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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1998-04-29, Page 1Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 -- Seaforth, Ontario April 29, 1998 •-- $1.00 includes GST Friends of high school urge action Forty at meeting encouragedto write letters, exp heir Frio BY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff . Organisers tried to tan the flames of their •crusade to keep Seaforth .District High School • from. closing. at an open meeting.billed • "urgent" at Town Hall last Thursday night, Maureen Agar. 'Dick Burgess and Jane Powell. (long with'Charlie Smith and other "Friends of Seaforth District High School" who spoke at the front of the room, urged the_ 40or so people in the audience to keep the faith - and the pressure on, by bombarding trustees with their points -of view -and filling letters to editor columns; among other tactics. it was a lot like a,pep-rally. The speakers and their argtiments in favour" keeping the 120 -year-old local high school Carroll resigns from town committees The director :. of the Avon Maitiand'D}strict School Board, Paul Carroll of Seaforth,.has withdrawn from participation in two of this town's committees I the business retention and; expansion committee andf the "Celebrate °Seaforth's History" (museum)` committee. ' ,MAAMAIVII a. mem both since near "t a t, beginnings. Carroll gave notice of his! decision to Seaforth's` deputy -clerk Cathy Garrick` by fax on April 16 The notice noted the' withdrawal was "until std time as the issiteSl pertaining -to :Seaforth! District High' School have been resolved." ';Given the recent personalization of the issues by an elected official of the lbwn," his fax reads. "I feel that: it is necessary toseparate my professional duties from community, volunteer work at --this'' time." In an eruption at the Avon Maitland District School Board meeting last month, Seaforth Mayor Dave Scott said Carroll was a turncoat for bringing the issue of Seaforth high school's declining enrollment to the fore. He implied, as have others, that Carroll's calling for radical changes to the way programs arc delivered at the school to alleviate low enrollment has driven some students to enroll elsewhere, and made the problem worse by becoming in essence a self- fulfilling prophecy. C( „t1,,NTLESS HOURS Carroll has defended these charges at public meetings by stressing that he is an educator first and foremost and that's where his first allegiance lies. The long-time Seaforth resident has devoted countless hours to community work of a wide and varied nature over the years. His wife is a teacher at Seaforth Public School and both their sons went to high school in Seaforth. Mayor Scott is also a member of both the museum and business expansion committees in Seaforth. Former Seaforth councillor John Ball has also been highly critical of the local education director raIMIKULU on Pate 2 ( with a dwindling. enrollment open have been much -publicized lately. • The high school is essential to the infrastructure of our rural community. Agar', chair of the SDHS parent council; said; a theme the others repeated. Everybody in attendance was urged to express themselves, in no uncertain terms, to everyone who can he swayed to their point of view. Conspiracy by the Avon -Maitland District School Board was strongly implied but nothing much new was said., Director of education Paul Carroll of Seaforth, from the recently much -maligned public hoard, sat in aback corner. Nobody specifically asked him anything. although the odd general accusation was aimed his way. Few who spoke had anything good to say about their public school hoard. Most remain offended at the recommendation, that arose from a hoard site committee in early March. that the local high school he closed with students shifted to Clinton, and a new. administrative centre of thc recently amalgamated Huron -Perth public boards he established here. That committee's recommendation was withdrawn at the start of this month. 'ASHAMED' "The school hoard ought to be ashamed for even thinking of it," commented Harold Coleman from the audience. The John Street resident was a member of the public school hoard for a decade along -time ago. . But organizers of last week's meeting reminded those in attendance that though the skirmish may have been won. the battle hasn't gone away. nor have the issues that led to it. been resolved. . Overcapacity remains a crux of the hoard's. stalled direction. The old Huron hoard identified an overcapacity of about 4.300 in all • county schools three years ago. Seaforth is the smallest regular high school in Huron, in its smallest town. Enrollment at the school is officially projected to decline even further in "the next couple cit years. due to • the growth of St. Anne's Catholic High School in Clinton and evolving.provincial education policy. All speakers said enrollment shifting to St. Anne's was a myth and not the problem. rather the original loss of Catholic high school CONTINUED on Page 2 GREGOR CAMPBELL PHOTO IT WAS NOT A GOOD MORNING TO BE A TROUT- at Lips Park early Saturday where the annual Seaforth fishing derby was being held. The event was blessed with sunshine for a change, although the temperature *as chilly. The biggest trout was hooked by a local lass. 24 inches. Organizers say this year's derby was one of the most successful ever. More pictures,and a story are on page T.. - Edge launches $1. billion law suit Pork ' industry named in law' suit BY ELLEN DOUGLAS Lakeshore Advance Staff ' The Huron's Edge. an anti- pollution group, is planning a $I -billion class action suit against the provincial ministries of energy and agriculture and the Ontario pork industry. A recent study by SOLVE, a group made up of Huron's Edgc. farm groups and municipalities. found that much of the E -coli bacteria in Lake Huron is resistant to one or more types of antibiotics. (and conservation authorities, health units) Bacteria become resistant to antibiotics when they arc exposed to' low doses .for. long periods of time. As a result antibiotics can become ineffective for treating people infected by the bacteria. Joe Gleason, hander of the Huron's Edgc. said in an interview that while the hog industry may not he the only source of bacteria. he believes it may be a large source. There were eight types of antibiotics looked at by SOLVE'to try to pinpoint the source of the bacteria. said Gleason. Four of these antibiotics arc used on animals and four were thought to he mainly used on humans. Thc bacteria in the lake seems to be resistant to human antibiotics, he said. However. when the group analyzed effluent from hog farms they found that 100 per cent of thc samples from every farm tested contained bacteria that was resistant to human antibiotics. Many farm samples had bacteria with multiple resistance to antibiotics normally used on humans, said Gleason. This is significant because it means that the hogs have been exposed to human antibiotics. it also means that it will be difficult to tell 0 where the bacteria arc coming from. • What's interesting. however. is that of all the control samples taken from human septic systems 47 per cent had no resistance to any of the antibiotics. Gleason said that while it can't yet he proven that thc hactcria in the lake come from hog farms. thc studies still show that the waste from these operations is dangerous. "This stuff truly is a biohazard;" hc said. Thc group budgeted $100,000 towards the lawsuit. This . summer they will attempt to find a type of antibiotic that is used mainly on hogs and that is present in the lake. If thc group wins the lawsuit. Gleason said the money will go towards monitoring, prosecution and cleanup. "1 know there are other sources of the problem," said Gleason. "But we have to put it into perspective. One hog operation of 5,000 pigs produces far more waste than the town of Goderich. "'There arc somewhere around 450,000 to 500.00(1 hugs in Huron. versus around 60,(X)) residents. People need to he brought hack to comparing apples to apples. He added that if hog effluent requires no treatment then municipalities must he wasting millions of dollars on sewage treatment facilities. John VandcrBurgt, a councillor with the Huron County Pork Producers, said that hc docs not disagree that hog farmers arc a purl of the problem. "But so arc people lining 111 urban areas and so arc all livestock producers." he said. "Are we going to slice off the lake and say that this part has more of a problem is ith livestock and this part has more of an urban prohlcm''" He added that this is not only a problem on Lake Huron. but also on Lake Eric and Lake Ontario .to -name CONTINUED on Page 2 aness couple go to trial in London A judge has ordered a London couple to stand trial on two charges of obstructing justice in the second-degree urder trial of Steven Murray. Murray was found not ilty in May 1997. Robert and Robin Maness, of 457 Ontario St.. appeared fore Judge N Douglas in Goderich Criminal Court on an. 26 end April 20 for a preliminary heating. The details f a pretimtnary heating cannot be reported The 51 -year-old man and 43 -year-old woman arc charged with obstructing justice in the Murray trial by falsely swearing! to an ,i" I iVit They 3r,' s 'it 'hied It, appear in ignmcnt court in ;London on June 9 at 10 a,m. to set their trial date.