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Times Advocate, 1994-03-30, Page 2Page 2 Times -Advocate, March 30, 1994 Re!ona1 wrap up Mayor's views on police challenged MITCHELL - A lot of ques- tions and few answers continue to frustrate Mitchell's town council about the future of their police service. During last Monday's regular meeting, reeve Harold Jordan and councillor Ruth Fiebig led the charge, confronting mayor Hugh McCaughey about the po- lice's future in its present form. Council has long been frustrat- ed with the increasing cost of of- fering police service in town, es- pecially when they see other neighbouring municipalities conducting a successful switcho- ver to Ontario Provincial Police rather than municipal policing, it was reported in the Mitchell Ad- vocate. A 25 -question survey indicat- ed that 88 percent of those who returned it were generally satis- fied with the - services of the present police force. But Jordan said he didn't think enough sur- veys came back for the board to get a good idea of how town res- idents feel. In total, 233 surveys were re- turned - only 21 percent. Canada Post cuts Saturday mail SEAFORTH - Seaforth has re- cently joined the rest of Canada in losing Saturday postal ser- vice, it was reported in the Hu- ron Expositor. A cross-country change was made March 5, by Canada Post to "try and provide all Canadi- ans with the same mail service whether they're in rural or urban areas," said Tom Creech, com- munications officer for Canada Post, in London. "We looked at the volumes of mail deposited at the rural loca- tions, and we think we can run an efficient operation and still deliver the standard of service," he said. "It was a little bit of an anoma- ly," said Creech of the Saturday service. "For the past five or six years we've been trying to get rid of it." Creech estimates several hun- dred communities across the country were affected by the re- cent elimination of the service. $2 million building permit issued GODERICH - The Town of Goderich's scheme to stall own- ers of the Zehrs plaza from get- ting a huilding permit came too late. Goderich township has al- ready issued a permit valued at S2 million. That announcement thwarts Goderich Councils deci- sion at its March 14 meeting to allow its negotiating committee to raise concerns about addition- al costs faced by the town as traffic increases on roads, it was reported in the Goderich Signal - Star. Increased calls to fire department BLYTH - The extreme cold weather ad the use of wood stoves may have added to the increase in fire calls for the first three months of 1994, said Blyth fire chief Paul Josling. "The Blyth Fire Department has spend 43 hours at calls so far this year and the total for 1993 was just 33," foaling told the North Huron Citizen. IN THF. IVEWS Is Exeter's building ready for recovery? EXETER - If there is going to be a recovery in Exeter's building trade, there is no sign of it just yet this year. Building official Dave Moyer told council last week he is- sued six building permits in February this year, worth $149,600. While that is twice as much activity as February 1993, Moyer still wasn't prepared to call it a building boom. "My feeling is it's the single family starts that help push up the figures," Moyer told council. Councillor Bob Spears asked Moyer how the building rate was shaping up for 1994, and Moyer said he had heard of a few commercial projects in the works, but the home builders still seem cautious. "March is when 1 usually hear more and more people talk about single family...but residentially, I don't know," said Moyer. The building official also presented his annual summary of building activity to council, confirming that while 1993's S3.5 million of building activity was slightly better than I992's $3.2 million, it is still off the pace of $4.7 million set in 1991, or the record $8.2 million of 1990. One thing missing in 1993 was the Ontario Home Renew- al Program, in which the town administered a loan pool of Shirley Andraza, who is in charge of the Button Brigade for the Grand Bend/Huron Park air show, pins a button on Commanding Officer Dick Lyman of the U.S. Naval Air facility in Detroit. At the right is Lauren Lee who is in charge of air acts. Balloons and aircraft May 20-29 Grand Bend Air Show plans are `up up and awaves' GRAND BEND - At a Saturday morning meeting of the Grand Bend International Air Show com- mittee, chairman Tom Lawson said, " We are getting excited about the upcoming show and the way our committees are coming together to make what we hope will be a very successful event." Lawson, who is also mayor of Grand Bend added, " We are here to put an air show together and have fun." The show entitled "Up, Up and Awaves" will cover two weekends in May and will involve activities not only in Grand Bend, but also at Huron Park. In charge of the insurance pro- gram, Gerry Barclay said he was still shopping around, but expected to have no problems in buying the necessary in- surance. He said premi- ums would probably run about $6,000. The latest budget estimate up to Saturday morning for insurance was listed at $7,000. In answering a number of insu- rance questions, Barclay said, "Everyone working on the air show will be covered. That would in- clude any volunteer out, say, sell- ing buttons or on any air show busi- ness in their own vehicle. The beer tents at Grand Bend and Huron Park will be covered under our in- surance." Things get underway on Friday, May 20 at 6 p.m. at the Oakwood Inn golf course driving range, north of the village on the east side of Highway 21 with the first launch of four days of hot ballooning. Tony Bendel reported Saturday that he hoped to have at least 10 of the brilliantly coloured giant hot air balloons for the four-day Victoria Day weekend to provide spectacu- lar entertainment to capture the imagination of all ages. Bendel told fellow committee members that Kellogg's were send- ing their Tony the Tiger balloon . He said in addition to Kellogg's, Remax Realty, Labatt's and Color Your World would be represented along with a number of indepen- dents. The Colodr Your World bal- loon comes complete with a giant paint brush. On May 21 and 22, there will he pilot briefing and balloon launching at 6.30 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. each day with similar activities at 6.30 a.m. only on Victoria Day, Monday, May 23. In addition to the balloon launch- ing on Saturday and Sunday, there will he children's entertainment each day at 12 noon and live enter- tainment on stage at 3 p.m. On May 22, between thc hours of 4 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. a fish fry will be availa- ble at the Lions pavilion to satisfy the hunger of the many expected visitors. Parking for visitors to the balloon site will use the tennis court grounds on the west side of high- way 21. There will also be ex- hibits, chil- dren's rides and wash- rooms at this location at the balloon site. There will only be one place to cross the highway for pedestrians. Tom John- ston, who or- ganizes the annual London air show said, "With a lot more interest in balloons this sets the stage for the actual air show." Dave Frayne in charge of trans- portation said he had made arrange- ments with Charterways in Exeter to provide a regular schedule of shuttle bus service for May 28 and 29 from Huron Park to Grand Bend. Frayne added, "Thcrc is plenty of parking al Huron Park and we have access to 20 busses to bring them here. While there is $5,0(X) set aside in the budget for transporta- tion I think we can do it for S1,400." Gerry Damm, manager of OFC' at Huron Park said everything was under control al his location and there was a possibility that the On- tario Science Centre would bring in a display to be set up in the Rec Centre of Hangar 3. Lawson commended Damm for the "great pictorial" he has done to feature all the activities and loca- tions at Huron Park. Lawson added, " We should do the same here." In talking about parking, Lawson said, "Wc will be called on to swal- low up 10,000 cars. We arc hoping to make arangements to close off Government Road and use Archie a Gibbs' parking lot." Bill Uniac in charge of parking said letters had gone out to 22 po- tential parking site owners and to date he had not received any refu- sals. The only qualifications would he the condition of the grounds at the Grand Bend Public School and ct take Anglican Church. The actual air show begins on Friday, May 27 with static and avi- ation education day displays at Hu- ron Park from 1 to 7 p.m. These same displays will be available for viewing the following two days from 10 a.rn. to 5 p.m. The air show itself with a fly past of the many aircraft which will he in attendance will be at 2.30 p.m. in Grand Bend on Saturday and Sunday. In addition, on Satur- day there will be a breakfast for all at the Grand Fiend fire hall, enter- tainment on the beach at 5 p.m., a BBQ at the Grand Bend Legion at 6 p.m. and fireworks on the beach at dusk. Sunday, the breakfast will be at Huron Park at 8 a.m. with the Ste- phen fire department in charge to he followed by an ecumenical church service at 11 a.m. at the Grand Bend Legion and at 1.30 a parade will travel along Grand Bend's Main street. Shirley Andraza was in charge of the Button Brigade at Saturday's meeting. These passport buttons are available for $10 and will include admission to the balloon festival, airshow, static displays, parking, shuttle bus service and early bird draw. Correction: Strategic Plan meeting tonight last week's front page article de- scribing the Stratcgic Planning ses- sion the Town of Exeter is holding this week included the wrong eve- ning for the meeting. Looking at the wrong calendar, we stated the meeting was Tuesday evening. However, an advertisement in the same issue listed the correct meet- ing date, March 30, which is to- night. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the South Huron Recreation Centre hall. money for home renovations for several yews. When the province clawed the money back, it put an end to those pro- jects. "The one thing is OHRP is gone, and that was a pretty good revenue generator for us." said Moyer. There were no applications under it in 1993. Since 1976. 100 people made applications under the OHRP program, al- though there were 25 cancellations or withdrawals. Moyer's building report also points out some interesting sta- tistics about Exeter properties. For instance, there are current- ly 103 backyard pools in town, and seven pools indoors. Jail terms levied for sexual assault, impaired driving EXETER - Judge R.G.E. Hunter handed out jail terms to three area residents in Provincial Court in Exeter on March 22. Gary Howard Grant of 106 Algonquin Drive in Huron Park will spend 30 days in jail after pleading guilty to charges of breach of probation and failing to appear. In court on February 22, 1994, Grant was released on 12 months probation on charges of assault and issuing threats and ordered to stay away from a former girl friend. A day after the first court appearance, Grant persisted by trying to contact her with 14 telephone calls. He failed to respond to a sum- mons on February 27 and on March 1 he wastagain trying to contact the victim through her parents and was chasing her children. Grant's counsel K. McLean said his client was trying to get con- tents removed from the house and these arrangements have since been made. The accused has been in custody for the last three weeks. A third charge of uttering threats was withdrawn by the crown. Roy Brown of 100 King street in Hensall will spend the next six months in jail following conviction by Judge Hunter on a sexual as- sault charge. The assault was alleged to have taken place in Exeter in the early morning hours of August 19,-1993. Hunter ordered a ban on publica- tion of the victim's name. The victim who was driving her vehicle at the time stopped to talk to friends near the Exeter library at about 1:30 a.m. and Brown was in the vicinity. After being told not to, Brown got into the front seat and asked for sexual favours. When told by the victim, "I don't think so", he put an arm around her shoulder and a hand on her knee. Again he was told to stop and after a few minutes did leave the vehicle. Counsel for the defence said his client was sorry for his actions and did not want to harm the woman. Crown prosecutor Hugh McDonald said the conduct of the accused could be deemed from trifling to serious and asked that the decision should be weighed by the effect on the victim who broke down on the witness stand when describing the events. When Brown said he had his arm around her shoulder and did not try to touch her breasts, Judge Hunter replied, "I don't believe you." Drinking convictions Darcy Lefebvre, RR 1, Hay was sentenced to total of five months in jail, three months for impaired driving and two months for driving while he was disqualified. Lefebvre was stopped by Constable Finch while on routine patrol in Zurich in the early morning hours of September 25, 1993. The ac- cused ran over a curb and was not wearing a seat belt and the officer noted he was unsteady. A part bottle of beer was found on the front seat. The accused was arrested at the scene and then taken to the Exeter OPP detachment for a bre,athalizer test. Readings of 1.90 and 1.70 were determined at 3:03 p.m. and 3:27 p.m., respectively. It was also revealed that the accused had his license suspended for two years in September of 1992. In addition to the jail sentence, Lefebvre's license will be suspend - cd for a term of three years. Michael Parsons, 216 Prince Albert, Centralia was fined SI,200 for operating a vehicle with a blood alcoholic level above the normal. His vehicle was followed by police on highway 4 from Brucefield and stopped at the McDonald's drive-through in Exeter on November 5, 1993. He failed the blood sample test and was taken to the Exeter OPP detachment where his hreathalizer samples were 2.50, 2.00 and 2.40. A fine of S750 was levied against Gail Stevens, 299 Algonquin on a charge of impaired driving. The incident occurred on January 16, 1994 when the accused was found in her vehicle in a roadside ditch, near Huron Park. The lights on the vehicle were on and Stevens ap- peared to be in an intoxicated condition, fell down and had to be helped to thc cruiser. At the Exeter OPP detachment, breathalizer tests revealed readings of 2.65 and 2.69. A fine of $750 was levied against Gregory Lovie, RR 3, Zurich on an impaired driving charge stemming from an incident on November 4, 1993 when the accused was found behind the wheel of a vehicle in a ditch on Concession 6-7 of Stephen township, near Highway 83. Lovie was taken to the Exeter OPP detachment at 8:28 p.m. and his blood alcohol content was determined in two tests to be a 2.10 and 1.90. Dangerous weapon use Tho Samphohirath of 201 Princess Drive in Kitchener was fined $400 by Judge Hunter for dangerous use of a weapon. The accused got into a scuffle at a party in Huron Park on February 6, 1994 and showed a 22 calibre rifle. The crown said, "It would be underestimated to say he frightened the people around him." In addition to the lift, Samphothirath was ordered not to own, pos- sess or handle firearms for a period of five years. The rifle in question has been destroyed by police. Possession of a narcotic will cost Chad Langdren of Dorchester S100. He will pay that amount after being stopped on Alexander street in Exeter by Constable Chisholm 2.05 a.m. on October 6, 1993. Four part vials of canahis were found by the officer. Break and enter James Wein, 242 Algonquin, Huron Park, already in custody plead- ed guilty to seven charges of break, enter and theft of four elementary schools in Huron and Perth counties between December 31, 1993 and February 20, 1994. South Perth Centennial was illegally entered on three different oc- casions and Our Lady of Mount Carmel school was hit twice. The other break-ins were at separate schools in St. Columban and Dublin. He was accompanied by at least three other persons. Valuable. video, television and computer equipment was taken and very little was recovered. The•court hear most of the stolen goods were disposed of to unknown persons. Wein will appear in court in Oodetich on May 2 for sentencing.