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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-06-07, Page 1Council votes for ice cream.. Goderich tow -n council will allow Maurice Gardiner to operate his ice cream stand on Stanley Street even if it contravenes a town bylaw and the Ontario Buildin Code. Ina recorded vote, council defeated a motion intorduced by councillor Elsa Haydon asking that Gardiner be charged under the building code act for not obtaining a building permit for the ice cream stand. The motion was defeated with mayor Harry Worsell, Reeve, Eileen Palmer and councillors' Stan profit Jim Searis and John Doherty Voting 'against it. Councillor Doherty explatned his stand Detour extended The Highway 21 detour has extended south to Suncoast Drive on Gibbons Street since last Monday. Backhoes will be operating from Suncoast Drive northerly until the section is completed and traffic restored to Bayfield Road. The detour route was changed to extend south as far as Bennett Street on May 28. The grading was completed south to Blake Street. on May 25 and is .,now reopened to all but Highway 21 traffic. There is still some work being done at the Blake Street intersection. Poles werearemoved as far south as Blake Street by May 17. Poles were expected ,to be removed from Blake to Bennett Streets by June 5 but there has been -a delay of two weeks. The PUC expects to have the road clear of poles and 'wire by the end of June. southerly to the north end of the mall. The electrical wire has not yet been received by the P.U.C. and has been delayed until June 12 to 14. All businesses along the strip are remaining open. and are looking forward to the completion of the four lane highway at the entrance of Goderich. Open house The Goderich Sports Committee will be hosting an open house of the Agriculture Sports Complex this Friday evening. The public is .invited to tour the new grand- stand facility from 5 to 10 p.m. and an evening' of sporting entertainment is planned. Both the baseball and softball diamonds will be in use as well as the soccer pitch. There are also two exhibition horse races scheduled. Refreshments will be served- in the gr and - stand and the public will be invited to offer their praise or criticism on the sports facility through a questionnaire. The sports committee also invites suggestions on future fund raising efforts. Constable hired Jay Edward Poulter of Scarborough will join. the Goderich Police Farce as a fourth class constable effective June 11. •The appointment was approved by the Goderich Police Commission on the recom- mendation of Police Chief Pat King• at a meeting held last Thursday.. Poulter, 25, was chosen out 'of 10 applicants for the position to replace Constable Robert _ I5ixon who has ieYt tfie Goderich force to train for the R.C.M.P.. • Poulter received his police training at the Ontario Police College in Aylmer and served with the Ontario Provincial Police from January to November of 1976. He then went to work as a security officer with the Ontario Government's Protective Services. Chief King told the commission that he felt Poulter had potential and could be developed 'by the Goderich force. He also told the com- mission that, as a security' officer, Poulter came highly'recommended. Poulter will. serve an 18 mdnth probationary period with the Goderich force afterbeing hired. claiming that Gardiner had not•done anything wrong. Doherty said Gardiner had approached the works commissioner about the problem and was instructed to approach council. Doherty claims council granted him per- mission to operate the ice cream stand. • "He's doing more service than injustice," Doherty added. Councillor Elsa Haydon said 'there was nothing wrong with the manner in which Gardiner operated but asked fellow councillors if the council had acted properly on the matter. "" Council had no right to,authorize something. that is illegal on two counts," Haydon said. - despite the law "The issue here is whether or not council can' authorize something that doesn't comply with a provincial law." Haydon stated that others were watching the outcome of this problem closely to see what council would do. Reeve Eileen Palmer said Haydon was just splitting hairs and that she was willing to take her chances and not support the motion. "Stanley Street will be a one-way street with no consideration to hirn,"Palmer said. "And his motel on Highway 21 has probably not had one reservation in the last two or three weeks because of the detour on Highway 21." Councilor Profit questioned haydon's motives inasking that charges be laid under the buiding code. "We've stated that he has'done nothing wrong so why charge hjm?"Profi-t questioned. "If anyone should.be taken to task it should be council. I'm in favor of selling ice cream but I'm against the motion." Councillor Jim Magee said he had no ob- jections to Gardiner personally but if a bylaw was in effect in town it should be supported by council. He added-thhatifeottneri 'itson bylaws there was. no sense in having themw. 132—YEAR 23 THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1979 35 CENTS PER COPY oard stands firm,a BY JEFF SEDDON x The Huron County board of education stood its ground Monday afternoon telling the Con- cerned Citizen's Group of Huron county English literature texts had been approved according to hoard policy and that was that. In a clash with about 15 members of the group trustees defended board procedures used to approve a list of 22 English books and told the parents no changes would be made to the list. Not only did the board refuse to alter its decision on the books it,told the group nothing could be gained by sitting down to discuss the controversy and unanimously chose not to have a special meeting with the group. The board's approval of the list of books was sandwiched between a brief presented by the citizen's group expressing its dissatisfaction of the • board's handling of the issue and a 15 minute question period after the board meeting. The presentation of the brief went smoothly but the question period turned into an angry exchange between parents and trustees. The brief, presented by Burt Greidanus, told the board the parents were concerned with the morals and ethics in the school system. The parents felt little had been done about com- plaints made to the board and that the new board policy used to approve textbooks shifted responsibility. "We wish to express our complete dissatisfaction over the board's handling of this issue up until now and demand that the board ..change its stand and follow the guidelilnes as set down in the Education Act," the group stated in its brief. The ....parents_feit:s:om.e__of-tire 22 novels ani'= proved by the board contained "explicit language". The group requested trustees "read these bobks before voting here today and to schedule a meeting •w:ith a delegation of. Concerned Citizens to discuss the differences and come to a. mutual understanding in the best interests of our schools". The brief was presented at the outset of the board session and board chairman John Elliott urged any trustees with anything to say to the concerned group say. it. Elliott. reminded the board that it would be voting on approval of the texts during the meeting and this would be the only opportunity trustees would have to discuss y watering restrictions? Goderigh town council expressed concern over the cost of attempting to enforce the watering restriction bylaw and may ask the PUC to enforce it this summer. Council learned that it cost $1,300 to enforce the water restriction bylaw last summer and suggested that bylaw control officer, Dick Eisler, not be asked to patrol for outlaw waterers. • Councillor Jim Searis claimed the PUC should enforce the watering bylaw or should pay for Eisler's salary to do so. He added that even the police could enforce the bylaw. Councillor Elsa Haydon said the bylaw was impossible to enforce and was also ambiguous irn`rrarure. "This started year's ago and is there any rhyme or reason for watering re"s"trictions?" she asked. "Nobody has proved that we use more water." F o Councillor Jim Magee claimed it was just like other town bylaws that weren't enforced. Reeve Eileen Palmer said the water tower capacity was not great enough to handle the summer load and that pressure could not be maintained. She said it would present a dnagerous situation in the case of a fire. Haydon ,said that despite people not being able to water others could have their swimming pools filled or wash cars. Stan Profit claimed that some people wash two or three cars in a day. Councillor Brian Knights said he was irritated by the bylaw when he moved to Goderich but claimed special permits Could be granted to people with newly seeded or sodded lawns. Searis asked that it be found out if the bylaw is enforceable and who was to enforce it. raud case discharged Provincial court judge C.E. Perkins discharged a fraud count against Cayley Hill last week because of a lack of evidence. Hill; of 27 Wellington Street in Goderich, was accused of defrauding Champion Road ' Machinery Ltd. of $25,000. He was accused of fraudu-iently taking $25,000 in travellers cheques August 25, 1975 from Champion where he had worked for 30 years prior to resigning about two years ago to pursue his own business interests. The money was part of a $75,000 payment a private agent in Turkey was to receive for his work sellingseveral njQllion dollars worth of Champion machinery to the Turkish govern- ment. The charge stemmed from questions Revenue Canada raised about the money while reviewing the firm's books'last year. The 52 year old was charged last December when Crown Attorney Garry Hunter contended Hill, then company vice-president in charge of manufacturing, was responsible for paying the $25,000 to the agent but instead kept the money. After hearing the crown's case Perkins said he could not see "one shred of evidence" that Hill had any intention of defrauding Champion and ordered the charge against him discharged. Hunter said Wednesday he was not finished with the case. He said he was awaiting the transcript of thb preliminary hearing and was considering seeking a county court..judge to prefer an indictment against Hill to hying the cas to trial. Hunter said he didn't "quite agree" with Perkins' assessment of the situation. He said he would know in a few weeks what action, if any, he would take. the issue with the parents prior to that vote. Trustees remained silent. No one asked Greidanus•-to expand' on the views of the con- cerned parents and no one made any attempt to support or oppose the views of the parents. Despite its unified stand in support of its policy after the meeting some trustees were unhappy about the manner in which they were being asked to vote on the textbooks. • When it came time to vote on the novels some trustees felt the board had not had'enough lime to check out the novels. Seaforth trustee John Henderson told the board he thought approval of the texts was given in August. He said he understood the two month period between the submission of the list of novels by teachers and the approval of the board was to allow trustees to look the books over. • "Don't we .get a chance to look at them?"he asked. Elliott exained that according t� the new board policy,approv!,e<d two months ago, board approval was to be given at the June session. He said teachers had been asked to submit a list of texts to principals along with rationale ex- plaining why the novels were chosen and what educational benefits they had: That list of provesbooks novels as taken to a special day long session of the education committee which was open to the public and advertised. At that meeting the education committee approved novels and recommended to the board that its approval, also be given. The chairman pointed out that if any parents or trustees wanted to find out what novels would be up for approval the special education committee meeting was the place to do it. Goderich trustee Dave Gower told the board he did not feel 'he had enough time to look over the novels and because of that he would not vote to approve them. • Wingham trustee Bert Morin told the board, trustees had had ample time to sit down with teachers and review the books but added that Turn to page (i Fire communication system • The Goderich Fire Committee will review a communications system proposal from the Canadian General Electric Company at its next meeting. A CGE representative, Gord Mayhew,, at- tended the regular meeting of council Monday and submitted a brief . outline of what his. company proposes in the line of a fire com- munications system. Mayhew worked with the police com- munication network in Goderich and said his company could provide an adequate system for fire protection. He claimed a fire communications system could be connected to the police dispatch and his proposal was -to integrate the sy:ti'tems. He said there was no reason that operators could not also handle the fire cells. Motorolla made a presentation to council, just a few weeks before and councillor Elsa Haydon asked if more companies were not likely to come out of the woodwork ifn future and ap- proach -council with a better system. Fire committee chairman Brian Knights invited Mayhew to the next committee meeting to discuss the proposal. Teachers, mothers and students of the Goderich Municipal Day Nursery enjoyed a day of fun and frolick in Harbor Park last week to mark the final day of school. The children and mothers enjoyed three legged races, sack'races, t-ball;and a picnic lunch.(photo by Dave Sykes)