Loading...
Times Advocate, 1991-04-10, Page 1k Home �3 Garden Show April i Z, 13, � I 1--e000 Serving South Huron North Middlesex & Larnbton ��?:.;;St �.: i7 ter: E•`.=i�; GC Gaiser-Kneale insurance • Cell us for Comprehensive competitive HOMEOWNERS 235.2420 General Homes ready for restart HENSALL - General Manufac- tured Housing of Hensall is up and running following a five-month shutdown after the plant went into receivership last November. 1 Ken Aiken with shares in sever- al companies throughout several provinces, put his stamp of ap- proval on the purchase of the plant one week before its scheduled liq- uidation as well as the purchase of United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners Union of America lo- cal 3054's contract. GMH general manager Doug Holmes is back on the job and op- erations are underway at the plant which will recall an unspecified number of workers at the end of April and then groups of 20 in suc- Police lay 96 charges. for mailbox damage EXETER - A total of 96 Criminal Code charges have been laid against eight people in relation to a spree of what was described as "mailbox baseball" last month. The Exeter OPP laid the charges of mischief under $1,000 against three young men and five young of- fenders after investigating damage done to a dozen mailboxes in Ste- phen Township the night of March 14. The names of those charged have not been released. The Exeter OPP have also laid charges against two adults and two young offenders as a result of an in- vestigation into a break -enter and theft at Devon's Corner Gas Station (on Highway 4 at County Road 4) on February 14. The break-in mainly involved the theft of cigar - cues and cash. Round-and-round - The Lucan Figure Skating Club presented 'Viva Las Vegas' Saturday aftemoon. Here the Intermediates, Lisa Hardy, Heather Shilson, Erin Haskett, Lindsey Deblock, Kelly Andrews and Sheri Moir are the Good Luck Charms. For more photos see page 16. cession according to need in May. GMH will continue to manufac- ture prefabricated housing, con- struction trailers and cottages, but with that comes a new twist. The company is hoping for Otta- wa's support in a $120 million pro- ject set for Israel to help immigrant Soviet Jews with housing. Although Israel does not have the money to pay for the project up- front, Holmes states the govern- ment has a good record of repaying its debts in time. The union reduced some of its immediate worries by ratifying a contract last Wednesday, which will freeze their wages at $11.43/h for the first year. The wage rate will be $12.53/h when the contract expires in 1994. Aiken is at his Amherst plant in Nova Scotia this week and was un- available for comment. Youth, 16, charged for lawn damage EXETER - A 16 year-old male youth has been charged under the Provincial Offences Act following an incident which left 27 lawns in Exeter damaged. The youth, who cannot be named under the Youth Offenders Act, went on a wild driving spree in the late hours of March 29 and did an , undetermined amount of damage to the front lawns in the Pryde and Darling subdivisions. Exeter Police Chief Jack Hark- ness, whose lawn was also driven over, said a total amount of damage may not be known as not all of the home owners reported the occur- rence. Harkness said the youth has al- ready made some restitution. Police claim Exeter still has a good deal EXETER - Although the Exeter Police Force went some $9,400 over their 1990 budget, chief Jack Harkness told council last Tuesday that the town department is still a Daffodil campaign achieves record sales EXETER - The annual Cancer Society daffodil campaign went better than expected on Friday, much better. The Exeter chapter of the Cancer Society and the Beta Sigma Phi So- rority say they managed to raise over $5,100 in a single day of sell- ing daffodil bunches around town, and they're still not quite sure how they did While it appeared that Friday morning's wet weather kept people indoors and slowed sales drastical- ly, Donna Jones said that when the skies cleared in the afternoon salts picked up so that all 1,300 bunches were sold by about 4 p.m. In fact, some of the daffodil cam- paigners are wondering if they did not have more than 1,300 bunches delivered to them. The annual campaign usually raises around $3,000, and at $3 a bunch this year there is over $1,000 in donations that cannot be accounted for. "A lot of people gave us money rather than taking daffodils," ex- plained Jones, but she was still wondering at the disparity in the fi- nal figures - $5,100 represents a record amount for the one -day cam pretty good deal. The total budget for 1990 was $458,567, which was overshot by $9,426.97. However, when incom- ing revenues are deducted, Hark- ness said that the per capita cost of the town's police amounts to less than $95. He said that the latest quotes he has received on the cost of OPP po- Mill rate to go up five percent EXETER - While it had appeared town council was hoping to create a 1991 budget with no increase over last year, they gave up last week and approved a draft budget in principle which calls for a five per- cent increase in both commercial and residential tax rates. Mayor Bruce Shaw spoke out in favour of the five percent increase and asked council to consider it better to approve the budget now and to spend more time on more pressing matters. One decison which seemed to cause some debate among councillors was whether or not to apply the blue box recycling program costs exclusively to the residential mill rate, or to distribute those costs on the general mill rate. Shaw said he favoured applying it to the general rate because commercial properties would be bene- fitting from the recycling program eventually, and it allowed for a lower tax increase to homeowners. After some discussion, council agreed to the gen- eral levy increase. Reeve Bill Mickle was absent from the meeting, but nonetheless sent a Ieuer to council saying he was only in favour of a budget increase of 4.5 per- cent. "I can't subscribe to a mill rate above 4.5 in these times," read Mickle's letter..."I would prefer a zero mill rate increase if this could be accomplished." Clerk treasurer Liz Bell noted most town depart- ments have actually cut their budgets, but capital projects, including the reconstruction of Main Street this summer, have made an overall increase in ex- penses inevitable. "It's pared to the bone," said Bell of the budget, and said if it was trimmed further to create a more attractive mill rate, the town may just face a deficit by year end. Shaw said he considerd a five percent increase ac- ceptable. "I don't think they're going to be offended with five percent," agreed councillor Harry Klungel. "If they're offended, they can run for council," ob- served 'councillor Dorothy Chapman. "Some of them probably will," replied Klungel. Council will continue to review the budget and will have to forward their concerns before it is final- ly brought forward for final approval in two weeks. The total tax increase to ratepayers has yet to be calculated. 'The town tax rate only comprises a small part of the tax bill, with the county, education, and conservation authority levies making up the re- mainder. Grand Bend could lose American boat traffic GRAND BEND - A new envi- ronmental program proposed by the provincial government could cost Grand Bend some big bucks. The village has thousands of . American tourists arriving by boat every summer, but according to one councillor, in a couple of years those boaters may no longer come to to Grand Bend. Amendments to two regulations of the Environmental Protection Act could see fewer American boats in the Grand Bend docks. Last Tuesday night at the Grand Bend Council meeting, Dennis Snider said the provincial govern- ment has announced that in two years, all boats in Ontario will have to save any water which comas onto their boats. Last month, Minister of the En- vironment Ruth Grier, announced owners of • leasute boats will be prohibited from discharging 'grey water' from sinks and showers into Ontario's waterways. The ministry is amending Regu- lations 305 and 310 of the Environ- mental Protection Act by changing the definition of sewage to include grey water as well as black water (water from toilets). The public can make comment on these regulation changes by April 30, 1991. The amendments will come into effect, May 1, 1993. Adjustments will have to be made to both new and existing boats to store grey water in holding tanks and discharge it at pumpotit stations. Adapting vessels for the storage will be expensive. Snider said even pma{lcr craft will have to spend as ?huch as $1,000. This will become a boating regulation in Ontario but not in the United States. But according to Snider, the American boaters will be fined if they don't have storage tanks when they cone into Ontario waters. That could discourage them from coming to such ports as Grand Bend, and that means a loss of tour- ist dollars. "It will probably stop all the Americans from coming to Onta- rio," said Snider. "i think our harbour committee should be writing a letter to our government," he added. According to the ministry, grey water contains bacteria at levels which are potentially hazardous to human health as well as high con- centrations of chemicals such as phosphorus and nitrogen. It is esti- mated each person on a boat pro- duces about 15 to 18 litres of grey water per day. licing average out to about $178 per person. "That's what's being quoted in the South Simcoe area where they're considering whether to go OPP or town policing," explained Harkness on Monday. The chief said the Exeter Police Force comes in at well below the average policing cost in province. Nevertheless, Harkness said he would rather see that cost increased somewhat to make room in the bud- get for a $38,000 OMPAC comput- er system. There is already $6,000 in reserves for such a system. Harkness described the system as a necessary item for the province's police forces and can be found in use in municipalities smaller than Exeter. He said the computer system can track down information on crimes and criminals much quicker than the traditional methods now em- ployed. Plus, with more and more police forces hooked up to the net- work, the Exeter Force is finding its information channels incompati- ble with other departments that use the computer exclusively. Harkness said an extreme case could have the police taking five hours to research what could take five minutes on the computer sys- tem. "You're trying to indicate to council this is a necessary item not a luxury item," said Harkness, not- ing that the purchase of the OM - PAC system has been put off by the town for four years. With the presentation of the po- lice report at last Tuesday's council meeting, councillor Harry Klungel asked if putting town policemen on bicycles was a feasible scenario. Harkness agreed that small mu- nicipal forces may eventually fmd themselves patterned after the Eu- ropean form of policing, but he said response time to emergency calls could be harmed. Emergency equipment is also kept in the trunk of the cruisers. "We couldn't put that on a bicy- cle," said Harkness. Councillor DorothyChapman ad- vised members of council that spending an evening with a police officer in a cruiser would answer many questions about what kind of services were required and why putting officers on the beat on foot or bicycle is not always practical. Harkness also told council that the police chief, under the new Po- lice Services Act, is required to set up a Public Complaints process. He said several chiefs from the area had suggested to band together and choose one individual who would hear complaints from the public, and be compensated for time and expenses by the municipalities when required. "We had looked at getting a re- tired police officer," said Harkness. "I don't think that would be a se- lection I would su • • • " said coun- cillor Ben Hoogen • • • m, who said that it isn't always trustworthy to expect a retired police officer to "police the police He said instances in the United States have proven that kind of sys- tem does not work and does not have the trust of the public. Cemetery gets room to expand in Hay township EXETER - The Exeter Cemetery will be expanding after all, only not to the direction originally intended. The cemetery board's report was delivered to council last Tuesday evening by councillor Ervin Sillery. He said the board had finally found a solution to the "stumbling block" encountered while attempt- ing to purchase additional land in Stephen Township across the mad from the present cemetery. Sillcry said an agreement has been reached with owners in Hay Township, but the change of land use mist first be approved by Hay council before the sale will go through. Stephen Township had opposed the establishment of ceme- tery property in its boundaries. The new property is 10 acres in size, and will cost about $48,000. The sale must be closed before the end of the year. The land is located further north on Hay Township Concession 2-3, but eater properties are between it and the ori Ina' ccmc Inside Exandarea Co-op housing nearly complete page5 Quilts Show well attended page 7 Rally 98 canoes at Varna page 9 Junlor D Series heats up page 14 Mohawks Senior 'A' season ends page 14 Home and Garden Show this weekend Third section ��?:.;;St �.: i7 ter: E•`.=i�; GC Gaiser-Kneale insurance • Cell us for Comprehensive competitive HOMEOWNERS 235.2420 General Homes ready for restart HENSALL - General Manufac- tured Housing of Hensall is up and running following a five-month shutdown after the plant went into receivership last November. 1 Ken Aiken with shares in sever- al companies throughout several provinces, put his stamp of ap- proval on the purchase of the plant one week before its scheduled liq- uidation as well as the purchase of United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners Union of America lo- cal 3054's contract. GMH general manager Doug Holmes is back on the job and op- erations are underway at the plant which will recall an unspecified number of workers at the end of April and then groups of 20 in suc- Police lay 96 charges. for mailbox damage EXETER - A total of 96 Criminal Code charges have been laid against eight people in relation to a spree of what was described as "mailbox baseball" last month. The Exeter OPP laid the charges of mischief under $1,000 against three young men and five young of- fenders after investigating damage done to a dozen mailboxes in Ste- phen Township the night of March 14. The names of those charged have not been released. The Exeter OPP have also laid charges against two adults and two young offenders as a result of an in- vestigation into a break -enter and theft at Devon's Corner Gas Station (on Highway 4 at County Road 4) on February 14. The break-in mainly involved the theft of cigar - cues and cash. Round-and-round - The Lucan Figure Skating Club presented 'Viva Las Vegas' Saturday aftemoon. Here the Intermediates, Lisa Hardy, Heather Shilson, Erin Haskett, Lindsey Deblock, Kelly Andrews and Sheri Moir are the Good Luck Charms. For more photos see page 16. cession according to need in May. GMH will continue to manufac- ture prefabricated housing, con- struction trailers and cottages, but with that comes a new twist. The company is hoping for Otta- wa's support in a $120 million pro- ject set for Israel to help immigrant Soviet Jews with housing. Although Israel does not have the money to pay for the project up- front, Holmes states the govern- ment has a good record of repaying its debts in time. The union reduced some of its immediate worries by ratifying a contract last Wednesday, which will freeze their wages at $11.43/h for the first year. The wage rate will be $12.53/h when the contract expires in 1994. Aiken is at his Amherst plant in Nova Scotia this week and was un- available for comment. Youth, 16, charged for lawn damage EXETER - A 16 year-old male youth has been charged under the Provincial Offences Act following an incident which left 27 lawns in Exeter damaged. The youth, who cannot be named under the Youth Offenders Act, went on a wild driving spree in the late hours of March 29 and did an , undetermined amount of damage to the front lawns in the Pryde and Darling subdivisions. Exeter Police Chief Jack Hark- ness, whose lawn was also driven over, said a total amount of damage may not be known as not all of the home owners reported the occur- rence. Harkness said the youth has al- ready made some restitution. Police claim Exeter still has a good deal EXETER - Although the Exeter Police Force went some $9,400 over their 1990 budget, chief Jack Harkness told council last Tuesday that the town department is still a Daffodil campaign achieves record sales EXETER - The annual Cancer Society daffodil campaign went better than expected on Friday, much better. The Exeter chapter of the Cancer Society and the Beta Sigma Phi So- rority say they managed to raise over $5,100 in a single day of sell- ing daffodil bunches around town, and they're still not quite sure how they did While it appeared that Friday morning's wet weather kept people indoors and slowed sales drastical- ly, Donna Jones said that when the skies cleared in the afternoon salts picked up so that all 1,300 bunches were sold by about 4 p.m. In fact, some of the daffodil cam- paigners are wondering if they did not have more than 1,300 bunches delivered to them. The annual campaign usually raises around $3,000, and at $3 a bunch this year there is over $1,000 in donations that cannot be accounted for. "A lot of people gave us money rather than taking daffodils," ex- plained Jones, but she was still wondering at the disparity in the fi- nal figures - $5,100 represents a record amount for the one -day cam pretty good deal. The total budget for 1990 was $458,567, which was overshot by $9,426.97. However, when incom- ing revenues are deducted, Hark- ness said that the per capita cost of the town's police amounts to less than $95. He said that the latest quotes he has received on the cost of OPP po- Mill rate to go up five percent EXETER - While it had appeared town council was hoping to create a 1991 budget with no increase over last year, they gave up last week and approved a draft budget in principle which calls for a five per- cent increase in both commercial and residential tax rates. Mayor Bruce Shaw spoke out in favour of the five percent increase and asked council to consider it better to approve the budget now and to spend more time on more pressing matters. One decison which seemed to cause some debate among councillors was whether or not to apply the blue box recycling program costs exclusively to the residential mill rate, or to distribute those costs on the general mill rate. Shaw said he favoured applying it to the general rate because commercial properties would be bene- fitting from the recycling program eventually, and it allowed for a lower tax increase to homeowners. After some discussion, council agreed to the gen- eral levy increase. Reeve Bill Mickle was absent from the meeting, but nonetheless sent a Ieuer to council saying he was only in favour of a budget increase of 4.5 per- cent. "I can't subscribe to a mill rate above 4.5 in these times," read Mickle's letter..."I would prefer a zero mill rate increase if this could be accomplished." Clerk treasurer Liz Bell noted most town depart- ments have actually cut their budgets, but capital projects, including the reconstruction of Main Street this summer, have made an overall increase in ex- penses inevitable. "It's pared to the bone," said Bell of the budget, and said if it was trimmed further to create a more attractive mill rate, the town may just face a deficit by year end. Shaw said he considerd a five percent increase ac- ceptable. "I don't think they're going to be offended with five percent," agreed councillor Harry Klungel. "If they're offended, they can run for council," ob- served 'councillor Dorothy Chapman. "Some of them probably will," replied Klungel. Council will continue to review the budget and will have to forward their concerns before it is final- ly brought forward for final approval in two weeks. The total tax increase to ratepayers has yet to be calculated. 'The town tax rate only comprises a small part of the tax bill, with the county, education, and conservation authority levies making up the re- mainder. Grand Bend could lose American boat traffic GRAND BEND - A new envi- ronmental program proposed by the provincial government could cost Grand Bend some big bucks. The village has thousands of . American tourists arriving by boat every summer, but according to one councillor, in a couple of years those boaters may no longer come to to Grand Bend. Amendments to two regulations of the Environmental Protection Act could see fewer American boats in the Grand Bend docks. Last Tuesday night at the Grand Bend Council meeting, Dennis Snider said the provincial govern- ment has announced that in two years, all boats in Ontario will have to save any water which comas onto their boats. Last month, Minister of the En- vironment Ruth Grier, announced owners of • leasute boats will be prohibited from discharging 'grey water' from sinks and showers into Ontario's waterways. The ministry is amending Regu- lations 305 and 310 of the Environ- mental Protection Act by changing the definition of sewage to include grey water as well as black water (water from toilets). The public can make comment on these regulation changes by April 30, 1991. The amendments will come into effect, May 1, 1993. Adjustments will have to be made to both new and existing boats to store grey water in holding tanks and discharge it at pumpotit stations. Adapting vessels for the storage will be expensive. Snider said even pma{lcr craft will have to spend as ?huch as $1,000. This will become a boating regulation in Ontario but not in the United States. But according to Snider, the American boaters will be fined if they don't have storage tanks when they cone into Ontario waters. That could discourage them from coming to such ports as Grand Bend, and that means a loss of tour- ist dollars. "It will probably stop all the Americans from coming to Onta- rio," said Snider. "i think our harbour committee should be writing a letter to our government," he added. According to the ministry, grey water contains bacteria at levels which are potentially hazardous to human health as well as high con- centrations of chemicals such as phosphorus and nitrogen. It is esti- mated each person on a boat pro- duces about 15 to 18 litres of grey water per day. licing average out to about $178 per person. "That's what's being quoted in the South Simcoe area where they're considering whether to go OPP or town policing," explained Harkness on Monday. The chief said the Exeter Police Force comes in at well below the average policing cost in province. Nevertheless, Harkness said he would rather see that cost increased somewhat to make room in the bud- get for a $38,000 OMPAC comput- er system. There is already $6,000 in reserves for such a system. Harkness described the system as a necessary item for the province's police forces and can be found in use in municipalities smaller than Exeter. He said the computer system can track down information on crimes and criminals much quicker than the traditional methods now em- ployed. Plus, with more and more police forces hooked up to the net- work, the Exeter Force is finding its information channels incompati- ble with other departments that use the computer exclusively. Harkness said an extreme case could have the police taking five hours to research what could take five minutes on the computer sys- tem. "You're trying to indicate to council this is a necessary item not a luxury item," said Harkness, not- ing that the purchase of the OM - PAC system has been put off by the town for four years. With the presentation of the po- lice report at last Tuesday's council meeting, councillor Harry Klungel asked if putting town policemen on bicycles was a feasible scenario. Harkness agreed that small mu- nicipal forces may eventually fmd themselves patterned after the Eu- ropean form of policing, but he said response time to emergency calls could be harmed. Emergency equipment is also kept in the trunk of the cruisers. "We couldn't put that on a bicy- cle," said Harkness. Councillor DorothyChapman ad- vised members of council that spending an evening with a police officer in a cruiser would answer many questions about what kind of services were required and why putting officers on the beat on foot or bicycle is not always practical. Harkness also told council that the police chief, under the new Po- lice Services Act, is required to set up a Public Complaints process. He said several chiefs from the area had suggested to band together and choose one individual who would hear complaints from the public, and be compensated for time and expenses by the municipalities when required. "We had looked at getting a re- tired police officer," said Harkness. "I don't think that would be a se- lection I would su • • • " said coun- cillor Ben Hoogen • • • m, who said that it isn't always trustworthy to expect a retired police officer to "police the police He said instances in the United States have proven that kind of sys- tem does not work and does not have the trust of the public. Cemetery gets room to expand in Hay township EXETER - The Exeter Cemetery will be expanding after all, only not to the direction originally intended. The cemetery board's report was delivered to council last Tuesday evening by councillor Ervin Sillery. He said the board had finally found a solution to the "stumbling block" encountered while attempt- ing to purchase additional land in Stephen Township across the mad from the present cemetery. Sillcry said an agreement has been reached with owners in Hay Township, but the change of land use mist first be approved by Hay council before the sale will go through. Stephen Township had opposed the establishment of ceme- tery property in its boundaries. The new property is 10 acres in size, and will cost about $48,000. The sale must be closed before the end of the year. The land is located further north on Hay Township Concession 2-3, but eater properties are between it and the ori Ina' ccmc