Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1970-03-12, Page 1PRICE PER COPY 159 95th YEAR 1-1 The first column Merchants pin News-Record This Week the merchants of the Clinton area will honor the consumers of this area With an assortment of the greatest values ever Seen in the entire region-, See the "BAZAAR OF VALUE'S" pages of this edition of the Clinton News,Rexord, FRIENDLY COMMUNITY Sales receipts and bank deposits show that the Clinton area is soaring ahead as a regional shopping centre, There are many continuing factors to this growth. The Clinton area for years has been 'referred to as a friendly community, Progressive merchants. courteous sales people and an understanding, efficient town and area government are the biggest assets, CONFIDENT FUTURE The Clinton Atea iS an industrious eolith-malty. Our civic leaders ate. always looking for new income for our people through new industries that will bring gainful employment, Our educators, spiritual leaders, members of the Medical and legal professions, and progressive farmers and dairymen, have all the facilities 'to Meet the challenge of our continued growth, in consumer salute CONSUMER GIVEN CREDIT You, Mr, and Mrs. Consumer, deserve full credit for out-growth, as a commercial centre, Your knowledge of merchandising, shopping habits and buying skills, stand as a constant challenge to our merchants to bring you quality Merchandise at a price you arc willing to pay. Gordon Grigg Ltd.; Clinton Community Credit Union; Chilton Electric Shop: Sermon's Tire Service; Paul's B,P. Service; BS', Oil Limited: J. W. Peck Auto Electric: Counter-bldg. Supplies; Beattie reurniture; 43all-Macaulay Ltd.; Corrie's Red and White; McAdam Hardware; Elm I lawn Motor' lintel; Irwin's; Groves and Son "1`.V Lobb and Sons Ltd.; Harold, Wise , Ltd,; Ellwood Epps, Clinton PII„C4 Lorne Brown Motors Ltd.; Haugh Tire Supply; Holland Shoes: DEL-MAC Fruit & Variety; Gingorielt's Sales :Servi ce; Lco's*, Ball & Mutehl Ionic Furnishings', Pricegard Limited. bdt -1(01001411-A(60 -0 (61461;014' HULLETT REEVE HUGH FLYNN special hut They would leave their hunting licence there until they came out again. They would be assigned to a specific blind in a specific area. He said he saw the possibility for local initiative to provide facilities for hunters off the actual area of the project. He said =chum revenue from the project is expected to be $44,000. With more protests still coming from the floor about the project, Mr, MacNaughton please turn to page 2 and the farmer could then state whether or not he was willing to sell. truce Roy, a farmer living near the area which is involved in the project, questioned the government's' wisdom in spending money to establish a Wildlife area in the middle of good pasture land while in Northern Ontario they are spending money to establish cow-calf areas in territory primarily occupied by wildlife. The eow,cait project he said was not successful. Clinton) r ctINTON, ONTARIO — THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1970 News-Reco r rr Railway moves moves to, cut local passenger service. This week's paper sees the 4nogdection of an old featitre the News-Record. Town TatIt ill be the name of a eolurnn will attempt to revive terest in personals in the town If. The feature was part of the iron News-Record before the rn of the Century. We had armed to introduce the column o weeks ago but didn't have e personal submitted to us so d to postpone the idea. The me thing happened last week. If the idea is to be a success, will recjitire the help of eryone. If you are doing mething or are going mewhere or are coming back, know someone who Irs done y of these, let us know. You n come in to the office, write or phone in at 482-3443. By the way, Town Talk was t the full name be personals umn used to be known by. he whole title was "NeWs of linton, in and around the Hub, own Talk." You can see why we hortened it. * * We were rather cramped for pace this week, so had to leave me items that wouldn't be old y next week for our next issue. e hope you won't mind. One of the items was an nteresting story on an experiment in education which will take place in May at Central Huron Secondary School. An interesting letter to the editor on violence in hockey was left over til next week. It is very well written and we wanted to give it the best possible display so we'll save it, * * * We hope the recreation committee will hire plenty of lifeguards this year and hire them early. The pot holes in some of Clinton's streets are so deep we're afraid a local youngster might drown in one when spring comes and they fill 'With water from the melting thaV * Nancy Oesch was the winner of the February draw for a skirt held at the Separate Shop in Clinton. * * Local high school students will shortly be out doing their bit again. The students will be handling the canvassing for the Red Cross this year in Clinton and in rural area. * * * Last week our editor pitch-hit for Shirley Keller in covering the county school board meeting. The meeting lasted less than one hour. This week he covered the town council session on his own beat, It was just before midnight when the meeting, finally broke up after four long, long hours. Want to trade Shirley? * Members of town council quietly ,o)ted themselves a raise Monday night at their regular session. The raise will give the mayor a total salary of $1,000 made up of $667.66 salary and $333.33 expenses. Councillors' salaries were raised from $550 to $650 for the year including salary and expense allowance. Weather 1970 1969 HI LO Hi LO March 3 34 24 32 15 4 37 30 26 8 5 32 27 30 6 6 34 10 33 16 7 37 24 24 -3 8 31 7 32 5 9 25 -4 28 10 Rain 1.2" Snow 2.b" Snow 4" BY KEITH ROULSTON It started out "dog eat dog" and ended up hearts and flowers. That's the way things went when Hullett Township ratepayers met to hear details c.t. CHARLES MACNAUGHTON the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests proposed wildlife "sanctuary from government officials and Charles MacNaughton, local MPP and Provincial Treasurer. Cars lined the road outside the township hall on both sides for Several hundred feet. Inside most of the 250 or more persons of the nearly overflow crowd had their own personal gripe about the project. There was a tense feeling in the air as if anything could happen. Hullett Reeve, Hugh Flynn salary of $9,000 which would have made a raise of $2,200 over his salary last year. Councillor Frank Cook argued that this was just too large a raise in one year. "What is the taxpayer going to say if we give one man a $2,200 raise?" he asked. "That's a lot of motley." Councillor Cook was one of the councillors who defeated a motion to award the chief $9,000 with no overtime a year. He supported a move instead to chaired the meeting and called for order 20 minutes after the meeting was scheduled to begin. He introduced Bill Creighton of the Department of Lands and Forests who outlines some of the history of the project. He stated that on August 28 a meeting of officials from his department was held with members of the Huron County Development Committee and the Hullett township council. It was agreed at this meeting, he said, that a visit to the site would be desirable. On September 19,' 1969, department officials and some members of the Hullett council visited the site. ' A letter from the Hullett council expressing "reservations" was received on October 3, Mr. Creighton said. On October 9, the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority gave their approval to the project. Mr. Creighton gave some idea of the near future when he said land surveyors would begip bench markings , on March 16 and a flight over the area by airplane was planned when spring flooding was in progress to see the level of water when the river was in flood. MACNAUGHTON SPEAKS . Mr. MacNaughton was the next speaker, He said that he had first heard of the plan on February 11, 1969 frorn officials Of the Department of Lands and Forests. His primary concerti at that time, he said, was to the offer the chief $7,500 plus pay for overtime. IL was pointed out that during January and February the chief had worked 104 hours of overtime. The councillors supporting the overtime proposal agreed that over the year the chief would probably work enough overtime to earn more than $9,000. "I don't think we're looking at this in a realistic point of view," Mayor Symons said. "The land owners directly involved. Mr. MacNaughton said he contacted the warden of Huron county (at that time James' Hayter) and informed him of the plan. A meeting of the Huron County Development Committee and the Hullett Council was then set up. At that meeting, which took place August 29, it was agreed that all further communications would be channelled through the county Development Committee, Mr. MacNaughton said. He also claimed that Hullett Reeve Flynn had been informed by telephone before the release announcing the, proposal was sent to the newspapers. A story subsequently appeared in the. local newspapers On February 12. Mr. Flynn had earlier said that his first knowledge of the announcement of the project was when he was contacted by a FLYNN ANGRY Mr, Flynn was noticably angry when he rose to speak on his council's behalf. "I can see it's dog eat dog today," he said. "He saves his own hide," He theh re-stated that the •first he had heard about the announcement was when he was contacted by a third party on the Tuesday (February 10). . Mr. Flynn stated that he did not remember any agreement that communications be eh-a-Melted through the county Develebtrient Committee being chief has made recommenda-, tions to us that we hire another officer and acquire a new cruiser and we have turned these down. "If we want protection we'll have to pay for it. We're just as vulnerable as London or any other city. We're only an hour to an hour and a half from Sarnia. We've already had two visits from motorcycle gangs this year and the warm weather hasn't even started." made at the August meeting. He asked .County Clerk John Berry who attended the meeting if he remembered such an agreenient being made. Mr. Berry said it was his understanding ,that communications were to go through the county committee. The meeting was then turned over to questions from the members of the Hullett township council. The officials were asked what steps had been taken regarding the demands the council had made before they would agree to the meeting. Dan Mansell of Hespier, the Department of Lands and Forests' regional supervisor of fish and wildlife answered the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority had been contacted about flooding problems but, as stated earlier, they had approved of the project. The other demands had not been dealt with. A dispute over a letter which Mr. MacNaughton had said he sent but which the Hullett council had never been informed, then arose. Mr. MacNaughton said he received a letter from county council on October 3 and wrote back on October 16. The Hullett council never received word on it. It was finally acknowledged that the letter had been received by the county Development Committee but had been filed away until further information The first public hearing .Pn railway . Applications for the discontinuance of uneconomic passenger-train services poder, procedures set out in the National Transportation Act will open at -Owen. Sound March 31, the Canadian Transport Comniission announced this week. This hearing, and a subsequent one at Guelph beginning April El, will deal with CNR and OP Rail applications covering seven passenger-train services within a Western Ontario triangle formed by Toronto, Goderich and Owen Sound. Under the National Transportation Act the commission may order the railways to continue to operate those uneconomic services it Clinton town council will contact Goderich and Seaforth councils before proceeding with action to block the Canadian National Railways move to close down passenger service between Stratford andGoderich. This line of action was adopted Monday night by town council after they received a letter from the CNR notifying them of the plan. Councillors were divided on their reaction to the plan. Councillor Cam Proctor supported the railway's argument: "We're ridiculous in opposing it since nobody uses - it," Councillor Proctor said. Councillor Norman Livermore claimed the train schedule made it almost useless. The train now goes through Clinton on the way to Goderich at 11:13 in the morning and returns at 12:37 in the afternoon. "Unless the train goes down would be provided. The local council was never informed of its existence. Former Warden Hayter said he felt the expense of the local newspaper for his reaction. Mr. MacNaughton, however, stated at the meeting that the reeve had been informed of all negotiations concerning the proposal. He appeared genuinely hurt when he said he was upset over an editorial which had appeared in the News-Record. He said the editorial called the proposal "an arrogant move of an arrogant government. Anyone who knows me knows I am anything but arrogant," he said. "From the very drop of the hat on this project, I haire been concerned on behalf of those involved." He said the government was trying to be fair, but "fairness is a two-way street". development should he spread over the whole county. He said in the long run, the project would probably benefit towns such as Clinton and Seaforth more than Hullett itself. Mr. MacNaughton agreed that the loss in revenue caused to Hullett by the project should be spread over the county. He also soothed some of the farmers worries by saying that even if the government bought their land this year, they would be allowed to stay on the land on a rental basis until the land is needed for the project which is ptoer bioed.phased in over a five,year He was asked what order of acquisition was planned, He labelled lots 15-20 on concession five and 13-10 on concession six as picked for early acquisition, "presumably in 1070", Lots 11.12 on concession five and 13.14 concession six are scheduled to be acquired in 1971. The following year lots 10-18 on concession four and 11-14 on coneession three. In 1973, Tots 040 on concession five and 1142 on concession six will be acquired along with lots 6.9 On concession four and 64,0 on concession three, All the lots involved will he acquired as full lots he said. He emphasized that there would be no expropriation, AU transactions would be cash, deems necessary, in the public interest, In such cases, the federal treasury MAY pay up t9 f30 percent of the actual JOas- At; the same time, the QTG reported, its findings on the actual losses incurred in the seven services, These were determined by the commission's cost analysts after examining financial, data filed by the railways last November under the . new costing process established by the commission, A loss of $480,244 in 1968 was identified for a series of five CNR services linking Toronto-Palmerston, Palmerston-Owen Sound, Palmerston-Southampton, Stratford-Kincardine and Stratford-Goderich, The • CNR's Toronto-Guelph service had an actual 1968 loss of $147,313 while CP Rail's from Goderich in the morning and back at night there isn't much use in having it," CoUncillor Livermore said. Council received another letter from a former railroader, Robert S. Cherry of Palmerston, asking the council to fight the railway's attempt to close the passenger service and other services between Stratford and Kincardine and Owen Sound and Guelph. "There seem to be points for both sides of the argument," Mayor Don Symons said. "Certainly the railway is losing money now, but it wasn't so long ago that they were making money and darn glad to operate the service, "If there had been a train to Toronto a few weeks ago in the morning," he said, "it probably would have had a few passengers one morning," He was referring to the trip made by several members of the council to Toronto to the Good Roads He was asked what would happen if someone refused to sell. The project, he said, could not' go ahead if enough people refused to sell. Asked how many this would be he said, "I don't know what constitutes a consensus." He said property owners would have recourse in the courts if water from the project flooded their land. E. R. Gregory, the Regional supervisor for the Department of Public Works in southwestern Ontario said that his department would be handling the acquisition of the land. He said his men would speak to each farmer separately after having first apraised the value of the farm. An offer would be made Torsanto,Owen Sound operation lost S97,935., Last November the CNR And. CP Rail filed :applications to discontinue 31 services on which they claimed total losses ,exceeding $41,000,000 In 1968. Two of the seven applications to be heard at Owen Sound and Guelph , were included in the November filings. The other 'Bye were originally filed by the CNR with the former Board of Transport Commissioners but were held in abeyance until the completion of new costing regulations which were issued last August. The Owen Sound hearing will be held in the Grey County courthouse and the Guelph hearing in the Wellington County courthouse. Starting times are 9;30 a.m. EST. Convention. The mayor said that he would rather• go to Toronto by train than ear but that the train didn't run at the right hours to make it convenient, Councillor Proctor argued that with good roads around Clinton and good bus service there was "more sentiment than good business sense" involved in the fight to keep the service open. Reeve Harold Lobb felt that the railways were subsidized by the government and if we didn't have service here we would still be paying for an unprofitable service somewhere else, so we might as well keep what we have. Councillor Mel Steep added his argument to the fight to keep the line open. "I would hate to see the service discontinued," he said. "We're trying to get industry into this area," Reeve Lobb pointed out. "I think we should fight to hold on to every means 'of transportation we have." "How much thought was given to this project before the plan was announced?" he asked. •Mr, MacNaughton then said that he was willing to go back to Toronto and recommend that the project be stopped if the consensus at the meeting said so. Questions from the floor postponed any attempt to call a vote. The Lands and Forests officials were asked if they could guarantee that the project would not have a detrimental effect on farms in the area due to hunters coming into the area. Mr. Mansell said the hunters could be much more stringently controlled in such an area. He explained that hunters Using the area would have to check in at a If attempts of the CNR are successful, this could become a scene of the past. The railway has asked permission to close down passenger service on the Stratford to Goderich line as well as several other lines in Western Ontario. Between five and 10 passengers boarded the afternoon ,train to Stratford on Monday afternoon. — staff photo. Police salaries take up council time Discussion of police salaries took up nearly two hours of the four hour council session held in the Clinton Town Hall, Monday night. The council broke into a dispute in open council session after having met for an hour and a half in private before the session began. Mayor Don Symons, Reeve Harold Lobb and Deputy Reeve Harold Lawson supported the salary asked by Chief Lloyd '1Nestlake. The chief had asked a Town council reacts to railway move Hullett ratepayers learn more information about sanctuary