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Times-Advocate, 1988-01-13, Page 1irnes Serving South Huron, North Middlesex Niaift One Hundred and Seventeenth Year ^a' & North Lambton Since 1873 EXETER, ONTARIO, January 13, 1988 Price Per Copy 60 Cents 1 Centralia help open For Tanya Deaville of Cen- tralia, the Olympic torch relay didn't end when she handed the flame to the next runner in the. long Canadian chain. Deaville is among roughly 100 torch bearers who have .been chosen to go on to Calgary , to take part in the opening ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olympics. Deaville found out that she had been chosen December 8, but was asked by the commit- tee responsible for the opening runner to Olympics that, rehearsals bcgin for the opening ceremonies of the. Ventes. ' Thursday, rehearsals run from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and the work will continue on Friday from nine to five. "les not much of a vaca- tion," Deaville quips. Saturday, after . rehearsing fromearlyin the morning until • noon, -the opening ceremonies take place. Tanya's mother, Elaine Dea- 1 ON TO CALGARY - Tanya Deaville has been selected to go to Cal- gary to participate in the opening ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olym- pics in February. ceremonies to keep quiet about her good fortune until after she had run. One person from each day of the relay has been chosen to go on to Calgary to take part in the opening ceremonies. Deaville, who notes that she has never been on a, airplane before, was thrilled when she was notified. "I was pretty excited when I found out," the 11 -year-old says. "I couldn't believe it." Though Deaville has little idea as to what is in store for her when she and her mother arrive in Calgary, she plans to continue the training program she used to prepare for the re- lay. - "I'm going to keep on train- ing -- like running. I'll proba- bly just be running a kilometre three times a week." The Centralia girl and her mother will spend an entire week in Calgary, all expenses. paid, beginning February 9. They will attend' a "welcome breakfast" and then visit the Calgary Zoo Wednesday. After ville expects the experience to be something to remember. "If it's anything like the day that she (Tanya) ran, it's going to be wild," Elaine Deaville speculates. Recalling Tanya's part in the torch relay, Elaine found it dif- ficult to describe the emotion she felt. "When they said on TV about the excitement -- you could never believe it unless you were there." - Tanya, who carried the torch near Hickson January 4, elc- plains that she Vs been busy relating her expei.enccs to her Grade six classmates at McCur- dy Public School. "My principal got me to tell it ( her story) on the announce- ments and they were really hap- py. I talked to my class for an hour about it," Tanya says, ad- ding that she has plans to relate her tale when, she returns from Calgary. "I'm going to be doing a speech on it for the speeches they have every year at the school." . Osborne Township had building boom in 1987 The annual building report pre- sented to the first regular January meeting of Usborne council showed that total value of building permits issued in 1987, $1,270,000, was almost double the previous year's $683,000. During 1987, 33 building permits and five demolition permits were issued. Council nominated the Kirkton- Woodham Community Centre As- sociation for a Citation for Citi- zenship Award. Councillor Pat Down was chosen to do the neces- sary research required to fill out the application form. Tenders will be called for the loading, crushing and hauling of gravel from the Willis Farm Pit. The tender closing date is 12 noon on February 15. Council was briefed on the de- tails of the county -wide reassess- mcnt impact study report, and councillors were encouraged tb at- tend the January 7 meeting of county council when. the report was presented by the ministry of revenue. Deputy Reeve ,Margaret Hcrn and Councillor Pat Down ac- companied Reeve Gerald Prout to the county council meeting. Those who couldn't attend were invited to a meeting in Exeter on January 12 to hear about market value assess- ment. Abylaw giving the township au- thority 10 levy the sum of $9,898 against township ratepayers for the now -completed repair of the Beaver municipal drain was given third and final reading. A majority of the session was taken up by council acting as com- mittee of the whole to discuss 1988 pay rates for members of council and township employees. A bylaw establishing the new rates has been drafted, and will be dealt with at the next regular meeting on January 19. A date of January 12 was agreed on for the annual meeting with Blanshard Township councillors to discuss the shared property near Kirkton and the shared usage of the Kirkton dump. Stephen building hits four million A late in the year warehouse storage construction at Dashwood Industries sent the 1987 building permit value total for Stephen township to almost four million dollars. Building official Milton Die- trich's report for the month of De- cember showed eight permits is- sued with a total value of $1,454,060 bringing the entire year value to S3,948,789 on 125 permits issued. In 1986 Dietrich issued 98 per- mits for construction yalued at $1,987,449. The 1987 figures reveal new housing starts increased from 21 to 27 during the past year and residen- tial improvements rose from 37 in 1986 to 44 in : the just concluded year. The vacancy on council caused by the resignation of Drew Robert- son who is off to Australian on a teacher exchange will be filled by Pat O'Rourke. O'Rourke, a progressive farmer -and businessman on Concession 12, north of Mount Carmel will assume his new duties officially on January 19. There were a total of 12 applica- tions for the one position. . Council voiced no objection to a tree clearing application -from Bob and Diane Finkbeiner at part of Lot 8, Concession 14. • Approval was given to a zoning change application from Dawson Hayter at part of Lot 3, Concession 1, near Centralia. The change from restricted agriculture to small agri- culture holding will allow"construc- tion of a residence. The four tax installment dates for the year 1988 will occur on the last Fridays in the months of March, June, September and November with interest on late payments be- ginning on the first day of the fol- lowing month. Road superintendent Eric Fink- beincr and employee Don Clarke will attend a Provincial Offences Act seminar -in London on January 28. Reeve Tom Tomeswillbe repre- senting the township at the ROMA insurance program in, Toronto on February 8. Also attending the con- vention at the same time will be Deputy -reeve Ken McCann, coun- cillor Gary Baker and clerk -treasurer Wilmar Wein. Wein reported that outstanding taxes for the year 1987 not includ- ing those of Huron Industrial Park arc at 9.4 percent. This figure is up alitay.w.wN:.4;*4^.i0. .w...f.:.: i MMZ >.'. 's SNAIMANA ' O : `. .>.' a a?i:;isz:, 'S .MMaMi:....-: from 7.8 percent for 1986, but Wein said.overall tax -arrears were down somewhat. Resignations of Al Hartford from the Huron Park volunteer fire de- partment and Jack Jesney from the Crcditon ConM unity Centre Board were accepted. Added to the Crediton Communi- ty Centre Board were Dick Lord, Tcd Wales, Jeanette Lippert, John - Brock and Andy McIntyre. New members of the Centralia Commu- nityCcntrc Board arc Con and Lin- da Foran. Paul Klopp representing the Hu- ron Federation of Agriculture visit- ed council to review his group's work for the year 1987 and request a grant for the coming year. The grant request will be considered at an upcoming meeting. Huron considering reassessment project.. Huron County Council is consid- ering Ontario Ministry of Revenue county -wide tax assessment pro- grams that could affect every proper- ty owner in the county. The ministry has two proposals, section 63 and section 70, to ensure that similar properties of compara- ble market value would pay the same county and school tax, regard- less of location- within the county. County council may accept either section 63 or section 70 or they may keep the tax system the way it currently stands. Mr. Lettner, of the Ministry of Revenue, stressed dur- ing his presentation to council this past Thursday he was not trying to sell the proposals to council. However, in a slide presentation, he pointed out several inequities in the current system. For example: three residential homes in different areas of Huron county sold for $40,000 in 1984 and all paid differ- ent county and school taxes in 1987. The homeowner in Turnbcrry Township, who sold his home for $40,000, paid $76 in county tax and $267 in school tax. The homeowner in Wingham paid $97 in county tax and $397 in school tax, while in Hensall, the county tax was $89 and the school tax $312. Inequities were also found from a sample of farm sales in 1984. A farm in Usborne Township sold for $212,000 and the farmer paid $590 in county tax and $1,648 in school tax while a farm in Morris Township that sold for $225,000 was charged $364 in county tax and $1,129 in school tax. Quiet week for Exeter Police Exeter Police report only one ac- cident during the week ending Jan- •uary 10. Six-year-old Joseph Richards of Exeter was struck by a vehicle driven by Ronald Brode- rick, RR3 Zurich. The child re- ceived minimal injuries when he ran into the path of the. car on Main St. near Walper. No charg- es were laid. The town police laid 19 charges under the highway traffic act, one under the ligdor licence act, and three under the criminal. code. They. also handed out three parking tickets. NEW STEPHEN COUNCIL- LOR - Pat O'Rourke is the new councillor for the township of 'Ste- phen. O'Rourke a Concession 12 farmer is a member of the Ontario Rutabaga Committee, membor of the Step/len Federation of Agricul- ture and chairman of the church council at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Zurich. He will fill the pas - tion left vacant when Drew Robert- son accepted a teaching position in Australia. f Under either of the two new pio- posals, saxes will be based on the market value of the property. Lett ner stressed to council the overall amount of taxes collected by the county will not increase but individ- ual tax payers may. have their taxes go up or down depending on wheth - er or not they were paying too much or too little. under the old tax scheme. Section 63 creates five main prop— erty classes - residential (1-6 units), multi -residential (seven units and over), commercial, industrial and farm - and equalizes the tax pay- ments for each class throughout the county, based on market value. In other words, a homeowner in Gode- rich with property valued at S50,000 would pay the same county and school tax as a homeowner in Zurich with property also valued at $50,000. Each class of property has its own equalization. factor. Proper- ties of equal value in different class- es will not be paying the same tax- es under section 63. b Under section 70, assessments arc based on property value only. Re- gardless of what type of property it is or :its location in the county, property owncrs will pay the same amount of school and county tax on land of the same value. The Ontario Ministry of Revenue feels the county -wide reassessment program section 63 has four note- worthy features including: - 1. Corrccts assessment inequities by property classes within thc coun- ty. - 2. Prevents tax shifts from one class of property to another. Since assessment unfairness is corrected within each property class tax shifts from one property class to another within the entire county are prevent- ed. Some tax shifts could occur on the municipal level dueto the equal- ization of assessments by property class within the county. 3. The program revises all assess- ment according to their 1984 market values. This will make the county's assessment base more current and assessments which relate to More current market values are easier to understand. 4,. The program prevents erosion of the tax base. Since the reassess- ment makes property assessments fair, understandable and defensible, it will lessen the need for appeals. Fairer assessments will also reduce the success rate of appeals. Some rural reeves, notably Ernest Snell of East Wawanosh Township and Gerry Prout of Usborne Town- ship, felt that overall rural landown- ers would be paying a high rate of taxes under either of the new schemes while urban landowners would experience a decrease. Lettner replied that all landowners A I., • PLAY AT VICTORIA PARK - Using the summer playground, equipment at Victoria Park Sunday afternoon were Eileen, Melanie and Mark Knip and Leslie Vincent. . • '• Only one vehicle involved in five area accidents All five accidents investigated this week by officers of the Exeter de- tachment of the Ontario Provincial Police involved only one vehicle. January 4 at 8:27 a.m., a vehicle driven by Dennis Payne, Exeter col- lided with a mail box owned by Carman Cann on Highway 4, north of Exeter. Damage was minimal. The same day at 5:30 p.m. , a ve- hicle operated by Mark McNutt, Hay township went out of control on Concession 6-7 of Hay township when the right front tire blew out. It struck a hydro pole. Damage was listed as moderate. / Wednesday at 11:30 pin., a vehi- cle driven by Mark Coward, RR 1, Woodham slid over a curb on Brock street in Hensall and struck a stop sign. Officers.Iistcd damage as min- imal. Michael Kehn, Clinton and a pas- senger Matthew Dawe, also of Clin- ton suffered minor injuries when their vehicle struck a brace cable and fence post while travelling north.on Highway 23 at 330 a.m., Thurs- day. The vehicle was demolished. Saturday at 6:55 p.m., a vehicle operated by Maureen Murray, RR 5, Mitchell went out of control on snow covered Huron road 11 and struck a hydro pole. No injuries were suffered and damage was mod- erate. During the week, officers investi- gated 36 general occurrences which included three impaircd drivers, three licence supscnsions of 12 hours, 33 Highway Traffic Act charges and seven liquor related charges. Arca drivers -are reminded that al- though the holiday season is over, RIDE program spot checks will continue at a high level to combat drinking and driving. Sergeant Don McInnes reports 1,015 vehicles were stopped in the Exeter OPP arca in the RIDE pro- gram from December 20 to January 2. Driving suspensions of 12 hours were imposed against 10 drivers and seven charges were laid on charges related to drinking and driving. During the year 1987, 74 •arca drivers took brcathalizer .tests and four blood samples were taken with 59 charges being laid. During 1986, 45 brcathalizer tests were taken, five blood samples and 40 charges being laid. • SHDHS teachers retire.. 2 • Hensel, boom 3 • Three-wheelers 5 • Hawks tourney 8 • Hardy Cup begins 9 V