HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1977-02-09, Page 1NO. 6
VI/inter
This winter frequent storms
and heavy snowfalls are
wreaking havoc with village and
township road budgets. Costs of
snow removal in the townships
have doubled over last years
figures and in the villages as well
costs have substantially in-
creased.
Zurich Clerk Betty Oke says
the village to date has spent as
much as it did all last winter for
Townships suffer
eather ruins road budgets
snow removal. If February is a
bad month, the costs will rise
considerably and there is still
November and December of this
year to be included in the final
figure.
"We're not suffering as much
as the people in the townships
are," says Mrs. Oke, "but last
year we only removed snow in the
village once or twice all year.
This year equipment has been
hired to remove large amounts of
snow on several occasions."
Mrs. Oke has not received all
the bills for this work, so a final
cost will be a while in coming.
Hensall Reeve Bob Heil
echoed Mrs. Oke, feeling that
the townships have been hurt
much more than the villages.
"We only have about five miles
of road in town to keep clear, the
townships have a lot more than
ALMOST TOO MUCH FOR THE BULLDOZER — The hard packed drifted snow was almost too much even
for the bulldozers hired by Hay township in an attempt fast week to get the roads open, even if they were
only a single lane in width. photo by McKinley
Turnout for licences terrible
Less than 10 percent of the 2,000
people who usually purchase
their car license plates at Zurich
have done so. Ron Heimrich, who
is in charge of the licensing, says
the response so far this year has
been "terrible".
"Usually I process at least 500
license renewals in January
alone, but this year the weather
has been so rotten I have only
processed about 150 licenses
since December," says Mr.
Heimrich.
The deadline for licenses
renewal is February 28 and Mr.
Heimrich says at the present
time there is no thought of ex-
tending the deadline.
Mr. Heimrich urges the
residents in the area to pick up a
card at. the LCBO or in
Heimrich's Variety where the
licenses are sold and have it filled
out ahead of time. Another thing
to remember is to bring along a
current insurance card and cash
or certified cheque. The Ministry
of Transportation regulations
require cash or certified cheque
as payment.
Licenses may be renewed any
time during regular store hours
of Heimrich's Variety and Mr.
Heimrich would like to remind
those concerned that full year
commercial licenses are
available as early as February 1
and it would be helpful to get
some of them out of the way as
soon as possible.
If you have filled in the card
properly, have the cash ready
and have an up-to-date insurance
card with you, your license can
be renewed in a matter of
seconds.
There have never been serious
line-ups for licenses in Zurich,
but we have never had a year
quite like this one. Avoid the line
ups by coming prepared and
coming now.
Delay arena decision
Plans by the Hensall recreation
committee to visit the arena in
Dorchester last Saturday were
foiled once more by poor weather
conditions. The trip has been
rescheduled for this Saturday,
weather permitting.
The committee wishes to visit
the Dorchester arena before
making any recommendation to
council concerning repairing the
old arena or building a new one.
Other arenas have been visited
by the committee.
No official report has been
received from the engineers
hired to estimate the cost of
bringing the old arena up to the
labor standards set out by the
provincial government. Hensall
has already spent close to $55,000
on the arena over the past couple
of years, but even so the only
reason it is being allowed to
remain open is because of a
regular monitoring system. This
has allowed the arena to remain
Community
Centre report
Due to the weather conditions
there will be no list of Communi-
ty Centre contributions this
week.
open throughout the winter, but
permission for this ends in April.
It is not certain that council will
wait for a recommendation from
the recreation committee before
making a decision on the arena's
future as April draws closer. A
decision must be reached, and
council has the final say.
that."
Mr. Heil said in 1975 the village
spent $2,000 on snow removal. In
1976 this figure jumped to $4,500
and this year he expects the
figure to be over $5,000.
The main task of the village
concerning snow removal ac-
cording to Clerk Heil is keeping
the main streets clear and the
snow pushed back at the corners.
Some sand and gravel have been
used at the more dangerous
corners in the village but the high
costs of the sand have limited its
use.
This type of snow removal is
subsidized by the provincial
government, but if a village
wishes to clear its sidewalks, the
entire cost must be borne by the
village. Hensall is one of the few
villages around where the village
does clear at least the main
sidewalks, but this costs in the
neighbourhood of $10 to $12
dollars per hour, an expensive
proposition. Also, the village
workers are running out of places
to put the snow from the
sidewalks.
In Hay Township, Clerk Wayne
Horner says the snow removal
costs for the township are going
to be "skyhigh". Road
superintendent Karl Haberer
says the costs of snow removal
could go up as high as $30,000.
Last year the township spent
around $18,000.
The main problem seems to be
the necessity of hiring bulldozers
to clear paths through many of
the township roads. The long
stormy weather and heavy winds
filled many concession roads in to
depths of 10 or 12 feet •with heavy
snow and the township plows are
unable to budge the drifts.
Paying bulldozers to clear the
roads is expensive, but
necessary.
However, Clerk Horner
hastened to add the outlook is not
all bleak. If February is a good
month, the cost of the snow
removal estimated by Mr.
Haberer could drop drastically.
It will be hard to tell what kind
of costs the township actually
faces until they get the bills for
the bulldozers and see just what
the rest of the winter has in store.
Stanley township clerk Mel
Graham says they still don't
know what the snow removal is
going to cost exactly, but he
expects it to be around twice as
much as last year, Certainly in
January twiceas much was spent
this year as last year.
Wages alone in the last two
weeks of December were $4,000,
an unheard of sum. Usually the
wage cost for an entire winter
month for the township is around
$3,000 but overtime and weekend
hours have driven costs up.
It doesn't look too pleasant for
the road budgets but the real
determining factor in just how
bad it is going to be will depend
on February, and February is not
usually a good month to count on.
toms defeat G.
®. first
ame
i, Mme
The Zurich Atoms won the first
game in a best two out of three
play off with Grand Bend. The
victory came last Sunday in a
game played at Zurich.
In a very closely fought first
period Zurich could not quite get
it together and they failed to
score. Grand Bend on the other
hand did get it together as
Richard Brown scored assisted
by Robbie Mennen.
Early in the second period
Zurich tied the score on a goal by
Dean Armstrong assisted by Cam
Steckle. However, the tie lasted
for only a minute before Grand
Bend's number four Daryn
Courtney scored singlehandedly
to give Grand Bend the lead once
more.
Before the second period ended
however, Zurich had not only tied
the game, but for the first time in
the game they took the lead as
Dean Armstrong and Rick
Kuepfer scored and assisted on
each other's goals. An additional
assist went to Cam Steckle.
Early in the third period Grand
Bend scored as Richard Brown
tucked one in behind Karmen
Bedard in the Zurich net.
However, that was to be the last
goal of the game to get past
Karmen as the Zurich team held
the Grand Bend team scoreless
while scoring four goals them-
selves to win the game 7 to 3.
The last four Zurich goals went"
to Rick Kuepfer, Jeff Laporte
with Dean Armstrong scoring
twice to give him a total of five
points for the game, followed
closely by Rick Kuepfer with
three points.
The next game will be played in
Zurich on Wednesday night at 6
p.m.
TIME OUT FOR A FRIENDLY CHAT — These three Zurich area residents took time out from pushing and
blowing snow an the north Goshen to have a neighbourly chat, something the stormy weather and blocked
roads had prevented for quite some time. photo by McKinley.