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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1997-09-24, Page 1SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 Meta for Sketcbelp Dry Cleaners Serving Exeter and ;ilea since 1873 _{ The many faces of the Exeter Fall Fair See pages 4 and 5 Darlings celebrates 50 years of service See page 12 New teachers, new ideas See Crossroads Second front Panther Junior girls host first tourney Sete page 19 Council wary of County agenda EXETER - Huron County is • ,, more than willing to enter into a Maintenance agreement for the por- ttons of Highway 4t4 and County; -1-'----•---+Road.#8Xw:ithin--the-town limits. -. . Exeter Reeye >#dI Mickle, however. ,is suspicious of thecounty's m6 - byes: , Mickle was concerned that if the counts had control over the roads within Exetgr. it would weaken the position of the town with respect to. SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 Wednesday. September 24. 1997 Strike threat returns, as teachers resist latest Snobelen moves By Craig Bradford T-.-1 Reporter CLIN,TON -_What a:difference a weekend can! make. • • • ' -arena were.sarting1to breathe a sigh.bf relief w i .. tt . - Ws on Friday -the province had blinked: by not, t: uching teachers' right to strike, Education Minister John Snobelen introduced the new .Education Quality. Improvement 'Act on Monday. The new bill •legislation is designed to change Ontarit teach_iag cyitent_>�>aplstttg class sues. expanding the School year and slashing teacher preparation time to chop $I billion out of the ahnuaf education budget. The province will also set the local education tax rate. This authority has been in, the hands of local school* boards, . Ontario Secondary. S,chool Teachers' f=ederation District 45 Huron officer John Clarke -said- teacher unions have gone hack to their strike position. • "If they carry through with thislegislation we will ,be going on strike." 'Clarke said on Tuesday.."We have to stand up and protect our students." • • He said the number of teachers in the province will be from about 8.(1Qoto 7.000 if thc'proposed prep time reduction a'nd other changes are made law. For South Huron District High School that could mean - the number ,of teachers going from 52 this. year to 45. Clarke.said S.HDHS toad 60 teachers four years ago. , -"That cenainfy impacts on the programs that can he delivered and the extra-cprricular activities that can he ottere Clarke :ate Hp added the Huron County -Board of Education is already as "frugal" is it can be. "1 don't,.know where the 5i billion will come from." he said.- ' . Ontario aid.- Ontario Public -School Teachers' Federation Huron or Continued on page 2 possible restructuring or tnergprs.• He said the county is doing a I ■ rsad study."whereby the epunty • 'nistrator defends kee in could, take over everything. They n� p g want to grab it (Main Street and r ThamesRoad) + restructuring plan under wraps Sandra Lawson of Huron County . has offered to meet with the, town during the week of October 6 to discuss tie matter further. Staff will deal with skunks...for a fee EXETER - In a report to Monday night's Committee of the Whole. Exeter Public Works Supennten- dent Glenn Kells said that licca- sionallc. town staff is asked to re- move a skunk (already trapped) • from private propeny;- - Council passed a motion,to charge S40.to remove the trespass- ing skunk. . ,Councillor Ruben Drummond was opposed to the. motion stating the .only reason a skunk would'be in someone's yard is if something .was attracting the skunk and fur- ther. skunk removal -should not be.a functior. of the town. Pinedale Boulevard - a cemetery of waste disposal GRAND BEND - Is Pinedale Boulevard a cemetery of waste dis- posal'' That's the question asked at the Monday night Grand Bend Council meeting on leaves and debris being dumped and burned on the boule- • vard. Council directed Public Works to - clean up the boulevard after Ad- ministrator Paul Turnbull writes a letter to the residents of this area in- forming them of the problem. The letter will say anyone who contin- ues to dump or burn debris in this area will he charged - • Two ,+eel.:+ agog. the E.:eter 7:nus-4dr'tcat printed extracts from a consultant's: report .outlining cost- saving measures for the.Town. of Exeter and the Pub- lic Utilities.-Commission'accomplished through inter- nal restructuring- of operations of both bodies. Al- though the report was- suppysedlty confidential, it was released.to the -TA. -The TA took the positron -that after almost a year. the public had a right to knoll its con- tents. -and and the taxpayers are the ones who will pay the bill. The 7`A interviewed rhe. Town Administrator. Rick Hunde' . subsequent to its release.• - TA: NV hat your reaction to the printing of the re - pori? Hundey: Printing the 'report - was your business. Most of us were under the impression that it wax con- fidential and were therefore surprised that it was'going to be printed for the pr.blic. The difficulty for us.is the fact that many of the'town staff will be affected by the changes proposed. and we were iii the process of deal- ing with the implications onbur employees TA. Are you suggesting that this material is none of the public's busin ess?• - - Hundey: Not at all. The public should not has seen it at this stage however. The report was released pre- maturely and in a torm that was misleading and harm- ful. .1 use the word "prematurely" because our on- going restructuring- is not finished. and no organiza- tion should release sensitive personnel information un- less it is policy. This report -is not policy. Council was correct in keeping it confidential. TA: So, by keeping it under wraps.'you do keep the public in the dark. Hundey: Again. not correct: the public is fully in- formed. The report is being used as a guide; .however.- in owever.in adopting its restructuring plan. Council decided to downsize as attrition allowed and to make other im- provements in •operations. In fact, •we have - been re- tooling for a number of months. That's not headline • news because the changes do not happen dramatically or all•at once. 1.should add that many on Council would have pre- ferred to have acted quickly.. but .incremental change was considered best for two reasons: first, it is usually best -to go through the disruptions of major change once and not twice or more, and second, there is a chance that major change may happen to us in the form of amalgamation. It would be unfortunate to let people ,go to find that they are.needed at a later time. TA: So, do' you think Council is acting fast enough? • , Hundey: If no progress were being made, then I would say "No" but there's very. good progress. The public should know the incremental restructuring plan has been pretty effective so far., The TA quoted all 16 options of the consultant's main reciummendations,and. Council has.adopted or is in the course of acting on all but one of those options. One point that the. TA has highlighted is the merger of the 'town and- the PUC. Council has agreed that this move would be very ben- eficiaf til* all taxpayers. and that position has been cov— ered extensively in your paper. - TA: If you recall, the TA specifically said, in ref- erence to the downsizing, that positions and not, people are identified for elimination. Where then is the harm you speak of? • Hundey: Because. I am so close to the scene, I -ap- preciate the distinction, but I guarantee that the public doesn't fully understand this..When a position is iden- tified for elimination: a does not follow that the person occupying the position is autiunatically'made surplus. TA: Better explain that one. .' Hundey: 'fake this example: The consultant looks at a work area. There are four positions - A,B,C and D. The consultant looks at the amount of work to be done and finds that through- improved "eliiciencies", three people can do the job. My position is that we have to examine the qualities each of these people brings to the task and determine which one is surplus to our needs. Instead of doing that. the consultant said that position D should go. By focusing on position D, everyone, in- cluding staff.• believes that the pers(in'occupying posi- tion D is surplus. The conclusion is wrong and the im- plication is not only alarming but unfair. -.TA:• The report talks about more than down- sizing. It seems as if some people should- be relieved of duties; others don't have enough work to do, and you weren't doing your job as "Manager". What's your comment on that observation? Hundey: For starters, you have to remember that this was an organizational and operational study. The con- . • Continued on page 2 (93c • 7c G.S.T.) ONE DOLLAR Exeter recreation director and laborer terminated The measures are part of the internal restructuring of the Town of Exeter. More changes will occur by the end of October. EXETER - At a special council meeting Monday night. Rick Hun- dey, Exeter's chief administrative officer presented a 12 -point plan for proceeding' with internal re- structuring of the town. Huntley said the town had been re- structuring at an incremental basis, but council decided to "move for- ward at a quicker pace." ' ',Termination notices have been — given to Recreation DirectorLynne Farquhar and to Public W.►rks La- borer Doug Coward. based on di- • rection .froth council. The two for - titer, staff have -the option of two severance packages based on coun- cil policy. • Huntley notified' council that Ann Prom. the town's • accounts clerk, • had resigned prior to the termina- tions of Farquhar and'Prout. ,"In accordance,with the councils internal restructuring strategy; none: • of the above positions will be re- placcd.'lnstead,through service cf ficicncics, process improvements and rewriting job descriptions, re- maining staff will be redeployed to "gel the job done"," according to Hundcy's niento to Mayor Hoo- genhoom and Exeter Council. His inemo also included the fol- lowing directives which will serve as a basic framework for imple- menting restructuring. 1. That the clerk's function he transferred. to the CAO. All clerk duties, except that of electoral re- turning officer:• will be transferred as of October- 31. Electoral duties will be transferred as of January I Routine statutory duties will be delegated to the -deputy .clerk - treasurer. Council correspondence. agenda planning and meeting fol- low-up will shift more heavily to. Hundey. , . 2. That the Treasurer will assume additional accounting duties in the place of the Accounts Clerk. 3. That the accounting functions 'Of the parks and recreation de- partrnent :he transferred to the Treasurer. 4'. That the Administrative Assist- ant (Secretary/Payroll Clerk) be as- signed accounting functions to be detcrinined by the CAO and Treas- urer._ - 5. That the Recreation Secretary/ Continued on page 2 Mayor's opinions vary with the community function f Hoogenboom's comments at a PUC function upset Reeve Mickle EXETER'- - .At Monday night's Committee of the Whole meeting. Exeter Reeve Bill . Mickle took Mayor Ben' Hoogenboom to ,task over his comments at a Friday eve- ning • Public Utilities Commission function. Mickle • said he was concerned about the alleged comments of Hoogenboom with respect to the town's takeover of the PUC. "You.wereintroduced as Exeter's mayor It bothers rote that I heard that. Ben, as mayor,' indicated to people that he supported the PUC and not council," said Mickle. "1 was there and 1 heard you (Hoogenboom) say to the- effect that council was barking up the wrong tree •and if it's not broke, why fix it," claimed Councillor Roy Triebncr. • "You cut us off at the knees. You did not uphold the position of coun- , cil. What I heard really upset me," exclaimed Mickle. , In his own defence, Hoogenboom said.ihat on Friday. night, he was speaking as a PUC commissioner, i not as Exeter's mayor. "When we discuss council's posi- tion. 1 say "This is council's posi- tion," but as a commissioner, I am entitled to an opinion whether or, notit agrees with council," Hoo- genboorry said. "It undermines the activities of -a future council," claimed Mickle. "After council had made the de- cision. I supported couicil's de- .' cision," Hoogenboom replied. Mickle got in the last word in the discussion. "1 was taken aback by what I heard on the street." Lucan Foodland robbed The cash grab is the first robbery at a Darling's Foodland store in the company's 50 year history By Craig Bradford T -A Reporter I.UCAN - The Sept. 10 robbery at I.ucan Darling's Foodland proved the sleepy village isn't an island when it comes to crime. . London OPP Const. Donna Shulist said a man approached a till at about 2:10 p.m. that day and handed over a $10 hill to the cashier to pay for a can of catfoo d and a hag of macaroni. He then reached into the till and grabbed a number of $20 hills. The cashier yelled to an- other clerk and store manager Peter Janssen followed the thief out of the store to a waiting car. The suspect then fled the scene: No weapon was seen during the incident.. The man is described as having a medium build, 170-180 lbs., 5'8"-5'10" tall, with medium long wavy brown hair and balding in front. He has a thick moustache and was wearing a tan shirt with brown stripes, tan pants and a black kelt. The car is describedas a grey older model Chev with no hack licence plate. • Shulist said there has keen •two similar grocery store thefts in southern Ontario recently, one in West Lorne on Sept. 3 and the oth- er in Milverton on Sept. 10. Const Dennis Leblanc is continuing the investigation.: Darling's Fooxlland's Jeff Darling said the robbery is a first for the company. "In 50 years that's never happened," he said. Financial advice you can count on! George Godbolt CLU, CF'P 496 Main Street Exeter ON 235-2740 When it comes to investment and tax strategies, retirement and estate planning, and more, we have the expertise and technology needed to help secure your financial future. Call me today for financial advice you can count on! Licensed win Mutual LA, d c.naoa,AAuu,r inwaoo inc . two co^pni or Th. Mutual Gmoup `,�fe is a aaa11l1ltjtliat air I'i The Mutual Group