The Citizen, 2015-09-10, Page 6PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2015.
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MPAC office closure
concerns county council
Huron County Council is
concerned about the closure of
the local Municipal Property
Assessment Corporation (MPAC)
office in Goderich and hopes to
lobby against the move.
Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh
Reeve Ben Van Diepenbeek
brought the issue to council’s
attention at its Sept. 2 meeting,
saying that the office will be
closed and consolidated between
the London and Kitchener
offices.
The office is expected to close
no later than the spring of 2017,
but no job losses are expected.
Speaking about his personal
experiences, Van Diepenbeek said
that whenever he received a re-
assessment notice, he always
liked to go into the office and go
through the information with
someone from MPAC. Without a
local office, he said, Huron
County residents will have to
travel to London to speak to a
representative in person, which
he felt wasn’t fair to them.
“Is there anything county
council can do to change their
mind?” Van Diepenbeek asked.
Chief Administrative Officer
Brenda Orchard said that she
wasn’t sure what council could do
specifically, but that staff would
be happy to take on the initiative
as a lobbying effort.
A good start to the effort, she
said, would be a motion from
council stating that Huron
County is better served with a
local MPAC office.
The motion was put on the
floor by Van Diepenbeek and
seconded by Central Huron
Mayor Jim Ginn and passed by
council.
Warden Paul Gowing also
chimed in, saying that he felt
MPAC’s work locally was done
much better and much more
efficiently when it was done at a
local office.
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Morris-Turnberry Council
approved the switching of a
paving project scheduled for this
year at the request of Director of
Public Works Gary Pipe.
Pipe explained, during
Council’s Sept. 1 meeting, that
$30,000 had been set aside to
repave James Street in Bluevale
but, because the municipality was
applying for funding to improve
the drainage infrastructure in the
area, Pipe didn’t want to repave it,
only to have it ripped up later if
the application was successful.
Pipe requested that the funding
for the project be allocated to
Royal Road, which suffered
under the winter weather
conditions earlier in the year. He
also mentioned that Mary Street,
which meets Royal Road, is being
paved as well.
Council approved the request.
***
Morris-Turnberry ratepayers
will soon see the benefits of new
streetlight technology.
The municipality approved
moving forward with replacing
all 217 existing streetlights in the
municipality with LED lights
from Local Authority Services
(LAS), an affiliate of the
Association of Municipalities of
Ontario (AMO).
Switching to the lights will cost
$101,155, which includes
replacing the arms of lights, re-
wiring and re-fusing the fixtures
and labour costs.
Thanks to incentives, the
saving from switching to the LED
lights will pay off the upgrade in
just over two and a half years.
Council decided to finance the
project over three years through
the Canadian Imperial Bank of
Commerce (CIBC) Municipal
financing program.
***
Morris-Turnberry staff
recommended that council
purchase 200 trees from the
Maitland Valley Conservation
Authority (MVCA) for $5,000.
The trees, which are provided
free to ratepayers, represent a
great investment Public Works
Director Gary Pipe explained.
Pipe said that the trees are
typically well cared for and the
municipality never has a surplus
of them as ratepayers are always
interested in them.
***
The Bluevale Hall and Bluevale
recreation boards will
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 19
M-T proceeds with street
light replacement plan
Hoping for a catch
Taking advantage of the recent warm weather, Rob Reiger and his son Harlen were
out on the banks of the Maitland River at Auburn’s Riverside Retreat campground last
week trying to catch crayfish. No doubt there was plenty of knowledge and wisdom
being passed down from father to son on this day. (Mark Royall photo)