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The Lucknow Sentinel, 1987-04-08, Page 1ESTABLISHED IN 1873 "THE SEPOY TOWN" ON THE HURON -BRUCE BOUNDARY Karen Winter, a trainer at Canine Vision Canada, discusses the centre and its training of leader dogs for the blind with members of the Lucknow Lions Club who visited the Oakville centre on March 29. Beside her is Josh, a Golden Retriever. ( Alan Rivett photo) Lucknow Lions view leader dog school By Alan Rivett Since it's opening in November of 1985, the Canine Vision Canada guide dog train- ing school in Oakville has been a source of considerable pride for the Lions Club of Canada who initiated the project in 1983. It's also a source of pride for the Lucknow Lions Club who have contributed funds to the training school for seeing -eye dogs since 1985, Approximately 50 members of the Lucknow Lions travelled to Oakville on March 29 to see their fund- raising dollars in action. The Lucknow Lions received an hour- long tour of the facility which represents the first seeing -eye training school for the blind in Canada. According to Jim Astles, a member of the Mississauga Lions Club, and a tour guide at the centre for the afternoon, the Lions Foundation of Canada acquired the dog training centre in 1983, formerly an old public school building. After renovations during the next two years, the centre was officially opened in 1985. At any one time, six to eight students from all across Canada are brought to the centre to be matched with a seeing -eye dog to start the, four-week training process. The . students live at accommodations available at the centre for the training period at no cost to the student. "During the four weeks, the students and the dogs work and sleep together to learn and experience day-to-day situa- tions," said Mr. Astles. The demand for the seeing -eye dog train- ing at the centre , by the blind across Canada is great, he said. Plans are cur- rently in the works to double the class size .Turn to page a Property owners want study of abandoned CN land Huron Township Council will be asked to study the costs involved in acquiring the abandoned CN railway land for the purpose of distributing it to the owners of the proper- ty the line crosses. Ratepayers who attended a public meeting in Ripley last Wednesday signed a petition requesting council to study the survey and legal costs involved in acquiring the land from Canadian National and then selling it to the property owners, who wish to buy the land adjacent to their property on a pro rated basis. Reeve John Gamble told the meeting if a majority of the Huron Township ratepayers at the meeting signed the petition, it would allow council to proceed on their behalf. Kinloss ratepayers who attended the meeting will send Bob Gilchrist and one other representative to their township coun- cil to make the same request. CN rep could not attend meeting CN real estate marketing representative, Peter Madore, was to have attended the meeting to discuss disposal of the rail line land from Wingham to Kincardine but he notified Grant Collins, president of the Brace County Federation of Agricuture the day before the meeting, that he would not attend. Mr. Collins said the excuse given him by Mr. Madore was that CN did not have the staff to handle 300 offers to, purchase at one time. Mr. Madore told him it would take three years if they worked on nothing else to complete the transactions. Mr. Collins told the meeting there were three avenues the property owners could pursue in order to buy the land. A company could be set up in trust which would buy the land from CN for $1 and then the company would redistribute the land to the property owners. Alternatively, the property owners could ask their municipal council to acquire the land and redistribute it or each land owner could pursue the offer to purchase with CN. individually. Offer to purchase has been approved Keith Carter, R. 2 Ripley, told the meeting he has been "chasing the daylights" out of CN because he wants to get his farm back. together by acquiring the railway land. After "hounding" CN all fall, Mr. Carter said his offer to purchase has been approved and his lawyer told him the morning of the meeting, the land is his. Mr. Carter estimated his costs were $500 Turn to page 6 Museum project set to go Huron County Council last week award- ed the contract for the Huron County Pioneer Museum redevelopment project to a London firm. At its. regular meeting last Tuesday in Goderich, council gave its approval to a museum committee recommendation to award the contract to Bach -McDougall, Engineers and Contractors at a price tag of $2.4 million. That figure, however, is more than $200,000 lower than the firms original tender - the lowest of three submitted - of $2,606,800. Following the opening .of tenders at a meeting on March 19, the committee authorized Project Director Claus Breede and Architect Christopher Borgal to meet with the lowest bidder to negotiate reduc- tions in the total tender price. The $2.4 million price is the result. To meet,, the new price, a number of substitutions and deletions were made in the original tender, some of which could be put back in at a later date should addi- tional funding be confirmed prior to com- pletion of work by the contractor. Mr. Breede, following council's approval of the recommendation, had difficulty sup- pressing his pleasure: "I feel this is a good day for the county," he said. "A dream ap- pears to be on the horizon." Bayfield Reeve Dave Johnston express- ed some concerns over the changes in con- struction materials from those originally specified. Both Mr. Borgal and the project director agreed with his observation, that although some of the deleted items could be re -instated at a later date, some changes were, however, irreversible. To the question of why it was decided to negotiate the adjustments rather than go through the procedure of re -tendering, Mr. Breede told council it would be far too costly. Mr. Borgal said the county would have been faced with an increase in construe- tion costs of as high as 25 per cent had re- tendering been necessary. In addition, there would have been extra costs incur- red in order to redesign the project. "Whatryyou see when you look at this list (the negotiated changes) is the 'nice to have' items that are being deleted, " he said. These items have been deleted, he added, "because we felt we had an obliga- tion to bring this project in on target." During the museum committee report, presented by Goderich Reeve Harry Worsell, council was told .demolition has already begun to make way for renova- tions and restoration to the museum. Mr. Breede said he is confident the con- tractor will be on the site and ready to pro- ceed in 10 days. Congrats Congratulations to Helen Van Osch of the Lucknow area who was the grand prize winner of the Jungle Safari con- test on CKNX FM 102 on April 6. The prize is a trip with 10 of her friends on a three-bo's houseboat on the Trent - Severn Waterway. Science Fair The locals held their annual science fairs with many fine displays completed by the students. For the winners at LCPS...SEE PAGE 9. Feature On the front page this week, is a special feature about the Lucknow Lions Club's visit to the Canine Vision Canada centre for leader dog training. It's the only such training centre in Canada. Skate -a -thou The winners from the Kinsmen Club's annual Skate-a-thon are announced this week...SEE PAGE 12.