Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-03-09, Page 5Winners of the Blyth Legion Poster Contest for Remembrance Day were presented with their prizes recently. Junior winners were [front row, left to right] Jody Button, first and Karen Bromley, second and intermediates, [back row] Debbie Logue, first and Jonus Irving, second. Mary Lou Stewart presented the prizes. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1988. PAGE 5. Huron County councillors worried program may snowball Brussels council briefs Council WCB increases coverage for firemen Continued from page 2 cillors were surprised when they learned the coverage was only $18,200 at present since they thought it was increased to $25,000 some time ago. Marg Exel, custodian of the village office and library will also be covered by Compensation. ***** The BMG industrial commit­ tee ’ s brochure is nearly ready to go to the printer for proofing, Council­ lor Sauve said. Some of the material may also be put on place mats and advertising sold to help cover the costs of the whole project, she said. In addition five pages of fact sheets on the three municipali­ ties has been prepared and will be available from the three municipal offices. ***** The floor in the Brussels fire hall Jim Cardiff reappointed McKiiiop Mutual manager Jim Cardiff of Brussels has been re-appointed to the position of secretary-treasurer and manager of the McKiiiop Mutual Insurance Company of Seaforth, a position he first took following the resignation of RobertColemanof Seaforth a year ago. His employment was confirmed at the executive meeting following the company’s annual meeting held recently in Seaforth, with Ken Carnochan of RR 4, Seaforth re-elected as president and Don McKercher of RR 1, Dublin, re-elected as vice-president. Stu­ art Wilson of RR 1, Brucefield, will remain as past president. Mabel's Grill Continued from page 4 linesman stepping between two tough-guys or a guy breaking up a dog fight than have to step in between a non-smoker who feels it is her inalienable right to have clean air and a smoker who feels it is her inalienable right to smoke. “That’s why I spend so much time huddled in my office trying to ignore the situation as much as possible,” he said. FRIDAY: Billie said this morning that since George Bell seems to be so upset about being asked tobe the designated hitter for the Blue J ays this year, he thought he might go down to Florida to volunteer for is crumbling and council agreed to have a backhoe dig into the floor to see what is causing the collapse. ***** Council agreed to purchase a bicycle stand at a cost of $125 to be placed at the corner of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Com­ merce so youngsters can park their bikes safely instead of leaving them on the sidewalks or against shop windows. ***** Council approved a road budget of$88,400atthe meeting including $33,200 for construction and $55,200for maintenance. Included for construction are digging out, regravelling and paving George Street in the north end and reconstruction of a section of James St. near the river. At the annual meeting, Mr. McKercher, Lavern Godkin of RR 1, Walton and Paul Rock of RR 1, Bornholm, were elected to the board of directors for three-year terms, while John Tebbutt of RR 2, Clinton, was elected to serve as a director until the next annual meeting, replacing Donald Taylor of RR 3, Clinton, who was hired as an agent for the company in December. The total assets listed in the company’s financial report for 1987 were $3,605,784, up from the 1986 total of $3,330,282. However, due to losses throughout the year, the company was unable to offer a refund from surplus in 1987. the job. He’d promise to do it for a lot less money than George. He figured that they said George would get 700 at bat this year and if he swung the bat three times in each at bat, George would get $1000perswing. Billie said he’d be happy to take only $ 100 a swing and hefigured that he’d be swinging at exactly that number of pitches because that’s how long it would take him to strike out before he went back to sit on the bench. “But atleastl’dbe smiling every minute of the time I sat on the bench thinking of all the money I was making. Think what it would do for team harmony.” A proposal to create 25 private home day care positions funded by the Huron County Social Services Department has been delayed for at least one month after Huron County Council, at its March meeting, sent the matter back to committee for clarification. The proposal for the day care plan caused debate twice in Thursday’s council session, in the morning when Administrator J. A. McKinnon presented his annual report and later in the discussion of the monthly Social Services Com­ mittee report when a proposal was made to “endorse the concept of day care and that the Social Services Department be authoriz­ ed to investigate what funds are available.’’ Mr. MacKinnon explained dur- ingthe morning debate that the social services department would, under the program, contract with private individuals to operate private day care facilities. Under government regulations a private individual can look after up to five children without having a licence. The proposal was not for univer­ sal day care, he said. Top priority would go to the single parent or low wage earner. If someone has the chance for a job paying $5 - $6 per hour but has to pay for day care for a child it is often more advantageous for them to stay on mothers allowance thantogo to work, he said. It is better and cheaper to pay for day care for their children and keep them working than to pick up the heavy cost of mothers allow­ ance. Private home day care is the most economical, most flexible kind of day care, he said. It also allows people to arrange day care in off hours when more formal day Ife? ■ |||g; life ? Whose side is he on? BY RAYMOND CANON I recall hearing a story once about the veteran who went to a vets’ hospital, stated that he had fought in the last war and asked to be treated for a specific illness. He was taken in while a check was done on his records. Finally a clerk showed up at the man’s bed and informed him that nobody could find any trace of his participation in World War II. It turned out that the man had been a veteran all right but he had served in the German, not the Canadian army. This story may or may not be aprocryphal but the one which has recently come out of Alberta certainly is not. It seems that on December 11, 1986 a veteran who made no secret of the fact that he had served in the German army marched with the Canadian veter­ ans to honour the dead and to pray for peace. To say that he was given the cold shoulder by most of these present was putting it mildly. They made it very clear that he was not welcome. This year he marched again, also in the cause of peace, but this time he was invited to do so by the local boy scouts. He marched in their ranks and it was, needless tosay, extremely difficult to make any objection. I picked that story up from the CBC so it likely got rather wide care centres aren’t open. The program would cost $82,408 for the first year with the County picking up 20 per cent of the cost ($16,481.60). Reeve Lionel Wilder of Hay township said that private home day care to him sounded like babysitting and he wondered if the program was put in place, where would it stop. Mr. MacKinnon said he guessed any day care program could be called babysitting but that the system would be more than babysitting with a child being sat in front of a TV for eight hours. There would need tobe a private home day care visitor for each 25 day care positions under the program, he said and the visitor would help the operatorsenrich the program to help the child’s socialization, etc. The need for the day care visitor would limit the growth of the program he assured council. One private home day care visitor could be hired in the first year which would limit the size of the program to only 25 children. If the need for the service was proved, then a second visitor could be hired making up to 50 positions. HullettReeveTom Cunningham seemed to express the opinion of other councillors when he said he was worried about the day care program. “Once we get into this we may have pressure to provide universal day care,” he said. He agreed that if it could help take mothers off the welfare roles and get out to work then the county would be the gainer but he worried about the long-term growth of the program. Lossy Fuller, Exeter deputy­ reeve asked if the councillors The International Scene coverage. I comment on it here since those who protested his presencein 1986mayormay not know that for a considerable number of years, Gen. Adolf Galland, the leading fighter ace of the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain, has been an honorary guest of the Canadian Fighter Pilots Association. He has attend­ ed a number of their fuctions in that capacityandlcannotrecall that anybody protested his presence in Canada at any of those functions. When does somebody cease being your enemy and become your friend instead? I came face to face with that question when I was aninstructoratNATO. Oneday the first German pilots arrived at the Officers’ Mess and they were not young boys; on the contrary they hadallservedinWorldWarll. 1 was thus present at the strange situation where we had Canadian pilots in the Mess who were wearing medals for having shot down German planes in World War II. On the other side of the table were the German pilots who were wearing their medals for having shot down Allied planes during the same war. After that meeting war never meant the same for me. I went to school in Germany after World War II when the place was still something of a shambles from the Allied bombing. I recall trying to answer countless questions what people thought of Hitler, the Nazis and Germans in general. Most of the students I found vere still in something of a state of shock would see the policies that would be used to determine who got the assistance before the program went into effect. Mr. MacKinnon assured her that this was just a wish list at this point and if the department became involved then the policies would go through the social service committee and coun­ ty council would have to approve them. Butduringthe afternoon pre­ sentation of the monthly Social Services Committee Report the resolution to approve the concept of Private Home Day Care was included and councillors were on their feet again. Dave Johnston, Reeve of Bay- field told Mr. MacKinnon he would like to see the criteria in place as to who would be eligible for the day care before he agreed to approve the motion. “It concerns me a great deal that we’re opening the door across the county for day care, ’ ’ he said. “It’s all well and good to say it is only 25 positions but what about the year after, 50? And the year after that?” Reeve Johnston said he wasn’t sure he wanted to vote for the program or against the program but he hadn’t been provided with enough facts to make a decision. Mr. MacKinnon said the facts were included in a report to council in 1987 and so he didn’t think it was necessary to provide them again. Reeve Cunningham again worr­ ied about the possibility of creep­ ing universality in the report and made a motion that the matter be sent back to the committee for clarification. After seconding by Morris Reeve Doug Fraser the motion was carried. from the war and the thought that someday they might find them­ selves on the same side as the countries they had fought against had not yet entered theirline of thinking. It did later and just about the same time that the original mem­ bers ofNATOdecided that it would be nice to have the Germans on their side in any struggle against the Soviet Union. Thus I was not really surprised to see the above- mentioned German pilots show up in the RCAF mess. I realize that some people may have strong feelings about the Nazis after all these years and this may account for some of the animosity which theGerman veter­ an encountered out West. How­ ever, by and large the Boy Scouts areon the right track. Ifwe have accepted the Germans as a full member of NATO, we cannot any longer treat them as a former enemy. A vast majority of the 50,000,000 West Ger ma ns were either not born before 1945 or, if they were, the war really means nothing to them. Why saddle them with the sins of their forefathers? I think that veterans, be they Canadian or German, will realize that war is hell from any point of view. If a German wants to march on Nov. 11 to promote peace, I'm all in favour of it. One of the things that pleases me most, in spite of all myyears conneted with the RCAF, is that 1 did not have to go off to war and, with any luck, my sons will be able to avoid it too. I’m sure that many parents will agree with me.