HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1991-05-08, Page 1•dE
Exeter's SIA
Spring
Shopping
Spree
Thurs., Fri.
And Sat.
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--w
A
North Middlesex & Lantbton
1
Inside
Former premier
Bill Davis
speaks
at
Rotary charter
page 2
Hockey
Finally it's
all over
Second front
Lions Derby
Saturday
EXETER - Morrison Dam has
been stocked with up to 800 good
sized rainbow trout in preparation
for the annual Exeter Lions/ABCA
Fish Derby slated for this Saturday.
Club president Jon Dinney said
the event is one of the most popular
held by the local service club.
"Young or old can enjoy fishing
and we certainly enjoy putting it
on," Dinney said.
As well as bragging rights, there
are prizes for the biggest fish
caught by a fisherman over 18, a
trophy for 14 -18-year-olds, a junior
trophy and even one for the young-
est person to catch a fish.
Ausable-Bayfield spokesman
John Schwindt said the fish will be
10" and up but he warned this may
be the last year stocking fish will
be available from the Ministry of
Natural Resources.
The derby starts at 7 a.m. and
will wind up at 3 p.m.
Wage freeze
for -wirers"
EXETER - Despite an operating
surplus in last year's town budget,
council nevertheless decided there
was no excuse to raise their own re-
muneration and agreed to a freeze
on salaries paid to the mayor and
members of council.
"I think it was the feeling of
council that we would not raise our
salaries this year," said reeve Bill
Mickle, citing that the poor econo-
my was a good argument for re-
straint.
Council remuneration will remain
at $7,900 for the mayor and coun-
cillors at $4,400 each.
Nine cars
fail safety
test
EXETER - A total of 35 report
notices were issued to local motor-
ists as the Exeter Police and the
Ministry of Transportation con-
ducted a vehicle safety inspection
on Wednesday.
Of those, nine failed to attend
and are facing charges under the
Highway Traffic Act. Five sets of
licence plates were removed after
inspection for an assortment of de-
fects and 12 motorists voluntarily
surrendered their plates.
GL
Gainer-Kneale
Insurance
CaII us for
Comprehensive
Com stltiv•
HOMEOWNERS
295.2420
Since 1873 Wednesday, May 8. 1991
Walk agoat - The Exeter Lions Club annual Walk a-Doga-Thon had a sU r
afternoon as Wallace.the goat, and his owner Anne Mousseau of Hensal gott some sun and exer-
cise
and helped the club raise nearty $3,000 in the annual event.
2A00 surplus
Town's finances in good shape
.. ,....psi:.
EXETER - The town got yet an-
other clean bill of health Monday
evening as Ann Siess from Kime,
Mill and Ditchfield, presented the
town with its financial statements.
"The balance sheet shows the
town is in excellent financial condi-
tion," said Siess, who noted the
amount of taxes in arrears has actu-
ally dropped, while other munici-
palities are seeing their receivables
increasing.
The town currently has reserves
of $386,754 and reserve funds of
$272,000, both of which bode well
for the financing of future projects,
said Siess.
Adding to the town's good finan-
cial picture is the fact that it sold
land to the Exandarea Meadows
Co -Op housing development for
$219,000. The land was part of
larger parcel purchased from Nabis-
co the year before to build the new
fine hall.
The overall budget surplus at end
of 1990 was $132,495, said Siess,
which includes $41,000 of the ce-
metery board and a small $7,451
surplus of the South Huron Recrea-
tion Centre.
Major expenditures by the town
last year included the $314,000 it
spent on the fire hall and $238,000
for paving with the PRIDE project
on the east side of town.
Mayor Bruce Shaw queried the
financial statements by asking that
if the cemetery board operates at a
surplus "why do we give them a
grant each year?"
The town's grant to the cemetery
board this year is $25,000.
Council agreed to look into the
matter and will discuss it later.
Bluewater Home opens new wing
By Adrian Harte
ZURICH - "This day is of special
importance to me," said Robert
Westlake as he addressed the hun-
dreds of people who attended Sun-
day afternoon's grand opening of
the new $1.6 million wing of the
Bluewater Rest Home.
The wing has 15 private rooms,
and two double rooms and each is
fitted with its own emergency inter-
com to be hooked up to a new nurs-
es' station.
The new $1.5 million wing a1,
lows the retirement home to in-
crease its number of private rooms
from six to 26. Double rooms in
the older portion of the home will
be converted to singles, meaning
the overall capacity of the home
will approximately remain the
same.
Westlake said the new wing came
had been a special goal of the board
of directors for several years and it
was a pleasure to see it open.Rest Home administrator )"ase}'.
Risi brought his thanks from the
management and staff of the home
for all the support they have got
during the construction of the ex-
tension.
MP Murray Cardiff said he
thought Sunday marked the fourth
time he has been present at Bluewa-
ter for a grand opening of some
kind or another.
"It appears there's a long way to
the lake so there's a lot of room for
expansion,".- ,yoked Cardiff, who
added that while extensions and ad- -
. Continued on page 3.
Board of Education
considers busing
within Exeter
CLINTON - After agreeing that
the crossing of the bridge on High-
way 4 over the Ausable River is a
safety hazard for children walking
to school, the Huron County
Board of Education voted against
the approval of bus transportation
to alleviate the problem.
The Management Committee of
the Board of recommended Mon-
day that bus transportation be pro-
vided to students north of the river
crossing Highway 4 in Exeter; A
similar problem exists for students
in Wingham.
Informal arrangements have
been in place for a number of
years in Exeter to • accommodate
this need. While the crossing is
considered to be a safety hazard,
particularly during the winter
months, trustees felt that there
may be other alternatives.
The bridge does boast a walk-
way, however it is located on the
west side which requires students
on the east side to cross Highway 4
in order to use it. Trustee Norman
Pickell suggested that there must be
other ways of allocating safety con-
cerns and asked that the Board con-
front the town on the issue.
The committee also reviewed the
minimum walking distance radius
from each elementary and secon-
dary school location in the five
count towns. It was noted that
significant portions in all centres
fall outside of the 0.4 kilometre
walking distance requirement that
is found in rural areas. The Board
approved a motion to further inves-
tigate methods of establishing equi-
ty.
In other business, the Board not-
ed various conflicts between their
policy and the Highway Traffic Act
in the matter of Board -owned
szchool buses stopping at railway
crossings.
According to the Traffic Act,
buses must stop at all unprotected
crossings. However, present Board
policy calls for buses within the
county to stop at all railroad cross-
ings. Buses adhere to Board policy
while inside the county boundaries,
but are subject to HTA regulations
once they leave.
Trustee Jim Chapman pointed out
that in many instances it would be
safer to keep buses moving at pro-
tected crossings, agreeing that the
Board should comply with the
HTA.
The Board concurred that the pol-
icy of board -owned buses stopping
at railroad crossings be amended to
require exact compliance with Sec-
tion 150 of the Highway Traffic
Act.
Student employment
centre reopens
EXETER - With students return-
ing home from university for the,
summer months, the push is on to
find summer employment. To aid
their search, the Canada Employ-
.. ment Centre for Students has once
again opened its doors.
The office is located in the Cen-
tre Mall at 414 Main Street across
from the Canada Employment.
Centre, and is open Monday to
Friday from 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The Student Centre is designed
to operate as a service to both stu-
dents and employers including re-
cruitment of qualified labour on a
full-time, part-time or casual basis.
The centre also offers assistance
in developing effective job search
strategies, resume writing, inter-
view skills as well as a current list-
ing of employment opportunities in
the area.
The Student Centre will be oper-
ated -by Kim Talbot mein' this year,
and she encourages students to reg-
ister early to gain a competitive
edge. Students are also reminded
that the Employment Centre is only
one means of finding summer em-
ployment, and are encouraged to
explore all avenues in their job
search.
Those interested should feel free
to drop in to check new listings on
the job board on a regular basis, or
call the Student Employment Cen-
tre at 235-1711.
County wants no part
of Highways 84 and 83
EXETER - Councillor Ben Hoo-
genboom asked town council Mon-
day evening to officially oppose the
Ministry of Transportation's propo-
sal
to downgrade Highways 83
84 to county roads.
Hoogenboom said the MTO
should instead be considering an
opposite plan and should be look-
ing to upgrade local highways to
improve access to Highway 401.
Reeve Bill Mickle said that MTO
problems with maintenance of
Highways 83 and 84 led them to
consider handing the highways
over to the county.
However, said Mickle county
cottncii took the position that while
they may be interested in .helping
maintain the roads in winter
months, they did not want to see
them downgraded.
"What happened was we refused
to involve ourselves in any study,"
said Mickle. "There's no action be-
ing taken from the county until the
minister himself puts it in writing."
Mickle said the county was also
concerned that future funding plans
could wipe out provincial subsidies
to municipalities and counties. He
said this could cost $150,000 to Ex-
eter, and the county could see their
provincial road maintenance subsi-
dy drop from $5 million to $3 mil-
lion, making it unlikely they would
be eager to take on any new county
road responsibilities.
Stephen Centra
efight�rs tour fire hall
I%
Lb.
Arturo Ifroflghters The D -0,,
ay one and Day two kindergarten classes from Stephen Central Public School toured the Stephen township Are Hall in Huron Pa* on Friday. One of the highlights of the tour was t
lY-
on the firef!ters' : ear. Fire chief Robert Perts is shown above with the ure fire ' : i to • left to .1 Jaime Dunnell Alex Evans Austin Allen and Kris Hearn.
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