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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1988-03-09, Page 1INDEX Farm — A5 Seniors — A6 Sports — A7, A13, A9 Graduates —.A10 People — A10 Births — A10 Obituaries — A10 Weddings — A10 Hensall — A11 Classifieds — Al2, A13, A14 Legion — A15 Vincents celeeates 65th anniversary. See page A3.. Serving the communities and areas of Seaforth, Brussels, Dublin, Hensall and Walton Huron xpositor Seaforth9 Ontario Pants nom The Seaforth Pants Manufacturing com- pany is leaving Seaforth. Al Norman, manager of the plant, inform- ed town officials Monday the decision had been made to pull out of Seaforth and the process was in fact underway. He said senior members of the company had met on the weekend and decided they were not get- ting a sufficient response to the most recent ads for sewing staff, and felt there was not an adequate work force in the area to sup- port their effort. Town officials - including Mayor Alf Ross, Town Administrator Jim Crocker, Economic Development Committee chair- man Larry Parker and Mainstreet Coor- dinator Tom Lemon - disagreed with the company's reasoning. They expressed con- fidence with a population of over 100,000 peo- ple within a 30 minute drive of Seaforth, there is an excellent labor force, and sug- gested if the manufacturer established a new approach that is appropriate for this labor force, it would be able to establish a successful industrial venture in Seaforth. The officials had a number of concerns - some in regards to the methods used by the consultant for the pants manufacturer to determine and recruit a labor force. When told about the company's decision to pull out, members of Seaforth's Town Coun- cil did not seem surprised. Councillor Bob Dinsmore suggested part of the reason for a poor response was the pay being offered. Initially the company stated they would be paying $6 an hour, but during the interviewing process people were told the pay would be the minimum wage. "Many people thought minimum wage was not enough," said Mr. Dinsmore. "They were collecting more than that in unemployment." Deputy -reeve Hazel Hildebrand said she had heard complaints about the ques- tionaires potential employees were asked to fill out. "A lot of the questions did not even relate to the job," she said, adding there was even a question asking whether or not the appli- cant showered or bathed. HURON EXPOSITOR, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1988 any leaving "People were just throwing up their hands." Councillor Carolsnne Doig agreed. "The interviews and questionaires were a bit ridiculous for sewing machine operators," she said. "As far as I'm concerned it was handled poorly," commented Reeve Bill Bennett. "The company came in here in the fall, but the people were told they wouldn't start until maybe the end of May or June. That meant they pretty well had to wait a year before they got employment." Reeve Bennett said he was surprised though the company had said there weren't enough qualified people in the area. "I had been told a high percentage had passed the sewing test - at least 140 out of the 180 there on the day I was present," he said. "I thought the maximum number they needed was 120. Where did all these people go? I think they were tired of waiting. You don't say you're going to open up, then wait six months before contacting any of the people." "They've been making a career out of recruiting these people, and it's been going on a ridiculously long time," added Coun- cillor Doig. Councillor Harry Hak aid he was grateful p the withdrawal had happened now, at this stage, rather than further on down the line. "I'm pleased that if it seas going to stop, it stopped now, rather than employ people then collapse," he said.` Town officials met with senior officials of the Montreal-based BOlin Manufacturing Company, mother company of the Seaforth Pants Manufacturing C mpany, yesterday, in an effort to convinc em to reconsider Seaforth as a viable location for the'plant. It was unknown at press tame, just what that meeting accomplis ed. Regardless members of council weren't holding out any hopes. "Do you really think that Seaforth, no matter how optimistic it is, is going to get the pants company to reconsider, especially since it is already putting its plan of withdrawal into effect. Maybe our wishful thinking just stems from wanting to keep the boat from sinking," said Councillor Doig. Representatives of the Seaforth Manufac- turing Company were unavailable for comment. 50 cents a copy Stratford, Huron county mayors to meet with \ATC Minister soon Mayors from Huron County and the City "We (the mayors) have a real concern of Stratford are not about to let the with the numbers between New Hamburg Ministry of Transportations and Com- and Stratford," said Seaforth Mayor Alf munications abandon the idea of widening Ross. Highway 8 between New Hamburg and "A lot of people travelling to and from Stratford to four lanes. Toronto are not using Highway 8, they're using the roads on either side of it. We're There was talk two weeks ago traffic going to attempt to sh wothe Minister the counts on that portibn of Highway 8 failed numbers in the traffic:e6unts are not right, to justify the widening. Planners use 10,000 and ask him to do a sttidy on those roads cars a day as a rule of thumb for expansion parallelling Highway 8." to four lanes. The New Hamburg to Strat- "If the area is going to grow, we have to ford stretch has 6,000 to 7,000 cars while have a road system," he said. traffic west of Stratford is 3,000 to 5,000 The mayors plan to meet with MTC cars a day. Minister Ed Fulton soon. :;</<:?..............:': �> : /,`• .,::>%`.•`,fl,•r::f:;::.'s;°ii. f}`Yx?; y/{!Q6`5:9. yr iifi` :�, :::>,,'; s3X!#�2?.:. , s; 'f;?z ;�''� �: r/F.•::10 /i:C•:'?,ma. % Area girl glad to be home Austria a beautiful place to visit A young woman from the Seaforth area was glad to arrive back home recently after spending the last six months in Austria. Mary Maloney, daughter of James and Jean Maloney of RR 5 Seaforth, has been an au pair - a live-in maid- for an upper class Austrian family since she left for Europe in August with her friend Debbie Dupuis. Before she left Mary knew something about the family she was going to stay with as Lisa Beuttenmiller of Seaforth had also stayed with them. They lived in Klosterneuburg, a town near the city of Vienna, spoke English very well, had three children, and the man of the house worked for the government and his wife was a school teacher. Since having an au pair is a sign of social atatub among the people of Austria and there was something of a shortage of au pairs in Klosterneuberg, Mary's friend Deb- bie was able to find work in the same town, and the girls were only a few blocks away from each other. As an au pair Mary was allowed free room and board and an additional 700 shillings per week (approximately $70 per week Cana- dian). In exchange for this she did housekeeping and babysitting. Most au pairs worked every weekday until 2 p.m. and had to babysit three nights per week and once on weekends, and most of them made only 600 shillings per week. But because one of the children in the family Mary stayed with was 14 years old she had to do little babysitting. With her free time Mary took a course in German at the University of Vienna. The youngest boy she babysat, who was eight - years -old, helped her to learn simple aspects of the German language such as counting, and in return she taught him some English. They would spend about two hours each day playing cards and other games to force them to become conversant in -one another's language. Mary picked up a lot of German, and can understand it reasonably well, but she has some trouble speaking it. One of Mary's goals when she left for Austria was to earn money to be able to save enough to go to college when she returned home. But this turned out to be wishful thinking, as the economy in Austria kept her from putting any money away. She said the , prices for simple things like drinks at bars were outrageous compared to Canada. A pub there charges $5 Canadian for a beer, while a disco charges $6. Many of the Austrians drink mineral water or juices when they go out rather than pay for drinks. While in Austria Mary's social life was a long way from what it had been in Seaforth. There was no dancing allowed in the bars, and in the discos she said everyone danced Re they had been on Solid Gold. She said the Austrian students keep very much to themselves, and then there were im- JUST A BEGINNER - At one time even Lloyd Eisler must have looked like this. Tracey Bennett tries to pass on some useful figure skating information to Kent Moffett. Perhaps Kent is waiting for the opportunity to confer with Lloyd Eisler himself, Lloyd and his Olympic pairs partner, Isabelle Brasseur, will headline the Seaforth Figure Skating Club's Carnival on Ap-' 1. And that's no joke. Mcllwraith photo. BACK FROM AUSTRIA - Mary Maloney of RR 5 Seaforth shows her mother Jean some of the sights in Austria through a book she bought there. Mary returned home last weekend after spending six months in the European nation where she worked as an au pair, or nanny. Corbett photo. migrants from Turkey, Hungary and Czechoslovakia who would get pretty obnox- ious with their cat calls. She did, however, meet some people from Sweden and Norway who heard her and her friends speaking English and introduced themselves. Another problem with going out was she lived outside the city andtthe buses stopped running from Vienna too early to really have a night on the town. However, there are au pair organizations in Vienna designed to get the girls together for social activities, and the people who hire au pairs often introduce them to the au pairs working for their friends. In this way Mary met another girl from Holland who spoke English well and the two became good friends. Winter in Austria was a lot different than what Mary is used to in the snowbelt. It had not snowed up until two days before her departure, and even then it was still very mild. 'rum to page I1A o Eisler to headline The date of the event is April 1, but it's no April Fool's day prank. Seaforth native and Olympic competitor Lloyd Eisler will headline a Skating Carnival hosted by the Seaforth Figure Skating Club. He will be joined by his pairs partner Isabelle Brasseur. Up until this week the Seaforth Figur Skating Club executive had decided to forego the annual skating carnival this year. However, the success of local skater Lloyd Eisler, convinced members to change their minds. The April 1 event will be known as the Lloyd Eisler appreciation night. The pro- gram will start at 7 p.m. with officials from the town taking part in an opening ceremony of sorts. Organizers hope to have an official master of ceremonies, possibly someone from the television media. Following the skating program, which will also include performances by local iskaters, Lloyd and Isabelle, and possibly carnival even Lynn Nightingale, a reception will be held for Lloyd Eisler. "I think it is an honor that Lloyd is from Seaforth," said Dr. Ken Rodney, Past Presi- dent of the Seaforth Figure Skating Club. "It's every athlete's dream to represent his/her country, and Lloyd did well with on- ly 11 months preparation time. I think we should honor him and also let the youngsters know there is recognition for hard work and determination." In recognition of Lloyd's success, and the positive image he has portrayed of Seaforth, town council decided Monday night to con- tribute $1,000 towards the cost of the Lloyd Eisler Appreciation night. Council will also underwrite the cost of bringing LLoyd's partner Isabelle to Seaforth on April 1. There will be an admission charge for the carnival, and Dr. Rodney said proceeds from the event will be presented to Lloyd on behalf of the town, to help further his career. County accepts tax re -assessment Huron County Council, at its March 3 meeting, voted to accept county -wide tax re -assessment under Section 70 of the On- tario Assessment Act. Council's acceptance is subject to special assistance grants being available for residential ratepayers to offset proper- ty tax increases as a direct result of county -wide re -assessment. The Ontario government would absorb 100 per cent of the increase in the first year, 66 per cent the second year and 33 per cent in the third and final year of the grant program. The tax re-assesment question was divided into two parts - whether to accept county wide re -assessment, and whether to accept Section 63, or Section 70 of the act. A recorded vote was held. Council voted 27-5 in favour of re- assessment and 27-5 for Section 70. Douglas Fraser, of Morris Township, Marie Hicknell, of McKillop Township, Brian McBurney of Turnburry Township, Gerry Prout of Usborne Township and Ernest Snell, of East Wawanosh Township voted against re -assessment. Laurie Cox,of Goderich Township, Thomas Cunn- ingham, of Hullet Township, Hicknell, Pro- ut and Grant Stirling voted against Section 70 in favour of Section 63. Under Section 70 county and school tax assessments are based on property value only, regardless of what type of property it is (residential, industrial, commercial, farm), property owners will pay the same amount of tax on land of the same market value throughout the county. The assessments will be based on 1984 property values. Economic conditions are studied up until 1987 and it.will be the job of local assessors to take into account market trends when assessing property value. The Ontario Ministry of Revenue iden- tified several inequities in the old county apportionment system. Ratepayers located in different parts of Huron County were not paying the same county and school tax for property of equal value. Cox supported Section 63 rather than 70. Section 63 has an equalizationtfactor for different types of property. "Commercial and industrial prpoerties require different services and should pay differnt taxes," said Cox. Under the re -assessment the total tax paid in the county will not increase, but in- dividual ratepayers may experience an in- crease or decrease in their county and school taxes. Mill rates will have to be changed under re -assessment. e 1