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The Citizen, 1999-06-16, Page 1Feature Cyclists ride for kids See page 11 Community Review E JifeC” 'S opening ‘West Side’s’ Tony a pleasure to j See page 12 See page 23 Authorities determine alcohol not a factor in truck accident CitizenTheNorthHuron Vol. 15 No. 24 Wednesday, June 16, 1999 The investigation is continuing into the accident involving a Brus- sels-area man, which claimed the lite of a Baltimore resident last week. According to information received from The Baltimore Sun~ obtained from Maryland State Police, trucker Paul McIntosh, 24, had picked up a caterpillar escava- tor at a dock in Baltimore late Tuesday afternoon. The Sun reporter said the truck was over­ loaded by a couple of hundred pounds and the boom was sitting about three feet higher than the per­ mit allowed. The Sun stated. McIntosh, who is licensed to haul commercial loads and held a permit to transport the excavator, got about six miles up the interstate and turned to go onto the Beltway at about 5:30 p.m., in the middle of rush hour. The reporter, Joe Matthews, said witnesses stated the boom hit a closed pedestrian bridge, which fell. Three drivers could not avoid hitting it. The truck kept going and hit another bridge before stopping. Dead is Robert Taylor. 54 of Bal­ timore. His 54-year-old companion Regina Breghon was in serious, but stable condition. In the second car was Henri Williams, 27, of Mary­ land w'hose condition was listed Friday as fair. The driver of the third vehicle Elizabeth Freeman, 68 was critical but stable. Multiple state investigative units have been involved in the investi­ gation. State Police Chief Col. David Mitchell said Wednesday they were looking at whether McIntosh had been sleeping enough and at the accuracy of his log book. Following the accident McIntosh admitted loading the excavator himself. He also submitted to rou­ tine testing for drugs and alcohol. Police said he had co-operated fully, as did officials of the truck­ ing company that owned the vehi­ cle, TTK Transport of Ontario. The test results showed that nei­ ther drugs nor alcohol were a factor in the-accident. Watch for hot hay, warns OMAFRA The hot temperatures may be great for drying hay in fields, but OMAFRA has issued a warning for stored forage. Pat Kuntz, agricultural and rural representative from the Walkerton office issued a release late last week suggesting stored hay be checked frequently for increasing tempera­ ture. The first signs of hot hay may be the smell of steam rising from the mow or silo, said Kuntz. With the aid of a thermometer, increasing danger can be monitored. At 65°C, hay is entering the danger zone and daily observations are sug­ gested. Four hour inspections are needed if the temperature rises to 70°C. Fire pockets can be anticipated and the fire department should be called if temperatures reach 80°C. At 85°C, fire control and removal of hot material is needed. If the temperature hits l00°C the hay is at a critical point where the presence of oxygen will quickly result in ignition. Without a thermometer, a rod or pipe can be used to approximate tem­ peratures. Pushed two metres into the hay, the forage has a temperature of less than 65CC is the metal can be held with a bare hand. If the metal can be touched for only an instant, the temperature has reached or exceeded 80°C. The material should be removed immedi­ ately in the presence of the fire department. (70e + 5eGST) 750 Thanks for nothing The BMG pool staff were faced with a difficult beginning to the season, as were the many excited youngsters keen to take lessons or cool off during last week’s muggy weather. Cleaning up the mess left by vandals not only took extra time, but kept the pool out of commission for several days resulting in lost revenue. From left: Amy Crawford, Lisa Blake and Heather Douma. Kids can get back in the swim Quick action saves barn The quick thinking by an East Wawansoh Twp. farmer may have saved his bam when lightning struck June 10. The structure belonging to Nor­ man Bonnett of Lot 34, Cone. 6 sits a great distance from the house and when lightning struck, the family responded quickly, minimizing the damage, said Blyth Fire Chief Paul Josling. The Blyth department answered the 9:30 a.m. call to find the Bon­ netts had covered the burning sec­ tion with a wet blanket and had kept the doors closed thereby limit­ ing the oxygen supply. Josling said about $300 in dam­ age was done to the roof. By Bonnie Gropp Citizen staff Blistering heat last week and not a pool to jump into. Vandalism at the Brussels, Morns & Grey pool over the winter and spring, slowed opening this season and resulted in a lot of frustration for staff, parents and children. As of Monday morning things were back on track, however, with the health inspector giving the Okay for opening. Since the Victoria Day weekend when the vandal­ ism, which included trash being thrown into the bot­ tom of the pool, was discovered the staff has been try­ ing to clean things up. By the first week of June, how­ ever when classes should have started the water was still too cloudy to open. Though told by the recreation board that the pool should be drained June 10 if the situation did not improve, McArter learned that this would be detrimen­ tal. “That wasn’t the answer. We were told that the water pressure holds the lining and if it was drained the liner would have sagged and ripped. It would take six to eight weeks for a new one at a cost of $6,000 to replace,” he said. What the damage and closure cost the municipalities is not known at this point. A total of $800 was spent on chemicals, but McArter said the biggest loss would be in revenue. “Besides lessons and public swimming, we had private rentals last weekend that we had to can­ cel.” Monday was a sigh of relief for everyone, he said. "I’ve done everything but stood on my head to get that pool going.” McArter said, too that the lifeguards had taken a lot of heat. “You can’t blame anyone for being angry, but unfortunately we couldn’t direct them to the people who were responsible.”