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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1987-04-29, Page 1NO. 17 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 1987 50 CENTS Freda and Ferdinand, a lovely pair of pink flamingos found new owners on Saturday night at the Clinton Hospital dinner auction. Donated by Groves TV, they were sold for $150. CPH administrator Dan Steyn displayed the birds while auctioneer Jack Riddell kept the bidding action going. (Shelley McPhee Haist photo) Auction raises $8,000 CLINTON - More than $8,000 was raised in less than five hours on April 25 when the Clinton Public Hospital ( CPH) hosted its Fifth Annual Dinner Auction. More than 143 people attended this event which was held at the Stanley Township Complex in Varna. Some 51 donated items went on the auc- tion block for the hospital fund raising ef- fort. Huron -Middlesex MPP Jack Riddell a. Clinton' r?ichard Lobb orchestrated tht ') dding a, a. The high price of the night went for a handstitched quilt, donated by Rod and Joyce Doig of Seaforth. The queen sized quilt sold for $475. Among the other high priced items was a watercolor painting by C.W. Kettlewell which sold for $325, a com- puter printer bought for $250, and a water- color painting by Dr. Brian Baker, selling for $225. Among the more unusual items were a pair of pink flamingoes, selling for $150; Premier David Peterson's tie, for $90; a cruise for a day aboard a 32 foot yacht, bought for $150: and a moonlight airplane flight for $125. Bidding action was fast and furious for a neglige set, sold for $100 and for a Blue Jay baseball jacket and two tickets for the .July 1 game, selling at $125. Art works by Leda McAllister of Bayfield, crocheted tahleclothes from Catherine Plumtree of Clinton, photographic artworks by the late John Plumtree, a handknit sweater, and many items from local businesses were also among those sold. As well, a silent auction included 31 items, ranging from gift certificates to local shops to an autographed baseball from the Mon- treal Expos. Prior to the auction, cocktails and hors -d'oeuvres were served, followed by a gourmet meal prepared by the Brucefield UCW. The menu included • stuffed mushrooms, shrimp dip, spinach salad, filet mignon and chicken kiev, glazed carrots, and an array of desserts. Organizers for this year's event were pleased with the response and support. The 1987 auction committee, headed by Faye Fear, included Joyce Chilton, .Jo -Ann Rad- ford, Dianne Freeman, Al Jewson, Wayne Lester, Dan Steyn and Marg Makins. Bill Fleming and Steve Brown of Clinton checked over the merchandise at the Clinton Hospital Dinner Auction. The two gentlemen denied the claim that they were paying par- ticular attention to the blue negligee set. (Shelley McPhee Haist photo) The Dinner Auction has become a popular event and an important fund raising effort for the hospital. First held when the hospital was raising funds to build the new emergen- cy wing, it has since become an annual ef- fort. Organizers promise that another such event will be held in 1988. Ambulance service may be located in former Bell building CLINTON - The present Bell Canada pro- perty, located on Mary, Orange and Well- ington Streets, will soon be the home of an ambulance service. At a public planning and advisory com- mittee meeting on April 23, an application to change the zoning was discussed. The pre- sent zoning, C4-4, allows core commercial operations with a contractor's yard permit- ted as well. The rezoning would eliminate the contractor's yard and replace it with an ambulance service. The property has been purchased by Gary Betties who owns and operates the am- bulance service which serves both Clinton and Seaforth residents. When asked about access to the property, Mr. Betties said he hopes to put an entrance in on Wellington Street. He also has plans to take down the fence which surrounds the property. Although there was a good attendance at the public meeting, no one objected to the proposed rezoning. The planning and advisory committee will make a recommendation to council and if council passes the rezoning, residents in the area will have 35 days to submit a written objection to the clerk's office if they wish to do so. Townswant an increase their in road grants CLINTON - Atter some research, the Town of Goderich has sent a letter to local municipalities requesting their support for a letter to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications asking for more funding ,efor the county. At their April 21 meeting, Clinton Council gave their support to the letter. From 1984 to 1987, the Town of Clinton received an average increase of 2.9 per cent Blyth auction gives arena a lift as over By David Emslie BLYTH - A dinner and auction hosted by the Blyth Legion Ladies' Auxiliary on April 2-5 raised over $3,000 for a handicaptpd lift to be installed in the arena here. The lift project has been undertaken by the auxiliary as part of province wide dia- mond jubilee celebrations for 1987. Auxiliary president .Janice Henry explain- ed that for the jubilee year, "We wanted to do something for the community. This is our way of saying thanks for all the community has done for us over the years." As the auxiliary has raised the bulk of their funds at the arena over the years, they decided to make their 1987 contribution to the arena, she added. One of the main reasons they decided on a handicapped lift, she explained, stemmed from Hullett Township's "Back the Biter" bays last summer. She noted that while so 41 Ir 3,000 is Project is part of Jubilee celebrations many contributions were made to purchase the van equipped for a handicapped person, there were still hardly any -establishments in Blyth that a handicapped person could gain access to. To begin their fund raising drive the aux- iliary made a $5,000 donation of their own. This was followed by a matching donation raised from the Legion. With these two donations, $10,000 of the $30,000 cost was already raised. Other fund raising methods used included the selling of chocolate bars, the selling of "We gave Blyth a lift" buttons, draws, and pay as you pull tickets. Letters were also sent out to local organizations to let them know that donations would be tax deductible. "To date we're sitting at $24,646, and we didn't start until .January, so we're very pleased," Mrs. Henry said. The latest fund raising scheme, the dinner and auction, was also a booming success. While the auxiliary hoped to sell 100 tickets, 109 people were seated. The dinner made a profit of $775, while the Turn to page 6 for road grants. This figure is the second lowest in the county, with Goderich holding the lowest increase of 2.4 per cent. At the other end of the scale, the Town of Exeter has received the largest increase in the county for the three year period with 5.93 per cent. Second is Seaforth with 4.88 per cent and third is Wingham with 3.93 per cent. Taxpayers pay mord CLINTON - Council received information from the Huron -Perth Separate School Board at their April 21 meeting for this year's taxes. The residential elementary taxes will go up 7 per cent while the commercial elemen- tary taxes will go up 8.43 per cent. The secondary separate school supporter will pay an additional 7.41 per cent. Building up in Clinton CLINTON - Issuing of building permits are up drastically in town. In 1986, the building permits totalled $785,000, and during the first four months of this year, the total is already $611,900. Clerk Marie Jefferson said five permits for new homes have been issued this year, as well as several for renovations. News -Record owners sell the company Signal -Star Publishing Ltd. of Goderich , web -offset printers and publishers of seven community newspapers and a bi-weekly newsmagazine, has been sold to St. Catharines Standard Limited, company president Robert G. Shrier announced today. While details of the sale have now been finalized, Shrier said the new owners will officially take over Oct. 1. A family owned company since 1891, the new owners are publishers of three daily newspapers, The Standard in St. Catharines, the Cobourg Daily Star and Port Hope Guide, and seven weekly newspapers in the Niagara Pennin- sula and Cobourg area. The publishing company is owned and operated by the Burgoyne family under chief executive officer Henry Burgoyne. Signal -Star Publishing and the St. Catharines Standard have enjoyed a pro- sperous and amicable business relation- ship over the past 10 years as co -publishers of a 40,000 circulation newspaper in Newmarket and co-owners of a web -offset printing plant, Webman, of Guelph. While admitting that overtures had been made by several companies over the years to purchase Signal -Star Publishing, Shrier said he only seriously entertained the pro- spect with the St. Catharines Standard Limited because both the "timing and buyer were right." "We have enjoyed a long and friendly association with the Standard and its management and I feel totally comfor- table with the sale," Shrier said. "I have always liked their business philosophy, the manner in which they treated their employees and the autonomy they have given people to run their operations." While ownership of the company will be distanced from the location of the newspapers, Shrier believes it will create an even more autonomous situation for the company's community newspapers. "The general managers will, in effect, operate the newspapers like they were their own," Shrier explained. "We are leaving the company in the hands of people who will do as good a job, if not better than we have done and they will treat people equally as well. I feel totally comfortable with the arrangement." In speaking about the company's association with the people in the com- munities in which it does business, Shrier said the trust between community newspaper and reader and advertiser will be upheld. "The communities in which we've done business are very important to us," he said. "I hope we've made a significant con- tribution to all the communities we've served. Really, we are only managers of something ( newspapers I owned by our advertisers and readers. We are simply given the trusteeship." Turn to page 2 During the 1987 Rlompen Feest Queen Contest and Dance, held at Clinton Arena on April 25, Sandra Howson (left) was chosen 1987 Queen. The runner-upvas Patti Maguire. San- dra's first duty as queen was to draw for the early bird draw. Ruth Duerin of Goderich was chosen as the winner of the $200 prize. (David Emslie photo)