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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1985-04-03, Page 1Blyth n caa �f t,rry Box -32 ...Ont, NOM 1Hi1 4 BRUSSELS SCIENCE FAIR --Winners in the science fair,last week at the Brussels Public School were (back i row) Janice Heise, Grade 7 biological; Kevin Tyerman, Grade 8 biological; Mark Pennington assisted by sister Lisa, Grade 8 physical; (front) Jason Gropp, Grade 7 physical; Garry Yuill, Grade 6 physical, and Kevin Alcock, Grade 6 biological. Council hears.r .00 for Lower Town dam Wingham Town Council night during a meeting with lic works committees to talk has received a proposal for Ron Beecroft, chairman of about the financing. replacement of the collapsed the ad hoc dam committee, Lower Town dam at a cost and engineer Allan Stinson of In a detailed presentation, Mr. Stinson showed course which is about half of the DelCan, designer of the new original estimate. plans for an earth -filled dam, but they were reluctant weir, faced with cabled However council wants to to make any plans to go concrete blocks, which he. know more about where ahead until they know said would restore the lower money for the project would exactly what it will cost the pond to its former height and come from before making town. any commitments,should last for 50 to 100 years In the end they agreed only with - only minor main- Councillors seemed to like to set up a further meeting of tenance, what they heard Monday the ad hoc, finance and pub- RECORD-HOLDER—Doug Wood of Wingham set a new Canadian Junior indoor record in the pole vault 'during last weekend's high school invitational track and field meet at York University, Toronto. •Wood vaulted a per- sonal best of 4.81 metres to set the new record and add to his growing collection of medals. Local vaulter sets new Junior record Pole vaulter Doug Woodfinished second at 4.60 set a new Canadian Junior metres. indoor record with a per- The big crowd at the meet sonal best leap of 4.81 metres — which was attended by during the York Universsity more than LAO high school High School `'Invitational He briefly discussed possible avenues of funding through federal make-work grants, but council was told that no firm funding has been arranged yet. "We would like to continue on and try to locate funds," Mr. Beecroft told council, saying the ad hoc comniittee plans to draft a letter which it would send to all organiza- tions and companies which might contribute to such a project. It also is working through the local Member of Parliament to try to get any grants available. He said the committee will follow . up with personal meetings with anyone in- terested, adding it has al- ready received one donation from a private citizen. No matter what the results of the fund-raising, "I think ultimately Wingham will have to come up with a chunk of funding," Coun- cillor James A. Currie commented, and he suggested turning the matter over to the finance com- mittee of council to "work. out the numbers'. However he said he agrees i with the concept and it is a b s b Wingham, Ontario, Wednesday, Apr. 3, 1985 Five per cent increase expected Wingham taxes up this year despite slight drcp in spendin perty taxes of Wingham will go up again this year, even th&ugh total spending is projected to be slightly lower than last year, according to a 1985 budget adopted Monday night by town council. The budget projects total spending for the year for town purposes (excluding school board and county levies) at $1,412,400, a decrease of $2,000 from last year's budget and a $41,000 decrease from actual spend ing last year, which was over budget. The amount to be raised b local taxation, however, i up by more than five per cen to $710,500, although in creases in total assessmen in the town over the pas year are expected to hold the mill rate increase to five per cent. The actual mill 1985 will not be struck until council has received notifi- cation of how much it is ex- pected to raise for the local school boards and the coun- ty. While total town spending s expected to -decrease this year, this does not indicate ny dramatic slashing of udgets. In fact the list of roposed expenditures ap- proyed by council shows sub- taptial increases in spend - /1W. alme4 ' every major get area. The saving comes about only pecause the town does not have anything in the 1985 budget to correspond to the ,000 spent last year as its are of the new fire hall,. d public works spending s been trimmed slightly by t scheduling any major oad reconstruction projects cept for a short stretch of toria Street. The 'administration budg- y s t Transfer rates for principals et, on the other hand, with the addition of the new deputy clerk -treasurer, is up by seven per cent over last year's budget and 23 per cent over what it actually cost to run the department last year. The budget for property is up a whopping 36 per cent, mostly because of the nearly $60,000 scheduled to be spent On a new heating, air con- ditioning and ventilation system for the Town Hall. The fire protection budget 'is up by 22 per cent over last year's budget' figure (73 per cent over actual spending) to allow for additional spending on the new fire hall and some imperative to "get on it right away." Finance Committee Chair- man Jack Kopas was not at the meeting during. the pre- sentation, 4tntv`e�•ir council decided to set up a joint meeting of the ad hoc com- mittee with council's. finance and public. works commit- tees to come up with a rec- ommendation. ' The estimated cost of the sh earth -filled weir is about an $310,000, including mate- ha rials, labor and equipment, no which is almost exactly half ro an earlier estimate by an- ex other engineering firm for a Vic poured concrete weir. Two principals in the Huron -Perth Roman Catholic Separate School Board will be transferred to other schools and the school board will need two more principals. Principal Jim Steffler of St. Mary's separate school in Hesson will be transferred to Sacred Heart separate school in Wingham this September. Sacred Heart principal Mary O'Malley is retiring, St. Columban separate school principal Joe Mac- Donald will take Mr. Stef- fler's position at the Hesson school. This will leave a vacancy at St. Columban. Also a prin- cipal is needed to replace Gaeten Blanchette who has gone from being principal at St. Boniface separate school in Zurich. to superintendent of education at the board of- fice. Proceed with petition, ratepayers tell group lic 4meeting here March 28 of thee Concerned Taxpayers 'of Howick Township, attended by approximately 130 per- sons, an overwhelming majority voted to have the group proceed with plans to circulate a petition in op- position to Howick Township Council's plans to make changes in present fire pro- tection arrangements. • When •a vote On the matter was taken near the end of the three-hour meeting only two hands were raised in op- position to the petition. It is the group's intention to present the petition to Howick Township Council, and, if necessary, to take their protest to the Ontario Municipal Board. The petition, finalized at a committee meeting of the group held Saturday af- ternoon in the Village of Fordwich, reads as follows: "We, the undersigned voters of the Corporation of the Township of Howick, are opposed, at this time, to our ownship council's plans for hanges in our present fire rotection arrangements the termination of agree- ents with Harriston, Listo- el, and reduction of cover- ge from Clifford fire de- rtments) and plans for a Ingham Area Fire Froard tellite fire station for the llowing reasons: 1. At present we are get - g good fire protection at a asonable cost to tax- yers; . We are not convinced uneirs •proposals for athletes — as well as the t track and field meet in additional training and c Toronto last weekend. "coaching he has received all For the Wingham athlete contributed to the record- ( and student at F. E. Madill breaking iterformance, m Secondary School it was the Wood said, He currently w 'best performance to date, travels to Toronto every a indoors or outdoors. His week for coaching bGa previous best outdoor vault Simpson, Canadian reco d- W had been 4.77 metres, while holder in the pole vault. sa he said he doesn't think he The next competition for fo ever jumped over 4.50 in- Wood will be the Fred Foot doors before. Classic in Toronto' next tin In winning the Junior pole week. He has a total of 10 re vault, Wood also defeated meets in the next 10 weeks, pa Rob Lindsay of Ottawa for including a number in the 2 the third time. Lindsay United States. co changes regarding fire protection will give us better protection and the cost will be substantially higher; 3. If council converts the existing township shed into a satellite fire hall, as it plans to do, a new township shed will have to be built at a cost estimated by council to be $230,750. (which we ques- tion). This cost along with No damage in chimney fire Firemen from the Wing- ham department braved the sleet and hail Sunday to re- spond to a call that morning at approximately 9:45. Wingham Fire Chief Dave Crothers reported no damage in the chimney fire at the home of John Swift in Turnberry Township, Lot 52, Wingham Town Plan (Lower Town) . Easter holiday postal service The Wingham Post Office will be closed .on Good Friday, April 5, and Easter Monday, April 8. There will be regular - service on Saturday, April 6. On Easter Sunday there will be no collection of mail from the street letter boxes, however mail from these boxes will be collected on Easter Monday at 11 a.m. and from the red box in front of the post office at noon on Easter Monday. the purchase of a new road grader- ($122,000), and the necessity of buying out the portion of the present shed owned by the Ministry of Transportation and Comm-, nications ($47,000) will all but deplete the township's road budget, leaving few funds for road maintenance; GRADUATED Lori McPherson graduat- ed Nov. 24 from the Con- estoga College Diploma Nursing Program, Stratford. She successfully completed her registered nursing eic- ams written in January and has accepted a position with the Owen Sound General and Marine Hospital. Lori's par- ents are Thomas J. and Ruth McPherson of RR 3, Tees- wa ter. 4. We object to council implementing such im- portant changes in some- thing so vital as fire protec- tion without public input and in the final year of a 3 -year term, thus incurring a debt upon the incoming council, and a hardship upon taxpay- ers." 1 The ' decision to proceed with the petition was taken despite an appeal by one ratepayer to meet again with council, . and the personal efforts . by one member of Howick Township Council to reach some kind .of com- promise. Please turn to Page 5 equipment phases. The police budget is up almost 10 per cent over last year's budget (6.2 per cent over actual spending, which was -over budget). The budget for road maintenance is down about five per cent from last year's estimate (12 per cent below actual spending, which also was over budget), although it still accounts for the . _ largest single chunk of the total at $444,400, The recreation budget is up by 7.5 per cent over last year's budget, although it is slightly lower than what was actually spent on recreation last year. There are few major changes in other depart- ments. The budgets for parks and cemetery are Please turn to -Page 5 DOUBLE GOLD—Ruth Struthers returned last week from the 1985 International Winter Special Olympics at Salt Lake City, Utah, with two gold medals. A native of Ethel and a client or the Reavie Vocational Centre, Wingham.- she was a winner in both her events, the 75 -metre .and .300 -metre speed skating competitions. Athletewjns gold at Special Olyrnpics The list of gold -medal- which lasted for most of a winners from this area grew week, and Miss Struthers last week with the return of said she really enjoyed the Ruth Struthers from the 1985 experience — except for the International Winter, Special airplane ride which made Olympics at Salt Lake City, her dizzy. Utah, where she ..won two Meeting new friends was gold medals.' the best part, she said, and at A native of Ethel who the end she hated to leave. attended the Golden Circle After taking part in' time School, Wingham, and is now trials last Tuesday,' she a client at the Reavie raced in the 75m Wednesday Vocational Centre, -Miss and the 300m on Thursday Struthers took top place in with a winning time that was both events in which_.she b7 -seconds -better' than her competed, the 75 -metre and 300 -metre speed skatingprevious personal best. races. Her trip to compete at the An estimated 800 han- Special Olympics was dicapped es at aced 800toosupported. by contributions part from the Brussels Lions and in the Special Olympics , Brussels Optimist clubs. Council defeats proposal to hire a crossing guard By a vote of 4-3 with two members absent, Wingham Town Council this week turned down a proposal to hire a crossing guard to help children across the main street on their way to and from school. However it did vote to continue studying a proposal for a permanent cross -walk at the same corner. Both proposals came as motions from the finance and management 'com- mittee, which had been assigned to study a request by a group of parents for some type of protected crossing. Although the parents had asked for a crossing at t corner of Josephine an Alfred Streets, both d..,. with the corr%er of Josephine and Patrick Streets where councillors said the pedestrian traffic is greater, In presenting the proposal for a crossing guard, Coun- cillor Jack Kopas said it came as 'a majority recom- mendation from the commit- tee, though he stressed ther were still those who ques tioned the need. In respons to a question from Councillor Bruce Machan about the cost, he estimiated it at about $20 a day or $4,000 to $5,000 for a school year. No one spoke against the he recommendation, but when d the time came for the vote it It was defeated. Council then immediately turned around and approved a second recommendation for a study of a cross-wa'lk at the Josephine and Patrick corner. Deputy Reeve Patricia Bailey, who said her concern is not only for children but e also for senior citizens - crossing the street, urged e council to also study the possibility of lowering the speed limit through town in an attempt to slow traffic. Councillor William Crump and Reeve Joe Kerr, were absent from the meeting.