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Times Advocate, 1993-06-09, Page 12Page 12 Times -Advocate, June 9,1993 Grand Bend council backs oW pilau to license Isses . By Fred Groves T -A staff GRAND BEND - The business people of this village have put their foot down hard. Monday night, nearly 50 of them told Grand Bend Council they were totally against a new business li- cense which could cost some of them several thousand dollars a year. A new bylaw, number 4060 was supposed to be given a third and fi- nal reading on Monday but council decided to get more input from the local business people. "It's to get money that can be used to promote Grand Bend," said coun- cillor Cam Ivey of the new license. Council received tetters from Green Haven Trailer Park, Wonder Grove Trailer Court and Towusite RV Park of which, under the new h- . -cense would have to .pay S20 per 'month per lot. For-Townsite, that would add up to .an .additional $4,560 -per year while'Wonder Grove would have'to pay $7,680 based on its number of lots. In comparison, a fuel :dealer would only have to pay $5 per year. Council .admitted there was some points which -had to be addressed in- cluding the fact that, under the by- law, businesses would have to pro- vide for garbage containers and be responsible for the disposal of -gar- bage. "Should we or should we not have a business license, that's the meat of things," said Grand Bend Mayor Tom Lawson. Lloyd Guillet and Wayne Forbes represented the large group which had several people from a pair of lo- cal organizations, the Grand. Bend Business Association and the Grand Bend Tax Coalition. They seemed pleased they had come in mass to council before .the bylaw was passed. "The lawyers say this give council a tot of power," said Guillet. One section of the new bylaw states that council has the sight to close any business which does not conform to the regulations of the li- cense. Erwin Schouroff said there are al- ready too many boards.and.gronps who regulate what businesses can and cannot do. "Everyone holds out their hand. Where does it stop, that's what 1 want to know," asked Schottroff. While council has agreed to work with the business people in regards to the license bylaw, Lawson admit- ted there might have been better communication when the bylaw was originallydrafted. "We have errored as council. Now where do we go from here?," asked Lawson. Forbes said that the Tax Coalition and the Business Association have been in meeting for over a year and that council should have come to them with the bylaw. Also, it was revealed, that perhaps council should have approached the Chamber of Commerce as well. The bylaw also make provision for council to clamp down on cer- tain businesses which they feel is causing a problem. In the bylaw one of the responsi- bilities of the licensee would not cause or permit any nuisance to arise in, on or in connection with the object, amusement, vehicle, place or premises for which the li- cense was issued. "We don't want to be overly regu- lated but we don't want one person to spoil it for the rest," said Law- son. When asked what business he was referring to, Lawson said the Fountainblue Motel to where the fire department was summoned to dur- ing the Victoria Day weekend. "On the Monday, of the holiday weekend we had a small bit of arson in one room. We assumed we are going to have problems with the structure we did have. We had over- crowding, we had garbage, we had what we believed to be health prob- lems and fire marsball problems," said Lawson of_ hediotel. He said if.there .had been a tragedy .there it would have been a reflection to the whole community. Tuesday morning Lawson told the Times -Advocate that seieral agen- cies were investigating the motel in an organized effort. "We expect something will hap- pen very quickly," said Lawson. Among the agencies are, the OPP, Fire Marshall, Lambton Board of Health, Building Inspector, Plumb- ing inspector and the villages own municipal bylaw structure. rand Bend %'t►tl•t` holds c('T: (Ira l 1 Huron Board may drop future Excellence in Education banquets CLINTON - The Huron County Board of Education has decided to further discuss a decision to opt out of the Excellence in Public Educa- tion banquet for 1994. Trustees were concerned that if the board was not involved, the awards may be abandoned along with the banquet. "We don't have to have a banquet to recognize winners, said Clifford trustee Della Baumgarten. It costs the board more than $2 000 to be a financial partner in the banquet along with the Ontario Secondary School Teacher's Feder- ation said Bob Allen, director of education. Education director retires CLINTON- Monday afternoon marked the final regular meeting of the Huron County Board of Educa- tion es well as Director of Educa- tion Bob Allen. He expressed he appreciation to the 1972 school board which ap- proached him to take on the role as a supervisory officer for the board, as we as the 1983 board which gave him the opportunity to be- come director of education. "It has been an honour to be di- rector for the past decade," he said noting that the director is only as competent as the people he works with. Government constraints in fund- ing, he said, make the expense dif- ficult to absorb. The board decided to notify the. OSSTF and explain the situation before making a final recommenda tion. No tax • increase in Usborne Township EXETER - Usbomc Township ratepayers may be seeing a Iiule in- crease on their property tax bills this year, but not because of any in- creased municipal taxes. Township council approved at their June 1 meeting a budget that allows for a zero -percent increase in taxes. The actual township expenditures are to be $341,653, up only margi- nally argi- nally from 1992's $341,131. With no major capital expendi- tures on the books slated for 1993, aside from some road reconstruc- tion, council were able to hold the line on rising costs elsewhere in the budget. As clerk Sandra Strang describes it, no stone was left unturned lo 1 find savings. Council even elimi- nated their second meeting in June to help trim costs. "We nickeled and dimed every- thing," said Strang. "It's a bare- oones budget as far as I'm con cerned..' Siad Oke (left) presents the keys or a new eo etro vertible to Bob and Bonnie Becker of Exeter at the conclusion of the Rotary Club car draw Saturday evening. The winner of the third prize Ford Escort was Patten Beattie of Watford, and the first prize Plymouth Voyager went to Jim DeBoer of Luck - now. With nearly 1,000 tickets sold on Saturday evening's : oar draw, the Huron Park recreation centre was kept full with.peo- ple dancing to the sounds of the Festival By the Bay 'prCheS- tra and waiting to see if their tickets were eliminated from the draw. The $100 tickets not only included the dinner and dance, but the chance to win 30 prizes, including three new cars. Emeka Njoku (rj , assisted by Grand Bend mayor Tom Lam ' -son, draws 50 numbers out of the- barrel at Saturday eve- ning's Rotary Club car draw held in Huron Park. Njoku, execu- tive director of the Thames Valley Children's Centre, comes from :the town in Nigeria where the Rotaiy Club is supporting the construction of a water distribution system with the pro- ceeds from the Graw. Other projects supported include the VON and the Lambton Heritage Museum. -5.1- This Friday and Saturday, we -are having a fund raising barbecue in front of the store with all proceeds going to Minor Baseball in Exeter. And Coaches, ask your players to come as well. If your team has the most players in uniform at the barbecue this weekend, we'll throw a pizza party for you after one . of your games!! • 0 M re 0 NW a dwarmilip I• s • I I' 0 Ar 0 s m s► ir 0 /I .w 0 IP" • r law .now ir Another t� Et R A r • i IR From your friends at NOLTj ANN'S 152 227 oin St., Exeter, *Amp 286-0212