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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1996-06-19, Page 1Sports Seaforth's Boyd Devereaux is invited to Canada'snational junior hockey camp. See page 8 Close Up A half century of service at Egmondville Cemetery for Norman MacLean. See page 5 Hospital Auxiliary Members honoured at annual meeting. See page 6 Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 - Seaforth, Ontario Briefly People on probation to do community work Deputy -clerk Cathy Garrick was on holidays_ for last Tuesday's regular meeting of council, but her regular report noted she is "looking into having persons on probation do their community service work in Seaforth. "Specifically, the individual will pick up litter in the back alleys behind Main Street, in the John. Street parking lot and on Main Street -itself," her report continues: "The individual will also sweep the sidewalks in front of the vacant stores and remove any signs taped to street posts on Main Street and Goderich Street. "There is no cost to the town and only !minimal supervision is required. I am waiting for the Probation Officer to confirm that some- one will be doing their com- munity service work in Seaforth." New parking bylaw Seaforth Council passed eight bylaws at last Tuesday night's second meeting in June, among them a bylaw prohibiting parking on public and private property without • consent. A tax hylaw also carried "for raising by way of assess- ment the sum of $221,242 for the County of Huron, $621.268 for thc Huron County Board of Education and $211,884 for the Huron - Perth County Roman Catholic Separate School Board." Concerns on roads Reeve Bill Bennett warned Seaforth Council that.Huron County has real concerns over the province turning over Highways 83, 84 and 86 to it, under the changing rules for Ontario road mainte- nance. Thc reeve is Scaforth's rep- resentative on county coun- cil. "Road 86 from Exeter to Grand Bend is in terrible shape at present," Bennett reported to Seaforth Council last Tuesday night . He sug- gested in might have to he scraped right down and almost started from scratch. which would be pricey. "Thc county is seeking to find out how funding will he given out whcn these roads arc taken over." his report states. Blyth trying to meet education minister • Blyth Council is trying to meet with Ontario's educa- tion minister on education tax reform, and/orthe provincial committee dealing with the Issue. Clerk John Stewart reported to the June 3 meeting of council that "to date 321 municipalities have replied and momentum continues." He said 201 councils have indicated full support oI Blyth's decision to stop col- lecting education taxes at the start of January, 46 councils have sent letters to support in principal, 21 referred it to committee, 36 received and filed and 17 council's don't support the protest. June 19, 1996 - 75 Cents Plus GST PHOTO BY-GREGOR CAMPBELL STUDENTS ENJOY SUNSHINE - The roving camera caught these Walton Public School, Grades 2 and 3 students, playing a game called cat -and - mouse at their pioneer picnic on the sunny grounds of the Seaforth and District Community Centres last Friday afternoon. Can't get service 98.9 per cent of province has `No - budgnlg-Sell Oil upgrading phone system BY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff Bell Canada has "absolute- ly no plans" to modernize Scaforth's telephone system, so local people and business- es that are bothered by this had Netter not plead "too busy" and leave their con- cerns on the back burner. That, in a nutshell; is what Clerk Jim Crocker said in Tuesday night's report to Seaforth Council. Council is planning to for- mally petition the utility to upgrade Seaforth's telephone switching system so local users. who pay thc same rates, can receive the same service 98.9 per cent of the province now gets. Deputy -Reeve Bill Tcall said the othCr 1.1 per cent represents about 65 commu- nities, like Seaforth still ana- log. Bell shelved its previous timetable to upgrade the switching system, telling the town it would cost too much to justify the return. ' Clerk Crocker said that in discussions with officials of the telephone company that it is "Very clear" they are serious. • . Seaforth doesn't meet thc three biggest criteria Bell uses to override this cost - benefit approach to service, he said: the town's system is not "overloaded", its building is not "too small", and, there arc no plans for for an "exchange expansion." Crocker said the "business community carries some weight" everywhere with Bell though. and because the Huron County Board of Education is a big player and partner of this community here it might help Scaforth's cause. Council agreed last week its bottom line with Bell is "no plans is unacceptable" and that it will exhaust formal procedure before deciding what to do next. "This is going to be an ongoing issue for awhile," commented Coun. Brian Ferguson. Teen drug 'use on rise in Huron County Workfare begins in Huron More than 400 welfare recipients will be working for cheques this September There were an average of 574 General Welfare cases per month in thc county in 1995. Of those, 78.5 per cent or451 of those cases are considered employable by the county. "We want to get people out into the community with the long-term goal of getting them back to work." said Huron MPP Helen Johns. "Thc municipality (Huron County) has put together a proposal that, if we can tic it together and get people out working, it would be a won- derful proposal," she said. Huron County was chosen on the merits of its proposal, the agreement of municipali- ties and the fact it already has some social service organiza- tions, such as the Huron Employment Resource Centre, which Johns says can easily take on the functions of work- fare. Onc of the reasons Huron was selected was the wide variety of support the program BY JOHN GREIG SSP News Staff About 450 welfare recipi- ents in Huron County will be working 17 hours per week for their cheques starting in September. Huron County has been chosen as one of 20 sites for the first stage of workfare, or Ontario Works. as it's called by the provincial government. Welfare recipients, other than those who arc disabled, and seniors will he required to par- ticipate: Single parents will not he required to participate until the program expands. Welfare recipients, who. have been on social assistance . for three to four months, could he out doing a variety of tasks not now done by paid employ- ees including creating parks, cleaning roadsides. They could help fight fires, accord- ing to Huron MPP Helen Johns. had across thc county. The county itself and Warden Bill Clifford were supportive. Clifford said "Huron County -submitted its name as a pilot project site in order to develop a. local program and avoid having a program devel- oped elsewhere imposed upon us which may not reflect local needs and services." There was also strong sup- port from municipalities and the Huron'County board of education. "I know that the people of the county want it, thcre's. no doubt about it, they've told me in droves," said Jbhns. Goderich submitted its own proposal to Johns to have workfare recipients clean up Maitland Cemetery, stop ero- sion at the beach, paint fences. and help in community polic- ing. • . Dave Overboc, county pro- gram _ supervisor said the county is putting together a CONTINUED on page 3 BY AMY NEILANDS SSP News Staff Drug use among teenagers has been on the rise for tl . past two years, reportid Meryl Thomas, program director for the Huron Addiction Assessment and Referral Centre at a parent information meeting last week. The meeting, held at the Huron County Health and Library Complex, provided parents with information and the opportunity to ask ques- tions concerning drug use among teens. A drug is any substance put into the body that affects the way the body physically works and the way thc mind works as well, explained Thomas to thc small group of parents in attendance. There arc four main classifi- cations of drugs that are used by teens in Huron County, she added. Thc first arc depres- sants, including alcohol and ,ctrnabis, which have a relax - `Mg affect on the body, said Thomas. Hallucinogens dis- tort reality and include LSD and magic mushrooms. Stimulants speed up the body and include cocaine and ben zedrine. Narcotic analgesics deaden pain and provide a feeling of euphoria and include such drugs as heroine. "Do we have a drug problem in Huron and Perth Counties?" asked Thomas, answering that, "Yes we do," A few years ago; she explained that drugs used in larger cities like Toronto dif- fered greatly from what was available in Huron County. "Now there is no difference." Alcohol is the "drug of choice" among teens in Huron County, said Thomas, providing some national sta- tistics on this , drug use. Among Canadians 15 years and older, 82 per cent use alcohol, Among teenagers alone, 58 per cent use alcohol on a regular basis. Five per cent have. 15 or more drinks daily, eight per cent drink once a week, while 5.5 per cent drinktwo to three times a week. Five per cent of teens who drink have been arrested or warned about their drink- ing, 10 per cent would like to use less and nine per cent of teens feel guilty about their use. "Teens still drink way too much and much too haz- ardously," said Thomas adding that drinking is the number one cause of death among teens. While the legal age of drink- ing. in Ontario is 19, use among teens in Grade 9 to 13 is increasing steadily, she said, adding that use among students in Grade 11 is the highest. Teti AM that while talkhittOithurin arca high schools, she found that at parties, teens drink an aver- age of 12 drinks within four hours. "We have a serious problem. Statistics on drug use among teens have shown that use had been decreasing but over the last two years has started to increase. Thc increase in use of such drugs include nico Linc, cannabis, heroine, LSD, cocaine and ccstacy. The second "drug of choice" among teens is cannabis, including marijuana and hashish. Use of marijuana has almost doubted, said Thomas. Between 1993 and 1995, cannabis use among teens increased from 12.7 per cent to 22.7 per cent. "Students are not viewing marijuana in the same light as a few years ago," she added. "They don't think ,it is as harmful...but marijuana is .just as harmful as other drugs." Mixing with alcohol is "even worse. The affects increase dramatically." Alcohol decreases night vision and cannabis decreases peripheral vision and both drugs ate ,depressants. "If you're in a car and need to react quickly you've got a problem." One parent asked why drug use was increasing. Thomas said that the reason for the increase had not been deter'•. mined but guessed that because students view it dif' fcrcntty now, that could attribute to the increase. CONTINI JH) on page 1