Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1993-01-06, Page 24 r£ T'c . • 11410 'Trustee Heywood sums up first year page 2 �88t6 Post Office revitalized page 5 stere irks, hash Tie 3-3 Second front First New Yrr's baby HENS9 .I-1 - the first baby of the New Year born to a Times Advo- cate subscriber came into the world Monday afternoon at 5:06 p.m. A baby girl was born to Sharon and Brent Dawson of RR2 Hensall at St. Joseph's Hospital in London. The couple qualify for the -prizes and gifts sponsored by Times Advo- cate advertisers. for the New Year's baby. contest. ' No charge for debugging, mayor craimull ESIEEER -"Councillor Dave Ur- JmistinRf:mayor Bruce Shaw, who eiso tits on the police services board, whether the town would be paying any cost for the recent de- Ahµggipg of the police station. "Is.;titisee.sitch a .bili:*hat!would come into the town for such a thing," asked Urlin.during.council's open comments session. "The committee definitely did not " authorize it," explained .Shaw, add- ing that no bill or voucher has been received by the board from the OPP team which conducted the Decem- ber 2 search of the station for elec- tronic surveillance. "If there is a charge the commit- tee would have to authorize it," he said. Urlin asked if the cost of such a service could have been paid for out of petty cash. "There certainly has been no pub- lic money spent," insisted Shaw, who added that he was unsure the de -bugging had actually taken place:until confirmed by the press. The police board has not had the chance to discuss the matter at a meeting. If there is a bill that comes be- fore the board, I expect there will be a lengthy discussion, but I ex- pect there will be no charge," said Shaw. , The mayor told council any out of the oidigary expenses would have :to be gpproved by the police board. •� "This would definitely ‘be out of the ordinary?" asked Win. "Definitely, That's an.uilderstate- ment," said Shaw. Police chief Jack Harkness has not made any statement as to why he requested the OPP's help in searching the station and cruisers for listening devices or whether any such devices were found in the De- cember 2 search. The OPP Technical Support Ser- vices said all inquiries about' their .•,investigation should be referred to the chief. Man charged after assault in Hensall EXETER - 'Ilio new year was barely rung in when police were 4,;called to Hensall shortly afteregid- ;might on January 1 to inve a Arreported assault. A,atthinktodn- rtry Inman apatementasimitligg a -male and female occur t. Heshio wi111bIIy damaged a ,pinup truck !;belonging to Michael Ceonyn. Darcy Lefebvre, 24, of Stephen ,unship is charged with break and :iggSat, mischief and two counts of ;1111. ::intMot ' esti e ■ trir s� f A.\ at.,:;. -1..10 wettnnSrlaa Januar is. l cici Historic �huvch to be denwlished By Fred Groves T -A staff CLANDEBOYE - Over 120 years of history is coming to an end. Somethme this week, St. Peters Church on Highway 4, north of Exeter will begin to be demolished. SIM Demolition of Exeter will first take down the wooden structure which was begun by the Franciscan Friars and their parishioners and then the actual stone church itself is scheduled to come down. The church was built in 1871 and has been vacant since the friars were asked to leave by John Sherlock, Bishop of the London diocese. The adjacent cemetery has headstones which date back to 1860. "It's on property That is not needed. It's no use to the _diocese," said Jim Austin of the London diocese. In March, 1992, Bishop Sherlock said, at the time, the diocese had no plans for the church and admitted that it was .an -eye sore. The friars moved into St. Pe- ter's in 1987. and stayed three years before a disagree- ment between shemseives.and the bishop meant they had to go. "We have no particular dans for it," said Bishop - herlock in March. "We'll either find away to use it or "we'll tear it down, The cemetery will stay in tact. The land will never be. sold." Obviously Me diocese:Meld-not find a use for St. Peter's so, it will be turn down. With the help of parishioners, the friars renovated the church, restored the sanctuary and were in the pro- cess of completing a two-storey addition which was to be their living quarters. On Monday, while heavy equipment waited for the weather to co-operate so workers could do their job, the wind whistled trough the gaping holes in the building which would have housed the friars upon completion. One of the parishioners, Ralph Devlaeminek, who lives on Highvwy 4,near the church said the stained glass windows std the bell have long since been re- f moved. He heard about the church being demolished a ;couple of months ago and said all the legal problems 'between the diocese and the parishioners who donated money and their time; to ve been cleared up. "I'm glad it's over but there was a mistake on the bishop's part," said Devlaeminck who had a grandchild baptized by the friars. When first asked about the church back in March, Devlaeminck said he did not know why Bishop Sher- lock accepted the -friars into the London diocese in the first place and after all the community assistance, he wondered why they were asked to leave. Please tarn to page 3 Restaurants give new restrictions mixed reviews Over $120.000 unpaid Sinokng b4aw InaY e Tax arrears a iii% s to get used to highest ever By Adman Harte T -A Editor EXETER - Although the bylaw came into effect New Year's Day, don't expect to fuel your favourite restaurant two,thirds atnc to free for aim days yet. ',,A+itirlff-enrvey-oFfeennyellithIllniakaufirteibte while most have plans for dividing their tables into -smoking,and tion -smoking areas, few have done so find are waiting for official signage to arrive. Town building superintendent Dave Moyer con- firmed that while stickers and signs will be availa- ble in the next few days, they haven't been printed yet. In fact, town council only Monday evening gave their endorsement of a plan to provide the signage free of charge to the restaurants, although they not- ed some municipalities do require the restaurants to provide their own. Total cost of all the signs is ex- pected to be about $300. Moyer said, depending on the ,restaurant, both wall signs and "tent style" table signs will be used to mark the non-smoking areas. The Huron County Health Unit is also pre- paring a brochure on the smoking restriction bylaw, which is the first of its kind in the county. Moyer • described the bylaw as a we abieg un- der a "co-operative compliance" basis, rather than under the threat of fines or prose- cution. :'Nobody is going to be slapping people's wrists over. This," said Moyer, although he said he hoped the Health Unit might take over the responsibilities of checking on the smoking areas as pan of their rout* food handling inspections. The building superin- tendentalso said the original plans in the bylaw That required increased ventilation of smoking areas have been dropped since there is no provision (or them in the Building Code and no means of doter - mining their effectiveness. Otherwise, Moyer said he expects the town's doz- en or so eating establishments to have finalized zed posted their non-smoking areas by the middle of the month. The new bylaw has been received by the restau- rant operators with mixed emotions. Ron Pitt. at Good Times said he expected no problems at all with setting aside two-thirds of his seating as smoke-free and called the bylaw something of a "common courtesy" Pitt said he is reserving the tables at the back of the restaurant near the pool .table as his smoking section, and notes that is where the ventilation is best. "No, it doesn't matter to me one way or the other," said dile. Staff :at Donut Dchte pointed to the three tables at the front of heir coffee shop as being the future no - smoking section, but c-' "d they had thought the bylaw required only :.cntttuthird as smoke-free, not two-thirds. Lucy Sedlak said the rions -were bound to e problems. for.�iatrons, the majority of � �[ tr te�$Pbeamo eers.'" "Even the stodsnts who come in at lunchtime smoke. I can't believe it. I don't know where they get the money," said Sedlak, who said that even with the majority of the seats set aside for non- smokers, the small size of the shop won't reduce the smoke that much. Angelo Fragiskatos at the 3AAA Restaurant said :Oat while he has had a no' -smoking section for the rest three years, he is now faced with the problem .of how to expand it to meet the bylaw. He says he plans to divide both the dining room and the .coffee shop areas into smoking and non-smoking areas, in order to meet the needs of his patrons. "1 think it's going to be tough," said Fragiskatos. "But I'm going to do it. A tett ss4rlcf$•f here at a favourite win- dow seat may become a thing of the past. I don't have any objec- tions." He said he does get frequent requests for non-smoking tables, many through reserva- tions, and the demand is growing. He has also met paeans from London, Toronto, and Sarnia who were shocked to fend there was no municipal b.y- law in place until now. Rearranging the sear- ing areas will cause some problems for reg - War p siesners used to a favourite table for a coffee and a cigmeeuc, said Fragiskatos. "I hope people don't get upset, but what's going to happen is peo- ple arc going to get used to it," he said, adding that be hopes his arrangement will skit the most people. "In this business, you'vegtouogigpsc everybody." lageeli to McDsmskI at ltf<sttiity's pub and Eatery aa>id of.�be bylaw Abe was "rpt, massed with it at all. a1¢ m a nortiplatiker." Sheth five s itlitien of setatitag will mean that the only will be to reserve the bar area �tbe rabies as nim -smoking. "T iesibsbasc we can do. if you want a cigarette in the of your finer, you'll pave to jog up to the bar," Aid ilotirig alio .atY,attlpirl ! have seen At* ay, `formatted* to allow for asst rl'-. "Let's face it, trokare-iibrAgtiosehen people get clinking, they,a,":Mid #fid. Althouigh atlpilpre limos have been ask- ing for a non-itseing section in the past year, McDonald said abe expects to reoggiresibily more complaints .about the .eiMenii1111 dais em • smoking. "We're bowed to get tlpk from the odd , but it's not our fault • Miletit,to spoil," pa r! McDo- o a x Taxes at limit, says reeve EXETER - Tax arrears in the town are at the !highest level in Liz Bell. Bell told council that unpaid tax- es now amount to $120,048, and $54.000 of that is from one proper- ty alone. Council vete told the arrears adds up to between ie and ten penin► of the town budget. Reeve Bill Mickle pointed out that while some of the arrears arc Board of Education funds, not the town's, the town still has to pay for the education levy. "It that the highest you've every seen it Liz?" inquired deputy -reeve Lossy Fuller. "Yes, it is," confirmed Bell, who said the largest unpaid amount waw. owed by the owners of the plaza at north end of town, and that council could -consider reclaiming the un- paid taxes from the rents paid on the property. Other claims have been taken to small claims court. "We're getting a bit of action from two of thee of thein," said Bell, adding that some properties have peen unpaid for nearly three years and will come up for sale lat- er in 1993. Mickle called the high arrears an 'indistion of the gyral 'economic condition. "I have not seen the delinquency in - [payment) time like we have now," said Mickle. "I'm going to link it with our responsibilities as a council, it is not an easy time for us to push ahead...it means budgeting, a real philosophy of how we're go- ing to collect taxes and spend it." "I don't believe unless we have growth in this town we can tax any more out of it...we have hit the lim- it," Mickle continued. Councillor Robert Drummond agreed but pointed out the public arc demanding more services from their municipalities. Mickle said such demands must be handled in a manner so that peo- ple understand delays in achieving new projects and programs. "I believe we are put here to man- age the money we have in the best way wc can...not to demand more and more and more money," said Mickle. "That's means sometimes we have to say 'no' to the public, 'wc cannot afford what you want'." Arena evacuated, sick players sent to Iocalhospitals HURON PARK - A filet in the ice -cleaning machine is ntly Lire reason why Town- ship Arena was adneS- day afternoon. Mesa ,turf f said aeve j people were otanp)riaiag of ill and 43 pec -wee .aged 1Pleytald were res d at the Stmt Huron District Hospital in Exeter agtl* Goderich hospital. • Representatives from Union Gas and the Fuels Safety Branch of* Ministry of Consumer and Ca11- rnorcial Relatigis investigated and found high levels of carbon mon- oxide present nt in the arena. They determined the source of the carbon mpaoxide to be the pro- pane powered ice resurfacing ma- chine (zamboni). Technicians from Superior Propane [nave currectod ale eAbaust omission problems. Tile arena was reopened on Sat- wy• Attu h will 11 Hospital officials confimted that those treated suffered carbon mon- oxide inhalation. All eight teams involved in the tournament, wore immediately contacted and advised "at they may have been exposed to •t:arbon monoxide. Township Administrator Larry &own said it is suspected die high Migcentration of carbon monoxide ,hirer a result of a combination of -actors including exhaust emis- entilation and frequent ice W. immediately after dieevacuated, the Exeter OPP, Stephen Township Fire De- partment, gmbulanee services and Union Gas were on the scene. The arena was closed at about 5 pm. after several players niportsd headaches, nausea and vomiting. Anyone who wits at the tourna- ment and who felt ill because of the clic c,arben monoxide is asked to call the i'iwtrpn (Aunty Health Unit at 1-WO.265.51W.