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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1992-04-22, Page 4concerns Times -Advocate, April 22, 1992 Publisher: ism Sackett taws alter: Adrian Harte dueb 11VIu r: Don tsrnrth (yo111'O, IOn`' •r: Deb Lord Pubs ollerns Mail Number 0306 AUllitalinitigallium WSS 1 ) aeitrarrid to ire Miter omits, sesrwaea $Oe.00 Moo $2.10 O.B.T. Outside 40 Rase MI Mar.) or any Mita minter at/arose $10.00 plos $16.26 poste. (total $46.26) Ow $3.24 0.0.T. phakic Condo $88.00 • • ini "Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely." ... Thomas Macauley PobilsIAod !soh vtredssedey Memlag at 424 Mere IN., Exobr, Doted°, NOM taeby 1.W. Liddy PubIIutloos Ltd. T.NpboM 14161331 e.e.T. staosser,s '/lf 194 Putting a price on policing 9-1 here are no easy guesses for what -Might happen at tonight's Exeter council meeting if the police budget is presented as planned. Council has been working under the assumption all -town departments must forward :budgets -with no: increase over 1991 spending. With a shift in county taxes heading for Huron's urban cen- tres, town council has taken it upon themselves to help offset that increase with no increase in municipal taxes. But as we learned last week, the town police force budget is shaping up to be about 16 percent over last year's. Coincidentally, that percentage is the same as the one offered to Clinton town council a few weeks ago. The reaction was much the same. Council began to wonder if the cost of providing modern policing was now beyond the financial capacity of a small town, and the ser- vice should be turned over to the OPP. Currently, Clinton council has other more pressing matters on its hands and final budget deliberations are still some weeks away. Exeter's showdown could come to- night, and there are a few hard line pen- ny-pinchers on council who view a 16 percent increase in a year of austerity as completely unacceptable. Unfortunately, the replacement of the town's" police committee with the ..pro- vincially -appointed police services board has had the effect of dumiIng gasoline on the fire. Council can no longer reject police budgets. The only alternatives are to pay lip, or to file an appeal with the Ontario Civilian Com- mission •on Police Services - with the expected results. The only other course of action, albeit drastic, is to threaten to disband the town police and to contract for OPP coverage. The threats could be hollow, of course, and only part of the budgeting process. But, as in Clinton,, there is a very real sense there are two very real problem with municipal police forces. The first problem is cost. Within liv- ing memory, Exeter's policing has gone from one constable with a night and whistle, to a .13 -member forc with a chief, a sergeant, five constable five auxiliary, and one secretary, with o cruisers, radar guns, and frequent train- ing courses. It all costs over half a mil- lion dollars a year and could soon reach the $600,000 mark. In 1986 it was only $350,000 - a sum which would not pay the wages today. There is no doubt a municipal police force has definite advantages for towns like Exeter or Clinton. Some, however, would argue luxury cars have advantag- es, but cannot be afforded by everybody either. One virtually essential part of modern policing is a computer to access provincial crime records, but Exeter council has repeatedly rebuffed efforts to include such a purchase into the po- lice budget - a cost, they say, we cannot afford. Meanwhile, police chief Jack Harkness remains confident per capita policing costs in Exeter are among the most economical available. Most people do not come into regular contact with the police, and might not be. sure how a change in policingwaould.af- fect their lives 4ome people in."Clinton are said tube prepared to take a chance on change, others might not be so hasty. Should there be any truth to the sug- gestions Exeter might explore "alterna- tives" for its policing, that decision should not come solely at the hands of a council - which .is . waging war with _she province and its legislation. If any dras- tic changes are in the works, then . they should come only after sounding out the opinion of the general public. A.D.H. r Letter to Editor LIftei had options Dear Editor: feel that I must respond to an article written in last week's paper. Buildiuu Infractions Forte Litters to close. Some issues westernised which need to be cleared up. Last summer I based ecce to Bill Montgomery of Lifters Fitness. Upon mquestiappliediotssod re- ceived a building permit. to reno- vate the space to a000moaadate an exercr£e area. The work was done in August reedy for September 1, 1991 occupancy. On August 30 I was contacted by the building in- srector and .told that the floor had to be upgraded to a 100 lb. load. -_ This was required because of the type of use, -not because of the strength of the floor. How onwhy this was abased at the time the pians were reviewed for the pulpit I " do not know. While I don't think it Was inten- tional tit was Bonet eiess. expen- sive and very iwubloeome since we were not notified .ttanW after. all the equipment had • been moved in and business was toady to open. I agreed to work with the build- ing inspector and. Montgomery to ,resolve the issue over the next few months. I had an engineer review the extra lotiding that was placed on the floor and was assured that there was no strbctural problem whatsoever. This was not satisfac- tory to the building inspector be- cause of the change in use and re- quirements of the code. Over thc next two weeks I suggested sever- al options to Montgomery: 1. Move to an alteniate space within the building adjacent to the change rooms. ,6 2. I would provide additional free space at no extra charge in or- der to locateof rite • std bopefitlly�>Wmviate i is prob- t lem. 3. I awned to ail just the cleat if membership went down due to the relocation. All of my suggestions were re- fused by Montgomery. At this point I told Montgomery that he would have to stay where he was and I would try to resolve the issue in some other way. At the enc! of October I was told by Mr. Montgom- ery that if mem- bership did not increase he was considering clos- ing; we had a warm fall and peo- ple were not ready to borne inside so business was slow taking off. At that time he tried to sublet his spate to another prospective tenant. Also at this time we looked at trying to change the floor loading to carnet this new requirement. However, this was unrealistic since it would make the space below unusable. Two weeks later I received a let- ter from Montgomery's lawyer de- manding that I move him to another location (something we had already geed to do) at no cost and with a six month to one year lease. Since the cost to renovate the additional space was S8,000-$10000, we re- fused, as we would be unable to re- cover the money in that time. We did, however, agree to move Mont- gomery if he would honour thc terms of the lease which he had signed. He refused this suggestion. By the end of January it was ob- vious that I would be unable to re- solve the issue and I contacted the..: building inspector and explained this to him. At that time I asked him to proceed with whatever ac- tion was required. I received notification from Mr. Moyer in late February that the problem must be resolved by April 6. I explained this to Montgomery in early March and repealed our suggestions to resolve the issue. It was confirmed to him that the present space would not be able to be used after that date. I also sug- gested that if Montgomery wanted a one year lease he could spend the money to fix tip the space himself. This suggestion too was refused. We did not take any action to limit his access to the space after April 6, but again told him that without some effort to resolve the issue, that space must not be used and that we would have to enforce this. At no time did we suggest that we would confiscate his equipment nor did we close his business since he did not move out until some- time during the night of April 9. Since none of our suggestions were given serious consideration by Mr. Montgomery and since no new ideas were brought forward by hirci, I have to assume that if his business is no longer in operation it is because he does not want it to be. However, the alternate space remains available to Montgomery should he in fact want to reopen Lifters. I would also like to congratulate the Times Advocate on their inves- tigativerepo ng although when they called my office to get the other side of the story I must have been cul.. Yours truly, Roger Dougal l iiSften when I'm all aicrte at lunch time, I make a meal con- sisting of toast and sardines. Elizabeth doesn't we for sar- dines. In fact, she says, they turn her off. Curiously enough she likes all fish except for sardines and her- ring. 1 don't know . what these particular creatures have done to frighten her or to deserve - her dislike She admits that she's never even tasted them. So when I prepare my sardine lunch, I open the can with -what- ever device is supplied by the packers - a little key or a -sharp little ring -pull thing that often breaks ' off before the can is .opened. Nevertheless it's worth all the trouble, because the con- tents of the can are yummy. That is, after they're prepared for human consumption. I can't stand even looking . at sardines -with the heads and tails still on and with their- spinal cord, gall bladder and kidneys, °iniestioes and appendix still in place. No, only ;cherish eviscerated (gut- tted), deheaded (Beheaded?) and :tailess Idetailed?) sardines. 1 don't know why. Some people have told me that whole sardines (with everything the way nature has intended it td be) taste better than the modified version I pre- fer. Be that as it may, ijust can- not bring myself to put an entire sardine carcass into my mouth. If you've seen the movie "A Fish Called Wanda), you'll know what I mean. When I'm done devouring and savouring my little fishes, I have to scrub and rinse the plate, knife and fork I used. Evert the faintest odour of sardines in the dishwasher would send. Eliza- beth to the emergency. Then I rinse the can itself and take it outside - straight into the recy- cling bin. Even the innocent paper wrapper has to be re - Peter's Point • Peter Hessel moved from the house. Then I scrub the sink. With All evidence of my lunch removed, I feel safe to leave the kitchen. But in spite of all my precautions, Elizabeth will come in the door, take one snif and exclaim:'"Yuck! You've had sar- dines again!" What is it about these innocent little delicacies that she dislikes? Trying to help her overcome what I call her sardinophobia (an exaggerated ;and disabling fear of sardines), I -set out, ro prove that .they are exactly like other fish, only smaller. Ii is, of course, quite unscien- tific to try and prove something. One' should approach' a subject with an open. mind .and 'accept 'the evidence for and against whatever it is you might expect. Well, I was in fora few sur- prises. First of all, l Teamed that there is no such fish as a sardine. The word is the generic term for all kinds of species unfortunate enough to swim into a certain type of net. Among the poor vic- tims are sprats and pilchards and immature (baby) herring, ancho- vies, brislign and what have you. I suppose if our local minnows Letter to Editor would be foolish enough to ven- ture into the Atlantic Ocean, they too, would 'end up on my toast. Another discovery is that sar- dines, at least in North America, are a relatively recent consigner item. They really only became a popular snack after World War I. Before that they were pounded into fish meal to be used as ferti- lizer. I don't think I'm going to tell this part to Elizabeth. Nor will I tell her what hap- pens to sardines from the time they're caught in seines until they're put into our shopping cart. Til spare you most of the sordid details and give you only some of the most interesting morsels of information. Their heads -and 'tails are chopped off by an automatic ex- ecution device, and their guts are sucked out by vacuum cleaner. What's left of them is dumped in cans which are then injected with live. steam. Then the can is tipped until all the "body, fluids" are drained. Finally oil is added to replace what was once -sacker to the little fishes, and the natu- rally .atrocious . flavour of the fishes is totally camouflaged with an array .of seasoning and • spices. After writing this all down, I have just decided not to say any- thing at all to Elizabeth. And for a while at least, I won't write sar- dines on the shopping list. • _ Instead III eat something for lunch that is more easily identifi- able, won't have to be mutilated and humiliated quite as much in the processing, and whose body fluids have not been tampered with. Like a banana and a muffin. Or a grilled cheese sandwich. Satellite association responds to over dish usage Dear Editor: I have been passed On the inter- esting set of Miers you have re- ceived Imo &lion _mss ltd Mark Ilei enrich. As well, we have received Dave Schilbe .of Zurich input on tho.matiers of future sat- ellite use in Canada and we would .,like to clear up a few misconcep- tions which have been submitted to you. 1. Mr. Schilbe states that the home satellite market, i.e. the big receiving antenna, is shrinking. I suggest to him that the industry has grown at a tremendous rate and we arc still growing at a pace which far exceeds most consumer products. To date there are approx- imately 350,000 to 400,000 satel- lite receiving antennas in Canada. This base, as Mr. Schilbe com- ments, was built primarily from the sale of tv signals without prop- er authorization. But to back up etwo or three years ago, none of these signals were available to the Canadian marketplace. So, even if you wanted to pay for the signals, there was no venue or opportunity to do this. Since the introduction of new copyright legislation and the new broadcast Act C-40, there arc over 30 signals which arc now available for sale, and this isust the beginning. We in the satellite industry view ourselves as in the infancy stage of selling signals, and to sell signals, will just give us greater strength as an industry. 1 inerefore, I dispute that our indus- try is "dead in the water" because in paying for signal, we have now a secure long tem viable business p opportunity. 2.. Ibere seems to be some mis- conceptions on how the govern- ment regulates the DBS or DTH in- dustry in Canada. Presently, the tarrC is a regulator of Telecom- ,munications, i.e. the cable industry, telephone industry and the radio in- dustry. There has been some debate as to whether the CRTC's jurisdic- tion even covers the DTH or DBS indus- try, and as yet the CRTC has limited its con- I trol over our indus- try. There is an in - 11 ternal study which is being prepared right now, and our industry association has provid- ed sonic input, which will be given to the Commissioners during the first week of April. From this, there will be a Long term industry strate- gy developed. The major concerns from the CRTC and thc govern- ment's perspective is some way of linking Canadian culture in broad- castir,$ with the newly available American signals. Therefore, to conclude this mauer, the CRTC is not involved in the enforcement of signal theft. This is the macer of the Department of Communications of which the Hon. Perrin Beatty is the Minister. We have met with Mr. Beatty, and it is the Ministry's view that they wish to stay tecltrnologi- cally neutral and therefore, to see any serious regulation favouring • cable or satellite is not likely in the near future. 3. Our industry has been con- cerned about Sky Pix purely from a business standpoint. --From a tech- nological standpoint, we are fairly impressed with what is available to the consumer. What our concerns are, is in some ooetropolitan areas associate dealers have taken mon- ey for a product which is continu- ally delayed. Also, we are very concerned with the issue of copy- right. Whether Sky Pix has peed the Canadian copyright for Were particular channels they plan to show in Canada or are they just us- ing American copyright. .From these investigations, the Satellite Communications Association Of Canada issued what we call a Sky Pix Advisory Notice, which quick- ly summed up means "buyer ba ware". In the future of the satellite in- dustry, we see record opportunities for both Allen Stubbs and the peo- ple of Sky Pix. If you arc a consu- mer and arc confused by all of this, please feel free to contact the Ca- nadian Satellite Communications Association of Canada, or go to a reputable dealer in your area and he will keep you informed about new changes in our industry. Yours truly, D. Gregory Walling Chairman, Satellite Communications Association of Canada I