Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1974-08-15, Page 1109th Year - No. 33 Thursday, Augu,st 15, 1974 11011.1. Clinton -Ontario 20 Cents .44) HI LO 60 85 64 50 8? 63 53 90 66 56 91 67 58 83 59 61 77 57 . 61 76 55 Weather 1974 197$ 141 6 79 7 82 S 77 9 81 10 80 11 80 12 79 _Pain .0 k Rain .0 Major fire averted Lady luck was with Fred Dutot last Sunday afternoon, as Clin- ton firemen and neighbours were able to extinguish a stub- born, smouldering fire in the hay loft of the Dutot barn at RR 3, Clinton. Mr. Dutot smelled smoke on Sunday morning and summoned the Clinton fire department, and with the help of about two dozen neighbours, who forked out several tons of hay from the mow, they were able to put out the fire before it spread to the rest of the barn. Firemen believed the fire started from spontaneous combustion as the result of damp hay being put in the barn. It took about four hours to fork out the several tons of hay. Loss was estimated at only several hundred dollars. (News-Record photo) ounty rejects new Ont. health plan BY BILL DIMMICK Huron County Council, at a special meeting Monday, rejec- ted the Report of the Health Planning Task Force of On- tario, called the Mustard Report, which recommends sweeping changes in health care services. ' A report from the county board of health stated that the Mustard Report recommen- dations, if implemented, would bring loss of local- autonomy and confusion of existing health care services. The Mustard report proposes creation of about 35 district health councils to direct public health policies in the province, Huron County would be in- cluded ,in a district with Perth, Middlesex, Oxford and Elgin Counties which would have a population of about 550,000. The health board noted that other proposed districts would have smaller populations. Grey and 13ruce has 114,00, Lamb- ton-Kent has 206,000, and Duf- ferin-Wellington has 136,000. The district which would in- clude Huron County was ter- med "impractical". "If the district, itsproposed, is implemented, Huron will barely be recognized," the hoard of health stated. It recommended that the district be altered to assure the county adequate representation on a 15-member district health council appointed by the provincial health ministry. County council learned that the board of health and hospital boards would have lit- tle authority if the proposed district councils are created. Doctors would be unable to practise in an area without the consent of its district council, the board of health stated, Before county council accep- ted the board of health's report, thus rejecting the Mustard Report, Dr. Robert Walker, the Ontario health ministry co-ordinator for South Western Ontario, answered questions from council mem- bers and the public, Clerk-Treasurer John Berry asked him to justify the site of the district that would include Huron County. The proposed districts have not been created yet and the province Wants to get construe. tive criticism about them, Dr, Walker said, Earlier, he said that districts had to be big enough to cohtain complete services. Josephine Berry, president of Goderich's Alexandra Marine and General Hospital Women's Auxiliary,- said the Mustard Report 0(4680 to take hospitals away from coni- mu nitieS. They would no longer be "our hospitals", she said, resulting in a lack of volunteer workers. Volunteers give county hospitals about $20,000 in equipment and many hours of their time annually, she said.. Most hospitals now receive almost 100 per cent of their funds from the province, Dr. Walker said, Volunteers should not feel that district health councils would take their hospitals away, he said. Chief county public health inspector Jim McCaul said that district councils would disband county health units, the only preventative health agencies. The Mustard Report has been criticized fors being sickness-oriented instead of preventive-oriented. Dr. Walker said that health unit personnel would become part of a total health care system recommended in the report. Goderich Deputy Reeve Stan Profit asked what advantages district health councils would have over existing systems. If health couneili are created, they would prevent duplication of services and eo- ordinate different areas of health care, Pr, Walker said. Executive director of the Wingham and bistrict Hospital Norman Hayes asked why more district health couhcils are proposed when the four in operation have not been ap. praised yet. The councils in operation take four different approaches to health care, but more ap- proaches should be examined, Dr. Walker said, Council heard critical presen- tations from several persons who head bodies which would be affected by Mustard Report proposals. Reeve of Bayfield and mem- ber of the county board of health Ed Oddleifson said he attended a meeting in Ottawa recently of representatives from county health boards in On- tario. The representatives con- cluded, Mr, Oddleifson said, that district health councils would increase costs, discourage volunteer help, cause increased bureaucracy and be sickness rather than health-oriented. Representatives also criticized the researchers of the report for hot gathering infor. mation from people already working in health care services. Dr. J.K. 1VieGregor, of Wingham, president of the Huron County Medical Society, said the report contained no criticism of present systems, District health councils would be rigid arid inflexible ih decision making, he said. Dr, McGregor added his voice to those clItitningthat a (contIntied on page II) Health care could change medical care CQUid change redicO/iYilcer, What The public considers rou tine in p populationsrm i ,.:pfaalt,t rtoa. that such a clinic taro recommenclotionS of the Ontario Might' be centred in Clinton. Thus, a per, Health Planning Task Force Report are Int. Son might not be able to see a dQPIOr isleasenteit according to Dr, Frank Mills, ..Oodorieh, he sold, Huron County Medical Officer of Heelth. The room proposes that transportation p;'SCUS$i(M. which led to county court. of persons gOing to and from clinics be cii's rejection of the report lust mgfoy did paid by the province. This would increase not include what would happen to people health care costs, Dr. Mills said, seeking regular .health care, Dr, Mills said, A person might not be able to see the Doctors would be told where they could doctor of his choice if health core is have practices under the proposals, he restructured according, to task force noted, proposals, he said, Doctors' hours would be regulated in such A person would have to go to .a medical a way that they would work on shifts. clinic where .a receptionist or secretary resembling those of assembly .line.. workers would refer him toy a tfoctor or even in a Jorge factory, Or, Mills sa47-anci the another agency, he said, government would tell _them wh$ they Clinirs would he centered to serve could work, Council to hold referendum on fate of Town Hall Members of Clinton council told an audience of about 35 people Monday night at the regular council meeting that there will be a referendum in December to decide whether the 94-year old Town Hall should be restored or whether a new one should be constructed. Mayor Don Symons told the audience, which included several young people, that there "isn't a member on this council that wants to build a new Town Hall." "There has been a lot of misunderstan- ding and lack of communication on this thing", Mayor Symons said, He was referring to an editorial in the News-Record of August first that charged the council was going ahead and building a new Town Hall without asking the opinions of the taxpayers. Clinton council will ask several property owners on Erie Street to clean up their property, it was decided at the August meeting held Monday night. Council will ask their solicitor Beecher Menzies of Clinton, to contact Doug Howse and Gord Harkes of Clinton about cleaning up their properties, after council received a letter from Mr, and Mrs. Frank MacDonald of Erie Street asking council if something couldn't be done to clean up the propertied beside , them and the CNR property behind them. Council learned that storing so-called "junk" on property in Clinton is contrary to the Clinton Zoning Plan. The CNR will also be asked about cutting weeds on their property. A ruling from =the Ontario Municipal., board will lie sought by Clinton on allowing the construction' of a barn by Four persons split 8 1 9 000 Monster bingo This week's $1,000 'Monster Bingo Jack- pot was won by four people, three from the area, and one from not so close. The win- ners were Betty Hiusser of Goderich, Lloyd Heard of Varna, Cord Scotchmer of Bayfield, and Millicent Davis of New York City. Share-the-wealth 'winners were Mrs. Charlie Shaw of Blyth, Mrs. Steckley of Stratford, and Mrs. Gordon MacDonald of Sea forth. Regular game winners were Linda Williams, Lola Rahfritch, Rosy Hunt, Barb Chapman, Sharon Elliot, Elizabeth Brown, Bill Gibson, Joyce Bitechler, Betty Bell Mrs. lqatty Francis, Dorothy Brooks, Charlotte Dair, Nicole Laurin, Arnold Beach, June Corriveau, Lloyd Heard, Ethel Walker, Kathleen Peterson, Heather Plum- steel, Helen Greenwood, Ena Cook, Helen Ann Elliot, Mrs. Jim Strong, Marlan Holland, June Beaven and Mrs. Gordon Carter. Monster Bingos are upcoming Monday August 19 and 26th. s- * * We are pleased to announce that the late Jabez Rands' column on the history of Clinton, "Do You Remember?" will be continued in this newspaper for several •months to come. Mr. Rands had several dozen columns written ahead, and they were released to us by Mr. Rands executor, Beecher Menzies of Clinton, * * Next Wednesday night, August 21, the Clinton Centennial Committee will have their regular monthly meeting. There is now less than 12 months remaining until the gala celebration, so as much interest as possible should be shown by Clintonlans. The meeting starts at 8 p.m.. in the Town Hall. * * Clinton's first arts and trait. show is ready to roll, according to one of the Organiiors, Rita Ryan of Clinton, She was so enthusiastic about the show, saying it would be the best in the area, that one can help but believe her. The show, known as "clinten "74, potpourri," will be staged at the arena next Friday and Saturday, Augusk2g and 24. Watch for more details* in this paper, The paper made the charge after a closed committee-pf-the- whole meeting on July 25 in which the council received a report from London consulting engineer James F. MacLaren saying that the old Town Hall would cost $400,000 to restore, and a new one could be built for $175,000 to $250,000. Mayor Symons said that council only wanted to get alternatives so the voters could choose one way or the other on a ballot in December. Mayor Symons words were echoed by Councillor Don Hall, who said council acted in such haste because the wording for the ballot has to be drawn up na biter than the end of September. Helen Trench of Clinton, one of those at the meeting, said she had consulted an Ot- tawa Lawyer, D. Donald Diplock and was told that council's action of passing Wayne Dupee on Victoria Terrace. Mr. Dupee wanted to demolish an old barn on his property next. to the sewage treatment plant and erect a new one. Last month, Mr. Dupee presented a petition to council signed by residents in the area asking that council give him per- mission to tear down the old barn and erect a new one. Council sent the request to the Clinton Planning Board, who said that the area was zone as residential and therefore the barn was against Clinton's official plan. The plan- ning Board turned 'down the request. In other business, the Planning Board recommended that all applications for building permits in the commercial area be sent to the Clinton gpvirontperi tal Im- .provement Committee.for4ec.ommendetien., to council. Last month, council had passed a motion that no building permits be issued in the commercial area until approved by the Planning Board in consultation with the Improvement Committee. Council learned in a letter from the On- tario Housing Corporation that tenders had been called for construction of a new 16 unit Senior Citizen's apartments on property on King Street owned by the town. Mayor Don Symons said he under- stood that the apartments may be ready by Christmas, Council was also informed by letter from the Ontallo ministry of transportation and communication that they had approved of Clinton's reconstruction and paving Most grade 3, 4 and 5 students in the Huron-Perth Roman Catholic separate school system will have a chance to learn to swim indoors at the YMCA Pool in Stratford this winter, following an agreement with the Y ratified Monday night by HPRCSS board members at their meeting in Seaforth. In exchange for a total of 180 hours of use for students in 16 of its 19 schools, the board will allow the Y to use the gym- nasium at St, Michaels School in Stratford for 552 hours. The pool rental costs $19.50 per hour this fall and $21.00 in the winter and spring, and the gym rents at $6 per hour. No money will change hands, however, with the Y waiving an imbalance of $378 in the two costs. The board will pay the costs of busing the children to the Stratford pool. Superintendent of schools, John Vintar said about 1,000 children will receive swim- ming instruction. Each of the 16 schools will swim at the Y for 10 hours over a 10- week period. All schools in the board's jurisdiction except St. Joseph's . Cable TV users in Clinton, Goderich, l-lolmesville and Vanastra may get another four channels on their TV sets, if plans now in the infant stage are carried out by Illuewater Cable TV of Holmesville. Bluewater president Ron McIntosh said this week that the Cable TV company has been told by the Canadian Radio and Television Commission that they must add, a French CBC channel and the Education Television network when they come on Stream later this fail. Mr. McIntosh said that if Bluewater didn't expand the number of channels available, from the present 11 to 14 or 15, then channel 6 from Bay City would have to be dropped. To facilitate the extra channels, Mr. Melntosh said that customers would have to buy an extender box for their homes at a cost of' $30 to $40 each. As well, the mon. thly rental rate might have to be boosted motions at a closed meeting was against the law. Mayor Symons said he thought council was right in passing the motions, and said if he could be shown in the Municipal Act where it states that council was doing wrong, then he would personally apologize to the voters. "We don't act in a dictatorial way", he said. Ken Flett, chairman of the Clinton En- vironmental Improvement Committee said that while council had engaged other ar- chitects, `, Gordon Duern of Clinton has withdrawn his services to council for designing and buildinea new TOwn Hall and town square, Mr. Duern, an architect and designer, had offered his services free to the town for the project. Although no price was discussed at the council meeting for the consultants fees for program on Orange, Dunlop and Joseph Streets. Public Works chairman Ernest Brown told council that the reconstruction was nearly completed and that final paving would take place in several days. Because there is no subsidy available on sidewalk reconstruction, Mayor Symons said that only sidewalk was replaced where it was necessary, or where there was a change of grade. Council concurred with several resolutions presented by other municipalities, including one from Nan- ticoke asking that a provincial lottery be set up to gather money to pay for damages in Ontario caused by natural disasters. Council also agreed with a resolution from the Town of Orangeville asking that the'sales itix :be'rernsWed on Capital expen- ditures by municipalities, and Clinton also concurred with a letter from the Towni6f Durham to ask the provincial government to change the name of the new Regional Municipality of Durham becatise .everyone was confusing it with the name of the Grey County Town. Council issued a parking permit, worth $7.50 to Morden and Helwig, and tabled a letter from Championship Display asking to put up an illuminated sign in radar Park. A letter of thanks will be sent to Bill Riehl of Clinton commending him for ad- vertising the town at every chance. Mr. Riehl runs Gamester Advertising of Clin- ton. Kingsbridge, St. Mary's, Goderich and Sacred Heart in Wingham will use the pool. Under questioning by trustee Howard Shantz of Stratford, Superintendent Vintar said that at least one of the three schools were not using the pool because of distance and that all had made arrangements to use outdoor pools in their own communities in May and 'June. "It's up to the principal and staff", Mr. Vintar said, to decide whether to ,use the Y pool or not. Trustee Shantz suggested that the board should perhaps set a policy on use of the pool and get all the schools to participate. "Parity throughout the whole system should be the board's concern", he said, "We seem to be leaving a lot up to the principals", he added. After more discussion the agreement was ratified on a motion by Mr. Shantz, seconded by F. J. Vere, also of Stratford. Nineteen classes of HPRRCSS children learned to swim at the Y during the 1972- 73 school Year, according to _the board's (Continued on page 9) slightly from its present $5. Installation would remain at $10. Mr. McIntosh stressed that the whole move was still in the planning stage and no definite decision had been taken yet. Bluewater TV Cable serves a potential 11,000 customers in the Clinton, Goderich, Vanastra area, Bluewater also recently received per- mission from the CRTC to put cable TV into Exeter, Huron Park and Cenralia, which has a total population. of slightly more than 5,000 As well, the company will set up a system at Port Elgin and Southampton, Mr. McIntosh said, Seaforth too will get Tv cable in the near future, but from another company. Mr, McIntosh said that illuewater had dropped channel 25 of Saginaw, Michigan after a short test run and channel 2 Detroit is back on, He said that several channels were coming in on channel 2, and the inter. ferthce caused poor reception. the Town Hall study by James F, MacLaren, standard engineering and con- sultant fees can cost from $100 to $350 a ,day, The public may look at the report at the clerk's office, Councillor Roy Wheeler told the meeting that he had approached several provincial authorities and most of them said the Bayfield council at their meeting last Thursday night awarded a contract of $3,000 to Gerald Clarke Construction of Arva to install storm sewers on parts at Christie, Margaret, Glass and Victoria Streets in the Village. The contract covers the cost of installing about 1,500 feet of sewer tile in the streets, which cannot be opened to development until the lots are properly drained. The ministry of the environment had told the Village council that the water chances of getting any grants to fix up the old Town Hall would be very slim. He said that the Federal government hadn't been asked yet. Mayor Symons said that several council members had met with the Environmental Improvement Committee last week and many misunderstandings were cleared up. table in the area, known as Blair's swamp, was too high to permit septic tank in- stallation and had to be drained before any cottages or houses could be constructed. Bayfield will supply the tile to the con- tractor. In other business, council and the Bayfield Yacht Club will be signing leases with the ministry of the environment for the dockage space on the south side of the Bayfield harbour. The next council meeting will be held on Monday August. 19 at 8 p.m. He said he didn't knew the committee was doing so much work. In other business, council learned that police overtime for the month of July was 851 /2 hours, of which 54 1 /2 was spent in court, and 161 )2 was spent escorting prisoners. Reeve Harold Lobb said that his committee is checking into the'possibilities of lining the present police cells with steel so the police can use them again. The cells, which are presently of wood construction, were condemned three years ago wheh a prisoner started a fire in one of them. Building permits passed by council in- clude; Don Symons, storage shed, $219; Robert Mann, addition, $8,000; Don Gautreau, storage shed, $300; R.W. Dob- son, pool, $125; Don Wright, storage shed, $350; Jim Boyle, utility room, $1,000; Murray Garrett, addition, $7,000; Mrs. Alma Tyndall, carport, $700; B.P. Canada, sign, $1,200; Art Spiedelburg, sundeck, $500; Ray Mitchell, demolition of house, no value; and Cameron MacDonald, garage, $1,800, BY J.F. The pretty, chocolate brown poodle who was looking for a home two weeks ago and appeared in these pages, has now found a new owner in Brantford and was spared the gas chamber, Clinton animal control officer Dick Eisler informed us the other day. Council asks for property clean-up Separate students to use pool Cable TV may expand Bayfield approves drainage