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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1972-03-02, Page 1Ninety-eighth Yea r EXETER, ONTARIO, MARCH 2, 1972 Price Per Copy 20 Cents Keith I. McLean Exeter traffic lights soon to be operative fr Exeter's new traffic lights at the Main and Sanders Streets intersection are expected to be in operation in the immediate future. Officials were advised the lights would be in operation today (Thursday), but workmen at the site doubted they would be completed by then, Chief Ted Day has already arranged with the two local elementary schools to have the students undergo proper procedural training at the in- Another man loses license tersection as soon as possible after the fights are operating. The traffic lights for north and southbound traffic on Main St. will be set at green (GO), due to the fact that the majority of traffic proceeds in these direc- tions. Vehicles travelling east and West on Sanders St. will activate a device buried in the roadway which will automatically set in motion the traffic lights to enable them to proceed through the intersection, After this traffic has cleared, the lights will automatically change back to green for north and south traffic. Pedestrians wishing to cross Main St. will be able to push a button on the poles to activate a change in the' lights, Chief Day said right turns will be permitted on a red signal, but a vehicle must be first brought to a complete stop before the turn is commenced. The driver of the vehicle must also make sure he will not interfere with pedestrian or vehicular traffic proceeding with the green light. He also asked this newspaper to bring the following information to the local public regarding other regulations pertaining to the operation of the traffic signals. A red signal means a motorist must bring his vehicle to a stop at a clearly marked stop line, or if there is none, stop before en- tering the pedestrian crosswalk, — Please turn to page 3 FIRST BIRTHDAY — While Kenneth Boersma of RR 1, Exeter was four years old Tuesday he celebrated his first birthday. The Leap Year baby of 1968 is shown blowing out the candles with his sister Sharon. T-A. photo ti ERECTING TRAFFIC LIGHTS — The long awaited traffic signal lights at the corner of Main and Sanders streets in Exeter are being installed this week. They expect to be in operation within a couple of days,. Above, workmen are installing signals on the north-east corner. T-A photo Five persons hurt C. R in district crashes Addition at Exeter public school delayed for at least one year and bruises and damage in the crash was listed at $600 by Constable Frank Giffin, Damage was set at $2,000 by Constable Bob Whiteford in an accident on Sunday at 5:15 p.m, on Highway 83, about one and a half miles east of Exeter, A car driven by Betty Ruth Smith, Kitchener, skidded sideways on the icy road and hit a snowbank and then bounced into a tree. The driver sustained bruises in the collision. Five persons sustained injuries in area accidents this week, in- cluding one snowmobiler. Larry Clarke,15, was operating a machine at his home on Saturday around 11:30 a.m. and fractured a bone in his right foot. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Russell Clarke,RR 1 Crediton, There was no damage to the machine and the mishap was investigated by OPP Cpl. Ray • Brooks. There were two other accidents on Saturday, both of a similar nature. At 2:15 p.m., a car operated by Douglas Longman, Mississauga, skidded backwards into a tree stump on the Crediton Road. Damage was set at $275 by Constable Al Quinn. The accident occurred just west of concession 10-11 in Stephen. About an hour later, a car driven by J. Douglas Murray, RR 3 Zurich, skidded on concession 8- 9 Hay township and the rear end of the car slammed into a hydro pole. Murray was treated for cuts Snowmobilers pay penalties year because of the 35 year ruling. That's the main reason for the delay. "The addition is certainly in the plans for 1973." Construction next year is ex- pected to include four teaching classrooms, a library resources centre and change rooms. In 1970 Exeter council asked the board to give immediate consideration to an addition at the local public school pointing out that overcrowding does exist and that the school does not have a library. When the original plans were made construction costs were estimated at about $200,000. Additional construction this year throughout Huron is very limited. Consideration is being given to an addition of a library and classrooms at Turnberry Central school. construction would be delayed until 1973. In order to construct the ad- dition, part of the school which was built in 1937 would ha`ve to be torn down. McDonald said the Ontario Department of Education does not allow a building to be condemned and torn down until it is at least 35 years old. The local school board official continued, "We will not be in line for the proper grants until next Construction of a proposed addition to Exeter Public School originally planned for 1972 has been postponed until next year. In October of 1970, the Huron County Board of Education ap- proved a three-year capital expenditure forecast which in- cluded an addition at the local school. Clarence McDonald, one of the Exeter members of the County school board said this week that Liquor charges again con- stituted the majority of cases heard by Judge Glenn Hays in Exeter court, Tuesday. Leroy Maurice Gowanlock, Dashwood, pleaded guilty to a charge of driving with over 80 mgs. of alcohol in his blood and was fined $100 and had his license suspended for three months. ' He was stopped by police as a result of his erratic driving and a breathalizer test indicated a reading more than double the legal limit. Kenneth G. MacGregor, Parkhill, was fined $30 for having liquor while under the age of 18 and Warren Russell Moore, London, was fined a similar amount for having liquor in a place other than his residence. Harry Plantinga, Zurich, was also fined $30 for having liquor in a place other than his residence. Some beer was found in a car which had been abandoned due to stormy weather conditions and it was established that the accused was the owner of the beer. The other case was a traffic infraction and James Bridle, Huron Park, was fined $20 for failing to report damage caused when his car skidded off the roadway and hit a fence post. He said he was not familiar with the Highway Traffic Act and did not know he was supposed to report the accident. Damage to his car was $22 and he said he put in a new fence post himself. Exeter reeve loses membership battle CROWN CCAT QUEEN — The Queen of the winter carnival at Centralia College of Agricultural Technology was crowned Saturday night. Above, left, Bonnie Wheeler receives congratulations from 1971 Queen Libby Randolph. photo by Norm Hyde that Huron's three members would be appointed directly by county council and could include either elected or appointed personnel. In the past, according to Gowing, there was no guarantee that county council would have any direct representation on the board and the line of corn- - Please turn to page 3 SH group going alone Asked to pull stops for Clinton promoter Steering fails, crashes bridge A recently imposed snowmobile bylaw in the village of Lucan is being strictly en- forced by officers of the Lucan detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police. Constable Gord Barker said this week that five persons have been charged in recent weeks with operating snowmobiles in the village during restricted hours. The bylaw prohibits the operation of snowmobiles bet- ween midnight and 7 a.m., seven days per week. Constable Barker said all persons had pleaded guilty and assessed fines of $30 each. the county planning board to see that an amendment to the County Draft Official Plan be carried out and duly approved, Such an amendment would take the form — Please turn to page 3 About 24 feet of the railing of the Ausable River bridge on Main St. was demolished early Thursday when it was struck by a speedall front loader driven by Brian Sweitzer, 103 Huron St. Sweitzer was proceeding north when the steering control rod of the vehicle failed and the machine veered across the high- way into the west side of the bridge. The driver was unharmed and the estimate of damage to the bridge is not known at this time, The accident was investigated by Constable Cairns. The only other traffic accident of the week occurred on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. involving vehicles driven by James Cutting, Grand Bend, and Leo Paul Dietrich, Centralia. The crash took place on Main St., north of John, and was in- vestigated by Constable Cairns. Damage was listed at $200. Lawyer joins Exeter firm' Exeter lawyer P. L. Raymond announced this week that Keith I. McLean has become associated with him in his law practice, A native of Seaforth, Mr. McLean is a graduate of York University and articled in Toronto as well as with the local lawyer during the past summer months. He completed his bar ad- mission course last week. He and his wife, Catherine, have an infant daughter, Robin, and will be taking up residence in the former Jack Smith home on William Street. After a stormy period of discussion for the past two months, Huron County Council agreed to take out membership for 1972 in Midwestern Development Council (MODA) at a cost of slightly more than $6,000. But there are conditions at- tached to the membership, for Huron County councillors want to be assured that this county will have some autonomy in the organization. The conditions are that the present composition of the Board of Directors of MDC be restructured as proposed by Walter Gowing at Friday's session; and that Huron County have direct representation on the Board of Directors. The proposal outlined by Walter Gowing, general manager of MDC, was that there would be three members each from Huron, Perth and Wellington counties and one each from the village of Ayr, the towns of New Hamburg and St, Marys and the city of Stratford. As well, there would be a provincial appointment. The past president would also be a sitting member of the board. In addition to these 15 people, there would be five other representatives — one each from agriculture, planning, education, industry and tourism. According to Gowing, these five persons would also be voting members on the board because their ef- fectiveness seemed threatened without that privilege. What is important to Huron is Plow damaged On Monday at 8:45 a.m,, a Huron County snowplow operated by Edgar Steinback, RR 3 Zurich, was badly damaged in a mishap on Huron County Road 21, about a mile west of Highway 4. The plow was proceeding east on the county road when a wheel dropped into a soft shoulder and the wing of the plow dug in, tipping the vehicle onto its side. Steinback sustained cuts and the wingman, Gerald Beachler, Zurich, was treated for a con- cussion. Constable Bill Lewis in- vestigated and estimated total damage at $3,800. The only other accident of the week occurred on Friday when a car driven by Wayne Lee, Watford, skidded out of control on Highway 84 east of Zurich. The vehicle rolled over in the south ditch. Constable Bill Lewis listed damage at $50. During the week, the detach- ment officers charged eight persons under the Highway Traffic Act and there were 14 warnings issued. Two persons were charged with impaired driving and there was one charge under the Criminal Code. In his weekly press release, Cpl. Brooks notes that when it is cold or wet, most drivers feel sympathy for the would-be hitch- hiker standing by the highway. However, he reminds drivers that the lonely hiker may be a criminal with designs on your car or money. "Don't take chances by giving or accepting lifts from strangers," he advises, Despite an announcement from the Goderich and District Association. of the Mentally Retarded to opt out of the plans for a sheltered workshop, the South Huron association intends to carry on alone with an alter- nate scheme. A letter received by the local association from the Goderich group said in part, "It is with regret that we must withdraw from our agreement with your association." The communique went on to say support was not strong enough in the Goderich organization at this time to continue with the proposed plans. South-Huron executive members told the T-A, the local association is as determined as ever to have a workshop for adult retardates in this area. They hope to secure an option on a local property in the next few days and will announce more definite plans soon. Authority pair attend workshop John Hodgins and Ted Jones of the Ausa ble-Bay field Con- servation Authority, attended the 26th annual Great Lakes Park Training Institute, last week. The Institute was held at the Potawatomi Inn, Pokagon State Park, Angola, Indiana. This is a seminar in park planning. It is a practice of the Authority to send two representatives each year, in a continuing education on en- vironmental improvements, management and beautification of our parks, Issue warning after pills found Exeter Police Chief Ted Day reported this week that three different containers containing drugs and various types of pills have been turned into his office in the past week. The items were apparently dropped on the street. A mint candy box contained about a dozen pills of various types. Chief Day said parents should advise their children to not eat anything they find in containers on the street, but should take them home or turn them over to the police, He expressed concern that if a small child found a candy box he may be tempted to sample the pills, mistaking them for candy. Newspaper wins award 4 • From reports heard by members of Huron County Council at their session Friday, it seems that the provincial government is giving John van Gastel's new project at former CFB Clinton priority treatment — and members of Huron council were urged to do the same. Planning Director for Huron, Gary Davidson, said that "some kind of a record" was made recently in the speed with which certain matters pertaining to former CFB Clinton cleared government offices and Harold Lobb, Reeve of Clinton, said that if the Huron project was getting that kind of "government sup- port", Huron should "pull all the stop's" to see that van Gastel gets his enterprise underway as soon as possible. A report by Davidson had this to say: "The developer (van Gastel) is in ' the process of attracting various industries and residents. However, Until final approval of a registered plan of subdivision is given, legal title cannot be ob- tained. It is understandable that prospective industries and residents do not want to invest capital with no guarantee of ownership of their lands. "The developer, therefore, requires some assurance that, from the planning board's viewpoint, the development will proceed. Such assurance, in the form of legal draft approval, while not authorizing the sale of individual lots, will constitute a binding eorrireitment and to some extent, outline What must be undertaken prior to final ap- proval of the subdivision. "From discussions with the developer's planning con- sultants (Rleinfelt and Associates) it would appear that draft approval, even though containing rather open-ended conditions, would be of great assistance. It would, of course, remove the possibility that the subdivision would be turned down on a matter of principle." There are six conditions by which county approval in prin- ciple Will be given to the draft plan for former CFI3 Clinton by van Castel. It will be the responsibility of • The Exeter Times-Advocate was one of three area papers winning awards at the weekend convention of the Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association. This publication was judged second for general excellence in the division for papers with circulations between 3,500 and 5,000. Placing first was the Grimsby Independent and third prize went to the Fort Erie Times-Review. T-A editor Bill Batten, who attended the convention in Toronto' with his wife, Kaaren, accepted the award from in- coming president, Chuck McKnight of Tillsonburg. The Listowel Banner placed third in the general excellence class for newspapers with cir- culation between 2,000 tied 3,500, While the Clinton News-Record won second prize in the editorial page competition. VETERAN RECEIVES LIFE MEMBERSHIP — Two life memberships were presented Thursday night by the FJi,. Vooley Exeter branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. Members of the Legion executive visited Vie Hogarth at his Senior street home to make the presentation. Shown congratulating Mr. Hogarth are from the left, Fred Simmons, LE. Voi"ley, Reg McDonald and branch 'resident Glenn Robinson. ZUHICH MAN HONORED — A life-long resident of Zurich, Albert Kalbfleisch was honored during a testimonial dinner in Zurich, Friday night. He was active in municipal and political life for many years. Shown above during the evening are from the left, Huron Warden Elmer 1-layter, Mrs. Xalbfleisch, Albert leioololci41 Arid Titioadier Mnrean Smith of l3avfield, Citizens News photo T-A photo