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The Huron Expositor, 1997-02-05, Page 1Agriculture Farm broadcaster Ross Daly talks about tarn] transfers. See page 3 Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 — Seaforth, Ontario No date set for Murray pre-trial r A judge has reserved his ruling on the admissibility of evidence for the upcoming trial of a Goderich man charged with the second- degree murder of his daughter. Steve Murray has been charged with the second- degree murder of Mistie • Nicole Murray. A week of pre-trial motions -ended in Goderich's Ontario Court General Division on. Jan. 24. Judge Jim Donnelly has not set a date.to announce his rul- ing on the motions. .There is a publication ban on evidence presented during pre -teal motions. - On Sept. 15. 1995. Murray was charged with the second- degree murder of his 15 -year- old daughter. Mistie was reported missing June 2. 1995. Her body has never been. found. - The trial of Steve Murray is tentatively .scheduled to start April 28. 1997. It could last for three weeks. • Stewart hi Africa with Foodgrains ' A Seaforth-area woman is now in Africa on a three- • week tour organized by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. Joan Stewart of RR 4 Seaforth was in a group of six Canadians- who heft on the food study tour last Wednesday. The national foodgrains • bank is a relief and destelop►- mental agency run by church- es, with strong Seaforth and area support, that facilitates the collection and distribution of grain and other agricultur- al commodities to the world's hungry. It has been organiz- ing such study tours to Africa and other places since 1987. "In Canada, we often see Africa and its people por- trayed as hopeless." says Foodgrains' communications co-ordinator Trish Jordan in a press release. "But there is a lot of courage. strength and opti- mism among the African people too. "Past participants have come away with a more bal- anced understanding of hun- gry people and the ways in which our support can help them work towards long -tern food security." She adds the one question donors ask most often: "Does my donation make a differ- ence?" Other farmers or donors on this tour hail from Zurich. Monkton, and Breslau in Ontario, Virdon in Manitoba and Red Door, Alberta. They are scheduled to return Feb. 19, after meeting with related relief and devel- opment organizations, visit- ing several projects .of Canadian Foodgrains Bank church partners in Ethiopia. Kenya and Tanzania, and learning more about hunger issues. Since 1983, Foodgrains bank partners have provided more than half a million met- ric tonnes of grain to people in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. ,_.�u_-., February 5, 1997 — $1.00 includes GST PHOTO BY GREGOR CAMPBELL SNOWFLAKE BALL - Residents of Seaforth Manor Retirement Home danced to the music of a band from Zurich last_ Thursday night as part of their Snowflake Ball. It was a chance to celebrate winter in the warmth of indoors. Almost $2,000 more than projected Seaforth surpasses United Way goal BY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff Seaforth's charitable United. Way campaign has gone over the top. Some recently calculated board of education payroll donations gave it the needed boost . A total of $10,692 was raised here in town this time around, better than the pro- jected $8,85.1 and ahead of the $9,053 raised the year before. This was the fifth year United Way has cam- paigned in Huron, but only the third time for Seaforth. "Seaforth has done very good when you compare it to the big figure," says Huron County United Way's office co-ordinator at Clinton, Carol Randle. She says the county -wide campaign that begins here in October is still short of its target and basically "at a standstill now," but Huron's total isn't final because some figures. mainly payroll deductions. couldn't be tal- lied by everybody over .the busy holiday period. United Way has raised $108,312 in Huron. right now, sby of this year's $132,000 target. Randle says fundrais- ing across much of the province looks less than pro- jected, and last year's figures. Huron's United Way helps raise funds for 18 community and charity agencies in the county. LOCAL CAMPAIGN Audrey McLlwain remains Chair'of the Seaforth cam- paign and says this town "has .done well and continues to keep a fairly strong pace for a small community. especially considering•it does pot have the big indtkatrles and paid deductions to draw on" as some other Huron town's such as Goderich.. Co-chair for this campaign in the Seaforth area was Mary Verberne. Coupty co-ordinator Randle thinks fundraising is down everywhere this year because of the depressed economic climate and people. naturally enough, taking careof their awn families first. She says a shortage of vol- unteers also contributes to Huron County not fundrais- ing mote, noting that in Grand Bend where volunteers canvass door-to-door this year's United Way returns were "fantastic." • . STUDENTS HELP Mailings, at about 6e each, have proven cost-effective for Seaforth, according to McLlwain, as well as pro- motional advertising in the twice--nonthly Focus paper. She adds door-to-door cam- paigns arc mounted annually in Seaforth by various other groups. such as the cancer heart and stroke and arthritis agencies, and another by United Way might be consid- ered a bit much by some. Students at Seaforth Public School (Ross Carter's class) helped stuff United Way mailings for the town this year and St. James' students do likewise on alternate years. Other groups have expressed an interest in get- ting involved; such as chal- lenged students at the local high school. 18 AGENCIES The 18 various agencies helped by the United Way here are: Big Brothers North Huron, Big Brothers and Sisters, Big Sisters Goderich District, Community Child Abuse Coordinating Committee, Child Find Huron County. Clinton Co-op Childcare Centre, Huron Safe- Homes afeHomes for Youth, Canadian Mental Health Association, Epilepsy Ontario/Huron, Family Services Perth -Huron, Phoenix Huron - Second. Stage Housing, Women's Shelter and Counselling Services of Huron, Wingham and District Community 'Living Association, Women Today - Parenting Education, Victorian Order of Nurse - Palliative Care Volunteer Program, Huron Adult Day Centre, Lambton Elderly out- reach - Grand Bend. Wheels Away. Stinging insects and pool fence heights MINIOWWWWW What's ratepayer to make of town adT, ay� Y GREGOR CAMPBELL xpositor Staff Swimming pool fence heights, gross floor areas, the ';:*eoping of stinging insects d straddling of lottines... What is a ratepayer to make f the back page full of ro- used plan and zoning mendments that the town of eaforth ran in this paper last eek, as prelude to a public ting ,in the council cham- rs at Town Hall later this onth, .on Monday, Feb. 24 t 7 p.m? Without bottle of wine, much of it reads like gibberish. There is a lot of technical information and zoning lingo in the town's full-page announcement, a lot of big words and many figures to digest, most of it from the ,planning advisory committee. MORNING ISSUES Seaforth Clerk Jim Crocker says most of it is "house- keeping... snags we've run into. areas we've had prob- lems with... none of them burning issues... some where we anticipate problems com- ing." example. The :town's official plan sets one height, and Seaforth's fenoe bylaw says another Crocker says the proposed official plan amendment con- cerns only one property, the post office on Main Street. The federal department of supply and services sold the building to a private Citizen several years ago. when it was divesting of many other properties in the country. It is still our post .office but the building itself is no longer our (government) property. an advanced He uses swimming pool Therefore keeping the build- ty," as it has been, in a sense deprives the property owner of specific rights. T.he zoning change p posed for the up -coming poi ` tic meeting, to "core area commercial." would permit a wider range of specific uses. Still, taxpayers might be wise to at least take the rinse to scan last week's municipal notice on The Huron !expositor's back page. • Specific changes might have an impact on particular Circumstances. And you can't say you warned. Town on short list for wheat plant BY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff Seaforth is on the short list of six towns selected_ by a Simcoe-area company that is seeking a site soon for a 565 - million plant to process wheat into ethanol and food products. The others arc Hensall. Mitchell, Exeter. Stratford and St. Marys. all in• the heart of Ontario's wheat -producing belt. George Chilian is president of Metalore Resources, a Simcoe-area' natural gas and mining company that has been around for 50 years. and now has five employees and about 75 producing natural gas wells. He told The London Free Press last week there is a. huge market for wheat -based fuel and food products and the company wants "to put the spade in the ground by April." for what he termed a wheat "fractionalization" plant that, would employ about 50 and provide a new market for wheat producers in the province. The financing for such a plant isn't yet in place. FARTHEST WEST Seaforth clerk/administrator Jim Crocker says Seaforth is the farthest west of the com- munities on the short list. and the company is looking for "15 acres of properly zoned land adjacent to a railway" for the proposed plant. He says Seaforth doesn't have 15 acres available unless together with Tuckersmith •Township. and the two municipalities are together on it. He doesn't sec zoning as a • big problem in a joint pitch. Metalore Resources has stip- ulated that the site not be in a residential area. Crocker adds this town is taking the. development. approach that if not Seaforth. then Seaforth and Tucker - smith. and if not tbem..then in central Huron. and if not there, then at least some- where in this: county. The clerk confirmed the company is looking a spring sod turning. He says the com- pany has been more forth- right in publically stipulating what it seeks in a sight than companies in a hunt for prop- erty usually are, and that Seaforth and the company have been in touch for "about four or five weeks." ZONING THWARTS According to last week's story in the business pages of the London daily, Metalore president Chilian con- struction is con ingent on signing a financier deal with a 'well known company in the energy business,' whose .name he would not disclose." Original plans called for the company to build a wheat processing plant in the ham- let of Walsh ncar Simcoe last year. Rural residents there objected to the potential for traffic problems and the bid ran into zoning problems. The mayor of St. Marys is aggressively pursuing the plant publically and says they have space available now in their industrial park.