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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1991-07-17, Page 1OAR RENTALS DiAMLY • WEEKLY • MONTHLY CALL US POR INSURANCE REPLACEMENT NEEDS • Complies Auto Manly Cyan - cr- Su. 23 -3381 or 258.8839 after hour* s • • a'�,tA"a;gam k See Gainer-Kneale Insurance Service tperienca & Value 295.2420 Serving South F4 Non Inside Whiz kid Youth tinkers With engines page 5 1 Return Zurich missionaries page 11 No fad Rollerblading here to stay Second front No decision EXETER - Despite some concem by Usborne , Township, there has been no decision yet by the South Huron Recreation Board to put some kind of protecting cover over the fences on the ball diamonds. Some diamonds, including the hardball field in Exeter, use plastic field tile. But at Thursday's meet- ing, the board figured this would not work. "They figured it's more danger- ous if it cracks," said recreation di- rector Lynne Farquhar. "I don't know if there is anything else," she added. "They're brand new fences 1 don't know if they are that dangerous." Usborf Township also had some concern about the height of some of the fences but the board noted they are of regulation height. Pool registration down EXETER - There is some con- cern by Exeter Council about the tow registration at the town's out- door pool. For the first session, there were 171 children register which is down from 198 a year ago and 224 in 1989. The total number in 1989 was 488 and to date it is only 240 for 1991 although there arc still those who are registering for the later sessions. Councillor Ben Hoogenboom questioned the cost of the town's program but recreation chairman Dave Urlin said it was comparable to other towns. "I don't think that's why registra- tion is down. It's because of the competition,' said deputy -reeve Lossy Fuller. She was referring to the indoor pool in Exeter, Kicks Aquat' en- tre. Mayorarucc Shaw pointed out th¢cre was still about $500 Icft from a donation made last year which could be used to help subsidize some of the registrants. Students helping to conserve EXETER - Hiring nine students under the Environmental Youth Corps and Experience '91 programs has allowed the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority to under- take projects to improve our local natural resources. Both of the pro- grams are funded by the province of Ontario. The students arc in full force making improvements to our Con- servation Arcas (C.A.) and fish and wildlife habitats. Clinton C.A. will see trail upgrading. Wheelchair ac- cessible trails and facilities at Exet- er's Morrison Dam C.A. and Rock Glen C.A. will be enhanced. Other assignments include improvements to the classroom at White Pine Woods, in Parkhill C.A., and trial improvements including a new sec- tion of boardwalk and small ero- sion control structures in the Ban- nockburn Wildlife Arra. An inventory of local dams and head ponds, manure application re- search, and soil and water sampling is also being conducted throughout the watersheds of the ABCA. North Middlesex & Ltrnbton Since 1873 Wednesday, July 17, 1991 Both arena and college affected by unexpected cancellations By Rhonda Vandeworp HURON PARK - Due to unfortunate cancellations, the Stephen Township Arena Board has decided not to put in the ice rink for the entire summer as they have done in previous years. The Christian Athletic Hockey Camp is scheduled to run from July 28 to August 2, and ice will be provided to accommodate this annual event. The hockey rink will not be in operation until the end of July because of the decision of Huron Hockey School to move to Cornwall, nor will the ice stay after the one-week camp because the scheduled power skating school had to cancel because of a low registration count. Financially, it isn't worthwhile to put in the ice for the short time period, but as arena assitant manager Rob Funston said, "We committed ourselves to them. They've been here for close to ten years, and it wouldn't be fair to cancel out." Because of the unexpected recalls;' the arena, Cen- tralia College, and even local businesses, have begun to feel the absence of the hockey school dollars. As a - result, many of the local residents have questioned the board's decision to relinquish the tics with the school. As Arena Board Chairman Dennis Pfaff explained, alt arenas have a deficit which they must attempt to di- minish. The board felt an increase of ice rink rates from S70 to 577 dollars plus GST per hour, was rea- sonable, considering the arena iia essence was "subsi- dizing kids from other areas and from the United States to learn hockey." The Arena Board, however, also realized the move of Huron Hockey School meant the loss of a guaran- teed 400 hours of ice time (approximately S30,000). As manager of the arena and spokesman for the board, Frank Funston offered to negptiate with the Huron Hockey School. A response w s not received until a couple of months later when the school announced it was relocating in Cornwall. "As far as we're concerned, they had to have (re- ceived) a better deal in Cornwall," said Rob. Pfaff does not believe the decision made by the school was based on anything other than finances since the arena had, "received letters left and right describing the good quality of the ice and the co-operation of the staff." Whatever the reasons for Huron Hockey School's de- cision to leave Huron Park after 20 years, it appears the unexpected vacancy will have several financial conse- quences. Rob explains the delayed rejection of the contract has increased the arena's deficit. Renovations expected to be covered by the ice fees and by a government grant were put into motion before the arena heard of the news. Part of the 530,000 gpllected from the school would have partially covered the cost of rubber tiling on the hallway floors and new lights in the arena. Not orily has the arena suffered, but so has Centralia College which relics on the five weeks of ice hockey to fill up an entire residency. Elgin Farewell, spokesman for the college, says they are desperately trying to fill the gap left by the school, but have lost a fairly sizeable amount of money." Renovations on the college's recreational centre, base- ball diamonds, and tennis courts are now in progress in hopes of attracting others to lease out the dormitories for conferences or camps. "We had people calling us last summer inquiring about housing, but we turned them down because the hockey school usually guaranteed us five weeks," Fare- well explains. Funston concludes that an additional disappointment may be the cancellation of the power skating camp sponsored by the Stephen Township Arena which is scheduled to begin She week after September's holiday weekend. If not enough individuals show an interest in renting out the rink during off -times (weekends and two hours at night), the nnk wofficially open the weds of September 8. Please c t the arena if you are interested in booking ice time. Beginning immediately 75 cents Police to patrol on mountain bikes EXETER - Don't be surprised if you see a police officer riding a mountain bike in the next couple of weeks. Monday night, Exeter council ap- proved its police committee's re- quest to allow the local department to make some of their patrols on mountain bikes. "There's been some problems at McNaughton Park. The guys are going to go down on their mountain bikes and plain clothes and see what happens," said councillor Dave Urlin of the police commit- tee. Chief Jack Harkness said he'd like to expand the new patrol to other parts of the town and noted there would be two officers on duty during the time of the new patrol. "I'm thinking of the town in gen- eral, notjustthe park," said Hark- ness. He said a couple of the officers made the suggestion and they would be using their own bikes as the department does not have any. Harkness also indicated he would ; prefer if the officers were in uni-,' form when they were making these patrols so they would be easily identified. "There is a battery of things that can be addressed when you have sufficient manpower to put one on patrol m a car and one on a moun- tain bike," said Harkness. Harkness added there must be a car on patrol in order to respond to emergency situations. He said it's not likely mountain bikes would become a regular patrol because it is during a high holiday period for the department. While Urlin noted to council on Monday night that auxiliary police could be patrolling on the bikes, Harkness didn't seem to agree com- pletely. • "I didn't even suggest it be an auxiliary officer, again that would have to be explored." ABCA wants park cleaned up CREDITON - The Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority has con- tacted Stephen Township indicating their displeasure in how the conserva- tion park in Crediton is being maintained. Following its June 20 Board of Directors meeting, the ABCA have indi- cated it would send a letter to the township giving them one year, "to comply with the terms of agreement dated June 7, 1978." Under those terms, the township has the use of the ABCA land and in return, must do certain maintenance including cutting the grass and re- moving the garbage. "It's one of the few that the municipalities maintain," said ABCA com- munications manager Kathy Monk. The ABCA also has a similar agreement with the village of Zurich and a small conservation area behind the arena there. "We're gelling along really well in Zurich but with Stephen Township, we're finding the property isn't being maintained up to the standards we'd like to see," said Monk. She added that the ABCA may have to go in and do the work them- selves, but their budget is limited. "We'd have to go in and do it ourselves if we've got the money. If we ddn't It will have to be'clo d,- Said Monk. However, it does appear as though the township will be taking care of the park up to the standards as requested by the ABCA. Monday morning, Stephen Township administrator Larry Brown said arrangement have already been made to have the maintenance carried out. Will remain outdoors Lucan pool to be refurbished by 1993 LUCAN - An earlier proposal to put a'roof over the Lucan public pool has been shelved, and instead the community centre management board have decided that an overall refurbishing of the existing facili- ties is a better course of acuon. Lucan councillor Tom McLaugh- lin, who sits on the board ex- plained that the capital cost of put- ting a roof over the pool to turn it into a year-round facility was quite high. Also, he said a survey of several Southwestern Ontario mu- nicipalities with covered pools found that all of them operate at a deficit. The extra use that a year-round pool would see would likely not Justify the higher operating costs either, said McLaughlin. The Lucan arena currently oper- ates at an annual deficit of 554,000 and McLaughlin said he doesn't want that figure to increase. However, faced with an engi- neer's report that shows the life ex- pectancy of the present pool facili- ty is now only four years, McLaughlin said the board had to do something. Consequently, the arena board expects that some $200,000 will be spent on repairing and upgrading the pool by the fall of 1992 or spring of 1993 at the lat- est. Provincial grants will lessen the blow to the tune of about $75,000, said McLaughlin. The Lucan Are- na Booster Club has 530,000 set aside for the project already, leav- ing about 595,000 to come from fundraising projects in the village, because, as McLaughlin insisted, the board are determined not to add any costs to the tax base. "We're definitely commited to the idea of keeping it open and getting it repaired," said McLaughlin. improvements to the pool will in- clude an upgrade of the change rooms and their lighting, and re- placement of equipment and pip- ing. The pool, originally built in 1963, has a rather deep shallow end and McLaughlin said it will be made shallower to make it safer for younger children. special pizza delivery for party of 700 By Rhonda Vandewor EXETER - What dies one do if 700 guests drop by demanding a midnight snack to sat- • isfy their late night hunger? "Order pizza," thinks Perry and Michelle Sereda who on Saturday provided 120 Dominos pizzas for the guests of their wed- ding reception held in the Exeter Arena. Paula Sereda, Perry's sister-in- law, described the meal as "unique" and a "great idea" since there were no dishes to wash, the cost of the catered job only amounted to approximately 81.50 per person, and there were no lefto- vers to worry about. In order to cater to the large crowd, both the Wharncliffe and Wonderland stores in London were contracted to supply the pizza. Wharncliffe's manager said the two restaurants decided to have a contest to see who would deliver the 60 pizzas to Exeter the fastest. (Wharncliffc won in case you were curious). "We really enjoy the excitement," the manager confessed. "It gives us more of an incentive to work," The 120 pizzas were kept warm during the drive to Exeter in insu- lated bags, and according to Screda and the Domino's representative, no one was disappointed with the al- ternative midnight snack. e ,. T! , �.I •t ir r- ahs. ♦ f, 4., , ; , k • • • • Interception? - Members of Hotel Mainstreet and J Dees Summerhouse fight for possession of the football during their 'A' division semi-final in Grand Bend Tuesday. Hotel Mainstreet won the game 19-6, but lost the Sandbowl final to the Gables Tavem. • Future -of footbaHUfrrabs . GRAND BEND - Despite the apparent success entire village, in such a short time span. of the second annual charity Sandbowl held in "Council is in favour of any youth activities, but we Grand Bend last Tuesday, the future of the event were only told at 10 p.m. that four football fields remains questionable. were needed," said councillor Bill Uniac. "We have Organizer Jerry Lamport came before council to represent the whole village, and we weren't sure Monday evening, after Grand Bend council re- how the residents would have reacted." fused him permission to use the north portion of Lamport explained that he didn't approach council the public beach for his football games, forcing earlier, instead contacting those who would be imme- him to use the section of beach owned by Archie diately affected, mainly the beach's lifeguards. Gibbs. "Last year, council didn't take us seriously when we The touch football games involved teams repre- ran the event," said Lamport. senting Grand Bend businesses, which also con- Lamport acknowledged concern over the use of the tributed large donations at a barbecue held that public beach, but wanted to show council that it was evening at another location. Pineridge Barbecue a practical and positive event. served dinner while local businesses supported a "The response from Grand Bend businesses was re - charity auction, helping to raise a total of markable," said Lamport. "And after we contacted $2,620.37, which Lamport donated to the Huron Mr. Gibbs about using his beach, he was there at 6 County Community Child Abuse Coordinating a.m. raking and grading, it." Committee. Despite the success of Sandbowl II which met with Council denied Lamport the right to use the no complaints, the fate of Sandbowl III has council - beach, explaining that they had learned of his in- lors offering mixed reaction. Although some support tentions only the night before, and were therefore the idea, others feel that legal concerns raised be - unable to reach a decision, which would affect the cause it is a public beach, may extinguish the event. Both arena and college affected by unexpected cancellations By Rhonda Vandeworp HURON PARK - Due to unfortunate cancellations, the Stephen Township Arena Board has decided not to put in the ice rink for the entire summer as they have done in previous years. The Christian Athletic Hockey Camp is scheduled to run from July 28 to August 2, and ice will be provided to accommodate this annual event. The hockey rink will not be in operation until the end of July because of the decision of Huron Hockey School to move to Cornwall, nor will the ice stay after the one-week camp because the scheduled power skating school had to cancel because of a low registration count. Financially, it isn't worthwhile to put in the ice for the short time period, but as arena assitant manager Rob Funston said, "We committed ourselves to them. They've been here for close to ten years, and it wouldn't be fair to cancel out." Because of the unexpected recalls;' the arena, Cen- tralia College, and even local businesses, have begun to feel the absence of the hockey school dollars. As a - result, many of the local residents have questioned the board's decision to relinquish the tics with the school. As Arena Board Chairman Dennis Pfaff explained, alt arenas have a deficit which they must attempt to di- minish. The board felt an increase of ice rink rates from S70 to 577 dollars plus GST per hour, was rea- sonable, considering the arena iia essence was "subsi- dizing kids from other areas and from the United States to learn hockey." The Arena Board, however, also realized the move of Huron Hockey School meant the loss of a guaran- teed 400 hours of ice time (approximately S30,000). As manager of the arena and spokesman for the board, Frank Funston offered to negptiate with the Huron Hockey School. A response w s not received until a couple of months later when the school announced it was relocating in Cornwall. "As far as we're concerned, they had to have (re- ceived) a better deal in Cornwall," said Rob. Pfaff does not believe the decision made by the school was based on anything other than finances since the arena had, "received letters left and right describing the good quality of the ice and the co-operation of the staff." Whatever the reasons for Huron Hockey School's de- cision to leave Huron Park after 20 years, it appears the unexpected vacancy will have several financial conse- quences. Rob explains the delayed rejection of the contract has increased the arena's deficit. Renovations expected to be covered by the ice fees and by a government grant were put into motion before the arena heard of the news. Part of the 530,000 gpllected from the school would have partially covered the cost of rubber tiling on the hallway floors and new lights in the arena. Not orily has the arena suffered, but so has Centralia College which relics on the five weeks of ice hockey to fill up an entire residency. Elgin Farewell, spokesman for the college, says they are desperately trying to fill the gap left by the school, but have lost a fairly sizeable amount of money." Renovations on the college's recreational centre, base- ball diamonds, and tennis courts are now in progress in hopes of attracting others to lease out the dormitories for conferences or camps. "We had people calling us last summer inquiring about housing, but we turned them down because the hockey school usually guaranteed us five weeks," Fare- well explains. Funston concludes that an additional disappointment may be the cancellation of the power skating camp sponsored by the Stephen Township Arena which is scheduled to begin She week after September's holiday weekend. If not enough individuals show an interest in renting out the rink during off -times (weekends and two hours at night), the nnk wofficially open the weds of September 8. Please c t the arena if you are interested in booking ice time. Beginning immediately 75 cents Police to patrol on mountain bikes EXETER - Don't be surprised if you see a police officer riding a mountain bike in the next couple of weeks. Monday night, Exeter council ap- proved its police committee's re- quest to allow the local department to make some of their patrols on mountain bikes. "There's been some problems at McNaughton Park. The guys are going to go down on their mountain bikes and plain clothes and see what happens," said councillor Dave Urlin of the police commit- tee. Chief Jack Harkness said he'd like to expand the new patrol to other parts of the town and noted there would be two officers on duty during the time of the new patrol. "I'm thinking of the town in gen- eral, notjustthe park," said Hark- ness. He said a couple of the officers made the suggestion and they would be using their own bikes as the department does not have any. Harkness also indicated he would ; prefer if the officers were in uni-,' form when they were making these patrols so they would be easily identified. "There is a battery of things that can be addressed when you have sufficient manpower to put one on patrol m a car and one on a moun- tain bike," said Harkness. Harkness added there must be a car on patrol in order to respond to emergency situations. He said it's not likely mountain bikes would become a regular patrol because it is during a high holiday period for the department. While Urlin noted to council on Monday night that auxiliary police could be patrolling on the bikes, Harkness didn't seem to agree com- pletely. • "I didn't even suggest it be an auxiliary officer, again that would have to be explored." ABCA wants park cleaned up CREDITON - The Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority has con- tacted Stephen Township indicating their displeasure in how the conserva- tion park in Crediton is being maintained. Following its June 20 Board of Directors meeting, the ABCA have indi- cated it would send a letter to the township giving them one year, "to comply with the terms of agreement dated June 7, 1978." Under those terms, the township has the use of the ABCA land and in return, must do certain maintenance including cutting the grass and re- moving the garbage. "It's one of the few that the municipalities maintain," said ABCA com- munications manager Kathy Monk. The ABCA also has a similar agreement with the village of Zurich and a small conservation area behind the arena there. "We're gelling along really well in Zurich but with Stephen Township, we're finding the property isn't being maintained up to the standards we'd like to see," said Monk. She added that the ABCA may have to go in and do the work them- selves, but their budget is limited. "We'd have to go in and do it ourselves if we've got the money. If we ddn't It will have to be'clo d,- Said Monk. However, it does appear as though the township will be taking care of the park up to the standards as requested by the ABCA. Monday morning, Stephen Township administrator Larry Brown said arrangement have already been made to have the maintenance carried out. Will remain outdoors Lucan pool to be refurbished by 1993 LUCAN - An earlier proposal to put a'roof over the Lucan public pool has been shelved, and instead the community centre management board have decided that an overall refurbishing of the existing facili- ties is a better course of acuon. Lucan councillor Tom McLaugh- lin, who sits on the board ex- plained that the capital cost of put- ting a roof over the pool to turn it into a year-round facility was quite high. Also, he said a survey of several Southwestern Ontario mu- nicipalities with covered pools found that all of them operate at a deficit. The extra use that a year-round pool would see would likely not Justify the higher operating costs either, said McLaughlin. The Lucan arena currently oper- ates at an annual deficit of 554,000 and McLaughlin said he doesn't want that figure to increase. However, faced with an engi- neer's report that shows the life ex- pectancy of the present pool facili- ty is now only four years, McLaughlin said the board had to do something. Consequently, the arena board expects that some $200,000 will be spent on repairing and upgrading the pool by the fall of 1992 or spring of 1993 at the lat- est. Provincial grants will lessen the blow to the tune of about $75,000, said McLaughlin. The Lucan Are- na Booster Club has 530,000 set aside for the project already, leav- ing about 595,000 to come from fundraising projects in the village, because, as McLaughlin insisted, the board are determined not to add any costs to the tax base. "We're definitely commited to the idea of keeping it open and getting it repaired," said McLaughlin. improvements to the pool will in- clude an upgrade of the change rooms and their lighting, and re- placement of equipment and pip- ing. The pool, originally built in 1963, has a rather deep shallow end and McLaughlin said it will be made shallower to make it safer for younger children. special pizza delivery for party of 700 By Rhonda Vandewor EXETER - What dies one do if 700 guests drop by demanding a midnight snack to sat- • isfy their late night hunger? "Order pizza," thinks Perry and Michelle Sereda who on Saturday provided 120 Dominos pizzas for the guests of their wed- ding reception held in the Exeter Arena. Paula Sereda, Perry's sister-in- law, described the meal as "unique" and a "great idea" since there were no dishes to wash, the cost of the catered job only amounted to approximately 81.50 per person, and there were no lefto- vers to worry about. In order to cater to the large crowd, both the Wharncliffe and Wonderland stores in London were contracted to supply the pizza. Wharncliffe's manager said the two restaurants decided to have a contest to see who would deliver the 60 pizzas to Exeter the fastest. (Wharncliffc won in case you were curious). "We really enjoy the excitement," the manager confessed. "It gives us more of an incentive to work," The 120 pizzas were kept warm during the drive to Exeter in insu- lated bags, and according to Screda and the Domino's representative, no one was disappointed with the al- ternative midnight snack.