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Times-Advocate, 1988-05-04, Page 1mes Serving South Huron, North Middlesex One Hundred _and Seventeenth Year- dvocate & North Lambton Since 1873 EXETER, ONTARIO, May 4, 1982 Price Per Copy 60 Cents Ministry volunteers to act as mediator in zoning dispute between Hay and Exeter EXETER - The Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs has offered to act as mediator between the town of Exeter and the township of Hay regarding the proposed Huron Trac- tor Agricultural Park, just north of the Exeter -Hay boundary. An Ontario Municipal Board hear- ing to consider Exeter's appeal of Hay's comprehensive zoning bylaw has been delayed until July 18. A letter read to Exeter council Monday night said, "After our re- view of the proposal and meetings with thc'County of Huron and Min- istry of Agriculture and Food, we feel there may be some merit in dis- cussing the issues involved, prior to the rescheduled Board hearing." It continued, "Our Ministry would act as a neutral third party to bring the disputing parties together, assist in the invention of options for solution and criteria for evalua- tion of the options, and act as a ref- eree in discussions." In conclusion, the letter asked that each party be represented by a maximum of two individuals, one of whom should be in a position to make commitments on Denali of professional staff and suggested any mediation attempt must have the backing of the participants. The letter produced considerable discussion from councillors and terms of reference will be requested before approval is given. The first comment came from councillor Gaylan Joscpshon who said, " My greatest concern is who are the participants." Reeve Bill Mickle was quick to reply, " I agree. We have to clarify who sits at the table. There should be nobody there but representatives from.the two municipalities and the mediator." Mickle continued, "In addition commitments should not be made at that meeting. The ideas should be brought back to council for approv- al. Discussion should be between four mature council members in an attempt to find common ground to solve the problem." Councillor Morley Hall added, " Why not take a look at it. Avoiding a hearing will save a lot of money." Riddell denies opposition to Sunday shopping legislation EXETER - Huron M.P.P. Jack Riddell denied on Friday allegations that he opposes provincial Sunday shopping legislation. A press release from the Ontario Progressive Conservative caucus states that "A survey by Progres- sive Conservative Party staff has re- vealed that Jack Riddell, M.P.P. for Huron, opposes Sunday shopping." The release explains that Liberal constituency offices were tele- phoned and asked if the member fa- voured Sunday shopping. Of the 82 responses, the release claims 33 •percent were opposed to Sunday shopping, and 38 percent refused to comment. "It is a misrepresentdtion of -my views on the matter," said Riddell when contacted at his office. "I ccr- • tainly do support the proposed leg- islation." Riddell considers the draft law to be similar to what is in place al- ready, but adding the option of giv- ing municipalities a chance to al- low Sunday openings. "The thing just got to the point where you couldn't enforce it," said Riddell of thc old legislation. "If a bunch of merchants decided they wanted to open they would simply have the municipality declare them a tourist area....It just got to be a joke." Riddell dismissed opposition charges that the legislation would cause a domino effect of wide-open Sunday shopping. He pointed to areas in Huron County, such as Bayfield and Goderich where stores open on Sundays in the summer without causing demand for Sunday shopping elsewhere. "1 can see Windsor maybe open- ing up because Detroit is open," noted Riddell. "Why should the province be tell- ing Windsor what to do and also telling Sault St. Marie w.hat to do which is maybe in a whole different situation." "You know yourself if it wasn't for stores being open in Bayfield, Bayfield would be dead. Same with Grand Bend," he said. "We feel that with this law it's fair to all merchants. It's enforcea- ble and it's coherent." Riddell also made a distinction between the legislation and shop - READY TO SELL COOKIES - Displaying some of the boxes of the cookies they will be selling on May 7areack left) Girl Guide Juanita Chapman, Pathfinder Tracy Urlin and (front) Brownies Molly Dinney and Ju- lie Godbolt. ping on Sundays. "The opposition talked about Sunday shopping," he said. "The legislation is not Sunday shopping. The legislation is prohibition of Sunday shopping, but leaving the option to the municipality if they want to open up. Again Riddell stressed that he hadn't spoken to anyone from the Conservative office, but his secre- tary Ruth Stover explained that someone had called asking for Rid - dell's views on Sunday shopping. She had said she couldn't comment on his views except that in a televi- sion interview with Murray Gaunt, Riddell said he wouldn't shop on Sundays. "I don't shop on Sundays don't intend to start," said Riddell of the television interview." "I said I'll make my views known to the municipality, and I said that I hope everyone else who docs not want to see stores open on Sunday will let their municipality know what their views arc because they're the ones who are going to have the decision to make." Charges laid for growing marijuana GRAND BEND - A Tillsonburg man was released on bail when he appeared in Provincial Court in Goderich, Monday on a charge of cultivating marijuana. Richard Paul Vernon, aged 36 was arrested Saturday by officers of the Exeter Ontario Provincial Po- lice detachment. Police found 882 marijuana plants in a plot in Stephen town- ship, about five kilometres, north- east of here. Vernon will make another appear- ance in Goderich court on June 6. Deer struck in only mishap for local OPP EXETER - Friday at 10:20 a.m. a vchicic operated by Ivory Romphf, London, collided with a deer on Highway 23. Damage was light. During the week officers of the Exeter OPP investigated 40 occur- rences, laid 48 HTA charges, 3 LLA charges, 1 Trespass to proper- ty Act Charge, 3 Criminal Code charges, 1 Narcotic Control Act Charge and 3 impaired driving charges, 5 people were issued 12 hour suspensions. - it occurred at 10.20 p.m., Friday night when a vehicle driven by Ivo- ry Romphf, London struck a deer on Highway 23. Damage was light. The full time No. 6 District RiDE team is now in operation and will be augmenting the Exctcr OPP RiDE program on occasion. The RiDE program is in effect., weekly on arca roads. Please don't Drink and Drive. Citizens arc also reminded of Hu- ron County Crime Stoppers. if you can help call 1-800-265-1777. The program is working. TRYING OUT THE MERCHANDISE - Janice Graham with the help of Jackie Morley and Katie Graham tries out a tricycle at Saturday's garage sale sponsored by the New Huronia Singers. Plan economic development seminar EXETER - Former councillor Don Winter has undertaken the du- ties to organize a seminar on eco- nomic development. Wintcr told council Monday night that the seminar will be held Timis -0 day May 19 at 7 p.m. at the Old Town Hall with three excellent speakers in attendance. They are Tom Lemon who will talk about cconomic development in Seaforth, Cathy Brown of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Rick Aircy. Winter told council , " We need a greater awareness of the value of cc- onomic development on the part of a larger and more diverse segment of involved residents of Exctcr." He continued-, " Any additional input received will assist council and the cconomic development committee in developing and imple- menting a policy on economic de- velopment." Invitations to attend will he is- sued to the three neighbouring townships and the villages of llen- sail and Zurich, At the conclusion of Winter's presentation, councillor Gaylen Ju- sephson said, " It's an excellent pro- Ixlsal and we are wholeheartedly be- hind it." Peter Darbishire is chairman of the Exctcr cconomic development committee. Council approves mapping program EXETER - After hearing a pres- entation by Carl Celestin of the surveying firm of Archibald, Gray and McKay, Exctcr council Monday night agreed to an Ontario Base Mapping Program. In 1982, council passed a resolu- tion to join the Ministry of Natural Resources program for mapping. Celestin said, " Hundreds of appli- cations were received at that time and you were put in thc pecking or- der. You arc now at the top of the. list for this year." Celestin told council, " Many new and innovative applications for this type of mapping arc going to be used in the future. The maps will be on a scale of one to 2,000 and will include everything in the town such as all existing buildings, curb lines, fences, spot elevations, sewers, watcrmains, etc." The surveyor said the cost of 12 map sheets would be about S69,600 with Exeter's share at 53,000. If digital mapping was added the cost would rise by 59,600. Projects of this nature take about two years to complete. Aerial pho- tography is included and this can be done only in the spring or fall. Celestin continued, " In the spring before the leaves come out is the best time for this photography so I would suggest doing this in the spring of 1989 and we should have the maps ready for you by the fall of the same year." When councillor Ben Mogen - boom asked about any arca munici- palities participating in this pro- gram, Celestin replied, " Grand Bend opted for the digital program last year and should he receiving their first sheets this summer." Deputy reeve l.ossy Fuller made the motion to approve the basic mapping and mayor Bruce Shaw added, the digital decision can l'e made later." Planning non-profit housing EXETER - Plans are going ahead to establish a non-profit Co - Operative Family Housing complex in Exeter. Results of a recent Co -Operative Family housing project committee meeting were passed on to Exeter council, Monday night. A total of 54 questionnaires were received and reviewed. Included were those received by Jean Monteith and Associates and Southwestern Com- munity homes. After reviewing the survey, the. committee decided to apply for a 40 unit Co -Operative Housing Com- plex to contain 24- one bedroom units; 11 of two-bcdroom size; four containing three -bedrooms and one unit to house four bedrooms. Of the 54 replies, 22 applicants required one bedroom for seniors; 14 required one bedroom for sin- gles; 11 others need two bedrooms for family accommodation, six re- quire three bedrooms for a family and one application needs a four- bedroom family unit. For financing purposes, the com- plex will be split into 50 percent for subsidized housing and 50 per- cent market housing. 'Hie complex will be named Ex- andarca Mcadows Co -Operative Horsing incorlxlratcd. Bill tilickle is chairman of the committee and Morley Hall is treasurer. Format changes designed to encourage readership During the past several months, T -A readers have com- mented positively on what we believe have been improvements in thcir local newspaper. Larger photographs, increased business coverage and a higher news - advertising ratio arc all areas where major improvements will be noticed. in order to be able to accent key local items and features, we have decided to discontinue the segregation of news and photos from certain areas. Beginning this wcck, family and sports news pages will be increased while other pages designated for specific areas will be discontin- ued. For example, Zurich, Ilensall, Lucan and Grand bend news will have an equal opportunity to be featured on the front page with stories originating from Exctcr. As well, each item will have the origin of the story datelined and identified in capital letters. When readers have become ac- customed to thc new format, they will he expected to devote more attention to thc entire newspaper. This, obviously, will be more beneficial to both our readers and advertisers. We arc making these changes because we believe the results will he an improved newspaper. As always, reader comments arc welcomed and encouraged. Jim Beckett, Publisher EXCEL IN EDUCATION SHDHS presented Excellence in Education awards page 3 STATION WAGONS Canadian favourites make comeback page 5 LEGION CELEBRATION Exeter Legion completes renovation program page 12 VILLA GROWS Sod was turned Saturday for an Exeter Villa expansion page 16 ., MOHAWKS OUT Mohawks eliminated in OHA Senior '13' semi-final page 1A