The Wingham Advance-Times, 1979-08-15, Page 1■
1
��i I� L ato�111
FIRST SECTION
1grave subdivision
plan' rejected by OMB
The Ontario Municipal Board
has turned down Belgrave
developer Lorne Humphrey's
subdivision proposal for that
hamlet because of the size of the
multiple unit housing and
commercial parts of the
proposal.
In his report dated July 9, OMB
Vice Chairman D. S. Colbourne
said that his findings from the
April 30 board hearing showed
the single family part of the
proposal, which called for 39
single family units to be built,
conformed with the Huron
County official plan and the
expected needs of the com-
munity.
W opx►sed'• but Mr. Humphrey was willing to
The plan Mr. Humphrey had pay enough money to get the land
proposed to the OMB called for a for his intentions.
multiple unit development of at Even if the site were developed
least 30 units and a commercial ' for the residential and com-
centre of at least 15,000 square , mercial uses, it wouldn't restrict
feet. the growth of existing farming
operations in the area, the OMB
Because the single unit,.
multiple unit and commercial,
parts of the plan were under one
proposal, the whole thing was
turned down, Mr. Colbourne
explained. `
In his decision he noted that
5,000 square feet of commercial
development would be more
acceptable than the 15,000 figure
proposed.
Mr. Colbourne's report stated Arguments presented at the
that he 'does not share the;, April hearing included one that
opinion (of Mr. Humphrey) to the the site of the proposed
effect that the proposal would be development should be main -
a harmonious and integrated tained as farmland, but Mr.
expansion of the village in Colbourne discarded that as an
respect either of the multiple issue, saying that surrounding
units proposed nor the scale of farmers had a chance to buy the
u the commercial development property when it went up for sale
vice chairman said.
Wingham, Wednesday. Aug _ ,P : i
Accident causes
$1,700 damage
An estimated $1,700 damage
was caused last week when a
motor home backed into a parked
car, Wingham police report.
William Zimmerman of
Wingham was backing out of a
driveway on Josephine Street,
south of the feed mill when the
motor home he was driving
struck a parked car belonging to
Ronald Houston of Kitchener.
Police estimated $500 damage
to the motor home in the
collision, with $1,200 damage to
the car.
Wingham youth champion
at national rifle matches
A sharp eye and a steady hand member of the three-man On -
helped a young man from tario team which placed first in
Wingham bring home no fewer the provincial competition; he
than eight awards from a also won his division and set four
national marksmanship com- individual records.
petition last weekend. In one relay he scored 599 out of
Kevin Lee, 17, won the a possible 600 firing frorri''the
Canadian Junior championship prone position; his total prone
in the sporting rifle event at the score was 1189 of a possible 1200;
Canadian National Matches held in three -position aggregate he
in Edmonton Aug. 10-12: had 1154 of 1200; and his grand
In addition to the individual aggregate was 2343 out of 2400.
championship Kevin was a His score of 583 out of 600 in three -
position shooting was good
enough to win him a side bet with
his coach, Finn - Petersen of
Stratford.
Kevin won the right to compete
at the national level by placing
second at the Ontario provincial
competition last month in Kit-
uienici'. A pvition of his [rave+
expenses to Edmonton will be
paid by the government, he said,
but he is responsible for the rest.
He flew out with his coach, who
also competed as a member of
the Ontario team. ow -n
Kevin, who is in his last year as
a junior, has been shootingf,
competitively for about 3% years Tbe Ontario Municipal Board
as a member of the Maitland
Marksmen Club in Wingham.: ` on objections to tp�ed
iii[
was the subject of a feature in � Q
The Advance -Times two ears � years ago has
� as been set for
y Sept. 27. The hearing will begin at
ago. to a.m. in the court room of the
More recently he has moved to town hall.
Kitchener, where he is working . Objections have been filed to
and will be finishing Grade 12 this the zoning -assigned to two
fall. He explained he intends to properties: Bateson's Da ry and
move into match rifle com- the Riverview Drive -In. Both
petition—the Olympic class—and were assigned special zoning
Kitchener is the nearest place he because they are located in
can find coaching. If he continues otherwise residential areas. The
his winning ways Wingham could zoning allows them to continue to
soon have a representative in the operate in their present form, but
Olympic Games. places restrictions on their
Kevin is the son of Mr. and conversion to any other type of
Mrs. William F. Lee of Catherine business; the owners are seeking
Street. straightforward commercial
zoning for the properties.
Although the bylaw took effect
when it was passed by town
Man i n u red council in 1974 and could be used
by the town, it only comes into
full force when it receives OMB
A Wroxeter man was injured in approval. The new town planning
a single car accident last Friday, board appointed last year made
provincial police at the Wingham gaining approval of the bylaw
detachment report. one of its priorities and had been
George A. Morris received pushing to get a hearing date set.
minor injuries as a result of the 0-0-0
accident, which occurred on Council is considering a bylaw
County Road 7 east of Sideroad drawn up to control noise in town..
10-11 in Turnberry Township. Councillor Allan Harrison offered
JUNIOR RIFLE CHAMPION—Kevin Lee won the Canadian Junior Championship in the
sporting rifle event last weekend at the Canadian National matches In Edmonton."'He
brought home a total of eight plaques for wins In various events of the competition as well
as some new records.
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THE BIG RACE—Bobby Craig, Brian Jouwsma, John their bicycles. They weren't really going anywhere, but It
yr alig, and Philip and Stephen S wit er lino up for a rare on !coked sand and was an excuse to aet their picture taken.
Council shorts
each councillor a copy of the Cate asked council to do a weekend doing free cleanup work
proposed b law, which was better job justifying the position . for;tbe centennial committee and
prepared Wwn 'solicltatrs bf tint vtibrU `6M1itltW&' e— Iemio,Vvehad the trucks at his
and asked them to come said council should re an home occasionally
during that
prepared to discuss it at the next. "honest statement proving his time.
meeting. worth" and not try to "fudge 0-0-0
040-0 figures". Tempers flared when Reeve
About $4,500 has already been
spent repairing a used truck
purchased last summer and it's
becoming a case of throwing
good money after bad, Reeve Joe
Kerr told council. The truck
together with a snowplow was
purchased from Harvey Krotz for
$7,500 in June, 1978, and since
then has required one repair
after another.
Council couldn't decide what to
do about the matter, feeling that
people would be upset if it went
out and bought another truck. On
the positive side Councillor
Gordon Baxter noted there can't
be much more to replace on the
vehicle.
o -o -o
Mayor Walden suggested the
town should put an ad-
vertisement in the newspaper
each month informing people
what the public works depart-
ment has been doing.
Earlier in the meeting Lloyd
Council received a petition,
against the parking of garbage
trucks on Centre Street, but
would not release the names of
the petitioners. Mayor William
Walden said the person who
brought in the petition asked that
the names be kept secret.
Councillor David Cameron
offered to discuss the matter with
Don Carter to see what can be
worked out.
In May Jim Inwood came to
council to protest the parking of
the trucks in front of Mr. Carter's
residence and after discussing
the matter with Mr. 'Carter
council decided to restrict him to
parking one truck in the
driveway, provided there were
no more complaints.
Councillor Tom Deyell noted he
hoped the complaint didn't relate
to the centennial weekend, noting
Mr. Carter had been kept busy all
Kerr criticised the works
department for the quality of
construction it is doing on
Charles Street and asked why it
is taking so long.
Councillor Bateson told him he
should keep his nose out of public
works since he is no longer on the
committee and went on to
criticise his voting record,
claiming he doesn't vote half the
time.
Mr. Kerr rejected the
suggestion, calling Mr. Bateson a
liar, and when the mayor
demanded a public apology Mr.
Kerr invited him to step outside.
However nothing further came of
the incident.
Mr. Kerr was removed as
chairman of the public works
committee last year after he
opposed plans to reconstruct the
main street at that time.
Mike Chappell, the works
commissioner, defended his
Continued on Page 2
Citizen protest forces council to scrap standards bylaw
Wingham's recently passed property
standards bylaw is back on the drawing
board. A strong protest by citizens
unhappy with what they saw as the
bylaw's "dictatorial" nature as well as
many of the provisions contained in . it
prompted town council to rescind th8
bylaw and take another look at the whole
matter.
More than 60 ratepayers jammed the
council chambers or stood in the hall last
Tuesday night to let the mayor and
councillors know what they thought of the
bylaw and other matters in town.
Council's decision last year to hire a
public works commissioner also came
under fire, as did its proposal to sell a
portion of Cruickshank Park for con-
struction of senior citizens' apartments.
However while council agreed to
redraft the standards bylaw and publish
it for comments before it is passed, it
stood by its decision on the works com-
missioner and still feels the park would
be a good place for a seniors' apartment.
Bill Harris, one of the spokesmen for
the citizens, criticised the standards
bylaw passed in May as "dictatorship".
He said there are good points in it but it
shouldn't have been copied verbatim,
noting that Exeter council rejected the
same bylaw. The Wingham bylaw was a
direct copy of one passed by Goderich,
which obtained it from the Ontario
housing ministry.
Councillor David Cameron at first
claimed the bylaw hadn't been passed
yet, but then admitted it had been passed
although it hadn't yet been put into ef-
fect.
Mr. Harris went on to question the
savings council claims to have made
through hiring a works commissioner
and to criticise council for piling up a
$98,000 deficit on its budget last year.
He wouldn't buy Works Commissioner
Mike Chappell's calculation that he has
saved the town more than $50,000 since
the beginning of the year and suggested
that had council been receiving regular
financial reports, as past councils did, it
wouldn't have run so far into the red.
Council has already made
arrangements with its auditors to receive
monthly reports, although the first has
not yet arrived and so it was unable to
answer the question how the budget is
running this year.
Mr. Harris also told councillors they
should be proud to have so many people
at a meeting. Not enough people realize
they have the right to attend meetings, he
said, adding that "a lot of other councils
would be glad of the input this council
had tonight."
Sometimes it takes a lot of people to
convince a council to do something, he
noted, and he said he is positive that as a
result of this meeting a lot of people will
run in the next election.
Mrs. Pat Bailey and Mrs. Grace
Netterfield also spoke out in criticism of
the standards bylaw and the hiring of a
works commissioner.
Mrs. Bailey told council that Picton, a
town of 6,000 people, pays its works
commissioner a salary of $14,500 and
declared that at $20,000 the position here
is overpaid. She also declared that people
don't want the bylaw, asking: "Are we in
Russia' Can't we have it done away
with?".
Mrs. Netterfield quoted extensively
from the bylaw and criticised many of its
provisions. She also asked why she had
been told at the June council meeting
that the bylaw hadn't been passed yet
when in fact it was passed at the May
meeting.
She questioned why it was necessary to
pass a bylaw legislating against such
things as wet basements, leaky roofs.
out -of -plumb walls, no eavestroughing or
the use of extension cords. The provisions
are fine if people can afford them, she
noted, but "you don't need bylaws to
force people to do these things". No one
wants a leaking roof or a wet basement if
they can prevent it.
She brought council a message from
her husband, who she said is removing
the eavestroughs from their home
because they cause an ice problem in the
winter and has no intention of rein-
stalling them.
For herself, she added, she is ready to
go to jail rather than allow an inspector
into her home and comply with the bylaw
and she proposed it be scrapped as soon
as possible.
Earlier in the meeting Mayor William
Walden had told the group that everyone
on council feels it's a good bylaw and "if
we get three good citizens on (the
property standards committee) it would
be a beautiful thing."
However Reeve Joe Kerr declared he
hadn't voted for the bylaw and Councillor
.Jack Bateson later said he was sick of it
and didn't care if it was thrown out.
A few voices at the meeting were
raised in defence of the bylaw, but they
were outnumbered. Bob Scott said he
understands the concern, but doesn't
know what the majority of people are
worried about since the bylaw won't be
acted upon unless there is a complaint.
One woman complained of having
rented places in town of which not one
would have passed an inspection under
the bylaw. She charged that landlords
are taking advantage of tenants and
something is needed for their protection.
In the end council agreed to poll the
group present and the vote was nearly
unanimous against the standards bylaw.
Later in the meeting, after the group had
left, council rescinded the bylaw and
decided to put its solicitor to work
drawing up a new one.
A couple of councillors felt the town
might as well forget about the whole
thing. Councillor Allan Harrison said
most of the points picked on were for the
protection of tenants and questioned
whether it would be possible to leave
much out, and Mr. Cameron agreed.
However Mr. Chappell said the town
needs a bylaw of some type or it will lose
out on provincial grants and Mr. Bateson
said he doesn't think the "tenant
business" is a big problem here.
At the same time council gave its
works commissioner a vote of confidence
and refused to reconsider the hiring or
the creation of the position. All coun-
cillors said they stick by the decision
made last year, with the only dissenting
voice coming from the reeve, Mr. Kerr,
who said the town needs a "working
foreman, not a figure foreman". Deputy
Reeve Harold Wild suggested the
commissioner should be given at least a
year to prove himself.
Council had been criticised for hiring
the works commissioner to do work that
should be done by council itself or the
town foreman, as in the past.
"As far as I'm concerned Mike is doing
a terrific job and we're very fortunate to
have him," the mayor declared.
"There's no way council could do
everything he's doing."
Council also rejected the suggestion
that Cruickshank Park would be too
noisy for a senior citizens' apartment.
Mr. Harris played a portion of a tape
recording he had made of traffic noise at
the park and said seniors would not want
to put up with such a racket.
Mrs. Netterfield agreed, saying it's a
nice little park and should be preserved,
and Borden Jenkins reported that last
summer when traffic was detoured down
Minnie Street he found it difficult to sleep
at times.
Another suggestion that came out of
the meeting—repairing the water
fountain in front of the town hall—was
raised again later in the council meeting
by Mr. Kerr and council agreed there is a
need for a fountain.
Originally Mr. Walden rejected the
suggestion, claiming the town doesn't
have the money to fix the fountain.
At one time there were three fountains
along the main street, Mr. Kerr noted, in
front of Steadman's, at the town hall and
at the ball park, while now there are
none. There has been a problem with the
fountains being destroyed by vandals.
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