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The Lucknow Sentinel, 1978-09-27, Page 5Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, September 27, 1978—Page 5 Kinloss trustee explains bus contr The Editor: It would appear that an explanation is necessary con- cerning the school attend- ance and busing eontrover- sy on the fOth of Kinloss. I personally have a great deal of sympathy for what' ex- Premier Regan of Nova Scotia describes as a general nation wide frustration with government. I too am frust- rated- with our various gov- , ernments but when one is an elected member of one of these governments it becom- es all too clear that pome decisions which are neces- sary for the stytem to operate for the common good are sometimes perceived to be otherwise by the affected individual. Thus my neigh- bour Ernie Hanna is upset by the unfortunate circumstanc- es and also the errors made in the schooling and bussing of his children. When the Province created county school boards in 1968 it became apparent that new agreements were necessary to ensure that reasonable secondary school attendance areas straddling county boundaries would be main- tained. Thus the new legisla- tion provided for the county boards to re-examine such attendance area boundaries. In 1972 the Bruce and Huron boards made an agreement outlining, their boundaries of jurisdiction for secondary schools. Similar binding ag- reements were made be- tween counties all across Ontario. The general rule of thumb, was that boundaries should be roughly drawn at the mid point between schools. Thus the boundar3 between the Walkerton and Kincardine Schools cuts #9 highway on the west side of Greenock swamp, and the boundary b tween the Wing - ham and Kincardine schools is the line between conces- sions 8 and 9 in Kinloss which means that all land on both sides of concession 10 road lies within the Kincard- ine school area. Because all of Kinloss was originally in the Wingham School area this meant that students it the north part of Kinloss would have to go the Bruce Schools. I would like to digress to point out that since I was not a trustee until 1975 I had no part whatever in that bound- ary decision. Another significant part' of the Bruce -Huron agreement was that students from the affected areas who had already started their educa- tion in Wingham before 1972 were permitted to finish. Also because the agreement was not signed until summer of 1972 those students com- mencing Grade 9 in 1972 were permitted to enroll in Wingham for one year before transferring to the appropr- iate Bruce School in Grade 10. There have been several parents in Kinloss who were upset by this agreement and over the, years have paid fees to Huron County and have continued to send their children to Wingham. This is their legal right but neither the Bruce board nor any other board will pay extra mileage for busing children to another jurisdiction. We havenot however, prevented such students from riding free on our buses to Wing - ham so long as they catch the busses on a regularly sched- uled route within the Wing - ham attendance area.' Thus certain students from the Village of Kinloss regularly catch a Wingham bus at Holyrood. And so by like means may the students on the 10th concession attend school in Wingham. It should be noted that bus costs are based solely on the size of bus and the miles travelled, so that these extra students have no bearing on bus grants or cost unless such students necessitate a larger bus. Mr. Hanna asks, "what does our education taxes pay for in reference to the families who pay tuition privately to the Huron Board in the sum of $200 per school year per child?" The answer of course is that their educa-, tion taxes help pay for the education system in Bruce County. So do the taxes of all other ratepayers who have no children in our schools. This is a basic principle of taxation in our society where by the total adult population pays for the education of the young. If any parents reject Letters to the editor Editor's Note: Elmer Farrish sent along these stories of events rarely seen today. Amusing and entertaining, they reflect a simpler time. EVENTS NEVER SEEN TODAY, A short time ago on "In Memoriam" over CKNX Wingham the death of Mrs. Victor Whitley was announ- ced. I did not know the lady but the name of Victor Whitely brought back mem- ories- of the (I believe) 1911 Old Boys Reunion in Luck- now. An act performed by Victor Whitley and George Nixon in Caledonian Park (Show Grounds) still sticks in mind. These 2 men had a wrest- ling match on horseback. It created a lot of excitement among the large crowd, many of whom were city folks back for the gala occasion. The act lasted for a consid- erable time. I don't remem- ber who won but I do remember that in the end neither one had any clothes on except their trousers. Another act of ,great inter- est to a 11 year old farm boy was a man from Detroit who walked down main street on stilts 10 or 12 feet long. He could look in the upstairs windows along main street. The pant legs were the full length of the stilts. He seemed to have no problems walking the length of the main ' street. It is sdmething that I have never seen done Y. before 'nor sinee. At that time there were 3 hotels in Lucknow. The Cain House stood where the Post Office now is located. Across the street where the service station now is located stood the McGary House or Hotel and the McDonald Hotel was located where the arena now is located. .I believe the Johnstone Family is the only family now in business that was in business in Lucknow in 1911. I believe 'I am correct •in saying that in 1911,.there were only two cars in Lucknow. One ownedby. Dr. Walker, a Veterinary surg.- eon, and one owned by Mr. McGarry, the hotel owner. On the south west corner of lot 1, concession 13, East Division of Ashfield Town- ship a number of years ago there stood a fairly large frame house that was occu- pied by a bachelor by the name of John Morrison. He lived here alone and as a boy I remember him walking along the road as he had no means of transportation. He was bare faced and always had the appearance of scarc- ity of Water. Across the road the Mur- chison family lived. They consisted of a'bachelor and 2 maiden sisters. On one occasion one of these madien ladies asked John how come he had never married, to which he replied, "I guess I am just- like you. I never was asked and I never refused." The sfory has been told of a meeting of a group of executives being held and the question was asked how. you would distinguish a good business manand one of the members in the meeting answered that anyone who could borrow money from a Jew and lend it to a Scotchman and make a profit could be put in that category. The following story was told to a group of us that gathered in Kintail store a number of years ago by Neil McDonald, the owner. .To the Editor: Members of the Ripley 4-H Horse 'Club wish to thank their leaders, Joyce and John Farrell; for their training arid leadership in the past season and Mrs. Judy Geddes who was ' the judge at their achievement day, on Satur- day. Kelly Fitzgerald. AN OPEN LETTER FROM THE CANADIAN NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR THE BLIND Dear Contributor: If your parents are in their mid -sixties or older, there is a strong -chance that they could be going blind. About fifty per cent of blind Canad- ians are over the age of sixty-five. As people grow older, their sight oft'ln deter- iorates. Since ,1918, blind people have utilized and benefited from the results of modern technology and CNIB servic- es. New electronic aids such the system provided in the r own county and send their children to a diifferent.county then that other board collects tuition fees from the parents and also receives the sub- stantial additional grants from the Provincial govern- ment. This latter point should be noted by all Bruce ratepayers because the loss of secondary school students from• Bruce to Huron is a major loss in provincial rev- enues to the Bruce board, and in effect means that higher educational taxes have to be levied in Bruce each year in lieu of these missing provincial funds. Now how did the present controversy start? When a student from Bruce enrolls. in Wingham it is the respon- sibility of the Wingham school to ensure that such students live in the agreed attendance area in Bruce County in accordance with the 1972 agreement between the boards. The Bruce board subsequently receives a noti- fication from the Huron board in November for the students enrolled in Wing - ham from January 1 of that calendar year. The fact that Hanna children were improp- erly attending Wingham in 1977 was caught by the Bruce administration in Nov- ember 1977 after checking this notification. On checking further it was discovered that there had been improper attendance for some of the children for theprevious as the talking calculators and TV readers are opening exciting and rewarding op- portunities to Canada's 30,000 blind citizens. But no one wants to lose his sight,, and blindness can strike at any age. Conse- quently, the CNIB places a versy three school years. It appears that Mr. Hanna was told in error by someone other than in the Bruce board that his assessment in Kinloss south of the concession 9 boundary line entitled his children to attend the. Wingham school. Only if such assessment had ' been in Huron County would such entitlement exist. In retrospect both the Wingham school and the Bruce board should have caught the error back in 1973 and .in the following years. I suppose the matter was complicated by the phasing in terms of the 1972 agree- ment and the fact that the Hanna family happened to have five students attending school during the phasing in period. By setting up this phasing in period from 1972 to 1976 it meant that John and Jim Hanna were entitled to go to Wingham : while Lloyd; David and Lois should have attended Bruce schools (with the exception of Lloyd's Grade 9 in Wingham). To further complicate things, for some unknown reason a Montgomery bus continued to pick up the Hanna children even though the route was clearly outside their jurisdiction after June 1976, and again this infrac- tion was not caught by the Bruce board. Obviously these errors could have been and should have been noticed before and we regret the mistakes, but I do not feel the Wingham school or the Bruce board can high priority on blindness prevention programs. In. this our Diamond Anni- versary,r.The Canadian Na- tional Institute for the Blind seeks your financial support for its services which help preserve vision for those who can see, and lead to a better be branded as inefficient on the basis of this regrettable incident. o It has been suggested that our board should be "com- passionate" and 'pay for the bus to pick up .these children and even pay for their fees in Wingham. Every school board has periodic boundary disputes between its second- ary schools and Bruce has its normal share. But to know- ingly . make exceptions to establish boundary policies and an agreement with another board, would create enormous problems else- where. This is not a case of our board having no compassion for people it is rather a matter of keeping our school system viable between the conflicting desires of the people we serve. An unusual opportunity for citizens and parents to parti- cipate in discussion on the Bruce education system is available at our Bruce Coun- ty conference on education to be held in Walkerton Second- ary School on Saturday, November 18. A news re- lease was printed early in September in all the other Bruce County weeklies but you can get information later. in October through a paid advertisement in all our. weeklies. Those citizens and parents who care about education in Bruce should make every effort to ' attend and particiapte. Lloyd Ackert. life for those who cannot: 'Sincerely, Mrs."Carl Riegling, Campaign Chairman, Ashfield and West Wawanosh Twps. LOOKING BACK THROUGH THE. SENTINEL FILES CONTINUED FROM P. 4 seeing the unexpected curve to the right as he came to the brow of the hill applied the brakes somewhat sharply 'causing the car to swing across the road to the high side where it encountered the bank and rolled once over. 25 YEARS AGO Bob Thompson, son of Mrs. R. H. Thompson and the late Mr. Thompson arrived home after spending a year in the Eastern Arctic at a weather observation outpost at Arctic Bay on the northern shore of Baffin Land. Two meteorologists, two radio technicians and a cook make up the personnel. of the weather post. Only other permanent whit resid- ent is the manager of the Hudson Bay Post in Artie Bay. The post has five skeds (schedules) .a day for trans- mitting weather information. It is radioed via Nottingham Island to _ Churchill and relayed from there to Toron- to. The removal of the hydro poles from Main Street has posed' a problem for the bill posters. The big elm at the Post Office corner is the sole answer and will likely take quite -a pasting. The hydro line on the north side of the business section was remov- ed on Thursday to, further improve • the wider "new look" of Campbell Street. Installation of the lights on this side was .completed on Monday to complete the transformation and to bright- en the "main drag". Henry Elliott, 25, of R. 5 Lucknow, faces a charge of attempted murder following an early morning gun blast at the home of George McBurn- ey, R. 2 Embro. Police associate the affair with an abortive attempt to rob the Embro 'Co-operative feed mill. Burglars were disturb- ed by Embro Policeman Cecil Pollock who arrested Robert Lonchamps of Wolsley Bar- racks. Three others believed involved in the • attempted robbery made good their escape. About two' hours . later a man later identified as Elliott aroused the McBurn- ey household saying he wanted to use the, phone. As he went to let " him in, McBurney spied the muzzle of a gun and slammed the door shut. A volley of bullets riddled the door and as the intruder left he cut the phone wires and fired at the car which sat nearby with the keys in it. Elliott and a companion were arrested early that evening. at Wing - ham and returned to Wood- stock where Elliott . was identified in a police line»up.