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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1994-01-26, Page 1SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 2 Weeks of Major Manufacturers President's Sale Jan. 24/94 -Feb. 5/94 O Since 1873 Serving South Huron North Middlesex & Lainhton Wedne" ray. January 26. 1994 ITEffirc I valu-mart 1 �4 & 83 Exeter 235-02d 10 SAVE $1.00 off ' any Pres. Choke Box Meat' 1 19401 Coupon Flvl --wry% (84( + t;c G.S.T.) 90 cents r__1_sin _Irs.� SUBSCRIBE! ▪ If you aren't subscribing to The' Times -Advocate, you're messing out. I Use the coupon below and subscribe today! 1 Name: - 1 Address City r Prov. I ▪ Postal Code SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada Within 40 miles - (65 km) addressed to non letter carrier addresses $30.00 plus $2.10 G.S.T. I Outside 40 miles - (65 km) or any letter carrier address $60.00 + $4.20 G.S.T. Outside Canada -$99.00 l.,d sr% so pod. e) USE YOUR CREDIT CARD 000000a❑ 1 0000000❑ Card No. I Expiry Date ---_- ❑ Visa U Master Card LI Cheque enclosed Return to: TIMES ADVOCATE 424 Main St. Exeter, Ont. NOM 1S6 I lata rata MO — MIN 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Inside Grants Red book scheme released page 3 Moving Travel business to relocate page 5 Representative Student chosen page 8 VON Week Care in your home page 24 Full-time -Hay employees get small pay increase ZURICH - Some Hay Township employees will be getting a pay in- crease this year, despite the restric- tions of the Social Contract. Township council approved a sal- ary package at its January 17 meet- ing that allows for a wage increases from one to two percent for Hay's full time employees. Clerk -treasurer Janis e Zimmer- man said the increase w is slpllar to a grid increase, even though the township docs not have a grid salary plan. She also said the Social Con- tract package approved for the town- ship did not include the salary freeze, as seen in other Ontario mu- nicipalities. Township council members, how- ever, will not be getting any in- « mmanwomos l: s ft wUN 1 The weather was just right for Stephen Central Public School's winter carnival on Monday. The ,students mixed fun with exercise throughout the afternoon. Pictured above, students 1 Shawn Yearly, on left, Allison Hayward and Amber Lord take a break from activities to visit with teacher Don O'Rcurke who played the role of Bonhomme. For more pictures see pages 7 and 20. ' Missing since November 1992 Grand Bend must convince others to join Lambton dispatch system By Fred Groves - T -A staff GRAND BEND - Time is play- ing a big factor in whether or not the Grand Bend and Area Fire De- partment links into the Lambton County Central Dispatch. While one question seems to be the actual cost of joining the sys- tem, the other, as raised Monday night at the Grand Bend Council meeting, was how to get Hay and Stephen Townships to go along with the new system. The Grand Bend and Area Fire Depart- ment is a four munici- pality department which also includes Bosanquet Township. Although both Ste- phen and Bosanquet have their own depart- ments, at times it is closer for the Grand Bend based equip- ment and manpower to go into the townships from that location. "We may or may not get the fire board to pick it (the cost) up," said Grand Bend Administrator Paul Turnbull. - Monday, La County Plan- ner Malcolm Boyd a d Grand Bend and Area Fir Dep _ment Chief Jack Hebden, sap ed to council to join the system. "I really don't want to get in- volved in the financial part. I just y Hill don't nttoget > glued ;financial I just to see it work" "I re wu '!tire part want want to see it work," said Hebden. Grand Bend councillors Cam Ivey and Phil Maguire were quite concerned about the cost and Ivey questioned Boyd if Lambton County would be seeking money for administration costs. "What's it going to cost and how are we going to pay for it?," asked Ivey. "I'm not worried about $100, but if it's five or six thousand, that's different." The initial cost for the Grand Bend and Area De- partment would be '33,500 which, accord- ing to Hebden is al- ready being budgeted for. It would then cost $836 for the first year plus $10 per fire call. Year two has a price tag of $802 plus the $10 and year three, because of warranty expiry on the equip- ment, is $1,053 plus $10 per. Grand Bend has until February 7 to make up its mind whether or not to join. In that time, it will either have to convince Stephen and Hay to pick up one-third of the cost, or go it alone. Bosanquet would pay for the sys- tem through their other department. Mayor Tom Lawson said Stephen Township is reluctant to make a de- cision until it has heard more about sr Please see Dispatch, page two. ..• Sig '4,1•3 Town wants badge collection back as memento of former Exeter Police Force history and heritage EXETER - Visitors to the Exeter Police Station in recent years may recall a large collection of police badges, repre- senting police departments all across North America. That collection is now missing and the police services board wants it back. Mayor Bruce Shaw brought the issue up at last week's town council meeting, telling council the collection of badges, which had been put together over many years of visits to oth- er forces, had been taken home by former .police chief Jack Harkness. "When it wa--returned, most of the badges weren't there," said Shaw, adding the matter is now in the hands of the law- yers.• "I don't4hink there would be 10 badges on the board, when there used to be 50 or 60," he said. Reeve Bill Mickle said it would be nice for the town to have the full collection back so that it may be put on display as part of the town's history. Shaw said it appears the board was removed the first -week Harkness returned to duly in November 1992. The reason the chief gave was it was being removed "for safe keeping"," said Shaw. "That was Qne of the few things we could keep as a me- mento of the force," said Shaw. Councillor Dave Urlin said the town technically paid for the badge collection, because it approved the trading of town police badges for those of other forces across Canada and the United States. Shaw requested that the town's lawyers be contacted for an update on the issue for the next council meeting. The police services board also has to contend with the dis- posal of a large quantity of police uniforms, still in storage at the old station. Much of the clothing dates back several years. "If you go in there, there is a ton of clothing," said Shaw. "It boggles the imagination. It's all there." The Huron County Museum, said Shaw, will be taking one complete Exeter Police uniform for display in Goderich. crease to their stipends for 1994, d council also froze wa es on an g part-time employees and contract positions. Under the Social Contract, howev- er, township employees will be tak- ing 10 unpaid days off this year, compared to eight similar days in 1993. Council will also hold one session for which they will not be paid. Water meters for village by end of year • • GRAND BEND - By the end of the year, at least 500 of the approxi- mately 800 residences in Grand Bend will be on water meters. Monday night at Grand Bend Council, councillor Cam Ivey re- -t ported that tenders will be going out and each lender will bid on blocks of between 80 and 120 meters. Installation will be paid by the customes and the PUC will be sup- plying the meters. Ivey said the Plan 24 area will not go on meters until the following year. "Everytihng that came from Bo- sanquet on boundary negotiations have meters," said Ivey. mash `n Grab: on the rise Cheap cigarettes " at the centre of rural Ontario's growing crime wave By Adrian IJarte T -A Editor EXETER - To the sopnd•of a bur- glar alarm four men, hidden under hoods, go through a broken glass door. Seconds later they emerge, plastic bags filled with stolen cigar- ettes. A stolen car stands waiting to whisk them away, knowing the police will be there in minutes, but too late to catch them in the act. This scenario is being repeated on just about a weekly basis in lo- cal communities. The crime known as a "smash 'n grab" and it is reach- ing epidemic proportion& in rural Ontario, the main reason being the ease with which stolen cigarettes can be turned into ready cash. Detective constable Rick Borden, a full time crime investigator with the Exeter OPP has been reviewing the instances of break-ins at variety stores, gas stations, and grocery stores on the OMPAC computer re- cently installed at the detachment. "1 did look at the instances of smash 'n grabs, and they're all way up over last year," said Borden. "Nine out of 10 of them, the jew- • ellery store was the exception, but most of them are cigarettes." The last gang caught after a spree of smash 'n grabs in the Exeter area were from the St. Thomas area said Borden, who asked them why they picked this area. "'their answer was simple...if you look most of the isolated variety - stores and grocery stores [in the cit- ies] have bars on the windows and doors," he said. That gang said they were going to hit one Exeter store, but were de- teried by its barred glass - so they simply robbed another. "If there's an alarm, that doesn't worry them much, but if you have bars they can't get in and out quick- ly." Borden said only a little while ago, the Exeter OPP might in- vestigate five smash 'n grab -style burglaries in a year. Today they of- ten get five in a month. - "It always appears they get away with them and don't get caught," said Borden, but insists that most of the gangs, buoyed by their success- es; keep going until they arc even- tually caught. Borden also suggests that even though the number of such crimes in this area seems high, just about all of them are being committed by Exeter OPP *tooth* constable Rick Borden is using computer analysis of police records -hell) track down a type of crime that's on the rise in the area: smash 'n grab -style break-ins steal cigarettes. to to a handful of organized groups, maybe as few as two or three. When caught, the gangs often con- fess to having committed a dozen or more 'such break and enters, knowing their sentences will be served consecutively. The courts allow such pleas because it helps get unsolved crimes off the hooks. "I guess that gives the public a perception we're clay getting one in 10 or 15," said Borden. Because a cruiser can be at the scene of a -smash 'n grab within minutes or seconds of the suspects leaving, many of the police officers are frustrated at being so close to making an arrest, and Borden agrees some almost take it. per- sonally. "It's almost a joke with the guys," said Borden, who said he has heard the officers tease each other with "My zone was okay last- night - I did a good'ob". At the hi of the crime is the object of their desire - the cigarettes themselves. Light, compact, and easy to sell for a high•percentage of their retail cost, they are proving ir- resistible to a group of thieves who can make several thousand dollars in a night,, particularly if they hit several towns on one trip. Borden said one gang he inter- rogated after an arrest managed to get rid of their haul within a day. *Eesse see Smash, page three.