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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1994-04-13, Page 2Page 2 Times -Advocate, April 13, 1994 IN THF. 1\1EWS_ Bluewater making its move By Adrian Harte T -A Editor HURON PARK - It couldn't be done, they said. Blue Box re- cycling was a high-cost proposition that might only work in the largest urban centres. The Bluewater Recycling As- sociation set out in 1989 to prove the critics wrong, and less than five years later its program is so suc- cessful it outgrew its original facil- ities and is moving into new digs in Huron Park this week. Bluewater administrator Francis Veilleux said it is almost hard to believe that the building at the Grand Bend airport industrial park seemed huge when the fledgling operation opened its doors in Sep- tember 1989. The 13,000 square feet seemed enough space to ex- pand into that it would be the op- eration's home base for years. Today, Veilleux looks over the expansive 43,768 square feet Blue - water will be renting in the Huron Park industrial park, and wonders whether it will still look as big in five years. The move to Huron Park involves a cost of about a half -million dol- lars, including equipment. That, says Veilleux, is a fraction of what other recyclers are paying to set up equitable operations. "We should be able to do the same thing as Waterloo's doing, but they spent $5 million on theirs, and we're spending $500,000," he Administrator of the Bluewater Recycling Association, Francis home to the organization after this weekend. Veilleux stands in the huge Huron Park building that will be Village. has.busiest_btanch in Middlesex 4:eq 411.3•201111.1,114'41111111107e, New library in works for Lucan' LUCAN - The prospects for a new and expanded library facility for Lucan and area appear good ac- cording to reeve Tom McLaughlin. McLaughlin told fellow council- lors at the April 5 meeting of coun- cil that he and deputy reeve Harry Wraith had met with the Middlesex Board of Education chairman and director regarding joint use of a li- brary system. Plans would be to establish a li- brary facility at the Lucan Public School for use by students and all citizens of the community. McLaughlin went on to say, "The education people were optimistic about going ahead and things look very positive. it was a very good first meeting. Our present library branch in downtown Lucan is the busiest one with the largest circula- tion in all of Middlesex county." He continued, "It would just be logical to locate our library outlet at the public school. There would be many benefits including the sharing of facilities, staffing, more books and good parking. The only disad- vantage would be that it would not be centrally located." The reeve added, "We would likely have no municipal capital outlay and the provincial govern- ment is pushing for joint use of fa- cilities. We will have another meet- ing during the last part of May along with representatives from Biddulph. Residents of the town- ship contribute to about 40 percent of the total population." Council has given approval to an- other possible joint project. It will allow the Lucan soccer club to lease land for new soccer fields on the property adjacent to Biddulph Central School on which the new sewer treatment plant is located. At a recent meeting, Bill Petty_ piece of the soccer club executive asked for permission to establish two full sized and four "mini" fields on about 10 acres of land. He said Biddulph school students could also use the facility which could possibly include a running track around the outside. Reeve McLaughlin said work on the project could legally start in 1995 to be ready for soccer use the following year. Clerk Ron Reymer said there would be only minimal risk in leas- ing the property to the soccer club on a long term basis. He added, "If this project didn't succeed, we wouldn't lose a thing as we would still have the land and we will not have to put any money into the pro- Guilett revisits council, looking for support for gambling casino By Fred Groves T -A staff GRAND BEND - Lloyd Guilett's dream is still alive. The Grand Bend businessman came to council last Tuesday night armed with a petition filled with 800 signatures supporting a casino for the village. With Ontario's first casino in Windsor ready to open, Guilett wants Grand Bend Council to fully support a gambling casino. "it's not my casino," said Guilett holding up the petition which con- tains 300 local resident's signatures. "1'm here to ask council what they're going to do to get a casino for Grand Bend." About all the council can do at this point, is support in principal the proposal. Tuesday, councillors Ed Fluter and Bill Uniac were both absent so those council members who were present will have to con- sult with them at a later date. "We are not going to get a casino in this area ever by just waiting for it to happen," said Guilett. "The whole community has to work to get a casino here." He said the councils of St. Catha- rines, Ottawa, Niagara Falls and Toronto have all indicated their support towards a casino. Guilett first brought the idea to Grand Bend back in April, 1992 and since then he and an interested group of locals have been gathering information to get something which they believe would benefit the com- munity. "I know the citizens in town would work with council to get one. Some would even put funds up for a study," said Guilett. Guilett said that if the village would put forth one quarter of the effort that it has for the Grand Bend Air Show then the village may have a good shot at getting a casino. Mayor Tom Lawson seemed to burst Guilett's balloon when he said the province seems to be very spe- cific in it's direction as far as casi- nos go. "The province is not going for- ward with anything past Windsor," said Lawson. "The next application will be native. There's 14 applica- tions before the province now." Guilett suggested to council that a public meeting be held to get the, villqge's input. Over a year -and -a - half ago one was conducted with over 125 people in attendance. Councillor Phil Maguire suggest- ed Guilett look into the future a lit- tle more. "How much money would you like to see this council spend on a casino when you know there's go- ing to be a provincial election in 15 months and and we have no idea the way the next government will take casinos?" Next fall there will also be a new Grand Bend council and while the present one does support the casino in principal, the next one may not. "Maybe we should wait until the next council, but this has to be put in front of them," said Guilett. Gambling casinos appear to be a source of income for not only the province by means of taxes, but the local municipality would benefit from taxes as well. Former Grand Bend reeve Harold Green even said a casino may help the village raise capital. "We're getting less and less mon- ey from the province. We're going to have to start raising our own money," said Green. Two years ago when Guilett first brought forth the casino, he sug- gested it be called Lakeview and it would be open 24 -hours a day. The casino would cost an estimated $60 million and a 200-300 room hotel would cost $40 million. ject. There will not be any perma- nent washrooms or hydro installa- tions. At the previous meeting, Petty - piece said there were close to 250 youngsters registered for Lucan mi- nor soccer. These numbers are higher than for both hockey and baseball. Pettypiece also said that the Mid- dlesex Board of Education would be approached for joint use and maintenance of the facility and Bid- dulph township would be ap- proached for preparation of the fields. Downtown promotion Councillor Bryan Smith in saying the Main street area of the village looks bleak, said he was concerned about empty stores and would be willing to help merchants promote the downtown arca. In recent years, Smith has been instrumental in establishing and maintaining the planters on main street. McLaughlin said this type of pro- ject could be part of "our proposed strategic plan." Harry Wraith who operates a hardware store on Main street interjected, "It's tough out there to rent a store and there isn't much we can do for them." "11'e take the worm• nut of income taxes." =ff;l:tlr Mod, Irwin, 1,1,,r. ar, ti' ,,1 ilii: 14I (k i •ur .at1'+.,,mm 31%., 0%. (.( \r, NM 111 ,tori torn 1'; i,•I on, of t;1r lr�t rrt1.1/ t' Ate of ,'t,.. . t1, • H&R BLOCK CANADA'S TAX UAM 476 Main $t. Exeter Ont. 235153 Open: Mon. to Frl. 9 a.m. • 5:30 p.m. i Set.Open at 10 a.m. said. The plan, he said, is to set up a virtual state-of-the-art recycling operation, "but pretty cheap too". Bluewater will be adding a third conveyor system to minimize and speed up the handling of materials. With new demands being placed on Bluewater to handle cardboard from the industrialicommercial sector in the coming months, Veil- leux said the new plant should be able to handle eight truckloads a day, up from only one or two. More storage space in Huron Park will allow shipping of col- lected goods in larger quantities, saving on trucking and gaining bet- ter pricing. The point is, the new plant should pay for itself in short order. "We expect a cost reduction next year again," he said, pointing out this year's increase is a one-time payment to cover the moving costs. Much of the equipment in the building has been designed by Bluewater staff to be just as good as off-the-shelf items that cost hun- dreds of thousands of dollars. Those who still believe that Blue Box collection isn't feasible for smaller rural municipalities will be surprised to learn Bluewater will soon be collecting and sorting ma- terials for 48 communities. Hibbert Township, Lucan and Blyth joined the group this week, and St. Marys is expected to start in May. "We haven't stopped growing, and we don't plan to stop growing," said Veilleux. Bluewater, which is jointly owned by all its member mu- nicipalities, can also boast of col- lecting a wider variety of re- cyclables than most Brue Box programs. Most city residents have yet to be able to put plastic contain- ers, cardboard, or plastic bags out in their boxes. The seemingly lofty provincial goal of reducing municipal waste by 50 percent by the year 2000 has actually been achieved in some communities. Exeter, for instance, was congratulated by the Ministry of the Environment for reaching its target this year. Veil! said the Blue Box program, combined with the $2 per bag tag system, made it possible. In fact, when the $2 tag program came into effect, Veilleux said Bluewater's haul from Exeter jumped from 2 1t2 truckloads of re- cylables to four. Veilleux said if all goes ac- cording to plan, Bluewater should be diverting up to 7,000 tonnes of materials from local landfills each year. The Huron Park building has also been renovated by the Ontario De- velopment Corporation to.include a small conference centre and educa- tion centre to aid in giving tours to schools and groups interested in seeing how a model recycling op- eration does its magic, and how it all fits in with a growing environ- mental awareness. "It's sort of a showplace to show them what can happen," said Veil- leux. The new recycling operation should be ready to run by Monday April 18, and most of the bugs should be worked out in the next few weeks. At least, Veilleux hopes the operation will be going by Monday. A minor snag with a new requirement for a ministry cer- tificate of approval might stall things, even though Veilleux has been assured the ministry is willing to overlook the problem, con- sidering Bluewater has been in op- eration for more than four years in the same township. Veilleux said he hopes the local building department sees it the same way. A grand opening for the new op- eration is being planned for June 4, when all members of the public will be invited to tour the new building to find out what really happens to all those bottles, cans, papers, and boxes they have been putting in their Blue Boxes all these years. r 1O'fEEiOF.PUBLIC.MEETItNG -'''fE CORPORATION OF THE VILLAGE OF LUCAN PROPOSED OFFICIAL PLAN AMENDMENT TAKE NOTICE THAT the Municipal Council of the Corporation of the Village of Lucan will hold a public meeting on Monday May 16, 1994, at 7:45 p.m. in the council Chambers, 161 Main Street to consider a proposed Official Plan Amendment under Section 17 of the Planning Act. THE proposed Official Plan Amendment applies to the lands described as Part Lot 5 South of Proof Line Road In the Village of Lucan. These lands are located to the rear of Langford Lumber and Scott's Elevator and are shown on the map below. THE purpose of the Official Planning Amendment is to redesignate the subject property from an AgricultureDesignatlon to a Residential Designation to permit the proposed construction of a residential subdivision. ANY PERSON may attend the public meeting and/or make written or oral representation either in support of, or in opposition to the proposed official plan amendment. ADDITIONAL information relating to this proposed official plan Amendment is available for inspection at my office during regular business hours. DATED AT THE VILLAGE OF LUCAN THIS 13TH DAY OF APRIL, 1994. SCHEDULE 'A" Land Use Plan R.J. REYMER A.M.C.T. CLERK, •r VILLAGE OF LUCAN VILLAGE OF LUCAN 181 MAIN STREET, LUCAN, ONTARIO NOM 2J0 (519) 227-4253