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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1981-07-15, Page 4Pope 4 Times Established 1873 Imes - Times -Advocate, July 15, 1981 c4-4' sem.. Adr«ate Established 1881 dvoca to •,rte i..r. r,.. rt SERVING CANADA S BEST FARMLAND C W N A OW N.A CLASS 'A' AND ABC MEMBER ONTARIO PRESS COUNCIL Published by J W Eedy Publicotions Limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor -- Bill Batten Assistant Editor — Ross Hough Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Composition Manager — Harry DeVries Business Manager – Dick Jongkind Phone 235-1331 Amolgometed 1924 Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada 517.00 Per Year; USA 535.00 Why regulations? During the discussion on amendments to Exeter's over -night parking restrictions, it was rather sur- prising that no one called into question the need for such a bylaw during the non -winter months. It was agreed that there would be no problems created with the changes for other than times when snow removal equipment is at work. So why any regulations for other than the winter months? During the summer, many residents have over -night guests from distant points whose vehicles can't be accommodated in drive -ways. So what's the problem with leaving them parked on the boulevard as long as they are off the travelled portion of the road? Is there any more problem with a car left there at 4:00 a.m. than 2:59 a.m. or 6:01 a.m.? Surely there must be some reasoning behind laws. Hopefully, someone from Exeter council will enlighten us on the reasoning for other than winter parking restrictions. It must succeed Can you imagine the hue and cry from ratepayers and the press if Ex- eter council engaged the services of a stranger to be "Principal Organizer" of a local building project and enlisted the services of eight out-of-town con- tractors to undertake the work with no detailed cost breakdowns being in- volved or contracted? It would be occasion to consider a lynching of elected officials! Yet. name Dalton Finkbeiner as "Principal Organizer" and enlist the services of eight local contractors un- der the same terms and there isn't a whimper of dispute or concern. Trusting souls aren't we? Yes, and ' doesn't it make you feel good! The unusual trust and confidence members of council have placed in the arrangement even goes farther than that. They're also trusting that all area residents will dig deep enough to meet the cost of the project without having to dip into the town's coffers. Hopefully, that trust hasn't been misplaced either although the fund raising committee have accepted a tremendous responsibility in under- taking the goal of making it happen. They must recognize that their goal must be reached or similar arrangements ini the future, wilt beplac- ed in jeopardy. Area residents should note they are an important link in the chain and their generosity and com- munity spirit has been trustingly pre- judged, although certainly not without a sound basis in view of past endeavours. The responsibility that goes with trust can be more burdensome than no trust at all. There can simply not be any alter- native now but success. Has some merit Town council is considering hiring an outside firm to assess the effec- tiveness of its municipal employees. In light of recent salary and wage in- creases that council approved, the idea is well considered. How effective are the town's employees and are they worth the money paid to them? Certainly the pay and fringe benefits of some are far better than those of most taxpayers. Having an outside expert study the town's system has merit. While it could be questioned why the town should spend upwards of $14.- 000 for such a study, it should be noted By SYD FLETCHER It's happening to almost 1000 families in Canada each month. If you happen to be one of those families you are un- dergoing a terrible, traumatic experience that must seem totally unfair and make you feel as helpless as a baby. I'm talking about the thou- sand families in Canada who will lose their homes this month and every subsequent month this year unless theret is a drastic change in our financial structure. If you bought your home five years ago your that it would be the first time for this municipality. It is unreasonable to expect local staff to carry out an objective study of their fellow employees. Could they recommend that someone be fired? No. An outsider is needed to pass this kind of judgement. Council has -the final say but right now council doesn't know the job descriptions of its employees. Given the salaries, wages and benefits that it approved, council should undertake the study to justify the salary expenditures. St. Marys Journal, -Argus Perspectives mortgage rate would have been about 10 or 11 percent. If the time has come to renew that mortgage you should be prepared for a very nasty cut in your available income because the interest bill for your home is about to double. You may have already felt the pinch in gasoline and home heating costs which have doubled over the last 18 months but until that mort- gage rate of 18 or 19 percent hits you, you really don't know what inflation is. Average persons. especial- ly those on fixed incomes are really taking a beating, and despite the fact that workers' wages have con- sistently been unable to keep up with inflation the govern- ment is again talking of im- posing wage and price con- trols. In Toronto and Ottawa the politicians are not suffering. If they start to hurt they Just vote to raise their own salaries. The banks and trust com- panies have never been hap- pier. Profits for them are growing by leaps and bounds as interest rates have far surpassed the term 'usury' and are bordering on the ex- pression 'loan sharking'. I say that enough is enough. It's time for the government to take som common-sense steps; a) cuf interest rates to reasonable levels b) forget about wage and price controls (look at the mess the last time. c) reduce taxes for low and average wage-earners. d) cut energy prices to relate to actual cost of production. e) cut hack the huge bureaucracy that is sucking the whole country,downwith it as it doubles in size every ten years. With these measures adopted the country could get on with a reasonable way of living. It's 111 wind that doesn't blow some good. and despite the many problems created by the mail strike, there are some beneficial aspects. For instance, last week was the first one this writer can recall (since the last mail strike) when he wasn't faced by at least one bill. That's right, a whole week in which there wasn't someone requesting payment for past goods or services. It was a welcome respite, to be sure. No cheques to be written no need to sit down with the calendar to agonize over the problems of dating to ensure that cash inflow stayed a few pennies ahead of the outflow. It all seemed too perfect to be true. And, in fact it was! I was shaken back to reality through the realization that several firms have their hooks into my tear an permed by SW Best to grin and bear bank account with automatic chequing plans, one of the marvels of our com- puterized technology. The TV cable company, a couple of life insurance firms, the finance com- pany, and goodness knows who else, don't have to worry about little nuisances such as mail strikes. They get their pound of flesh automatically. Even the rent has been paid this month, the landlord having had the vi- sion to extract a dozen post-dated che- ques to eliminate any advantage his te- nant may have gained by the most pop- ular expression in use by debtors these days when confronted by pleas for pay- ment, "It's in the mail". Actually, -there are very few people or businesses in this area who are A crazy country Man and woman, this is some crazy country. Whoever first said it: "eight months of winter, and four months of bad sleighing," wasn't far off the mark. You're hanging up the snow shovel with one hand, and reaching for the lawn mower with the other. Your lilacs just start out as the mos- quitoes start zoning in.You huddle off to work in early May with snowboots, scarf and overcoat, plus headgear. Two days later. you embark in the same out- fit. and it's like being in a sauna. Then you're into June, and anything can happen. One morning a frost, the next a heat wave, then a thunderstorm. And all around you things are growing like maniacs: mostly grass and weeds and children. The children are OK, but you can have the weeds. And you can mow the grass. Poets get a bit silly in spring. They talk about the tiny crocuses peep -their wee heads through the sullen earth. Show me a pound of asparagus growing like mad. and you can have eight pounds of crocuses. And they use all sorts of other im- ages. I think it was Walt Whitman who wrote about grass as God's green handkerchief dropped. Well, mine doesn't drop. It shoots up as though the devil himself were pushing from below, and it grows about six inches in six hours. Did you ever try to mow a handkerchief? June is pretty rough, especially for a teacher. I dropped in on a colleague yesterday. His eyes were glazed, and scattered around him were about 100 essays to be marked. He vaguely recognized me. dropped his head on his desk and moaned "isn't it a hastard?" I patted his head and rubbed his back, and when he came around, I agreed, "Yes' When I was an editor, the coming of summer was rather a pleasure. I always made Opening Day of the trout fishing season in May. In June, I knew the advertising would be off, because the merchants knew the summer tourist trade would make up for those bleak spring days of March and April. And then I looked forward to the summer. when I could sit in the office with one eye on the typewriter, and one on the tourists walking by: some like young gazelles, Tong -legged and brown as Masai warriors with breast -works; others with the gait and shape of hip- pos; still others with the questing snout. the short-sightedness, and the short tempers of rhinoceri; and always the children, golden. round, and sleek as speckled trout without the speckles. Those were the days.. But. as I grew more mature, June took on a different tint for me. It meant 1 was one year older, and not a bit smarter. And today I realized, with a real touch of parania, that they're out to get me. I'd forgotten all about my birth- day. as I usually do, and my wife almost invariably does. In home form period this morning, my kids started half -heatedly singing, "Happy Birthday, Les." Well, my name isn't Les. So I just moaned a bit and told them to shut up. I thought it must be the birthday of some rock star. Then I realized they were grinning at Les Dawe, a five footer who has had to be moved because he was pushing over six foot girls when they weren't look- ing. Hey. It struck my. It was my birth- day too. I announced the fact, trying to steal a bit of Les's thunder. The response was terrific: "How old are you. Mr. Smiley? When are you gonna retire?" I responded by telling them they all had to write the final exams. They wouldn't believe me. They seldom do. Then I crashed down to the English workroom for a smoke. There were eight teachers in there. I asked, "Who the hell is minding the store?" Started out. to get the department back in business. Was seized by a six footer and told I had to help eat a cake. The cake was delicious. It must have cost them thirty cents each. The singing of "Hap- py Birthday" was the most cacohonous sound I've ever heard from a mixed group. Went to lunch. The ladies in the cafeteria gave me a nudget toward retirement, too. Completely for free was a piece of pumpkin pie, with a single. burning candle in the middle of it. At least the candle didn't go our while I carried my macaroni and tomatoes into the dining -room. A good- ly symbol. But I took two puffs to blow it out. A not -so -goodly symbol. About then I began to realize the whole plot had been choreographed by someone after my job, not-so-subtley saying it was time I retired. I went over the potential power-hungries, the dissients, the ladies to whom I'd told to stop crying on my shoulder. I couldn't think of one with the brains to orchestrate it or the ability to step into my heavy shoes. Last straw was getting home and fin- ding on the back porch a bottle of homemade pickle relish, sitting in a bowl of ice, with a message: "Roses are red, violets are purple, And we know June 2 is your birthday too." It had to be my neighbour, whose son- in-law has the same birthday, and who makes great chilli sauce, She's in on it, too. Now I know how those African prime ministers feel. Juju everywhere. adversely affected by a mail strike. There's a suspicion that many are up- set merely because they miss the routine of going to the post office each - day and exchangi g pleasantries with their friends and neighbors. Most of them come away from many of those visits with nothing more than an armload of junk mail from faceless companies that know them only as "householders". A person's existence has to be considered very drab and shallow when they start missing that sort of thing. Many people will head off for a two or three-week vacation with no thought or worry about the mail that will pile up in their boxes, but they're among the .first to be agitated when their mail is cut off for the same duration when they're at home. There are firms and individuals who suffer through the loss of mail service, but for many it is just another excuse for complaining and if it wasn't the mail it would only be something else anyway. You can, however, rest assured that the thousands of people employed by the two senior levels of government to prepare their never-ending supply of government press releases will still be at work churning out their products, despite the fact most of it will be tossed into the waste -basket when it arrives out -dated at its destination after the strike is settled. Private firms, of course, can not af- ford that luxury and will have to lay off some staff members, but with their flow of tax money, the governments don't have to be concerned with such economies and waste. By neediess complaining about the mail strike, people who are in fact not adversely affected, merely strengthen the position of CUPW in gaining their demands. It's better that we suffer silently and use our energies in finding alternate should be met quickly to get them back to work. Only if they have to suffer a bit will they be encouraged to reduce their demands in this contract and consider means of communication rather than give the impression they are inexpen- • dable'and their demands for high wages and 17 -week paid pregnancy leaves more carefully the ramifications of go- ing out on strike when the time rolls around to present their terms for the next contract. Perhaps then, .they won't consider themselves to be in the same position as politicians, who can basically write their own ticket. Post office workers, and in fact all labour groups, must be more than a lit- tle chagrined at the attitude of the On- tario MPPs who recently granted themselves a 23 percent wage hike. They will now receive $40,000 per year, although an independent commis- sion recommended that it be set at only $38,000. The MPPs made a total mockery out of the work of the commission and yet they'd be among the first to suggest that labour and management in other disputes should settle on the terms recommended by the labour ar- bitrators and conciliators they appoint to help settle disputes. Their credibility just dropped another peg. The readers wri Dear Sir: During the postal strike, people wishing to complain to the Ontario Press Council about the conduct of the press should: 1. Phone collect to the Council office, (613) 235-3847, between 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday, - Friday; if the time is inconconvenient, phone collect to the executive secretary's home (613) 733-7283, late afternoon or evening any day of the week; or 2. Put the com- plaint in writing and send it collect by one of the courier companies to the Council office, 151 Slater St., Suite 708, Ottawa. Fraser MacDougall Executive Secretary Ontario Press Council z Dear Sir : As a gentle reminder to both supermarket cashiers and to customers of stores with computerized check-out systems, I would like to mention the fact that computers do not think - that is still a human respon- sibility. The necessity for this reminder was made clear to me after spending more than five minutes at a local Exeter supermarket check- out, trying to convince the cashier that 0.99 pounds of tomatoes, at 99 cents per pound, should not cost more than 99 cents. The discussion did not get heated and tempers did not flare as the cashier described how she had punched in the computer code for tomatoes, and the computer had matched the price of tomatoes to the weigh scale measurement shown on the digital readout attached to the cash register. The price put on the tomatoes was $1.19. Being a little doubtful of the accuracy of my own on - the -spot mathematics, I would normally admit the supremacy of computer calculations. The math in- volved in this transaction, however, was so simple that I could not believe I had made the error. Never- theless, I had almost resigned myself to the higher cost when the customer behind me voiced her similar confusion. A second cashier was called in. Solution: The computer did not know that hot house tomatoes were selling for 99 cents per pound. Let's hear it for people using their own resources - however limited. Yours, with a slightly reinforced belief in my mathematical ability, Anne Lobb Dear Sir: 1 would like to thank all persons who attended the Good Brothers Show on Saturday July 11 at SHRC. It was a huge success. A special thanks is ex- tended to anyone who helped at the function to make it run smoothly. If I began to mention names, I would surely miss someone, so again a Big Thanks for supporting the Exeter Hawks and Exeter Minor Hockey. I hope everyone had a good time. Sincerely, Ron Bogart Exeter Hawks. To The Editor: I would like to pass on this eulogy to Terry Fox written by this 8 year old. She sat down one night and ex- pressed what she knew for fact and also what she felt. She had no coaxing, she just cared, as we all did. Please print it for your, readers. Terry Fox ran across Canada to raise money to try and find a cure for cancer. He had cancer in his right leg and they had to cut his leg off. He had his leg cut off in 1977. In 1980 he gotlanlartificial leg. Then his dream came true. His dream was to run across Canada. When he was running he got a pain. He had cancer in his lungs. He became very very sick. Then he died on the 97 of June 1981. It was on a Sun- day. Nobody will forget Terry Fox not ever. Good - Bye Terry Fox, I hope you are_ happy in heaven. Good-bye again. Jennifer Lynn Dalrymple h