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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2000-05-03, Page 1Huron etio May 3, 2000 Si (includes GST) Local weather Wednesday --Sunny High 16. Thursday --High near 18 Sunny with cloudy periods.: Friday --High 23. Low 9. Mainly cloudy. Showers. Saturday --Mix of sun and cloud. High 23. Low 11. From Environment Canada In brief Walton school families • receive memorial .trees Each family with students ' at ,Walton Public School will receive a memorial tree to' plant at home _this Thursday. marking the planned closure of the school. "We had a garden last year through the earth friendly gardens project 'and used the harvest at our Christmas dinner last year. But, because we're not going to be here next year, we decided to put the .money towards trees, says Walton principal Alice McDowell The earth-frendly gardens project is a pilot project which started in Huron, County three years ago by Lynda. Rotteau, of Goderich, to teach students how to grow and preserve their own food.. Funding comes from the Trillium Foundation and Shell Canada. Families of Walton students are invited to an assembly at 3 p.m. on Thursday .to receive one of 65 trees being given. away. Walton Public School was one of six schools .approved for closure by the Avon •:Maitland District School Board earlier this .year. Car burnt in Hullett A white 1989 Pontiac Gland Am was stolen - and found burnt in the Hullett Conservation Park just off of Concession #3 of Hullett Twp on April 22. The vehicle had been reported as stolen between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. from the parking lot of Topps Bar in Vanastra. A citizen found the burnt out vehicle shortly after 10 a.m. the next It was discovered that the vehicle had been damaged in the front end and it appeared to have been in a . collision sometime that night. Inside... Senior Games Poee3 E. I:, HonicuiuraBls plat -alms Pape 3 Gifsspend lime - h Doninioan Pope 7 Wall hanging The mural purchased by the town and Agricultural Society, painted for last year's International Plowing Match by Allan Hilgendorf, was hung Thursday, making 11 the second in a Business Improvement Area initiative to see several murals: painted in the downtown area as a tourist attraction Scott Hilgendorff Joto Fate of PUC will be decided By Scott Hilgendorff Expositor Editor PUC.manager Tom Phillips has placed council under pressure to make a decision regarding the fate of Seaforth public utilities. The town shas until -November to have 'a functioning plan in place for the.operation of its PUC under deregulation. For the work needed to do this, Phillips said a decision has to . be made by the end of this month. "Let's not talk in the streets. Let's talk amongst ourselves and get -it -out there to see where we're going." said Phillips who met with cotincil at its April 25 meeting. Phillips presented council with several scenarios that are currently being explored or need to be looked at by council in the next couple weeks. The_ first would be for the town to run its PUC on its own. 1 don't think we could last a year, going that way." said Phillips. By operating the PUC on its own. the customer! base. would notbe large enough for the town: to offer competitive hydro rates in a market where new companies have already started going door-to-door offering potentially competiti`'e rates Spirited storyteller attracts. attention of Robert Munsch By Susan Hundertmark Expoiitor-Staff While the children's story Thomas' Snowsuit was not written about him, six-year- old Thomas Murray. of RR 5 Seaforth, made it his own -recently-byiai ing-it through five local storytelling competitions to come second in Toronto April 16. Thomas is thefirst area child in. five years to advance through the school, branch, zone and district levels of the Legion storytelling competition to the area competition in Toronto, says Katherine Mabb; youth education chair . of the Mitchell Legion. And, because an interested neighbour of the Murrays e- mailed Canadian author Robert Munsch who wrote the story. Thomas now has a signed copy of the book. inscribed, "Thomas the storyteller." by Munsch. "Robert Munsch must be a real, genuine person to be that nice to reply and send Thomas a book," says his mother loan. Thomas, a Grade 1 student at St. Patrick's School in Thomas Dublin, says his mom chose the story for him to tell because it's "a pretty good -.- story with Tots of laughter in it." He says his favourite scene in the story is when the principal and the teacher, who have been unsuccessful at wrestling Thomas into his hated snowsuit, are both standing in their underwear in the school hallway. "That's when 1 made everybody laugh," he says, adding that when the' Murray • - audience laughs, "it feels like I'M doing really good." -'Making people laugh is one of Thomas's favourite things to do and when he grows up he wants to be "the guy that stands up on stage and tells jokes." Thomas. whom his mother says has a "lively and Spirited personality," says he was never nervous about getting up on stage. "it's not scary. 1 just think about all the people watching f« CHAMPION, Pigs ! for traditional PUC services. "The 'do nothing' option.'1 dtm't think that's viable." said Phillips. —Another scenario involved the formation of- a joint venture group betv:•een municipalities. •For more than a year. Mayor Dave Scott has been reporting back to council on discussions_taking place -in a joint venture proposal between several Huron and Perth municipalities. That group was exploring the idea of linking its Pecs to increase its customer base in an effortto find a way to survive on their own in a deregulated While exploring that scenario.: Goderich and Exeter have since decided •., not to follow it and Phillips also :doesn't think the size of. that group would be large enough to effectively provide utilities. SN COUNCIL, Page 2 School board trying to make sure students have books The Avon Maitland District School Board will he doing everything it can to make sure there are enough • textbooks to go around. education director Lorne Rachlis said at last week's board meeting. .. • During a discussion of budget . figures for the 2000- 2001 school -year, trustee Maggie Laprade asked to be reassured that the budget will include..enough funds to • -allow each student to -have his or her own textbook. "Textbooks are. specifically a concern forme and there seems to be a lot of concern and confusion for textbooks next year." she said. 1 would_ be very unhappy to learn there was not a •science or math textbook for each secondary student. That's a pretty basic part of the program'," said Laprade. Superintendent Marjatta Longston said there will be 5330,000 over and above individual school budgets in September for secondary textbooks to support the new curriculum. She added that the board has stopped spending money on texts -for Grades 11 to OAC, which, are part of the old curriculum. . Superintendent Geoff Williams said at an elementary school level, the board is hoping to get a better deal on textbooks with centralized buying but will not begetting any addititional money tp buy textbooks. He said two years of special funding from the province to suppon the new curriculum began in 1997 before the resources existed. Rachlis added that while textbooks are a priority, especially during thedesemrstering of district high schools, not every course 'needs textbooks but can instead depend on workbooks and teacher -generated materials. "Textbooks have their place but they can be used as a crutch," added superintendent Bill Gerth. Rv Susan Nundertmurk Your community newspaper since 1860