HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1981-11-04, Page 1te1
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133 YEAR -44
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4,1981 , GODERICH, ONTARIO
50 CENTS PER COPY
Remembrance
Day service
planned
Next Wednesday, November 11, marks one of the
most important dates in Canadian history,
Remembrance Day.
Initially, Remembrance Day signalled the end of a
bitter war, a war that cost thousands of Canadian
soldiers their lives.
Subsequently, the day has been set aside to pay
respects to those soldiers who bravely fought for their
country. Each year, the Royal Canadian Legion
conducts a poppy campaign in the days preceeding
Remembrance Day and this year, Branch 109
members, will be seeking your support for the cam-
paign.
Donations received for the poppy campaign are
held in a trust account and are used to provide
emergency aid for veterans and their families, prizes
for Remembrance Day essay and poem contests, to
purchase hospital equipment and to provide
bursaries for local students furthering their
education beyond secondary school:
This Sunday, Legion members will march from the
legion to Victoria Street United Church for the 10 a.m.
service.
Remembrance Day services will be held at the
cenotaph. in Court House Park, Wednesday,
November 11 beginning at 11 a.m., Members of
Branch 109 will march from the Legion to the
cenotaph before remembrance ceremonies begin.
Everyone is urged to, wear a poppy and attend the
services in honor of those who gave their lives for
Canada.
Rose Hill of the Ladies' Legion Auxiliary presents
Mayor Harry Worsell with the first official poppy of
Branch 109's 1981 poppy campaign. Members of the
Auxiliary and the Branch will be selling poppies from
strategic locations around town on Saturday and will
conduct a door-to-door blitz on Sunday. (Photo by
Joanne Buchanan)
s orraisn
isslon hne route
Hydro sett e
By Gregor Campbell
Ontario Hydro wants to build 300 kilometres of
transmission lines and about 1,664 towers from the
Bruce Nuclear Power Development south to London
then east to the Middleport transformer station near
Hamilton, at a capital cost of about $350 -million in
1981 dollars. The line will run just east of Clinton.
One 500,000 -volt double circuit line, which could
involve 50 -metre high towers on a right-of-way 76
metres wide, from Bruce to a new transformer
station at London would be required for this preferred
plan: Where exactly these towers and lines would be
situated in this area has yet to be determined, save
for a zone 13 to 50 kilometers wide through Bruce,
Huron and Middlesex counties where the specific
route would be located if approved after public
hearings under the Environmental Assessment Act
expected to start in January.
Hydro chairman Hugh Macaulay announced the
preferred plan at London Thursday. It is one of six
alternative general routes the utility, public and
special interest groups have been studying since
June.
"Now, with the benefit of more than four months'
public input combined with our own analyses, we feel
this plan best meets economic, environmental and
technical criteria," Mr. Macaulay said. "The new
facilities will enable all the power from the Bruce
nuclear plants to be delivered, provide for future
electricity needs in southwestern Ontario (to the year
2,000), and maintain transfer capability with the
Michigan utilities."
The Hydro chairman said plan one was Selected by
a process of elimination, after working groups had
narrowed down their preferred choice of plans to two,
plans one and five. Hydro preferred the same two
Boo! And with the casting of a witch's spell,'another
Halloween has come and gone, leaving behind the odd
tunny ache, cavity, and soaped window. Employees
at
several. banks dressed up Friday in approp
attire, including Royal Bank loans officer Mary
Henry. (Photo by Cath Wooden)
plans.
"Both are excellent plans technically and are
comparable in capital cost," Macaulay said, "the
first plan however has higher long-term costs
because of greater transmission line losses
associated with it."
"The biggest advantage of plan one over all•other
plans is that it represents the best option from an
overall environment perspective. In terms of its
potential effect on agriculture, the plan requires the
least number, of transmission towers of any of the
plans, and calls for only one line from Bruce to
London as compared with two required by plan five."
Hydro released four and one-half pounds of
documentation when announcing its preferred plan
Thursday. The documentation notes public interest
was highest at Clinton, Lucknow, Ailsa Craig,
Turn to page 3,
Factfinder report
to be released
The Education Relations Commisslon:repotite d Opt
Anne Barrett, aPPointed factfltlder in the.
negotiations between the Buren Board .pf EUoq
and its secondary school teachers, submitted her
report to thecommission on Tuesday, October27. •
As required under Section 26 of the School Boards
and Teachers Collective Negotiations, Revised
Statutes of Ontario, 1980, the teachers and trustees
will then have a further 15 days to continue
negotiations on the basis of this report, There is a
provision for an additional five days under the act if
the trustees and teachers agree and if the Com-
mission gives
om-mission.gives its approval.
The factfinder's report will not be made public until
the end of the 20 -day period, if the two sides have not
reached an agreement on the 1981-82 contract.
Subsidy for rural
hydro is unfair
Hydro rates will increase by 10 per cent
Local hydro customers will be paying approx-
imately 10 per cent more for electricity next year as
the effects of a rise in the cost of power from Ontario
Hydro to utilities filters through to the consuming
public. -
While the increase cost of supplying -hydro to
utilities across the province was announced last
week, local utilities will likely increase costs to con-
sumers by January 1982.
Of the 9.6 per cent increase from hydro to utility
customers, 8.3 per cent represents a general increase
that includes 2.5 per cent for acid rain abatement and
1.3 per cent of the increase is a surcharge to subsidize
rural customers.
That surcharge, to subsidize the cost of electricity
to rural customers, was severely criticized by the On-
tario Municipal Electric Association (OMEA). The
association said that passage of Bill 141 in the
Legislature, that requires municipal utilities to sub-
sidize the cost of rural residential electricity, is un-
fair.
OMEA President, James Collins, said a flood of
telegrams were sent to Premier William Davis as se-
cond reading of the bill Was scheduled for Tuesday,
October 27.
The government is attempting to reduce the. cost
diffeiential-between-ur-ban-and rural residential
sumers. Distribution costs. are .naturally greater in
rural areas where there is an average thirteen
customers per mile compared to 40 customers per
mile. in -an urban.distribution system.
i T�earc ,tipn claims.theleg slatipn.ts attempting
.`^'�,1. 'the
•
s-a ear «. o;a-� ,-�. e�
to reduce the` cost:`differentiatbetwneen. urban and
rural residential consumer at the expense of the ur-
ban consumer. The association says that through the
reduction scheme, many urban customers will pay
higher rates than their rural counterparts. .
"This action is grossly unfair to municipal utility
customers who will have to pay that increased rate,
without redress,. for at least one year," Collins said.
"OMEA has stated its continued support for the.prin-
ciple of power -at -cost and that costs should be assess-
' ed to the consumer groups that cause them. No single
class of customer should receive or expect to receive
a reduction in rates at the expense of another group of
customers."
With the new bill, the differential will be reduced to
15 per cent from the existing 28 per cent.
Chairman of the Goderich Public Utility Commis-
sion, Dr. Jim Peters, also a director of the OMEA,
believes the legislation is unfair to the urban con-
sumer.
"It's getting . away from the traditional way of
handling things and the user pay concept," he said.
"For the farmer, hydro is a legitimate. business ex-
pense
xpense and if hydro can be distributed for less in town
the costs should be less."
Certainly, local utilities will argue against the in-
crease to customers to subsidize rural rates. Peters
said Goderich residents will be made aware of the
situation *their statement.-.—
• "People should pay -for what they get, he said:
"Distribution costs far more in the country and the
municipality is being asked to pay for the distribution
charges of country people.,,
The surcharge will be reviewed next year, and -the
""God'erie��':�es=r�a't �,'iulic�liul-'e�e"��r`s �►ili�-' =
make some noise about the surcharge.
Police offer reward for
information on sling- shooter
BY JOANNE BUCHANAN
Windows in nine buildings and four vehicles were
damaged by a person shooting steel balls and mar-
bles from a sling -shot during the Halloween weekend.
The Goderich Police Department will pay a reward
of $100 to anyone for information leading to the arrest
of the person 'or persons who did damage with the
sling -shot.
Local nurses not part of
ONA contract settlement
An Ontario arbitrator has awarded the province's
24,000 nurses in 134 hospitals a two-year contract with
an average 30 per cent salary increase.
The members of the Ontario Nurse's Association
have been without a contract since October 1980 and
the settlement handed down by arbitrator J.D.
O'Shea, October 23, does not involve the nursing staff
at Alexandra Marine and General Hospital.
Hospital administrator, Elmer Taylor, said the
hospital is not part of the central bargaining process
but the board generally honors the ONA settlement.
"We are not part of that central bargaining process
and I am reluctant to say what will happen here," he
said. "We have not joined the central committee but
have honored the settlements. Past history has been
that we have worked thesettlement into our own
contract here."
The two-year agreement awarded ONA calls for an
average 30 per cent increase that gives starting
nurses a 31 per cent increase over two years and
nurses with seven years' experience 29.2 per cent. By
April 1982, the starting salary for nurses will be
$22,800 a year and the seven-year level will rise to
$25,980. -
The agreement expires September 30, 1982. The
new contract, if accepted, Kill be implemented in
four stages over the two years.\The starting salary of
$1,450 per month will rise to $1,980 by April, 1982 and
the salary for nurses with seven' years' experience
will rise to $2,165 from $1,676 per month.
The local hospital board has waited for the ar-
bitrator award before making an offer to the 80 full
and part-time registered nurses working at
Alexandra Marine and General Hospital. Taylor
expects the contract matter will be settled in the next
few weeks.
Debra Cooper Burger, president of the Ontario
Nurses Assocation says the contract will not stop
nurses from leaving the province to earn more money
in hospitals in Western Provinces and the United
States. She said the association is also unhappy with
the meagre difference between the starting and
seven -year -level salaries, created by the settlement.
As far as Taylor is concerned, the contract set-
tlement is close to what he anticipated and the board
shoul�e able to accommodate the settlement within
the budget.
The local board has also reached a new agreement
with members of the Service Worker's Union that
calls for a 28 per cent increase over 14 months.
The contract, affecting approximately 120 support
and maintenance staff and Registered Nurses'
Assistants runs from April 1, 1981 to May, 1982. The
new contract calls for a reduction in the work week to
371/2 hours from 383/5 hours per week. That reduction
was calculated in the overall percentage increase.
Goderich town council accepted a tender bid of
$16,000 from Middlesex Maintenance and Supply
Company Ltd. to install a new 5,000 gallon un-
derground fuel tank at Goderich Airport.
The tender was one of two received, the other being
a bid of $17,315 from Rathwell and Rathwell.
The underground fuel tank, with a capacity of 5,000
gallons, will replace the existing 1,000 gallon tank.
While the cost of the tank was estimated at $10,000 the
lowest bid was accepted and will be subject to BILD
grants.
Council also passed a motion to retain the firm of
Greer, Galloway and Associates Ltd. to complete the
master plan for the Goderich Airport. The cost of the
'master plan study is $12,400.
County council approves new contract
BY STEPHANIE LEVESQUE
A two-year collective agreement retroactive to
Jan. 1 for the Ontario Nurses' Association Local 168
,__.w66 PProyl'.£1_.I3'Ruron Count��V Gil .-_._.� _..__.___
ate Reeve Paul Steckle of nley Township said the
Lou agreement involved a lot of wording, such as putting
into contract an addition of mother-in-law and father -
in-law to the three-day section of the bereavement
leave.
In answer to a question, Reeve Steckle said the
agreement came in lower than recent provincial set
--tlementsto-the-ONA Ie-a1se-noted-salaries ifereaSes4----
by 10 per cent for 1901 and 12 per cent for 1982.
A new clause in the agreement states, "a nurse
'I'urn to page 3
Also during the. Halloween weekend, one other car
window was broken by another means and a fence
was painted, bringing the total number of mischief
and wilful damage incidents to 15. ` There were two
disturbance calls, one leaf fire, one drug offence, two
motor vehicle accidents, one domestic complaint, 13
miscellaneous calls, 13 total criminal offences; two
criminal charges laid, 13 driving charges laid, 15
liquor seizures, 14 liquor charges, three found
properties, four arrests, one sudden death and one
break and enter.
During the past week, Constables George Lonsbary
and Peter Mason arrested four local youths and laid a
total of 18 charges of break, enter and theft or break
and enter with intent involving recent break-ins at
GDCI, the arena, Little Joe's, Standard Auto Glass
and other establishments. A total of 11 break-ins have
been cleared in the past two weeks by Constable
Lonsbary assisted by Constable Mason.
Police say it appears during one weekend that two
separate groups of persons were engaged in break-ins
around town. All have been cleared and a total of 25
Turn to page 3.
INSIDE THE
SIGNAL -STAR
Receives award
Dorothy Wallace is one of two winners from
Ontario of Community Service Awards
presented in Halifax recently by The Heritage
Canada Foundation. Read about Mrs.
Wallace's achievement on page IA.
Go Vikin
Once again, GDCI football to s have proved
themselves on Huron -Perth Conference
which are to be played this Saturday. See thel
sports pages.
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