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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1984-11-21, Page 6Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday , November 21, 1.984—ragli 6 • "The Sepoy Town" The Lucknow Sentinel, P.O. Box 400 Lucknow NOG 2110 Telephone: 5284822 Established 1873 • Pat Livingston General Manager Thomas Thompson - Advertising Manager Sharon Dietz -Editor Joan Helm - Compositor Merle Elliott - Typesetter Subscription rates in advance 1Outside s4' on 16." a• Canada Senior Citizens si 2.50 Outside I' $43."• -"*.' Canada Second class mailing reg., no. 0847, Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, the portion of the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid at the applicable rates. BLUE RIBBON AWARD 1984 Public input necessary •Two public meetings. this -week will address the proposal to locate a sewage treatment facility in West Wawanosh Township just south of the village to service, the Lucknow sewage works and the proposal by the arena board to build a new arena. It is good that Lucknow Village Council and West Wawanosh Township Council have called these meetings to give the public the opportunity to express their concerns. While the members of both councils and the arena board are elected representatives of the ratepayers, both proposals •require direct public input before the councils make, final decisions. In the instance of the sewage treatment • facility, • controversy has developed because •West Wawanosh residents believe the location of the facility behind their homes will reduce the real estate value of their properly. The meeting Thursday night may also serve to indicate to • Lucknow Village Council there is considerable opposition to the proposal from .Lucknow ratepayers as well.• • The meeting Tuesday night to discuss the. arena, proposal was called 'by West Wawanosh Council when they were asked to back the borrowing of funds to build the new arena while the community raises the money. It is possible that if West Wawanosh Township council had not called a ratepayeri meeting to discuss the proposal, it • would have been approved by all four municipalities • involved in the operation of the arena without the rate- payers knowing a new arena was being proposed or how • much it is estimated to cost: • Such a decision should not be made without public input. It is the ratepayers who will foot the bill if the community cannot raise the funds through a fund raising • campaign. Judging by the controversy which developed • the last time a new arena was proposed, the ratepayers want a say in whether or not a new arena is built and how ' much it will cost. If the four municipalities had agreed to back the proposal in principle, it is possible the project could have been approved by the arena board and the commitment to build a new arena would have been made without any consultation with the ratepayers. Such a project requires •, public input and West Wawanosh Council made the right decision in calling a ratepayers meeting to discuss the proposal. •• There is a great deal of controversy at present over the lack of public !input regarding the construction of a new outpatients and emergency. wing at Wingharn and District Hospital. Hospital association members are barred from attending hospital board meetings and the press was asked to leave a •recent meeting which discussed the progress of .the new wing. - • The decision to launch a fund raising -campaign and • proceed with 'the ,construction of the new wing Was also made behind closed doors in a closed session of the hosiiital board. :This meeting, in its attempt at secrecy broke alltraditironal ,rules of procedure; as the board passed the motion to proceed behind closed doors. Procedure dictates that following discussion in closed session, the, motion is to be made in open session. • At its November session Huron County Connell closed the doors to the council chamber while .the. entire ',county • council. met in closed session for "open and frank 't discussion" on a recommendation to reconstruct the • pioneer museum in Goderich. • In the case of the hospital the public has been asked to • contribute to the fund raising campaign to build the new wing and the public has supported the hospital gener- • onsly: In the instance of the county museum, whether the council decides to replace the museum with a new, • building or restructure the present building; the taxpayer is going to foot the bill.• The public/ has a right to know what is being said at the closed sesions of both the hospital board and the Huron • county council because they will pay the price. West Wawanosh council's decision to call a ratepayers meeting to discuss the arena proposal is an example to other pubiically elected bodies. Public input is necessary in making such significant decisions. • The Lucknow meeting• to discuss the location of the • sewage. treatment facility is long overdue. Perhaps Lucknow Village council should have considered such a meeting with West Wawanosh council and the township ratepayers before they proceeded to take an option to purchase the property. • • " • , ?*. ;•tr•''' • • • •tt Despite the chill in the air these mornings, the creative • ;playground at Brookside Public School is still as popular as ever as the children gather to play before the nine o'clock bell. • • (Photos by Sharon Dietz) • 11 Early second language education important To the Editor: ••_,, • There has been quite a lot written in TO THE EDITOR , the last few weeks about the French Immersion question in area schools. Unfortunately, many of the letters • have revealed a lack of awareness of the k importance of early second language education, and more import- antly cif the need for effective French language instruction in our schools. Although I am not directly involved with the education system, many of my friends have children in French Immersion programs/in different areas of the province. If these children are typical of the products of French immersion, then parents have little to fear of the effects of such $raining on their children. •• ! After several years. in which the • English portion of their education may suffer slightly at first; they are able to express themselves better in two lang- uages .than most of their peers can in English only. In addition the exposure to another language and culture seems to make the children more aware of the structure and usage of their own language as well. Studies made under the auspices of the Bilingualism Com- missioner have suggested that biling- ual children may indeed be higher achievers academically than their uni- lingual friends. It is difficult in Huron or Bruce Counties to readily sed the advantages of being bilingual. There are few native speakers of French resident in either county,:,and little need to speak any other language than English. Un- fortunately, the future of many child: ren in ,ourt area schools will involve looking for employment opportunities outside of southwestern Ontario., If only for the sake of these people, ant opportunity to acquire a basic ground- ing 'in French in our local schools is essential. It has been stiggested by many arguing against French Immersion that the Core French program current- ly in our schools is adequate to give a , basic grounding in French. I would ' suggest that this is not the case. Most people have been exposed to just this style of French instruction, and will recall just how little was ever learned, and how little has been retained. Turn to page 1'