HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1998-03-18, Page 1SEIP'S
valu-mart
4 & 83 Exeter 233-0262
F>iI m
Developing
4•9924roll
sot\'ing Exeter drat ,Ile,)
Funds
for
play-
ground
equip-
ment
needed
See page 2
IS -1
THIS
IT?
School
headquarters
decision
deferred
See page 3
Profile
of a painter
See Crossroads
Second front
Los
•
•
Sr. A hockey
coming
to
Hensall?
See page 15
$4,000 raised at
Finkbeiner dance
' HURON PARK - A•benefit
dance for Doug and Darlene
'Finkbeiner was eagerly support-
ed hr, the community.
Carolyn Southcott. of the Crc-
diron Optimists. said nearly 600
tickets were,sold to help the •
lamik who lost their Crediton
area home to a fire lust before
Christmas
"I' wa, really grew how the
;:ummurirt pulled together.' .
said Souttr�utt "It w•a steads all
riigtr
ate '-►plumsl� mWalk re -
5 00 tickets. he printed Ai
. turncc: •,u• an cxiraa 150 tickets
trs_arne .available and more than
:i(Ni were sold at the dour
"Luckily Mother. Nature came
around and everything worked
grey'. ' added Suuthcutt of
the dams that was nearly UAW
_elled due to a snowstorm
"Lurgi uI people helped out.
:an: said
The Optimists thank e.seryone
whu'helped with the dance.
14,
Taxpayers want large
Lots of
white stuff!
Debbie
Wagger was
found shovel -
•• ling along
• stretch of
Andrew Street
on Thursday
afternoon. "1
keep telling
everybody.: 'We
should expect
this.' she said.
'i dust hope it
doesn't last for -
.ever. "
garbage collection in spring
EXETER - A Mondas morning
telephone survey of -10 Exeter res-
idents revealed eight !pined a large
, garbage pick-up in' spring. Two
said they didn't have any large ar-
ticles and were not concerned about
a spring collection.
A large garbage pick-up is sched-
uled for the fall and a yard waste
. pick-up is . scheduled for. sprink.
Sonic Exeter residents are con-
cerned the, Iasi large pick-up for
household items was in the spring
of 1997 and will need to wait more
than a year until the next pick-up
scheduledlot the fall
Survey respondents . said many.
large ` household items have • ac-
cumulated since the.. last pick-up
they would like the Town to col-
lect
One respondent•said people corn-
.
men! on how nice Exeter looks and
was concerned waiting until the fall
for the -household collection would
after( the appearance of the town.
Respondents said they are storing
the large items, rather than making
the trek to the landfill site. They
have the option of buying a S20
permit to. take a car Toad. pickup
truck or small trailer of garbage, to
the landfill site: A large truck is
.measured by the cubic yard with a
, fee of Si 2 per cubic) ard.•
According to Exeter employee
Laurie Dykstra. 55 $20 permits
have been purchased already this
year: 17 in January. 23 in February
and 15 thus lar in March.
The• largegarbage collection is-
sue was raised at the March 2 coun-
cil meeting because residents had
requested the spring collection.Af-
ter considerable discussion council
decided not to change the dates this
year hat to consider changes for
1999. ,
The main reason for not changing
the dates was that notices had al-
ready been sent out announcing the
dates of this year's special pick-
ups. This introduced the problem of
confusion resulting from changing
a service mid -way through the year.
SEIP'S
valu-mart
4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262
Delicious
Hot i)eIi
t jv •� i'OOII
/t4� ra t() Gol
Exeter wants to sell landfill
site to Huron for $2.1 million
The site would become the destination for
garbage from several Huron municipalities
EXETER - Exeter Council has
"gone public" with its plan to sell
its landlill site to Huron County.
f=or several years. Huron
has hs cn. si iivhing kir a destination
tot- muni, that garbage, A number of
ntuntcipallues w ill run out of space
in their local- Iandtill sites. Various
options have !seen, considered tn-
cluding establishing a.neyi landlill
site for counts syide use.
l seriurills . rhe county identified
the operon of acquit'ing thuying' or
on►pensating toil the use 01 land=
it space in two local sites ssnh the
aparny• to expand. I scter's landlill
site ss as chosen asthc destination 10
the s&'uthern hart of the county.
\lora. Township's sitew ill be used
for northern Huron's i .iibage.
1'he Exeter co mmittec on the
i.ndtin site li is discussed the matter
I,1r'cse►:al months and has met IAith
Monis Tots nship council as well.
\fest discussions, atthe council and
onmirttec ies el were held in-
t:unci.i because oI the scnsui%tty of
the property financial details. '
The lolloscinc information conies
Iron a report of the landfill site
oninottec syInch council approved
n �1midi') night.
l-.seter has souped the -lifespan oI
the site, saluc of the capacity. dist
benefits of'sharing the site and cost,
benefits of matntaminc the landfill
site for leder use only
Council considered Iwt1 basic op --
t loons-: •
1 \1.unt:unin ownership of the
site and pros riling landfill space to'
iter' 11untciv:dines at full cost-
:ecovery; and
Selling the site to the County.
Council has concluded 'die hest
approach is to try 10 sell the landfill
site to Huron County. such. that the
Town r-ecc15es tau- value tor the
proven rapacity of the landfill site
and fair s alue -for y et -to -be -proven
capacity.
The council proposes:
•
l:h1:11iR }asci• • residents may not believe their councillors are over-
paid hut they are unhappy with the process and rationale council used to
gree iiselt a raise.
Nine members of the public attended Monday night's council -mcein►g
and most had opinions on the 33 per cent increase.in tie stipend.
Former councillor Thom Hughes said the councillors shouldn't have inn
101 council if they. didn't Iikc the pay. 'fie went one step further. chal-
lenging hems. to resign if cher telt the pay was inadequate. A hi -election
could he held to elect people who would do the job fur the 1997 rale -of
pay
- Hughes is interested in seeing how• council negotiates 'pay increases for
the staff in light of the precedence set with its own raise.
"lf anyone should he gctling an increase. it should be the stall.- 1lughes
claimed. '
According to Hughes. more than 50 people approached hint on the week-
end who supported his views. He believes there's is a "silent majority"
who may not attend the council meetings but are upset about the raises.'
Dorothy Chapman, another fonncr councillor. said the town has :h policy
stating there should be an annual increase.
Presumably, annual pay increases should 'he close to the cost of living
rather than a single large increase once a decade. At the county level,, coun-
cil incrcascs are the sante percentage as employee raises.
"This is poor timing and- leaving a- really had taste in'the- taxpayer's
C'flaprrlan
She suggested the increases should he done in stages or steps. •
"Frankly. I really dont think thcy'.re. over paid." commented Bill Purdy..
"1 know if the job is done right. there arc a lot: of hours.
Deputy -Reeve Dave Urlin and_ •Councillor Pete Armstrong defended
council's decision.
"It's catch-up time. Orlin said. adding the previous- council wanted to
leave the decision to the new• council. • . ior Continued on page 2
- I. Huron ('Donis ss ill purchase
the ate front 1:seta liir 1'2.1181.0(8).
2. The county will provide Exeter
ss uh fres. use til the landlill for the
duration of its complete site fife...
3: The set. n► of Hay Concession
Road 4/5 fron► the loonier Highway
No. 81 to the site elm:ince he as-
sumed by the count) . •
4. I'hc '. aluc 'ol adjacent • prop-
etues he guaranteed by she county
1111 the currvnfowners. .
"lite Council is vers. interesteal
in receiving/hearing any questions
or submissions on this matter. We
encourage the public to attend the
Ciitnrci1 inceting nl f 1'ntlay..Apri1 •
h -al 7:1(1 p in. 'fpr .Council also
welcomes the .public to any .til its
regular us. 'committee ineclings 10
discuss this or any other issue." the'
report states. •
Residents oppose rationale
used for council pay raises
By Kate Monk
"I -A &wan
'Casino reaction
By Brenda Burke
T -A Reporter
GRAND BEND - The fact a casino may soon
open its doors in the village has residents
abuzz with clashing viewpoints.
Some are rooting for a charity gaming
club while others are clearly against it. So di-.
vided are many residents that the majority
of those interviewed demanded their names
not be printed.
A vote in November indicated more than
half the village rejects the idea of a casino
while a more recent vote indicates the ex-
act opposite. Council ratified the latest opin-
ion poll at last week's meeting. The
biggest questions now concem location.
Which existing building will be transformed
into a charity casino by summer? Where will
the permanent site be next year?
Oakwood Park resident Stephanie Donald -
sort is dead -set against the idea and pre-
sented her reasons why at last week's coun-
cil rneetfng following its definitive 'yes' vote.
A long-time Grand Bend area resident and
community booster, Donaldson has a sec-
'ond home in Detroit and has witnessed neg-
ative effects of a casino there.
"There (has) been a group of people in this
town looking for a casino for years," said
Donaldson at her home on Saturday. "Grartc4;
Bend is looking for the quick fix, the magical
pill."
Although a member of Grass Roots for a
Greater Grand Bend Restructuring Group,
she claims she is not speaking for that par-
ticular group. Nor is she speaking for her as.
scciation at Oakwood Park.
1 am simply an individual who loves this;
area...who doesn't want to see (it) get itself
into trouble it can't get out of."
Donaldson strongly believes casino gam-
bling spells bad social and economic navel
for Grand Bend.
"The suicide, the bankruptcies, the garrt»
bring addiction...1 think it's a very frighten;
message we're sending the young,"
said, stressing the area needs a year -r
drawing card to attract young families.
She refers to the villages 'good old
when sport meant going to the local roar:
+' Continued on page 2
Public Utilities Commission discusses water issue
The commissioners and general manager answered several questions from the gallery
By Kate Monk
T -A Reporter
EXETER - The Exeter Public
Utilities Commission faced the mu-
sic from residents and Exeter
Reeve Roy Triebner• at its regular
monthly meeting on Thursday
night. •
The water issue is based on num-
bers from B.M. Ross and As-
sociates indicating Exeter has
enough water to serve a population
*of 5,000 rather than 7,000 people.
Mayor Ben Hoogenboom is a
commissioner as council's repre-
sentative on the PUC. While Tri-
cbner attended the meeting. other
councillors were at a • municipal
meeting to discuss restructuring.
The commissioners fielded sever--
al
ever-al questions surrounding the water
issue and PUC management..
Nabisco has been drawn into the
issue because it switched from river
to domestic water and is a major
water user.
The commissioners agreed the
fact Nabisco is a major water user
is not the issue.
"Nabisco is being bantered
around and it's not fair. They're a
good corporate citizen and they are
an innocent party here." Triebner-
said.
(commissioners defend decisions
Exeter resident Karcn Brown said
the decision to let Nabisco use do-
mestic water was contrary to the in-
tent 01 spending $3 million to ob-
tain • water from the Lake Huron
pipeline. She understood the pipe-
line expansion was to be used for
new residential and commercial de-
velopment.
Chairman Bev Skinner said the
PUC made the decision based on
Nabisco telling the PUC it couldn't
use non -potable water. Customers
had concerns about water staining
on the cans.
General manager Sherman Roth
said both Nabisco and the I'UC
spent an unsuccesslul year trying to
clean up the river water.
Skinner added the PUC was sure
if Nabisco couldn't sell their prod-
ucts, it wouldn't stay in Exeter.
Roth said Nabisco never threatened
to leave Exeter.
Hoogenboom stands behind the
PUC's decision.
"A large employer and taxpayer
had concerns about water. We
made the right decision to provide
water," he said. •
Commissioner Chan Livingstone
said Nabisco was not . asked for a
capital contribution because the
pipeline was already in. place.
"it was a good •husincss decision.
•
Nabisco was going to pay for the
water it used." Skinner explained.
' Trichner and Brown asked if new
"big" users of writer have to pay
capital costs to replace the used wa-
ter capacity.
Livingston explained if there was
enough water the new business
would not have to contribute cap-
ital costs for it huh would have to
pay the costs of getting the main
line to their factory.
"Nabisco is a business within the
town boundaries. Another husincss
in Exeter is using a lot more water
today than before we had lake wa-
ter," Hoogcnhoom said, although
he wou1'1 not reveal the name of the
•
business.
Brown questioned the_ wisdom of
the PUC decision.
"We stand by that decision. You
can question all you want," Hoo-
genhoont replied.
According to, Hughes, major wa-
ter users should have been asked
for a capital contribution.
Roth said the policy of capital
contributions also needs to be. ex-
amined.
"I don't think you can go hack
but you can go forward," he com-
mented.
• Lack of public input
Brown questioned the lack of in -
or Continued on page 2