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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1992-01-29, Page 1• o=y • Q I v Since 1873 Wednesday, January 29, 1992 Shop Canadian Serving South Huron • Shut out? Is Huron being snubbed by OMAF? page 2 • -Unique Interiors Zurich woman colours your world - . 80x1 Olay Ltiea'rs hope for theOlympics Second front T,QOO acres! Farming at more than arms length • page 20 Man charged in truck theft EXETER - Members of the Exet- er Police detachment were called to investigate numerous accidents this week, many of which occurred dur- ing winter's adverse weather condi- tions. Also on Friday, police were-.dis .. patched to the Andrew and Hill St. areas after receiving a call of a per- son attempting to steal a truck. Exeter Police arrested 28 -year- old Kevin Thomas of no fixed ad- dress for possession of stolen prop- erty over $1,000 with the trttitk in question, and mischief over $1;000. The mischief charge resulted from damage to the protective screen within the police cruiser. Exeter Police also held warrants for the accused on charges of pos- session of stolen goods over 51,000, theft over $1000, assault, causing a disturbance and failure to attend court. Thomas is scheduled for a bail hearing in Goderich Court on Monday, January 27. OPP boat coming to Grand Bend GRAND BEND - Boaters along Lake Huron and the Aussble River are going to have tabe on their best behavior this summer as an Ontario Provincial Police boat will be pa- trolling the waters near Grand Bend. "We've asked to have the support of a marine vessel," -said Grand Bend mayor Tom Lawson. The boat is coining from Essex County and a local bylaw e nforce- mens officer will be allowed to ac- company OPP officers in the boat. "We've had problems'in the past at the harbour mouth. We've had a general lack of awareness of safe boating by people using this har- bour," added Lawson. Councillor Bill Uniac said he hopes the presence of the police boat will help curb the vandalism to boats docked in the harbour. Family section delayed one week EXETER - The deadline for plac- ing advertisements in the Times - Advocate's first annual salute to Family Businesses section has been extended until noon Friday. Overwhelming response and win- ter storms have made it necessary to publish the special section Feb- ruary 5 instead of this week. Family-owned butainesaes who wish to be included and who have not already been contacted by the T -A should call 235-11 before noon Friday. ,� 0 0 North Middlesex 1+ i ambtoit at Geiser-Kneale Insurance Service Excellence Value 235-2420 75 cents Battle lost. war continues Provincial appointees sworn in on new town Police Services Board, council protests By Adrian Harte EXETER - The province has just written itself a blank cheque using t town's money - or that's the way tone Exeter councillors see it. Without warning, the Ministry of the Solicitor General announced Monday morning its candidates for an Exeter Police Services Board and that they should be sworn in heresy evening. Mayor Bruce Shaw, who is now the solitary coupcil representative on the board, said he was surprised by Mondays pronouncement. Months of.eivil disobedience came to an end as council, in a special meet* betbsa_the_ewea g in car-, emoty relented to the ministry de- cree and allowed the new board to take its place, although a motion from council agreed that they "ac- cept under protest the makeup of the Police Services Board as im- posed upon this Town by tie Solic- itor General..." Council had been long Ignoring the ministry's 1990 Police Act, re- quiring the town to turn the admin- istration of the police'over to a Po- lice Services Board, which is Wei- pt>wd_of twg_provlaCial appointees • •ashy one council member. Tiny have claimed that such a 'bawd would givf financial control of the police over to the whims of thenvimistry, but still funded mainly by town tomes, Until Monday, the town yoke budget was solelyin control of the police comnijpee, a committee of council. Council's Monday resolution also Swom in Monday evening was Exeter's ,new police services board, John Stephens (left), may- or Bruce Shaw, and Sharon Wurm. At right is Justice of the Peace Doug Wedlake. Town cutbacks predicted Reeve says Rae's call to tighten belts expected, but hopes province will follow suit EXETER - Exeter's reeve Bill Mackie. also the chairman of On- tario Small Urban Municipalities (OSUM) was in Toronto last Tuesday in a lockup" awaiting the release of Premier Bob Rae's pre -budget speech. Mickle and other provincial agency representatives ware giv- en advance notice of Rae's an- nouncements and were conse- quently "confined" to keep them away :from the media until the speech presentation. Conse- quently, onstquently, Mickle had all day to discuss the expected effects of • the provincial outlook. Even though the one -percent increase in unconditional grants to municipalities is at an all-time low this year, Mickle said it was still more than the Association of Ontario Municipalities (AMO) had expected. A grant freeze had been rumoured, even though AMO bad told the govenunent $ 3.3 percent increase was needed to maintain the status quo. Mickle said the increase means Exeter can expect about $4.500 more in provincial grants this year above last year's 5450.000. He said council is expected to look for opportunities • to make cutbacks rather than raise taxes this year. User fees for town ser- vices may also be in the works. !"You've got to start looking at money other than taxes, said the treasurer - and that only leaves user fees," said Mickle, predict- ing council will look closely at that option. He said the county reassess- ment which leaves the average homeowner in Exeter taking on 5 122 more in county taxes, plac- es a burden atdlie town. A zero - percent tax increase will be need- ed to help keep property taxes down. In recent years, council has had she luxury of offsetting its increases in spending against an extraordinary growth rate to share those increases. With the recent building slump, that strat- egy is no longer in the cards, ex- plained Mickle, but raising taxes is out of the question. "I don't want to go to the tax- payers. This is the wrong time," he said. He said the town may have to look at cutbacks in road mainte- nance, especially since a drop in Ministry of Transport grants can be expected. "Recreation will be looked at, there's no doubt about that," said Mickle. As for Premier Bob Rae's pre- diction that keeping transfer pay- ments to municipalities below in- flation will not affect jobs, Mickle said Rae is mistaken and some larger centres will certainly lay off staff. But because Exeter has fewer town staff theft is less flexibility in that area, said Mick - k, making it harder still to keep costs in line. While the municipalities and hospitals arc being asked by Rae's government to bite the bul- let. Mickle says he hopes that pall for restraint will be applied to Queen's Park itself. Already the Ministry of Health is making plans to consolidate its five de- psridnents into four. Mickle said that thinking is needed in all ministries. "I think they're going to have to take a hard look at some of their programs," said Mickle. "I hope they do as sharp a pencil as what we're being asked to do." Overall, Mickle said town councils across the province will have o revise their "wish lists" of desired projects and plans. While Exeter's PRIDE projects will continue until completion, hopes for future capital expendi- tures may have to be put on the back burner for sonic time. included the proposal that "council seek immediate exemption from the financing of Police Services in the Town of Exeter as provided in Bill 107", which refers to a clause that allows some towns under 5,000 population to have their policing paid fully by the province, although reeve Bill Mickle expressed doubt at the town's success on that matter. Swum in by Justice of the Peace 'Dotig-WedIike at the police station were the mayor, and appointees Sharon Worm, and John Stephens. Warm has for several years been the administrator the Huron Safe Homes for Youth program in Exet- er and says she is just rmishing her Bachelor of Social Work at West- ern's Kings College. Stephens is the head of the busi- ness department at Centralia Col- lege and said he had beat asked to apply for the ministry appointment, although he declined to say by whom. He admitted to knowing very little about the administration of the police department and said while he was aware of the dispute between the town and the ministry he was not taking sides. "I don't have an opinion on either side. As I say, I know little about the operation," said Stephens. One of the first decisions of the new board will be to decide on what remuneration they will re- ceive for their meetings. "That's another thing, committees were always voluntary, but boards are always paid," said Shaw just af- ter. the swearing in. Shaw later explained council's decision to relent was likely inevi- table. He said he feared what legal position the town might be in should a serious policing incident occur without a provincially- apptvved board in place. Oddly enough, the ministry crackdown came just days after dis- obedient municipalities like Exeter learned that they may be winning their battle over control of their po- lice forcers. Minister of Mwi pal Affairs Dave -COR during the province's prebudget Prediedons, announced that "the province has pledged to give consideration to a long-standing request from munici- palities: municipal council authori- ty' to approve police budgets". Reeve Bill Mickle, who was in Toronto for the announcement, said it offered some hope for Exeter's position. "I just hope the final statement is the same as the statement is now," said Mickle on Friday. Other municipalities have come to admire the resolve of those towns like Exeter which disobeyed the call for provincially controlled boards for so long, said Mickle. "I know of some municipalities that have quietly said to me 'yes', they'd wish they'd done the same thing." The 1990 revision of the Police Act came out. of the demand to re- structure the province's police forc- es to include issues such as hiring practices and racial representation, things which some say are relevant only in Toronto and are too expen- sive to impose on smaller centres. "It's either going to be a democra- cy or a dictatorship," Mickle pre- dicted of the province's future plans after Monday's swearing in. Lucan plans charges for subdivision development LUCAN - At the January 20 meeting, Lucan council members discussed the setting of fees for plans of sub- division and development. Clerk Ron Reymer reported doing a survey of a num- ber of other municipalities for their charges for similar plans and planning consultant Liz Howson has made some suggestions. Although the planning committee will be making a recommendation to be considered by council, the fig- ure mentioned at the latest meeting was a minimum of $2.500 in the form of a certified cheque regardless of the number of lots in question with a refund for any monies not used. A two year contract has been signed with Laidlaw Disposals of Watford to use their landfill site for the disposal of garbage fibro the village. Negotiations are underway with C.H. Lewis Ltd. of Lucan for a garbage pickup contract, changing the date from Mondays to Fridays. The move is being made be- cause the Watford site cannot guarantee.garbage dispo- sal in the summer months when they also receive re- fuse from the Pinery Provincial Park and the village of Grand Bend. Clerk Raymer said this week that the Lewis firm needs a month lead time in making the changes, so he expects Friday pickup could be in operation by the middle of March. Works-snperintendent Doug Johnston reported at the January 20 meeting that the water system project was well underwayth most of the remaining work con- cerning the transmission line and completion of the booster station at the intersection of the Denfield side - road and Middlesex county road 13. The water contract work is being handled by Omega Construction. They have 80 percent of the water tower completed. The water will cane to Lucan from the booster sta- tion through a 14 inch main and Reymer said, "Water _could be flowing by the end of July of this year." Construction of the water pollution contract plant by John Haman Construction is underway with a series of buildings and holding tanks. Completion date for con- struction is December 17 of this year. Based on November 1990 estimates from M.M. Dil- lon Limited, using 1991 dollar figures, the capital cost of the entire sewer project would be 56,497,000. After a provincial government grant of 79.63 percent the vil- lage portion would be 51.323,349. Broken down further this would amount to an imme- diate one -time -up -front payment for each propert, owner of 52,100, plus an annual operating and mainte- nance cost of 5179. On the water system, the village:portion of capital cost of $944,150 after government grants will amount to 51.368 for each property owner in one immediate payment. The estimated annual operating and mainte- nance costs including supply of the water are listed at 5244.