Loading...
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