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Times Advocate, 1995-01-18, Page 1SEIP'S valu-mart Serving Exeter and area since 1873 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 Daily ' Soup 'N Sandwich , Special r SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 gtpNEW Hot Soup to go in the Deli SUBSCRIBE, Fire leaves seven homeless in If you aren't subscribing to The 1 Times-Advocate. you're missing out. Use the coupon below and subscribe today! 1 Name: I Address City 1 Prov. IPostal Code SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada Within 40 miles - (65 km) addressed to non letter carrier addresses $33.00 plus $2.31 G.S.T. I Outside 40 miles - (65 km) or any letter career address $63.00 + $4.31 G.S.T. Outside Canada -$99.00 (.,u. sae.a po.t.y.) ' USE YOUR CREDIT CARD 00000000 ' OLIL00000 Card No. I Expiry Date 0 Visa ❑ Master Card LI Cheque enclosed Return to; TIMES ADVOCATE II24 Main St. Exeter, Ont. NOM 1S6 mu e me on — — 1. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Inside Budget n begins But does the public real want to help council st° spending priorities? See page 2 Time to quit? See Amusements are back Businessman aims to tap arcade market in Exeter See page 5 Painting the past Local artist Shirley Perry specializes in landmarks See page 6 immersio fac criticlS But educato say bilingu program has its merits See page 1 Facelift Huron's courthouse building to g $1.7 millio makeover See Crossrq_ Second Expe page 1 Class pages 1 Announ pages 21 Over 35 firefighters battled the blaze at the village's By Fred Groves T -A staff LUCAN - Over 35 firefighters from two different departments were called to extinguish a fire which partially destroyed one of the village's oldest buildings last Wednesday night. While the Ontario Fire Marshall is investigating, as of press time there was still no official cause of what Lucan fire chief John Riddell estimates to be a $200,000 fire. At approximately 9:30 p.m., local resident Ron Wilcox smelled smoke on Main Street and began to help evacuate residents who lived in three apartments above the for- mer Grand Central Hotel. Wilcox was across the road from the building making a phone call at a pay phone when he quickly alert- ed the residents. "I just smelled smoke when I was making a phone call. I ran and told everyone to get out. I went around back, 1 didn't see any flames so I just banged on everyone's doors," said Wilcox. Firelighters from the Lucan- Biddulph and Granton fire de- partments were on the scene and some firemen were still there at 5:30 a.m. mopping up and keeping an eye on the building. Thursday morning, as Riddell and officials from the fire mar- shall's office were going through the debris, building superintendent Barry Elliott said he suspected the cause to be electrical. "There was insurance on the building, I know that," said Elliott who confirmed there were smoke Granton firelighters (pictured) teamed up ened Lucan's downtown block. Here they guished before it spread to adjoining -buildings. with their Lucan counterparts last Wednesday evening to battle a blaze that threat - enter the front apartment windows of the old hotel building to get the fire extin- I.ucan former hotel detectors in the apartments. As Elliott and resident Frank Dal- ton watched the cleanup they won- dered what the cause of the blaze was. "I was sound asleep, a couple of friends got me out," said Dalton of how he escpaed uninjured. None of the seven residents, in- cluding four children were injured and all found temporary ac- commodations. "The owner phoned me and said he has a house in Ingersoll they can move in to for the time being," said Elliott. By 11 p.m. Wednesday night, the Main Street of Lucan was crowded with curious onlookers. The OPP had Highway 4 blocked off and re- routed traffic through the streets of the village. Firefighters attacked the fire from both sides, on the main street and at the rear of the building. Black smoke billowed from the building which took several hours to finally put out. As local residents looked on, they could see one ceiling collapse and several firefighters watch just a few feet away in anticipation to get to the fire. It was a difficult fire to battle be- cause not only were there several layers of suspended ceilings, but the rooms were filled with smoke and visibility in the many rooms was almost nil. "They are all hard to fight, it could have been worse" said Rid- dell who reported there were no firefighters injured. "With our new water system and the help of Gran- ton, we lucked out." The bus Concerned riders convinced Chatham Coach to give Huron County one bus, one day a week is back CHATHAM - Cha -Co Trails is bringing bus service back to Huron County, although only on Fridays. Cha -Co ran the last bus of its regular Owen Sound to London route on Sunday, and if it weren't for a decision made last week, that would have been the last vestige of public transit in the county, with the exception of taxi ser- vice. The coach service company had announced in December it would be dropping five of its six regular routes, including the London -Owen Sound route. Alice McKim at Cha-Co's Chatham office said that with a "few calls coming in" about the cancellation of the bus ser- vice, the company decided to find a way to bring service back to the area, if in a limited way. McKim said since the majority of riders on the Owen Sound to London route came from Clinton or further south, the new bus route will run twice a day between London and Goderich, only on Fridays. The bus will leave London at 7 a.m., go through Exeter at 7:50 a.m., and will turn around in Goderich at 8:50 a.m, to pass through Exeter again at 9:40 a.m. and arrive in London at 10:30 a.m. "It connects with Greyhound east and west," said McKim, adding that the hope is weekend -travellers will be able to use the service to make connections with other car- riers. Fridays were typically the busiest day for the former dai- ly route, and McKim hopes customers will be able to con- solidate their travel needs and make the most use of the Fri- day service. The bus will leave London again at 5:30 p.m., go through Exeter at 6:25 and arrive in Goderich at 7:10 p.m: After its 10 minute turnaround, it goes through Exeter again at 8:10 p.m. to arrive back in London at 9 p.m. McKim said that if the route proves financially viable, there is always the possibility that more days could be add- ed to the schedule. The other side of the coin, of course, is that if Fridays - only bus service proves too inconvenient for those who had come to rely on the former daily service, they may find al- ternate travel arrangements and bus service could be lost entirely - once again. The new London to Goderich route starts this Friday, Jan- uary 20. Conservation Authority staff paid bonus for cutting costs Some $15,000 divided up amongst the Conservation Authority staff won't affect the Social Contract, or future pay, says the general manager EXETER - Despite the wage freeze of the Social Contract, the Aus- able Bayfield Conservation Authority board of directors found a way to give staff a bonus on their 1994 pay. At their last board meeting, the directors agreed to pay a lump sum, based on the Consumer Price Index to all staff. ABCA general manager Tom Prout pointed out that the bon • not an ongoing pay increase. "It's not a part of their Kase salary, so it's not a continuing liability," said Prout. He also noted that the Social Contract does not specifically prohibit salary increases for public sector staff, even though it was one of its goals. "The intent was that it come out of salaries, but there was no re- quirement it come out of salaries," he said, adding that the ABCA has been able to meet its Social Contract obligations since 1993 through staff taking time off for leave of abscence, or to work fbr other agen- cies. "We are meeting our Social Contract obligations and we are reducing our salary amount," explained Prout. The Conservation Authority staff had accepted a wage cut prior to the Social Contract, and have been making efforts to trim the ABCA's bud- get in light of ongoing government funding cutbacks. Prout said the staff were particularly successful in trimming the bud- get in 1994, which is why the bonus was paid to staff. i "We were able to save around $70,000," he said. Some of the cost- cutting came on big items, but "most of it was hits and pieces through- out the year." The ABCA also managed to break even on the operation of the Park- hill Conservation Authority, for example, instead of losing $10-15,000 as in previous years. Another initiative involved the purchase of a property for conservation purposes, but with the financial help of other community organizations. Consequently, a "performance bonus" was approved by the board to reward those cost-cutting measures, and partly to encour- age them to continue those efforts in 1995. "It was a thank -you to the staff for being careful in their spending," said Prout, but cautioned "the staff have been told not to expect this again". The bonus, based on an average of Canadian, Ontario, and Toronto Consumer Price Indexes, works out to a total of about $15,000, divided equally amongst all staff, but pro -rated for months worked in 1994. "I got the same as the secretary, and the secretary got the same as the guy in the field," said Prout, but again stressed it will likely be a one- time thing only. The pay of ABCA employees remains the same as when the Social Contract took effect in mid-1993, but Conservation staff hada pay freeze of their own in effect at that time. "In effect, we're sitting at 1992 pay rates...and still will be until the Social Contract expires," said Prout. The Social Contract was introduced by the provincial government in mid-1993 with an aim to roll hack public sector wages by five percent, and freeze that pay scale until March 1996. "It was a thank you to the staff for being careful in their spending." Three youths arrested after assault on OPP officers DASHWOOD - Three youths were arrested in Dashwood Satur- day evening and face charges as se- rious as assaulting police officers. OPP sergeant Terry Devine said he and another officer were called to a Dashwood apartment building Sat- urday after a complaint of damage to an apartment and a noise com- plaint earlier in the day. Devine said three youths physical- ly attacked the officers when con- fronted with the complaints. "I think my (bulletproof) vest helped," said Devine. "I felt a few punches to my chest...am I ever glad Iworeit." Devine said he only started wear- ing his vest after thcy became part of the mandatory OPP uniform some months ago. Charged with assaulting a police officer and obstructing police are Mark Morgan, 18, of Centralia, and William Partridge, 18, of Exeter. A young offender of a Lucan address was also arrested and charged with threatening, mischief, assaulting a police officer, and obstructing po- lice. The three attended a bail hearing in Goderich Monday.