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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1984-02-08, Page 1'WHY PAY MORE? Wkifrngs Phone 235-1964 �p .a..d to r.vi.w, McCurdy The committee appy to reyiew accommodation at J.A.D. McCurdy Public School has plenty of questions to discuss as the result of an open public meeting. Tuesday's public meeting was called by the Huron County Board of Education as the first step in a review of the school when enrolment drop- ped below standards set by the Ontario Ministry of Education. According to provincial guidetineir, the enrolment at J.A.D. McCurdy has dropped to just above 200, which is below the minimum effective enrolment of 208 With close to 100 interested parents and ratepayers in at- tendance, Don MacDonald, chairman for the evening said the purpose of the meeting was to elect four members to $ school accommodation review committee which will have five months to Identify the needs and problems related specifically to the Huron Park school. Named by the open meeting to represent parents were in- • suranoe salesman Ian Russell who was later named chair- man of the new group and Norm Hyde, chief of the Stephen township fire depart- ment at Huron Park. • The other two positions -of the committee were to be fill- ed by citizens of the com- munity who may or may not have children attending the school. Appointed in this category were Harold Sissons and Jim Parker. Completing the committee will be trustee Harry Hayter who represents Stephen township on the Huron Board iLkacadon and trustee John from Blyth. Added and considered as resagrce personnel available to the committee are J.A.D. McCurdy principal John Biertsema, teacher Harry Brooks and a representative from Stephen township coun- cil. Superintendent of opera- tions for the Huron board Don Miller is secretary. The committee is to review and report on such factors as the advantages and/or disad- vantages of the educe experience of the student., the school's social influence on the community and the ef- fect withdrawal of the facili- ty would have, statistics and future development plans for the school district, present state of repair of the building and facilities, financial and logistical constraints on the board including building, busing, mill rates and provin- cial support, an analysis of the school program and Fire destroys barn structure. Fortunately, the northerly direction of the wind saved a nearby, fully stocked pig barn. The destroyed bap did not house any cattle at this time of year, but a windrower spreader, elevator, smaller items of equipment and grain, oats, hay and straw were also lost in the blaze. The barn was insured for $45,000, hut Morlock estimates replacement costs would be almost double that amount An early Monday morning fire completely destroyed a large barn on the farm of Jim Morlock, RR 2, Crediton The fire was already well under way when the Morlock s were roused from sleep by :t • neighbour at 12:15 a.m. The Crediton fire depart- ment responded quickly, but were unable to control the fire after the end of the barn drop- ped away and the sudden in- creased draft swept the flames through the entire .(40#74 s: 44104, related advantags4 at schools considered as rtawnable alternatives, and alternative uses of the school building. The school accommodation review committee is to solicit input from the school coin-. munity through , public meetings and/or queition- naires. Its report should recommend that the School either continue to operate in its present format, under a - revised format, or close. If a revised format is pro- posed, specific recommenda- tions are to be Included. If closure is suggested, the report should contain a recommended date, alter- native accommodation at other schools, transportation arrangements and proposed other use of the building and facilities. The primary consideration in the development of this procedure is the provision to al! students of equal oppor- tunity to attain their fullest in- tellectual, physical, emo- tional and social potential. The procedure will recognize and be based on three key Please turn to page 3 McCURDY SCHOOL REVIEW COMMITTEE — A committee has been named to han- dle the accommodation review at J.A.D. McCurdy Public School at Huron Park. Back, left are local committee members Harold Sissons and Jim Parker and Huron Board of Education trustee Harry Hayter. Front, Norm Hyde and Ian Russell representing parents and Blyth area trustee John Elliott. T -A photo. Ames Set v4ng South Huron, North Middlesex 4404 9 er VOC & North Lambton Since 1873 One Hundred and Eleventh Year FIRE DESTROYS STEPHEN TOWNSHIP BARN -- A barn on the Concession 8 of Stephen township farm owned by Jim Morlock was destroyed by fire early Monday morning. Firemen were able to keep flames from spreading to a nearby barn. Stephen approves buildup of road on second concession Stephen township council has approved plans for a number of road department projects for 1984 • Road superintendent Enc Finkbeiner was instructed to call tenders for the supply of 30.000 tons of gravel for the summer gravelling program and 1::, flaked tons of liquin calcium At the same time Fink beiner was given the okay for the build-up of Concession road 2.3 from Lot 21 to Highway 83. included will be the supply of A and B gravel and clay for this project Finkbeiner and water in- spector (ecil Lovie were in- structed to clear now from and check water hydrants in the township." Council has approved the placing ot $3,000 in a water reserve• fund and $2 ii rn in a reserve al a yearly basis for future repairs to the systems at Huron Park which are now owned by the township. Huron caseload lower than expected Huron Count set- vices ervices started nut to Stmt the highest caseload in its history, but ended the yea r Inver than t'\ ',Pried John MacKinnon, the conn •ty's social services ad ministralor. presented his an nual report al Hui o0 county council's Fehruary 2 meeting. Statistics show that in .January of 1983. there were 347 welfare cases in Huron. That number continued to decline until ugust a hen the number started to climb again By December there were 240 welt ar e cases in the county. The less than expected numbers ended in financial savings for the county. Hurons share of the 1983 social =e.t , ries budget of $1.1 million was underspent by $48,777 The county's initial share of the budget was $284.941 but in the end paid on- ly $236.164. However. Mr. MacKinnon did point out that although the actual costs came in under who! .. is anticipated, the 1983 lntai ,,t $940 833 -is a 7.62 per- cent increase over the 1982 total ot $874.191. "the lower than an- ticipated costs and caseload rn 1983 can he attributed to several factors," said the ad- ministi ator. "improved job opportunities especially in the souther n part of the county, govt.' nment work projects, fewet than expected `Ul' ex hau-tees' applying for assistance and with the addi- tion of a third fieldworker, greater scrutiny and follow- up of our employable cases," said Mr. MacKinnon. A country -wide problem is also being felt here in Huron the administrator noted. The problem - half the people on welfare are single, between the ages of 16 to 30. This in- cludes childless married couples. MacKinnon commented that a few years ago there may have only been 10 or so such cases compared to the present number. Water rates in the police village of Dashwood will be increased by 10 percent bas- ed on estimated charges from the province. The new domestic annual rate will be $11 1 and the minimum annual rate for meters is up from _$120 to $132 Council reserved decision on an application from .Jeff Sherintot of St Thomas to establish a car a Oce track and grandstand on the former Grand Bend airport property now owned by John Twynstra. Council approved a plan ting strip on the south side of the Miller Auto Wreckers pro- perty at Lot 10, Concession 8 according to the zoning bylaw and will ask Glanville Auto Wreckers to bring an adja- cent fence up to specifications. Hubert Miller has been named building inspector for the police village of Dashwood. Council offered no objection to a zoning bylaw change for the property of Ross Turnbull at Lot 36, South Boundary Concession in Hay township. A resolution from shy Ausable-Bayfield Conserva- tion Authority concerning floodline mapping in the '1'hedford-Klondyke marsh area was approved. The final bylaw concerning four collections of taxes for 1984 was approved. Due dates for taxes in Stephen in Stephen will he March 15, June 15, September 14 and November 30. A meeting to hear the engineering report on the Ryan municipal drain will he held February 14. The next regular council meetings are scheduled for Fehruary 14 and March 6. . . rt: rr POSTAL EMPLOYEE HONOURED - Kathleen McClInchey was honoured recently as a Hensall post office employee for 33 years. Prom the left are area postmaster Ken Dobney of Exeter Kcrthlncm McClinrhey and Hensall Postmaster Cecil Kipfer. GET DEBENTURE FOR USBORNE BUILDING- Morris Peever, secretary -manager of the West Wawanosh Mutual Insurance Company presents a debenture che- que for $80,000 to Usborne township reeve Gerald Pro- ut. This represents the townships shore of the new building at Morrison Dam being shared with the Ausabie-Bayfield Consetvatiot, Ai,tt or,ty i A photo. Four tax payments for Osborne residents The township of tlsixrrne will be starling a tuiir tines a year tax collection system for the year 1984. The interim taxes will become due- and payable on March 23 and lune 22 and the two final instalment dates will be decided when the 19131 budget is finalized The tender 05 .1ennison (on struction of Grand Bend for the 1984 gravelling program was accepted i'he Grand Bend firm's i,id of $46,95(1 was the lowest of three received. Road superintendent .John Batten was instructed to in- vestigate the price ot land fm a new road maintenance building, being a minimum of three acres. Batten also presented the 1983 road ex penditures and informed council that road subsidy should he received on total ex- penditure of $216.761.9'2 Norris Peever, secretary Manager and Don McKenzie, president of West Wawanosh Mutual Insurance company attended Tuesday s regular meetingto present a cheque for $80,000, being a debenture to cover the township's por tion of the new building Clerk Larry Stuck was in structed to investigate the status of the Szabo municipal drain with the township engineers and report hack to council Council authorized the members of the building coni LOST DENTURES Taking care of lost and found articles is a normal pro- cedure in the front office at the Times Advocate, but, (his week's find has c reated a lit tle extra interest Someone may have had a little trouble chewing their food on the weekend. Turned in Friday afternoon was a lower set of dentures. They may be picked up at the T -A office. mittee. all recreation boards and liar ry Strang to calculate the ani ant of monies needed by tht ;owftship to complete Bi-('entewtial projects. Council approved sharing the cost of advertising with the town of Exeter to acknrwlenw r'ebruary as Heart Month 1'he Huron ( runty planning department will t)e asked to adverb:* in the F,eeter'1'i:nes Advocate for the public meeting intxheld March ti at 4p.m Reece Gerald Proul and clerk Larry Stuck were authorized to sign an 'agree ment with the village of Hen- sall relating to the joint use of the waste disposal site. A copy of ttie agreement is to be cent to r.x,k's Division of Gerhro. Deputy reeve Margaret iiern reported the township's share of the total cost of the kitchen it the new building would be 20 percent amoun- ting to $4.470 On the suggestion of Mrs. Herm. e•lerk Larry Stuck was instructed to investigate the pi ice of obtaining a new township flag Council gave approval to the Ilurondale Women's in- stitute Bi Centennial project. The WI plans to erect road markers throughout the township In mark points of hist°, real interest Couneilinrs Donald Kerslake and Brian Hardman will represent Osborne al the next Stephen township landfill site meeting scheduled for February 15. Usborne and Blanshard councils will meet Tuesday, March 13 at 2:30 p.m to discuss matters of joint concern. Council rescinded part of a January 4. 1984 motion con- cerning rezoning of property at part of 1.ot 30, Concession 2 and has returned the subject property to the original zon- ing of M: 1 • • EXETER, ONTARIO, February 8, 1984 Price Pe- Copy 50 Cents Town police force described as healthy and competent Exeter Council learned Monday night that not only does it have a healthy police force, it also has a pretty competent one, as well. Councillor Bill Rose, chair- man of the Police Committee, submitted his 1983 report and pointed out that Exeter police officers had very few off -sick days. Chief Ted Day, fighting a bout of inononucleosis, was the only member of the force who had to take off any significant time, 56 days. Two officers, Sergeant Kevin Short and P.C. Dan Kierstead took no time off for illness, while P.C: Brad Sadler had only two days sick leave. P.C. George Robertson and P.C. Jim Barnes were off only three days each. Rose also pointed out the successful record of the force in solving Break and Entry charges, which increased slightly in 1983. He said 78 per- cent of the investigations were solved, in comparison to 34 percent in London and 16.9 percent in Hamilton. There was more good news: liquor charges were down considerably from 1982, especially in the underage bracket which dropped from 32 to 24. In an effort to show support for the local police force, council passed a motion to pay all legal fees and costs should an officer be charged following an occurrence where the officer had discharged his firearm in the Andy McLean Atlas editor A former Huron County publisher was named editor of the 1984 Huron County Atlas. Andrew Y. MacLean of Seaforth has accepted the short term position to compile the atlas under the direction of Huron County Council. MacLean is the former publisher of the Huron Ex- positor and other weekly newspapers in fhe0county. In other business regarding the atlas, guidelines have been established by the steer- ing committee. The guidelines set out how municipalities, businesses and families and farms should submit articles for publication in the atlas. Space in the atlas has been limited to two pages for each of the municipalities in the county. McKillop Reeve Marie Hicknell encouraged her col- league to go out and inform various groups, such as women's institutes and ser- vice clubs, about the atlas. "We as reeves have to do a selling job", said the reeve. Ads have already appeared in county newspapers and more are expected to tell the public about the atlas.which is the county's bi-centennial project. course of duty. The Mayor was emphatic in pointing out that this move was in no way disregarding the value of people's lives, but a way to dramatize that "we're supporting the police officers in an unpleasant en- vironment". He said the police have to take a great deal of abuse, and that this New, old on rec board South Huron Recreation Board has some new members and some old, Councillor Glaylan Josephson told Exeter Council, Monday night. Representing Exeter is Carolyn Merner, vice chair- man, Cathy Whiteford, and Jim Workman. The chairman John Pym. and Brian Hardeman are the respresentatives from Usborne township, while Tom Tomes is the member from Stephen Township. Josephson and Tom Hum- phreys represent Exeter Council on the board. David Atthill has been hired through the Career Access program at $5.00 per hour. The federal government pays 50 percerit,of his salary for six months. Plan updating sewage works Exeter Council moved to accept the recommendation of the Public Works commit- tee to make a substantial in- vestment in new equipment at the town's sewage facilities. Two new pumps, at a cost of $19,586 each, a Diesel Generator at $24,272, and an Alum Storage Tank at $19,108 were ordered on a motion from Public Works chairman, Tom Humphreys. Consultation with B. M. Ross and Associates Limited of Goderich led to ttie preselection of this particular equipment over others on the market. This will facilitate the next phase of tendering for the pumping station which will be undergoing major changes in the future to control added capacity. Humphreys also inform council that the Ministry of Transportation and Com- munications subsidy alloca- tion for road construction in 1984 is $54,000 for construc- tion, and $57,000 for maintenance. HE'LL BE BACK T -A editor Bill Batten is making satisfactory progress following surgery in Univer- sity Hospital in London. He underwent„ a heart bypass operation Tuesday, January„ 91 and is expected to be discharged within a few days. , reactionary move by the council was to show it will not tolerate 'any nonsense" from the undesirable element of society Chairman Rose also told the council that 14 parking tickets had been issued by the force in January. He said the Police Committee is behind issuing tickets "where they are warranted". A five percent increase in w:eges for police officers was accepted by council. Mayor Bruce Shaw an- nounced, Monday night, that three committees, made up of private and interested citizens, will be appointed at the next council meeting, February 20. Five members are needed for the Exeter Senior Citizens Advisory Group which has been restructured to.create a more community wide con sensus of ideas among Exeter seniors. . Anyone interested in help ing to prepare the two pages Exeter will have in the pro- posed Bicentennial Atlas for Huron County, either by sub- mitting pictures or written material, is also needed for that committee. Persons to act on a Drin-- ing and Driving Committee are also being sought. Anyone interested in serv- ing on any of these commit- tees Should leave their name with the town clerk, Mrs. Elizabeth Bell. One accident in OPP area Only one accident was in- vestigated this week by of- ficers of the Exeter detach- ment of the Ontario Provin- cial Police. it occurred Tuesday on sideroad 5-6 at Concession 3-4 in Hay township. A snowmobile operated by David Webber, RR 1 Exeter struck a snowbank. He suf- fered minor injuries and damages were set at $1,000. tar FOOD FOR SHOW - - Dorothy Long and Rita Winters are busy in the kitchen at Huron Tractor Monday get- ting beef on a bun ready for the many visitors atten- ding the ninth annual farm and industrial show. Agriculture budgets approved by county Agriculture and property budgets have a less than five percent increase except for the Huron County Pioneer Museum which is undergoing several changes. Huron County Council ap proved four budgets presented by the agriculture and property committee at its Feb. 2 meeting. A $153,720 budget was ap- 'proved for the museum This is up from the 1983 budget of $110.400. The increase is made up in part by the museum feasibili- ty study budgeted at 127.050 and $5,400 for a part lime custodian. The county's share of the study is $13,525. The county's share of the total museum budget is $91,295, up from $70,160 Other money will come from admis- sions, 114,000; the province, 09,900; resale items, $5,000 and a Wintario grant of $13,525. Salaries for museum staff are budgeted at $85,000. and employee benefits are budgeted at 116,800. The general maintenance budget for the county increas- ed by 2.9 percent from $251,117 last year to 1258,409 for 1984. Salaries and benefits, fuel and utiltities take the largest portion of the maintenance budget at the court house, registry office, assessment building, library, Huron Historic Gaol, and the health building. The 1984 agriculture and reforestation budget in- creases by 3.2 percent from 35,530 to $36,660 in 1964. In- cluded in this budget is the tree inspector's salary of $12,420. Agriculture grants for 1964 remain the same as last year with a total of 111,500 in grants to be distributed to various county commodity groups and spring and fall - fair hoards. •