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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1993-11-03, Page 4Th4nkffou 2he Town of Exeter and the Totice Services Board, gn ithalf of the citizens, extend a since vote of thank§ to the past a� present staff of the E eter Take Force. .As we enter a new era it is important to remember the mann contributions that have been made over the years in making teeter an outstanding community. Rage 4 TImas-AdaoaMe, Novefber 3,1993 11173411,91113k° i years ef Ezsr POS A chapter 9fE:7is history closes forever as the town police force disbands By-Adrintllatte T-Aw EXETER - The town fathers, 120111111Mnego, recognized that Exeter tsuididauraett tgef+tlttwtlli tiiieti, even if in a humble end lim- `Y•a yid into the Exeter Police Ser- ice,.on eight -member town that was dblrtded this weekend, absorbed 'rtlnto- ilitg coma with the -Exeter detachment of the Onta- -ario lhllwfl . Whaidalamillthatts of Exeter have cane to know so well, is now just an- other closed chapter of the town's history. Fran street lights to temper- ance: According to Joe Wooden's book A History of Exeter,.the begin- nings of Exeter's Police Force were likely in 1873 when John Gill, from Cornwall England and settled in the village in 1858, was appointed Con - astable. Gill may have served policing duties before Exeter was incorporat- ed as a village, but no records rernain. Gill's salary .as Constable and Bailiff was $50 a year, and he served 'tsh ough into the 1880s. Alfred A. Bowey is listed by Wooden as another early Exeter Constable, but it was James Qecch who first served as Chief Constable and Street Carrtsilieaer from the early 1880s until 1902. Not only did breech'snaspeisibilities include patrolling the streets and = tforeing the bylaws, but he had to clean the town hall, ring the town bell, :sand light the street lamps. By 1887 he was receiving a salary of $325 per "Those whormight harbour illusions about those early days being an era • of lost innocence in rural Ontario might be disappointed to learn that the .:Titower constables had to deal with frequent robberies, horse stealing and •111inaus complaints of thefts. Arson appears to have been commonplace as (swell, if only as a means of disposing of unprofitable business ventures. At one time the Exeter Times complained that the village was "breeding .stamps and criminals, for every idle boy or girl is a potential scoundrel". ''.Phe complaint was for the building of a village school, but it was evident -Wed there were problems with youth even in those days. A curfew, signified by ringing the bell at 9:30 p.rn. was used from time `rte time to keep children under 14 off the streets. It was abandoned by '4902. -As one Exeter police officer was hoard to comment recently, if there was AMMOch thing as alcohol, a huge number of policing problems would dis- ggpatt there were, in fact, two attempts to do away with the evils of liq- 4w ridExetei's history. "'The town constables, from 1885 to 1888 were faced with enforcing the aott Act, a temperance measure that made traffic and possession of spirits in Huron County. Causingmore problems than it solved it was re- vealed after three short years. t:But by the 1920s, W.A. Balkwill was the Constable in Exeter, upon ossehom fell the.duty to enforce Prohibition. One arrest chronicled in Wood - en's book iaghteggpture of .over 200 bottles of whiskey from a car driven :into a ditch seal WOodhtun by:its drunken occupants. "The Canada Tempetutce-Act remained in effect in Huron County until 91959, although Exeter was a "dry" town untilehe late '60s. .iiHythe late 20s, Exeter had Chief Constable Wesley.J. Bisseu and Con- eallible Ed Willis on the beat. Bissett took over from Creech in 1902 for W65 a year, and was being paid $750 a year by -1920. He was still on the job until 1930 when he died at the age of 76. Stop signs, traffic, no radios: The first p signs were installed at Main Street inter- sections in 1926, likely .as a measure to pre- vent speeding by motorists unhappy with Exet- er's xet- eis restrictive speed limits and strict iiertfcarurntnt• . John Clark Norry .took over the duties of "thief Constable and Street Cormnissioner in 01930. He served until 1953, and died in 1961. William Wareing was hired as the village night wateb1nan in 1931 and later promoted to night constable. He resigned in I950.aaying he could not live on 527.50 a week. Chief of Police until 1969 was Calvin McKenzie. Many remember Ted Day who took over after that and served until his retirement in 1985, when.Larry Hardy donned the chief's hat. When Handy deft tobecome chief .01 the Smiths Fills police in 1990. the current, and last chief of the Exeter -Police joined the force, Jack Harkness. Constable George Robertson joined the Exeter Police in 1967, and with 26 years of service is the longest standing member of the force. He recalls that many of the officers who served in Exeter have since gone on to time Ion other municipal forces elsewhere. "We've had four constables here that have gone on to be chiefs of po- i lice," said Robertson. In the 26 years he bas been on the beat in Exeter, things have changed a lot. While tong past the years of.baving to ring the town bell, the officers worked under conditions and with equipment most new recruits would find. well, a flute primitive. "When I:first started we worked six days a week -Awe) only got one day off," recalled Robertson. Even the police station itself has moved several haves in twee years. Originally part of the Old Town Hall, by the time Robertson arrived the police had their own office in an. addition on the building, which not only housed the council chambers, and town offices, but the fire hall as well. That addition was demolished when the police moved into the old council This > d,' —• --' like 'W/y s ahs illiire tee when itikilidailisitito ilvadilltyTifittrars. From left lanagibr011or- ley,itage Robertson, Alex dies, Jim .i kin, and chief Ted Day. At left, '.rhe ria embers of the police who wore 'mown in as OPP Monday morning: ear - avant Brad Sadler (left), Littre Win, Will Chisholm, Dwight Monk, Simi ?Ow - 'ell, and George Robertson. chambers, and then had a building of their own when the town purchased . t house beside the:present Usborne and Hibbert Insurance on Main Street South. "We called it the Pizza House," remarked Robertson, who said theyred velvety wallpaper left behind on the walls gave it the air of a take-out res- taurant. When a fire, started by volatile photocopier fluid, burned the house down in 1979, the police had to wait for theptramt Sanders St. sta- tion to be built. "We were in aeralierin'ihe.parking lot out hene{behind the Old Town Hall] for six months," said Robertson. A grand opening for the new building was held in May 1981, even though the police had been using lit some time already. From Underwood to computer: police officer today might consider ;bis two-way radio an essential part of his outfit, but by the late 1960s when Rob- ertson joined the patrol, :that technology lbad not yet come to Exeter. Emergency ;,calls were handled by the local taxi ser- vice at the corner of John St. and Main. A wire stretched across the street, and tithe dispatcher had the switch. "He answered the phones for the po- ,;dice,"said Robertson. "ln the middle of tithe road was a light bulb. If it was on, we had asap:" All things considered. Robertson said the system worked .fairly well. In those days the town had only three officers, and the OPP detachment had only four. Exeter was still a "dry" town in those days. The Legion, with its private eranbaship was the only place .serving alcohol in town, although there wore both liquor and beer stores by then. "Every car you stopped in the county bad beer in it," said Robertson. 1 The Legion was also the scene of a dramatic safe cracking, recalls Rob- ertson. The thieves used nitroglycerin to blow the safe door right across the room. Nobody actually keeps money in safes these days, muses Rob- ertson. a Nothing as dramatic as a murder bas even been documented in bxeter, • and the first armed robbery anyone knows of occurred in 1990. "We kept the peace pretty well," remarked Robertson, who said that the epolice's community programs over the years have made a big difference. -"The moms and dads of Exeter grew up knowing the police w1pR,, dior them. We've always hadthat,"fie said. ori ale ,u t.ua 1116 ! 1If there is anything ins nic about theueud of theimumiselliagofthillhat iio should comebn Hallowe'etn: 'Someone even erected a tombstone in front'' of the station that read "RIP Exeter Police". "Hallowe'en is nothing like it used to be. It used to be bad," said Robert- son. "One year they set a fire on the bridge on Main Street...truck tires and everything." The pace of technology was rapid. Once the town got rid of its "light bulb" emergency system, radio dispatch came from. Loma Dale's house and was later replaced by the county dispatch system. Radar guns kept the traffic in line and computers made their way into the daily life of the po- lice Officer. "You go from writing your reports on an old Underwood typewriter, to an electric typewriter, to computer, to OMPAC (the police's computer sys- tem)," observed Robertson. End of an era: Robertson looks up at the OPP uniform waiting for him and acknowledges that for many of the town officers, .the new job is a chance that most would have had to wait years for. There are new oppor- tunities opened by jointing the larger force, not to mention a beuer pay scale. Still Robertson says he will miss his days on the, small municipal force. "It's sad actually, when you think about it. It's a little bit of history," he said. With small towns :all across Ontario looking toward replacuig their po- lice departments with OPP contract policing, people may look back in caning years and try to understand what brought an era to an end so quickly. Above all, there are probably two overriding concerns that triggered the demise of small police departments. The first is cost. Councils are recog- nizing the costs of outfitting their police forces .with all the technology, equipment and training needed to keep pace with policing demands in the 1990s are no longer cost effective for small organizations. Secondly, the advent of the Police Services Act brought about a distinct shift in the administration of police forces. Complaints of the increased control of the Ministry of the Solicitor General from councils have led to concerns that they can no longer keep, tabs un those rising costs. While it is conceivable some day may bring a new interest in an Exeter municipal police force, it is clear that will be a new and different chapter of the town's history than the s iki y ulAg•