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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1976-03-11, Page 1Nt 10 25 16 22 14 26 14 33 29 33 23 30 •l1 Snow 10" - w 1 • dal Officials are stili very optimistic this week that they can keep the Clinton espitel open, despite an order from Ontario Health • Minister Frank Miller on "_ebruary 19 that they must close the Clinton Hospital as soon after April 1st AS pqssible. A delegation -from Clinton and Huron County met with Dr. Stuart Smith and the Liberal caucus on Tuesday in Toronto, and the Clinton delegation returns today (Thursday) to meet with Premier William Davis and Mr. Miller. Dr. Smith on Tuesday told the delegation that, contrary to reports, he was against closing down the smaller hospitals to -save money. He said the health budget needed to be cut, but closing community hospitals was not the way. Included in the six -member delegation that met an hour with the Liberals were Clinton hospital board chairman 'Art Aiken, Auxiliary memberPeggy Menzies, Clinton administrator Doug Coventry, Goderich councillor Elsa Haydei Dr. Michael Watts Of the Her Q► County Medical Association and,' Dan Murphy, solicitor for GoderiCh Alexandra Marine and General Hospital. The Clinton board 4s so confident that premier Davis and Health. _Minister Miller will listen 'to reason, that they have scheduled their annual Meeting for next Monday, March 15, where , among other things, they will elect directors /Or the 'next two years Alternative plan not acceptable An alternative plain to keep Clinton reported $800,000, if the other, hospitals Instead, Goderich hospital ad- Public Hospital open, and yet still meet in Huron would co-operate with Clinton, ministrator Jim Banks offered -'to give Health Minister Frank Miller's demand and come up with a similar saving. the Clinton Hospital the 20 -bed that,000 be saved has met with In a closed meeting last week, it is psychiatric unit from the Goderich oppos tion from two of the four other believed that Clinton offered budget,ocut four haat iss to and of let Clinton retain hospitals in Huron County. $400.000 or 35 percent of their their While Seaforth and Exeter Hospitals while Seaforth and Exeter agreed to emergency and X-ray facilities. haave agreed to cut their budgets to help come up with a $150,000 cut between Clinton his tisn't what ninistratorwe h ope dofor,"" Clinton stay open, Wingham so far has them. flatly . refused and Goderich Alexandra Clinton officials asked that Wingham said after the meeting last Friday night. Marine and General has said they will and Goderich hogpitats each cut $100,000 Last Monday night the Goderich give Clinton the 20 -bed psychiatric unit from their budgets, but they refused. continued on page 2 they were given at the closed Goderich • fight • Psychiatric Hospital, but nothing else. ion c t m i ,, t e e will ecce . t alternative plans o closing e 62 -?bed Clinton Hospital anti saving a Hulett pledges to give hospital 1,OO Hullett Township council last week agreed to set aside approximately $1,000 for -extra legal fees incurred in the struggle to save Clinton Public Hospital • from closure by the Ontario govern- ment. This was decided at their last council meeting which was held in the Lon deaboro Community Hall, on Monde,. March I. In other Hullett Township council business, 5500 was granted to the newly reorganized Mullett Federation of Agriculture. The council has instructed the road superintendent to tender for 18.000 cubic yards of gravel to be screened, hauled and supplied by October 10. The application of Wilfred Whyte for a tile drain loan on lot 1 and 2, Concession 4 and 5 was accepted by the council. An application has been referred to the Ausable-Bayfield River Authority concerning a petition from Glenn Nott for an extension to the Gibbings Drain. Jim Hunter of Clinton, chairman of the Clinton Hospital Action Committee, or the Concerned -Citizens' Committee, said Tuesday night tl'iat. the committee is tronger than ever and will continue to fight to keep the Clinton Hospital hpen. Mr. Hunter, who is also a Clinton councillor, said that his committee will concentrate this week on the appeal to Health Minister Frank Miller and try to bring 'pressure on the Goderich and Wingham hospitals to help keep Clinton open. Mr. Hunter said that his six -member committee, v�rhlch nista has a further volunteer staff Of 151manning°their office in the Town hall, has had unprecedented co-operation from the people of Huron county. He said that donations and offers of help were pouring in and he estimated that over $2,000 has been collected so far. Included in the donations are a cheque for $500 for a woman in Auburn, 5250 from the Legion, $100 from the Fish and Game Club, 5220 from the Clinton council, a pledge of 51,000 from Hullett Township, several hundred dollars from local businessmen, and donations of time and material from businessmen such as the Clinton Commercial Prin- ters, who donated 5,000 pri ted sheets and envelopes. and 125 tape recordings from Grove's Electric. Mr. Hunter said the tapes were sent to each of the 125 Ontario Members of the Legislature last week. On the tape recording was a song by Barb Hodgins of Vanastra and an appeal to keep the hospital open. So far, 15 persons have volunteered to man the Action Committee's office, in space in the Town Hall donated by the Town council. The. Huron County Federation of Agriculture will approach rural town- ship councils in Huron, Mr. Hunter said, to urge them, to protest to the Wingbam and Goderich: 'hospital boards to oo` operate in saving Clinton Hospital. Clinton council, meanwhile will ap- proach other town councils to ask them to appeal to Wingham and Goderich for help. "Should our appeal to the Premier fail on Thursday, then we would initiate legal action on two levels," Mr. Hunter said. A coalition of closed hospitals will seek legal action on one level, and each hospital would start its own legal action against the closing, Mr. Hunter said. Meanwhile, the Action Committee has started an advertising campaign on a local radio station to try and drum up more support. ' By Jim Fitzgerald So you're having trouble .telling the temperature in Celcius measuring the snow in centimetres and the rainfall in milimetres? Well, hold your hat,'cause on April lst, the weatherman is throwing another curve at us. From that date on the wind speed will be measured in kilometres per hour instead of miles per hour and, get this, barometric pressure will be measured in kilopascals instead of inches. Try figuring that one out. - + • • + F There were several hundred frustrated people in this area last Friday, as not one single person from this area was able to get through on CFPL's Open Line show 'and talk with Health minister Frank Miller. Although several people were able to get through the busy lines to the radio station, none reached Mr. Miller, and the radio station Clenles they screened the calls. And to top it off, Mr. Miller wondered at the end of the show why no one from Clinton phoned + '+ + Like Health Minister Miller, who says he has received 1,000 letters a day on his hospital closing antics, the News -Record has also been deluged with letters. and we hope to publish them all in due course. +++ While we er"aped last week's ice storm unscathed, our friends and neigh- hours to the south suffered through a great deal of hardship, and some of them ire still without hydro: But they are thankful for the boys in the white hard, mita who have worked. unbelievably tong hours. to restore their hydrbr. including o. crews from the Clinton Public Odes Commission who worked until ay night in Exeter and Hensel!. J t they never have to return r. We can do without that kind off` Snapped like matchsticks Several fhpusand dollars worth of hydro transformers that were do this pole lie wr d ed on the ground last wink, after one of the worst ice storms in history hit County. This was just one of the hundreds of poles that was felled by the and hundreds of farms and houses were without power in Huron even (March 10). (Naws.Re rd photo) a Church marks 100th birdida by Mrs. N.F. Bei Over three hundred guests and .. nye n ers of R.rueetiel4 United Church attended Pioneer Sunday on March 7. The day was set aside to mark the 100th birthday of the church. Robert McKinley, M.r, John R'roadf+caot and Rev. E.S. Stephens ' welcomed everyone, especially former l" ! maters! Rev. Don Stuart and Rev. Harold Wright, who. were in charge the service. The choir, compoaed of former mesnbers. sang, while Mrs. lrt: sic Henderson accompanied thern on the organ. During the offering Mr. William Pepper played the Violin accompanied by ...s, ilenderson. ter the service & social hoar and a iuh t5 hod Reforo for church Ceoteooial An unique event took place at Brucefield United Church last Left to right. are Mrs. Lorne Wilson, Mrs. Jean Cairns, Mrs. Sunday when some of the Young Peoples' Group of 1908 Alice Ham, Mrs. Mame (Mary) Swan, Fred Burge (95 returned to help the Church mark its Centennial. The years), Mrs. Gertrude Wright and Mrs. Mabel Munn.. original group rang the bell that they bought for the church (News -Record photo) in 1908, the only piece of the church saved from the 1971 fire. Gordon Hill • Farmers need help in land saving By Susan White The Ontario Federation of Agriculture will reverse its stand in favour 'of pittierving farm land, unless the public is willing to share the costs of keeping good land in agriculture, OFA president Gordon Hill predicted Saturday when Huron Federation members presented briefs to local members of parliament in Clinton. The reason some farmers are ','saying the hell with it" is that the cost of protecting land is "falling entirely on the farmers who own it." Society has heard farmers say that the land should be preserved, but have paid no attention to•the rest of the message ... that everyone should help pay the costs. Farmers on land that is zoned agricultural are "lacked in, with the cards stacked against them", Mr. Hilt said, and the Federation is under a lot of pressure to reverse its stand. - Huron -Bruce MPP Murray Gaunt said he was "startled" by Mr. Hill's com- ments. "Bfit I can understand ; society benefits, farmers pay the costs." Federation members presented briefs on financing problems, finding, a market for No. 4 beans, the planning act and on income protection and other issues and asked the politicians for answers. Federation got questions in return. Jack Riddell, MPP for Huron - Middlesex asked how farmers felt about Ontario's minimum wage being about 35 cents an hour .higher than in the US. Labour costs were cited as one reason that US canned fruit can be bought here cheaper than it costs Ontario farmers to produce it. "I don't think farmers like the idea of paying anybody substandard wages," Mr. Hill said. The OFA president said he saw two ways to improve farm. income, better border protection with tariffs and quotas or an income protection plan. The first choice is most acceptable, he said. , Federal MP Robert McKinley agreed. Worst ice storm ever "We've been sold down the drain (on tariffs) and I don't have to tell you who did it." He said the federal government had to negotiate -tile same protection for Canada's agricultural products, that the European Common Market offers its members. "We've got to get tough in negotiations, we've given up too much already," the MP for Huron -Middlesex said. Running through Saturday afternoon's discussion was the theme that development should be channelled north, away . from Ontario's class one and two farm land. "What do we do with our increasing population?" Mr. Riddell asked "Many in Huron want more industry to keep young people here; others say preserve agricultural land." "You get people to go north by building a power plant there instead of on Lake Huron on the county's prime farm land, Phil Durand, chairman of the Ontario Bean Producers Marketing Board said. "If there are jobs there, people will go" and he asked what guarantee there was that Huron young people would want to stay here even if there is industry here. "Let's face it, we'd all like our children to live close, but what's the price?", Federation president Hill said. "If land is paved over it will be lost forever." Huron's warden, Jack McCutcheon asked the Federa tion to support the County planners in their efforts to save agricultural land. "You may be locked in now, but in a few years you'll be rewarded. There's only so much agricultural land and we must always eat." To laughter from the audience he said, t won't be long nowbefore everyone'll want to get into the fast bucks that can be made -in farming." All three politicians agreed with the principle of a farm income protection plan, supported in a brief presented by Maurice Bean. Ontario wants the federal government to set up a Canada wide scheme, but MPP Gaunt says that's just an excuse. "Newman (agricultural minister William Newman) will have to take some responsibility here." continued on page 2 Stanley to conduct survey Stanley Township council last week decided to conduct a survey along with Tuc kers mi th Township to see if a senior citizen apartment is needed in Brucefield. Council has also received a 531,500 grant from the ministry of housing which is available to Stanley residents to improve or update their homes, through the Ontario Home Renewal Program. Some of the money loaned will be forgivable and some will beloaned at an eight percent interest rate. The rates will haw decided on the borrower's in- come. In other council business. council will advertise for tenders for 13,000 cubic yards of gravel for township roads. They will also be advertising for 130 tons of liquid calcium chloride. Stanley has granted the Bayfield Fire Department 51,000 for fire protection in the west area of Stanley Township. Grants of 535 each have also been given to the Huron Central Agricultural Society and the Hensall South Huron Agricultural Society. Support has been given to those op- posing the closing of the Clinton Public Hospital. Council will be writing a letter to the provincial government opposing the closure . 1,200 still without any hydra. There are still 1.200 customers without electricity in the southern tip of Huron and northern parts of Middlesex counties, after a cripliing ice storm lase' Tuesday, March 2. Primary power lines in Southwestern Ontario are being put back into shape, but it could be a month before the secondary cleanup is completed. There was 51.5 million damage caused to the hydro system by the storm in the two counties, and it will take extra work crews at least a month before the damage will be repaired. Manager for the Clinton area Ontario Hydro office, Walter Palmer, said repair work on primary lines (8.000 volts and ovelshoukl have been completed by last night (Wednesday) but it was too early to tell when the secondary line work will be completed. Crews from. as far away New Liskeard have as Aro/prior and N w Li k a been helping restore the temporary pnwerll s. Mr. Yatmer also said there were 105 miles of hydro line out of service in the areas just south of Clinton.. The storm damaged 40 percent of the Clinton area system which takes in Huron County from Goderich ,south, Perth County west of St. Marys, a northern strip of Middlesex County and a small portion of Lambton County in the Grand Bend area. "It will be a few years before our hydro system will- be_able to meet the same standards that were set before the ice storm affected us." -Mr. Palmer said. Mel Graham, secretary -treasurer of the Tuckersmith Telephone system said that by tonight (Thursday) the 150 people in the area without phones should be back in service. "We may develop trail -bibs for a while to come, but we'll be just as good as we ever were," he said. Area manager of Bell Telephone. Jim Scott, reports that everything is in good shape. "Those areas without hydro should be able to use their phones without any problem as long as the towns which run their service have their power back," Mr. Scott said Meanwhile, the governor of Michigan, William G. Milliken has appealed to I.J.S. President Gerald Ford to declare the tower portion of Michigan in a state of emergency . As of Wednesday morning. March i'0, 40,000 people were still without elec- tricity after being without power for nine days. They were affected by the same ice storm as Southwestern Ontario. Damage to hydro lines alone has been estimated at 10 million dollars. Mr. Milliken wants the lower' portion of the state declared a disaster area so they will be eligible for U.S. Federal assistance which 'will hasten the restoration of power