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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2000-09-06, Page 1September 6, 2000 Si (includes GST) Local weather Wednesday --Sunny. Windy. High 22. Thursday --Cloudy with some sun. High 26. Low 13. Friday --Some sun, chance of showers. High 24. Low 13. Saturday --Cloudy, chance of showers. High 25. Low 14. From Environment Canada In brief Six schools to be sold as board seeks auctioneer to handle sale An auctioneer i being sought, by the Avoir Maitland District School Board to sell six surplus school properties.1 The four elementary schools that were closed last year, including Walton Puhjlic:Sc ool, yanastra �ublic School,, 'McCurdy Public School and .Falstgff Public School as well as the two, annexes that vyfere closed the year befbre, Pfortia and Atwood ublic Schools, will be go d. t'We hope to Dirt the auctioneers lat a. September board meeting and sell the schools in September or October," says education director Lorne I Rachlis; He saysall of the institutional bodies that must he offered the. 'school property before it can be sold have responded tat they don't want it. Those groups include the Catholic school board and local municipalities, colleges and universities. While all needed equipment followed the Students to their new schools, Rachlis says there will be some furniture and equipment left over that could be sold with the buildings. "If someone's got a keen interest in something at a school, they cou.ld have a chance to make a bid on it," he says. He says assessments are being done on the properties so that a reserve bid . can be determined. By Susan Hundertmark I Scott Hilgendorff photo Seafcrth firefighter Allan Kling receives a donationfrom a passing motorist during the fire department's annual rood toll. The. event tiajses money for the M uscular Dystrophy Association rd a new "squeegee law" threatened its operation on friday afternoon. l!j Tollproceedsroaddespit provincial Squeege L J l, ioiice not called in as firefighters raise record amount By Scott Hilgendorff Expositor Editor ISeaforth firefighters; the only group in Huron County to ignore the province's new Squeegee Law, raised record amounts Friday with their annual toll road for the Muscular Dystrophy Associjition of Canada. "They're thefirst group that I've heard that went; ahead•and did it." said OPP Community Services Officer Don Shropshall. He said OPP received no complaints about the toll road that raistd almost $&300. The Squeegee Law canfe. into effect this spring in an effort to stop a problem in yajor cities with homeless outh offering squeegee services at traffic lights for. money. However. the wording of the law has legally prevent anyone from interfering with traffic; that includes fund raising toll roadswhere organizations collect donations from passing motorists at intersections. . The Muscular Dystrophy Association has benefitted from these toil roads, known as boot drives where.money., is dropped in firefighters' boots. since 1954 and now. it $750,000 in Ontario for the association. Shropshall said Seaforth has so far been the only community where a toll road has taken place since the law came into effect. In Goderich, the; Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving organization moved its traditional toll road into local parking lots, private land where they could solicit some donations. ! In Clinton, Shropshall said the Lions Club did a similar fund raiser that way instead of operating a toll road. But Shropshall said both. events did not raise as much money as the traditional toll roads did for the. See MUSCULAR, Page 2 Menary to shave head for wig, raise -money for Special Olympics By Scott Hilgendorff f xpositor Editor No one's eoer seen him without his long hair but Paul Menary is about to cut it off in a fund raising effort for Special Olympics. And the hair will be, turned into a wig for cancer patients whose hair has fallen out because of chemotherapy treatments. "I don't ever remember having short hair. It'll be different," said Menary who has had at least shoulder -length hair since he wasakid. 1 Now. he figures there's about. 12 -inches worth and said his wife, Brenda, came up with thelidea of using his locks to. raise some money for his Special Olympics team. Menary is a teacher's assistant at Seaforth Public, School where' he coaches a Special Olympics team in track and field and bowling. He will be Collecting pledges, starting next week and by the first week of October, hopes there can be an assembly at school where he will See PERSON, Page 2 Ross and great-grindson learn together on adventure By Susan Hundertmarkl Expositor Staff Making their own hay rakes, eating toutons (raised bread dough cooked like scones) and capelin (fish). and, learning about the endangered Newfoundland Pony were highlights of Jean Ross's summer trip to Newfoundland with her great grandson Jamie. The intergenerational Elderhostel program took Ross and her great grandson • to Carbonear Harbour. Newfoundland for a week in June. Two other grandmothers and their two grandchildren. also from Ontario, participated in the program as well. Elderhostel is an association in partnership with colleges and universities across North America that provides learning opportunities. for retired people. Through lectures and hands-on experiences. they learned about the Newfoundland Pony. a unique breed whose numbers dropped from 10,000 to less than 200 in the 1970s when they were slaughtered to make sausage meat for the Belgian and French fast-food markets. • Jean Ross with a picture of her Newfoundland adventure "This pony, Princess Beatrice, was taken off the meat truck headed for Sydney. Nova Scotia," says Ross pointing to a picture in her photo album of the trip. She says the lectures, while interesting, weren't entirely successful for the children Susan Hunderfrnark photo great-grandson Jamie, after a although she was surprised that Jamie retained quite a bit of the information. "1 was surprised how Jamie could name all the. breeds involved in creating a Newfoundland pony. 1 guess he was paying attention even with his head on the table," she says. Princess Beatrice, the 31- fear -old pony, gave them cart ides and was used to pull a wagon that Jamie and the two other participating children filled with wood to take. to a d+oman's house for fuel. Once there; the Elderhostel participants were Served toutons and tea. "We ate them with molasses in Freda's kitchen. Toutons are raised bread dough cooked like scones on the top of the stove and my gosh, are they ever good," says Ross. At a farm they visited, Jamie learned to make a hay rake using a drill press and whittling alder branches as the teeth. "They couldn't put a handle on it or they couldn't bring it home so Jamie's is now being used as a hat rack at home," says Ross. Ross says one of the host farmers, an 85 -year-old man named George. told her he likes to do most of the work by hand and tries to finish it before a neighbour can come over with his•machinery. "He showed us how he hays, cuts with a scythe, rakes it by hand and if it is a sunny day, turns it with a fork and brings it in by nightfall to his barn. The fields aren't very big but it's still a, big job." she says. The Elderhostel participants also got a chance to try out the scythe and hay rakes. One day was spent at Bell Island, where the ponies were used in the iron ore mines in the late 1800s and early 1900s to haul the ore cars. Newfoundland ponies are strong and can pull an average of 360. kilograms, which is twice their weight. The ponies did most of the heavy pulling work,' that would otherwise be done by machines on farms throughout Newfoundland until about a generation ago. The Newfoundland. Pony Society was formed in 1989 by volunteers trying to. save the pony from extinction. The pony has been designated a heritage animal by the province and has won national awards in 1998 and 1999 at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. There are now approximately 250 animals in three provinces of Canada. "They don't let the ponies go to just anybody. You have to guarantee that you won't interbreed them," says Ross. Your community newspaper since 1860 I