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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1975-11-27, Page 1Postal strike continues. *sties subject at .0 of C meet Agreeing that the postal strike has.ereated many difficulties for local business men as well as the general public, the Exeter Chamber of .Commerce decided to take some action when it discussed the problem at a meeting Friday morning. John Dinney moved that a delegation approach the post- master of Exeter and express the Chamber's feelings on the lack of Outside PUC workers get 8 percent increase The Exeter P.U.C, granted wage increases to its outside employees, plus cost-of-living supplements within the guidelines set down by the federal government Tuesday at the regular meeting. The outside workers had asked the commission to grant them the maximum allowable increase, According to the government booklet, "Attack on Inflation" by the Hon. Donald Macdonald, which the commission used as a source to determine what the increases should be, the maximum allowable is eight percent base plus two percent for productivity, plus two percent in CATTLE DRIVERS — Iry Gera, Fullerton Wilmer Preszcdtor of Exeter, standing, after bringing his cattle in from pasture. Craig Black and Wayne Preszcator of Exeter all pose with Ross Francis, T-A photo One Hundred and Third Year EXETER, ONTARIO, NOVEMBER 27, 1975 Price Per Copy 25 Cents Council assures citizens' town hall postal service in town and determine whether the super- visors, who are not on strike, could do anything to get local delivery moving again. Jim Kneale added a second motion that a delegation approach the striking postal workers, them- selves, to see what their reaction would be to a request to go back to work. Meanwhile, over at the Exeter post office, the postmaster and his assistant were busy sorting mail and distributing govern- ment cheques to old-age pen- sioners. They had been invited to attend the Chamber meeting but had recieved an order from the federal government to distribute the cheques, but not other mail. Explaining his position, assistant Bev Rabbets said, "I received a direct order from the Post- master-General to sort these cheques, Otherwise I am to be escorted out of the building by the postmaster." He said that the post office would be open as long as there were cheques to hand out. Rabbets said that supervisory personnel at the post office are considered management and are not legally allowed by the federal government to do the work of the striking inside workers. When the delegation from the Chamber arrived, they were told essen- tially the same thing. Some area post offices have gone back into operation on a local level, including Goderich, Stratford, and a few members of the union local in London. The fact that these post office areas are being partially served has nothing to do with management. It was an action which rested committee that building will stay Local pair in Royal top 10 "When we see houses in Exeter reaching the $1000 tax mark we've got to be careful or else we'll have people moving out, not moving in." we can commit a sum of money for renovations," Reeve Boyle said, "We'll have to see what it will do to the mill rate," he added, taxes. They said $24,000 was too much to add to a' mill rate already noticeable. "Until we get into the meat of this year's budget, there's no way relation to any cost-of-living increases given in the past two years. After deciding to give the workers the maximum increase, the commission announced that the amount would be eight per- cent, effective at the first of the year, 1976. A second request by the outside workers, that they be permitted to take service duty calls from another location than their homes if a number for the location is left with the commission's answering service was turned down. Service duty is provided by the outside workers in case of emergencies or unusual cir- cumstances relating to operation of the utilities, P.U.C. manager Hugh Davis suggested that no change be made in the service duty regulations at this time, The commission accepted his suggestion, provided that he prepare a written statement explaining his• reasons. In other business under the hydro department, the com- mission learned that a new substation may be required for the town of Exeter by 1980 and even as soon as 1978. If built, the substation would be located in an area south of the river and on the west side of town. On the matter of property owned by Ontario Hydro on the north side of Thames Rd, east, which is up for sale, the com- mission voted to offer no more than $1500 to purchase. It was announced that Christmas lighting in Exeter would again be subject to a suggestion by Ontario Hydro that it be used only between seven p.m. and midnight in order to stay away from the peak load of hydro usage. A letter received from Exeter Council indicated that the town would be prepared to turn the lights on by December 1, in plenty of time for Santa's reindeer who go on scouting parties during the early part of the month, Two young people from the Exeter area were among the top 10 in their competitions in 4-H exhibitions at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto last week. Elaine Stewart placed in the top 10 in the Charolais-cross section. She is a member of the Exeter Calf Club, and resides at RR 1 Kirkton. Barry Miller of RR 3 Exeter placed in the top 10 in the Hereford section. Attendance for the fair was reported very good, despite some rough weather over the weekend. entirely with the decision of each union local to return to work, Mr, Rabbets went.on to explain why smaller post offices were Still operating, such as the Grand Bend, Crediton, and Hensel} offices. The reason is that post offices are graded according to size. The Exeter post office is the smallest office where members of the Canadian Postal Workers are employed. below that size, post office belong to another union, which is not presently on strike. Therefore, smaller post offices can continue with local service, affected only by the absence of incoming and outgoing mail because of the national strike. The general feeling at the Chamber of Commerce meeting Friday morning was that local service was very much required. "We could live with the postal strike if we could have local delivery", commented Hugh Davis, manager of the Exeter PUC, He mentioned that the PUC did not have any means of delivering invoices, but was receiving major invoices from suppliers by private courier service, Ben Hoogenboorn acknowledged that private businessmen were experiencing the same kind of difficulty. Hoogenboom and Dinney ap- proached the president of the Exeter local of C.U.P.W., Doug Sweet , on Saturday morning. Commenting on that meeting, Hoogenboom said, "I think that the main point that we could take from our talk was that they in- dicated that they are willing to assess the situation each day as things happen, but don't want to go back to work at the present time. They didn't want to defy the postal union. They are both strong union men and I can ap- preciate that." He reported that most postal workers in Exeter were quite happy with income aspects of the federal government's offer, but were unhappy with some of the many clauses in the contract. Hoogenboom was presented with a union bulletin release which expressed some of the griveances that the union is expressing in addition to income. The lead on the bulletin ex-' pressed the union's displeasure over reports that many union locals across the country had returned to work. It stated that the federal government had released information that over 2,000 workers had returned to the Please turn to page 2 There was some confusion after council voted to rescind the LIP money. Doug Gould, head of the citizens' committee, thought the belfry would stay down and that council had abandoned renovation plans. "We didn't know what was to be brought up." he said, after council voted to suspend work on the hall until the new budget comes down. Mayor Shaw assured Mr. Gould council intended to repair and reinstall the belfry; and that nsoney would be appropriated to tieing town hall up to standards. The mayor added that the decision to return the LIP money could be rescinded if $24,000 is raised by private interests before the December deadline. The mayor also pointed out council might apply for other government grants besides LIP, which become available in January. However, in a telephone in- Please turn to page 2 Council assured an outspoken group of concerned citizens that what comes down must go up at a special meeting last week to decide the fate of Exeter's 88 year old town hall. The meeting gave citizens and the citizens' town hall committee a chance to face council in open forum debate. After some procedural con- fusion and misunderstanding, the following resolutions were made: The belfry will be repaired and reinstalled sometime before spring. The cost is $1700 for crane work plus labour and, materials to repair the belfry sin the ground. The $11,400 LIP grant to renovate the entire building will be turned back to government because there isn't enough time to raise $24,000 — the added amount needed to quality for the grant. (LIP only covers a third of the project.) "I don't think we have time to raise that amount before December 1, the deadline for LIP projects to begin," Mayor Shaw said. Council told citizens the only way to raise the money is through Crash ruins community CITIZEN Mike Sanders and Ben Hoogenboom, president of Exeter's chamber of commerce ; were among those who voiced opinions at the special meeting last Wednesday to discuss the fate of town hall. Municipalities cooperate 1. HEALTH CLINIC NURSES — Mrs. Phyllis McConnell, a registered nurse, Mrs. Helen West and Mrs. Jean Dunsford, health nurses, seated, and Mrs. Faye Kruger, a vision technician and Mrs. Madelline Wells, secretary, standing are the five women prepared to work in the Huron Park Health Child Care Clinic should the response be big enough. T-A photo Cooperation among municipalities in the southern region of Huron County was the topic Thursday night when members of Exeter, Usborne, and Stephen Councils got together for a special meeting at the municipal office in Crediton. As a result of that meeting each of the three councils will discuss naming two representatives to sit on a new body which would coordinate certain services between the three municipalities, No final decision was reached, as the representatives must return Child care clinic is failure in spite of initial advantages Local accidents total two for week Exeter police reported two accidents during the past week. On Monday, a vehicle driven by Garry Gibson of RR 1, Exeter, hit a parked vehicle belonging to Angela Vanderworp of RR 1, Centralia. Total damage was estimated at $75. Last Friday an accident oc- curred in the Royal Bank Parking lot when two vehicles collided. Floyd Riley, 130 Wellington Dr., Huron Park was backing up. His vehicle sustained no damage. The other vehicle was owned by Mary Moyer of RR lb 8, Parkhill and received $75 in damage. Exeter police have charged one youth with possession of marijuana. A small amount of marijuana was siezed on • Saturday, November 22. The youth will appear in court at a later date. ages three to five, vision testing and hearing tests by appointment only. Five women staff each Santa Claus is coming soon One quarter of a small village was tragically wiped out and hundreds were killed when a loader being towed by Leroy Maguire from his farm to his brother's farm broke loose from its float and tore through the small community. The loader, which came loose and when the float' wrenched beneath it, pummelled through the small community wreaking death and injuryin its wake. The village, a small bee farm owned by Dave Kestle of Clan- deboye had one quarter entirely wiped out by the rampaging loader. Mr. Kestle said that the damage to the established hives and the loss of life was "hard to estimate," Before the rampage; Mr, Kestle had been operating eight hives, he is now down to six. Mr. Maguire, contacted after the accident, said that his greatest fear now is some sort of action that may be taken on the part of the bees and hopes that they will forgive and forget the awesome and fearful events of last Thursday night, New column begins today Santa is making a special trip to Exeter just to pick up all the children's letters from this area. Even if the mail strike is over he still wants to be sure he gets his mail on time so The Times- Advocate has made arrangements to have Santa at their office, Deceriaber 13 from 10 a .m. - 3 p.m. Children may bring their let- ters and deliver them personally to jolly old nymph to make Cure there will be no delay in Santa finding out their wishes. To eelebrate the visit of this Moat special visitor, The Exeter Tidies-Advocate is offering prizes for the best letters and will "pint Many of the others. Prizes will be$15 far first, $10 for sedond And $5 for third Will be given in two categories: for the kids six • and under, and for six to eight years old, clinic and a hearing technician comes in if the need arises. They also test each pre- schooler who will start classes in the coming fall and register him with the master computer that takes care of school enrollment. Mrs. Helen West, a health nurse at the Huron County Health Unit, admitted that the postal strike may have hurt their chances by decreasing the number of people Who heard about the clinic. "We would have contacted quite a few more if we had been able to mail out notices" she said, Even though there was rio Mail, there was still extensive publicity for the clinic, Posters were displayed in a local bank, calls were made to families the clinic felt would be interested and there was the usual Word-Of- mouth advertising that goes with such clinicS. Even though there was prac- tically no response ,to the first clinic, the unit plans another clinic on December 22, If the turnout is the same they will reevaluate the need of con- tinuing the Huron park program. There is a new columnist in the T-A this week, William Stewart, fernier Minister of Agriculture with the Ontario government will be contributing to this newspaper on a weekly basis. Besides representing the riding Of North Middlesex in the provincial legislature for many years, Mr. Stewart operates a successful farm In the Denfield area. His expertize and knowledge Of the farmers' problems will be a great asset to readers, especially those in the rural area". The addition of Mr, ittawart's column it Lust the nest 01 several other feateret which Will be added to The Times,Advacate to make for wider and Mere in- teresting reading. Despite the advance publicity and the convenience of the location the first Huron County Health Unit's Child Care Clinic held in Huron Park was a dismal failure. The clinic, which is operated free of charge, drew only in- terested people on Monday, This is the first clinic that was held in Huron Park, as they are usually held in Exeter twice a month. The staff of the Unit felt that many women in Huron Park were not able to take advantage of the clinics because of the lack of cars that were available to them during the regular working hours. They received the Offer of the use of J.A.D, McCurdy School from it's principal, John Siert- sema and immediately took advantage of it, They will con- tinue to operate the clinics in Huron Park if there is a response to it, but plan to stop them if the response Continues in the same vein as Monday's two and a half hour clinic, Each clink offers im- munization, counselling to the mothers, anemia screening, a fluoride brush for children of the Predict best ever Exeter parade Chamber of Commerce of- ficials are predicting this year's Santa Claus parade will once again be the largest in Huron County. Tom Arthur, parade chairman said the parade it slated for Saturday, December 6 at 2:00 p.m. A large number of floats will take part in this year's event, but of course the highlight for the young people in the area will be the arrival of the "jolly old man". Last year's parade was ex- tremely successful and the Chamber is looking forward to an even greater reception this year. Assisting Mr. Arthur, who is parade chairman are, Bev Skinner, co-chairman and Bruce Peat, to their own councils and discuss the idea at a regular meeting of council. Exeter Council will be discussing the matter at its Monday night meeting, ac- cording to' Mayor Bruce Shaw. "We saw 100 percent cooperation on all sides", commented the mayor on the over-all aspects of the meeting. "We talked about similar problems and .ways of coor- dinating services and decided to go back to our respective councils -and discuss it." Some of the services that the three councils felt could be coordinated include sanitation, recreation, water, drainage, animal control and policing. On the subject of recreational coordination, Coun, Barbara Bell said, "I think that the other two municipalities were quite willing to come to some kind of un- derstanding with regard to a shared recreation budget," The three municipalities already share a mutual fire board, Since the meeting Was an in- formal one, the establishment of mutual services under the above nominal headings is still only a possibility. Several administsration of- ficials from Huron County were on hand for the meeting, in. eluding county clerk, Rill Thinly, A Meeting of representatives from all Municipal councils. in Huron County was scheduled for Wednesday night in Clinton, Set up by Huron County Council, the mein thrust of the Meeting was to diScuss the possibility of restructuring in Huron County. According to Mayor Shaw, the Please turn to page 2 WINS AWARD —, Lloyd Hewitt, manager of the local branch of Charterways who operate school buses here, displays the trophy that was presented to him land MS staff this year for being the best branch, The trophy is awarded on the basis of points, which can be -at- cumulated for various wayi, primerily sofety, Mr. Heseitt was also named manager of the year and displays the plaque that was given to him. Mr, Hewitt, originally from Exeter, returned two years ago after working for Charterweys in London. He co-ordinates the activities of the approximotely twenty drivers that he feels deserve a lot of credit for the award. T-A photo