Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-07-11, Page 11, ubUO Library mtv . 4, .1,00x .1011 Wingbam, Ont . Dep. 4 . • Cornpletio ected by July 31_ Problems adding ILO the c Unexpectedly serious problems encountered during the course of a complete overhaul of the town water standpipe have added substantially to both the cost and the time required to complete the project, membdrs of the 'Wingham Public Utilities Commission were informed last week. Engineers Murray Schmitt and Ed Staniowski gave the PUC the bad news during a review of the project at the regular monthly meeting. They explained that additional time and manpower required to chip out and replace substantial areas of bad con- crete at the 55 to 65 -foot level inside the tallt' as well as some additional materials will add an estimated $40,000 to the construction costs and another $8,000 to $10,000 to the engineering fee. This will bring the total bill for the repairs done this year to more than $180,000, an increase of nearly $50,000 from the estimate submitted just, two weeks ago. On the bright side, Mr. Schmitt told the commission he will meet with Bill Ramsden of ths Ontario Environment Ministry, which is paying 75 per cent of the repair costs, and he is confident, of getting ministry approval for the cost overrun. Me. Staniowski, who is superviiing the repair project, told commissinners that concretein that area was in par- ticularly bad condition, with a lot of leaking cracks and joints, and it would be very slow going for a week or more while these were repaired. He brought along photographs taken during the repairs which showed ex- cavated cavities, in one case ping right through to the outside of the tank wall. Some of the problems appear to trace back to the construction of the tank, he said, including "cold joints" resulting • t of ptandpip from interruptions teerruptions in the pouring of the Commission Chairman Roy Bennett agreed, saying he remembers the builders encountering problems with their equipment during the con- stkuction. Mr. Schmitt concluded by assuring the PUC the repairs should be complete by theond of July. The additional costs, added to the original estimate and to the money already spent by the PUC during the first stage of the repairs three years ago, will bring the total cost of the repairs to the stanpipe to close to WATCHING THE RIDERS GO BY—Terry Page, Laura Gunn and Bryce Dayman,‘hail- , 'ing from Owen Sound, Orangeville, and Walkerton, were among the many spectators, young and old, who crowded the Teeswater fairgrounds on Saturday to watch the famed RCMP Musical Ride, an unforgettable pageant of color and sound. • GRADUATED Teddy Brophy, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Brophy of Wingham, received her graduation diploma in medical laboratory tech- nology during ceremonies held at Fanshawe College, London, June 21. Teddy has acquiraista position gat St. Joseph's Hospital, London, in the virology laboratory. FIRST SECTION frJ overhaul $250,000. Under its recent grant program the ministry agreed to pick up 75 per cent of the costs, meaning'the direct cost to Wingham residents will be in the neighborhoodof $62,000. Commissioners noted that Wingham is not alone in its problems. Over the past decade about 70 concrete stand= pipes were built across Ontario with ministry support, and all are reported to be experiencing problems of one type or another. In other business at its meeting, the PUC discussed a letter from the Wingham Legion branch to the town, complaining about PUC trucks being parked along John Street next to the cenotaph. The Legion said this practice "detracts from the beauty and significance of this memorial" and also creates a traffic hazard. PUC Manager Ken Saxton explained that trucks have to park there from time to time to load equipment which is stored in the PUC building, though he said it might be possible to move them up the street another 20 feet or so.. Following some discussion, he was asked to write a letter to the Legion explaining the reason why trucks are parked on the street. Ltb)mi ncier,imt4 Wingham, Ontario, Wednesday, July"11, 1984 Council called a 'three-ring circus' 6 Single Copy 50c iof Exchange of accusations leads to temporary ejection of councillor A trading of accusations about the way Wingham Town Council conducts its business and the moral in- ' tegrity of some council members resulted in one councillor being briefly ejected from last Tuesday night's council meeting. Councillor James A. Currie was ordered by the mayor to leave the room after calling Deputy Reeve Patricia Bailey a liar, but returned a few minutes later after the clerk -treasurer had suggested that the mayor Three Reid paintings to be returned to Madill Three paintings by the nationally -known painter George Agnew Reid will be returned to the F. E. Madill Secondary School after an absence of six years. Mr. Reid, 1 an East Wawanosh native, painted, some of his most famous works while residing near Wingham in the late 1800s and early 1900s. One of his paintings, "Mortgaging the Homestead", hangs in the National Art Gallery in Ottawa. Madill Principal Ken Wood said the three missing paintings, "Treaty Line", "The Valley Beyond" and "Autumn Contrasts" were borrowed frond the local school in 1978 by the Ontario government for purposes of cataloguing. The paintings were loaned with the un - Follows OMB directive E. Wawan zones land East Wawanosh -council has followed a ruling of the Ontario Municipal Board by passing a bylaw to rezorie 7.9 acres at Hutton Heights as institutional rather than restricted agriculture -residential at a meeting held June 19. This final step brings to an end a year-long stalemate between the township and the Wingham and District Interdenominational High School Society. • East Wawanosh council and the residents • of Hutton Heights were opposed to the society's plan to build a Christian high school at the site for safety reasons and because it would take agricultural land out of production. The matter resulted in an OMB hearing last year. In its decision the board ruled that the township be 'obligated to zone the parcel derstanding that they would be returned, but never were. Robert Ritter, the former Madill principal, had tried unsuccessfully to get the paintings returned and when Mr. Wood took over in January he continued to press the government for the paintings. In his quest, Mr. Wood enlisted the help of Ernie Eaton of Wingham who finally managed to get to the root of the matter and help get an assurance that the three works of art would indeed be returned. That assurance came in the form of a letter dated June 26 from Glen Thomp- son, Ontario's deputy minister of government services. In his letter, Mr. Thompson offered the three paintings to the high school council institutional institutional with a small section designated natural environment. Council received notice of the OMB decision, this spring, but did not get any directive about how to proceed in the matter until last month. In addition to the zoning bylaw, council also passed a site plan control bylaw which will give it control over any proposed development at the site. Council remains firm that it will not permit access ipto the site via the existing Lloyd Street entrance because'the township controls a one -foot reserve around the road allowance. When and if the society doe i go ahead with plans tobuild at the site, it will have to find an alternate access route. •'on extended loan. In 1944 Mr. Reid donated 459 paintings to the province. Three of those paintings were offered to the Wingham High School, as it then was called, and three, to the Wingham Public School. The local public school was able to retrieve its paintings since Principal John Mann was fortunate enough to procure a copy of the 1944 letter offering the paintings to the school in the first place. Mr. Wood said he has not been informed yet when to expect the arrival of the paintings. • does not have the power to remove anyone from the council table. TJaia incident began with a '42Whesion by council of Mayor William Harris's appointment of Councillor Jack Kopas, chairman of the finance and management committee, as the fifth member of the proposed Wingham Board of Police Commissioners. A majority of council, over the strong objections of several members, had delegated this authority to the mayor to avoid con- tinuing wrangles over the forming of a commission. However the matter continued to be con- troversial, with Councillor Tom Miller .repeating his claim that the Police Act does not permit council to delegate this authority and circulating copies of a‘ section of the Act as evidence. During the course of an increasingly heated debate, Mrs. Bailey, in apparent reaction to the fact that another motion regarding the police commission had passed a few minutes earlier by a 5-3 vote —, the same margin aslor previous votes on the commission — charged that five members of council (Mr. Harris, Mr. Currie, Mr. Kopas and Councillors Bruce Meehan and Douglas Switzer) got together in private to agree on their decisions. Mr. Currie reacted with an angry blast, demanding that Mrs. Bailey either a'pologize or resign, and culminating in the shouted accusation that "Mrs. Bailey is a liar!" Councillor William Crump promptly demanded that the mayor order Mr. Currie from the council chamber, as provided in council's procedural bylaw for' un- parliamentary conduct or language. ENGINEERING GRAD Dwayne Mothers, son of Arnold and Ile Mothers, Exeter, graduated from the • University of Western Ontario with a B.E.Sc. degree In electrical 'engineering. Dwayne is •a graduate of South Huron District"High School and has accepted a position with Canadian Standards Association in Rexdale. He is a„grandson of Mel and Janet Mothers and Gord Pengelly. leave the council table, he Mrs. Bailey and Mr. Miller said. casting the two opposing Miller said. " I nave thought gahnt owpe- p o r t u n t y to respond tonight and theri:leegties -and' with- draws, Mrs. Bailey added that she was "quite prepared at any time to back up my statements with facts and "It comes as a shock," Mr. The explanation did not sit well with some councillors,' with Mr. Crump complaining that ever since the previous police committee, headed by Mr. Currie, resigned, "things have degenerated into a three-ring circus." Mrs. Bailey added that following his resignation from the police committee Mr. Currie had refused to accept the chairmanship of any other committees,. charging he had "just stayed on council to cause trouble." Mr. Currie responded that if he were chairman of the police committee the town would not be spending thousands of dollars to hire an outside negotiator to conduct its , contract negotiations with the police. (Earlier this year council , approved • hiring John Skinner, its solicitor from Stratford, to take over the negotiations. The action was taken at the recom- mendation of the current committee chairman, Mr. Miller, though the reasons for it were never made public.) Mr. Currie then announced he would apologize for calling Mrs. Bailey a liar, though he maintained that what she had said had been "not accurate". At. the end of it all, the motion appointing Mr. ' Kopas to the commission for the current term of council assed by a vote of 6-2 with This the mayor did and Mr. Currie left, followed a few seconds later -by Mr. Harris and Clerk -Treasurer Byron Adams who held a brief conference in an ad- joining room. A few minutes later all three men returned, with Mr. Adams explaining to council that in his opinion the bylaw pimviding for expulsion from the council chamber has no weight. Council member are elected by the people \and, unless they are actually disrupting proceedings, neither the mayor nor any- one else has the power to force a council member a t votes. were going to This was not the only in- •, cident in a council meeting marked by a resurfacing of old tensions. Just prior to this, council had spent 15 or 20 minutes behind closed doors at the request of Mr. Machan to discuss what he termed "a matter of per- sonal privilege", during which time raised voices could be heard from within the council chamber. However one expected confrontation never materialized. At the June meeting of council, Mr. Currie had challenged Mrs. Bailey and Mr. Miller to substantiate published comments on police matters, and the matter had been placed on the agenda for the July meeting. When council reached that point on its agenda at 11:15 • p.m., after already having extended its 11 p.m. curfew, Mr. Currie read a prepared statement announcing he was withdrawing his request. "I have come to the con- clusion ... that further confrontation on this matter will serve no purpose," he said, adding he preferred to "leave the matter to the electorate, to separate who on this council are informed and prepared from those who pretend they are." Both Mr. Miller and Mrs. Bailey expressed surprise at this develtipment. , GRADUATED Shirley Dorsch graduated with honors from the medical secretarial dicta - typist major program at Fanshawe College, London. Convocation was held June 22. Shirley is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Pieter Dorsch of RR 5, Brussels and is a graduate of the Brussels " Public School and F. E. Madill Secondary School. • Ad hoc committee to study solutions to collapse of dam Wingham Town Council plans to form an ad hoc committee of local experts and in- terested citizens study and recommend possible solutions to the collapse of the Lower,Tovin dam. "I don't think we should go for a real quick solution," Councillor Bruce Machan told council in his report from the public works committee. Instead of just looking at repairing or replacing the dam, council should also look at 'other possibilities, such as removing it entirely and landscaping the area. In proposing to establish an ad hoc committee, Mr. Machan added that the people on the committee should be prepared for a long and tedious fight to get anything accomplished. He suggested holding a meeting in two or three weeks and advertising it so that anyone who is interested can attend. Other • councillors agreed with the proposal and a meeting will be organized. Aside from this. there was little discussion of the collapse of the dam except for Deputy Reeve Patricia Bailey's question whether anything can be done about the smell and potential health hazard from the drained Mrs. Bailey asked whether some of the area might be cleaned4up while the water is out, and also whether there is anything which could be applied to control the odor. It was suggested council should check with the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority about possible ways to minimize any health and safety hazards. ,„• Mr. Machan also sugtt• te :visitors to town who call to rGfierv:, sites a the camp- ground adjoining the po sehloul I yi • warned n of its condition, and C I' James A. Currie proposed that ca g fees might be . reduced. However Co dIlor Douglas Switzer reported that, cc rding to the campground manager, th e have been few complaints about the problem. In his report from parks and recreation, Mr Switzer later added that the Outdoor Life summer recreation program will have to be moves! to another, area because "It's tough to canoe on the pond now." . t