Huron Expositor, 2000-04-05, Page 1April 5, 2000
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Local weather
Wednesday --Flurries
ending. Mix of sun, cloud.
High 6.
Thursday --Cloudy, sunny
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14. Low 3.
• Friday --Clouds, showers.
High 13. Low 4.
Saturday --Cloudy,
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From Environment Canada
-7
In brief
New mural
could
depict
historic
image
of fire
department
Some new ideas for the
next mural project, which
would honour the local
fire department, were
circulated around the
March 28 council table.
Originally the idea for
the third mural was for a
painting of an historic
streetscape but Deputy
Administrator Cathy
Garrick said the picture
has no people in it which
was cause for concern.
Since the fire
department is hosting the
2000 fire convention is
Seaforth this summer,
Garrick said the Business
Improvement Area,
which launched the mural
project last year, was
thinking about one of a
couple pictures depicting
an historic image of the
fire department.
Garrick said artist Alan
Hilgendorf, who painted
the first mural of the
Seaforth All Girls
Marching Band. is
available in April and
May to do the work.
Hilgendorf is also
expected in town this
month to helpwith
weatherproofing and
hanging a second mural
depicting area
International Plowing
Matches of the past.
The town purchased
the mural from the iPM
committee, which had
commissioned the work
so it could be displayed
at last summer's match
near Dashwood.
However, council
recently learned the
painting was not
designed to be hung
outside and must now
have Hilgendorf back to
prepare it for hanging on
the Toronto Dominion
Bank building on Main
Street.
Council and the IPM
committee are sharing the
cost of the work, at about
$1,500.
The BIA is currently
seeking government
fupoing through a
Millennium Grant to help
pay for the third mural
for Mains Street.
Scott Hilgendorff photo
De-icing
The ice was removed from Seaforth and District Community Centres on Thursday.
Board expecting
even less money
Despite increase
in government
funding, board
discovers
enrolment
dropping faster
By Susan Hundertmark
Expositor Staff
Despite recently -
announced increases of $190
million in provincial
education funding. the Avon
Maitland District School
Board is anticipating less
money from the province
next year.
Finance superintendent
Janet Baird -Jackson told
trustees at last week's board
meeting that next year's
budget is expected to total
$125.2 million, opposed to
this year's budget of $125.6.
million.
She said the projected
decrease is a result of
declining enrolment that is
dropping faster than expected
with projected enrolment
figures for this fall originally
pegged at 19.735 coming in
so far at 19,640.
When asked after the
meeting if enrolment figures
are dropping because people
are carrying out the threats
they made during the school
closure talks to withdraw
their children from the public
system, Baird -Jackson said,
"We don't have a sense for
that yet. We're working
through it now."
She said another
contributing factor to the
decreased funding is the
Sile PROVINCES, Page 2
Huron East
approved
Seaforth becomes part
of new Municipality
at start of next year
By Scott Hilgendorff
Expositor Editor
In 270 more days. Seaforth will become Huron East.
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs gave its approval Friday,
for the, formation of Huron East,, a new municipality that will
encompass Seaforth and Brussels and the townships of
Tuckersmith. McKillop and Grey.
And now the countdown starts to have the new
municipality formed by Jan. 1, 2001,
"The challenge ahead is very exciting to create a new
municipality." said Robin Dunbar, reeve of Grey Township.
the northernmost boundary of the new municipality.
"There are obvious challenges ahead. The first is to create a
sense of community." he said.
But Dunbar is not expecting the challenges to be tougher
than what the transition board can handle.
The board consists of two members from each of the five
municipalities and is tasked with shaping the new
municipality by determining everything from future job
descriptions of employees in the new municipality to how to
separate reserve funds in each municipality's budget.
Because of other Huron County municipalities receiving
approvals, Huron East municipalities had no reason to fear
their proposal to restructure would be turned down and the
transition board already began meeting last month to help
ensure all the work would be completed in time for a new
5N SEAFORTH, Page 2
Retirement subdivision
progressing as planned
ey Susan Hundertmark
Expositor Stoff
Preparations are going
ahead for a 250 -house
retirement subdivision next
to the Seaforth golf course,
despite earlier concerns by
Toronto developer Bill
MacLean that the closure of
Seaforth District High
School might cause him and
his partners to reconsider.
"We haven't scrapped it."
MacLean told The Expositor.
"We're still working away
trying to get it together."
MacLean told the Avon
Maitland District School
Board in January that a
decision to close Seaforth's
high school might cause him
to consider building the
development somewhere
other than Seaforth.
Seaforth administrator
Jack McLachlan said he met
with the retirement
subdivision developers in
late March to discuss a storm
water management plan and
some concerns about the
roads.
"They're still doing what
they need to do to go ahead
towards the development."
said McLachlan.
He said a plan' of
subdivision must still be
submitted and approved by
Huron County council before
construction can begin.
The $5 million project was
planned to begin this spring.
Gwen Devereaux.
spokesperson for the
Seaforth Business Retention
and Expansion committee.
said recently that she
understands the retirement
subdivision development
will go ahead.
"The new development at
the golf course will bring so
many good things to the
town." she said.
During his January
presentation to the school
board. MacLean said the 250
planned homes . could
generate $500,000• a year in
tax revenue. $80.000 a year
in services -and $30 million
in construction over the next
five years.
He added that the
development could add $6
million a year in incremental
revenue to the surrounding
community.
Justice of Truscott conviction being questioned
Photo courtesy CBC
Steven Truscott
By Carl Stavros
Clinton News -Record staff
A report by the Fifth Estate has local residents and
people across Canada questioning whether or not
justice was served in the decades old murder
conviction of Steven Truscott.
New evidence presented by the CBC television
show last Wednesday, including declassified
military documents, suggests that a primary
suspect named Alexander Kalichuk, an airman
once posted to CFB CLinton, was overlooked by
the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigation
team. Kalichuk, a deceased Seaforth area resident,
was known both to the military and the provincial
courts as a potential threat to young girls.
"Sgt. Kalichuk was a troubled man, a heavy
drinker with a history of sexual offenses," said
Fifth Estate host Lyndon Maclntyre in the show's
transcript. "In 1950, he had two convictions for
indecent exposure ... three weeks before Lynn
Harper's murder, he stopped three young farm girls
on a country road outside St. Thomas, Ontario. He
tried to lure one of them, a 10 -year-old, into his
car."
Truscott, then 14 years -old, was convicted in the
rape and murder of 12 -year-old classmate Lynn
Harper, a crime he maintains he did not commit.
Truscott was sentenced to hang in 1959, making
him the youngest death row felon in Canadian
history. His sentence was later commuted to life in
prison.
The evidence presented by Maclntyre and the
Fifth Estate investigative team was enough to make
even those convinced of Truscott's guilt 40 years
ago wonder if in fact the murderer had been
caught.
"When (the murder) first 'hap tined, i thought he
was guilty as hell," said one long time Clinton
resident, who requested to remain anonymous.
"But after (the Fifth Estate) last night, it does leave
a bit of doubt in your mind ... it did make you think
a lot about what that kid went through. at that age."
if nothing else, the man thought the police
investigation was a "sloppy job".
"No doubt about it," he concluded.
For those residents who have always believed
Truscott to be innocent, the program further
reinforced what they already believed.
Bob Lawson, who's bush was the site of the
grizzly discovery of Harper's body, never believed
Sail MANY, Pogo 5
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