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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1994-03-30, Page 1SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235.0262 Fresh Flowers - Easter Lilies - Hydrangeas - Azaleas - Bouquets and much more! Serving South Huron North Middlesex & Lambton Since 1873 SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 Dave Nicolls Easter Insiders Report Gourmet cookbook now available Wednesday, March 30, 1994 (84c + 6c G.S.T.; 90 cents ri,,------, SUBSCRIBE! ▪ If you aren't subscribing to The Times -Advocate, you're messing out. Use the coupon below and t subscribe today! Name: 1 1 1 Address City Prov. ' Postal Code SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada Within 40 miles - (65 km) addressed to non Iener carrier addresses $30.00 plus $2.10 G.S.T. Outside 40 miles - (65 km) or any letter carver address 560.00. $4.20 G.S.T. Outside Canada -$99 00 sae a po.uy.) USE YOUR CREDIT CARD 1 1 1 1 1 1 ❑a000000 ❑LLOp000 Card No. Expiry Date ' - -__ ❑ Visa 0 Master Card 0 Cheque enclosed Return to: TIMES ADVOCATE L24 Main St. Exeter, Ont. NOM 1S6 ■ ss� — seat sss, — — si■ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Inside Painter Willing to try full-time page 5 Road hockey Exeter hosts tournament page 8 Hockey Stephen to meet Otonbee page 16 Precision Lucan hosts skating competition page 17 Tutors When school isn't enough page 28 Spring forward! A reminder to set your clocks ahead one hour Saturday night Grand Bend man awaits sentence for selling pornography LONDON - A Grand Bend area man has pleaded guilty to four counts of selling obscene video tapes in a London court. Albert Vasily, 60, of RR2 Grand Bend awaits sentencing April 28 on charges of trying to sell pornograph- ic videos to an undercover OPP offi- cer. The OPP officer, with the anti - rackets branch, answered an adver- tisements placed by Vasily in a Ca- nadian adult magazine to "buy or trade"Po videos. In February the officer met Vasily in a London park- ing lot where he was offered four videos Vasily described as "very bi- zarre". The court heard the tapes included scenes of group sex, anal inter-" course, and punishment scenes such as the caning of children. In his defense, Vasily contended he was only trying to get rid of the "disgusting" tapes he had bought from someone in New Brunswick. Judge Douglas Walter said he was not convinced that Vasily wasn't at- tempting to conduct a regular trade in the illegal videos. Hay gives go-ahead to new rnuniipai.buiIsJin4., ZURICH - Hay Township coun- cil has decided to go ahead with plans to construct a new municipal office, but the question remains as to where it will be built. Hay's present office is in Zurich, the centre of what was the local government for both the township and the village, which did not be- come a municipality in its own right until 1960. One option open to council is to build a new office on the present location, but there are those who say the municipal government might consider a location outside Zurich, in the township itself. Hay has $270,226 to spend on the building under the joint federal/ provincial infrastructure program. The township will have to contrib- ute $90,109 of those funds to quali- ty for the program. Township clerk -treasurer said Hay has been getting by with a mu- nicipal building a couple of sizes too small for many years now. The vault is undersized, and the town- ship council chambers cannot ac- commodate more than a few visi- tors. The building is also in need of some repairs. She said the brick- work is crumbling, the foundation is leaking, and the building could use a new roof. The infrastructure grant program allows the funds to be spent on reno- vating or building public structures, an area in which grant funds are usually scarce. "With the way this grant is availa- ble," said Zimmerman, "it doesn't happen too often." Council will be meeting again in April to discuss where the new mu- nicipal building should be located: in Zurich, or in the township. How- ever, a final decision isn't expected until a later meeting with a full quo- rum of councillors. Tapes, cellular phone, taken Unlocked cars easy pickings for Exeter thieves last week EXETER - March break didn't end quietly for the Exeter OPP as they were confronted with a rash of thefts from parked vehicles this past week. Last Monday alone there were four thefts from cars parked on streets in Exeter. All vehicles were unlocked, and stolen in each instance were cas- sette tapes. Three of the thefts occurred on William Street. Thieves struck again Tuesday, taking a cellular phone from an unlocked car parked on Main Street in Exeter, and on Wednesday a compass, tire pressure gauge and lights went missing from a car parked on William Street. On Thursday, a car stereo was taken from an unlocked truck parked on King Street in Hensall. "It's happening from 7:30 at night to 1:30 in the morning," said OPP staff sergeant Don McInnes. "You have to assume they are connected." In all instances, the vehicles targeted by the thieves were left unlocked by their owners. "If the door's unlocked, it certainly makes it easier," said McInnes of the thefts, and cautioned that local residents should make se of their car's locks to help prevent such thefts. $122,920 cheque Hensall gets big cheque to continue test compost facility HENSALL - Paul Klopp, Hu- ron MPP presented the Village of Hensall with a cheque for $122,920 on Thursday to cover first year operation costs for the central composting facility. The composting facility was first proposed by Hensall and the provincial government was approached to help offset capital costs of the project starting in September 1992. "I am pleased to announce this grant to Hensall," Klopp said in a press release. He said more than three mil- lion households are recycling materials in Ontario. And, Klopp said, projects like the Hensall composting facility will help reduce the amount of waste going to landfills by at least 50 percent by the end of the decade. The cheque presentation was made by Klopp on behalf on En- vironment and Energy minister Bud Wildman. The funding was made availa- ble under a municipal 3R's pro- gram which was set up to help support municipal initiatives such as composting. Battery back-up becoming a vital business tool Power outage leaves Exeter in the dark By Adrian Harte T -A Editor EXETER - With the possibility of rotating blackouts still on the boards Monday during Ontario Hy- dro negotiations, Exeter residents probably felt they had had a prac- tice run-through the week before. Thursday afternoon. an insulator snapped off a high voltage line just north of Highway 83 alongside the train tracks just after 1 p.m. The line then fell down and set fire to the wooden pole, and eventually burned through and cut electricity to the entire town of Exeter. Exeter PUC workers had to iso- late and ground the power line be- fore Exeter firefighters could quench the burning pole and allow repairs to begin. "It burnt the pole badly," said PUC manager Hugh Davis, adding that the broken line caused a high current surge that tripped Ontario Hydro's breakers at the Centralia substation. A "travelling operator" from On- tario Hydro was on his way to Stratford and had to be re-routed to reset the Centralia breakers. How- ever, when only two phases of the town's three power phases came on, the PUC cut the power again. "We knew somewhere along the line there was a burn off," said Da- vis, explaining that the high current surge created its own fault on the line. Allowing the town only two of three power phases could have damaged some electrical equip- ment, said Davis. Many buildings found they had power on only some circuits. Davis said the PUC was then able to isolate the Centralia line and sup- ply electricity to the town through the Seaforth line, something which can only be done in off-peak hours, he said. Full power to the town was restored by about 3:30 p.m. As for the initial cause of the outage, Davis said it is a mystery. The broken insulator is at the PUC's office, and although it might have been broken with a rifle shot. there are no marks to suggest that. "It may have been shot, but there's no proof," said Davis. Even though Thursday windy and cold, he said the in - was Exeter firefighters had to welt until power was Isolated from this downed power line Just north of town before they could put out the flhe the broken line started on the hydro pole. The power failure disrupted lives and business for much of Thursday afternoon. The cause of the line breakage is still something of a mystery, although a faulty Insulator Is being suspected. sulator should not have failed on its own. "It wasn't on a day you'd look for a trouble like that," he said. For most town residents, the power failure was an in- convenience. Some had to reset clocks. or reprogram televisions and VCRs. For businesses, the out- age cut into their business days, putting computers and telephone systems out of commission. Tom Scip at Seip's Valu Mart said while the store has battery hack up on its cash registers, after five minutes in the dark, the store had to make plans to close up be- fore the batteries ran down. "We did have to close the doors, unfortunately," said Seip, but said he was thankful that power re- turned before the store's freezers began to thaw. Once the town's power came back on, there was a rush of cus- tomers ready to resume grocery shopping. "Most people were quite under- standing about it," said Seip. MacLean's Home Hardware was able to stay open through the black- out, using emergency lighting, staff armed with flashlights, and battery back-ups on the cash registers. "We have a plan in place for when the power goes off," said Gary MacLean, but noted the store had to make do with two phone lines instead of its usual eight -line system.