HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1980-10-16, Page 1rT
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A delegation from the. Huron.:
Federation of Agriculture met with
Ontario's minister of agriculture,
Lorne. Henderson, Thursday, October
P,: in, TorontoFto demand a freeze on
the purchase of Ontario f arm`lann by y_
absentee foreign buyers; The
delegation, which . was accompanied
by Ontario Federation of Agriculture
President; Ralph Barrie, called for
legislation to prevent foreign in -
The golden harvest is Well underway in Huron County, as area grain -corn
farmers have started combining. Yield is down slightly in the early vara ties
because of insect problems and rain and ow over theweekendas hit d
nsec p b n snow �. �.
work for now, Frank Yeo: of RR. 3, Clinton looks over a 500 bushel load he
delivered to Fleming's Mill last Friday, (James Fitzgerald photo
En past week
Damagehigh in crashes
Damage added up to thousands of
dollars in several car Crashes that.
kept Clinton Police busy this week.
An October 11 accident resulted in
over $5,000 in damages after a car
driven by Steven McPherson, 23, of
Scarboro and a second vehicle driven
by • Robert Atkinson, 25, of Clinton
collided.
The vehicles were both westbound
on Ontario Street at the time. of the
crash . and both drivers and a
passanger in each car received minor
injuries. Damage to the McPherson
vehicle was set at $3,000 while
Aktinson car suffered $2,500 in
damages.
A car driven by Anthony Gibbings,
17, of RR 4, Clinton received $3,000 in
damages, but the driver escaped
unharmed after the car he . was
driving slammed into a hyro pole.
The October 12 crash occurred on
Ontario Street, whenGibbingsat-
tempted to stop for another vehicle.
When. he applied the brakes the car
went out of control, and slide
sideways into the pole.The Clinton
PUC estimated damage to the pole at
Better check the anti -freeze in
Betsy, get the furnace cleaned, try
and find the snow shovel in that pile
of junk in the garage, and see if I
can make those old snow boots last
just one more winter.
,That's just part of my shopping
list -.and a lot of other people's too -
of things to do in the next couple of
weeks to get ready for the next six
month's siege of snow, cold, etc.,
etc., etc.
Yes, Mother Nature, who only a
couple of weeks ago let us go
swimming; sent a littlehintof
winter our way over the
Thanksgiving weekend, with the
first snowfall being measured in
the area.
The amount varied from just a
preceptible skiff here in Clinton, to
more than three <inches at points , a
few miles north. Just a reminder,
mind you, but none the less a
warning.
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This is the ,time of year when
everybody anti , their uncle are
trying to predict what . kind of
winter it will be, as if it would do
any good to know ahead anyway.
The predictions range from a
very wishful, very cold and.stormy
by the oil companies, to warmer
than normal then by the F'armer's
Almanac.
Some experts down in Penn-
sylvania, who . use the woolly
caterpiller as .their prophesier,
haven't been able to tell what kind
of winter we'll have because they
can't find any of the two inch
wigglers.
However, our little Andrea, alias
Screamer, came home with three
of the black and brown fuzzies the
other day, an judging by the per-
centage of brown versus black, we
stand a 50-50' chance of •having an
open *inter. Now, how's that for
fence sitting?
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The Main Street Wit says this
week that no matter how touch you
try to improve bn Mother Nature,.
you're not kidding Father Time.
$2,000. -
No one was injured and o:charges
were laidasa result of an October 13
accident that left one. car with. $1,000
in damages.
The damaged• car was driven by
Linda Jefferson, 27, 'of Toronto and
the second vehicle, a truck and
trailer, driven by Edward Preszcator,
32, -of Exeter, came away from the
accident without a scrape..
An October 9 fender bender left a
car owned by Harold Colclough of
Clinton with . $400 damages. Mr.
Colclough's car was parked on
WiViam Street when, an' unknown
vehicle came by and hit the parked
car's left rear fender.
In another sccident Theron Bettles,
81, of Clinton suffered only minor
injuries and the car he was driving
received $1,000 in damages.
The accidentoccurred on October
11 when the car driven by Mr. nettles
and a second vehicle driven by
Russell Archer, 42, of RR 2, Seaforth
collided at the intersection of Prin-
cess and Albert Streets. The Archer
vehicle received -$1,200 in damages.
1980 1979
iHt 10 HI 10
OCTOBER
RI 113: /�']1 X9 ,5
8 18' 6 7.5' '11
9 12 m 2 . 10 3,5
10 16 0 7 "
11 11.5 4 9 1
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Rain 31.6 Rain. 63.$ nim
ration meets ag minister over• land
vestors from buying up Ontario. farm
land. They told Henderson if he was
not prepared to place such legislation
before the legislature, they wanted an
immediate freeze on the..purchase...o£
Ontario farm land. by foreign in-
terests.
Huron County representatives
included Grant Curran, • vice-
president of the Ashfield Federation
of Agriculture; John Van Beers,
amily escapes fire
By Jim Fitzgerald
A Hullett Township family luckily
escaped without injuries, but their
home suffered heavy damage in .an
early morning blaze.Tuesday mor-
ning.
Brenda and Rodney Gale and their
three- children,. ranging in age fr'orn
nine to 13 years-, were forced out : of
their home about 4 atn. Tuesday
morning when a fire started near the
furnace area of their rented home 'on
Concession 2 and 3 of Hullett, three
miles northeast of Clinton. ...
Jim East, who owns the home
converted from the former SS No. 2
Schoolhouse, told the News -Record on
Tuesday that a, smoke dectector
awakened the family who then fled
the smoke filled structure.
The •Clinton volunteer fire brigade
spent nearly three hours battling the
stubborn blaze, which had spread to
the roof area.
Mr. East said damage is about
$5,000, and he hoped to repair the one -
storey structure.
The family, who lost some of their
possessions in'the fire, are staying at
Mrs. Gale's parents home in Wood-
stock.
Apathy has killed more things in
this town in the past 10 years than
anything else. For instance, what
happened to Big Brothers, or the
Centennial Band, or the
Environmental Improvement'
Committee, . or the Chamber of
Commerce, or the Farmer's
Market to name just a few.
And will • the Business
Association suffer the same fate.
You know, I can sympathize with
the old die-hards who end up year
after year shouldering the load in
the Association, while the rest of
the membership sits back and
either rakes in• the benefits or
complain.
The Business Association, like
any volunteer group, is no greater
than the sum of its parts. So let's
give it some decent "parts" and
get out and support it tdnight
(Thursday).
+.+
On a more positive note, a
project worth supporting this
Saturday is the skate-a-thon being
held at the arena from 10 am to 5
pm, in hopes of raising money for
the Figure Skating and Minor
Hockey Associations.
the kids can skate any length of
time they want and are looking for
rich sponsors.
Unless there are a lot of people
coming out of the woodwork in the
next few days, the municipal
elections around here, with a few
exceptions, will be very quiet.
Nominations open today,
October 16, and close next Monday,
October 20, at 5 pm. Now's the time
to squawk or forever
The Wit says that good judgment
comes from experience.
Experience comes from- bad
judgm ent.
The Wit adds that a political
interview on TV should be called a
doubletalk show.
regional director for Huron East
Central; Rob Robinson, president of
the McKillop Federation of
Agriculture and Merle Gunby.,
president of the H isonFederatiori.of
Agriculture.
Henderson told the delegation "his
hands, were tied" because he cannot •
act until a bill, now before `the house,
is passed. This bill would require
absentee. foreign owners to register
with the government and companies"
with off -shore interests purchasing
farm land in the province -to declare
themselves. The bill would only be in
effect for one year, however.
The minister did suggest that the
Huron Federation approach their
county council to request the
government to pass a bill placing a
freeze on the purchase of farm land in
the county by foreign absentee
owners. Since t e bill would only
protect Huron C unty and not
entire province , the federation
representatives decided against this
action.
Following their meeting with
Henderson, the Huron delegation met
with Jack Riddell, Huron MPP and
Liberal agriculture critic in the
legislature and Murray Gaunt,. MPP
for Huron -Bruce. They, also met with
the New Democratic Party's
agriculture ' critic, Donald
MacDonald.. -
Riddell and Gaunt told ; the
delegation the minister ' is not
prevented from taking action by the
•bill now before the legislature.. It is
very simple they said, to attach an
amendment to. the bill placing a
freeze on the purchase of Ontario
farm land by foreign non-resident
interests for the time period covered
by the bill.
'Huron Federation of Agriculture
president, Merle Gunby, said there
are tentative plans' to take a '
resolution to the Ontario Federation
of Agriculture asking 'the~ OFA'. to
request a freeze on tiie sale of Ontario
farm land to foreign absentee owners.
The Huron federation hopes the clout
of a resolution from the provincial'
organization may_ have a...greater.
effect on the minister. -
Gunby said the Ontario agriculture
minister finally admitted at the
Thursday meeting, there is a problem
with foreign absentee ownership in
Huron County at least. Last month,
the Huron Federation called for the
resignation of the minister unless he
took immediate action to curb the sale
of Ontario's farm land to foreign
absentee interests.
Henderson's response to the call for
his resignation was to quote yet again
the results of a ministry of agriculture
study which says land belonging to
foreign absentee owners in the
province is less than one percent. He
did invite representatives of the
.Huron Federation to meet with him
which brought about Thursday's
meeting.
The federation was , prompted to
renewed action following the sale of
over 1,000 acres of farm land in
McKillop. Township tot foreign ab-
sentee interests during the summer.
Another 500 to 800 acres of McKillop
farm land is a h prospective purchase
by foreign absentee owners at this
time. In Colborne • Townshipcon—
siderable acreage was sold over the
summer to the same type of buyers:
The Huron Federation of
Agriculture has been working closely
with the Rural Development
Outreach Project, University of
Guelph (RDOP), in studying foreign
ownership. The .RDOP is presently
involved inthe second phase of the
study, looking at the effect of foreign
ownership on communities.
The first phase of the project was
completed and presented to
federation members last June when it
was disclosed that 9.5 percent of the
county's land was owned by people
living outside the country.
Vanastra plow tender let
by Wilma Oke
Snow removal on Vanastra roads
will be carried out by McGregor
Farms of Kippen for this winter
-season. The, McGregor tender was -
accepted by Tuckersmith Township
council' Tuesday night and the fee is
$27 per hour working time and $15 per
day standby when not working.
Council ` has rented a 225 -
horsepower D765, 1977 Champion
grader from Goderich for snow
removal purposes from December 15,
1980 to April 15, 1980 ata cost of $1,800
per month.
Both of the above agreements are
subject to ministry approval.
Eleven Hensall area ratepayers
signed a petition requestingcouncil to
have spilled garbage picked up on the
Hensall road between the village and
its garbage dump. The petition ex-
pressed the concern of the ratepayers
that new weeds might be introduced
to farms along the Hensall road from
cleanings being transported to the
dump from the grain mills in the
village. Council will investigate. the
problems and take action.
Council accepted the resignation of
Susan Norris from the Vanastra Day
-Care centre. She has --accepted a
position at the Ann Hathaway School
in Stratford.
Applications for three tile drainage •
loans were accepted by council for a
total of $15,700.
Robert Cook of Hensall attended the.
meeting to discuss his concern about .
a drainage problem. he has on his
farm from the Hensall drain.
A request for a council represen-
tative to be named to a committee to
investigate what should be done for
the large stone gates at Vanastra, was
put :forward for the '1981 council to
consider. The gates were at the en-
trance to the former Canadian Force •� •�
Base but the entrancewas closed off
because it was declared a traffic
hazard on the side of the hill on High-
way 4, following the closure of the
base.
Turn to page 3 •
Clinton firemen spent nearly three hours early Tuesday morning, battling a
stubborn blaze in the home of Brenda and Rodney Gale; northeast of town in
Hullett township. The 'house, owned by Jim East, suffered heavy smoke and
water damage. (James Fitzgerald photo)
Townhall still `tender'topic
By Shelley McPhee
The past, present and future state of
the Clinton Town Hall is still a tender
topic in the Clinton council chambers.
While the first phase of the 100 -year-
old building's renovations have been
completed and the town is making
payments to the contractor, Cobrell
Construction, Over
are still
o
'arising over ver run costs on the
work.
Council has not agreed to meet
architect Chris Borgal's extra cost
estimates, not included in the con-
tract, which amounted to over $17,000.
The town's lawyer Beecher Menzies
told council at a recent special
Meeting that he had met with Mr.
Borgal. Mr. Menzies reported that in
his opinion the council has a
reasonably strong argument against
Mr. Borgal's approval of overruns on
thb contract. Mr. 1VIenzies felt that
perhaps the -contractor should not
have done the extra work without
ascertaining that the change orders
had been propet;ly approved by
council.
F,ttra costs of $6,795•.41 resulted
after' additional strapping and truss
enforcing wort.. to the.
building, as well 'as revising the wall
plates and extra work, torevise a
column in the police station. Mr.
Borgal reported that the cost could be
offset by the $5,000 contigency fund
included in the contract for extra
work. Mr. Borgal also suggested that
parging, valued at $840, damp -
proofing the building, estimated to
cost $300 and paving the drive at $495
'be excluded from the original con-
tract to help cover the extra costs.
Additional costs totalling $11,970.97
have also been presented to the town
from the architect. Mr. Borgal ex-
plained that this extra cost resulted,
from additional electrical work, a
new sump pump, relocation of the
storm sewer in the south alley, fur-
ther structural repairs, extra forms
and concrete footings, excavation,
backfill and compaction work.
Council agreed to have Mr. Menzies
continue' his discussions with Mr.
Borgal and that a settlement be
reachal. Council is not willing to pay
the total cost of the overrun estimates
and feel .that since a contract price
has been set, that's what the town
should pay.
Turkey and all the trinirnings brought the Pilgrims and the Indians together
for a Thanksgiving meal at the Hullett Central School on Friday. Pilgrim
• Sarah Lyons, a 6 -year-old, Grade 1 student was one of the hungry pupils who
filled her plate with turkey and• dressing* vegetables and homemade pie.
(Shelley McPhee Yhoto)
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