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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Times Advocate, 2005-06-15, Page 22 Exeter Times–Advocate Wednesday, June 15, 2005 Regional wrap up Pool closed despite pleas from public GODERICH — The only outdoor municipal pool in Goderich will be permanently unplugged now that council has voted against a plan to spend money on necessary repairs. The Goderich Signal - Star reports councillors have decided not to extend the life of the Judith Gooderham pool for another year. However, plans are being considered to create a water park in the area. Alice Munro makes top 10 CLINTON — An online contest for International Women's Day is recognizing many prominent Ontario women. According to the Clinton News -Record, local author Alice Munro has made the list as one of 10 women nominated as Ontario's Greatest Woman Other nominees include Maude Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians, Marilyn Bell, the first person to swim across Lake Ontario and activist and journalist June Callwood. Toronto -area MPP and Women's Issues Critic, Marilyn Churley, has created a website for those wishing to cast their ballots: www. marilynchurley. c om The winner's name will be announced Canada Day. Huron Park sale a high priority By Scott Nixon TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF HURON PARK — The province is determined to have the industrial side of Huron Park sold before March 2006. Mayor Rob Morley met with members of the Ontario Realty Corporation (ORC) last week to discuss progress of the delayed sale. The ORC manages land for the province and, along with Huron -Bruce MPP Carol Mitchell and Morley, announced last August the industrial side of the 635 -acre former Royal Canadian Air Force base was for sale. The res- idential side is not for sale and remains owned by the province. Despite the announce- ment 10 months ago, no sales have taken place and Morley admitted some of the industries in Huron Park are "at their wit's end." ORC spokesperson Scot Magnish said the sale is "very complicated" and the province hopes a new approach will help sell the property. Magnish said ORC is in the process of hiring a real estate agent who specializes in indus- trial land to find "a larger purchaser" to buy large pieces of the park instead of the patchwork approach used earlier to try to sell the park. "What we would like to be able to do is sell the park almost in one fell swoop," Magnish said. "The concern that every- body has is for the .. . future of the economic health of the park. What we fear is that if we start selling different pieces of property without an over- all plan of where all the pieces are going to end up, we could sell a portion of park, a quarter of the park, half of the park .. . but we could still end up with pieces that are not owned." "That's the big conun- drum," Morley said, adding the municipality has never committed to buying the park because a feasibility study concluded it shouldn't. "We don't want to have 50 per cent of it sold, with the other 50 per cent sit- ting there doing nothing, and the province looking at me saying, 'Now what,– Morley said. Magnish said a better approach to selling the property is to find one or two larger purchasers to "anchor" the properties that don't have tenants, such as the airport and the site of the former Centralia College. The province has set a mandate to sell the indus- trial side of the park by next March, something Morley said he sees as a positive. "I was assured that it was a very high priority now," he told the Times - Advocate last week. Once the large pur- chasers are found, Magnish said it will allow ORC to establish property lines and prices for build- ings and land. "We're hoping that we're a couple of months from identifying that buyer, or those buyers, and then being able to sit down with our tenants of the park." He said ORC is trying to sketch out a complete plan for the park "before we pull the trigger and start selling those properties." Magnish said ORC will have a sense in three or four months whether or not the new plan is work- ing. Existing tenants will still have the opportunity to buy their buildings before any new potential pur- chasers. ORC will offer tenants a fair market value price for what they want to buy, whether it be buildings, land or parking lots. Magnish said the prices will determine how many tenants want to buy into Huron Park, but "I'm sure there are five or six busi- nesses that are very inter- ested ... We'd love to see them all stay. Each and Tentative deal reached with teachers Continued from front page tionship, too," said Huron -Perth person- nel chair Mary -Catherine McKeon after that board's ratification of its two con- tracts at its meeting June 7. Avon Maitland chair Meg Westley praised negotiators from both sides, say- ing, "my congratulations on (reaching the agreements) because it certainly was a long haul." All teacher groups had been operating without a contract since Sept. 1, 2004. All but the ETFO local have already voted to ratify their contracts, while the Avon Maitland board was expected to provide its approval at its meeting Tuesday night after the Times -Advocate went to press. ETFO is expected to vote later this week. It seems only fitting that it's the last contract negotiated and ratified; the sticky issue of "grid parity" combined with the work -to -rule campaign (which ran through March and April then was resumed in June) made it the most high- profile of the four bargaining sessions. Payment terms, the four-year length of the deal, and preparation time allowances were set by the province ear- lier this year. The contract amounts to just over 10 per cent over four years for all teacher groups, with a split of two per cent this year, two per cent next September, 2.5 per cent in 2006, three per cent in 2007 and an extra 0.7 per cent to be negotiated. The hold-up for the Avon Maitland ele- mentary teachers was the "grid," a term which refers to the formula by which salaries are determined for teachers with different experience levels. ETFO wanted their grid upgraded to equal that of the secondary school teachers. The grid was also a challenge with the Catholic board. According to board chair Bernard Murray, the new deals bring Huron -Perth teachers up to par with their Avon Maitland counterparts. "It was not easy but I think it's good that they do have parity with the coter- minous board," he said at the June 7 meeting. "And I think it's also good that, for the first time, we have a four-year deal." every one of them has made an investment in that community and in their building." Magnish said there is a possibility some properties won't be available due to environmental reasons, although some tenants could move to different buildings in the park. Some of the environmen- tal concerns in the park include asbestos, chemical storage, and lead as a result of the firing range. Also, the infrastructure is getting old and there are concerns about some of the sewers on the industri- al side. "At the end of the day, I think it's all resolvable," Magnish said, but added the ORC is prohibited from selling contaminated land. Being a former air force base, Magnish said there are heritage issues to be dealt with in the park, and he said ORC needs to determine what needs to be done about that before the sale goes through. The delay of the sale has been tough on businesses, who haven't been able to expand while the park remained in limbo. "If I was a business I'd probably be gone already," Morley admitted. "They've been sitting there with all these promises ... they've all got a lot of money invest- ed." Morley said he hopes the businesses in Huron Park "hang in there" now that the province seems deter- mined to go forward with the sale. He said the entire process has been frustrat- ing for him and he hopes the province's new plan to sell the park is successful. "I'm fighting like hell for this." When the sale of the park was announced last /1♦ Kneale ni Ins. Broker Inc. EXETER - 235-2420 GRAND BEND - 238-8484 CLINTON - 482-3401 August, Magnish said the province immediately started doing surveying and environmental work, but it's a very complicated sale — some of the prop- erties have 18 easements on them. "The military really did- n't plan this industrial park ever to be an indus- trial park. They put sewer pipes and watermains everywhere," including underneath buildings. The issue isn't simply to sell the currently vacant and unwanted property, Magnish said, but to sell it to the right people. While the municipality doesn't own land in the park, the province has to make sure South Huron doesn't end up with any "orphan" properties it has to look after. Morley point- ed to the former McCurdy Public School as an exam- ple — since the numbered company that bought the school now has no assets, the municipality was forced to clean up the property after a fire destroyed it in December 2003. "We're getting really close," Magnish said of the sale of Huron Park. "The park is on the sales plan for 2005-06, which is our fiscal year. It's going to be sold this year." While he admits the delay has been frustrating, it will be worth it if it means a healthy, vibrant industrial park. "We see a light at the end of the tunnel." 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