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Times Advocate, 1999-08-18, Page 4Exeter Times -Advocate Wednesday, August 18, 1999 Building values Exeter Christian Reformed Church teacher Marian DeBoer, left, lets Bryan Schmidt and Kristen Bakelaar, both 6, try on a tool belt for size after a Bible fes son during last week's Vacation Bible School. Over 200 young people aged 5=.12 participated in the `Veggie Town Values '99' school for two hours during each weekday morning last week.The children were split into groups and visited sites in the church's classrooms like this construction site to hear a Bible lest. other sites included a general store, a park, a school and home.The children also sang songs, said prayers and made crafts. uture of old river bed disc.Lse t s. t1 ' w _ :?.. 'j s ±f t. *..3"i" � '�`. �- =+�7 •+[ f - 4006* ',444444,4; !. '; - ByKatherine' Harm, o', -' "Kids in the comm havegrown u S � F - TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF GRAND BEND -- After hearing public input about the village's "old river bed," council has decided to proceed .'width its original restoration plans. Only a handful of village residents attended the meeting on Monday night. Tom Prout, a representative from the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority (ABCA), was also on hand. The public meeting was deemed mandatory by the ABCA after the village submitted an application to level a spoil bank on the west side of the river and blend it into the present bank. They need a permit from the ABCA before they can proceed with any work. The small body of water, located between River- and Lake roads, is a popu- lar natural skating rink in the winter Village clerk Paul Turnball began the meeting with a small presentation about the river bed which has been experienc- ing chronic dryness and the courses of action needed to fix it. He recommended the village proceed with their plan to level the west side's spoil bank: The residents in attendance however had their own ideas. One citizen told council he wanted the. river bed filled and made into par Mayor Cam Ivey told the audience that yidea is extremely unlikely because the land is deemed to be parkland. using it for skating and hockey. Changing it like that would be pretty dramatic," said Ivey. Other residents like Andrea Ross and Marilyn Sullivan asked council to consid- er digging the spoil bank . and trucking the dirt out. Laurie Mannell told council he just wants the river bed "left alone." • "The damage has already been done and* you can't nail nature back -together again," he said. "You are just going to do more damage:" Mannell also questioned council about their motives for fixing the ailing river bed. "Let's be honest. If people were con- cerned about this, this place would be packed to the rafters." Prout told the crowd the river bed holds "local significance" for many village resi- dents and work authorized by the village this past fall has helped to "improve the ecosystem" in the area. He also suggested the village consider pushing the east bank back and digging small two -foot pools. He recommended the work be done at a time of the year when seeding future veg- etation would be optimal. Council finally passed a recommenda- tion they proceed with work on both the river bed's west and east banks. They will vote on the recommendation at their next council meeting on Aug. 23. ExeterWinghain councils talk trash at meeting By Craig Bradford mmsADVOCATE STAFF EXETER -- Exeter and Wingham may have been discussing garbage at Exeter Town Hall Monday night but none of it was trash talk. Several Wingham officials, including a few councillors, staff and a consulting engineer, made the trip to Exeter to start official discussions on Wingham shipping its garbage to Exeter's land- fill. County engineering consultant Steve Janes said the purpose of the meeting was to introduce the two councils to each other and to bring them up to date on progress made on the potential garbage agreement made so far. Wingham is looking at sending its waste south to Exeter since the Ministry of Environment has not approved an extension to the life of Wingham's land- fill site in East Wawanosh Township although it has two to three years capacity left. Wingham's landfill cer- tificate of approval runs out at the end of this year.:` Exeter is Looking for more customers for its landfill to increase revenue there. Increasing costs and a reduction in revenue has decreased the committee to work out the deal details along with municipal staff, engineers and consultants. Maitland Engineering Services con- sulting engineer Art Clark, Wingham's engineer, said he is still working out how much tonnage Wingham would be sending down Hwy. 4 to Exeter. He said he will have a better Idea on ton- nage in a couple of weeks. Clark said Wingham's dump was going to close as early as 1986, but the town has been granted five extensions to keep it open. The province dictated Huron County was to devise a county -wide long term waste plan which it took some time to come up with. Wingham may apply to the province for an emergency dump "We've done operation extension so Exeter can come up with everything but send its operational landfill plan. garbage home with Exeter Mayor Ben councillors in their Hoogenboom feels much cups. CONSULTI progress has been made towards working out a -- WINGHAM trash treaty between NG ENGINEER Wingham and Exeter. ART CLARK "The fact that you're here r ° - and we're here sends a landfill's efficiency. The Exeter dump. has the capacity to accept other munic- ipal garbage while seeing to its own needs for many years. Janes said Exeter must do a design and operation report on its landfill in relation to accepting neighbouring municipal waste. To accept waste from non -neighbour- ing centres like Wingham, the province usually forces landfill owners to pay for a costly environmental assessment of its landfill under the Environmental Protection Act to accept waste from such municipalities. Exeter can bypass the environmental assessment; step and allow its landfill to change its service area by entering into a contract with Huron County and Wingham to accept Wingham's garbage, Janes said. "I think the proposition is in Wingham's favour and in Exeter's favour," Janes said. He added Exeter would get more trash :volume and Wingham gets a cheaper export price than shipping its waste elsewhere like the St Thomas area's Green Lane, a large Landfill operator who is - trying to work out a deal to accept Toronto's garbage. Janes said Toronto could easily take up all of Green Lane's yearly capacity or at least make it costly for Wingham to send its garbage there. Janes suggested eaeh council appoint two or three councillors to sit on a good message," he said. Exeter Reeve Roy Triebner, the tows representative on county coun- cil, said the county would likely be quick to approve Wingham-Exeter garbage deal. Janes agreed, adding Exeter has done much of the background work to an operational landfill plan. Clark underlined the importance of Wingham coming up with "an immedi- ate solution" to its waste problem. "We've done everything but send garbage home with councillors in their cups," he quipped. .s A The potential Wingham-Exeter waste deal will be long-term, likely over five or 10 years. The affects on the waste deal dueto proposed municipal mergers in the Exeter .and Wingham areas was • brought up. Exeter has sent its merger proposal with Stephen and Usborrie townships to the county and Wingham is well on its way to merging with Blyth and Hullett and East Wawanosh town- ships. n . r ,- - Clark answered that Exeter's landfill would only receive waste from the Wingham ward of the proposed new municipality. The other townships involved in the Wingham area merger have their own landfill solutions. Wingham council is expected to dis- cuss its. waste bound for Exeter propos- al at tonight's (Aug. 18) regular council meeting and it will likely appoint repre- sentatives to the joint Wingham-Exeter committee that will work on the waste transport deal. New town development charges bylaw ready for public By Craig Bradford TAMES -ADVOCATE STAFF EXETER -- Developers •can expect to pay less to the town to get their projects approved, but not as little as they thought last week. Exeter's new development charges bylaw and back- ground study were unveiled at Exeter council Monday night and are ready for public viewing at the town orrice ttll a public meeting on Aug. 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the council chambers. Council is expected to approve the development charges bylaw after the meeting. Last week the Times -Advocate reported the new development fees would be: $1,000 for a new single detached home (was $1,500 under the old bylaw); $625 for a multi -residence dwelling ($1,100-$1,500); $3.25 per squire metre for commercial and institu- tional buildings. B.M. Ross consulting engineer Steve Burns has since re -worked the figures for the final draft of the bylaw and came up with newer, higher development charges. The new home, semi-detached and town- house charge will be $1,302, the mobile home and two -three bedroom apartment charge $1,141, the multi -unit building charge $977 and the commercial/industrial charge $4.11 per square metre. Exeter needs a new development charges bylaw since Its current bylaw expires at theiend of the month. Municipalities must have a development charges bylaw if they hope to recoup any monies from developers building there. A study is required by provincial legislation. The bylaw takes into account many future develop- ment components . including water and sewer services and other infrastructure concerns. Other notes from the meeting: New fire truck The Exeter and Area Fire Board approved the pur- chase of a new $310,048 (plus taxes) fire truck from Bramnpton's Dependable Emergency Vehicles. The truck will arrive next year. The purchase is part of the fire board's long range capital budget. We're building Four building permits were issued in July totalling $455,300. Notable projects included a $90,000 addi- tion to Jim Scott Enterprises at 137 Thames Rd. E. (warehousing space) and a $350,000 multi -unit build- ing in Shadow Lane. $7,000 more Council approved spending $7,000 more than expected for its share of Morrison Dam preventative maintenance work. The Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority reported the lowest tender for the work came from London's Alscot and Associates at $136,391.83. Exeter's share is 40 per cent of the $100,100 in substructure work on the dam, or $40,040. The province has granted 50 per cent of the project cost and the ARCA will pick up the last 10 per cent.