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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1974-09-12, Page 1My] irri© NO. 37 - FIRST WITH THE LOCAL NEWS LIKES PARK - Reeve Joe Dietrich of Stephen Township, right, is given a tour of the partially completed recreation centre at Grand Cove Estates. Showing him around is Louis A. Rice, president of Rice Construction Co. Limited, of Brampton, builders of the mobile -home retirement park at Grand Bend. The Reeve says he plans to move into the park himself when he sells his farm and retires. park THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1974 15¢ PER COPY Zurich plan new office building The council of the Village of Zurich, at their regular meeting last Wednesday after- noon, appointed a London architect, David Stevens, to prepare sketch plans for a new municipal office in the munic- ipality. Estimated cost of the new structure is $40, 000. Just recently the council purchased a property on the main street for a site for the new office building, to replace the old structure which has beer termed as old and cramped. The site is the former location at Rose's Garage and Lunch Bar. The provincial government has approved a grant towards the structure under rhe jointly financed federal -provincial capital winter works fund. The approval front the federal government is expected shortly, Mr. Stevens will be working with assistant Huron County planning director Nick Hill in designing a facade for the single -storey brick building. Preliminary drawings are exp- ected to be completed in about two weeks. In other business at the meet- ing last week, councillors met with Gary Davidson, planning director for the County of Hur- on, as reviewed the Zoning By- laws which have been prepared for the village. After consider- able discussion the necessary by-law was given first and sec- ond reading. The next step is for the details of the by-laws to be published in the Citizens r Ontario's second mobile - home park built by Rice Const- ruction Co., Limited and fin- anced by the Royal Bank, open- ed Tuesday near Grand Bend in the Township of Stephen, amid comments that mobile homes are "the urban abode of the future." Grand Cove Estates was off- icially opened by Mrs. Marg- aret Scrivener, M.P.P., assistant to the acting minister of Housing in the Ontario gov- ernment, who pointed out that while mobile homes accounted for only 9.9 per cent of all single detached dwelling starts in Canada last year, this year they are already up to 18 per cent and rising. She was assist- ed by Stephen Township reeve Joseph Dietrich. Classed as a retirement park and an adult community, Grand Cove Estates consists of 137 acres straddling the border between Stephen Town- ship and the Village of Grand Bend. Initially, 296 mobile homes will be located on the 87 acres in Stephen Township, about half of the area being open space. Louis A. Rice, of Rice Con- struction Co., Limited who built the park, pointed out that while residents of Grand Cove Estates buy their home from among four models available, they rent the land it occupies on a long-term basis. The rent, he said, which amounts to about $ 80 a month, pays for the maintenance of all services, such as roads, under- ground hydro, telephone and TV wires and pays for garbage collection, snow clearing and park management. In addition, residents enjoy a country -club atmosphere since their rent also pays for membership and privileges in a recreation centre with a heated swimming pool, indoor and outdoor shuffleboard courts, and community activities run by members themselves. Mobile home parks are cons- idered a desirable addition to local assessment because, while they represent a signific- ant contribution in taxes, they require almost no servicing by the community. This is particularly important in the area of education --adult com- munity mobile -home parks do not need schools. Likes spot Reeve Joe Dietrich, the 65 - year -old farmer who has led the council of Stephen Town- ship for the past five years, is not just in favor of Grand Cove Estates --the new mobile -home retirement park now taking shape on 87 acres of his town- ship at Grand Bend. He's plan- ning to live there himself when he sells his 140 -acre farm and retires. "Grand Cove Estates will mean a lot in tax dollars to the Township, " he says, "but it will mean much more. It is providing work for our people, and it is a beautiful place for the people of this community to retire to --and I'll soon be one of them." new park A new and enlarged park for the village of Zurich is being proposed, and prelimin- ary plans and sketches have been prepared by the Ausable- Bayfield Conservation Authority Site of the new park would take in the present property surrounding the arena, and additional property to the north. The plans were presented to council at their regular meeting last Wednesday afternoon, by Roger Martin, manager of the Ausable-Bayfield Authority. A special meeting with Mr. Martin is being planned in the near future when further consi- deration will be given to the project. News, atter which a public meeting will be called at which time any objections will be heard. A meeting has been arranged for today at 2 p.m., with officials of the Huron County Library Board, to discuss the requirements for library space in the new municipal building being planned. Clerk W.D. Armstrong was instructed to advise R.J.T. Holdings Inc., that the village of Zurich will deed over the land for the street in their proposed new sub -division, The firm is planning a new sub- division in the south-east corn- er of the village. A building permit was app- roved for Mrs. N.Koehler for a new roof on her house, at an estimated cost of $425, Anoth- er application for a building permit, from Gordon H. Hess to erect a warehouse on his property, was held over for further study. Council agreed to split the cost of the new sidewalk on Main Street, less any subsidy, on a 50-50 basis with the Hay Municipal Telephone System, The clerk was instructed to apply to the Ministry of Transp- ortation and Communications for an advance subsidy on road expenditure in the arnount of $22,807.71. H The council of the Township of Hay, at a special meeting last week, approved a building permit in the amount of $390, 000 for the Bluewater Rest Home Inc., for the construct- ion of three senior citizens apartment units on part of lot 20, concession 12, Hay Town- ship. Site of the new units is directly across the road from the present Rest Home, on highway 84, west of Zurich. Officials of the Rest Iluure hope to begin construction of these units later this fall, as soon as all the necessary det- ails are worked out with the various government departments inv olved. Some months ago a controv- ersary developed regarding the apartment units when the offic- ials of the Huron County Plann- ing Department urged the Town- ship council to reject an appl- ication for a building permit, whenever the application was received. At that time the Rest Hoare board had not yet applied for the permit. At their regular meeting last Tuesday night, the township council recommended to the Huron County Land Division Committee that a severance not be granted to Annette Mad- eline Denomnne, to sever part of lot, 9, concession LRE. An application from Howard Marl< - et, to sever part of lot 23, con- cession LRE, was approved by the council and a recommend- ation to that effect was forward- ed to the Huron County Land Division Committee. A drainage petition was rec- eived from four ratepayers on concession six and seven -- Ian McAllister, John Soldan, Glen Weido and Edison Forrest. The council accepted the petit- ion and appointed C.P. Corbett of Lucan to make an examinat- ion of the area and to prepare a report including plans, spec- ifications, and estimates of the drainage work involved. The engineer is also to work out an estimate of the assessment against the lands and roads 1 within the area requiring drainage. At the same time the council instructed clerk Wayne Horner to advise the Ausable- Bayfield Conservation Authority of the plans under way. The engineer's report on the Dietrich -Masse Drain was read at the same meeting, and a date for court of revision was set for October 1 at 9 p.rn. Two applications for tile drainage loans were approved at the same meeting. Contracts were awarded for the construction of the Charr- ette Drainage works. The open portion of the contract was given to Hanna and Hamilton - for the sura of $1990; and the closed portion went to Hodgins and Hayter for $2006. Ellis Northcott was appointed as a pound keeper for Hay Township, for the balance of the year 1974. In other business the town- ship of Hay formally requested that the water supply works in the report of engineer B.M. (continued on page 16) OPEN GRAND COVE ESTATES - The Stephenshire, largest of the four different mobile -home models available for retired people at Grand Cove Estates, features a bow window and wood - burning fireplace in the living room. The larger of two bedrooms has a walk-in closet and half bath, which is additional to a full bath. Visitors to the demonstration units comment on the unexpected spaciousness and luxury of the "double -wide" homes.