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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1982-09-09, Page 2ii! • Blazes level barns in . Stephen, Clandebaye pad Two area dairy farmers were put out of business' by fires which. levelled their barns this week, and both ex - Peet to take some time to con: sider whether they will rebuild. • The fires destroyed barns on the farms of Hank Brand, three miles south-west of Ex- eter around 10:00 a.m. Friday morning, and at Art and Vic Hodgins, Clandeboye, around 10:00 p.m. Monday. Both dairy producers were under the same ROP inspec- tion and they spent Tuesday at the Shore Sales arena in Glanworth making ar- rangements to sell their 40.4 *Vs. Each plans to spend the winter considering whether to rebuild. Their arc quotas wUl be held fon` them for one year. The first that Brand knew about the Hodgins fire was when he spotted the smouldering ruins while on his Way to Glanworth. The Hodgins had taken their cat- tle to Glanworth Tuesday moroing, where they were milked, and tt'U be sold by auction. The fires had other similarities, as well. Both blazes apparently started in the hay mow areas, but neither believes that combus- Hon of tray was the cutwe'of the blazes. Both lost thls season's straw and part of the hay crop, while firemen Managed to save the milking parlours and the owners saved their herd records. Three fire brigades; responded to each of the eat. The Crediton fire department had tank trucks from Exeter and Huron Park to assist in the Brand fire, while the • L'ucan firemen were joined by those from Ailsa Craig and Granton at the Hodgins blaze. The Brands have a milking herd of 30 animals and the r future after fires llodgins have 35. Neither lost of, their main herd, tfrree er four calves Tow auroin tbe Stephen The owhip bnlare- ers, with their families and neighbours, managed to get pens of calve;; and sothe equipment out of the barns before they were velied . A bull and a beef steer, the latter destined for tje Brand freezer, were also saved. Neither owner is certain about the condition of adjoin- ing silos. The Brands had three silos, two of which ap- peared to be okay, while one smaller one may have been damaged by the intensive heat. The Hodgins family were uncertain about the con- dition of their• silos, but felt they too may have escaped ir- reparable damage. Neither owner could put a figure on the loss. "Where do you start figuring it out?" Art Hodgins asked. The Brands had just com- pleted steel siding on their buildings week before the blaze. Neither suspected hay as the cause of the blaze. Fami- ly members had been in each of the hay mows working on - ly an hour or two before the respective fires and reported they smelled or saw nothing out of the way. Both barns were quickly engulfed in flames and ' firemen worked mainly on wetting down adjoining buildings and silos. The Crediton firemen were at the Brand fire for about seven hours and then return- ed again for about two hours Friday night and four hours Saturday afternoon when the burning rubble spread towards the silos again. A bulldozer was finally brought in Saturday to push the rubble out of the area. Firemen were at the Clandeboye scene until early Tuesday morning and the blaze drew throngs of onlookers, many of whom were returning to their homes after the holiday weekend. Hank Brand (on tractor) m yes gasoline tank to safety is Lucan fireman Dan Gwalchmai fights the Hodgins blaze South Huron, North Middlesex • Luton, Granton and Aliso Craig firemen at the Clandeboye fire Dealer closesbusiness due to economic outlook Exeter Ford Equipment Sales Ltd. is going out of business and most of the firm's farm and office equip- ment will be liquidated at an auction -sale this Saturday. Dick Vandergunst, who has operated the business for the past 10 years at its Highway 83 East location, cited high in- terest rates and a poor outlook for agricultural com- modities as his reason for closing the doors and giving up the Ford dealership. Emphasizing that he was not being forced out of business, Vandergunst said he was making a business decision based on the current economic climate. "I think it's the right decision for right now," he said. Vandergunst said he plans to open a smaller operation at another location in the future with his two sons, Derek and Mark, and a mechanic, Dan- ny Randin. Others on the seven - member staff will be laid off. The local dealer said the in- terest on new equipnient was too excessive and was eroding his assets. in addition, with poor commodity prices and high interest rates facing farmers, equipment sales had declined drastically. "Equipment is not mov- ing," he said, adding that he could not envision any quick change in that respect. ' Exeter Ford leases the building and Vandergunst said the rental price had in- creased substantially when the 10 -year term came up for renewal and that added to the circumstances which pro- mpted him to give up the Ford dealership. He reported he had receiv- ed calls from many equip- ment dealers with whom he had become associated through 'his involvement in the business and said moat of them indicated they wished they could follow his c•)urse of action. Vandergunst said he had cut back over the past couple of years, but had reached the point where he couldn't cut back any more. His plans for the future are in abeyance until after Satur- day's auction. FIRST TIME STUDENT — Jimmy Robertson was his way to school for the first time Tuesday morning. His mother Carolyn provides the power for the trip to kindergarten classes at Exeter Public School. T -A photo Elections coming Municipal elections will soon be rolling around and there was evidence of that fact at Tuesday's session of Exeter council. Direct comment came from Mayor Bruce Shaw, who ask- ed members to consider their plans for the future and make their intentions known at the next session of council. He explained this has been a tradition and that it gives other members and the public an indication of what vacan- cies may have to be filled. There was also some other evidence that election time is tolling around. Several items of discussion at • Tuesday's session were delayed until after the meeting when coun- cil met privately. The schec)dle ' PT be ;fritts as teres ..inti. t y . weather, but, that was not the reason that Gord and Joanne Hardy of RR 2, Lt>tcan quick- ly changed plans Friday afternoon. It was just- an ordinary work day until shortly after 12 noon when Gord came in for dinner which wasn't quite ready. So, he grabbed a copy of the London Free Press and started reading. When he `reached page four where the Wintario numbers were listed he got a little interested. He grabbed a book of tickets purchased Tuesday and said to his wife "I think we have a winner." and when she said, ''a windfall prize" he replied, "No, I think it's a lit- tle more than that." The little more turned out to be $100,000. •ers' A quick phone call to the nd' ` ttery Co tion y the -7 -office in TorottroVeiify the win and the Hardy's were off to -collect their Loot before 2 ax Brand barn quickly engulfed in flames & North Lambton Since 1873 EXETER, ONTARIO, September 9,1982 Price Per Copy 50 cents tsMnother Wintario win •They•arrived at tbe lottery office about a half hour before its scheduled closing time of 5 p.m. It took more than an hour to complete verification and receive the cheque. This delay caused another shift in the Hardy schedule. They were planning to attend the Friday night presentation at the Huron Country Playhouse at Grand Bend. Adding to the problems was the fact Joanne had tickets for themselves and a number of friends in her purse. A quick call from Toronto to the Playhouse with the numbers of the admission tickets allow- ed their friends to see the show. Municipalities meet over dump smatter Representatives of six area municipalities met last week to discuss mutual problems related to waste disposal sites. Arranged by the Exeter public works committee, the session was attended by coun- cil members from Usborne, Stephen, Zurich, Hay, Hensall and Exeter. In reporting to Exeter coun- cil, Tuesday, Deputy -Reeve Alvin Epp said a good cooperative sharing session was held, with each council to consider its future plans for disposal units and possibilities of sharing sites. One collision over holiday Three area residents -sus- tained minor injuries in the only collision investigated over the final summer holi- day weekend by the Exeter OPP. The Ione crash occurred early Saturday morning and involved a vehicle operated by Paul J. Pavkeje, RR 2 Cen- tralia. He had been south- bound on Highway 4 and on entering his exit lane to the Crediton Road, struck a curb and then a pole in a flower bed at the A&K Service ('entre. injured in addition to the driver were Cheryl Stewart, RR 1 Kirkton, and Clifford Hicks, RR 1 Crediton. Damage was listed at $3,000. Ile said a type of garbage packer was also discussed and reported that the unit which is capable of crushing material up to the size of railroad ties, would be on display in Stephen later this month and would be viewed by council members. The machine, known as a chipper. can compact gar- bage so less space is needed at disposal sites. In his drain committee report, Reeve Don MacGregor noted that the purchase of a land packer in conjunction with the PUC was being considered. Works superintendent' Glenn Kells advised that the PUC had approved pat g their share of the $9 i machine to be used on 1 aI• r construction projects, and the used packer has already been puhs MrcacGregaed. or said the town had been renting a machine this year. and explained the rental charges to date Were almost as high as the town's 'share of the packer. The Committee had also recommended that three more blocks of sidewalk be in- stalled at a cost of about $5,000. that being the amount that had been saved on the .street paving budget this year. Council endorsed the move and were advised by Kells that some of the work was already completed. Two blocks of sidewalk on William Si. and one on James will be added to the list of projects for (his year. Heavy Toronto area traffic slowed the trip home and they arrived back at their Lucan area farm at 9:30 only minutes before a load of cat- tle was. to arrive. Asked of their initial reac- tion reaction, Gord Hardy said, "You always hope to win a big prize, but, 1 didn't real- ly believe it for sure until I saw the cheque. I could read those numbers easier than the ones on theticket. As for plans for the money, Gord's reply was, "We run a farm. Do I have to tell you what we will use the money for? It will be used for the mortgage and other debts." The winning ticket numbered 600217 was pur- chased Tuesday at Becker's .Milk store in Lucatr. . The.Hardy's plan to attend the Wintario show when it ap- pears at the Lucan Communi- ty Centre on Thursday, September 23. They have been tot,1 by friends they will be asked to appear onthe program and push the button to- distribute prize money .to otheir laeky winners. This is the second big-Win- tario w-iti in this 'area in less than. a year. Winning a similar prize on October 9, 1981 were Bob and Audrey Pooley of Exeter. Previous to that Audrey Bentley of Exeter was _a 5100,000 winner. c HAPPY WINTARIO WINNERS Joanne and Gord Hardy and daughter. Lindsay are shown with the 5100,000 cheque they won in Thursday's Wintario draw. They made the trip to Toronto Friday afternoon to pick up their winnings..Two other children Lisa and Lora Lee were in bed when the picture was taken Monday night. Ownership admitted in enumeration Dog population takes jump Exeter's dog population look a considerable jump this summer; at least those peo- ple admitting they owned dogs increased substantially. When Brenda Pinder was hired for the summer under a government subsidized ex- perience program, council gave her the job of enumerating the town's dog population. She found a total of 55 dog owners who had never pur- chased tags for their animals. Of those. 32 purchased tags from the student, but 23 still have not come forth. Miss Pinder. in a written report to council, said she .found the local citizens "generally co-operative and friendly" and came up against only a few problems during the survey which took her approximately 57 hours as she visited most households. "Most dog owners who didn't have tags for their dog required only a gentle.persua- sion to buy their tags." she reported. "Even those owners .who didn't wish to purchase tags were sill generally. polite towards me." More good news There was more good news emanating from Uashwodd industries Limited this week. The firm announced a fur- ther recall of 11 employees on Tuesday. bringing to 71 the total number recalled this month and bringing the staff hack to 210. President Michael Shurety said the recalls stemmed from increased demand for (he firm's products through ti aggress)\ i• marketing tactics and an improvement in the nunitx'r of housing starts and renovations. Shovel said if the demand for renovation products con- tinues and recently. announc- ed government incentives help strengthen the new hous- ing market. the firm can look forward to recalling the rest of its 35 employees still on layoffs. • , On her travels. she reported three problem areas in the community for dogs running at large. These were iden- tified as the Dow subdivision, Carling St. North and the An - 'drew Starea around Hill Street • also received numerous complaints about the number of stray cats in several dif- ferent areas.'' she concluded. adding her thanks to council for the learning opportunity she enjoyed this summer. Clerk Liz Bell reported this week that through the enumeration. Exeter's canine population has been establish- ed at around 270 Councillor Dorothy Chap- man asked what should be done about the 23 owners still Please turn 10 page 3 • • a.. r• ;