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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1969-08-21, Page 1S I • O 't1 . 1.1Mbiti SETTING SCHEDULES AT JAD McCURDY — When public school classes resume at JAD McCurdy in September a new principal will be in charge, 13111 Linfield is shown above with vice-principal Pat Soldan going over a schedule for the coming year. T-A photo • Grand Bend business sa id "boomingsal nicely" PATIENTS BACK IN HOSPITAL - Monday afternoon marked the return of the first patients to South Huron Hospital since the institution was forced to close due to the severe flooding conditions of July 24, The first patient to enter the hospital Monday, Don Shepherd of Hensall is shown above getting a drink of water from nurse Miss Myrtle Ninham. T-A photo TURNIPS BEING HARVESTED — The turnip harvest has already started on sortie area farms. A group of workmen are shown above on a turnip topping operation on the farm of Earl Neil in Stephen township, From the left, they are, Keith Maier, Joe Pais, John Barros, Maria Banos, Orlla Pais and Tony Pais. T-A photo CAVITY ON MAIN STREET — Late Monday afternoon, an automobile owned by Bob Coleman, parked in front of Avco Finance sunk into a hole on Main street, Above, Coleman is shown checking the depth of the cavity. T-A photo. Beans in spotlight at Zurich, Saturday Ninety-fourth Year EXETER, ONTARIO, AUGUST 21, 1969 Price Per Copy 15 Cents LEARN CRAFTS AT DASHWOOD DVB SCHOOL — Senior students attending the two-week session of the Daily Vacation Bible School at the Dashwood United Church spend a good deal of their time learning crafts. Shown above are a group of students sewing up bean bags with teachers Mrs. Don Gaiser and Mrs. Harold Hendrick. From left, they are, Peter Musselman, Gordon Braid, Byron Oestreicher, Brian Kipfer, John Ducharme, Fraser Boyle, Betty Guenther, Brenda Kipfer and Laurie Becker. How are things 'in the Bend this summer? "Booming nicely, thank you," was the reply from Len Rau, operator of the pier booth at the beach one day this summer. "We got off to a poor start," Mr. Rau continued, "but it is • sure going dandy now." "They are packed in solid down here," he said with a lilt in his voice. "We couldn't wish for anything better." Griffin Thomas, owner of the furniture store had the same opinion. "Things are going very, very nicely," Mr. Thomas told the T.A. "The weather is just tremendous. It is a wonderful season all round." The new street is making the visitors happy, according to Mr. Thomas. Traffic moves faster • and tourists are able to get downtown for their wares in less time than ever before. ttecve Ory Wassmann agreed. He said parallel parking on the new street had created further congestion on the back streets, • but he doubted if the village was MPP concerned over Clinton closing • • • likely to revert back to angle parking. "People have adjusted easily and nicely to parallel parking," Reeve Wassmann explained. "We notice the beach is holding more cars this year than ever before." Policing is good, commented the reeve. Mrs. Ed Gill at the Chamber of Commerce office said that "pretty well all accommodation was taken every weekend." "There are a few vacancies through the week," Mrs. Gill said. She has noticed, like everyone else has, that the bulk of the folks in Grand Bend for the summer are families. "It is a very nide crowd." she said. "Mostly sightseers. The younger crowd moves in for a while on the weekends." Len Rau said there is "no trouble at all" with the younger generation this year. Griff Thomas has noticed "very few motorcyclists". Fishermen off the dock are finding their luck is good. Len Rau said they're catching perch and "the odd black bass' at the end of the pier. The salmon are gone, he reported. A boat is available this year to accommodate fishing parties and another boat is offering cruises on the river and the lake. There have been lots of enquiries from tourists at the Chamber of Commerce office. — Please turn to back page Exeter pair report flood It seems that floods in Exeter are bound to happen on a Thursday! Mr, and Mrs. Gary Middleton left Exeter on the Sunday following the unbelievable flood which swept through the southern portions of the town Thursday, July 24. They travelled to England where they spent three weeks with Mrs. Middleton's parents in Beeston in Nottingham, England. While vacationing there a severe thunder storm hit the area bringing with it a downpour of rain. Remarks Mr. Middleton, "They're not accustomed to that much rain despite what some people may think about England. But I've seen it rain that hard here in Canada, though." The next morning, the Middletons read the newspaper headlines: Exeter Cut Off. Exeter, England had suffered a flood. The date? Thursday, August 7. The lion. C. S. MacNaughton this week expressed "extreme disappointment" that the Canadian Forces Base at Clinton has been scheduled for deactivation by the department of national defence. In a statement issued to The Times-Advocate this week, the Huron MPP had the following comments: This is the second severe economic blow suffered by the Huron community in less than three years as a result of national defence reorganization. It follows rather hard on the heels of the closing of the former station at Centralia, whose deactivation was announced in 1966. For many years, these two former RCAF Stations have been a major element in the economy of Huron, providing the largest employment of any non-agricultural enterprise in the county. While Huron is an excellent farming community, it has experienced relatively little industrial growth since World War II and the defence bases have been instrumental in providing jobs and revenue for people in the area. Because of this, and particularly in view of the federal government's current concern for regional disparity, I had hoped that the defence department would have continued operations at Clinton at least until the community had recovered fully from the Centralia setback. The recent establishment of a new warrant officers' school at Clinton suggested that the federal authorities anticipated the base would remain active for many years to come. While I am most concerned about the announcement to close Clinton, I am relieved to learn that a two-year phasing-out period has been provided by the Department of National Defence. The closure date of September, 1971, will give governmental authorities an opportunity to investigate carefully the best alternative use Residents urged to check roofs Exeter and area residents were this week advised to run a check on the roofs of their properties. It seems that many roofs were damaged during the storm July 24 but perhaps not all impairments have been discovered to date. Most homeowners are covered by insurance and should take the first opportunity to examine their roofs for storm damage. To reassess crop damage Claims being presented by district farmers for loss during the recent flood will have to be readjusted before the Disaster Fund committee can give any accurate estimate of total damage. Claims amounting to about $350,000 have been submitted by farmers in Exeter, Osborne and Stephen. At a meeting, Tuesday, the committee members indicated many of the claims were presented on the basis of what the crops would have been worth per acre at harvest. However, many of the crops will still be harvested, and final adjustment of the claims will be made at that time. The farmers reporting losses will have their crops inspected in the near future. The committee also indicated Tuesday that no canvass will be conducted in the area hit by the flood and storm, They noted that most of the residents in this area were affected by the storm and it was feltdonations for the fund should be sought from outside this area. However, persons living in this area and not suffering losses during the flood are being asked to make donations on a voluntary basis. Donations will be accepted by the clerks in Exeter, Stephen and Osborne as well as the banks in the area. to be made of the facilities at the base. I hope this will result in much less disruption and hardship than was the experience with the abrupt closing of Centralia in 1966, Sometime after the Centralia deactivation, I wrote to Defence Minister Leo_ Cadieux to express my concern over the method of closure there and urged him to consider a procedure which would minimize the problem of adjustment. I note that his department will co-operate with other federal departments, the provincial government and local authorities in planning for future use of the facilities. The Ontario Government, through its Development Corporation, has made every effort to replace the Centralia loss through the establishment of an industrial park and agricultural school there. While this development has been quite successful, the transformation is still in process and the adjustment will not be completed for several years. The Clinton base, which does not have runway or hangar All roads in this part of the country will lead to Zurich this weekend for the fourth annual Zurich Bean Festival. The big event that draws thousands of visitors from all over the area will get underway Friday night. The two-day affair gets going Friday night with a Bean Festival dance at the Zurich arena at which time a "Bean Queen" will be selected. The new Queen will be crowned by last year's winner, Miss Debbie Merner of Zurich. The contest is open to any girls in the area and the winner has been invited to participate in a beauty contest to be staged at the Mid-Western Rodeo in Exeter the following week. Beans take over the spotlight at noon on Saturday. Visitors can see beans cooked in huge facilities, does not lend itself to industrial uses as did Centralia, Jt should be well suited, however, to institutional or educational needs, since the base has been an outstanding training centre for many years. I hope that Ottawa will give every possible consideration to employing the base as an educational centre for some other federal program. My colleague, Robert McKinley, MP for Huron, is working actively on this possibility. It seems eminently sensible, during this period of inflation and concern over public spending, to utilize these existing facilities as an alternative to investing capital funds in new construction. I can assure the Clinton community that the Ontario Government is prepared to co-operate fully in efforts to minimize the loss. I am confident, for example, that Clinton itself will continue to be designated under the revised E.I.O, program to provide forgivable loans and conventional financing for new — Please turn to Page 3 kettles right out on the street in the village. After a quick look, customers will be able to dig right into a healthy helping of beans, served along with cooked ham, coleslaw and buns. The price of the meal is moderate and table accommodation will be provided. Packages of white beans will be on sale and visitors can enjoy a tour of the bean growing area by bus or tractor-drawn wagons. The tours will pass by farms in the area where a large share of Ontario's bean crop is grown. For the visitors not wishing to travel there will be lots of other things to occupy their time within the confines of the village. 'The Lions Club will be staging an auction sale in the afternoon and pony rides and a midway will be available to entertain the youngsters. For the grown-ups there will be the opportunity to partake of horse shoe throwing, solo and checkers. Merchants will have special displays set up in a central area of the village which will be blocked off to form a mall. In — Please turn to Page 3 Pony theft Is reported Over the past week 11 persons have been charged by Exeter town police and one theft case has been reported. The charges were all laid under the Highway Traffic Act and the theft was three-year-old Orly owned by Larry Baynhani of town. Chief of Police Ted Day reminds motorists in town that frequent radar speed checks will be made in the next couple of weeks. Members of Exeter council plan a meeting this week to air complaints about some aspects of the reconstruction of Main St. and also to get details on some problems now showing up in the completed work. A large hole developed near the curb in front of the AVCO Finance office this week and members expressed concern that other areas of the street may suffer the same fate. In addition, water is ponding at some intersections following storms and there are still some driveways where cars drag as they enter. The new surface has already been dug up in one place to repair a faulty installation and some sidewalks have had to be replaced after they started to crack this spring. A letter was received at council's Monday meeting indicating the underside of cars are dragging on the sidewalk when they attempt to enter the laneway at the home of Mrs. Frank Taylor. Councillor Helen Jermyn indicated she had received a similar complaint from a nearby resident, but council learned that officials on the project said nothing could be done about the situation. M ea It /41. 4 • iN Seek girls for contest Pretty girls and contests with a western flavor will feature this • year's Fun Day in Exeter. The annual Board of Trade program has been set for August 29 to coincide with the local rodeo and one of the features will be a beauty contest. Any single girls in the area are eligible to compete in the Fun • Day contest and the winner will then represent Exeter in the beauty contest to be held at the Labor Day weekend rodeo, , The win could be Worth $75, as the Fun Day prize will be $25 and the rodeo winner Will receive an additional $50. Some contestants have already entered and other girls Wishing to do so cab register with Bill Rowe at Exeter Electric, The usual contests and games for the kids on Fun Day will • have a western flair and will include a flap jack flipping contest for the girls, a lassOo and pistol-drawing match for the boys and also a uhuckwagon race, In addition, there will be prizes for the youngsters showing up in Western or Indian • attire for the day. Flood records requested here The Ontario Department of Energy Resources Management is asking the residents of Exeter and district to assist in gaining information on the flood of July 24. Anyone in the area that has a record of rainfall during the afternoon of the downpour whether it be by rain gauge or empty pails or pools is asked to contact Bryan Howard of the Ausable River Conservation Authority. Howard who is resources manager for the local authority is assisting the provincial department in completing a survey of the extent of flooding. Peter Grienowski, a hydrometeorologist with the Conservation Authorities Branch was in Exeter recently in an attempt to calculate the volume of water flow through the Anne Street drain. Any information on rain fall records or photographs of any of the flooded areas will be appreciated by the local ARCA manager. Howard may be reached at 235-2610. MANY PROBLEMS ON STREET WORK "If cars are dragging; someone will do something, Mayor Jack Delbridge flatly stated. "This isn't right." Reeve Derry Boyle said that in his opinion the entire street needed another complete layer of asphalt to raise the levels and end the problem of the sharp inclines into most driveways. Most members of council agreed that the new sidewalks appeared to be too high. The pavement already repaired is near the Pentecostal Church and the repair has resulted in a noticeable bump, The hole which appeared in front of the AVCO office was Approve permit for new house One new home was included in the building permits approved by Exeter council this week. The house will be erected at 294 Sanders St. East by Tony Relo uw. Other permits approved were as follows: E. L. Chaffe, to erect awnings and railings at 448 Albert; Ken Johns, to re-roof house at 67 John E. Alvin Pym, to put siding on house at 153 Huron E. blamed by Superintendent Jim Paisley on perforated pipes installed under the pavement. He told council that both he and B. M, Ross, consulting engineer, had opposed the use of the perforated pipes, but they had been over-ruled by the department of highways officials who insisted the pipes be used for drainage purposes. It was indicated that the pipes had never been used on a road construction job before. "Why do we get hooked?" Mayor Delbridge questioned. Paisley suggested the perforated pipes permitted sand to be washed away under the pavement and this was the cause of the Main St. hole. Councillor Ross Dobson questioned if the entire street may end up with numerous patches to fix holes caused by the eroding sand. Some other problems relating to the project were discussed and council then decided to have a meeting with the consulting engineer. The meeting has been planned for Tuesday. To compound council's problem, Paisley noted that he had received a request from Bell Telephone workmen to cut across the new pavement near Huron St. tt% t 111t, 04 11,, .. 2 . 7:i t 1 'Itij CRED11.6.101\1: '131:11 ; 4 :C"'14';„C:1' I:: 0.. FENS A one-week edition of t *1141;lha'n'I Vacation 'Bible School opened at Zion United Church in Creditors with close to 100 area youngsters in attendance, Above, teacher Kathy Schenk is giving instructions to the junior group for A game of "Drop the Hankie".