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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-06-27, Page 1• FIRST SECTION Wingham, Ontario, Wednesday, June 27, 1984 Single Copy 50e appeal for func..s to replace lower dam Warned it can expect little or nothing in the way of aid from the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority or the regional office of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Wingham Town Council plans a direct appeal to both the federal and provincial governments for help in repairing or re- placing the ,Lower Town dam. During an emergency session Monday morning, town cduncillors were unanimous in declaring the loss of the dam, which washed out following heavy rains last week, a major disaster for the Town of Wingham. Although it may not have served a flood control pur- pose according to the definitions of the MVCA or MNR, it made a tremendous aesthetic and recreational contribution to the town parks system, . they noted. However, as a precaution against the possibility they cannot obtain funding to replace the dam, they also agreed to look at other possible uses for the pond area, such as turning it into a nature preserve. Five members of council and works foreman Jack VanCamp attended the meeting Monday with repre- sentatives froth the MVCA, MNR, Turnberry Township (which shares part of the pond) and engineer Ken Dunn, a dam expert with B. M. Ross and Associates, Goderich. Both the MVCA and MNR quickly .made it clear that, since the Lower Town dam was not considered a flood control structure, there was no chance they would con- tribute toward its repair or replacement. , "If you believe in Santa Claus, yes," Walter Lenson, a ptoject'engineer with the MNR's Lotidon• office' jokingly responded when asked about the prospect of getting money from his ministry. Jane Taylor of the MVCA told councillors a search of the files indicated that, despite earlier negotiations with the town over owner- ship and a share in a dredging operation in the late '60s, the authority has no. direct interest in the dam and certainly does not want to get involved now. As for Turnberry Town- ship, Reeve Brian McBurney told council his municipality has no interest whatever in the dam or the pond. "It's of no benefit to us." Asked about the options for doing something about the dam, Mr. Dunn told council the old one contains many defects and probably would not, be worth repairing. There was always a problem of high water clearance, with water threatening to go over the catwalk on top of the dam ; there was evidence of seepage through the em- bankments at either end and i s s r n the centre; the relief tructure with the large pipes at the east end, had ettled and had to be epaired earlier; and it was obvious the dam did not have god foundations. "It's just sitting on silty clay." Some type of permanent weir, with the overflow running over the top, is the solution to providing a pond for the town, he suggested, adding he could sympathize with the desire to replace the dam for its aesthetic value. Asked about the possible cost of building. a weir -type dam, Mr. Dunn said it was only a guess, "but you're not going to do much for under $400,000." Noting that price would require a contribution of about $150 from each resident if the town went it alone, Councillor Jack Kopas asked about other options in case the money is not available immediately. If it is not possible to replace the dam right away, "what can we do to remove this eye- sore?" he asked. It also was noted the empty pond could prove a hazard to children, as well as a potential health:hazard and breeding ground for insects such as mosquitoes. "You can't abandon it. It's one of those real disasters you . can't abandon," Mr. Lenson agreed, and ° he of- fered to send a landscape architect from the MNR London office to design some alternative plans for use of the area. This would provide the town with some, flexibility in going after funding, he noted. In the end, council ac- cepted this offer and' also instructed Mr. Dunn to begin. work on preliminary plans for replacing the dam. "Any person who's talked to me about either the top or the lower dam wants to see it back," Mayor William Harris reported. , There was some discussion at the meeting about what :;; might have been responsible for the loss of the dam, but no satisfactory answer was. found. Councillor Bruce Machan reported he had been told that the boards had been pulled out of the Wroxeter dam, upstream of Wingham, at about 11 p.m. on the night the dam broke. However Miss Taylor noted that dam is privately owned and in- dependent of the MVCA. The authority did take some boards out at the Bluevale dam, but that is not on the same branch of the river, she pointed out. She also said the authority had notified the town on Monday of high water resulting from the heavy rains on the weekend and suggested it should keep an eye on the dams. That is part of the authority's advisory service, she said, and it is up to the town to decide whether to take any boards out of the dams. GRADUATED Rachelle Marie Campeau, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Campeau of Wingham, graduated from the Tourism and Travel Counsellor' program at Fanshawe College, London, at the convocation held June 22, •1984. Racheh+ie is pre- sently employed at Holiday World in Wingham. Canada Day postal service Since Canada Day (July 1) falls on a Sunday this year, the holiday will be observed Monday, July 2. There will be no counter service or rural delivery at the Wingham Post Office Monday. Ilowever the lock box lobby will be open. Mail will be collected from the red box in front of the post office at noon Sunday and outgoing mail will be collected from the street letter boxes in town at 11 a.m. Sunday. GRADUATED Kathryn Elizabeth Cruickshank graduated June 11, 1984, with an, Honors BA in Physical Education from the University of Western Ontario. She has been ac- cepted at Althouse Teachers' College in London. MARRIED 5O YEARS—Mr. and Mrs. Cloyne Michel of Gorrie, who were married 50 years on June 27, celebrated recently with their immediate family, Karen, Keith, Michel and Alanna Wood's and other family members, at a dinner held in their honor at a London restaurant. A reception followed at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Keith Woods Of St. Clair Place, London. Ad deadline is advanced The deadline for classified advertising to appear in next week's issue of The Advance - Times is Friday afternoon, June 29, of this week. • The advanced deadline is required because of the nada Day holiday July 2. LOWER TOWN DAM COLLAPSED -Residents of Wingham are look- ing at mud flats again after a wash-out of the Lower Town dam last week drained the pond that made the Wingham park and campground such a spot of beauty. The centre earthen section of the dam went out sometime during the night of June 19, undermining the concrete structure and causing a portion of it to collapse the following day. Town Council held an emergency meeting Monday and plans to lobby the provincial and .federal governments for aid to either repair or replace the dam or, if that is not possible, find some way of cleaning up and using the mess that has been left behind. ontroyersy accompanles changes at hospital assoc. annual meeting Two of its more outspoken members are gone from the board of governors of the Wingham and District Hospital following last week's annual meeting of the hospital association, a result which has sparked new controversy over the way board members are chosen. Not returning to the board are Archie Hill, a Wingham businessman who had been chairman of the board's property committee, and Robert Pike, an accountant who had served as the board's finance chairman for the past two years. Their seats have been filled by local lawyer Ross Davies and Roger Keay, a Wingham resident who formerly owned nursing homes in Wingham and Brussels. Mr. Hill had been nominated for another term but declined to seek reelection, citing personal reasons "and (because) I believe the board chairman has recruited persons to run against the incumbents.;' In the election which followed, Mr. Pike lost a three-way battle to the two newcomers. No vote count was announced •at the time, but when the question was raised during the inaugural meeting of the board which followed, the tally was given as 49 for Mr. Davies, 13 for Mr. Keay and 28 for Mr. Pike. Following the annual meeting, Mr. Pike said he preferred not to say much about what had occurred for fear it would sound like sour grapes. But he said he was not surprised by the turn of events, since he had been tipped off prior to the meeting that an attempt would be madeto remove him from the board. He added that he preferred not to comment on why anyone might have wanted him off the board. "You can draw your own conclusions." During his terms as finance chairman, Mr. Pike had been a voice of caution, SunRise gets approval to expand market area SunRise Dairy of Wingham could be delivering its milk to stores in the Toronto area by August 1, following its successful application for an expansion of its delivery area. A spokesman for SunRise, Bernie Bailey, reported last week that the dairy had received verbal notification of the approval. The Aug. 1 deadline gives other companies, which had opposed the application, time to file appeals, he explained. Mr. Bailey said the dairy plans to take the expansion "one step at a time." It has until Aug. 1 to line up its delivery routes and get some idea of the volume of business available, he noted. "1 don't know if I'll be sending one truck to Toronto by the end of August, or 15 tractor - trailer loads." He said he was overjoyed that the ap- plication, which had been opposed by several dairies including the giant Ault Dairies, owned by the Labatt brewing company. "We have a chance to be as big as John Labatt! They've given us a shot." Between now and the first of August SunRise will be lining up everything it will need, such as raw milk, new employees and drivers, he said. Then sometime in the fall the Bailey family, which, owns and operates SunRise, will have to sit down and decide on expansion of the plant, He said he thinks the chances are good SunRise will stay in Wingham, provided it can find suitable property for expansion. "We've been here for over 20 years and I'd like to stay -here," he said, adding that a personal goal has been to someday be the number one employer in Wingham. One direction the dairy might take in the short term is to put its dairy bar into the now -vacant Becker's store, which is owned by the Baileys. That would allow it to ex- pand its equipment into that area of the existing building. New equipment has already' been pur- chased, he said, and it could be here and set up by the end of August if all the arrangements can be made. "It's just a matter of getting it all together." frequently expressing con- cern over a decline in usage of the hospital and question- ing whether it was wise to commit so much of its money to the new outpatient and emergency wing. Both he and Mr. Hill also recently GRADUATED Sherry Robertson, daughter of Bill and Colleen Robertson of Bluevale, graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Administrative Office Management. She :]is presently employed by James Magee Ltd. of Lon- don. questioned procedures and decisions' by the chairman on motions' relating to the build- ing project. Asked during an interview the following day about Mr. Hill's charge that she, had lined up candidates to run against him and Mr. Pike, Chairman Mary Vair said she had never spoken to. Mr. Keay prior to that meeting. However she admitted that she did speak to Mr. Davies, since she had been told he might be interested in ser- ving on the board. She also admitted she had not spoken to Mr. Hill or Mr. Pike to find out whether they had planned to seek reelection to the board. Asked about other claims that she had telephoned board members prior to the annual meeting to discuss how they should vote, and that she had solicited votes by purchasing memberships in the hospital association for other persons, Mrs. Vair refused to comment directly, saying only that, "I have done nothing improper; I have done nothing question- able and I do not apologize for anything I have done." Following the annual meeting, several people who had attended suggested that a change is needed in the way members are elected to the hospital board, making it part of a general municipal election in the same manner that school board trustees are chosen. In other business at the meeting, incumbents Alex Graham, Shirley Garniss and Hans Kuyvenhoven were Please turn to Page 5 GRADUATED Lois Pennington, daughter of Roy and Betty Pennington of Culross, graduated ftom the Early Childhood Education diploma program at Conestoga College, Doon Campus, during graduation ceremonies June 16. A dinner was held in her honor with family and friends. She is presently employed in her field with the Region of Waterloo. Vair is returned as chairman Mary Vair has been returned for a third term as chairman of the board of Wingham and District Hospital, "with the hospital's chief of staff, Dr. Brian Hanlon, as the new vice chairman. In the election at the inaugural board meeting ich followed the annual meeting of the hos itak, association last Thursday, Mrs. Vair Bated Hans Kuyvenhoven, the former vice chairman. Mr. Kuyvenhoven declined to run again for the vice chair- man's post, and it was taken by Dr. Hanlon, who defeated John Schenk. Dr. Hanlon also w".1 serve as chairman of the management committee, with Mary Lou Thompson, Don Jolley, William Harris, Mr. Schenk and Robert Middleton as its other members. The board's other standing committees consist of (first -named is chairman) : Finance and audit: Alex Graham, Shirley Garniss, Marion Zinn, Roger Keay, Mary Lou Thompson; Property: Mr. Kuyvenhoven, Frank MacKenzie, Mr. Harris, Mr. Schenk, Mr. Middleton, Mr. Jolley; Joint conference: Mrs. Vair, Dr. Hanlon, Ross Davies, Marilyn Wood, Dr. Walter Wong, Dr. Mel Corrin, Norman Hayes; Public relations: Mrs. Thompson, Mr. Davies, Isabel Arbuckle, Mrs. Garniss, Mrs. Wood; Community services liaison: Dr. Wong, Mrs. Vair, Mrs. Thompson, Mr. Keay. The board then recessed for the summer, to hold its next regular meeting in Sep- tember.