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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1994-05-18, Page 1SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 BBQ Fundraiser Fri. - Sat. Help sup- port the student pro- jects at Exeter Public School • SEIP'S valu-mart 4 & 83 Exeter 235-0262 Serving South Huron North Middlesex Si Lanibton NM e• — •SUBSCRIBE! 1 choir, jazz band take home bronze medals II= all 11f you aren't subscribing to The Times -Advocate, you're missing out. 1 1 Use the coupon below and subscribe today! 1 Name: 1 Address City 1 Prov Postal Code 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada Within 40 miles - (65 km) addressed to non letter career addresses $30.00 plus $2.10 G.S.T. Outside 40 miles • (65 km) or any letter career address $60.00 + $4.20 G.S.T. Outside Canada -Sassootsd us 40 pw*.wt USE YOUR CREDIT CARD 00000000 00000000 Card No. Expiry Date U Visa U Master Card 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ❑ Cheque enclosed Return to, TIMES ADVOCATE 1 I 24 Main St. Exeter, Ont. NOM 1S6 111 mu SIM SIM NM ti Inside Library Centralia branch may be closed page 2 New businesses Entrepreneurs starting up page 5 Teddy bears Brownies support ambulance page 6 Police board Is it still necessary? page 13 Masons donation sending three boys to camp EXETER - Three boys will he going to summer camp this year, thanks to the generosity of the Ex- eter Masons. Big Brothers/Big Sisters of South Huron received a donation for $5(X) from thc Exeter Masonic Lodge last Wednesday evening. Kathy Gaskin, said the donation came as a surprise, hut was entirely welcome. "We were quite pleased. We didn't ask, it was just given," said Gaskin. The money, she said, will he enough to send three of the agen- cy's boys to Camp McGovern, near Orangeville. Hot air balloons set to launch Friday GRAND BEND - A hot air bal- loon festival this weekend makes up the first part of the Grand Bend Air Show. Passport buttons are being sold, granting unlimited admission to vis- itors both this weekend and next. Starting Friday and running to Sunday is the Hot Air Balloon Festi- val. Launches will be subject to weather conditions, but the public arc invited to come and capture the brilliantly coloured spectacle with their cameras. Next weekend, May 27-29, there will be a massive static display of aircraft at Huron Park, and the air show over Grand Bend. There will be parking at both sites, and shuttle bus service between the two. Enter- tainment and fireworks are to cap off the events. Anyone seeking more information can contact the Grand Bend Area of Commerce at 238-2001. Since 1873 Wednesday,, May 18, 1994 Fireworks Sparklers, Family pales, Bangers Celebrate Victoria Day Must be 18 vrs. dam Hae • GC G.S.T.) 90 cents South Huron wins gold at Musicfest By Adrian Harte T -A Editor EXETER - By all accounts, the South Huron District High School wind ensemble turned in a solid gold performance Thursday. The group claimed a gold medal in the national Musicfest Canada com- petition in Toronto. The school's concert choir and jazz band also earned bronze med- als in their classes at the five-day festival, which featured 9,000 young musicians playing in four hotels. The students returned weary from the event, but still had spirit enough to celebrate their achievements with a traditional fire -truck parade around town. The medals are the crowning achievement of what music director Bob Robilliard describes as a rel- atively young music program at the school. Only started 11 years ago, this year's crop of musicians are probably the school's best yet. Both the jazz band and wind en- semble won gold medals at the re- gional competitions in Hanover, earning them the right to attend the nationals. The choir won a silver medal in Leamington, and were in- vited to Toronto. "They played the best they've every played," said Robilliard of the wind ensemble's performance. Gold medal standing means the group attained a national standard. Only two other bands won gold medals, out of 20 competing that day. Laurie Coolman (left), Erin Kraftcheck and Chris Passmore were honoured for their accompani- ment of South Huron District High School's musical groups at Musicfest. Chris Passmore was also singled out for honours with her french horn solo in the ensemble's Concert Rondo, by Mozart. Other pieces in the performance included Jean Phil- lipe Sousa's El Capitane march, and Festivo by Nehlybel. "A lot of accolades for Chris on her work," said Robilliard. "It's not easy." Bronze medalists, the concert choir "sang the best they have ever sung," said director Ruth Claes- sens, adding that the group also achieved its first "choral music high". By practising for an hour and a half behind the hotel, surrounded by concrete walls, they were bom- barded by their own music. Claes- sens said even professional musi- cians were stopping to listen. Pieces performed by the choir in- cluded South African Trilogy, She- nandoah, Witness, and Russian Prince. Erin Kraftcheck, accompanying the choir on piano, was ac- knowledged for honours by the judges. Robilliard said he had to be hon- est about the jazz band's per- formance, describing it as "not up to their usual high standard". He said the length of the trip, com- bined with the fact the band were the second last performers of the entire festival made it hard to keep the ensemble sound together. Good solo performances contributed to the bronze medal standing, he said. Laurie Coolman, on trombone, was singled out for honours in the band's performances. Robilliard said, overall, the fes- tival, sponsored by General Motors, was an excellent chance for the stu- dents to hear the work of both other students and of the professional musicians at the nightly concerts. "It's probably, in my opinion, the best educational festival going," said Robilliard. Claessens said another positive aspect of the trip was the compli- ments the South Huron group re- ceived on their behavior, both at the festival and at the hotels. Ontario schools dominated the national festival, winning 40 out of the 74 medals awarded by Friday. MP speaks out for punishment of criminals By Catherine O'Brien T -A staff OTTAWA - For more than a month now, there has been much discussion about the American youth in Singapore who was sen-' tented to four months in prison and a lashing for his part in vandalism. It was with this issue in mind that Huron -Bruce MP Paul Steckle rose in the House of Commons last Wednesday to discuss Canada's fal- tering justice system when it comes to dealing rigidly with crimes, espe- cially in the cast of repeat offend- ers. In a statement to the House, Steckle said he wanted to address "a matter of great concern to all Ca- nadians." He told the House that some form of corporal punishment must be used to deter those how are habitually involved in crime. "There must be a greater sense of accountability and responsibility for actions committed by offend- ers," Steckle said. "Punishment must reflect the severity of thc crime committed," he said. "The present system doesn't work anymore," Steckle said in an intcr- view from his Ottawa office on Thursday. "People are coming back on second and third offenses and all we are doing is tapping their w• I:as." Steckle said -he decided to speak on the issue after spending months listening to other politicians talk about increased crime. As well, Steckle said that over the past 25 years he has heard peo- ple speak out informally against re- peat offenders. "But no one has the guts to say anything publicly," he said. "I couldn't have sat in the House for four or five years without speaking out on the issue." The MP said the bottom line was that there are people in our society who don't want to he governed by any law. He went on to say that re- spect and discipline were necessary to maintain some sense of order in society. He said order can't be achieved if thc innocent are not protected and thc guilty punished. "Only when the penalty adminis- tered advocates a deterrent will we have restored faith in our judicial o'Please see Steckle, page three Hospital grants two-week deadline extension to keep emergency open Doctors preparing offer to hospital By Adrian Harte T -A Editor EXETER - South Huron Hos- pital's emergency department will remain open for at least another week as the administration and lo- cal doctors work towards a new contract. Last week, the hospital issued an ultimatum to the doctors, stating the department would be closed weekdays unless they come up with a less expensive payment scheme for the on-call doctors. A contract last October with MedEmerg, a corporation that hires local doctors to staff the emergency ward, has expired. The contract guaranteed doctors $60 per hour to be on call to emergency, regardless of patient load. Hospital ad- ministrator Don Correll said the cost to South Huron was expected to be about $200,000 per year, but with a decline in emergency room demand, the hospital would have to top up the OHIP fees to the tune of about $250,000. "The $250,000 would bankrupt the hospital eventually," said Cur- rell, adding that the six-month con- tract with MedEmerg was funded out of a $137,000 budget surplus, now depleted. What the hospital board wants, he said, is an agreement with the lo- cal doctors similar to agreements reached at the Goderich and Wing - ham hospitals. Such a plan would cost South Huron only about $100,000. A meeting Thursday with the doctors quickly established an agreement to keep negotiations open for two weeks. "They felt the timetable was a lit- tle tight," said Currell of last week's deadline. The hospital has agreed to maintain the present fee schedule while the doctors prepare a counter offer. "All we said is we want ap- proximately the same deal as the hospitals around us," he said. The hospital can afford to keep its emergency department open weekends by using doctors from London who work for OHIP fees only. When asked why the hos- pital would not seek such an ar- rangement permanently, Currell said the issue is availability, and the fact that the local doctors are also best qualified to treat their own piitients. While the hospital needs to watch its budget, he said the "long- term thing is to keep the hospital open". A petition circulating in the com- munity, expressing support for the emergency ward, is appreciated, but Currell asks "what does it mean?" Is the hospital being asked to spare no expense to keep emer- gency open seven days a week, wonders the administrator. One man who called the Times - Advocate said the main reason he moved to Exeter from Grand Bend The fight to save emergency services •The deadline to close the emergency ward at South Huron Hospital has been extended two weeks - to Sunday May 29. h ire current cost to keep seven doctors on call 24 hours a day from Monday to Friday is about $250,000 per year. 'Ito hospital wants to keep that cost to $100,000 - similar to itWhat other local hospitals have arranged. Mite costs come from "topping up" on-call doctor's salaries to $60 an hour. If the emergency room is busy, the OHIP fees may cover the whole cost - if quiet, the hospital pays the full amount. •The expired contract was negotiated with MedEmerg, a London-based management company, which in -turn hires the services of local doctors to staff the emergency ward. *Emergency ward staffing on weekends is done by London-based •doctors who work for OHIP fees alone. was to be closer to the hospital's emergency services. At the heart of the problem is a lack of response from the Ministry of Health, said Currell, who has yet to address the issue of small - hospital emergency staffing. "We're still putting a lot of pres- sure on the ministry," said Currcll. "The minister promised us a solu- tion by December 31." The administrator said nego- tiations with the local doctors will have to be handled carefully, with an eye to finding the best way to keep the emergency department open. "It's just a terrible thing to have happened in this community. A lot of bridges can get burned that can't be rebuilt," he said. Hospital chief -of -staff Dr. Linda Steele, who is heading up the doc- tor's negotiations, agrees there is a need for a long-term solution to keep the emergency room open. When asked if there is room to ne- gotiate a less expensive staffing agreement for the hospital, Steele said October's arrangement was too costly. or Than see Doctors, page two