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The Huron Expositor, 1997-07-02, Page 1History Huron recovers lost history of radar station. See page 2 Canada Day A celebration in historic photos from Frank Sills. Sports Diamonds are alive with the sound of hitting. See pages 6, 7 Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 - Seaforth, Ontario Briefly Hook retires from teaching No more - teacher. no more books... Steve Hook of Egmondville walked out the doors of Seaforth District High School for the official last time just oeforc noon Friday. ending a 34 -year career of teaching science and chemistry. Nis parents- were there for the occasion. as theywere his first day of kindergarten. "Mr. Hook has been fre- quently distinguished as a most favoured teacher by the students over the past many years," notes the SDHS Newsletter that accompanied report cards last week. "His sense of humour, friendly personality and•will- ingne,ss to share-. round out his outstanding attributes as an educator." Goderich police 10 disband - One of the last remaining municipal police forces in the immediate area is about to bite the dust. At its Junc 24 meeting. the Goderich police services board supported a decision by council that the town's municipal force be disbanded. and replaced with policing by the Ontario Provincial Police. Seaforth, Mitchell, Clinton and Exeter have all made thc same move in recent years. Gopher.hunt goes up in smoke Randy Kerr got more than he bargained for when trying to get rid of gophers in West Wawanosh Township on June 19. His barn ended up a total Toss and an acre of beans was ravaged. The barn was "fully engulfed" when Lucknow firefighters responded to the call at his property on Lot 18, Conc. 2 that Thursday. Fire chief Peter Steer told the North Huron Citizen Kerr was trying to rid the area of gophers, using gaso- line and the buildingcaught fire. It burned to the foundation, with estimated damages of between $50,000 and $60,000. A plow and cultivator were destroyed but there were no farm animals in the building. Storyteller at library tomorrow Storyteller Rob Neeves is at the Seaforth Library tomor- row (Thursday) afternoon at 3:30, heralding the start of the local library's summer reading program called ".`Camp -Read -A -Lot" for chil- dren ages five to 12. Neeves tells "humorous, energetic" stories, and has appeared at Clinton's annual family literacy festival since it began in 1994, last week's press release from the library states. Registration for the eight- week reading program is minimal because it has been offset in part by Seaforth Branch 156 of the Royal Canadian Legion and a grant from the federal government. July 2, 1997 — $1.00 includes GST First saw Her Majesty on V.E. Day in London, England Seeing again, the Queen a 52 years later BY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff "I felt like royalty for an hour." Margaret Bannon of Seaforth said so Friday morn- ing. after officially greeting Her Majesty the.Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh the afternoon. previous at London.' The last time she was as close to the -Queen. it was V.E. Day in London, England . and Elizabeth 1I was .then only a princess, but apeppy one. "We were both younger," the Wilson Street woman laughed remembering that. time more thana half -century ago. early Thursday- as she got all dressed up and ready for a trip down the road to another London in a few hours where she was one of .14 veterans of the British Army's Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) asked to officially stand with the men veterans to greet Queen Elizabeth, Canada's head. of state, on her first offi- cial visit to this area since 1973. Our Queen is also a veteran of the ATS.• She drove a transport for the territorial service during World War II • when it trained the big ack- ack guns on enemy aircraft and defended the coasts of: Great Britain from the Luftwaffe. Bannon is a native Scot and has seen the Queen before, but only once so close that she could have reached out and touched her. - 'WE WANT THE KING!' It was more than half a cen- tury ago, on May 8 back in 1945, and Bannon and her mother were among many who- gathered outside of Buckingham Palace in London in a mood to cele- brate the official Axis surren- der and Allied victory in Europe. "We want the King! We want the Queen!" they shout- ed. And both soon appeared, to answer the chants, on a bal- cony along with Princess Elizabeth, wearing the same ATS uniform that Margaret wore. But then there were just the King and Queen.. The princess had disappeared. Unbeknownst she had min- gled with the happy crowd and taken up the same chant, playfully, for her mother and father.. says she suddenly spotted the princess no; more than two arm's lengths away. A,k1�ALKABOUT She was excited then and honoured now, and just as eager to meet the Queen again last week. "She is having a walkabout with the veterans," Bannon said. "Not too long, it won't be -more than half an hour. She has other things to do." Prince Philip actually came over and spoke to the ATS in London Thursday afternoon in the summer sunshine. Margaret popped into The Expositor for a chat Friday morning and said he joked light-heartedly about how they were Canadians now. CONTINUED on page 7 REGAL FOR ONE HOUR - Margaret Bannon of Seaforth says she felt felt like royalty for one tour last Thursday when she helped greet the Queen, Canada's head of state, who was in London for the first time in two decades. Huron -Perth deal fits framework, says Health Minister BY CARLA-ANN OUD SSP News Staff - A new hospital restructur- ing framework to keep all rural and northern hospitals open with 24-hour access to emergency services seems compatible with a proposal already struck in Huron and Perth say local health care representatives. Health Minister Jim Wilson announced a restruc- turing framework, which is tailored to address the "unique" challenges of dis- tance, weather conditions and retaining doctors for patients in rural and northern areas, during a press conference at Goderich's Alexandra Marine and General Hospital, June 27. While Wilson would not comment specifically on the Huron and Perth deal, he included it with Brute -Grey Alliance and other hospital groups as "good examples of going in the right direction." "And your direction," he said, "fits very well with the framework direction." Wilson said, "What will happen at the end of the day, is that the hospitals will be open in rural Ontario -- all of the hospitals we have today. Their mix Qf services may change, but there is enough flexibility in the framework to let the local communities make that decision:" He said hospital restructur- ing has nothing to do with saving money, it's about putting money into front-line services. The Rural and Northern Health Care Framework directs hospitals within 40 km to form a network, shar- ing administration and clini- cal functions. it also encour- ages hospitals to share a com- mon medical staff and gover- nance. The framework views hos- pitals according to the amount of emergency ser- vices it can provide. At the simplest level, spe- cially -trained nurses provides 24-hour emergency care by assessing, stabilizing and treating a patient with the help of a doctor over the phone or through telemedi- cine. Such a Level A facility can arrange to send a patient elsewhere as it may or may not have inpatient beds and may have at least one: 24- hour observation bed. If the network is more than 40 km from a full-service emergency hospital, there will be at least one hospital with some acute care and on- call physicians to provide 24-, hour care . Workfare working well in Huron 4IY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff The Ontario government's welfare reform dubbed ;!workfare" is working well ibere in Huron. More than 30 per cent of "clients" referred to the Huron County Resource Centre since the mandatory Ontario Works Program was introduced as a pilot here in ,Huron last November have found full-time jobs. That's 13 people out of 41 now off county social assis- tance says Reeve Bill Bennett, who particularly sang the Huron County pro - The reeve is our representa- tive on county council. "Many have been hired. Maybe they just needed a lit- tle boost," Bennett suggested. "This is a huge savings to the county and the program looks like it is going to very successful," the reeve empha- sized when elaborating on his comments last week. The Ontario government is expanding workfare beyond the various pilot programs in the province such as Huron's. A PAID JOB "Mandatory activities, including community pro- jects, are designed to link participants with the shortest route to a paid job," and real #:li _IlY4ss1P-yin obligations, states a June 12 news release from the Ministry of Community and Social Services introducing of the provincial govern- ment's Social Assistance Reform Act, of which Ontario Works or "workfare" is a part. In Huron where the pro- gram started in November 1996, "it took a great deal of time to set up with the clients," Reeve Bennett says. "John MacKinnon and Dave Overboe, along with their staff, have done a great job in making this program a success. "At present there are 72 people working at 27 differ- ent projects," he notes. "First group sessions were held throughout thc county in getting clients ready to work, either in municipalities where they work for their social assistance at no cost to the municipality (work which has not been completed for two years or more) or as clients being readied for the workforce, in for instance factories or construction. FULL-TIME "Of these clients, through various group sessions, there were 41 who were referred to the Huron Employment Resource Centre, of which we have an office in Seaforth. Thirteen have now full-time employment and are off social assistance from the county," Bennett says. CONTINUED on page 2 Pros and cons to Huron restructuring BY DAVID EMSLIE SSP News Staff There will be pros and cons involved in any restructuring proposal for central Huron County, and area residents -- had the chance to learn about options. and give comments during a public meeting held in Clinton on June 25. With about 30 people in attendance for the meeting, held at Central Huron Secondary School, commit- tee chair Alison Lobb noted the committee "was really hoping, the public would have. the opportunity to do some talking tonight, and to ask some questions and find out what is going on with_ restructuring. Carolyn- Kearns and Susan Wright, from consultants The Randolph Group, gave a brief overview of the options that are being considered by the seven municipalities involved in .the -restructuring study - Clinton. Goderich and Seaforth, and the Townships of Colborne, Goderich, Hullett and McKillop. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES - Wright outlined the three options, and commented on their advantages and disad- vantages. She explained that the com- mittee looked at a number of options before deciding to look more closely at the three chosen. She noted, "The key objective tonight. really, is to hear your views on these options. "There is no hidden agenda in this process. No options have been selected." Thr three options under consideration are: improving the status quo, where -in the seven municipalities will continue to exist as indepen- dent municipalities, but more operating efficiencies will be found; forming two munici- palities, one for Central Huron West, comprised of Goderich and the Townships of Colborne and Goderich, and the other for Central Huron East. including Clinton and Seaforth and the Townships of Hullett and McKillop; and forming a sin- gle municipality by amalga- mating the seven municipali- ties into one. 1'he advantages listed in a hand-out at..the meeting for , improving the status quo were: preserves local autono- my/identity; maintains higher accessibility to elected repre- sentatives; potential for sav- ings (relative to today's net costs)' of $225,000 to $250,000. The disadvantages for the improved status quo as listed are: continued duplication (especially in administrative areas); less opportunity for efficiencies in service deliv- ery; continued, limits to growth at edge of existing urban areas continued fric- tion over expanlion and ser- vicing; continued financial pressures to pay for munici- pal services with same popu- lation/assessment base; not supportive of current provin- cial restructuring goals; potential for Toss of focal control over solution - threat of a commission.