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Times Advocate, 1991-05-15, Page 2Page 2 Times -Advocate, May 15, 1991 TN TJ -TF WFWS White wonder - April Lewis of Exeter holds a baby white squirrel her family have been taking care of for the past few days after its mother disappeared and it decided to adopt some human companions. The' feisty little rodent Is growing fast and just loves to eat bananas. The Lewises hope to return, the squir- rel to the trees 1n. th+ nelghbou In the next few days: Hensall council continues pursuit of fire call payment HENSALL - Reeve Ivan Norris of Hibben Township attended Hen- sall Council Monday evening to discuss payment of Fire Calls made in 1990. On December 31, 1989 the Hen - sail Fire Department was called out to a fire originally thought to be a house fire to Tuckersmith Town- ship, within their coverage area Upon arriving at the blaze they quickly saw that the fire was acwal- ly sad= the township line in Hib- bert, but being the first department on the scene beganto fight the fire. The Seaforth Fire Department was notified and eventually relieved Hensall, but now questions have arisen as to who should pay the bill. Norris stated that because Hen- sall was actually out of their area, that they be the ones to absorb the $4,800 cost. Council argued that having been sum nod to the scene and not knowing whether or not a loss of life may be involved, that they blaze. were obligated to engage the bla "I don't know a fireman who would have been able to turn his back on it," said councillor Peter Groot. The fire turned out to be in a barn, but a call on another occasion had led them to a housetrailer blaze at the same address. Council later decided to continue to pursue the matter by sending a letter to Hibbert Township. Coun- cilor Jeff Reabum suggested that residents along the township line should be notified of their paper department in order to prevent fur- ther problems. This was the second time a prob- lem had arisen stemming from fires at the same location as five calls were turned in on two separate blazes. AJune 4 M CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE n.w r�. • 4 •• r a • Lois Godbolt receives appreciation certificate EXETER - In recognition of her 13 years of dedication b the Exet- er Block Lois Godbolt was presented with a certification of appreciation by eter Police Chief Jack Harkness Tuesday morn- ing. Godbolt has been with the Block Parent program locally since it began in 1978 and oversees 250 volunteers in Exeter, Usborne and Stephen Townships, Crediton, Dashwood and Mt. Carmel. In a press release, Harkness wrote. "her dedication, expertise and many, many hours of hard work have helped maintain a healthy Block Parent Program and make sure our streets and neighbourhoods are safe for our children." Godbolt also assists with streetproofing presentations at both Exet- er elementary schools. Block Parents is a national program and is the oldest crime prevention/proactive program in Canada. Harkness presented her with the award as part of celebrations to accompany National Police Week, May 12-18. Other activities staged by the local police department during the week were presentations to area school children (Grades IC to 3) for competing in the Bert and Gert, Stay Alert/Stay Safe poster colour- ing received a Batman backpack, donated by the Exeter Ca- nadian Tire Store. Posters will be on display at the store. It is a busy week as Chief Harkness is attending the Zone 6 meet- ing in Windsor of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police. Chief Harkness and Constable Robertson were scheduled to attend an Employment Equity Training Session in Stratford and Chief Harkness and Constable Brennan are presenting an anti -drinking/ driving presentation on Friday at the South Huron District High Sr.hool. New OSUM chairman sees changing role for lobby group By Adrian Harte EXETER - Exeter reeve Bill Mickle says the association of On- tario Small Urban Municipalities (OSUM), to which he was elected chairman last week in Pembroke, is facing some new challenges in the years to come, and is in fact chang- ing its role as a lobby group for smaller cities and towns. Mickle explains that until recent- ly OSUM was a fairly contented partner in the Association of Mu- nicipalities of Ontario (AMO), but as the province begins to reassess its distribution of tax dollars to mu- nicipalities, divisions have emerged. OSUM makes up one- third of the membership of AMO, but actually represents only a frac- tion of the population of Ontario, and that, says Mickle is where the problems lie. Large urban centres, especially Metropolitan Toronto with one-third of all Ontarians, have a lot of influence at the pro- vincial level. Policies which bene- fit Toronto do not necessarily help anyone else. Mickle says that OSUM's present challenge is to interpret how a joint -report from AMO and the Ministry of'Municipal Affairs, will affect urban centres of less than 50,000 population. "Welfare is being talked about as being totally taken over by the province," said Mickle, pointing out that since Huron County is funded up to 80 percent for its wel- fare program already, such a deci- sion won't have as much. of an im- pact as in Toronto. However, if the province decides to "disentangle" itself from funding road works and policing, then the tax burden will be devastating in small town Ontario. The figures show there's going to be a heavier cost," warned Mickle. Nothing is carved in stone yet, and naturally the joint report is gen- erating a lot of debate among AMO's membership. "This is just a discussion paper. There's a lot of negotiation to go," said Mickle. "We [OSUM) do feel there are some problems that have to be sorted out. With AMO's members divided on such a policy's benefits, subgroups such as OSUM have tQ make sure their voice is heard. "A lot of infighting goes on at AMO's executive table," said Mick - le, saying a common policy will be hard to find as counties, regional municipalities, rural townships, small urban centres and large cities all see different benefits and draw- backs to the provincial initiative. Mickle sees "disentanglement" as another step in the province's ongo- ing trend to "download" the tax burden on the municipalities. Unconditional grants - those the municipality can allocate at will - have been cut back in past years, to be replaced more conditional grants which require application to ap- proved provincial programs. Another provincial policy which annoys Mickle is the increase in un- funded programs and policies, with the province issuing new rules to municipalities and other agencies without providing the funding to carry than out. "They've been making rules and regulations, but haven't been fund- ing them," said Mickle, who of- fered as landfill regulations, haz- ardous materials handling, the new Police Services Act, and even fire department bunker suits as a few examples. The problem he says, is that as town taxes rise to cover these costs, the taxpayer does not realize the province is to blame. "I think people are entitled to know who's responsible for those costs," said Mickle. One thing the new OSUM chair- man would not like to see is more regional government in the prov- ince. He says under that system, taxes from efficient, well main- tained municipalities are siphoned off to prop up areas with crumbling infrastructures, benefitting no one. Consequently, says Mickle, OSUM is shedding its image as, a contented subgroup of AMO and is become more active to tackle those provincial policies which affect town such as Exeter. "As much as we want to be part and parcelof the AMO situa- tion...we have some things we have to deal with on our own," said Mickle, adding that OSUM has di- rectly begun a dialogue with the minister of municipal affairs. "We don't want to go outside of AMO, but we have specific prob- lems," said Mickle. Grand Bend businesses concerned recycling put on back burner GRAND BEND - At least one lo- cal business is very upset that the village has put commercial recy- cling on the back burner.. Doug Tarry of the Thirsty Fox •Restaurant has been part of a pilot project with two other restaurants in Grand Bend and says total waste reduction at the Thirsty Fox has been about 70 percent. Although he's uncertain whether or not his successful experiment will continue, he is certain about the fate of the local landfill site. "Everyone has a vested interest in keeping that dump open as long as we can," said Tarry. The village has been picking up cardboard at about a dozen local businesses and taking it to the Blue - water Recycling plant. Tarry says he has been involved in that and also in the pilot project which saw Bluewater pick up other recyclable items. "That enables us to have a 40 per- cent reduction in our waste. We're also working on a compost pilot project," he said. Tarry said food scraps are beim% recycled which saves another 30 percent, in all, a 70 percent reduc- tion. Last Monday night at the Grand Bend Council meeting, council de- cided to put a hold on any further proposals about commercial recy- cling. The reason being it would cost taxpayers tee mGctimoney. According to the village's Waste Managment Committee chairman Dennis Snider, it's cheaper to keep putting the waste into the local landfill However, he does feel Grand Bend can begin commercial recy- ling next year. "What I'm suggesting is we abso- lutely put this into effect next year for sure. This year all we're going to end up doing is spending more money and we're not going to get anywhere doing it," he said at last week's council meeting. The committee, of which' Tarry is a member of, had made several res- olutions to council including hiring a full-time employee to collect the recyclables from the businesses and lease another truck. Snider pointed out that by Janu- ary 1992 when the dump is closed, then it would be cost effective to have commercial recycling. As far as Tarry is concerned, it should go ahead now. "It's costing us very little and it's going to save the community a great deal if everyone does it," said Tarry. Showing his displeasure. Tarry suggested a committee of local businesses be formed to try and get council to reconsider. "We're going to scream and yell until they do something." Rural transportation sought Continued from front page all municipalities to look into start- ingg arch a program. "'Ilnere seems to be a lot of mon- ey out there in the budgets for transportation," he said. Charles Black of the Elgin Sen- iors Advisory agreed that several communities should get together to implement such a program. Our communities are too small to be doing it individually," said Black. Brown said Huron County has been doing studies on rural trans- portation since the early 1970's and she said she could probably do a study on the studies, but said the time for action is now. The biggest problem facing Hu- ron County she says is distance. "Huron County is 60 miles long and 40 miles wide, we need a con- solidated plan," said Brown. "All of the right ingredient, are here if we can come up with an in- tegrated plan that could service the whole county," she added. She suggested that all 26 Huron County municipalities team up to have a service like the one in Grey - Bruce. Brown said if they can get the will of the county politicians to approve a program, it could be- come a reality. Brown said it would not cost the county any money because she ex- pects grants could be provided by the Ministry of Community and So- cial Services. ' gpeelal vary -.This van equipped for the handicapped was viewed during the Rural Transportation work- • shop in Kirkton on Wednesday. A