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Times Advocate, 1999-08-04, Page 22 Wednesday, August 4,1-999 Inthe News i eNews :A. Bayfield $9.9 million sewer project to begin soon BAYFIELD -- The Village of Bayfield is getting a sewer system, reports the Clinton News -Record. By October, construction of three pumping sta- tions for the new sewer system will begin. The rest of the sewer system will be installed in the spring. The whole project will cost $9.9 million to com- plete. The village will pay $3.1 million with the provin- cial government picking up the rest of the tab. All lots (businesses, land owners and residents) will have to pay into a self supporting fund either up front or through a debenture. The project will begin on Bayfield's main street, then move into residential areas. Both Goderich Twp. and Stanley Twp. have of- fered to help pay some of the $3 million price tag in exchange for the right to hook up the sewer sys- tem if residents of tilt; ,‘.,o townships choose to. This would mean B r.yfield will have to upgrade its pipeline system from 10 inch pipes to 12 inch- es. Residents of the two townships would also pay the same hook-up fee lot owners in Bayfield pay. According to the village's clerk -treasurer Don Feeney, this service only applies to Stanley and Goderich Township residents living within a cer- tain distance from Bayfield. St. Marys ER gets extra funds ST. MARYS -- St. Malys Memorial is one of 27 rural hospitals to receive an injection of cash to help cover emergency room expenses, reports the St. Marys Journal Argt . s. Site administrator and hospital vice-president Andrew Williams • said the hospital will receive $923,400 immediately pay physicians to staff the ER for the next 12 months. The $30 "million announcement was made on July 23 by Elizabeth Witmer, Minister of Health and Long Term Care, Ontario Hospital Association president David MacKinnon and Ontario Medical Association president Dr. Ronald Wexler. The increased funding is thanks to a study of how ER physicians are funded in rural hospitals. The study was conducted by a group including representatives from the Ontario Medical Associa- tion and the Ministry of Health. St. Marys has struggled to keep ER coverage constant over the past several years, in large part because the hospital didn't qualify ..for significant ER funding from the province because of its prox- imity to Stratford General Hospital. That left the hospital subsidizing emergency room coverage. Physicians were upset because of the large variances across Ontario in how much ER doctors are paid. Two other hospitals in the Huron -Perth Alliance also received the ER funding: Stratford General Hospital and South Huron Hospital. Mitchell judged in national Comniunities in Bloom -contest MITCHELL -- Judges for the Community in Bloom competition were in town last week, reports the Mitchell Advocate. Hubert Noseworthy, of St. John's, Newfoundland and Margaret Howe, of Brantford, Ont., are tour- ing through 14 communities throughout Canada in the population category 2,000-5,000. The judges evaluate the town's commercial and residential efforts in eight areas including tidiness, community involvement, heritage, environmental effort and initiative, landscaping and urban, fo- restry and floral displays. The judges aren't comparing one community wLth another but instead are rating them on a 20 - page list of criteria. The two judges, who spend about seven weeks touring the different communities, say they find communities come together during the event. The results of the national competition will be announced at a special awards ceremony in Hali- fax in September. In the future, the local municipality will have to compete as the Township of West Perth in a high- er population class. Lucan Biddulph council decide to meet twice a month By Scott Nixon TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF LUCAN BIDDULPH — Council decided it is just too busy to meet only once a month. At Lucan Biddulph's July 27 council meeting, council decided to hold meetings on the first and third Tuesday of each month, abandoning its regular schedule of meet- ing on the fourth Tuesday of each month. ` . Coun. Paul Wallis made the motion to have two meetings a menet when it became clscouncil couldn't deal with all of the issues on its agenda. The meeting, which start- ed at 7:30 p.m., didn't end until 11 p.m. with several unfinished mat- ters of business. Wallis said council can't attend to the issues prop- erly when it meets pnly once a month. Wallis made similar comments in February', but council didn't support him. At ,last week's meeting, though, council was in full support of Wallis's -motion, with Deputy - Reeve Bob Benner describing council's one - meeting -a -month system as "haphazard" and "hit and miss." As evidence of how busy the Lucan Biddulph coun- cil meetings have been, council didn't pass the minutes from its previous meeting -- usually one of the first items on a coun- cil's agenda — until 10 p.m. Council's new schedule of meeting twice a month was to start at 7:30 p.m. last night -- Aug. 3 — after the T -A went to press. Lions donate to arena project Centralia/Huron Park Lions member Dan Elliott presented a cheque from the Lions for $5,000 to Stephen Twp. arena board chairman Drew Robertson and arena manager Rob Funston (I -r) on July 23. Funston and Robertson are both members of the arena's fund-raising committee.The committee wants to raise $500,000 to renovate the 36 -year-old arena in Huron Park.The Exeter Lions , Club has also generously donated $4,000 towards the project. Construction begins on Lucan Library By Scott Nixon TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF LUCAN BIDDULPH — After several months of delay construction_ for the new Lucan Library has finally been ap- proved. Council approved the. library plans at a special meeting on July 15. Thi tender was awarded to Favaro Construction of London with a price of $334,497. Favaro came in with the lowest tender for a library with a fin- ished basement. The low price for a library with- out a basement came in from Van Boxmeer Coin struction at a cost of $294,369. Council decided to go with a library -with a fin- ished basement, mean- ing .04e municipality's _previous • limit. of $300,000 for a new li- brary will -be exceeded: . Lucan Biddulph coin cillor and arena board chairman Perry Caskan- ette told the T -A the dif- ference in - price ' between having a basement and not having a basement is worth it since the base- ment adds about 1,600 sq. ft. `to the building. Also, Caskanette said, having a basement pro- vides an opporttknity for the municipality or Someone else in the Wit- nicipality to ' eventually provide a service there. "If it's not built now it can never be built," Cas- kanette said of the base- ment, "but if it's built now it can be looking to future needs." For now, the library will be using part of the basement, but there are no plans for the rest of it. While the price of the library is higher than the.-;, original estimate, the Lu - can Lions are donating $104;000 to the project and the Booster Club is donating $50,000. The county libraryboard will pay $4.81/sq. ft. it uses. The new library will be situated on the southeast corner of the gym por- tion of the Lucan Com- munity Memorial Centre. The approximately 3,400 sq. ft. building has a projected completion date of Nov, 16, with constructfan to begin Aug. 4. Continued from front page future of the small family farm because they're afraid big compa- nies will move in and take them over. Johnson said there • needs to be consultation on those issues and said the municipalities need to tell the province what guidelines they need. "That's not an acceptable response," Deputy -Reeve Bob Benner told Johnson. Benner said the provincial gov- ernment has been allowing big companies to move into rural areas and municipalities are unprepared to deal with them. The companies are "blackening our rivers" and ruining township roads, Benner said. "You're killing uT," he told • ontedat councilmeeting Johi sett, adding that when the the government says it is "consulting" on an issue, it is really doing noth- ing. "You should be proposing solu- tions," Benner said. Benner said there needs to be a plan to deal with large companies moving into rural areas. He said the province has all the power to deal with the problem, not munici- palities. Johnson told Benner he disagrees with the accusation the province is doing nothing to help municipalities with the issue and said he needs to hear more from municipalities about what they need from the province. Coun. George Marr also told Johnson rural areas are having dif- ficulty a1rotting doctors because doctors are afraid rural hospitals are going to close. Johnson said while he can't guar- antee no hospitals will close, he doesn't foresee any closures, adding the province has never closed a hospital in a one -hospital community. Marr responded it is nearly impossible to attract doctors unless they can be guaranteed hos- pitals won't close. Wallis also asked Johnson if he sees the recent increase in gas prices as "gouging." Johnson agreed prices are too high, but wasn't sure what the government should do about it. He said if the government decides to regulate prices it runs into the possibility of having to control prices of other products as well.