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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1997-07-30, Page 1EXETER RODEO DAYS - Sat. and Sun., Aug. 9 & 10 - FUN FOR EVERYONE L k(?ter ,,,,,,•(, 1873 SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 Inside Dashwood Friedsburg Days 'Take me out to the Ball Game' See page 7 Zurich Fair 'Rural Challenge' See page 8 L_ Grand Bend's first lifeguard marks 50th anniversary See Crossroads Second front Police ask public for help in hit and run EXETER - Huron County OPP report a 1990 Chev blue four door was parked unattended at the Dar- lings Foodland parking lot on July 22 at approximately 3:15 p.m. when it was struck by another -vehi- cle which failed to remain at the scene. The Chev received moderate 'damage to the passenger side. The suspect vehicle is either a newer _ model LTD or Marquis, light grey in color with two occupants. a male and a female. both possibly in their '50s. To assist the Exeter OPP, anyone- , who observed this collision is asked to call Const. McGregor at the Exeter Detachment Administra- tion number at 235-1300 or Huron-; County Crimestoppers at 1-800- 222-8477 Grand Bend police investigate fraud GRAND BEND - Police ire in- vestigating frauds that occurred in the Village of Grand Bend on July 25. . • Police were called to a motertn the village about a male adult in - possession of a stolen credit card. Police arrested the male and took. him to appear in front of a Justice of the Peace in Sarnia where he was released. The male took a cab from Corners cab service back to Grand Bend where he was unable to pay for the fare. The cab driver drove to the OPP detachment in. Grand Bend where the suspect was turned over to,police. Steven.Elliot. 21, of Exeter, On- tario is charged with possession of a stolen credit card, use of a stolen credit card, fraud and fraud in rela- lion to fares. Elliot was arrested by Exeter OPP on warrants and is wanted in Stratford and Waterloo. Ontario for numerous other charg- es. He is to appear in Sarnia Count on August 18, Hear ye, hear ye! Town crldr Bill Paul as Sir.Justin Tyme proclaimed the side- walk sales to everyone on Main Street on Friday afternoon. Paul along with, a face artist, juggler' and odor, characters made the trip from Ldndon to entertain -shoppers, This Week jungle to jungle Biddulph sends missile to Queen's Park Biddulph council has told the province they're fed up with downloading By Craig Bradford T -A, Reporter BIDDULPH TOWNSHIP - Bid dulph .rownship councillors are still wnldering who will be doing what when 'it comes ..-to -provincial downloading: • Council has told the province it needs more exact information on what, transfer payments have dried up ,and what .their responsibilities are s6 they can plug the figures into 'future; annual budgets. ' - Biddulph,Reeve Earl French said without the. financial figures and not' knowing 'bow the:ehanges will take place, there is no way they -can forecast whether, municipal taxes will. have th be hiked or not. - "We are definitely going to have do.more with less. but until. we can start planning based op .real numhers,.thcre is -little we can do to mitigate against higher costs and lower revcnucs,"'French said in a press release.. - - Tt>.is year provincial transfer pay-- mcnts. to. piddulph werecut by $126.89( dRith $207,609 more to be cul in '98' with tl)e cancellation of the Municipal Support Program. Biddulph chief .administrative cif (icer Larry Hotson'sald that means that, provincial support -for -things like roads is a thing Of the past. Without knowing how, the proy- __ 'ince is changil g the tax assessment system -(details are -cxpected'in the spring),,municipalities-can't project revenues. •Hutson said picking up such one- time provincial -responsibilities like the Farm Tax Rebate, social hous— ing and rural policing. could cost ,Biddulph• taxpayers . more than: $700,000 a year. • • . • . • Hotson said correspondence frimi Agriculture Minister .Noble Vijle- ncuve and North Middlesex MPP Bruce Smith on government down- loading has provided little satisfac- tion. "We've had basically the same letter from virtually everyone in the government." he said. '"11 secnis everyone , is hanging .their hat on this -(Community Re -Investment) Fund." The $500 Million fund is ear- marked for helping municipalities, merge and cope with. downloading. Villeneuve • 'also said Biddulph- would iddulphwould be eligible for Some of the $70 million transition fund.to deal with Who Does What decisions: The most helpful provincial of-. ficial so far has been Municipal Af- fairs Minister Al Leach's assistant, Ernie Hardeman, Hotson said, wlio at. one point spent an hour and a half on the phone with Hotson to listen -to and respond to his ygerics. "At (east he's taking (Biddulph's Concerns) to, the, caucus in Toronto, to be discussed," Hutson said,.add- ing he has written .a letter of thanks to Haldeman. = •0 Other notes from the. recent conn - oil meeting: Safe Homes gives youth aplace to go Children over the age. of 1.6 in crisis' can find help through the free phone line established in the 'FXeter area in 1988' By Heather Mir T -A Reporter ' `Bart' DeVrics, an Exeter board member. has been `involved with Safe Homes since its • inception EXETER - Safe- Homes,for Youth, a program that began eer- ating in the Exeter'area in'1988. has recently faced provincial -funding cutbacks and is looking to the com- munity to makeup ap annual short- fall of more than $10,000. • Safe Homes. was created when then South Huron District High School principal Bruce Shaw dis- covered some of his students . over .the age of 16 were homeless. For vari- ous reasons, these children could not return.. 'home but were - too • old to qualify for care' by the Children's Aid Society. Shaw, also mayor of Exeter at the time. and a small. local board start- ed to develop a program that would eventually offer a 24-hour, seven- day-a•week free phone line to con- nect children in crisis -with coun- selling and if needed, a safc home, Children are able to talk directly' with a counsellor who may act as a mediator with parents. If nec- essary, children are placed with a . Safe Home family where they are given a structured family life for a• short time before returning home, finding other accommodations or being transferred to another facility such as a group home. Their whereabouts remains strictly, con- fidential. • The service is unique. to Huron. County and operates with funding. from the province as well as the United Church, local service clubs, United Way and several volunteers including a seven -member board. .when he and his family decided to provide a safe Amine after reading a notice on the Exeter United Church bulletin hoard. Over the past two years. the program has seen it pro, vincial ' alloca'tion reduced from 69,000 'to $64.000. With an, • $80.000. • budget, that leaves $16,000 to he raised, in the com- munity and DeV- ries fears there. is little left to cut.. if the Service doesn't operate on a round- the-clock - basis Devries says ' it's not worth pro- viding hccause children don't choose the time of day they will be in crisis. He added the -staff is made up of four part-time counsellors. all of whom work on contract. The rest of the budget is spent on pro- viding a paging systemani paying for'children's expenses while un- der Safe Home's care.' Families who open their homes to children in need art given an allowance of $20 per day and Safe Homes will provide for any emergency care the child requires 'while under the care ot(the organization. . A substantial chunk of the budget also pays for insurance .coverage required by provincial regulation. Families who volunteer to be in- yolvcd with Safe Homes go •through a reference" and police , check and. must keep all, in- formation confidential. No drugs, or alcohol use is. tolerated while the.. child is in a safe home and there. arc rules to follow such as curfew.- . urfew:. Families must provide the child with a room of his/her own. , . Huron County's youth need Safe Homes for a variety of reasons in- cluding teenage pregnancy, sui- .cide, physical or emotional, abuse, truancy and drug or alcohol related problems. Last year. the phone line received more than-400'calls and • What a waste Council will send a lett, - e Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) telling them to stop mailing them their •Middlesex -Elgin Community Lead- ers newsletter. Hotson said there was little or no information of inter- est to Biddulph. "All council is say- ing is this is a waste of taxpayers. money," he said. Ticketed Owners of .three at large Rott- weilers,in Granton neighbors have complained • about were ticketed: $105 ($35 for.each dog).by the an- imal control officer.' New name Clerk -treasurer Larry Hotson has a. new title - chief administrative officer — after council approved , ' new job descriptions for him, roads foreman (now works foreman) Joe Dcwan and roads employee -Larry, Greenlee after roads superiniendent Hugh Davis retired. Company and owner get $80,000 infines GODERICH Revenue Canada announced last Wednesday that Mervyn James, Erb and 1028040 Ontario Inc., operating as Huron Agvise Crop Advisory Service, of Brucefield, were fined $80,000 on, lune 27 in Ontario Provincial Court in Goderich after each pleaded guilty to. 10 counts under the Cus- toms Act. *Erb is the president of the corporation. Judge Morin fined Erh $50.000 and 1028040 Ontario inc. $30,000. He faces 18 months in jail if the fines are not paid and was placed on probation for thre years. During that time he must not • associate with a number of his po,- ticide clients and business also - elates. These charges, under section 15 pertain to the possession, purchase, acquisition. salt apd disposal of it legally. imported goods, more' spe- ciftcally.goods controlled under the-. Pest Control Products Act. The in- vestigation by the Department was initiated after a shipment of smug- gled pesticides which were not reg- istered for. use in Canada, was seized . from Bradley R. Martin of Lobo Township. at the Bluewater - Bridge in Sarnia in April 1994: The shipment of pesticides, valued at $42525, has been declared as baler twine. The 'investigation tied the shipment to Erb and his company. - Martin, for hjs part in the April • 1994 seizure, was 'convicted on —atprercounts ender the Customs --Act Safc Homes' provided 110 days of care.. The program looks to pro- viding short-term care _u( to two weeks hut is some cases, this may be extended: Often the child is placed in a home for only a few Continued on page 2 Ministry satisfied with gas fume solution At least one.Hensall resident wants the catch . basin removed. • HENSALL - Changes to a' catch basin at 80 London Road, Hensall and 'a contingency plan by RobertErb have satisfied the Ministry of . Transportation. -1 Officials met with Erb, the owner of Bob,Erb's Garage on Highway 4 on July 2 to discuss his'proposed solution to prevent gas fumes from entering the storm sewer. According to Project EngineefGordon Troughton: of the MTO's Lon- don office, Erb has admitted there was a gasoline spill at the property on December 31, 1996 which entered the catch basin near the garage where -it travelled through the -storm-sewer-and, released fumes into, homes. n Although fumes were present in homes -on other occasions. a source has not been identified. "At this point in time, he has done enough." said Project Engineer Gordon Troughton of the MTO's London office. "If there is a spill, he has chemicals to spread on thc gas to absorb it. -If that doesn't work. he has a pump on site to pump out the catch basin and the catch basin has'an elbow." - The elbow pipe is to prevent gasoline fumes from entering the storm sewer system in the arca, provided the pipe is properly maintained. "We're still watching it. We think what he's done is sufficient," Troughton said on Thursday. According to Troughton, the Ministry of the Environment and Energy is also satisfied with the measures. Julie Ritchie; a King Street resident, has been involved in thc fume controversy since her home was filled with fumes following the De- cember 31 incident. She is not as satisfied with the solution as the min- istries. "That's not enough. It's still going to happen. If he (Erb) has a major spill and I'm forced out of my home, people arc going to court," said Ritchie. "Wo want that catch basin removed." in Ontario Provincial Court in Eed= • dy sentenced Martin on September 26, 1996, to a total of $4,000 or 72 days in jail. He was also convicted• . on September 26, 1996, on two counts tinder the Customs Act, aris- ing from a June 30, 1995 seizure of unregistered pesticides at the Blue- ' water Bridge in Sarnia. Judge Eddy fined Martin a total of $500 or 10 days in jail. According to Revenue Canada it will continue to prosecute those who contravene tl a Customs Act and related legislation that Customs administers in whole or in part, and puts honest Canadian businesses at a competitive disadvantage. Audio Performance by Come see the full selection of car audio KENWOOD Portable Performance... • XD 750 • 150 watts • 3 CD • Dual Tape • Remote Now only $499. AUDIO VIDEO SPECIALISTS 235-0003 • 63 MAIN ST. EXETER lomailadvice