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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1976-09-16, Page 9arrison wan A story which claimed that the-Town'of Goderich has °the greatest average municipal ' tax increase per household'in the entire province •of -_Ontario was printed and broadcast province -wide before _it_.�aias—�ry�go • (McKeough) has done ' this town irreparable harm," • Harrison told council. "He has hurt the Town` of.,.,.- Goderich throughout Ontario. HeLhas hurt our standpoint=in get industry to this found to. be incorrect this week by the Ministry of Treasury and Econornir;s in Toronto: According to Councillor Leroy ' Harrison, Provincial Treasurer Darcy McKeough - owes the ' municipality an apology -• a public apology; Mr, Harrison said' that . in' hi's opinion, the initial in- '. correct announcement was made in public at, a'Provin- c al - Municipal °•. Liaison Committee meeting -Friday, September arld the error •Danny S haddiek"was.so haPPY with the beautiful weather conditions in Goderich over the past week that he kicked.' up his wheels in delight- the 10 -year-old son of John and • Nancy Shaddick of .'Bayfield Road in Goderich, Danny was spotted early this,;week doing his Evil Knevil;routine on his • way -home. from `Victoria .School where he is a Grade 6 student. (staff photo.) 1 Two Menesetung residents were treated for minor cuts. after the window of their car was shattered by flying debris thatwas scattered on Highway 21 from the thrust of a Tri-Star jet preparing for takeoff. Mr. and Mrs. • H :E:. Maynard were .taken_ to hospital for treatment Sep- tember 2 after the right door, window of . their. , car " was shattered by flying debris while •travelling south on Highway 21 near the airport. Goderich OPP reported that the .visiting •Exxon jet was stationary. on . the east west runway. preparing for -• takeoff • and .the subsequent application of thrust '.shot, dust and loose gravel . onto. High- way 21 reducing visibility. The Goderich Airport committee discussed the possibility of installing a jet 'screen at the end of the runway to eliminate the possibility of flying debris and installing signs along that portion of the highway warning Motorists .of. the possible danger. • Councillor". Elsa, Haydon told council members Monday evening that if jets create danger for 'persons -on thehighway then perhaps the airport.\is not capable . 'of handling them. •. • el . The matter' was referred to the•insurance company. ea The Goderich a Minor Hockey Association is one meeting away from can- celling this years hockey program due to an•apparent lack of support from hockey. parents in' G oderich. GMHA President ,Don .Elliott said this; .week 'that a - public - Meeting called for September. 22 will determine the future of Mirror hockey in Goderich for 1977, a future -that i`s bleak. The closing of the Goderich Memorial Arena is`' -the biggest"thorn in the side of GMHA but according to Mr, Elliott, even that hurdle can be crossed if parents support -minor hockey,this winter. 14e said a program has, beenset up using theKVanastra Arena for the winter' but that the. progirarn depends largely on • 1 now or keep Town taxpicture wore f" .fl Ontario should be .:noted and ;an apology made in public as weld. • The error resulted by the Ministry using, -the -Township. of Goderich:''average household instead of the Town of Goderich, resulting in •ap erroneous=.reporting showing. the Town of Goderich having the, .largest increase . in Ont.ario,'' town . administrator-„ Harold _ Walls explained to council Monday' evening. The average tax per household in Goderich during 975 was• $35$,57..In.1976.; that figur'-e--rose- -4o $421.0.6: - or .$63,49 . mote, than in the prevtousyear, The Ministry 'had reportedthat figure to be $148, obtained when the 1375 average household tax. • in Goderich township. • was. subtracted from the average household tajt in 1976 in the Town of Goderich. Mr. Walls told..council that' op • CKNX in Wii'igharn and John Lute of The . London Free Press had called him evening for a. statement regarding the announcement made by McKeough. • On Monday, Mr: Want• telephoned first the London. Friday office and ,finally the Toronto - office—befo're the errorwas discovered. "1 didn't know• where they got those figures," said Walls. "I didn't know .what formula they were; using: They just didn't seem to jive. So'I really coul,iln't answer their gttestions,". Chairman for the evening ;Deputy -reeve -Bill. Clifford said the town had ""suffered' rough treatmentat the hands of the press"`. Councillor Elsa Haydon pointed out the rough treatment :had .been suffered "at the • hands of • the .. Ministry"'and that the press had onlreported the figures issued by the Ministry. Yes, of course,;' admitted Gifford, The $63.43 average increase • in municipal,taxes : per . household in Goeriohis well below • many other Ontario communities, . The .Mtown'.s. increase ' to $422.0.6 per. household left'itsubstantially better off than Nepean, „the highest taxed municipality in Ontario. Nepean, a suburb of -• Ottawa, has an average tax Of `$849 per household.- . • r 129 YEAR, -38` • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1976 SINGLE COPY 25c oose one 0 four options The Goderich Recreation Board building comriiittee has approved new plans for roof construction at the Goderich Arena that call for a new roof to cover the entire structure. `. The committee met, with engineers of C.C. Parker and Associates Ltd•.... Tuesday afternoon and reviewed four, .possible schemes • for the arena construction: The committee settled en a design that includes. •a. new roof over the auditorium and the roof over. the rink portion will 'spanthe dressing -rooms on the < west side. The . robf over the dressing rooms will be removed' and replaced with a .concrete slab to allow standing ' • room ac- commodation or in . future could be enclosed and used for office space or additional seating. See gr c 5 Originally the committee - 'had hoped to cut costs by,' reinforcing the existing roof -over the a,tditorium. but on the advice of the structural engineers will it. The cost of. reinforcing the roof and tying it into the new r&of over the rink was almost as expensive and less practical: The plans that the com- mittee ,have now 'settled ,upon are expected to be completed by September 30 and tenders. on the total project will be left immediately andreceived by Oct,' 18. Structural engineer, • Peter -James, estimated that' construction could begin, g around'•November-1 and that full use of the: ice surface. could begin by : the middle. OZ February:' Theauditorium would not be completed for use until approximately March I. The estimated cost of the G.. .'fir , ' The r Ministry of Culture and Recreation has approved grants from the proceeds of Wintario totalling $31.,229 --for nine -.projects in -Huron • County. Amounts of the individual grants range from $10,000 to $504. ;• The Ontario Food council is 'to. begin. consideration • of -loss " leader .'sales sometime this month. The meetings are a result of a letter from Donald• MacDonald MPP for York South to D.E. Williams, the council's ' chairman; asking if anything could be.done about supermarkets using bread as a loss. leader. Canada is.making plans to declare war` .on sexu 'ally transmitted diseases. A new program to fight rapidly increasing cases is dependent on agreement among federal and•provincial health 'officials. , An eraisending, or has already ended, '$ for .the people of the worl'd's most populous nation. Last Wednesday Mao Tse-tung, Chairman of the Communist Party of the People's Republic of China; died at the age of 82, 5" a :ICZ. 'r1w:.ua61:71 2x: 0?i1 volunteer work by parents to be successful. Mr. Elliott •said, thata dismal showing by parents -at a publicn-eeting—eallea _on. September 8 -cast a shadow of gloom 'over this year's prograin but added that a disappointed •executive has.. conridence that the parents will come through next Wednesday night, "This program will work and will .give some ice time to all levels of hockey•:but it needs support," said the president. "We have to know how many people are willing to help before we register the, kids." • • The first meeting was not a total loss f oreche exegutiVe. Mr. Elliott said thio`` :Only about nine pelts attended once the • executive,, - sup- . club members, coaches arid- managers were. counted but said that several problems were solved. •.0ne thing tri plague the executive. . was the, registration fee but, 'a suggestion from the -floor at the public meeting took care of that. Registration fees this year will be -hiked $10per child to cover the additional. expenses . incurred by operating the.. program in Vanastra. The. costs this year will be $30 a head for the season, "Our ice costs have doubled this' year and the number of hours a week' that we have the ice have been reduced by eight," explained Mi , Elliott. A1t;ne ,.•ith . ire costs the projects is $293,000 plug the cost of. replacing er installing a new -sprinkler system in the arena. The cost: is, however; an engineering estimate and' tender bids could be lower. Since the"roof will span the dressing rooms :the dressing room walls .facing 'the ice surface. • will be moved back which will allow a six foot aisle between . the seats :and the dressing 'roam walls. The concrete slab on top of the dressing roomswill be used, Jot- standing•. room and ;possibly: for. additional .seating in the future.. ;There willbe-a 10.foot-span.on topof thredreagingreoms: •The,new roof. will have an ice ' clearance of ..ap-. proximately 20 feet and with the • new •roof over the auditorium • the. ' ceiling clearance • of 12 •feet wily be maintained. New' lights will also be installed over the ice surface. There will be several, changes to . the auditorium and the"; mezzanine area below. The costs include, a" new exit, fire rateddoors, fire rated insulation in the can- teen 'to accommodate. 'a french fryer and a fire rated •ceiling in the lower level. The new 'auditorium ceiling will g be 'suspended _from: the roof and will eliminate the columns at.the south end of. the auditorium. The south and west walls of the Arena will be rebuilt and James• clairned that the damage caused to the walls during roof demolition had little bearing on their replacement. •. . "The damage to the walls was of little consideration in the -wall replacement and 'a contractor would not build on top of that existing wall," he • said. "That' wall is 27 years old and'it rust wasn't feasible to;.cut into the blocks to insert new. ilasters." P Both the east : �a d n. west •' walls will be . blocked+to, a height of approximately 19 • ' feet. The existing west wall of the arena will remain since. it was built just a few years ... • ago: . The tenders will also in- 'elude n ' elude. the installation.:of •a 12 foot by 12 foot overhead door, at the south end. of the arena as well as •a main door, and an exhaust. fan. • • Goderich recreation board chairman • Pete McCauley cautioned '` committee: • members on the< cost of the, ,project and .the inclusion of unnecessaryoptions. "•1. can.6 nl ,see the, cots. (continued<lrorn ,�.a a `20 '. p y; If you've. seen Police .Chief Pat King'_around town 'the; past few days and thought he. looked a'little rough ‘there is • no need. to feel• he 'might have hit the skids. Chief King has just registered for the Jubilee Three beard growing contest and after a week or two his new growth Is bound to be looking our GMHA have to look at paying for referees, •time keepers, .new equipment • and tran- sportaion. •The executive offered •one . consolation in that the. association. can keep gall; of. the gate receipts this year which wil1.provide some assistance, • SCHEDULE PREPARED The program set up by the executive provides ice time for bantam and pee .wee all star teams• and for a house league. Thi'" juvenile and midget teams will also' be included in the program but the novice and atom house leagues will have to go by the wayside, By following this route the executive feels that the ..boys who are perhaps spending their last year in minor hocke o wit ne d oc the ,year's ex' rience to develop their talents, will have -an opportunity to skate, The younger players in the atom and novice leagues can hone their skating abilities on the outdoor rinks of Goderich and still have plenty •of time in the future to • take ad- vantage of the minor hockey' program'. "The older boys were our first concern because they're probably in•. their last ..sta es of hockey," said Mr, Elim^ ' The 1977 -_,program is .not mpletely ignorapt of the reeds of the atom and novibe p<Ieyfitrs.:Mr. 'Elliott said that t e most important segment f their d velo p mcint is skating andpointed-out:thathl'rofless Goderich 'arena an be pressed into service better.. The Police Chief signs up at Mike and Ray's. Barber • shop on The Square as the barbers Mike Jeffrey, left, and `-Ray Ducharme, right, make absolutely certain that he is clean shaven. ey players home for that. He said that the youngster's. can be given a couple of hours a week;: to practice skating and.to work, on hockey • funameptals 'but .would have* to accept a couple • of scrub games .of hockeY over an organized schedule. The loss •of the atom' and novice leagues from the .minor• hockey ranks means about 1'45 youngsters between - the ages of five and.10 years old will not be registering this ear adding to the reduction of income. The loss leaees the total registration expected at about 225 boys, dove .con- sidor fbly from the 375 that . signed up last year, . Ice Costs at Vanastra run fronx $15 'for the first 10 hours a week to • $20 for the eiyeeni:ng r 'T'hose figures mean that operating costs will average about $2,000 per week totalling to an $8,000 bill , for the • year: Last year's . ,expenses were about $6,600 and' included eight. hours .a., week more -ice time than this. year, POOR,j'AREN•' INTEREST • Aside from all the problems for minor hockey, the executive still . managed a stiftbut wilting upper lip. The biggest setback was -:the complete lack of support demonstrated by the*.;poor turnout at the public meeting,. "I honestly thought we would have been swamped by- interes'tcd parents," said Don Elliott, "The parents of the. hockey playersfshoi:rld have" .heen thei t'';to .ford out whet rt;rro tilu'nrteci.' The executive has. granted the parents the benefit of the doubt but claim that this next meeting is the ;last. Mr. Elliott said that • registration is set -for . September 25 and will be for one day only. He said the organizers:: have to know on that day how many boys plan to play because that is the last possible week 'the GMHA can hang onto their ice. After that date they either ..ft rfeit the ice ,or are forced to pay for the time whether the ice is used or not, "We have to .know how Many volunteers " we have before we register the boys," , said the president. "That's why this next jltieeting Is stt. important.'" He exp4'ained that the (continued fr,,rn p;,.ge 20