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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1980-09-04, Page 13Imes vocate •••thl,r.blon.tne 473 Page 11A SEPTEMBER 4, 1980 SUMMER SAILS BY — Warm weather on Labour Day weekend encouraged everyone to enjoy Lake Huron's warm waters, before summer ends. Surf-sailing, as always, is popular on Grand Bend's main .beach. ' Staff photo Council briefs Still want sand moved *he, THINGS WERE SLIPPERY BEFORE THE FALL — managed to climb into the innertube with the help But twins Paul and Pete Stano, 1 of friend Dan Matauch, 15. summerin the 'Bend usy• "The peolge Were here." That's the WIfY that Chamber of Commerce 'aecretary manager Aoh- Simpson describes the summer at Grand Bend. Simpson says that there seemed to be more people on the streets in the- village this, summer than in past years, and the number of families visiting the resort is on the increase. Simpson, who operates • Wondergrove Cottages, says that his business went well this summer, and was equal Wiest year. He says that he was booked up all summer, and he can't do better than that. "Once we're full, we're .Simpson explained. Chamber president Gene Grenier says she's amazed at the number of people who were in the village in August. He said . - .that most buSinessmen were busy right til, the end of the season, and business. did not die off • during the last two weeks; of AuguSt as it has. in past years,. "Bvary one shOuld have done well, .the town was busy," Greater said. Grenier added that his own. sports shop as well as thepre shop which heoperateaat the golf course did well this summer, Be said that there must have been many campers in the area, judging by the amount of camping supplies he • sold, He also did a good business in fishing gear and golfing needs, he added. Sun Shop and Surf Shop owner Nick Carter says that he experienced his best summer in his nine years of operation. Carter said that business was down in June due to the wet weather, but July and August were ex- cellent, "I know it sounds repetative, but there were more families," Carter stressed. Carter speculated that the established businesses in Grand Bend had good summers while new .comers may ,have had to struggle a bit, However,, he felt that the competition was good. Jean Glazier at Gord and Jean's Arcade said that wet. weather in June boosted their businesa.. Her pinball machines were kept busy on rainy days, she said. She agreed that there were more people in town this summer. Cheryl Aim owner Dennis Mathers described his summer as "better than ever". Mathers said he was kept busy all summer and Was looking forward to September so he could sit down. Howard Solomon of Missy's in' the casino said that this was best summer in four years. Solomon said that despite some wet long weekends, he had a good season, due to the nice weather during the weeks, At Lambton Heritage Museum, curator Bob Treinaine said that at- tendenee was up 14 percent. Tremaine said that rainy weekends improved their business, as people went to the museum as an alter- native to the beach. Two special days this summer boosted their attendence, 'and are planned for next year. Huron Country Playhouse also experienced record crowds this summer. They sold more season's tickets than ever before, and had full houses for most per- formances. The use of Pinery Provincial Park is also up from last year. Terry Crabe of the visitor services staff said that the number of day use permits sold was up 1000 over last year, He estimates that about four people come into the park on each day use permit. While the number of campers is down, Crabe stressed that the number what he calls "camper- nights" is up about. QM Crabe explained that while the number of people corning to the park fell, those that came stayed longer. He said that more camp- sites were full for loOger periods of time than recent years. For the first time, the park was full to. capacity every single weekend during the sum- mer, Crabe says that while in the past people would only register, for two or three nights and move on, they are now staying for a week. Crabe said that by, coin- parison, most provincial parks across the province are reporting drops' in at- tendence. Crabe speculated, that the. price of gas is forcing people to spend their holidays in one spot instead of travelling around, He says that the. good location of the Pinery makes it popular. Council conflicts with authority Price Per Copy 35 Cents Lakefront landowners along the north beach still want the sand moved'away from their front yards, they told Grand Bend Council Tuesday night. Terry Crabe, an employee ofthe Ministry of Natural Resolirms_at Pinery Park* Ottended - the vg explain lepan- ning of American sand grass along the beach to stabilize the sand. But landowners made it clear that they wanted dunes which have formed over their fences moved away before any grass is planted. Crabe said that the best time for planting grass is in the fall. He said that grass grows quickly and dunes will form once the sand is stabilized in the grass, Cottagers suggested that the beach be plowed in next spring and all the unwanted sand smoothed about. Then grass could be planted the following fall. Reeve Robert Sharen said he would approach the Ministry of Natural Resources to 'see if Crabe could supervise the work. Crabe said that the grass costs about $25 for 1000 Casino lessee Jim Gill has appealed charges laid against him by the village of Grand Bend. Gill was found Goodbye Bluewater Country The end of another sat-ri- mer season marks the last edition of the Times- Advocate's Bluewater Country for 1980. We'll still be giving the news from Grand Bend and area. We hope you've enjoyed your summer in the bluewater country. plants, and they can be • purchased in Michigan, Also present at the meeting was Brian Murray of the Ministry, of Tourism. Sharen said he invited Murray to the meeting portant to tourism, in Grand Bend. Sharen asked Murray if any funds were available to help improve the beach, and Murray said he would look into it. Cottager Harold Langley expressed appreciation on behalf of the land owners for the village taking action to improve the beach. Langley said that everyone in Grand Bend is interested. Lake front cottager Bruce Woodley said he would volunteer to help plant the grass, if the work could be done by volunteers. Crabe said that the planting was not difficult. Another landowner Mae Piggot said that she would like to have beach sand removed from her property. Sharen jokingly suggested that she "make a whole bunch of egg timers." Several other cottagers were present at the 'meeting and Exeter at a meeting to learn how BIAs worked in those towns. Councillor Keith Crawford said that he was reluctant to go ahead with plans for a BIA because he understood that some businessmen and guilty and fined over $1700 for violations of the noise by- law, zoning by-law and for not paying transient traders sees in court in Grand Bend July 22. Gill asked for an appeal on the grounds that he was late appearing in court, His case will be heard in provincial court in Sarnia September 25. Gill has also been remanded on charges laid by provincial police after a party August 16. Six charges were laid against Gill ranging from being in- toxicated in a public place to assaulting a police officer And Mischief. and made suggestions about the work. It was decided that nothing more be done until Crabe can come up with a master plan and some idea of costs. In ether business: to invite fishermen to' the nest meeting and present them with surveys made of the area along the riverbank. - councillor Keith Craw- ford reported that the playground program held this summer was a success. Crawford praised the in- structors, and said that attendance averaged 15 each day. - council decided to send ' notices that they will in- crease cost of garbage pickup in the next billing, if any Main Street businessmen continue using the garbage cans put along the street for public use. - Crawford reported that he went to several parties over the Labour Day , weekend and asked them to keep the noise down in com- pliance with village by-laws. Reeve Robert Sharen reported that he was called about "pranksterism" at members of the Chamber of Commerce were not in favour of the idea. Crawford said that they should move carefully to win the support of all the businessmen. Erwin Schottroff agreed and said that he would see the chamber about having someone explain the ad- vantages of a•BIA at one of their upcoming meetings. Mel Douglas said he was reluctant to put off the formation of a BIA much longer because he wanted to form it before the municipal election this fall. Douglas talked to councillors and they said they would support the BIA. Douglas pointed out that it is very important to have full support of the village council. He added that BIA should be formed in case council changed after the election. Crawford stressed the p or t a tic e of the BIA vorking with the chamber. Reeve Bob Sharen said that he thought the chamber were afraid of a loss of prestige. He pointed out that in St. Thomas the BIA strengthehecl the Chamber, and the two work together. It was decided that they would try to win chamber support before approaching council for a by-law again, - ;council voted to object to a change in zoning from residents to commercial requested by Bosanquet township for a piece of property on highway 21 south of the village, They decided to seek more infor- mation on the rezoning. Poof! There it Was! Another summer came and went. You've just struggled through Labour Day, the most depressing holiday of the year. The summer has slipped by so fast, and you didn't accomplish half the things you planned to do. You just didn't get around to it. Remember the physical fitness program you set out to follow last June? You forgot about the back breaking sit-ups after the third night. The morning jogging lasted about week, and you quit cycling after ten days. And swimming? Well, those strenuous strokes soon became leisurely back floating. So much for shaping up -- you just didn't get around to it, right? Remember back in May when you said you'd paint the trim on the house this summer? Then you vowed that you'd wash all the windows thoroughly when ' you got that done. You were going to spruce up the ex- terior of the whole house. No. time, eh? And soon -as that was accomplished, you were going to start a project of furniture refinishing. But you never did carry the desk outside to start stripping it, This was the summer you planned to have the best flower bed ever.Butyon just never got around to looking , Some rtlembers of Grand Bend council accused the Ausable hayfield Con- servation Authority of black- mail Tuesday night after clerk Louise Clipperton read aloud a letter from the authority, In the letter, the conservation authority said that they were reluctant to proceed with erosion control work in Grand Bend until the council recognizes the fill and construction regulations set down by the authrotiy. The letter went on to say that fill and rubble dumping along the river banks may cause the. failure of the structures 'already in place, The 'letter Sara' that the authority has ;financed about ahalf million dollars worth of work in Grand Bend, and they don't want to spend more until they can safeguard the investments they have already made. Reeve Robert Sharen said that the province funded 85 percent of the work. Councillor Harold Green said he was very concerned about the relationship bet- ween Grand Bend and the authoroity, He said that someone from council should attend an upcoming meeting of the watershed committee after it. So now the marigolds have been trampled, and the petunias are bloom-less as the weeds flourish. Which reminds you -- the vegetable garden. Well, you never quite got around to it. In fact, the packages of seeds are still sitting on a shelf in the cupboard. You wonder if they'll be any good next summer. Oh, yeah, what about all thbse books you never read? You came home from the library on the first Of July with a stack of fascinating books. But pretty soon the due date was up, and you returned them, without even opening the covers. You thought there would be plenty of time to sit out on the deck and read. But no luck, you didn't even get through the stack of magazines which ac- cumulated on the magazine rack. So if you didn't have time for reading, you certainly didn't get around to any letter writing. The pile of unanswered letters keeps growing on your desk. What happened to that Sunday afternoon you planned to spend Writing letters? And if you didn't get any letter writing done, then you certainly didn't do any visiting. Remember ail those promises you made last winter. "Oh, We'll be sure to visit you this summer," to discuss the situation. Sharen said that authority didn't need to use blackmail on the council. He said that he would be willing to accept the proposed regulations if minor changes were made. "I talked to them and they won't change it," Green replied. Reeve Sharen said that the, proposal would be very harsh on three property owners. "They're (the authority) being a little dictatiorial," he said. Green stressed that they would have to try to come to some understanding. Council also decided to look further in complaints from Manor Marine abOht hazardous navagation in the river due to work done by the authority, and the fact that people are docking boats in the area. Council received a copy of a letter to Manore Marine from the authority. It was decided that council should find out whether the homeowners require a licence of occupation to dock boats along the wall. In another letter from the authority, council was asked to clear up terms of reference for future erosion control work. you'd say to all your friends and relatives. Now you'll send them a Christmas card and say, "We wanted to take a trip your way this summer, but we never got around to it." You didn't get the crowd together and invite them over for a barbeque, either. And you had promised you'd see everybody this summer. You'd even planned to use that special recipe for spare rib sauce. But the summer slipped by, and you just never got around to doing any fancy cooking. Heck you didn't even take time to file your finger nails and put some polish on them this summer. In June, you said you were going to sit out on a lawn chair, paint your nails and get a sun tan. What sun tan? You never even got around to getting a tan this summer. Next summer, for sure. You'll get around to it, And for the rest of you folks who were going to do so many things this summer, but you just didn't get around to it, here you are... Your very own round tuit. No excuses now. Fear that the concept of Hotel and Erwin Schottroff establishing a business of Pinedale Motel attended improvement area may not the meeting. The three men be accepted by the Chamber have been meeting with of Commerce slowed down Reeve Robert Sharen the plans of three throughout the summer to businessmen Tuesday night. plan the formation of a BIA. Recently they had guest The businessmen came speakers from St. Thomas before Grand Bend council to ask that the council make up a by-law to form a BIA. "We'd like to get the wheels turning," Mel Douglas said. Along with Douglai who operates the Bonnie Doone Manor, Danny Keith of RD's Gill appeals charge Group fears chamber won't support BIA Grand Cove Estates, but since that area is in Stephen Township, he told them he could do nothing for them unless they wanted to be annexed. - council discussed qierchasiarlidS Me `garbage containers along Main Street. - site plan sent to them by Ausable Holdings for the empty lot on Huron and King Streets was referred to plan- ning board. The company . plans to erect town houses on the lot. y's muslin BY MARY ALDERSON Never got around to it Summer slips by, then fall ... Now, mug for the camera .... before splashing into the lake 0111-4.1'4— AFTER THE FALL — The boys had to swim to catch the escaping innertube. The boys, all from Wayne, Michigan were camping at Pinery Park, but enjoyed the lake at Grand Bend on Labour boy weekend. Staff Photos •