Clinton News-Record, 1971-08-26, Page 1Pi cents
Mrs. Dell Jervis sorts family allowance cheques to be rerouted to the homes of families
recently transferred away from CFB Clinton as one of her last acts as post master at
,Adastral Park post office, which closed Friday. It is 17 years ago in October that Mrs.
Jervis came' to the post office as an assistant and she became post master in 1969. She and
her husband will retire to a mobile home in Goderich for summers and spend winters in
another hone in Florida.
News-Record honoured
for community service
lawyer in Toronto that they had
a good case..
First contact between the
company and the town was
made on September 3, 1968
when the vice-president wrote to
the Chamber of Commerce
asking for information on
possible sites for a new plant in
Clinton.
On Sept. 7, E.F. Hunt,
secretary of the town's industrial
committee replied telling the
company of nine or ten
informing them of the former
Canada Packers building which
the town had purchased.
Subsequent interest by the
company centred around
building a new plant and on Oct,
27, 1968 Mr. Hunt wrote to
Charles MacNaughton, M,P.P'
FOR Huron requesting his
assistance in acquiring a loan
from the Ontario Development
Corporation to build the new
plant.
But by early 1969 the
company had decided to locate
in the Canada Packers building
and bought it from the town for
approximately $8000 along with
the live acres of land that
surrounded it near the CNR
tracks.
The April 17, 1969 issue of
the News-Record recorded the
signing of the agreement. The
company said at that time it
would employ 10-15 persons at
the beginning of operations and
25 "before long." The
vice-president foresaw a
workforce of 50 within a short
time,
The article went on to say:
"Mr, Fabian Jr. sees Clinton as a
good site for the plant and says
`now it is up to us'. He foresees a
million-dollar annual production
rate for the plant here 'within a
year'."
Councillor Clarence
Denomme, chairman of the
town's industrial committee says
that at no time during
negotiations to bring the
company to town was there any
mention of problems of
financing.
The highest employment ever
reached at the plant the Fabians
say was six persons besides
themselves.
Town officials were
enthusiastic about the new plant
when it was first announced. It
was the first fruits of a campaign
by the town council to locate
new industry. The company
employed a revolutionary
U-bend process in making such
items as bedroom furniture. The
process bends laminated wood
so the sides and backs of drawers
were made from one piece of
wood rather than the normal
three.
Mr. Denomme, who also runs
a furniture store, says there is no
doubt the company produces a
first-rate product. He sold their
line of furniture for some time.
After the company decided
to locate in Clinton, efforts to
secure a loan from the ODC
continued. The company was
unable to get action and on July
11, 1969 Mr. Denomme wrote a
letter to the ODC chairman,
Donald C. Early. It stated in
part:
"From our discussions with
the principals of this firm, we
have learned that your
department has been extremely
because summer is the busiest time on the
farm when farm youngsters are needed most
at home, For this reason it was left up to the
disecrtion of the individual families when,
and for how long, the return visit would be.
As for picking cucumbers, Sharon says
it's okay, but only for a week.
Weather
1971 1970
HI 1.0 HI 1.9
Aug. 17 80 46 74 53
18 85 ' 49 77 02
1.9 84 67 81 93
20 79 63 77 55
21 76 57 71, 46
22 82 52 69 00
23 64 46 71 54
1 borsday, figil$, 25„ 1971 10 .6 Ye or • No. 34 .
Rain .98" Bain ,37"
BY KEITH ROULSTON
• A rift between the Town of
Clinton and the Fabian
Furniture Manufacturing Ltd,
has developed to such a point
that reconci Illation seems
impossible.
The situation was not aided
last week by an front page
article in the London Free Press
COUNCILLOR DENOMME
in which Joseph Fabian,
president, and his son, Joseph
Fabian Jr., vice-president of the
company claimed the town had
turned against them and was
trying to drive them out of
town.
Joseph Fabian Jr. said his
company plans to sue the town
for expenses he said were
incurred in gaining the deed to
the property.
It was not a new threat. The
Fabians told the News—Record
last winter they were considering
the suit. They said et the time
they had been told by their
BY WILMA OKE
Construction for the new church began
Monday for the congregation of Brucefield
United Church. It will replace the
62-year-old church destroyed by fire last
November 20. •
The new church is being built by Mehl
Construction Ltd. of New Hamburg for
$122,000, The red brick edifice will seat 250
persons in the nave and includes a church
hall.
Another prominent feature of the design
is a modern bell tower, separate from the
one-storey church, but connected to it by a
covered walkway.
Other features include a kitchen, church
school rooms, a nursery, minister's study
and meeting rooms,
Since the November fire, the
congregation has been worshipping in the
farm hosts, all participants are' covered by
insurance.
The exchange is not a one way street. The
rural children are invited to visit the homes
of their visitor but no formal return visit
program has been set up by the department
Nippon United Church, which is the other
half of the two-point Drucefield-Kippen
charge of the United Church of Canada. Rev.
Paul Packman is the minister. He succeeded
Rev, Donald Stuart on July 1.
No deadline has been set for completion
of construction. However, it will be some
time in 1972 before the 110 family
congregation will hold service in the new
church.
The Clinton News-Record has been
'honoured as one of the top five weekly
newspapeis in Canada for its community
service work.
In the nation-wide contest open to all
weekly newspapers of any size, the
News-Record won honourable mention.
Winner of the Hoodspith Publishing Co. Ltd.
Award for community Service was the New
Market Era,
Other winners were the Dawson
Creek—Peace River. (B.C,) Block News, the
Pointe Claim, (Quebec) News-Chrbnicle, the
One Hundred Mile House, Free Press and the
News-Record.
The award was presented at the annual
convention of ,, the Canadian Community
Newspaper Association held last week in
Vancouver.
1 st Column
The News-Record had welcome, a very
teresting visitor last Thursday in the
on 61 Rev. Jene Miller, his charming wife
d two daughters.
The Millers were on vacation and
veiled north from their home in
lahoma City, Oklahoma. Most of their
urney was through the northern states but
ey made a side trip to come up to visit the
ws-Record staff,
The editor and the Millers had a very
formative chat over coffee comparing life
Canada and Oklahoma.
* * *
The Millers came right in the middle of
e raising of the new sign on the
ws-Record's new office on Albert Street.
hope the minister's ears weren't burned
much by the words, or at least the
ughts, of the workmen struggling to raise
500 pound sign and mount it oh the
Iding,
The move of the News-Record was
omplished smoothly, or as smoothly as
uld be expected, We didn't know just how
oh we bad accumulated over the years
to it came time to move it all. Friday
ht we weren't sure if customers would be
le to get in the door of the new office on
ntlay or not, but over the weekend we
naged to get it all stored, if not in its
per place, a least out of sight.
* *
J. Howard Aitken, general manager of the
ws-Record announced yesterday that the
w offices will welcome everyone to an
en house on Friday evening, September 3.
me on In and see displays of how the
ws-Record is printed and meet the people
ind the newspaper.
* * *
This time of the year newspapers are
uged with stories and pictures of recent
ddings. Some of them can be a problem.
For one thing, wedding reports often
ye so late they are hardly news any more.
ease try to get the account of your
ddieg to us within a month of the date of
e event,
Pictures also pose a problem, If you are
ving a professional photographer take
ur pictures, have him send them along as
ti as possible. If you are having friends
Ord the 'wedding in snapshots and want to
d one to the paper, 'please make sure
one is taking black and white &taps,
our pictures often do not reproduce well
the newspaper where they have to be
need to black and White. To avoid
ppointment, black and white is best for
newspaper.
The News-Record won praise from the
judges for its work on pollution and its
compaign for clean up of the Bayfield River
and Griffith's Pond. Also included in the
presentation which won the honour was the
proposal for development of the area
between the river and CFB Clinton.
Auburn area
barns burn
Two Auburn area farms were destroyed
by fire over the weekend in separate
incidents.
A fire of undetermined cause destroyed.a
barn on the farm of David McCtinchey on
Concession 1 of West Wawanosh Township
on the outskirts of Auburn about 1 a,m.
Friday morning.
Besides the 2,800 square foot structure,
30 pigs were also lost in the blaze.
About 3 a.m. Saturday, lightning started
a fire which destroyed a large L-shaped barn
on the farm of Julian Delbergue about two
miles east of Auburn.
Three thousand bales of hay were lost in
the blaze which was only 100 feet from the
farmhouse. The Delbergues lost a previous
house by fire in 1965.
Damage has not yet been estimated in
either fire, Blyth fire department was called
to both fires,
Picking cucumbers from a two-acre field
of the vegetable may not be your idea of a
vacation but that's how 12-year-old Sharon
de Vos of Burlington spent the past week.
What's more, she didn't mind at all.
Sharon is one of about 120 youngsters
from cities who have been placed oh Huron
County farms this summer for a 'week
through the rural-urban exchange program
run this summer by the Ontario Department
of Agriculture and Food.
In all, 3000 children from cities of
20,000 population and over will have farm
vacations this summer throughout Ontario.
The youngsters are usually in the 12-15
years age group,.
Many of them will end up doing tasks
such as Sharon did when she stayed on the
Tierk Tiestna farm at RR 4 Clinton. That is
the object of the exercise according to
Verna Runt and Evelyn Weatherston, two
university students who are organizing the
vacations through the Kitchener office for
Huron county and western Oetario. The
children are not to be entertained, they
stressed recently, Their hosts are asked to
put them to work so they will get to know a
little of what farm life is like. So, when
Sharon came to the Tiesma farre last week
she went to work in the cucumber patch
along with the other five Tiesma children,
She was proud of the fact that one day
last week they picked more than a ton of
cucumbers from the field to be taken to
Dublin for processing.
Promotion is a big pate of farming, Verna
and Evelyn point out, The farmer must get
city people to understand more about his
way of life and his problems. Children who
have visited the working farm know more
about rural life and go home to influence
their family and friends, leading toy better
urban-rutal understanding.
13eause of the danger of many farm
operations, the city children are taught
about farm safety before they are turned
loose in the country, In order to protect the
reluctant to entertain any form
of application from them.
"Since we are anxious to see
this firm receive the necessary
financial assistance to begin
operation in the near future, we
would appreciate an opportunity
to Meet with your department
to discuss any financial
assistance which should be
JOSEPH FABIAN JR.
available for this firm,"
Copies of the letter went to
the company and to Mr.
MacNaughton. On July 15, Mr.
MacNaughton wrote to Mr.
Denomme that he, too, had
written to the ODC hoping to
spur action.
On July 21, A. Etchen
managing director of the ODC
sent a letter in reply.
"The ODC is not permitted
by its terms of reference to
make a forgivable loan to a
company which is moving its
operations from one
municipality in Ontario to
(See Page Sixo'
Vote on contract
could open
schools
Teachers were scheduled to meet in the
Clinton Legion Hall yesterday at 2 p.m. to
either accept or reject an agreement worked
out last week between their Negotiating
Committee and the Huron County Board of
Education.
As of press time, no announcement had
been made.
The agreement was worked out at a
meeting of the Ontario Secondary School
Teachers' Federation Negotiating Committee
and the Huron County Board of Education
held at Central Huron Secondary School
Wednesday afternoon and evening and early
Thursday morning, The meeting, which
started at 2 p.m. and ended at 2 a.m, the
next morning, was also attended by two
members of the Ontario Trustees' Council,
Bruce Shaw, president of the Huron
branch of District 22 of the OSSTF, who
was a member of the teachers' Negotiating
Committee, said the committee was happy
with the tentative agreement, but would give
no details. The chairman of the board's
Negotiating Committee, John Broadfoot, R.
R. 1, Brucefield, hoped the teachers would
ratify the contract and school could open on
schedule on September 7,
Federation urges
refund on bottles
Dispute erupts in bad publicity
Town, Fabians disagree
on blame for firm's failure
Construction begins on Brucefield. Church
Brewers across the province have just
started giving one cent for each can
returned. Brewers Retail in Toronto.
reported 22,000 cans returned the first
week. That's only five percent of the 50,000
dozen or so cans sold each week, but it's a
start.
'But the 'soft drink people' don't seem
to care," said Jack Stafford, President of
Huron County Federation of Agriculture,
this week. "If the brewing industry can offer
compensation for returned beer bottles and
now beer cans, I see no reason why the soft
drink manufacturers shouldn't too."
"The brewers give a two cent rebate on
returned bottles," he continued, "and the
result — they get 96 percent of their bottles
back."
Murray Gaunt M,P.P., who twice
introduced bills to ban non-returnable
bottles, said, "The brewers have shown a
little more concern than the soft drink
manufacturers, although the soft drink
people are beginning to move now,"
Ontario's new Environmental Protection
Act gives the government authority to ban
the sale of non-returnable'bottles.
"And when the government does that, as
it will if the soft drink people don't do it
themselves," Mr. Gaunt said, "the people of
Ontario can look forward to a much cleaner
environment."
City kids leant about farming iri exchange program
The children On the TOW Tiestna farm, R. R, 4, Clinton,. got a little help last week
picking cucumbers in the tWo,acre patch on the farm, Here Judy tieema,12, (left) gets
help froth Sharon de Vet, 12, (centre) erorri Burlington, 'while little Helena Tiesma, 7,
does her part. Sharon is one of a number of thy youngsters on exchange this summer to
rural farms, the Ontario DepartMent of Agriculture and food runs the Program. The idea
is to let more city children know what it it like to live and work on a farm, The
long-range objective is to improve urban.rural understanding. In the short range, it helped
Judy end Helena pick tucurnbers faster,