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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-05-12, Page 1are mdd is and e•slretc 'nswe nostril 99 Goderich town council passed a bylaw at the May 2 meeting amending the impost bylaw passed in January of 1977, Council passed the bylaw to amend the impost charges of the original bylaw: The amendments call for an impost charge of .750 for single family, semi- detached and row housing developments and a $500, impost charge per unit for apartment developments. Council had originally set the impost charges at $1,000 per unit in a bylaw passed earlier in the year. The bylaw met with stiff opposition from a group.of area homebuilders and related Tradesmen who questioned the legality of the impost charge. The amended rates that are outlined in the new bylaw are effective as of January 17, 1977. In other council business, a bylaw was passed calling for the sale of five acres of land in the industrial park to the Dominion Road Machinery Company at $2,000 per acre. The option on the land has been renewed for one year by the town and will expire October 31, 1978. If DRMCo requests another option on he land after October 31, 1978 the Purchase price of the land will increase ;x$5,000 per acre. Mediation: mee• Workers at the Domtar Sifto-Salt salt mine in Goderich completed two weeks of strike action against the company yesterday while at the same time mediation meetings were held in Toronto. At press time word was not known on the progress of the meetings in Toronto con- ducted with representatives of the Ministry of Labor. The 215 mine employees, mem- bers of local 16 of the Canadian Chemical Workers Union, were in a legal strike position at 12.01 a.m. Thur- sday April • 28 after negotiations had broken off with the com{Sany. The union's one year contract expired March 31 and on Sunday April 24 union members voted 112 to 20 in favor of opting for the strike,. action against the company The union was asking the company for an 80 cent an hour increase over a one,year contract that would also include other adjustments and limitations on the company's right to schedule hours. The contract would mean an 11 percent increase and raise the average hourly wage of a miner to $7.69 per hour. The company offered the union a 62 cent an hour increase over the first year and a 55 cent an hour increase over the second year of a two- year contract. The company, also offered improvement in benefits, premiums and ngs held in Toronto toy classification rates. The union is looking for wage parity with the Inter- national Chemical Workers The company was seeking the union was intent on Union Local 682 at the to enter into a two-year holdipg out evaporator plant in Goderich, agreement with the union but Year pact. Wheeler cells for Haydoflof ce sure With a theatrical flair Monday evening councillor Don Wheeler informec council with a notice of motion that he intended -to ask that councillor Elsa Haydon be censured for her '"blatant non -adherence" to procedure at a special council meeting last week. Councillor Haydon walked out of a council meeting in disgust after her suggestion that an agreement with Borg- W.arner be tabled for a week to allow council to digest the .contract. The agreement was hammered out after nearly two years of negotiation and according to Haydon the final draft was done in bits and pieces and should be tabled a week "for good business obericlj SINAL -.STAR 139 YEAR -19 .yPei Osta 1up 19 toSZit. z :open e' dime +�! mod Ister „;es $With 89c ,gar 09 .06 &y jai 1ef Sowerby roup owardedg�rant. forplaygrounds student com munity service program over seven full weeks during the slim- e Goderich and District Association mer. the Mentally Retarded has been The first week of the program will be rded a grant from the Secretary of spent planning with staff members and e for $4,277. following the five weeks of playground grant from the office of the retary of State will be added to activity, a day camp will be conducted a for the final week. All seven staff memb- Int from the Young Canada Works ers hired will take part in a Leader in ,/gram to bring the total funding to Training Program sponsored by the 'over $7,000. Lake Huron Zone Recreation will be used for a summer .Association 'of which Goderich is a he grant !grated playground program that will member. expansion of the existing in- Fation program co-ordinated by Jane The staff will been trained to work with ecreation Dire tke, Goderich Rctor , retarded children and examine the e DYmond will also act as co- inator on the project, stake said that she hopes to involve .ren between the ages of six and 13 in integrated playground program and grant will fund the hiring of seven 'ground staff. The program will run facets of planning sports, games and acti'ities for the program. Miss Netzke hoped that the program could be ex- panded to include Clinton and Vanastra. if the program is successful in its first year there is the possibility of further grants for the project in future years. reasons". ' Haydon said the agreement .had been drawn up in a rather haphazard manner and council may be wise to have it typed up in one complete copy before voting on it. Her suggestion was ignored and in disgust she' walked out of the meeting before a vote on the subject was taken. Councillor Wheeler said he would,ask for her• censure under Bylaw 26 of 1975 which lays down procedure council must adhere to. Particular attention was given clauses 13 and 16 in Wheeler's notice of motion. Clause 13 states that when a division of council is called each councillor shall announce.. his vote for another one openly and independently so the clerk -. can record it and clause 16 ,states that when the presiding officer is putting any request to council no member shall get up, walk across or out of the room or interrupt except when there is a point of order. Wheeler told council that he wanted to make the notice of motion for the next, meeting but was unable to attend the meeting so was making it for the first meeting in June. Prior to serving notice he asked Haydon in dramatic fashion if she had anything to say in defence of her actions at the meeting. "Only that I'm not answerable to this council for my actions," she replied. THURSDAY, MAY i_', 97; .. SINGLE COPY 25c Hoydon threatens to resign. Goderich town „ council refused to accept the resignation of councillor Elsa Haydon as council's representative on the Huron , Historic Jail Board. Haydon told council that she was tendering her resignation from the board and that council could take whatever action it wanted. The.rresignation-was given • shortly after Haydon was the centre of attention at council when councillor Don Wheeler served notice of motion that he wanted her censured for - her presence on the board had been useful in the past but explained that she felt it .was time she and the board parted ways. She said her in- volvement on the board came about when the board was fighting to save the wall of the jail and preserve the struc- ture as it is. She said that she served on the committee when it was ,successful in that regard but added that now the corn- mittee is looking at a possible alteration of the original jail site to allow an auditorium to her -'actions 'err a- special °fie oonstructetI. and no matter council meeting last week. htow hard she tries she can't Haydon said that she felt deal with the subject with an open mind. Haydon said she had not left the board with ill feelings and had parted' as best of friends. She said she knew it looked as though she was saying "if the game isn't played my way I will take my toys and go home" but added that she is too old for that kind of thing, "My mind was stuck and even if I wanted I couldn't open it," -she said. "I am convinced. that this town needs a 500 seat auditorium and it is beyond me to alter the construction of the jail, to permit a 250 seat auditorium". Grandstand closure now official Goderich town council got its first official notice Mon- day evening that the Goderich Raceway grand- stand was condemned. Council knew the grandstand was unsafe and had closed it but had not received official word .on the matter from government officials responsible for the closure. In a' letter from H. Y, Yoneyama, executive director of the ministry of consumer and social relations, it was explained to council that the Ontario Racing Commission was assumed to have forwarded copies of correspondence it had with the licensee so that council would. be informed of its action. A meeting was also arranged with council representatives, the municipal engineering consultant and commission staff to ensure a full un- derstanding of the situation. Yoneyama pointed out to council that as owners of the structure that has deteriorated to the extent the grandstand has he was sure that council is aware of its responsibilities and potential liability. Yoneyama's letter was written after the property committee of council questioned the second hand correspondence it received from the racing commission. The information' on the condemning had never been put directly to the town as owh'ers of the structure and the committee wanted clarification of the matter. in another letter received from the town insurance agent, Donald MacEwan, council Icarn•ed that the town till had liability insurance on the grandstand but had the fire insurance coverage reduced to the approximate salvage value of $10,000. MacEwan suggested to council that if the building is condemned officially signs should be put up pointing out that fact and also that per; sons using the structure do so at their own risk. Reeve Bill Clifford ex- plained that what that meant was that anyone "bouncing around up there is covered if they get hurt" but that the building is not valued at the same amount as it was prior to its closure. Councillor John Doherty recalled a similar move when the arena was closed and said that the insurance coverage remained intact under liability clauses but the salvage value was reduced gradually as the building was demolished, Councillor Bob Allen told council that up until now the only word the town had of the condemning was from two men there from the racing commission and that now the closure was being made of• ficial, Councillor Stan Profit asked if Haydon could do what she was doing. He said he was not trying to be dif- ficult but wanted the procedural. bylaw explained pointing out that h.e didn:t feel Haydon nor any other member of council could simply resign from a position appointed them by council. "That's -why ,I worded the motion to say council could' take whatever action it wanted," Haydon said. And.I mean whatever." "She's not answerable to anyone," .muttered councillor Don Wheeler. ` Profit 'sympathized with Haydon's dilemna but pointed out that he. was caught in a Similar predicament when the save the jail campaign was at its height. He said at that time he sat on the property committee of county council and was one of the people advocating the demolition of the wall. He said from that position he was cast in a different role when he was named county council's representative on the jail board. "What I mean is that when this decision is made and finished there will be others equally important in the future and you are not on the Committee for the benefit of the board but as council's representative," said Profit. Counc, Wheeler added that everyone at,the council table and on committees has dif- feYed opinions at times and thoseopinions are not in- dictatrve of the ,usefulness of that member, to the board. He said he felt council's representation on the board was important both to the board and the-tbwn Councillor Bob Alien reminded Haydon that quite ofteh the amount of time and effort apmmittee member puts into their work is somewhat sobering and added that he would ask that Haydon remain on the board and that she receive his vote of appreciation. Profit went on to say Haydon was perhaps the best representative council could hav -,n that board adding that e only way anyuone can affect change is to be part of the group responsible for m,aking.changes. Joanne Walters Shirley Keller, editor of the Goderich Signal Star, had the pleasure to an- nounce recently that Joanne Walters joined the newspaper's editorial staff, Joanne is a native of Goderich and ,is the daughter of Winnie and Gord Walters of 116 Bruce Street. She is a graduate of GDCi and Ryetrson Polytechnical Inst`itute's journalism course and is just starting her career in newspapers. Joanne is looking forward to worr:ing in the community again and will join Shirley, Jeff Seddon and Dave Sykes in covering events in and around Goderich. Anne Miller Ed I3yrski, advertising manager at the Goderich Signal Star, welcomed Anne Miller to the newspaper's advertising staff this week. Anne is a life long resident of Goderich and is now married and living at RR 5, Goderich. She is enrolled in an advertising program sponsored jointly by the Canada Manpoyver Centre and Conestoga College. She will be working • with Tom Thompson and Don Hubick in Goderich to help meet the advertising needs of the community. •