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Times Advocate, 1999-06-02, Page 2626 gJis3t!'.•sr� *xSEsi► Timm–Advocate . . , 1, Wednesday, June 2, 1999 ty Blaze destroys barn Firefighters try to put out a blaze on Joe Miller's farm. northwest of Dashwood on Conc. 14 Friday night.There were no injuries, although Miller's barn was com- pletely destroyed. Zurich deputy fire chief Rick Gingerich said the cause of the fire is not known yet and no estimate of damage has been made.About 25 firefighters from the Zurich and Dashwood fire departments tried to control the blaze, Gingerich said.There was no livestock in the barn, which was mostly full of straw bales. Controversial motion approved by Avon astland School Board By Michele Greene: SEAFORTH — Avon Maitland District School Board trustees approved a controversial motion to limit the number of delegations to 10 per meeting. �,•�. "If we have more than 10 delegations, We will call a special meeting on the issue," said Chairperson Wendy Anderson. Last Tuesday night in Seaforth, trustees approved the recommendation intended to make the board more efficient. It is not intended to reduce the amount of listening" said Trustee Margaret Laprade, who sat on an ad hoc committee which made the recommendation. Trustee Abby Armstrong, an opponent to the move, said she still believed this motion will result in fewer delegations to the board. The motion was a result of the extensive delegations on school closures when two presenters each used their 10 -minute presentation to read an excerpt from a novel to trustees. "It's been an abuse of the process and I think it's important to speak out against that. I do want them to make presentations on serious matters," he said. The motion passed with Trustees Armstrong, Vicki Culbert and Bob Allan opposing. Trustees also reconsidered a motion that would educe time allotted to delegations from 10 minutes to 5 minutes. "I would support a five minute limit. Get to the point. This is a corporation with just a few hours to make decisions,"said Trustee Don Brillinger. The motion was eventually defeated. Also, trustees voted to allow two student representa- tives at the table. Each of the board's 10 secondary school will have a student trustee. The group of 10 stu- dent trustees will elect two representatives to offer stu- dent perspectives .to the board. Villa e of Zurich holds.public g meetin on troubles with lagoons By Katherine Harding least environmental impact, Acres TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF and Associates recommended the in- termittent sand filters. ZURICH — The village has a "There are no costs associated with sludge problem and an environ- any alternatives at this point," said mental report has found installing Burns. "The decision should be based intermittent sand filters may be the on environmental reasoning." best solution. "This solution addresses the capac- Last Tuesday only council and a ity and treatability issues. It also handful of villagers turned out to a gives 33 per cent potential for growth public meeting regarding an en- which is an added bonus." vironmental study done on Zurich's Andy Valickis, a representative troubled 25 -year-old lagoons. from OCWA said the intermittent The environmental report has re- sand filters "will utilize existing infra- ceived 90 per cent funding from the structure and not waste it. .. , you will province to complete. end up with a low-tech solution." The study was presented by Geoff Valickis also added built-up sludge Burns, a senior municipal engineer will be drained and dredged from the for Acres and Associates. The firm lagoons before the sand filters are in- has been hired by the village to do stalled if the option is adopted by the the study and complete the rec- village. ommended upgrades. Also present What's next were representatives from the On- Valickis said the OCWA, on behalf of tario Clean Water Agency (OCWA) the village, will go ahead and try to who are providing project man- secure provincial funding for the pro - agement services. ject on the assumption the viIlae will The study identified the village's install the sand filters. sewage and lagoon problems de- "The major hold-up will be waiting tailing there is a 20 -year accumula- for funding," he said. tion of sludge. Burns added the earliest th``project "We identified the problem by re- could be started is this fall. viewing effluent test results from A villager present asked council the lagoons," said Burns. "The re- who will own the lagoons if amal- sults exceed all, guidelines for new gamation goes through. and old criteria. The lagoon isn't Reeve Dwayne LaPorte said because treating effluent matter in a satis- primarily Zurich ratepayers `use the factory manner: The accumulated system in the case of amalgarnatfon sludge is causing over -topping." the lagoons will remain a village con- ' The class environmental assess- cern. ment offered thewillage several pos- "Zurich would become- a ward and sible solutions‘:Including reducing we would still have to run it," he said. sewage flows, :making ' operational Another ift fi eYsting'41t1. -14'tfeld improvements, limiting Zurich's this summeii"' to discuss the progress growth, doing -nothing, constructing of the agoon upgrades. a new treatment plant or modifying "There will probably be a better the existing facility with inter- turnout for the next meeting when a mittent sand filters, and land ap- price is put Out there and rateVayers plication systems. will be effetsd," said Valickis. "The By reviewing the solutions against crowd will be here..' a set of criteria geared to have the Granton's sewer project now officially on hold By Scott Nixon TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF LUCAN BIDDULPH — Count has officially put the Granton Sewer Project on hold while it waits for the Ministry of the En- vironment to decide on an ap- peal. The appeal, known as a bump -up, was made by Granton resident Charles Hayden in March. The government, which was supposed to give council an answer on the appeal within 66 days, hasn't, and council doesn't expect one soon. Council could have decided to go ahead With the project with- out the government's answer, but that risks having The govern- ment then support Hayden's ap- peal, which would mean a waste of the township's money. Coun. George Marr said he'd love to go ahead with the project, but he said he wouldn't want to do so without government ap- proval. "I'd hate to put (the project) on hold but I don't think we have a choice." Coun. Glenn Silver agreed. "I'm not comfortable saying right now we proceed," he said, explaining that proceeding with- out government approval is un- fair to council, the project's con- tractors and, most importantly, the ratepayers. Benner said if council pro- ceeds without government ap- proval, it is using Biddulph Township dollars (as opposed to the government grant, which won't be available until the ap- peal is over). "It's not a wise course," he said. Coun. Reg Crawford described council's position as being "be- tween a rock and a hard place." Even after council gets an an- swer on Hayden's appeal, Dep- uty -Reeve Bob Benner explained that the township must then send the project's drawings to the Ministry of the Environment for approval. That process could take 60: days, pushing the project back to the end of the summer, when it will be too late to start with the collection aspects of the system. Benner• did say the contractors would have time to work on the pump station and sewage plant. Also during the discussion on the sewer project, Coun. Perry Caskanette wondered why coun- cil was extending the sewer line down Fallon Drive just for three houses. "It's going to be an awful ex- pense just for three people," he said, speculating that the ex- pense may not be worth it. Coun. Doug Anderson, though, said that while there are only three houses there now, that number could grow. Also, he said, a bylaw making it mandatory for all residents to book up has already been passed. Don Roloson, a Granton res- ident who had his request to be exempt from the mandatory . hookup bylaw, expressed his concern about the project to council. "We don't want the sewer. You're forcing it on us," he said.