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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1998-04-01, Page 54 -THE HURON EXPOSITOR, April 1, 1911S Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 TERRi 1:vN DALE venial Manager & Advertising Manager LARRY DALRYMPLE • Sales PAT ARMES - Office Manager GREGOR CAMPBElk • Reporter DIANNE McGRATH • Subscriptions & Classifieds A Bowes Publishers Community Newspaper SUBSCRIPTION RATES LOCAL - 32 50 o year, in advance, plus 2.28 G.S.T. ENIORS - 30 00 a year, in odvance,-plus 2 10 G 5 T USA & foreign 28 44 a year in advance, plus 578 00 postage, G.S.T exempt SUBSCRIPTION RATES Published weekly by SignalStar Publishing at 100 Main St., Seaforth. Publication mail registroton No 0696 held of Seaforth, Ontario Advertising is accepted on condition that in the event of o typographical error, the advertising spoon occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged, but the balance of the advertisement will be poid for at the applicable rate In the event of o typographical error, advertising goods or services at a wrong -price, goods or services may not be sold Advertising is merely an offer to sell and may be withdrawn at any time The Huron Expositor is not responsible for the loss or damage of unsolicited manuscripts, photos or other materials used for reproduction purposes Changes of address, orders for subscriptions and undeliv- erable copies ore to be sent to The Huron Expositor Wednesday, April 1, 1998 Editorial and Business Offices - 100 Main Sireet.,Seoiorth - Telephone (5191 527.0240 Fax 1519) 527.21158 Mailing Address • P.O. Box 69, Seaforth..Onturio, NOK IWO Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association. Ontario Community Newspapers Associohon and the Ontario Press Council Publication Mail Registration No. 07605 e're onhnet Want to e-mail your Letters to°the '�dtc Expositor has gone high-tech end 6 address is: , huronexp@trdyss \\ Remember, :ALL Letters to the and have a telephone number for confer a be edited for both length and eontent4\ Don'r forger to check out our* e www:bowesnet.co ' SDHS future Motion's withdrawal diffuses time bomb ready to erupt but diligence is still required In withdrawing a previous motion by its Site Review Committee to close the Seaforth District High School and establish a single Board Headquarters site in that location, the Avon Maitland District School Board,has, -for the short term anyway, diffused a bomb that was ready to erupt with great force. Th'e seemingly 11th hour decision. which came approxi- mately 30 hours prior to the meeting which was to have decided the school's fate, and at which 13 delegations were slated to speak against the motion, has people won- dering if they're merely pawns in a political chess game. Perhaps that was its intent. Players have long been complaining they've been given no straight answers in this battle to save Seaforth's high school, and one has to wonder if the same isn't true again. Understandably the board needs time to digest new fund- ing formulas released last week by the provincial govem- ment, but it has known for some time those figures 'were coming down, and despite pleas to the contrary, remained committed to its intent to reach a speedy decision. •A press release from the board on March 30 indicates the motion to close SDHS will not go forward, as the board needs to examine other schools in its district which could because of low enrollment or poor building repair, be prob- lematic. It has not, however, given any indication that SDHS, will ultimately be spared arid the doors of this 150 -year-old local institution left open. so Seaforth residents need beware. Let's not lose the momentum we' ve gained in the last two weeks. SDHS is still on shakey ground and the only peo- ple who can ensure its strong foothold into the future are • 'those people who have walked its corridors in the past, are . walking them today, and want to walk them tomorrow. The board has promised a final recommendation by September 1, 1998. Let's be diligent in our SDHS cern- paign at least until then, and ideally much further. But, let's do it with class, recognizing that the board is made up of people trying to do the best they can with the resources they've been given - or deprived of. The school's future, and that of the entire Town of Seaforth, is dependent on our efforts. - HR. 'Real men' rule grizzly bears go seriously do I take the proclamation of My Man Of The Year Award that I have not bestowed this title upon a worthy recipient since Larry Walters of North Hollywood, California in 1992. You might recall Larry had a dream, a "Peter Pan -like" dream that ended with him strapped in a Lawn chair, attached to forty-two helium - filled weather balloons and being reported by two commercial airline pilots as he drifted over. L.A. International Airport at 16,000- Me and Peter Pan were proud of Larry. However, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration was not. They fined Larry $1,500 for entering international airspace without an airplane. Yet Larry slipped the surly bonds of earth and in .what can only be described as a brain fart gone horribly bad -- Larry went where no man has ever gone before. Not in a lawn chair anyway. Men can and do the damnedest things. But only my Man Of The Year can combine bare -naked lunacy with a latent death wish to perform an incredible feat for no apparent reason whatsoever. N000 reason ... like George Bell wearing a baseball glove or Bill•Clinton wearing a wedding ring. Troy Hurtubise of North Bay, Ontario -- my Man Of The Ycar 1998 -- come on down. - You may have seen a National Film Board of Canada documentary featuring Troy Hurtubise and his quest to perfect a space• age suit that would enable him to -survive an attack by Canada's most vicious and deadly wild animal - the dreaded grizzly bear. It's an incredible story -- a modern-day Iliad except this time Homer's last name is Simpson. WARNING: the following story contains- immature subject matter and I'm not making a word of this up. Reader discretion advised. You see, Troy had come face to face with a grizzly - proof suit of armour. Why? Men climb mountains because they're there. Real men confront grizzly bears because they're not ... all there. So Troy consulted doctors of physics at McMaster University in Hamilton, experts in the field of really big, black honey -sucking mammals. Once they provided Troy with the estimated G -force readings of an attacking grizzly, he constructed a bulky, astronaut -like suit out of space age plastics. rubber that stops an electric drill, titanium and chain mail. Troy looked like the Michelin Man wearing Domenik Hasek's helmet. , Then came the tests. They fired arrows into the chest of the suit and shot it with a 9 mm shotgun although there are no known incidents in which a grizzly bear has ever been arrested for possession of such weapons. - Then Project Grizzly put Troy in the suit and hit him full force across the chest wiih a swinging 300 Ib. log. Boom! Down but not dead. Then the crew heat him severely with two-by-fours. Still .Troy maintained consciosness so they went to a bar and had hikers beat the hell out of him with baseball bats and although a few of the bats cracked and broke in half -- Troy did not. As Troy's grizzly suit goes through a series of transformations, the tests continue. The crew takes Troy to the top of the Niagara Escarpment near Hamilton and pushes him off head first. Troy rolls all the way to the bottom but to the obvious disappointment of several team members -- he lives. So they prop Troy up in the middle of a dirt road and they hit him with a three -ton -truck going 50 kilometres an hour. When Troy fails to become a fatality. they do it again another 17 times. Again, there is no evidence that a grizzly bear will attack driving a pickup truck but the McMaster University experts believe if it does happen. it could well he the Chrysler Dakota. The development of the ultimate grizzly suit goes on like this for seven years and S150.000 unit Troy is finally ready to confront his archenemy. the dreaded grizzly bear. He even has a black box recorder installed inside the suit in case he's killed in action. his family can hear his final moments of life. and a lot of loud growling in the background. Troy says .his last words will be something like: "Son, don't screw around with this kind of bullshit, your mother'II have a fit!" Heading across Canada to the Rocky Mountains Troy hears )3 radio report that a grizzly has attacked campers near Lake Louise mauling five people and severely injuring a German tourist. Perfect! They go there. The story ends rather anticlimatically and suggests Troy Hurtubise may have been hit 17 times too often by that three -ton truck. First of all Troy and his team of six survivalists Team upon arriving in Alberta that the Rockies are not flat. Hence their official name: Rocky Mountains. So every time Troy takes two steps in the grizzly suit he falls down and several men run out from behind a tree and stand him back up. Watching this, your average grizzly bear will be laughing way too much to be of any use in a violent and crucial confrontation. Second, when the grizzly does appear on the scene, for reasons unexplained, Troy's suit is ten miles away. the team's helicopter isn't available until the next day and they're all packing up to gci home anyway. Third. the grizzly has no inclination to attack Troy or any crew member not when there's this yummy. decomposed- dead horse laid out in front of him like a Banff bear buffet. Troy Hurtubise -- I salute you. You have moved the' human spirit. Okay. so you moved it backwards a, couple of generations -- who's counting. Real men rule! All we gotta do is find out what. Hong Kong vets still not compensated Dear Editor: Recent media reports have indicated renewed interest in compensation by the Canadian government for victims of violations of human rights. The prime example was, of course, the compensation to Japanese - Canadians interned during the Second World War. During the recent contro- versy over the Canadian War Museum and the proposed Holocaust gallery, organiza- tions representing Chinese Canadians and Ukrainians for example, were strongly rep- resented - Premiers Mike Harris and Ralph Klein have both recently been forced to do an about-face following public outrage over ,what was seen as insensitive and bureaucrat- ic approaches to handling the compensation for the surviv- ing Dionne quintuplets and for Albertans sterilized under that province's now defunct eugenics law. anada's Hong Kong veter- ans have not, as yet, been compensated despite an "all party" resolution from the prestigious House of Commons Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, which Carters to the Editor suggested reparations be paid by the Canadian government and a claim be made against Japan. As Patron of the Hong Kong Veterans of Canada, I sincerely hope that the accu- mulated claims piling up will not be allowed to interfere with ' this position by Canadian government con- cerning the reparations for our soldiers victiinized in Japanese work camps. We first placed the Hong Kong Veterans Claim before the Human Rights Commission in Geneva in 1987. The justification, based on the Geneva Convention. has been verified by the United Nations. There is an international provision under ►� hich Canada. in protecting the rights of its own citizens, could pay the compensation ol- $24.000 a year to 350 sur- vivors and register a legal claim against Japan under the Geneva Convention. Cliff Chaddcrton, i'atron, Hong Kong Veterans' Association, Ottawa. IPM invites input into display To the Editor: Attention all Manufacturing and'Service related industry (MSRI). The international Plowing Match and Farm Machinery Show (IPM) is set to shine in '99 - hosted by Huron County! This is an open invitation to all industries and services - both profit or non-profit. Although September 1999 is a long way off, now is your time to have input into, and receive information on. the MSRi display within the Huron County Exhibit at the 1999 iPM. Briefly, the purpose of thc MSRI display is to showcase Fan finds music loud Dear Editor: It has been my privilege, again, this winter to attend a few of the hockey games at our local arena. I am not in favour of the way the music is "dubbed in" during play stoppages. Some tunes are O.K. like Stompin' Tom's "The Good Old Hockey Game". But must it be so loud? Onc chap has stated he would like to cut those wires leading up to the speakers so I offered to hold the ladder for that operation. Also, would the coaches, when signing up new players, conduct a -'temper control test" and thus eliminate some of those needless penalties. 'An Old Hockey Fan! items manufactured, and ser- vices provided, in Huron County, to all those attending the IPM. It is our intention to allow any MSRI interested in participating in the display to be represented. Representa- tion will allow increased exposure and awareness of your products and services. Limited space is available. Please contact Rob Dionne at 236 -7654,e -mail dionne Cdhay.net, or fax 236-7517. Rob Dionn': Industry Chairpersr 1 Logan history update Dear Editor: On behalf of Logan History Committee, I would like to bong your readers up to date . on our activity. The January 31, 1998 dead- line has passed. and we arc pleased with the response. Some have required extra time for preparation of their submissions. This is gladly granted. We hope that anyone who is interested will make every effort to help us include the stories of their family. as well as friends. neighbours or relatives whose where -abouts arc not known to present day landowners. People storing and filing the kits, researching land titles, and handling the busi- ness of the project have spent many hours as volunteers in Logan township. if you arc willing to proof- read some of the information, we would be grateful for your help. Some of this is already being done, and "many hands make light work". Feel free to call me at 345-2298 or come to our next meeting at Logan township hall in Bornholm on Apnl 22 at 7:30 p.m. Any help. large or small, would he appreciated. Do take thought for those who may not have been reported. Don't expect it to he dont by someone else. Remember: not only will you look back at this history but also your children and grand- children. Don't disappoint your future generations. We thank you for your con- on Page 9. McKillop fire loss $20,000 Firefighters battle blaze for 12 hours to save second barn in 1969 Wire destroyed one barn as Seaforth firemen battled for orer 12 hours to save a second barn February 1969 in AficAillop. The total loss was estimated at $20,000.1 February 13 1%9 Seaforth firemen fought a winning battle for nearly 12 hours Monday evening and into Tuesday morning to save a large Karn on the farm of Con Eckert. a mile north of Seaforth. The barn was threatened when an adjoining pole shed 105 feet by 60 was destroyed. Loss was set by Seaforth Fire Chief 'John F. Scott at S20.000 Aided by Blyth firemen who arrived with a new fire truck and tanker the firemen poured more than 20,000 gal- lons of water on the flames according to Chief Scott. Thewater was brought In the Years Agone from Seaforth hydrant's by four Seaforth and Blyth units which operated on a shuttle running between the fire and a north Main Street hydrant. The fire was discovered by Bob Eckert who saw smoke as he looked from the Eckert house a few moments after he returned from school. Within minutes the Seaforth brigade was on hand with the rural truck. Chief Scott called for a second Seaforth truck as the battle to save the barn was organized. Blyth units followed shortly after- it was the first time the new Blyth truck had taken pan in a fire. The truck was received Iasi December. There is no indication as to how thc fire began. John Eckert had been in the shed checking a cow perhaps 20 minutes beforehand, before his younger brother saw snake. At that time, he said everything appeared to be in order and there was no signs of smoke. Lost in the building were six young cattle and a large quantity of hay and straw.' Forty dry cows which the building contained were saved. These together with 80 milking cows which had been in the main barn were released and wondered around the snow covered grounds. Later at night when danger of a further outbreak was reduced the cows returned for Continued ow pose f.