Loading...
Times Advocate, 1998-05-27, Page 2Page 2 Regional wrap up Police search for Mistie continues GODERICH - Police have re- turned tc Lake Huron with new sonar equipment they hope will assist them in finding Mistie Murray, reports The Goderich Signal -Star. The 16 -year-old has not been found since disappearing from the Goderich area on May 31, 1995. A search of the lake in 1995, prior to the second-degree mur- der trial of Mistie's adoptive fa- ther Steven Murray, failed to find any remains of the missing teen. Last May, a jury acquitted Ste- ven Murray after a 1 2 -day trial. During the trial; the prosecu- tion alleged Murray took his daughter onto Lake Huron. mur- dered her and dumped the body in the lake; the defence - pro- duced witnesses who testified they had seen Mistie Murray af- ter the date she was alleged to have been killed. Hospitals consider a merger CLINTON - Alexandra Ma- rine and General Hospital in Goderich and Clinton Public Hospital (CPH) announced on May 20 a study will be conduct- ed •to explore the, feasibility, of merging the two hospital corpo- rations, reports the Clinton News -Record. The proposed amalgamation of the hospitals would result in 0. ..1 hospitals, but one board, ad- ministration and medical staff. The executive committees of the hospital boards have been meeting together over the past few weeks to discuss the bene- fits the communities would re- ceive with the merger. . Each board has passed a mo- tion tojointly undertake this fea- sibility study. Exchange to farm in Seaforth area SEAFORTH - Eighteen young people from across Canada and Thailand will be coming to Hu- ron County this summer to farm, reports The Huron Expositor. The youth are coming as part of the Canada -Thailand Youth Exchange Programme offered by Canada World Youth. Seaforth will be the central lo- cation for the program although young people will be hosted on lams across the area. Area farmers have been asked to welcome the youths into their homes. The group arrives in Huron County on July 21 and they will be here until October 15 when they will leave for a similar ex- change in Thailand. Wingham attempts to attract physicians WINGHAM - Wingham is fol- lowing the lead of other Ontario small towns like Drayton who are offering cash incentives to attract physicians, reports the Advance -Times. A fundraising sub -committee of the local physician recruiting committee has been formed with the lofty goals of raising $70,000 in the next year to at- tract two physicians to Wing - ham. Lucan putting bite .into existing dog bylaw Council has opted to stringently enforce a bylaw rather than ban dog breeds by Craig Bradford T -A Reporter LUCAN - Rottweiler and pitbull owners in Lucan can breathe a sigh of relief but dog owners had better keep a firm leash on their beloved pets or be willing to pay the con- sequences. That's the skinny from the village council meeting last week after councillors decided to direct bylaw enforcement officer Howard Currie to ticket the owners of at large dogs. Councillors. looked at adopting a graduated dog licencing bylaw sim- ilar to the Township of •Colhorne's that would hike licence fees for breeds like Rottweilers and Pit- hulls, breeds that are considered by some to have the potential to be vi- cious. . Lucan's current dog licencing/ regulating bylaw that includes a $15 fee to register one. dog and $20 for a second dog remains intact. There is a two dog maximum with- in the village. But those dog owners who often lose control of their pets beware. Currie has been directed by council to ticket first and. ask questions lat- er when it comes to at large dogs. The fine is$40. During discussion, Reeve Robert Benner suggested Nanning Rott- weilers outright rather than going to graduated licencing. Deputy Reeve Harry Wraith was in favor of staying with the existing bylaw but strengthen enforcement. Councillor. Glenn Silver said he'd like to see changes to the current bylaw to deal with vicious dogs. Councillor Reg Crawford said there should be tougher enforcement for Targe dogs that get loose. • Discussion about strengthening the dog bylaw was sparked by a re- cent number of complaints about large dogs either at large or ap- proaching and scaring children and their parents. Up against Mitchell Lucan's Community In Bloom campaign to beautify the village (pop. 1,950) will be up against Mitchell (pop. 3,675), Cardinal (pop. 1.580) and the Township of Schreiber (pop. 1,626) in category 2 (pop. 1,501-5,000) of the com- petition. Judges Ted Blowes and Russ Boles will be in Lucan on Aug. 4. Lucanites will find out how they fared on Sept. 17-18 during the awards ceremony, part of the On- tario Parks Association annual con- ference. Councillor Perry Caskanette's re- , cent perennial exchange in Elm St. park was dubbed a, success with about a dozen people exchanging flowers. Caskanette said enough flowers were brought to plant the beds in both Elm St. park and Mar- ket St. park. Caskanette gave a spe- cial thanks for the Lucan Scouts Johns introduces resolution Aims to assist doctors in underserviced areas TORONTO - Huron MPP Helen Johns introduced a resolution in parliament Thursday that would as- sist Ontario trained doctors who are prepared to move to underserviced areas. The resolution is targeted at ad- dressing the medical servicing of Ontarians who live in northern and rural communities. The resolution asks the Ministry of Education and Training along with the Ministry, of Health to im- plement the following: • partial rebates.of tuition fees for Ontalio trained doctors who pro- vide physician services in under - serviced area; • provide continual training and education; • augment 'the telemedicine Cen- tres so rural and northern phy- sicians are connected to' other phy- • sicians both in Ontario and internationally. While Johns admits that "quite a bit of homework has to be done" before the. resolution reaches the bill process, she is hopeful that both the premier and the two ef- fected ministries move quickly on the resolution. "We need more help in attracting doctors to underserviced ar- eas...currently there are 75 under - serviced areas in Ontario." said • Johns. To be deemed an "under - Proposal upsets Bosanquet or Continued from front page proceed further. Usborne, Stephen, Exeter and Grand Bend will each send reps to meet with • the Grassroots for . a Greater Grand Bend tonight (Wednesday) to gain a better under- standing of what the group wants. Bosanquet's letters came close on the heels of the May 12 letter the heads of the Exeter, Usborne, Ste- phen and Grand Bend councils sent to Al Leach, the Minister of'Mu- nicipal Affairs and . Housing an- nouncing their plans to resume amalgamation discussions. "Our goal is to establish a re- structured municipality uniting south Huron and north Lambton based on our community of inter- est," the letter stated. The letter also includes a state- ment that MMAH 'officals have said county boundaries should not be viewed as an obstacle to re- structuring. Have t news lip? tiONWAthrOttskt serviced," an area has to submit an application to the Ministry of Health. Johns explained the application is then processed through a set of - complex formulas including cal- .culating the area's demographics and geography in order to gain ap- proval. In Huron Country. Wingham has recently been deemed under - serviced by the Ministry of Health. Clinton is currently working on an application that will deem it un- derserviced. South Huron Hospital CEO Don Currell confirmed that the hospital has already completed and sub- mitted an application for the area. However, Carrell does not know when the ,hospital will receive the results back from the ministry. who did most of the digging at the parks. Here are details on the Lucan Communities In Bloom home- owner/business contest: there will he .five .categories of competition — best new bed, best existing bed, best vegetable garden, best overall property and best business floral display/box; a garden tour will be incorporated into the contest judg- ing; gardens should be created by the homeowner/businessperson, not a professional landscaper. Council hopes area businesses and service clubs will donate prizes for the contest. Council also hopes interested gar-. deners will revive the Lucan Hor- ticultural Society. Members would help design, build and maintain Lu - can flower beds including ones at the village entrance/exit signs. Call the village office at 227- 4253 for more information. A hreak for the Legion? 'The province's proposed Small Business and Charities Protection Act may let council give the Lucan Legion a tax break. The new act would force mu- nicipalities to cap tax increases to charities at 2.5 per cent or give the charities an at least 40 per cent re- bate of taxes paid. Right now. charities that own land are taxed the same as any oth- er land owner. The proposed leg- islation has recently passed first reading at.Queen's Park. Graceful voice Like an angel. Exeter's Wilma Tuck delivers her rendition of Amazing Grace at the Emmanuel Television Ministry (ETM) Talent Search and Pork Barbecue at MacNaughton Park on. Saturday. Organizers said they hope to make. the evening of entertainment and inspiration into an annual event. Lucan Heritage gets okay for log cabin Lucan Area Heritage was given the go ahead by village council -to proceed with its log cabin project at the former water tower. site LUCAN - Lucan Area Heritage have been granted Though it wasn't a recorded vote. Deputy Reeve . . their wish to bring a circa 1870s log cabin to the vil- . Harry Wraith abstained from voting while the rest lage with council's blessing. of council approved the lease agreement. Council approved two motions at last week's Heritage president Mike :Anderson said ;the log meeting so the project can proceed. First. council whin project is "integral" to increased cconumic ac - agreed to collect donations for the project till Her- tivity in the community. Heritage's goal is to have itage is granted charitable status. Reeve Robert Ben- the cabin in Operation by its rnafor annual festival. ner reminded the Heritage members present that the Lucan Heritage Days set for Aug. 15- In. Proposed village cannot give out charitable receipts to donors attractions at the cabin include historical re - on behalf of Heritage but that donors should keep enactments. social teas and other events. the village receipts of money received which. can be Heritage has raised SI, I.000 so Mr to complete the used for tax deductible purposes. project and needs to raise S9-.001) inure to pav for The second motion passed by council paves the moving the cabin to Lucan and fly foundation work. • way for the negotiation of a long-term lease of the The group has already bought the S-2t).Ut10 cabin. • former water tower site to Heritage that fronts onto from a -Port Elgirrlumher business. Frank St. Though details of the deal were to he Anderson said Heritage's former proposal to lo - drawn up by the village solicitor and were not cac a permanent museum building' on the site has known at press. a likely lease would have Heritage been -dropped since there won't be enough land for pay the village $1 per year for the land. another building. Lucan keeps the farm and current sewer rate...for now Village council couldn't decide on how much to decrease the sewer surcharge and have shelved the proposed sale of the $215,000 farm next to the sewage plant By Craig Bradford T -A Reporter LUCAN - While he hasn't con- vinced the rest of council that sell- ing The farm is a bad move, Lucan Deputy Reeve Harry Wraith did manage to talk his fellow coun- cillors to keep the farm for the time being. Wraith asked for (and got) a half hour at last week's council meeting to try'and convince his colleagues that selling the 66 -acre farm locat- ed next to the sewage treatment plant was folly. Some councillors wanted to • sell the farm, listed at about 5215,000. and use the money as a sewer re- serve to do capital projects when needed. There was alsc•.discussion at recent meetings of transferring some of the money into the water budget if.the Municipal Act al- lowed the ove. Council also discussed de- creasing the sewer surcharge. Lu - can sewer system users are current- ly paying 180 Per cent of the water rate for sewage treatment service. Before voting to defer the matter to a future meeting, three other motions were defeated when no one would step forward to sec- ond them. Wraith tabled the first mo- tion to keep the farm and reduce the sewer surcharge to 170 per cent. Councillor Perry Caskanette brought forward the second motion to reduce the rate to 140 per cent, keep the farm for a year and review the rate and the farm sale issue next year. Councillor Reg Crawford's motion to keep the farm and reduce the rate to 160 per cent was also de- feated. Here are, in brief, Wraith's rea- son' for keeping the farm: •- e village receives 512,948 a year by leasing the land out to farmers. Since the village paid only 20 per cent of the original about $170,000 price tag of the farm and the sewage plant site (the rest came from provincial/federal grants), keeping the farm and collecting rent has and will continue to bring a great return on the village's in- vestment. •Possessing the farm has helped Lucan get capital project grant money from the province/federal government. •The village may need the land in the future to dispose of sludge from the sewage plant. If the village is forced to develop a nutrient man- agement bylaw to deal with both the sewage sludge and farmers who spread manure on their fields, such a bylaw may state waste producers may dispose of the waste only on their own land. Lucan currently has an agreement with farmers in the area to spread the plant's sludge. "It would be a drastic mistake to sell the farm for short term gain," Wraith summed up, adding he feels Lucan's current sewage rates are competitive with any other similar municipality with similar sewage services. "It would be a drastic mistake to sell the farm for short term gain." Reeve Robert Benner, who orig- inally pushed selling the farm, said he wouldn't mind hold- ing onto the land as long as it shows up in the budget as an asset 'and is of- ficially considered a reserve. He said how the farm is handled in the budget skews council's decisions when it comes to how much they set aside for reserves each year. He also questioned why Lucan's sewer surcharge has to remain so high. "I wouldn't have a problem own- ing the farm if the sewer users didn't have to pay twice," he said. Benner pointed out families are often the victims of high sewer sur- charges since young children sel- A dom use as much water as older people. "The way we charge the sewer rate is a tax on families." he said. He also said a lot of water used never makes it 10 the sewer system. especially in the summer with - backyard pools and garden/lawn • watering. Caskanette questioned why the village needs to keep real estate. pointing out if a. mu- nicipal building wasn't being used it would almost certain- ly he sold. He also said selling the farm would bring sewer users tax relief. "We've been dipping Into peo- ple's wallets too much in the past few years." he said. Crawford 'said • the revenue the farm generates in rent is too touch for the village to give up. He said the concern about the faun's status with a merger with Biddulph Township could be taken care of with an agreement -with Biddulph council that all proceeds from a fu- ture sale of the farm go towards projects in Lucan. Benner argued that if. Lucan was truly run like a business, the de- cision to sell the farm would be an easy one. "It's a daring move but it's log- ical," he said. "if we were running a business what would we dor Administrator Ron Reymer sug- gested reducing the sewer sur- charge to perhaps 120 per cent in the summer and putting it buck ata higher level over the winter when almost all water used ends up in the sewer system. Reymer compared the summer rate reduction to "sales" businesses have during their off seasons. Reymer added the difference in the projected sewer budget num- bers in the next few years between selling the farm and noting it out aren't far apart. "lite land 'next to the sewage plant was bought when the sewage plant was built in case the village had to dig sewage lagoons along with the plant. 'rite plant's capacity has proven more than adequate for the village and the surrounding town- ship residents that arc and will hook into the system so the land is not needed .tor sewage purposes. In other public works related news. council has asked public works super- intendent Doug Johnston to conte up wnli :t solution land the cost) to • the standing water problem in the Wil- hertorce subdivision. those who took .advantage of the village. infiltration/sump pump in- stallation grant program are in- advertently causing a potentially dangerous situation for pedestrians in the late tall and early spring. Wa- ter pumped from basements pools on .sidewalks and driveways during the frcere/thaw periods of the year.. a situation that has caused some people to slip and fall. One solution iii the problem is for the village to install storm sewer headers along the_slrcets to collect the water and divert it to catch ba- sins. Headers could he coming for the east side of Klcintcldt Ave. and the south side of Harold Ct., but council first wants to hear how much the project would cost. Johnston will research the extent and cost of the project and report back to council at future meeting. Deputy Reeve Harry Wraith is opposed to the village picking up the costs fur the headers. He feels it's unfair for the entire tax Kase to pick up the cost of the headers and said those in the neighborhood should pay for the project. "We just can't give and give and give," Wraith said. "We've been dipping into people's wallets too much in the past few years." i1 A