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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1976-10-13, Page 1NO. 41—FIRST WITH THE LOCAL NEWS Ratepayers have their say WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1976 200 PER COPY, New committee to look at school boundaries A new committee to look into the problem of students' dis- tribution within Huron County has been formed as a result of a ratepayers meeting Wednes- day night at the Brucefield school. The committee is com- posed of the school board trust- ees plus Paul Steckle, repre- senting Stanley township, Hank Binnendyk representing Tuck- ersmith township and Ben Bridges representing the people of Vanastra. Close to 400 ratepayers attended the meet- ing to show their concern over theproposed changing of boundaries. Wilfred Shortreed, chairman of the Boundary Review com- mittee outlined the problem to the ratepayers. Clinton public school has a capacity of 480 students but an enrollment this year of 521 making the use of portable classrooms mandatory. Huron Centennial has a capaci- ty of `510 students and present enrollment is 505. Hensall Public is causing the board concern as its capacity is 210 but its enrollrnent this year is only 148. Zurich public school enrollment is also down with a capacity for 180 students and an enrollment of 150. The problem is how to re- distribute the- students so all the schools are filled without overcrowding. The proposal of the bound- aries committee as expressed by Mr. Shortreed is to change the present school boundaries in the southern parts of Tucker - smith and Stanley townships and send some of the students in those areas from Huron Centennial to Hensall and Zurich. The vacancies created at Huron Centennial by this would be filled with students from Vanastra who are pre- sently enrolled at Clinton. However, this proposal was not met very favourably by any of t'�e taxpayers present. Ben Bridges of Vanastra presented a formal brief on behalf of the parents at Vana- stra. In it he claimed the potential growth of. Vanastra in the next two to three years would be from the 195 students they now have to 345 -students. Because of this rapid expan- sion, Mr. Bridges argued the best long-term solution to the board's problem would be to give Vanastra residents their own school. Otherwise, Mr. Bridges claimed, there- would have to be reshuffling of boundaries many times to accomodate the increased grow- th of Vanastra. Mr. Bridges also told the board the people. of Vanastra do not wish to have children in the same families split up with older ones in one school and younger children in another. The only way this can be avoid- ed is supply -Vanastra with its own school as there is no school presently operating in the County which can accomodate-- all the. Vanastra students. Another formal brief was presented to the committee by four concerned ratepayers nom- inated by a previous meeting of approximately 80 parents from Stanley and Tuckersmith. The brief was presented by Paul Steckle and co-signed by Evelyn McKinley, Hank Binnendyk and Jack Bell. No area ac idents over vtif ekend Drivers in the area had much for which to be thankful over the Thanksgiving holiday period .. . there were no accidents. In fact, there was only one crash during the past week, it occurring on Thursday when a vehicle owned by Ralph Geiger, RR 2 Zurich, went out of control on concession 10-11 of Hay and went into the ditch. Damage in the mishap was listed at $1,800 by OPP Constable Larry Christiaen. The rash of breakins at area cottages continued this week and the Exeter detachment in- vestigated three such incidents at Oakwood Park. The cottages are owned by Richard Yantes, Palm Springs, California; John Cram, Londoh; and Hugh Barr, London. A pillowcase was the only item found missing from the Yantes cottage, while nothing was stolen from the Barr residence. About $35 worth of liquor was taken at the Cram cottage. In each case, entry had been gained by prying open a window. Constable Bill Osterloo is in charge of the investigation. During the week, the officers charged 25 under the Highway Traffic Act, five under the Liquor Licence Act and one under the Narcotic Control Act. Investigations included six wilful damage incidents, two traffic complaints, three oc- currences of cattle being on the roadway, one impaired driver and one case of a forged cheque being uttered. Hensall to keep arena open The Village of Hensall has received verbal permission from the ministry of labor to keep the arena open for the coming winter months. Confirmation of that approval is expected shortly. The Village will be required to undertake minor repairs to the roof above the ice surface and to monitor the snow and wind load throughout the winter months. It has been indicated that council will attempt to hire a contractor to underake the minor repairs as quickly as possible so the opening of the arena will not be delayed. Engineer B. M. Ross & Associates will also be asked to continue with their plans for the complete renovation of the arena. It was estimated by local officials earlier this year that the com- plete renovation project could cost around $200,000. In the brief, Mr. Steckle agreed with Mr. Bridges the ideal solution would be to allow Vanastra to have their own school. However, in case this would not be possible for some time, Mr. Steckle offered some further temporary alter- natives. He proposed taking Grades 4 to 8, representing 100 of the older students from Vanastra directly to Hensall on two buses each carrying 50 students and allowing the younger Vanastra sutdents to continue undisturb- ed to Clinton. Additional busing costs from Brucefield to Hensall were suggested to be $2.50 per day per bus, a total of about $1,000. This would mean an increased bus ride of only 10 to 15 minutes over their present bus ride into Clinton. Mr. Steckle argued this would alleviate the shortage of students in Hensall while dis- rupting the least amount of students. He said a study into the number of students who would be attending Huron Cen- tennial within the present boundaries over the next four years will vary only slightly and this is ideal as the school is presently running within five students of full capacity. Herb Turkheim, chairman of ,the school board, said he too felt opening a school at Vanas- tra would be ideal, but express- ed concern that it might not be as easy as it sounds. "When you have empty classrooms in schools within the area, it might be difficult to get the permission of the Minis- try of Education to go along with a school at Vanastra." This was echoed by Mr. Lockerbee of the Ministry of Education's regional office in London. While he was at the meeting in an unofficial capa- city, Mr. Lockerbee explained that due to financial restraints within the province the competi- tion for funds is fierce. "The school age bodies have to be present for us to approve a school." The province would not likely approve a school on :ontinued on page 6) BEAN FESTIVAL MAKES DONATION—Left, Bob Redick, chairman of the community fund rais- ing committee, receives a cheque for $10,000 from Glenn Weido, president of the Zurich and District Bean Festival Committee as their contribution to the renovations needed at the community centre. Photo by McKinley Stanley reeve resigns after 14 years in council Stanley township reeve An- son McKinley informed his council he will not be seeking office in the coming municipal elections. Mr. McKinley made the statement at the regular meeting of council last week. "I've had 14 years in munici- pal life and I feel it is time for someone else to take over." said Mr. McKinley. "The people in the township and the county have been good to me and I appreciate that." Other members of the Stanley council also made their inten- tion known regarding the com- ing elections. Tom Consitt, the present deputy reeve will run for the office of reeve, while Paul Steckle will be run- ning for deputy reeve. Don Brodie has stated he intends to run for council but Don McGregor is still undecided. Council has rented the work- able land on the farm they own containing the new landfill site near Varna' to David Taylor. The land has been rented to Mr. Taylor for a period of three years at $62 per acre. Turnbull and Sons received the tender on the Latan drain for a price of $3,210 and also on the open portion of the Van Wanderan drain for a price of $402.50. Van Brie Drainage received the closed portion of the Van Wanderan drain for $11,317.30 and Gerber Drain- age got the McGregor -Horton drain for $5,610.00. Two tile drainage loans were accepted for $8,000 and a tile drainage by-law for special drainage rates of $7,500 was passed. The general accounts were $21,800 and roads were $8,200. Arena work starts on overhead trusses Work started this week on the required overhead truss work at the Zurich community centre. This truss stengthening is a necessary part of the general repairs needed to bring the centre up to the safety stand- ards set by the government in 1975. While the overhead work may not be finished by October 15, as required by the province, there is a chance it might. At any rate, the work should be finished by the end of October. The strengthening of the bases of the trusses and of the seating will begin this week according to the secretary of the Zurich recreation committee Ray McKinnon. "The seat and truss base strengthening will be done on a voluntary basis beginning this week and shouldn't take more than a few dap, to complete." Things are looking good for the Zurich community centre.