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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-12-06, Page 1• Ashfield council t what it asked for Cottagers and farmers in Ashfield township turned out in force at a public meeting at Brookside School recently to make sure township council knew what the owners wanted from the Ashfield secondary plan. The public meeting was called to seek public opinion of the township plan and to determine if ratepayers in the township objected to any aspects of it. The property owners made their opinions known giving council a considerable number of changes to consider before preparing a final draft of the .plan and sending it to the province to make it a legal document. (photo by Jeff Seddon) BY JEFF SEDDON Ashfield township council got what it asked for at a public meeting Thursday night, public opinion on the second draft of the township's secondary plan. But tha-t opinion may be more than the township bargained for: The second draft of the plan went public at a meeting at Brookside Public School in the' hopes that farmers in the township would come out and discuss the land use document. Not only did farmers show up but a fairly large contingent of cottage owners came out as well. Both groups told council what they felt about the plan and made it clear what they felt was wrong with the plan. Council was hopeful farmers would come out in numbers to the meeting, a second attempt to hear the concerns the agricultural community had about the plan. The first public session was last September but was scheduled opposite the Lucknow Fair. Very few farmers showed up for that, session but residents of Port Albert were there in numbers. The second draft is the result of that session. Council rewrote the plan where it affected the lakeshore village to appease concerned residents there. The latest session was a "good meeting" according to county planner Gary Davidson, author of the plan. Davidson said some valid points were made by landowners in the township which council can consider before it finalizes the plan. The classic struggle in rural townships between housing and agriculture was evident at Thursday night's session but with a different twist. Comments by farmers and cottage owners left the impression that rather than THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1979 -35 CENTS PER COPY Heritage BY JEFF SEDDON Thurchitteture-of.buildingsq,!wthe.cor-e area of. iGoderich will be protected by law in the future as a result of council's decision Monday= night to incorporate a ,heritage district con- servation plan into the town's official plan. By a narrow 5-4 margin council showed its intent to work the heritage plan into the official plan, something that has been in the offing for several years. The heritage plan has been a contentious lan preserves Goderic issue in Goderich since its proposal. Merchants in -the .core' area, on whase'property the plan would -have the greatest impact, claimed the plan was too, restrictive and urged council to avoid it. The businessmen claimed the plan would remove their freedom to renovate their property claiming it would not only force there to live with the restrictions it could prove to/he a very costly item. The plan is designed to preserve t e ar- chitecture of buildis in the core area. It requ res owners of thosbbuildings to apply to the, own for permits to renovate the exteriors the buildings allowing the town an op- ortunity to, control the design of the renovation. The town is hopeful that through that control renovations would be in keeping with present architecture in the core. Along with preservation of architecture -the plan allows for the delay of any demolition 'of 'MacKay turned over to senior BY JEFF SEDDON About 150 senior citizens turned, out to officially open MacKay Centre for Seniors last week to prove that the centre is wanted and needed in Goderich. The opening, billed as a "gala" event, was, designed to get the town's seniors involved with the project and to rally support from those the centre will serve. Everett Sparlirig, chairman ofthe senior citizen's steering' corn- mittee that put the project together; set the tone for the evening when he told the audience things were just starting at MacKay. He said the project had been very successful] thus far and that the seniors were At a special opening last week Goderich Mayor Harry Worsell presented the key to MacKay Hall to Everett Sparing, chairman of the steering committee for the MacKay Centre for Seniors project.. Sparling (right) headed up the committee which got the project rolling and Wednesday night accepted the key to the hall signifying the centre's rleality. (photo by Jeff Seddon) "never going to stop until it was as reality". Sparling made the centre official when he accepted the key to the municipally owned MacKay Hall from Goderich mayor Harry Worse1l,,: To qualify the project for government grants the town had to turn the hall over to the ,senior citizens and rename it MacKay Centre for Seniors. Guest speaker for the evening, which included a variety of musical en- tertainment, was Dorothea Knights. Knights is heavily in- volved in senior citizens activities on a provincial levet and oversaw the development of a very successfull senior citizens' centre in Win- dsor. She told the Goderich group MacKay was the "cornerstone" for a (very good centre for seniors in Goderich. She said 'the elderly needed such a centre for "a place to meet and do their own thing". She said for the Goderich group to be successful) developing MacKay it must shed some misconceptions about senior citizens. She said the seniors are cseniors he was impressed just starting out and to with the groundwork that make MacKay what it had already been done at. could be they must be MacKay. He told the aggressive and "not take group their work was no for an answer". She essential to the well being - said the elderly still have of present and future a 'responsibility to their , seniors. community to pursue a Riddell pledged his good life in Goderich. personal support of the She said senior citizens project promising the are finding but that they seniors he would do all he. • what they have to overcome is the idea that someone should do things for them. She said if seniors wanted their life to be different than what it is now they -must go out and seek those changes themselves. She told the group that there are more senior citizens in the country now than there ever have been adding that there will be even more in the future. She said medicine is keeping people alive longer and to take ad- vantage of that seniors must look after their own needs. "Rather than have years added to your life add life to your years," she said. She outlined what the senior citizen's centre in Windsor had started as and what if offered now pointing out to the Goderich group that the same could happen here. She said the respon- sibility is on each and every senior to make sure their 'ideas are made known .and to support one another in all en- deavours. "Utilize the maximum ability of each person," she said: Huron -Middlesex MPP Jack Riddell told the still have a lot to offer could to get government their community but . support for the project. locking horns with each other the landowners locked horns with council. Problems cottage owners felt the plan created for them were problems they claimed were created by council. Farmers indicate,_ s-everal changes -were needed in the, plan to prevent further harassment of the agriculture industry but those changes did not affect urban area. Clete Dalton, a director for Ashfield on the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, came to the public meeting armed with a resolution from last week's OFA convention in Toronto. Dalton told council the OFA was prevailing upon the provincial government to change the Code of Practice because the legislation "failed' Ontario farmers". He said the code only dealt with new barns, homes and agricultural developments and did nothing for established farms. He said the result was that farmers already operating in an area could be penalized by an urban development established in the future. He said the township official plan could do end up penalizing farmers if it was allowed to pass as it was written. He said the plan designated land around hamlets in the township as urban which in the future could penalize farming activities around those hamlets. He said the plan called for a 2,000 foot buffer zone around the hamlets where restricted agriculture was enforced which was unfair to existing farming units in those areas. He said the results. of the secondary plan were "very serious" and needed a lot of "study". He said the plan could be unfair to farmers adding the agricultural community "does not need more harassment". Turn to page 22 • Seniors housing one step closer The Goderich area senior citizens housing project came another step closer to reality this week when tenders for the project were opened. Chris Borgal, of Hill. and Borgal Architects, designers of the project, said Wednesday that the tender for the project should be let later this week or early next week. . He said the ministry of housing received several tenders for the project and would probably be accepting the bid of Kelly -Lyn Construction oL.Londdn_The- Kelly -Lyn- bid -of $1,162,827 was the lowest bid received adding the firm appeared to meet all specifications required in the tender. Borgal said the ministry will now meet with Kelly -Lyn to work out final details of the con- tract and to draw up final architectural drawings for the units. He said construction on the West Street project could begin in three months. Borgal said some minor delays may be ex= perienceti because the bid bf Kelly Lyn ex- building.s_Thrau.g►,etthat the tow -n can suggest --ceeded-the-rninistr-bud -eWt -for ?A "} Y g e project`�l-)`e said the ministry planned to spend $900,000 on the housing but pointed out that that estimate was prepared a year ago. He said delays in assembling land for the project caused the increase in costs. Borgal said other bids were received from Napev Construction of Missassauga and West York Construction of Weston. He said both were slightly over $1.2 million. alternatives to the demolition and hopefully save historic buildings from the wrecker's hammer. The Livery Theatre is one project resulting from the heritage plan. Under the auspices of the plan the old livery stable was spared :demolition 90 days and in that time an alter- native use was 'worked out and the building preserved. Ree7'e Eileen Palmer, a critic of the plan, told council acceptance of the heritage plan could be "dangerous". She said no other municipality had made a heritage plan legal claiming Goderich could be setting a pr'ecen- dent that would be "restictive" for owners of buildings in the core. She said the bylaw would not be "fair to owners in the area". Councillor Stan Profit told council the heritage bylaw was a "complicated" thing. He warned that by not being specific about the intent of the bylaw councilwas passing it "carte blanche" which is "dangerous". Profit conceded that an "awful lot of work Turn to page 22 • Tough tinies BY JEFF SEDDON Acclaimed chairman Donald MacDonald warned the Huron County board of education Monday that trustees faced major decisions in the future and to make those decision it would have to work to keep education "hot in the minds" of taxpayers. The Brussels trustee and former vice- chairman of the board had his bid for chairman go unchallenged at the board's inaugural session. to his address to the board MacDonald outlined matters trustees would be forced to deal with as a result of declining enrolment. He said the only way problems caused by declining enrolment could be resolved is liy establishing good relations with both board personnel and ratepayers. He told the board the hiring of a full time personnel officer was a big step toward pat- ching differences with board staff but warned that one person can't do all that has to be done. He said trustees would have to make a sin- cere effort to "consult" with staff and attempt to resolve issues with the knowledge of each other's "problems and frustrations". He told trustees , it appeared the only time ratepayers took any interest in education was at budget time and -at book approval time. He said that would have to change since many of the decisions the°board would be making would affect the "lives and livlihood of a great many people". - He said declining enrol€nent will reduce the population of the county schools be 300 to 400 students a year in the next four years. He added that provincial grant's, ,based on a per capita formula, would be decreasing during that time. He pointed out that the board's budget, now a $23 million package, Was increasing by seven to ten percent annually which, unless something is done, will mean the budget will double in ten years. MacDonald told the board the director of Turn to page 22 County hikes its pay Huron County Council approved 10 percent increases in their committee and session. pay and the warden's honorarium at their meeting, November 29. - The warden's honorarium will be increased to $3,300. from $3,000 County council members will receive $55. per day or $35. per half day for attending committee meetings and sessions of Huron County Council. A car allowance of $60 plus 11 cents per ,kilometre or alternately 14 cents per kilometre was approved. The council also approved a county optical plan increasing benefits from $40. to $75. every 24 months. County Clerk -Treasurer Bill Hanly moved from level 3 to level 4, increasing liis salary from $29,58,8 to $30,784. Three go -after warden's chair Three candidates have been declared in the election of Huron County Warden. Bill Morley, reeve of Usborne; Eileen Palmer,, Goderich reeve and Tuckersmith reeve, Ervin Sillery have declared they will seek the warden's chair for 1980, - The new warden for Huron county will be named, at the inaugural meeting on December 11. Mr. Morley recently served. on the Com- mittee of Management of Huronview and has been on county council since 1975. An Usborne township farmer, he said his son is willing to take over management of their farming operation during the coming year, so Mr. Morley can devote his time to the war- denship. Eileen Palmer has served on various com- mittees and boards during her four years on county -council. She asked' county council members to vote in a knowledgeable fashion when they make their choice for warden. She asked that they judge on merit, not political patronage. Tuckersmith reeve, Ervin Sillery, has served 18 years on municipal council and has been a member of county council for the past seven years. He told council members he would be pleased to represent the county as warden. All three candidates said they were prepared to give the time necessary to represent the county as warden and they would be honoured to fill the position with the respect and prestige it represents.