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Clinton News-Record, 1987-02-25, Page 1NO. 8 121 YEARS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1987 50 CENTS Clinton will be ready if disaster strikes By Anne Narejko CLINTON - Although 58.7 per cent of municipalities in Ontario do not have a disaster plan in place, Clinton residents can rest easy - they're in the minority. Mayor John Balfour and the municipal control group have been working at up- dating the town's existing plan to insure the safety and well being of the residents and their property. "If disaster struck this afternoon, I'd reach for the book ( which contains contact names) and start calling. The names in the book must be current or they'rye no good," said Mayor Balfour. On February 18, churches, organizations, service clubs and volunteers represented approximately 30 in -town organizations who will help implement the plan. They gathered at the town hall to hear a presentation by Barrie Fire Chief Jack McAllister. Chief McAllister verbally and visually let the audience learn from Barrie's train derailment and tornado experiences which forced the implementation of their disaster plan. "The train derailment, which took place in February of 1982, used portions of the plan. From that we made minor ad- justments and used the entire plan for the 1985 tornado," commented Chief McAllister. "We had no criticisms from the public. Everyone knew what they were doing." However, Barrie did not always have such an effective disaster plan. "Our first plan only included three depart- ments - public works, police and fire. We had it looked at by the fire co-ordinators, the emergency planning people of Ontario and groups like that. Then when we felt it was ready, it was passed at council," said Chief McAllister. "There's no way you can depend on the municipal departments only to organize everything, we had to involve most organizations." This is the route which Clinton is taking and has been working with many organiza- tions to cover all areas. However, the control group which is responsible for making all decisions con- sists of municipal employees. The control group includes the mayor, superintendent of public works, the fire chief, the police chief, the manager of the public utilities and the clerk -treasurer," ex pla' ed Mayor Balfour, who also said only tbe'mayor, or in his absence, the reeve, can officially declare a disaster. The updating of the disaster plan is the responsibility of the mayor and last December Mayor Balfour set to this task. "Right now we have most contact names. Next, the control group will meet with about 12 people at a time - two from each organiza- tion - and explain to them what their respon- Thursday or Friday? Phil Hauser I entre) and Bayfield Reeve Dave Johnston had their gentlemen. This event was part of the village's Heritage Days hands full when they had to hold the log for these two sawing celebration that took place on February 21. Wavid Emslie photo) eritage Day is both entertaining and informative for everyone By Helen Owen BAYF'IELi) - The Fire Department here really got things off to a good start with a salute of sirens! And echoes from the past - when the old school bell rang forth from the tower in the old town hall. Chairman of the local Architectural Construction and Ad- visory' Committee ( LACAC ), Charles Rogers, welcomed the bystanders and in- vited them to come along to the arena and take part in the Heritage Day celebrations on February 21. The weather was very co-operative and participation in the outdoor events was soon under way. Winners of the snow shoe races were Mr. and Mrs. Weiner, Tyler Hessell and Melody Turner. Melody left without col- lecting her certificate and ribbon which can be picked up in the village office. There was a chance to play a rather unusual type of golf, and demonstrate the skills required for log sawing. After all these energetic activities, what could have been better than sampling the beans and hos dogs'! Upstairs in the community centre, members of the Bayfield Lioness did a great job serving coffee, hot chocolate and doughnuts. A special slide presentation had been prepared for the occasion which pro- vided some beautiful shots, of heritage buildings in the village with ac•ornmentary on their history and former owners. While outside Tom 1'enhale and his wagon gave rides around the village and a really authentic touch to the proceedings, inside another filar presentation told the story of Tom's internationally famous wagons and carriages. For the children there was plenty to do, and whether it was enjoying the skating, or displaying their artistic abiLtes with bold strokes and liberal quantities of paint. Steve Argyle and Rose Taman added to the enjoy- ment with their lively tousle which soon had feet tapping, and the children picked up their certificates of participation inscribed with their names at the quick calligraphy counter. Another interesting piece of history took place in the Bayfield Library where Harry Baker and Elva Metcalf delighted their listeners with readings and anecdotes of Bayfield presented in a truly personal and humorous vein. The members of LA('AC would like to thank all those who acted as such willing volunteers, and all those who came out to support their Heritage Day program and make it such a successful venture. Entries for the essay competition are be- ing judged and the winner will be announced soon. Charles Rogers, President of the Bayfield Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee, helped kick off the village's Heritage Days on February 21 by ringing the bell in the old town hall to announce the celebrations were about to start. (David Emslie photo) Many people showed up at Bayfield Library's reading room to here readings given by Harry Baker and Elva Metcalf. Harry was reading from his recently released book, My Memoirs, while Elva read from passages that will he included in the Rayfield History Rook that will be released in the future. (David Emslie photo) Education committee looks at four areas By Shelley McPhee Haist CLINTON - Codes of behavior, physical contact guidelines, disciplinary measures and contact with outside agencies are four of the issues and areas of address that a special committee of the Huron County Board of Education i HCBE) has examined and made r commendations on. The recommendations come in the form of a study and reporttentitled Student -Teacher Relationships. The report was presented to HCBE trustees by director of education Bob Allan at the February board meeting. Mr. Allan reported that the study and recommendations are the. result of several months of work and survey by a special committee, comprised of professional 4 ,ft educators, from teachers, principals, vice principals and the executive team for the HCBE. ('odes of Behavior While all secondary schools in the HCBE system have established codes of bahavior, as well as many elementary schools, the Council sets curfew report recommends that all elementary schools should complete the development of individual codes of behavior. The general guidelines for student behavior codes are based on the suggestion that such policies should he developed co - Turn to page 2 CLINTON - A suggestion at council's first Feblruary meeting prompted members to adopt the policy of ending regular council meetings at 10:30 p.m. if council feels there are important issues that have not been dealt with by this time, they may extend the meeting. This motion was passed at council's% February 16 meeting. Clinton Town Council meets the first and third Mondays of each month in the council chambers at the town hall. Meetings begin at 7:30 p.m. sibilities are," he said. In the event of a disaster, the control group would head to the command centre which would be the town hall and the police department, or in the case this building is in danger, they would go to the public works shed. In the command centre, the proper con- tact people would be notified and instruc- tions sent out. At this point, the mayor says no new egdipment has had to be purchased but did say one item they are looking at down the road would be a radio., "We can't rely on the telephone because we don't know whether it will be working or not," he said. In further explaining the procedure, Mayor Balfour said, "The first 10 minutes are very critical. This is when proper action must be taken. " As an example, he said if a truck over- turned at the highway intersection and fuel was leaking out, there could be an explosion at any minute. Therefore, the core area must be evacuated almost instantaneously. "We're concerned with the protection of lives and property, in that order," said Mayor Balfour. Biggest Threats From the mayor's viewpoint, Clinton's biggest threats come from the traffic flow in and out of town and Mother Nature herself. "The biggest threat has to be the intersec- tion at Highway 8 and 4. The traffic flow that goes through there is great. Second would be storms, in both summer and winter," Mayor Balfour said, adding, "A remote one would be air craft because we are under main traf- fic lanes and another would be a flood from the Bayfield River." Chief McAllister was invited to Clinton because Mayor Balfour felt he could tell, and show people, more in two hours than they could otherwise learn in two months. "The graphic demonstration brings it home...Al1 of the damage done in Barrie I from the tornado) was done in a matter of one minute," said Mayor Balfour. It also gave. the audience Chief McAllister's first hand problems and solu- tions which may not have otherwise been dealt with. When explaining things "you'd never ex- pect" to have to deal with, Mayor Balfour mentioned day care services, the provision of food for volunteers and others, as well as a place to stay for the homeless." As for the work Clinton has done on preparing their disaster plan, Chief McAllister said, "I was very, very impress- ed with the awareness of your community. The mayor and the fire chief are aware of the necessity of having a plan and that there is a lot of work to getting it in place." Someday, to test Clinton's plan, Mayor Balfour plans to declare a disaster. Shopping nights debated By Shelley McPhee Haist CLINTON - A proposal to change shopping hours here from Friday to Thursday nights was met with a great deal of comments on the street. When it came time to discuss the proposal at a special meeting of the mer- chants in the Clinton Business Improvement Area I BIA) the debate had fizzled. Some 13 Clinton BIA members turned out at a meeting last week to discuss the pro- posal. The merchants are part of the 100 member organization who were asked to comment on the idea to change evening shopping hours. Those who attended the meeting agreed that Clinton shopping hours should not he changed, and that all merchants in the shop- ping district should make an effort to main- tain regular Friday night hours in co- operation with the majority of downtown business people. The proposal to change to Thursday night hours came after the BIA received a letter from the town council voicing concern about irregular business hours. At the recent BIA special meeting Clinton Councillor John Cochrane said that council was acting on comments they had received from shoppers. He suggeste0„- "Is it possible for mer- chants to get their act together.... We could find ourselves losing shoppers to other towns.where they know the store hours." The BIA executive looked at the problem and proposed a change that would see Fri- day night closings in favor of Thursday night shopping hours. BIA secretary Faye Fear said she was greeted with barrage of criticism and com- plaints when she took the question to the street. An open meeting was called in an ef- fort to get a wide representation of opinion. BIA Chairman Clarence Denomme told the dozen people who attended the meeting, "Unfortunately a lot of people who were concerned about the hours are not here tonight." Those who attended the meeting thoroughly discussed the merits and disad- vantages of evening shopping hours. Jane Groves of Groves Electric noted, "Working people shop in the evening. Some nights though you don't have enough money in the till to count, but they're not all bad. There are good business nights too." Mr. Denomme noted, "We're no different than any other town. They all have similar problems, but I hope we can change this in Clinton." He suggested that the time may come when Thursday night shopping is favored ahead of Friday. "i've talked to some consumers and they say that Thursday is a more popular shopp- ing night ( in urban areas) as Friday nights are reserved for social and recreational time." The majority of merchants who attended the Clinton meeting voted in favor of keep- ing the Friday night shopping hours at this time. John Wuerth said if any change was to happen, it should be to have both Thursday and Friday night shopping hours. He noted. "There's a move to offer more retail hours, to he more aggressive." Mr. Denomme agreed, "You have to have promotions all the time anymore to keep business moving. if anything we should be open Thursday and Friday nights." David Anstett said that promotion of the town and the business district were his main concerns. He said that the BiA needed to promote Clinton as a good place to establish a retail business. "We need to spruce up our main street," he said, noting that a main portion of Clin- ton's main street is used by non -retail businesses. "Somebody driving through this town on a Friday night sees many dark stores because much of the downtown core is used for non - retail business." Mr. Wuerth suggested, "The people at these BiA meetings are the ones who are willing to make decisions, willing to pro- mote and we should go with that." Mr. Anstett further noted, "The BiA was established because it was thought that is the merchants had to pay for a service they would care more. The representation at this 1meeting shows that they don't." In voting in' favor to maintain the current Friday night shopping hours, Mr. Anstett said, "1 assume that who ever isn't at this meeting is voting yes to Friday night openings." Those merchants whose businesses are closed on Friday evenings, will be encourag- ed by the BIA to stay open until 9 p.m. Special committee looks at hospital parking problem CLINTON - A special committee has been formed to study the parking prbblem at Clinton Public Hospital (CPH). The seven member committee includes representatives from Clinton council, the hospital board and local residents in the hospital area. (They include Councillors John Cochrane and Case Buffinga, CPH representatives Keith Tyndall and Barbara Howson and neighborhood spokesmen Gerry Holmes and Bill Counter. Chester Ar- chibald will head the committee as the non- voting chairman. This special committee will look at the parking shortage at CPH and will present recommendations and solutions to the town council. Zoning change okayed At their February 2 meeting, Clinton Council members gave the okay to a zoning change which will see Lots 965,968 and 570 on Dunlop Street rezoned from future develop- ment to low density residential. 1