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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1978-07-27, Page 14, *0. 4,0 • '• *I* • ••, • " • Construction of the new grandstand at the Goderich race track has -ground to a halt because of concern over problems with the seating. Work on the new structure, to have been completed by August 19, was stopped on Monday because it isn't possible to see the track from all off the seats. Mayor Deb • a • Thefts up here says Chief King BY JOANNE WALTERS Break-ins and thefts are up in Goderich by comparison to the first six months of last year, Police Chief Pat King reported td the Goderich Police Commission at, a meeting on Wed nesday, July 12. The break-ins, and thefts are up mainly due to a few young. people who have been ap- prehended. However, the value of stolen property ,is down, contiaucd the Chief.Most •• thefts are petty thefts from cars and °nee again Chief King would remind people to lock their vehicles. Although Goderich was visited by out- of-towners recently, who knew exactly what they were looking for and broke into several Cars, this is not what normally happens, he said. Most thieves are deterred by a locked vehicle. • The occasional procedure of the police taking a call and -checking out a fire before the fire department, will no longer be allowed due to a mix up in the 'location of a fire last month because of this procedure. Chief King said he has instructed his men to simply listen to the call, record, go to the scene and help with traffic control. They. are not to interrupt with such calls even if they are false alarms. This was done only rarely before, he said. The police will be enforcing the town watering- bylaw under the Police Act which allows them to enforce all laws including of- ficial bylaws. Bylaw officer, Dick Eisler will also be enforcing this particular bylaw which forbids people living in -different areas of town to water their lawns on certain days. Chief King suggests that people post a map of the town beside their hose taps showing the days they can and cannot water. - ACCIDENTS -DOWN — On the positive side of Chief King's report, accidents are down from 153 in the first six months last year to 107 in the same period this year.. And .he said that the force..Wa..M5PallY above average in their clearance rates (solving of crimes). The Police Commission discussed a new amendment to the Mental Health Act, not yet official, which would allow a police officer to take Someone. he suspected of being. mentally ill, to a doctor. Before, an officer was only allowed to take such a person to a place of safety like a psychiatric hospital if he were actually doing something like fighting etc. Such an idea is also being implemented into, the • new gun laws now partly in effect and Turn to page 18 • She be wfelt is hopeful that the problem with the $230;000 corrected without tearing down the- grandstand's by Jim Hagarty) the Cderich 131 YEAR -30 1 for dispatch systm , BY ..10ANNE WALTERS QPC's comi‘egits and the deasion dwhether or not to aWard the contract to the Canadian 'Canadian General Electric Company General Electric Company as the lowest bidder Limited, a London based firm, was the lowest will be taken th the various councils. before a of two bids received for -the contract to supply and install the central palice"COaft(iihicatiqlleL4eitY-4:4*-St — — remaining dispatch systeth for the towns of Goderich; The rive towns will be paying the 25 percent of the equipment plus.the Clinton,Seaforth, Exeter and Wingham. • Since the Ontario Police Commission (OPC) operational costs. It has been agreed already • ' is proyiding 75 percent of the cost of equipment, that the new systems centre will be located in which includes radios, transmitters anda Goderich with all five municipalities sharing __towep,the_,Gontract4leeds_so.pc artprovaL__Atike the responsi bilities, of running it ° McInerney, OPC technical advisor on com- The Goderich Police Commission learned municationk has taken the two bids to Toronto from Goderich Police Chief Pat King at its last , for perusal by the technical staff there. He meeting that two antennae _are neededin - said he doesn't think there will -be -any- problems-- Goderich forthe system --one focteceiving_and. one for transmitting and these 'two should be and the contract could possibly be completed by September 15 with the new equipment being fairly close together to be fully effective but not delivered in February or March and installed in on the same building. June. There is already one antenna located at the He said the two bids were close to what wpolice station for the present communications as system and the Police Commission will ask estimated. The Canadian General Electric Company bid $128,361 to supply and install the Town Council's permission to put another one system with14,248 of this to cover one year's on top of Town Hall. It would be relatively maintenance. The- only other firm to bid on the small, says the Chief, abourthe size of a" filing contract, out of six firms which received ten- cabinet and the only cost involved would be for structureca der, was Motorola Canada Limited. This the cable and hooking it up. The new common police communications shell:- (Photo- s wicompanylthe two- subriiis"SfanS are looked over, system will mean -the towns -will no ltinger'llaVe ' evaluated and approved by the OPC, a meeting of the mayors of the five towns and or their representatives will be held to review the to rely on telephone answering services or radio -phone systems for police calls outside office hours, which is now the case. THURSDAY, JUICY 27,1978. 30 CENTS PER COPY lopuite real'costg to the boaid • BY JEFF SEDDON' Just three months after the apparent set- tlement of the 31 day teacher strike it appears the board and its secondary school teachers have still not learned to agree. The most recent dispute centres around the arbitrator's report made public last week in a press conference called by board of education chairman John Elliott. The teacher strike was finally settled April 13 when both parties agreed to let an arbitration hearing decide on three contentious issues—sick leave gratuity payment, teacher workload and the pay in- crease for teachers in the 1978-79 school year. The board flatly ,refused to send the issues to arbitration during the strike conceding to the intervention only when teachers agreed to have the arbitrator rule on two contracts, the one in dispute and one under which teachers will work - in 1978-79. Board chairman John Elliott claimed throughout the strike that third party in- tervention was too risky for Huron taxpayers. He said the board could suffer as a result of the arbitraior'Sdeeision claiming elected trustees should not put taxpayers in that position. Elliott said in the press conference last week that his fears were realized after the ar- bitrator's decision was made known. He said the decision was "preconceived" and that it appeared - the arbitarator had based his rationale on neighbouring counties ignoring the Huron board's claim that Huron taxpayers couldn't afford what other counties were paying for teachers. He said the decision confirmed the reluctance of the board to go to arbitration. Elliott said the 6.75 percent increase in wages awarded the teachers by arbitrator Dean D. L. Johnston of the University of Western Ontario could mean a 9.18 percent increase on the county salary grid for secondary school teachers. The comment was based on the assumption that the same teachers on 1977-78 payroll returned for the 1978-79 school year. TOOK EXCEPTION Gord Johns is one teacher who took exception to Elliott's statement. The financial officer for District 45 of the Ontario Secondary School Federation recently went as far as to say the board saved money as a result of the strike. Johns indicated the board' chairman's coin- ments were an attempt to make political hay and that the taxpayers actually saved 5.6 percent of the board's projected budget costs as a result -of the 31 day work stoppage. Johns said he lost about $3,500 in wages during the strike, about 15.75 percent of his total annual salary. He said the wage increase awarded him through arbitration increased his salary by 6.75 percent or about $1500. The lost wage, about $2,000 .represented about nine percent of his annual earnings. The Goderich District Collegiate Institute teacher said salary increments, a wage in- crease giyen every teacher with less than 10 years experience who returns to teach in a county school another year, account for about 2.2 percent of salary costs to the board. He said salary savings to the board are realized when a highly paid teacher retires and is replaced by a new teacher making far less money. The saving Farmers await substantial rain Art Bell of Goderich Township surveyed his peach and apple orchards with a scrutinous eye. "Oh no the apples and ° peacheS '•aren't that bad off yet but we need some rain in the next week," he said. "If there isn't rain for a week or two you can come back with a 'Crying towel." Bell's statement personifies the plight of farmers in the area and province whose crops • may suffer from a lack of rainfall in one of the driest summers in the last 25 years. „ Weather officials have reported that so far this summer is the driest on record since 1954 and the total rainfall for the months of June and July falls short of 3 inches. The Goderich weather office has recorded a total rainfall of approximately 77 millimetre. s during the last two months. During normal summer conditions the rainfall averages over 130 millimetres for the two-month period ,so that the rainfall this summer is half of what it should be. Bell, who farms mainly apples and Peaches, said that his harvest will definitely be hurt without sufficient rain within the next .two weeks but adds that he is probably better off than most cash crop farmers. "The sfrost has already hurt me but the peaches and apples will be good for another week," he said. "Corn, barley and malt has been hurt but 1 am not as bad off as the cash crop guys. You can't say we are in trouble just because the rain quit there are a lot of other factors." Bell has a 2,000 gallon water tank and has been attempting to water his trees regularly. "We just can't keep up with the watering because each tree needs about 50 to 75 gallons to get it through," he said. "I'm set up to handle it but it sure is a lot of extra work." Everett Ridder, a Goderich Township crash crop farmer, said that the great amount of snow from the winter coupled with a wet spring have probably been instrumental in mitigating the near drought conditions. • He said it was hard to predict the effect the lack of rain will have on some of the crops adding that some corn was small for this time of year while corn planted on clay is good. But be did admit that in a wet *fir his crops have been much better. Ridder said his barley heads have filled out reasonably well so far but there were some. small wheat kernels. He added that he plowed in the fall last year and that spring plowing was not as goodthis year. Ministry of Agriculture officials have ex- pressed great concern over the crop situation in this area if there wasn't substantial rainfall soon. Beans i which last year rotted in the field's because of the rainfall, are now behind schedule and' corn is generally behind normal and uneven in growth. Some grains are suf- ._ fering slightly but the crops could catch up quickly with a good rain. Many pastures are also suffering from the lack of rainfall and if they do not regenerate quickly farmers may have to get into their winter feed supplies to feed dairy cattle and sustain milk production. Even Ontario Agriculture Minister William Newman has expressed concern that not only crop yields but also milk production in the province will suffer this year.. Farmers were anxiously awaiting some rainfall last week to avoid a serious situation; The Goderich weather office reported a rainfall of 1 millimetre in the evening of July 19 and last Friday's brief storm produced over 12 millimetres 'Of rain or almost 1/2 inch. Although several municipalities across the province have already or may soon face water restriction, Maurice Wilkinson of the Goderich pumping station said there shouldn't be any threat of restrictions in town. Last week the pumping station was -working to capacity and in the evening the holding -tank is dropping at a rate of four feet per hour. Goderich does not have the pumping capacity for the Whole town during the summer which is why the watering bylaw istreffect. There is no watering on Sunday morning's between 8 and 11 a.m. and Wilkinson said it is usually a heavy day. reduces that increment cost to about 1.5 per cent. The end result of Johns' exercise is that the board saved 7.5 percent in salary costs as a result of the strike. He adds that if salaries are 75 percent of the board's budget, then the saving would be about 5.5 percent or 75 percent of 7.5 percent. HOW MUCH DID ARBITRATION COST? Elliott said the arbitration award would cost Huron County taxpayers additional funds that could have been saved had the board not gone to arbitration. He indicated that the arbitrator had been less than fair with the board in making his decision but would not say how much money the board was prepared to 'pay its teachers. Each year the board includes a percentage increase in its budget to cover salary increases to teachers. That sum is kept strictly secret since if it was public the teachers would be assuredof that much of a raise. By withholding the sum the board hopes it can negotiate a raise less than the one projected in the budget. A reliable source said the board trustees felt that a seven -percent increase. without in- crement, was a reasonable goal for the negotiation team working onthe 1978-79 con- tract. The arbitrator's decision to give teachers 'a 6.75 percent increase, plus increment, means xtra cost to the board would be about 8.25 i„,,pei-Cent. The arbitrator's pay its teachers for -1978-79. That computes to slightly less than $50,000 in the county's share of the budget and while to the average taxpayer it appears to be a large sum of money, when spread over the entire county it is not worth creating more hard feelings. A MATTER OF SEMANTICS -- Elliott's claim that the increase awarded the teachers in the 1978-79 contract year would increase costs on the salary grid by 9.18 percent is only correct if all the teachers return to county classrooms this fall. If the salary in- crease was applied to the 1977-78 salary grid the increase Elliott used would be correct but those teachers are not all returning. The time honored method for school board budgeting is to project the present salary grid -to the next year and estimate salary costs for the next budget year. That is what Elliott did to make the statement he did. The salary grid for school teachers never Turn to page 18 • •• Art Bell of Goderich TownsitiVis having trouble trying to keep upwith the watering of peach and apple trees on his farm and says the crop needs tOs some rain soon. The lack of rain this summer Is taking its toll on area crops. (photo by Dave Sykes.) ,‘•