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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1987-02-04, Page 01r Dissolution of parks board is questioned by delegation Wingham will always need a parks board, Wingham Town Council was told at its regular February meeting by a two-man delegation that questioned council's decision last month to dissolve the Wingham Parks Board. Lloyd Carter and Al Williams, both members of the parks board, each made presentations to council challenging both the wisdom of the action and council's reasoning in carrying it out. . "It is with mixed emotions that one receives the news that you have been fired from a job that doesn't pay you anyway," Mr. Williams said. "Then, you realize that the people who fired you will take over the same job, only they get paid for it. At its January meeting, council decided it would dissolve the parks board and place the responsibility of operating the parks under the \ jurisdiction of its works committee, at least for this year. "This . way the members of the committee will be paid to do a job. that has been Clone very efficiently for 26 years for nothing," Mr. Williams said. "Where is the logic in that type of thinking." If there were problems with any members of the board, council could easily remove such problems by not re -appointing those members when their term expired and appointing others in their place, he suggested. "Don't disband the whole apparatus. Wingham needs a parks board." If getting rid of the parks board will result in better parks that are less costly to operate, council should make that clear along with how it proposes to accomplish that goal, Mr. Williams stated. However, if the action is being taken to comfort egos of some councillors "because the board wouldn't jump when they personally told it to jump," there is concern about what future actions council would take "to damage our com- munity." In closing, Mr. Williams again asked council to state its reasons for dissolving the board. Later, he told The Advance -Times that question had not been answered. Council also passed a motion at the January meeting to sell a "vague amount" of land to Royal Homes for $20,000, without defining the boundaries of that property nor that it is designated in the zoning bylaw as greenbelt, he said. Was council going to rezone the land, he asked. And, as it bordered on lots of the Maitland Estates subdivision, why was council selling the community -owned land so cheaply, he continued. Mr. Carter, board chairman, said the board did not dispute council's Library board terminates employment of Partridge The Huron County Library Board are other.areas of concern as well. has terminated the employment of There is the matter of Private Bill its chief librarian, Bill Partridge. Pr.7 still to be settled. The bill asks 'The move follows several months of the Ontario government to dissolve confusion and controversy surround- the current Huron County Library ing the relationship between Mr. Board in order to appoint Huron Partridge and the board. County Council as the new library In a telephone interview last week, board. Hensall Reeve Jim Robinson, Adding to the muddle, when it library board chairman, said the advocated the private bill, the in- board decided at its last meeting to tention of council was to re -appoint agree to a request from Mr. Par- the present board members to a tridge's lawyer that the chief library committee of council. librarian's employment be ter- Currently all committees of council minated immediately on the con- are answerable to that'body of dition that he continue to be paid goy Irnment, while the two boards — until Sept. t, in lieu of notice. library and health — are not. In Mr. Robinson told The Advance- addition, the monthly reports of the Times the lawyer's submission to two boards are merely presented to the board had listed several council for information. suggested alternatives the board County council has no control over could use to sever its relationship the boards, other than through its with the chief librarian that were representation on them, although acceptable to Mr. Partridge. the county is responsible for part of The action taken, Mr. Robinson their funding. This hag Ilong been a said, was considered by the board to sensitive issue. be Ute only acceptable alternative Another factor in the hodgepodge from rhos- proposed in the lawyer's was introduced last fall when the letter. county advertised for interested Mr. Robinson declined to list the residents to serve on the library "ultimatums" as presented in the board. In December council named letter. It has been board policy all a new library board for 1987. There along, he said, to treat the issue "in were some changes in the county camera" as a personnel matter and council members, as expected, but not in a.public forum.the most significant change was the The board's action not only brings -� dropping of former member -at - to an end the employment of Mr. large Janis Bisback and the ap- Partridge, but should also remove pointment of Isabel Elston to some of the confusion that has en- replace her. veloped the board in the past several Somehow, the matter was brought months. Certainly, the chief to the. attention of Ontario librarian's status was a key con- Citizenship and Culture Minister tributor to that confusion, but there Lily Munro whose letter pointed out to council that when itappointed Mrs. Bisback to the 'board in December, 1985 it was for a three- year term. Under the Libraries Act, members who have not completed a three-year term - concurrent with the term of the municipal council — have resigned or have been dismissed by council for just cause,' are board nnbers for the full term. As a result, at its January meeting the board consisted of eight mem- bers, an increase of one from last year. Both Mrs. Bisback and Mrs. Elston attended the meeting and took part in the conducting of its business. Mr. Robinson said he saw no reason why an eight -member board could not work and that he was willing to at least give it a try. As it stands now, the board consists of four members from county council And four members -at -large. Besides Mrs. Elston and Mrs. Bisback, the other members -at -large are Robert Ritter and Martina Schneiker. in addition to Mr. Robinson, the county councillors on the board are Bayfield Reeve Dave Johnston, Howick Township Reeve Gerald D'Arcey and Warden Brian McBurney, Turnberry Township reeve. The library board may be com- prised of up to 15 members and it has been understood by some that county council members must make up the majority of the board's sitting members. However, Mr. Robinson said that ( Please turn to Page 3 ) Town will continue pursuit of Howson Dam project Although it is not entirely good news, a Dec. 4 letter from Ontario Natural Resources Minister Vince Kerrio is more encouraging to Wingham Town Council than earlier indications the MNR had given to the proposed reconstruction of Howson Dam. Mr. Kerrio's letter was to Ontario Health Minister Murray Elston who had been asked by the town to in- tercede in the MNR's reluctance to consider its portion of the proposed reconstruction. Mr. Elston had forwarded the letter to council in time for its Feb- ruary meeting. A stamp on Mr. Kerrio's Dec. 4 letter indicates it was received by Mr. Elslon's office on Dec. 29, a period of 25 days. The health minister's accompanying let- ter to council was dated Jan 22, indicating a marked difference between mail delivery from Toronto to Wingham than just between of- fices at Queen's Park. in his letter Mr. Kerrio says the Howson Dam provides little or no flood control benefit, so is not eligible for funding under the MNR's Water and Related i.and Manage- ment Program. However, he does recognize the need of some sort of combined structure to accommo- date the town's transportation re• quirements and to maintain the MNR for funding under the other recreational benefits provided by program, that ministry's con - the existing pond. Also acknowl- tribution would be $425,000 and the edged is the probable cost saving town would then only be faced with achieved by combining the bridge an expenditure of $175,000. and dam into a single project. Reeve Bruce Machan, works com- Any MNR funding for the non- mittee chairman, described the bridge related portion, however, news in Mr. Kerrio's letter as a 180 - would he on the basis of a %per cent degree turn from the ministry's grant rate under the Conservation earlier stand. "We've come a long and Recreation Land Management Qway from where we started," he program. This is considerably less ' said. than the 85 per cent funding the Lown was hoping for under the Water and Mayor Jack Kopas agreed and Related Land Management Pro- pointed out that although the In- gram. formation was not entirely good As it stands, Mr. Kerrio's present news, "there was a feeling at one position would indicate the town's time that the Minir-try of Natural portion of the project's total cost Resources was quite willing to walk would balloon from 17.5 per cent to away from the entire project." 45 per cent.. Council generally expressed ap- The Ministry of Transportations preciation for Mr. Elston's inter - and Communications has already ceSsion which resulted in the in - given its commitment to the bridge creased NiNR consideration. half of the new structure and as a Councillor Bill McGrath, however, result., will be providing RO per cent urged council to continue its pursuit of halt the total cost.. of the project. "If we let this thing Using a $1 million figure for the cool down at all, we're in trouble," anticipated total cost, as the picture he said. now stands, MTC will provide RO per Council agreed and will ask Mr. cent of its half, $400,000, and MNR Elstoli to again meet with repreaent- would provide 5) per cent of its half, atives of the works committee and or $2.50,000, leaving the town with the MVCA as well as the chairman of the problem of raising 050,0011. finance and management commit - if it were to he qualified by the tee to discuss follow-up strategy. authority to dissolve the board, but did dispute its reasons for doing so. "We have documents to prove these allegations to be false." That proof would not be presented to council, but to the public at large, he said. "Your judgment is now in the hands of the citizens of Wingham." The parks board is not the in- stigator of any controversy with council, he said, but is the victim of it. The board's authority has been challenged by the present council, "the first to doso in over 25 years." As a management board, the parks board had control over such things as setting the camping rates, hiring and supervision of park employees, maintenance of grounds and buildings. It also had the authority to spend revenue received from camping fees, as an addition to its approved budget. The increase in camping rates the board set for 1986 was at twice the rate of inflation, although not the 25 .per cent that was recommended by the finance committee, and resulted in a revenue increase of 44 per cent over 1985, he said. "And, we still retained the good will of the cam- pers." Following the presentations, Deputy Reeve Bill Harris spoke in support of the delegation. "I haven't changedt4#ny mind one iota." At the THIS YEAR'S FROSTYFEST celebration got off to a rousing start at a variety concert held last Wednesday - evening at the Wingham Town Hall. A capacity crowd watched as Cheryl Hanula was chosen Frostyfest queen, .Clement Wai, prince and -Healy Hallahan, princess of the celebration. January meeting Mr. Harris ■ strongly opposed the move to -Council approves dissolve the board. Asa works committee member, it was his opinion "that committee has insta enough, to do a, t is." The town for washroom would be unable to run without volunteer groups such as the parks board, he added. "I think it's a damn Wingham Town Council Monday crime." night gave approval in principle to. Later durini, the meeting, Mr. proposed project to install multi Harris was u. successful in stalling, purpose pavilions at Riverside Ball at first reading, the repealing bylaw Park and Cruickshank Park that which subsequently dissolved the will include washrooms, storage and parks board. With no seconder forionic facilities. the amending motion, the bylaw was Total estimated cost of the project given all three readings and passed is $61,000, Recreation Director by council. Rennie Alexabder said during a During discussion on a planning presentation of the proposal to advisory committee report council at its February meeting. presented later in the meeting, Approximately $20,000, of that figure Councillor Bill McGrath took the is for landscaping. opportunity to speak to the proposed However, he said that by offering land sale to Royal Homes, referred the contract out to tender, the actual (Please turn to Page 2) cost of the project could be con - Huron -Perth board seeks an arts -media consultant By Wilma Oke The Huron -Perth County Roman Catholic Separate School Board is advertising for a qualified arts media (librarian) consultant, ef- fective Sept. 1, 1987. The new position's perspective and responsibilities will be for the entire Huron -Perth system and is for a three-year (renewable) term. The successful candidate will plan and implement a quality library centre and assist schools with library and language arts programs. The trustees and teachers under the jurisdiction of the board, have agreed to put in place a co-operative five-year plan that will put library resource personnel on staff at each school and provides each classroom teacher with a half-day per month of in -school teacher planning time. The board, over the last eight years, made significant im- provements by constructing a number of new libraries, com- mitting additional dollars to the purchase of library materials and the hiring of a system librarian resource teacher. Centrally based resources such as video programs and individual classroom kits are now available through the library centre, located at the board's offices in Dublin. The availability of these resources has helped improve programs in the 18 schools under the board's jurisdiction. Materials are delivered weekly to the schools through the board's courier service. The plan results from what was a strfing conviction on the part of administration, trustees and teachers that the introduction of library resource teachers in every school would allow the provision of more specialization in the teaching of library and related research skills and create more opportunities to meet individual needs of students. The allocation of teacher resource time will vary according to the size of each school. Director of Education William Eckert said that by allocating teacher librarian time to every school in the system, while also providing classroom teachers with meaningful blocks of planning time, is sure to benefit the students. It represents a much needed and significant improvement, he added. Mr. Eckert acknowledged that the willingness of teachers and trustees to co-operate and make a com- mitment to a five-year plan will lead to'the successful implementation of the Ministry of Education document, "Partners in Action". The commitment for the provision of "planning time" at the elemen- tary level, commencing Sept. 1, 1987, was made by the negotiating teams for both the board and the teachers. The time period agreed upon is to average 30 minutes a week for each classroom and could be or organized in blocks of time which equal tike 30 - minute average. It was projected that additional staffing could be 5.3 to 6.0 teachers, with a projected cost of $18,5,000 to $210,000 respectively. Hooray for 'hog day it won't be long now folks. in no time the snow will give way to snow- drops. The groundhog has made it of ficial. Crawling out of its hole on Feb. 2, the miserable critter sat there shivering in the damp under dull skies for only a few momepts before scurrying back inside. No shadow equals an early spring in 'hog language. toposal liations siclerably less. in addition, grants and donations would also reduce the municipality's portion of the costs. A provincial goveriunent grant would cover one- third of the actual construction costs about $13,000 — and another $15,000 is available through the ()NIP funds recently received by the town, he said. The recreation committee also was anticipating a substantial donation from the Wingham Optimist Club. Committee representatives were to meet Tuesday night with the Optimists to confirm the donation and at press time, there had been no figure an- nounced although the amount of $25,000 had been speculated. Adding those numbers, the town's portion would be in the neighborhood of $7,((N) if the project went on to cost as niu'ch as originally estimated. Initially the committee had studied putting the facilities at Josephine Street and Riverside ball parks but opted later for Cruickshank Park because it was felt the Josephine Street ball_ park was not large enough to ac- commodate the structure. At Cruickshank Park, the building will be octagonal in shape and in additiointo washripp facilities, will have space available for storage as well as an area which potentially could serve as a'refreshment booth. The committee proposes to - situate the structure near the centre and to the rear of the park, nestled among, some large trees,? At Riverside Park, the -building also will feature washroom facilities and a food booth as well as a picnic pavilion. There will be a rainp.in- stalled in order to make it accessible to the handicapped and the building will be situated between Riverside and Optimist ball parks in the embankment on the north side of Park Drive. The Maitland Valley Conservation Authority and Huron County Board of Health .have already indicated their approval of the plans for the Riverside Park building, Mr. Alexander said. Jim Dore, recreation committee chairman, said placing the facility in Cruickshank Park would not make any,great difference in pedestrian traffic flow between it and the all park, across Alfred Street At present people are crossi the busier thoroughfare of J ine Street, he said, and that, at least, would likely be eliminated with the new installation. He said the committee had spent six months in working on the project and had visited t t other municipalities to' study similar facilities at their ball parks. Frostyfest celebration events are well attended Wingham's sixth annual Frostyfest celebration went off smoothly last weekend. Things got underway last Wed- nesday evening at a variety concert at the town hall, highlighted by the crowning, of Cheryl Ranula as Frostyfest queen. Joanne Taylor of Wingham was the runner-up. llealy Hallahan of Wingham was chosen princess of the event and Clement Wai, prince. Their runners- up were Shannon Robinson of Wingham and Jay Marston of RR 1, Wroxeter' Prizes for the Frostyfest poster contest also were awarded to: primary, Tatum Mathers, Simon Glauser, George Wall, in- termediate, Renie James, Bill Nethery, Told Harrison and senior, Penny Linardatos, Patti Reid and Rhonda Leachman. Entertainment was provided by several talented local groups and in- dividuals, including the Wingham Canadettes, the Sacred Heart Folk Choir and Clifford Coulter, to name a few. Friday's main event was a family skating party held at the Lockridge Memorial Arena. It was reported almoc,f too people attended the party and prizes went to: Leanne Carter, John Clugston, Amy Bateman, Patti Reid, Becky and Kelly Gillespie, Annette Lindsay and son, Dianne Simpson and daughter Ansley and Barb Nicholson and her grandson, Jacob Henderson The Wingham Legion Hall was the scene of a pancake breakfast last Saturday morning at which almost too people were served pancakes, sausage and maple syrup. Later in the day Lorne Baird provided tree sleigh rides with his horse-drawn sleigh from the Legion Hall, sponsored by the i,egion and the Wingham Optimist Club Approximately 8o mac•hinos and riders took part in a snowmobile poker rally last Sat urday,'sponsored by the local snowmobile club. A spokesman for the club say -,over 100 poker hands were distributed. Sunday's mild and sunny weather proved ideal for the family cross country ski outing to the Langside Trails. Over too skiers participated and were provided free trans portation from the Legion Hall to the trail.