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Wingham Advance-Times, 1981-07-29, Page 1G-, 1, • KNF t DEVE'LQPME.NT PiANNlgD' ThcSe are some of the lots i„ Maitland Estates es which the .deyelt per'hoples to extend with purchase of a strip of land from the town. A previous appHcatloft was rejected by the town, but last week planning board recommended approval of a bid to buy a smaller slice. A minority of board members protested the develdprnent would endanger what is left of one of the only natural environment areas in town. Despite vigorous on, jections from a couple ' of members who would like tai see the area left aS is, ti e Wingham„ Planning Board' has voted to recommend sale of additional land along the river to Maitland Estates developer Hans Kuyven- hoven. This,reverses a decision by the board last year, later cal businesses copin_ postal strike etl with` The current postal strik seems to be affecting peop town in differe ways. Some reported that, has had little impact upo their lives or business while others said the long- term results could be serious. Bertha Miller of Miller Ladies' Wear said'she. is not experiencing too many prob- leets as far as her business is concerned, but getting bills paid is difficult.' On ._mora; ,,04111„1,0.. ..1Cte 'hill i 1~lib � othirein fornia and misses' ' " et g letters from him. She sai .the strike affects "not jus usinesses, but people' ves". Laura McNeil of St. Hele aid she used to look forwar her mail an isses the letters fro lends and family. Ted Elliott of Elliot surance said his agency i ping pretty well with th trike, although it d resent some incon niences. For example, in ance notices must b livered by hand, , b urier or held. Mr. .Elliott said he will ntinue to use, the mai Mien the postal workers go cit. He explained the urier service is prompt d effecient, but much ore expensive. Roy Rochoh and John risson of the Toronto -Do - inion Bank said the strike es 'not affect the bank as h • as some institutions ause of its internal "urier system. The bank offers a deposit vice through couriers and Is to T -D customers can be pped off at the bank, But strike makes handling urities more difficult and ire has been a substantial tease in the number of -distance telephone calls de. ack Goodall, a Wingham yer, said the strike is ing to be a nuisance. It is ting his clients extra hey because he must now d necessary letters by a rier service rather than ough the mail. elson Frank, owner of the angle -Discount Store, has ced a sizable drop in eting card sales and orted that one card pller is experiencing ous losses because of the Ike. e Vance of Vance's armacy questioned ther many businesses Child return to using the i.s st office even after the ike is settled. e is not experiencing too ny difficulties within his n pharmacy because most his suppliers have a zenith briber and he does much of business over the ephone. Mr. Vance added t while the courier system more expensive, it bvides much better ser- L+e. ob Steffen of Steffen's to Supply said that in his e business, it is actually better but noted that out-of-town e for the post office to be on payments are down 40 per nt strike. He said by hand de- cent. it n es, 's e1, 1-- �a t s ns rd d m t s e does Y A livering bills and state- Mr. Keil said the strike ments, the customer is more will hurt the business if it likely to make payment on goes on too much longer the spot. because those out-of-town bills must be sent eventually rk Steffen said the and a courier service would ststtVm is working so well, he have to be engaged to do so, doubts whether he will go Bob and Joan,Middleton at back" to using the post' office The :Home Place are not as much as before the strike. feeling any major effects of The strike ; .does make it the strike yet. They, said that difficult for people-topick up customers are good about r.shorts e 9ueg ' con ng ,into the store and xlilb, e'a d `�`" " . ` Biill IKe roe e i ;Triseitailce - said . the ' strike, has not af- fected his business greatly yet. Ile said local people are pretty good at bringing in. . their insurance payments, e eels,$ theirstacaur tin it irate. Mit:. tiliddleton'Said the salesmen usuallypick up invoices and payments anyway. The only instance when -the strike would really affect the business is in the case of the preferred customer sales when invitations are issued by the mail. The Advance -Times is hard hit ' by the strike. Publisher Barry Wenger said .that because, of the - strike he must hire the rural mailmen to deliver papers at his , own expense, He also must have newspapers ers delivered by hand to all the local post offices which are not on stri.'ke. Mr: f% ger estimated ' - g tKer cost involved at ap- proximately four times the normal amount and said if the strike goes on much longer it will, be an ex- tremely expensive burden. •tif car coral o ush"oaty The news Will be plres�c council •at.its August 19,4. The seyff4s. Wed i the ^pros"' of developer's.1 voting to. • `'`,etirsip omise compromise, Mr. , • uyven alternative 5 .,F, *f• e• Utz?% 09 f49 d� r rl rlJ%i1f mmen strl, to Maitland 'Estates il, when it he area, as "First be left a ent park. mentation to the town ext meeting, ,hoard, with xs absent, n, hour last discussing ns of the tit st, before ctmmend a s lution. The orward by #n as an his first request,,wont give him half �} tMe " amounJ . tf ;t additional land df the ortiginal proposal. AS 1n his, previous ap- proach, to board, Mr. K Venhn -s oveans he needs the a7dditional`iapd to make his ei rfro t.`'slots more attracttve,Jto y s. In the:,existing ubdivision agreement th:t lots; in- tended to . be s e ofthe choicer lots., in - the development, a*rage only slightly motethail 100 feet in depth, ihe sad, - th the land between them 'a the river.. deeded t4�ti,� t�n as park land. ;a,• The i ire in- mendation ' wiol.add a slice of land, ranging in depth from about 28 feet at the westerly end to about eight .feet at the easterly end, to the back of the 10 lots, However - some board members argued that salability off the lots should not be a primary consider- ation for the planning board. Rather it should look at what the effect would be en one of the last remaining areas of 'natural environment' in the town, they said. "If we allow this, there will not be a First Bush for our children in 20 years time," declared Bill Crump, one of the council representatives on the board. He predicted the area would be cleared and sodded, "with barbeques right down to the river". Quite a bit of the bush already is gone, he added, reminding the developer that he had accepted the lots as they are when he drew up the subdivision agreement., Harper English, who noted he had been on the planning board when it previously rejected the proposal, added a passionate plea to preserve the natural environment along the river. In just one portion. of the area in question,, there are 'three maple trees which have been there 100 years, three ash trees , at least S 75 years old, one of the.,only ` ironwood trees in this .Whole area and the only yellow birch he has seen in town, he reported. The bushis a haven for. wildlife, he told the board, noting that when he had visited it earlier that af- ternoon there were "three families of swallows having n OMB hearing may result over Baptist school proposal An Ontario . 'ltlluriicpal Board hearing may be necessary to decide the fate of a proposal to build a Baptist school in Turnberry Township. Members of -the Wingham Baptist Church and a •number of ratepayers from Turnberry met last Wed- nesday evening at the .Bluevale Hall to discuss the proposal. The meeting did not ap- pear to erase any of the concerns over the proposal. Dave Cameron of Wingham, spokesman for the ratepayers,, expressed his group's intention to go before the OMB if the proposed zoning chap e, to enable the school to/be built, goes through. • The m proposal Baptist a churc the B Li e. The b zoning wa passed by council and circulated to neigh- boring ratepayers. The residents responded by submitting a petition with over 90 signatures opposing the proposed zoning change. Reeve • Brian McBurney acted as chairman of the meeting, which was attended by approximately 75 people, and allowed the two parties to present their cases, followed by questions and comments from the floor: Pastor Ross Smith of the Wingham Baptist Church was given the opportunity to speak first. He stated the members of his congregation have become dissatisfied with the public school system and wish to establish a school to instruct their children in a way they see fit. Mr. Cameron, owner of Lots 59 and 60, outlined the ratepayers' case next. He fitter stems from a by the Wingham hurch to construct school on Lot 57 of D. Kirkland said his group is concerned with the loss of tax dollars for the township and for the public school system if the school were to be con- structed. He also reported concern over the maintenance which will be expected over the summer and winter, noise problems and the deteriora- tion of surrounding land values. He concluded by stating he could see no possible benefit in establishing the school in Turnberry Township. George Penfold of the Huron County Planning Department attended to explain the case from a planning viewpoint. He said that 'since Turn - berry Township's secondary aw to change the to photograph royal wedding Douglas Kirkland, a pro- fessional photographer whose parents both came from this area, will be one of the official photographers at the royal wedding this week. Mr. Kirkland, a noted high fashion photographer with studios in New York and California, is the son of the former Evelyn Reid of Wingham and Morley Kirk- land, formerly of Teeswater . He was born in Toronto and later lived in Fort Erie, where he began his career at the local newspaper. He later gained experience •at Life and Look magazines before opening his own 'studios. He is among five photo- graphers selected to record the historic marriage of Charles, Prince of Wales, to Lady Diana Spencer. { land use plan has not yet' been approved by the Ministry of Housing, the 1971 county plan is still in effect in the township. Mrs. Penfold told the gathering that institutional uses, such as schools, are permitted on what is zoned as agricultural land under the county plan. Therefore, the potential for •the establishment of the school exists under the county plan. Turnberry's secondary plan designates Lower Town as an urban area with the area in question, zoned developmental -industrial. The township plan en- courages institutional buildings to locate in the urban areas and hamlets. Mr. Penfold added there are two types of controls which can be instituted. The first is the zoning bylaw which has been passed by council or second, a site plan control bylaw which• shows access, extent of develop- ment, services and land- scaping of the proposed building. There is no site plan or site plan agreement as yet. Councillor John Cox asked Pastor Smith what type of building his group intends to erect on the site. He replied it hopes to purchase several portable classrooms from the public school system if they are available and, if not, . his group would construct a school. He also said it fully intends to "dress up the outside with brick" but, added it won't be held to a date by which to do so. Mr. Penfold interjected that it is in the best interest of the municipality not to concerned ratepayers, asked if these portables were to be situated on the lot "in- definitely. Pastor Smith answered that the public school system uses portable classrooms. ' He said his group intends to use... portables and make them permanent. He was asked what the enrollment of the new school might be. He estimated enrollment at 100 students. One lady asked what would happen if the project were abandonned. Who would cleanup the site? Pastor Smith replied his group has no intention of abandoning the property. He said it is financing the project by itself and doesn't intend to invest money in a school just to abandon it; the ' Welcome to our new Canadians A local couple was among a group of new Canadians awarded citizenship during a ceremony held at citizenship court in Kincardine recently. Wayne and Sue Wai, • proprietors of the Great China House in Wingham, came to Canada from Hong Kong several years ago. There is a special sense of belonging that comes with choosing an adoptive home- land, a depth of emotion that perhaps is missed by those who receive their citizenship by, as it were, an accident of birth. There is always room in Canada for people like the have portables, but a per- Wais. We are sure everyone manent structure. will join with us in extending Bill Cruikshank, one of the a warnr hand of welcome. church and the school are a unit. Reeve McBurney said a lot of concern hasbeen generated over the use and appearance of portable classrooms. He said • neigh- bors fear a depreciation in the value of surrounding • lands. . Pastor Smith agreed it was a legitimate concern and extended an invitation to - anyone who is interested to come and view their -church facilities in Wingham to determine what kind of • structure they can expect. Harry Train, another affected landowner, asked if schools are taxa!ple, and if not, wouldn't it take away taxes on land Which, at some point, could be industrializ- ed. • Uouncillor Ben Malda said schools are not expected to pay taxes. George Marklevitz, an- other B Line resident, said schools should be built on land which is not suitable for agriculture and agreed that the township will probably lose tax revenue if the propo- sal goes through. Reeve McBurney said the first bylaw must be rescinded because 'several involved ratepayers were missed. when it was first circulated. He said the new bylaw will contain site plan control and a requirement for a site plan agreement. After the new bylaw is passed and circulated to landholders within 400 feet of the proposed site, objectors will have 21 days to voice their objections. If there are objections the matter will go before the OMB and if either party is dissatisfied with that board's decision, the final court of appeal is the O tario cabinet. a hell of a good time, and phoebe singing its hear out". In making its decision las year, the board expressed desire to keep the proper,. just as it is right now, n larger, no smaller, and t leave it as an, area when families can go to see wha this country was like 75 o 100 years ago, he said. However the two members were a minority, as others on the board said they saw nothing wrong with selling the developer a chunk of the bush. Dick LeVan, another councillor on the board and acting chairman for the meeting, said that while salability of the lots is not a primary consideration for the board, there is no question the lots would be more desirable if they were deeper. He would not want to see the trees destroyed, but if they could be protected he would see nothing 'wrong 'with .selling Mr. Kuyven- hoven ail the land he re- quested, he added. Mayor Bill Harris Y an ex officio member of the board, and McDaniel Phillips both spoke in favor of the com- promise, selling the, develop- er a' stnafer ohtin1 of the bush, although Mr. English objected that "a compro- mise is just a way of getting what you want by asking for more than you expect to get." - Stan Chadwick, who asked whether the board was being. "overly protective about what Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Swallow aregoing to do with their lives", said he was undecided on the matter. 'Mr. Chadwick, who is a realtor,' did agree though that the lots would be more desirable with the extra depth. The compromise would bring them up•to about one-fifth of an acre in size, he .said; which is probably the minimum for' good 'salabil- ity. ' Gordon Sutcliffe, who said he has lived in town for 20 years and did not even know where First Bush' is, com- mented that the area seems to be mostly thorn trees and not particularly valuable. "Do we call that park land?" he asked, to which Mr. English retorted, 'It's as close as we've got to Algonquin Park, and for God's sake let's keep it!" The boar.,d then went into committee -of -the -whole to consider its decision. After returning to open session, Mr. Crump and Mr. English proposed a motion that the board recommend council abide by the previous decision and leave the lots as is. This was defeated. A follow-up motion by Mr. Harris and Mr. Chadwick, to recommend sale of the land as proposed in the com- promise proposal, together (oat 4lf. fief a with a clause that trees t should be protected if possible, was carried. t The matter now goes to a council fora decision. ' Earlier in the meeting, Mr o English had proposed that if o the ,developer wanted • a e compromise, he should t agree that in return for the ✓ purchase of the additional land he would develop the children's playground • on Highland Drive in the sub- division. Asked whether he would agree to that, Mr. Kuyvenhoven did not answer directly. However Mr. LeVan declared the town should not sell the property unless it gets enough money to develop the playground. Following the meeting, Mr. Kuyvenhoven said that while the ' additional land should help him sell the lots, he still would have preferred getting the full depth requested in his first proposal. "It help*, but it's not ideal by a long shot." In retrospect, he'said, "we. shouldn't have drawn it this wayin the first" 'place." .,He p said the reason the lots were drawn so small is that he was overly generous in the amount of park land he deed ttr the .c=- cent of land in`tiie develop- ment, as opposed to the required five percent —and because of development ` restrictions in the floodplain area, which since have been relaxed. "If we were to draw the plan now," he said, "we would have a lot more flexibility." Local pick up locations for govt. cheques • People in the town of Wingham and its rural routes, whose mail service has been cut off by the postal strike, may pick up their federal or provincial pension and benefit cheques at two points in town this week. Federal cheques, such as Canada Pension, will be available at the town hall cduncil chambers July 29-31 between 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. (note the change in hours from those announced last week). Provincial family benefit cheques, such as Mother's Allowance and Disability Pension, will be available at the Wingham office of the Ministry of Community and Social Services on Josephine Street after 10 a.m. Thurs- day. In the case of the federal cheques, the post office has announced that in.case the strike is settled prior to or during those three days, cheques will be sorted and mailed as usual. REV. PAUL, St. Andy clads n minist,r'` The Rev. Paul L. 1141.18 acceptedkthecall to become minister of St. Andrew's Presbyterial} Church, harts. He Will take office here on Aug. 1. Born 4 ,in Machias, . New ,; York, Mr. Mills lived; for a _number of, year. in. Schenetady, N.'y , .b.ore,. entering the United?;Sta,te • Marine Corps in 1946. attended schools in Canada, first at St. Francis Xavier'`- University in Antigonish, Nova. Scotia, and then.grad• uated. ,from. Presbyterian College,Montreal He was ordained. minister of the Presbyterian , Church in Canada, in 1960 For the past 12years+he.has - served as .:minister of. Westminster Presbyterian Church in Barrie. He and his. wife, Julia, have become Canadian citizens and they have four. children: Elizabeth (Mrs. Robert Siletzky) living San Antonio, Texas; Esther (Mrs. John Brennan) of Merrit, B.C.; Martha of Toronto and Tim at home. Tim will be entering Grade rade 10. r:F The Mills family _ will he making : its home' at 2$9: trt Street in STAFF HOLIDAYS The Wingham Advance -Times office will be closed from AUGUST 3 to AUGUST 15 inclusive Advertising intend- ed for the holiday period if ordered before Aug. 3, will be placed in . . . Crossroads. Car destroyed in Mon. blaze The Wingham Fire Department answered a call about 11 • o'clock Monday evening when they were summoned to the . Whitechurch residence of Doris Trapp. A car sitting near the house was com- pletely destroyed in the blaze. Fire Chief Dave Crothers said it was fortunate the Trapp home was not damaged as the car was parked very close to the building. He believed the fire in the 1978 Ford LTD must have been caused by a malfunction in the engine. Standish visit this weekend A group of Wingham and area residents will be leaving this weekend ,to pay a visit to their sister city, Standish, Michigan. Saturday has been declared Wingham Day in Standrsh and an open invi- tation has been extended to local people to attend and help celebrate. John Strong, one of the local coordinators of the sister city program, said it appears about two dozen people of all ages will be making the trip, however more people could decide to go. He said it appears plans by the Wingham Legion to charter a bus for the trip have fallen through, since too few people are going to make the bus economical, so everyone will be responsible for arranging his or her own transportation. Most people will be going over Friday evening and returning Sunday. He also noted that the Standish committee is eager to provide billets for anyone making the trip, however people many choose to stay in motels instead. Mr. Strong said Wingham - Day is timed to coincide with the annual Standish Fair, so there will he lots of ac- tivities. Some special events for the Wingham visitors will include a fish fry and dances at the American Legion and VFW posts. He noted that last year Standish merchants held special sales in honor of the day and offered to take Canadian money at par, but added he is not sure whether this will be the same this year. Mayor and Mrs. Bill Harris are one of the couples mliking the trip this year. Mr. Harris said this will be his first visit to the sister city and he is really looking forward to it.