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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1976-11-18, Page 1• , •. The December 6 municipal with . contests elections in Goderich will ' seats on town prove to be a low key affair: public utilities y for council, confined to , and for the position of trustee election of 1974 when she council, the on the Huron Perth Separate "against Bill Clifford for commission School Board. ;..position of deputy -reeve. Goderich Mayor Deb Shewfelt and Reeve- Bill Clifford have been acclaimed' • to those posts 'for the 1977-78 term as no other candidates for those positions filed,. •nomination papers by the deadline of 5:00 p.m. Monday. Goderich, 'trustees 'on . the Huron County Board of 'Education, Cayley Hill and Dorothy+aWallace, were also returned to office. by ac- clamatiori. There will be a contest for the position of Deputy -Reeve. A councillor during the last term of office, • Leroy Harrison wasnominated to seek election to that post". The position:will also be contested by -Eileen Palmer who.served- as a town councillor during the 1973-74 term - and was defeated in the municipal Mayor Deb Shewfelt • acclaimed Reeve Bill Clifford acclaimed THE WEEK The Ontario Ministry of Housing recently announced the approval of $26,196 in grants to municipalities in the County of Huron. Thegrants are o designed to assist municipalities and planning Boards in preparing • official plans and zoning by-laws or in bringing these up to an acceptable level. According to the Ontario Ski Resorts Association, if the recommendations of A..:the `Blair Commission on taxation._ are _ .putanto,effec.t many operators will face. j R being taxed out of existence:._ ` See Page 5 Tuesday's headlines were screaming "One step toward independence." The , hysterical over reaction of Canadian journalists and politicians to the election of . the. Parti Quebecois• in Quebec .on Monday is hard to understand. The Canadian=Arab.. Federation has ' not developed since it was founded 10 years ago. The organizers wonder why it has failed .to gain widerespect in Canada. nterest PUC Ben Sheardown Bob Cornish Jim. Peters Herb Murphy Harry Wartall ran the o for depot Eight . candidates filed nomination papers for the six council seats. Incumbents Eileen Palmer second try Leroy Harrison first try Stan Profit, Dave Gower, has a challenger this year' in Robert Allen and Elsa. the person of Gordon Crabb. Haydon will seek re=election Mr. Young has held the while newcomers John Doherty, Don Wheeler, Ben Grahatn and Joan Van Den. Broeck will appear on the ticket. Former councillors Frank Walkom and Jim, .• Peters will not he seeking .,refection. Mr. Peters will be trying • fora position on the local Public Utilities Commission along with two other' new candidates, Herb Murphy and " Bob Cornish. Incumbents Leonard Sheardown, Bruce Ryan and Harry Worsell will seek re-election bringing the total of candidates to six. There are four seats• on the P.U.C. • with former com- miss'roner Harry Crane not seeking re-election: - Huron -Perth • Roman Catholic Separate • School Board trustee Vince Young Goderich trustee's seatsince the organization of county- wide.school boards, Vince Young incumbent Gordon Crabb .... newcomer. 129 YEAR -47 1 c .,l THURSDAY,: NOVEMBER 18, 1976 A . SINGLE COPY 25c. Beginning January 197 Board members to All members of council - appointed boards and com- mittees will receive $150 per annum beginning in January, 1977. —This decision was reached at Monday evening's council session following a lengthyand sometimes hated debate. e a e about honorariums for Goderich citizens serving ink the in- terests of the municipality. A motion was approved as presented by Deputy -reeve Bill Clifford and Councillor Elsa Haydon, but not before there had been'. considerable discussion. A recorded vote on the motion showed Councillor Daye Gower and Councillor Leroy Harrison opposed. "Those who •don't .attend meetings should be docked a percentage for absenteeism," argued Councillor Gower. "To annum pay $150 perum whether members attend or' not is not fair to those, who do attend faithfully." "The chairmen should' receive more than committee members," Councillor Harrison felt. "In.rripst cases, the chairman does a great' deal of work between meetings and the chairman should.be paid more for these extra efforts.- "It is an honorarium," Deputy -reeve. Clifford told council. "Therefore it is only a token of appreciation for doing 'the job, and is notin- tended Sed toe r present dollars frl exthangefer effort's." ' Clifford went on to explain that `in the past, some com- mittees have been • paid, others have • riot. Some .chairmen get rnore than other chairmen. He called these -inequities" and said. it tended to make . "some Goderich area could get 50 unit sr. citizen complex Goderich may have. a 50 unit senior citizens complex under construction as • early as the spring of 1977 if the red tape involved with the project can be cleared on schedule. The complex, ' a 'creation of the Goderich area housing action committee, received the approval of the Ontario Ministry of . Housing this month and now moves into the developmental stage, at the OHC level. The con'xplex was brought. an .stream by the housing actioncommittee midway through . 1975 when the committee -members ana,lyzed.housing needs in the Goderich area and found' the town lacking in senior citizen.• accomodation. The . only senior ' units in town are located quite •a distance from The Square and are fully occupied.. A brief . in- vestigation into the needs of the elderly showed a serious need for housing and pr.,ompted the committee • made up of -members from •Goderich and Colborne and Goder-ich,townships, to delve into the issue. . • t A needs study was com- pleted by the committee early this year and the OHC was requested'" for assistance for units. The ministry informed the committee that the study • they had done was in-. sufficient• adding ' that, a -complete survey would have to be dons -detailing incomes, holdings . and health stan- dards of the elderly before Goderich could be considered for assistance: The ministry had at that time 11 people on file as being in need of assistance, not enough ac- cording to their statistics to warrant construction of units. The committee advised the ministry to conduct a . full survey based on the results of the committee's study' and the result showed 25 people in immediate need of assistance andprojected that 50 would need assistance by the time anything could be • con- structed. `. The . town• and townships have no financial respon- sibiltiy with regard to the construction of the units and are only responsible to pay seven percent of. any losses the units incur. The ministry now should be in the proces's of looking for a site for the units, preferably in thecore area. OHC told the committee that the ministry has a set of guidelines used whenpurchasing a site for the units and the government will not pay inflated values for land acquisistion. If the land cannot be•found inthe desired area the ministry officials simply investigate another area. After the site .has 'been designated the OHC . com- missions an architect to design the building according. (continued on page 20') Hydro rates jump 24 The Goderich Public Utility Com- mission announced that effective January 1, 1977 the average monthly hydro -rates will increase by 24 percent. Hazen Bagley of Ontario Hydro's Consumer Services Department • in London revealed the increased rates'to the Goderich utility commissioners at their last meeting. Residential customers will face an increase of 23.6 percent and business and industrial rates will -rise 24.4 percent, _The- monthly mininyum charge will remain' at $3.50 per month with . no -changes in the block structure. billings in the new year incorporating consumption' at the old and new rates will be pro -rated. Therefore the dif. 0 ference in the rate will be multiplied by `. the number of days at the old rate over the total number of days in the billing period. The estimated hydro requirements for Goderich' in 1977 willcost the local utility $1,523,741 and the revenue from hydro sales is expected to reach $1,898,171. • If an average residential bill amounted to $50 over a two month period the 23.6 percent residential increase would boost that bill to $61.80,an in- crease of $11.80 for two months, The last utility increase faced by Goderich residents occurred in May of this year when residential rates jumped 13.8 percent and industrial and business rose 13.6 percent. . ge 150 per committees se,e.m more important that. others". "All committees now will be paid?" asked Councillor Bob Allen. "Yes; that is our intention, said Clifford. "We feel all the committees and boards should he treated alike Councillor Haydon disputed Councillor. Gower's suggestion to dock board and committee -members whe are absent from meetings. "That doesn't apply at the. council table,'.' Councillor Haydon reminded Councillor Gower. "Whoever is here, whoever isn't, whoever works, whoever doesn't we all collect our money and go home happily. Surelythe people council 'appointsto these committees and. boards are responsible people. Councillor Gower's 'suggestion is lacking in logic in my opinion. In response; Councillor Gower then • assured Coun- cillor Haydon that .it -may be well to dock, council members as well who 'are' absent from meetings. It was pointed out the committee . did discuss at- tendance, but agreed that council does ` retain some control. If attendance is poor, those absent committee members members just aren't ap- pointed for a second term. Councillor Jim Peters pointed out; however, that in rpost cases it would take up to two terms' to catch up to this 4:rtir.m^e annum kind of , situation. He• - suggested the honorarium should be based on 80 per'cen`t attendance. Councillor Peters moved an amendment, later . defeated, a which suggested that upon receipt of a letter from the secretary . of the board or Committee, noting ;that: members were in attendance:. at least 80 per cent •of the meetings, the honorariums " • would be paid. The only legitimate excuse for ' ab- senteeism wbuld be illness. Otherwise, no payment for service would be made. "It's often not what is«done at meetings that counts, but •what is accomplished bet- ween meetings." Councillor (continued on page.20) Mona Davis, president of the Goderich Branch 109 Legion Ladies Auxiliary., is pensive as she lays a wreath at the foot of the eenotaph in the service held November. 11, Reinero... branee Day, Mrs. Davis laid the wreath on behalf of the Legion Ladies. Auxiliary. (staff'+ .photo) ••