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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1983-07-20, Page 1Single copy 35c Published In Lucknow, Ontario, Wednesday, July 20, 1983 16 Pages Council wants fire board to decide siren issue A meeting of the Lucknow District Fire Board is to discuss who has the authority to decide the firehall siren will no longer be used to call firemen to a fire. Use of the siren has been halted since the Lucknow depart- ment installed its pager system and mem- bers of the department complained to Lucknow councillor Herb Clark that the siren should not be turned off. Clark said some of the firemen do not agree the siren should be turned off and questioned Clark who has the authority to make the decision. Clark raised the issue with Lucknow Village Council at their July 12 meeting and Lucknow councillors agreed a meeting of the area fire board should be called to discuss the matter. Representatives from the municipalities served by the Lucknow District Fire Department sit on the District Fire Board. This includes members of councils from Ashfield, Kinloss and West Wawanosh Townships and the Village of Lucknow. Councillor Clark said it was his impression the pager system was initiated for the convenience of firemen who could not hear the siren while attending a function at the Lucknow and District Community Centre or on occasion while at home during the night. Firemen have complained that depending on the environmental conditions the siren can be heard clearly some nights and other nights is cannot be heard. The music played at the community centre during most functions at the hall also makes it difficult for foremen to hear the siren if they are attending an event there. Councillor Ab Murray, who is a volunteer fireman with the fire department, said he disapproves of the manner in which the move to beepers has been handled. Previous to the installation of the beepers, several firemen had fire phones in their homes and the first one to the phone when it rang took the call and turned on the siren. Since the installation of the beeper system, the fire calls are being taken at Pinecrest Manor Nursing Home where staff is available 24 hours a day. The staff at the nursing home has been trained to take the firecalls and to use the equipment which turns on the firemen's beepers. Murray said he has had a fire phone in his home for 10 years and recently the phone rang five times without being answered by the nursing home staff. Murray said he answered and at the same time deputy fire chief Bud Hamilton also answered. Murray took the call and asked Hamilton if he should turn on the siren and a female voice interrupted and said he was not to turn on the siren. Murray said in all his years as a fireman it was the first time he was expected to take orders from a woman. Murray indicated the conversion to beep- ers has been confusing and controversial among the firemen. Some believe the siren should be used in addition to the beepers because is warns the public that firemen will be travelling to the firehall to answer the call and that the trucks will be leaving the firehall. Murray said he is concerned that firemen who race to the firehall at speeds exceeding Turn to page 4• Lucknow native escapes injury in Orly airport bomb blast A Lucknow native escaped serious injury when a terrorist suitcase bomb exploded July 15 at Orly Airport in Paris. Armenian extremists claimed responsibility for the explosion at the Turkish Airlines counter which killed five people and injured 60. Brenda Gibson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Max Bushell of Lucknow, who was flying home on the weekend to visit her parents, had gone to Orly alone. She happened to take an entrance to a departure lounge that was the farthest of two from the Turkish Airlines counter. "There was a tremendous bang and people started screaming and running for the exits," Gibson, who was visiting France with her husband, said in a telephone interview from Paris with the Toronto Star. "A lot of people panicked, especially women and children and with all the smoke from the explosion it was really chaotic with in the news bags flying around and people falling over themselves," she said. Her husband, employed by Japan's Kyodo news service and a freelance correspondent in Tokyo for the Canadian Press news agency, was at Charles de Gaulle airport arranging a flight back to Japan. Police said one of the dead, a man whose identity was not immediately known, could have been the person carrying the bomb, which had been made of explosives attached to a gas bottle. Police speculate the bomb may have gone off prematurely, that it was meant to explode after the Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul took off with 167 passengers. The bomb exploded about an hour before the plane's departure time. The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia which claimed Turn to page 4• The Swimming Pool Staff at the Lucknow Pool this summer includes from the left Diane Miltenburg, Marilynne Maclntyre, Anne Alton and Helen Macllntyre. Approximately 357 children are registered in the swimming instruction classes for July and August and interest is enthusiastic for a swim team which started practices last week. Anyone over six years of age can participate in the swim meets as a member of the team and openings are still available. This year's swim program alio offers Bronze and Bronze Cross classes, adult lessons, parent and tot swims, ladies exercise classes and fitness swims and the early bid swims from 7 - 8:30 a.m. [Photo by Sharon Dietz] Committee to improve hospital's public image The Wingham and District Hospital Board has formed a new committee charged with the responsibility of correcting the impres- sion that a $500,000 renovation program completed last year was little more than administrative window-dressing. The com- mittee composed of various community leaders, is also to lay the ground work to raise money for a more ambitious building program later this year. Mary Vair, board chairman, explains the new committee has been formed in response to the fund raising survey commissioned by the board earlier this year. The board held a special in -camera meeting two weeks ago to discuss the survey's findings and recom- mendations. First and foremost reported Vair, the survey found the hospital has been doing an excellent job of providing health care to the community. The survey also discovered, however, there is some misunderstanding within the community about the previous building and renovation project, and ques- tions about the urgency of the planned new addition for outpatient and emergency services. She says it appears many people see the 1981-82 project as no more than an extension of the administrative offices, when most of the money was spent in other areas which do provide direct patient services. The first floor renovations were admin- istrative, Vair notes, but in other areas the Turn to page 4• Nurses hold reunion The graduate nurses of Wingham General Hospital held their 1983 annual picnic at the home of Ed and Jean McQuillin, Lucknow, on Sunday. A delicious smorgasbord dinner was held at 12.30 noon. After dinner they had a short meeting and observed a minutes silence for the memory of former nurses. It was moved by Florence Pegelo and seconded by Mrs. Clarence Green that Florence MacKenzie continue as president and Jean McQuillin as secretary -treasurer. Eva Carr offered her home for next year. Adjournment of the meeting was moved by Florence Pegelo, seconded by Eva Carr. The remainder of the afternoon was spent reminiscing. The oldest graduate present graduated in 1922. Best team at Hoedown Omar Brooks of Lucknow and his team of grey Percherons won first in the Wing - ham Hoedown Parade on Saturday. They were sponsored by Fairview Foods of Lucknow. Following the Hoedown parade the team went to the Zurich Fall Fair where they took first in the team class. a first and second in the single class and a first in the best dressed class. Visit for Jamboree Visiting from a distance with Merle Elliott of Lucknow during Jamboree weekend were Ray and Noreen Elliott of Bedford, Nova Scotia; Una (Elliott) MacLeod of Kitchener; Guy and Helen Kelly, Orangeville; as well as many relatives and friends from the surrounding communities. Jamboree guests Jamboree guests of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Campbell of Lucknow were Mr. and Mrs. Allan Stewart of Burlington; Mr. and Mrs. Jack Whyne of Toronto; Lynda Campbell of Mississauga; Liza Whyne of Toronto and Arndis Asgeirdottir of Iceland. Visit parents Howard Rowe visited last week with his parents. Mr. and Mrs Mike Rowe of Lucknow. (formerly of Teeswater). Howard was recently promoted to Vice President of the Western Region of the Bank of Montreal, and moved from Vancouver, B.C. to Calgary where Mrs. Rowe (Jill), daughter, Laurie and son. Bill have now . settled. Work continues on ball diamond Construction by contractor Robert Symes of Symes Construction Ltd., Lucknow has been completed at the new Lucknow ball diamond. Don Bowes of Hanover, repres- enting Frost Fencing, is currently erecting the fence and Huron Landscaping of Lucknow will complete the landscaping later in the summer, when the weather is more conducive to planting grass seed. The Lucknow and District Kinsmen Club who are building the diamond plan to complete the ball park with an outfield fence to be built in 1984 and lights to be installed possibly in 1985.