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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1978-08-24, Page 1• • UMW • Polio booster cIjjJjcs Special clinics will be held throughout Huron County in September to adin.inister polio vaccination shots, the Huron County Health Unit has announced. The special vaccination clinics had been halted last week when they ran out of adult vaccine. However, there is plenty of vaccine for children 18 years and younger. 1.44 McHugh, a public health nurse at the' Clinton office of the Huron County Health Unit said that most of the children had been done in an ongoing process held during tie school year, Mrs. McHugh said that before the adult vaccine ran out, nearly 2,000 persons were given shots at the Clinton clinic. Ontario health minister Dennis Timbrell had announced that becausb' of a vaccine shortage, no further adult clinics wbuid-be held outside a seven, county area around the outbreak in Oxford County. The measure was taken so that available vaccine could be channelled to the areas where it was most needed. There have been .no new reported cases of the disease in the last week. Dr. Brian Lynch, Huron County Medical Officer of Health, said that once things get back to normal after the summer holidays, and vaccine supplies are replenished, then clinics will be held in Huron. "There's no real need for people in Huron County to have the vaccine right now,"Lynch said last week. Timbrell announced that a million 113th year —No. 34 Thursday, August 24, 1978 30 cents timing doses of vaccine are scheduled to be,, ready for a province -wide im- munization program in September, and another 500,000 in October from Con- naught Laboratories. Lynch said people overreacted to news reports of the polio outbreak in Norwich, in.Oxford County, but people have calmed down because the press has calmed down, he said. The current polio outbreak is at- tributed to visitors to Canada from an area in the Netherlands where fun- damentalist Protestant sects oppose immunization, About 100 cases have been reported in that country, but only four in Ontario. Health officials recommend adults get a booster shot every five years. Weather 1978 1977 NI LO HI l0 AUGUST C C F F 15 29 18.5 73 47 16 28 17 75 58 17 23 14 71 55 18 29 13 63 52 19 31 15 68 45 20 22.5 9.5 66 38 21 24 6.5 70 47 Rain 32.4mm Rain 1.60 in. Contractor has unttirrtaay to sign rn Clarence McDowell of Exeter, who last week was awarded the contract to replace the arena floor in the Clinton Community Centre at a tender price of $160,963, has until Friday August 25 to sign a contract with the town or lose his $15,000 deposit cheque. McDowell in a written letter to Clinton's engineering firm of James F. MacLaren "Ltd,, of London said he wants out ,of the contract, but ac- cording to the tender form, the con- tractor can't back out of any tender submission• before the tender is awarded and they must sign a contract - within seven days or lose a $15,000 certified cheque. The cheque is required when each company submits a tender to do the job. Council last week had accepted the McDowell tender after a two-hour closed meeting to which the press was invited. At that closed meeting, the Clinton recreation board and town council aeeidedw to. accept the tender, against the advice of their engineer and the town solicitor. The confusion all started three weeks ago when the rec committee accepted the tender of McDowell at a special meeting on August 3. The McDowell tender at $160,963 was the lowest of three invited tenders which included John Hayman and Sons of London at $202,648 and Kelly -Lyn Construction of London at $199,860. The acceptance of the tenders was subject to checking by the engineer and approval by town council, but then engineer Bill Knowles of the London firm of James F. MacLaren Ltd., Clinton's engineers, told the town that McDowell had made a mistake in his tender and forgot to include the price of first column the hot and cold brine system and would lose about $40,000 on the project. The engineers had estimated that the job would cost a total of $176,690 which included not only replacing the arena floor with a new, insulated floor, but also a hot brine system to prevent the frost from going down again and causing the floor to heave badly. Also in the contract was a new drainage system for the floor, modification to the west end` lobby, constructionof a new tractor room at the 'north •.end of the arena and replacement of the protective screens at the ends of the boards with tempered glass, Alllenders were invited tenders and eacl bid must be accompanied by a bid loan or a certified cheque. Both town solicitor Beecher Menzies and engineer Knowles recommended that the rec board and council let McDowell out and award the contract to.the'next lowest'bidder, Kelly -Lyn' of London. • • • • Should McDowell take the job, then the rec committee would have to raise about $80,000 from, donations, as town council said they won't put any tax dollars into the scheme. The Ontario government would provide $40,250 from their Community Centres Act grant, while Wintario would provide another $40,000 grant. The engineer and the rec board had hoped to begin the job last Monday and have their new floor ready. for ice by the first of next year. The engineer has said that the job couldn't be started until at least now, because of the extensive frost in the ground under the floor estimated to be 12 feet deep in places. Test holes scheduled to be drilled in the floor Monday to see if all the frost was out yet, weren't done. The arena staff has been running hot brine through the cooling pipes all summer to try and get the frost out. Rec chairman Poss Livermore asked that drilling not proceed on Monday if- it's fit's known for sure that the -floor can't be replaced this year. Meanwhile, the fund raising com- mittee is waiting for a final go ahead before they start canvassing the area for donations. Tom Trick had a hard time maneuvering his feet as he paraded around the Clinton Library. Park, Tom does not usually dress this way but donned this. special outfit to join with au group of other youngsters who led a hobo parade on Saturday afternoon. News -Record photo) School Board bans The Diviners from course BY JEFF SEDDON The Huron County Board of Education has finallbecome involved in a firey issue surrounding three English Literature books being used in the . five county high schools and decided Monday nigli't to bap one of the "" hree books from use in Huron county classrooms. The issue surrounding the ' three books — Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger and The Diviners by Margaret Laurence -- has involved hundreds of county ratepayers, students and teachers in the past months and in a surprise move at Monday night's board of education meeting, Seaforth trustee John Henderson asked the board to take The Diviners off its list of ap- proved novels. Henderson made the request when Goderich Twp. to get centre Thanks to the generosity of a deceased Goderich Township resident, people of'that township will be enjoying their own community centre within the next two years, at no cost to the tax- payers. Goderich Township council agreed at a special meeting last week to accept a bequest from the late Mrs. Pearl Woon, to be used exclusively to build a community centre in memory of her late husband, John, a long-time Communications in the rural areas of Huron County is about to suffer a severe blow that will set it back 75 years: the multi-party telephone lines began disappearing last week. , What this will do to the state of gossip around here is anybody's uess, but you can bet the rumors will be fewer and further between now, with only two and three party lines. At one time, the old 10 or 12 party lines were the only, source of com- munications, and news of events, notices of community happenings, and even some highly speculized gossip travelled along their wires. There are almost as many stories on use and abuse of the party line as there are people using them, but they were an important .part of our heritage, and will be fondly remembered by many. Nowadays, with good roads all Year, instant communication from every part of the world, and our growing independence of each other. the party line has become a nuisance, and most rural sub- s fibers are glad Ma Bell saw fit to get rid of most of them. Many Lake Huron beaches are among the best in the world, comparing to even the golden, girl - speckled sands of the Caribbean, according to a news item . in Bill Batten's •column in last week's Exeter Times -Advocate. Bill relates how a. crew from the city 'were filming a commercial on the beach at Grand Bend recently, but it didtr,'t have anything to do with extolling the virtues of that resort tpwrl. Turns out the Scene Will be used ,to pyo', o'te; airfll golden sands`. or the Caddo 5e winter, . when the la�+sdcl� a the t Will look more,like the Arctic Circle than a tropical paradise. Bill says that while CP Air no doubt was looking at the Bost element in using the Grand Bend location to depict a sunny winter's day in the Caribbean, one wag suggested it was a far different approach than what one of our senior levels of government would have 'chosen. They no doubt would have flown three film crews to the Caribbean for a week's shooting. Our apologies to the hard workers down at Zurich for that little fluff in last week's column. The Bean Festival is this Saturday, August 26. + -+- + Many persons in this area were gladdened last week when Ontario Premier Bill Davis announced that Frank Miller . would be the new provincial treasurer. You remember Frank? He blew into Clinton couple of years back, closed the hospital, and then breezed out again. Well+, the hospital's still open, thanks to a united community effort, but many people have expressed hope that Mr. Miller will see fit to close something in government to save some tax dollars. The local slo-pitch club, of which yours truly is a half-baked member (T would have said half-assed, but then the News -Record might be banned from the grade 13 reading list) has had an active season, and continues to play, some good ,and bad, but mostly fun ball over the `summer. - We've won as many as we lost, which, is some consolation, and this Thursday, night takeron'twth'�ef:giants of p°kP"•ay � t A! q,; •• ;r`... r o..er t �g���s �1�� ,° that i al halt r e u r n town '� us luck. 41 ishuc resident farmer of the township. Although the size of ,the bequest has not been divulged, it is believed to be between $70,000 and $100,000, and Deputy -Reeve Grant Stirling, who is 'also chairman of the township's recreation committee, said on Tuesday that the money had been put into a `special trust fund until required when construction of the building begins. "I'd like to see it up within two years," Stirling said.,"It will definitely be located in Holmesville, the only hathlet in the township." "It would be centrally located there and would serve the general public as well as township residents," he said. Sketch plans for the community centre, which would include a hall and a gymnasium, were shown at an en- thusiastic township recreation com- mittee meeting last week, but more public input will be sought before final specifications are drawn up. "We don't want to build a white elephant that no one will use," Stirling said. The bequest, along with a community • centres act grant and a Wintario grant could give the township from $125,000 to $175,000 to work with. "We're not too sure about the Win- tario grant, money's getting pretty tight," Stirling said after council had met with Wintario officials. Goderich girl Nancy Ross, 26, of Goderich escaped serious injury on Saturday night after the car she was driving rolled into a ditch. The Goderich OPP reported that Miss.R.oss was travelling on Highway 8 north of Holmesville when the car she was driving left the road, entered the ditch and rolled. Damage to the left side and roof of the vehicle was set at $1,500. Bevan James Bonthron, 29, of Hensall was taken to Clinton Hospital where he was treated for minor in- juries after the van he was driving struck a piece of farm machinery on August 16. The Clinton Police"said that damage to the Bonthron vehicle was set at $300. He had been travelling east on Huron Street in Clinton and was struck by a piece of farm machinery, protruding from an unknown,' red Ford pickup truck. The pickup was westbound on the board was in the process of ap- proving a list of textbooks for, use in high schools during the 1978-79 school year. He told the board the 'book was improper for use in county classrooms adding that he felt the board would be "slighting our job" if it allowed the book to be taught. The board meeting was witnessed by about 40 people, most of whom were members of the Huron branch of the Renaissance Group. The Renaissance movement is dedicated to "cleaning up our schools" as- Huron branch spokesman Lloyd Barth said Monday night. The whole question of the board approving material for use in the escapes injury Huron Street and did not stop at the scene. It was also reported to the Clinton Police that on August 21, $13 worth of gasoline was stolen from Malone Fuels self -serve station on the western limits of Clinton. The station attendant was unable to obtain the licence number but noted that the vehicle was a green half - ton truck. Storm leaves By Mary Chessell A vicious thunderstorm swept through the area on Saturday af- ternoon, knocking down trees and blacking out power, but there are no reports of serious injury or major damage. The storm, which swept off of Lake lstee touched down. rw'la sc sev e fit• arida thunderstorm that rat � swept th Vou g h � e tlast s t � �iht, w �h froth k�t rtieetet'iidiefe, treed 'were the end bidWitoiit of a barn on the farm of the late Ttxth Mackie) �� lcie, seattering lumber mbbean fief u er irr a c� There e e was also extensivedamage tt t0 hdilcll , and �'e+�a a`t age �tr e� Wayne Taylor fora'nearby photo by Mary Chessell) classroom came under fire prior to 'Henderson's request for banning The Daulners. Colborne Trustee Shirley Hazlitt suggested that the board's sanctioning' of books for use in classrooms was a "farce". Hazlitt said it "seems silly for the trustees to sit down and read a List of books they know nothing about and say yes you can teach this and no you can't teach this." The Colborne trustee pointed but that many trustees have been away from the classroom atmosphere for long periods of time and that many had no professional experience in teaching to know why material would be beneficial or not beneficial in a classroom. t just doesn't add up," she said. Goderich trustee Dorothy Wallace added that trustees are in no position to read a mathematics text or a science text and judge its merits or benefits for use and said she felt the same about English textbooks. Board chairman John Elliott told the board that the books in question were slated for use in the classrooms this year. He said they would be used in Grade 13 optional English courses in Central, Huron Secondary School h Clinton and South Huron Secondary Turn, to page 3 • damaged trail Huron about 3 p.m., hit hardest in an area from Bayfield through to Mitchell, blacking out the hydro, and blowing down trees. The viotent windstorm brought down a number of trees and large branches in the Bayfield, Brucefield, Varna - area. Mailboxes were torn off, and cars damaged by fallen limbs. A twister apparently touched down at Wayne Taylor's. His implement shed had the sides sucked in and one corner ripped up. Several sheets of steel were ripped off his barn and trees were torn off. There was extensive damage to his car's roof, trunk and fender. A wagon was ' moved about 50 feet, then the gravity box came off and landed 100 feet from the wagon. A section ,of barn at the Blackie place was destroyed, and at John Ostrom's on the Parr line, a spruce tree broke off about 15 feet up and landed on his car. Had the car not been there, they feel the porch roof would have been badly damaged. There were a number of power failures in the area as well. Mrs. Norman Baird of the Brucefield weather station said 18.4 mm (.70 of an inch) fell during the 30 -minute deluge. Don Eastman, operations manager at the Clinton office of Ontario Hydro, said a lightning strike on a tran- smission line between Clinton and Goderich knocked out power to parts of the county for varying lengths of time. Part of Clinton was off for 30 minutes, "' while some euston ere in Bayfield were out for 11/ hours, No damage to crops s was reported, p nrte d AS the spring grain is 96 percent lfaf+• vested.