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Clinton News-Record, 1987-07-22, Page 1INCORPORATING -THE BL' TH STANDARD -THE: B. FIELD Bl (;LF NO. 29 WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 1987 50 CENTS Soil is extremely important when growing any type of crop, and on July 16, area farmers gathered at Jack and Norma McGregor's farm, 2.5 miles south of Clinton, to view their methods of planting crops and working the fields. As one portion of the tour, John Heard (background), talked about the soil in the soybean field. As an ex- ample of the varying soil, Mr. Heard had Jim Arnold conduct a compaction test. The Soil Conservation Day, entitled Tillage For The Times, was sponsored by the Huron Soil and Water Conserva- tion District, the Ausable-Bayfield Conservation Authority, the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. (Anne Narejko photo) Disabled Awareness Day set for this Friday CLINTON - The Huron Day Centre For The Homebound is attempting to make the general public more aware of the difficulties disabled people face each day. To achieve this, an awareness day has been planned for July 24, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. "Ontario's Proclamation of the Decade of Disabled Persons, signed in 1986, has em- phasized the importance of integration of disabled persons into community living. In- tegration covers a variety of circumstances and situations, but all are interconnected to physical accessibility," noted Elizabeth Zarnowiecki, Regional Services Manager of the Canadian Paraplegic Association in a letter to the News -Record. "In celebration of this, and also to enhance the awareness of community integration, an Awareness Day is planned in Clinton. Organized by representatives who work with disabled per- sons, the day's events are planned for enjoy- ment as well as learning about accessibility. " Local people have been invited to take part in the day's activities, undertaking a pre -determined task that will highlight physical access to local establishments. Ryckman frustrated, yet still optimistic By Anne Narejko CLINTON - The situation at Canada's last remaining piano factory has improved somewhat, but whether it will be able to con- tinue production is still uncertain. At the invitation of Clinton Mayor John Balfour, Paul Ryckman, owner of the 112 -year-old Draper Brothers and Reid Ltd., appeared before council on July 20, pro- viding them with an update as to the fac- tory's situation. Mr. Ryckman expressed frustration with two avenues he has been looking to for fun- ding, the federal government and the Royal Bank, but was positive about a third - the private sector investors. Accompanying Mr. Ryckman at the coun- cil meeting was one such investor, Robert Reid who has agreed to look after the plant rehabilitation. "All of the "i"s are not dotted and the "t"s are not crossed by my company but we have agreed to make an investment in the lands and buildings to bring them up to standard so that Mr. Ryckman can do what he does best - manufacture pianos," said Mr. Reid, who went on to say he will provide the capital for the physical renovations once operating capital has been secured. It is this operating capital that has put Draper Brothers and Reid Ltd. in a stand still position, employing only six people and leaving 34 unemployed. The factory has a contract with a Chicago dealer to manufacture 1,200 pianos, however, as of July 20, they have been unable to ship even one of these because they can not finish the pianos they have started. Deputy -Reeve John Cochrane wondered if there was a time limit on the order and Mr. Ryckman replied, "Sure there is. You have to ship thern within a reasonable amount of time, providing at least a reasonable flow...We're about 70-80 pianos behind in shipping." Mr. Ryckman told council there is a ma- jor market in the United States that has never been tapped by Draper Brothers and Reid before, and with the closure of the two -other Canadian manufacturers (one in Hanover and the other in Montreal), "we have received a massive inflex of telephone calls from Canadian company's wanting Canadian pianos." Frustration One of Mr. Ryckman's major sources of frustration has been the Royal Bank. "We've been working with them for three months. They gave a list of what they wanted us to do and when the local branch manager, Steve Fraser was transfered and then went on holidays, I dealt with the bank's regional office in Burlington and all of a sudden the story took a massive change," explained Mr. Ryckman. "The regional director told me he didn't give a Urban frustrations heard at special meeting Huron County politicians received assurances from Exeter Mayor Bruce Shaw that the county will remain intact, but he also urged the county's executive committee to pay attention to urban concerns. Speaking to a special meeting of the county's executive committee and the mayors representing the five county towns in Goderich Wednesday, Shaw said he threatened secession from the county system in response to frustrations ex- perienced by the urban municipalities. The meeting, called by Huron County warden Brian McBurney, was designed to address concerns expressed in the media by the five mayors covering such topics as planning, unity, the development of Highway 8 and the creation of a county economic development office. "This meeting was brought on by ar- ticles in the paper and I hoped to bring peo- ple together and have an open and frank discussion," McBurney told the meeting. "I hope we can be open and honest. I don't want this to linger and hopefully we can put concerns to rest because we're all responsible to the same people." While the discussion on the respective issues was honest, Shaw and reeve Bid Mickle, Exeter's representative on county council, assured the executive committee they would not sit idly by if they felt their concerns were being ignored. "We get the impression as mayors and Exeter council that not a lot of attention is paid to recommendations from council," Shaw explained. "We have asked for a few things and while we're not always looking for support, at least some interest. We're left with the impression that ideas and con- cerns are being dismissed." That attitude, Shaw reasoned, an- tagonized Exeter council and the five mayors, who began meeting as a social and ad hoc committee to discuss matters of Mutual concern. The Exeter mayor admitted that much of the animosity related back to the "damn planning problem", an issue that resulted in an Ontario Municipal Board hearing. That problem dealt with a plan of subdivi- sion for an agri-industrial •park by Hay Township at the intersection of Highways 4 and 83 hear E*eter. The plan of subdivision was prepared for approval by the county's planning depart- ment but failed to clear the OMB hearing after Exeter filed an objection. The plan did not conform to Ontario Foodland guidelines and has subsequently been redrafted. Shaw told the meeting Exeter will again object to the development. It cost Exeter council $8,000 in consul- tant and lawyer's fees to contest the plan to the OMB and Shaw argued before the committee that while the judge's decision vindicated Exeter's position, the town, in effect, paid both for its own fees and that of Hay ( through assessment) to prove its point. "It was a philisophical problem and we won the case which vindicated Exeter's position," he said. "We said, in a letter to council, there should be some shared costs. Hay was given the support of the county through the planning department. The planning department also represents Exet . But -the county bore Hay's costs and not Exeter's. We paid for both. We appealed to the council in August 1985 but were turned down." The incident suggests the planning department must serve two masters and Shaw said the situation would resurface again if not dealt with. Mickle told the meeting that if Exeter was to remain the viable service centre for South Huron it was purported to be in the county's official plan, then it was unreasonable to develop on the periphery of the town. "We do have property, in- dustrial property that's accessible," he said. The mayors pushed the executive com- mittee for an explanation on why council ignored Exeter's request for financial assistance on the matter and Usborne reeve, Gerald Prout said "when you opb- ject, you pay the bill", while McBurney ad- ded that it was his opinion that "if you hire outside planners and consultants- you pay " Shaw argued that Exeter council proved its point and had to pay both sides for that privilege. "There is no right or wrong answer in this but the court answered a philisophical_ point. Exeter paid both sides. Is it right to have to pay that money to win." he asked. Wingham mayor JaCk Kopas intervened saying the group was trying to avoid a we - they situation. "If any muncipality has an objection to anything then county council should have an opportunity to arbitrate or mediate without going into a quasi -legal situation. We should be able to settle things in-house. These are family disputes," Goderich Mayor Eileen Palmer said the county erred if official plans for the municipalities are in conflict. She said there should not be any discrepancies in plans. OTHER CONCERNS The mayor's group also spoke to the ex- ecutive committee about several issues of mutual concern and Kopas explained the role of the ad hoc group and what it hoped to achieve. "We need to share and pool ideas and resources and, realistically, we had the op- portunity and the time to look at the county from a perspective that is different from the traditional perspective," he explained. "Our purpose is to mobilize the county and to collectively address concerns. We're go- ing through a transition and we're not in- sensivtive to the needs of those in rural areas. We're not an official body with great power trying to parallel county council. We would like to see the county, the townships, the towns and villages work together on traditional, ongoing problems, but also become more proactive in ad- dressing concerns." Kopas concluded saying the group could be used to the county's advantage because of the mayor's exposure to government ministries and officials. He said the county should be more proactive in its approach and not merely react to a bad situation. COUNTY UNITY Admitting he became "nervous" at the mention of secession, Clinton Mayor John Balfour said the problem of county unity had to be addressed by the group. "If we don't work together, we're dead," he offered matter-of-factly. "We have to work for county unity very hard. We need to know how you came to the decision, as in the Exeter case, because if we can unders- tand your rationale, it will give us insight." ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT The mayors collectively questioned the damn who I was...His last words to me were 'go find another bank."' What Mr. Ryckman summized from his dealings with the bank was "if you're not an industrial area, you're a high risk." ' Although Mr. Ryckman was pleased with the provincial government, who have given him a $400,000 loan through the Ontario Development Corporation (ODC), another source of his frustration has come from the federal government. "We are using 100 year old equipment and that is fine and good if you are building only 300 pianos a year (last year Draper Brothers and Reid Ltd. sold 352 pianos), but when you want to make more to break even, you need better equipment," said Mr. Ryckman, who says producing 1,200 to 1,500 pianos a year will not make the company wealthy but will enable them to reach a break even point. "To help us do this ODC has guarenteed $400,000 and we thank them for that," he said. In explaining his frustration with the government, Mr. Ryckman went to Ottawa last week to meet with Finance Minister Michael Wilson. He knew that Mr. Wilson would not be at the meeting but was told his senior advisor would be. When he got there, he ended up meeting with Mr. Wilson's junior assistant who knew nothing of the fac- tory's situation. Further explaining his frustration, Mr. Ryckman said he read a London Free Press article which told of pianos being bought, with government funds, from West Germany. "Draper Brothers and Reid were ne•; ei even asked for a quote," he said. In concluding his presentation, Mr. Ryckman said, "It's time we stood up and were heard (by the federal government) if the plant is important to Clinton. "At this point we're very optimistic, but pushing damn hard." Mayor Balfour added his opinion to the presentation stating, "Paul's not the only voice heard in Queen's Park, you have a very noisy mayor." Mayor Balfour has been working with Mr. Ryckman for the past three months and says that, because of the low unemployment which gives Clinton a tier one status, there's Turn to page 5- CLINTON PUBLIC HOSPITAL BUILDING FUND executive committee on county council's decision to ignore a request to look into the prospect of again establishing a county economic development office. While the mayors did not expect the county to jump into a decision on the matter, they felt, that at the least, the county could have enter- tained the suggestion as plausible. "We didn't expect a snap decision but hope it would have been referred and some! interest shown," he said. "It's important to this county. It's changing and I'm sick and tired of the rural -urban split but nobody talks about it." A county -wide development office would fill a definite need, Balfour argued, adding that the planning department, with all its responsibility and work, could not ade- quately address the economic develop- ment side. Goderich Reeve Harry Worsell said the county had employed a full-time develop- ment officer for five or six years and he hadn't seen "that much had been done. He questioned the need to pursue the matter. "Times have changed," Balfour countered. "Industry is not the only reason to have an economic development office. We need to develop our retail, tourism, commercial and business interests. We need an office to get into all aspects and sell the county as a whole." Noting that both Goderich and Exeter pursue economic development in their own manner, Colborne Twonship Reeve Russel Kernighan wondered if the county could co-ordinate an effective development of- fice to work in concert with the indepen- dent efforts. Both Shaw and Palmer said theirs respec- tive municipalities would remain active in the development of their respective economic bases, but Palmer said an um- brella effort was needed, provided costs were distributed equitably. "We need a co-ordinated effort and the costs could be equitably distributed, but only through the county level," she said. "We've found that 80 per cent of our in- dustrial development has come from our own businesses. But we need blood transfusions and an injection of new in- dustry. We don't want a 2,500 employee Tura to page 3