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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1975-04-10, Page 7. �,. w. ..... r . - ., . W'" w+ Or 10 ,.4, b a.., ...• • . w ' r+s Y-.1' 041.'{� ' "100p,,,IV' ,,«,xal,*. 44...,,,,,,10„,4,0444 4, • , . 9 Writ�rs arise pit 1 If you have always fancied yourself as a writer, here's your chance to have yourself a fling. Dominion Textile in co-operation with Canadian Community Newspapers Association is sponsoring "Our HometownPaper Awards" again this year. The idea is simple.. Jit'st write down in at least 250 words (no more than 700) what The Goderich Signal - Star means to you. All entries will be published in the ' Signal -Star before they are sent off to CCNA for judging. The lucky Canadians who best describe their '"''feelings toward their hometown paper will win a first prize of $400 and a gold medal or a second prize of $200 'and a gold medal. Polished literary expression is. ° not sought. Independent judges will be watching fora,proof of an awareness .by the readers of"the role of the, weekly newspaper in the community. ' All entries must reach Signal -Star Editor Shirley J. Keller no later than May 23. They must bear the name and address of the writer, and must be titled, "Our Hometown Paper Awards." A Goderich man, Jim Kingsley, won this award three years, ago. It is not impossible. Let's hear from you. p1AN CoM • 128 YEAR -15 THURSDAY, APRIL .10, 1975 SINGLE COPY '25c Nature's April Fool joke'!' w ' Unseasonal stor No one, in Goderich could believe it was April last Thursday when gale-- force winds and heavy snowfall lasting nearly three days left Now paying more for sewage Huron County residents will pay $25. for inspection of private sewage disposal systems in new homes, it was Lannounced. Monday. The fee -- an increase of $10 = coincides with the takeover of sewage inspection by the relt' plumbing division of the Huron County health unit. Jim McCaul, chief health inspector, said the work has been assumed by plumbing inspectors through an arrangement with the Ontario' environment ministry. Huron, Susan Brill* made- history Monday morning when she reported for work at the Goderich public works garage. She became the first female to ever carry a . shovel for the town's parks crew. Iri.gets he noted, is the only county to have a health unit which operates its own 'plumbing inspection division. Mr. McCaul said the arrangement, replaces a temporary one-year agreement in which the 1 ministry con - She did not - take- on -the -job 'to break down any barriers or to . prove that .a woman can cut grass' like .a man. She just didn't like her previous job and 'she left. "I was working in a factory, the town under an 18 inch blanket of white. The storm began around 5:30 Wednesday afternoon ac- cording to the Sky Harbor inspe c tion tracted his office to inspect septic tanks, although the Environmental Protection Act said such inspections were to be handled by the minstry. Senior health inspector Jack MacKinnon will, head in- spection activities from the plumbing division's Clinton office. �rks crew j on the ' three: shift °basis and :I was underpaid," she said. `So I appliediat the town hall for this job." • Her first responsibility as a member of the town force was to scrub down the grandstands • Susan Brunk spent her first day on the Goderich Parks crew scrubbing down the grandstand at Agriculture Park. The first female,to ever work for the seasonal crew, she was lust one of the guys to the five other men with whom she works. (staff -photo). 4s sz The Wexford, captained by Bruce Cameron of Collingwood, was lost with its crew in the -Gr -eat Sto rn of 1913 just north of Goderich harbor. After 62 years on the bottom of Lake Huron the ship has been located and will be salvaged by a team of divers. ipa• • at Agriculture Park, She worked away all morning chatting with the other five Members of the crew and nothing seemed - out of the or- dinary.: • One of. the workers thought he was a male until he was told d'fferently. He said he was s prised at the discovery but by noon he had recovered and felt that Susan was "all right." Out of school for two years, the 20 year .old Grade . 12 graduate has had several jobs from office work to waiting on tables. She hopes eventually to become a registered nurse. . None of the work the parks crew ' is ' -responsible for • 'is beyond Susan's capabilities 8xcept possibly driving, r• tractor. She says- she has licence and cart drive a car Witft an automatic transmission. If the tractor is an automatic she will have no problem. "If I have to drive it I'll -drive it," she said, shrugging- her shoulders. The normal work Susan will be doing as a member of the crew is cutting grass, planting flowers, moving park, benches, raking leaves and generally. .keeping 'the town parks clean. Public works foreman Stan Meriam said he was skeptical about hiring Susan for the summer until he had time'to think about the matter. "We've had men on the crew since I've been here, the last 22 years, but she should be all right," said Mr. Meriam. The foremari.is confidentthat Susan should, fit right into the crew. He feels she should be able to handle a handmower all day with no trouble and will , give her a try onthe tractor if she -wants. to learn how to drive it. He is even hopeful that the "" gardens in the town will benefit from a woman's touch. • ``I don't know anything about flowers, said Meriam. "Maybe the beds, intown could use a woman's touch to make them look a little better." Despite the original thinking that there is no 'room • for a woman in the all male department, the general consensus is after the job has been filled by a woman that she will be just'one of the guys.. ion top of the situation on Friday and spent the weekend and the better part of this week hauling the mountains of snoW away. The Goderich police department reported no ac- cidents or emergencies as a result of the storm. They had no collisions reported to ,them at all on Thursday,, the worst day, and had no calls related to the storm on Friday. The'highways were used little by Godot ch motorists and the Goderich . detachment of the O'.P.P. reported that people seemed sensible and stayed off the roads. The O.P.P. did have a few minor accidents to attend' to but nothing unusual for the amount of snow on the roads. Weather station and lasted until the following Saturday about the same time of day. Winds as high as 53 miles per hour whipped the snow around into huge drifts that brought activity in Western Ontario to a virtual standstill. The Sky Harbor station recorded the highest wind level at 7:17 Thursday morning after six or seven inches of snow had already fallen. Station em- ployees, said 4.8 inches of snow fell on Wednesday night, 11.1 inches on Thursday, 1.7 inches on Friday and another inch of intermittent snow on Saturday as the storm centre moved off. Goderich roads _superin- tendent Roy Meriam called his crew's snowplows out at about nine o'clock Wednesday night to try to keepthe streets open. for Thursday morning traffic. They plowed day and night for the 71fifsee. day .-t pest and' managed to keep Goderich moving in a limited fashion. The plows. came Off -the' streets at four Thursday morning and resumed their work at noon. They finally got �x k�8/R�nAfx 3 }d7=rs,i zx:K y a;�a rN wh <.' .a,,• i s The landscape in Goderich was dotted with mountains of snow Thursday and 'Friday as every plow in town was pressed into service to clear parking lots, streets and sidewalks. Eighteen inches of snow fell during the late storm, making the last (?) effort by Mother Nature one of her worst for the season. (staff -photo) • uggest future festivities e held on laza tarmac The Goderich' Businessmen's Association and the Kinsmen Club hammered out a tentative , agreement to hold Celebration '75 on part of The Square at a committee meeting held last week. Concessions were made on both sides as the agreement reached called•for the carnival to occupy the area from East Street ,to' Colborne Street. Traffic - will be closed ' on Hamilton' and L.,North Streets only, with the carnival perimeters ' of East and Colborne Streets opened to public traffic. The motion will now be presented to council. Last year the entire Square ,was blocked off for the three- day celebration but this year , local • merchants were only willing to concede two blocks. 'lreck of The wreck of the Wexford; one of the eight ships lost in the Great Storm of November 9, 1913, has been located by Captain' Robert Wilson of Sarnia and William Humphries of Mooretown. The location of the ship just north of Goderich Harbor was the culmination of three years of research by Wilson and Humphries which included numerous personal contacts, ' letters and telephone calls. They have received permission from the federal government under Sectaioh X of the Canada Shipping Act and hope to make their first dive as soon as the ice clears which Mr. Huni- Bryan Ainslie, representing the Businessmen's . Association, said they were onlywilling to give two blocks since .closing The Square resulted in a loss of 'business of up' to 33 per cent. In a reply to a statement by Mr. Ainslie that the blocking off of The Square was an in- convenience to the businesses, George Hiles, representing the Kinsmen Club of Goderich, suggested that it might be more. convenient to approach the plazas next year who 'Could be more than willing to hold the carnival on a large -parking lot. The compromise was then , reached 't�e`'allow.the carnival to spread over three blocks. During the carnival week the Kinsmen Club will provide a beer tent, 'bingo and had hoped . for two blocks of industrial displays by Dominion 'Roads Machinery Company, Domtar Chemicals, Shaeffer Pen Company and Deat5born StNel Tubing. The carnival corn: mittee will '.also seek town. couhcil approval of a farmers' market to be located on .the - park by the Court House. Other highlights of carnival week include a daily breakfast from 7 to 10 a.m. ponsored by the Rotary Club; a daily babysitting service to be provided by the Girl Guides; the businessmen ,will show a movie at the Park Theatre on the Square for the ' children; and.the Dinettes will provide a lunch booth from noon until late afternoon. The Bible Society will sponsor a poster contest to stimulate interest in the historical background of the area and 'the posters will be on display during carnival week. Elsa Haydon, chairman of the parks committee unveiled pians that will take place on Arbor Day April 25. The parks committee will work together with the school board to get school children involved in tree planting'in the Goderich area and a general clean up operation. The children who will be' involved in the Arbor Day morning program will be .prow i'tt d With transportation to and from the sites and.will be treated to a lunch at Harbo'' Park in the afternoon put on by the Legion Ladies. Following lunch there will be tree planting ceremonies .by local dignitaries. - Wexford found phries optimistically suggested could be the middle of Aril The team of divers .6n the sgivage project are Lawrence BriThder, Mike,.Ighes, Jim MacDonald and William Humphries under the direction of Captain Robert Wilson. Once the boat has been marked they hope to begin the salvage operation in May. Artifacts from the ship will be going to the Moore Township Museum, the Huron .County Pioneer Museum -in Goderich and the Knox Presbyterian_„Church in Goderich. The Wexford has been resting o the bottom of Lake Huron for a1 ost sixty-two years and the diving teani i,- nupelua that artifacts from the wreck will be on display, in area museums early this summer. The steamer Wexford was built in 1883 in England and was owned by - the Western Steamship Company of Toronto. It was nearly 250 feet in length and had a tonnage. capacity of 2104 tons. The Wexford was under the command iof Captain Bruce Cameron, 26, of Collingwood and was downbound with a load of grain from the Lakehead to Goderich. The Wexford's whistle could be heard as it approached Goderich harbor in the height of the 'storm but the ship and crew all vanished. - Captain Bruce Cameron, who ' had sailed for nearly ten years, was the second son;,of Captain Alex Cameron. Captain Bruce Cameron ' had just been married in the spring of 1912 and the Wexford was his first command. Others lost with the ship were chief engineer James Scott, assistant engineer ' Richard Loughead, watchman Allan Dobson and Orrin Gordon all of Collingwood. Mr. and Mrs. George Willmott had taken jobs as stewards aboard the , Wex- ford and were planning to return to Bristol, England, at the close of theshipping season.