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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1994-9-7, Page 1SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 All Occasion Cakes See us flrstl We mean fresh) Serving Exeter and area since 1873 SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 Fresh Cut Flowers $2.99 w� � _I_I_mu _�._ �g�`'g ' If you aren't subscribing to The' Times -Advocate, you're missing out. 1 Use the coupon below and subscnbe today! 1 Name: 1 1 1 Address City 1 Prov 'Postal Code SUBSCRIPTION RATE Canada Within 40 miles - (65 km) addressed to non leder carrier addresses $30.00 plus $2.10 G.S.T. I Outside 40 miles - (65 km) or any leder carrier address $60.00 + $4.20 G.S.T. Outside Canada -$99.00 t•+u tee 40 oo.t 9.i 1 USE YOUR CREDIT CARD 0000000❑ 1 00000000 Card No. I Expiry Date ❑ Visa ❑ Master Card ❑ Cheque enclosed Retum to; TIMES ADVOCATE im2ae mMain —lei nt. NOM 1S6 am 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 • nside A 'damp' township McGillivray will put a liquor vote on its ballot See page 2 Alternative health care An all -in -one clinic opens in Exeter See page 5 Chili hot, but crowds cool Organizers seek new ways to spice up the Chili Cookoff See page 9 Summer's over Local students wrap up their summer of '94 jobs See page 10 i Only one win Express disappointed at OBA See page 14 Classifieds pages 18-20 Announcements pages 21-22 Experts page 23 Plus Home Locator Wednesday, September 7, 1994 Exeter still won't pay county Now lawyers will be deciding the legality of the county's planning user fees By Fred Groves T -A staff GODERICH - The Town of Exeter has taken a very firm stand against Huron County's Planning and Development Department. Rick Hundey, the town's administrator attended county council Thursday and basically told them that Exeter would not be paying either the 1993 consent charge or its June 15, 1994 planning fees invoice. "Exeter council feels there are some issues which have to be addressed," said Hundey. Although the amount owing to the county is not a lot, ($2,250 for consent charge and $4,676 planning fees) Exet- er continues to stand firm on the fact that it has the ca- pability of doing it's own planning matters and therefore should not have to pay into the county's planning and de- velopment department. Exeter, Wingham and Clinton have all been threatened with a county bylaw repealing their "consent function" the right to approve property severances themselves. After Hundey's presentation, council agreed to defer that bylaw. On August 19, Exeter sent a letter to all county coun- cillors outlining its position on the planning fees issue. While Clinton and Wingham are also questioning why they should be paying the county, some councillors want the problem solved. "My concern is with the overall planning process and the repercussions to the county," said Tom Cunningham of Hullett Township. He said that this could just be the start of municipalities questioning pay -backs to other departments such as library and roads. "There is a principal we have to set," added Cunningham. "We should have decided if we were all going to be in or out previously,"he noted of municipalities having to pay consent charges and planning fees to the county. Not only did Hundey take a firm stand towards not pay- ing the fee, but nowGthe town's lawyer and the county's will be meeting to see whehter or not the county has the right to remove Exeter's consent function, first granted in 1983. The lawyers will meet and a further decision is to be made at the county council meeting in October. Stephen Township's Tom Tomes said he felt the issue was already resolved a year ago when the county opted to go to a user -pay system for planning matters. "I'm wondering about the procedure last year. We had a committee set up and we resolved it," said Tomes. "If we differ for three (Clinton, Exeter, Wingham) what are the other 23 municipalities going to do." Although Clinton is paying the 1993 consent fee and agree the county's planning department does provide ser- vice to them it is their opinion that the fees seem high and have requested a more detailed explanation. Wingham is participating in the user -pay system and has paid its 1994 invoice.The town wants more information on the 1993 consent levy. Truck accident closes Highway 23 for five hours Emergency crews relieved explosive gas cargo didn't ignite KIRKTON - A truck containing explosive gases was involved in a serious accident last Wednesday af- ternoon near Kirkton. Fortunately, not one of the compressed gas cyl- inders was ruptured in the colli- sions, despite being scattered all over the accident scene. Both drivers were injured in the incident, but both were reported in satisfactory condition at St. Marys General Hospital the next morning. This 4x4 truck, (at top left) hauling a trailer, completely overtumed after being struck lir the rear by a larger truck ed with compressed gas bo les. Below left, fire- fighters keep a watchful eye on the wreckage of a stake truck and its cargo of com- pressed gas bottles scat- tered all over the Highway 23 ditch . The accident dam- aged a section of the road's guard rail, and required the highway be closed for five hours. How will your ballot look? Who will rise to the challenge of the mayor's chair? By Adrian Harte T -A Editor EXETER - Election day is November 14 this year, but whose names will be on the ballot in Exet- er - and where on that ballot - is going to be one of the bigger issues of the campaign. Mayor Bruce Shaw has previously said he will not be seeking another term in this year's municipal election. Assuming he does not change his mind, that paves the I'ay for another council member to advance his or her political career, or even throw the door open to a newcomer willing to challenge for the chain of office. But will Shaw step down? Many still believe he may make an eleventh -hour change of heart and let his name stand. "I said I wasn't going to run, and that's probably going to be the case," said Shaw in a telephone in- terview. "People have probably said from day one 'he'll run again'," the mayor acknowledged, but admitted that his final decision is still to come. The one thing that might make him want to stay at council's helm is to make sure a couple of key pro- jects are underway, he explained. But if they are progressing well by this fall, he said he would see no need to seek re-election. Two likely contenders for the mayor's chair, at least, are reeve Bill Mickle and councillor Ben Hoo- genboom.) Mickle, recently elected president of the Associa- tion of Municipalities of Ontario, is still assessing his new duties with the organization. However, he *'Please see Exeter, page two Ricky Waldie, 21, was driving a Dodge 4x4 for Nuhn Industries of Sebringville southbound on the highway at 3:18 p.m., towing a flat bed trailer with a liquid manure pump on board. Sehringville OPP say at the mo- ment Waldie tried to make a left turn off the highway, a second truck, a 1988 Ford loaded with can- nisters of compressed gas owned by Praxair Inc. of London, was at- tempting to pass and struck the Nuhn truck and trailer. The Praxair truck collided with the east guard rail and came to rest in the ditch with most of its cargo,. including bottles of acetylene, oxy- gen, propane, and nitrogen, spilled around. Its front axle with. wheels was completely detached and rested in the middle of the highway. The Nuhn truck overturned in the west ditch, its cab nearly completely crushed. Although both Mitchell and Exet- er fire departments were dispatched to help with extracting the drivers, both were able to be quickly re- moved from the demolished trucks and transported to hospital. The firefighters, however, kept a close eye on the accident scene, wary of possible fires. The highway remained closed for nearly -five hours until 8 p.m. to al- low for clean up operations and in- vestigation of the scene. Emergency room survives deadline South Huron Hospital and local doctors continue to look for staffing solutions By Fred Groves T -A staff EXETER - The August 31 deadline has come and gone and the emergency room at South Huron Hospital remains open. While no contract between the hospital's board of directors and its doctors has been reached, ad- ministrator Don Currell said an emergency room sub -committee has been formed and progress is being made. "We're at that delicate stage, we're trying to work together," said Currcll. On July 31, the Ministry of Health was to have a solution to the problem which not only plagues Exeter's hospital but all other small rural hospitals in the province. Currcll and the hospital set a deadline of August 31 for the current working agreement with the doctors hoping the ministry would have a solution by then. "The Ministry of Health was going to have a solution for us by July 31. They're doing some kind of study on it, an evaluation which we don't like," said Cur- rell. South Huron and the other small hospitals in Ontario have been in a constant battle with the ministry to help with funding the doctors to staff the emergency rooms. Some have closed their emer- gency rooms at night while oth- ers arc still working on agree- ments with their doctors "1 don't think the poi is boiling as hot anywhere in Ontario," said Currell. He noted a sub -committee has been set up at South Huron, has met once and will get together again later this month. The main issue is staffing the emergency room. "We're going to plug away to get to something more perma- nent," said Currell. One solution which the hos- pital is working on is bringing hi other doctors - not just to staff the weekends as they have been, but mid -week as well. "We're going to try to find some doctors to fill the time slots for us, especially Wednes- day. We're trying to find another doctor for the area," said Cur- rell. South Huron must feel con- fident they will reach a perma- nent agreement with the doctors as the hospital is planning to spend up to $300,000 to ren- ovate the emergency room area and to provide additional space for out patient clinics. A contract with MedEmerg, a corporation that hires local doc- tors to staff the emergency room, expired last October. Since then the doctors have threatened, more than once to not staff the emergency room. At the hospital's annual gener- al meeting back in June, Finance and Property Chairman Gino Giannandrea said that the hos- pital was facing a $50,408 def- icit of which was partially due to payments made to the doctors to staff the emergency room. It was originally estimated costs to the doctors would be $200,000 but that skyrocketed to $250,000 with a decline in emer- gency room demand. The hos- pital had to top up OHIP fees. When the contract with MedE- merg ran out, the hospital did have a surplus of $137,000 which they used to pay the doc- tors.