The Goderich Signal-Star, 1973-08-19, Page 3he Aaron County Court House
IF r
GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, THUR8DiAY, AUGUST23, 11117S-PAO$ 3A
b on . Shaw
County engineer must be manager
County Engineer Jim
leans back, behind a
itered with the mor -
d in his Court ,House
d observes that the
"Running on paper."
seems to be more ad -
live work all the
e notes as he talks
s responsibilities as
he County machinery.
r fills this position
as much a manager as
engineer," he ex -
ed
ighways Improvement
ver does specify that
my in the Province of
ust appoint a County
and that man must be
Tonal engineer,
the direction of the
County Road Committee that
engineer must then supervise
and . manage the system of
roads and highways located
within the County.
County Council and the
Road Committee are the policy
setting bodies but once those
policies have been hammered
out and the budget struck the
County Engineer is on his own.
All tenders however are han-
dled by the committee.
This year Huron County, on
the recommendation of Road
Committee members W.J.
Cuthill, J. Hoffman, W.J.
Elston, J. Dietrich and R.
McNichol, will spend a grand
total of $1,987,000 On the road-
ways of the County.
Maintenance of roads and
essive roster of guests
bridges will take $692,000. of
that total, bridge and culvert
construction another $15,000
boundary road bridge construc-
tihn $120,000, road construc-
tion $46,000 in the first
allocation and $618,000 in the
second and another $410,000
will go for miscellaneous -road
costs such as rebates, ad-
ministration and overhead,
new machinery and a salt shed.
Of that total the County of
Huron will actually -only put up
37.1% or $738,000. The
Province of Ontario, through
the Ministry of Transportation
and Communications, will put
up -the remaining 62.9% or
$1,249,000.
The 1973 budget is slightly
higher than 1971 and 1972
Historical plaque to
urday, August 25 at
, an historical plaque
the Van Egmond
11 be unveiled in front
ructure in Egmond-
r Seaforth.
aque is one of a series
ected throughout- the
by the Historical and
Branch, Ministry of
and Universities, ac-
he advice of the Ar-
al 'and Historic Sites
Ontario.
y's ceremony is being
and sponsored by the
mond Foundation,
airman, James Doig,
t as master of
s.
those who have been
o takepart are: His
F.C.J. Sills, Mayor of
R.V. Pattison, War-
uron County; Elgin
n, Reeve, Tuckersmith
; Robert McKinley,
ronl; Jack Riddell,
(Huront; R. Alan
Curator, Hiram
Histo'rical Museum,
represent .Cntario's
Sites Board; Prof.
Scott, •the noted
'Dr. Rodger Whit-
e -Chairman of the
mond Foundation;
finery; Reeve and for -
of Seaforth; Harold :.
President, Huron
istorical Society; and
rend Harold Snell, a
f the Foundation and
ant. of COI. Anthony
ond.
que will be unveiled
usan Van Egmond, a
t of the Colonel. The
Clifford Britton, a
ited Church minister,
scendant of Colonel
ond,'will dedicate the
ription on the plaque
EGMOND HOUSE
se was built about
onstant Van Egmond;
of Col. Anthony Van
a leader of rebel
orces in the Rebellion
It has the sturdy
ns typical 'cif ;the
vernacular inter -
of the Georgian style
any otOntario's early
century buildings.
some door with its
lar transom and
belongs to the style of
cal Revival which
the province's ar-
in the 1830's and
e structure .depends
ect on good propor-
aside from the door,
rchitectural detailing
a decorative brick
der the eaves. It
a good example of
s early architecture.
This large attractive house,' payment enabled him to ac -
situated on n hill, overlooking cumulate vast areas of land
the Bayfield River, was at.the and by the mid 1830's he was
time of its construction the probably the largest landowner
most substantial house in the in the Tract. His holdings have
area. It was built by John been estimated at about 14,000
Dietrick Constant Louis Van acres.
Egmond, the eldest son of
Colonel Anthony Van Egmond,
one of the men most prominent
in --the settlement- of the Huron
Tract. ,-
Of Dutch birth, the elder Van
Egmond came to America in
1819, settling in Indiana
County, Pennsylvania. In 1827
he moved to Waterloo County,
Upper Canada, and the
following year he began his
association with the Huron
-Tract when he secured the
general contract for the con
strulstion of a road through this
newly surveyed -region. Van
Egmond secured a one hundred
acre lot in Hullett Township, a
few miles west of the present
town of Seaforth. To thisland
his family - was moved from
Waterloo County.
As cash was in short supply -
in Upper Canada, Van Egmond
waft-paid'sfoi-the•construction'of --Bayfield River It was Con-
, the .Ht,4004,(►dt by,,trimeans,of ,-µstmt's intention Codevelop this
land efedits: This method' of •`sit into -a manor' village patter -
Part of these vast holdings
was a 600 acre parcel of land
on the Bayfield River in
Tuckersmith Town?;hip. It ap-
pears that the Canada Com-
pany had erected mills there in
1832-3:3. Van Egmond pur-
chased the property on January
30, 1836, but before the deed
could 'be executed he became
embroiled; in the Rebellion of
1837 as commander of the rebel
military forces. Following the
skirmish at Montgomery's
Tavern in Toronto,, Van'
Egmond was captured -and im-
prisoned. Early the following
year, before he had :been
brought to trial, Van Egmond
died in prison.
His son Constant acquired
many of his, properties, in-
eluding the mills and the six
hundred acres of land on the
Goderich
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524-8452
•
road budgets but it is being
financed with the same amount
of County funds as requested in
1971 and 1972. This is accom-
plished because of extra allot-
ments from the Province.
The county engineer's office
at the Huron County Court
House is really only the. "tip of
the iceburg" in relation to the
full scale of employees and,ac-
tivities involved in operating
the County road system. In ad-
dition to Mr. Britnell there is a
full time bookkeeper and a part
time stenographer. The bulk of
the department employees are
in the field.
The whole of the county is
divided into three main "Patrol
districts" - North, Center and
South. Each of these patrols is
responsible for approximately
120 miles of road, winter and
surnrner.
About 15 men man each
'patrol, although during -the
summer months much .of this
complement is' made up of part.
time employees who fill in
daring the holiday period.. Each
patrol is equipped with two
motor graders.
During the winter snow
plowing is a full time activity
for the complete patrol staff.
The county owns 11 snow
plows and .rents another four,
with drivers. In the case of the
county machines patrol.' staff
man the operation but with the
rented vehicles the county sup-
plies only the wing man.
-Huron also owns eight
be unveiled
ned on the great estates
of England.
The, village, which he named
Egmondville, began
auspiciously ,and prospered for
the first twenty years of its
existence. The Van Egmond's
were the predominant family
and controlled most of the land
and industry,. Constant
operated • the grist and fThur
mills and his brother Leopold
erected" a sawmill and later a
woollen mill. In addition to the
Van -Egmond enterprises there
was a foundry, a .brewery, a
tannery and several stores and
taverns. The community also
had a large school and after
1855 a post office.
As a residence befitting his
position in the community Con-
stant built the large 211' storey
/brick house which :still stands.
in the' village •of Egmondville.
It is a rather plain building
and depends for its effect. on
good proportions rather than
architectural -detailing. The
solid and sturdy proportions
are typical of the Canadian ver-
nacular- interpretat1i n of the
Georgian style seen in Ontario--`a`I?,mond."
rn the irly 19th'Cetitury , while'i•
-
the door with its rectangular
transom and sidelights belongs
to the style of Classical.
Revival, which dominated On-
tario's domestic architecture in
the I830's and 1840's.
e
Apart from this handsome
door, the only detailing consists
of a ,decorative brick frieze un-
der the eaves. This adds in-
terest to thew front facade
although it is perhaps too finely
scaled 'for the balance' of the
building; The exterior of the
house has been altered by the
removal of the original veran-
dah ,and t he •reconstruction of
the roof.
The house .was recently
acquired by the •Van Egmond
Foundation, a' non-profit
organization with members
throug-hout Huron County.
This organization,with the
financial assistance organization,,
the On-
tario Heritage Foundation, is
planning to restore the house to
its original appearance and
Open it to• the public as an
historic site "recording the
v, urds and works of Van
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Back to school
ALREADY?
Due to strikes, manufacturing slowdowns, etc., stocks have been arriving slowly
but they're finally on their way.
DROP IN TO SEE OUR
BACK TO SCHOOL
SH • ES
For All Ages
SPOOULE
SHOES Kingston
Men's, Women s. Boy s
Leather and Su1e,de
JOG SHOES
HAVE JUST ARRIVED
trucks with sanding hoppers
and rents three additional
trucks for which they supply
the sanding hoppers.
At the head of .each patrol is
a foreman who is • directly
responsible for the upkeep of
roads in his district. Once or
twice each week these foremen
meet with the County engineer
to discuss problems and mull
over program's.
The summer Months are
maintenance time for the road
patrols. "There are 100 main-
tenance operations," Mr. Brit-
nell explains, "it's very hard to
list them all."
For the most part this main-
tenance involves grass cutting,
grading, patching the road-
ways, painting sign posts and
guard rails, weed spraying,
drain repairs and so on.
The County of Huron also
has its own road construction
crew. "We hire the heavy equip-
ment, like six or seven dump
trucks (with operators), a crane
or power shovel, compaction
equipment, and 10 to 15 ad-
ditional men, mostly laborers,
engineer Britnell explains.
"We do our own labor and.
call tenders on things like
crushed gravel and hot mix
pavement.
The county owns three
bulldozers and during construc-
tion several of its graders are
assigned to. the •work as well.
"We have about 45 permanent
employees," Mr.' Britnell notes,
"hut that number increases to
over 100 during construction."
Huron is unique among coun-
ties in that- it also has its own
bridge construction crew. "To
the best of my knowledge we
are the only county in Ontario
to build our own bridges," Mr.
Britnell points out.
"We have six to,. eigh.t.--,dkey
men and because wee havethese
employees we can do the job
better. and -cheaper, although
there- are plenty of contractors
who would argue with that
statement," the engineer adds.
Anything over 20 feet in
length pis considered a bridge by
county standards, anything un-
der that length .is a culvert. In
the pst. few years the county.
has constructed. at. least 50
bridges using its own construc-
tion crew.
In addition to the road
patrols, construction gangs and
bridge building crews the
county also, employs a garage
superiisor and mechanic
through the engineer's office.
These men are based at the
central maintenance shop in
Auburn and provide service to
county equipment.
"We use tthe derlt'lers more
and more because of the dif-
ferentmakes of equipmept we
own,'°" Mr. Britnell explains, "if
we kept our meclifanic trained
c!•
for all the quipment he would
be at school a11 the time and
never on the job."
Although Jim Britnell finds
more and more that his world
is running on paper he makes
an effort; to tour job sites and
county roads - as often as
possible.
On the surface it may seem
that his job has become only
that of a manager but the
decisions he must make each
day are still based do his skills
as an engineer and without
that qualification the best
decision could not be Made.
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