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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1974-12-05, Page 2PAGE 2-GODERICiti•. SIGNAL -STAR, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1974 EDLTO,RIAL COMMENT Need active county restruc uring committee The members of Huron Count cil met for the final formal sesst 1974 last Friday. It was kind o nostalgic time with some memb knowing it was their last time in the council chambers as voting members; others not knowing whether or not they'd return because of elections in their home.. municipalities; and others returning but concerned about the future for county government in Huron. At the meeting it was asked whether or not the restructuring committee had met 'during- 1974. 'It was learned that committee chaired by Warden W.. J. Elston with members John Baker of Hen - sail; Joe Kerr of Wingham; Everett U. Mcllwain of Goderich 'Township; and • Lloyd R. 'Ferguson of Usborne had not met. Wardon Elston assured council the reason was that the restructuring com- mittee had just not been able to find a meeting time at which all would be free to attend. He indicated there may yet be time in 1974 "for this committee to get together to deliberate abut the serious matter. of reassessing such ,',things as 'Municipal boundaries, membership at . county council, areas of sharing bet- ween municipalities and ways to avoid • costly duplication of services.. Now may be the appropriate time to point/Out that the committee on restruc- Coun- n in a s turing was formed after •a long and heated debate on whether or nit restruc-: turing is necessary and/or desirable. Not all members of county council are con- vinced of the need for restructuring although the Ontario government Ilas on several occasions given stern warnings of its intent to bring restructuring about within the province. The composition of the 1974 commit - on restructuring was surprising to he least, Few of its members were vocal supporters of restructuring. d have hoped that a man such h Reeve' Deb Shewfelt who for restructuring on many, s, would have been ate on this committee. to saiy. stron One wo as Gdderi had, presse many 4ccasi chosen to partici It is to be.hoped ` at when the 1975 Huron County Counci ets up commit- tees for the new year, th- restructuring committee will be one of e foremost priorities and will be compris= ' of mem- bers who are- intent on giving . -depth study to all aspects of Testructurt ' g. Thea 1975 restructuring -committee not be a Mickey Mouse committee If does its job thoroughly, it will be one of the most active and important commit- tees this county has seen in years. News x m:`MAROARE,T TO WMI E FOR CHATELA1N ANb,11'5 NICE TO VT HOME AFTER DODGING TIE PRE55., Mu. DAY. - • Restructuring must have attention, im- mediately. There isn't any time to waste. The future is at stake: Let's rejoice this December at Goderich • This. is ,December, the month that is known for a multitude of things —• the beginning of winter, Christmas, municipal elections, the'erid of the year to name a few. 1•n 1974, it should also be a time of thanksgiving for, the citizens who live in and around Goderich. Goderich /and area residents, shoulyd, be grateful for the stable economy, here with agriculture as the base and enough variety in business and commerce to -keep almost- everybody busy almost all this time, despite the 'economic tem • - perature of the rest of the country. This December in some communities, where automotive plants dominate, there will be a severe belt tightening as, workers are laid off for indefinite periods of time until the automobile industry rights itself. This Deeernber in: some DEAR READERS parts of this vast country, men .and women Will, find themselves caught in the horrid trap where inflation looms on one side and unemployment on the other. }• In Goderich there is little of this. In fact Goderich is going ahead •this December with new industries on the horizon opening up more jobs for more people. Home building, continues at a Modest but„impressiv'e rate; community services are improving;, -life, is good. . Let'sbe thankful for the blessings this district enjoys. Let's realize the gloom "and 'aoorrl spread by some North American scholars just • doesn't, totally apply here. And, let's show our thank- fulness with smiling faces and friendly greetings, particularly 'in the Holy season ahead": Ratesrechiced The Bank of Canada's rate reduction to 83/4%. from 91/4% before the budget will' probably be followed by another before 'the year is out, writes Frederic Wagniere. in The' Financial Post. Within some weeks, Wagnie°re predicts, the bank rate may again be but of line with other rates. Personal loans will become marginally cheaper, says the FP article, but will probably remain above- 1.2% at least until next summer. Mortgage' rates are not expected to benefit' much. A possible one - percentage point decline to the1.101 2% - 11,% level by• next spring is possible. We friends, Monday, `". three cases. where there were Decemb° 2 came and went, • -dnly two 'candidates, it is' an and with. he exception of the easy matter to total the votes deputy -reeve's seat which is for each of the two candidates still in Some oubt, .Goderich 'Plus the .number of spoiled or, citizens have a ewly elected,unmarked ballots. In each case, council tri conduct Business for the final totals should.be iden- the' municipality ins the tical and if: 100 ballots' are next"°24 months. • . handed out, 100 ballots should Here at • the Signal -St , it he turned hack in has' been a gruelling campa with contests for all seats and record number of candidates seeking the approval of the voters.. We . believesta - marked ballot into. a pocket believing that it is useless to turn it in and the deputy retur- ning officer has not noticed) -it .is Still not known exactly what will happen: It is a real cliff .hanger and,.is not likely; to be resolved 'for•,a. week Or More. . * * * n There. were only slight ,When M.avor--elect , 'Deb discrepancies Gine or two votes). "• Shewfelt.- takes office in . the races. ith the r eve• • A recount in could in- assurance he was chosen by the -we have cccould not pgssihly alter people of Goderich who knew of worked hard to give you, the the fi al outcome. his "interests" and chose him voter~, the gest .Die -election ,; 3ut here the deputy -reeve in' spite of it. • coverage. ever. We ,incere.lv.,.,,.is concern:'d, there Are 'otilV 16• Not that Shewfelt c�;er tried • hope you .°pore., Tate our efforts. `Sp 'votes se ar ing'.�Biti Clifford` `' to keep,, his ". a ".interests" secret We think you did since there..,,'end Mrs. Ei en.Palmer. ph ;i ,,in the last . term '•of office. He appeared til he plenty of in- ones poll alone, there was a has consistently absented him t.erest in thitigs during the cam- discrepancy of 12 te', In all; self from discus~°ion-and voting paign and,,° respectable num- there were 17 votes nvolved! rip matt -ars involving his "in - her _>f voters out to the polls. Hence the recount! terests" after declaring his "in - An added measure of interest, Has there ever" been such terests" in• .open council was the exposure all candidates' drama inn a Goderich elect' n session. This is clearly 'shown were ' offered on Cable TV, before? I •'wclinder; in the' records for those citizens Channel 12. If there was some Everyone predicted the elec-, who care to check, • . way to judge the percentage of tion would he fought on the But Harry Bosnell made a voters who saw the -programs deputy -reeves ballot. Few isingly fine run for office on Wednesday and Thursday of people guessed how close ' it may 'well; he that some last week, we fear we'.d would really he. ' re'sufficiently cancer discover an amazingly small Both Mrs. -Palmer and Mr. Shewfelt's "in= number of citizens who actually in formayor and January, he will do so w stir .and 1 voters ned abou terests" to Clifford have performed well in their last term cif- office. Both candidate. ate• •Both are well ' a debt of gratitude k n the community. Both Bosnell ,who made it for the people to choose work- Both would make ex- to give Deb Shewfelt the opo cellent. representatives at the county level. • Most .persons who •were' bet- ting ort the deputy -reeve's race had picked Bill Clifford. Why? , Probably Because he's been, ac.,• tive on both the harbor and waterfront committee and on the airport committee. He was chairman of them both and handled them both extremely 'well for the newcomer„ he was • in the last `term• of office. In the same term, Mrs. Palmer was chairman of the . special committee, and while her work 'was every ,bit as demanding in its 'own way, it 'some local groups sponsored was :never as drarnatic as Mr: candidates' forums, - a few Clifford's efforts. After all, is citizens had coffee parties etc. there any'" comparison between for their favorite candidates animal control (which ,ipciden- Goderich ptlohahly had some of tally moved along with very the most informed voters they • few hitches during Mrs. have ever had in this election, Palmer's chairmanship) and That's good news - and highly building an airport terminal? • desirable. M1 ose an alternate took time out of their schedules 1'd • td ktudy the candidates in the• have equal experience at the To he truthful, t e town owes comfort of their own easy council table. to Harry „ Vrye igoaericfj SIGNAL -STAR A • The County Town."Newspaper of Huron —0 --- Founded ih 1848 and„ published every Thursday at Goderich, Ontario Member of the CWNA and 01VNA. Advertising rates obi request! Subscriptions payable in advance 510.00 in Canada. 511.50 in all coun- tries other than Canada, single copies 25 cents. Second class mallRegistrationNumber 0718. Adver- tising is accepted orrthe condition that. in the event of typograpnical error, the advertising space oc- cupied by the erroneous item• together with reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged.for but the balance of the'advertisement will be paid 'for at the applicable rate. In the event of a typographical error advertising goods or services at a wrong price, goods or service may not be sold. Advettising is merely an offer to sell, and may be wlttidrawn at any time The SlgnalSlar Is not respon- sitile for the loss or damage of unsolicited menuearlptt or photos Business . and Editorial Office TELEPHONE 524-8331 area coda 19 Mailing Address: P.O. BOX 220, Goderich *Odd class Mail' registration number -071S Published by Signal -Star Publishing Ltd ROBERT G. SHRIER---president and publisher SHIRLEY J. KELLER--editor JEFF' 'SEDDON —editorial staff EDWARD J. BYRSKI... advertit ng manager DAVE R. WILLIAMS--advertising representative chairs. pawn i ossible Many voters didn't find out are sincerely interested rn their pp and about the pre-election coverage on TV until it was too late; others saw the program, only while flicking' through the, dial to find their favorite TV shows on other channels:.. and ancl didn't bother to -watch. . Whether. you saw it or not, the Channel 12 productions un- der , the guidance of the Goderich Rotary Club were ex- cellent. Even the.most skeptical • ,candidates felt the programs were handled- well by the Rotarians and afforded them a real opportunity to get• their own special personalities across to the voters who did watch. Add to •this the fact that- ' But;at the same time, Mr. * *,'* Clifford's involvement- on the Looking through the official airport issue may riot have been tally sheets for the election, it all that popular with all the wasn't too difficult ., to spot voters who went to the polls some discrepancies in .the Monday. They may „not have results for the offices of rhayo'r, forgotten that story about the reeve ,.and deputy -reeve, con- extensive renovations possible tests where only two people at the airport, any more than were involved• they could forget ,that Mr. Chi'. These tot'als included the ford is a part of real estate. .number of votes for each can- There's just something about didate plus the number of tejec- real estate these days that puts ted or unmarked ballots. In all some people off. polls with the except.on of Whatever the reason (could three (two_ of these were split it h'�ive been that women's lib- bers the number of votes-pfus • voted en masse, for the number of rejected or un- 'Eileen?) the race for deputy- • .marked h,tllr,t.. were identical reeve was too close for comfort. for the mayor,.the reeve .soil And now we. are to have a the deputy -reeve. recount. These tallies should be iden- In the case .of a tie, the win- ner is selected by drawing tical in all cases. In a poll, for instance, where 100 ballots are straws under the direction of • given mit to voters for mayor, the town clerk! there shortjd also he 100 ballots In the case of evidence that - given out for reeve and deputy- ballots are actually missing (ie. reeve. .And in •each of these some voter has Stuffed. an un - f r- -Sh.irleg'J. Keller i LOMNO BACk 75 YEARS AGO If anyone says "cows" • in Goderich it raises a smile, and • then comes a burst of in- dignation ,with, "W -hat .ca.n,we do? The cows won't move." So we are in a peculiar position. The gr a m �i•ty of ratepayers are deadly enemies of the cows. The progressives in town recognize that we cannot pretend to grow when we wear the swaddling clothes of a back • country village. Property owners • swear at the depredations in their gardens, and other people swear when they walk the streets at night. But it is not- only the cows. There are horses whose ram-., paging on the streets has already ;,caused more than one accident. The cows and horses have really no defence. A • glance at the assessors list will answer, the "poor man" cry and the .fear that the streets will be overgrown with grass may be' dispelled by looking at ot-her-tcrw-ns---A-t any -rate the e.ac: • pertment is worth the - trying. The council will move quickly enough if the ratepayers say so- • We have had a popular vote on the cow before and the cow won; but ,then tie people did not know any better and there wa5.no"so called citizens com- mittee." Let ,the people vote again. at the. next municipal elections! The, cows will cease from troubling and we shall cease to be the laughing stock of our .neighbours and an object of derision `to. our summer visitors. • The scaffolding around the new chimney at Jhe waterworks station was displaced and, nearly blown down by the gale on Monday night. It had not been properly braced. tunity to discover whether 'or not he wag wanted by the people, - After watching Deb on .c,oun-. • cil for the last four years, I've come to know him ` aS a warm person who is deeply concerned giant Goderich and its citizens. He's a good thinker, a good- leader-and od , leader' •and a good judge. He 'Will make a good mayor.. •* * * The barker with the Scottish accent who; had never before run an election, because he'd always been acclaimed to coun- cil, nciw has a successful cam- paign under his belt. fie was the people's choice, . polling 2 132 votes for reeve. The only other candidate in the election who received more votes was retiring mayor Harry Worsell 'who took an " overwhelming total of 2303 votes. Now, if Stan can only find -Wroxeter. (Private joke folks.) • *** David Gower remained the, perennial, favorite of voters in the race for council. ,Davey does . deserve this trust.... but in the new council -let's, hope he tries for .another .post .than finance minister. ' Dr. Jim Peters• got a good majority from the people. He even heat, Mrs. Elsa Haydon whom some precontinuedictedon paged should3 50'YEARS AGO, '€This week the Star has added another new, feature, a weekly lesson',in English by Mr. W.L. Gordon. This we believe will prove rnuch•interest and profit. See first lesson on Page Six of this issue. The worthy constable of our fair town was given a good run for his money on' Friday• last when he .gave chase to some liquor offenders• The constable' spotted the: party of 'three ex- changing brown paper bags, . which he observed to contain bottles, for bank.'notes of high denomination. The constable • attempted to move in on the unsuspecting group when a street urchin, obviously in their employ, shouted warning to them. The three ran in separate 'directions leaving the street running with liquor. Lengthy chase was offered by the con- stable who had his uniform torn while jumping a fence, but no one was accosted.. The tired officer was heard to swear vengeance on the group if he saw them in the streets again. You are behind the times if you don't know that Cod Liver Extract is one of the greatest flesh 'producers in the world because it contains 'more vitalizing vitamins than any food you can ;get., The new piece of pier at the west side of the harbor has -been completed., snubbing posts and ' all, ready - for -accom- modating some ,of the winter fleet of grain boats which will tie up, here. Contractor Forrest's new blasting scof with the house upon it has been dub - b , Noah's Ark. 5 YEARS AGO ` The re: ' - nations of seven Huron Conn . - school teachers were accepte. at' Monday evening's meetin f the Board of Education and .:'ght new teachers were hired to ill the end of the year vacancies. arty applications owere received a d 22 teachers interviewed to fil the eight positions in elemen- tary schools across the country. There 'may be a bit of reduc- ti Polio can cripple ` in Vietnam where regular immunization. is rare. With braces, crutch'ee and loving care this little"one will soon be rehabilitated'- through the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada, 56 Sparks Street,,bttawa K1P 5B1. The objective is $2,275,000 In funds and. gifts -In-kind. by Christmas Day. Will you help? rn tion in the county mill rate for 1970 according to the forecast of John G. Berry, clerk treasurer for the County •of Huron. He said thatbecause the building program at the r. new administrative building in .complete and final debenture on the 1961 addition at Hu'ron- , view _ has been pai'd coupled with the fact that the county is no longer responsible for the assessment department, it rseems feasible that the county - may be in a position to consider reducing the levy for general purposes. Only one man has announced the intention to "run for the wardenship of Huron County in 1970. The man in Roy West- cott, reeve of Usbornie township and 1969 chairman of the property committee.