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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1981-03-11, Page 1Members of the GDCI junior boys basketball team lower captain Ben Melick from the hoop after he performed the traditional net -removing ceremony. The Vikings beat Mitchell 69-42 at GDCI on Tuesday afternoon to become the Huron -Perth champions. See the sports pages for details. (Photo by Cath Wooden) McGeenamed to commission The Ministry of the Solicitor General has finally made an appointment to the Board of Commissioners of Police for the town of Goderich. In a letter to council, Solicitor General Roy McMurtry approved the appointment of Alvin McGee to the police commission for a two-year term ef- fective January 1, 1981. Mr. McGee will replace Deb She vfelt on the commission after the former mayor resigned from theposition in December 1980. The police commission consists of mayor Harry Worsell, Chief Pat King, Judge F.G. Carter and Alvin McGee. Town clerk, Larry McCabe acts as secretary to the commission. Publisher feted by paper peers Signal -Star Publishing Company's President and Publisher of The Goderich Signal -Star, Robert G. Shrier was honored by the Ontario newspaper com- munity at the Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association convention in Toronto on the weekend. He received the -coveted President's Award. This award is the most.,prestigious honor that can be bestowed upon a member of the Ontario newspaper community. It is given annually at the discretion of the OWNA president. Outgoing OWNA president, Bill Poirier of Grimsby, made the selection and presented the plaque at the convention's awards banquet Friday evening. The President's Awaid plaque offers testimony to Bob's service -with- the inscription, "In recognition of his many unselfish contributions to the community newspaper industry." It is a sentiment which Poirier said aptly reflects Bob's efforts `within the industry. In his speech to convention delegates Poirier said that Bob's labors in the newspaper industry were rewarded with success,adding that Bob's work benefited the entire newspaper industry. "Bob started 25 years ago and put a lot of time and effort into the jbb. He bought into a newspaper and as an owner he contributed 'a lot," he said. "The in- dustry rewarded him with success but after achiev- ing he continued to work." Success did not temper Bob's willingness to help anyone in the newspaper business, Poirier said, and the award was, in part, to recognize those unselfish deeds. "He has always, been willing to help anyone who asked and freely jumped in with both feet when anyone in the industry asked hirer to," Poirier said. "His services were offered without pay and given just for the satisfaction of helping." "He is continuing to do that today and probably will a the -•rich -_ SINAL 133 YEAR -10 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1981 50 CENTS PER COPY Selinger Wood forced to reduce staff `Selinger Wood Linaited-of Goderich has been forced. to temporarily reduce staff by one third due to a lack • of American orders Bob Selinger said that a flat American economy and a subsequent reduction in orders has forced the manufacturing company to layoff 22 of its • 60 employees. Two of the layoffs were a result of the permanent. shutdown of the company's sawmill operation: • Mr. Selinger said the company hopes to recall most of the employees in the near future. . "We are basically an exporting company and right now there is a lack of orders because the American economy is flat," he said. " We hope to call back all the employees but right now we don't know when." That newsis tempered somewhat . by the fact the comapny is considering construction of a new saw mill. • • "We are considering building _ a new , mill in Goderich," Selinger said. "Our saw mill is in- nefficient compared to modern mills but it. was great • . • in its tune;" Selinger Wood is experimenting with a new project with bowling lane lumber .by constructing entire lanes -as a unit before shipping. Mr. Selinger said the company is now working on 30 such orders. • Council agrees to traffic lights. Safety survived the slice of the budget cutting axe Monday as council decided to" apply for a permanent set of. stop lights at the corner of Bennett Street and Bayfield Road. • Originally $10,000 was set aside to install a tem- porary set of traffic lights at the cbrner until the Suncoast Drive' extension was completed. Council thought traffic lights at the corner. of Suncoast Drive and Bayfield Road would alleviate congestion and danger at the Bennett Street corner. But when the finance committee proposed deleting the expenditure for the temporary traffic. signals, many councilors protested. Councillor John Doherty argued that any expenditure that could save the life' of a child was worthwhile and insisted that lights be. placed at the comer. Councillor Jim Searles reiterated Doherty's sen- timents adding that it was foolish to play a waiting game until there was a serious accident. "I would hate to delete the money from the budget and have someone killed while we wait for three or f four years to get Suncoast Drive finished," he said Council did endorse a motion that the town apply to the Ministry of Transportation arid Communication for a set of permanent traffic lights at the corner. The MTC subsidizes much of the cost but Commissioner of Works, Ken Hunter, indicated it would take time to get the job done. The town will also proceed with work on the Sun - coast Drive extension this year. INSIDE THE SIGNAL -STAR Ice festivities The Goderich Figure Skating Club presented its annual Ice Nicks show last Saturday afternoon and evening. The theme of .the show was Holidays of the Year, and everywhere there were skaters dressed for festivities. See pictures throughut the paper. More than coffee Joanne Buchanan features the Women's Day Out group on page 1A. The eight-year-old club offers opportunities to women to get out of the house once a week and meet with women over coffee, though it is more than just a `coffe- klatsch'. Among the best Two GDCI wrestlers, Brian Shewfelt and Steve Berry, qualified to fight in the all - Ontario finals held recently. Shewfelt finished fourth in the province. See the sports pages for story and picture. egular Features Newborns Pg. 2 Columns Pc.4 Editorials Pg. 4 Letters Pg. 5 Sports Pg. 12146 Classified. . Pg. 18.18 Real Estate .. Pg. 18-19 TV PQ. 4. B. Board Pg. 5:1 Martha Pg. 7A Farm Pg. 9A Church Pg. 1 1 A for the rest of his life." Bob was successful in the newspaper business and Poirier concedes that the industry flourished because of that. "The industry has been kind to him but he has replied in kind," Poirier stated. "There is no one who has not benefitted from Bob: Many were deserving of this prestigious award, but not as much as Bob." The Shriers came to Goderich in October, 1961 after Bob had accepted a position with the Signal -Star. He bought interests in the newspaper in 1962 and three years later purchased the paper from the late George Ellis. Bob had dreams for the industry and in 1966 the Signal -Star was only the third paper in the province to acquire an offset press. It was a gamble that slowly pushed Signal -Star into the publishing business. The business expanded and Signal -Star Publishing Ltd. moved to a modern plant on Bayfield Road in 1974: SSP now boasts a family of. five weekly newspapers, the every other week publication The Huron Shopping News and its newest venture, a tourist magazine called Leisure Life. 'Signal -Star Publishing also prints all the Anglican Church papers in Canada, from British Columbia through Newfoundland. Bob has fostered growth within the industry through his involvement with the Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association. He served on the OWNA board of directors for eight years and was President in 1977. Through the insistence of the board of directors he just concluded an additional -two-year term with OWNA. 1 -lis work with OWNA, much of it in the field of demographic research, has elevated the status of the weekly paper, as well as eliminating animosity, and unifying the community newspaper industry from coast to coast. xp yer Dearborn sale of final:: • : • The sale of Dearborn Steel Tubing Manufacturing • Company is expected to be complete by Friday, March20. Rick Quirmey of Peat Marwick Limited, London said the closing of the deal has been delayed until all conditions of the sale are met by the purchaser. Peat Marwick is acting As, recelver manager for Bank of Montreal i interests in the sale of the company. • The -sale o€ thecompany-wasoriginally-expected-to be completed by March 1. "The conditions of the deal are being met by the purchaser and the official closing will be March 20," Quinney said. Some inventory and equipment, that was not part of the sale to the- major purchaser, has been sold and moved out of the two locations. face slight increase Goderich town council honed its budget axe to a fine edge Monday and held the general municipal levy to a three percent increase. That means that taxpayers will be asked for an additional $46,424 in 1981 to bring the year's total tax revenue to $1,421,739. In 1981 the town will spend $4,226,170 but revenues of $2,804,431 from sources other than taxation reduce the tax burden to $1.4 • million:... _ This year council is setting its mill rate before requisitions from Huron County and the Board of Education are finalized. Reeve Don . Wheeler ex- plained the system will lead to better accountability, and people will realize where the tax money is going. So although council held spending to three per cent,.. for 1981 it doesn't „mean the taxpayers bill will reflect. that small increase. If the county requisition to the town increases by 10 per cent and the board of education requisition is up by 12 per cent, the overall effect could be an eight per cent increase in the tax bill As _ Reeve Wheeler explained to._ council, the tax payer will be able to see where the increases are coming from. The town budget raises the general municipal commercial rate to 134 mills; an increase of 3.96 mills over 1908. The general municipal residential rate will rise 3.36 mills to 114.32 mills. The budget will pump nearly $30,000 into the general reserve account to boost the reserve total to $132,243. Much of that account is earmarked fon use this year, such as $60;000 for the town hall restoration. • Clerk Larry McCabe said that of last year's tax bills, 46 per cent was used for municipal purposes, 43 • per -cent went to educationand`II percent wetit to the ` County of Huron. He believes the figures will likely switch this, year with education taking about 46 per cent of the tax bill, the municipality 42 per cent and the County of Huron about 12 per cent. On Monday council plodded through a • list of discretionary items in committee budgets and slashed about $210,000` from the original proposed budget. The major cuts • ' the budget included $50,000 from the Suncoast .II rive extension and $12,000 from the fire committee reserve fund. Prior to tie cost slashing procedure, Wheeler asked' coon ' p _look atif ., ropssed - - _—.�lt�enp�becs..;to tele_ cuts to produce;a good budget with a small: mill rate• increase. • • - Over the past three years council has held the • municipal mill rate increase to an average of 2:99 mills. • Council rezones land to accommodate mini mall Despitesome • obvious pessimism about the lucrativeness of malls, town council passed a bylaw Monday permitting the construction of a mini -mall on the southwest corner of Bayfield Road and Suncoast Drive. In a recorded vote, council approved bylaw 24 rezoning the parcel of land from developmental to highway commercial by a 5-3 margin. The rezoning will permit the construction of a 10,652 square foot mall with tenants to include a health spa, a con- venience store and a donut -coffee shop. • But the rezoning raised severalquestions at the council tableabout the misuse, of valuable highway commercial property and the viability of another mall in Goderich. Finance chairman, Don Wheeler said he was not anti -development but protested the potential waste of valuable land intimating another mall was a waste of land and money. "We have great unused space len town. The mall is underused, the mini -mall is only half used, there is unused spacein the core area and there is unused, space in the Zehrs mall," he said. "To zone the land and allow the expenditure is a mistake." The waste of a valuable and scarce resource, high- way commercial land, was Wheeler's main concern and he insisted it was a waste to use the property for another mall. The proposed uses of the mall are considered a service industry- Wheeler saidi that • would not have a multiplier effect on employment but • could in effect, reduce employment. ' • • Councillor Elsa Haydon opposed the development from its initial stages claiming "it is not good plan- ning from economic, social or land use criteria." , Vacant stores concerned councillor Jim Searls and he believes a new mall will not .enhance the com- munity. "The municipality- has enough stores and outlets available and there are enough vacancies to facilitate anybody without another mall," he said. "I would hate to see another Welland here With stores vacant • everywhere." Deputy -reeve Bob Aller cautioned that council was not in the business of regulating competition. "What do we have the right to ask for?"Allen questioned. "We are assured leases have been signed so we should approve. There is no other way." Councillor Glen Carey said council was over stepping its mandate in'trying to outlaw development because of a fear of failure. "The development stance is tempered with pessimism and a creeping paralysis of desire to overplan a community," he said.. "You are saying that development is good but that it will fail and we're not market analysts." Turn to page20 • r • Signal -Star Publishing's president, Robert G. Shrier was honored wifh the President's Award at the'' Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association convention on the weekend OWNA president, Bill Poirier made the selection and presentation to Shrier at the corn vent ion's closing ceremonies.