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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1975-01-15, Page 2WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1975 . Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario ' by McLean Bros. Publishers, Limited. , Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Dave Robb - Advertising ' Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario. Weekly Newspaper Association. Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $6,00 a year, Others OCNA_ $8.00 a year, Single Copies 15 cents each. Second class mail Registration No. 0562 , 1.1,1 Ft. 0 .1 k Telephone 887-6641. BRUSSELS -'ONTARIO It • Brussels Post Moo! Change for the better Change in municipal policies does not come easily, at least two people stressed at the first 1975 meeting of the new Brussels Council. The new council is fairly "green" -- only Reeve Jack McCutcheon and Councillor H.J.Ten Pas have council experience. But in a small way, members of the new council voted to make a couple of changes, and Brussels will probably be the better for them. When the question of naming new village appointees to the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority and the Wing ham-and District Hospital Board came up, the three new councillors expressed concern that the appointments were being made a little bit in the dark. "We have no way of knowing who would be interested in serving in these positions", was the way Councillor George Jutzi expressed it. The Brussels Council decided unanimously, for the first time in recent memory, to advertise these unpaid, voluntary appointments so that all interested citizens could get their names in front of council before a choice is made. Now it may be, as council discussed Monday, that no one is interested in serving the citizens of Brussels in these two jobs, and that council will have to revert to their old method of trying to persuade likely individuals to take them. But at least council has shown that they are encouraging as much public participation as possible. by opening up the appointment process. Those who criticize local government as a closed shop will now have an opportunity to put their money where their mouths are. • The new council is to be congratulated for asking questions and coming up with new, more open ways of doing things, even the little things, that ought to concern Brussels residents. 'They have certainly started 1975 off on the right foot. To the Editor Snowmobiling means moral responsibility Dear Sir: Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner H.H.Graham warns: "Strict laws alone can not reduce snowmobile mishaps." A light dusting of snow, a little. nip in the air and out comes power on skis. Too often little concern is given to the fact that the lake is not adequately frozen, patches of bare earth still exist, or that the machine has not been serviced. Suddenly, a mature, sensible man is reduced to the level of an irresponsible person. The result can be broken machines, broken bodies and broken hearts. Since the 1974-75 snowmobile season began OPP members have investigated ten fatal snowmobile mishaps in which four :persons drowned and seven died after their snow machine collided with a fixed object. Commissioner Graham reminds stioWmobilers, "The only sure way to avoid needless suffering and tragedy is for each snowmobile operator to become aware of his moral responsibility towards himself, his family and his neighbour. "Common sense and good habits are infectious. They will Contribute to the reduction of serious injury and death that are now WO often associated with the sport of snowrnobiling," 1„G.Bru ner, Inspector, Community Services Branch, Telephone. 965.4474 This is the time of the. year for "OUT with the old, in with the new." I honestly did try to do this. But it was hopeless. I got bogged down, right up to the navel, in my first attempt to get rid of the old. I decided, as my year-end project, to clean up my writing desk. This may sound simple, a mere 15 minutes of sorting and tidying. But you are not acquainted with my writing desk. Perhaps you remember the myth about Hercules cleaning out the Augean stables. They were filled with cattle, hadn't been cleaned in decades and there was a veritable mountain of you-know-what. A formidable task. He did it without even using pitch-fork. He diverted the flow of two rivers through the stables, and lo! they were cleansed. That was child's play compared to ► cleaning off my desk, and also I am no Hercules. On each side of my typewriter sits a teetering stack of papers that reaches approximately to my head, when I am sitting at my machine. Huddled between them, like a sparrow between two huge tomcats, squats the typewriter. Occasionally, one of the piles, like. a glacier, slides majestically to the floor. My wife picks up 'the mess, and muttering under her breath, jams it bad( on the desk.. She's forbidden to disturb anything there, or even to dust it.That's the main reason the piles are two feet high. I do allow her to dust the front of the desk, where the drawers are. Trouble is, she's -so annoyed she piles the stuff back in any old order. This causes a problem •when .1 decide to clear the desk at year's end. I pick up the first letter. It is from a farmer's wife, complimenting me on my stand for the beef farmer. It is cleated 1962. That suggests that the last tjtme I cleaned my desk was in 1961. It also "Poses qtiestions. What was my stand on the beef farmer in 1962? I'll bet it was a little sweeter than my , attitude toward sirloin steak prices today. Was the letter ever answered? Who knows? So I put it in the stack labelled Who Knows. This• turns 'out to be the biggest of the Many piles I lay out on the floor. The other piles bear such esoteric labels as : To Be Dealt With — Sometime: Needs Further StudY; Look Into, This: Silly Old Cranks, To Be Answered Definitely In The New Year; Complimentary; Over The Hill; and so on The second largest stack is called Miscellaneous because I. don't know where else to put these items, Under the last item go such bi ll a passport application foi* a from the Strand Palace, tondotL England; a theistiti4-tatd .frott my inStitatiCe agentt Grade 11 an offer to do. the. 'Smiley family tree foe only SSA (must have 'been a small family); and a reminder that I am due at veteran's hospital for a chest X-ray (which I 'forgot all about). I have a very definite way of handling these piles. Miscellaneous I put back on the desk. Over The Hill, which contains anything more than six years old, goes into the wastebasket, as does Silly Old Cranks, a very slim stack of letters from ridiculous people who don't agree with me. Needs Further Study goes back on the desk, right on top of Miscellaneous. Look Into This goes back on the desk on top of Needs Further Study. Next on the growing pile on the desk goes To Be Dealt With — Sometime. Then I lift the whole pile and slide underneath it, right at the bottom, if you'll pardon the expression, To Be Answered Definitely In The New Year. And then, carefully . and delicately, I place on top of the pile the stack labelled Complimentary. This contains the letters I have received from those splendid, intelligent people who admire my wife or kids or column. Yes, I know they should be thrown out. But surely you wouldn't deny a chap a little ointment for his ego, any more than you would begrudge an old lady a seat in the chimney corner, where the fire can warm her. • The piles beside the typewriter are now only a foot and a half high, and it has taken a day and a half to sort them. This may not seem like progress to you, but Rome wasn't built in a day, as some idiot, once remarked. One good thing came but of this year's sorting. I remembered that I had received a letter from Barty Broadfoot, author of Ten Lost Years, a compelling book about the depression. I'd written a column about it. No. I couldn't find his letter. It must have wandered into the Miscellaneous or -somewhere. But the memory of his, letter made me remember that I'd had at least' ten letters from all over the country, and the States, asking where a copy might be obtained. No, 1 couldn't find these letters either. But the memory of‘thern reminded me of What Barry Broadfoot wrote in his letter. He's writing another book. called The Pioneer Years, and he wondered if I would ask In my column for the naMes, of oidtimos who were spry and interesting, so that he could interview then So there yoit at e, evetYbp.aySertd 016 nanieS, of spry., interesting 'oldtimers, of either sex, to Batty Broadfoot, care of Doubleday Publishers, 105 Bond TOteintO, Ont. M5B III Arid the same people will be happy to provide you with a copy of Ten Lost Years: There. My first good deed for 1975, And that's going to cost you, Brother Broadfoot. Crown Royal, will do. Sugar and Spice By Bill Smiley