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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-01-11, Page 1i t ti; :1,tAttk„ ' ‘14'0A19,rstve.mattA ;;•;k` The 28,000 ton ship Goderich harbor last access to the harbor Three tug boats and Algoway ground to a halt in ice and slush in Thursday as the 250 foot vessel attempted to gain and load 17,000 tons of salt bound for Chicago. the Canadian Coast Guard ice breaker, Griffon Just °fie• more wrinkle—. BY SHIRLEY J. KELLER There's another fly in the ointment where the senior citizens apartment complex on West Street is concerned. Roy Holmes, direclrir of the Community, Housing brandh of the Ontario Ministry of Housing for the south west region, has advised ;the town that federal funding guidelines have changed for projects ,like the one in Goderich ,and there will be no federal money corning. "It is ndw necesSary to identify an alternate . . • means of developing the senior citizen building in ciociericn,- wrote molt -nes. eie salt] he is prepared,to recommend that the project be built by the Ontario .Housing Corporation 'with , funding which may be obtained- from market sources. In such an event, Holmes pointed out, there- would be no change in the provincial -municipal agreement. • =, _ Counc- that-if-thiaplan was not - acceptable,, other options could be described by Daryl Kreuzer when he next visits the town. "As you will appreciate, timing is becoming,. critical to the success of this project," • said' Holmes, "and I would suggest that the matter be given the earliest attention possible." -• Council agreed to meet with Kreuzer as soon as possible. , • e Ifeavy ice jams Algoway in harbour entrance • ••,„ were unsuccessful in their attempts to free the Algoway: The Griffon returned to Midland but will be called back if the wind shifts. (photo by Da ve Sykes) . ogekr,s4A.,:s 74,• Viv-voveigmme,,iy,.4 The 28,000 ton lake freighter Algoway sits idle at the mouth of Goderich Harbor after the ship was denied access to the ,harbor by an ac- cumulation of ice and slush. The Algoway became bogged down • in ice near the breakwall at the entrance to Goderich Harbor last Thursday morning when it arrived to load' 17,000 tons of salt bound for Chicago from the Dom tar salt mine., The Canadian Coast Guard ice breaker,' Griffon was called in from Midland to assist ice breaking operations with three local tugboats but the efforts of the boats were later aban- doned. The Griffon rrtn,nr•r1 to Midland but Bill Town wants to Goderich's Reeve Eileen Palmer, chairman of the finance committee, wants to know what the other municipalities have been billed for the new addition at Alexandra Marine and General Hospital. The town got a letter from Elmer Taylor, -administrator of AM8sG, advising that Goderich's portion of the costs for the laundry receiving and storage area and to improve the maintenance shops and central supply room is $11,423, based on the admissions to the hospital in 1977. Coughlan of Dom tar said the ice breaker would return if there were a change in weather and wind direction. Algoway captain Jim Scott said that although the Griffon failed to free the freighter he was confident that . an American ice breaker working the west side of the lake woul'd have more,success. The Algoway had sufficient supplies on board to last the 29 crew members until next week before they would have to come ashore for additional supplies and water. Some of the crew walked across the ice Friday and came into town for personal supplies. compare notes "It's not a formidable amount," said Reeve ' Palmer, "but I'd like to see a breakdown from other municipalities." Palmer also suggested the letter seemed something like a bill, saying she had expected it would, be. a more discretionary item for the town rather than an outright request for a specific amount of dollars. The matter was referred to the finance committee and budget discussions. a, :is3,n , • • xi.4.!4•°', tr.'h • 2r,.:9if 132 YEAR -2 • THURSDAY, .1 ANUARY 11, 1979 BY JEFF SEDDON A proposed- Harbour Front restaurant in Goderich lost the first round of what is shaping , up to be a three round battle Tuesday night when the Goderich Area Planning Board turned down a motion to recommend to council that the land proposed for the restaurant be changed from in-ciboial, to commercial to permit the restaurant to be built. Planning board members sat through nearly two hours of presentations for and against the restaurant before Eileen -Palmer made a motion that the board recommend to council that the change, be made in the town's official 35 CENTS PER COPY ejects restaurant plan to permitthe restaurant tole built. Bob Allen supported Palmer's motion but that's where the support ended. Paul Zurbrigg, Pete McCauley, Ken McGee, Vince Young and Harry Worsell voted against it. Chairman Tom Jasper did not vote. The vote against the land designation by no Plans announced to turn stable into culture centre BY JEFF SEDDON Given a few years to get the work done arid about $200,000 to pay for it a group of about 10 Goderich residents have a plan to turn Polley's Livery Stable on South Street into a permanent centre for cultural arts. Dorothy Wallace, spokesman for the group and owner of the stable, said Friday- that plans had been developed to convert the 110 year old stone building. that until recently housed Glenmark Lumber into a fixed seat ,theatre. Wallace said a feasibility study had been completed by architects Hill and Borgal and that the results of the study showed that the :building could accominodate a 300 seat theatre. Wallace Said the group Of 10 had held just one meeting and was in the process of recruiting more members. She said the group had called itself the Goderich Performing Arts Foun- dation and had immediate plans to obtain a charter. She said members were very in- terested in getting a broad representation of cultural interests in Goderich and were holding a second meeting ted'ay (Wednesday). Rec. director's post popular The owner of the -livery stable stressed the fact that the group did not want to impose any limitations on the petential uses for the cultural centre. She said it was calling the building a "cnItural centre because we expect the place to be brsed by choirs, bands and other things as opposed to having it used purely for theaae." Wallace said the plans for the arts centre may be a little lofty at present but at least show what could be done with the stable. She said the purchase of the stable also included the pur-, chase of an adjoining lot and the plans prepared •by Hill arid Borgal showed a potential use for the lot. She said it could be used for a com- ' mercial-residential— complex built around a court yard between it and the theatre. She added that the estimated costs for the con- version of the stable did not include any -work done on the adjoining lot. She said the $200,000 estimate was "very generous" according to the architect. She said the, costs 'worked out to about $40 per square foot to get the work done and included the cost to purchase the building. Over -60-applicatio , AVE SYKES The Goderich recreation board and town Council will 'have their hands full in filling the recreation directors -post vacated by Mike Dymond in December. It's not that the board or council has little to - choose from, in fact it's just thepopposite. Town clerk Larry MgCabe's desk was flooded with 60 applications, in' response, to ads for the.,job placed in the Signal -Star, Globe and Mail and London Free Press. McCabe said the applications for the job came across, Canada and as far west as British Columbia. But now that the applications are in (replies were to be made no later.than January 5) the recreation board faces a problem that has surfaced at the board in the past, namely, who actually hires the new recreationdirector. The board entertained "considerable debate on the problem 'at the regular meeting last Thursday after some members disagreed with the se)ection procedure. Under the board's • constitution an interviewing committeeis set up consisting of the two council representatives on the bard and two other board members. Once the interviewing committee has made a selection it is presented to the board for ap- proval and then submitted to council kir* final approval. Board member Bob Gibbons said that the hiring of 'the recreation director is recOm- Wallace saved the building from the wrecker's hammer late in 1978 when she purchased it from Ken Hutchins, owner of Glenmark Lumber. Hutchins was moving away from Goderich and had closed the business and wanted to either sell the building or tear it down to sell the. empty lot for commercial use. In an . eleventh hour move Wallace purchased the •building to "keep it standing there until a good' use could be found for it". She said she had no intention of donating the building for the arts centre but added that she had no intention of makin a profit. She said she only wanted her investment back. "All I'm trying to do is get out of this," she said. • She said the group was looking to every possible source for funds for the conversion. She said anyone in the world that "shows an interest" in the project wilrbe a proached. She said she had no idea how 1 ng t would take to .gather the money needed. "The getting going to t create ilding is money its there it, for own it's she just said. demand. a matter of "I think it is mended to council by the recreation board'and therefore insisted that the applications should be scrutinized by the entire board and not just a four person committee, of which, two of the members are from council. Elsa Haydon, a council representative on the board, explained to Gibbons that the four person interviewing committee was composed entirely of recreation board members, despite the fact that two were from council. She said the interviewing committee would be totally represented by the board. Board chairman, Mary Donnelly added that .the entire board should have access to the applications and suggested that perhaps board members could revie7 them at town hall but the interviewing committee would actually interview the applicants. Donnelly read the boards constitution, af-, ° fecting this matter and it stated that the board is authorized and empowered to recommend the appointment and discharge of a director. Following considerable discussion Donnelly suggested that the board hold a specialineeting so all members could revieW the applications and possibly narrow down the candidates for the interviewing committee to persue. So the board agreed to tneet this week to review the • applications ,and also selected Randy Smith and Mary Donnelly to sit �n the interviewing committee along with •Elsa Ha ydon and John Doherty. International hockey. A capacity crowd jamMed the Goderich arena for a game "etween,,,the Green' and Parent Midgets and asteros of gvveden, Friday. Goderich played i spired hockey and won the gnaw 9-4. Her; Goderich defencernan Rob MacDonald, who scored three goals in the game congratulates Vasteros centre, Reinhold Dissauer. More stories and ,piitureS on page 8. (photo by Dave Sykes) • means ends the controversial development. Bob Gibbons, developer of the restaurant, did not want to comment on the rejection by the board but would say that he "definitely" would take the° matter to the Ontario Municipal Board. Gibbons said simply that a "majority rules" adding that he tried and lost and that he was not "sour". According to procedure under the planning act if a developer, or someone objecting to a development, is not happy with the decision of planning board it can appeal the recom- mendation to town council, Council must be in favor of the restaurant by a two third majority to overturn the planning board decision and if that two thirds is not realized the matter can then be taken to the Ontario Municipal Board fora final decision. APPEAL IMMINENT It was made clear to planning board mem- bers that no matter what their decision was it would be taken to the OMB. Gibbons promised to take the matter to the province f cYran_app.eal as did objectors to the restaurant,' Goderich Elevator, the Huron County branch of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and.Domtar Chemicals. Despite a wide variety of concerns expressed by both sides the major concern seems to be the ability of a restaurant to operate on the door- step of a grain elevator. Almost all arguments for and against the proposal centre around dust and noise created by bulk grain handling and the effect it will have on the restaurant. Coupled with that is the concern that the restaurant will deny Goderich Elevator any expansionof its facilities in the future. Goderich Elevator has argued from the outset that the very nature of its business demands a high concentration of truck traffic t_creates congested traffic at certain times and that the loading and unloading of4hips carrying grain creates a high concentration of fine dust that may cause havoc with the restaurant. The firm pointed out that if the restaurant is permitted to establish on'the harbour property it may, in the future, object to conditions created by the grain handling and may be in a position to force the elevator to limit dust created forcing ,the elevator to install expensive pollution control equipment and possibly even shut down. The elevator has also indicated it has plans to construct a country grain drying -storage facility adjacent to its present.operation and that the project will be very difficult if not impossible if the restaurant is permitted. FEDERATION CONCERNS The OFA went to bat for the elevator by lodging an objection to the restaurant. Gordon Hill, spokesmanfor OFA, told planning board the grain elevator played an integral part in the business of agriculture in Huron County and was very important to farmers in Huron. Hill said apiculture is the lifeblood of the county and that farmers were very, dependent on the elevator's business. He said that much of the feed grain used in livestock operations in Huron arrives in the county through the Goderich 'facility and that if the elevator was forced to install expensive equipment to control dust price increases would follow and that may have a serious affect on the ability of county farmers to compete. - Hili'.pointed out to planning board that other Turn to page 16 es C.^ •I I I