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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1992-04-29, Page 1'Queen 14ottse Nowits ',5 6" pot oak& carry 14• COUNTRY f e RS r • lee Norte Middleei • a~7 Alre .G\70-;ip t-nmhtor. r. ; > inside ntrepreneurAt4wt adif ;t: is a .busy'man these :days , Manning for. •a milt ffion :dollar :casino : in :.Grand ;fiend. Attop,.stteet: ns: in .Grand:Bendlweralready Ibeginning 7 tcrrefiectihe lirderest in' the_casino .'p1 no - al. : -'Cil cautious...see page three, WPr$nisdtaN, Apr, i QU; 7! Bente 1_u and group awls ifirellumbil government gestasi By Fred Groves GRAND BENI) - When', That's what Lloyd Guillet wants to know. When will the provincial government give his group of entrepreneurs the green light to start building -a gambling casino'! Since September. 1991, Guillet has been travelling throughout ' North /titmice observing and keeping notes on casinos. One, in particular, a huge complex in Ledyard, Connecticut is what he hopes to model a Grand Bend version after. The NDP government is considering a plan to set up -casinos to help chip away at the provincial debt. -'Reports have said the casinos could be built en T iiVeindsor,-Sarnia, nlrtliil til• ie Stc:-luitfsie,`btW Guillet said nothing is carved in stone. "The government has made no indication to where they are putting them." Guillet says it was just foresight that he had the idea long before the government had hinted at the notion. It is suspected.the government will take a cut of the gambling revenue to help clear up its defecit. "They can do it a lot of ways. In the states, it's six to eight percent right off the top." Guillet and fellow. entrepreneur Keith Hoggard went to casinos in South Dakota, Minneapolis and Connec- ticut. He said his four-membcr group also includes a cor- porate lawyer and an accountant whose names would be released at a later date. "We started planning this last September before any- one started thinking about it," said Gtilllet between phone rails at his home in Southcott=Pines. Since the first call and the first trip, thiilletsays:the group has spent thousands of dollars :nn resoonersen- etuding making videos and gathering infarmatiomkom -other casinos and the project is-moving:quickerthan -they originally anticipated. "When we started this, we thought we'd have twoior three years to work on it." In his travels, Guillet found-rnost:gamblers tore seniors and the only problems -gambling had caused in the towns -they visited was a high volume of traffic. it's not surprising the4dea has Nought some tllleative response. In a recent poll oonduetedby'ttie BeiterBesMees`Bu- reau in Toronto, 61 percent of business owners and consumers surveyed, oppose legalizing gambling in Ontario. Also, 73 percent are cogved organized would significantly increase. Guillet however, said this is not a true indication. "We're talking about an industry and everyone is looking at it like it's the old card room in the back." While watching a video with a reporter, Guillet. pointed out that there are 80 casinos in the town of Deadwood, South Dakota and they have an eight -mat —pence department Which is primiUyilititiire to takera/ue .of -traffic problems. According to Quiller, there are a lot of very obvious advantages to building a casino, most of them involve jobs. He said the Oland Bend casino, which would be called .Lakeview, .could :provide year-round employ- ment for .up 40 5,000 and tat means the entire area would benefit. "Gaming is a vehicle that will bring in all the other amenities. Every little community within 20 or 30 miles of Grand Bend will benefit." Lakeview would cost an estimated $60 million to "build, plus another $40 million for a hotel of 200-300 zooms. Guilletsaid the casino could draw from a popu- lation .of -60-million which is in a four-hour radius of GrandBerud. The group. is modeling Lakeview after a casino in .Ledyard, Conneticut which opened in February and is -open 24 -hours a day. Games at that casino include blackjack, bingo, craps, mutate, the money wheel, pai tgow poker and showdown poker. ttiillet.said he wants Grand Bend to become a year- recamd communityand not just the four months like it is -mew. And what does.the local council think? "They.are:going.along with itin principle. There has :tome a -public -m .coring. People who are against it are . : .against itbecauseofihe myth." Wax. Soni' resiVt'- 'it: tnree Shaw off pviice board resignation, but council insists he stay on EXETER - Council fully expected to review the Police Services . Board budget at last Wednesday's.council meeting. But while ser- vices board chairman Sharon Wurm said the budget was complete, an "administrative" problem appeared to have prevented its pres- entation Wednesday. .-An executive commiuee report said they have even entertained a suggestion that po1icc costs be .given a separate mill rate, and thus appear as a separate item on the municipal tax bill. What did surprise council was mayor Bruce Shaw's announcement that he was resigning from the Police Services Board as council's representauvc. "1 am advising council 1 have resigned as a member of the police services board," said Shaw, who offered no other explanation than personal reasons for his resignation. Shaw has likely been experiencing some problems reconciling the.divergent opinions of lhe.boertt,and council. Council has made no alsarettehitaTopposiiiim to a provinciaily- ipted heard taking financial control of the town's police force, and the board is not doing very well with council's insistence that the po- lice budget be kept to a small increase. "1 feel .we would•be ill-advised to accept your resignation," said ;councillor Ben Hoo- genboom, who then made a -motion to reject Shaw's request. "That's not done, Ben," replied Shaw. Councilor Ervin Sillery, however, seconded Hoogenboom's motion. "We accept your resignation with regret - that's the thing you're supposed to do," said Shaw, who said the issue should have been discussed behind closed doors with council. Council then argued about who might re- place the mayor on the board. "You've got to have somebody representing council," said Shaw. "Bill's done with OSUM in a couple of week's time," noted councillor:Robert Drum- mond. "No," said Mickle. Shaw was then asked what reasons he had for not wanting to represent council on the board, but he refused to say. "1 haven't talked to you about why, and 1 wasn't prepared to talk to you about why," said Shaw. Council then agreed to fable the motion of non-acceptance until the next council meeting. Shaw then left to confer with Police Services Board representative John Stephens. Later in the meeting, Shaw re -opened the resignation matter. "Perhaps it would he best if I did stay on...the personal •poblesns still exist," said Shaw. Mickle said he offered .council's support to Shaw with his difficulties. "As far as 1 know, from- every member .of this council you have .the -strongest .support," said Mickle. Hoogenboxx» said he bas known Shaw .for 20 years on council and said he had yet. to sec a single matter he couldn't handle. "Only you, as a mayor, should -be there to best represent the people of Exeter,".said Voltam . "t pe h don't do ,anything that will ember- Saiativou-,"_saidliteme.1400ell you there. are interesting tirrieaajogd." The 20,yoar old mil! of the former ureter Co -Op burned beyond repair last Tues- day. The structure will not be replaced, say Hensall District Co -Op Officials. Among pain, smoke, .and mud made fighting till the a. m experience. Farmers bilked of thousands by commnan, -pollee say simi-lar frauds may have occurred here WATERLOO - A Cambridge man, who also owns property in Exeter, is facing :nine charges of fraud in the Waterloo region after farmers- in four communities com- plained they had been,defrauded of 565,000 U.S. Five additional counts of fraud were later added, bringing the total to about 5245.260 Canadian. Charged is 79 -year old Donald Robert Fairborn of Cambridge, who also owns at least one rental property in Exeter. Police with the Waterloo regional fraud squad say a man approached fanners in rural areas by selling foe extinguishers, then teUing them he was heir to his aunt's 550 million fortune in the U.S. He then told his victims he would offer them large low-igterest jowls. if ,be ssgtld ,Iter - row money to help with the legal fees to get access to the estate. A woman who called the Times Advocate Monday ,morning said her parents in the Mitchell area were defrauded of several thousand dollars several years ago trough an identical scheme. She said .die wondered if other residents in this area had been bilked by the rune nuul . The Exeter OPP confirmed that in 1988 they investigated a fraud occurencc involving Fairborn, but no charges were laid. OPP officer Dianne McGregor noted that residents have to be wary of such fraud schemes and con art- ists. "1f itpgllgds mio,ggnd,do,be true, itis. -"-acid McGregor. F1i old coon nU EXETER - A mid-day fire in,the pouring rain destroyed one of Exeter's agricultural buildings last TAgglayjiiikAiejpoor.folgo',1 is not likely to be replaced. - Estimated damage to,lhe g4ain mill beside the train hacks oases fawn about $6065,000, but since the Hensel' and District Co -Op took over the Exeter operation over a year ago, there has been little use for .the building. In fact, Co -Op manager Eitel Wagner explained that work crews tad been removing equipment from .the building the night before. A spark from cutting equipment may have ignited,ljne,tllylfe.but ,lie official ease of the fur is being listed as undetermined. Wagner said the mill had not been in useforabout a year aad a ltalf,al- though the adjoining warehouse is still an asset tothe operation. The still, he understood, had caught fire.at least once befcuc. In the early 196Os it was rebuilt after a fie, but the warehouse had escaped unscathed. ibis time, however, tltc mill will not be rebuilt• Affilikralisolvgan lhursday.to pull down what remained of the structure. Wagner.said he was glad no one was hurt in the fire, even though pcopk were working in the warebpusc at the tituc. "It created a bit of cxeiiecnent, but that's about it," said Wagner. Fire chief Gary Mic4dieton said the fire was the largest industrial fix in Exeter in several years, rind even though crews wcrc able to, get (be blaze under control within a few hours, late night fue watches were,itble to put out several flarc-ups later that night and the next day. Continued on patge 2 - —hour parking Police say yes, BIA says no page 2 'Retirement Ron Bogart's • legacy at South Huron High School . .Page 5 a sale _. ry:raise 'i8;900 -:forhosptta I ''7e -7 X11 aBrandiBend Indent sfgns;t ff -Tips:for =sppP pages 11to:14 Irish trail Trojans lead series Second front ., OFSSA bound Morgan and Gardner head to Milton page 19 ntrepreneurAt4wt adif ;t: is a .busy'man these :days , Manning for. •a milt ffion :dollar :casino : in :.Grand ;fiend. Attop,.stteet: ns: in .Grand:Bendlweralready Ibeginning 7 tcrrefiectihe lirderest in' the_casino .'p1 no - al. : -'Cil cautious...see page three, WPr$nisdtaN, Apr, i QU; 7! Bente 1_u and group awls ifirellumbil government gestasi By Fred Groves GRAND BENI) - When', That's what Lloyd Guillet wants to know. When will the provincial government give his group of entrepreneurs the green light to start building -a gambling casino'! Since September. 1991, Guillet has been travelling throughout ' North /titmice observing and keeping notes on casinos. One, in particular, a huge complex in Ledyard, Connecticut is what he hopes to model a Grand Bend version after. The NDP government is considering a plan to set up -casinos to help chip away at the provincial debt. -'Reports have said the casinos could be built en T iiVeindsor,-Sarnia, nlrtliil til• ie Stc:-luitfsie,`btW Guillet said nothing is carved in stone. "The government has made no indication to where they are putting them." Guillet says it was just foresight that he had the idea long before the government had hinted at the notion. It is suspected.the government will take a cut of the gambling revenue to help clear up its defecit. "They can do it a lot of ways. In the states, it's six to eight percent right off the top." Guillet and fellow. entrepreneur Keith Hoggard went to casinos in South Dakota, Minneapolis and Connec- ticut. He said his four-membcr group also includes a cor- porate lawyer and an accountant whose names would be released at a later date. "We started planning this last September before any- one started thinking about it," said Gtilllet between phone rails at his home in Southcott=Pines. Since the first call and the first trip, thiilletsays:the group has spent thousands of dollars :nn resoonersen- etuding making videos and gathering infarmatiomkom -other casinos and the project is-moving:quickerthan -they originally anticipated. "When we started this, we thought we'd have twoior three years to work on it." In his travels, Guillet found-rnost:gamblers tore seniors and the only problems -gambling had caused in the towns -they visited was a high volume of traffic. it's not surprising the4dea has Nought some tllleative response. In a recent poll oonduetedby'ttie BeiterBesMees`Bu- reau in Toronto, 61 percent of business owners and consumers surveyed, oppose legalizing gambling in Ontario. Also, 73 percent are cogved organized would significantly increase. Guillet however, said this is not a true indication. "We're talking about an industry and everyone is looking at it like it's the old card room in the back." While watching a video with a reporter, Guillet. pointed out that there are 80 casinos in the town of Deadwood, South Dakota and they have an eight -mat —pence department Which is primiUyilititiire to takera/ue .of -traffic problems. According to Quiller, there are a lot of very obvious advantages to building a casino, most of them involve jobs. He said the Oland Bend casino, which would be called .Lakeview, .could :provide year-round employ- ment for .up 40 5,000 and tat means the entire area would benefit. "Gaming is a vehicle that will bring in all the other amenities. Every little community within 20 or 30 miles of Grand Bend will benefit." Lakeview would cost an estimated $60 million to "build, plus another $40 million for a hotel of 200-300 zooms. Guilletsaid the casino could draw from a popu- lation .of -60-million which is in a four-hour radius of GrandBerud. The group. is modeling Lakeview after a casino in .Ledyard, Conneticut which opened in February and is -open 24 -hours a day. Games at that casino include blackjack, bingo, craps, mutate, the money wheel, pai tgow poker and showdown poker. ttiillet.said he wants Grand Bend to become a year- recamd communityand not just the four months like it is -mew. And what does.the local council think? "They.are:going.along with itin principle. There has :tome a -public -m .coring. People who are against it are . : .against itbecauseofihe myth." Wax. Soni' resiVt'- 'it: tnree Shaw off pviice board resignation, but council insists he stay on EXETER - Council fully expected to review the Police Services . Board budget at last Wednesday's.council meeting. But while ser- vices board chairman Sharon Wurm said the budget was complete, an "administrative" problem appeared to have prevented its pres- entation Wednesday. .-An executive commiuee report said they have even entertained a suggestion that po1icc costs be .given a separate mill rate, and thus appear as a separate item on the municipal tax bill. What did surprise council was mayor Bruce Shaw's announcement that he was resigning from the Police Services Board as council's representauvc. "1 am advising council 1 have resigned as a member of the police services board," said Shaw, who offered no other explanation than personal reasons for his resignation. Shaw has likely been experiencing some problems reconciling the.divergent opinions of lhe.boertt,and council. Council has made no alsarettehitaTopposiiiim to a provinciaily- ipted heard taking financial control of the town's police force, and the board is not doing very well with council's insistence that the po- lice budget be kept to a small increase. "1 feel .we would•be ill-advised to accept your resignation," said ;councillor Ben Hoo- genboom, who then made a -motion to reject Shaw's request. "That's not done, Ben," replied Shaw. Councilor Ervin Sillery, however, seconded Hoogenboom's motion. "We accept your resignation with regret - that's the thing you're supposed to do," said Shaw, who said the issue should have been discussed behind closed doors with council. Council then argued about who might re- place the mayor on the board. "You've got to have somebody representing council," said Shaw. "Bill's done with OSUM in a couple of week's time," noted councillor:Robert Drum- mond. "No," said Mickle. Shaw was then asked what reasons he had for not wanting to represent council on the board, but he refused to say. "1 haven't talked to you about why, and 1 wasn't prepared to talk to you about why," said Shaw. Council then agreed to fable the motion of non-acceptance until the next council meeting. Shaw then left to confer with Police Services Board representative John Stephens. Later in the meeting, Shaw re -opened the resignation matter. "Perhaps it would he best if I did stay on...the personal •poblesns still exist," said Shaw. Mickle said he offered .council's support to Shaw with his difficulties. "As far as 1 know, from- every member .of this council you have .the -strongest .support," said Mickle. Hoogenboxx» said he bas known Shaw .for 20 years on council and said he had yet. to sec a single matter he couldn't handle. "Only you, as a mayor, should -be there to best represent the people of Exeter,".said Voltam . "t pe h don't do ,anything that will ember- Saiativou-,"_saidliteme.1400ell you there. are interesting tirrieaajogd." The 20,yoar old mil! of the former ureter Co -Op burned beyond repair last Tues- day. The structure will not be replaced, say Hensall District Co -Op Officials. Among pain, smoke, .and mud made fighting till the a. m experience. Farmers bilked of thousands by commnan, -pollee say simi-lar frauds may have occurred here WATERLOO - A Cambridge man, who also owns property in Exeter, is facing :nine charges of fraud in the Waterloo region after farmers- in four communities com- plained they had been,defrauded of 565,000 U.S. Five additional counts of fraud were later added, bringing the total to about 5245.260 Canadian. Charged is 79 -year old Donald Robert Fairborn of Cambridge, who also owns at least one rental property in Exeter. Police with the Waterloo regional fraud squad say a man approached fanners in rural areas by selling foe extinguishers, then teUing them he was heir to his aunt's 550 million fortune in the U.S. He then told his victims he would offer them large low-igterest jowls. if ,be ssgtld ,Iter - row money to help with the legal fees to get access to the estate. A woman who called the Times Advocate Monday ,morning said her parents in the Mitchell area were defrauded of several thousand dollars several years ago trough an identical scheme. She said .die wondered if other residents in this area had been bilked by the rune nuul . The Exeter OPP confirmed that in 1988 they investigated a fraud occurencc involving Fairborn, but no charges were laid. OPP officer Dianne McGregor noted that residents have to be wary of such fraud schemes and con art- ists. "1f itpgllgds mio,ggnd,do,be true, itis. -"-acid McGregor. F1i old coon nU EXETER - A mid-day fire in,the pouring rain destroyed one of Exeter's agricultural buildings last TAgglayjiiikAiejpoor.folgo',1 is not likely to be replaced. - Estimated damage to,lhe g4ain mill beside the train hacks oases fawn about $6065,000, but since the Hensel' and District Co -Op took over the Exeter operation over a year ago, there has been little use for .the building. In fact, Co -Op manager Eitel Wagner explained that work crews tad been removing equipment from .the building the night before. A spark from cutting equipment may have ignited,ljne,tllylfe.but ,lie official ease of the fur is being listed as undetermined. Wagner said the mill had not been in useforabout a year aad a ltalf,al- though the adjoining warehouse is still an asset tothe operation. The still, he understood, had caught fire.at least once befcuc. In the early 196Os it was rebuilt after a fie, but the warehouse had escaped unscathed. ibis time, however, tltc mill will not be rebuilt• Affilikralisolvgan lhursday.to pull down what remained of the structure. Wagner.said he was glad no one was hurt in the fire, even though pcopk were working in the warebpusc at the tituc. "It created a bit of cxeiiecnent, but that's about it," said Wagner. Fire chief Gary Mic4dieton said the fire was the largest industrial fix in Exeter in several years, rind even though crews wcrc able to, get (be blaze under control within a few hours, late night fue watches were,itble to put out several flarc-ups later that night and the next day. Continued on patge 2