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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1994-10-12, Page 2Page 2 Times -Advocate, October 12, 1994 IN THE t\TFWS powsimpiew Regional wrap up Huron Park man jailed for harassing GODERICH - A 38 -year-old Huron Park man showed no re- action as he was sentenced to 18 months in jail for criminal ha- rassment. "There's no other place for you," said provincial court judge A.R. Webster, of London, as he sentenced Gary Grant on Sep- tember 26. "This is very dis- turbing to the victim you've cho- sen to harass, to her family, her friends and her neighbours. "You had the opportunity to sort things out while on proba- tion, but immediately upon your release, you returned to doing exactly what you were told not to do," the judge said. According to the Goderich Signal -Star, the court was told Grant was convicted of the same charge, against the same victim, in May 1994. At that time he was sentenced to 60 days, to be served on weekends, as well as 30 days for breach of probation. He was placed on probation in February at Exeter Provincial Court and began harassing the victim as soon as he was out of jail despite a probation order to stay away from her. Man charged in sex offences ST. MARYS - A St. Marys man has been charged with 15 sexually related offences. On September 30, sixty-three year-old Wilf Barclay, was charged with incidents that al- legedly took place between 12 and 30 years ago involving five victims. Barclay will appear in provin- cial court in Stratford on No- vember 7, it was reported in the Journal Argus. JK starts in Grey County MOUNT FOREST - Junior Kindergarten has been intro- duced to Grey County with three pilot projects underway since September. The three programs are operat- ing in different settings so the board can examine what works best. None of the JK classes arc mixed with senior kindergarten programs, it was reported in The Confederate. Benefit concert for VIA rail ST. MARYS - The home town jazz group A Combo with Fries will hold a benefit concert on Thursday, hoping to gather sup- port for VIA Rail. The band is asking those plan- ning to attend the afternoon con- cert to bring a pen and sign a pe- tition opposing more cuts to VIA service that is posted at thc train station. Petitions were put up at the train station and town hall a few months ago and many residents have already signed, it was re- ported in the Journal Argus. Landing pad near completion SEAFORTH - A helicopter landing pad curently under con- struction at Scaforth Community Hospital should be completed by the end of the month. According to the Huron Ex- positor, all costs of the estimated $40,000 project will be paid for by the Ministry of Health, ex- cept for regular maintenance for the site. Battle looms for Exeter and county County council votes to By Fred Groves T -A staff GODERICH - If you are a property owner in Exeter look- ing to sever a new lot, you may have to forget about going into the municipal office and filling out an application. If the county's new bylaw goes through, you will have to keep driving up the Highway to Goderich where the county's planning department will take care of the applica- tion on Exeter's behalf. That doesn't mean Exeter is incapable of doing the task, but rather, the town's "consent function" has been revoked by Huron County Council. Thursday in Goderich, a bylaw was passed which took away the authorization to both Exeter and Clinton who were withholding their outstanding bills oWing to the county for consent and planning fees. "This bylaw is a step backwards and is not in the best in- terest of the citizens of Exeter who are receiving excellent service in their community," said Exeter reeve Bill Mickle. Exeter has a solicitor who is negotiating with the county's lawyer over the dispute while Clinton is willing to pay the outstanding fees but have insisted since the objections be- gan, that they wanted more answers to their questions. cut off planning rights for Exeter and Clinton "Our council felt we needed more time to talk to our planning director. I'm just sorry it (negotiations) was cut off," said Clinton reeve Bee Cooke. "We didn't wish to go lawyer to lawyer," said Mickle who felt the issue would be better dealt with when Exeter's council and staff met with representatives from the county. In a letter from Exeter's solicitors, Lerner and Associates of London, it states that the town is willing to enter nego- tiations with the county to what the fees should be. "We have not as I am aware, received a response from your (county's) lawyer," said Mickle. "Where is the reply from the county's lawyers?" asked Exeter deputy -reeve Lossy Fuller. Wingham was joining Exeter and Clinton in their fight to get more clarification on whether or not the fees should be paid but Wingham's council decided to pay the fee instead of having their consent privileges taken away. The Planning and Development Committee minutes of September 12 state, "it is recommended that Wingham re- tain the delegated authority to administer consents and that the Planning and Development Department work in co- operation with the clerk's office to re-evaluate the cost of consent applications." It is clear that Exeter wants to retain the right to provide the service for its community. However, the manner in which they will fight to get it back, is not yet determined and a decision will have to be made by the entire Exeter council. "I can't answer that, I'm only one on a council of nine," said Mickle, when asked what action the town might take. One of the biggest mysteries surrounding this standoff between Exeter and the county is to what actual services the county's planning department provides and where is the itemized statement saying what they are and how much they cost. "In 1983, the consent function was granted to Exeter. In 1991, there was an agreement to who was going to do what," said Mickle. "Most of the work they (county) have done is commenting." "We did consents, we did zoning but we didn't ask them to become directly involved," added Mickle. Both Mickle and Exeter's administrator Rick Hundey a qualified planner, say there is no itemized statement. However, Hay Township's Lionel Wilder who is the chairman of the county's planning and development com- mittee insisted, "there was an itemized account." Town and township: who's running in 1994? Candidates have until Friday afternoon to get their names on the November 14 municipal ballot or Continued from front page. Other unregistered possible con- tenders include Chan Livingston, councillor Ervin Sillery, Mike Caers, and retiring PUC manager Hugh Davis. Grand Bend - Administrator Paul Turnbull said the election is progressing much more slowing than 1991's. Thus far, deputy -mayor Cam Ivey has registered for the mayor's position, and incumbent councillor Phil Maguire will seek re-election. Three newcomers have registered intent to seek council positions: Barbara Wheeldon, Shirley An- draza, and Robert Mann. "It seems pretty quiet," said Turn- bull, noting that until Thursday, only two had registered, and there are few sets of papers out in the community in the hands of pros- pective candidates. Zurich - "So far, nobody's reg- istered," said acting clerk Sharon Baker, but pointed out all council members were given nomination papers. • No other village residents have asked for papers at the office, said Baker. At least one councillor, Keith Semple, has indicated he will not he seeking re-election, leaving the village with the possibility of a short slate should no one else come forward before Friday's deadline. Lucan - Both the reeve Tom McLaughlin and deputy -reeve Har- ry Wraith have registered for re- election in the village with no other contenders so far. However, for councillor, clerk Ron Reymer said five had reg- istered for the three positions as of Friday afternoon. They include in- cumbents Robert Brady and Reg Crawford, and newcomers Robert Mosurinjohn, Rosemary Gahlinger- Beaune, and Martin Chittenden. Incumbent councillor Bryan Smith had not yet registered. Reymer said only one person has registered for the two seats on the village's hydro electric commission, Jim Freeman, the former manager of the commission. Hensall - Clerk -treasurer Luanne Phair said although three people have officially registered; election activity has been quite slow. So far, there arc two regulars running for council and one newcomer. Reeve Cecil Pepper has reg- istered to seek re-election for an- other term and Dick Packham is also seeking re-election on council. Steve Towle is a newcomer also seeking a position on council. As well, Gary Maxwell is seeking re- election with the Public Utilities Commission. As of Friday afternoon current council members Jeff Reaburn and Butch Hoffman hadn't officially stated their intentions. In mid-September Hoffman in- dicated to council he was intending to run again, while Reaburn was undecided. Councillor Bob Seaton said at that time he would not be running again. Stephen Township - With Ste- phen Township reeve Tom Tomes stepping down, deputy -reeve Bill Weber registered for the top spot on council Thursday. Registered for councillor's posi- tions include incumbents Wilmar Wein and Harvey Ratz, along with newcomer Drew Robertson, who ran in 1991. Linda Oliver said the Dashwood trustees have their papers, as does one in Crediton, but otherwise progress to register candidates has been slow. "We'll see more activity next week, positively," said Oliver. Hay Township - In Hay there are only two registered candidates, in- cumbent councillor Blaise Du - charm, and newcomer Don Oesch, reported clerk Janisse Zimmerman, who added she did not expect much activity until later this week. "I think it's going to be a Friday at five to five situation," she pre- 1icted.r w Osborne Tonship As of Fri day afternoon, Usborne had a full slate of registrants for council, with the exception of reeve Pat Down, who has indicated she will be seek- ing re-election. Councillor Rob Morley has reg- istered for the deputy -reeve's posi- tion. Current deputy -reeve Mar- garet Hern has not registered. Two incumbent councillors have registered for re-election: Ken Oke and Brian Hardeman. Retiring township huilding inspector Her- man VanWieren has also registered to run for a councillor's seat. "One more registration will put us into an election," said clerk San- dra Strang Friday afternoon, but noted only one person other than those noted above has taken out nomination papers and has yet to file. Biddulph Township - Biddulph reeve Earl French has announced he will seek re-election, and there is little to indicate if an election will he necessary in the township this year. Councillor Herman Steffans has registered to run for deputy -reeve, hut current deputy Jim Shipley has registered for a councillor's position in this election. Paul Wallis and Jim Barker have also indicated they will seek re- election as councillors. Biddulph clerk Larry Hotson said there has been little interest from the rest of the community in the election, with no one else asking for nomination papers. A newcom- er, Doug Anderson, has registered for the position of trustee for Gran- ton, but none of the three in- cumbents had registered as of Fri- day. Stanley Township - Although few people have filed notices in Stanley, there should be a bit of election action as the position of reeve is left vacant. Driver sought In. collision with bicycle EXETER - The OPP arc seeking the driver of a white car involved in a collision with a bicycle in Exeter last Tucsday. The police arc asking the public's assistance in identifying the driver, who struck a small girl from her hi - cycle on Victoria Street, resulting in minor injuries to the child. Tho car was described as being white in colour. The OPP arc also investigating the theft of eight signs, stolen from the arca of Lot 25 LRW in Hay Town- ship. The signs said "caution, chil- dren at play", "private drive", "no thru traffic" and speed 10kmh". Over the weekend, police laid 23 seatbelt violation charges, and an- other 50 charges under the highway traffic act, mostly for speeding. Clerk Ansberth Willert said the current reeve, Howard Armstrong has indicated he will be stepping down. Armstrong has been reeve since 1989. As of Friday afternoon the dep- uty -reeve, Jack Coleman, had filed to seek election as reeve while councillor Bill Dowson goes for the position of deputy reeve. Councillor Jack Dunn has filed to run again as councillor, but word was not in on Murray Taylor's in- tentions. Papers were also filed by trustee Bob Burton, who will be seeking re-election on the Huron County Board of Education. Willert said papers were also picked up by a member of the community inter- ested in the trustee position, but that person has yet to register. Tuckersmith Township - Clerk Jack McLachlan also said election activity was slow in his area. Of the five possible positions on council, McLachlan said only the reeve Bill Carnonchan has filed pa- pers for re-election. As of Friday, there was no word . Your Views Letters to the editor from deputy reeve Robert Broad - foot or from councillors Bill De - Jong, Robert McLeod or Larry McGrath regarding their intentions. Current Huron County Board of Education trustee Allan Carter has also filed papers for re-election. A final word: Keep in mind that even if a candidate registers his or her intent, if they don't file nomina- tion papers they won't be on the ballot. And even if they are nom- inated, they still have until 5 p.m. Monday, October 17 to withdraw from the race. Response to mayor's letter Our present municipal office is adequate with enough lot that an addition can be made.... Dear Editor: I wish to make some comments on Mayor Shaw's letter to "set the record straight" regarding the work 'at Main and Sanders corner. The Mayor said that Heritage Square is a result of (overwhelming) re- quests from the Strategic Planning meeting. If you read the summary of that meeting you will see that many ideas were presented and that just as many people mentioned hard services (water and sewer) as mentioned the old town hall and or library. As one participant at the meeting told me "If anyone came out of that meeting thinking that the old town hall is the number one priority in Exeter he went into it thinking that way." One thing that seems to be forgotten is that the question that night was "Where do we want to he in twenty years?" Why the rush to do this in twenty months? In his letter the Mayor stated that thc infrastruc- ture grant for the town hall project was $560,000. Not quite correct since one third of that $560,000 comes from Exeter, 1 1/3 federal money, 1/3 pro- vincial money, 1/3 municipal money." Mayor Shaw says that we do know what the town hall will cost. True. Sorta $560,000. But at this writing we do not know what we are getting for that money. Will the renovations provide upgrades for windows insulation and furnace so that it will not cost an arm and leg to heat? Will the renovations provide upgraded wiring (if necessary) so that all the electrical machines of the modern office can op- erate? The basement is small, full of must and mil- dew, a sump pump at the ready? Will these prob- lems be corrected so that the basement is usable or will it remain a damp hole in the ground? Will these renovations do a complete job now; or will they jut do the skeleton, leaving the guts to be worked on (and paid for) later? There are some things that $560,000 does not cov- er: architect fees (10-12% or $60,000) or services to the huilding. There is a major storm sewer near the town hall that will need work done on it before much construction is done, estimate $20,000. Present plans call for the upstairs of the town hall to become council chambers but would not be renovat- ed at this time. At thc council meeting held there" this summer council found that the lighting is poor, the acoustics are worse and there is no furniture. How much to change that - $40-$50,000? Just these three items will add almost twenty percent to the cost and as 'one experienced renovator said "I haven't seen a renovation yet that was done on bud- get." Just the "known" "not counted" and the "not sure" could quite easily push the $560,000 to $750,000 (My guess is as good or bad as any- body's). If the entire project goes likethat maybe $2 mil- lion is not that far out. Ironically, our present munic- ipal office is adequate with enough lot that an addi- tion can be made when necessary and it can be bought for $45,000. As for lack of handicap access the difference between the main floor of municipal offices and the sidewalk is about three feet. If you have to pay $50,000 (Mayors figure) to put in a con- crete handicap ramp for a three foot lift I'll be in the cement business tomorrow. The list of alternate projects proposed by Public Works called for a mix of projects: two storm sew- ers (one of which does not now or likely ever will qualify for a Provincial grant, repairs and equipment replacement at the rec centre which will reduce op- erating costs, improvements, repairs, equipment re- placement at parks and playgrounds, as well as com- pleting a park which has been on the books for years but never started in past because of a lack of funds. This list provides for maximum use of the infra- structure grant and provides services and facilities that arc wanted and needed now - not desired twenty years down the road. The Mayor's statement "we have always prac- tised personal restraint and sound economic man- agement and there is no need to change now. "In these times of less provincial grant money having to do more locally, spending $560,000 plus to move municipal offices from currently adequate facilities that can be bought for $45000 is not fiscal restraint or sound economic management. Exeter has com- mitted itself to improving its water supply (estimat- ed cost $3 million).Soon we will have to improve sewer treatment (guesstimate $3 million there too). With these two items before us Exeter does not need another project of $1.5 or $2 million or whatever cost on its hack. Mayor Shaw said in his letter that Heritage Square will become the heart and soul of Exeter. What is the wisdom in providing heart and soul for Exeter when the body (town) can not afford --It? Robert Drummond Councillor, Town of Exeter Axworthy prepares to test the waters Now is the time to use your God- given right to protect the future of this country... i)car Editor: In an effort to reduce or withdraw social benefit programs, the federal minister Lloyd Axworthy will present a study to the people in the hopes of getting approval to initiate reductions. Perhaps he could provide leadership for us all by first reducing MP or MPP golden pensions after only six years. eg. Mur- ray Elston's age 44 pension will be $48,000 per year indexed. Now not later might be the time to get hack to ha- sics and a good place to start might be the upcoming municipal elections. Just like W5 on TV ask some questions and get some answers. If an elected person has made pmmises in the past (cg. to hold or reduce taxes or provide increased ser- vices) did they follow through? If not, why not? Now is the time to use your God- given right to protect the future of this country for your children and/or grandchildren. Leo Krooncn Dublin