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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1979-02-01, Page 1This skiing requires co-operation Trying to maneuver two boards across deep snow can be a real chore. Tim Arenburg, 9, attempted to lead his team- mates to a win, but the youngsters behind, Laura 1'owIle, 6, and Chris . Gill, 6, quickly tired of the competition. The children, from Grades 1 to 6 at Vanastra Public School all participated in a number of contests at Eskimo Day on Friday. (News -Record photo) Londesboro bank hit, robbers get $2,000, elude police blockade. The 'normally placid hamlet of Londesboro, five miles north of Clinton on Highway 4, was a beehive of ex- citement on Tuesday after two men held up the tiny branch of the Bank of Montreal. The two men wearing black ski masks, walked into the bank about 12.:45 p.m. and pointed. a sawed-off shotgun at the lone teller, Pat Thomas. The two demanded that she remain seated at her desk, while one rifled the till of about $2,000. They then ripped the two phones off the wall and dashed out the,rdpor and across the road and went behind Thompson's General Store where they had left their car. The robbers then headed east on County Road 15 in what witnesses Day care board seeks to eliminate deficit by Wilma Oke The Vanastra Day Care Centre board at a meeting here Tuesday night discussed ways of attracting more children to the centre in order to avoid a $6,000 deficit again this year. While there are 34 children enrolled at the centre, the average attendance is only 19. The centre is licensed for 34 children full-time. Councillor - William Brown of Egmondville, a Tuckersmith Township representative on the board said, "I want. to see, that6,000 cut, down.". He said he thought the centre should pay its way. He was informed that part of the reason for the deficit was because some local municipalities, from where the children come, do not pick up their share of the deficit from their children. The parents of a child pay $6 a day fee for their child. However, this does not cover the full cost for a whole day at the centre. The province pays 80 percent of the resulting deficit and the home municipality is asked'to'pay the other 20 percent for the child. • While most municipalities do pick up this deficit,_ others -have refused, including Clinton and Bayfield. At the present time, there is one child Snowarama all set The annual Huron Snowarama cross country snowmobile run to raise money for crippled children is all set for this Sunday, February 4. The Huron Ride for Timmy raised over $27,000 last year when 327 snowmobilers rode the 100 mile course. The route this year has been altered slightly, and will, start at Ray Potters Farm Equipment Dealership in Clinton, go up to Auburn, across to Blyth, and then back to Potters through Hullett Township. As in other years, riders get pledges for the number of miles they 'travel, and this year, the minimum pledge was lowered to $15 from last year's $30. In the Warden's Challenge, Chaiin- pion Road Machinery is offering a trophy to the member of municipal first column council with the largest amount of pledge money. The competitor bringing in the highest amount of pledge money will be the recipient of a $200 Bulova digital ,watch donated by Anstett Jewellers of Clinton. Organizer Joe Gibson of Hullett said that this year, lunch will be available at Clinton and Auburn, but won't be free in order for the committee to cut ex- penses. Gas can also be purchased at Clinton and Blyth. Local Lions, Kinsmen and Snowmobile clubsfor. Clinton, Goderich, Auburn, Colborne, Blyth, St. Helens, Hully Gully will be manning, the checkpoints through the•route, and will be able to give assistance to any snowmobiler: I must apologize to all you avid football fans for saying in last week's column that the football season was over with the playing of the Super Bowl on January 21. It actually, ended last Monday night, January 29 with the (yawn) playing of the Pro Bowl.. Oh, well, baseball training camp opens in a couple of weeks, so maybe they'll forget my error. +++ Well, seeing this is the first day of February, we shall talk about more sensible sports for this time of the year, mainly snowmobilin . And' this weekend marks the high point of that outdoor recreational sport when the annual Snowarama for crippled kids gets underway here in Clinton this coming Sunday morning. Furtherdetails can be found in a story elsewhere on this page, and we're hoping that area snowmobilers live up to their fine record for participation they have established in.this worthy endeavour in past years. + + + Winter will also be celebrated this coming week at Central Huron Secotfdary School, as they hold their annual winter Carnival. The Students used to hold their event in conjunction with a similarevent put on by the town, but since Clinton's Carnival has folded, the kids have been on their own. •EVents lined up at CHSS include tricYcde races, toboggan races and the annual student -teacher hockey game. • Another winter event that takes place every year about this time sees the old groundhog getout of his warm, comfortable burrow and venture up into the cold to decide if winter is over or not for humans. Well, • the ' News -Record photographic staff has been out every year for the past seven to get_a picture of the beast's shadow, but we've never been able to find a groundhog. And too, according to our score card from years past, whether the old "hog", sees his shadow or not on February 2, the Clinton area gets six more weeks of winter and sometimes more. In fact, since I've been, keeping track, we've had only three early springs since 1946. + ++ The day after Groundhog Day is Lions paper day in Clinton as the Londesboro club° embarks on their monthly collection in town. The club members ask, however, that you have your papers out at the curb before 9 a.m. on Saturday please. . + + -1- For For a change, area beef farmers are making money -Ton cattle, but most everyone tends to think that only fat cattle are fetching some good prices. Tuckersmith Township farmer Frank Falconer, however, showed us a bill the other day that revealed -that he go $1.25 per pound dressed weight fo a six-year-old bull he shipped las week. That's 69 cents liveweight. Watch the bologna prices soar now! 1 from Clinton and two from Bayfield enrolled at the centre. One of the Bayfield parents does pay commercial taxes at Vanastra to Tuckersmith Township, thereby making Tucker - smith responsible for the deficit for that particular child. While all ratepayers in Tuckersmith have to pay for the deficit on the children at the centre from Tuckersmith, they are also having to pick up the deficit on those children, not being paid by their home municipalities such as Bayfield, Clinton and &hfield Township. ,,,oto the child and how much it helped the As well, Tuckersmith ratepayers are mother so that she was able to go out to having to pay for a child from a single , work. "This is an educational school;" parent 4family outside of the township Miss McEwing said. because she cannot afford to pay her "I consider it a babysitting service -- fee. • a lot of money to look after a few Councillor Brown objected to the children, let the parents know they pay child getting free care at his or get let out," Mr. Brown said. ratepayers' expense and to the Turn to page 3'.• municipalities not picking up their own County could save deficits. He suggested these children should be cut out. "I can't see us looking after other people's kids," Mr. Brown said. Tuckersmith Clerk John McLachlan, who was at the meeting, said., "Well the province pays 80 percent of the deficit and you won't lower the costs of the centre by cutting out those children from non-paying communities. You would only hurt yourself." Karen McEwing, director of the day care centre, spoke of the learning value house builders millions BY JEFFSEDDON Huron County council learned Friday ,mthat it could spend $25,000 and save the county housing industry millions of dollars in interest. Months of waiting for approval for housing projects in the county can be avoided and huge interest,pa.yments on money raised by developers finance those projects can be saved according to a report given council by the county planning board. The project basically turns approval power for housing projects in -I4uron County over to county council. Any projects now planned for the county have to go to the ministry of housing for final approval and under the suggested system final approval, if no objections to the development are lodged, would rest with council. The bulk of the savings would lie realized by avoiding the provincial approval. Many plans clear the red tape of planning locally only to sit on the desk of the minister of housing for months. Developers are not permitted to start building until final approval is given by the province and end up waiting an undetermined amount of time. County planner Gary Davidson said the approval by council could result in "enormous savings". He said it could chop six months off the *waiting period that is a thorn in the sides of developers. He said the savings may be passed on to consumers meaning slightly .cheaper housing but pointed out that any decision to pass those savings on would ...be -t'ilde by developers. The planner said the project came before council because if council decided -it wanted to go ahead with it the county planning department would„ have to clear up -all its outstanding work by January 1, He said a junior planner would have to be hired by the county by the fall of 1979 to permit someone in the department to take over responsibilities ' created by the ap- proval takeover. In a report to council the planning board said the total cost of the change would be about $25,000. The initial setup of the system will cost about $1,500 and the salary of the junior planner to be hired is about $16,000. The remainder of the money will be used to set the adtininistration process to be followed locally. The .ministry of housing is eager enough to give local governments approval of developments to give those governments grants to set up systems to allow those approvals to be given. Ministry officials indicated that grants are available from the province for such a move locally. In its report planning board said the grants have only been suggested and no firm commitments or amounts have been given by the ministry. The board said the transition .-could be budgeted for over two years suggesting that $10,000 in 1979 would be enough to get the project off the ground with the remaining costs to be budgeted for in 1980. The board suggested that the system be shelved for 1979 but that an in- vestigation be continued as to subsidies which may be .available shouldthe Turn to page 3 • described as a green' car. A tea -sive police roadblock system set up on all major roads in the area failed to catch the two robbers, and as of Wednesday morning, they are still at large. The Londesboro bank, which is a sub- agency of the Clinton branch of the Bank of Montreal is only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and is usually only staffed by one person, as was the case Tuesday when Mrs. Thomas was on duty. Two of the witnesses, Mery Durnin and Brad Kennedy of Londesboro, were eating lunch in the Country Kitchen Restaurant across the street from the bank when they heard the alarm go off. They looked out to see the two men, who were in their 20's rush down the street and get into a car which then took= -off at high speed down the County Road. Brad phoned the Ontario Provincial Police immediately while Mery rushed across the street to check on the con- dition of teller Mrs. Thomas. She was not injured, but was badly shaken. In less than a few minutes, the are& was swarming with uniformed and plain clothes officers from the Goderich, Wingham and Mount Forest detachments of the OPP, while police from ,other detachments and towns manned road blocks in the area. A police spotter plane was even sent up to search from the air. The Tuesday hold=up was only the second in the Clinton area in the last decade. In 1971, robbers also held up the Bank of Montreal branch in Brucefield, another sub -branch of Clinton. • Corporal Bob Kerr, left, and Corporal Row Croskill of the criminal in- vestigation branch of the Mount Forest Ontario Provincial Police discuss clues tp a bank robbery in Londesboro last Tuesday afternoon. Police from several detachments and area towns were inviYlved in the search for the two men who made off with $2,000 after sticking a sawed-off shotgun in the face of lone teller Pat Thomas. (News -Record photo) Youth killed in snowmobile crash The. life rF Paul Lloyd McClinchey, 17, of RR ' Auburn, was quickly taken on the v .:kend after the snout mobile he was driving collided with a car. The Wingham OPP reported that the fatal accident occurred on Saturday on a township road near Auburn when the snowmobile and a car, driven by Reginald Schultz, 71, of RR 3, Blyth, met on the crest of the hill. Although the driver of the car was uninjured, a passenger on the snowmobile, Donald McIntosh, 15, of Brucefield was taken to Wingham and District Hospital where he was treated fora broken leg. In another incident, the Goderich OPP reported that John Bylsma of RR 1, Blyth lost two cattle beasts on January 27 after they were both in- volved in two separate single car crashes. The accidents occurred on the 12th concession of Hullett Township, near Sideroad 5. Richard Konarski, 24, of RR 1, Blyth received $1,000 in damages to the pickup truck he was driving when he collided with one cattle beast which was standing in the middle of the road. Earlier, a second animal was struck by Raymond Rammeloo, 23, of RR 4, Brussels. Damage to the car he was driving was set also at $1 ,000. The Clinton Police .were busy han- dling ,incidents of wilful damage over the weekend: Two cars at Dean Reid's Clinton Chrysler -Plymouth lot in Clinton received a total of $700 in damages after they were struck by an 18 -year- old Clinton youth. He will be charged under the Criminal Code. The cars, in for repairs, were owned by local customers. Charges, are pending on two other 18 - year -old youths, one from Clinton and fone from Zurich, after they damaged a . truck owned by Constable Wayne McFadden Sunday mowing. One youth handed a tire iron to the other who: smashed a window in the Constable's truck in,the early morning incident on January 28. The boys ha'd'earlier been involved in a liquor charge the same evening, and a third youth was charged in that in- cident. Two cars received damages totalling $700, but drivers and passengers were -uninjured in a crash on January 27. The Clinton Police reported that vehicles driven by Rudolf Ravbar, 42, of London and David Anderson, 19, of RR 5, Clinton, collided at the in- tersection of Railway and Victoria Streets. Damage to the Ravbar vehicle was set at $600, and $100 to the Anderson car. Weather 1979 1978 H1 lO NI ,10 JAN C C F F 23 -2 —7.5 21 0 24 2 —5 31 13 25 3 —2 32 27 26 1 —1.5 • 36 12 • 27 2 —2 23 17 28 0 —2.5 22 12 29 1.5 —4 21 10 Snow 10 cm Snow 14" Rain .89