Halton Hills Newspapers

Georgetown Herald (Georgetown, ON), June 7, 1991, p. 1

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INFORMATION Perfect For Flevlt Under Vehicles COST EFFICIENT INNOVATIVE UPTO DATE TECHNIQUES GEORGETOWN L7G The Halton Hills Florists EXPRESS YOURSELF SAY IT WITH 8776901 14500 DISTRIBUTION PAGES FRIDAY JUNE 1981 Home Newspaper of Halton Hills Established 1866 IN STORES fcO Lending Library Picnic takes a shot at the ring toss one of several games children took part In at the Halton Hills Toy Lending Library annual picnic at Cedarvale Park held Wednesday Dympna Dewar supervised this game while younsters Neil Dewar boy and Graham Walker older boy waited their turn The picnic was held to thank toy library volunteers who offer their time from September to June to organize the lending of over 500toys Herald photoby Lisa Boonstoppel Pot Charges laid in abuse investigation By LISA BOONSTOPPELPOT The Herald Four weeks into a police in vestigation surrounding allega tions of sexual and physical abuse at Ernest Drury School for the deaf in Milton a former teacher at the school has been charged with seven sexual of fences Gerald Hall of London was charged earlier this week by don City Police who are in vestigating similar allegations at the two Schools in don for the deaf Detective Sergeant Michael of the Halton Regional Police confirmed that Mr Hall had been employed at EC a school housing approx 250 hearing impaired students aged five to 20 for awhile before being transferred to in London So far Halton Regional Police have not laid any charges and said there is a possibility none will be laid We now have suspects but we may not lay charges he said Thursday morning before leaving for the Crown Attorneys office in Milton where he was to discuss the possibility of laying charges with the Crown Attorney But he said if charges arc to be laid they could occur by the mid next week The investigation is taking so long because police are uncover ing more and more witnesses all the time said Sgt Since the original three allega tions were made in May he said other allegations have been made As we talk to different people we come up with more names of people to talk to he said From the three women who first came forward its been suggested that we talk to someone else The three women are now in their 30s and were between and 17 yearsold at the time of the alleg ed assaults Police have been com with women all over the country for this investigation said Det Sgt Eacrett One of the difficulties police detectives have overcome during the investigation was learning how to communicate with the vie who are all deaf or hearing- impaired The department has on loan from E C Drury School a Telephone Device for the Deaf TDD which allows police of ficers to type out a message that runs through the telephone lines and is displayed on a machine owned by the deaf person That person in turn can write a message back to the police Police are facing other dif ficulties in the investigation however Mainly the time frame Were going back 20 years and we are finding some people are very reluctant to talk because of the time frame said Sgt As well because it hap pened so long ago some things weve been told are difficult to corroborate Its hard to get evidence to support some of these allegations he said One allegation has already been found to be unsubstantiated One girl had alleged an act of sex ual abuse had taken place in the early 80s We found that com plaint was unfounded said Det Sgt Eacrett In this case the police were told by a person that her friend had been sexually assaulted When police interviewed the alleged victim she revealed that it had never happened Police aren releasing any fur her details on the suspects but since the onset of the investiga tion two former members of the EC Drury staff who were transferred to Robarts in London have been suspended with pay The provincial education minister Boyd has also begun a probe into complaints at both EC and Robarts School in London She has also seized records from five other provincial schools for the deaf and blind because there was some indication other schools may be involved Willow Park latest meeting called useless By BEN The Herald One thing is certain the residents of Willow Park are no better off after a special meeting Wednesday between themselves local councillors NorthHalton Noel Duignan provincial Ministry of Housing officials and representatives from the Credit Valley Conservation Authority at the Halton Hills Civic Centre As Willow Park resident Roger Perryman said three quarters of the way through the two and a half hour session Ive walked into another useless meeting Mr was referring to the fact a good portion of the meeting had been spent on issues including affordable housing and alternative sites where the residents may be able to relocate sometime the future These matters are important said Mr Perryman but theya re secondary to the primary issue which is the amount of compensa tion the residents will receive for being forced to leave the park The Credit Valley Conservation Authority has ex propriated the land because it is located in the Credit River According to the CVCA peoples lives would be at risk if a major flood happened in the area The residents were required to leave the property by May but there are still several mobile homes the Park As compensation for the ex propriation of the land the residents have so far received moving expenses and money for any improvements they have done to their trailer park lots The moving expenses money was sufficient to permit the residents to move to a proposed mobile home park in Acton However the Ontario Municipal Board ruled earlier this year that the proposed site could not serve as a mobile home park Since the Acton site has been rejected the residents echoed previous claims at Wednesdays meeting that compensation so far received is inadequate The residents want compensation that reflects the value of their respective mobile homes said Mr He explained it is ridiculous for the meeting to focus on alter native housing for the residents if they cant afford it Mr ryman explained the residents need better compensation since their mobile homes are worthless because they are not in parcel with a plot of land We cant be expected to carry the mortgage on our mobile homes and pay rent or another mortgage for another type of housing said Mr Unfortunately for the residents no one at the meeting was willing to discuss the idea of further compensation Although the CVCA ex propnated the land the Town paid percent of the expropna tion cost It obtained this funding from Georgetown South developer Enterac as part of a frontending agreement Enterac similar to any developer in Georgetown or Ac ton is required to pay a lot levy for every lot it sells Normally the lot levy is paid to the Town once the lot has been sold but in the case of the lots in Georgetown South the developer frontended the lot levies meaning It paid- the levies before selling the lots The residents have always claimed the Town should ap proach the developer for more money to improve the residents compensation package However Town lawyer Roger Beeman said during the meeting there is no developer out there with a handful of money ready to help out When asked if the province would be willing to improve the residents compensation package Mr said he couldnt answer that question but would make inquiries with the Minister of Housing Recognizing none of the involv parties would budge on the compensation issue the residents lawyer Judy Htndy said she will soon file a claim with the Ontario Municipal Board to obtain more compensation In the meantime Ms Hendy said she wanted the CVCA to give the residents another sixmonth vacancy extension She said the residents would be willing to sign a waiver releasing the CVCA and the Town from any responsibility if a flood happened in the area General Manager Vicki Barron said she would ask the authority board if they would be willing to accept this offer in ex change for th deadline extension Ms Hendy asked Town coun cillors if they would introduce and approve a motion in support of the extension No councillor in troduced a motion If an extension isnt granted then the residents will only be able to remain in the park until the eviction notices are fully pro cessed That could take anywhere from a month to two years said Mr Barron Police Beat Poets Comer 10 Futures 3 Community in Environment Focus Seniors Sports 131415 8 Entertainment 16 Editorial 10 Youth Page 17 Wears World 10 An Inside Look Quote of the Week A a job its a title Abo its a blessing a stroke of good fate something drawing a royal straight flash in the biggest pot of the evening Thats why we think It wrong to think of a as a job and wrong to think of the Senate as place where people aw supposed to work given Senator

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