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The Lucknow Sentinel, 1987-05-20, Page 1ESTABLISHED IN 1873 -THE SEPOY TOWN" ON THE HURON -BRUCE BOUNDARY Brian and Kathy Knechtel stand at the site of the new Village Market Store in Lucknow. Mr. Knechtel says the store should be open for business in late July. (Alan Rivett photo) Lucknow Village Market to be ready by late July By Alan Rivett With construction now going ahead on the new home for the Village Market store in Lucknow, owner Brian Knechtel says the new store should be ready and open for business at the end of July. Under construction by the Ken Zurbrigg Construction Company of Kincardine, the new grocery store, on the site of the former Montgomery Motors dealership, will be approximately 8,000 square feet of which 5,700 square feet will be selling space. A total of 28 parking spaces will be provided as well as two entrances from Stauffer and Campbell Streets. According to Mr. Knechtel, the space af- forded by the new store, one of 57 Knechtel Associate stores in Southwestern Ontario, will represent • almost three -fold more space than in their former store on Camp- bell Street and will provide more parking for their customers. Although no new departments are plann- ed for the store, Mr. Knechtel says the store will expand in the areas of fresh meat, fresh produce, dairy, products, frozen foods, as well as two added cash register lines to speed up check out. "At the present store it's difficult to han- dle the volume of sales we're doing right now. With the added space we can expand the number of (grocery) lines, have more selection; it gives us more space, and makes it a lot easier for the employees to do their job," he said. He says the new store will be beneficial to the employees with extra cooler space on the same level as well as a bigger receiving area for incoming products. Mr. Knechtel says he expects the store's current contingent of 16 employees to grow to approximately 20 after the new store is built. "Definitely, we're going to have to hire a few more employees," he said. He commended Lucknow Village Coun- cil for their work to get the necessary zon- ing bylaws changed in order to accom- modate the new highway -commercial zon- ing. The zoning change was approved by the Bruce County Planning Committee in early May. "It (re -zoning) is something you have to deal with as it wasn't zoned commercial. Council co-operated in getting the- necessary henecessary approvals," he said. Because of parking requirements, the former Armstrong's Bakery outlet will have to be taken down to create parking. Mr. Knechtel said he first believed it wouldn't have to be demolished, but it became , unavoidable as parking re- quirements were established. "With the configuration of the store and to have sufficient parking parking, it wouldn't have worked out (with the bakery still intact)," he said. Armstrong's Bakery has since moved to the store beside The Lucknow Sentinel, re- opening in late April. Mr. Knechtel has owned the Village Market store, formerly the Fairview Market, since March 1, 1986. He has been in the grocery industry since 1971, working for six year's part-time in a grocery store through high school and college. For the past nine years, prior to coming to Lucknow, he worked in the Knechtel's Cor- poration Head office in the accouting of- fice, moving up to the position of con- troller. His wife Kathy has also worked for a number of years in grocery stores on a part-time basis. By opening the new store, Mr. Knechtel says he hopes to give the store's customers more selection when they come for their groceries. "We've found the town and the surroun- ding area to be very supportive with the in- creased business we've done over the past year. We hope the new store will offer good service, improved selection and good quality products," he said.. Council applies for 20 -unit non-profit housing p He said the survey identified 17 people 'under the guidelines of the study to have a definite need for non-profit housing. The number of units were increased to 20 as it "would be a good size" for an apartment building. He estimated 14 out of the 20 units would have one bedroom, while the other six would have two bedrooms. Ms. Bleesdale said, under the current timetable for non-profit housing, the ap- plication would be subject to an indepth review by the ministry over the next three months as it is expecting close to 30 ap- plications for, the program. Applications with "no demand figures to support them" would be screened out. At this point, concept plans to determine a rough site for the building, the units, the layout of the units and the number of bedrooms would be provided to the ministry. "At this point, we would weed out a few more applications as some ( groups) become disinterested," she said, adding that these concept plans would be viewed. by September, She said, after the concept plans were cleared with the ministry, preliminary plans which serve to "firm up the details" would be drawn up. Final applications to receive funding would be announced by the ministry by January of 1988, said Ms. Bleesdale. "The details would then be firmed up and the allocation (of funds) would be done. The tenders would then be called_ It sounds easy, but there's a lot of work in- volved," she said. Ms. Bleesdale asked council if they would be submitting the application of their own behalf. However, she recom- mended to council that the Bruce County Non -Profit Housing Association . carry through the necessary organizational work Turn to page 10 By Alan Rivett Lucknow Village Council passed a resolution to go ahead with an application for a 20 -unit non-profit housing unit in Lucknow after a meeting with two housing officials at the regular monthly council meeting on May 12. Dave Cowan, a housing analyist with the Ontario Ministry of Housing, along with Joelle Bleesdale, housing program co- ordinator with Bruce County, met with council to discuss a proposed plan for non- profit housing, a housing development aimed at low to moderate income families, senior citizens, or single parents. Because of the tight deadline of May 15, the two housing officials filled out the village's application for non-profit housing at the meeting as ti‘e "time is now" for such a housing development in Lucknow. "Now is the time. With the demand established, to do it (apply) again in one or two gars, we might not be able to duplicate the results," said Mr. Cowan. Reeve Herb Clark said a probable site for the proposed 20 -unit building is village - owned property adjacent to the Lucknow LCBO outlet. Both Mr. Cowan and . Ms. Bleesdale were receptive to this site as it is close to the downtown area and would be incorporated into the sewer project, even if only the core area is completed. Mr. Cowan said the need for non-profit housing in Lucknow was established after the Ministry of Housing reviewed its fin- dings of the housing study done in 1985 in the village. "Quite surprisingly, there was a need to develop non-profit housing in Lucknow, based on the survey results: There is an ex- cellent possibility for non-profit housing here. The application will be looked a very carefully," said Mr. Cowan. Township council passes 1987 budget West Wawanosh Council passed its 1987 budget which represents a 4.57 per cent in- crease over the 1986 rates at the regular monthly meeting on Monday, May 5. According to Clerk -Treasurer Joan Armstrong, the budget, taking into ac- count the township's share only, has in- crease by $4,600 from $132,267 in 1986 to $136,892 this year. The township rate for residential and, or farm taxpayers (Public School supporter) is up .411 per cent; the county rate has increased .997 per cent; while the Huron County board of education rate will see an increase of 10.89 per cent for elementary school supporter and 4.59 per cent for secondary school supporters. Based on an average assessment of $5,000, the public residential supporter will pay $45 more in taxes this year. The com- mercial' and business supporter will pay $50 more on same average assessment. A separate school residential and, or farm supporter on the same average assessment will pay $50 more on the tax bill this year over 1986. In other business, David Errington, the manager -coach of the West Wawanosh Warriors ladies fastball team, requested financial assistance from council towards umpires' fees, diamond fees, etc. Council approved a donation of $200 to Turn to page 3 Your Sentinel this week... Wagon trip A number of local horsemen par- ticipated in a four day old-fashioned covered wagon tour through Bruce Coun- ty. The trip covered 70 miles. For pictures of the event...SEE PAGE 6. CGIT The Lucknow CGIT recently enjoyed a dinner for the group. This year five girls graduated. For a write-up on the event...SEE PAGE 7. Lochalsh Liz Wilkins, formerly of the Lochalsh area, was a winner in a recent radio con- test with her winning Mother's Day writing contest entry. For the Lochalsh News...SEE PAGE 7. Crime Stoppers In the Crime Stoppers column, the first one to appear in The Sentinel, local police seek information on a robbery at a Port Elgin bank. Information leading to an ar- rest would entitle you to a reward of up to '1,000...SEE PAGE 8.