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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1979-06-21, Page 1114th year -- No. 25 Thursday June 21, ,1979 35 cents Production off 40% White bean crop takes nosedive by Jim Fitzgerald Huron County may soon lose its title as the bean capital of Canada if a trend continues in the county ky farmers. White bean plantings 1n the county this year are down about 40 per cent, according to agricultural experts. This means 25,000 fewer acres are in the consumer crop in Huron this year, Canada's leading white bean growing area. "It (the number of acres) could be down even more, because some of the beans in the southern end of the county are kidneys or colored beans," said Mike Miller, associate ag rep with the ministry of agricultural and food office in Clinton. Mr. Milller said there are several factors causing the decline in the white bean acreage, including the better price for alternate cash crops like corn and soy beans, poor harvest conditions the past several years, which caused great field losses, and dissatisfaction with the Ontario Bean Marketing Board. "With the corn futures holding strong at $3 a bushel, and soys up around $8 or better a bushel, compared to $15 a hundred weight for white beans, many farmers decided to switch," Mr. Miller said on Tuesday. He noted that the 8,000° to 10,000 acre soy bean acreage of last year has probably crept up to around 16,000 this year, with the corn crap up marginally. Despite a very late start in seeding because of a cold and wet spring, Mr. Miller feels that if the county ex- periences normal weather for the rest of the growing season, then growers can expect to have "an average year." Although the area could use a good rain, Mr. Miller said the dry June, so far, as meant the hay crop has been an good one, coming off in good shape. The winter wheat survived the cold Well, and is now in full head, "but it could use a good rain too," he said, as could the spring grain, which was late getting planted. A soaking rain would also help make the herbicide sprays work better too, some farmers say, especially on the recently sprayed fields. Mr. Miller said the canning peas are in bad need of a rain, "We coul,d use 25mm right now." The 19 employees of the Clinton Work Centre of Bell Telephone, went on a legal one -day strike last Friday, and picketed the Clinton workshop on Mary Street. They workers are part of the Communication Workers of Canada,a London based local who are seeking a new (contract with Bell. Without a contract since last Novemeber 30, the workers are seeking a 17 per cent raise, no more forced overtime, and more employees for the understaffed Clinton office, which serves a wide area including Goderich, Clinton .and down to south Exeter.(News-Record photo) by Shelley McPhee Clinton council firmly stood by their decision when Cliff Hallam asked last week that the town pay to have an open ditch drained on Erie Street. At their regular meeting on June 11, council said that they would not pay to have the open ditch tiled despite Mr. Hallam's ,opinion that the town should In talking with Mr. Boussey later, The News -Record was informed that the average cost to have a water main extended to an unserviced lot can run into thousands of dollars. Mr. Boussey explained that in the case of Mr. Hallam's neighbour he had the main extended a block -and -a -half. The by-law regarding this cost says pay since it ran across his property and --that the two-thirds cost can be divided made his garden -soggy. Deputy Reeve Ernie Brown noted, "Most of the • ditch is in the street allowance. I don't see why we should pay for this." ' • ,'.-• Mr. Hallam also spoke to council about the payment that he must make to have water brought up to his new home. He said that the Clinton PUC in- formed him that he would have to pay two -third's of the cost to bring water up to the property line of the new dwelling. The PUC pays for the cost of the water main. Mr. Hallam noted that his neighbor paid $3,000 to have this done and went on to say, "He should have his money back and I shouldn't pay, that's high- way robbery." He reasoned, "If a person's going to build a house he should have his water brought in." "We pay taxes in this town and what are they doing, paying for a town hall that should be blown up," he went on. Mr. Hallam threatened that if PUC manager Gus Boussey came near his home again he would, "put him on his • rectum." Mayor Harold Lobb suggested that Mr. Hallam attend the next PUC meeting where the problem and remedies could be thoroughly discussed. equally between owners of property on either side of the street, with the remaining one-third of the cost to be collected by the PUC. 'fThe by-law has been in existence fir • the past 50 to 70 years," Mr. Boussey stressed. "When the water main' was extended to my home I had to pay too," he said. Mr. Boussey noted that in most cases, people developing a subdivision must pay 100 per cent to have the water mains extended to each lot. In other cases where a developer isn't involved, the land owners must pay themselves as was done on Maple, Walker and Gordon Streets in recent years, for example. "We just go by the Ontario stan- dards," Mr. Boussey pointed out. Regarding whether this cost should be included in taxes he noted, "Taxes have nothing to do with hydro and water." He explained that the PUC operates as a separate business and the town has nothing to do with it. In some cases the cost to extend the water main can be paid through taxes if residents in the particular area petition the town to put the extension under local im- provement. If neighbors refuse to pay one-third of the cost of extending the main, the person applying for water service can formulatean agreement through a lawyer saying that people on the other side of the street cannot build, buy oN sell until they pay- their share of the costs to him. Weather 1979 1977 June 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 16.5 3 21 4 22 10 30 14 30 21 30.5 17 22 10 No Rain 25 12 15 17 20 23 23 8 6 2 5 11' 17 14 The Huron Board of Education summer. school , trial .program will definitely proceed, but some changes were announced this week by principal Doug Ellison, a teacher at South Huron District High School. Due to a lack of interest by students in new credit courses, none will be offered. This will result in a time char a tfor the classes to be operated at Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton. The summer school will operate for -only two hours, rather than the four- hour period that had been planned. Classes begin at 8:30 a.m. and conclude at 10:30. In view of the time change, students will only be' able to take one course, although Ellison said he hoped the shorter time would result in more in- terest by students throughout the county. "Students can now leave Exeter at 8 a.m. and be home''by 11 a.m." he,ex- plained. L. The main interest to date has come from elementary school students who wish to take remedial English or mathematics. Students in grades seven and eight are eligible and already about 70 have signed up, from both public and separate schools. There is still space available for secondary students wishing to take driver education. Ellison expects a number of secondary school students to sign up for improvement courses once they have ascertained their grades in the exams currently being conductedfin the Huron schools. It is hoped that there will be enough student interest to offer mathematics, English, history, geography, science and French. . Students may make application until June 29 at their home schools and late registrations will be accepted at Clinton up to July 3. Classes begin July 9. Four special interest courses are planned, including tennis, badminton, girls' gymnastics and theatre arts. Registrations for these classes are to be made July 3 and 4 only at Central Huron or by phoning 482-3471. Buses will operate daily from the secondary schools in Exeter, Goderich, Seaforth and Wingham. Dear doctor Page 3 Bill Smiley Page 4 Raceway entries Page 6 Bayfield Bugle Page 10 Nurses retire Page 15 Hall needs study Page 18 Classified .. . Pages 20, 21, 22 Blyth ready Page 23 Whose legs are best? by Shelley McPhee The duties of a town official, can be extremely varied and can on occasion take a slightly unusual course. Such will be the case when the Clinton Mayor Harold Lobb, Reeve Royce Macaulay and Deputy Reeve Ernie Brown show a seldom seen part of themselves to the public. Although there may be some problems convincing Deputy Reeve Brown, Mayor Lobb and Reeve Macaulay will be fighting for Clinton against other municipal politicians in a contest to see who has the best legs. The fun competition is only one of the events planned for the Olympics at the July 7 opening of the Bayfield arena. Other elected and appointed officials from area municipalities will also be allowed to take part in such com- petitions as a golf putt, hamburger cookout, hot dog eating, water balloon toss and fly casting. Judges for all the events will be MPP Bob McKinley and MP Jack Riddell. Reeve Macaulay volunteered to take part in the golf putt but was heard muttering, "I wish there were races, I'm pretty quick." ' While Deputy Reeve Brown remained silent and slightly uncertain over his possible upcoming duties, Mayor Lobb, in the true spirit of a leader exclaimed, "Don't let our town down." by Shelley McPhee People who have been enjoying the benefits of frozen assessments on their older homes for at least the past decade Unfortunately for all my enemies, I'm still here. I didn't have a heart attack while doing the Fitness Test on Monday, so you'll have to go back to hoping I'll get hit with a piece of the Sky Lab spacecraft when it lands next month. The spacecraft is supposed to put on quite a fireworks display as it burns up when it re-enters our at- mosphere. Some of the pieces ap- parently won't completely burn up before they hit the ground, so watch out. Actually, the descent of the $7 billion craft will be the first example of government spending going down. And the provincial government won't allow it to land in Ontario, as fireworks are illegal here. +++, Well, fallout or no fallout, today (June 21) is the first day of summer, and sadly, the days start getting shorter, but the kids, who get off of school next Wednesday won't really notice it until Labor Day. + + + Last night was also the night the Clinton old boys were to play donkey baseball, so this could very well be my last column until the bones all knit.. + + + Further to our musings in last week's column about that no parking zone around the arena. If yoti have got a ticket there, you can tear it up, 444. by jim fitzgerald as it seems there is no by-law backing them up, and any judge will throw the case out of court. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against council's and the police's wishes to keep a fire lane open on the street, but they should ban it on the inside of the block, and also try and find alternate parking in the arena area. We've already had complaints from several ladies who attended a Monster Bingo recently, and received tickets. They swear they'll never come back to Clinton. + ++ We'd like to congratulate l6-ye6 old Pat Stackhouse of Lon- desboro,who won the novelty division at the Hensall Fiddle Festival last weekend. Pat is able to play the fiddle and tap dance at the same time, a feat few have ever accomplished. + + + "Be glad you're not a cat," says the town wag. "Then the living would cost nine times as much." + + + Several events worthy of note next week include the annual senior citizens week, and the opening of the Clinton Kinsmen Raceway this Sunday. All those in town who are beneficiaries of the Kinsmen's generous donations frqm profits raised frori the raceway, will be wishing thein the best Mr the coming 15 Sundays. may have a shock in the future. Following the path of many other municipalities, Clinton Town Council has passed a motion requesting the Ministry of Revenue to review assessments in Clinton. While new homes are assessed at their true value, no legislation has been passed to re-evaluate older homes. Since this hasn't been done, concerned municipalities have found that they Police -report may have a route enabling them to review assessments under the provisions of Section 86 of the Assessment Act. They are asking the government to look into this. To calm the fears of some, Clinton Clerk Cam Proctor explained, "By re- assessing the older homes, municipalities would have more assessment and therefore taxes could be lowered." Truck in tight squeeze As proven More, it's almost im- possible to manoeuvre two vehicles, particularly a large truck around the corner at Clinton's main intersection at the same time. Nevertheless, on June 17, Clinton Police had to pry a commercial van and pick-up apart after they both tried to negotiate a right hand turn from Albert Street onto Huron Street. The van driven by John Cahill, 21, of London went undamamged while the pick up driven by Douwe Greidanus, 44, of Londesboro received $400 in damages. A car driven by John Plumtree, 70, of Albert Street, Clinton received $400 in damages while a car driven by Donald Budd, 29, of Princess Street, Clinton received $200 in damages after the two collided at the corner of Orange and Huron Streets. No one was injured in .the June 17 accident. The Goderich OPP reported that a Seaforth man, received $1,000 damages to the van he was driving when it was in collision with a car, on Highway 21, south of Goderich. No one was injured in the June 16 accident when the van driven by William Read, 54, of Seaforth and a car driven by Jack Bender, 22, of Bayfield collided. Damage to the Bender car was set at $800. Councillor leaves Clinton post due to health At their regular meeting on June 11, Clinton Council heard that Joe Atkinson would be giving up his chair on council. The resignation, expected in July, comes after Mr. Atkinson was told by his doctor to give up his work on council for medical reasons. Mr. Atkinson was elected to council this past November. He served as chairman of the industrial committee and had also served on council for a term in the early 1970's. With the resignation, council will have to appoint another Clinton resident to fill the empty chair. The appdintment will be made through an election of possible names gathered by council. Larry -Bunn wall be spending many hours this summer standing in this pose. . The 18 -year-old Bayfielder is making his first steps at a career in Law and Secuty �r Management, a couir a he will study at Fanshawe this fall. For the sum r, Larry will be actin as a By-law Enforcement Officer for Clinton. This means giving out parkin ticl4ets and Larry will be patrolling on a regular basis. (News -Record photo) \