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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-03-15, Page 1No bones about it, we're interested in saving money BY SHIRLEY J.KELLER Finance chairman for Goderich town council, Reeve Eileen Palmer made no bones about it Monday evening when members met for the regular monthly committee session. She told a delegation from the Public Utilities Com- mission the finance committee " would recommend to council that the lot on which the new hydro substation is to be built should remain town property, and the money to complete the project should come through a bank Loan rather than debentures. Al Lawson, PUC manager, said Ontario Hydro approval for the project had already sal been given on a debenture plan. He questioned the wisdom of a five year bank loan against a 10 -year debenture., "Why should we make the people of today pay when people 10 years down the road will benefit?" asked La vson. Goderich Clerk Larry McCabe called that "an old philosophy" and said it would cost the. municipality $100,000 in ten years for a debenture while with a bank loan, interest savings amounting to $35,000 or more could be expected. "We're just asking you, is there a better way'?" McCabe said. "We don't care where we get the money, but I think we'll have to go back to Ontario Hydro tot" get the approval," Lawson told council. Councillor Elsa Haydon told council that since the money for the project will be collected from the PVC's customers, the PVC should decide the method of financing, not the council. "Taxpayer, ratepayer, call him what you will. We're interested in saving money," commented the reeve. Commissioner Jim Peters was .in the audience and told Reeve Palmer he could give "ironclad guarantees" that the property would be used for a substation. The reeve had in- dicated the finance committee wanted the town to retain ownership of the lot to prevent the PUC from selling it for another purpose. "I think it is extremely serious when we fragment out system," Peters argued. He said the PUC has the mandate to provide hydro in this town, and felt the PUC should have ownership of the lot on which the substation was to be located. Before the next PUC on March 22, the finance committee of the town, the clerk, the, PUC manager and 'a representative from ,Ontarrio Hydro will sit down todetermine a financing agreement. Reeve Palmer also commented she hoped Goderich PUC hydro estimates were closer to actual'than those pf Ontario Hydro.' Lawson told her,"They are bang on." MPP s on panel The board of Alexandra Marine and General Hospital is planning a public meeting on Monday,March 26 at Goderich Memorial Community Centre with MPPs Jack Riddell and Murray Gaunt in attendance. Gerry Zurbrigg, board member, told the Signal -Star the meeting will take the form of a panel discussion with a moderator and op- portunity for questions from the audience. The regular board meeting will be held one day late, Tuesday, March 27 this month due to the public meeting. Mrs. Zurbrigg said good citizen participation is expected at the public forum because of the great interest that has been shown by citizens in and around Goderich through petitivs and individual letters to Queen's Park. 132 YEAR -11 Jim Moore, former recreation director for the town of Palmerston, began duties as recreation director in Goderich, March 5. Moore was hired by the recreation board following the resignation of Mike Dymond in December. The board received 80 applications for the job from across the country. ( photo by Dave Sykes) Speak .now or down it comes Are' the people of Goderich and area really interested in a cultural centre for the per- forming and visual arts? That's what the Goderich Performing Arts Foundation wants to know. And the members want to know it immediately. The group is trying desperately to get $50,000 together by next Tuesday, March 20. That's the, day their option runs out on the former Polley's Livery Stable on South Street. Without meeting their objective, the building will revert to its previous owner Ken Hutchins, formerly of Goderich, now of Hawaii. Hutchins holds a demolition permit for the building, and Foundation members believe Hutchins will level the building later this month if they don't come up with the complete downpayment. According to spokesmen for the Foundation, money for the project may not be as important at this juncture as a simple demonstration of coxnmunity support for the project. It appears that certain groups and individuals are prepared to donate to the project, • providing there --i-s--concrete -evidence- --the --people —oaf Goderich and area support the concept. You can indicate your interest by telephoning the Foundation office at 524-2472 or by writing to the Foundation at 58 Elgin Ave., Goderich. Anyone who wishes to make a contribution to the project may also do so before March 20,1979. Legion picks up band's tab The Goderich Laketown Band will have some money to work with this year despite the fact the Goderich Recreation Board has agreed to discontinue its annual funding of the group. A meeting of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 109 has considered the band''s plight and will give the group a gift of $1,000 in 1979. Past president Eric Johnstone calls it a "one shot deal" explaining that while the Legion has a special interest in the band because the group plays for so many of its functions, no decision has been reached to fund the band to the tune of $1,000 for any more than this year. That could change as the need arises though, Johnstone suggested. He said_ the Legion has been giving the band a gift of $300 as a token of its appreciation for the band's loyalty to Legion parades and events. "But there are no strings attached to the money," Johnstone said. THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 1979 Square lights superfluous BY SHIRLEY J.KELLER Tempers flared around the council table on Monday evening at the March committee -meeting= -when---rrrer rbers--'of- the- ,B°usiness" Improvement Area (BIA) appeared to make their proposals for financing the 1979 work on The Square beautification project. The BIA is proposing that the remainder of the work be done on The Square this summer, amounting to $40,000 for the BIA share. Members are requesting however, that the town finance the project in 1979 over what the BIA raises per annum in its special levy ($25,000), with the understanding the money would be paid back to the town from the 1980 BIA assessment. - Planning would commence for the work on the side streets, the BIA spokesman Chris Kiar told council, but no work would be undertaken until the debt for The Square had been wiped out. ",Next year would be a fairly dead year for the BIA," Kiar predicted. Regie i-ieen Palmer toad rlre BI7� representatives that as finance chairman, she wanted tosee the_ whole matter referred to the budget discussions. She said The Square beautification project should be on the "discretionary list" of expenditures for 1979. She called the project a `superfluous proposal' and reminded the group• there were taxpayers in Goderich who had been paying taxes for "probably 100 years where they are still using septic tanks". Kiar in his presentatiop to council, said businessmen were paying taxes four times over - on their homes, on their' business premise, on their business location and to the BIA. In 1977, Kiar said, businessmen in the core area paid $191,000 to the town and another $60,000 for education. "In addition they have imposed on them- selves a tax'of $25,000," Kiar argued. "I don't think that kind of money has been spent in the area in any given year." Councillor Bob Allen said the money for the the town's share of the remainder of The Sgdare project was in the budget, but it would be up to council whether or not it stays there. Councillor Elsa Haydon pointed out the project was not in dispute. The town council had agreed in 1977 to go ahead with the project by a vote of 6-2 . "This is 1979," said Reeve Palmer. "This is a new council " _ Haydon compared The Square beautification project to the Highway 21 widening project, and said no one was suggesting that since a previous council had authorized that work, it was no longer a valid project. "It is not the project that is in dispute here," corrected Councillor Haydon. "It is the method of financing." Haydon said she was tired of some council members "putting down constantly" a specific segment of the community. She said it was well for council to remember that the businessmen in the core area provide many jobs for many citizens of Goderich and as a group is "one of the town's biggest employers". "Oh deliver me from your parables," ex-• claimed the reeve. Kiar commented that the new lights on The Square had been "checked and adjusted" and were now providing "adequate" light. "At least I know now when I've got my Frank Drea says bed cuts negotiable BY SHIRLEY J.KELLER A statement attributed 'to Frank Drea, the minister of consumer of commercial relations, during the weekend to the Huron -Middlesex Progressive Conservative riding association meeting in Exeter, has Goderich's Alexandra Marine and General Hospital administrator, Elsner Taylor in a bit of a quandry. Drea told that meeting there is •a chance that hospital boards can negotiate bed cuts with the Ontario Ministry of Health. Drea felt the ministry would adjust, the number of hospital beds allowed in each community according to the individual needs of the community. But that isn't what Goderich hospital board Members have been told. According to Taylor,the local hospital board hasn't received any indication Brom the ministry that there has been a change from the original announcement that the bed cuts would be carried out unifor- mly and without exception across Ontario. "I am hoping he (Drea) is right," Taylor told the Signal -Star on Monday."It would mean the Ministry is recognizing some differences in the needs of hospitals across Ontario. It would be a No changes Signal -Star was in touch with Mac Keillor of the Ontario Ministry of Health in Toronto on Tuesday afternoon, He advised that there has been "no change in ministry policy" regarding bed closures in the province, and said the guidelines are "still firm" at 3.5 beds per 1,000 referral population. When questioned concerning Frank Drea's comrhents in Exeter during the weekend, aeillor said,"I suspect there has been some misinformation." 4 breakthrough." Taylor said that if Drea's "surprising, comments" are accurate, it would mean that letters from this part of the province may have had some impact at Queen's Park. "We are very pleased if this the govern- ment's new policy," Taylor said. A ' release from the Ontario Hospital Association this week drew attention to the bed cuts and pointed out that hospitals for the most part will have to "struggle by with a lot less" provincial funding in 1979. "Actually the minister (Hon.Dennis Tim- brell) is being pretty canny," the Ontario Hospital Association president John Wevers said. "He knows that with the money allocated to them, many hospitals are nbt going to be able to afford to keep open even the number of beds he says they should have in the coming year." headlights on when I'm driving around The Square," quipped Kiar. Palmer said the lights may be giving -adequate' 1rght; but--s'he''ca1'le-d'if"a '`d"isgra'ce Ce— that such unattractive lights were allowed to stand in the core area. . "And nothing's going to change their looks," she complained. Councillor John Doherty challenged 35 CENTS PER COPY Palmer's views on the lights. "I don't think you've taken a poll or a census tosee what people think," charged Doherty. From'th-e pictures"�I at were"iri tfieSigrial=Star I'd say the new lights are a hell of an im- provement." No decision was reached. The whole matter is up for rediscussion at the budget meetings, the first to be held Wednesday, March 14. Separate supporters pay more The Huron -Perth .County Roman Catholic Separate School board set its 1979 budget at $4,683,415, an increase of $132,000 over last year at a special meeting in Dublin Thursday night. Jack Lane, Superintendent of Business and Finance, said in presenting the budget, "To meet this increase, the board will require only 2.9 per cent more than last year from municipalities in the two counties.". He -Said salaries and fringe benefits account ,for 7b.6`per cent of budget. "' " Provincial grants and other revenue will provide 82.6 per cent of the 1979 budget, com- pared with 83.4 per cent in 1978. Local tax- payers will be required to contribute $798,700 which is 17.4 per cent of this year's budget, up from 16.6 per cent in 1978. To allow for the collection of the 'necessary taxes, the board has set a mill rate of five mills or its equivalent for ratepayers in all 51 sup- porting municipalities over that paid in 1978. This will mean $5per $1,000 of assessment more than las-t-year- -As an average, -this will cost the taxpayers $17.50 more in 1979, according to board calculations. •" W Lane said, "Positive results from board decisions made in 1978 to cope with declining enrolments are reflected in this budget." Winnie the Pooh and Tiger were two of the main attractions in the Disney on Ice theme at the Ice Nicks '79 sow held by the Goderich Figure Skating Cl b at the Goderich Memorial Community Centre on Saturday. There were lots of little Poohs and Tigers skating around too. The big Pooh bear here is Michelle Cam- pbell and the big Tiger is Leslie Ream The little Pooh is Susie Bell and the little Tiger is Kim Llnklater. (Photo by. Joanne Buchanan)