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Times Advocate, 1994-12-14, Page 2Page 2 Times -Advocate, December 14, 1994 IN THF. NEW, OPP checks motorists in RIDE program GODERICH - The Ontario Provincial Police have once again put the RIDE (Reduce Im- paired Driving Everywhere) pro- gram into full force for the holi- day season. The effort has been conducting roadside spot checks since 1987 in attempt to reduce drinking and driving. The North Huron Citizen not- ed that the Goderich OPP checked 257 vehicles between November 27 and December 3. One impaired charge was laid and two licenses were suspend- ed for 12 hours. More dollars for long term care HURON/ PERTH - By March of 1997 Huron and Perth Counties will receive an extra $2 million for long term care com- munity services. The press release states," This gives communities more flexi- bility to respond to local needs and improve services for seniors and people who are physically disabled or who need health sup- port services," as reported by the Huron Expositor. Divided tax bill rejected TURNBERRY - In 1995, Turnberry will return to a single property tax bill rather that the two separate bill which have been issued during the past sev- eral years. The bill was divided to separ- ate education dollars from the amount going to the county and municipality. Clerk -Treasurer Dorothy Kelly told the Wing - ham Advance Times that this practice costs the township an average of $1,000 extra per year. OPP costing to be presented CLINTON - Figures for cost- ingo:vere to be presented by the On io Provincial Police at a meeting of the whole council last evening. Seaforth, Clinton and Gode- rich asked for a costing estimate from the OPP which has taken over the policing of thc towns. Only Clinton had not yet re- ceived the estimate, reported the Clinton News -Record. The meeting held on Decem- ber 13 was open to the public, who were welcome to attend. A future meeting will be held. D.A.R.T. aimed at spousal assault GODERICH - A two day sem- inar was held in Goderich De- cember 6 and 7 by D.A.R.T.(the Huron County Domestic Assaut Review Team) and S.W.A.N. (Stop Abused Women Now). This workshop is the first of its kind in Southwestern Onta- rio. The Goderich Signal -Star reported that Huron county is leading the way in teaming com- munity service providers with the local police. The primary goals of D.A.R.T. include holding abusers respon- sible for their actions, advocat- ing the improvement of services, coordinating information be- tween agencies, and ensuring that victims are pmtecled and as- sisted. Should cemetery be preserved? Township claims they're maintaining it, one resident does not agree By Fred Groves what it can do and will probably bring it up at its February T -A staff meting. CREDITON - History needs to be preserved. She confirmed what Lamport says and that is in the sum - That's the message Stephen Township resident Lloyd mer the weeds and grass grow up knee high and that it Lamport is trying to get to his municipality. should be properly taken care of. Lamport lives on Concession 8-9, just down the road "We have assumed responsibility for it. For the most part, from a cemetery which has a lot more history than most council has been happy with the ground cover," said area people realize. Buried on the fatm, which is now Brown. "I don't want Lamport points out the historic sig owned by John Gielen, is Jacob Dorsey a anything more or nificance of the cemetery and noted it runaway slave who came to the area and anything less than would be good for children at the near - became a lay preacher. He died on May what the other two by Stephen Central school to come 21 1870 down the road and learn a little a bit Other names chiseled on the few abandoned cemeteries about history. stones are Robert Hodgins who is prob- He brought his concern ably the last one to be buried there, in 1907. There are also to the township 12 years ago and, when Ste - Joseph and Grace Marshall who died in the 1860's. phen celebrated its 150th Anniversary in The small cemetery has no fence around it. There is no 1992, felt that would be as good as time as grass and no heritage plaque on the site where the Bethesda any to preserve the cemetery. Church once stood. "My wife and I said this would be the time One of the stones has been broken, yet to be repaired. when they are celebrating history and heritage Lamport said the township did that when they were cutting to start this thing up again," said Lamport. the grass. He also said that the little maintenance done on In the past 12 years Lamporthas been very the site is usually only after he has complained. busy in his quest. He's gone to MPP Paul "Never in my time has there been any maintenance done Klopp's office where he got a copy of the Ce - on it. My wife and I didn't think it was right," said Lamport. meteries Act and noted the points on aban- However, there seems to be a different definition to the doned cemeteries. word "maintenance." He's even kept in constant correspondence Lamport wants to see the Bethesda cemetery to look like with the township and was made aware that the other two abandoned cemeteries in the township. The Stephen now legally owns the cemetery al - municipality says they are maintaining it to their satisfac- though it is on Gielen's property. And he's tion. gone to council meetings. "We have been looking after it, keeping it cut. There used "I wasn't a bad boy. I never bugged them to be grants available," said Stephen Township ad- (council) once in my lifetime. We took a del- ministrator Larry Brown. egation to the council meeting and they won't One of the many people Lamport lias been in contact do anything." with is Marg McClure of the Huron County Historical So- A couple of years ago the township did do ciety who says something should be done to preserve the something as it purchased the cemetery and cemetery. according to Lamport, that legal process cost "As far as a (historical) plaque is concerned, I'm not sure about $1,800. of the procedure," said McClure. "It (cemetery act) clearly states in there that However, she said the local society is still investigating an abandoned cemetery becomes the re- sponsibility of the municipality," said Lamport. Also in the Act, Is the point that the municipality must maintain the cemetery, again the point of proper main- tenance is raised. "They've cut it (the grass) three times in the last two years. The stuff grows knee-high," said Lamport. In fairness to the township, when Gielen grows corn around the cemetery, no one can possibly see that a ce- metery is there. And just what is it that Lamport would like to see at the Bethesda cemetery? "I don't want anything more or anything less than what the other two abandoned cemeteries get." A broken neglect of headstone symbolizes what one resident sees as a historic Stephen Township cemetery. Bruce Machan acclaimed new Huron warden Wii'i'gham's reeve takes over the reins of Huron County council from Allan Gibson By Fred Groves T -A staff GODERICH - When outgoing warden Allan Gibson handed the chain of office over to Wingham's Bruce Machan last Tuesday, he passed on a council which takes on a very new look. Gone are six council seats as Hut ron County Council streamlines and gone are 11 faces from the 1994 group. Tom Tomes from Stephen Town- ship, Lionel Wilder from Hay Township, Zurich's Bob Fisher, Ex- eter's Lossy Fuller, Goderich's John Doherty and Stanley Township's Howard Armstrong are some of the major players that did not return to council. "It's always tough to replace some of these people with their ex- perience," said Machan moments after he was acclaimed. Several communities in Huron County did not have elections on November 14 but. rather had their 'knew councillors come in througI acclamation. "I think its very comforting in an election year to be acclaimed both at home (Wingham) and at the county. I think its a very high hon- our," said Machan. A year ago, Gibson had to defeat both Armstrong and McKillop Township's Marc.iHicknell, this year, Machan did not have to give a Library to join school 'Continued from front page. ority, but most were upset that it may be located at the school," she said. "It was felt this would hurt busi- ness in the downtown area," Gah- linger-Beaune continued. "The lo- cation close to the post office is ideal and it would be impossible for mothers with small children to go to the school. I support joint ventures, but don't think the library should go to the school." Reeve McLaughlin replied, "There is certainly some resistance to the library going to the school. I don't think we have communicated very well. Most people think it's 'our library'. That's not the case. The library is completely owned and operated by the Middlesex Li- brary Board. They own the books and pay the salaries of staff. All we do is pay the rent for the library rooms from the Masonic Lodge....For us to go for a library on our own in Lucan would be al- most impossible financially." Councillor Rob Brady said, " I also found in my campaigning that the library was uppermost in the minds of most residents, but not as much as to where it would be locat- ed. 1 agree that going it alone would be very costly. When our residents find out that it will cost a lot more at a downtown location they will change their minds. It's a case of 'saving a buck instead of saving a walk'." Huron Board elects new chair The Huron Board of Education gears up for a new term with Roxanne Brown as chairperson By Heather Vincent T -A Staff CLINTON - The Huron Board of Education elected a new chair and vice -chair Monday December 5 at the inaugural board meeting. Roxanne Brown of Clinton was elected thc new chair of the board, replacing Graeme Craig of Seaforth. Allan Carter of Seaforth, rep- resenting thc Township of Tuckersmith and Village of Hensall won the seat of vice -chair over Goderich trustee Norman Pickell. The hoard of trustees for the 1994-1997 teen include; Abby Arm- strong, Township of Stanley and Bayfield; Della Baumgarten, How - ick Township; Vicki Culbert, Ashfield, East and West Wawanosh Townships; Bea Dawson, Hay and Usborne Townships and Zurich; Doug ()amiss, Morris and Turnbcrry Townships; Bob Heywood, Stephen Township; Lynda Horbanuik, Township of Hullett and Blyth; Don McDonald, Grey Township and Brussels; Liliane No- lan, Wingham; Norman Pickell, Goderich; Rick Rompf, Goderich; Pauline Siemon, Seaforth and McKillop Township; Joan Van- denhroeck, Goderich and Colborne townships and Pauline Van Der Ley, Exeter. speech to why he should be war- den. Machan's nominator Bill Ben- nett from Seaforth was somewhat humorous when he was introducing Machan. At first he forgot Ma- chan's name but did highlight that the veteran Wingham politician has 12 years municipal experience, nine of those as the reeve. Streamlining the size of council from 32 down to 26 is what Ma- chan believes to be, "a step in the right direction." 1�lbert Shewfelt, the new mayor of Goderich said the first warden of Huron County would approve. "I think if Tiger Dunlop were here, he'd be pleased." Machan does not inherit any ma- jor issues from Gibson but what he does take on is several projects which are already in the works. He has to make sure the process for se- curing a 9-1-1 emergency phone system is in place, a site has to be picked for the new landfill site and work continues on both the county ,court h9use building and the old Huronview. Once again, Justice Frank Carter took part in the inagural ceremony on Tuesday and he joked that while he was the judge for the county, they never did any renovations to the court house. Now that he is no longer the judge, they are sinking in over $1 million. Carter brought his usual words of wisdom spiced with a dash of hu- mor and quoted from Homer, "a council apt not to sleep the whole night through." Machan also received congratula tions and wishes of good luck front Roxanne Brown of the Huror County Board of Education ant Louise Martin of the Huron -Pent Separate School Board. "We will be looking to forge i partnership with each other ant with businesses," said Brown. "We like to think the goodwill i! there to give the confidence tt those who put us there," said Mar tin of those who have been electet to both boards of education ant county council this term. r Ontario Telephone Service Commission Commission ontarienne des services telephoniques NOTICE OF APPLICATION CONCERNING THE BLANSHARD MUNICIPAL TELEPHONE SYSTEM TAKE NOTICE that an application dated November 15, 1994 has been filed with the Ontario Telephone Service Commission (the "Commission") seeking its approval, pursuant to subsection 47(6) of the Telephone Act (Ontario) for the disposition of the whole of the BlanshardMunicipal Telephone System (the "System") to Quadro Communications Co-operative Inc. (the "Co-operative"), a co-operative corporation incorporated under the provisions of the Co-operative Corporations Act (Ontario). The application is made on behalf of the Co-operative and the Corporation of the Township of Blanshard, the trustee of the assets of the System (the "Trustee"). The application,seeks the approval of the Commission to the transfer of the undertaking and all of the property and assets of the System from the Trustee to the Co-operative in order to convert the System into a co-operative owned telephone system. The members of the Co- operative will be all of the customers of the System except for those persons who decline to become members. Materials related to becoming a member of the Co-operative and to this application have been mailed to each of the customers of the System. Subsection 47(6) of the Telephone Act empowers the council of the Trustee to authorize the sale or disposition of the whole of the System without convening a meeting of the subscribers of the System where, from absence or loss of records or other cause, the subscribers are unable to be ascertained, subject to the approval of the Commission as provided for in the' subsection. The coThcil of the Trustee passed a by-law on November 1, 1994 approving of the disposition of the whole of the system to the Co-operative and a purchase agreement has been signed. The closing of that transaction is subject to the approval of the Commission. Any customers of the System interested in making any submissions to the Commission concerning this application should make their submissions in writing to be received by the Commission no later than January 3, 1995, at the address as follows: Ontario Telephone Service Commission 56 Wellesley Street West 5th Floor Toronto, Ontario M7A 2E7 Attention: Secretary/Registrar c/o Neil J. McCallum, Counsel Fax No. (416) 326-1021 The Commission, in its discretion, may proceed with a decision on the application without the holding of a public hearing. If you do not make any written submissions to the Commission by the date specified, the Commission may proceed to a decision without your submissions and you will not be entitled to further notice of these proceedings. Copies of the application and related matdrial forwarded to the Commission are available for inspection at the offices of the System. Copies of the application may be requested by writing or telephoning to the solicitors filing the application on behalf of the Applicants: BLAKE, CASSELS & GRAYDON Barristers and Solicitors P.O. Box 25, Commerce Court West Toronto, Ontario M5L 1A9 Attention: Ben A. Jetten Secretary's Phone (416) 863-2939 Fax: (416) 863-4261.