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--_------ Annexation issue insights Dear Editor: Enclosed are copies of recent correspondence that I have had with Mr. Harry Adams the Reeve of Vespra Township in respect of the annexation problems that exist in Tiny and Vespra Town- ships. : Yours truly, Denis Bonyun oooo Mr. Harry B. Adams, Reeve, Township of Vespra, Midhurst, Ontario Dear Mr. Adams: I own and Operate a Motel located in. Tiny Township and I along with many persons in the Town of Midland and Tiny Township have, for the past two years been against the annexation of the Highway 93 corridor by the Town of Midland. It is with great surprise that I hear that the Ontario Government has, under the Municipal Boundary Negotiations Act 1981, given sanction to the City of Barrie to annex a portion of Vespra Township. I may be wrong but I thought that the situations in Vespra and Tiny Townships in respect of proposed annexations were similar. The siutation in the Midland Tiny boundary dispute is: 1, The people in Midland are not interested in annexation. Mayor Roach and most of the members of council were elected in Midland last year On anti-annexation platforms. 2. The Town of Midland does not require ad- ditional land. It has hundreds of acres of vacant and undeveloped land within its present' Town limits. 3. The residents and businesses in the Highway 93 corridor have absolutely no need for services from the Town of Midland. 4. The Town of Midland is at present unable to service properly many properties within its Town limits. Enclosed is a copy Of a letter dated July 12th, 1982 which I received from the Honourable William Davis. Mr. Davis states in this letter that the outcome of negotiations under the new proicess is by no means a foregone conclusion. The majority of the people in Midland and Tiny Township believe that the arguments against annexation far outweigh the arguments in favour of annexation, In spite of the assurances put forward by Mr. Davis in his letter to me and regardless of what the people in this area want, I greatly fear that the Provincial Government will rule in favour of annexation. Since it is possible that my apprehension is entirely unfounded I would appreciate it if you would give me details of what happened in your Township which led up to the present decision by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Sincerely yours, Denis Bonyun Mr. Denis Bonyun Owner and Manager Panorama Motel P.O. Box 396 Midland, Ontlario LAR 411 Dear Mr. Bonyun: I thank you for your letter of the 8th of December and apologize for the delay in replying. As you can possibly imagine the last month has been an extremely busy one and I very much regret that it has not provided me with the time in which to respond to your letter. I regret to inform you that your fears are in fact justified. The position with regard to Vespra and the City of Barrie is indeed very similar to the Midland-Tiny dispute although there are certain differences. It is not for instance known whether the people of the City of Barrie want annexation or not and, since the matter has been continuing for over a decade, it appears to be acceptable to the City residents as a fact of life. The Township of Vespra went to the extent of putting the matter of annexation to the people by way Of a question raised at the last election and received a resounding ninety four percent vote against annexation as a result. The City of Barrie have not had the courage Or initiative to take the same action with their own people and we feel this is somewhat unfortunate as it is believed that if they did, they would probably find that very few people are interested in pursuing annexatioon. Like Midland, the City of Barrie does not require additional land. As you may be aware, at the beginning Of 1982, it inherited Over 8000 acres of land from the Township Of Innisfil and, by its own public statement, has acknowledged that it will take twenty to twenty-five years to urbanize this area at a minimum. Much like the Highway 93 Corridor, nobody from the Highway 26/27 commercial strip thas Page 6, Wednesday, February 15, 1984 requested annexation or any services from. the City and again, rather similar to the cir- cumstances that you refer to, the City of Barrie has failed to provide services to properties within its own limits, leave alone properties. outside them. I regret that the fact of the matter is that the Provincial Government have committed them- selves in relation to annexation and appear to have become increasingly frustrated by our continuing ability to defeat each move as it has been made. This culminated in a call from the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the Honourable Claude Bennett, calling in representatives from the City, this Township and the County on the 6th of December last for a reason which remained unstated until our arrival there. The meeting was at 1:00 p.m. and we were informed that at 2:00 p.m. the Minister intended to go into the House to introduce legislation to annex land from the Township into the City. The position is however even more disturbing than that, At no time during the last three years has this Township been approached by the Province with regard to negotiating a settlement and the Province appears to have totally ignored its own legislation in the form of the Municipal Boundary Negotiations Act which was specifically passed at the beginning of 1982 in order to deal with disputes of this nature. It would appear that the Government itself has so many doubts about its own legislation and whether or not the procedures laid out therein would lead to the annexation it so seriously desires that it felt it necessary to circumvent the Municipal Boundary Negotiations Act regardless of the question of need or justification for the annexation itself. In this regard you may be in- terested to know that the last formal indication of the acreage being claimed by the City of Barrie was for a total of approximately 320 acres. The legislation which purports to set a "maximum" limit to the annexation takes in 4580 acres. You will no doubt agree with me that the more one hears about this the more disturbing it becomes! It is almost impossible to set out the full details of the matter in a letter of this nature and if you wish to pursue the matter any further I would be only too pleased to meet with you at our Municipal offices where our Clerk-Administrator, can also assist me in providing you with additional in- formation. I can be contacted at 728-1206 Or you can telephone the Clelrk-Administrator, Mr. Julian Tofts at 728-4784 in order to make mutually convenient arrangements. I'm sorry that it is not possible for this letter to calm your fears with regard to the implications of the action taken by the Provincial Government but the facts are indisputable and the more that people know about the use and abuse of the powers of the Provincial Government the better. I am grateful to you for writing to me and, as I have already indicated, I will be pleased to meet with you if you feel that this would be of any assistance to you. Good luck in your continuing battle. Yours truly, Harry B. Adams Reeve ocooo Mr. Harry B. Adams, Reeve-Township of Vespra Midhurst, Ontario Dear Mr. Adams: Thank you for your very explicate reply to my letter of December 8th. It now appears that, contrary to what Mr. Davis stated in his letter to me dated July 12th, 1982, the Ontario Government has no intention of permitting a full investigation to establish whether or not annexation is justified. The original intention of the Municipal Boundary Negotiations Act 1981 has apparently gone off the track somewhere. In a democracy people should definitely have the right to chose who should represent them whether it be Federal, Provincial or Municipal. This recent action taken by the Ontario Govern- ment regarding the boundary negotiations bet- ween your Township and the City of Barrie seems, in my Opinion, to go completely against our freedom of government in this country. This is most disturbing. Again I thank you for your letter and I express my sincere hope that in some way right will eventually prevail. Sincerely yours, Denis Bonyun Winter road reports... behind the scenes Dear Editor: I am enclosing a description of this Ministry's winter road reporting service in yOur area. -The main purpose of my communication is to highlight a new electronic innovation adopted this winter to improve our service while decreasing costs. I would appreciate if you could feature this information in your newspaper, either verbatim or as you find appropriate. Should you utilize the information, I would appreciate advance notice of its publication. D.A. Leckie, District Engineer Many prospective winter travellers wondering, 'should I drive or shouldn't 12', have long relied upon winter road condition reports provided by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and Com- munications. And who else could be more suited for such a task as M.T.C.! Information drawn from over two hundred staff, constantly patrolling the Provincial Highway system, is relayed by mobile radio, teletype and telephone at least five times per 24 hour day, depending on conditions, to numerous information points around the Province. Prospective travellers need only consult the blue pages of their local telephone directory to tap into this information network. In order to provide this service at no cost to the caller, M.T.C. has provided telephone access through its eighteen District Offices as well as through numerous toll free long distance lines throughout the Province. On the negative side of things, the popularity of the service has translated into some rather sub- stantial phone bills from 'Ma' Bell. To combat these costs M.T.C. has identified high demand road reporting areas and drawn on 'state of the art' technology to introduce local telephone access in such areas to limit the need for the more ex- pensive toll-free service. The Moonstone telephone exchange in the heart of Gentral Ontario's ski country offers direct local service to some 80,000 telephone subscribers in the exchanges of Moonstone, Barrie, Orillia, Midland, Elmvale, Coldwater, Port McNicoll-Victoria Harbour, Oro and Waubaushene. The number 835- 3014 can handle up to five callers at a given time and has served over 7,000 customers up to February this winter. The Technology employed, Digital Voice Reproduction, involves the recording of road reports, not on tape but electronically. Recorded messages are updated by telephone from the Ministry's District Office in Owen Sound. That Office holds direct responsibility for those Provincial road conditions in the counties of Grey, Bruce and Simcoe and, therefore, can provide the best information. available locally, as well as general information for the Province. So with the aid of up-to-date communications technology and a core of dedicated M.T.C. staff, the winter traveller has the pulse of the Province at his fingertips. Feb. 17 Georgian Shores Swinging "Seniors are having a euchre party and lunch at The Place, Balm Beach, at 1:30 p.m. Admission, $1.50. Feb. 18 ONE HOUR LIMIT ON MAIN STREETS| Jim Lynn Funeral Director A number of com- plaints have been received by the Penetanguishene Police Department regarding vehicles violating the one-hour parking limit in the business areas on Main and _ Robert Streets. Employees of downtown _ businesses sometimes park their cars Outside their work- place for the entire day, reducing the number of parking spaces available for shoppers, says Chief Robert Cummings. He will direct his men to enforce the parking by-law more strictly from now on, he said. Many motorists are unfamiliar with the three off-street parking lots which are con- veniently. located next to most shopping 'and banking establishments in town. The Penetanguishene Parking Athority recommends these lots especially for those who work in downtown Penetanguishene. There is all-day free parking available at these locations: (a) The spacious Firehall lot next to the Police Station and Municipal Offices is centralized in Penetanguishene's business district. (b) The newly im- proved Terminal Lot at the Town Dock offer parking facilities right on the Waterfront. (c) The Hewson Lot located behind the Water & Light Com- mission, a newly paved and well-lit parking lot. We're glad you asked! Looking For SOLID BIBLE TEACHING AND GOOD CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP Then, please join us! CHRISTIAN FAMILIES BIBLE STUDY Place: Home of Rick & Ruth Lamoureux 825 Victoria St. Midland Time: Fridays at 8 p:m. Sponsored by: Associated Gospel Churches Baked bean supper at the Riverside Centre, Main Street, Coldwater, sponsored by Coldwater Canadiana, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Adults $3.50, children $2, pre- schoolers free. "The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony, as it ts in music where many notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord." From the Writings of the Baha'i Faith 526-3184. 66 99 ARE YOUR MONEY MATTERS IN ORDER? Financial planning is part of your future security program. But if you were to die tomorrow, would your family know what to do? You may already have taken care of most of the important elements, but here is a general checklist for your reference. { 1. INSURANCE: Is the beneficiary up-to-date? Are premiums paid? 2. ARE BANKBOOK, mortgage papers, pension and other important documents all together? Does your family know where they are? 3. IS YOUR WILL current and available? 4.DO YOU HAVE A LIST of names, addresses and phone numbers of insurance agencies, ac- countants and lawyers? There are many details you may require. Call us er information on pre-planning a funeral or drop We. A Your questions and comments on this and other subjects are welcome -- in private or publicl through this column, ' ' ' James H. Lynnkey Al Funeral Homes Midland Elmvale 526-6551 322-2732