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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1997-03-12, Page 1SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Eketer 235-0262 Marty's Manch Movie -1d _,-Madness Hotline 235-3535 SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 ,$F Space Jam $14.89 FM OM UM NMI OM 1111. MINI SUBSCRIBE!, ▪ If -you aren't subscribing to The' 1 Times -Advocate, you're missing out.' Use the coupon below and subscribe today! • 1 Name: 1 Address City 1 Prov I Postal Code $uasCRIPTIOH RATER: 1 14 1 1 year $35 + 2.45 GS�yeear $63 + 4.41 GST • 1 1 year $63 + 4.41 GST.2 year $119 + B.33 GST Otastc>Ecedeoe - sioz.00 I . USE YOUR CREDIT CARD 1 caoCI 00 1�� Card No. 1 1 Expiry Date 0 Visa 0 Master Card 0 Cheque enclosed 1 . Return to. TiMES ADVOCATE ■ 424 Main St. Exeter, Ont. NOM 156, 1•11 MN MN WM MN OMB Inside Huron munlclpalities choose consultant See page 2 Huron -Perth PUCs reach agreement See page 3 Huron Park man charged. withattempted murder LONDON - A 46 -year-old Hu- ron Park man has been charged by London Police with two counts of attempted murder by in connection with a Feb. 15 incident when two people were seriously beaten in a London apartment. London City Police responded to a 911 call from a "disoriented woman" and found her and a male friend with multiple skull fractures sustained by being struck with a blunt object. The victims were hos- pitalized but have since been re- leased. Charged is Nham Thavinh Khamphila, who has been remand- ed in custody until a future court appearance. Honesty is alive in Exeter EXETER - Honesty is alive and well in Exeter. According to Constable Tom Richber, on Friday afternoon Hen • drika McKenzi of Exeter lost her purse walking home after grocery shopping. Barry Overholt was looking out of the front window of his barber shop and spotted the purse on the corner of Main and Victoria Street. He retrieved the purse and called. the OPP. The police returned the purse to Mrs. McKenzi which contained over $500 in cash. "It's nice to see there are honest people like Barry out there," said Richber. Driver charged with over limit STEPHEN TOWNSHIP - A driv- er was charged with operating a motor vehicle over the legal limit of alcohol after failing a breathalyz- er test at the Exeter OPP Detach-' ment. The driver was reported to have passed out inside the vehicle. Po- lice were called to the scene on March 9 at approximately 2:40 p.m. Wednesday, March 12. 1997 Spring splash From left, Adorn Case, Kyle Case and Hayden Cann, all of Osborne Township, get their March Break off to a splashing start at Kick's Aquatic Centre on Monday afternoon. Lucan puts a hold on proposal The recent Mega -week announcements leaves council uncertain about the financial impacts restructuring with Biddulph will have LUCAN - After surviving a recent restructuring proposal by North Mid- to the municipal tax paycls. This would cause an unbalance between urban dlesex, which would have de -railed Lucan and Biddulph's submitted amal- and rural municipalities with plans to amalgamate. gamation proposal, Lucan asked the Ministry of Municipal Affairs -to put..:. "If we.don't amalgamate the farm'tax rebate is a non issue as far as I.u- a hold on passing it after a regular council meeting on March 4. can is. concemed because we don't have a lot of Tamm land hut Biddulph will be affected big-time," said Replier. "So if we amalgamate we would have to share part of that impact." According to Lucan's calculations, the impact to the present Township of Biddulph is approximately $510,375.23 using 1996 mill rates and as- sessment figures. Under an amalgamation scenario Lucan will shoulder 44 per cent of that representing $224,696.68. "If we don't amalgamate that cost remains in Biddulph and we expect more downloading yet to come," said Bra- dy. Councillor Rosemary Gahlinger-Beaune said the liming of the Mega -week announcements have changed the con- cept of what a Lucan-Biddulph marriage would me -in -and the proposal should he dropped completely. "Until such time that the Province can provide us with a full and clear picture -the details of the downloading and al- low us the time frame to realize the impact (it will have), restructuring at this time is premature," she. said. ',iahlinger- Beaune put forward a motion for Council to withdraw completely from the amalgama- tion process, however, nobody seconded the motion. Brady said the Farm Tax Rebate issue can he resolved and added they have met with members of Biddulph council to express their concerns. "They can see why we wouldn't want to amalgamate if this is the case, but we arc still content with our proposal as long as the Farm Tax Rebate can be adjusted," said Brady. -"Reeve Rob Brady said the recent Provincial Mega -Week announcement appears to' have significantly affected the financial impact of the proposed amalgamation of the village of Lucan and the Township of Biddulph and council would like the. Minister to refrain from signing thc proposal until the Provincial Government can assure them the imple- mentation of the mega -week announcement will not adversely affect the ratepayers of Lucan. The province -announced recently it will pick up the educa- tion tax bill from municipal residential properties hut will download social service costs such as welfare, policing, li- brary and ambulance services. The shift is supposed to offset costs evenly but according to Village Clerk Ron Reymer this would not hold true under an amalgamation scenario. "We've crunched some numbers it's not going to wash out evenly for Lucan, but it's difficult to say exactly how much because a lot of the numbers are not known yet," said Reymer. A major point of contention is the impact the Farm Tax Rebate will have on the proposed amalgamation. Currently farm land owners pay 100 per cent of the tax hill to the mu- nicipality and then turn around and claim a 75 per cent rebate from thc Province. Beginning in 1998, municipalities will only he able to tax farm- ers for 25 per cent of what they normally would be asked to pay. As a result the municipalities will collect 75 per cent Tess from the same farm holdings effectively transferring the cost of a provincial farm subsidy "We've crunched some numbers, it's not going to wash out evenly for Lucan..." Exeter bed allocation increases Restructuring will mean shorter hospital stays and fewer admissions By Heather Mir T -A Reporter EXETER - in the final report of the District Health Council Task Force, bed allocation has moved a step closer to the original proposal drafted by Huron -Perth's eight hospitals. The report, released last week, was formally adopted by the task force and will be sent to the Min- istry of Health upon approval of the DHC. In the plan, South Huron Hospital has been allocated a total of 19 beds including 11 medical beds and eight chronic beds. This num- ber is up from the initial figure of 14 beds outlined in the task force preferred option released at the end of January. SHH board chair Verla Russell said she is pleased to see the task force has formally adopted the bed numbers discussed recently with the district's eight hospitals. She added Exeter's bed allocation has been cut by half but has more beds in the final report than in the fiat options released. "Bed numbers can change," she said, adding, "I think we're really on the road to a made in Huron - Perth solution." The report also addresses costing and indicates the single hospital system, created by the re- structuring, will generate a savings of approximately 13 per cent. Hu- ron -Perth hospital funding has al- ready been reduced by 3 per cent in 1996/97 and it is anticipated fur- ther cuts of nearly 7 per cent can be expected in 1997/98. "Once a system -wide hoard and administrative structure arc in place, changes may be necessary, based on system -wide clinical pro- gramming," states'a DHC press re- lease. "it should be recognized that * ('ontinued on page 2 111: RON I'1 1,. i 11 1 iOSi'ITAL BEIM DISI RIM_ 1 10\ HOSPITALS WITH BASIC SERVICE; Location OBS Paed Surg/Onc Med* ICU/Monitored Total Chronic Beds" Acute Clinton 2 Exeter Seaforth 2 St. Marys COMMUNITY HOSPITALS; Goderich 2 8 Listowel 5 4 Wingham 2 4 9 11 9 11 11 8 11 8 11 23 11 8 Rehab Psych Total 18 4" 32 14 13 4" 26 24 13 4" 23 18 5 SECONDARY (REFERRAL) HOSPITAL Stratford 13 6 30 35 6 90 30 15 19 19. 34 19 20 66 50 46 18 153 TOTAI. 26 6 46 119 18 215 133 20 38 406 • medical beds in hospital with basic services and community hospitals include some paediatric capacity e a those marked with (") are considered "monitored" beds notes: Stratford will continue to provide neonatal intensive care (not identified in bed numbers) This constitutes a base service/bed allocation upon which the district's eight hospitals could agree. Detailed program planning and the MintsHealth's anticipated Rural Health Policy may necessitate changes grhich can be implement] y the system govemance/administration • Reeve and councillor threaten to resign over gas spill By Brenda Burke T -A Reporter HENSALL - Only after Hensall Reeve Cecil Pepper hastily signed a letter of resignation and Councillor Jeff Reaburn stormed out of coun- cil chambers Monday night did council take action in an effort to satisfy a group of angry King Street residents who have been suffering from a recurring gas fume problem in their homes since the end of De- cember. • When King Street houses were engulfed with strong petroleum fumes on December 28, the village flushed the storm sewers with wa- ter. The odor returned a few days later when it was reported a gas spill had occurred at Erb's Garage on Queen Street. According to a ministry report, the incident occurred when an es- timated one litre of gas spilled dur- ing a fill -up. Residents speculate a larger amount of gas had entered . the catch basin near the garage where it travelled through the storm sewer and released fumes. Since the sewers were flushed,. it's difficult to determine how much gas entered the sewer system • or where it made its way in. The. odor returned in early February and King Street residents are frus- trated at what they call council's lack of cooperation and at some point, withholding of pertinent in- forniation. "We're not leaving until we get direct answers tonight," said spokesperson for.the group, Julie Ritchie, following some confusion over whether or not council should adjourn and defer the matter until all council members were present. "Our file is not closed until the problem is fixed." "1 feel the issue is important enough that we should carry on. Unfortunately, Jeff (Reaburn) is gone and Butch (Hoffman) isn't here," said Councillor Dick Pack - ham, who, along with Reaburn and Councillor Steve Towle, directed hard, fast questions toward Reeve Pepper and Clerk -treasurer Luanne Phair. "Are you trying to avoid some- thing?" Towle enquired of Pepper. "The impression 1 got from you (was) it wasn't important." Councillors met to discuss the gas spill problem during a special meeting in late February, only to have Pepper classify the minutes as "null and void," claiming only the head of council has the authority to call a special meeting. At that point, Reaburn had walked out of the council meeting, saying he was tired of matters be- ing handled by "onc or two people" rather than council as a whole. "I'm prepared to submit my res- ignation after we deal with this is- sue," he said. "The clerk has far too much au- thority in this town as far as I'm concerned," added Ritchie. "'There's been a lot of stuff covered up here." . She referred to a Feb. 6 letter ad- dressed to Phair from County of Huron Public Health inspector Don Hullah. "As the home owners are aware, along with the village," reads the letter, "this is an can be a very dan- gerous situation. We recommend that the home owners listed on the fax be hand delivered a copy of this letter and recorded as such. Also, an article in the local paper or a copy in the tax notice warning the rest of the village of this potential problem is recommended." With the exception of Pepper, council was.not instantly made aware of the letter, not even at its Feb. 10 meeting. "This should have been handed to us immediately," said Ritchie. "You thought we were blowing this out of proportion. I don't think so...Every house in Hensel) may have this problem...That gas went +' Continued on page 2 1