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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1976-02-12, Page 1EXETER FAIR SQUARES was the name of the game played Friday night at the conclusion of the annual Exeter Fair Board meeting held in South Huron District High School's library. At the left, Gerald Dearing and Mrs. Maxine Sereda are the contestants, Dolores Shapton, while moderator, Bruce Shapton handles the questions to panelists, Mrs. Pat Down and Mrs. Marion Skinner. Missing from the picture are Gorgeous George and Gracious Garnet. Photo by Robinson EXETER FAIR BOARD EXECUTIVE, 1976 — are from the left; front, Mrs. Donna Webster, president of the school fair, Mrs. Marian Skinner, president of the ladies' division of the Exeter Fair, Jack Stewart, Fair Board president, and Garnet Hicks, returning as secretary- treasurer, photo by Robinson Gets new hospital, closes two others People and events cs THREE NEW COMMITTEE MEMBERS have been appointed to Grand Bend's Recreation Committee ; Pauline Lingard, Leo Morningstar, and Aldona Lach; all of Grand Bend.Roy Harris was re-appointed to the committee bringing the total membership to nine. THE KINETTES AND ALPHA PI SORORITY will be cam- paigning for donations to the Heart Fund all next week. IT WILL BE A BUSY WEEKEND IN THE AREA, as the annual SHDHS Winter Carnival is planned, with a full schedule of events that can be found on the Guardian Page, the Kirkton- Woodham Winter Carnival in Kirkton and the Bunny Bundle at the Pineridge Chalet. THE P.T.A. at Precious Blood School has approached the RAP committee for help in setting up a design for a new playground to be located next to the school on the church property. RAP will approach Town Council for a grant to the Exeter Squirts Soccer Team which plans to tour England for an ex- hibition soccer series this spring. Money is needed for the plane flight over. Accommodations in England are being financed by the North American Soccer Committee. EC. 1976 RAP budget to go to Council next week DISCUSSION ON THE TOWN HALL — Ben Hoogenboom and Bill Dinney, members of the citizens' committee to save the Town Hall, dis- cuss the situation with representatives from the Ministry of Culture and Recreation, while touring the building. The two representatives were in town to give an opinion on the historical value of the building and to give the committee advice with regard to restoring the building and financing the cost through government grants. Both men agreed that the building has significant historical veilue. photo by Robinson xefercahuesAA6tvcafe One Hundred and Third Year EXETER, ONTARIO, FEBRUARY 12, 1976 Price Per Copy 25 Cents Council ears Goderich delegation, decides on more moderate motion matter when is motion was first presented three weeks ago. Dr. alauritus Gans, a member of the delegation, told council that it had failed to carry out its responsibility when it turned down the original motion from Alexander Marine Hospital. staff reductions have been an- nounced for the St. Thomas and Hamilton Psychiatric Hospitals. Other closings are still expected to come. Final decisions on Goderich Psychiatric and the Northeastern Regional Mental Health Care Centre in Timmins were ex- pected to be announced by the end of this week. Commenting on the apparent irony of hospital closings in other areas and a new hospital being built in Miller's own riding, Ben Itoogenboom who headed a delegation of concerned citizens at a meeting of Exeter Council this week, said, "If Council is aware of this recent develop- ment, I wonder if they think that their resolution to.Mr. Miller was strong enough now." The delegation had requested Council to take some action on the closing of Goderich Hospital, calling on Miller to keep the hospital open or .provide assurance that mental health care in this area would not suffer as' a result of the hospital's closing. Council decided to pass its own motion, calling on the minister to "review" his decision on the closing and possibly explore other avenues of fiscal . restraint before coming to a final decision, Members of both the official opposition, NDP party, and the Liber'al party have expressed displeasure with the current cuts in health care and have indicated that a vote of non-confidence Could result, sending the Ontario government into a new election. At 10:00 p.m. this morning, Thursday, February 12, representatives from the ministry of labor were to meet members of the RAP committee and Town Council at the arena, Although the ministsry was not specific in its letter to RAP as to the purpose of the morning meeting, it was assumed that some decision could be made on the arena, with regard to closing it down or keeping it open. The engineer's report made on the arena over three years ago indicated the building to be structurally unsound with respect to the roof, especially at the southeast corner. The report indicated that the roof was not considered stable with more than 10 inches of snow upon it. Because of the heavy snow this winter, extra concern about the arena's fitness influenced the RAP committee to recommend that the Ministry of Labour be informed about the exact situation and he invited to par- ticipate in forming a decision as *to closing the building or keeping it open. At the time that the original engineer's report was made, the cost to reinforce and strengthen the roof was estimated at about $35,000.. Now those same rein- "People to People", a program to aid victims of the disastrous earthquake that devastated Guatemala last week, is being organized by the Bethel Holinesss Chappel, Bible Missionary Church located in Goderich. Headed by Rev. Kennison Lawton, the project has been put together to collect money and needed materials that can be sent to a missionary station in Guatemala and in turn distributed to thousands of earthquake victims. According to Mrs. Lawton, who is helping to co-ordinate the project, the mission people stationed in Guatemala have recommended that money be sent rather than perishable food, as it would be easier to obtain Wproper food with the money from neighboring countries. If food is sent, it should be of the dry packaged variety, rather than canned goods, Materials, such as tents, blankets, cold remedies, and dysentery medicine are en- couraged to be donated, however. Exeter's RAP committee is working on the 1976 budget which will be submitted to Council by February 19 for approval. A closed session of the committee will be held February 17 to make final adjustments and additions to that budget, Two vacant positions on the committee will be filled by ap- pointments to be made by Mayor Bruce Shaw. ' The sudden death of RAP member Gord Baynham last week resulted in one of the vacancies, the other created by the resignation of Paul Mason, who has found that his workload will not permit him to attend all of the meetings. Because of the vacancies, none of the new sub-committees were permanently formed. Chairman, Ruth Durand, appointed interim staff to the sub-committees until the new appointments to RAP are Allende, Mrs. Durand, vice chairman, Bob Pooley, and Dave Zyluk met in sub-committee thie week and came up with a policy on staff forcements would cost at least $40,000. according to estimates by the town. Ever sinde a tornado caused the roof of the Windsor curling arena to collapse, killing eight people back in 1974, the Ministry of Labor has become more cautious about the safety of the 900 and some arenas. thougheut Ontario. Each year, the ministry has been writing municipal councils requesting them to have their arenas cheeked and to report the results back to the ministry. Apparently, Exeter Council had never taken a good hard look at the engineer's report made three years ago, because it was not until this year that Council decided the arena was in questionable shape, and decided to make that point clear to the ministry. If the ministry deems that the arena is not up to standards and must be closed down until such time as the new standards prescribed under the 1975 Ontario Building Code are met, then Council and RAP will have to make a decision whether to rebuild the arena or build a new one. The decision could be a difficult one. The Ontario government has announced that in this year of For those who have items that they would like to send to Guatemala, Rev. Lawton should be contacted in Goderich for pick- up. He may be reached at 1-524- 2785. If persons want to donate money to the fund, they should contact Mrs. Rochus Faber in Kippen at 1-262-5658. A national state of emergency has been declared in Guatemala, where over 12,000 persons lost their lives in the earthquake, and many thousands of others have been injured. Several world agencies have indicated that they will aid in the rescue and rebuilding of Guatemala, but the money and resources required for such an effort have been described as "staggering". The Bethel Holiness Chapel is located at the corner of Walnut and Huron Road in Goderich. Before publishing the story, the T-A did some investigating and found that the project was legitimate and existing for the cause it describes, negotiations for RAP in 1976, Salaries were limited to the guidelines of the federal government, working out to an eight percent increase. A minor adjustment was made for car allowances and mileage to allow for inflation in the past 12 mon- ths. Because Council stated at the beginning of the year that there would be no change in fringe benefits for town employees during 1976 the sub-committee did not recommend any fringe benefit requests. Approval was given, however, for Work shirts and light spring jackets for the parks crew, Mayor Bruce Shaw stated at a Council meeting recently that althongh no added fringe benefits would be allowed, that work clothes for town employees were not necessarily considered as a fringe benefit, Work clothes for public works employees were recently approved by Council, RAP's recommendations will now go to Council for final ap- proval. budget restraints, money for new municipal buildings will not be available. On the other hand, the Wintario fund is supposed to be Hockey team gets "food poisoning" Five members of the Huron Park Pee Wee hockey team were admitted to South Huron Hospital Sunday night, the apparent vicitims of food poisoning. All five were released from hospital the following morning according to officials at South Huron, who said they were admitted for observation. According to parents of some of the boys several members of the group began to feel nauseous on the return trip from Royal Oak, Michigan, where the boys played a weekend hockey tour- nament against a team there. Apparently one boy became sick and began to go into con- vulsions aboard one of the buses engaged for the trip. He was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Sarnia and later released. Although most of the symptoms of the "food poisoning" have subsided, parents were keeping their children home from school this week and keeping them on liquid diets as recommended by the hospital. Although no definite finding has been made as to the source of the.nausea and upset which af- fected at least a dozen members of the group, including someof the accompanying parents, the Lambton County Health Unit has been conducting an investigation and has attempted to reach health authorities in Royal Oak, where it was suspected the "food poisoning" was picked up. The boys received free hot dogs and soft drinks at the Royal Oak arena aspart of the hockey ex- change program and some parents commented that the hot dogs "tasted funny". Reports indicated that some of the Royal Oak youngsters who participated in the tournament had also contracted "food poisoning". increase mileage The matter of increasing the travelling allowance for mem- bers of the Huron County Board of Education and employees of the board was finally settled Wednesday after three months of discussion and recom- mendations, The motion to increase the mileage rate for non- board member appointees to board committees and all employees to 19 cents per mile was made by Ken Cooke of Clinton and Clarence McDonald of Exeter. Annual Fair Board Mee tin The Exeter Fair Board finished the year with a balance of $1386, according to secretary-treasurer, Garnet Hicks. The annual meeting of the Fair Board was held Friday night in the library of South Huron District High School. The treasurer commented that the board had never been known to have a huge balance at the end of the year, but acknowledged that the balance was slightly down from the year before. Hicks said that receipts for the dance were down in 1975, while prize money was higher, con- tributing at least somewhat to the lower balance. $4,084 in prize money was paid out at the 1975 Exeter Fair. $1,441 was taken in for the Friday night concert and another $1,500 in Saturday gate receipts. Jack Stewart, vice-president of the board for the past two years, is the new president, replacing Bruce Shapton, Shapton, in summarizing the events during his two years as president, stated that a tractor pull had been suggested for last year's fair. He said that the selection of Exeter's Fair Queen, Karen DeJong as runner-up in the Miss CNE contest was one of the most satisfying events during his term as president. A slide show, which included shots of the 1975 Exeter Fair was presented at the meeting. Depicting various displays and scenes from fairs throughout southwestern Ontario, the commentary provided by Mrs. Shapton included suggestions for better fair displays in years to come. Mrs. Shapton thanked the 35 helpers who participated in last year's school fair, as well as all of those who helped make the 1975 Exeter Fair a success. Following the meeting, a panel game, "Exeter Fair Squares", a take-off on Hollywood Squares WAS introduced. Game par- ticipants had to determine whether Members of the panel answered questions pertaining to country fairs correctly. After the game, lunch was served. available for constrpcting recreation centres, etc. So, it would appear that there is some conflict with regard to provincial funding. Because Exeter Council is currently considering the impact of reduced Ontario grant int- creases to municipalities this year and trying to find ways of cutting its own budget back, reconstructing the current arena or beginning construction of a new community recreational complex, which was at least a year or two off before the current situation cropped up, would be a strain on the municipal pocket book. A delegation of about 15 Exeter citizens concerned with the Ontario' Ministry of Health's decision to close Goderich Psychiatric Hospital, appeared before Council Monday night and admonished the municipal body for taking n o action on the By LEIGH ROBINSON While two more hospitals at Paris and Virgil, near St. Catharines were announced closed this week by Ontario Health Minister, Frank Miller, it was disclosed that plans for a new $7 million hospital in Miller's own riding of Muskoka are still going ahead as scheduled. Miller has received a great deal of criticism lately for his program of health care cutbacks, especially to hospitals, including the Goderich Psychiatric Hospital. According to sources in Hunt- sville, the official sod-turning for the new hospital is supposed to be carried out early this spring. The new hospital would have 92 beds, compared to the 78 beds in the hospital that exists there now. That hospital would be replaced. Other hospitals that have been closed by Miller include Doctors' Hospital in Toronto and District Memorial Hospital in Bruce County. In addition, significant Error made in accident report An error was made in last week's reporting of a Motor vehicle accident in Exeter. It was reported that "a vehicle operated by James Nelson, RR 3, Exeter, "collided" with another vehicle. Actually, the Nelson vehicle was involved in a collision with the second Vehicle, no fault being attributed to either driver involved in the accident. "Comments attributed to some council members that night are inexcusable", he said. He added that Council should apologize publicly for having made statements that had no basis in fact. The main contention of the delegation when they first ap- peared before Council a week ago,andagain.Monday night, was not that Council should have endorsed the original motion, which they agreed "was too strongly worded", but that some action should have been taken on the matter, or that Council should have researched it in some depth before concluding that no action should be taken. Eric Heywood, a maintenance man at Goderich Hospital told Council that as far as his job was concerned, he felt assured that he would be kept on if the facility were turned into a mental retardation centre. "Its not the loss of jobs that were primarily concerned about", he said. Its the essential services and programs that this hospital provides that will be lost." He proceeded to present a layman's conception of services and programs offered by the hospital, indicating that several are not available at any other neighboring facility, including London, where it has been said that most of the patients would be transferred. He mentioned the alcohol treatment program as an example. "We had six admissions at the hospital over the weekend and we're filled to the brim", he said, There isn't a woman's bed left in the hospital." He suggested that Exeter Council had acted irresponsibly when they failed to send a representative to the public meeting in Goderich a month ago to consider the closing and cited a long list of municipalities in the county that had sent represen- tatives. "By not having a representative at the Goderich meeting, you didn't have the thoughts brought hack from it to consider", he remarked. Other members of the delegation included Dr. Don Ecker and South Huron Hospital administrator, Elmer Taylor, Ben Hoogenboom and Dave Zyluk. It was Hoogenboom and Zyluk who first appeared before the municipal body a week ago, Kinsmen plan Heritage Day Kinsmen clubs across the country are holding special events to coincide with Heritage Day, Monday, February 16. In this area the Exeter and Ilensall clubs have combined their efforts in planning a bingo at the Exeter Legion, Exeter club president Wayne King informed the Times- Advocate that all proceeds from the event will be used in the battle against cystic fibrosis. Sub- stantial prizes will be offered as a method of attracting as many people as possible to the bingo. Mr. King said the club is also putting posters in various store windows in the area to inform residents that Heritage Day is coming up. Although not a legal holiday this year, it's possible that the day next year will he among the list of official holidays in the country. It will give Canadians a break in the long period between New Years and Easter. Ministry of tabor here Could decide on arena today Aid to earthquake victims is requested asking that Council reconsider its decision on the closing. Last night, the delegation presented its own motion, which was turned down by Council. It stated, ".. That the Minister of Health reconsider his decision on the closure of the Goderich Psychiatric Hospital until such time as he can guarantee the continuation of basic and essential health services for Huron, Perth and Bruce Counties as provided by the Goderich Psychiatric Hospital. Barring this guarantee, the facility must continue to operate." Council's decision was to adopt a• new motion of its own, calling on the ministry to review its decision before making the closure permanent, asking that the province look into other avenues of budget restraint. Commenting on that motion prior to its adoption by Council, Councillor Ted Wright said, that the government was "perhaps starting at the wrong place by striking at health care first." Final decision on the Goderich Hospital is still pending. The original closing date was set for March 31. Meanwhile, the hospital continues to function, although one ward has been closed by the ministry. Report work ordered stopped on Town Hall Rumours were flying this week that work on the Town Hall may be ordered stopped. According to Doug Gould, chairman of the Citizens' Town Hall Committee, he has been made aware of a pending stop work order but could not be specific as to when the order might take effect or whether the order was of a permanent nature. According to another source in the citizens' committee, Bill Dinney, the matter was discussed in a meeting of the property committee last Thursday. Last week at the regular Council meeting, a list of priorities for renovations to the Town Hall was tabled by Council for further consideration. The list had been compiled by the citizens' committee and represented the repairs that the committee felt were essential to restore the Town Hall to a useable building. At that same meeting, a report was received from Gary Mid- dleton, Chief of the Exeter Area Fire Department, which outlined fireproofing precautions that should be taken to guarantee the building's safety. Council felt that the alterations and im- provements prescribed by the fire department would cut into monies available for renovation purposes, although no specific outline of costs was included in the report. Meanwhile, the citizens' committee operating under the LIP grant, has hired three workers who have been working on the interior of the Town Hall during the inclement weather, repairing the auditorium walls located on the second floor of the structure. Although the citizens' com- mittee is responsible for keeping track of the money spent under the LIP grant and for making some decisions as to how the money is spent, final authority for administering the grant rests with the property committee and Exeter Council, itself. The $11,400 LIP grant is essentially available for labor costs in the Town Hall project. In order to purchase materials with the funds, a certain number of man-hours of labor must ac- cumulate. There is also a time limit on the grant. It will end in June, regardless of whether all of the money has been spent. Because no public an- nouncement has come from Council as to whether work on the Town Hall has actually been ordered stopped, it was assumed that Council would make some kind of announcement as to the status of the LIP grant and the Town Hall at the next regular Council meeting Monday, February 16.