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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1983-10-12, Page 4• PAGE 4 —CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12,1983 ATho Clinton Mows -Record is poisaisPooaf cash Wodnesdmy at P.O. Sox 39. Clinton. Onterlo. Canada. NOM 110. Tali.: 9U2.3403. Soul saription hate: Osnedo-019.79 Sr. Chinon - 010.79 per yoar U.S.A. foreign - 339.110 per year h is r©gintoree os second clams mon 6y tis® post dress® concise Visa permit monitor 0617. Ileo vinare-fdtrcprsi freergereSee In 1920 rho Huron Nasalise . foendisd in 191. and The Clinton News lire. formIn 1003. lot si press mune 3.700. incorporating THE BLYTH STANDARD Jo HOWARD AITKENI - i'~ubllaher SHELLEY McPHEE - Editor GARY HAIST - Advertising Manager MARY ANN HOLLENBECK - Office Manager MEMBER 0lrplev edverfMn1 rater evelleble on re preaf. ails for it ate Card. No. 19 effective October'''. 1193. A MEMBER Money is missing By Stephanie Levesque The Huron -Perth Separate School Board is angry, angry because it seems unable to get funding from any source for additions to some of its schools. And these aren't frivolous additions, no grandiose ideas here. The board wants to build some general purpose rooms which are smaller sized gyms common in elementary schools across the province. Library resource rooms are another feature needed in some of the separate schools throughout the two counties. The project cost is $1.5 million and would benefit five schools. In some cases these needs are presently being supplied by portables. Some portables, considered temporary facilities, have been on site for 13 or more years. One school in particular was built as a two -room structure, which has had to have three portables added. To look bock, all the present schools in the Huron -Perth system were built prior to 1969, when county boards were formed. In some schools the only common facilities - used by students of all grades - are the hallways and washrooms. like most boards, this board has followed normal routes in an attempt to get capital funding. This route is through the Ministry of Education at budget time. Only twice in the past six years has any construction money been sent to the board, and that because the school conditions deteriorated so badly. Dr. Bette Stephenson, minister of education, said this school system is a lower priority for capital funds on a province -wide basis. So, who's getting the money? According to the -minister, 90 per cent of capital funding is going to areas where there is an increase in the student population. Peel region is one place where student population is rising. , Back here in Huron and Perth, granted the classrooms aren't crowded, but there is a lack of facilities to house programs which Dr. Stephenson wants across the province. These programs include, physical education, special educution, French and library services. "No funding avai°.able," is a phrase heard too often by the separate school board. Granted public boards in the area are receiving similar rejections, but they do have a larger tax base from which they are funded. The board must feel as though it is banging its head against a brick wall. But to give the board credit, it isn't giving up. With other government make-work pro- jects being implemented, there might yet be a chance for this project and board administration is investigating this angle. It's interesting to note that both Dr. Stephenson and Premier William Davis have supported in principle this project. The only thing missing is money. Behind The Scenes By Keith Roulston Happy workers The marvellous thing about this world is that things that are in fashion today will be out tomorrow and back in the day after. ( I always say the only way I'll be fashionable is if the moths don't get old clothes in my closet before they comelilnto fashion again.) And it's like that with ideas too. Hang in there long enough with an old-fashioned idea and you may just be on the leading edge of advanced thought. For instance, I recently found that although I haven't been to any of those high-priced management seminars held at.;expensive hotels. I was already right in there applying the latest in manage- ment techniques. You see when things started to come apart in North American industry and the Ger- mans and the Japanese and the Swedes passed us all by, business leaders here final- ly got the idea they might be doing something wrong. They went to study the nations who were on the way up and bring back ideas to our countries that were on the way down. One of the things they brought back, of course, was the value of the robot. The Japanese are using robots at an unheard of rate, sometimes having whole factories that can be run by one or two people overseeing a lot of computerized machines. For the tradi- tional North American business manager, the idea of filling a factory with intelligent machines which don't have labor unions, don't take maternity leave or bathroom breaks was an attractive one indeed. But some intelligent North American observers realized it waz the robots the Japanese didn't have that were more impor- tant in the long run that the robots they did have Japanese management had decided drat If their machines were intelligent, their people were more intelligent; too intelligent to be used as human robots. doing boring; repetitive tasks with no chance to use their brains. The Japanese gave workers a chance to really participate in their jobs. They were asked for suggestions on how to make their product better. They were organized into smaller units, teams that were allowed to democratically decide how best to ac- complish their work. They were given more security, not treated like parts of a machine to be thrown away when they weren't re- quired anymore. In short, they were treated like human beings. Sadly, treating people like human beings, living, breathing, thinking people with feel- ings, was an unheard of new philosophy in North American management. We often get upset with the horrible strike record in Canada blaming it most of the time on the unreasonableness of union leadership. There is no doubt this is sometimes to blame. Yet the fact that workers feel alienated from their work, like they are disposable cogs in a machine, that the ob- ject of management is to make them as uniform as robots has contributed to the frustration that has made Canada have one of the worst strike records in the world. Finally Canadian managers seem to be getting smart. They realize when they hire people they are not just renting their muscles for 40 hours a week, but their brains too. They realize that the people doing a job often know more about how to do it well than theorists in a board room. They realize that happy people are going to accomplish more and do it better than people who hate their jobs. And that, today, is the latest revolution in management technique people are paying highly to get. Seems like good old common sense to me. Designer mailboxes,. Sugar and Spice By Shelley McPhee It would he Heavenly! What would you like to find, most, when you go to heaven? Let's assume, for one wild, exhilarated moment, that we're all go- ing to get there. Some people would plump for a meeting with the loved ones. This I can never understand. It's like a fellow who has served a life sentence waiting to be greeted by the warden when he hits the pearly gates. Others, sad souls, would be overjoyed if they could "just be happy." Not me. Being happy all the time would be a real drag. I thoroughly enjoy being miserable on this orb, so that when something good happens, my pleasure is intensified. Quite a few, who sutler from physical ailments, would be satisfied with peace and comfort. The insomniac imagines days and nights of solid slumber. The arthritic dreams of being able to scratch his opposite ear without feeling as though his arm was being severed at the shoulder by a red-hot iron. By Bill Smiley Flat -chested girls would settle for a mam- moth bosom. They forget that none of the rest of us would be interested. Some chaps I know would be perfectly happy to leave anytime if they could count on a golf course with emerald fairways and velvet greens, 18 holes a day in which they 'sliced not, nor did they hook, and a good game of poker at the 19th with the bar han- dy. Many sober citizens I know would be hap- py in heaven for ever afterwards, if they could be guaranteed (and get it in writing) that their wives (or husbands) would be in the other place, permanently. Alcoholics would not only be in heaven, but the seventh of the same name, if their crock ranneth over, perpetually, and somebody else was looking after things. A few, millionaires, once they had admit- ted they couldn't take it with them, would be serene in a place where there were no taxes, no labor movements, no wages to pay, and nobody asking them to donate to something every 12 minutes. Kaleidoscope My personal fantasy is a simple one. I'd go like a shot if someone would promise me, unconditionally, a dark, swirling trout stream, impregnable to invasion by women, telephones and other nuisances. I can see it now. Swift, deep, crooked, en- ding in a vast, silent, mysterious beaver pond, loaded with Junkers. I can hear it: the exciting mutter of a small dam just around ' the bend; the splosh of a startled frog; the sudden, heart -stopping take -off of a disturb- ed partridge, the whack of a baver tail. However, since my chance of getting heaven are just about as slim as my chances of a personal trout stream if I did get there, I guess I'll settle, on Opening Day, for my old haunt, the Secret Place Where The Big Ones Are. Not a soul knows about it except me. And the 900 noisy characters who have heard about it since last year. Heaven, thou art distant, yet, I would work like heck to get There, if thou could condone A stream for me - and me alone. What an exciting week it's been in the political world. United States Interior Secretary James Watt finally gives his last word in a government position; Peter Pocklington and his psychic do battle in court and British Trade' Minister Cecil Parkinson's extra -curricular affairs gets the Conservative thumbs down. Scandal, scandal, scandal, it keeps everyone talking. + + + On the homefront things are more peaceful and quiet. Most of us have just recovered from the gastronomical delights of Thanksgiving dinner and are now gearing up to wear off the turkey and the trimmings in the garden. It's time to think about raking leaves, giving the lawn one last shot of fertilizer and putting the gardens to bed, as the Ed and Flo Oddliefson explained to members of the Bayfield Garden Club. One nifty gardening trick that i might give a try is an idea from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food on how to have spring flowers in winter. The ministry says that many types of spring flowers can be grown indoors. Tulips, narcissus. crocuses. hyacinths and daf- fodils, planted indoors by late October will By Shelley McPhee bloom by January. The trick is to use a clay pots, with a layer of drainage stones in the bottom and a good mixture of loam, sand and peat moss. To achieve the best display, put as many bulbs in the pot as possible and cover them with just enough soil until just the tips of the bulb show. Next you take them down to the basement or some other cool, dark place for six to 10 weeks. When shoots appear on the young plants, move them to a warmer spot with indirect light. Move plants into direct light when the shoots reach 6 inches. Once buds appear, return plants to indirect light. The ministry says that flowers will last longer if they are kept in a cool location during the blooming period. I'll report back to you on my green thumb experiement some blustery January day. + + + Speaking of blustery days, winter will soon be on its way and Christmas is only 75 days away. Clinton merchants are offering a great pre -Christmas sale this week as they sponsor their annual Harvest of Savings Sale Days. Start making out your Christmas shop- ping list, clip out the coupons in a special supplement included in this week's paper and visit downtown Clinton. + + + Gary and i along with other friends and relatives in Goderich, Bayfield and Clinton have been enjoying the company of our Beautiful B.C. friends Larry and Sharon Tyndall. They're back in Ontario to take in all the fall colors and to show off a brand new baby girl. + + + ' We also had a note from a Clinton area couple who just returned from a fall vacation in the western province. Mr. and Mrs. Albert Liebold have took a bus trip to Chilliwack, Victoria and Mission, B.C. where they were visited their grandson Don. The Liebolds report two weeks of beautiful weather and scenery and a holiday that went by just too fast. There you have it, whether it be in the western Rockies of B.C. or on the sandy shores of Lake Huron, Canada is a beautiful country from coast to coast. ++ + See you next week and remember, when you have troubles, think of the tea kettle. It may be up to its neck in hot water, but it continues to sing. v your s ®Q, r Editor C- unci) shout. listen t o every t gyne y Dear Editor: Reading the news of our latest council meeting in Clinton, it really amazes many citizens of town, that our council seems to be so caught up in the so called problems of our merchants. It would seem for the last six months at least, we read nothing but that bylaws are being made and discussed. I would hate to think that a person would run for council in Clinton for one reason and that is to better themselves. Clinton is a small town and what we really need is men and women who care about industry and promoting the town. If you look at any of the tourist in- formation brochures that are available, Clinton is not mentioned. In fact it isn't on the maps at all. Now surely there is some way we can promote ourselves to at least be on tourist maps of Ontario. This year the council has keep small business out of Clinton. Council members have decided that enterprising people, who are taxpayers, may not have as many yard sales as they want and council now wants to charge a business tax on those (mostly women) who want to stay in their homes and make a few dollars by having home parties. If the merchants of Clinton are that un- sure of themselves, they shouldn't be in business. One councillor said we should build a fence around Clinton, well we don't have to build anything. The council has done it for us. When a town elects councillors, it is to represent us all, not just a few citizens. There are too many people of certain in- fluence who are heard by certain coun- cillors. From there it goes before a meeting and becomes an issue. We do need good people to be on council and it is always a problem to get them to run. After this year I can see why. Let's hope that in another election we are able to have a choice and choose some councillors who really care about all the people of Clinton. This is not to say that all councillors are the same, some really do try. A Concerned Citizen, Clinton. Racial problem? Dear Editor: Charges laid by high school beauty pageant contestant MeChelle Travis that she should have won but didn't beause she's black, show much more than a lack of personal grace. The nature of human rights illogic is so pervasive that screaming "racism" has become a common retaliation for minorities defeated in fair competition. Travis was well aware that the judging at her Chatham High School was based on written • sub- missions as well as popularity votes. Since winner Anna Babalis soundly beat Travis in the written work, she justly won the title. McChelle's whining about racial discrimination is likely to heighten racial tension in her high school and the Chatham community in the same way that human rights commissions have escalated racial problems throughout Canada through their narrow-minded over -reactions to all con- flicts involving whites and visible minorities. The Travis girl's access to the Ontario Human Rights Commission emphasizes clearly the inherent unfairness of this organization. Other unsuccessful beauty pageant candidates who happened to be white have ne recourse. However, a member of a visible minority can cause havoc merely by crying "discrimination." The Ontario Human Rights Commission exists only to further the interests of minorities and should be abolished. Ontario should follow the lead of Premier Bennett of British Columbia and abolish this divisive body. Sincerely yours, Daryl Reside (Miss) Vice -President Butt out Smokers in schools beware - the Huron County Board of Education may be asking you to butt out. Trustee Tony McQuail said he had been contacted by a ratepayer who, because of an allergic reaction to cigarette smoke, had to stop volunteer work at her neighbourhood school. Mr. McQuail indicated the smoke wasn't from the students, but from teachers and other parent volunteers. He noted the ratepayer, besides her own health, was concerned about the example being set for students. The board's personnel and management committees will consider the question of smoking in schools at a joint meeting later this month. Trustee John Jewitt, said while cigarette smoke doesn't bother him, any policy established for the schools would have to be implemented system -wide. That would include the administration building and specifically the board room. Currently. smoking is allowed in the board room area and some trustees and press representatives puff their way through the board's monthly sessions. University of Guelph provides forum for arms control regulations GUELPH - Korean Airline Flight 007 was shot down, and arms control negotiations between East and West seem to be going down in flames along with the plane, warns Professor Henry Wiseman, a peace -keeping specialist at the University of Guelph. "We are at a critical stage where it is necessary to negotiate arms control measures today, or suffer incredible destruction tomorrow." Professor Wiseman, a former director of peace -keeping programs at the Interna- tional Peace Academy in New York, and member of Ottawa's Defense Research Barri, is coordinating the international con- ference, Strategies for Peace and Security in a Nuclear Age. which is taking place at the University of Guelph from Oct. 27 to 30. "At the United Nations, East and West are raging at each other," he says. "Suddenly this conference, which we have been organizing for months, is becoming a means by which Canada can help to revive the dialogue between East and West in a public, academic forum. The Russians are coming to the conference, the Americans are com- ing. NATO, the UN, West Germany's Greens Party, NGOs ( non-government organizations), religious and educational in- stitutions will all be well represented. Ot- tawa is sending people from the Depart- ments of External Affairs and Defense, and MPs from 2111 three parties." The mix is a volatile one. notes Professor Wiseman. However, he emphasizes that the University, which has a tradition of objec- tive, unbiased attitudes, is in a unique posi- tion to foster a careful and balanced ex- amination of the relevant facts and issues. The Soviet delegation includes Dr. Vladimir Gantman, Moscow Institute of World Economic and International Rela- tions, and Drs. Pavel Podlesnyi and Yuri Ivanov, U.S. and Canada institute of Moscow. American representatives include General Brent Scowcroft, Chairman of President Reagan's MX Commission in Washington, D.C. and Eugene Carroll, Deputy Director, Centre for Defense infor- motion, Washington, D.C., a former Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy and director of U.S. operations in the Middle East and Europe. Other speakers are Roland Vogt of West Germany's controversial Greens Party and Sweden's inga Thorsson, Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Chairman, UN Group of Governmental Experts on the Relation- ship Between Disarmament aril Develop- ment. The Honourable Walter Gordon, Chairman, Canadian Institute for Economic Policy, a former federal finance minister, and Archbishop Edward Scott, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, are among the Canadian representatives. Dr. Kinhide Mushakoji, well known as a peace researcher and a vice -rector of United Nations University, Tokyo, is presenting the keynote address, The Cur- rent Crisis in Arms Control. He will be in- troduced by Dr. George Ignatieff, Presi- dent, United Nations Association in Canada and Chancellor, University of Toronto. Panel subjects centre on arms control and alternate modes of security, practical measures for de-escalation of the arms race, costs and consequences of the arms race, deterrence: the search for parity, and medical, psychological and environmental implications of nuclear war. Professor - Wiseman expects the con- ference to do nothing less than affect 0 government policy. His co -coordinator, University of Guelph historian Gunnar Boehnert, is equally emphatic. "Talk is cer- tainly not enough. Ordinary citizens, many of whom are coming to the conference, must realize that they can exert influence on government, and then organize in order to do so." A former RCAF pilot, Professor Boehnert is a director of the Atlantic Coun- cil of Canada and a consultant for NATO. To ensure that the impact of the con- ference is felt in Ottawa, a delegation of con- ference speakers is travelling to the capital to address parliamentaries, key civil ser - Turn to page 5