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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-07-19, Page 1Catching a few rays. Itwas hot and humid for the Goderich Festival of the Arts last week and Dave Shearer managed to find time between Police settle contract Members of the 'local police association have ratified a one-year contract with the town providing salary increases of eight per cent over 1978. The salary increases are retroactive to January 1, .1979.• First-class constables will receive' a yearly •salary of $]9,021 up from $17,612 last year. Second-class constables will receive $17,347 this year; third-class constables $15,991;., and fourth-class constables $12,856: The two sergeants on the Goderich Police Force -will receive 819,935. ' In addition to salary increases, police officers will receive time and a half pay for working on statutory holidays, effective Thursday, July 12 when contract negotiations ended. A separate civilian contract grantingan eight percent salary increase to the force's secretary -dispatcher has also been ratified. The §alaries of the dispatchers hired in April for the new police communications system remain unchanged. The police contracts have .'been- under negotiation since June 1. Up to 10 weeks for bridge repair Are you growing impatient over the delays at. the CNR bridge on Highway 21 at the northern limits of Goderich? Well there is some good and bad news on the progress of the -bridge construction. The good' news is that the repair work will be completed this year. The bad news is that it will take up to ten weeks before traffic is back to normal over thetwo•bridges on •Highway 21. The Honorable James Snow said it will take work crews another two to three weeks to complete repair work on the upper bridge. The. repairs to thelower bridge .over the Maitland River will require an'' 'additional six weeks yvorli.' Crews are on.th,e job four days per week. Sheardown remanded BY JEFF•SEDDON Timothy L. Sheard -own appeared in provincial court Monday facing three charges ^ involving firearms and was remanded back into custody'at the Ontario Mental Health Care Centre at Penetanguishene. The 28 year old Goderich resident was returned to Penetang for an additional 30 days psychiatric treatment and was ordered to appear in court August 13. He is charged with . intent to wound using a firearm, possession of weapons dangerous to the public peace and use of .firearms.. while committing and indictable offence. , The charges were laid May 24 after a shooting incident at the federal building on East; Street. Shortly after noon May 23 a man `toting a shotgun took over the federal building herding ertrployees of the Canada Manpower Office into a storage, room. The employees fashioned a makeshift rope from curtains and lowered themselves out a second story window but the gunman refused to come out of the building and held Goderich police and members of the Ontario Provincial Police Tactical Rescue Unit at bay for more than 12 hours. After more than eight hours of negotiations the gunman finally threw .out his Weapon and surrendered; Sheardowrl appeared in provincial court May 24.. on the same charges and was remanded'to- 1 Penetang for 60 days of extensive psychiatric exatliniation. browsers to catch up on a bit of sleep and work on his tan. Wlien he wasn't resting Shearer was displaying wood carvings and mirrors at the three day festival. (photo•by Dave Sykes Plaza bylaw appy vea BY DAVE SYKES Goderich town council pissed a bylaw Monday permitting the construction of a mini plaza on $ayfield Road. The bylaw rezoned the parcel of land ad- jacent to the ' Suncaest Mall from Develop- mental to Highway Commercial to permit the 6.600 square foot plaza proposed by. •Lamor Enterprises. The bylaw was given final reading despite a letter •from Huron Comity Planner. Roman. Dzus, warning council that some' of the proposed uses of the mall may not conform to the highway commercial designation and also that it may have a detrimental effect on the core area. The bylaw passed by council will permit the following uses: an auto parts store, an 'auto specialty store, a financial institution, a con- venience store, an eating establishment, a real -estate office, a drug store, a building supplies and hardware store, a beer store, a liquor store and a film sales and processing shop. Dzus said it was critical to establish con- formity and wanted council to understand that some of the uses proposed for the plaza fall into a grey area and may not conform to the town's • recently constructed grandstand at the offical plan. He explained that if the Ontario Ag• riculture Sports Complex will have a new Municipal Board disagrees with the usesthe name. bylaw will be turned back. The Goderich Sports Committee introduced a Reeve Eileen Palmer objected strongly to the motion, that was ratified by council Monday, Dzus letter claiming the planners had no recommending' that the new grandstand be business advising the town on the economic renamed the Ronald Feagan Memorial Centre. impact -of the project. - - • Councilosupported the motion in a recorded. "All excuses to delay the project have been vote. used by the planners and none of them are Feagan died at his farm near Dundas, valid," she said. Friday, January 12. , Councillor Elsa Haydon rebuffed Palmer's Feagan was one of harness racing's great pstatements suggesting the opinions of the drivers and during his 21 -year career he won rofessional people were of invaluable, more than 3,000 races and was the recipient of_ assistance to council in making decisions. the Golden Horseshoe Circuits Horseman of the "Planner's opinions, reviews and predictions . Year award. help me but everyone still makes up their own He was born in West Wawanosh Township mind," Haydon said: "Professional opinions on March 10, 1942 and even as a youngster•showed matters is helpful and I am grateful that he promise in the sport.•He won his 'first race at took it upon himself to point things out." the age of 16\and could always be found around Councillor Jim Searls said the matter the barns at the Goderich Raceway. deserved consideration since the town already had two malls that were not filled. , -•I just don't want to see more empty stores in town,".he said. Dzus said there was a critical lack of high- way commercial land in Goderich and he wanted -to be certain it was usedproperly. •'It would be a misuse to allow retail com- mercial to occupy highway commercial land," he said. " Highway commercial projects have a' dependancy on highway exposure and should cater to vehicular trade." qa Palmer said council must consider the in- creased assessment the town would realize from a new mall. Grandstand named Ron Feagan Memorial Centre • 132 YEAR -29 THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1979 35 CENTS PER COPY C wants to buy ro the very • near future and tenders and con- property, which is inevitable,' they will be struction will proceed. • responsible tor the removal of the house from If council agrees to the sale of the Lighthouse the site. Council has .ready granted per- BY DAVE SYKES Goderich town council will have to sell a Lighthouse Street property to the Ontario. Housing Corporation for official approval of the senior citizen's complex on Waterloo Street. Council, learned from Ministry of Housing project co-ordinator, Daryl Kreutzer; that off site parking was needed to augment existing parking for the proposed complex before the OHC was likely to approve the project. The town purchased two properties on Lighthouse Street, with one to be -utilized for off site parking but the OHC wants to purchase the land fora nominal fee of $2: Refinements to the drawings of the proposed 53 unit -.seniors' complex limited parkjng spaces to 17. Kreutzer said that surveys of tennants indicate that as many as 50 per cent of the .people own cars: . The 60 by 94 foot rectangualr lot on Lighthouse street would provide an additional 11 parking spaces and satisfy OHC requirements. Under the agreement of sale the OHC would buy the land from the town for $2, but the town would be responsible for removing the existing 'building. The Ministry would be responsible for development costs, estimated at $5,000. Council elected to table the matter of the sale until thekrugust 1-5 meeting: _ Reeve Eileen Palmer balked at the paltry sale figure _ and accused the. Ministry of procrastinating on the seniors project. She suggested that events were not proceeding within the allotted time frame and if the units were not built until 1980 ways concerned the town would be paying excessive interest on the' $150,000 price'tag of the land. "The town is p'a'ying interest on $150,000 and we will pay interest on it all winter if it isn't built," she said. "If that is the case we would want market value dollar for the Lighthouse lot.' Kreutzer assured Palmer the town would not .be burdened with interest payments claiming the Ministry will purchase the land within the next few months from the town. • "Once soil tests are done and the ministry is satisfied it will buy the site," he said. "There will be no financial burden to the municipality. The -site is expensive and the Ministry is paying a premium but they are going along becuase of the number of units. It is the most expensive land we have bought iffthe area." Kreutzer was also satisfied that the project. was proceeding on schedule and said the six week demolition 'period was longer than an- ticipated. Council delayed entering the agreement for sale of the land until the August 15 Meeting. ' ' - Soil testing of the land is to.. a completed„in er fo.r mission to Dorothy Wallace for removal of :the building. The building will be transported to a another site owned by Wallace. Erosion problem prompts study BY JEFF SE'DDON The Maitland : Valley Conservation Authority knows that significant chunks of Huron County slide into Lake Huron • every year and is now trying to find out just how fast those chunks are disappearing. To try to find out how ' fast the bluffs along the lakeshore are eroding the MVCA is involved in a co- • operative work program with two honours geography, students this summer studying about 20- of the 96 - lakebarrk gullies in the Maitland Valley watershed. The students, Ralph Schroth and Andy Emanski, .. are - both studying at Wilfred Laurier University- in Watewloo and this summer are carefully . monitoring gully erosion along the lake hank in Huron County. ' Gully erosion has long been a problem in Huron but in the past year' it has become a prime concern for the MVCA and several municipalities bordering the lake. Exhaustive studieshave already been completed in the past year .and more 'in- formation is ` being gathered to attempt to determine how the problem can be com- bated. The concern over the gully erosion is twofold. Not only are large par- cels of prime agricultural land. decreasing ini size every year many cottage owners are fighting losing battles. trying' to keep their summer homes from going/to the bottom of the lake/bank. The study being done 'this summer is designed to let technologists with the MVCA know just how fast and Why the gullies are gro ing. Part of the problem with gully erosion is that there is no comrnon denominator as to what causes them. Improper drainage of land above the lake bank, development of cottages, road patterns, agricultural practices and cutting out bush areas have all been cited as causes of erosion. The reasons for erosion are many what the MVCA wants to find out is what the solutions are. Elmanski and Schroth are carefully monitoring 20 gullies along the bank. Sediment tests of the water flowing thr=ough the gully, records of rainfall totals and intensity of storms, drainage pat- terns, agricultural practices, road patterns and cottage development have"4all been charted in the gullies. The pair is also in- terviewing landowners near the gullies to at- tempt to learn something of their history. They want to know 'how much the gully has grown and are looking for longtime landowners that have Turn to page b • Andy Emanski is spending his summer in gullies,along the Lake Huron shoreline gathering water satnples 'to test sediment Levels and charting the growth, of [gullies widened through erosion. He and a fellow honours geography student 1 Ralph Schroth are gathering infottmation on the gullies that hopefully can be used to outline remedial measures aimed at slowing up or stopping the erosion. (photo by Jeff Seddon) ..