The Citizen, 1990-05-02, Page 1Car chase
Man sentenced
over car incident
see page 2
Strange video
Blyth shoots video
of drain
see page 3
Review
‘Girls’ prospers
on Grand scale
see page 23
Trustees reject 22% education budget increase
After debating for over one hour
on Monday night Huron County
Board of Education (HCBE) trus
tees rejected the proposed budget
that would see an increase in
expenditures of 22 per cent over last
year, from a total of 551,609,770 for
elementary and secondary to the
proposed total for 1990 of
557,315,977.
Faced with maintaining a certain
number of special projects, last
year’s overspending and govern
ment decisions that were placed on
the board over which trustees had
little or no control, in addition to
trying to keep the mill rate increase
as low' as possible, trustees weigh
ed the pros and cons and voiced
concerns until the final vote was
taken.
Blyth-Hullett Trustee John
Jew'itt made a motion to return the
budget to HCBE administration to
give them the opportunity to make
whatever cuts they could to keep
the increase to the Huron County
ratepayer at 10 per cent.
Mr. Jewitt said in a prepared
statement that he was aware that
setting this budget was going to be
a difficult task as a proposed
increase was inevitable. He ex
plained that the trustees have an
obligation to young people to give
them the best education possible
and often have to accept this and
face the consequences. “I believe
that one of the most important
things in life we can teach our
children is to be fiscally responsi
ble. However, one of the important
realities is that you can’t always
have what you w&nt.”
“While we have an obligation to
our young people to help them, we
also have an obligation to the
ratepayers of Huron County, who 1
believe are not enjoying the eco
nomic prosperity of their city
cousins.’’
Mr. Jewitt went on to say that he
views himself as a realist and is
aware that the board has been
faced with expenses that were
beyond their control, but feels that
as a board they need to start
removing and cutting back to try
and bring the expenditures down.
Howick Trustee Norm Wilson
stated succinctly, “That’s a 22 per
cent increase. 1 wouldn’t want it on
mine.’’
Robert Allan, Director of Educa
tion for HCBE told the Trustees
that the fair place for them to focus
on budget buildup is in the
expenditure budget. “That’s the
end of your control,’’ he said.
Trustee for the townships of
Ashfield, East Wawanosh and
West Wawanosh, Tony McQuail
was opposed to the motion saying
that the trustees need to look at
what they need in the schools.
Bringing the increase down to 10
per cent leaves the working budget
for the board at five percent, over
last year which Mr. McQuail stated
was too low. “I don’t think it’s
realistic.” At some point we have
to start repairing. Certainly, w'e
have to cut budgets, but not to 10
per cent. All that will do is defer a
bigger hunk of costs to next year,”
Mr McQuail said. “We have to look
at whether we can do cutting
without gutting the system.”
“To ask administration to go
back and cut is deluding us. With
what the provincial government is
placing on us it won’t be enough.”
Mr. Jewitt responded that he
Continued on page 14
________________________.. . . _ . «...
VOL. 6 NO. 18
juiviny Diuaduia, Diyui, muuuhi, ouiyiavc, ciiiui,
Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 1990.
and movement in teaching. Ms. De Caluwe, with her back to the
camera is a phys. ed. consultant with the London-Middlesex
Roman Catholic Separate School Board.
If the kids could see them now
It’s a certainty that students would have enjoyed watching their
teachers participate in this professional development day
workshop in the Dinsley St. Garage in Blyth on Monday.
Goederoen De Caluwe demonstrated the use of sound, language
Blyth passes by-law on park reconstruction
Blyth village council Thursday
night formally approved a bylaw to
loan money to the Blyth Industrial
Slow-pitch Tournament Committee
to complete rebuilding of the
George Radford Memorial Ball
Diamond but the issue didn’t die
without some more sparks.
Council dealt with a delegation of
Ken Siertsema and Gerald Kerr
from the ball group before adopting
the bylaw to answer questions the
men had but also present at the
meeting was a group of people
from Radford Construction, Doug
Scrimgeour, Wayne McDougall
and Bill Gauley.
Mr. Siertsema said some mem
bers of his group were angry with
council for changing the period for
repayment of the interest-free loan
of 56,000. The agreement reached
at the March 29 meeting was that
the ball group would be expected to
pay back the loan over three years.
Later when the ball group went to
sign the agreement the time frame
was changed to two years because,
it was explained, council cannot
enter into agreements that will
extend past the end of the term of
council. Councillor Steven Sparling
who was chairing the meeting in
the absence of Reeve Albert Was
son who had declared a conflict of
interest, said that the change
wasn’t something council wanted
but something that was forced onto
councillors by higher authorities.
He suggested if the ball group has
trouble paying back the money
within two years it should come to
council and explain the problem
and some solution might be found.
Mr. Siertsema said the group
could live with the change and
members would just have to get out
and work harder to see the money
is raised.
Mr. Siertsema also wanted to
know who would have the final say
as to when the diamond was ready
to be used and council agreed the
ball group should decide when the
park was in shape to be used for the
first time. (Construction work fin-
Former Walton man jailed
over chain saw assault
A former Walton man has been
sentenced to four months in jail
after being convicted of assaulting
a neighbour with a chain saw in a
dispute over cutting down trees
near the boundary of the two
properties.
Judge R.G.E. Hunter handed
down his sentence in Provincial
Court in Wingham Wednesday
finding John Morley Shepherd,
formerly of Walton and now of
London, guilty of the attack on
50 CENTS
ished early last week and seeding
was to be done early this week).
The heat arose after Mr. Siert
sema asked if the council would
formally withdraw the letter it had
Continued on page 3
Robert Walker on Aug. 5, 1989.
Charges against Mr. Walker in the
same incident were dismissed by
the judge.
“You could have taken his arm
off with that chain saw,” Judge
Hunter told Mr. Shepherd. Mr.
Walker had suffered a deep wound
on his arm in the incident.
Mr. Shepherd’s lawyer Thomas
Troyan of Goderich had tried to
Continued on page 8