The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutTimes Advocate, 1997-05-07, Page 311' . ,r1t r r' N W S. Times Advocate, May.7, 1997 Page 3 Regional Lucan council rescinds motion wrap up Jury selected in Murray trial GODERiCH - The jury has been selected for the•Steve Mur- ray murder trial, which was scheduled to begin last Wednes- day, reports the Qoderich Sig- nal -Star. Murray has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his I6 -year-old daughter, Mistic Nicole Murray who has not been seen since May 31, 1995. More than 300 people from across Huron County brined the jury panel (►entre which Murray, was arraigned. Manning addresses reform supporters STRATFORD - More than 120 Perth -Middlesex reform candidate supporters gathered last Monday to hear party leader Preston Manning speak. , - The supporters _met at Garnet Bloomtield's campaign office where he lost no time in warn- ing the crowd of Prime Minister Jean Chreticn's "style of twist- ing the truth." Manning reminded those•gaith- ered. of the current govern-, ment's broken campaign 'prom- ises such as abolishing the GST. ..He added hospital closures that face many communities are a result of the Liberals cutting $7 billion from health transfer pay nicnts to Provinces. Myth man fees attempted murder charge BLYTH A 23 -year-old Myth man' has been charged with the attempted murder of 32 -year- old William Tugwcll. of Clin- ton. •- Jason Lee was taken into eus- tody'as a result of a stabbing in= cident that occurred in the vil- lage in the early morning hours of April 26, reports the- North Huron Citizen. •Attcr a hail hearing last Mon- day; Lee was released on his own recognizance to appear in court again on June 2, states an 01'P release. , The victim was taken to Clin- ton Public Hospital before tieing transferred to Victoria Hospital in London where he is listed in stable condition. Nine-year-old boy killed in bike accident HULLETT TOWNSHIP - A nine-year-old Hullet Township boy • was killed when he was struck by a pickup truck while riding his bicycle through an in- tersection, reports the Clinton News -Record. Luck Anderson was riding his hike last Saturday afternoon at approximately 12:50 p.m., west- bound on County, Road 17. He was struck by a 1997 Chev GM4 pickup truck driven by 54 -year- old Doug Hugill, which was travelling northbound on County Road 15. According to police. Anderson entered the intersection through a stop sign and although Hugill used evasive action, he was un- able to avoid the .cyclist. An- derson. who was wearing a safe- ty helmet at the time of the accident, was pronounced dead at the scene. • By Chris Skalkos T -A Reporter i,UCAN - Lucan's on-off antal- gti.unation proposal with Biddulph Township is off again atter council passed a resolution to undo what ,they thought was already undone. Council decided to put ahold on their restructuring plans with Bid- dulph in an effort to digest the I•i�. nancial impacts of the provincial government's plan to transfer bil- lions of dollars in service costs to municipalities by downloading wel- fare. health-care, subsidized hous- ing and other services. In return the province will pick up the education hill from local property taxes. - Because preliminary analysis in- dicated the change would . sig- nificantly affect the financial im- pact of the proposed amalgamation, Council sent a letter to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs in March re- questing the minister to refrain from signing the order until the pro- vincial government can assure the implementation of the Mega -Week announcements would not adverse- ly affect Lucan ratepayers.. How- ever. since council didn't officially rescind the •original motion, the amalgamation process was still be- ing processed "They almost hung us on..a tech- nicality. " said.. Administrator . Ron Replier. who 'contacted. the office of MPP Bruce Smith and was sur- prised to find the minister had not considered - their request. ' "Ac- cording to (Smith's) office, the minister was still going to sign our order because (the letter) was not valid...as of April' 30 we circulated a resolution to rescind the original. motion.' Now the amalgamation proposal is completely cuff the desk." A major point of •contention for. Lucan is the impact .the Farm Tax Rebate would have on the proposed amalgamation. Farmland owners now pay 100 per cent of the tax hill to the municipality and then claim a 75 per cent rebate from the prov- ince. Under the provincial. govern- ment's downloading plan. mu- nicipalities would only he able to tax farmers for 25 per cent of what they normally. would pay. As a result, the. municipalities would collect 75 per cent less from, the same farm holdings, effectively transferring the cost of a provincial farni subsidy to the municipal tax payers. This would cause an imhal- ince between urban and rural mu, nicipalities with plans. to amal- gamate. ' ''If ►tic ,don't: anialgama te, the farm lax rebate . is a non -issue; it won't impact us at alli" said Reym= I According to previous calcula- Council re -visits amalgamation EXETER - Although it appeared council had -ut to rest the issue of amalgamation for the time being, Councillor- Robert Drummond chose to open •the matter' at Mon-. day night's meeting. " Should- we not re -visit amalgama-. tion with our neighbors in Tight of what went do in.Chatham/Kent?" .A ministry .. commissioner, -re- cently appointed to settle the amal- gamation dilemma in Kent County, rejected- all the, locally presented options and created one large mu- nicipalities -named: Chatham -Kent which will'comc into being omJan- • uary 1, 19'98. • Reeve Bill -.Mickle, " reacted, "1 don't know why it would conte, up - now. We have set a course of ac- - tion. and we should -continue with it, that is. restructure ourselves. 1 • think .we should put it ori the hack= burner since there will be no cum-. ntissioncr. appointed before the mu- nicipal etc. ctions. Mayor Ben Hoogenboorn noun-. • what happened in Chatham/Kent given, us an indication of what the provincial governincnt has'in store Mr us? Should we net ger prepared. for that?" Triehner agreed, "We shouldn't cut ourselves out of any ++: dis- cussions; we should keep the lines ,of communication open." • Councillor Joe Rider commented, 1 don't• think you could put any kind of deal together. There's con- cern in St. Marys. and Stratford. that • they won't he left alone. With noth- ing going on in Huron at. this rtto- ntent:"we can't dei anything."- - beputy Reeve Dave -•Urlin sup- ported Mickle, "it was Stephen's 'and tjsborne's decisions not to talk any further until a commission was in place. We spent a lot- of staff time working on this .project for nothing. We should continue with our own re -organization only." Mickle ended the discussion. . "Until we have a letter frons. the , Tither municipalities with specific . proposals, I think we should do nothing." " ' tered, "I've. had calls from the neighboring mayors and reeves that. we should get hack on line. I think •they are really concerned with what happened in Kent:" Mickle asked, -"Are thee- in- quiries corning from individuals. or councils? If --councils, let's .have specific proposals from them with the hope that progress will he made this time. If we do anything in the present, it . would have to be something fantastic; otherwise, the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Al _Leach, will do nothing until after the November elections. And don't torget, we haven't dealt with Mid- , dlesex yet, and they arc to be in- cluded." . Councilor Roy Triehner added, "It -appears that the . minister. doesn't want to look at anything less than about one-half o1 Huron„a, 'large part of Larnbton and a.large . section of Middlesex.” Drummond persevered, "Has Committee ..:;.r�� votes to -return MTO funds EXETER - Committee. of the Whole members will recontmentt'lo council the town return $50,000 to the Ministry of Transportation as a show of good faith. MTO mistakenly funded Exeter. with $50,000 for the 'revocation of the connecting link designation for Highway 83 within town .limits: Due -to, an error by MTO. money that should have been designated for much-needed work on Zurich's. connecting -link, was given to Exet- er, which recently completed work on Thames Read. The ministry is holding payment to Exeter ih the amount of nearly $15.200 until the money is returned. - The town hopes the. ministry will provide 90 per cent funding ler necessary work on Highway 4 and the bridge at MacNaughton Park. The works department has sub- mitted. a request for financial as- sistance in completing the work es - Omitted to cost $278,000. "13) • all means...prtceed'," said Councillor Roy Triehner,- Members of the committee dis- agreed as to whether the request should stipulate a 90-10 cost shar- ing split. "If wedon't stipulate up front..it could he detrimental," said Reeve Bill Micklc. Councillors Thom Hughes •and Robert Drummond opposed Mickle stating the town should use any money it receives, stressing the work should he 'done before the condition of the road and bridge de- ' tcrioratc further. • "11 think there's a danger in set- ting up a 90-10 restriction." said Hughes adding, "We may end up paying 100 per cent." it •was decided the recommenda- tion to council would he to avoid' stipulating a specific split in the ministry application for funding. i1I#Libeial Announcing the Local Campaign Office of Paul Steckle 407 Main St. Exeter 235-3732 1-800-259-9250 Authorized by the official agent Eugene Bender • tions, the impact on: Bitldulph would he approximately $510.375.23.- based on 1996 still rates and assessment figures. Under an amalgamation scenario. ' Lucan would shoulder 44 per cent of that amount representing $224.696.68. If the two municipalities don't amalgamate, the cost remains in 13iddulph. • Last "T'hursda'y a contproinised was announced, relieving some of thc.planned downloading. however. changes 10 the Farm "fax • Rebate were not included. "Nothinghas changed for us. It's still being downloaded as stated in the Mega -Week announcements in January." said Reymer, adding ad • - justments to • the rebate could re- kindle the proposed marriage le,-• • (ween the two rnunicipalitics. "Our goal is to amalgamate and it seems like -this is. going to nail the door shut." Sunshine. 1 .Kids Co. -operative Preschoo1•9ri - Exeter OPEN HOUSE' for FALL REGISTRATION EXETER UNITED CHURCH Tues. May 13 & Thurs. May 15 9:00 to 11:30 a.m. 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. A Creative Environment for Preschool Children Call iiuth 235-0342 DON'TET 3 CAUGHT IN ,.;' THE DUST! Plan Ahead Now! 1 We will apply Calcium Chloride for excellent compaction and dust control • DRIVEWAYS • PARKING LOTS • ROADS Calpine Dust Control ROrs MERN ER 482-7404 JASON HAYTER 263-2322 - • , ..#� , �i• - WTI ( it 1'1 ; '•1. • f • • F✓ 30% Discount on DIAMOND ENGAGEMENT RINGS and ANNIVERSARY DIAMOND RINGS • Over $2000.00 with Cash or Cheque 1 s'' 25% Discount on DIAMOND ENGAGEMENT RINGS, ANNIVERSARY DIAMONDS and WEDDING RINGS with Credit Caret or Layaway Plan from May 1 to 9v(ay 31 BAKELAAR ,JEWELLERS LTD. Main Street Exeter 519) 23502720 4°<")