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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1996-05-22, Page 2• Page 2 Times -Advocate, May 22, 1996 Regional wrap up Board of Education office sold CLINTON - The former Hu- ron County Board of Eduettjop building will be trangfiiiind into retirement apartment4P1e- ported the North Huron Citirkn. The centre has been purchased by Doug Mason Building Prod- ucts Ltd., in Dorchester. Confir- mation of the deal is expected at the board's June meeting. • The Board of Education quay relocate to Central Hump Se4pn- dary School in September. "The move will have more of a psychological effect,"' Director of; Education Paul Carroll told the Citizen. "We will be remind- ed daily why (tile board) exists." According to Carroll, the move will present cost savings • for both facilities due to the sharing of services. The centre was sold in an ef- fort to reduce permanent operat- ing costs for administration as well as major .repair costs re- quired for the building. It is esti- mated $1,000,000 will be saved during a 10 -year period. Signal Star chain for • sale again HURON COUNTY - The Sig- nal Star chain, including papers in Mitchell, Clinton, Goderich and Zurich, is once again _ for sale, reported the Huron Exposi- tor, The 136 -year-old weekly newspaper and 10 sister publica- tions changed hands in Decem- ber when they were sold by Bur- goyne PubJiohingE, and bought by Bowes_ lioi rir Ltd., of Lon•t' don. Bowes is owned by the To- ronto Sun Publishing Company, which is controlled by Rogers Communications Inc. Rogers recently announced it would sell its 62.5 per cent share in the Sun in an effort to strengthen its balance shee4;i Students hold OSAID noise event CLINTON - Students made noise on Friday as part of an event organized by Ontario Stu- dents Against Impaired Driving. According to the Clinton New -Record, OSAID groups at high schools throughout the province were to participate in the demonstration held in con- juction with Arrive Alive Week and OSAID Day. In a constructed accident scene, there were to be two wrecked vehicles on the school's front lawn from last Wednesday to Friday. "It's an alternative to having a protest," CHSS OSAID Presi- dent Caroline Dyck told the Record. She pointed out impaired driv- ing remains the number one kill- er of youths in Ontario and add- ed youths are "leading the fight" in prevention. Committee checks agriculture complaints PERTH COUNTY - The new Perth County Agricultural Re- view Committee has • 'been formed to deal with complaints of poor farm management, re- ported the Mitchell Advocate. The committee will check pol- lution control, livestock produc- tion, manure systems and man- agement quality. McGillivray Township to hold public vote on amalgamation By Brenda Burke T -A Reporter McGILLIVRAY TOWNSHIP - In preparation for a June 5 amalgamation poll, the McGillivray Concerned Citizens Group held a public meeting last Wednesday night. One poll question asks: "Are you in favor of maintaining the municipality of the Township of McGillivray in its present form with increased shared services with area mu- nicipalities?" The other question is as follows: "Are you in favor of the amalgamation of the Township of McGillivray with the Township of East Williams, the Township of West Williams, the Town of Parkhill, and the "If it comes Village of Ailsa Craig to form one municipal- through as a yes it The meeting at West McGillivray Township vote, I don't Hall informed more than 120 residents about know what the issues relating to the proposed amalgamation. municipalities Chairperson Gerald Wright introduced the are going to do. • meeting by responding to criticism expressed against McGillivray Council for opposing Some of them amalgamation prior to the vote. are talking. County of Middlesex Warden Al Man spoke Some of them of several amalgamation studies aimed at re- are not" ducing the number of local municipalities. He • claimed studies indicate two thirds of county completely honest in implying that amalgama- residents would favor amalgamations if the result 13 lower tion could reduce municipal taxes," he said. taxes and improved delivery of services. "We thought a lot of (the questions) were loaded," added ' ' • "We're obligated to consider options," he said. "It may Wright. "A lot of people hadn't thought of restructuring in not be the end of anything. It may be a great opportunity." the township." Although many believe in the status quo, he added, they A question -answer period also took place at the meeting: also realize structural change is necessary in tough econom- If we amalgamate, asked a member of the audience, what is times. happens to McGillivray's reserve funds? "I hope, you'll consider a number of options when you "Those funds would be still allotted to McGillivray," re - vote," he concluded. plied Hodgson. "It's a trial and error thing. Do we believe -it Reeve Wesley Hodgson spoke on township services and shared services with other municipalities. He listed an ac- tive ball park, communication between clerks, shared rec- reation and fire protection as McGillivray's unique ad- vantages. He also said the township has $400,000 in reserves as well as a $93,000 deficit reported in 1995 operations. He explained this debt resulted in a combination of road grader payments and road material purchases. "We went out on a limb and we spent money we didn't have on that grader," he said, claiming future tax revenue will cover the costs. Following presentations made by committee members on township road, drainage, water, landfill and fire services, a letter from former Reeve Charles Corbett was read. "If amalgamation does take place in North West Middlesex," he wrote, "it would be too much to hope for that we would provide the Province of Ontario with its first concrete ex- ample of reduced costs through larger govern- ment." Corbett also pointed out the county's recent opinion poll, through the phrasing of its ques- tions, may indicate support for amalgamation. "It appears to me that the questions are not tr or do we not believe it? It's up in the air." A resident also wondered if amalgamation would save the province money in terms of its budget. "I don't think the province cares," replied County of Mid- dlesex Administrator Nigel Belchamber. "There will be other services that we would be expected to fund." "I think it's going to cost us more and that's what's frightened us, really frightened us," added Wright. "We're afraid of bigness. We're afraid of losing control...If some- one can show us a cheaper way of doing it, then that's what we want to hear." Another audience member enquired if McGillivray tes- idents, under amalgamation, would be required to pair for sewers of other municipalities. "Those sorts of things are possible to work out as long as there's a good handle on finances," replied Belchamber. As well as brief discussion on police costs, farmers' tax I grants, road plowing, shared services and the ward system, ' lack of future direction was mentioned. "If it comes through as a yes vote, I don't know what the municipalities are going to do," said Hodgson. "Some of .; them are talking. Some of them are not." According to last week's T -A amalgamation Question of the Week, The Exeter -Grand Bend-Stephen-Usborne Amal- gamation Committee does not consider a public vote as the . tr;• most beneficial means of receiving public input. The committee believes not only would a closed yes or F4 no type of question fail to convey the complex nature of amalgamation, it would restrict more detailed public input.' "The committee feels there are other forms that will be ' much more helpful in making the final decision...We there- ` mak,^. fore encourage the public to attend our meetings and pro- vide comments or ask questions about their concerns. It is this kind of public participation that will be ost beneficial m to the committee." 4, g Water main upgrade The Exeter PUC is working in conjunction with the town up- grading the water main on Huron Street from Edward to Main. At the same time a 10 inch pipe is installed, the street will be repaved. The work is expected to be com- pleted in one month. Board of Ed finallzes sale CLINTON - Huron County Board of Education Chair Roxanne Brown is pleased to announce ar- rangements for the sale of the Board's headquarters, known as the Education Centre, in Clinton. An offer has been accepted from Doug Mason, Building Products Ltd., Dorchester. Mason intends to un- dertake major renovations to create a nurr aqf !giiret�,ebe 14P IPF t , sale ian `"ot4rased al ths4, tame, it is expected that the Board will con- firm, at its June Board meeting, the relocation of its administrative of- fices to Central Huron Secondary School effective September 1, 1996. The move will reduce permanent operating costs for the Board's ad- ministration. Coupled with antici- pated savings on major repair costs required at the present building, the savings should total $1,000,000 over the next 10 year period. Detailed planning has com- menced to determine the best way to use surplus space at Central Hu- ron Secondary School, constructed for some.1,450 students but accom- modating just over 650 at this time. The area to be occupied will be the Centennial Wing, partially used at this time to house the Board's Learning Resources Centre, which includes the media lending collec- tion, computer repair services, as Lucan sewer inspections to begin LUCAN - Under direction of the Lucan Sewer Com- mittee, residential sanitary sewer inspections are to be- gin in an effort to assess the village's infiltration prob- lem. Craig Williams, an architectural technology student at;Fanshawe College, will inspect the majority of ap- proximately 550 sewer connections of Lucan's estimat- ed 680 households in an effort to determine where storm water is entering the sanitary sewer system. This excess flow, states a notice recently distributed to residents, consumes "valuable capacity at the sew- age treatment plant" and "results in in- creased costs for pumping and treating what is essentially clean water." Rainwater that should be directed to storm sewers is being discharged through weeping tiles and some res- idential sump pumps to sanitary sewers. Commissioned in December 1992, the Ldcan Sewage Treatment Plant is some- thing forced to pump up to four times more water than it needs to,. according to Works Superintendent Doug Johnston. • "It's taking up the capacity of the plant," he said. "In order to expand the village, we have to get this in- filtration out of the System." When the plant's tanks are overloaded, excess water is directed to two nearby lagoon cells built in 1965 and 1971. The Ministry of the Environment and Energy has given direction to shut the lagoons down by 2002. "7n order to shut the lagoons down," said Johnston, "(we) have to fix infiltration first." In April the plant handled 27,431 cubic metres of water and directed 3,700 excess cubic metres to its la- goons. That works out to a daily average flow of 914 cubic metres. A normal daily average flow should be 450 to 500 cubic metres of water, although the plant is well as program and special educa- tion support staff for the, Huron Public Education System schools. Because of the administrative re- location, the secondary school will be the beneficiary of an upgraded Physics Laboratory, which will re- quire relocation to accommodate the incoming office space. The in- corporation of administrative ser- lsat. vices into CHSS guarantees the long term viability of Central 1#u- ron Secondary School as a full ser- vice secondary school serving the needs of secondary adolescent, spe- cial program and adult populations currently served by the school. CHSS will be removed from the Board's Accommodation Review ..::,W 1W11U IU(1 ;1144111 ortlr .ow. t,1 ,,,:r,nttainn tav, designed to treat 1,100 cubic meters per day. The aver- age daily flow from January to March remained in the 600 to 700 cubic metre range. Not only does the excess storm water add more work to operating the plant, it also requires the use of more chemicals. As well, essential bacteria used in the sys- tem may get washed out when the water flow is too strong. "It's a fantastic working plant if you could get rid of some of this infiltration," said Treatment Plant Oper- ator Bob Thomson. Infiltration has been a problem in Lucan since the mid 70's. Under the Ontario Building Code, new homes are required to be equipped with sump pumps. According to Johnston, an entire Lucan subdivision of 200 to 300 homes lacks the pumps. Employed by the village as a summer student, Williams' job will include check- ing sump pumps, eavestroughs and lot gradings to determine storm water flow. The 20 - minute inspections will take at least a month to com- plete, after which the findings will be compiled and re- ported to the sewer committee. When infiltration problems are identified, funds from a village infrastructure grant will be used towards cor- recting the problem. So far, the village has spent $200,000 of the $524,000 grant to improve its in- filtration. Willams, who delivered the notices including a sam- ple inspection list, said he received positive reactions from residents, claiming many want to know how their sewer systems are working. "It gives me a bit of a background with the founda- tions of the system," he said of the inspections that will provide him with experience that relates directly to his education. "It's a fantastic working plant if you could get rid of some of this infiltration," 1,41 i ir.`:1 1 ,1.1/, 7li; .o•.14•411r44{e oi9arrt Stabbing in Grand Bend +• Continued from front page "It wasn't bad this year...we still get some hot spots but people be- haved themselves and it was fairly quiet," said Prevett who feels the stabbing was a very isolated in- cident. "If it wasn't for that we would have had a picture perfect weekend." Les Kobayashi, Pinery Park Su- perintendent said alcohol related charges and evictions were up by 20 per cent this year but credits that to an increased number of campers. Traditionally, the park has 700' sites available for the Victoria Day weekend. An additional 300 spaces were opened to accommodate campers who usually visit Ip- perwash Provincial Park, which is still under native occupation and closed to the public. "We didn't have any major in- cidents and there wasn't much van- dalism or complaints from other campers," said Kobayashi. "The camp grounds were relatively quiet." Crass' Williams, a summer student with the Village of Lu - can, takes a look at one minor problem with the area's Infil- tration - excess foam In the Lucan Sewage Treatment Plant's aeration tanks. The foam consists of a combination of dissolved oxygen and ground water. ' • •