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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1994-7-13, Page 22LUCAN - At a recent meeting, village council heard a presentation from regional assessment officials Stu Stephens and Fred Slater and have decided to accept their recom- mendation. Council will ask the county to implement reassessment by proper- ty class based on 1992 market val- ue for 1995 taxation. Stephens said although there would be shifts in the taxation bur- den through reassessment the total dollar figure would remain the same. Of. the 593 residential properties in Lucan, it is believed 186 would have their taxes reduced and the balance would find a small increase in theirs. The assessment officials said each municipal council in the county would be visited and they were getting a favourable response. Reeve Tom McLaughlin said he was happy to see an article on county wide assessment in the Lon- don Free Press and noted, "Lucan currently ranks second lowest in property taxes, but after reassess- ment we will pay the lowest proper- ty taxes of all the urban municipali- ties in Middlesex county." Council has received a letter from the province of Ontario stating they will begin charging a fee for sup- plementary assessments. Clerk Ron Reymer said this would not make much impact on Lucan as, "Ilse st we have ever had in one year is0 and they are making the first 30 exempt from payment." Call tenders Works superintendent Doug Johnston has been instructed to call tenders for the installation of curbs, gutters. sidewalks and one lift of asphalt on Duchess street. The ten- der is to be worded in such a way ak to permit the deletion of part of the total contract subject to availa- ble finances. Huron -Middlesex Engineering's estimates fir this work is as fol- Page 22 Times -Advocate, July 13, 1994 CQMM 1INITY • Foreign visitors A group of Chinese delegates visited Big '0' last Tuesday for a tour of their facilities. On hand for the days events was from left Hu Liang Jie, Grant Kimes, Jason Lin, Wang Gao Ge, Li Guang Yiu, Bao Yu Huang and Mayor Bruce Shaw, Habitat for Humanity. comes to Huron County Recipients of interest free home loans have to help build other homes for the non-profit program GODERICH - Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit, non-government organization, is now taking ap- plications in Huron County to determine needs for lower cost housing and how those needs may be met. Habitat Humanity is dedicated to the elimination of poverty housing, believing that everyone should at least have a simple, decent place in which to live. Habitat solicits donations of labour, building ma- terials and money and uses these to build affordable homes for families in need. Habitat is a joint ven- ture in which those benefitting from it participate in the work. As a condition of being selected for a home, each family must invest a minimum of 5(X) hours of "sweat equity" in the construction of their home or other Habitat houses. This reduces the costs, increases pride of ownership and also create opportunities to learn new skills. Families are required to pay for their homes through interest free mortgages up to 20 years. These payments are then returned to a revolving fund which is then used to build more homes for more qualifying families. Anyone wanting information on Habitat Homes for themselves, or how they may help others acquire decent housing can write to Habitat for Humanity Huron County c/o C.A. Geddes, Bluewater Beach. RR2 Goderich N7A 3X8; or fax 335-3850, phone 565-2513 or 482-9724. Information leaflets and application forms may also he picked up at any Huron County Library Branch, MPP Paul Klopp's office, and at most Hu- ron County churches. Hensall noise bylaw rejected Would it have opened up neighbourhood complaint wars? HENSALL - Village council backed away from adding a noise bylaw to Hensall's hooks Monday evening, fearful the regulations could become a Pandora's Box of problems. Although Seaforth's noise bylaw was presented to council Monday as an example, council members were concerned that a flood of trivi- al complaints could tic up an al- ready awkward bylaw enforcement system. An item earlier in the evening, the animal control officer's report, seemed to highlight those concerns. When Alex Irvine was asked about his investigation of a harking dog complaint, Irvine said he visited the home, but the dog tied up outside didn't hark. "It wasn't a noise problem, it's a neighbour problem," concluded Ir- vine. "This is what I see as becoming a problem with the noise bylaw...in whose opinion is there a noise problem?" said councillor Jeff Re- ahurn. Reeve Cecil Pepper pointed out that having a uniformed police of- ficer would make a difference for Seaforth, which has its own police force to carry out bylaw enforce- ment duties. Council elected to pass over the item without taking any action. Will Hensall's new entrance signs end up in a field? The Ministry of Transportation won't approve same -size signs to replace the ones now in place HENSALL - New entrance signs for the Village of Hensall are not meeting with Ministry of Trans- portation approval, despite the fact they - are very similar to signs al- ready in place. The village has taken delivery of new signs to go up on Highway 4, which will replace the aging ser- vice club sigrk now in use. Clerk -treasurer said the ministry is insisting the new signs be some 70 feet off the centreline of the highway. "So they'll be off in the ditch or something," noted councillor Jeff Reaburn. Phair said she was confident something could be worked out with the ministry and MPP Paul Klopp's office is helping. She said the problem appears to be one of terminology. "We went from calling them ser- vice club signs to municipal iden- Your Views Letters to the editor War Amps confused with Legion "No politics; no racial issues;_ no headdress attitudes..." Dear Editor: Re: The Turban Issue Public supporters of our CHAMP and Key Tag Pro- grams are confusing The War Amps with the Legion. Sadly we are being inundated with complaints stating that support will be withheld due to what is perceived to be a racist atti- tude among veterans. The War Amps does not op- erate clubrooms. It is a regis- tered charity. No politics; no racial issues; no headdress atti- tudes - one way or the other. Sincerely, H. Clifford Chadderton, OC, O. Ont, DCL, LLD Chief Executive Officer The War Amps tiftcation signs," said Phair, but not- ed the service club signs would also be attached to the boards. "These signs are going to be the same thing. They aren't going to be any bigger," said works super- intendent John Baker. "But they look a hell of a lot better." ar "We should have just told them we were fixing the old ones instead of replacing them. We would have been alright," said Baker. Phair said the ministry has even requested permit fees for the signs, even though none have been paid in the past. Market planning officer goes to work To promote new business and to encourage existing ones to expand By Fred Groves T -A staff GRAND BEND - OMonday, Kelly O'Dea settled into her new job as Market Planning icer for the Village of Grand Bend along with the Townships of Stephen and Bosanquet. Back in February, about 25 local business people gathered in the council chambers to hear more information about, at the time, what was being called an Economic Development Officer. At that time, business owner Randi Ivey, past -president of the Grand Bend and Area Chamber of Commerce, said the wages for the new position would come partially from the $125 chamber member- ships as well as $50 per business the first year. However, things have changed quite a bit since the winter. Shirley Andraza, chairman of the Economic Development Committee, said 50 percent of the funding will come from jobsOntario and the rest from the three municipalities. "We've been trying to get support from the government. We send a lot of tax dollars to them," said Andraza of receiving the grant money. O'Dea is from St. Johns, Newfoundland and while her office was to be located at the municipal office the first week, she was going to be moving into her permanent office above the Grand Bend Library. "This is a three-year project with a view to becoming a full-time position," said Andraza. She pointed out that O'Dea has been hired not to act as a special events promoter but rather, "to encourage new business and the expansion of existing business." Grand Bend has many events to bring visitors to the resort com- munity, there was the recent air show, the Winter Carnival, Poker Run for speed boats and on August 11-14 the chamber is hosting the Mid -Summer Festival. Some merchants, including Jim Todd of Grand Bend Hardware, have complained that the way in which traffic along the main street was handled during the air show, hurt some of the businesses. Andraza said O'Dea could be a liaison between the merchants and councils. "She could be very well involved in that." When the idea of hiring someone to•help in marketing the area first came out unknown persons calling themselves HAT (Hold all Taxes Coalition) put up posters in the village, taking a negative ap- proach to the new position. Andraza hopes that O'Dea will not meet with any negative response. "Her first couple of weeks, we'll be getting her familiar with the area and the businesses. We want to get her exposed to as many peo- ple as possible. She has a great personality." Lucan to accept county reassessment program Tough new smoking legislation will be in place by year end Local pharmacist in favour of government imposed ban on tobacco sales. for pharmacies and other health related businesses EXETER - Recent changes to provincial leg- islation on sniiking and tobacco sales were welcome news to one local pharmacist who feels the tough new Legislation is a step in the right direction. "More government control might be better," said Leo Krahn, manager and pharmacist of the Exeter Big V Drug Store. "If you really want to attack the issue this might be one way of doing it," he said. Krahn said all Big V stores have been mov- ing away from cigarette sales over the past few years. "The corporation is in support of the re- moval of tobacco. Personally, I'm also pleased to see it moved out," he said. Effective Decegtber 31, the Tobacco Control Act will make it illegal to sell or supply to- bacco products to anyone under 19 years -old. As well, the Act will prohibit,the sale of to- bacco products in pharmacies and other health related establishments and will increase the fines for selling tobacco to minors. The Act passed third reading in the Ontario Legislature on June 23. At that time Ruth Gri- er, Ontario Health Minister said this new act will give Ontario the toughest anti-smoking laws in North America. Grier said the legislation is aimed at pre- venting young people from starting to smoke. "Tobacco kills 13,000 Ontarians each year," Grier told the media two weeks ago. "Each one of these deaths is preventabk. We must reach our young people before they start smoking and get addicted. Our legisla- tion will do just that," she said. While December 31 has been set as the date for the new legislation to take effect, Krahn said his store has been downsizing its inventory for quite some time now and has been taking steps to make cigarette displays less visible. Bu whether the store will push ahead the deadline to stop selling cigarettes will be de- cided by head office, Krahn said. The new Tobacco Control Act will also: • prohibit or restrict smoking in designated public places and all health facilities; • Eliminate so-called Kiddie packs of fewer than 20 cigarettes; • allow for health warnings on tobacc ack- aging; • require retailers to post health warnings and age limits; • prohibit sales of cigarettes from vending machines as of December 31; • prohibit smoking in such places as video arcades; • restrict smoking in shopping malls to des- ignated smoking areas; • allow municipalities to restrict to prohibit smoking in public places and the workplace; • provide penalties that include fines and bans on the right to sell tobacco, lows: asphalt $40,500; curb and gutter $40,250 and sidewalks $22,500. The village has received a supple- mentary road construction provin- cial grant in the amount of $48,000. Johnston asked to tender for all three phases, but with an option to delete all or part of the asphalt. It was also noted that council must decide if sidewalks are to go all the way to Concession 4. Deputy reeve Harry Wraith who was in charge of the meeting until 9.20 p.m. when reeve McLaughlin arrived reported that the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority was interested in obtaining the old pedestrian- bridge on Duchess. In other business, Councillor Rob Brady asked what is being done about derelict vehicles and was told, bylaw enforcement officer Stan Flood is compiling a list of of- fending vehicles at the present time. Johnston reported that the Prin- cess street watenmain reconstruc- tion is complete and Brady said that cutvert consttuctitlft on Duchess Avenue was coming along excel- lently. Councillor Reg Crawford thanked the works superintendent and his staff for watering the trees through this latest heat wave. Reeve McLaughlin stated that something should be done about the condition of the roadside going in to the`•sewage treatment plant and Johnston agreed, saying that some topsoil will have to be brought in and levelled off prior to seeding. Council learned that Wraith and Brady would be attending an A.M.O. recycling workshop in London on July 19. Reymer and Johnston are to ar- range a mating between W.H. Loyens Lid. andNorth Middlesex Holdings with respect to the front ending agreement on the Oibson Crescent Bxtosion. 11