Loading...
Wingham Advance-Times, 1980-03-12, Page 1FIRST SECTION tr BOOK YOUR vlr1NTER VACATION. NO - Business or Pleasure . TR'IKL SERVICE Listowel, Ontario Cali Toll Free 1400265-3220 Q , March 12, 1960 AA ;A .111111110111 et pump' uww.y The 16th annual Wingham Midget Hockey Tournament .kicks off this weekend, with opening ceremonies set for 8:30 p.m. Friday in the Lockridge Memorial Arena. The first hockey game goes at 5 p.m. Fri- day, with-Teeswater taking on Brussels in the D division. Howick faces Blyth in another D game at 6:45, and action opens in the C division at 8:45 p.m., following the ceremonies, With a same between Wingham and Durham. - Saturday and Sunday are devoted mainly to AAA hockey, climaxing with the cham- pionship game at 8:30 p.m. Sunday. Two second round D games will also be played on Sunday. (For a complete tournament schedule, see the sports section.) Introduction of the D division is a new development in the Wingham tournament this year, and should add greatly to the local fan interest by bringing in teams from many of the Surrounding communities. To keep the tournament to 32• teams, which organizers feel is a manageable size, the A division has been eliminated this year. Tournament action will resume next tt Ti,�uruday, March 20, with games in the C and D divisions, continuing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with B, C and D playoffs. The championship garnes in those three' divisions all will be played on Sunday, with the D finalists squaring off at 1 p.m. The B cham- pionship game will be played at 6:45 p.m. and the C finalists will meet at 8:30 to determine a champion. There will be a number of new teams in the • PUC will spend on safety devices The Wingham Public Utili- ties Commission will have to spend some money on new safety equipment this year. It was . reported during the PUC's short meeting on Thursday that due to Bill 70, additional equipment will be needed for employees. Manager Ken Saxton out- lined a few necessities such as a safety belt, ice guard and slide -rail trolley for tower ladders. One .company has already forwarded correspondence to the com- mission stating' that the devices, could be purchased through them for a total of $1,460. The recently passed:Bill 70 deals with occupational and health safety. Regarding the collection of sewage bills, the. PUC has signed its agreemenit with the town of Wingham It states that tiie9 comirri0ti 'will coiiltin (e 'ectii's tote' bills;" but a fee of 70 cents per bill will bei charged to the town and that money will be Morris Twp. hires road superintendent Morris Township Council hired a new road superin- tendent Monday afternoon. Lloyd Michie of RR 4, Brussels, was engaged . flair $5.00 per hour plus mileagd and- $25 per month for bookkeeping. Mr. Michie has agreed to supply his own truck for transportation and a township radio will be in- stalled. His employment will start immediately, subject to the approval of the Ministry of Transportation and Com- munications. There were nine ap- plications for road superin- • tendent in Morris and eight applicants showed' up for preliminary interviews on Monday. deposited in . a separate ac- count. Chairman Roy Bennett and ( om•missioner Rod Wraith were among, the 1,400 delegates, representing electric utility commissions from across the province, attending the 71st annual meeting of the Ontario Municipal Electric Association (OMEA) on March 3-4. The association is the spokesman for more than 320 municipal utilities throughout Ontario, the commissioners and councillors of which are elected to operate a specialized municipal service. They represent more than two million residential, com- mercial and industrial customers served by the municipal distribution systems, who consume two- ,1th the e many ns. teams tournament this year, particu1arJY: addition of a D•divjlSio10, familiar sweaters in the Other= # The AAA division will feat from Toronto and three. from i.,.igan, in addition to Collingwood, Waterloo.and' Owen Sound. ,, �, - , Playing in the B division willbertleams from Listowel, New Hamburg, Walkertf$'Exeter, Goderich, Borden, BearrlsvllilCOnd. Kin - •.:A1 cardine.Y�, The C division will feature, ; ��addition to the Wingham Lions, teams. from Durham, Saforth, Burford, Shelburne,.,, Mitchell, Stayner and Port Perry The D division will -brim toget from Teeswater, Brussel , Fii1 Mildmay, Tiverton Zurich +afnd thirds off the electric power in Ontario. Delegates to the two-day annual meeting, held at the Royal York Hotel, were in: volved in discussions on a number of issues that have or will affect their consumers. Topics ranged from the "cost of power" to the use of "off peak" power and the effect of Daylight Saving Time on energy conservation. Choi er teams 11t, Blyth, .. more. made to lin' .ups in tourney A few 'changes have been announced in' i1ie. schedule for the Wingham .Midget Hockey Tournament, which starts this Fr Iniday. Game. 5 Saturday mor- ning, an ;'AAA team from Windsor. *swill replace the Michigan) ` ` Bulls against Waterloo'_:and in Game 6 the Royal Oak, Michigan, team will ' replace the team from Fraser. Tournament passes are now avaiilable'at:the arena office at a cost of $8:00 for an, adult, $4.00 for a'$tudent or $2.00 for a child. Daily tickets are $2:00 per adult, x'$1.00 per student and 50 cents: per child. ACCEPTS AWARD—Julaine Adams,.. captain of the Wingham Junior Girls' Ringefte Team, accepts the championship trophy from Dr. Bray after her team was victorious in the Junior Girls' Ringette Tournament, held in Winghaip last Saturday. • Spring , courses at . Madill Three spring courses will be made available at F. E. Madill Secondary School, Wingham, starting Monday, April 7, and Thursday, April 10, both at, 8 p.m. Basic knit fabrics and ad- vanced knits will be taught by Mrs. M. Divok of Clinton and beginner's golf will again be offered Mondays. John More= land of Wingham will be the instructor. Further details on the courses are available from the school at 357-1800. Nearly 300 area residents 'participated in the just completed program of evening courses held at the Brussels Public School and the Wingham high school this winter. A total of 19 courses were well attended. Named vice president of Ontario association rk: Dave Wenger, managing editor of The Mount Forest Confederate, was named vice president of Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association when that group met in Toronto on the weekend. The association represents over 200 newspapers . in the province which serve communities from several "hundred to thousands. The first woman to be a director and president of the organization, Jean Baker; Pearce, who publishes The Alliston Herald, turned the gavel over to Bill Poirier of the Grimsby Independent for the coming year. OWNA not only acts as a common voice for community weeklies across the province, but is also a group kauying and warehousing operation and provides ongoing education for those in the weekly pub- lishing business, recognizing their achievements in annual awards. David has been involved in seminar planning, in developing a provincial ad vertising sales arm for the association and in the overall business of OWNA as a member of its executive committee. Single Copy. Not Over Ole Y 5 ' HEIR=ITAdE WINNERS—These fur students at East Wawanosh Public School had their projects judged best in a Heritage Day contest sponsored by -the. Belgrave and District Kinsmen Club. Graham Taylor was second to Sharon Swartzentruber in the Grades 4-6 competition, while Andrew Walsh was first and Karen Dunbar second in the Grades 7-8 contest. The Grades 4-6 students made posters on the heritage theme while the senior students'' wrote essays. Dave Medd was the teacheqr in charge of the project. The Kinsmen presented bookslto the winners and all participants got Heritage Day badges to wear. n agrees to procee+ reassessment under Section 86 In a move which w, uld • eventually bring lower tIxes for some, with correspon- dingly higher taxes for others, the town of Wingham is look- ing at updating its assessment rolls. Atits meeting Monday night council agreed to ask for a tax study of the town, the first step toward reassessment under Section 86 of the Assessment Act. The reassessment is in- tended to iron out the inequities which have crept into the property taxes and to make sure each landowner pays his fair share. However it stops short of a complete, market value, tax reform. It reapportions the tax load within a property' class, but does not allow a shift in the balance of property taxes from One class to another. Not all homes have in- creased in value by the same percentage over the years, .Floyd Jenkins of the Huron-' Perth assessment office ex- plained to council, and this, coupled with a provincial freeze on assessments, has led to the inequities in sharing the tax burden. Now it has. been left up to municipal councils to decide whether to proceed with a limited tax reform. "You opt for Section 861and the freeze is off," Mr. Jenkins told council. "You don't opt for this and•the freeze is on." ' He said there are about 1,200 properties in town, divided in- to residential. commercial and industrial classes, with some' vacant land and other special classifications. The bulk of this, some 900 properties, is residential, and the assessment office has calculated that of these 216 (25 per cent are over -assessed and pay'ing more than their fair share of taxes. On the other hand 250 (29 per cent are' under -assessed and paying less than their share Of. 94 commercial proper- ties, 41 per cent are currently over -assessed and 18 per cent are under -assessed. As a consequence the people paying more than their share have been subsidizing the people . paying less, Mr, Jenkins explained. •, He' said that for residential properties the median assess- ment is about nine per cent of a property's market value in 1975. Propertiescurrently assessed below this rate would be brought up, ^ while those assessed above it would drop back. "Taxes may change from very little to a hell of. a lot," he told council, but he added that in general the reassessment program has gone over quite well. Eighteen of the 26 municipalities in Huron County had opted for a Section 86 reassessment by the end of last year, he reported, and the .increase in assessment ap- peals has been "hot at all astronomical". He said his office deter- mines what the correct '73- 't: t� 5'� IT u.'. i.tese eleede.... `5''7221 Ecs ks' t� gill n'1c v+:,� l4 rt? i assessment should be by using 1975 market values and the condition of the property in 1978. His staff has been making periodic inspections throughout the cotinty and erery property in Huron \has been assessed at least three times since 1990, he reported. Once the assessments are brought to market value they would be adjusted at intervals of no more than three years and no less than two, to keep the inequities from creeping back, he added. He noted that -while coun- cil's request for a tax study sets the town on the road toward reassessment, it still has the chance to change its mind. The next step will be for the assessment office to come back with a chart showing what the effects of reassess- ment would be within the various property classes, although individual properties would not be specifically identified. At that time council could Hearing adjournment postpones final ecision on fate of Cruickshank Park Although the town pf Wingham is back virtually to square one in its attempt to rezone a portion of Cruickshank Park for seniors' housing, it is in no immediate danger of losing the promised apartments. .Following the adjournment of the Ontario .Municipal Board hearing last Thursday. Daryl Kreuzer of the Ontario t-inttcieg Cor- poration promised the project "won't be compromised at all" by the delay. The postponement isn't a good thing, from the ministry point of view• he said, because construction costs will continue to rise However the OHC is still committed to the project and will continue to renew its offer do purchase the land as long as, the town is willing to sell. We're still completely ,for it " Mr Kreuter did hint though, that an un- favorable ruling • el the hid to place the apartments m the park could jeopardize the project The housing ratirporatrun »would rev sew the feasibility of the prole, r in its entirely" starting with,r reassessteeie H .he need for the apartments if the i '•11 ere to turn dee() thy• 1 teoneee ! r -;, . Asked whether the OH(' had even con- sidered any other sites for the apartments, Mr. Kreuzer said its agent),had looked at the park and the old Lloyd factory lot, which he said was too expensive Ile indicated the ministry is still pinning its hopes on getting the park site, which the t a k n has agreed to se!! for ,,;, ,us, .,.ter a<,. r The OMB hearing. which uas to have considered objections to 'he town bylaw rezoning the park site. as adjourned Thursday morning at the request of the town and with the consent of the lawyer repre- senting a number of the nhlectors. Chairman Edward Seahorn told the group, -.- of people gathered for tho M,»armg that.there was no point in going ahead with it. since the hylaw' in question amends the town's comprehensive zoning bylaw which itself hasn't yet received OMB apprma•1. He explained the town now intends to proceed via a free-standing hylaw (not dependent on the zoning hrlaa' and an amendment to the town official plan. Noone nhlect and "it doesn't inwill anylose wayany takeright stoway from your positron of objection", he promised. Onee the proper steps hay cr Hen taken the matter will come hack 1,• !lie i il\1}1 and the hearing will be held at that He promised the h ;ircl \kill do all it can to expedite the heorm Gary f)av'risnl head „I 'he county planning department -.Aid i' should he poetbl.. ,.; • ithin six weeks Before !ha •+ , ,t c of 'he amend ment to the official p,•a,, u� he circulated in the newspaper ,Inti a puhlii meeting must be held Pat Barley inquired kkhether, if half the people in i„°ti li signed d per it ion opposing rile development In the» park the Apartments could still he allowed Ihnrr Mr. Seaborn tn,lci her a petition is fine to choy.• the attitudes ,if pati'lllle r low n hut it is more important to hake the people them selves come to the hearing as V,1tnesses, Mrs. Bailey explained she doesn 1 Oppose the apartments, but dnesn t eeinl them hulls in the park James A Currie -told the hearing officer he has reason to belie%n that both the official plan and -Zoning bylaw for Wingham have been compromised by the a !inns nf council since tneir passage. However Mr. Seaborn said he wasn't in a position to hear evidence On anything not specifically related to the park "1 don't particularly want to get into that•" he said Such evidence should have been brought forward .at the hearing on the comprehensive zoning bylaw last fall, or Mr Currie could pursue the matter with the OMB through his solicitor Wingham council had hoped to avoid the adjournment of the hearing by giving two readings to a new, free-standing bylaw ,rezoning the site during a special meeting Wednesday night, which was also attended bs. members nf the planning board. However an agreement to ask for the adjournment apparently had already been reached hetweeethe solicitor for the town and the solicitor hired by a group of ob- jectors Consequently the solicitor for the objectors was not present at the hearing. Mr Seaborn noted the delay will allow the town to finish passing the bylaw as well as make anx necessary amendments to its official plan ,and the OMB can then hear hoth ,at. the same time ,.� .wiH.-.....r,t...;s w.,.. ....a. �— ...,a�...o,..,.......i.., ...u. 4? i«i?nl,...�.._ — !w: decide not to proceed, or it could carry on, at which point the assessment officewould notify individual landowners of the proposed changes to . their taxes. A series of open - house meetings would follow, giving ratepayers a chance to discuss or appeal 'their re- assessments. Pub. meeting • is set for Turnberry plan A public meeting will be held March 20 to discuss the second draft of the. Turnberry Township secondary plan. The meeting is set for 8 p.m. at the Turnberry Central School. A previous meeting held last fall to go: over the first draft of the plan produced a number of suggestions and requests for changes. Since then the town- ship council has been working with -its planner to incorporate these and other changes into a new draft. Councillors are hoping for a . good turnout at this ,meeting to help them decide whether the second draft is better suited to the desires of township residents. Copies of the draft are being distributed to rate- payers prior to the meeting. MARILYN MacINTYRE Marilyn, , daughter of Grant and Marie Mac- Intyre of Wingham, grad- uated in December from the Marvel School of Hair- dressing, London, She wrote her provincial ex- aminations in February and paced with !---tors. AR