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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1998-06-17, Page 1SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 P'tuaa Perfet:Ho n Try one Today! Serving Exeter and :area since 1873 SEIP'S valu-mart. Exeter 235-" Del. Hot Foods To 'o Inside McCurdy students dedicate garden see page 9 Home and Garden Tour preview See Crossroads Second front Beach V -Ball • back in the `Bend See page 14 1 Hensa!i Fair wrap up See page 18 & 19' Grand Bend beach bash GRAND BEND -The Village of Grand Bend officially celebrates the return of the beach with a ribbon cutting ceremony set for 11 a.m. Thursday. Council members will be on hand to take part in the ceremony along with various other well-known local celebrities who will be dunk tank victims as part of a community fundraiser for the promotion of Grand Bend. Two confirmed targets are Dave Scatcherd and Jon Musger. The dunk tank runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 to 8 p.m. Ownership of the beach was part of a lengthy court battle between. Archie Gibbs and the Village. After years of negotiation the dispute was settled with the return of the beach tb the Village. Tax rates won't be known till August GRAND BEND - Mayor Cam Ivey informed council on Mon- day that the town just received their much delayed provincial funding numbers. "That means it will be until the middle of August before we will be able to.finalize lax rates," said Ivey. "That is really late." Exeter water issue no clearer to council Council is considering whether a river water feasibility study should be done By Kate Monk T -A Reporter EXE'T'ER - Anyone who thought Exeter's water issue would' be put to rest following the news Exeter has enough water for at least another 10 years was wrong. Last Monday's committee of the whole meeting was ded- icated to the water supply report and it looks like it will be a regular item .on council's agenda for the foreseeable fu- ture. At Monday's council meeting, administrator Rick Hun- dey delivered answers from engineer Steve Burns to some of council's questions. At this time, council is discussing whether to do a study to investigate the feasibility of re- instatingthe river water supply. The following are 'highlights of the latest . information - from Burns. Under the Ontario Water Resources Act; the Town of Ex-. eter or the PUC cannot alter the river water system without a Ministry of the Environment Certificate .of Approval re- view process. Steve Burns of B.M. Ross and Associates said there's a remote chance the water quality could be improved suf- ficiently to Nabisco's standards without having to change the system. • • . .. The $650,000 estimate for the upgrade • was based . on Burns' solid expectations. Burns believes the water quality can be made acceptable for that amount of money but a $25,000 study would reveal if this is'true. Burns anticipates he can reduce the costs of reinstating the river water supply to Tess' than $650,000. The expansion of the town's sewage system has been en- gineered with the assumption the river water would be used by Nabisco. There is the option of determining the financial options. and implicat,ions of reinstating, the river water prior to do- ing the $25,000 technical study. According to Hundey,'Nabisco'is willing to consider us- ing the industrial water from the river if the water quality issue is resolved. Hundey said the decision to reinstate the river water has to be made now for four reasons. 1. The Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority needs . an answer now because it has another potential customer of the water. 2. Requirements for obtaining a permit to take water from the river at this stage would be fairly straight forward. It could get more complicated if other users start taking water from the river before Exeter does. 3..The longer Nabisco uses the domestic water supply. the more hesitant the company will be to return to industrial -river water. Nabisco may even refuse to return to river wa- ter if it is postponed long enough. 4. Thewater system equipment will deteriorate overtime even if it is not used, making it more expensive to get op- erational: or Continued on page 2 Usborne Central has fun A fun night. Top photo: Usborne Central Gr. 8 student Jor- dan Gardiner gets wet in the dunk tank during the school's Fun Night carnival fundraiser on Friday. Bottom photo: Meg - ,an Pavkeje, left, Jace Dougall and EvelYn Johns show off ' some of the Jazzy Jars students,,made for Fun Night' The event raised money for the school playground and book pur- chasing for the library. Granton Lions tired of park damage By Craig Bradford T -A Reporter GRANTON - The Granton Lions Club wants to know how to keep its park and pavilion from getting damaged by vandals. Within the last two years a plethora of damaging in- cidents have happened at the park. The list of the dam- age is almost unbelievable: equipment booth broken, into; basketball hoop broken several times; the tennis net destroyed; the teeter-totter brok- en; shingles pulled off of the storage shed; scats hrokcn on swings; meet- ing hall steel door destroyed; pa- vilion fascia and eavestrough ripped off; picnic tables destroyed; pavilion curtains burn attempt; broken glass almost always litters the pavilion floor; so many light hulks are broken the Lions Club must buy them by the case and replace thcm weekly; pavilion steel awnings kicked out; five small trees de- stroyed, ball diamond team benches hrokcn; drinking fountains destroyed three times; hall window broken. Club treasurer and Biddulph Township councillor "They realize it own (G area) kids• the dam Doug Anderson said more than $2,000 damage has been caused by vandals'in the park. He said it may be `difficult for residents to believe, but the vandalism isn't being done by outsiders. ' "They don't realize it's our own (Granton area) kids doing the damage," Anderson said. Club secretary Bob Pincombe said the club is looking for the public's help in trying to stop the damage. He said the club works to improve the community but constantly repairing the.damage done to the park and pavilion puts a "tremendous strain" on the club's resources. Pincombe said • the OPP caught and charged a couple of teens vandalizing in the park earlier this year but the damage con- tinues. Anderson wants Granton residants be- conie more involved. "I would like to see more vigilance by the whole community," he said. hat would help us out a lot." Anyone seeing vandalism in the park should call the OPP at l -888-310- 1122. I'incombc also asks anyone with ideas on how to stop the damage to contact a Li- ons Club member. don't 's our (Gr doing age." Exeter teen helps foil break-in Steve Rosenberg stumbled onto a break-in in progress at his home and helped the OPP nab the suspects By Craig Bradford T -A Reporter EXETER When Steve 'Ra- senberg went (or a 5og, Friday, 'night ' he didn't know his:evening was go- ingitq get a lot more exciting: - Rasenberg, 16, was home alone ', Friday night with the rest of his family out for dinner. He left his .home at , the corner of Usborne ,Twp. Conc.' 3 and ,Huron St. W. at abbut 8:15 p.m. Friday for a jog. 'Upon. running' up to the house at the end of his run, Rasenberg no- ticed a van ,parked in his home's' garage. He said he didn't think any- thing was amiss since the van was similar to his mom's. But when he got a little closer, he heard someone yell "Let's get the hell but of here" and saw a young woman behind the wheel of the van and a young man in the passenger seat.' Then he noticed his hockey bag .inside the van's open side sliding door and it .finally clicked that his -family was getting robbed. - Rasenberg said he ran up to the open sliding door and tried to grab the .male in the passenger seat. He couldn't get 'a. hold on the youth and the 'van then sped _off, tearing off the passenger side mirror in the process. ' .. When .Rasenberg went into the house to call the OPP, he ran .into a girl holding the speakers to his stereo in her hands. He asked her angrily who she was, to Which she answered "no- body.". Rasenberg said he calmed down and asked more politely who she was. He said he then pushed the girl who dropped the speakers and ran out of the house. He then made his -call to the OPP and provided them with de- scriptions of Ate three suspects and a full description including. the li- cence number of the van. He then called his buddy Ryan Sullivan. Sullivan and • his mom. Ann, rushed over so Ann could get Rasenberg's story down in writing to help the OPP with ,its in- vestigation. ' London OPP Const. "If it hadn't Donna Shulist said .Ra - been for him we wouldn't have caught them." senberg's • description was key in ap- prehending the. sus- pects. An OPP officer spot- ' ted a van matching Ra- senberg's description southbound on Hwy. 23 a short time later. The officer dhased the van in a high speed pursuit that ended when the pair in the. van abandoned the vehicle - at Wonderland 4Rd. • and took off on foot. ir Continued on page 2 Residents seek money from council GRAND BEND - Village resident Ron Dann .ap- proached council at Monday's meeting asking for financial assistance. , • Friday night's storm caused a 100 -ft. tree to fall do Dann's and his neighbor Bob Taylor's property.. Dann has been given an estimate that to clean up the fallen tree it could cost 53.000. Both home owners insurance policies do not cov- er wind damage if it does not destroy a structure. Dann told council he was told by the P.U.C. that "the town Would pay. for it." "We've never given this type of compensation be- fore," said councillor Shirley An- draza. "[ simply de not have the money so I don't know how it will get cleaned up." explained Dann. Councillors discussed the possibil- ity of paying for the tree• to be cleaned up and then billing the ex- pense to both residences taxes for the 1999 fiscal year. Aridraza. was concerned however that by doing that council could be "opening up a whole new can of. worms." "It boils down to the scenario that you might find it advantageous to find funds somewhere else." said Mayor Cam Ivey. "This is not something coun- cillors want to get into because it is beyond our scope. You have to remember that we have a fi- duciary responsibility to our taxpayers first." "Let's be up front about this... Why should coun- cit enter into something that is the private owners responsibility?" asked councillor Bob Mann. "As- sessing. it back onto your totes is probably not the best way to go." "I think you have a misconception that the mu-. nicipality will go into a private property to cover' costs," said Ivey. "This is not the best place to bor- row money. At best we are the lender of the last re- sort." Dann left council telling them he would pursue other avenues to obtain money to pay for the clean- .up including contacting M.P.P. Marcel Beaubien. Another call for compensation Earlier in the night, council• dealt with another Grand Bend resident who wrote council asking for compensation. Mark Davidson claimed that portions of his cot- tage was flooded and some contents damaged after the water was turned on by the P.U.C. "I believe that it is the responsibility of the Vil- lage of Grand Bend to assume the cost of this spill. I will pay, for the minimum as re- quired; but the extra did not result from an error on my part." wrote Davidson in his letter. "After a ser- vice is reconnected. I would hope that your employees are trained to check to make certain th'at all is well especially if the home owner is absent." Davidson had originally re- quested that the water be re - his cottage on May 1. During a visit to the cottage on May 2 he realized the water had not been turned on and he made a phone call to the P.U.C. to remind them to reconnect the water. On May 4 he returned to his cottage to find "the water running full blast." Davidson requested to be compensated for the majority of the 5147.19 utilities bill he incurred be- cause of the incident. "Doesn't the owner • have any responsibility re- garding the supply valve?" questioned councillor Bob Mann. "Our obligation stops at the property line," said , Mayor Cam Ivey. Council unanimously passed a motion to dismiss Davidson's request for compensation. "I feel sorry for what happened to these people but they must be responsible on their part as well," said councillor Mann. "You have to remember that we have a fiduciary responsibility to our taxpayers first." -Mayor Cam Ivey connected to Out Prices Slashed EXETER ColorYoirWorid the ' Choice. Your Choice. The Ileal Choice. 451 Main St. Exeter 235-2340 No G.S.T. No P.S.T. until Jule 1 '98