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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1983-02-02, Page 1Blyth Bra nob Library Box 202 81 ytkt a Ont. NOM 1Hte Jen m 4 3 CHAMPION SKATERS—Curtis Moore, Debbie Horton and Mark Moore, all are on their way .to the Canadian National Figure Skating Championships in Montreal this month and were honored at a benefit dance to raise funds for their trip last Friday night at the Wingham Legion. The Moore boys are from Wingham and. Miss, Hortop is a native of Goderich. She. and Curtis are in the pairs corripetition and Mark is a solo skater. Chief, fire committee iron O:U differences over ropose Fire Chief Dave Crothers and the Wingham Rural Fire Committee appear to have ironed out their differences over a proposed restruc- turing of the ownership of the Wingham Fire Department, and planning for the new area fire board is going ahead. At a meeting last Wed- nesday night, the chief sat down with committee members to discuss his objections to the board, and in the end agreed it had all been a misunderstanding. However, following the meeting, the chief and senior members of the department still expressed reservations about a few of the changes being discussed, such as the establishment of a satellite fire station in Gorrie. "I guess I got it wrong," Chief Crothers admitted after hearing just what the committee intended an area fire board to do. He said he had interpreted the discussion at previous meetings to mean the town would turn the department entirely over to the town- ships, with Wingham no longer -having a fire depart- ment. "1 don't think in our wildest dreams we ever dreamt of taking it out of Wingham!" Turnberry Real estate office closed The Wingham office of Don Hamilton Real Estate and Insurance Ltd. has been closed, „effective Jan. 31, three years after it opened here. Contacted at his Listowel office, Mr. Hamilton ex- plained that, although real estate sales have been picking up, there were not enough salesmen working out of this office to make it economical. John Brent had been the only salesman here, and he will be continuing to represent the company from his home at Wroxeter. "We just didn't have enough salespeople there," Mr. Hamilton. said. "We figured he could do as much out of his own home and cut down on the overhead." He said the industry went through a couple of tough years, but with interest rates falling sales have improved, and he is looking forward to a good year. Reeve Brian McBurney. protested. However the chief insisted that during talk about a new fire hall at an earlier meeting, someone had suggested moving the hall out of Wingham and putting it in Turnberry. . . Doug Fortune, Turnberry deputy reeve and chairman of the fire committee, agreed that had been mentioned in passing, `.`but it was never our intent." "`If you'd read this (draft) agreement there wouldn't have been any misunder- standing," added Jack Stafford, Howick deputy reeve, "because it's spelled right out in here." If that was the only problem, Mr. Fortune ad- ded, he was quite willing to write into any new agree- ment, "in black and white", that the fire' hall will remain in Wingham. The chief also was assured that, in forming a fire board, the committee does not in- tend to change the day-to- day operation of the fire department, which would still be left up to the chief. Any changes would be purely administrative ones, Mr. Fortune said, ensuring that all municipalities which contribute to the department would have some equity in it. Currently, although equipment is purchased jointly by the town and four townships, technically it is all owned by the town. Several members were critical of the chief for having talked about his concerns to the newspaper before bringing them to the committee. The proposal so far is just a draft for members, including the chief, to look at and make recommendations, Mr. Fortune noted. "ICS not even in the negotiating stage yet." Mr. McBurney said he also objected to the concerns having been aired in the paper, saying it had the effect of setting the town against the townships. "When you said the fire department didn't want to work for the townships, some people in the townships got their backs up over that." Following the discussion with the chief, Mr. McBurney polled the committee on whether members still wanted to continue with planning for MYTH FIRST SECTION Wingham, Ontario, Wednesday, Feb. 2, 1983 Single Copy 50c Municipal bd. hears objections to Wingham's zoning bylaw The long-awaited Ontario Municipal Board hearing on the Town of Wingham zoning bylaw got underway Tuesday in the Town Hall courtroom. Although it likely will be at .. least several weeks before the board releases a decision on the bylaw, most of the major objections had been heard by noon Tuesday, with others slated for the af- ternoon session: The first two objections presented to the hearing officer, T. F. Baines, QC, were the long-standing ones by Florence Delmage of the Riverview Drive -In and John Bateson of Bateson's Dairy. These objections dated from the time the town first adopted the zoning bylaw back in 1974, and were among the reasons the OMB hearing was required. The board also heard a more recent objection from Joe Clark of Joe's Truck and Trailer about the zoning of the lots on which his business is located. The objection from Mrs. Delmage dealt with the zoning of her lot for a drive- in restaurant, while about half her business is eat -in. It was quickly resolved by an agreement between the two counsels, John Skinner representing the town and A. R. Mill representing the three objectors, to amend thee; ,bylaw's wording to permit "aneating establish - t, •mclpdi . a drive-in with li lire aril: Otil 'Niori�is .�%:. 'i -..the bo y -anc�adtliing the provision•"that >� representaHves Robert the main fire hall remain in Gaunt `rErhie `eMetkley and Grasby and Clem McLelland Wingham. expressed any reservations, After that, members but. said they wouldn't stand tackled the problem of in the way if others wanted to deciding how to determine go ahead. how big a share each "Our council is perfectly municipality should pick up happy with things the way of the department's capital they are now and sees no and operating expenses. reason to change," Mr. Eventually this matter was Grasby reported. referred to a sub -committee "I've been on council for 15 with one member from each years and never had any municipality, which is to complaints with the come . up with a recom- Wingham Fire Depart- mendation and report back. meet." As part of that, discussion, On the other hand, Morris Mr. Stafford raised the operates under a fire board question of a substation in with Blyth and is happy with Gorrie, with one pumper and that too, he added. its own crew. Such a sub - Mr. Fortune said he has station could provide 99 per sensed two or three cent of the protection for problems with the existing Howick, which currently system which could be must buy protection from the solved by forming an area Listowel, Harriston and board: Clifford fire departments in —ownership of the addition to Wingham, he equipment, in which the said. townships currently have no Without a substation, legal equity; Howick really isn't getting —the townships have very much for the money it pays little say in the operation of to Wingham, he claimed. the fire department; "When you have to go —the proposed satellite through a township (Turn - fire hall for Howick; berry) to get to a township Wingham could not own a (Howlett), you're not getting satellite fire hall in Gorrie,any protection." but an area fire board could. For fire insurance pur- "Those are really the poses, a building located things we're trying to get , further than five miles from resolved, basically." a fire hall is considered to be Fred Meier of East without protection, the com- Wawanosh pointed out that a mittee was told, and fourth reason is the question currently almost all of who would pay for anew fire Howick falls into that hall. "Dave thinks we need a category. new fire hall and the town Mr. Fortune agreed that comes around and wants the he had worked it out on a townships to help pay. That's map and, "If you take off the not in the agreement." corner covered by Clifford, Mr. McBurney added that, and then take a five -mile though the existing agree- radius around Gorrie, you'd ment may have been a good have 80 or 90 per cent of the one when it was first drawn township covered." up in 1950, "things change. "We have to take a long We've been paying 23 per look at this," Mr. Stafford cent of the cost and feel the said. "With a substation in ratepayers want a little Howick, maybe we would be equity and say in what goes willing to take more than'17 on. per cent (the share Howick "Right now we're just currently pays of the running on a gentlemen's Wingham Fire Depart - agreement," he pointed out, - ment)." "and maybe we're getting to He 'added that he had. the point where there aren't worked out some as many gentlemen preliminary figures on a new around." cost-sharing formula which The committee proceeded indicated that the townships to review the various points should pay quite a bit less of the draft agreemeat, than they currently do including setting up a chain toward the fire department's of command to ensure the operations, while Wingham fire department would not be should pay substantially working under 10 different more. bosses, providing for Chief Crothers, who at- meetings at least quarterly, tended the meeting together 4 Keith De es andetary Lynn Hickey, tame no comment at the time about the substation propesal, but. later they expressed some reservations about how such a substation would be staffed and operated. With a substation in Gorrie, one fireman com- mented, sooner or later Turnberry may want one in Belmore, and they could end up with a fragmented department, with equipment scattered all around the countryside. Mr. Bateson's objection has to do with the special zoning assigned to his dairy property, which is located in an otherwise residential area. He protested ;that the.. zoning, which permits only the operation of a dairy products outlet on the property, is too restrictive and would prevent him from adding to or changing the nature of his business. However, under question- ing by Mr. ;Baines as to the nature of his plans for the business, Mr. Bateson said he was not free to divulge them at this time. The hear- Two young start R & S Two enterprising young men, Rick Bradley and Steve McFarlan, have teamed up to form Wingham's newest business, R & S Appliance. It's an appliance store with a difference because the young men will specialize in handling quality used ap- pliances, some only a year or two old, explained Mr. McFarlan. The second thing that makes R & S Appliance different is the age of its proprietors, both men are 18 years old. In fact, Mr. Bradley is still in Grade 13 at the F. E. Madill Secondary School. But don't let their ages fool you. Mr. McFarlan already has had four years experience in the appliance repair business and Mr. Bradley is intent upon learning the trade too. Why do they think they can make a go of this type of business? For one thing, said Mr. Bradley, in hard economic times some people maybe can't afford to pay a large price fora major appliance and therefore, to save money, might consider buying one that had been used. "it's (the appliance repair business) something that will never die out," ac- cording to Mr. McFarlan. As long as people have ap- pliances, they will need someone to repair them. In addition to dealing in used appliances by the way, they can order new ones too), ing officer noted that made it difficult to deal with the ob- jection, since it is hard to tell what other zoning might solve the problem. "I'd like to diversify — have a little room to move around," Mrr Bateson said. He noted that he had bought the property as a piece of commercial property back in 1946, and said he would like just a straightforward commercial zoning, leaving a full range of options open to him. "If I want to do something else with it, I'm at the mercy of council," he protested, adding that, "I've been fighting this for 15 years now. "Somebody like CKNX comes along and they can get whatever they want, it doesn't matter what," he charged. "But (council) won't do anything for the little fellow -sitting on the side street." Asked whether his plans would fit under the provisions of a C-2 (com- mercial neighborhood) zone, which permits a neighbor- hood grocery store, variety store or professional office, Mr. Bateson said he would have to check with his solicitor. "It doesn't matter what you add on," he commented, "it would be better than what I've got." In the matter of the ob- jection filed by Mr. Clark, his solicitor told the hearing • which has been' existence under a number of owners since the mid-1950s, really doesn't fit into the zoning which has been assigned to that area`. The front portion of the property, which is on the .corner of Josephine Street and the CN Rail line, is zoned C-5, which permits, among other uses, a service station or public garage, while the back section is in an R-2, medium density residential, zone. Both Mr. Skinner and Mr. Mill suggested that the trucking business probably local men Appliance they handle a full line of smaller General Electric appliances as well. They also do repairs and have a good selection of new and used appliance parts on hand. As far as future plans are concerned, Mr, Bradley said there are things he hopes R & S Appliance will do: grow, prosper and serve the community. R & S APPLIANCE opened ifs doors for business Mon- day morning under the direction of these two resourceful young men, Rick Bradley and Steve McFarlan. The two will specialize in sales and servicing of small and large appliances and will deal in used ap- pliances also. Although, they both are only 18, the young men are determined to make their venture a suc- cess and have had experience in the appliance field already. 1 fit best into an M-2, general industrial, zone, which permits a cartage, express or truck transport terminal or yard. However Mr. Clark offered to accept zoning as a non- conforming use, telling the hearing he has no plans to vary the use of the property from what is there now. Under cross-examination by Mr. Skinner, he admitted there have been objections from some of the neighbors about the parking of trucks as well as the dust and smell associated with his business, to which he recently added a building for the washing of cattle. trailers. He explained that his business consists of trucking furniture to the West and bringing back loads of cattle, so that the trailers have to be cleaned between loads. After learning that about a half-dozen of the 20 persons attending the hearing also planned to give evidence either for or against the bylaw, Mr. Baines recessed the hearing for lunch, with further evidence as well as the town's reply to the ob- jections to be presented in an afternoon session. In addition to the solicitors, the hearing was attended by Gary Davidson, planning director for Huron County and the author of the town zoning bylaw, who gave evidence about the preparation and intent of the bylaw. The bylaw has been used by the town since it was adopted by council on Sept. 30, 1974, but owing to a variety of circumstances it still has not received Ministerial approval. An earlier OMB hearing which was convened to consider objections wasadjourned to permit the town to make some necessary adjustments to its official plan to bring it into conformity with the bylaw. Board approves zoning bylaw Wingham's zoning bylaw has received Ontario Municipal Board approval. In an oral decision at the conclusion of the OMB hear- ing Tuesday afternoon, the hearing officer, T. F. Baines, Q.C., announced the board U,.9Ne ,,as slibfM y exceptions. One of the exceptions deals with the Maitland Engineering building on Josephine Street and will re- quire a plan amendment. The other deals with the Riverview Drive -In, where a change in wording was ap- proved to permit an eat -in restaurant. In the case of two other ob- jections, by John Bateson of Bateson's Dairy and Joe Clark of Joe's Truck and Trailer, the board approved he sections sections, in question ,: +_p ".thea a � .te It now is up to the property owners to seek changes through amendments to the zoning bylaw and the town official plan. A complete report on the decision will appear next week in The Advance -Times. Separate trustees roll back stipend Trustees of the Huron - Perth Separate School Board have rolled back their honor- arium from an 11 per cent in- crease to a five per cent in- crease. The subject of rolling back the honorarium has been raised at almost every board meeting since the 1982-85 board took over in Decem- ber. The decision was ap- proved at the board's Jan. 24 meeting. Last fall, the board had ap- proved an 11 per cent in- crease for the trustees' stipend. At that time it was raised from $180 per month to $200 per month effective Dec. 1, 1982 (when the present board took office), $225 per month effective Dec. 1, 1983 and $250 per month effective Dec. 1, 1984. For the provincial control year of 1983, the trustees will receive $189 per month. Chairman Ron Murray of RR 1, Dublin said trustees had not received an increase since 1980 and an increase of $9 over three years isn't high. "Sure it's not very much. In our case it is a six pent decrease which is a matter of $11 per month, but it's such a thorny issue that I thought I'd bring it before the board," said Mr. Murray. "I thought we had decided to wait until the ( provincial) government sent us the in- formation we needed," said trustee Vincent McInnes of RR2, Wingham. He added he isn't opposed to taking the decrease, but thought a decision had al- ready been made. Trustee Louis Maloney said govern- ment regulations had al- ready been made. Director of education, Wil - ham Eckert, told trustees that while provincial legisla- tion is in place, the guide- lines on how to implement the legislation has not yet been received by adminis- tration. "I am most willing to 'ac- cept exactly what the government says," stated Mr. McInnes. "Why does somebody else have to tell us what to do?" asked trustee Louis Maloney of Dublin. He suggested the board show leadership by accepting the five per cent increase limit. "I am on both the person- nel and teacher negotiating committees and if we don't roll back, we don't have the right to negotiate with other people," commented Mr. Maloney. Chairman Murray agreed, "If we don't take less how can we expect anybody else to take less?" Trustee Ernie Vander- schot of RR 7, St. Marys, said that for the $11 less a month, the trustees' honor- arium should remain at the levels set by the previous board. "It's percentages, they (people) look at the percent- age," commented Mr. Maloney. All trustees voted in favor of the roll back. No damage in chimney fire Wingham Fire Chief Dave Crothers reported another safe week as far as fires are concerned. The department Was called out only once in the past week and that was Monday evening at ap- proximately 6:30 to a chimney fire at the home of Guy Marshall on the fourth concession of Morris Town- ship. No damage resulted from the fire. Mr. Crothers said there also have been a few false alarms in the last week due to a telephone malfunction.