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Times Advocate, 1999-10-06, Page 44 Exa.7knes.Aer«ae. Wednesday, October 6, 1999 In the News Lucan Biddulph Council supports charging inspection fees to property owners By Scott Nixon TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF LUCAN BIDDULPH — Council is in support of a motion that would see any costs for inspection fees on a property be sent back to the property owner. Council's investigation into the matter stems from a provincial investi- gation on a home owned in Granton by Gilles Rancour? In the incident, the renter of the home made a complaint about water service which, upon inspection, was unfounded. As a result the province charged the township $500 for the inspection fee because the township has no property standards bylaw which would have put the prop- erty owner on the hook for such inspections. At Monday's meeting, council discussed a bylaw from the Township of Ramara which sees inspection fees charged to the owner of the property. Coun. Harry Wraith said he supports adopting a bylaw for Lucan Biddulph. He say ve got taken" for $5e • the inspection o, court's property and u taxpay- ers shouldn't have to pay for inspections on proper- ties. Coun. Paul Wallis agreed Lucan Biddulph should have a bylaw 'simi- lar to Ramara's. Coun. George Marr said he is against the township adopting a bylaw on the issue because it could lead to "vindictive" ten- ants requesting unneces- sary inspections on homes just to "take a wild crack" at the landowner. Coun. Doug Anderson, though, said paying for inspection fees could sim- ply be the cost of doing business for landowners who rent out their prop- erty. While council voted to support the Ramara bylaw, Marr voted against it. Township administrator Ron Reymer said a bylaw specific for Lucan Biddulph will have to be drawn up and considered before council. Council wants an answer While council agreed in the summer to allow the Ausable Centre to lease the former Village of Lucan municipal office for $1 per year for five years, it is still waiting for an answer from the Ausable Centre. But according to coun- cil's comments on Monday, the centre is running out of time to decide. Council decided it wants an answer by the next council meeting on Oct. 19 from the Ausable Centre on whether or not it wants to lease the building. Deputy -Reeve Bob Benner said council has been more than generous to the Ausable Centre so far and needs a final deci- sion. As part of the lease pro- posal, the Ausable Centre would have to pay for any renovations to the former village office during its five-year stay. No decision on Airport Drive Council still isn't clear as to whether or not it is on the hook to maintain a 1,000 foot portion of Airport Drive as request- ed by property owner Fred Lewis. As reported in last week's T -A, Lewis wants Lucan Biddulph to main- tain the road so he can build and operate two new buildings on his farmland on Airport Drive. While some mem- bers of council said they thought the road was unopened, and therefore • not the municipality's responsibility, Lewis dis- agreed. Reymer reported that ,lawyer Wayne Lewis said the middle portion of the road is indeed. not opened and therefore council is not on the hook for it. He estimated upgrading the road to acceptable stan- dards would cost $30,000. Benner said if the road is indeed not open to the public, the municipality should not pay for it, the developer should. And if Lewis does build the road, Benner said it will have to be done to township stan- dards. Wraith suggested that if Lewis is willing to pay to build the road, the town- ship could then agree to maintain it. Council hasn't made a final decision on the issue. Benner wants more lights Benner repeated to `Severe hazards' at some school playgrounds By Stew Slater SPECIAL TO THE TIMES -ADVO- CATE SEAFORTH - Fifteen playground units within the Avon Maitland District School Board were deemed to have "severe hazards and require immediate atten- tion" during the 1998/99 school year, according to a report from the board's environmental health and safety officer. Superintendent of busi- ness Janet Baird - Jackson, who addressed questions about the report at the board meeting on Sept. 28, assured trustees no playground equipment will remain in use if it can't meet the standards set by the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). But pressed by ques- tioning from trustee Abby Armstrong, Baird - Jackson also admitted the equipment will be removed, which costs much less than having it repaired to meet requirements. "I ask the question about retro -fitting because some play- grounds have been hit really hard," Armstrong said. "As in, they've lost almost all of their equip- ment." In an interview follow- ing the meeting, Baird - Jackson explained more stringent CSA regula- tions recently came into effect, affecting play- ground equipment across the board. But much of that equipment is also aging and has endured considerable wear and tear (and in some cases, as noted by trustee Donald Brillinger, it has endured vandalism). In addition to the 15 units with "severe haz- ards," the report, pre- pared annually by envi- ronmental health and safety officer Jamie Gibbings, cites 273 units which "require repairs and/or retrofit to com- ply," while only seven meet CSA standards. "We have a report that thick covering our play- Lucan Biddulph gets three blooms in competition LUCAN BIDDULPH — Lucan Biddulph is a "three bloom" communi- ty. The municipality was awarded three out of a possible four blooms in the recent Communities in Bloom competition. Results were announced in Stratford on Sept. 25. Lucan Biddulph received 766 points out of a possible 1,000, slightly lower than last year's results, but Coun. Perry Caskanette said he is happy. He said Lucan Biddulph began its work on Communities in Bloom late this year and said with more effort next year, the maximum four blooms can be reached. Communities were scored on: tidiness, com- munity involvement, her- itage conservation, envi- ronmental effort, turf areas, urban forestry, floral arrangements and landscaped areas. Caskanette said one weakness in the munici- pality is a lack of trees. To improve this, Coun. Harry Wraith suggested the township buy a tree for any resident in Lucan Biddulph who wants one on their property. He said it would be a good way to celebrate the new millennium. Caskanette agreed with Wraith's suggestion and said he wants to seethe Communities in Bloom budget increase substan- tially from its current $2,500 annually. Council made no deci- sion on Wraith's or Caskanette's sugges- tions. ground equipment and all of the things we have to do to rectify it to meet standards," Baird - Jackson told trustees, holding her hands about six inches apart. But it's unlikely the board will commit funds to repair equipment, she told Armstrong. After the meeting, Baird -Jackson suggested the board hadn't even erected most of the equipment in the first place — it had been paid for through fund- raising projects within each school's communi- ty. "A lot of school coun- cils and parent groups have done fund-raising for those projects, and that's been the history in this area," she said. The report also noted possible mould contarn! nation was detected in five of 43 portables in the Avon Maitland board last year. The issue of mould has been in the news lately, since studies cited mould as the cause of health problems in children who were schooled in portables. Baird - Jackson explained the board carries out inspec- tions every six months, but she also suggested mould is a minor con- cern to Avon Maitland because the board is actually eliminating portables as enrollment decreases. "Were headed to no portables," she said. "That came up in the accommodation report and that's because of the changing funding model." 1 THE NORTH LAMBTON TRANSITION BOARD Notice of Meeting Date: Tuesday, Oct. 12 Time: 7:00 p.m. Place: Meeting Room, Municipal Office 40 King Street West, Forest, Ontario Please be advised that the next meeting of the North Lambton Transition Board will be held at the Town of Forest Municipal Office in the downstairs Meeting Room at which time matters related to the restructuring of Nbrth Lambton will be discussed. Members of the public are invited to attend and observe the proceedings. Anyone wishing to address the Board at this or any future meeting of the Board is asked to contact Mr. John Byrne, Board Secretary, North Lambton Transition Board at PO Box 610, Forest, Ontario, NON 1J0 or by calling 519-786-2335. Dated: October 4, 1999 John Byrne, Secretary council his wish that streetlights be extended down Highway 4 to the corner of Saintsbury Drive. He said the intersection in front of the OPP station is too dark and more lighting could prevent accidents, such as the one which happened on Sept. 17 between a police cruis- er and a pickup truck. Coun. Leroy Maguire said the busy intersection needs traffic lights. Council is waiting for an answer from Lucan Granton Hydro on the possibility of extending streetlights to the inter- section. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED Fo'the Year 2000 "Communities in Bloom" Township of Lucan Biddulph We need volunteers to be on a Committee to help make our community look spectacular in the year 2000. 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