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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1970-11-26, Page 24.4 Clinton. [News-Record, 'Thursday, 'December 1, )970 fditorioi own:moo The thoice is yours. noW On Monday, voters all over Huron County will be going to the polls to decide what men will rdn their municipal gOvernment and school board for the next two years. Their decision will be crucial because the next two years will see many changes in our area. Only the voter knows who he feels is best equipped to make the kind of decision he would make himself if he were sitting on the council or on the board of education. Basically there seem to be two choices in the types of men offering themselves for these positions. On one hand we have those dedicated to holding down costs and taxes even if it means having to do without things they would personally like to see. Op the other, hand there are those who look upon spending Tax Money as an investment, who think money spent now to improve the future economically and socially is money well spent. The News-Record doesn't intend to tell voters who to choose, We feel we have made our position very clear in the Past and intend to support at the polls those men who seem to give us the best chance at a prosperous and fulfilling 'Community in which to live now and in the future. We put otir trust in democracy and simply urge all to vote for the person or persons of their choice. Education and communications With the comments of John Lavis, chairman of the Huron County Board of Education, about this newspaper at a ratepayers meeting in Londesboro (as printed here last week) and at at least one other area meeting, added to the other comments by other members of the board and by this paper, readers must be beginning to wonder if there is some kind of feud going on between the board and the News-Record. We answer that as far as we are concerned there is not. We cannot, of course, speak for the trustees. With election for trustees to the board of education next Monday, we feel it is time to set the record straight on a few of the happenings in the past year. First of all, we have never attacked the persons or the work of the trustees on the board. This whole storm seemed to blow up unexpectedly last spring when we covered a board meeting in the absence of regular reporter Shirley Keller. After the meeting, which lasted about a half hour in open session, we drew a comparison with a town council meeting the next week which dragged on for four hours and, in a small jab at the town council, asked Mrs. Keller in our first column, if she would like to trade jobs. This prompted an outburst in the board meeting of the next week by a trustee who we had never even seen before to the best of our knowledge (the man is seeking re-election so we will not mention his name) who said we were making it look like the trustees didn't do any work. This criticism brought on editorials in other area newspapers which pointed out perhaps the public wouldn't be so apt to think the trustees weren't working hard if they didn't do so much behind closed doors. As a result, the board decided to hold more of its meetings in the open and to invite Mrs. Keller and the London Free Press representative to committee of the whole (closed) meetings., Later in the year after the board had voted to add another member to the administrative staff came the editorial to which Mr. Lavis referred last week. The News-Record pointed out how frustrating it must be to municipal politicians who were doing without things they felt they badly needed in order to cut back on their own budgets to try to offset some of the hike in taxes caused by education costs. The board meanwhile was adding members to an "already top-heavy administration." Criticism by the board was reported in this newspaper without comment at that time. It followed the same lines as last week's claim by Mr. Lavis that Huron had a more efficient administration than any other county in Western Ontario. We did not comment on the fact, as Hullett councillor John Jewitt pointed out last week, that just, because we were better off Than other counties it didn't necessarily make us an example of what things should be like. Later when the board presented facts it said proved its efficiency we printed them, again without comment because we did not have access with facts with which to argue against claims they made. In September more criticism of the board was aired in this paper over our coverage of the bombing at Central Huron Secondary School. As stated earlier, this newspaper has never attacked trustees or any action of the board except the addition to the staff. This newspaper has confined criticism to the idea of county boards themselves as too big, too impersonal and too expensive. There has not been criticism of the Huron board because, given the rules and regulations set out by the department of education in the formation of county board, they have probably done about as good a job as could be expected. Mr. Lavis spoke of a lack of communication between board and public yet praised the work of the reporters who regularly attend the sessions and he should, since for every word of criticism in county newspapers, there have been thousands of words of straight reporting of board meetings. The lack of communications could be' caused by the fact that trustees, despite the fact that they are politicians and thus are open to public debate, are so thin skinned that they react harshly against anything they can interpret as criticism. They are so touchy that people are afraid to say anything that might be considered a complaint. Communication is a two-way process, yet too often trustees seem to feel that it is only a method of telling the people what a good job they are doing. If they want communication they must be willing to accept criticism. If the board wants communication it should do more to facilitate receiving the views of the public. It should publicize the time and place of its meetings and make provisions for, persons who may wish to attend by having space and chairs available, not in a cramped board room as in the past. We've criticized the concept of county boards, but we think they should be given a chance to prove what they,can do now that we've got them. The News-Record does not support the move by Perth County to have the boards abolished. The damage has already been done, let's see if we can make the best out of what's left and review the situation two or three years from now. But if the trustees want to serve, they should use their time to try to find out what the public wants, not feel hurt and retaliate over every remark they feel is aimed at them. Other Views The Zurich Citizens News printed week oallpa*thoer editorialsties alasndt responsibilities of weekly' newspapers. We are reprinting it youyl3fulomrd blien,4tsenpb:eo.erfni lena;Elswal 1peda helpp:ur $941v: work ekYt:hs so • OTHER VOICES.— WHY A WEEKLY PRESS Surrounded by hefty daily newspapers, on-the-spot television newscasts, frequent radio news broadcasts, all covering important events foreign and domestic — what does the suburban reader get out of his local weekly. What he gets, if his weekly is a good one, is a detailed knowledge of the community in which he lives, in which his children are raised, in which his private life is passed. Daily newspapers, television radio — all are called the "m. media." And rightly so. The deal, as they should, with m events, mass movements whe an individual enters, he' is almost always, an individu: whose actions have had an effec on a large number of people fo good or for bad. The mass medi are, and pride themselves o being, the voice of The People But I am not a people. Yo are not a people. We are person you and I, and we need to kno what is happening that affects as persons, and what the person we live among are doing that wi touch our daily, private lives. We want i know, also, ho larger events touch us. We ma read in the daily, for exampl: that the state educatio department has decided that schools must offer certai courses in this or that field. Th means little — until we find, o reading our local weekly, th the high school our child wi attend next year has shifted i curriculum to offer th mandated course. The local paper, also can a as a lever to raise standards i local government, to improv local facilities, to acquaint, th e'pPr,gr,e!,14tive with the prineip tylstihjects of concern to the loc community. The local weekly can hel preserve the importance of ea man in his own right. It is cynical old saying that everyon is created equal, only some a more equal than others. T engagement of your daughter as important to you and to Go as the engagement of th president's daughter — an though the metropolitan dail may find little or no room f this supreme event, the hoc. Paper can and will tell yo world of.her happiness. There are other functions fo the slim, sometimes unpolishe little sheet to perform — it ca trumpet the merits of yo home town, tell you where yo can buy that dress without gain miles away, warn again community blight and tell yo that Aunt Millie is back fro Florida and your fourth grad teacher is in the hospital maybe you should send her card? All these things the dailie' television or radio cannot d Their news must intere everybody, must affect Th People. They deal with the grea of this world. For news abou you and me, read us. ONLY TWO OF EACH The staff members of weekly newspaper are no unique in their physica components. Each one come' equipped with one pair of ey and one pair of ears. And like everybody else, has no special powers to see and hear all. This would seem to be contrary to public belief. In the process of gathering news items, every effort is giver to covering the activities of th( village as thoroughly as possible through the co-operation of various organizations, etc. But ii is an impossibility to be on ter of everything. This is where you the reading public, come in. Many times we hear reader say: "I didn't see anything about this in the paper." Here is when you can help to make you] paper the best source of loca news, If an interesting iten comes to your attention telephone it in to your weekly If yOu know of an event ahem to take place, let us know abou it. In a town the size of this there IS much to be reported to the newspaper, of local interest The weekly newspaper provide a 'service to the community no to be !mind elsewhere, This is your newspaper. Hell us to Make it the best possibI by keepingIls-informed. • /s494-4 e • • ' HE 'S BEEN LIKE THAT ,SING THE ELErrioNS weRE ANNOUNCV), CLAIMS WE USES THIS TIME 1-1 4 IN K1Nc A BOUT 141s Yorli 41•11111.11110, THE CLINTON NEW ERA Amalgamated THE HURON NEWS-RECORD Established 1865 1924 Established 1881 Clinton News-Record A member of the Canadian Weekly Newspaper Association, Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association and the Audit Bureau of Citculation (ABC) Second class hail registratiOn. number — 0817 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (in advance) Canada, $0.00 per year; U.S.A., $7.50 KEITH W, ROUL8TON — Editor HOWARD AITKEN — General Manager Published every Thursday at the heart at Huron County A Clinton, Ontario Population 3,475 THE HOME OF RADAR IN CANADA KtOs 4 16) During his Span on earth, unless he is an ostrich, every man is al- ternately appalled and delighted with life, Perhaps that's one rea- son the idea of a paradise on earth will never truly appeal to the multitudes, It would be too bland, 4.1 In theory, a life without pain, hunger, disease, cold, war, Would be embraced by all. In practice, we shun such an existence, even though it could be achieved if all of humanity wanted it badly enough. It would lack spice. And sugar. Probably that's why the great novels about a utopia are basic- ally satires on man. From More's "Utopia" to Golding's "Lord of the Flies", outstanding writers have portrayed utopia as a para- dise smeared by good old human nature, or bad old human On looking busy Sitting yesterday in the managing editor's office of one of the country's largest dailies, I chanced to see an old friend hurrying past the door. He carried in his hand a sheaf of vital-looking papers. He walked swiftly, purposefully, eyes straight ahead, his spectacles pusted up importantly on his forehead. I watched him proceed to the soft-drink machine near the teletypes where he drew off a coke. He spoke briskly, incisively, to an editor nearby, turned and strode out of my vision. I had to fight back a wild laugh. "What's Frenshaw doing around here now?" I asked the managing editor, feigning innocence. "I don't really know," the managing editor mused, "but whatever it is he certainly gives it everything ..." Every large office, I suppose, has a Frenshaw (as I will call him), a man who has mastered the art of seeming to be industrious while doing almost nothing, a type referred to at a recent convention of personnel managers as "the elite of office time-wasters." 75 YEARS AGO The Huron News-Record December 4, 1895 Mr. Wright, who was in town last week, took part in the "Battle of the Bayfield Road," nearly 30 years ago, and was also detailed on duty during the first Riel rebellion. Residents of the County of Huron who intend buying a wheel in the coming year will show their sense by waiting for the Common Sense Bicycle which will shortly be on the market, and thus help the industries of old Huron. 55 YEARS AGO The Clinton New Era December 2, 1915 This week Mr. Ray Rumball took over as manager of the Bell Telephone office at Goderich. This move will necessitate the nature, if you will. At two different periods in my life, I lived in ,an ordered society. They were sort of mini- utopias. One was in prison camp, We had complete socialism. Every-, one got the same amount of food, drink and time in the la- trine. There was complete free- dom of speech. Everyone shared the d,i,ties and chores of the community. Another was in a sanatorium. We were treated alike, whether ex-private in the army or ex-offi- cer in the air force. Same food, same rules, same shots in the burn for all. And in both cases, we loathed it. All we Wanted to do, in both institutions, was to get out, to get back to the sinful, sordid, disordered, cruel, kind,- hurtful, blether) life of are human incli4 vidual in a crazy society. If you don't have moments in life that are appalling and de, lightfui, squalid and splendid, you can stop reading noW, Close your eyes, fold your arms and lie There must be many men like Frenshaw who have come to substitute a portrayal of efficiency for the real thing. The newspaper business, being one of brief spurts of concentrated activity and long periods of just sitting around waiting for people to kill other people or to grow giant hollyhocks, is a natural breeding ground for this sort of fraud. Still, in any office, I expect, the problem of inactivity confronts everyone., An employee may discover very early in his career that his future could depend not so much on what he does when he's doing something as what he does when he's doing nothing. A man who puts his feet up on his desk and begins to make perfect little paper airplanes, however talented, loyal or hard-working he may be when he's busy, may not be long for this pay-roll. Out of a sense of guilt or survival he may thus be impelled to devise techniques to appear functional at all times. From this innocent beginning he may develop into a full-fledged avoider of work. , •emeikeieft, Weieeewei removal from town of Mr. and Mrs. Rumball and their many friends will regret this move. It may interest our readers to know that the oldest church edifice in Clinton, though not used for church purposes, is the brick building on Rattenbury St. West• known-as the Rattenbury St. Methodist Church. It was erected in either 1856 or 1857 under the pastorate of Rev. J. Philip, still living.. The only person still living here who was 40 YEARS AGO The Clinton News-Record November 27, 1930 The following dispatch from Ottawa appeared in -Saturday's papers and refers to a well-known man in Clinton, the husband of a former Clinton girl, Mrs. Allen, having been Miss Margaret ' Jackson before her marriage: "J. J. Allen, member down. You're dead, and you might as well be comfortable. When I stop being appalled or delighted by life, I will do what so many kids do, I will start snif- fing 'nail-polish remover or taking speed, Perhaps that is why they do it. Well, what's to be appalled or delighted about these days? Plenty, The list is endless and you can make up yoUr own. I am appalled by the Viet Nam war, surely the most sense- less since the Hundred Years War. Nobody is Winning, nobody is losing, nobody knows who will Wear the crown if the stupid thing ever ends, I am delighted that all thy storm windows ate on, eighty per cent of my leaves are raked, and that there is Oil in the tank and food in the freezer, I am appalled at the successor to the War Measures Act, Which is completely unnecessary unless there is a heck of a let More,. gatng on than the governMent admits.. My appailment reaches shock level when think that a Perversely, it may even seem to be a kind of challenge to his ingenuity, as I like to think it was originally to Frenshaw, who now is in the curious position of expending more actual energy and taxing his mental powers to a greater degree by his detours from 'responsibility than he might by actually confronting them. A high turnover of senior executives, not uncommon in many buiinesses these days, further inspires the time-killer. First impressions very- often are those that endure. As a one-time executive myself, I know how difficult it is to re-evaluate a man who, when first sighted, has stamped himself on the memory as the busiest cog in the gears. Only the fact that it takes one to know one allowed me to sort out the doers and the non-doers, but by that time I'd been sorted out, too. What is so unique about Frenshaw is the boldness of his style and the aggressive way in which he goes about his subterfuge. Among time-killers he is a pro among amateurs. Most avoiders of work, you see, make the mistake of trying of the present Board of Control, will be Ottawa's mayor for 1931. He was given an acclamation for office at the nomination meeting." The local veterans, officers and men, and the Kiltie Band attended the funeral of the late Lieut. Col. Wilson at Seaforth on Tuesday. 25 YEARS AGO The Clinton News-Record Clinton's population increases by 26 during past year — now stands at 2,017. A goodly number of friends and neighbours from Porter's Hill gathered at the home of Mr. and ,Mrs. Alvin Cox on Friday for a social evening before they left for their new home in Clinton. Frank Cook has received his discharge from the Royal Canadian Navy and is again cop could enter my house, ask me if Pd changed my socks in the last week, and throw me in jail if I hadn't, I am delighted -that my daughter still love's me so much that on the weekend she allowed me to furnish a new winter coat, new boots, a posh dinner and an expensive show without once mentioning the Generation Gap or saying, 'Dad, there's no way you could understand." I am appalled at the prices charged for said dinner, and the amount of food wasted, to go to the pigs. Why can't expensive restaurants give you a half, portion at half-price or a little more, instead of asSurning that you are a hog? I Was delighted, newt morn- ing, with breakfast in bed, but appalled at the sixty cents for a glass of orange juice and thirty cents each for muffins, Plus tip. am appalled 'at the manners of many young people, and de- lighted With their courage and compassien I ain appalled by the traffic in to appear unobtrusive or actually invisible. They nourish the illusion that if they blended with the woodwork or loiter out of sight in the men's washroom they will remain unnoticed. Naturally, like the ostrich with his head in the sand and his great big behind in the air, they ludicruously draw attention to themselves. Frenshaw's secret is not merely that he is constantly on the move, but that he charges directly into the orbit of his superiors, often, indeed, actually colliding with them. The papers that he carries with him plus the air of concentration and slight harassment .A.,that he affects combine p&tectly with ftlie impression that he is proceeding on an urgent mission that cannot be interrupted. On good days he is able to suggest, without saying a word, that he is on some sort of mysterious assignment from 'a higher authority. The measure of his gift is that I may write of him without fear of unmasking him. It would be a pity to do that. It wpuld mean the end of one of the great success stories.- associated with Glen Cook in "Glennies Restaurant." Prior to their departure from the staff of the Clinton Public Hospital to assume private nursing practice the Misses M. E. Garniss and Betty Craig were the recipients of beautiful gifts from their colleagues. 15 YEARS AGO The Clinton News-Record December 1, 1955 The Commercial Inn closed Wednesday evening and today proprietors Mr. and Mrs. Ceriel Van Damme leave for Wallaceburg prior to proceeding to Europe for a three months visit. Residents of Huron County Home gathered in the TV room at the Home last Thursday night for a last get-together in honour of Mrs. Martha Jacob who has retired after 33 years as matron at the new home. 10 YEARS AGO The Clinton News-Record December 1, 1960 Morgan J. Agnew was not Opposed in his position of deputy-reeve of Clinton for a second year in a row. Born in Hay Township at Blake, Mr. Agnew has lived in Clinton since he was three years old. Miss Jacqueline Cluff's car was damaged to the extent of about $640.00 When it struck a cow owned by Murray Grainger on the Bayfield Concession Road. Stanley's Red and White market opens under management of Bert Stanley at 202 Queen St. just behind Hanover Transport. the city, and delighted when 1 e ail 'park illegally and not get caught. Life is a balance, Appalled, Delighted. Such are the, children of earth, May you long be one of them. Life's problems add to its delights