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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-11-14, Page 1, P4blio L brary Div. 4, *X 00 Wingbem, Ont. Dec. 4 -v--,...--4,,swarovmmliemmtne,-earcrnextv LEGION MEMBERS from the Wingham branch pinned their poppies to a wreath to signify the sacrifices made by their comrades during two great wars Sunday at the Remembrance Day service held at the Wingham Legion. A good crowd attended the annual service despite the cold and wet weather. Town is facing deficit of $20,000 for the year The Town of Wingham is facing the prospect of ending the year with a shortfall of about $20,000 as a result of unexpected expenditures and projects which ran over budget. However Finance Chair- man Jack Kopas told town council there is no reason for alarm, since the reasons for the overspending are clearly identified and many were beyond its control. He also pointed out that the projected deficit works out to less than one per cent of the total budget (including school board and county levies), and that, he said, is "pretty fair forecasting". In fact, spending for 1984 is running about $27,000 over .budget, Mita windfall about $7,500 in unexpected revenues offsets' a portion of that figiire, leaving a. projected deficit of about $19,800. Mr. Kopas told council that Blyth youth is injured in mishap A Blyth youth remains iti Victoria Hospital; London, this week withinjuries he received in an accident at Blyth last week. Kevin Draper, 19, was a passenger in a car driven by Nathan. Duquette of RR 1, Londesboro, which hit a light pole in the Hamm's Garage parking lot on Dinsley Street. Provincial police report that the car was backing up in the parking lot at about 1 a.m. on Nov. 6 when it struck the pole. Mr. Draper was taken by ambulance to the Wingham and District Hospital and then transferred to Victoria. Damage to the vehicle, a 1969 Dodge, was estimated at $500. • Optimist band plans carol -fest To help get everyone in the Christmas spirit, the Wingham Optimist Band will be presenting Carol -Fest '84 on Thursday, Dec. 6, at the F. E. Madill Secondary School. The program gets un- derway at 7:30 p.m. and features the Wingham Band, the etanadettes, the Sacred Heart Church Choir, the St. Andrew's 13e11 Ringers, a magic act by Earl Heywood and a variety of skits and soloists. Tickets to the performance are available from band and Canadette members as well as at The Advance -Times, Elliott-Tweddle Insurance and Harris Stationery or by calling 357-3762. All proceeds go to the Wingham and District Hospital building fund. There will be a free bus pick-up for senior citizens at the Alfred Street apart- ments, 6:30 p.m.; Bristol Terrace apartments, 6:45; Edward Street apartments, 7:00, and Minnie Street apartments, 7:10, compli- ments of Montgomery bus lines. the third-quarter financial statement which he pre- sented last Monday night contained few surprises. Major factors contributing to the cost overruns were a road reconstruction project and a new fire hall which both proved more costly than expected, he said, as well as the heavy snowfall last winter, a $5,000 engineering study on the Lower Town dam and about $3,500 in addi- tional capital expenditures by the police. There was little discussion of the budget projections, since councillors. had been warned at previous meetings that they were facing a deficit for the year. The figures submitted show the largest overruns in the roads budget, which at an estimated $506,500 for the year is about $38,000 above the budget figure, and in the town share of the new fire hall, which overshot the budget estimate by more • than $18,000 to $79,200. There also are small ovei- runs forecast in the police and fire budgets. These are partially offset, however, by surpluses in the budgets for administration, which saved $12,000 by allowing one position to remain vacant for most of the year, recreation, sanita- tion and cemetery and in the interest budget, where almost $10,000 was saved this year. Overall town spending for 1984, including the payments to school boards, is forecast to be $2,168,000, while total revenue for the. year is estimated at $2,148,200. M. Elston to head accounts committee Huron -Bruce MPP Murray Elston of Wingham assumed the prestigious role of chair- man of the Legislature's public accounts committee last week. The committee is the only legislative body chaired by an Opposition member. It examines government spending and often is in- volved in controversies over government contracts. The committee formerly •was •chaired by Liberal MPP Pat Reid of Rainy. River who resigned recently to become executive director of the Ontario Mining Association. Mr. Elston, a lawyer, also will become- justice critic' Liberal Leader David Peterson's shadow cabinet. He will be responsible for the commercial aspects of the Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations. Mr. Elston will be replaced as environment critic by MPP Jim McGuigan. FIRST SECTION Wingham, Ontario, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 1984 Single Copy 50c Town police get 607 per cent in settlement of 1984 contract Members of the Wingham Police Association have been awarded a 6.7 per cent wage increase in a long-delayed settlement of their 1984 contract. The increase, which is retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year, bringsthe annual salary of a first-class con- stahle to $28,232 while that for a sergeant will go to $29,801. The Wingham department has one sergeant and three first-class con- stables. The raise also applies to other departmental staff, including a part-time secretary and auxiliary constables who are paid an hourly rate for the time they work. The contract for the police chief is negotiated separate- ly, but usually follows the settlement for the police as- sociation. Margaret Bennett, who headed the negotiating team for the town's new board of police commissioners, said the board had agreed to award the higher figure in order to get the contract settled and to improve morale on the police force. She said she was not sure how the settlement would affect the board's budget, which had been set on the basis of a five per cent in- crease like that .give to all other town employees. e added that in return lickti,rgontoichassaigry, att 'SW' die olice / association had agreedto drop its requestfor im- provements to its benefit package. -Mrs. Bennett also said the board hopes to begin negotiations with the police NEW AUXILIARY CONSTABLES—Dwight Adams and Chuck Krieger, recently add- ed to the Wingham Police Force as auxiliary constables, received a copy of their oaths c f office from Jack 6illespie, chairman of the Board of Police Commissioners. The two will be called in to work with the force as required on special duties pairing them with a regular constable. Group brings report on dam, replacement There is a strong possibility that an earth - fixed stone weir could be a suitable replacement for the. collapsed Lower Town dam, an ad hoc committee which has been studying the matter told members of the Wingham Town Council this month. Ron Beecroft, who chairs the committee, gave council a copy of a preliminary report on the proposal, which had been prepared by the firm which is rebuilding the Brussels dam. He noted that the report, which had been prepared at no charge to the town, concluded that subject to a soil analysis there is a good chance that an earth and stone weir could be con- structed at that site. A preliminary estimate placed the cost of such a project in the range of $300,000 to $400,000, he said, which is only about half the estimated cost of a concrete weir. He also said the coinmittee has abandoned its research into the alternative of removing the dam and land- scaping the area since it dis- covered it would cost about $200,000 to landscape and would still be subject to periodic flood damage af- terward. In addition, Mr. Beecroft said that engineer Allan Stinson of DelCam, who is responsible for the Brussels dam project, spent quite a bit of time looking at the upper Wingham dam. He concluded that the major portion of the concrete structure is in poor con- dition, but said its life can be extended at a relatively low cost provided the town proceeds with repairs as quickly as possible. Council forwarded the engineer's report for further study by its public works committee. It hopes to have a final report by its December meeting so that any work planned for next year can be included in the 1985 budget. association for the 1985-86 contract years starting in January. Jack Gillespie, chairman of the police board and also a member of the negotiating committee, said the board expects some criticism over its award ' of 6.7 per cent when other town employees and police forces settled for five per cent this year. However he said the economic climate today is not the same as a year ago when the other contracts were negotiated and "it's very difficult to try to turn back the clock." He also said that in its negotiations the board found it had "walked into a situation with a lot of raw nerves sitting around" as a result of earlier conflicts between the police and the old police committee and of the 10 -month delay in set - DONATION TO HOSPITAL—Tom Miller, chairman of the fund-raising campaign for the Wingham and District Hospital, accepts a cheque for $2,000 from Grant Cur- rie, manager of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Com- merce in Wingharn. The bank has promised an equal , contribution next year, for a total amount of $4,000. Fund-raising drive is halfway to its goal With some proceeds from the community canvass still to be counted and the lottery proceeds still to come, the fund-raising drive for the new wing at the Wingham and District Hospital is nearly halfway to its goal. Campaign Chairman Tom Miller reported this week that as of Nov. 6 the drive had raised $182,371.41 in Wingham and the surrounding area, amounting to about 46 per cent of its target of $400,000. Of the total raised to date, $52,740 has come from people and groups in Wingham, while Lucknow has the second-highest total at $29,021.91. Donors in Morris Township contributed $15,471.50; Teeswater, $12,722, and Turnberry Township, $12,047. - In a breakdown based on the number of patients from each municipality who use the .hospital, the contributions from Wingham represent 51 per cent of its allocation in the fund-raising drive, while Turriberry has achieved 33.5 per cent of its goal. Donations collected in other municipalities and the percentage of the goal this represents are: Howick, $9,387 (34.2 per cent); Morris, -$15,471.50 (45.7); East Wawanosh, $5,006 (21.7); West Wawanosh, $7,789 (51); Ashfield, $5,648 (30.3); Lucknow, $29.021.91 (84.5); Kinloss, $9,662 (51.4); Culross, $5,027.50 (32.3); Teeswater, $12,722 (44.4); Blyth, $3,634 (22.4); Brussels, $8,156 (48.7); Grey, $4,017 (44.4). Of the total collected to date, $115,457.41 came from the kits turned in by canvassers, $36,737.50 is in the form of pledges and $30,176.50 was collected through the direct- mail campaign. Donations from corporations and service organizations total $35,951 or 19.7 per cent of the total. EXEMPLARY SERVICE MEDAL—Jack Gillespie, chairman of the Wingham Board of Police Commissioners, recently presented Sgt. Doug Foxton with the force's first ex- emplary service medal, as Chief Robert Wittig looked on. The medal and citation from the Governor-General of Canada recognize long service to the community as well as service above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Foxton has been a member of the Wingham force dor 20 years. (e' tling the contract, and was faced with some key requests in non -salary areas of the contract which it did not want to negotiate without further study. "We realized that by going above five per cent we would appear to be giving too much," he said, "but that was the lesser of two situations and in today's (economic) climate it's not unrealistic." "The dollars and cents are important to us and will be in the future, but we were in a situation where that was not the only factor." Mr, Gillespie also com- mented on the difficulty of being plunged into contract negotiations at the same time members are trying to feel their way as. part of a brand-new board of police commissioners and said he thinks they will be in a situation to do a much better job when the time comes to negotiate the next contract. Sergeant receives medal A 20 -year member of the Wingham police force was awarded an exemplary service medal last week in recognition of his service to the community. The medal and a citation from the Governor-General of Canada were presented to • Sgt. Doug Foxton last week by Jack Gillespie, chairman of • the Wingham Board of Police Commissioners and Police Chief Robert Wittig. Sgt. Foxton, a Wingham native, has been with the force since 1964, Chief Wittig noted, commenting that "it's a little tougher policing the people you grew up with." The award is not just a long service medal, he noted, but recogniies the little things an officer does which generally go un- noticed. He said Sgt. Foxton has .gone beyond his regular police duties in working with families in the community, "above and beyond what an officer is called to do." Mr. Gillespie also com- mented that being d police officer in a small community is a tough enough job, which seems to be growing more difficult all the time. In another, ceremony, the board was vintroduced to Dwight Adams and Chuck Krieger, who have joined the force as auxiliary officers. Mr. Adams is the son of long- time Wingham auxiliary officer Sid Adams while Mr. Krieger is from Clinton and has previously served as an auxiliary officer with the Seaforth police. • Auxiliary officerS are called in as necessary to act as back-up to a regular police officer. They are paid an hourly rate based on the salary of a fourth-class constable. No damage is reported in fire call Wingham firefighters responded to only one call in the past week, reports Chief Dave Crothers. The chief said the call came at 6:50 a.m. Sunday and was placed by a caretaker at CKNX. It seems that three motors at the station overheated when one phase of its hydro went out that morning. The caretaker smelled smoke and contacted the fire department immediately. There was no damage, ac- cording to Mr. Crothers.