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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1980-01-24, Page 17For several years no. w a small strong-willed 'group' of .disabled and able-bodied peopje have gathered once .a month in Huron . County',. The group, the ".Awareness League for Physically Handicapped Adults in Huron County, better known simply. as ALPHA - Huron, is concerned with making •their county a better place to live for the physically disabled., Like the Ontario March of Dimes, ALPHA -Huron is concerned with structural barriers • that restrict the disabled from many Community buildings. ` According to Pat Watson of Brussels, President of ALPHA- --Huron, -communities---in- the area have responded poorly to the ' group's • requests for • more ac- cessible buildings and downtown areas. "eW In't expect people to.` tear down buildings to,,make them accessible• •• However, when new „ones are being constructed, •we would like to offer our advice'on how to .make • them ac- • cesesible to : everyone,". shesays. • • As someone .who • has• beenc.onfined • to.. a wheelchair;sirlce 1967 due to a spinal infection;. Pat knows ,,.•th.e full im- plications, • of an• inac- cessible cormunity. .Some of -the structural barriers - facing the physically.. disabled are curbs, narrow doorways, stairs -and small washrooms. Most of these barriers can be avoided before construction if the -needs of the disabted-are- considered beforehand. If this -is done, there is usually little • or no ad- ditional cost to the building. •terms of accessibility. GO RIcH 'However, despite letters from ALPHA- Huron to all the area town councils, explaining, the. importance of ' ac- cessibility, and the group's willingness to offer advice on the matter; inaccessible buildings ' continueto be built. "I find it. frustrating ' that so few People ask us about _What we need," says Pat.., Perfect examples of this are the new com- munity centres in some towns: They were made accessible, or so the builders thought, by putting in elevators and making some alterations. - The only -problem --is that the builders did not seek the advice of the disabled ' and, as a result, many of the alterations are poor in !eople particular Pat Watson of Brussels, President of the Awareness, League for Physically, Handicapped Adults in Huron County, is fighting to make the area a better place for disabled people to live in. She herself has been confined to a wheelchair since 1967 due to a spinal infection. (Photo compliments of the Marchof Dimes) Areaplann€rs take no chances ,. ,.,iinc.JEFF:S.EDDON.....-_. Goderich Area Plan- ning board"? . is leaving nothing to chance.when it zones raw land that will be open for. development when the Suncoast Drive, extension 'is constructed. Planning board briefly discussed zoning the 'property at its January meeting and decided to take a long, hard look at the area before deciding what the land- wbuld be used for. The land, now just open fields, will be much in demand when the new road is . constructed ac- cording to some mem- bers -of the board. Bob Allen warned the board that the zoning of the land should be done as soon as possible. He said once the new road goes through 'the pressure onplanning board to Zone the land will be "tremendous The property is san- dwiched - between the residential development off Bennett Street and the, town's Industrial Park. The extension of Suncoast Drive will, run behind the Delbar subdivision and will serve as. thenorthern boundary for the in- dustrial park. , Eileen Palmer said planning board could eliminate delay by handling the zoning problem now. Palmer conceded there was "no urgency" now to zone the land but said planning board should have zoned land-. available, .to.,.. avoid_.. putting . land . buyers "through the loops". Ken Hunter, _:._ com- missioner of works, told planning board that if the zoning was handled right the town could end up with "classy" develop- mentt He saidthe land " fringed on industry and residential and could be used for light industry with a store front ap- pearance. " Hunter -added that once the road was put through there would be a con- siderable number of people looking at the land. "It's• just. prime," he said. . Vince Young ''pointed out thatif the . board wanted to add value to the land in thearea it could consider the depth of its zoning. He"saf i. if all the board zoned was the land fronting on Suncoast Drive it could limit what could be available. He suggested the board consider adding depth to the land by investigating the possibility of short circular streets running off Suncoast Drive. The board wants some input fromthe county • planning department on the' availability of land ripe for light industry and the amount that could be set aside for such development. It plans to take -another look at the matter at its February session. Ontario Ministry of Housing THE PLANNING ACT Notice of Application for Amendment to Minister's Restricted Area Order --750/73 Township of Colborne Take notice that application to amend the restricted area order filed as Ontario Regulation 750/73 has been received by the Minister of Housing. The appli- cation is: (1) Applicant: Mr. J. SIbtegraof File No.: 40Z/001/80 Proposal: To in.stall a mobile home as a second dwelling on part Lot 9, Con. 3. All submissions in support of, or in opposition to, the application described' above, ,and received by 'the Ministry of Housing, 7th floor, 56 Wellesley St. West, Thronto, M7A 2K4 Ontariobn or before the 7th day of February, 1980 will be fully considered before a final decision is made thereon. Please refer to the file number indicated above. Ili addition, under section 32(9) of The Planning. Act, any interested person may request a hearing by the Ontario Municipal Board on an application for amendment to a restricted area order. Claude F. Bennett Minister of Housing • However, Pat is quick to point out that the of --- forts, to 'make therm ee- cessible are appreciated by the disabled as they ;now can usethe facilities. Her only .wish is that the advice of ALPHA -Huron be sought before more changes are made. The ALPHA group, whose members include boor disabled and able - ,bodied. people from across Huron County, meets once 'a month in either Brussels or. Clinton to discuss such concerns as accessibility , and housing. Everyone is welcome to attend the meetings. Membership costs only $1 per year. Further in- formationcan he _ob- tained from Pat Watson by contacting her at her Brussels home. The group wants the people of Huron County to listen to the needs of the physically disabled arid to realize that ALPHA - Huron. can be a valuable resource to the citizens of Huron County. The Ontario • March of Dimes would like to point Out that there are over. 750,000 disabled people in Ontario. It's a group too large to be ignored. R,' A ';• Lkfnsed Eleectrk iuni -:retdential 4lommrmorf�i. xl tlWork • opals rteasonable Ratp!s COM; 324• 4* a s -1 APPLIANCE REPAIl Large or small, we'l'l fix them all... , Our repair experts will have your appliance in tip top shape fast. Call us to- day. PECK APPLIANCES "IN THE HEART OF DOWNTOWN VARNA" VARNA• 482-7103 Your Headquarters for eT' TOWER INSTALLATIONS, REPAIR & SERVICE • DELHI & CHANNEL MASTER •TOWERS. ANTENNAS & BOOSTERS •SHARP COLOUR TV • • • MIDLAND C.B ALVIN'S T<V, 162 MARY ST. GODERICH 524-9089 1+1. THE MET Ontario' March of Dimes regional director, David Dirks, explains the function of the groups new machine TOSC -II to Liberal MPP Jack 'Riddell during'Awareness. Day at the Suncoast Mall. The factory Authorized RCA s APPROX. VALUE with the •purchose of -either of r arms® ter— the�_ew..__... Black &white RCA Sportable XL -100 Color TV consoles CD121 heat sensitive machine allows physically han- dicapped adults to activate several, electronic appliances in the home. (photo by Dave Sykes) • RCA XL -100 26" • picture tube (63 cm diagonal picture) h.. RCA XL -100 26" 1.• RCA ComPact 12 Sportable TV A lightweight compact 12" TV with solid -stale chas- sis that delivers a spar- kling parkling black and white plc-' ture Solid-state UHF and VHF tuners with one -set VHF fine tuning:twill-in combination VHF 'UHF antenna and fast - warmup picture tube Yours free when you buy one of these color consoles, RCA XL -100 26" consoles'` Coionial or Mediterranean styling Both models offer Automatic Color Control and Fieshtone Correction systems. Signal ock electronic single knob UHF VHF tuning XtendedLffe chassis for reliable, economical performance and many other quality features Super RCA values, YOUR CHOICE OF FIVE DIFFERENT RCA 26" CONSOLE M: DELS GROVES T.V. at APPLIANCE CENTRE "We service what we sell" 10 HURON STREET, CLINTON 482-9414 WILL BE CL. SED ALL DAY MONDAY JANUARY 28th FOR INVENTORY Re -opening Tuesday, January 29 at regular hours IMPORTANT PLEASE READ CAREFULLY o tario AN OPEN •LETTER TO ALL PROPERTY OWNERS ,AND TENANTS IN THE TOWN OF GODERICH Dear Sir or Madam: • The Town'CoOncil by means of a resolution dated November 19, 1979. requested an • • equalized assessment roll for faxation In 1980. Your Council made the request in response to a need to make astessed values equitable with the assessment of similar real property in the vicinity. Consequently, your assessment notice shows your equalized .assessment as required under Section 86(3) of The Assessment Act. Your 1980 taxes will be levied on this assessment. The equalized assessment was calculated in the following 'manner, : ) The' market value for each property was established for the year 1975. , Market value is the amount you might expect to obtain for your property if you willingly sold it to a willing buyer. The market value of a farm actually used for • farming purposes is the amount you might, as a farmer, expect to obtain if you sold to anotherfarnier who intends to use the land for farming purposes. 2. The market value of each property was adjusted by a factor which has been calculated to ensure that: (a) There are no tax shifts from one class of property to another. . (b) The municipality does not suffer a loss in grants or an increase in shared cost apportionments. (c) The classes and•percentage'factors used in Goderich are: Residential (under 7 units) 7.895 percent Commercial 9.337 percent Multi -Residential (7 units +) 13.366 percent Industrial, 11.624 percent,_ Farm 10.667 percent The assessment. notice shows the following information for your assessment': (a) The property class, under the heading "real property". • (b) The 1975 market value, under the heading "value". (r) The p.errentage_fartor applied', -under the -heading "•fae4or". (d) The assessment, under the heading "assessed value". (e) The rate at which taxes will be levied, under the heading "tax status". The assessment was calculateltby multiplying the 1975 market value by the per- centage factor. ` The assessment rolrw. ill be returned to the municipal clerk on 'February 15, 1980. The Iasi day on which you may lodge a complaint against your assessment will be March 7, 1980. Please read carefully the instructions with respect to lodging a complaint which appear en. the back of the assessnlent notice. In the meantime, I encourage you to discuss with an assessor anyconcern you may have with your assessment" 1f you can show him any error• prior to February 15, 1980, lie can correct the'error and issue an amended notice with the Corrected information. Your may also wish to compare your assessment with the similar property in the vicinity. I have arranged that assessors will be available at the following locatigns,ta discuss With you all aspects of your assessment and, -if necessary, to provide ad- ditional information to you. • • Location - Assessment Office Board Room, 46 Gloucester Terr., Goderich - Jan. 29; 30, 31, 1:00 p.m. - 940 p.m. - Location - Regional Assessment Office - Jan. 26 - Feb. 2, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. IMPORTANT rf'the equalized assessment had been used for taxation in 1979, I estimate that the residential mill rate would have been approximately 224.65 mills and the commercial piill rate would have been 258.38 mills. The residential mill rate is applied against all property with a tax status of residential -farm; the commercial mill rate is applied to all property with a tax status of commercial., To calculate your estimated 1980 taxes based on the equalized assessment, multiply the assessment shown on your notice bythe appropriate mill rate. For example, a 53,000 assessment multiplied by (the residential mill rate shown - above) would produce a tax'ilrf 5673.95. This estimate is based on the municipality's 1979 budget. HURON -PERTH ASSESSMENT 57 NAPIER STREET GODERICH, ONTARIO' TELEPHONE: (519) 524.7326 ZENITH 66500 W.F. Jenkins Regional Assessment Commissioner N.B. To allow yobs more time to review your Assessment Notice and to discuss your assessment, if yod wish to do so, with the staff of your Regional Assessment Office, your Assessment Notice is being delivered to you in advance of the last day for mailing shown on the notice under "date mailed".