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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1991-09-04, Page 2Page 2 Times -Advocate, September 4, 1991 Back to school..... but parents' relief costly Goderich company told to clean up GODERICH - Sky Harbour Aircraft Refinishing Limited of Goderich has been ordered by the Ministry of the Environment to clean up its act. The compa- ny has been issued written no- tice that it is improperly dispos- ing of water used to wash chemicals from aircraft after the refrnlshing stage. Washwater, containing chlorinated hydrocar- bons, aeromatics, metals and phenols which can be harmful to human and aquatic health, is be- ing discharged into a storm drain to the floodplain of the Maitland River. Credit card con artists ST. MARYS Sdntbwestan Ontario is being plagued by tele- phone solicitors seeking VISA and MasterCard numbers, after telling residents they are the winners of a phony draw. Call- ers identify themselves as lottery officials or representatives of a marketing firm, asking for credit card information as verification. Police warn that cardholders should be wary, as once card numbers and expiry dates are obtained by culprits, it is just like giving them cash. Blank credit cards are obtained by criminals and stamped with numbers obtained through such scams. Drought aid sought CHA - Portions of El- gin, Lambtpn, Mi x,Essex and Kent dowries. g for, relief following a summer of drought. Wheat growers are re- porting yields of only eight bushels per acre, and there is damage to 27 other crops which may also mean reduced crops in years to come. Every dollar a farmer spends creates Seven dol- lars cash flow in the economy. With farmers' 'income estimated at half this year, the effects are already being felt. Machinery dealerships reveal sales have dropped 50 percent and other ag- riculture related industry can most likely expect to see layoffs. Essex -Kent MPP and parlia- mentary secretary to the minister of agriculture Pat Hayes said that provincial assistance is on the way, it's just a question of how much. United Way takes step forward CLINTON - The Sarnia- Lambton United Way has formed a steering committee, in an effort to help create a United Way branch for Huron County. The committee is set to form a board of diruiors and submit an application for a registered char- itable number as their next step in the procedure. There are cur- rently 122 United Way offices throughout Canada which raised $210 million to support 3,600 social service agencies. Youth drowns in Pinery FERGUS --Students of Centre Wellington District High School are mourning the loss of one of their own following a drowning last week at Piney Provincial Part. 17 -year-old David Merle Duimering, a grade 12 student, was overcome by one to two metre waves last Thursday while swimming in Lake Huron around 11:30. A search by OPP teams was initiated, and boaters' found his body at the mouth of the Ausable River Sunday after- noon. • MARTY DEBRUYN, Grade 9, South Huron "High school's going to be great. I want to try out for a lot of sports." AMY WALPER, Grade 9, South Huron "This year is going to be great. High School is a lot more fun." LYNNETTE HEYWOOD, Grade 8, Stephen Central "I don't want to go back. Itll be different next year because then it will be high school." MATT SIMS, Grader9, South Huron "I don't mind going back; it's dif- ferent this time because it's high school. JEFF MASON, Grade 7, Exeter Public School "Hey, it's only another 16 weeks until Christmas." CANDY DROUILLIARD, Grade 8, Exeter Public "I'm ready to go back. It's been a boring summer." With their back to school shopping out of the way, Jenny Acton, Julie Koricina and Rochelle Geoffrey said they're ready for grade nine. By Ray Lewis EXETER - While students and teachers alike brace themselves for the onslaught of yet another school year, parents everywhere breath a collective sigh of relief. The first week of September not only ini- tiates the return of sanity to many homes, it terminates the back -to - school shopping frenzy, giving credit cards a much needed vaca- tion. Throughout this period, parents more often seem to resemble bank machines. Even after hunting down the best of bargains, parents q expeat t9 spenr4 about. $30 per child on basic supplies such as pens, pencils, binders and paper. Throw in a $20 calculator and a math set and the total is now $60. Don't forget the Ninja Turtle lunch - box and thermos for the youngsters. Then comes the new ninth grad- er. Starting with the basics there is the $20 student fee which includes a student card picture, student council fees and a yearbook which will be produced throughout the season. In starting fresh there are certain necessities warranted as the stu- dent makes their trek down this path of higher knowledge. Lockers suddenly require mirrors, shelves, note pads and cute baskets to hold odds'n ends. To keep everything safe you need a combination lock that will costa mere $5. And just when you thought it was safe, school rings, pictures and sports creep up on you. Social groups also become a big part of high school. And the most decisive factor, of course, is cloth- ing. For guys, the wardrobe is simple. Levi's jeans and long Sleeve Chip'n Pepper shirts will see you through. For those in ele- mentary school a baseball cap is almost mandatory. Despite an in- tense advertising campaign, Reeb- ok Pumps are being passed up thanks to the resurgence of Nike running shoes, especially Nike Air. For young women, the wardrobe is much more extensive. Begin- ning with footwear. Nike and Ti- ger Asics are in as casual attire. Bass Weejuns used to be the norm in dress shoes, but now it's cow- boy shoes, ranging in price from $80-$120. Levi's jeans are in but so too are Edwin's, Guess and Esprit in the $58-$90 zone. The most sought after feature strips of leather or suede. Skorts are also popular this year, dress shorts that look like a skirt. In tops, anything over $45 with a button -up front and button-down collar is in, providing it's not Ralph Lauren. Colour -wise, black is back and so are earth tones. This is what the T -A learned Sunday evening at the Exeter Li- ons Youth Centre, while students got together for a back -to -school party. For some it was a time to compare notes on another summer and renew acquaintances in their social circle. For others it offered a chance to converse about their newly repk ,ed wardrobes; gore often refile wants r..ther than needs. But despite these obvious bonuses and much to the chagrin of parents, when asked most students agreed they would rather stay .on holidays. Unless they were grade nines who feel they have some- thing a little different to look for- ward to. Of course, they haven't gone through welcome week yet. IQPP 's firs Continued from front page spending millions on its entire water system under the program. Klopp also points out he was able to get the Ministry of Municipal Affairs to cough up the remainder of the PRIDE grant funds owed to Zurich for arena renovations. The work had been completed, but funding was being "dribbled out" over three years. By convincing the London office to simply pay Zurich the remaining $100,000 or so on the pro- ject, Klopp says local ratepayers were saved interest charg- es on the loan and the ministry avoided a couple of years of red tape. But when you talk about the politics of Huron County, the conversation eventually comes around to the state of the farm economy, especially since Klopp is assistant to the Minister of Agriculture Elmer Buchannan. "The fruits of band aids are really coming home to roost," explained Klopp, which, if you don't mind the mixed meta- phor, it is his way of saying agriculturalrams of previ- . ous governments were ill conceived. Agricultural policy is really why he got into politics in the first place, Klopp insists. Too many farm programs are little more than "band aids" for problems that have more se- rious causes. The food companies have been able to lobby governments, both federal and provincial, to discourage supply management boards. Some even want to sec gov- ernments directly subsidize fanners so that farmgate prices can drop even lower. "Government has a lot to do with that," said Klopp, in- sisting that it has to change. "'There's nothing wrong with government involvement - if it's saying it's trying to help farmers then it should help farmers." The federal government never properly addressed the high interest rate problem, Klopp claims, and says the Free Trade deal has made crop pricing plans almost impossible to establish. "Everything you can do here (in Ontario), the feds can undo," said Klopp, but said that passing the blame isn't real- ly helpful. The federal government is bound to eventually attempt to right the situation. "Surely federal MPs want to get re-elected." When asked if there were programs or policies he wanted to see go through in the NDP's first year in office, but didn't materialize, Klopp said there were. "I would have thought we could have got our interest rate program through by spring," he said of the plan to help ease in farm debt load, but he acknowledged it is proving more complicatedthan the government first thought. "It's just too big a deal," he added, hoping it may be in place by next spring. Klopp also pointed out the NDP are not the first govern- ment to try such a program and he says he can now see why past governments did not get them off the ground. He spoke critically of the federal NISA program (Net In- come Stabilization Agreement), saying those who dubbed it a "program for rich fanners" are not too far off the mark. Klopp argued debt reduction policies are of more value to producers than a plan to put two percent of income away fora rainy day. Huron's MPP also said he had hoped he could have pre- vented the foundry closing in Wingham as the company re- located to the United States. But the government couldn't move quickly enough to save the jobs, said Klopp. Telephone calls are a constant part of MPP Paul Klopp's routine when in his Clinton riding office. Despite answering calls on a huge variety of sub- jects, Klopp says he tries to help those who call, or et least put them in the direction of an agency which can. er When asked if he found the regional diversity of Huron County made his work difficult, Klopp denied he put Huron into north and south divisions. "The people in the north feel they're not being heard - but at the provincial level I look at the whole cake," he insisted. As an example he said the whole county needs good roads to meet industry's transportation needs. He just wished the rail service was more effective. Speaking of transportation, Klopp said he was "just flab- bergasted" by the decision of Cha -Co trails to cut back bus service through the region, especially the loss of stops in Hensall and Exeter. He said the change came at a' time when he thought bus service might be stepped up. At one point he wondered if the province might be interested in subsidizing bus service to improve public transportation. "But that's another problem - if it's worth doing it should be paying for itself," he observed. As for the NDP's decision 10 go with a $9.7 billion deficit on its 1991 budget, Klopp said government spending was necessary to support the economy. "It is estimated there would have been 70,000 more peo- ple unemployed," said Klopp, who also pointed out that with the recession tax revenues are down, making it harder for the government to avoid debt. Klopp said future deficits can be expected in coming years too. "People would be really stupid if they let us say 'next year well have a balanced budget ," said Klopp, saying that once the government is able to trim its services to operate more efficiently, budgets will come in line. When asked if his first year as Huron's MPP was what he expected, Klapp had to admit it wasn't. "No, it hasn't been what 1 expected at all," he said, adding that the variety of issues he has to face is just "amazing". Klopp said on any given day he gets calls ranging from complaints about dogs harking to questions about Ontario's food policy. He was also unprepared for the number of queries he gets on health issues. "I never really thought about it that much," said Klopp. "Well, there's a Ministry of Health and you're the member of parliament." His first yew in office has "just flown by" and hsaid he has a hard time envisioning how the next ones will go and the challenges they will bring. "It's a learning process," r he said.