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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1998-06-10, Page 1Inside Air show focuses on education See page 3 Exeter ponders river water supply See page 10 Hawks hire Bogart as coach see page 15 SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 • ' Our Kids Club an Ada Adventure 4. Every Week Lucan and Biddulph move to merge by 1999 The two north Middlesex County municipalities have cleared the way to amalgamate by Jan. 1, 1999 By Crldg Bradford T -A Reporter LUCAN - Lucan's and• Biddulph Township's sometimes rocky merger merry-go-round may finally come to happy halt now that hoth'are back to the negotiating table.• Both councils approved resolutions to move .forward • with amalgamation plans at respective meetings last week. The two municipalities have talked about merging since •early 1996 and were ready. to do the deed in • the fall of that year before the impact of the province ending the Farm Tax Rebate ripped Lucan away from the negotiations in May '97. *Lucan's and 13iddulph'.s proposal sat unsigned on the Minister of Municipal Affairs' desk for five months heftirc the Farm Tax Rebate issue reared its head. Recently announced provincial grants for Lucan and Biddulph to help case the pain of downloading have made the Fant 'Tax Rebate headache go away and helped pave the way . for merger talks to resume. Here is the new amalgamation proposal 10 date: . - •Lucan and Biddulph will officially merge on Jan. 1, 1999. •An election in November '98 will 'ace five councillors take office on the. official merger date. Tito current Lucan and Biddulph councils will continue to make decisions on behalf of their taxpayers. as they have been till the Nov. '98. election. •There will be another election in the newly amalgamated Biddulph Township (Lucan will officially he dropped from the new municipality's name)- when all other. Ontario municipalities ara set to hold their next- elections in November 2000. 'The two councils will hold joint meetings, the first tentatively se( for June 30, to wrangle with the fallout of amalgamation including effects to staff and services. A public meeting -will be held to solicit input from taxpayers though no date -has been set. Lucan's and Biddulph's decision to gait alone flies in the face of county facilitator Bill Thomson's recommendation that mergers involve more municipalities to create larger entities. " homson's newest option (received by the county. on May 12) titled 'Option Three' would have Lucan and Bit1dulph• join Parkhill, Ailsa Craig and the .townships of. McGillivray, Fast and West Williams and a .northern chunk of a divided Adelaide Township to make a• municipality with a 11,313 population. That merged municipality would have a total of 10 elected officials with three reps (a reeve/mayor, a deputy reeve/mayor and one other) sitting on a 15 member county council. Other merged municipalities in Option Three include: •North Dorchester and West Nissouri — 11,688 population, five and two councillors respectively plus a reeve and deputy reeve. three county council reps: •The already . merged Middlesex Centre — 12,670 population, five councillors plus a reeve and dep. reeve. three county council reps;. •Strathroy and Caradoc (they are currently. discussing a possible merger) — 17,098 population. six and four councillors respectively plus a reeve and dep: reeve:- four •county council reps: •Ekfrid, East Mosa. Metcalfe. South Adelaide, Newbury/West Mosa, Wardsville and Glencoe — 8.918 population. vital of 10 elected officials, two county council reps. • . •• Option Three paves the way for a county council rep reduction of 10 from the current memhership. a -•number of Continued on page 2 Serving, l: xOc'r ,l,i i , I1 'i -mice J873 SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 Ibis reek on Video Spice World Med students tour Exeter EXETER - Rural hospitals in southwestern Ontario are hosting a unique interactive tour of their Tabs, operating rooms and emer- gency - departments this week in hopes of enticing' UWO medical students to choose rural medicine as a career. , On Monday, 98 first-year under- graduate students from Western's medical school were welcomed in to the front lines of 33 local hos- pitals. Students will shadow doctors at hospitals in Ingersoll. Petrolia, Sar- nia, Woodstock, St. Thomas, Strathroy, Stratford and,Exe'ter. ,Med students Selig Krajden and Goldy Dhatt will spend this week in Exeter. Their schedule includes shadowing all four area doctors, duty 4tt.South Huron's emergehcy department and observing visiting, , specialists. , On Monday, Krajden spent the afternoon with Dr. Linda Steele at her private practice in Exeter. , "It is a chance for them to see first hand 'what we do," said Steele. "It's a wonderful idea." "I was a big city girl from Mon- treal....if it wasn't for a work ex- perience I had in Clinton when i was starting out 1 may not have ended up in this area," said Steele. "They've been talking about doing something like this for 20 years...I'm glad they finally got around to doing it" • Med student Selig.Krajden and Dr. Linda Steele. No parking on Albert Street HENSALL -.Council passed a motion, to no lunger allow.cars to park on Allyn St. at Monday's meeting Council accommodated a "load- ing ,.one only" designation for the stretch of road directly in front of • the side doors for the United Church. - The issue was brought to the at- tention of council by leiter written by Hensall resident Dayle Waring who thought the road was becom- ing unsafe. . '"171e road is not wide enough to accuntmo date parking on both sides of the street plus two way traffic," said Waring's letter. "I think you are in fora lot of flak on that one," said Reeve Cecil Pepper after the motion was passed. Village clerk -treasurer Luanne Pharr told council she will write to tell both the United Church and Waring about the new parking poli- cy on Albert St. Students of the year Sunny Dlnney and Dave Farquhar were named South Huron's students of the year at Friday night's formal. Both students have made important contributions to the school throughout the past five years. Dinney is looking forward to pursuit) a degree in business and coni- merce while Farquhar will attend Conestoga College in business marketing. It's official: Hensall council passes third reading of cat bylaw Councillors unanimously pass controversial bylaw on Monday Ity Katherine Harding TA Reporter-' MENSAI"I. - After years of debate, Hensall coun- cil finally passed the third and final reading of their proposed cat bylaw, The bylaw which will become effective January I, 1999, states that all village cats must now he reg- istered and leashed. Owners of nuisance cats will get a "first offense verbal warning" followed by a written warning, af- ter which the offending cat will he "seized and. im- pounded" until the owner compensates tor damages" or pays a minimum $25 fine plus vet costs. Also, the number of cats per household over the age of 12 %%o•rks will he limited to tour. , ('ounc•1l10i Steve Tt''y Ir presented the notion to proceed.with the .bylaw 's third reading near the cad of Monday night's council meeting. 'Council did not discuss the motion to give the by - Iaw a third reading except for councillor iZod Park er's request that the -vote he recorded. The bylaw then proceeded to pass third reading unanimously. Councillor Greg Dayntan was absent from the meeting. "We've been working on this for a long titre," said Reeve Cecil Pepper alter the vote. "However, like I've said from the beginning - 1 have no idea how we are going to enforce this bylaw." , •"We have five months to educate people about this bylaw and i think the newspapers have already helped educate people on this issue," said village ('Ierk-Treasurer Luanne Pharr. "It also gives council ample time ho notify Hensall residents about it." Exeter and Stephen receive sewage grants , By Kate Monk T -A Reporter • EXETER- - Exeter and aStephen -ratepayers got a big break Iasi week when they 'received, a total of 55:276.615 from the Provincial Water Protection Fund. to improve • their.sewage treatment systems. The grants allow . the two my- nicipalities to pool their resources to Solve. their sewage woes. •The Town of Exeter was awarded • $2,960.891- to upgrade and a tp;ind the Exeter, sewage treatment Plant to address overloading problems at the Exeter facility. • , 'The Township of Stephen will re serve a S2.315.724 grant to connect the overloaded Huron Park Sewage pumping facility to the soon-to-be expanded Exeter sewage treatment plant.. Connecting to •the Exeter fa'- ; • cihty will eliminate any bypassing .of raw sew ag.e to the .:usable River from' the -Huron Park facility., ae-, cording to Huron MPP • Heien' Johns. . - Exeter administrator Rick, Hun- dey said Exeter's lagoons are aper - :ting well but arc at capacity. The eapanston will also allow for addi-„ . ttonal growth. "From a design perspective., we can tit more intoe the system hut. it's . pretty close to the line where we can he overspilling at times and having to ask the Ministry (of the Env ironlnent►'for penntssion to re- lease on occasions the . systems ;wasn't designed tier." Huntley ex- plamcd. The second reason for the project is That the expanded system will produce a "higher. qualify" level of effluent. v The ,,andfilters are the main , compot.' nent thawilJ improve the. water quality 'while the deepening and expansion of the lagoons will' increase the capacity'. Improvements to the aeraaon,sys- tem .ire underway and this will also help improve the effluent quality. The prolect,5v.i11 be done •in pha-- - e -s so that the system .:an be, used while the improvement, occur. 1-4undey said. Thanks to the provincial grant. Exeter will only -have tt"+ contribute S3.3 million to the prdlect. t►altions are underway, with Nabisco to detafmine • the 'company'; .:on- trihution to the capital costs. Stephen Townships provincial- gr;int will he used to.co'dr the costs. of huikiing the, pumping. station and trunk to Exeter (SI a million price tag) as well as contributing to the cost of the expanded facility. Rat- epayers "dollars will also he used but • Stephen administrator • Larry Brown did not indicate the final tal- ly. The anal project cost is 58 mil - hon. This will allow fotan `.Exeter population of 7.400. a 50 per cent discharge increase from Nabisco and the treatment of sewage from Huron Park. Tentless u for the protect will be 'opened in the tall with work, taking, place in t -N9. The work currently underway on the aeration system is required because of (equipment proh'eins Biddulph Twp. says no to Fallon Dr. downloading BIDDItL•.PH T'\ti"P. - Township council said a resounding nay to Mid- dlesex County on it do%%nloading Fallen Drive at last week',p meeting. The road that runs from Mitchell Line to Granton lune. also known as County Rd. 47, is the only direct road that links Lucan to Granton. Biddulph adnunistratur'[.arry Hutson said council and its staff don't feel such an important toads should he handed oser to the lower tier • Reasons council forwarded to the county on• why it doesn't want the re- sponsibility. for Fallon Dr. 'It is it connecting link, •ti would create a "very unsafe" turn for both county and township • snow plows at the corner of Fallon Dr: and Mluchl•II Line: •Motorists'will not have continuity of maintenance from one side of the Mitchell Line to the other: • • fete road supports heavy truck,traftic to and from both Paul Toohey Inc and W.(' Thompson &Sons Ltd. Grant Elevators, the only road front Granton to Mitchell line for such traffic: • • The•county's otter to pay SI64.000 to hang the road -up to standard couft•he up to tour urates less than what will he required. Other notes from the meeting- Saintsbury work awarded London's twland'was given the winning tender of five submitted (none from the Lucan-Biddulph areal for the Sauntshury Line- pavement project with the lo'w hid of S155.663.47. The hid calls for $133,965 worth of asphalt and SI L514.88 in bridge deck waterproofing. The other tenders ranged from S159.015.27 to S198,971.85. , Hutson said the project will pave the over tour kilometres of gravelled- ivad on Satntshury from where the•present asphalt ends to the townline. ' "(:et along 'lit doggie Lucan OPP Sgt. Pat Date attended the meeting to talk about policing is- sues in Lucan including the dog problem at Prospect Hill where a woman • was woman bitten. Dale agreed to provide officers as.backup for the animal control officer it he needs help. Council directed Hotson to get the animal control ot'fiker to hand out fines for dogs not having current tags, to collect'noney for tags and to pickup dogs if they are at large.