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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1980-07-17, Page 1R47777- rT A Pool supervisor Steve Campbell looks over the new Clinton pool as it is being fiiled_with water this week and he awaits only last minute checks and approval from the Huron Health Unit before he can open the pool. Hopefully, the splashing will begin by Monday, but no definite date was available at presstime. In the background the training pool can be seen. (News -Record photo) Huron police forces to connect with Otta BY JOANNE BUCHANAN With the installation of a small computer known as CPIC at the end of this month, the Huron County - Municipal Police Commun:icatons System will become even more ef- ficient than it has already prove to -be. _ • CPIC. stands for Canadian Police Information Centre. This. Centre, which is based in Ottawa, contains information on stolen vehicles stolen property, wanted criminals, unregistered firearms, missing persons, etc. etc. When local_ police officers require , such information, they simply have to feed vehicle registration numbers, licence numbers, serial numbers or names into the small typewriter -like CPIC computer and they will learn what Near tragedy averted as boat flips on lake. by Bud Sturgeon Two Kitchener . area couples in - Bayfield -for. holidays, :were rescued. from, Lake Huron on Saturday night after a boating accident. There was a strong northwest wind blowing at dusk, and the 'Hobie Cat', catamaran they had recently- pur- chased, flipped over dumping the four into the ice. cold water. They were unable to right thb boat and the canvas deck sticking out of the water was acting like a sail, carrying theme farther out into the lake. Fortunately, Ian Schofield had his sailboat, the Suyaema out for an evening cruise and son Douglas at the wheel noticed the smaller craft in trouble. The Suyaema circled the 'Hobie Cat' warily looking for obstructions, then moved in close enough having to take down the mainsail for greater Turn to page 3. they need to know in less than a . minute. The CPIC computer will be in- stalled in the Goderich Police Station --Ciirrton-,--- Exeter and Wingham .as well as Goderich. • Up until now, those municipalities using the .Huron County Police Communications System have tapped into the CPIC computer at the Goderich Detat- chment of the Ontario Provincial Police, an arrangement which has worked smoothly but with occasional delays. - Goderich Police Chief Pat King points out that installation of 'CPIC will not cost the taxpayers any money. The $6,000 installation cost is being shared by the Ontario Police Commission and the federal gover- nment. The federal government is contributing part of the cost because th'e RCMP in Ottawa owns and maintains the system's computer hardware. The only item each municipality will have to pay for is the sensitized. paper which will be fed into CPIC. The Huron County Municipal Police Communications system has been in operation nearly 14 months now. It is ° the first of its kind to link small -municipal .,_forces _ together._ on. a_ country -wide radio network and according to its users, it has been an invaluable aid in police work. It is operating on a 1980 budget of $86,800: Thursday, July .17, 1980 ouncil gives BIA plan appoval By Shelley McPhee The Cli'nten Business Improvement Area (BIA) has received counci'l's permission to apply for a government loan to help pay for their_ proposed street renovation development. Council learned at their July 7 meeting that the BIA will apply for $67,243 to help meet the financial expenditures of the 'plan to improve Clinton's cure area. Businesspeople in the BIA area and the town will each repay 50 per cent of the loan over the next 10 years at one per cent interest. Clerk• Cam Proctor informed council that the BIA could disband after one year and then the town could be saddled with repaying the 'total loan back, however Mayor Harold Lobb noted, "I would doubt very much that the BIAgroup would Change their minds about 'fixing up the town." Councillor Rosemary Armstrong, agreed by saying, "The BIA are doing a great job. It's the most excitment in town since. centennial year." Councillor Rob Parr, council's representative on the BIA executive, noted that proposals to close Isaac Street and the sidewalk extensions at main intersections have been can- celled because of opposition from BIA members. - "We don't know what 'they're replacing at Isaac Street and what they're going to build," Councillor George Rumball said. "We have control over what the BIA can and can't do. Let them borrow the money, they have to apply for it by the end of the year," Councillor Parr explained. "Right now we're just giving them approval to apply to the government for the loan, we will still have to pass a bylaw to, borrow the money." "You understand that we (the ;.,to .:%1).-! b. czows"rthe .._m�.oney n.ot:the BIA,"Clerk Proctor said. "I'm a little bit perturbed that we don't have specifics. on their proposals." —"They've lumped it together in broad terms. Hill and Borgal'are supposed to be revising the plans," he went on . Councillor Parr noted that the detailed report on the renovations and Turn to page 3. Clinton police solve robberies Despite the state of disruption.atthe Clinton Police Station during the renovations to the town hall, the local force has been in top form and have solved three thefts this past week. Chief Lloyd Westlake said that two area youths had been arrested for the February 9 armed robbery ' at Malone's Gas Bar., at Clinton's west limits. • Doug Dodds, 17, who was working at the Gas Bar . was held up at knifepoint by two masked men who escaped on foot with $484. In other recent break-ins and thefts, three area men have been arrested for two thefts' at Wiseway's Home and Building Centre and three youths and . one juvenile have been- charged for thefts from Corrie's and Brown's Car YWashes.- ._ _: ,. _... 1„.•,„ „r.1-4 Police also say 'they are hot on the trail of thieves who escaped with $1,400 in cash and liquor from the Clinton' Hotel. The robbery, occurred in the early morning hours•onJuly 15. These youngsters are keepingYan eye on the judges as they picked out the best dressed children during the pyjama parade held last Friday night in Clinton. About 75 children, the biggest group ever, turned out for the parade. (News - Record photo) , Champion closes plant, 1,000 off Employees of Champion Road Machinery Ltd. will have an extended vacation this summer after company officials announced the plant would be closed for three,weeks in addition to the three-week vacation shutdown. The additional shutdown was necessitated by delays in , the preparation of financial documen- tation for orders and will affect all irst cofumn Now I know how it feels to live in the apartment below a bowling alley, as the thunder bumpers • move through the area with what seems like all too frequent regularity. ° • The booms and crashes of the past couple of weeks are enough to wake even the most sound sleeper, and are guaranteed to scare the h+?! out all those thunderstorm freaks who have a phobia about the storms. Have you -ever noticed how many people are scared by storms? It's far more widespread than you imagined and it's certainly nothing to be ashamed of either, as a goad healthy fear of thunderstorms is particularly a necessity around here. According to the experts who look into such things„a small lightning bolt has about 1,000,000 volts and roughly- 300,000 am- pheres, enough to power Clinton for quite awhile. How they measured it, .I don't know, but I'd hate to be riear'a,large bolt. These storms also spawn about 500 tornadoes in Canada each year, with the large majority of them forming° in Ontario during the thunderstorm months from April to September. And having personally witnessed the strength of these twisters. the further nway you can i by jim fitzgerald 'get from them, the better. With vortex "winds of 400 miles an hour or better, nothing manmade can standin the way of these awesome things. • + + The Main Street Wit was saying the other day, while watching the excavation beside the town hall to put in new footings, that the old town hall is the place- where the taxpayer's shirt is kept. + + Although it's not certain yet when the new pool will be open, you can bet the kids in town are just dying to have a swim in this hot sweltering weather of the past few days. If everything goesright, the pool should be opened on Monday, but don't count on it. +4-+r Speaking of water, the Wit says that water is a good beverage, providing it's taken in the right spirit. + +=f - In an editorial several weeks ago on the telephone' reassurance program, we failed to mention that the whole scheme was the brain- child' of Rosemary, Armstrong of Clintons who applied Tor the grant to get the system going, and worked on the logistics as well. Our apologies to hard-working Rosemary. 1008 employees of the Champion group. Administrative staff will also be off work without pay for the first week of the closure. - However, the three week shutdown will mostly affect unionized em- ployees with under 10 years ex- perience. Local 1863. president, Don Johnston, said the' bulk of the union's , 750 membership is eligible for three ,weeks c,r less of vacation. An em- ployee with five. years experience is allowed three weeks paid vacation time.. Under the terms of the Unem- ployment Insurance Commission - there is a two week interim period - most of those employees would only be eligible for one week of benefits. "The workers, are accepting it well," Johnston said. "They seemto be taking it in stride." Employees claims are already being processed by personnel from the London UIC office. • Johston said that a group of ap- procimately 100 employees will be needed for work in the plants over the last two weeks of the shutdown. Those employees will be selec ,. • on a seniority basis. kyr" Champion last experienced a shutdown in December 1979 when three-day layoffs were tacked on before and after Christmas High 'tw i n ds hit area High winds .and what may have been a mini -twister swept through the area on Tuesday afternoon, knocking down hundreds of trees and blacking out power to a wide area of.Huron and Perth Counties. Worst hit waS the farm of Bruce Rathwell, just north of Brucefield on Highway 4, where a twister is blamed for sucking off the roof of a 50 by 50 foot -barn, throwing the large 'Rath - well Auction trailer more than 100 feet, completely wrecking it and flipping over a boat and trailer. Mr.,Rathwell, who was not at home at the time, said his wife Dawn heard a rumbling sound-abou•tpm and took their two children into, the basement of the home. When they emerged minutes later, the roof of the barn was gone and was scattered over a quarter of a mile area. Damage is ° estimated at several thousands of dollars and Mr. Rathwell said the loss was only partially covered by insurance. Some collec- tables where damaged in the ensuing downpour. Spring grain crops and some wirter wheat were also flattened in the area and although the wheat crop may still be harvested without too much loss of a yield, some farmers are concerned that the spring grains are down for good, causing lodging and yield loss. Don Eastman, a spokesman for the Clinton office of Ontario Hydro said every truck and all available mefi - about 10 trucks - were out restoring power to several hundred customers in a wide area of Huron and Perth Counties. Most power was, back NI late Tuesday night, but weather forecasters were predicting another severe storm watch for Wednesday morning. Weather 1980 1-979 1HI 10 Ij- LO July 8 23 15 26 7 9 • 23 8.5 27 9 10 27 10 19 16 11 26 14 28 15 12 23 9 , 28 14 13 26 10 , 30 15.5 14 30 11.5 29.5 15 Rain 22.E mm No Rain own hall being fixed By Jim Fitzgerald Although the restoration work at the Clinton Town Hall has been un- derway for nearly a month, most of the $46,000- worth of work has been hidden inside and h .sn't until last week that the repairs oecame obvious to the public when outside work began. ' • Last Wednesday Merner's Con- tracting excavated the north side of the town hall down to the footing so that Cobrell Construction of London could begin to put new footings under the building. Cobra is now digging out the stone and rubble from under the 100 year old building in six foot sections and replacing it with a concrete footing five feet wide by two feet deep. During the excavation, workers found that the century old town hall is sitting on wooden hardwood planks, most of which are still in excellent condition. -_.. Chris Borgal of the architectural firm of Hill and Borgal of Goderich said so far there haven't been any surprises under the town .hall . and once the new footings are in place, the building should stand for another 100 ,years.• Dave Barr of Cobrell Construction said they haven't experienced any unusual problems so far and he was confident the repairs woulcr proceed as scheduled. Prior to the excavation, Cobrell had tied the brickwork and trusses together with large steel rods that will prevent further spreading. A new ---beam and footing was also placed in the police station to support the north - wall over the police heiadquarters. The town may have missed out on a possible $15,000 grant ' from the Ontario Heritage Foundation when they failed to apply before recon- struction had begun. "We've seen no application," said Betty Cardno of Seaforth, a member of the district board of the Heritage Foundation, "and the grant has to be approved before work can begin." Excavation of the north side of the 100 -year-old Clinton town hall has revealed that the building is supported only by wooden plaikainstead of a solid footing. The old coal chutes can also be seen. contractoK Coball" Construction of London is now in the process of putting new footings under the hall as part of the $46,000 restoration work. (News -Record photo) o-,