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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1991-11-13, Page 1car OiMeg By Appointment Exeter Colliston 235-0411 Serving South Huron Inside No development Lakeshore on hold page 3 Sunday shopping BIA says no page 5 Panthers ousted Eliminated in quarter finals Second front Council discusses youth group HENSALL - A delegation of par- ents were in attendance last Thurs- day, at the recent meeting of the Hensall Recreation, Parks and Community Centre Committee to express concerns for more youth programs. Members of the delegation dis- cussed putting together a program for kids between the ages of 10-14 years at the community centre. They were advised to form a com- mittee and the Board would arrange for a representative to sit on such. In addition, the Board will prepare a list of policies and rules for the use of the facilities. "We really do need something here for that age group," said coun- cillor Peter Groot, during council's Monday afternoon meeting. "Most- ly what they want is a simple meet- ing place where they can sit .aroutrQ,,, and talk, and we don't have any- thing here like that." North Middlesex & Lambton Kindergarten students of Usbome Central School, Brent Pym and Jessica Bray placed their class' wreath on the school's memorial with the guidance of Percy Noels at their Remembrance Day servce Monday morning. More s=, photos of local Remembrance Day activities are/V/ page County to spend $46,000 more for Canadian bricks GODERICH - With a multi- million dollar building going up in Clinton, the Huron County Council debated at length on Thursday af- ternoon, whether to buy Canadian or American made bricks for the new Huronview. The county -operated nursing home will have an additional $46,000 added to its building bud- get, but it took quite a while for county councillors to decide to pay thus lta_ cost. Total construction price -On the two facilities is $19.9 million. Of that figure, $30,000 will go to the Central site and the rest to the North site. The debate was whether or not to buy Canadian -made bricks or to get less expensive bricks made in the United States. "I feel $46,000...we should have gotten American," said Hay Town- ship's Lionel Wilder. "It's time for Canadian manufacturers to sharpen their pencils." "Why are we upgrading the brick, was it not in the architects propo- sal?" asked Exeter's Bill Mickle. A very close vote, saw 15 in fa- vour of the Canadian bricks and 14 wanting the American ones. Exeter deputy -reeve Lossy Fuller said architects Lamb and Warman Lucan staff member resigns LUCAN - Council Monday night accepted the resignation of a mem- ber of the office staff, Marg Gil- mour. She has been a faithful and dedi- cated employee of the village for the past 18 years. In dealing with the resignation, reeve Larry Hotson said, " We will i be accepting this with deep regret. I almost fell on the floor when I heani the news." In her letter of resignation, Mrs. Gilmour who has been an assistant to the clerk ' said she was retiring and would become involved in vol- unteer wort in the community. should have stated in the specifica- tions which brick to buy. Howard Armstrong, chairman of the Com- mittee of Management of Huron - view said "we felt we should spend the extra money and use Canadian bricks." Although construction has al- ready begun in Clinton, the county seems to be running into some oth- er obstacles that many feel should have already been dealt with. The architects are still - WNW - into using the water supply from Clinton, to determine if there would be sufficient supply and pressure in case of a major fine. Also, comments from the minis- try's dietary consultant has been re- ferred to the architects. "It seems we get part way through the project and we have to turn around because of the minis- try," said Mickle. Tom Cunningham of Hullett Township voiced concern about the increasing cost of the project. "At the point of construction the ministry is coming and saying we don't like this and we don't like that. This is going to bring the dol- lar figure up. We have somecontin- gency funds but we're using them . up" Council also debated on the hir- ing procedure for continuous field —ed V s. It is costing the county $105,000 for 18 months to have a representative on the site which reports to the architect. In a motion made September 4, ; the county decided to let Lamb and Warman hire what would be a county on-site representative. "I know people out of work who have got as much experience as anyone the architect could put there," said Mickle. .. �______��.-..�-...rM'aw?iR!!:ti.uffi.�lit.-._"_—,��'S�-..e►"-.,._ • Gaiser-Kneale Insu ranee • Service Experience & value 295.2420 0:7 Q Since 1873 Wednesday, November 13, 1991 75 cents Ministry westing town money? $12,000 spent to muffle an emergency pump at the new sewage pumping station EXETER - Regulations enforced on Exeter's new sewage pumping station have town staff wondering if the Ministry of the Environment has its priorities slightly out of whack. The pumping station, which is presently under con- struction, sits in a field far to the west of Exeter's devel- oped area near where the newly -approved Snider subdi- vision will eventually be built. The station will carry output from sanitary sewers in the southwest area of town directly to the sewage lagoons, bypassing older sewage lines. However, the controversy surrounded the station's 'backup diesel -engined pump, which the Ministry of the Environment insisted be installed with sound -muffling ' equipment to keep its neighbourhood quiet. Firstly, the town pointed out that there are no neigh- bours near the pump house at present. Secondly, the diesel engine would only be used in cases of electrical failure when the quieter electric pumps would be inop- erative. "We said 'look it's only the back-up system'," ex- plained town administrator Rick Hundey, who, while describing himself as an environmentalist, said he thought the ministry would have more important things 'to regulate than mufflers on back-up diesel generators. "The MOE pushes way too hard in all directions at ?nee," said Hundey, who described the $12,000 cost to install sound -baffling louvers on the pumping station as not good value for the town's environmental dollar. "We had no choice. We had to get a certificate of ap- proval," said Hundey, but said the town was at least able to dissuade the MOE from pursuing an $18,000 option of shielding land to the west from the seldom - used engine's noise. That land to the west is not likely to be developed for several years. Hundey said he was annoyed that he was unable to convince the ministry that the noise baffling system should not be given as high a priority as they insisted; especially since the town would have to bear the cost of the upgrade. "They're saying this is a society cost, even though .we don't know if we will ever need it," said Hundey, who said he couldn't understand why the ministry was so concerned about a diesel engine hidden inside a brick building. "It's no more noisy than a truck," he said. The Ministry of the Environment ruled that this pumping station _must have expensive mufflers installed on Its back-up diesel en- gine, even though it would be only used in emergencies. Future town plan will rely much thtMonday's impost fee decision EXETER - Although it's a matter of routine, plans to update Exeter's Official Plan could have a few ef- fects on the town's residents in the near future. The Official Plan is a document which maps out the zonings and planned°uses of land which is likely to be developed in coming years. The last review of the Plan five years ago resulted in the extension of Exeter's core area to include a commercial zone on Main Street as far north as Wellington Street. Reeve Bill Mickle, chairman of the town's execu- ' ive committee, said he did not expect any changes as dramatic as that this time round, but did say that the Official Plan may be effected by whether the town decides to increase its impost fees on new lots. Currently, the town charges $750 to build on a new lot, but a proposal is in the works to increase that to at least $1,500 for a single family dwelling. The charges are aimed at recouping some of the costs of bringing town services to those property owners. "I agree new buildings should pay their share," said Mickle. "They're tapping in on what everyone else is paying for." Because Exeter is reaching the limits of its present services, the impost fee will have an effect on how the town will fund their costly expansion. However, some have spoken out against raising Exeter's impost fees, insisting that the town must keep residential an attractive proposition in town. Some municipalities, mostly cities, have intro- duced impost fees of several thousand dollars in an attempt to keep up with the financial pressures of demands for hard services. While boards of educa- tion and county governments have also had the right to introduce impost fees of their own, this has not been the case in Huron County. A public meeting will be held before Monday's council meeting on November 18 at 7 p.m. to dis- cuss the impost fee issue. While Exeter currently has many vacant residen- tial lots on which building is presently permitted, the Official Plan review process will also be look- ing at the town's industrial areas and will examine if land zoned for future development will need to be more specifically aimed at industrial use. "Personally, I don't know if there is a need for changes to the industrial zone," speculated Mickle, who also pointed out that while sewage servicing capacity has been set aside for the residential sub- divisions, there isn't much leeway for new industri- al development. "If you don't have the servicing, you can't do much with your Official Plan," he said. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs recommends municipalities subject their Official Plans to re- view every five years. Surprise provincial funding cut ABCA scrambles to cut $35,000 from budget By Adrian Harts EXETER - A. long-standing_ agreeent with the provincial government appears to have been broken, and the Ausable Bay- field Conservation Authority will be scrambling to trim $35,000 off its operat- ing budget "at the eleventh hour". The province's NDP government, faced with the prospect of exceeding even its projected $9.7 billion deficit this year, slashed the budgets oIseveral ministries. Even though conservation authorities had previously been exempt from ministry cut- backs and were instead handled by the government directly, the Ministry of Natu- ral Resources announced on November 1 that they would be cutting $1.3 million from their allocations to Ontario's conser- vation authorities. Because the ABCA will be losing $35,000 in provincial funding before its fiscal year end on December 31, general manager Tom Prout said the board of di- rectors will have a hard time finding ways to make the cuts. Another problem is that the money has to come out of dee ABCA's operating bud- get, not capital projects. Prout said that in- cludes wages and benefits for staff, insu- rance, utility costs, and the tree planting program. "That was the joke: that staff had to pay us to work because we'd already spent the money," said Prout. The general manager said he does not want to see staff laid off, nor does he want to see a $35,000 deficit carried over to next year's budget. Because $35,000 rep- resents about 10 percent of the ABCA's levy to the member municipalities, Prout said that kind of increase would not be ac- ceptable. "So we definitely want to cut if off this year's budget," said Prout. No matter what cutbacks the conserva- tion authority makes this year, the word is already out that more will come next year as the ministry slashes another $2.5 mil- lion from its conservation authority alloca- tion. Consequently, said Prout, the ABCA win have to find ways to become more ef- ficient, and if ft can't it will have to cut back on the services its offers. The problem is thaTltnWegnm's oper- ated by the ABCA are administered under mandatory government legislation, so those optional programs which can be cut back include the more popular parks and recreation programs. So while Prout acknowledges few peo- ple make use of the ABCA's flood control program each year, it is a priority. "Given a choice between recreation and protecting lives, you protect the lives," said Prout. More bed news is that while the Ministry of the Environment funded the full $17,000 to administer its new Clean Up Rural Beaches program through the ABCA, next year, 25 percent of that cost will have to cane from the general levy or else the program grants to improve local water quality will be lost. "If they [municipalities] don't put in the 25 percent, then the landowners won't get access to the grants," said Prout, who add- ed that while the CURB program is a "rood m$estment" its ad minietrrtinn will amount to five percent of the general levy. Overall, Prout said the conservation au- thorities are being squeezed out of funding at an alarming rate. The Association of Conservation Authorities of Ontario is pointing out that transfer payments to au- thorities have increased far less than those to local governments or ministries. The association is also protesting the change in policy that now allows the Min- istry of Natural Resources to alter conser- vation authority funding without warning. Former deputy -minister of the MNR, Mary Mogford, promised the association in 1985 that conservation authority transfer pay- ments would not be altered as a result of constraints on the ministry. The total 1991 budget for the ABCA was to have been about $2.3 million, 15 percent of which was to have been funded by the general levy from the member municipali- ties. The conservation authority's board of di- rectors will be meeting on Thursday to de- termine how to deal with province's budget (via A