The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutClinton News-Record, 1984-12-26, Page 1'/ c'. IL,u 4" 4 = / / a -/ � I w cu WEDNESDAY, DEC:EMBER�"p�� , 1984 ------------ ' at least fmDowmwho are acting the ro�«f Evenrformer was photographed while wa�gb�m��V�H�mtt Central School Christmas shepherds.concert. (Shelley McPhee photo) Post �ffice ��-�� ]�]��_/�^/NL�� increased � �_�� ]� card ��]�w�h��^��k �� / ��_/��L��LJ�� . By James Friel CLINTON - The ffi has had a long history of serving this small agricultural community. Through the years the postmaster and his staff have dealt with the letters and parcels - and bills - of local residents and their correspondents and have also largely dealt successfully .with the dramatic increase of mail at Christmas. According to the information of Keith Ahrens, Clintonls postmaster for .the past year, "it appears the post office was first here in 1866 and the first postmaster was Thomas Fair." There was also a post office, circa 1903, during the time James Scott was postmaster, which approximately occupied the same place on which the radar is now Mr. Ahrens has been assistant postmaster in Exeter for several years and postmaster in Dutton. The Clinton branch of the Cunudu�P�t Corporation is presently located. on the corner of King and WelliStreets. The building housing the federal operation was constructed in 1956. Inside, Tnside, management and the rnembers of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) work to ceay the thousands of pieces of mail. And to process it, "we have , six full-time people, a part-time person, myself and the assistant postmaster," said Mr. Ahrens. Around this tirne, instead of the confusion you might expect the big rush at Christmas to oroute, with the drastic increase in parcels and letters, the operation runs relatively smoothly. The corputiondwcmn'ttirpextruotaRto help with the rush primarily bepuuae.^^aO the letter sorting is of a knowledge sort. For enuzup}e, they have to memorize the box numbers and who has them in case there isn't a number on a piece of nmuU," said the postmaster. As a result, staff hired during Christmas would just begin to learn their jobs at the time they are no longer needed. "Baaical}y, what we're doing to cover the extra load is having pJ working their days off," said Mr. Ahrens. In that way, the traditional rush is haridled by experienced people working overtime and precludes. training temporary staff. A letter originating in Clinton and going to Toronto, for exaMple, is first be sorted and stamped with the postmark of te Clinton office. s with laol ofov/U,such as Bell Canada, Sears or the regional unemployment insurance office have their own niches at the post office. The sorted mail is then' dumped into cartons and sent to the larger London warehouse where the mail is directed to a Toronto sorting station and then eventually on to the address on the envelope. Although the Clinton post office has to send much of the mail to be sent any distance to London, the Clinton branch is "connected to the smaller local towns," said the postmaster. We scnd to Exeter, Wingharn, Stratford, Seaforth and other nearby towns every da^^ Mail corning into the Clinton post office goes through the reversed process,. The daily incoming.rnail appears in the rnorning in the traditionai bags or in lettertainers,' which are 1astic boxes. The letters then dumped and sorted and the experienced postal employees divide the correspondence into rural routes, general delivery, ,and boxes. The general delivery designation is sorted alphabetically and the boxes are split into sections of The mail undergoes further sorting into the individual boxes and lettered slots for general delivery and the rural route drivers, covering five routes, arrange their deliveries in their own section to the rear of the building. The threat ,of mechanization, which haunts ernp\oYeao of many differeot corporations across the country will not affect Clinton as a small post office. ''They have mechanized the larger centres like London', Kitchener and Hamilton, but they don'thave anY plans for the smaller centres getting equipment," said the postrnaster. Much of the extra mail at this season is due in in pirt to the letters childrea send to Santa Claus. The post of8ce, in the person of Mr. Abreno, the poetmuater, answers all the letters addressed to Santa and with the special postal code of HO1-1 OHO. Although "it may not be the best wmy." those letters are answered With one of the .Farnwrs, By James Friel ?: Hydro official agreed the 'peeling was premature, representatives of the provin- cial corporation attended a meeting of the Huron County chapter of the federation of Agriculture to answer questions•about a pro- posed hydro power line througl the county. The meeting took place at Htillett Central School in Londesboro on Dec. 18, The meeting, suggested a& premature because Hydro has not yet fully defined its requirements, was primarily a ehance for both Ontario Hydro and the Foodland Hydro Committee to air their point& of view and provide a short summary of the events to date. Dave Abbott Public Involvement Chair- man for .the present study began, saying that in 1981, Hydro decided to develop power lines to fully utilize the power generated at the Bruce Nuclear Power Development (BNPD), and plan for the time the second Bruce plant comes into operation, scheduled for 1987. After Hydro had waited for years for the Royal Commission of Electric Power to complete its findings, the huge power cor- poration approached a hearing established to consider power line routes with six plans, "all of them acceptable to Hydro," said Mr. Abbott. Because of the efforts of representative Tony McQuail, concerned farmers and the Huron Federation of Agriculture, the hear- ing officers recognized that Hydro's favoured power line route, from the BNPD to London, interfered with prime agricultural land which the royal commis- sion had cautioned against. An alternate route, incidentally selected by the Federation as the best route, froni the Bruce plant to Essa near Barrie was chosen as the course offering the least interference with this area's prime agricultural land. The corridor designated N3 was chosen and Ontario Hydro developed the plan to the. point of actually deciding the general area to place the towers. At that time,.cottagers and farmers in the ‘1*n‘ area fotnied a• He also stressed that although Ontario Hydro was investigating the direct Bruce to London course, this study would .not necessarily mean that route would be especially pushed as the most favourable. Tony McQuail a Turnberry Township farmer and a member of the Federation said the process was now primarily a political one. After working at the hearings to point out that Hydro's favoured route would com- plicate farming operations and waste valuable land, the hearing decision the Federation supported was overturned in court. Mr. McQuail suggested that because many of the cottagers in the region of the proposed line are lawyers, stock brokers and other influential people, the provincial government did not defend its hearing's fin- dings. "As a result, the court overturned the hearing's recommendation on the grounds of notice." • And at thitime, said "It's going to be in limb& for awhile," because it group to fight Hydro's plans called the Cen- tral Ontario Coalition, which contended that both seasonal and permanent residents did not receive proper notice of the provincial company's intentions. The issue was taken to court. "This so-called lack of notice was ,review- ed and the three judges decided the move should be quashed," said Mr. Abbott. "Now we're doing it again. A study of the best possible route from Bruce to London will enable us to go back to a hearing and have in-depth information on various routes," said the Hydro official. � �� «� ��m�� " �� ydro ��'��^�� .�� is a "political hot potato." He said that with a provincial election in the near future, the hearing framework Ontario Hydro needs from the provincial government to make progress on the project will not be developed until after the next government is elected. The Turnberry Township farmer also said that when the next hearings are conducted, every farmer with a point to make should try to attend and express their concern with the Bruce to London route. Hydro officials were not able to answer many specific questions farmers had con- cerning the routes because of the lack of a hearing framework, but the question of compensation was investigated. A booklet outlining the many various types of compen- sation available was distributed. As one farmer said, "I don't think we'll be able to stop de line so I'm just going to go for the money." Dave Abbott and the other Hydro officials offered to attend another Federation meeting in March when the rotjte corridors should be narrowed down. Bill Scott, the agricultural expert for the present Hydro study to determine the path of hydro line from the Bruce Nuclear Power Development, discusses the matter with area farmers at the Huron County Federation of Agriculture ineeting Dec. 13. The meeting was held at Hullett Central Public School. (James Friel photo) Be Brown, of Clinton, has worked for the Canada Post Corporation for about 20 years and her husband, George, has been with the post office for 17 years. Both work at the Clinton branch of the corporation which is currently dealing with the influx of Christmas mail. (James Friel photo ) forrn letters prepared by the corporation. "If different kids in one family send letters, we have at least three different form letters so they aren't the same." In an attempt to get the building into festive decorations, local school children have been invited to submit art work. -last year we had asked the high school art class to paint the windows, but the windows are high and coated and we didn't get a real good effect. So we thought this year we'd switch and ask if the elementary schools wanted to paint murals and posters so we could put them up give more of a Christmassy atmoshpere," Mr. Ahrens. And both the Grade 5 class at the Clinton Public SchooGrade 3 class at the Clinton and District Christian School contributed work to brighten the post office lobby. For most of the year, the post office runs its operations with relative quiet. But when Christmas time comes aroundbetween the masses of Christmas cards and the substantial increase in parcels - "anyone sending anything to parts of the country or the world has to mail it" - and the services featuring a more personal touch, members of the staff at the Clinton post office have their days, and days off, filled with the responsiblity of moving the mail. Four ��N�� ~- ~~___ ��__ _____ * for committee` Huron County councillors were in a four per cent mood , Council unanimously endorsed a recom- mendation from its executive cominittee authorizing a four -per cent increase for committee and session pay in 1984. The in- crease boosts the per diem rate to $73 and $49 for a half-day session. in- creased by four per cent to $4,160 fothe coming year.Councillors also endorsed a travel allowance package that calls for the rate to be increased to 19 cents per km for coun- cillors with car allowances of $80 and 22 eents per km. for all others. Council backs � ^��°�� s door ��J� `, ��'�� ,��~^°� �~" � �ee=ng policy A report advocating that council and coi?ihiittee meetings be open to the public and that the public have easier access to certain information was endorsed by Huron County Council. The royort, prepared by a joint provincial -municipal committee on open meetings and access to information,was given unanirnous support by cotmcil at its regular monthly meeting Thursday without discussion. Council has grappled with the issue of open committee meetings over the year after a citizen requested it consider the open concept for all meetings. The joint committee report recorrunends that: all council meetings be open to the public; that meetings of committees of council be closed to the public only when the subject matter under consideration in volves matters permitted to be discussed in closed session by statute; that councils provide public notice of meetings; that the clerk shall ,provide in writing the reason for a closed session when a committee meeting or a committee of the whole meeting is closed to the public. and that bylaws may only be passed at an open ses sion of council. The reconunendation on access to municipal information suggests that the list of documaits available to the public for inspection be expanded, that municipalities should be given reasonable notice of requests for information and should be allowed to levy fees for Supply ing documents and that an avenue for ap peal by citizens should be in place if municipal employees refuse to supply in