Loading...
The Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-03-10, Page 1n tte 1 `Star Fubllehing President, R.Q. as elected the 27th of the : Ontario Newspaper tion when. ' that tic body held its. convention last at the Hotel Toronto. inaugural address er told the gathering ut 400 community per publishers, advertising per - and photographers his Thompson pers background him into the Com- ewspaper business feeling that the only at really counted advertisements. d by that creed until ven years ago," the ident noted, "until I wn that the better journalism and in our newspapers, dvertising sell more urn helps us carry dvertising in our ers. rier suggested that many of the is is publishers did not sell: the these factors," Shrier told the to the success -of our said. "great product. you .already,.convention. had" until the( last decade "Let's face it," he noted,Memprogramsrthefishers." - Af u�i�niemberpubIishers " ' when it, became so • arent "we have put up with those Hes id it was beeornln3 that the retailer along Main patronizing remarks and increasingly critical that .. street "needed us and was looks from our friends in the " weekly ' newspapers keep` - looking to us for helpin ad- daily newspaper field while at better records and have vertising in their bid to stay alive as they fought nearby cities and their multiple retail outlets.' The 42 year old publisher is the second publisher of the Goderich Signal Star to be elected president of OWNA. George . Ellis also held the position in 1959. the same time we have been those .records tell their making them look like quickly (on va.week to week countrycousins" basis) where they are going', The OWNA president said it how much they are making or was not his intent to harpoon losing, and where. the dailies "only to sell you on The, new president told the the fact we must be aware newspaper gathering that the that we are good (weekly OWNA must help in all ways newspapers), but not so good possible. He said the we can become complacent association would . supply the la r the Shrier has been publishing Shrierposition.'" called on the whole orgae nization's nt es co- the Signal Star newspapers newspaper gathering to be ( operation. since 1965 and in 1977 positive. in their handling of "If we are to remain a celebrates his 25th an- the "Quebec question". viable business we must niversary of newspapering "We have never editorially exchange more information starting at The Guelph spoken' with a united voice, which we now keep tight to Mercury March 7, 1952. being a force to be reckoned our vest. The Ontario Weekly with, . let's seize this op- "We do not even trade Newspaper Association has portunity for the good of our enough editorial opinion. 209 member newspapers and country and our industry. Let "Communications is our boasts a readership of one us speak positively and with trade," he told the .con-• and one half million people. unity." vention. "Lets start com- "An equal part of our sales Shrier said that the OWNA municating at all levels. We program is in our news and had taken giant strides in on the board will endeavour editorial columns, and our recent years, "and our steps to communicate more with graphic presentation f 11 are becoming even larger due you. ant Mark Hovey raised teammate Iain Lambert to sket to remove the netting following the senior s victory in the Huron -Perth senior basketball ionship against Stratford Central Tuesday. (staff Bob Shrier right) takes over from Gerry Barker Q i!iobttii.lj 101A $ COMM CNA Ws 'A'ER s AS � SOCI v``�`pe� N'WSPAPIES (OM 6��1lQ ti 130 YEAR -10 GN4L STAR THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1977 SINGLE COPY 25c Heavy industrial, commercial users hardest • a dest hit Sewage rates up in Goderich In order to meet increasing costs, arising from necessary updating and expansion programs at the local sewage treatment facilities, Goderich Town ounce approved a'Scale of increased rates of sewage assessment to residential, industrial and commercial customers on Monday evening. Residential sewage rates will rise from the present charge of $3.50 per household unit to $5.50. Non -metered industrial and commercial rates are now up from $4.00 to $6.00 per month and industrial and commercial users on meters have had their minimum charge increased from $4.00 to $6.00 per month. Heavy users of sewage facilities in that last category will see their rates rise considerably from the 10.91 per cent of a metered bill (with a maximum of $66.50 per month). Metered industrial and commercial accounts will now pay a surcharge to cover sewage of 49 cents per 1,000 gallons each month for the first 100,000 gallons of water used. The next 100,000 gallons will cost 40 cents per thousand, the next 200,000 is to cost 35 cents per ucatior'.budget up 1 1 County board of could be in trouble as far as adopted a wage negotiations are Con - budget Monday cerned. He said thf budget approving an 11.2. increase-e„for' salaries and crease in expenses., benefits, which total 74.2 percent f the rease will mean an based on a10 percentbudget, was in - ill' increase of five crease in wages. unty raising the "Of all the figures in the levy to 34,7 mills, budget that's the one I'm Sed mill rate is an least happy about," said each municipality Dunlop. "If the AIB is intact to face but board and we.are successful in wage Herb Turkehim negotiations we are all right, every municipality but if that doesn't happen the same fate due quite frankly we don't have se. money enough municipalities will g put aside to' two or three mills pay salaries in 1976 cost cording to their taxpayers $14,055,540 and in I," he said, "and 1977 the budget committee -set be Paying much aside $15,243,290 to cover five increases for their (the superintendent board's) 650 some odd em- loP outlined the ployees. the board citing nd benefits as the ason for the in- ast Year's budget 17,562 for ordinary y such as salaries charges, tran- costs and other m'Y needs req d THIN LINE The business superin- tendent said his concern was based on a decision made by the budget committee in 1976. He said the committee decided to use about' $200,000 thousand, the next 400,000 has been set at 30 cents per thousand and the balance will be charged 20 cents per thousand. The increased rate structure is designed to raise necessary funds for upcoming expansion at the local Sewage Treatment Plant, explains Environ- mental Division chairman Eileen Palmer. "This year the town plans to enclose the S50 foot open flume running from the plant to Lake Huron. The flume has been causing problems in winter when ice and snow clogging have reduced the flow to a trickle at times'. "Three years ago this clogging caused a backup and flooded basements," Mrs. Palmer explained. "Employees at the treatment plant try to keep the flume open, but in a bad year of heavy snowfall (such as this winter) it is- almost im- possible." Mrs. Palmer points out that the town has a reserve fund for the treatment facilities which will be used to pay for the $100;000 flume repair project. She goes on to explain, however, that $1,000,000 will have to be spent on the board having to use it. Trustee John Henderson The budget calls for said he felt the board needed municipalities to turn over $5,609,007 to the board which includes money needed to correct errors in the last two years' budgets. Dunlop said in 1975 the committee had overestimated grants by $89,088 and in 1976 had overestimated by $3,898 leaving the board short those am"ountsd in its requisition totals. He said the municipalities would have to pay those costs this year to enable the board to clear the books. ` REQUESTED MORE INFOR The 'other" major expense faced in 1977 i theh s pure ase of four -new school® Mises which the board approved at its February meeting. The buses -cost a total of $98,000 which showed up in an in - more information on the budget before it eould make a decision on it. He said the trustees who sit on the education committee make decisions regularly with no idea what those decisions will cost. He said the board should have "all the information possible claiming in the past they used to get that material. Shirley Hazlitt supported Henderson's claim, ' adding that the decisions are made with no idea as ter how they will ultimately affect the budget. - Director of education John ,Cochrane said the normal procedure is for decisions made, by the education committee to be passed on to the management committee to . see if the funds are treatment plant itself in the next five years to expand it sufficiently to cope with increased demand. The plant was designed to process one million gallon's of sewage per day but Mrs. Palmer notes that during January the demand on those facilities rose`at times to one and one half million gallons per day. "This is taxing the facility,". she said Tuesday, "and with the expansion program we hope to expand it to a degree, based on local growth, that it will serve for 20 years." She stressed that covering the flume will greatly deplete the reserve fund and that the rate increases are designed to build up the reserves over the next few years to the point where expansion at the treatment plant will be possible. "The committee spent more than two months studying this question," Mrs. Palmer said. "The present increase is good sound budgeting. We would like to replenish money used for the flume project this year so we will have the money to expand the plant." Sewage charges for residential users in Goderich were hiked by $1.00 in both 1975 and 1976 but industrial and com- mercial rates remained the same. This time-.basic.,rates 'have been': increased $2.00 across the board. Mrs. Palmer said that to arrive at the new rates for industrial and commercial users the committee selected 10 customers at random and took two sample billings as examples: "Some industries are using one million gallons of water per month. We decided - that a simple 49 cent increase would be too much so we went for the new sliding scale," the Environmental Committee Chairman skid, "In the case of the larger industrial user," Mrs. Palmer says, "the in- dividual householders were carrying the load financially. Under the new system industry will now pay its own way." The rate increase, she said, was ef- fective for two years and would be reviewed again at that time. Town Engineer B. M. Ross has been instructed to prepare plans and call for , tenders in connection with the flume continued on page 18) Vine Campbell of the .lubilee 3 Committee presented a town flag to the members of the Goderich Oldtimers Hockey Club who will in turn present the flag in Zurich Switzerland. The available. ■ ■ ■. crease in capital equipment "Salaries are The number purchases. Dunlop said the . one cost and there is nothing committee decided last year . can be d b h " one a out tem, to keep capital costs at a bare interjected Dunlop. minimum and this year had "Maybe there is," said to be s arra in' reserves the: board had. in met with considerable, op -Henderson. 2p pent, Thl's an effort to keep the budget In position in, that area. He said will be spent line with. 1975 and the move teachers were concerned that SYSTEM'LACKING? ary items and . had left the beard walking a equipment in schools was. Ashfield Trustee -Eugene extraordinary: thin line between solvency deteriorating and I needed Frayne suggested that the said the budget and deficit. -He said' he had replacement and that fact two oernmittee °'system sled on the Anti: .'budgeted;$50,000for this" year:combined with an increase intna be ��t� ardre ,.. � ., ; . ,;.;.., : , ,..,:.-��' Was 1;� tnsdequate i main] lrt Urged us, add _nK , � #p.:ise returned tri t e �2sery'e the„ rant stt'tctbre,-,tine "<' .ollh irtg tit°at if,the .•y'f n' �. ,,. � t#� � ba a d and hoped' pit :l ould be `comtriittee is"to su ort the tt'iana erhlent, com i nd�d to tree will' the board . built back up without the iitcrensed capital costs. (continued 'on 18) 4 kb a ii• • When the Goderich Oldtimers accepted the town's official flag from the Jubilee Three celebrations chairman Mac Campbell at Monday evening's council meeting. Ted Williams rerearked," 1 just hope the folks in Zurich, Switzerland don't feel it is the team that is Celebrating their I50th birthday." The Oldtimers leave this weekend to play hockey in the Oldtimers' tournament in Switzerland. They arrive ,Saturday morning and will play, their first game Sunday VOning. There will be at least a day between each game xiaderich Oldtimers play. Wei will represent the town as best we can," said halms. "If we don't win we hope we can represent c chili will he participating in the 'European international Oldtimers Hockey Tournament March 12-19. (staff photo) Goderich well on the occasion of the town's 150th bir- thday Williams said the Oldtimers should make an even better showing next year as more potential players will he turning the magic age of 35 years this year. "Our heads want to do the work, but sometimes our legs won't co-operate." Williams confessed. "But we should get some good new players next season." Ten staunch fans will accompany the team to Europe for the tournament. The team will present the Goderich flagto the Zurich, Switzerland officials as a gesture of friendliness. it a�d ;r