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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1980-03-19, Page 4"I detect renewed confidence in the dollar — we've been held up three times this week." Put on equitable basis It's budget time :for most area municipalities and one of the major items for many is ,the operation of arenas and recreation programs. Exeter council, for instance are look- ing at a cost in the neighborhood of $60,- 000 as their contribution for the South- Huron rec centre and local recreation programs. In Hensall, the deficit is ex- pected to be around $25,000 and 'in Zurich the figure has been established at slightly over $22,000. On a per capita basis, those figures range from approximately $18 to $25 in the various municipalities. Those figures become interesting as the centres enter negotiations with neighboring municipalities whose residents use the facilities. In most cases, the neighbors who use the arenas and recreation facilities fall far below *paying their share of the actual operation and capital costs. For discussion purposes, from what can be ascertained from recently published figures, Hay township con- tributed $3,000 to the arena and recrea- tion program in Zurich last year and another $1,500 to the programs operated in Hensall, for a total of $4,- 500. Based on their population figures, that works out to a per capita cost of approximately $2.25, far,below that of the residents in the centres where the facilities are located. * * * It is not a situation in which Hay Township can be singled out, of course. The same holds true for many municipalities whose residents enjoy the facilities of their neighbors but do not share the costs on an equitable basis. A few municipalities, in an attempt to make the situation more equitable, charge increased user fete, to residents of neighboring communities who use their facilities. There's an ad- ditional charge for out-of-town residents who enrol in the recreation programs, although it can not be ad- ministered for those who merely use the facilities as spectators or who at- tend dances or social events in the arena. Those who endorse encreased fees for non-residents have legitimate arguments, but there is also a sugges- tion that all program and user fees should be increased to reflect the fact that many residents of a community do not use the facilities and therefore should not be expected to subsidize, on such a generous basis, those who do. The other side of the argument is that there are many public services provid- ed through municipal taxes and through which many residents do not benefit and therefore there should be no dis- ti4tion' between those who do not use recreation facilities any more than those who do not use the public library or who put out only half as much gar- bage as their neighbors. Obviously, there will always be ine- quities under our present tax system. * * * While defining some of those ine- quities and problems being faced in arena operations and recreation programs in comparatively easy, fin- ding satisfactoly solutions is not in the same category. However, there appear to be some rather practical guidelines. First, municipalities must keep a constant watch on their arena and recreation program user fees. As infla- tion adds to the-mounting costs of labor, energy and supplies, it is necessary that that fees for those who use the facilities should keep in step. While they may never be self-sustaining, it stands to reason that those who use the ' facilities should pay as much of the cost as practical and still afford as many people as possible the opportuni- ty to participate. Increasing costs to the point where participation drops, is not practical and therefore user fees must be watched closely. The second step is to attempt to bring a more equitable situation into bearing so that those who have access to the municipalities do not see their respon- sibility, then the host centres have lit- tle alternative but to increase user fees for non-residents. This should be done on an area basis, so there is some semblance of order in the fees being charged for similar programs in all centres. Otherwise, there is the risk of under-cutting and everyone stands to lose. If the host centres find their neighbors unwilling to co-operate in the operating and capital costs, they should get together and discuss the situation to attempt some type of general policy that would put everyone on the same basis. It is absurd that the residents of one municipality pay $25 on their tax bill for the advantage of a recreation facili- ty or program while a neighbor pays one-tenth of that amount for the same privilege. Most centres have up-to-date figures showing the percentage of non- residents who use the facilities- or programs and surely the contributions from municipalities should reflect those same percentages. , • , SU:1 'at 4114S1).. Dispe seal by:SyntieY,' Agonies of the old I've decided how to supplement my income when they drag me, kick- ing and squealing, into retirement. This is an occupational hazard of potential retirees, who after living in this country for the past 30 years, know full well that their paper money is go- ing to be good for starting fires with, and not much else, in a decade or so. Canadians are extremely sucurity- conscious. They don't give a diddle about growing old gracefully. They , want to grow old comfortably. It's hard to believe. These are the same people whose ancestors came from the fogs of Scotland and the bogs of Ireland and the smogs of England, with plenty of nerve and not much else. They paid their dues with hard work, taking chances, raising and feeding huge families. The last things in their minds were pensions, condominiums in the south, the falling dollar, or Ayrabs. They didn't need oil; they cut their own wood, They couldn't even spell condominium. There was noisuclithing as a pension. The old man was Grampa, and he hung onto his land, bullied his sons, and made most of the decisions, until he retired to senility and the fireside. The old lady was Gramma, and she helped birth her grandchildren, bossed her daughters, had a wisdom that only hard living can give, and was buried thankfully, but with copious tears all around. They lived with a certain ugliness; brutal work, vicious weather, cruel child-bearing by the women, until they were warped and arthritic and sick in body. Pew pleasures like music and books and drama and automatic dish- washers and television and milk in a plastic carton instead of a cow, But they didn't need two martinis to give them an appetite for dinner. They didn't need a couple of Seconal to put them to sleep, or a couple of mood elevators to relieve their depression, or a couple of Valium to relax their muscles. They ate like animals because they worked like horses. They slept like animals because they were exhausted, They didn't need mood changers because they had only two or three moods; angry, tired out, or joyful. They didn't need muscle relaxers because their muscles were too busy to relax. Now you may think I'm making a pitch for "The good old days." I'm not, I think they were dreadful days. I remember the look on my Dad when he couldn't even make a payment on the coal bill. I remember watching my mother, who never cried, weeping over the sewing machine at midnight, when she thought no one was looking. But in those days, people grew old with a certain dignity, if not beauty. They accepted their final illness as "God's will," Most people today say, "Why me?" when they are stricken. Today people want to be beautiful when they're old. They want to be thought of as "young at heart." They want to be comfortable. They don't want to be ill. They dread the cold. They fear poverty. They search, sometimes desperately, for some sort of womb, or cocoon to go back to, where they will be safe and warm and fed, and never have to look that grim Old Man straight in the eye. And modern economy lets them down. Their hardearned, and hard- saved dollars dwindle into cents. They come close to heart attacks and strokes when they have to pay $3,,130 for a pound of beef, 89 cents for a lousy head of let- tuce, over a dollar for a pound of butter. They are disoriented, confused, and frightened. And it's not only the old who are frightened and insecure. I see it in my younger colleagues. They don't talk Truth and Beauty. Ideas and Life. They talk about property and R.R.S.P.'s and the price of gold, and inflation and the terrorizing possibility of losing their jobs. Some of the smart younger teachers bought some land when it was cheap (they're not so young any more,eh?) and built on it. The smarter ones have a working wife. The smartest ones have both. Most of them even those in their 30's, are already figuring on a second income when they retire, selling real estate or boats; doing the books for some small businessman; market gar- dening; antique shops. Who can blame them? But I have the answer for every one of them, as I announced in my thesis, back in paragraph one. No problem about retirement. Just follow Bill Smiley around, do ex- actly the opposite to what he does, and you'll come out healthy, wealthy apd wise, when it's time to put your feet up. My wife could have told anyone that years ago. • If Smiley buys equities, buy blue chip stocks. If Smiley buys gold mining stock, buy a swamp. If Smiley calls the Tories to win, vote Liberal. If Smiley buys an ounce of gold dump yours fast, because it •will drop $200 overnight. If Smiley gets into seat-belts, because they are compulsory, you get out. The law will change. I could go on and on, but I won't. Just watch what I do, and do the opposite. And I have all the papers to prove it. But I'm charging 20 per cent of everything you make. And that's how I plan to weather inflation and retire- ment. Perspectives I would pick up a handful of stones figuring that somehow that would scare off an intruder. By the time I reached my destination I would be soaked in a cold sweat. Looking back, I am sure there was no need to be afraid and maybe even consciously knew it at the time but still could not rationalize the fear away. My father told the Story of a friend who was walking across a field and fell into a deserted well. Fortunately it was dry, but it was deep enough that he could not climb out nor could his shouts be heard by anyone. 1-fe had resigned himself to spending the night in the well when he realized that he was not alone. In the dim light he could see the forms of several garter snakes which had probably also fallen in just as he had. Now, he was a farmer and had been all his life, and knew that the garter snake is as harmless as the family dog. In fact he had once stopped his wife from killing a big snake which was in the process of swallowing an equally large bullfrog. "It's just the natural way of things," he said. Just as natural is the snake's desire to find warm- th if it can. During the night he often felt the snakes trying to ease up to his body, to snuggle up, you might say. Each time he pitched them away. The night wore on, with only scattered patches of sleep, as you can well imagine. In the morning he heard voices and shouted, In minutes he was out of the pit. The men who rescued him looked at him in amazement. His hair had turned white over night. Times Established 14173 Advocate Established 1801 Be. 4 Tirnos-Aclyecatot, March 19, 1900 "What it boils down to is people, and how strongly they believe in their own salvation," he concluded. The two senior levels of government have embarked on programs to make it easier for farmers to establish ethanol plants and it will be interesting to see if they take advantage of the situation to establish a program to plan their own destiny. In a lighthearted comment on the use of stills for producing alcohol-based products, one local wag suggests that they would certainly reduce energy consumption in that farmers wouldn't have to drive to town to pick up their booze. ment program. "You do on your income tax," was the quick reply from Clerk Betty Oke. During that same meeting, council made application for road subsidies and grants under the home renewal program and it could have been pointed out that the funds for that assistance also come from the same source as make-work schemes. It's a point that will be brought home more dramatically for most readers as they set about the task of figuring out those complicated tax returns in the next few weeks. Bread and Circus Night in Canada. But still the tragedy persists. Developed countries find it imprac- tical or inconvenient to take economic and political steps necessary to remedy the situation. When countries with some mutation or permutation of com- munist ideology appear sympathetic and supply some of the ingredients necessary for liberation, we cry seduc- tion or rape. We batter, abuse and ex- ploit then charge unfaithfulness when the maidservants of our technology and affluence respond favorably to less brutal and violating overtures. The bearded Cuban put a cattle prod to those ,lethargic from overin- dulgence. Perhaps an appeal to self- preservation will penetrate our force- field of affluent indifference; pleas bas- ed on moral and ethical ideals often seem impotent, although correct. Castro warns: If there are no resources for development, there will be no peace. No threat! A word to the wise. An insight aimed at deaf ears? If the developed countries cannot shed their skin of self-indulgence and find creative and just ways to deal with global poverty, it may well be that the future will be apocalyptic. Perennial situations of frustration and depriva- tion are the incubators of violence. Those who have ears' to hear, let them hear! Mttifia400110*******0001110 Amalgamated. 1934 14 4' Editor — Bill Batten Assistant Editor Ross Haugh Advertising Manager --. Jim Beckett Composition Manager Harry DeVries Business Manager — Dick Jongidad Published Each Wednesday Morning Phone 235-1331 at Exeter, Ontario second Class Mail Registration Number 03a6 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $14‘00 Per Year; •USA $35.00 Stills the answer Loud and clear Those who ,have ears SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND, C•W.N.A., Q.W.N.A., CLASS 'A' and ABC 'Published by J. W. t edy Publications. limited LORNE EXOY, PUBLISHER +CNA Speaking at the recent Western On- tario Farm Show, Dr. Les Emery in- dicated that Ontario farmers have it within their means to produce all their energy supplies through the production of ethyl alcohol (ethanol). He suggested that if 20 farmers band- ed together to put up $5,000 each they could construct the necessary equip- ment for production of ethanol and they would be "laughing all the way to the bank." However, he went on to suggest that while the investment is comparatively small in terms of the end result, the biggest problem would be in getting farmers to co-operate with each other. The two senior levels of govern- ment are busy these days sending out brochures and news releases about their upcoming make-work schemes. While the schemes do enable students and those in the ranks of the unemployed to get needed work and, therefore cash, it is good that people are periodically reminded of how those programs are funded. The answer came through loud and clear at last week's meeting of Hensall council when one member wondered if the federal or provincial government paid for the Summer Youth. Employ- Truth is sometimes camouflaged by a haircut. Or rather, we sometimes refuse to hear truth because of who it is that speaks. In the '60s long-haired youths clad in their uniform of blue jeans, beads and sandals had difficulty getting a hearing. Their message of social con- cern and protest against an unjust war was often lost because their rhetoric and garb was not cut from the approved cloth. The likes of Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Nixon received a better hearing since they appeared to be standard issue. When Fidel Castro stood before the UN, his message to the U.S. and other developed countries was almost lost because it was not packaged in the proper rhetoric. Castro urged the wealthy imperialists to put up $300 billion over 10 years to help the poor countries. Western observers quickly ran a cost/benefit analysis through their pocket calculators and deemed the scheme impractical. The great disparity between those countries which have and those which have not has long been known. Countless agencies and churches have appealed in the name of justice and love for something to be done. Heart- wrenching scenes of famine, disaster and deprivation have flashed across the television screen, briefly disturbing our by SYD FLETCHER Fear does strange things to you. It can create images in your mind that do not even come close to reality. I can remember as a youngster having to walk down a country road fora distance of about two hun- dred yards. Once you left the lights of, the house it was pitch black. There was no danger of getting lost because all you had to do was follow the gravel road, yet it was amazing how many more sounds there seemed to be in the blackness of the night. By; Roger Worth The Quebec referendum, ac. cording to one leading French Canadian, will not be the end of the world ills we knowlt. Probably not, But there is little doubt that the result will signal the beginning of the end for the status quo on the con- stitutional question in Canada. The climate surrounding the debate on the future of Confederation in Quebec will be grim. It will feed as much on partisan political bickering as on the referendum question itself. It will find troubling echoes in the growing aliena- tion of the West and the juris- dictional claims of other prov- inces such as Newfoundland. Roger Worth is Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Petitions will be signed in English Canada and a plethora of pseudo-scientific documents will be published to support one side of the argument or the other. For most Quebeckers, the referendum is much more of a dilemma than- a question to answer. It is the dilemma of the col- lective conscience of a people 55 Years Ago' Master Eugene Howey, who was riding on his bicycle with his younger brother • Lorne on the handlebars, met with an accident Friday. Something went wrong with the front wheel and he was somersaulted over the wheel to the pavement where he landed on his' face and was rendered unconsious. He was taken to his father's drug store where a stitch was required to close a wound on •his upper lip. Lorne escaped with a few bruises. A horse belonging to • a, couple of Stephen Township ladies became frightened while tied in front of Jones and Mayas- store. It com- menced to kick, getting entangled in the shafts and breaking some of the har- ness. A four-team belonging to Ferdinand besjardine, Grand Behd, became frightened while 50 bags of sweet clover were being delivered to Jones and May. Mr. Percy Webber who was assisting to unload, grabbed the lines, but was kicked by one of the horses and fell in the path of the on-coming wheels. Fortunately he rolled to safety. Syrup making is in full blast. • 30 Years Ago Brady's Dry Cleaning plant which on February 15 was destroyed by fire has been reopened for business. Exeter District High School basketball teams swept through a field of WOSSA Senior "B" con- tenders to -capture two championships in London Saturday. Mr. W. G. Medd, who, for many years, has operated the Exeter and Winchelsea creameries, has this week sold out to Canada Packers Limited. Harry Strang of Usborne, for the second consecutive year the wheat king of Huron County, was crowned at Clinton Friday evening at the annual Farmer's Night banquet of Clinton Lions. Dear Editor: Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School, Baden, Ontario, proudly announces a Victoria Day weekend of special events com- memorating the founding of the school in 1955. Celebrations begin on Friday evening, May 16 and con- clude on Sunday afternoon who consider and affirm them- selves a distinct society On the one hand, and the traditIonidt deep-rooted desire to "per- sonalize" political, power in a leader on the other hand. The debate will set family against family, neighbor against neighbor, father against son and leave lasting scars no mat- ter what the outcome is. The parallel can still be found in Newfoundland today, 30 years after the referendum which led that province into Confedera- tion by a very•slim majority. The Quebec media will have its own dilemma to resolve with regard to freedom of in- formation and the strictures of tough and precise legisla- tion which, among other things, bans the publication of opi- nion polls during the legal ref- erendum period. The referendum may not be the end of the world but it is a question of importance that every Quebecker will have to answer soon. The actions and reactions of English Canada, the com- prehension or lack of it that will be displayed in other parts of the country during the Quebec referendum debate could well be important to the final outcome. 20 Years Ago Charles Reeves who retired this year as road superintendent of Grand Bend, was honored by civic officials at a dinner Friday night. He was presented with a summer lounge and his wife received a bouquet of flowers. Reeve Jim Dalton said council had not received one complaint about Mr. Reeves' work during the seven years he had the position. News broadcaster Larry • Henderson, speaking to 550 people in James St, United Church said the democratic t peoples must start sacrificing luxuries to compete with Russia for world power. Rev. S. E. Lewis was elected president of Exeter and District Film Council, Vice-president is Rev. A. M, Schlenker, Crediton; treasurer-librarian Mrs. Hilton Laing; secretary Mrs. J. M. Southcott; directors, K. J. Lampman, A. B. Idle, Robert Millard, Mrs, R. S. Hiltz, Mrs. Edwin Miller and Rev. A. E. Holley. 15 Years Ago Most Reverend G. E. Carter, Bishop of London, paid his first official visit to St. Peter's Church at Mount Carmel, Friday and during his visit confirmed 86 youngsters in the lounge of the parish of Father James Kelly. Bishop Carter also dedicated the two new rooms at the Mount Carmel School. One of the featured, per- formers in the skating carnival scheduled for the Exeter arena, Saturday is Cathy Corbett, 16-year-old daughter of Dr. & Mrs. J. W. Corbett. Teachers at SHDHS have unanimously approved the salary schedule proposed by the board, giving some staff members increases of $300 in one category and $200 in the other three. Salary changes were from a previous $4,800 increased to $5,000 and from $10,000 to a maximum of $10,400. May 18. All former' students and staff, and other friends of W- O, are invited to contact the 25th Anniversary Com- mittee, Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School, H.R. 2 Baden NOB 1GO, for specific program in- formation and registration data. Mainstream Canada The Quebec Dilemma Defence: Walk, jog, run, skate, ski, swim, paddle, pedal ...don't let life catch you with your head down.