Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1987-10-14, Page 1INCORPORATING -THE 131.1111 w'T tNI) 041) -THF: HAI FIELD lit (;LF: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1987 Booze, drug abuse are focus o blitz By David Emslie CLINTON - Students and teachers in the five Huron County secondary schools are joining forces together to increase awareness of alcohol and drug abuse. The Alcohol Drug Awareness Program for Today IADAPT) project will be running in the area schools over a two week period from October 26 to November 6. The project was aptly described as a two week blitz by the ADAPT chairman, Terry Johnston. A full calendar of speakers and events will be taking place at the schools, in- cluding speeches by a mother whose son was killed in a drinking and driving accident. At a press conference held at the Huron County Board of Education office here on October 8 to kick off the events, two Central Huron Secondary School ) CHSS) teachers, and four students were present to .discuss the project. The two English teachers from the school, Mary Yanchus and Jeff Reaburn, said that they got their start with the project after becoming involved with the Students Against Drunk Driving ( SADD) program last year. Mr. Reaburn' noted, "I've lived in Huron County all of my life, and I've seen the ef- fects of drinking and driving. I think the pro- blem needs to be dealt with. I've seen it first hand." His sentiments were echoed by Mrs. Yanchus. "I think drinking and driving is a problem with our students, as it is with most Cana- dian students," she, said. Mrs. Yanchus pointed out they don't want to preach at the students to get the point across. "We're trying to just educate the kids about various drugs, particularly alcohol, and the problems that can arise from using them. We're focussing on resulting problems such as drinking and driving." The fact that the schools will be offering a variety of different types of presentations should help them to reach more students, Mr. Reaburn said. "If one doesn't reach them, maybe another one will." • Mrs. Yanchus agreed the program should reach at least some of the students, and stated, "Even if we just save one life, it's worth the two weeks work." Using the student ADAPT committee as en example, both teachers are expecting good student response. As an example of this response, the students present at the press conference told the News -Record that the starting number of seven students on the committee has risen to 30 or 35, with still more showing interest in joining. One of the students, Carrie Fisher, ex- plained she joined the committee because she is a new driver, and she feels she has enough problems being a new driver on her own, without having to worry about drunk drivers. The Grade 11 student agreed with the teachers in the fact that some of the students will be affected by the program. She noted, "It'll reach some. It will open some eyes." When asked whether the full affect of the program will be lost on some students, Janice Cameron, a Grade 12 student, stated, Jim Howard, a teacher at Seaforth high school, mixes non-alcoholic drinks for the kick-off of the Alcohol Drug Awareness Program for Today at the Huron Countu Education Centre in Clinton, Friday. The program brings togather all Huron County high schools to help inform both students and the community about drug and alcohol abuse. They will make a series of presen- tations at all area high schools featuring guest speakers. (photo by Ted Spooner) "On a few students, but even if we reach two out of 50, the program is working." According to Jennifer Hodgins, Grade 11, drinking is a problem at CHSS. "I don't know specific numbers, but you see people leaving dances after drinking, and you know those people are driving. As a teenager, it's easy to see the problem. The program will make us more aware." While drinking might be a problem, the students didn't feel there is a Targe problem with drugs. "I think it's more drinking than drugs," said Tanya Boonstoppel. A few of them blamed a lack of teenage activities on the incidence of drinking and driving around this area. Miss Cameron stated, "I think one of the main reasons students go drinking is because there are not a lot of activities for people our age. Teenage activities are very limited." "We're right at the age where you can't do this because you're too young, and you're too old to do that," said Miss Boonstoppel in agreement. Parents of school children, as well as anyone else in the community who is in- terested are invited to attend the events which will be taking place over the two week period. At CHSS the schedule will be as follows: October 27, 9 a.m., Christine Nash; October 29, 7 p.m., Maeve Connell; October 30, 11:30 a.m.. Survival Guide; November 2, 1 p.m., Trinity Theatre; November 5, 9 a.m., John Townsend; November 5, 1 p.m., Dr. Knight; November 6, 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., Much Music Dance. Christine Nash, the first speaker at CHSS, is a mother of a drinking and driving acci- dent victim. According to Mrs. Yanchus, she will be giving a very emotional talk to the students that will centre on drinking and driving, and its effects on the survivors. The second speaker, Maeve Connell from the Addiction Research Foundation, will be giving a speach aimed towards the parents. Mrs. Yanchus again stressed, "The parents are welcome to come and hear any of the speakers." The next presentation will vary from the speakers as Survival Guide Project is a musical group. Their pr sentation will cen- tre on substance abuse, with a question and answer period to follow. The theatre group, Trinity Theatre, will be doing skits for the students on the pro- blems associated with drugs. A retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer, John Townsend, will be speaking to the studentsabout substance abuse and identification. For their final presentation, Dr. Peter Knight will be speaking on road trauma. As well as being a professor of surgery at McMaster University, and a staff surgeon at St. Joseph's Hospital in Hamilton, Dr. Knight is involved in many committees on accident prevention and automative medicine. The Much Music Dance will finish off the week's events at Central Huron. Students from all five schools will be invited to attend this dance which will feature the musical groups Basic English and Tall New Building. Erica Ehm is slated to act as host for the evening. Aside from all of these planned events, different activities will be taking part at the school throughout the two week period. Miss Rogers explained how one slide show should leave its mark upon the students. During the slide presentation pictures of friends having fun together in different ac- tivities will be shown, but every tenth frame a picture of a wrecked car, or a tombstone will be flashed. "It should get the point across that it does really happen," Miss Rogers stated. Power problems get aired By David Emslie CLINTON - Construction continued at this town's newest apartment building last week, while the battle over how to get elec- tricity to the building carries on. Land holders with property adjacent to the new Albert Street building, along with the owner of the building, Mason Bailey, and representatives of the Public Utilities Com- mission (PUC) met with Clinton Council on October 6 to discuss the delay in having power provided. ' Mr. Bailey, who has tenants ready to move into the building on November 1, noted his concern is, "I'm ready for services, but there aren't any." Originally he was under the impression that no easement was necessary to get power to his building, as long as the hydro poles didn't infringe on anyone else's property. PUC manager Gus Boussey explained that the services are there, but without the easement, they cannot be hooked up. "To date we haven't had any authority to go there. The location is landlocked," he said. One nearby landowner, Doug Bartliff, wanted to know why the problem with utilities wasn't solved before a building per- mit was issued. "I don't think anyone realized there was a problem until recently," replied Mayor John Balfour. Mr. Boussey added, "We've been ready to go since May," but to date they haven't got any answers. The point was raised by the town's bylaw enforcement officer, Murray Taylor, that he wouldn't issue the permit until he received a letter from the PUC saying services were available. He received this letter in May. As this letter stated that utilities were available, the question of what the term available means was raised. Mr. Boussey explained that on any other street there would be no trouble getting the utilities in place. He added that as they are available on Princess and Rattenbury, he assumed it was available for the building. "We said it's available, we didn't say we can get it in," Mr. Boussey noted. Councillor Gord Gerrits questioned the term again when he asked, "If it's landlock- ed, how can you say the power is available?" Chairman of the PUC, Ches Archibald, stepped in to field this question, "The whole catch is, we're not a bunch of legal beagles. I think it's up to someone else to get from the street in. We say the services are available, they are in that area. I don't think it's up to the PUC to have all the legal routes covered." Mr. Boussey added that in his 40 years ex- perince in the services, he had never run in- to a situation like this. One solution to the problem, suggested by Mr. Boussey, would be to bury the lines down main street under the sidewalk. This, however, would cost $18,000. Mayor Balfour pointed out this would be very costly to the taxpayers. When the mayor stated that the lack of co- operation among the neighbors astounded him, a few of the landowners spoke up with their reasons for not wanting to give an easement. The owner of Clinton Glass, Mirror and Aluminum Products, Hans VanDyke, stated, "I plan to do some adding on at some time. If I give the land up, I can't. The way I look at, I own the land, I pay the upkeep, why should I give it away." Councillor Ross Carter asked why they couldn't come from Rattenbury He sug- gested, "That's only one property to cross. I guess why I'm asking is, you're only one person, compared to five or six." This property owner, Mr. Bartliff, replied that he didn't want to give 15 feet of his pro- perty away because at one time he might want to sell it, or build on it. "Nobody is going to give 15 feet of their property away," he said. At press time, lawyers were still working on a solution to the problem. BUSINESS AS USUAL The mail's getting through to the Clinton Post Office By Anne Chisholm CLINTON - "They're exercising their rights and we're exercising ours," was the comment from Richard Bowness, Canada Post's Manager of Media Relations for the Huron Division, on the inside postal worker strike which is now into its 15th day. The second walkout by postal workers this year has been reportedly caused by the government threat the franchise postal operations. On October 9, the postal strike took ona new dimension when the Canadian Union of Postal Workers ended the rotating walkouts and declared a countrywide strike after the fetiexat.-..g wernment introduced back -to - work legislation. Locally, mail is still getting through to the the Clinton Post Office. "We don't have any local local figures yet," said Mr. Bowness. "But there was a dip ( in the volume of mail ) at the regional and national level. This was due to the change from a rotating strike to a general strike." However, Mr. Bowness also commented Rash of vehicle thefts Six vehicles were stolen over a two day period in what the Goderich Ontario Povin- cial Police 1 OPT' i have called classified "a rash of vehicle thefts." Although many of the details were not available, an OPP spokesperson said the vehicles were stolen between October 10 and 12 in the Goderich OPP and Clinton Police coverage areas. As of 5 p.m. on October 13, five of the six vehicles had been recovered. To date, there are no suspects and the in- vestigation will continue. GIVING THANKS Many parents, along with students and staff from Clinton and Bible verses and singing, the students also brought in food to be District Christian School gathered at the school on October 9 for a distributed among the needy in the community. In this photo the Thanksgiving assembly. Aside from performing poetry, reading Grade is are performing their song. (David Emslie photo) that this could partially be due to the general reaction of the public. "When there's a strike, people just don't use the mail," he said. He also claims that the decrease in volume is only "a short term phenomenon." Inside the Clinton Post Office, manage- ment and regular staff, "and a few un- familiar faces behind the counter" are sor- ting the mail which is coming through. Out- side, a small, orderly picket line was seen in the early morning hours on October 13. By mid-morning, the picketers were gone. To date, what mail gets through to the local office will he placed in the boxes. "We're struck, but we're still open for business," said Mr. Bowness. CLINTON PUBLIC HOSPITAL BUILDING FUND