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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1984-09-05, Page 2e Times -Advocate, September 5, 1984 A READY FOR TAKEOFF — Elmer Rowe and Len Greb sit in the cockpit of a Piper J3, almost identical to the little plane in which both received their flying training. Decision on sewers is back to committee Stephen Township residents who live along Waterloo St. on the south-west boundary of Exeter will have to wait a lit- tle longer before finding out if they will be allowed to hook into the town's sanitary sewer system. The Waterloo St. residents came close to getting that ap- proval earlier in the year when the town's works com- mittee recommended that it be adopted by council. However, the matter was turned over to the executive committee when other coun- cil members asked that a study be conducted to deter- mine the capacity that will be. available in the sewer system for town growth. Contest won at Clinton "What does hay without a smell tell you? On what finger do you wear a thimble for quilting?" These are a couple of the questions fired at contestants during the first 4-H Reach for the Top contest held in Clinton August 28. Seven of the eight tentative teams competed and the Howberry Horse team was the eventual winner following the elimination rounds. The Blyth-Belgrave Beef Club was runner-up. Members of the victorious team include Rodney Van Eg- mond, Shona Rae, Linda Merkley and Sandra Shelley. They go on to represent the area in the provincial cham- pionships held in Durham on October 19-21. The Reach for the Top con- test was a project of Lisa Thompson, a member of the 4-11 Youth Council. She felt the competition was suc- cessful.."We had a really good turnout and everyone enjoyed themselves. I think it went really well," she said. The second place team, Blyth-Belgrave Beef, con- sisted of Paul Coutes, Steven Coutes, Chris Michie and Robert Gordon. Board given Park facility Stephen township council is turning over operation of the recreation annex at Iluron In- dustrial Park to the municipality's arena board. Council has set the fees for minor variances and plan amendments at $250 per application. Application has been made for membership in the Parks and Recreation Federation for Stephen township arena manager Frank Funston. Roads department employee Pete Wuerth has received a certificate for completing a course at the T.J. Mahony road school in Guelph. Council does not recom- mend the approval of a severance application from Ron and Wesley Riley at Lot 12, Concession 20. A grant of $50 was approv- ed to the Huron County Plowmen's Association. Arrangements are being made for a white pine tree planting ceremony at the con- servation park at the east end of Crediton later in September. PLAYOFF aggRWAY Playoffs are underway for the 25 participating members of the Ironwood ladies golf club. The club will wind up it's season activities on Wednes- day, September 12 with a potluck supper at 7 p.m. followed by trophy and prize presentations. i t t This week, town engineers B.M. Ross and Associates Limited presented a review regarding the capacity of the sewer facilities as requested by the executive committee to help them with their recom- mendation on the matter. The report indicated that commitments already made to approved subdivisions leaves only 100,500 cubic meters of volume available for future expansion and this would not provide capacity for the full development of the Pooley and Dow subdivisions which council estimate could total 254 residential lots if the property owners move to sub- divide their properties. Reeve Bill Mickle, noting the "considerable amount" of capacity that has already been designated, said that a proposed nursing home could take up to one-fifth of the re- maining balance and in- dustries providing upwards of 200 jobs in the future would take considerably more if the town attracts those industries. "It appears to me we should take a close look at controll- ing the amount of capacity designated for the lagoon," he said. The matter .was turned back to the executive commit- tee for futher study and recommendation. Proprietor of Sexsmith Leonard Greb is the living embodiment of Thomas Wolfe's description of a suc- cessful man: If a man has a talent and cannot use, it, he has failed. If he has a talent and uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it, he has gloriously succeeded, and won a satisfaction and triumph few men ever know. Greb has a talent for con- centrating all his abilities on whatever task lies at hand, and accomplishing what he sets out to do. He claims he would follow much'the same path if he had his life to live over. Clever. Well read. Tenacious. Disciplined. Opi- nionated. Venturesome. Farmer. Tool and die maker. Graduate engineer. Protege of auto pioneer Henry Ford. Company comptroller. Licenced pilot. Airport owner - manager. Patron and host of one of the larger Ontario chapters of the Experimental Aircraft Association. All these attributes, and' -many more, could be used in describing the multi -faceted personality and many achievements of the man who is master of all he surveys at his 100 -acre farm enclosing Sexsmith Airport at RR 1 Exeter. Greb's roots are deep in this community, going back to the time his German grandfather whacked down choice oak and walnut to clear 75 acres at Blackbush on the 14th conces- sion of Stephen one-anthone- quarter miles west of Dashwood. Greb's father moved his family to the present location northwest of Exeter in 1918, when Greb was a young boy. EMHA TICKET DRAW --- The Exeter Minor Hockey Association is busy selling tickets on a mini -van. Above, EMHA president Al Quinn sells a ticket to mayor Bruce Shaw. By Jack Riddell MPP Agriculture and Food Minister Dennis Timbre!' an- nounced that the Grain Finan- • cial Protection Program will be in place for the 1984 grain harvest. The Minister hopes that the program will be in place on October 15 of this year. However, the protection funds will not be retroactive. The program consists of four components: licensing dealers who buy grain; proof of financial responsibility of dealers; prompt payment to producers; and the establish- ment of funds to compensate producers in the case of default in payment by the dealer, or a shortfall in stored grain. The program will compen- sate for 90 percent of the value of the grain. Dealers who do not pay producers within 10 working days of the sale are considered in default. To remain eligible for a claim against the funds, pro- ducers must submit details of the default as soon as possible to Jim Wheeler, Director of the Fruit and Vegetable In- spection Branch at (416)965-1058. The grain financial protec- tion program will initially cover grain corn and soy- beans sold by producers to dealers. It also covers shor- tages in stored grain corn or soybeans held by dealers or by storage operators licensed under the Grain Elevator Storage Act. Sales of seed corn. sweet corn, popping corn, and corn or soybeans sold from one producer to 9ac1 :s fioii;nj,i Grain program another are exempted from the program. Bed Shortage in Ontario Hospitals In a previous report I refer- red to the death of a 47 year old woman in one of the Toronto hospitals and quoted the head of that Centre's neurosurgery ward, who blamed her death on failure to admit her earlier as a patient -- due to the critical bed shor- tage in Ontario hospitals. This prompted Liberal Leader David Peterson to write an Open Letter to Minister of Health suggesting the following: Expand the Home Care Program to include Alzheimer patients and those seeking home palliative care. introduce Homemaker ser- vices. first proposed in 1979. for the frail elderly and disabled. Review the present 'patient code' system. Develop standards to en- sure patients on waiting lists receive medical follow-up monitoring their condition. Develop standards to en- sure that patients are refer- red elsewhere when they become victims of bed shor- tage situations, whenever possible. Address the shortage of chronic care beds in Metro Toronto. The Metro District Health Council has claimed 450 additional chronic care beds, further to those approv- ed or currently in construc- tion, will be needed by 1993. Address the issue of hospital deficits which leave hospitals with no option but to close wards they cannot af- ford to keep in service. The deficits in operating costs in hospitals for 1964-85 are ex- pected to be $80 million. New Youth Corps Program Through a new program, Youth Corps the Ontario government is providing $15 million to municipalities to create jobs for 4,000 young people this year. The program is open to young people 15 to 24 years of age who have left school and have been unemployed for at least 12 weeks. Municipalities and their boards and commissions, non-profit community groups and Business improvement Areas are eligible to apply. All proposals must he co- ordinated through the municipality and have municipal approval. Project proposals should he submit- ted by September :30. 1984. Projects will be evaluated on a first-come. first served basis. Employees will be paid the minimum wage. Municipali- ties may not supplement this wage. When an employee remains for the approved duration of a project, a prorated bonus will be paid to that employee (eg. 26 weeks/$500; 12 weeks/$230. ) In addition to the wage sub- sidy. the Province will pay an allowance of 30 percent of wages (excluding bonus) to cover benefits, supervisory and other costs. Projects should ensure employment of each young person for al Mast 12 weeks. The maximum subsidy for any employee will be 26 weeks. An advance payment of 50 percent of the approved amount will be forwarded upon approval of the pro- posal. A further advance pay- ment of 25 percent may he ap-• plied for when the project is half completed. followed by final payment upon comple- tion of the project. Claim forms will be sent to each participating municipality "We enjoyed the extra depths of poverty", Greb commented wryly. Greb hadnowhere to go but up. He was the first area win- ner of an entrance scholar- ship to Exeter 'High Schpol, where he focused his studies on the science courses that held most promise for a future job. After graduation, the small, economical, second- hand machines. I never had a new tractor in my life, and I still have mine. They are like new. I wish I was young and farming. I would be in mixed farming, like I was before. I'd do a lot of sweating, but I'd make it pay. However, other matters keep Greb too busy to return to full-time farming. An in - PROPRIETOR — Leri Greb, manager -owner of Sexsmith Airport, stands beside the fireplace in the pilots' lounge. teenager joined his older brother on the assembly line at the Graham -Paige motor car company in Detroit. For a rural youth handy at fixing farm machinery, attaching the right rear fender on the endless stream of cars mov- ing down the assembly line was no problem. It became boring. There had to be a bet- ter way to earn a living. Hearing that Ford, then the biggest company in the world, would train successful ap- plicants as tool and die makers, Greb was one of 30 young men to apply. Three, all farm boys, were accepted. Greb was the sole Canadian. The apprentices were at once introduced to the intricacies of lathes, mills and grinders. As his job only occupied eight hours daily of his time, the ambitious young man enrolled in engineering at nearby Wayne State Univer- sity. Though cars were still selling, the miasma of the. Depression was settling over the land. Who knew how long one's present employment would last? Three years later, Greb received his journeyman's card, was ordered into a shirt and tie and moved to Ford's engineering department. Greb, one the few men alive who can claim to have work- ed under the great Henry Ford, stayed with the com- pany until it closed for the first and last time for four months in 1932. (Greb still buys Ford cars out of loyalty to his former employer. He nostalgically recalls his first, a 1930 Model A roadster he bought while aprenticing. He put 118,000 miles on the odometer, and could fix most trouble with a piece of fence wire). After a short stint at a paper mill (and the added bonus of having the hot steam cure his sinus condition), Greb joined an older brother in Kansas City, Missouri, who had obtained a franchise to sell x-ray and other diagnostic equipment throughout a four -state ter- ritory. He invested his capital, his credit and his facility with machinery. His junior status also dictated jobs like ingesting barium and blue dye to test the machines' performance. When Greb's father died in 1937, Len bought the farm. As soon as a younger brother ( a UWO grad with honours in math and physics) took his place in Kansas City, Greb returned to his childhood home in 1942 to take over the debt -burdened farm before it was irretrieJbably lost. He was determined to keep the farm in the family. Greb boasts that within a year he had turned the situa- tion around and made the farm show a profit through beef cattle, some hogs, a few laying hens and crops of beans, sugar beets and fac- tory corn. Within eight years Greb had retired his father's debts - back taxes, a first and se- cond mortgage, tradesmen's bills dating back to when the house was built, long -overdue grocery bills and personal debts to neighbours. Greb has strong opinions about young farmers. "Kids today are spoiled rot- ten", he says emphatically. "They should get humble, buy Pitch -In terest in aviation first spark- ed while blowing a year's sav- ings of $2 on a flight in an old Jenny that had seen service in World War I was reactivated when Len's oldest brother began pilot training in Missouri. A younger brother joined the RCAF and learned to fly Lancaster bombers, and the air locally was filled with Centralia -based Harvards and Chipmunks training young men as pilots in World War II. By this time the Greb com- pany had its own plane, and Len's brother would fly to Canada and land in the Greb hayfield. Neighbour Elmer Rowe was also interested in flying, and obtained his pilot's licence in 1961. Greb became a licenced pilot a year later. Never a man to do things by halves, Greb went on to qualify for his flight engineer, radio operator and navigator certificates. Greb and Rowe became joint owrters of a three -seater PA12 Piper Super Cruiser, us- ing an 80 -foot strip on the Greb farm as their runway. They built a hangar out of old scrounged lumber, and in- stalled an underground hand - pumped 500 -gallon gas tank. "The airport grew like Top- sy", Greb explains. Agriculture was enjoying a prosperous cycle, and farmers were purchasing their own planes. More and more bega n using Greb's facilities, and many asked permission to park their planes on the Greb property. (A 1,000 -gallon electric tank is proving too small for demand.) In 1970 Greb tore out a row of apple trees he had planted as a boy to build a longer, 1,900 -foot runway. Greb still mourns the trees, but pro- gress is progress. The little airport remained nameless until a call came from Kongskilde in Min- neapolis to the Canadian headquarters in Exeter. An executive wanted to fly up in his fast little Piper Cherokee 235. Was there an airport nearby? Greb was called and agreed to let the plane land on his airstrip less than two miles from the plant. But he needed a name. Fast. The little hamlet of Sex - smith one-half mile north of the intersection of the second of Hay and concession 5 and 6 had been settled by English immigrants who had worked together on art estate farm named Sexsmith in Devon- shire. (The Sexsmith news appeared in this paper until the last correspondent, Mrs. Charles Aldsworth, moved to Stratford at an advanced age after the second world war). Why not keep the name alive! Sexsmith airport continues to grow. A pilots' lounge and a maintenance hangar with room for three planes were added in 1974. Sixteen planes are accommodated in single hangars, and five more tied down outside. Greb has call- ed a halt to any more hangars; the demand became so great he had to say "no", or all his farmland would have been obliterated. Lucky aircraft owners ap- preciate the privilege of belonging to Sexsmith. Greb charges just enough for gas and space to break even. Tie- up at an airport like Button- ville would cost $75 per month, for example, and Greb charges $3. "Flying necessities are ex- pensive enough", Greb remarked. Sexsmith is home base for the 40 -member chapter 687 of the Experimental Aircraft Association. President Ron Helm, Exeter refers to Greb as the club's patron. "I love that old man. He's a fabulous character and a dynamic individual. We'd be A irp ort nowhere without him", Helm eulogizes. "Keeping an airport has certainly done a lot for avia- tion here", Association vice- president Ron Riley added. Helm and Riley agree Greb flies as he does everything else, with panache. Ap- propriately enough, that word originated with the Latin word for feathers, or a small wing! Greb often jumps into his plane and drops in at Greb X - Ray Company headquarters in Missouri for a business meeting: the family-owned company is still prospering, and has expanded to six US branches. Greb still has one unrealiz- ed dream. For years he has steeped himself in the works of Thomas Hardy, an English writer who set all his novels. in Devonshire, original home' of the founders of Sexsmith, Ontario. The trip will have to wait until after the tradi- tionial annual fly -in at the end of August, when 35 to 45 small planes will land at the airport. Their pilots will clamber out, still flyinghigh be greeted by Greb, and Greb can then relax, climb spend the day talking about into a huge commercial plane planes and flying. They will headed for Europe, and let so - pause only long enough to bite meone else fly him for a into a roasted cob of thesweet change. And don't be surpris-. factory corn still ill grown ro thby the cockpit! If he talks his way into the P p ! CORN ROAST — Don Lewis, Exeter and Emerson Penhale, Woodham, husk corn for the annual fly -in at Sexsmith airport. Plan public sessions on French immersion A French Immersion survey will be going out across Huron County the first week of school and will be followed by four public meetings. The Huron County Board of Education issued a press release last week which said the ad hoc committee on French Immersion, set up by the board this past spring, has prepared and distributed the survey. The surveys will be sent home to every family which has children in an elementary school, the press release states. The survey will also be sent home with nursery school children, and to as many other families in the county as possible. Copies of the survey will be available at school offices and at the administration centre in Clinton. The survey will be collected at the local schools on Friday, September 21. The ad hoc committee will also be holding public meetings at four locations during the next two weeks. All meetings begin at 8 p.m. and will be arranged to give infor- mation about present French programs and Immersion French programs. There will also be an oppor- tunity to ask questions of the committee. The public meetings will be held at Hensall Public School on September 12, Goderich District Collegiate Institute on September 13, East Wawanosh Public School at Belgrave on September 19 and Seaforth Public School on September 20. During October, the com- mittee will be visiting other boptds which have different types of immersion pro- grams. On No ember 6, the committee wilt hear opinions fromregional consultants and representatives from other boards, and provide an oppor- tunity for any local groups to make presentations. With the background of the survey, public meetings, visitations, consultant opi- nions, and presentations, the committee will then write a set of recommendations which will be presented to the board in January of 1985. The committee is compris- ed of five parents - Joanne Tood of Wingham, Mary Hearn of Clinton; Susan Wheatley of Seaforth, Don Scott of Goderich and John Remkes of Exeter. Trustees John Elliott, Frank Falconer and Tony McQuail, consultant Damian Solomon, teacher Florence KeillOr, principal Bill Stevenson and superintendent Arnold Mathers are other committee members. IDENTIFY DRIVER Exeter OPP have deter- mined that 21 -year-old Ronald Riley was the driver of the car involved in a fatal crash on Highway 83 on August 26. Riley suffered a fractured leg and severe facial cuts in the crash which claimed the life of 23 -year-old Kenneth Upshall. Both men resided at RR 2 Staffa. The vehicle slammed into two trees about seven km. east of Exeter around 3:00 a.m. TALKING BEANS — Hyland Seeds research director Don Littlejohn (second from left) tells farmers attending the W.G. Thompson open house at the test plots south of Hensall of some of the research results. CORN TRIALS Gordon Prance, Woodham (left), Doug Shirray, district sales manager for W.G. Thompson and Wayne Prance, Exeter, examime some corn dur- ing Thompson's open house at their test plots on Highway 4 south of Hensall. Thanked for accomplishments Park committee disbanded The committee which has planned and supervised the development of the Exeter community park over the past six years was disbanded by council, Monday. Jim Debfock, present chair- man of the Exeter and district grounds development com- . mittee, said the group's original goals have been com- lted and the responsibilities of the past achievements will now be turned over to council. "We all have a great deal to be proud of," he said in his let- ter, noting that the commit- tee's accomplishments in- cluded determining the needs of the different groups and that resulted in the installa- tion of drainage, a new hard- ball diamond, a new softball diamond with lights, a new agricultural building and a soccer pitch. Removed from the park were the old grandstand and several livestock sheds. Debfock paid tribute to the work of former chairman Ron Helm and Don Cameron, as well as committee members Gerry MacLean and Gerald Merrier. Council agreed to send a let- ter of thanks to all committee members and then approved a suggestion that a public thank you be prihted through an advertisement in this newspaper extolling the work of the committee and the ac- complishments that have been recorded. 4