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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-05-10, Page 10 It's beginning to look like summer. The weather has finally come full vantage of the sun to get a good start on a tan at St. Christophers Beach. circle and the recent heat wave has brought people outdoors and active There haven't been any swimmers yet, though. (photo by Dave Sykes) in a full range of summer activity. Here two young ladies took ad - 7'0o bright for a firecracker .. BY CATH WOQDEN Perhaps the Starship Enterprise blew off course. Last Sunday night several Goderich residents witnessed a bright pinkish light flying low over the courthouse towards Church Street. Constables Pete Mason and George Lonsbary investigated, but found nothing. Mrs. Ann I inklatnr of ('nIhn-nr• Street, was one Goderich resident who was looking at the skies on Sunday night. "It wasn't orange and it wasn't red, and it was very bright." Smoke was coming from the center of the light, which she said was flying low over the houses towards the lake. Mrs. Linklater said that the strange light was much too bright to be a firecracker. Beam me up, Scottie... Planners left to plan BY DAVE SYKES Goderich town council finally met with met with members of the Huron County Planning Department Monday to settle a rift developing between the groups. Previously there was some disenchantment expressed by town officials over the work priorities of the planning department, which handles planning concerns of 26 municipalities in the County. The town has several planning projects that require attention including core area land use, heritage district study, rear yard setback requirements in the core area, updating of Restaurant folded Goderich developer Bob Gibbons has abandoned plans to build a restaurant near the waterfront after months of planning. Council passed a bylaw Monday realing an earlier bylaw that had peen passed to ac- comodate building the restaurant on the piece of land. The land had to be rezoned to permit the development. Although Gibbons had received approval from council in January to build the restaurant he ran intb opposition from local harbor in- dustries and the Huron County- Federation of Agriculture. 132—YEAR 19 THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1979 35 CENTS PER COPY Farmers grill three candidates BY ALICE GIBB Energy and energy conservation were among the issues raised at Huron county's first all - candidates meeting held ' at Hullett Central `School Thursday nights:The session, organized by the Huron County Federation of Agriculture, drew about, 200 people. In respose to a question by Lucknow area farmer Tony McQuail on a moratorium on nuclear power, two of the three candidates said they would support a study on the .safety of nuclear power plants. Progressive Conservative Bob McKinley, who sat on, the natural resources committee in the House of Commons, said nothing of a, serious nature has happened at nuclear plants in Canada since they were established in the country. But although he had been assured the plants are safe by experts, Mr. McKinley said, "I would like to see an independent authority with - expertise to let the public know whether these are safe plants and if the people who live around them are safe." Moira Couper, the NDP candidate from Bayfield, said her party is committed to a moratorium on the development of further -nuclear plants until the views of the public are known and fully considered by government bodies. She said the party also believes in more research into renewable energy sources. Stop signs limit danger Goderich town council made ari attempt to help make the Highway 21 detour as safe as possible adopting a series of,recommendationb from the traffic committee. Due to construction on the connecting link on Bayfield Road, Highway 21 traffic is diverted on Blake Street and down Gibbons Street past Victoria Public School. To alleviate some congestion on the residential streets four-way stops have been installed at the - intersections of Blake and Gibbons Streets and Gibbons and Bennett Streets. Also a snow fence has been erected on the property of St. Marys School to prevent children from running across the intersection. The detour will eventually be moved up to Bennett street and crossing guards will be moved to Blake and Gibbons, Streets and Bennett and Gibbons Street intersections. The speed limit on Gibbons Street will be reduced to 30 km per hour. The detour has created a heavy volume of traffic running past Victoria Public School and The Liberal candidate, .Graeme Craig, of Walton, didn't commit himself to -a moratorium but agreed more studies should be made on the safety of the plants. He said experts "tell us CANDU reactors are safer than what happened '.in Penn.sylVania' " The candidates' meeting opened with seven minute speeches by each of the candidates, followed by questions directed to candidates from the floor. Bob McKinley told the audience his party believes agriculture is one of the most vital components -of society and nous -t be given- a more important and central role in society. The PC candidate said his party is convinced' 'greater export sales opportunities exist for thereby created apotentially dangerous situation. The 'Goderich Police Department expressed concern over a situation in which parents were dropping children off at school and making them cross the busier than usual street to school. Victoria School principal Don O'Brien said the increased traffic past the school caused con- cern initially but the school children has ad- justed to the situation. "The increased traffic caused concern at the school as well a lot of noise," O'Brien said. "Certainly there was increased danger but we have talked to The thildren;a$out-d'ons'fanily - and we will just have to live with it." While the children have adjusted to the flow of traffic outside the school O'Brien said the five points intersection was still much more dangerous for the children. The detour pattern during the widening of Highway 21 was selected by the Ministry of Transportation and Communication. Dollars detour with traffic Merchants on Bayfield Road from Britainnia Road to the southern limits of Goderich plan to look after one another this summer. The businessmen formed an association Monday night to help one another weather economic problems brought about by the detour taking traffic off Bayfield Road. Bert Squires, spokesman for the Suncoast Strip Business Association, said Tuesday the association plans to carefully monitor the progress of the reconstruction and widening of Hayfield Road. He said merchants along the road, which will be closed to through traffic until late in the summer, hope to be able to encourage and assist tourists and residents of Goderich to.keep shopping the Strip. Squires said somle businessmen have already felt a pinch from the detour and there is some concern'a'rnongst the 30' merchants that 'some businesses will not make it through the con- struction period. He said the Strip association plans to promote itself all Srummer and look out for one another's interests. He said the merchants affected by the highway project paid fees to join the association and hopefully can draw on those fees if times really get tough. He said he hopes no merchant ever needs any financial assitance but the possibility is there they will. Strip members include businesses along the aayfield Road from Argyle MatIne to the Bluffs Motel south of Goderich. Menccants in Sun - coast Mall also jointed. 14) agricultural products and would put agricultural salespersons, in Canada's em- bassies to promote the sale of Canadian agricultural goods around the world. Mr. McKinley said his party would also at- tempt to bring producers and consumers closer together and to promote better understanding between the two groups. Moira Couper said agriculture is important since it is the social fabric of the local com- munity, and without it, the community breaks up. She said her party -favors the creation_ of land banks in which the government purchases farmland and then leases or sells it to farmers Turn to page :l • official plan and the updating of the zoning bylaw. In a letter to council February 1, County secretary -treasurer, Bill Hanly, said the ' planning department would allow enough time in the schedule for the staff to undertake up to four intermediate projects or one long-term project in 1979. Council made no move to priorize the projects but sought a meeting with planning board chairman, Tom Jasper and planners Gary Davidson and Roman Dzus. As a result of last Monday's meeting council agreed that day to day planning matters would be handled by either the planning board secretary, Ken Hunter or council secretary Larry McCabe. Matters that require the ex-' pertise of the planning department members will be referred to them by either secretary. That motion handled the day to day enquiries the planners recieve from council members, builders, committees of council and other in- dividuals -time that was charged to Goderich by the planning department. Council included a clause in the motion that a list of their planning priorities be formulated by planning board at an early date for approval by council. Those priorities would then be for- warded to the planning department. Planning board chairman, Tom Jasper, said that four months have gone by this year and the county planning department has not done any work for the town. "The planning board should be responsible for planning matters," he•said.."And we should have a mandate to deal with the .county plan- ners.". County planning director, Gary Davidson said he was looking for some clear direction from Goderich after they had requested council to produce operational procedure and projects that required attention. Councillor Elsa Haydon said the groups were at the stage of "spinning wheels and going nowhere" in their arguments. She claimed that council had not told planning board what to do and was concerned about the talk of disen- chantment between the town and planners. -" Let's clarify things now," she'said. "There has been no clear instructions and we should look into our own affairs before blaming someone else." Deputy -reeve Bob Allen offered some logic to the debate saying the planning department could..not do everything they were. asked to do but the main problem Was to know what time frame the planners could complete work of- fered to them. He believed the groups were close to resolving the situation, Monday. Dr. Jasper disagreed with the motion passed by council claiming it was a step bakcwards. "Council approval is a stumbling block in procedure and just m,pre red tape'," he said. " If planning board doesn't have power it will be next fall before the official plan is done and you'll get it back." Davidson saidthe plan- ning department would have to resort to formal procedures in dealing with projects although time was a disadvantage of such a procedure. But he was concerned that council has notm'• forwarded a list of priorities to the planning department who must schedule ' work for summer students. In the past several committees and boards of council have.requested information and work from the planning department and Davidson said the procedure was simply to accept the work. -A-higher proportion of time was spent ad- ministering the process than making it.work," he said. "With a formal approach there should be a lower output to adrninistration." Children getting used to increased traffic r'+ 4 The Highway 21 detour along Blake and Gibbons Street has greatly increased the flow of traffic around the Victoria School area and police caution motorists to travel that street with care. Four-way stops have been set up at the Blake and Gibbons and Bennett and Gibbons Street intersections during the detour. The speed limit will also be reduced to 30 km per hour. (photo by Dave Sykes)