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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1969-05-29, Page 4Our hat's off to the residents of Huron Park for the energetic manner in which they have tackled the problems associated with a community that has more or less sprung up over the past year Or so. New residents in most communities usually find it simple to adjust. Activities are provided for them and they only have to pick from the vast amount of activities in which they wish to participate. Such was not the case at Huron Park While some activities were available, they certainly did not meet the demands of the various interests represented in the new community. This week's election of a council should do much to change that, and in fact much has been altered already through the efforts of people who have arranged various programs. While there are many benefits which will arise from the council's work and the activities planned, the most important is the fact residents will be able to take an interest in their community as a whole. The need was obvious and the people who met the challenge and got things organized are to be commended. We wish them well in all their endeavours. When no decision is right For $2,500 per year, Huron County Board of Education will rent office space in the former nurses' residence just across the street from Clinton Public Hospital. During the next two years, the board will have an opportunity to assess their position and to decide their next move. It should be noted that the board has agreed that renovations to a wing at CHSS are too costly. Original rough estimates by board chairman John Lavis and vice-chairman Robert Elliott of about $25,000 for the job were apparently so far out that no report was ever made to the public regarding the contractors' tenders for the actual remodelling. Even after the contractors had pared down their estimates, the board still considered the price too high to consider. Unfortunately, the Huron County Board of Education had run up some debts on the project before it was stopped. An architect had prepared drawings (a necessary step if the department of education is to be expected to approve renovation plans) and a science lab had been unnecessarily moved at a cost of $3,000. In retrospect, the board must naturally realize they have spent perhaps $5,000 or more education dollars for no real purpose at all. In all fairness to the board members who voted in favor of the CHSS offices, we believe they were convinced they were acting in the best interests of the voters. As we see it, they made the same error many non-political persons make. They forgot that public buildings cannot be built or rebuilt by the least expensive route. Just as the average taxpayer cannot fathom why it costs $20,000 to construct one meagre classroom, so a school board is sometimes hard pressed to explain the little incidentals which add up fast to throw the most faithful estimating awry. There will be members of the board who will be pleased to be counted among those who initially voted against the CHSS offices. They are the same board members who were in favor of entering into a one-year lease with the county for the upper floor of the assessment building in Goderich. It should be noted that had that move taken place, the board could still be in much the same predicament as it is right now since the Ontario government's announcement it will take over the entire assessment building at the end of 1969. Perhaps fate took a hand where human foresight failed. The board will now locate its offices in the most central town to the entire county and at a much more reasonable rate than previously imagined. Original offer from the hospital board for the nurses' quarters was $9,000 per annum! Of course the board will complete the necessary renovations in the new offices. That cost was previously figured into the rental fee, but we have an idea that all this jousting within the board has created some very definite guidelines for the future. We certainly trust this is the case. The taxpayers of Huron deserve a settling-in period now after the experiments of the past five months. Don't destroy 'don't needs' Exeter Main St. MEN'S WEAR Now 6 S 41, Put your money into our guaranteed investment certificates now paying the never-before interest of eight per cent. 0 VG C WCTORIA and GREY TRUST COMPANY SINCE 1889 C a 0 t ) What's New FOR FATHER'S DAY? Everything's New At Our Store . , . *Shirts " Sport Coats *Siacks * socks * Sport Shirts * Trousers * Pyjama and Dressing Gown sets * Ties * Belts * Hats * Sweaters mi*iim:ks,:,•::::::::•:•:,•••••••••••:••••••••••••••-•:•,•••,••••••,• ••-• See Us For FORMAL DRESSWEAR RENTALS FOR WEDDINGS, ETC. •A,:l.k,of•A",,s4:9ft4*••••••: ••:••v NEED A NEW SUIT? SEE OUR SAVILLE ROW RANGE "'IT'S OUTSTANDING AND ECONOMICAL gltNM,;10 •.•••w Len McKnight & Sons DO YOU QUALIFY For These Special Discounts on Auto Insurance? * Five Years Claims Free Rates Which Apply to All Classes * Driving to and from Work • Three Miles or Less one way * Special Rate for Young Marrieds (23 and 24 Years Old) * Special Rate for Single Females (28 and 24 Years Old) * Specie! Rate for No Driving to Work * Two-Car Discount of 20% DON'T PAY MORE THAN YOU HAVE TO ... SEE US TODAY John J. Payne ***""q Ontario There Agency In Western Has to be a Reason AGENCY LIMITED Call Us And Find Out! "4444#4*,\Kk Insurance Grand Pend Phone 238-2354 Fastest Growing ,..15X,5;;;N:greV.:1":..WPA • Times Established l$13 Advocate Established 1081 Amalgamated 1924 late eteferZimesabuocafe SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., 0.W.N.A,, CLASS 'A' and ABC Publishers: J. M. Seuthcott, R. M. Southcott Editor — Bill Bitten— Advertising Manager Phone 2354331 coMmunity newspapers Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 Paid in Advance Circulation, September 30, 1968, 4,520 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $S.00 Per Year; USA $7.% 410011.11.1114tr' 0•0010111111 So, how was your weekend? Should be valuable OUT FOR A LITTLE STROLL-More and more area youngsters are getting the opportunity to ride around in style with a pony providing the automation. Above, David Cann has picked up Doug and Paul Scott and is ready to go for a drive in the country. 1-A photo. I never want to wish my life away, but some weekends I could do without and be perfectly happy to have my life cut short by three days. It started Friday. Somebody called the principal at the school at 8 a.m. and said there was a bomb planted in the building. Very sensibly, he kicked all the students out of the plant, and kept all the teachers in it. It was a rather brutal, but efficient, way of pointing out who was dispensable in the system. Hordes of police and firemen added to the excitement. The teachers were twittering like swallows, making bad jokes about ticking brief cases and other hilarious objects. As an old fighter pilot, who had bombed, and had been bombed in more ways than orie, I thought I should set a good example, so settled myself in a corner of the staff room and read poetry. Not a soul was impressed, which was rather depressing. The kids had a ball. It was like being locked out of jail. The smokers gathered in their outside smoking bay and reefed away on the weed as though it were going out of style. A number of young ladies, locked out of the school on a cold, windy day and lightly clad, climbed into cars with their boy friends to "keep warm." The pool-room crowd headed straight downtown. Eventually, the school was cleared and we got a sort of half-holiday, while the police searched the building. Everyone rather enjoyed the break in routine except myself, To someone who is perfectly organized, such a disruption is very disrupting. It was a fairly hair-raising day for the teachers in charge of the school's annual musical comedy, to be presented that night. Would there be any audience, with the local radio station announcing, hourly, that there might be a bomb in the school? Needless to say, there was no bomb, and there was a huge audience, and the musical, fortunately, was anything but a bomb. Happy ending, Who made the phone call? Was it a kid who had been bawled out the day before? Was it a crank? Was it a taxpayer driven beyond the brink? Nobody knows, but it will come out some day. Well, nothing wrong with that, you say. Just a little extra excitement, and no harm done. But I knew what was coming. These things all run in three's, as any old pilot will tell you. Saturday, I played my first golf game of the season. I discovered that either I'd gone blind, or Old Nick was moving the ball just as I swung. Talk about a lack of communication. I was right. Sunday morning, at six sharp, I was fisited by the lightning flu bug that has been decimating classes lately. I barely made it to the bathroom, where everything came up except the traditional kitchen sink, and a couple of times I was sure the sink was coming. It goes without saying that that was my Sunday to take up the collection. Shivering and sweating and tottering. I made it through the service. And if I don't get to heaven, on that performance alone, somebody is going to catch hell. SUnday, our new kitten who had been perfectly trained from the day we brought him home, going to his litter-box as though he's been doing it for years, suddenly decided to join the teen-age revolt or something, and found a corner, right at the Despite the modern advances in technology, there are few items which apparently ever become completely useless o r are of no value to anyone. This was visibly drawn to our attention last week after we decided to rip down the barn on our property. The brickwork in some sections had deteriorated to the point where we feared for the safety of children playing around the structure. The better half joined us in hauling arm load after arm load of old lumber to a bonfire in the back garden, and then we set about ripping off the back portion of the barn. By nightfall, we had aches and pains where we didn't even realize we had muscles. A few nail holes punctured our hands and they were joined by numerous slivers. Our clothes were ready for the wash tub and so were we. It was at this point that we realized we would try anything to get assistance in removing the barn, and so we placed an advertisement in last week's classified section, never thinking there would be much response. Well, the phone rang most of Thursday and into Friday and we even had two telephone calls as late as Monday. It seemed there was indeed a great demand for the materials we had intended to take to the dump and in short order all the materials had been spoken for. We anticipate that by this weekend the barn will be completely removed and our only exertion came in jumping up and down as we watched the demise of the barn taking place. While this may sound as though it's a testimony for classified ads, it's designed more to remind people that regardless of what they have, there's probably someone, somewhere who will take it from them. They may not pay for it, but at least they'll save you the expense of hauling it away. We've seen the same thing happen at auction sales. People have watched articles sold for high prices at times, and they stand there muttering to themselves about their stupidity in having taken a similar article to the dump only a few days previous. So, take our advice. Before you expend any energy on getting rid of some of your "don't-wants", take the time to see if there may be someone who would consider the article to be a "do-want." * * * It's not too difficult to sympathize with some members of Exeter council in their contention that the burning of refuse at the dump in Hay swamp does any harm. While the department of health has indicated that the fires must cease within two months, it is difficult to back of one of the kitchen cupboards, where you couldn't quite reach him, which was more to his liking. Sunday evening, after being assured by four different experts that Pip, the kitten, was a male, a lady dropped in and dropped a pall by announcing, with proof, that he was a lady. A big, ugly, yellow tomcat loitering in the vicinity when I threw the little Monster outside in the morning underlined the point. We had a visitor` Sunday night who stayed up talking until 3 a.m. I arrived at work Monday morning physically and eMotionally ravaged. And who was there? A sweet young woman, a former Student, who's going to be a teacher, and wanted to "observe" me in action. Some action. understand how the burning of garbage in such a remote area is of such serious consequence. There may well be some scientific evidence to back up the department's program to halt such burning of rubbish, but it would have been more diplomatic for the department to spell out these dangers so council would understand the situation. To the uninformed, the burning of refuse in Hay swamp seems to be a smaller problem than the amount of exhaust fumes one encounters in Exeter each day, or even the air pollution caused by jets flying overhead. No doubt there are dump locations that do create problems in some communities, and certainly these should be required to cease their contamination. However, if open fires are not permitted, the solutions appear costly. One of the new incinerators could be purchased, but with a price tag of $50,000 or so, it is questionable if the purchase price and subsequent operating costs are warranted in our particular case. If garbage has to be buried, or just left to accumlate, then this too will be costly. It seems rather strange that our forefathers relied on wood fires to provide their heat and had no air pollution and yet department officials now contend that modern man's 50 YEARS AGO Mr. T.F. Boyle, who recently purchased a dry goods store in Toronto, is well satisfied with the business location. He is having the store enlarged to twice the present size. Pte. Edward Anderson, son of Mr. and Mrs. George Anderson of town, returned home from overseas Friday night. Ed was in the trenches for over three years. He was at Mons when the armistice was signed, Mr. Wilbur Mitchell, who recently returned from overseas, has rented the Metropolitan Hotel from his father and will take possession June 1 to conduct the business. Friday afternoon and evening a most successful field day and "welcome" was held at Elimville in honour of the returned soldiers and the parents of those who fell. A first class program of music, sports and addresses was carried out. 25 YEARS AGO E.J. Wethey. for 23 years principal of Exeter High School and mathematics teacher for two years, has tendered his resignation. He will continue to make his home in Exeter. Mr. and Mrs. George LaWson on Monday received word from Ottawa that their son, Warrant Officer Orville Percy Lawson, an observer with the RCAF, was reported missing May 7 in North Africa. No details have been received. Forty two boxes for the Hensall boys overseas were packed by the Women's Institute and the War Service Committee Thursday night. Many folks in the village and district gave up their sugar rations to make candy to include in the boxes. The Exeter Board of Education have secured a specialist teacher for a commercial department which Will be introduced in the school with the fall term, pollution of the air is augmented by the burning of similar materials in our dumps. Obviously, there are much greater air pollution problems and the department would do well to crack down on these other sources before they consider halting the burning of brush and crating in a remote area in Hay swamp. We realize that residents of rural Ontario must do everything possible to prevent our air from being polluted to the extent of our city cousins, and we trust the department will at least provide some facts and figures on exactly how we are doing this with dump fires. Similar to some members of area councils, we wonder if the problem is as bad as health officials apparently consider it. There certainly are problems encountered with any community's dumping grounds, and there are several contributing factors. First of all, we buy most of our food stuffs these days, as opposed to the previous practice where the family's food was prepared each year by the woman of the house who spent a vast amount of time in preserving everything from pickles to pineapple. The containers were used over the over again, Today, the modern housewife —Continued on page 11 15 YEARS AGO Friday, May 15 will remain a memorable night for the citizens of Lucan and community, for then, the green and white ribbon was snipped for the official opening of Lucan's new $90,000 public school. Seventy years of styles in wedding gowns were on display at the district annual of South Huron Women's Institutes on Friday attended by over 200 ladies. Gowns ranged from those of 1880 to modern bridal fashions. Mrs. Kenneth Johns of Elimville W I was re-elected president. Sgt. R.A. (Alex) Ellis arrived in London Thursday morning after serving in Korea for over a year. New directories were mailed this week to Bell Telephone subscribers in Exeter. Enough copies of the buff-covered books are being distributed in the district that placed end to end, would form a path more than 12 miles long. 10 YEARS AGO Murray Desjardins, municipal clerk at Grand Bend, received "B" honours in the clerks and treasurers extension course given by Queen's University this winter for the first time. A new commercial service for the district, "Superior Maintenance" has been announced this week. The firm Will specialize in maintenance of floors, walls, ceilings and Windows of eommercial and residential buildings. Rev. Duncan Guest, Wyoming, who will succeed Rev. J.T. Clarke as pastor of Centralia and Whalen churches, was on Tuesday elected president of the United Church of Canada London Conference, Convinced that rabies remains a very real threat to the safety of citizens, council, Monday night, agreed to secure a tranquilizer gun tor pollee to assist in the enforcement of the town's by-law.