in part from the move planned over the next few year to transfer Huron - view's occupants to two new facili- ties, as well as complaints of over crowding at the Goderich Court- house, which is owned by the coun- ty and houses Huron's main admin- istrative centre. "Why are we doing this (renovat- ing and renting to OMAF) before we have a report from the Facility Uses Committee," asked Zurich Reeve Robert Fisher. "Maybe there'sust too many finers in the pie at this point in time. But clerk -administrator Nigel' Bellchamber said a full report "from the committee in advance of nego- tiating a lease with OMAF would not be possible. He also reminded council that by approving the $626,500 tender of D. Grant and Sons construction company, with the condition that a lease be negotiated which would re- cover the cost, council still has to approve any further move. Exeter Deputy, Reeve Lossey Fuller was also critical, saying the facility committee should be urged to work more quickly. She later condemned council for the speed of the decision in light of her per- ceived lack of information. "At the County level, we seem to just pass whatever is in front of us without any questions or com- meits or whatever. I think it's very, very wrong," said Fuller. Others, including Colborne township Reeve Bill . Vanstone speculated on tearing the Huron - view building down rather than spend more than $700,000, once architects fees and other costs are inclined. Jack's Jottings Jack Riddell MPP Huron From Queen's -Park As we enter a new decade, I want to extend my best wishes for the holiday season to all constituents, and to offer my sincere hopes for happiness and prosperity in the years ahead. Huron County calendar contest The Huron County calendar will be appearing in the riding some time before the end of January. The task of choosing only 12 photos from the great number received was a difficult one, and I wish to thank everyone who showed an interest in the contest, and to en- courage them to participate again next year. • The 'successful entrants for this year's calendar were: Everett Scrimgeor, Blyth; Helen Gardiner, Port Albert; Barbara Betties, Bayfield; Shane Snell, Blyth; Lori Dalrymple, Exeter; Michael. Gib- son, Clinton; Ross MacDonald, Varna; Mildred Yuill, Belgrave; Ron Mellish, Goderich, Al Walton, Wingham; Elizabeth Kettlewell, Clinton; and Jeanette Wardrop, Wingham. Over $1 million in provincial grants for Huron County Christmas came early to 21 municipalities in Huron County as they received word from Minister of Municipal Affairs John Swee- ney of special assistance grants to help relieve the tax burden for res- idential and farm ratepayers. The County has experienced tax in- creases because of changes to county and school board cost-sharing arrangements. The new arrangements use a uniform market value as- sessment base, which resulted in property tax changes of varying amounts throughout the County. Those benefiting from this assistance are: Clinton - 53,290, Bay- field - $18,168; Brussels - $2,409; Hensall - $1,021; Zurich - S476; Ashfield Twp. - $108,541; Colborne Twp. - $60,398; Godcrich Twp. - $139,918; Grey Twp. - $62,078; Hay Twp. - S67,114; How - ick - $31,133;; Hullett $54,598; McKillop - $102,064; Morris - .tS34,165; Stanley - $79,132; Stephen - $119,594; Tuckersmith - $39,662; Turnberry - $14,267; Usborne - $51,014; East Wawanosh - S5,938; and West Wawanosh - $20,559. In addition, I understand Minister of Culture and Communications Christine Hart has allocated $797.50 to the town of Clinton to fund projects for Preserving Ontario's Architecture. Government sponsored conferences ' Huron county residents may wish to take advantage of two confer- ences which are being sponsored by the government of Ontario in January. The fust is the I.D.E.A.S. Conference (Innovation, Diversification and Entrepreneurship in the Agricultural Sector), being sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. It will be held at the Hamilton Convention Centre on January 20 and 21, 1989, and will feature interesting ideas on alternative agriculture. There will be 12 sessions on a range of topics such as organic agriculture, gourmet produce, and aquaculture. Sessions on country kitchens, home and hearth, and crafts and rural lifestyles will add to the interest, with a trade show and 70 speakers in total. The conference fee is $40 in advance or $50 at the door. More in- formation may be obtained from the Clinton ag office at 482-3428. Also of possible interest is a symposium on "Old Growth Forests" being held Saturday, January 20 at the Earth Sciences Centre Audi- torium, University of Toronto. For those interested in old pine fo- rests, there will be an impressive roster of speakers specializing in the study of North American forest ecosystems, the study of them, and the best management practices to sustain their unique values. Anyone interested in forest management in Ontario can obtain reg- istration information by calling (416) 978-8560 at the University of Toronto Faculty of Forestry. To you and yours, a happy and healthy holiday season, and may the blessings of the new year continue into the next decade and be- yond. Letters for Santa - Both Hensall Public "Christmas" at their school concert last School kindergarten classes were trying their best to spell out Wednesday. Nativity - The grade three class of St. Boniface School presented the finale of last Wednesday's school concert.