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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1993-11-10, Page 2Page 2 Times -Advocate November 10,1993 Regi wrap Police board won't meet deadline alien war heroes remembered in local services SEAFORTH - The Seaforth Police Services Board doesn't want to be rushed into signing a police communications .agree- ment. agree-ment. The Board declined to approve an interim agreement on police communications. The Goderich Police Services Board wanted it passed by Oct. 31, it was report- ed in the Seaforth Expositor. "I have some serious problems with this," Seaforth police chief Hal Claus told the police board la§t Wednesday. "As far as I'm concerned this bridging agree- ment is unnecessary," he said. The bridging agreement was one of three documents dis- cussed at Last Wednesday's spe- cial meeting of the Police Ser- vices Board. Economilk piedicts hi -tech revolution to .additino to Stowtai wreath laving ceremonies, loco l eginn< are nbservinr Remembrance Day wit► services at lova schools. and with Remembrance Da} dinner': Thursdat evening ST. MARYS - is -not gloom and doottn-inthe-Canadi- an economy, says St. Marys na- tive Lloyd Atkinson. Known in economic circles as something of a guru, Atkinson said the country is facing a tech- nological revolution which may have a far-reaching impact grater than the industrial revo- lution. But it may cause some social turmoil. Atkinson calls it "the chal- lenge," it was reported in the Journal .. Argus. "The industrial revolution was really a revolu- tion of investing in fiscal capi-. ta1...This revolution is going to be _realized. by investing in hu-.. man beings. "And this means we are going tohave to seriously re -think our whole educational system in terms of what is coming out of the system - we all know the sta- tistics, we know the inadequa- •cies." Landfill changes planned CLINTON - As of Jan. 1, the Mid-HumnLandfrll Site will be- gin charging tipping fees on all waste. Changes are also pending on what will be accepted. Ben Munnings, a MHLS rep- resentative said the board decid= ed to make the landfill site self- sufficient by having user fees, rather using tax dollars. "I can't guarantee your' taxes will go down, but I can guaran- tee you that your taxes won't bc going to the landfill," he told the Clinton News -Record. Munnings said initially some people may dump illegally as a protest to the fees, but said he feelssthe new system is good. Larnbton OPP services reviewed FOREST - A complete review of services provided by the OPP will be wrdertaken this month in an attempt to reduce costs, while maintaining or improving .exist- ing services. Provincial spending cuts this year arc expected to trans- late into 17 senior officers tak- ing early retirement over the next 30 months at the four Lambton detatclrstents, it was re- ported in the Forest Standard. Trying to combat funding shortfalls, staff Sergeant Wade Lacroix said his commiltoe Will try to find new ways of saving money by seeking input from of- fteers, county mayors, area po- lice cxammifytutttblic. "Simple ! reveal that the ltwaan en tree situa- tion will not be salved in the short term, in fact it is likely to get worse before it begins to get better," he said. 41. above, the allMalarparty *Pm the Exeter legion wad a large number of tlit,wing marchers head 'to the Remembrance Dayservlce at the Exet- er cenotaph on Sunday vnorning. t left, Michelle Roy Mays a wreath on behalf tauf the Exeter Sparks. dlt right, bagpiper tan tae and trumpeter b Clark provided the =arching music, the I/Reveille and Last Post dlbr Sunday's service. Lwrentia. Bank closing Eer brach EXETER - After a little more than two years in business in Exeter, Laurentian Bank will be leaving the town next month. Don Thompson, branch manager, confirmed Monday the bank will be transferring all its deposits and loans to a Lon- don branch on December 17. -The decision comes from the bank's head-office'iif Mon: treal, and does affect some of Laurentian's other small branches, including the one in'PbrfElgin. "Basically. it's a corporate decision," said Thompson. "1 can't say exactly why the move." "The economy hasn't been good, that's for sure," he said, and acknowledged Exeter does have six other financial in- stitutions. Thompson said the fate of the branch's staff is still being negotiated. "We're not one -hundred percent sure on that," he said. The early announcement of the Exeter branch closure is to allow local customers time to make changes to their banking. Thompson agreed that many customers will want their accounts close at hand, and the move to London would node convenient. The Exeter BIA was also using' Laurentian Bank to han- dle its Exeter Bucks promotion, and Thompson noted those arrangements will have to be changed since the promotion is to last until December 31. The Laurentian Bank came to Exeter in June 1991 when the bank took over the collapsed Standard Trust institution. Laurentian, said Thompson, "kind of rescued us back in '91. We appreciated that. But things change." When Standard Trust folded, many customers found their accounts frozen for several weeks until Laurentian took over. Thompson said the Exeter branch managed to hold onto about 75 percent of those deposits, but many custom- ers did move their accounts elsewhere. "A lot of clients were caught out when we were closed. They made other banking arrangements and they `stayed with them," he said. Most of those customers who accepted new accounts with Laurentian are now faced with taking their banking elsewhere. "We certainly realize it's inconvenient for them," said Thompson. The best we ca to is mak, 'ir transfers easy for them." Tri -municipal sewage proposal welcomed Continued from front page live from the Ministry of Environ- ment and Energy who attended the meeting. "It will be mechanical [treatment]." The -actual cost of building one large treatment plant will be less than building three separate facili- ties, but the costs involved in lay- ing pressurized fo rcemains to pump the sewage from Huron Park and Hensal) to Exeteh would add to the project's cost. The overall cost may still be cheaper, said Burns, but the. operating costs will certainly be less expensive. The study into the joint project might find it possible each munici- pality would be better off with sep- arate projects. although Burns sug- gested that would be doubtful. The main question, however, is whether or not Stephen aggds to completely replace its aging Huron Park treatment plant, or if it can be refurbished and brought up to 1993 environmental requirements. Stephen reeve Toni Tomes brought up .another possijlility at the meeting by asking if Centralia and Crediton ought benefit from being included in the joint project. Bums said it might be possible, and suggested the decision to include those communities in the study should be made soon. Hensel! reeve Cecil Pepper asked if Zurich could conceivably join in such a project, but Burns acknowl- edged with the extra distance in- volved it would be more difficult from a practical standpoint. When Stephen admityjegator Lar- ry Brown asked for,"ics about Jho operating costes, Bums .,aoted even with.the costs of pump - Bu till above 199 lav County welfare demand dropping steadily, slightly (iOUIiKICH - In its monthly rc- •port to county euuutcil, Social Ser- vices has marked a decrease in its caseload for the fifth month in a row. Social services reported that 84 .people were added to the agency's caseload in August 1993, but W eases were closed. The caseload drop of nearly three percent comes after four consecu- tive months of a decreasing number chf peopk i gyitirtg 41104a1 Wtis- tuncc. However, the total number of beneficiaries of welfare in August 1993 was still I1307,Aisne ,10.per- cent higher than the 1.161 last Au- gust, and considerably higher than the 713 total tit August 1991. The Social Services office noted that 26 cases were removed from its books because Mose peoplc:ei- tler secured employment, and/or UIC benefits. As of July 1893. among 59 Onta- rio municipalities for, .which Stans- ucs ,were available, Harron ranked third lowest in percentage of popu- lation requiring assistance (2.28 ; tersest). the highest percentage was recorded m Sault Ste. Marie at 9.92,percent. - ing the sewage through long force- ttains, there would be considerable seductions in labour costs, water sample testing costs, and energy ef- ficiency. "I would see big savings," pre- dicted Burns. Exeter administrator Rick Hun- tley asked what would happen if one municipality of the three did not want to participate in the joint project. Could the other two go ahead? Bums answered by saying that even if Stephen Township did find it cheaper to refurbish its Huron Park plant, Exeter and Hensali could still realize some savings with a joint project of their own, al- though perhaes not on the same scale. One important point raised at the meeting is that a joint project might be viewed quite favourably by the ministry and the soon -w -be. formed Ontario Clean Water Agency. Such approval ceutd speed up grant funding commitments and the even- tual completion of the project. Buns showed a timetable that pro- posed construction to be completed by 1995 or 1996. "That's probably a little optimis- tic,"said Burns. The cost of studying a joint sew- age treatment facility will be about 510,000. Burns proposed the cost, minus ministry grants, be shared equally amongst the tree munici- palities. All three councils will be meeting in the next few days to de- cide whether 01,1101 to approve We expense. The cost of building and running the facility should be shared ac- cording to the percentage of capaci- ty each municipality requires from thcplant, said Bums. Hensall appro,ves cost of study forjoImth,.way swage plant HENSALL - Councillors Mon- day night gave the go-ahead to B.M. Koss and Associates to do a study on a proposed joint sewer project for the town of Exeter, the township of Stephen and the village of Hensel!. At a meeting in Exeter Wednes- day engineer Steve Bruns said that We overall cost of the study of a joint sewage treatment facility would be about 510,000 minus ministry grants. The approval was unanimous Monoiay night, but councillor ,teff Reabtum moved an amendment that would limit Nensall's cost of the study to not more then 530500. In making the amendment Reab- urn said, " Do we have any assw- rance that provincial monies .are available. My concern is ;that we spend money on a study and then don't get tie ,grants. Many studies never lead W anything. When councillor pick Packharn asked about the present Hensal) la- goons, reeve Cecil Pepper replied, " "they likely would not be used. Ex- eter's would be because of tie large usage of water by Nabisco Brands in a short tune during harvesting of peas.and corn.." Council heard a letter read from Exeter mayor Bruce Shaw voicing his exhneern with the plan approved by Huron county council to assign only one vote to each rqunij j ality represented at council. Shaw said Exeter council sup- ports the objetlives of reducing the number oflepresentatives at county council in order to scream -line the operations and cut costs, but wants the plan of multiple votes based on Population. Reeve Cecil Pepper told council that county council approved the cane vote per municipality by a mar- gin -of 30-2. Now a Private Mem- bers Bill must bc passed at the pro- vincial level to snake it legal and Pepper is afraid it will take too long to go into effect, well after the next local elections. Council approved a resolution Gum the municipality of Neebing calling on the province- to enact necessary legislation to ensue that municitalities receive gross re- ecipts tax from all companies col- lecting telephone; revenues in the province. Noebing had recently been in- formed by the C.R.T.C. that the matter of telephone gross receipt tax is not within their jurisdiction. Clerk -treasurer Luanne Phair ex- plained that Hethsall receives $24,000 each year in this type of tax from Bell Canada and Tucker - smith Telephone System. Of .that amount 57.000 stays in Hensel' wits the balance going to the county and the school boards, Because of deregulation, new tel- ephone cxumpanics such ss Unite), Call -Net said others are collecting telephone revenucs,and arc nut pay - ung municipal telephone taxes. A landfill meeting has been set for the evening of November 22 at the Hensall arena when council will meet with landfill waste generators and carriers regarding acccptaucc of ,materials and tipping fees. All concerned will be notified by mail of the meeting.