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The Huron Expositor, 1996-04-17, Page 1Sports Local skater defends title & breaks records See page 9 Scrapies Seaforth sheep carried scrapies in 1982 possible link to Mad Cow disease. See page 2 Earth Day We celebrate "green" lifestyle' on April 22. See page 7 Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 - Seaforth, Ontario Seaforth backs away - from tax protest - will just `support' Briefly Two attempted: abductions in Huron County ' There have been two attempted abductions . in Huron County in the past two weeks, both "victims" five- . year-olds, OPP at Ggdcrich .warned in. a press release Monday: The detachment -has alerted all Huron elementary schools ,and asks parents to talk to' their children about not accepting candy or -gifts from anyone, and 'cautioned them -to be wary of strangers who flask them to go for a walk or a ride in"a car.' Health Unit turns down' spring rabies clinic request - The Hu"rcin County Health Unit has turned down- "Scaforth.'s bequest to -have a spring rabies clinic in town... .Seaforth has an annual fall clinic but council asked for another in the spring on the ' suggestion of animal control officer Robert- Trick, who . suggektcd the second clinic might be Beneficial tor" wor- .rjed pet .owners because of the. high number of rabid skunks killed in -town during the winter. Most veterinarians felt a second clinic wasn't' ncces sary and.felt owners should have a complete health assessment of their pets and not just a rahics vaccination. The health unit suggested municipalities should require proof of rahics vaccination heforc issuing dog tags, and recommended distributing rabies information with tax notices or when tags arc sold. Grants to RIDE program double Ontario Solicitor General Bob Runciman announced the 'doubling of grants to reduce impaired driving in this province in 1996 Monday, from $600,000 to $ 1.2 -million. Among approved RIDE grants is one to Seaforth for $2,533.'68. Thc solicitor general says this year's grants will cover thc overtime costs incurred by 94 municipal and 25 OPP contract police forces. ' Hospital hosts open house for physiotherapy Thc physiotherapy depart- ment at Seaforth Community Hospital hosts an open house from 2 to 4 p.m. next Thursday, April 25, to mark National Physiotherapy Week 1996. April 21 to 27. A press release from the local rehabilitation depart- ment says "All the right moves' is the theme of next week's open house, and there will be refreshments and "short informative talks" of interest in gardening. homemaking, work or sport. Seaforth Council backed away from a motion to copy Blyth's recent decision to stop collecting education taxes at the start of next January, in favour of a . motion to simply "support" , the village's current cam- paign- at its meeting Tuesday. night. - , Coon. Michael Hak said if education looked after its own tax collection it might make the system more accountable than it is -now: He says thc'town, in effect, is now subsidizing the collec- tion of education taxes- Other - -councilleirs said they support - tax reform. - But Clerk/administrator-Jim Crocker said he wanted to "SLICE OF HURON" PACKED - Seaforth Agricultural Societybuildings at the fairgrounds and the local arena were filled make it "very .clear the : 9 9 9 Province has the hammer to the rafters with students and public last week for the fourth -annual Slice of Huron, an event to promote agricultural: here" if Seaforth,, like Blyth, knowledge and build an awareness of how the food we eat .ends up on our tables. It was once again a resounding suc- decided to stop collecting the cess. education portion of local taxes, as is,the iaw. - Crockcr said he would not - be coirnfortable with the almost certain repercussions, because as the law stands non --payment -would leave Seaforth on the hook 'for. interest from the. day .of default. , Conn. Brian Ferguson said he Wouldn't he comfortable ' either , with .-exposing ratepayers to a potentia,l problem. , Clerk Crocker said -his read On the situation was it "is not .a -collection problem," and it may- make "good sense -that the municipality collect all three taxes. and if hoards were required -to collect, it ' would only drive -education costs higher. April 17, 1996 — 75 Cents Plus GST own passes zero budget BY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff Taxpayers -in town will "effectively" pay less for Municipal government this year,than they did in 1991, Mayor Irwin Johnston said as Seaforth Council passed this 'year's budget Tuesday night. It set an infinitesimal 0.009 per -cent tax increase for town this year, in other words zcro, working out to a total of $838,860 to be raised via the mill rate through. taxation. Thc 1995 surplus is - $12.625 with 1996 budgeted revenue of $..219,072. against expenditures" of $2.070,557, the balance .to come from taxes. The 1994 "actual" surplus was $75,616 and both expen- ditures 02,480,236) and rev- enues ($-1..583,830) were higher in. Seaforth's last bud- get. MiLL RATES - The commercial mill rate has been set at 10.06022. The new residential rate works out to 8.551, WhichwayisWest William or William West? BY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff "East is east and west is west", as the old saw says, but are improper and don't complyto Bell Canada stan- dards unless they come after north, when you're talking street names. In other. words - North Street East and North' Street West are okay for Seaforth, but East North Street or West North Street arc not proper, under the 9-1-1 emergency system that is emerging. The mind -bending prob- lems if we had a North Street North it) Seaforth boggle the mind, but lucky for us the street runs east -west in town. These true facts were revealed in Administrator Jim' Crocker's report to Seaforth Council, on the recent 9-1-1 meeting he attended where "discussion centered around road naming issues, Bell Canada informa- tional requirements and municipal addressing by- laws." Seaforth won't have to change much to comply with the 9-1-1 system, because north. south, cast and west are suffixes, which is allowed, on Goderich and Main Streets. There is no duplication of street names in town, George Street East and George Street West, though separated by mann blocks, are considered differ- ent enough to stand, espe- cially since a third George Street across town was changed to Lloyd Eisler Street a couple of years ago, which would have made a real muddle for planners of the new emergency system. East and West will have to move to the other side of William to make the grade, with suffix becoming prefix, to be considered proper, Crocker told council. "Consideration should be given to changing street names or adding proper suf- fixes," for three Seaforth streets officially classified as "interrupted" the clerk reported: Jarvis, Chalk and North. North also being a direc- tion, proper after but not before, sent council's discus- sion off on the strange North Street North tangent. Would that be right or wrong, and; who would know? The old North Street runs west off North Main (crops, Main North). Seaforth's newest North Street is inter- rupted then continues west beyond West William (or William West) into the recent Munn's Bush devel- opment, where there are now six lots but only two houses, both brand new and one of them for sale. If ever the time was ripe to tackle this "bull by the horns" and change this new street's name it is now, one councillor commented. "It is now or never," he said. Council batted about a few possibilities, a few with much merriment. Perhaps we could have a conte&t, one councillor sug- gested. In any case, Crocker advised council Duke Street in Seaforth is considered "offset" and not ''interupted" so is acceptable, and that municipal legislation requires council to advertise notice of any proposed name -change bylaw for four consecutive weeks and hear any person who claims to be adversely affected. The administrator noted a name change can lead to unwanted costs for business• es on a street, but because there are none on the New North, he agreed council might he wise to now con- sid- CONTINUED on page 3 Mayor Johnston said Seaforth's-"effective' munic- ipal mill .rate hasn't changed in six years, and then patted town staff on the back by observing this year's zero per -cent boost was achieved at thc tail end of the -"Social Contract" and in the midst of the recent major "downsiz- ing" cuts in financial trans- fers from the province. The times, "they are a' changing", he cautioned. "We are at the beginning of an cra of municipal govern - Ment that will change faster than anytime in history." Johnston said. Seaforth's mayor credited municipal employees, coun- cil, committees, various area boards and their mutual "co- operation" as essential' for doing -a good job in tough times. • Much of council's success- - ful recent austerity springs, from cost -management ini- tiativcs first suggested by Seaforth employees. CONTINUED on page 3 Bell Mobility tower goes ahead BY DAVID SCOTT Expositor Editor Industry Canada has given Bell Mobility the go ahead to construct a transmission tower op Sideroad 10 of McKillop Township near Beechwood. Effective April I permis- sion was granted and notice was sent out to neighbouring landowners. in January, some neigh bours in opposition to the proposed tower because of possible links to cancer and other illness, met at Jim and Janeke Murray's farm to try and have the construction halted. At that time Peter Allen. manager of Western Ontario District for industry Canada - thc government licensing body, heard their concerns. One option for halting the tower construction was to hold an environmental assessment which there wasn't enough evidence to support, said Janeke Murray. Construction has begun on the site owned by Kevin Shea. Bell Mobility hopes to have the 350 -foot tower oper- ational this summer, 'said John Grant, the company's real estate manager. The McKillop site is one of three new towers being construct- ed, the other two being in Wingham and Listm('cl. "We tried pretty much any angle. The neighbours arc still pretty concerned about thc health issue." she said. industry Canada. however. has agreed. to visit the Murrays aftcr the tower is operational to measure elec- tromagnetic levels in their house and others in close proximity with a NARDA meter. "We have had two people (from industry Canada) tell us we will have frequency (from the tower) in our home. They say it will he well below the industry safety code." At this point if Bell Mobility wants to add anoth- er satellite -dish to the tower or sell space on the tower, they have to get another license, said Murray. "Thc neighbours arc still con- cerned. We don't want four, six or 10 satellites dishes on it. Each microwave dish has to have a new Iltense. Right now all they have is permis- sion to put one on aimed at Wingham." "We're all hoping it is safe. We're not thrilled."