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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1989-10-25, Page 1Drive Carefully Watch for Trick or Treaters IIlk Gaiser- ' Bale Insurance Exeter 235-2420 Grand Bend 238-8484 Hensall 262-2607 Clinton 482-9747 Inside Business features Gift baskets in Lucan, fitness centre in Exeter page 5 Hallowe'en bargains Specials from local merchants pages 8 and 9 Heart Foundation Huron chapter shows astounding 'growth in six years page 10 "Talent Plus" Over $7,000 raised at Food, Fun, Fellowship Saturday at Exeter United Church page•11 Basketball clinic Grade school players hone skills at SHDHS page 20 Clocks change Don't forget to set your clocks and watches back one hour before going to bed Saturday. Daylight savings time ends this weekend, (officially at 2 a.m. Sun- day) meaning it is going to get dark earlier in the evenings next week. One bonus is we all gain an extra hour of sleep Saturday night the hour we lost in the spring. Strike keeps students at home EXETER - A province -wide strike by Ontario community college teachers means that local students are back home until the labour dis- pute end. Most aren't pleased with their loss of classroom time. "I don't like it at•a1i;�. sal tine Parsons, who headed off to Fanshawe College in London this fall for her first semester in their travel and tourism program. "We paid for our education and we're not geuing it," she said. Par- sons hopes the union will soon be returning to the bargaining table. In the meantime, Parsons and fel- low student Shawn Moore are keeping busy by completing course assignments that are due in Decem- ber, but Moore points out they do not take the place of classroom in- struction. "I'm not too pleased about it," said Moore. "I feel that the stu- dents are the ones , going to be hurt." North Middlesex & Lambton i Atkin joined a crowd in Union_Square after the quake struck. Note the broken windows. AtS Communications photo by Amber unde.wood. "It's great to be home' EXETER - What are the odds that, on your first-ever trip to San Francisco, you will experience one of the most devastating earth- quakes in recent memory? That is what Ian Atkin is left wonder- ing after returning home to Exet- er last week. Atkin was in San Francisco for the Water Pollution Control Fed- eration's conference, for which Exeter's AIS Communications publishes a trade magazine. He was scheduled to be in the city from last Saturday to Friday, but after 5:04 p.m. on the Tuesday, all his plans were shattered. Atkin was out on the street about a block from his hotel when the earthquake rolled through the city. He watched, fascinated, as the buildings around him distorted and rippled with the shockwaves. "I'm still awed by the power of the thing," said Atkin, adding he was torn between wanting to watch it all happen and becoming scared out of his wits. As he looked up at the creaking build- ings he thought "Oh please don't come down." Although he finds it hard to de- scribe, the sound of an earth- quake isn't the low rumble heard in movies, he explained. "I have a hard time remember- ing the sound," he said, but lik- ened it to the snapping and crack- ling of a wave washing back on a .tan Atkin pebble beach. "It's like that mag- nified about a million times." Overhead the wires zinged un- der stress and contact, but then came a weird silence as the entire city stopped dead, cut off from electric power. Not being famil- iar with earthquakes, Atkin Said he had to ask the experienced people in the streets about the quake's magnitude. "Yeah, that was a big one," At- kin said he was told by passersby. He returned to his hotel, thought better of it, and headed for Union Square to wait for the aftershocks in the open where a crowd had gathered. Did he feel safe? "Well, sort of," said Atkin. "Until somebody told me there was a six -floor parking garage underneath." The first aftershock hit there about half an hour later, and ru- mours of a potentially larger quake kept Atkin and many others on edge. Many in the square had bauery- powered radios, but information about the scope of the damage and related casualties did not come for quite a while. "We didn't know about the real catastrophes until about 6:30," he said, noting that was when they first heard about the bridge col- lapse. However, forst reports sug- gested there were no casualties. Atkin returned to his hotel, but without power in the rooms, many people slept in the lobby lit by emergency generators. A sort of party emerged among those too unnerved to sleep. In the next two days, Atkin was able to survey some of the dam- age to the city. The hardest hit, he said, los the marina district where he ETtpects many buildings will have to be.tom down. "That really made it hit home," he said, commenting that San Francisco, a city he describes as one of the nicest he has seen, seemed so vulnerable to the quake's destructive power. He saw cracks in sidewalks, col- lapsed pillars, and signs of dam- age on the shoreline freeway. "If it had lasted another five seconds then real.hell would have happened," Atkin speculated. Food was hard to come by. With all restaurants closed, Atkin said he was able to get by on what he could buy at variety stores. "I didn't cat much, actually. You kind of forget about it," he said. • Atkin was. able to -make -phone -- calls to relatives and friends from his hotel. He even managed • to call the Times Advocate to let us know he was there. While he intended to stay in the city to see if there was any way he coptd help, he soon discovered he could do little except feel he was in the way. An aftershock in the early hours of Thursday morning • convinced him it was "time to get out". "Your nerves are just frazzled," he said. He checked out and brought his conference display back to Exeter. The Moscone Centre where the conference was held had become a Red Cross aid station. Looking back on the experi- ence, Atkin said he was im- pressed at the way San Francisco structures were able to withstand the earthquake. "The buildings around • here wouldn't stand much of a chance," he said. 1 ti Statistics alarming, many homes without smoke detectors DASHWOOD - The initial statistics are alarming. A survey of village homes by the Dashwood Firemen's Association shows that an alarming number of people are not properly protected by smoke -detectors. "We have an unbelievable amount of people who don't have smoke -detectors," said fire chief Jim Hoff- man. "I couldn't believe it." Of 36 Dashwood homes contacted, Hoffman said seven had no smoke -detectors at all. Fourteen homes had detectors which had either dead or missing batter- ies, or were broken. Seven homes that had more than one detector had only one still functioning. Only eight homes of the 36 reported no problems. "That's unreal," said Hoffman. "You just expect everyone has one." • -A common problem, he said, is that children remove batteries from detectors to use in their toys. In one home a brand-new detector had been in a drawer, unused, for 11 years. - Hoffman said the statistics are possibly indicative of a general problem in many local communities. For the price of a detector, typically $11.99 to $21.00, Hoffman said there is no excuse not to have one. "It's the fires at night," he said. "People sleep through them." • The Dashwood Fire Department is continuing with its plan to give new smoke -detectors to homes that need them and install them if necessary. While donations are coming in to help cover the costs of the devices, Hoffman said the main thrust of the program is to make sure Dashwood homes are protected. Huron County busintses enrolled in 12 -month program CLINTON - Plans for a Commu- nity Business Initiative (CBI) to service Huron County were an- nounced Friday by Mike Walsh, District General Manager of South- western Ontario for the Federal Business Development' Bank (FBDB). The CBI is a new approach in providing training for owner/ managers of small business. Thirty non -competing businesses are en- rolled in a year-long program which combines workshops with individu- al counselling. First an advisory committee of successful local business -people helps the FBDB to identify the needs of other small enterprises in the community, usually smaller and younger firms. The committee and the business participants then meet to develop the content of the pro- gram. A local full-time advisor, with extensive small business experience then administers and co-ordinates the program and meets with each owner/manager once a month to re- ex`amine the workshops and plan applications of the lessons learned. The Huron County advisor, Doug Macdonald has over 40 years of ex- perience as a successful manager with Coatsworth and Cooper Ltd., Grand Merchants. During his career Mr. Macdonald held positions in marketing, sales management and administration. "The workshops/counselling combination of the CBI reduces the failure rate of small business dra- matically", says Mike Walsh. "The flexibility in the course content and the shared experience of the partici- pants enhances the learning pro- cess", he says. Co-sponsored by the Federal Business Development Bank and the Huron Industrial Training Advi- sory Committee, the cost of the year-long program to the participant is S650. To enroll in the' Huron CBIS or to request more information, call Doug Macdonald at (519) 482- 9574. "Many small businesses fail un- necessarily", says Doug Macdonald. "usually the business idea is sound, but some aspect of management is lacking." Macdonald believes in the CBI program because it "develops small business owners into the . well- rounded managers they need to be". Macdonald resides in Huron County. Stephen asks for survey to extend waste site limit CREDITON -Stephen township council will be requesting B.M. Ross and Associates to prepare a study for the Minsitry of the En- vironemnt which will allow an ex- tension for the municipality's land- fill site. Council is asking for the exten- sion until the Huron County mas- ter plan for waste management is completed and in place. In the meantime, it is expected the township will join the Bluewa- ter Recycling Associaton with their Blue Box collection program on March 1 of 1990. The week of November 20 to 26 is being proclaimed Recycling Week in Stephen. Doug Ankenmann of D & S Consultants will be hired to pre- pare a survey on energy saving possibilities at the township arena at Huron Park. Application is being made for a provincial JEPP grant for about 52,000 to purchase emergency equipment for the Dashwood and area fire board. The final bylaw was passed au- thorizing the placing of stop signs at all intersections of side - road 20 (Huron street), west of Exeter. Council is recommending to the province of Ontario that the draft subdivision proposal sum - bitted by Case Van Raay in the police village of Dashwood be ex- tended for one year. • Chief building official Milton Dietrich's monthly report showed that the value of building permits issued in Stephen for the first nine months of 1989 had reached 53,155,621. Dietrich was authorized to at- tend an industrial seminar in Lon- don one day a week for a total of 12 weeks. A resolution from the township of Tarbot regarding province wide bilingualism was not supported. Young bargain hunters Found a friend - During Thursday's South Huron Hospital Auxiliary rummage sale, Keilah Westfall found a Raggedy Ann doll to her liking.