Clinton News-Record, 1978-11-23, Page 1•
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The public works truck for Clinton was full on Monday and
Tuesday as crews spend the two days replacing 4 stop,
yield, and street signs knocked down early Sunday morning
when vandals went on the rampage. Any person who may
have seen the vandals at work is asked to contact the
Clinton police, (News -Record photo)
Tuckersmith rete won't
by Wilma Oke
Tuckersmith Reeve Ervin Sillery
told the press last Tuesday night at the
township's regular meeting that he
won't be seeking the Warden's chair.
Reeve Sillery had indicated earlier
he was going for the Huron County
Warden's post since he had been asked
to run, but he has since changed his
mind.
Election for the position takes place
in Goderich on December 12,
Council refused -a request from Jacob
Thalen to rent the road allowance in
Vanastra at the end of Fifth Avenue
(closed over two years ago by council)
to park trailers he .hopes to sell along
with his furniture business.
The ministry of communications and
transportation notified council that the
main gate to the former Canadian
Forces Base (now Vanastra) was not
on the roadway owned by the province
but was located on township property.
The stone gate posts are located on
private property. The entranceway has
been closed for a number of years due
to increased traffic on Number 4 high-
way since the war years.
The ministry was replying to
council's letter asking who was
responsible for the upkeep of the stone
pillars now showing signs of
deterioration. Mrs, John (Edith Dale)
Baker had expressed her concern to
council some time ago on behalf of a
group interested in preserving the
gateway, the Huron Historical Society
and other interested persons.
Councillor Frank Falconer ex-
pressed a lack of interest in preserving
the stone pillars or the iron gate. Reeve
Ervin Sillery showed more concern and
requested Clerk Jack McLachlan to
contact Mrs. Baker to inform her to
work with the owners of the land on
be warden
which the pillars are located.
The clerk reported that to date the
• 3,189 residents of the township had
purchased 111 building permits this
year for $1,692,000.
Council awarded the tender for the
repairs to the O'Brien drainage works
to Gohcon Ltd. of Dundalk. The Gohcon
tender amounted to $3,561.60 the lowest
of five submitted ,agreeing to begin
work on the drain this week. No ap-
peals were heard on the report on the
drain at the court of Revision and a by-
law was passed accepting the
engineer's report.
Council granted a request by Clifford'
Holland of RR4 Clinton to move a house
(his former home) from: •Hullett
township to his lot in Tuckersmith -
north half of lot 35, concession 1, Huron
Road Survey.
Approval was given for a tile
drainage loan for $11,000.
Two poles lost in one night
The Clinton Police reported two
separate incidents this week,where two
hydro and traffic poles were knocked
off.
On Nover40- 15 a tractor trailer
dri v en i)y--46&grIZW,, 79, -or It&
Clinton failed to negotiate a right hand
turn onto Huron Street from Albert
Street. The rear wheels of the trailer
owned by Lakeport Steel of Goderich
hit a PUC concrete pole and snapped it
off. Damage to the traffic light and pole
was estimated at $6D0.
On November 16, on Victoria Street,
south of Mary Street, a second PUC
pole, valued at $500 was knocked to the
ground when it was hit by a tractor
trailer driven by Harvey Ropper of
Port Elgin.
The trailer was parked when the
driver let the air out of the tanks on the
trailer for the brakes: The truck then
took off backwards a few feet and
struck the pole, breaking it halfway off.
Nearly $2,100 in damages were
received to two vehicles on November
15 in an accident at Maria Street and
the Bayfield Road.
A vehicle driven by Joseph Mahon,
36, RR 2, Seaforth was westbound on
Maria Street, approaching the Bayfield
Road when the brakes failed. A second
vehicle driven by Jade Guilbault, 22,
RR, 5, Clinton was nuthl?,9144 on Kin&
V.reet, when the 'first vehicle couldn't
stop it hit the second driven by
Guilbault.
, • Damage to the vehicle Mahon was
driving was set at $300 and $2,100' for
the second vehicle.
On November 17 two ears received
$2,100 in damages after they collided on
Albert Street.
A car driven by Richard Welch, 22 of
Clinton and a car driven by John Wood,
18 of Clinton were both northbound on
Albert Street when the two vehicles
collided.
Damage to the Welch vehicle was set
at $1,000 and $1,100 to the Wood car. A
passenger in one of the vehicles, Keith
Brighton was taken to Clinton hospital
where he was treated for minor in-
juries.
One Clinton boy has been charged
with theft and two others with wilful
damage after a November 16 incident
where a battery was stolen from a
clus..
A picture is worth a thousand
words, they say, but a picture can be
worth a thousand little white lies as
well. That's what happened to us at
the News -Record last week, when
we misled the general public,
something We go out of our way to
avoid.
In a caption under a picture of the
voting poll at Clinton last week, we
said that the workers had very little
to do, which was not the truth.
They were in fact very busy
because even though the voter
turnout was only 20 percent, all five
polls in Clinton were combined into
one and run by just two clerks.
Normally, each poll has about 350
voters in it, so you can see that with
slightly more than 500 voting at one
poll, the ladies were indeed busy,
and several times were faced with
line-ups.
Our sincerest apologies to all those
concerned. Now that I've got our
foot out of our mouth, we can go on to
other things.
+++
Certainly the main topic of con-
versation around 'town this week,
(other, than the one about the 43
destroyed stop signs) is the
threatened closure of the Clinton
swimming pool, and it appears as if
the town hal) will be packed tonight
(Thursday) for the 8 p.m, meeting to
discuss the future of the pool.
, Like Many other things in Clin-
WA'S past, it takes an etnergency-to
geta., people o f their apathetic butts
de something. Whatever the
donsettstteatipinion, citizens should
got behind the red conitnittee 100
percent,
+-4-+
, P091)1te the HO in Price for pork
first
column
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i;;" , „ •;1;
and beef, and lately the debate about
the expensive cost of turkeys for the
upcoming Yuletide season, a local
fellow, who shall go unnamed, tells
us that after coming in late one night
he found out that the costliest meats
are still a woman's hot tongue and
cold shoulder.
+++
Even though we have recorded our
first snowfall on Tuesday morning
that was little more than a skiff,
'already the seed merchants are
wooing their customers and the first
catalogue of the new season crossed
my desk last week.
And for those of you who think gold
and platinum are expensive, get a
load of some of these prices. If you
wanted to buy an ounce of geranium
seed, it could cost you $238, while
some hybrid pansies list at $300 an
ounce. Several special petunias sell
for $520 an ounce., but that would get
you 235,000 petunia seeds, and unless
you have a desire to put in an acre of
the prOtty annuals, then it would be
a pootinvestment.
Th0 dearest seed we could find
Wa4r4h really a seed at all, so if you
wiri101,536 will get you an dunce of
fern spore!
+++
The fire siren went twice on
Saturday, once at 10 a.m. and again
shortly after the test blow at 1 p.m,
but both alarms proved false. •
+++
And so far, the response to our
pleas for recipes has been en-
couraging, so We would be Most
grateful if you druid have those
favorite recipes • in to us by this
weekend. Send or bring your bes
ones to the News-Itedord or 1119
Fairholme Dairy truck and a Canada
Bread Truck was wilfully damaged.
Two local juveniles have been
charged with possession of stolen
,,,PEoPeAtY.,1.41- IfieADrOtegignall .EdIrce:
The charges followed a theft on
Turn to page 3.
andals break 42•
signs
by Shelley McPhee
Despite a recent surge of senseless,
irresponsible vandalism that caused at
least $2,100 in damages throughout the
vicinity, most area municipalities,
other than Seaforth and Clinton, find
that vandalism and cases of willful
damage are on the decrease, or
remaining steady.
Between the hours of 5:30 and 8 a.m.
on Sunday, November 19 it was
reported to the Clinton Police that 42
wooden stop, yield and street signs
were knocked off throughout town. One
witness told the, police that a large
brown car was seen knocking the posts
off at TheiroUnd leVel •
During the same time the Goderich
OPP reported that several rural
mailboxes were knocked off and it was
reported that a large brown car drove
'through the frost fence at Ross Scott
Fuels in Brucefield in an attempt to
steal gas. As well, four stop signs in
Brumfield were knocked off.
The OPP found a picnic table from
the Ex -Cello Wildex Company in the
Bayfield River, 11/2 miles east of
Varna. A gas fertilizer tank, stolen
from Brucefield was also in the river.
The Seaforth Police reported that
six signs were.pushed over in town and
in Egmondville. As well, 18 signs were
pushed over along the Highway 8 from
Clinton to Mitchell on the same date.
"Although there were 42 signs in
Clinton, it was only classified as one
occurrence," Clinton Police Chief
Weather
1978 1977
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Lloyd Westlake reported.
He also noted that during the time the
incident occurred, one police officer is
on call at his home. They go off regular
6dua.rn.
ty at 3 a.m. The shift then changes at
Chief Westlake doesn't think the
number of police -related problems are
great enough in town to warrant round-
the-clock duty.
The charges of willful damage in
Clinton are on par with 1977, he ex-
plained. Last year, there were 31
reports of willful damage, so far this
year there have been 27 reports with a
total dollar value of close to $1900.
IVIO-if cases involving young people
from the ages of 16 to 25 concern broken
windows and doors and incidents in-
volving cars.
"Booze is generally involved," he
added.
"Then they go home and sit with
their mother and father, like little
angels," Chief Westlake said.
In Seaforth, Police Chief John Cairns
is very concerned with the increasing
problem of vandalism.
While in Goderich and Clinton, cases
of willful damage remain second to the
problem of thefts, Chief Cairns said.
-"Here it's our biggest problem. I'm
working on some numbers now."
"I just can't figure it out," he added.
"Booze has a lot to do with it."
In Seaforth, Chief Cairns finds that
generally one group of boys and girls,
are causing the problems. Some are
high school students, many of them
are dropouts.
"They get into the habit of it. They're
repeaters," Chief Westlake said.
"Girls very seldom get into trouble
and don't getpicked up," he explained.
Chief Cairns noted that the police
charge the same group, week after
week, "but they come back for more."
Seaforth is policed by staggered
shifts ori the week nights with round-
the-clock duty on the weekends
still not enough," claimed Chief Cairns. le
Chief Cairns strongly believes that
some form of stiffer penalties'• -r -is
try to get the courts to make full
restitution."
"The best deterent is to make the
kids work and repair what they've
damaged," he said.
For instance, he' offered, if a
teenager damaged a town flower bed,
along with the fine he would also have
to clean up the bed.
This may have some bearing on the
reason why Goderich vandalism is on
the decrease. It is down 19 percent this
year from last.
"The bulk of these minor," Chief
King explained.
11e went on, "We find that repeaters,
are doing it. The bulk of teenagers
don't do willful damage. As well, the
town has special events on Hallowe'en
for the kids."
This year in Goderich, a dance was
held at the high school on Hallowe'en
night.
"We try to control our Hallowe'en
pranks and we've concentrated on
areas where we expect vandalism," he
added.
However, Goderich's decrease in
vandalism could only be a temporary
situation.
According to Chief Cairns, Chief
Westlake and the Goderich OPP,
vandalism comes without any pattern
or reasoning.
Constable Ken Armstrong from the
Goderich OPP said, "It comes in
spells. One. month there'll be nothing
and the next month lots."
Chief King explained, "It's one of the
most difficult problems for police to
solve, and it's hard to prevent as wall."
Chief King explained, "It's one of the
most difficult problems for police to
solve and it's hard to prevent as well."
Chief Westlake remembered, "When
I came here in 1968, the town was quite
busy with vandalism."
The police officials agreed that
Turn to page 3
needed.
Goderich Police Chief Pat King said
the penalties have gotten stiffer. "We
ountdown starts on arena
The countdown until the ice machine
is turned on at the Clinton arena has
started, with the successful pouring on
Tuesday of the concrete for the new
floor. •
In a "work bee" reminiscient of the
old barn raisings in the area in the past,
23 men from Dafoe Metallcrete of
London descended on the arena floor at
8 a.m. on Tuesday morning and 140
cubic yards, five hours later had the
first 41/4 inch layer of concrete poured.
Later in the evening, when the first
pour had set but was still wet, a second
layer of 20 yard special concrete, called
"tap rock," and only % of an inch thick
was poured. Then 8 men with power
trowels worked until 8:30 Wednesday
morning smoothing oft the floor.
Later Wednesday morning, another
crew moved in with special grinders to
give the floor its final smooth, dustless
surface.
The ice plant can be turned on 28
days after the floor has been poured,
but because the concrete is new, it has
to be cooled gradually, so skaters won't
likely take to the ice until Christmas
week.
Vern England, owner of Dafoe, told
the News -Record on Tuesday that the
floor may be good for up to 40 years,
because of its insulation and strength, a
combination of 4,000 pound per square
inch concrete, and doub'e reinforcing
steel.
He said, however, that no one yet has
poured a perfect floor, and some tiny
nearly invisible hairline cracks would
likely appear, but wouldn't mean
anything to the structure of the floor.
Meanwhile, the canvass took a
modest jump this week, and now is only
a few hundred dollars shy of the $50,000
mark, with $49,716 being raised so far.
Here are this week's givers:
Lion - Stewart Middleton $50.
Lion - Jens Anderson 52.
B.P. Oil Ltd. 200.
Harry Brown 50.
John R. Cooper ' 25.
Tom and Marilyn McMahon 25.
Arnold Crich and family 50.
Ron and Helen Young 50.
Mac Webster 10.
John Wyatt 50.
Gerald Blake 50.
Ron McCann 50.
Stewart and Annie Taylor 100.
Mr. Alex Townsend 50.
Bell Canada 450.
Royal Bank 900.
Bank of Montreal 900.
Clinton Community Credit Union 900.
Total to date $49,716.44
Lion - R.S. Atkey, Ken Pickett, Ball -
Macaulay, Ltd., Art Colson, Allan
Neal, Percy McClenaghan, A.H.
Jewson, Wiebe Postma, Stan Falconer,
Fred Deichert, Albert Valkenburag,
Mr. Emmerton, Seamus Doherty.
Bob Norman, Robert Hayter, Barb
Consitt, Gerald Hayter, Doug Reid,.
Allan Hayter, Doug IVIcAsh, George
and Betty Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Joe
Hart, Richard and Ramona Humphrey,
Mrs. Orville Blake, Mrs. Letitia Rid-
dell, Howard Grealis.
$90,000
Arena
floor,
canvass
'75,000
r
'60,000
'45,000
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$35,07
$22,000
'10,000
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