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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1977-03-17, Page 1.� , $aps running ng Even though the warm weather has taken away most of the snow, it has be • hard on the maple syrup producers in the area, who like cold nights and warm days to bring out the best sap. Here, Doug Vanderhaar of Goderich Township checks one of the 2,100 taps on the sugar bush he works with his brother Fred. The season didn't start until late February, and may be over if the warm weather continues. (News -Record photo) zx ^ " CliOntario 25 cents Th Marcli\* ^� �� ~....~~°° Year � ���[n�° 'm -m . -- �� �N��U�K�K ���w,^»W« w� 1977 m 9m6 H1 10 MARCH 8 41 16 0 48 36 10` 49 36 11 52 31 12 49 38 13 52 42 14 ' 50 36 111 LO 28 19 33 18 34 25 31 19 39 19 44 23 35 l8 Rain .9O^' Snow 3'/ ouncil afarmers' mK not s i te 13y Chris Zdeb A proposal by the Clinton Businessmen's Association tO operate a farmers' market this summer was blessed by tlie town fathers last Thur.; sday night. The market will specialize in selling fruit and vegetables grown by Huron County farmers living around Clinton, from early June to the end of October. Heather Ross, vice-chairman of the Businessmen's &meociatino, told council the market would operate in Clinton Community Park, near the arena, from o:30arnto|znoon every Saturday. The associaUon plans to hi.re a market clerk to oversee the event each week and onyoroe rules and regulations. The councillors were told that the farmers would be charged a minimal fee to 'run their stalls, enough to cover the costs of the clerk's wages and advertising. In talking with people who onerate farmers' markets in Kitchener, London and BurUmgtnn, the Association hopes to e^ avoid dzob\ema the other markets encountered in starting Out. Mrs. Ross said. Council approved the market's location in the Community Park after turning down the Businessmen's Association first choice, on King Street in front of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food building. The locption would have attracted travellers passing through the intersection of Highways 4 and 8, but was turned down by council because it posed too many problems with parking -and traffic control. Council approved the Comniunity Park site noting that it offered more room for parking, a playground for children and washroom and snack bar facilities. In case of rain, the market could be moved into the community centre, another Alva,ntage of the park - site. . 4�r � � ���o����������� aidSflQW� � ������� ������������� coming for removal Huron County engineer Jim Britnell - says the provincial government'svery•little to the county. financial aid program for areas hard hit by snoremoval costs this year, means Despite one of the worst winters in 50 isNew mayor inducted Clinton's 44th mayor, Harold Lobb, • took the oath of office before last Thursday's council meeting, promising 1. to devote his time and talent to the job, but declining the power of the position. His reference to time; talent and power followed the official blessing of Rev.Johnwho referred to Oestreicher, the terms in his speech. "I know l have a lot of time; l hope l have the talent; l was never one for -power - decisions are made by council, not by n`e." the mayor told his council and an audience of 15 spectators. Be commended reeve Royce Macaulay for standing in as the town's mayor since the death of mayor -elect Don Kay last December and praised the council for its service to the community so far into the term. "I hope we will get co-operation from fa By Jim Fitzgerald With today being the wearing of the green day, a name like' Fitzgerald is right at home. But on a more sombre note, St. Patrick's day maybe serves to remind us too much of our heritage. A great deal of the trouble in this won- derful country of ours comes from the fact that there are too many hyphenated Canadians, like Irish -Canadians, • French'Cunadiane, Italian -Canadians, etc. Maybe it time we started just being plain Canadians. f f-1- The wearing of the green is corresponding nicely this year with the • greening of the \awna, as the weather certainly is conducive to spring thoughts. We noticed Tuesday, that the buds were openingnnthecurrentboobeo in the backyard,' and if things keep drying up the way they have |ute\y, general gardening chores will become the order of the day in a week, and hopefully the snow shovels can bonootb- bm|\edyoronutberyeac f ff ' And with such a the ice damageand Mouse damage showing up, it's rather appropriate that the local Horticulture Society is having a neat little seminar on bridge grafting of winter. Orchardist Ross Middleton will provide the instruction at the Town Hall next Wednesday, March 23, beginning at 8p.nn. fff Due to the unfortunate the unfortunate diath of Nancy Weber, wife of Mustang 'coach Bill Weber, there is nojunior game tonight, Thursday ,-'.--� the ,.'-_- ^ourwomx night. Instead., o�aumu travel to New Hamburg for Saturday night date, and hopefully, will play the fifth and deciding game here Sunday night at 8 p.m. However, the Colts will host Port Elgin here Thursday night, in what has become a very close series for the Grotip championship. ^ ff4 Oa piece of sage advice this week_ cdrnes courtesy of the Clinton Kinsmen's bulletin: "Man, Possibly., could live twice as long if he didn't spend the first half of his life acquiring habits that shorten the other half." the people who elected me and the council, and 1 ask the co-operation of the councillors over this two-year terrn." Lobb said. While welcoming the community's ideas and constructive criticianoa, the ew m.ahas some ideas of his own he would,like to, see come -about includjng the' installation of public washrooms in the town hall, and an office for the mayor to . make the elected officials. accessibie to the people. Lobb, 61, was elected to the office of mayor last Monday, March 7, taking 673 of the 1.292 votes cast. yaurs. Britnell told the News -Record Tuesday that only three ,nDmicipuUtieu in the County would qualify for gover- noopot subsidies to cover budgets that were depleted bJanuary to o It has been suggested that Goderich, Ashfield and Morris Townships may be the onlY municipalities in Huron to receive assistance based on the fact that they have spent 20 percent more on snow clearance in the first four months of 1977, than in the worst similar periodin the Iast four years. "The program will help areas like the Niagara Peninsula where they get very little .snow each ^,4�rar but. Witt. municipalities in the snow belt feel the formula (for assessment) is unfair," Britnell said. —Representatives from several area municipalities attended a meeting in Stratford last Tuesday, March 8, when the ministry of transportation and communications outlined the workings of its fil laid The majority of municipalities walked away from the meeting dissatisfied complaining that instead of using the average snow removal costs for the last four yearo, the ministry is using the highest year with inflation factor. Instead of submitting an average cost of $165,963, the Countmust use the costs for \0TSwhich totalled $238,2O%..'besaid. To qualify for governrnent assistance, Huron County must have spent 2Uper- cent more than io`)978br$283.440. `'Byusing the b( b t year, the County has suffered losing about $70,000 in eubaidiou." Britnell said, "that is unless costs are raised further by more snow in March." As far as the counties are concerned, only Niagara and the Picton'area will be (continued on page 3 Six-year-old boy life saves young Quick action by a six-year-old Clinton boy is credited with saving the life of a two-year-old boy on Sunday. S,cotty Glew, 6, son of Mr. and Mrs. Randy Glew of Erie Street is credited with saving Timothy Elliott, 2, son of Mr. and Mrs. Garry Elliott of Erie Street. The two were crossing Erie Street back to the Elliott home along with several other kids, when young Tim slipped and fell face down into an open ditch in front of the bouoe, filled with 18 inches of water. Scott jumped into the ditch and grabbed Tim by the scruff of the neck, hauling his face out of the wmter, and seconds \ater, the two Yothera. Randy and C;urry, hauled the duo out of the ditch. u^` A��0_J& M���� ����� ������� ww0wr ww�� m�°��� , ~ The -unusual spring weather of the past two weeks I'm taken away most of the snow, and ht many peopleback outside to warm their winter -weary bones in bright hiHere a group ofxldmnfm0lowx dlscuss the world at the main intersection of Clinton. In the back are HmrnY Freeman, left and George 0Natin, while in frontMarshall Young, left, makes mWant with Ernest IVIbGme.(Nmvmm~Rmmord photo) . .� .The ditch has been yearswith residents on the end of Erie Street for several years, with several com- plaints being made to town council. Mr. E;iiott said on .Monday that the house is 'surrounded by water the spring becaus'e\the.water can't get away. "We've been after the toWn for two to open the drain because it's a problem problem all year," Mr. Elliot,t said. Parents in the area try to keep the children under constant watch, but can't keep them locked in the house all the time. A report by the ministry nyhealth last summer showed the ditch is also con- taminated with human waatp, and recommended the town put in sanitary sewers as soon as possible. ° has first woman member By Chris Zdeb Clinton's recreation committee up: pointed three new mmbers to its ranks, including the first woman since the committee was formed in 1967. Cleo Colquhoun, Paul Draper and Don Wright were appointed to the committee last Wednesday night, March 9, bringing the total membership up to 11, one member less than the committee has hudsince)n7z.. ' The three successful candidates were chosen from 10 applicants on the basis that all three had young families ac- tively involved in the town's recreation. c'tive\y|nvn\vudind`atn!vn'oreureadon. The appointments .Were made to fill four vacancies on the committee but only three were chosen in an attempt to bring the membership figure in line with the bylaw passed in 1087/ which stipulates the committee must have a minimum of seven members. The three members fill the facancies left by former chairman Len Fawcett and members Russ Archer and Bill Crawford, who alt resigned in February. An earlier vacancy was left with the death of Don Kay. The Wednesday night rneet|nQ, with new oha|rmnbn "Poss" .Livermore in the chm|r, also organized its arena and parks und pool sub - Com m itteeS. ub'Cornrniueog. Doug Knnnedy will chair the arena committee with members Run McKay, Pennis Jewitt. Paul Draper d Don Wright. Dean Reid will chair The parks and pool com rnittee composed of Laiiky Reinhart and Frank MacDonald. Mrs. Ross said the market is planned to attract more shoppers to the town including cottagers from Bayfield and Grand Bend "who would love to jump into their cars and come to the Farmers' Market for some fresh fruit and vegetables."veQe�obie�� When questioned by Reeve Royce Macaulay if the market would interfere with the fruit and vegetable sales made by the town's grocery markets, Mrs. Ross said none of the grocery merchants had complained against the market idea. She added that once leaving the market, shoppers would stop into the grocery stores and purchase other goods. Having approved the idea of the market, council will now draft a bylaw allowing the Businessmen's Association to operate the market on a non-profit basis. householdThe newset addition to the Devine is hugged by the three who saved him from the dog trap last week. Lee, left, Guy and seven year-old Matthew say Rex will have no trouble fitting into their present menagerie. (News -Record photo) �� leaves school��~���L�����[�����.� ByChris Zdob Clinton Pubtic Schoolis short one raspy voice when the students stand to sing 0 Canada in the mornings. 'Old Rex' never could carry the tune, but the students had gotten used to looking out the classroom windows and seeing him howling along at the top ot his voice. Rex'mbrie%Inuaicu\career began March \, and ended abruptly 10 days later on the day of his adoption. A black and white part -Collie mongrel dog, Rex, came perilously close to having his singing career ended for him permanently by town dog catchers untit the Devine brothers stepped forward. Lee |/. Guy 0.and yeven-ynar-o\d Matthew Devine boarded the school bus home last Thursday afternoon taking the newest family member along with thern. A happy ending in true fairy-tale style that almost endqd tragicatly. "The dog came to the school about.10 days ago, " school secretary Flo Symons told the NewsRrcnrd last Thursday, ' and cvenbpunt-the*eekmndbore." Sleeping outside the school and living off the sandwich scraps shared by the school's students,, Rex had adopted the school children as his family, all 600 of them. "Whenever an adult started heading for the door to go into the school. the dog would slink away," Mrs. Symons said, "but he always came up to the students. Be`rna\ly loved the kids." Rex had no dog tags, d ap- parently no home, although urne of the students had learned that once owned byoVuuaaurafamily, Rex had been given away to a friend in Clinton, w.ho had given up caring for the animal. The Clinton Police were catled in and on surveying the dog situation, decided to catch Rex with the dog trap Thursday night. School principal Al Taylor went on the public address system and told tirstudenta that unless a home was found for Rex he would have to be destroyed. That noon hour, every parent in Clinton with chitdren attending the schoot was pestered for permission coallow unew pet into, the house. The Devine brothers who live at Vanastra and stay at school for lunch phoned home and were told Rex could be adopted if the boys found some way of bringing him home. When the 3:30 school bus pulled away from the uchuo), a mon.g its passengers were three happy boys and onevery happy dog. Rex is the first stay animal to be taken in by the Devinee, but it is definitely not the family's first pet. He joins a menagerie cnns|adngny a miniature poodle, three cats, one bird and tWo tanks of fish. ' "Rex won't have any trouble ottinAalong with the other dog or the cato." Lee Devine said, "He'll fit ribt|n.^ �� y� ����,�_��~�,����~�~ ���� ~~ ~~ patrolplanned "Bombs Away" and "Head Up" may soon disappear from the vocabulary of Clinton shoppers if Council decides to hire the town's first pigeon catcher. frbbUcWorho chairman Ernie Brown told council last Thursday that retired sportsman Mery Batkin has offered his services to help dwindle the town's m(Beonpopo\mtiii-ti. Using a self-made pigeon trap or a ready made contraption that sells for ^x. Batkin claims he can cut down the 'oo or so pigeonsthat can the town's shopping core "Home". The trap is large enough tO hold 10-12 pigeons at a time. Once taught, they could find themselves auctioned off at the Kitchener Farmers' Market. The suggestion met with the/initial approval oy all council members but a final decision on Bmtk|n'a offer is pen- ding further investigation. eo'din8yurt6erinvmsxigat|mn. One thing for certein, the day the town hires a pigeon catcher witl be a sad day for local dry cleaners. _~`^~~~-~-____` - .� '