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