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The Citizen, 1991-04-03, Page 1Wrong number? Blyth council wants more info on $3,000 phone system See page 3 Charges dismissed Couple found not guilty of growing pot plot See page 6 Theatre review This play not trash See page 23 Meetings planned on County restructuring study BY FRED GROVES Although county restructuring has been shelved by the provincial government, Huron County has gone ahead with a detailed studv which was presented Thursday afternoon to county council. The 200-page document was compiled by a research team comprised of clerk-treasurer Nigel Bellchamber, Dr. Gary Davidson, director of planning and develop­ ment and the planning department. It is a background report and the basis from which the provision of municipal services and current county-local government structure is evaluated. The study also serves as a vehicle to encourage and facilitate public participation in Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. VOL. 7 NO. 13 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 1991.60 CENTS Charge! Craig Empey, a Grade 6 student of Blyth Public School demonstrates how easy it is to generate electricity manually. Students from Grades 5-8 participated in the school’s annual Science Fair last week. Winners will advance to the county Fair in Brussels on April 12. defining the most appropriate form of government for the county. Copies of the report were given to all county councillors and munici­ pal councillors will be receiving their copies very shortly. Also, copies will be placed in the county libraries for the public to view. Four information meetings have been set up for both the public and the local councils: April 11, at 7:30 p.m. at Stephen Central Public School; April 10. at the Goderich Township Hall in Holmesville; April 24 at Turnberry Central Public School and April 25 at the Seaforth District High School. Exeter reeve Bill Mickle was on the study steering committee and he urges all municipalities to take a good look at the study. “It’s taken a long time and a lot of effort. It is the basis for any direction we’re going to take. I hope your councils consider this,’’ said Mickle to his fellow county councillors. The study attempts to determine the best way to deal with social, economic, environmental and phy­ sical development policy into the next century. Prior to the recent provincial election, the Liberals had request­ ed that all counties take a look at the direction in which they want to go. It was speculated if restructur­ ing did happen, reeves would be known as mayors and those towns that now have mayors would have to have their heads of council (mayor) sit on county council. Also, it was being proposed that there would be fewer representatives on county council; currently there are 32 representing the 26 municipali­ ties. All that has been put on the backburner by the New Democrats, however, Huron County Warden Jim Robinson, the reeve of Hensail said his county decided to go ahead with the study anyway. “We just questioned how long before the next government brought up re­ structuring. We were already six months into the study,” said Robinson. He said there are about 11 other counties which have followed through with their studies. “I don’t know what the status of the others (counties) is. Nobody has to do it as it was the previous government that brought it in,” said Robinson. But he said there is a reason why Huron County pro­ ceeded with the study. “We decided we wanted to control our own destiny. We don’t Continued on page 3 Daglight Savings Time starts Some subs. Beginning April 1 some sub­ scription rates to The Citizen increased due to huge increases in Canada Post delivery costs. The new rates affect orny those outside a 40-mile radius of Brussels or who live in centres like Goder­ ich, Listowel and Hanover with door-to-door delivery service. Un­ der new mailing costs it will cost The Citizen five times as much to deliver its papers each week as at increase after subsidy present. The new rates reflect as closely as possible the additional costs and will go to $39 plus GST of $2.37 for a total of $41.73. The changes are caused by cutbacks in a 100-vear-old subsidy by the federal government. The Department of Communications has provided money to Canada Post to reduce the costs of deliveries for newspapers and magazines to help communications in a widely-dis­ persed population. Earlier the government announced it would discontinue the practice and re­ place it with a system of direct subsidies. The first step in phasing out the assistance is the elimination of subsidies for many larger circula­ tion papers and for papers going farther than 40 miles through Canada Post. The cost of delivering these papers will now range be- dropped tween 31 and 51 cents each, depending on the weight of each paper. In some newspapers this has meant a 1000 per cent increase in the cost of delivery. At The Citizen we expects costs to increase by about $5,000. The Citizen and other smaller papers still receive free mailing within a 40 mile radius. This is scheduled to end in 1994 with the Continued on page 6 Sunday The night will be a little shorter Saturday night as Daylight Savings Time begins. Clocks should be set ahead one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday to allow everyone to have an extra hour of daylight in the evenings beginning Sunday. In recent years the official start of Daylight Savings Time has been the first Sunday of April as opposed to the last Sunday of the month which had been traditional.