Times Advocate, 1994-7-27, Page 4Page 4 Timgs-Advocate, July 27, 1994
Publisher: Jim Beckett
News Editor Adrian Harte
Business Manager: Don Smith
Composition Manager. Deb Lord
Advertising; Barb Consitt, Theresa Redmond
news; Fred Groves, Catherine O'Brien, Ross Haugh
Production; Alma Ballantyne, Mary McMurray, Barb Robertson
Robert Nicol, Brenda Hem, Joyce Weber,
Laurel Miner, Marg Flynn
Transportation; Al Flynn, Al Hodgert
Front Qfce & Accounting; Norma Jones, Elaine Pinder,
Ruthanne Negrijn, Anita McDonald
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inion
EI)I'I'ORIAI.S
Town Hall now needs planning
t was early 1989 when town
council looked wistfully at plans to ren-
ovate the Old Town Hall to house the
municipal offices for Exeter. Faced
with a big bill for a new fire hall, and
other technical problems, council
backed away from the project, but with
the hope expressed that one day it
would become reality.
Reality is now here, but the question
on most people's minds is whether or
not this rejuvenated edifice is going to
end up costing them more on their al-
ready -inflated tax bills. According to
the town's budgets, this project is al-
ready paid supported without a tax in-
crease. Had the infrastructure grant
funds been spent on another project, the
effect would have been exactly the
same.
Perhaps the one unfortunate aspect of
this project is that the library, arguably
the public building in the worst shape
in town, won't get rebuilt in this first
phase. Although the plans make per-
fect sense - that the Town Hall has to
be upgraded before a library can be
grafted onto the back - it is too bad we
will have to wait for some other windfall
before book lovers get the building they
deserve.
In all likelihood, however, Exeter
won't be waiting long before help is on
its way.
In every council's term, there comes a
time to make a difficult decision about
capital spending on public buildings that
some will view as "frills" or "creature
comforts". To have to make those deci-
sions in an election year is interesting.
To leave the project barely started by
election day is doubly interesting.
Nevertheless, it has been proven al-
ready that a good number of town resi-
dents favourably view a rebuilt town
centre. Now that the agonizing decision
has been made to go ahead with the pro-
ject, it will be the job of all council
members to make sure the plans are de-
veloped in the best way possible for the
present budget and the future needs of
the town.
A.D.H.
Why not a community garden?
yan Good will be going back
to council in the next few weeks, look-
ing for a little more encouragement for
his community vegetable garden propo-
sal.
He does deserve to get his proposal a
bit farther, now that more is known
about it.
Granted, digging around in the vege-
table patch, especially when it's not
your own, isn't something that's going
to be seen as a prime hobby by most
town councillors. But then again, there
are enough people in this community in-
terested in such things that there is room
to believe such a garden might not only
work, but be a tremendous success.
Unlike other projects that require mon-
ey and land to get started, this one has a
major difference. Even if it weren't to
succeed, the only thing lost would be a
few hundred dollars once the ground is
returned to grassland in .the park.
How can council lose?
A.D.H
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Published Each Wednesday !doming at 424 Main St.,
Exeter, Ontario, NOM 156 by J.W. Eedy Pub6catlons Ltd.
Telephone 1-5182351331
0.1.T. MR105230435
New Democrat Premier Bob Rae has dropped
some clues to how he hopes to win an election
nett year, although by any standards he is still
very much a long shot.
Rae has only 15 percent in polls and appears
to have accepted that he is unlikely to come up
with anything dramatic that will swing huge
numbers' of voters his way, such as significant
tax cuts or a balanced budget after four years of
record deficits.
Instead, in more workmanlike fashion, the
NDP is going after a few interest groups, hop-
ing to obtain some of their votes and patch
them together in some sort of coalition that, if it
all works, would give his government enough
seats to survive.
The groups the NDP is targeting include ten-
ants in privately -owned housing whose rents
are conand people in public housing and
Housin inister Evelyn Gigantes suggested
last week these groups have almost no option
but to support the NDP.
The NDP has tightened rent increases and
Gigantes Maimed; *ithoUt citing proof, the Lib-
erals if elected would allow rents to soar. The
Progressive Conservatives have gone further
and talked even of abolishing controls.'
The NDP is building public housing faster at
than any predecessor and Gigantes said the To-
ries, who often complain at the cost, would pri-
vatize it.
She said tenants in private and public housing
could easily lose protection and emphasized
they hoid the balance of power in many ridings.
The NDP is making a pitch to visible minori-
ties and women through its employment equity
law, which starts in September and eventually
will require employers to hire and promote
these groups in the same proportions as they
live in the community.
The NDP has already awed to attract visible
minorities by such acts as abolishing the police
Pro -sport angels, O.J. and saxophones
•You can tell you're getting
old when you begin to wonder
aloud whether it's possible for
video game commercials to get
any more annoying.
•One of this summer's latest
movies is Angels in the Out-
field, which is apparently an-
other one of those long stretches
for a plausible reason why the
spirit world would show any
concern at all for professional
sports.
•Speaking of professional
sports, I still can't fathom why
the O.J. Simpson proceedings
are of any interest to anyone,
outside of a brief mention on
page three. If it weren't unbe-
lievable enough that ABC news
managed to pick out their own
jury to interview day by day
about the pre-trial evidence, it is
now possible to buy a book on
the case - it arrived on the book-
shelves at the T -A only the oth-
er day.
•I saw a hearse with a flat tire
at the side of the 403 on the
weekend. A guy with a van
showed up to repair the flat.
My guess is that even if a
hearse does come with a spare,
it wouldn't be a good idea to un-
load to get at it.
•In Oakville, also on the
weekend, Joanne and I wan-
dered around the outdoor jazz
festival. • Just being able to sit
outside, sipping a coffee, listen-
ing to a saxophone and bass
duet right in the town centre had
me realizing what this Exeter
civic corner project just might
be all about. So who in town
plays bass?
•As I was out of town, I
missed the hail storm Sunday
morning. Seeing the damage it
did to local fields was bad
enough. Besides, I feel I am
owed a little leeway after hav-
ing the wits scared out of me
two weeks ago. The lightning
strike that wiped out some of
the electrics here at the T -A was
close enough to make me think
I was next to be vaporized. I
think I've had enough of this
year's weather already: roll on
1995.
How the NDP plan to win again
oath of allegiance to the Queen.
The NDP is trying to hold on to roots it put
down in the 1990 election in rural areas, where
earlier it had so little success that it often had to
use an MPP elected in Toronto's concrete jun-
gle as its farm spokesman.
The NDP last month put through legislation
that will enable farm employees to unionize,
but this is not being greeted with as much en-
thusiasm and may not harvest as many votes as
the NDP thinks.
The NDP is hoping to be rewarded by work-
ers in construction, the largest employer, be-
cause it has launched the biggest -ever govern-
ment home-building program and borrowed so
heavily to build subways and highways that
even municipal beneficiaries are worried it is
obsessed and moving too fast.
Even some construction company heads, who
approve government spending when it trickles
their way, have praised Rae, although it has not
shown in polls.
The NDP will look for strong support among
gay activists, because at least it put forward a
law that would have provided same-sex couples
with family rights, although it bungled it.
Rae naturally also is cozying up again to la-
bour unions, which he offended la ,t year by
cutting public service pay, and assuring them
they still have more in common with him then
with other parties.
Rae sounds confident when he brags "I have
news for those writing our obituary: we are go-
ing to win', but it is part of a premier's job to
seem confident.
Parties normally need more than 40 percent
of the vote to win a majority, although Rae won
with 37.6 percent in an aberration in 1990.
For the NDP to piece together a coalition that.
would achieve either figure would require a
massive turnaround in public opinion, but Rae
at least has a goal and a dream.
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