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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1992-12-09, Page 1Winter Bouquets Mini Cams, Poms & Pine 9 95 cash and Carry r COUNTRY ftOWfkS Exeter 1=1111r Inside Parade Santa comes to Exeter pages 22-23 Songbook Sing along with the Times Advocate Christmas songbook included with this issue Smoking bylaw to take effect January EXETER - Smokers in public places in Exeter will soon know where their habit is permitted, and not permitted. Town council Monday evening agreed that the bylaw they passed October 19 wilbtake effect January 1, 1993. The bylaw mainly affects -the town's eating establishments, which must clearly designate smoking and non-smoking seating areas. One third of the seating area must be set aside for smokers. Anyone caught smoking in a non-smoking area can be fined up to a maximum of 55,000. County changes leadership North Middlesex & Lamhton Wednesday. December 9. 1992 sc. Geller-Kneale Insurance Service Experience Value 235-2420 75 cents Amnesty continues to ring in firarm for gistration or disposal OPP constable Ray Jack stands with some of the unwanted long guns brought in for disposal. Below are some handguns brought in under amnesty for registration or disposal. Nearly -500 rounds of ammunition were also turned into the OPP for safe disposal. EXETER - An amnesty program to allow le to turn in or register il- legal guns has been going so well that the go mens has extended the "period of grace" another 15 days in an effort bring in even more un- registered firearms. The Exeter OPP say their experience with the amnesty, which was sup- posed to end November 30, but was lengthened to December 15, has been good. Constable Ray Jack said that as of November 30 the detachment had re- ceived four legally registered handguns for disposal, another 16 unregis- tered handguns for registration, and eight unwanted long guns were brought in for disposal. The OPP also accepted 491 rounds of ammunition for disposal as well. Oddly enough, none of the very weapons the amnesty was aimed at, the military "assault -rifles" that have just been placed in the restricted class by a federal Order in Council were brought to the Exeter OPP for registra- tion or disposal. - "Either the public weren't educalted or they took a chance on not losing it," said Jack. "Which is unfortunate because now they're breaking the law.' After December 15, anyone found in possession of an unregistered weapon, such as an AK -47 assault rifle, or some other civilian versions of military carbines, is liable for charges. In the Mount Forest No. 6 District, which includes all of Huron County, various OPP detachments reported receiving items as varied as two artil- lery shells, a hand grenade, and numerous blasting caps. Jack said that the detachment was able to offer a lot of advice for peo- ple, either over the phone, or in person, over the status of their firearms. One man brought in an unregistered .45 semi-automatic and said he didn't want to go through the procedure of registering it and complying with safe storage regulations. He instead elected to have it de -activated by plugging the barrel and welding the action, more or less making it into a rweight. Some elderly people brought in oldrifes:and shotguns for disposal "just to get it out of the house", said Jack, adding that such weapons, not safely stored could easily have been stolen in a break-in and eventually end up as murder weapons. "The whole purpose is to limit the number of weapons in society," said Jack. The household firearms that are left, he said, are hopefully safely stored out of the reach of criminals by responsible gun owners commiued to safe storage. "If [the burglar] has to stand for half an hour to figure out how to get -.into your gun vault, he's not going to do that," said Jack. ,: ,. i County clerk Nigel Bellcham- ber will be leaving Duron County for Middlesex in Janu- ary. GODERICH - The leadership of Huron County Council is changing in a big way. Yesterday afternoon, Tom Tomes was scheduled to become the next Warden. No other nominees had been put forth as of press time so Tomes would win by acclamation. The reeve of Stephen Township replaces Zurich's Bob Fisher. Also, it was recently announced, that Clerk -Administrator Nigel Bellchamber is leaving and taking a similar,position with Middlesex County beginning Jan. 1. A sub -committee of the county's executive committee has been created to help select a transition commiuee to assist in the hiring of a new clerk -administrator. New parking restrictions near high school EXETER - The town public works committee has approved new parking restrictions for the street beside the high school parking lot. The town parking bylaw will be amended to prohibit parking on Gidley Street east of Senior Street during the hours of 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The high school this year intro- duced a plan whereby students who drive to school must pay for park- ing in the school lots. n belongs to Lama ;GRAND :BEND - Residents of Grand Bend will be g[ad;to:know they no longerwill have. to; foot the bill for their closed landfill site. At_the..Noxe lb .2.5 .Sambion ...County_Cauncil meeting, scvetaF esolutions.werepassed in<.eonnec- tion with the Waste Management landfall-:aiies.and the Sarnia-Lambton Act. One: of those included ..Grand Bend paying :the : ourrty one dollar to: take the landfill off their hands. -Since-due fall, Grand Bend .has been -trucking -its gar- bag°.t0 Watford and bas put alike -and -bag user pay system into affect. Also„assumed•by.4he rountyas:financialresponsi- bility: for:anyfurther expenses..from the Grand Bend landfill. Village Clerk -Administrator Paul Turnbulr.said that there,eteege..COmmiuee set up to help with the transition etresponsibility between Grand -Bend and the county but negotiations at one time had bogged down. 0-4007/10.4-700.040. =1,010-4444.41044,44.44,- ty "We met with .them .and negotiations were going no where" said Turnbull. '"We .were ..looking at al- most $300,000 in jiability.to get rid of our landfill sothey looks step .and3ust.said : we're.going.to..deal-.-__ with just the mayors of the municipalities.' He added .Grand Bend Mayor Tom Lawson showed leadership. and should be congratulated for his efforts in the negotiating: process. "I agree, and having played some part in it.,.I to *ant lo thank our mayor," Said coune111oePhil Ma- gam• While Grand Bend received nothing forthe site fi- nancially, the -Sombre Landfill Site of 535,000; Dawn Landfill received $500,000 and Moore receiveda credit .of $1 million from the county. The large credit to Moore Township is based ona land purchase agreement in order to expand the size of that landfill. Three new vehicle purchases proposed by Exeter departments EXETER - A couple of yews of austerity aren't paying off for Exet- er town council as deferred expens- es from previous budgets are re- turning to haunt plans to keep a line on expenses for the 1993 year. The Exeter and Area Fire Board had turned down a proposal to pur- chase a four-wheel drive vehicle last year, in order to keep the bud- get down in a recession year. But that proposal returned to the board last month and it is once again be- ing given serious consideration. "Is there an increased demand for this kind of vehicle, or is it just passed down to this year," asked councillor Boh Spears at Monday evening's council meeting. "The need is still there," noted councillor Robert Drummond. Reeve Bill Mickle said getting equipment into muddy or snowy farm areas is the main reason for wanting a four-wheel drive truck to replace the chiefs aging car. Some good news is that the 1992 fire board budget is expected - to .come in 52,000 under projected ex, parses. While any capital expenses for the fire board are shared with the other beneficing municipalities, the public works department is all the town's own. The purchase of a new packer for town garbage collection has been postponed for the past two years, but faced with the increasing age of the present packer, the public works commiuec has directed works superintendent Glen Kelis to get price quotations on a new vehi- cle for delivery as soon as possible. Councillor Bob Spears said he wanted to be sure the old packer would be retired or sold rather than added to the town's "fleet". Public works committee chair- man Ben Hoogenboom assured council that the old packer would not be kept. "For one thing it needs to be safe - tied again. Glen doesn't feel it war- rants spending that kind of money on an old truck." said Hoogen- boom. "It would be offered for sale confirmed Kells, although Hoog=1 boom said he did not know if ic old vehicle would be worth time On top of those vehicle pure • , s is the budget proposal from the po- lice chief that suggests the ' wn trade in the grey 1990 poli = cruis- er before the third . . ' r of 1993 to maximize the n's return on its resale value. The wade -up cost has been esti ' : ted at 520,000. phref credits teamwork Armed standoff ends safely EXETER - A man armed with a shotgun.gave _himself_up _to__police Friday evening after an intense 90 minute standoff between himself and police. At 3:36 p.m. Friday, town police responded to a complaint of a man with a•gun at t35 -Thomas St. With the help of the OPP the house was surrounded with armed officers and _negotiations began_suithlhe suspect over the telephone. Officers went house to house on the street telling people to stay in- doors and out of harm's way. Two children, alone in the house next door, were very upset by the police activity and were later escorted to a waiting friend behind the barri- cades at the end of the street. An ambulance stood ready near the scent and the Tactical Rescue Unit team was called from London, but was later put on standby when police feared the suspect was pre- pared to provoke a confrontation. At one point, after negotiations broke off over the phone, the sus- pect went outside behind the house, shouted something at police and re- turned indoors. Shortly thereafter, a man surrendered to police at 5:06 p.m., The police were evidently re- lieved .to see _the situation resolved without shots being fired or inju- ries. The suspect was apparently distraught over a domestic dispute. Charged with careless handling of a firearm, mischief, and with une count of breach of probation is Ke- vin James Wallace, 21, of 135 Thomas St. Apt. C. Police chief_Jack. Harken, s spot c of "tremendous teamwork" among the town police and the OPP. A de- briefing between the two forces held Saturday concluded the tense situation was handled fairly well. "We were pleased that things co- ordinated as well as it did," said Harkness. The chief declined to comment on some of the measures taken by police or how the "high stress lev- el" situation was resolved through negotiations. "A lot of things went on behind the scenes that we can't talk about to make sure [the suspect] gets a fair court case," said Harkness. After a bail hearing in Goderich Monday afternoon, Wallaoe was re- leased from police custody, with certain restrictions, until a court date of January 26. New award for SH math students CLINTON - The Huron County Board of Education announced at Monday's regular board meeting that citizens associated with the former RCAF Centralia air base have created a fund to establish an award for OA(' Mathematics at South Huron District High School. The amount in the fund exceeds 54.000, the interest from whi;,h will be used for an annual prize. The award will formally be known as the RCAF Centralia Re- union '92 Prize in OAC Mathemat- ics, and will go to the top student in mathematics as determined by the matheinatics head and principal at South Huron. The prize will be presented for the first time at commencement in June 1991 At telt, . a town police officer stands armed and ready new the house where the gunman was holdirkg police at bay Friday. At right, police lead the suspect to a waiting car after his sur- (Andar And ,prrQgt an minutoa int„,r