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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWingham Advance-Times, 1981-05-18, Page 1t t• *41 11 •,1) „(•.• „ . • ':„ • , , • •• 1,;:.t. • , • • , •1 •4,-;z---,•;1 • •,, . • . ••„•?'.,0 • . :l;•:T.'• • • ••:). '-'7f7,:0.617=t2741Ve KEVIN SMITH of Wingham won the Honor Award as the top boy of all four AWANA Clubs at the Wingham Bible Chapel. Claude Martin, AWANA Club con - mender, presents the award. AWANA, which stands for "Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed”, is a Christian youth group just completing its first full PUC facing deficit in ro rates in harn Customers of the Wingham PublicAltilities..Conamission can pipeet Webb their hydro rates rise again later this spring or summer to offset a growing deficit in the PUC hydro account. Any interim increase still must be approved by Ontario. Hydro, which also decides how much the PUC can raise its rates, but it appears likely consumers will be paying at least four to five per cent more for electricity. Local customers got off lightly earlier this year when the PUC adopted a new rate schedule prepared for it by Ontario Hydro which. in- creased the retail cost. of power by only 3.1 per cent. Tom McConkey, a Hydro representative, told the commissioners at that time. that due to the hefty 16.4 per cent increase in rates last year, the small increase shouldsee it through 1981 in spite of the 9.3 per cent increasein bulk power rates. However at a meeting last Tweek, commissioners learned that during the first four months of this year the .PUC had accumulated a deficit of more than $38,000 n itshydro account. Commission Manager Ken axton attributed the deficit to the PUC being allowed Only a three per cent in- prease in revenue while its post of power rose by nine r cent, and he predicted the situation will not im- rove significantly unless ithe PUC is allowed an in- terim rate increase. He pointed out that about 6 per cent of the revenue in e hydro account goes , toward purchasing power :from Ontario Hydro, which 'doesn't allow much leeway rin trimming costs. He could .',eut back on things like aintenance, he said, but hat would prove costly in .:01e long run. He said the commission as never been more than ,000 in the red at this time f year, and ideally should shave about $60,000 or $70,000 n the bank to pay its next ydro bill; instead it is acing an overdraft. He said he was surprised t the low rate increase anded down by Hydro back 11 January and reminded mmissioners that he had arned at the time it would t ben enough. The PUC ight have got by on a seven eight per cent increase, he ggested, although Com- ission Chairman Roy 777 • Bennett declared 13 per cent •would have been "more like it". Mr. Saxton reported the computer projection prepared by Hydro forecast $1.8 million in revenue for the commission as opposed to $1.3 million in bulk power costs. The, estimate of power costs is .about right, he said, but somewhere the computer went wrong and the actual revenue will be less than $1.5 million. He said he has contacted Mr. McConkey, who will do some checking. Hydro can allow an interim increase halfway through the yearif there was a mistake made in Post Office closed Monday „ There will be no counter service or rural delivery at the Wingham Post Office on Victoria Day, May 18. However, the lock box will be open and mail will be collected from the red box in front of the post office at noon Monday. Outgoing mail also will be collected -from the street letter boxes in town. GERALD JEFFERSON Gerald Jefferson of RR 1, Belgrave, is among the 160 students who will graduate from the Ridge - town College of Agricul tural Technology May 22. He graduates from the Agricultural Production and Management course, majoring in field crops and livestock. year of operation here. About 60 children between Kindergarten and Grade 8 are involved in the club's various levels. Mr. Martin reported that Kevin actual-. ly did two years work in one, including memorizing more than 100 verses of scripture in one week. could rise this summe the forecast, he -explained. ,W added it prohably will a month or so before the PUC learns whether another rate increase will be per- .mitted. If it goes through, this would be the first time the PUC has had an interim rate increase, Mr. Saxton said. It probably should :ohave had one during , one ' previous year, but managed to strug- gle through. "I don't know if we can struggle that far this year." In other business, the PUC is considering a policy which would require new homes to 'display a house number before any services are connected. Mr. Saxton reported the matter has 'been discussed during joint utilities — the PUC, fire department, police, town works depart- ment, Bell telephone, etc. — and members of that group Students design hospital posters Winners have been declared in a poster com- petition sponsored by Wingham and District Hospital. Students in art classes at F. E. Madill Secondary School designed posters commemorating the , hospital's 75th anniversary this year, The winning poster has been reproduced by silk screening and is on display at various locations in Wingham and surrounding conrimunities. It was designed by, Sheila Dorsch of RR 5, Brussels, who was' awarded the $25 first prize. Second prize df $15 went to Pam Springer of RR 3, Tees - water, and third prize of $10 went to Anne Alton of RR 7, Luck now • • Jack Kopas, chairman of the hospital board, ex- pressed his appreciation for the cooperation of the art department at the high school, headed by Dian Joanisse, in organizing and judging the contest. He also paid tribute to Sandra Schistad, an art student, for her wdrk in silk screening the winning poster. favor such a policy. He - explainedit,. gambe difficult for firemen, ser- vicemen or police to find the 'right house when. no num- bers are displayed. "We're the ones who can enforce it," he said, noting the PUC would refuse - to make .hydro or water con- nections until a number was up. These numbers . would be - assigned by the town ac- cording to its numbering plan. He said the policy couldn't be enforced on existing homes, though homeowner& could be encouraged to display house numbers. The 'co-mmissioners authorized Mr. Saxton to prepare a resolutionforthe next PUC meeting. fha orming o profit, :ho to buildditional' housiidg, This qu astugrdyallttoc' and cfunnst oic, 24 units*, if$' housing. Council7SA4.lion, taken during arneethig last week, f0110‘14 h. recom- mend4004dita its own ad hoc committee, on senior citizens!, .h�ising and from the municipal housing study conducted byWoods Gordon manage** •Igensul tan ts CouncillaiOita Currie, who presented the report of the ad hoe :-Antnittee, told council -4.41 committee generally ,,,ireatisfied with the Wobds,lptlon report and urged council to accept its recommendations and proceed -tith, the housing corporatimfr4 He said: the committee originally had some reservations -about the need for • additional seniors' housing, ,,t following a meeting, represen- tatives of Gordon and the Ministry of Housing it concluded, a need does Hisre. ncil has eed with icipal, non- orporation perate ad - citizens' '4.he town for , a feasibility '4.' .as start-up d lead to an additional that while would .draw away rcitn the present:rental uflitstintwn, in the tight rental In 1,1tet which exists here \tny vacancies would not 1. for long. He also assured co it that there would be financial risk to the to since any operating losses, the municipal housiii corporation would be borne entirely by the provincial and federal governments. However not all coun- cillors were convinced the housing corporation is a good idea. Councillor Bill Crump, who led the debate, charged .• • ,;•.• -4s- 4 9 counciI agrees to. fig* rofit .housing corpqr, that this subsidized housing would place the town in unfair competition with private developers. He also said the study admitted it was just guessing at the need for housing, and said he wasn't convinced a need exists, claiming that Bill County housing authority has been "phoning around to people in private housing" trying to attract them to public housing. There are people now in subsidized housing' who shouldn't be there, he charged, noting that Wingham already has more public housing than any- where else in the county. Mr. Currie responded that while the committee agreed with some of Mr. Crump's misgivings about the impact on private housing, the town is proceeding responsibly. He said it is to the credit of previous councils that the town has so much public housing; they saw the need arising and grew with it. councillor Dick LeVan pointed out' there is no disadvantage to the town in approving the housing report, since it still must go to the Ministry of Housing for final approval. There really is only one- , '-.4,,v(-•)•',,i44,0„,,e, - ' on lo say • , contentious issue, he said: whether the town should enable the government to subsidize housing in com- - petition with private -developers. He noted the housing would be for senior citizens only, adding that most rental housing these days, with the exception of a few high-cost, luxury apart- ments, is subsidized in one way or another. Reeve Joe Kerr declared that, as a senior, he feels it is time the town did something for its seniors. It's always doing things for the young people,he claimed. "My mother is a senior, and she says they never had it so good," Mr. Crump 7H7 , ' •••••,:s• ... . • . • • .., • ' !P•7:i • • , retorted, • Thar0 rae: for aoiae,., Kerr toneed4 !.bltt, asked - what *Pei* those WhO' cannot look after thenISOYeS in theirownilipmes. Mayor. Bill HariiS predicted that five tO years down the road the town ...,..,,,, will needthis housing, "and — Please turn to Page 2 • Junior Citizens add, summerfest committee The Wingham Junior Citizens, upset that they were being crowded out of this year's summer festival by enthusiastic adults, have been invited to sit on the planning committee. A delegation of Junior Citizens attended Monday night's meeting of the Wingham Western Hoedown Committee to express concern that they were being excluded from the planning. They were assured by committee members that it was not their intention to slight, the Junior Citizens and, following a discussion, representatives of the group ew units • • Delinquen taxpayers I LIKE SCHOOL!—Marc Kell, lust 18 months old, has a while to wait before he can attend on a regular basis. However he found a lot to interest him In the Kinder- garten room during The open house at Wingham Public School last week. were invited to sit on the committee. Adrian Keet, an adviser to the Junior Citizens, said he helped form the group six years ago and it pained him greatly to see the Hoedown committee with not one Junior Citizen on it. He added the Junior Citizens "gave birth" to the summer Funfest and should have a voice in organizing the Hoedown. Mr. Keet stressed that the young people are the Lions and Kinsmen of tomorrow. citizensT eun ioofr the t i zfeun st u raer,e atnhde excluding them would do' a 4.414*Ai'Olg„ could forfeit proper Wingham ratepayers who get too far behind in paying their property taxes may discover they have become, tenants of the town. Town council last ' week passed, a new bylaw intro- ducing a system of tax regis- tration, under which the wn can take title to prpper- es on which taxes are more an three years in arrears. 'previously a property cold be put up for tax sale if taiga had gone unpaid for three years. From the sale the -town would recover its taxes and expenses, with the balance going to the property owner. Under the new system, , however, once a 12 -month notification period . has elapsed the town can auto- matically acquire the property and the owner gets nothing. Byron Adams, town clerk - treasurer admitted the new procedure is "not equit- able", but explained it is much simpler from an administrative point of view. The old 'process involved elaborate notification, in- cluding advertisements in newspapers, while the new system has a simple process involving one notification to all interested parties. Once notified, a property owner has 12 months to pay all outstanding taxes or the property is forfeited to the town. Mr. Adams noted that the Ministry of, Intergovern- mental Affairs must approve Geneologi cal soc. all tax registrations and sales, which could act as a check and balance in hard- ship cases. Councillor Pat Bailey objected to • the change, saying she wasn't sure it was quite fair. She inquired whether many people are behind in their taxes, and was told it is indeed a problem. Mr_ Adams calculated later that currently there is about $174,000 outstanding in unpaid business and property taxes from 1980, 1979 and 1978. This amounts to about 15 per cent of the town's total annual tax • collection, and at current interest rates is tosting ,Wingham about $7,000 a 'year. Westfield Cemetery is pilot project for study The Huron County branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society began the mammoth task of transcribing the 101 known cemeteries in Huron County on May 2. The pilot project was Westfield Cemetery, a small, now abandoned burying ground in East Wawanosh Town- ship., Blessed with sunny weather members were able to complete the physical transcribing on the tomb- stone information that day. However, here the job begins rather than ends, cemetery coordinator, Alison Lobb, noted. "Now we have a map of the graveyard with the individual tomb- stones marked on it and numbered, and we have all the information from the stones copied down.' "Next we must try our best to locate burial records and cross check our information with these. It is quite obvious that there are many older graves now without markers in this cemetery, and our earliest burial records start in 1900 .• • Oncr, the report is ready. complete with maps, tomb- stone data and an alphabet- ical index, the branch will send copies to the local township council and to the provincial and federal ar- chives for the use of re- searchers who may live at some distance from Huron County and yet wish to trace their relatives here. The branch would also like to have a history of the cemetery to include with this report. The informatibn is limited to the few lines printed in the East Wawanosh centennial booklet of 1967. It states the cemetery was registered in 1878, yet there is one stone dated 1865. Anyone with further details regarding Westfield Cemetery will please contact Mrs. Donald Lobb, R.R. 2, Clinton,'Ontar- io, NOM ILO. The branch hopes to have more volunteers turn out for the next day of work, Saturday, May 30 ( weather permitting). The turnout the first time was disappointing, although one helper drove from London to assist the group. May 30 will be devoted to work at the Donneybrook and St. Ausgustine cemeteries, and more people will be needed if it is to be a profitable day. The group will meet at the Donneybrook cemetery which is 8.5 kilometres north ••- of Auburn on County Road No. 22, at 10 a.m. Saturday morning. The rain date will be the following Saturday, June 6, the same time, the same place. Remember to bring paper, pencils. a wire brush (a real necessity), and lunch. Please notify Alison Lobb at 482-7167 if you hope to attend that day. • t great disservice . lan •Deplauriers;prinrio- tion chairman,. said ,,,fhpt during the early ,§tagiA planning the Hilediiwa t Junior Citizens did riot pear to be interested He *attributed this to the falet that during the Yafjetfor months the Junior Citkie4 or- , ganiZation was very, Small and inexperienced: the group is growing now and becoming active, but the time for .planning the, Hoedown was three months ago4 he added, As a con- sequence a number ofgroups decided to form acommittee like the one which Awned the 401,1 enniat ta take aver Iri44.0 summer testivil. Mr. Keet responded that the Junior Citizens are not . opposed to the Hoedown; . they Merely want to be in on the planning. He suggested . appointing a youth adviser from the group to sit on the committee. - Mr. Deslauriers than in- vited Darrin ' Hickey, president of the Junior Citizens, to sit on the com- mittee. The motion was amended to include the ire corning president, • Sheri Walden, as well. - Chairman Shirley Walker said it was never the com- mittee's -intention to exclude the Junior Citizens, adding they are Welcome to sit. in on meetings. In other business, the committee discussed the July 18 Hoedown parade. R decided there will be no entry fee and prizes of $50 and $25 will be awarded. A new category was added: most authentic rig. The parade will be advertised in several community news- papers. Jean Young and • Deanne Dickson of the Town and Country Homemakers were present to discuss the July 18 Kidsworld vatieh will be held in the Armouries. The ,committee decided to grant an operating budget of $200 which will be used for sup- plies and perhaps to hire a magician. Gerry Poulinoffered the services of the newlk-formed Wingham Knights of Columbus-. Mrs. Walker suggested the Optimists might need help with the food, or the Lions and Kin- smen certainlywould need help at the casino or western saloon. Mr. Deslauriers told the committee T-shirts bearing the Hoedown logo and a slogan "Want to horse around?"; are being ordered from Gord Kaster of Wroxeter. The committee decided to order 50 each in small, medium and large children's sizes and the same number in adult sizes. Mrs. Walker informed the committee that Hoedown invitations will be available at local banks. She en- couraged people to pick up an invitation and send it to a friend. The next Hoedown com- mittee meeting will be May 25 at 8 p.m..