The Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-04-14, Page 1orefar home assessed at $Z,
xes up 29.1q mil
Goderich for 19T
YsI1IRLEY.1. KELLER
dget for the Town of Goderich
is settled and the mill rate is
fter several meetings and lots of
n ,Taxes will be up - about $73
on a home assessed at $2,500 -
that increase isn't as high as
est thought it would be or as low
councillors hoped it could be
motion Monday night for a mill.
ease of 29,14 mills representing
nt9ge increase of 16.2385 was
d two councillors - John
and Stan Profit - voted in op-
urprised someone didn't call for
ed vote,: interjected Mayor Deb
"so that everyone could know
e mayor stood.
ty said he had planned to call for
ed vote on the matter, but ad-
e'd forgotten to do so. While the
ade noti gt�concerning theent at tax
ay
s meeting.
in Goderich, he did speak out
rankly ata last Wednesday's
session. saying he was
y opposed to more than a 20 mill.
nance report brout forth by
n Bill Clifford mired that the
eral levy based on a taxation
ure of 81,192,1.15 represented an
of 8203,978 over" 1976 spending -
6S per cent,
ssed in milts, the residential
the general levy will be 101.98
increase of 14,74 mills over 1976
per cent.
The mill rates for education are: the entrance to Goderich on Highway 8
residential public , school elementary, and established a fully fenced Dawnrose
43.20 mills, up from 33.64 in 1976; Park in the Delbar subdivision; $4,600
residential secondary, 36.74 mills, up from the police budget; $1.000 from the
from 32.72 in 197; and residential 'administration budget; $800 from `the
separate school, 43.16, up from 37.68 fire budget; $1,000 from street lighting
mills in 1976. budget; $1,000 from the panting budget;
Public school supporters will pay a $20,000 for a new public works garage;
total of 79.94 mills for education in 1977 $1,000 from the MacKay Hall budget;
while separate school supporters will $10,000 from the Jubilee Three
pay about the same at 79.90 mills. celebrations budget; $1,000 from the
There will be 26,67 mills collected in harbor budget; and $4,000 from the
Goderich for Huron County government recreation budget.
purposes, an 'increase of .82 mills or 3.1 Where streets were concerned,
per cent over last year. Councillor Dave,Gower, chairman of the
In total, the public school residential works and engineering committee
_rate is 208.59 mills; separate school fought hard for the road program he
'residential, 208.55; public school com- proposed.
mercial, 240.16; separate school com- There were 'two big question marks
mercial, 240.12. when the budget cuts were underway.
There will be two tax collection dates The first consideration was Bayfield
in 1977 - June 10 and November 4. Road, which is slated for reconstruction
perhaps later this year.
SOME CUTS MADE The budget item here was $143,820.
Last Wednesday, town councillors After careful consideration, council
went into'their budget session at 4 p.m, agreed to cut that back to $75,1)00 for
They travelled to Clinton to meet with 1977. Gower agreed this would permit
board of education officials concerning the work on Bayfield Road to get un -
the high requisition for education taxes derway in 1977 if the Ministry of Tran
in Goderich,. and they had dinner during sportation and Communications finds
the evening. But town councillors didn't funds to begin construction yet this year.
break up until nearly 2 a.m. Thursday. He reminded council the remainder of
-morning:.,.and the budget still wasn't the money would have to be put into the
struck at that time. 1978 municipal budget:
Some cuts had been made though, Councillor Gower has always main -
Several s things were deleted from the tained it was absolutely necessary to
budget - such ,as an expenditure oLun,dertake the Bayfield Road project this
$18,000 in the beach area for property; year, but at last Wednesday's meeting
$5,000 from the parks budget which he was joined by Councillor Bob Allen
would have., pompleted Jubilee Park at (continued on page 16)
er down this year
erthanbottom up
considerable, ae-
ons of snow over the
months and some
ain water levels on
at Lakes are more
feet lower than last
The shallow draft at
Harbor has resulted
r cargos..aboard lake'
s using the water
the Algoma Central
s vessel Agawa
put into the Domtar
mines last week she.
ly 20,000 tons of rock
reas last year she
commodate at least
utler, a spokesman
rni; said two vessels
n sent out of the
with less than full
e primarily to the
ptain's concern that
er would cause the
run aground
said the -vessels that
drafted 24 feet of
and didn't report
bottom. He said
the channel depth
26 feet at this time of
depth gauges show
level is down at least
dpossibly more.
d he couldn't quote a
r the season if the
loads had to be
ed over the season
concede it 'would be
e.
Similarly the Quebecois of
Upper, Lakes Shipping
Limited cduld not load a
complete cargo of corn at the
Goderich Elevator and
Trdnsit Company and had to
put in at Sarnia to top off her
cargo before going on to her
destination. While docking at
Sarnia she ran aground,
again because`of low water.
George Parsons, manager'
of Goderich Elevator and
Transit Company, said 'his
firm had loaded only one boat
this season .and had not
loaded it to capacity. He said
the small Toad was not due
strictly to low water however
pointing out that Sarnia
Elevator wanted to put
200,000 bushels of grain on the
vessel and that combined
with the fact that loading
chutes at the Goderich
elevators were too small for
the vessel prompted the small
load.
He said the boats loaded
700,000 bushels of grain and
drew 23 feet of water when
loaded. He added that the
Agawa Canyon left the salt
dock drawing slightly over 24
feet and didn't touch and his
firm was assuming there was
25 feet of water in the
channel. He said last year the
channel was 26.5 feet to 27
feet deep.
Parsons said his firm
(continued on page 8)
1
First captain gets traditional' welcome
Goderich Mayor Deb Shewfelt presented the ceremonial top
hat to Donat,Perron, captain of the Quebecois, the first ship
to enter Goderich Harbor in 1977. Harbor Committee'
chairman Don Wheeler also rresented gifts to Captain
Perron. The Quebecois loaded with grain last Thursday and
headed for Bay Comeau, Quebec. (staff photo)
obertcii
30 YEAR --15
SIGNAL -STAFF
THURSDAY, APRIL 1 1, 1977
SINGLE COPY 25c
�mrnittee-. balks at unit location /size
•
The Goderich Area Housing
Action committee rejected
two ministry of housing offers
for senior citizens units in
town, one due to lack of size
and the other due to location,
The committee learned that
the provincial sponsor for the
project had two choices for
the location of the units, the
corner of West and Waterloo
Streets and the corner of
Bennett Street and Bayfield
Road,
Sidney Kaye, the regional
co-ordinator of community
housing for.the ministry, told
the committee that the town
had justified 50 units of senior
citizens housing and that the
ministry of government
services had selected two
potential areas for the units.
He said a ministry architect
had done a feasability sketch
on the parcel of land on West
Street and had managed to fit
board master
displaatys a little disgust at being ignored by Schroeder as the budding star practices
piano as Charlie Brown looks on from a distance. The scene is from the Holmesville
n*oducHon Peanuts and fdatures Paul Wetilaufer as Schroeder. Lisa Ryan as Lucy
gornath as 'Charlie .f tvovttn: Theplaywill-'b ^perfornled April 19 and 20 at
!le School and tickets must be bougt efore the show either from the school or
student, (staff -photo)
•
•
a 41 unit building on the half
acre site leaving room for 20
parking spaces and little or
no side and rear yard. '
Kaye said the property at
Bennett Street was more
conducive .to the building
required, pointing out that the
ministry would be able to
build a 60 unit two-story
building with room left over
for 36 parking spaces and an
open area that would be large
enough to permit tenants to
have their own'gardens for
vegetables and flowers.
He pointed out that the
West. Street site would
compute. to about ,$1,500 per
unit in land cost and that if
the.town was adamant on the
extra 19 units the building
would have to go another
floor which ° automatically
would mean the installation
of an elevator, raising the
ante by about $1,000 per unit.
"To put 'that kind of
building on that lot would
require a major variance in
your official plan to meet side
and rear yard dimensions and
building height," said Kaye.
"That's assuming the
ministry's hoard of directors
goes for the additional money
for the elevator."
He pointed out to the.,
committee that the Bayfield
Road - Bennett Street
property had many at-
tractions the core area
location didn't. He said the
site could be more readily
expanded in terms of units,
the extra land would be a
major attraction to tenants,
and the land cosits would be
less, about $1,000 a unit for
the $60,000 parcel,
Kaye- added that the core
area priority given this type
of project was largely a myth
claiming that his many years
of experience with seniors'
projects had shown that 80
percent of the elderly tenants
are single and go out seldom
thereby not requiring
proximity to the downtown
area as much as thought by
the committee.
The ministry • represen-
tative used the Goderich fire
siren, which was sounding
during the meeting, to
strengthen his claim pointing
nut that the siren would
"scare hell nut of tike senior
roll/ens' .
"Did you pay them to do
that?" quipped chairman
Don Wheeler.
CHAIRMAN POKES HOLES
The chairman then dropped
the anecdotes and started
poking holes in the ministry
suggestion for a 40 -unit
building downtown when 50
was established as the
minimum. He said the
committee had negotiated in
good faith with the ministry
for two years and had finally
managed to get some action
on the project after what he
called a long period of
stalling. Wheeler went on to
point out that the committee
first asked for 50 units, the
monistry conceded to 40 and
that it was like "pulling hen's
teeth to get the ministry, to
agree to 50".
"And now you come and tell
us you want to build 60," said
Wheeler.
He said that he could see no
proplem fitting 50 units on the
West Street parcel pointing
out that a second architect's
opinion may come up with a
plan suitable to both parties.
He said that he felt the
committee was assured that
it would be participating in
the many site plans for the
units and was surprised to
find out that a site plan had
been done by the ministry.
He said he also took ex-
ception to the claim that the
seniors don't want a core area
location pointing out that 80
percent of the people sur-
veyed in Goderich preferred
a downtown location and that
the government wouldn't pay
over $1.000- $1,500 per unit for
land. He said other ministry
spokesmen told the com-
mittee they may go to $3,000
per uhit.
"It really irks me that the
government spends $4.5
million on a project nobody
wants (Essex County
Unilingual School) and no one
wants to spend $100.000 on a
senior citizens' project in a
town that's been deficient in
•
that ar''ea for five to ten
years." he charged.
Kaye said the suggestion to
build more units than are
needed now was merely one
that would meet future needs
in Goderich. He said by the
time any land purchase is
finalized, soil tests are done,
buildings are designed and
actual construction gets
underway the town may well
need 60 units and it would be
cheaper to build them now
than to add on later.
He added that he wasn't
familiar with any suggestions
that the province ,would be
willing to pay up to $3,000 per
unit land costs for the project
(continued on page 16
Ready for a busy summer
Marilyn Holland and Suzanne Macliwain are working in the
Jubilee 3 headquarters in Court House Park, 'which opened
April I. Marilyn, who is completing a two-year Travel and
foOrism course nt FF anshawe College Is working as a
volunteer at the headquarters during the month of April as
part of her course. Suzanne will staff the Jubilee
headquarters 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily *roughed the
summer. (staff photo)