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Clinton News-Record, 1981-12-02, Page 3• • Shoplif g concerns area merchants...... • from page 1 too high. It has to be competitive." With staffing in most stores at a minumium of one to a maximum of four, careful watching and constant aisle checks is the most common deterrent method us- ed, but it's often not the most effective. If a group comes into the shop, it's impossible for a lone clerk to keep check on them and serve other customers at the same time. At C and E Variety and Burgess Depart- ment Store, Edith Burgess reported that shoplifting has decreased in the past year because, "We have a tight hold on things." The two shops promote a rigid policy of keeping a watchful eye on customers although Mrs. Burgess admitted, "It's not too friendly but we have to do it." Employees are instructed to do the same at Shiral's and Mr. Mathers noted, "We hate to follow people around. We could hire more help, but that's too expensive." Smaller rural stores, like the Holmesville General Store, Brandon's Hardware and The Tender Spot grocery in Bayfield have a few problems with young children picking up small items, but they feel that their shoplifting problems are at a mimiumum, partially due to the size of their shops and the trust they have in their clientele, local people from the communi- ty. The Tender Spot noted that they watch for shoplifters more carefully in the sum- mer with the increased tourist crowd and noted that their Grand Bend store catches shoplifters frequently. Some Clinton merchants are taking fur- ther steps to combat shoplifting in their stores. Don Swan at Becker's Milk says stuck in the middle \,,.......__ When the furnace constantly rumbles in the middle of the night, how do you explain the noise to the gas man the next day? When the car takes unan- nounced abnormal fits, how do you ex- plain it to the garage man? When the refrigerator starts doing things that you've never seen or heard before, how do you explain it to the appliance man? When you can't tell a boiler from brake cable it's a little difficult to ac- curately describe any mechanical break -downs. The furnace purrs like a kitten when the gas man arrives on the scene, but as soon as he's gone it starts with its floor - shaking antics. The old bomb, may it rest in peace, always insisted on lur- ching, jerking and stalling when I sat behind the wheel but would ride like a Cadillac when the'better half took it out for a test spin. �• Fin not paranoid. I don't hear im- aginary noises, they do exist. The pro- blem is that I don't know a normal noise from a something's -wrong -sound and I don't have a clue how to describe them. It takes a keen ear to distinguish a rattle from a bang, a whistle from clunk, a skip from a miss. Repairmen who hear my complaints and descrip- tions must be amazed, if not somewhat amused, at the various antics and ver- bal accounts that I must use to describe my mechanical problems. I mean have you 'ever tried to clunk like a unwell refrigerator, wheez like a desperate automobile, or rattle like an out -of -joint furnace? I tell you, it's not easy. Such descriptive accounts are par- ticularly impossible, and sound ab- �solutely ridiculous over the telephone. that the shoplifting has decreased dramatically since they installed a highly - visible closed circuit camera. Because of a high increase In thefts from their shop, The Board and Batten Gift Shop will be hir- ing extra staff,Corrie's Red and White followed the methods used by The A and P, Zeehrs and Roth's Food Stores, by hiring detectives to patrol the aisles, and the Clin- ton IGA is also giving careful considera- tion to this idea. "Any offenders will be charged," warn- ed Maynard Corrie, of the Red and White Store. "The cost of operation is too high to ignore it. Mr. Balfour says that any shoplifters who are caught in his hardware store will be charged by the police, their names will be posted in front of the store and they won't be allowed in again. Many other businesses call the parents of juvenile of- fenders and if the incident occurs again, the police are called in and charges will be laid. Clinton Police Chief Lloyd Westlake noted that charges resulting from shoplif- ting must be governed by the cir- cumstances surrounding the event. The punishment will vary, depending on the in- cident and a child who puts a chocolate bar in his pocket will be not penalized as har- shly as a professional thief who walks out with a $400 tape deck. Restitutions for shoplifting charges can vary from a discussion with a juvenile and his or her parents, to a year's probation, to charges, court appearances and sentences that can result in hefty fines or lengthy jail sentences. shelley by mcphee My telephone conversations with repairmen often sound like this, "The sound seems to be coming out of that brown box. It's really loud, doesn't sound normal," I'll explain, "it sorta goes, rraaaa, rraaaa, rraaaa, whummz here, I'll let yoin listen." It's hard to sound serious when one is imitating a furnace boiler or a broken transmission. Occasionally my unknown noise descriptions and comparisons are ex- tremely accurate. Like the time I heard this weird sound coming from the office basement. Now the office basement is a terrible old place and any noises that come out of that dark, damp room are always loud, strange and really spooky. "It sounds like a giant cicada," I wailed. "I bet it's been living down there for the past hundred years. Or maybe it's a herd of rats. Do rats sound like giant cicadas?" Search patties were sent to the base- ment. -Nothing was found, everything was in order and it was determined that the noise was coming from a little cricket. Okay, so sometimes I have a real vivid imagination, and I was wrong about the giant cicada in the cellar. But many times the sounds I hear are valid, my explanations may be a little off, but they have helped to correct broken transmissions and leaking refrigerators. Perhaps someone could teach a mechanical sound course, given hour classes of all the unusual and abnormal noises that one could encounter in daily life. I'm sure such a program would help my credibility and cause less strain on my vocal cords. frim R rt$4,lowtiro pix 741.t:` V i` NpIUI LO 7'Widl'WFlirt( r''* Th11rsclay, N►►v. 26 to Sat tirdav, I )cc. 5 Select your new suit from our collection of quality all wool 3 -piece suits o Shill) Early Fr,r Christmas 1'sc uur Lay -a -way I'lun! •GIFT 1i()XES GIFT ('i?RTIFI(•.i'I'ES MEN'S WEAR 32 ALBERT ST. 4a2_9351 CLINTON Shoplifting, it seems, is a year-round problem. It can be a game for bored teenagers, a simple temptation for young children. Some shoplifters are professional thieves, working in a racket scheme, others are your associates and neighbors, simply acting on some thoughtless im- pulse, picking up a dog collar or bag of candy. Still other less fortunate people shoplift out of necessity. . Shoplifting can effect all businesses, and the crime is committed by people of all ages and all walks of life. The widespread problem comes to focus on one particular area, it hurts the business community and the honest shopper. In the Clinton area, merchants are voicing their concerns about shoplifting and are taking steps to ensure that the problem doesn't get too far out of hand. Dump not coming here BY STEPHANIE LEVESQUE GODERICH: Huron County planner Gary Davidson reassured county council there would be no bulldozers in Ashfield Township "tomorrow". The recent announcement by Ministry of Environment officials stating South Cayuga had been turned down as a possi- ble landfill site, has encouraged rumors of possible sites. Ashfield Township has been mentioned as one'. At county council's November meeting, Mr. Davidson said his department had not received • any information from the ministry and he hopes the government will involve the county in any planning. "We'll just keep up with it...and if there is anything significant, we'll report it to county council," said Mr. Davidson. Reeve Warren Zinn of Ashfield Township said he knew of no work being done in the township, but added it is a con cern in his area that a landfill site may be establishedthere. He asked for the support of Huron County and of Bruce County Timm to page 19 • CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2 ,19e1 --PAGE 3 Ernie Williams, president of the board of directors of the Clinton Community Credit Union, addressed the annual meeting of the local -banking institution held last week in Clinton. A record dividend of 11 per cent was paid, despite a year of highly vacillating interest rates. (James Fitzgerald photo ) Credit Union pays 11% dividend By James Fitzgerald Despite a turbulent year which featured record high interest rates, the Clinton Community Credit Union, \ hich serves a wide area of Huron County, is in good shape and paid a record 11 per cent dividend on share accounts. That's the essence of the message at the Credit Unions Annual meeting last week in Clinton, where 57 members were told that income was up $550,000 from last year to $3,508,048, mostly because of the record high interest rates on loans. Because many members moved money out of their share accounts into, guaran- teed income certificates, the Credit Union paid out a record $1,660,490 on those short term notes, an increase of $540,000 over last year, which meant the net income for share accounts dropped $250,000 to $838,819 in the fiscal year ending September 30. Jim Schnaar, a chartered accountant with the auditing firm of Ward Mallett, told the members the Credit Union, which has a branch in Exeter, was in sound financial shape, unlike some other Unions in the province, particularly in the Win- dsor Chatham area, where no dividends were paid. Mr. Schnaar, in explaining the audited statement, said the Credit Union's overall assets had grown by $989,000 to $26,018,598 this year, but the amount in share ac- counts dropped $3 million, while term deposits jumped $3.6 million. With such a large amount of term deposits, it made it difficult for directors to Noon will let people know of site Huron and Bruce counties should know "early" if they're on the list as liquid waste facility sites — but Environment Minister Keith Norton isn't saying how early that is. "They will know early if their community is anywhere near a site," Nor- ton said in an interview late last week, but he wouldn't be more specific. Last week, the Ontario Waste Manage- ment Corp. abandoned South Cayuga as the proposed siteof a liquid waste treat- ment and disposal facility and launched the search for a new site. A study conducted last year rated Ashfield Township in Huron County as the best site in Ontario, with a site east of Port Elgin close behind and a site in Centralia far down the list. The corporation will review the criteria on which that study was based. Norton would not speculate on when the status of the 17 sites identified last year and any possible new sites would be known. However, he urged anyone living in an area identified by the new search to take a reasonable approach. Both MPP Murray- Elston (I -Huron- Bruce) and MPP Jack Riddell (L -Huron - Middlesex) have reported concern from A Creclit Uiuon Registered Home OwnershipSavings ..P'1 • � for Your d of Home. •Deedllne day for the 1941 taxation year is December 31, 1081. • We pay a competitive rate of Interest into your plan. • We have no administration charges. and no withdrawal charge after 6 months. *Save on your Income too - your deposit to your R-M.O.S.P. reduces your taxable income. 1 4 HOW PAYING ®/0 (from Dec. 1. 1481 to Nov. 34, 1012) Clinton Community CREDIT UNION 71 ONTARIO ST. mart •.N 482-3467 - 24 yeors Of service - 374 MAIN SOUTH EXETER 233-0640 Youve a part of it alL their residents who are prepared to form citizens' organizations to fight any possi- ble location of a facility in their areas. "We'll be ready," Riddell said in an in- terview. He felt that the current search would establish new criteria for a liquid waste site that would take his riding off the target list. Norton said that Riddell has seen the proposed technology at work in Europe and hoped he would encourage his riding to be reasonable if it becomes involved. "I hope Jack and Murray will not unthinking- ly contribute to generating a level of con- cern." establish interest rates an loans. The provisions for losses on loans jumped $244,000 from the $127,000 of last year, partially because of the poor economic conditions andbankruptcies, but mostly because of new rules by the Ontario Deposit and Share Corp. which requires the Credit Union to put more into a reserve account, even though many of the defaulted loans are collectable. Chairman of the board, Ernie Williams, reported that except for a few difficulties, the switch to a fully computerized system went smoothly last spring. Mr. Williams also explained the problems with Credit Union Central which had grabbed headlines in the daily media recently. He said it was mainly a problem of cash flow because Central had most of their money tied up in long term, low in- terest yielding Hydro bonds, but as the interest rate falls, the problem will disappear. Although total income and loans to members set new records, the total membership slipped 230 from last year to 7,330 this year. A new member, Mason Bailey of Blyth, was elected to the board of directors in a lively contested election, replacing Milford Durst who retired, and Antoine Garon was re-elected for another two year term. Richard Lobb and Jim Hunter were re- elected to three year terms on the loan committee, while Clifford Parker was elected to a one year term. Mr. Parker had been appointed to the loan committee earlier this year to replace the late Nor- man Counter. * If you re buying new Tights make sure they have the CSA mark of approval 6 Fasten strings of lights securely and position cords where they wont be a hazard You can help conserve energy Christmas lights until niter the dinner hour • If your lights have been used before examine them carefully and discard any set that hos damaged sockets or worn insulation ® Never use indoor lights outdoors