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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1982-11-24, Page 1Goderich SIGNAL -STAR 14, ,"/%7j GODERICH, ONTARIO, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1982 { George William Katatumba of Kampala, Uganda has been taking part in an architectural exchange. He is working with Chris Borgal, a partner In the Goderich based firm of HW and Borgal and In January, Borgal will travel to Uganda to work with 50 CENTS PER COPY Plan letter blitz to Premier Davis Unable to solicit a response from Community and Social Service Minister Frank Drea, the group fighting the closure oi"the Biuewater Centre for the Developmentally .Handicapjjed is ^now appealing to Ontario Premier WilliamDavis to reconsider the decision. Parents, volunteers, staff and interested citizens have petitioned the minister to rescind his decision to proceed with the closure of the centre ,but, Drea has not responded. Subsequent to attempts by the parent's and volunteer association to meet with the minister, Drea seat Dr. Gary Baker to the Bluewater Centre to discuss the ministry's five-year dein stitutionalization program and its ramifications for residents. Goderich town council had also written to the minister asking him to attend a meeting in Goderich to explain the rationale behind the closure. Drea did not respond to the request and council petitioned the premier to meet with local authorities to discuss the closure of the centre. This Saturday, Local 122 of. the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, is sponsoring a . letter writing blitz at the former Hughes Real Estate building on East Street just off The Squuaare. Union members are urging citizens to drop into the building, which will be open from 9.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and sign an available form letter or compose a letter to the premier, urging him to reconsider the closure. The union is, supplying postage for the letters and hopes that as a result of the blitz, Premier Davis will receive a deluge of letters expressing concern for the future of the residents of the Bluewater Centre, the staff and the effect the closure will have on the • surrounding community. The union has also been manning a booth in Sun - coast Mall gathering signatures to a petition that will also be forwarded to Queens Park. High school in poor shape Katatumba. Pictured is Mayor Harry Worsell • presenting Katatumba with a key to the town and apubhc anel re orfs by T.Marr) Ugandan architect says practices differ here For the past month an architect in Goderich, Chris Borgal who is a partner in the firm Hill and Borgal, has had some extra help with his work. Borgal hasn't hired another secretary to help with the typing nor has he hired another draftsman, instead, Borgal has had the help of another architect. , George William Katatumba of Kampala, Uganda who is taking part in an international exchange, has been assisting Borgal with various projects which Hill and Borgal are involved with. Katatumba will be working with Borgal for six weeks and then in January, Borgal will travel to Uganda to work with Katatumba. Sponsored jointly by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the Commonwealth Association of Architects and the Canadian International Development Agency, the exchange is in its twelfth and final year. Katatumba says the purpose of the exchange, "to see how other architects in other countries run their office practise." He. explains, "I will not necessarily carry new architectural ideas back to my country but I will see how certain problems are solved and perhaps learn from this." Katatumba says that learning about the problems which architects in Canada must overcome, such as keeping the cold out and the heat in, "is quite an experience." The 40 year-old Ugandan native who is a partner in the firm, Triad Architects (which is situated in Kampala and has associate offices in London and Nairobi) is amazed at how much his practise differs from Borgal's. He says that the wide use of com- puters in the architectural business in Canada and the Canadian architect's presentation of their drawings are the two main differences. One other dissimilarity which Katatumba has noticed while working with Borgal is the actual type of work each firm does. While Hill and Borgal design new buildings and redesign old buildings, Katatumba says his firm mainly works on designing office buildings, schools and hospitals. One of the many schools which Katatumba has designed is situated in his home town of Mbarara. When Borgal goes to Uganda in January, Katatumba will most likely make sure that the Canadian ar- chitect sees it. Although there is nothing 'unique in the ar- chitectural design, the school is unusual because it is the only free school in all of Uganda and Katatumba Turn to page 2 A. Public Institution Inspection Panel reported that conditions at Goderich and District Collegiate In- stitute were filthy, due to a lack of discipline. In a report before Huron County Court Judge F.G. Carter November 1, the seven -member panel reported that the overall appearance of the school was filthy and recommended several areas that required attention. The report said there-_aunot enough fire ex- tinguishers stinguishers m the high school and that many existing extinguishers had not been checked or serviced since August 1981. The panel members also suggested that walls were in need of painting and ceiling tiles should be replaced to fix holes and water stains. The panel added that washrooms were not clean. The panel also inspected the Municipal Day Nur- sery and Goderich police station and reported that while both facilities were well kept, fire extinguishers required more frequent seiMce. In the case of the police station, the panel reported there were no ex- tinguishers in the file room, chief's office or secretary's office. The panel also checked the curling club, day car facility and municipal office in Vanastra again reporting that extinguishers were either non-existent or in -need of repair. A clean bill of health was ex- tended to the Zurich Community Centre, Brookside School and the Bayfield Community Centre. The Bayfield Fire Hall is inadequate to store the department's equipment, and the panel recom- mended the department is in need of a new building to accomodate the pumper truck. The panel suggested that the vacant lot next to the fire hall would be an ideal site for a new building, a project that could involve the village and neighbouring townships who depend on the department for fire protection. '/ N• i i Not Wit 1 4 . A N:y The Dean Construction Company of Belle River began dredging the channel to Goderich Harbour last week, a maintenance project designed to in- crease the channel depth to 24 feet. The company, which has completed sirniiar work along Lake Huron, was awarded the contract for $458,000. ( photo by Dave Sykes) While noting that some minor repairs. were . required at F.E. Madill Secondary School in Wingham, the panel added that the general ap- pearance of the school was excellent and members were impressed with the atmosphere. Huronview home for the aged was also inspected by the panel and they found it to be a well kept and clean facility. They did suggest, however, that fire ex- tinguishers atinguishers be checked more frequently. The panel recommended to Judge Carter that the future panels be given a list indicating which in- stitutions were visited and when. They also suggested that institutions given a poor report be visited by a subsequent panel. In its list of recommendations the panel also claimed that chemical storage in high schools should be updated, fire halls should be checked for proper heating and storage space and that more painters be hired for upkeep of school buildings in the county. The members of the panel included James Thompson, Graham Hamilton, Ken Burkholder, Evangeline Henderson, Margaret Anderson, Shirley Kipfer and Anne Mitchell. Centre closure concerns local board The Goderich Hospital Board has taken a stand against the proposed closing of the Bluewater Centre for the Developmentally Handicapped. The board will send a letter to Health Minister Larry Grossman and Community and Social Services Minister Frank Drea asking that they "give serious consideration to reassessing the decision to close the Bluewater Centre and other such Centres in the Province." At a Hospital Board meeting Monday night, a rough draft of the letter was read and members discussed the impact of the Centre closure on Alexandra Marine and General Hospital. Board members feel it is difficult at this time to determine the impact that the closure will have on actual patient -load at the hospital. Some feel that the number of patients will decrease because those staff members who lose their jobs at the Centre will move away with their families. Others feel that the load will increase because the need for psychiatric services for the staff of the Centre and their families will increase when the layoffs and trauma of economic hardship occur. Three hospital rooms will serve as day care facility The renovation of- three.. rooms.. at the Alexandra.. Marine and General hospital for conversion into a day care area will be done by the director of hospital maintenance, Don Greene and his staff at an estimated cost of $9,000 to $10,000. The original estimate from architects Tillman Ruth 'for' tyre comple ori oT the day care area wasaV5,000. This included approximately $10,000 for air con- ditioning. Mr. "Greene's eatinate excluded Mrconditioning and the hospital board decided that the window airconditioners would be sufficient until a decision is made on a central system for the entire 1957 wing. The day care area is for those people awaiting or recovering from minor surgery. The number of day care patients has been increasing in general throughout the province and doctors at AM&G say it has also increased locally over the last few years with advanced technology. Santa Ciaw will make annual visit Saturday Santa Claus is coining to town this Saturday to participate in the annual town of a'filch Santa Claus Parade. The annual Santa Clads Parade, org/ a ' ..,,: by the Goderich Recreation Department, will ke place this Saturday at 1 p.zn. and ,of course, thehughlightofthis year's edition, will be appearance of the jolly man from the North Pole. `The theme of the 1982 parade is"The True Meaning of Christmas" and all entries are reminded to form up at corner of Elgin Avenue and South Street by 12.15. for judging. The parade will start from that point at 1 p.m. and proceed up South Street and around The Square to West Street and Waterloo Street. All parade entries will be judged in five categories, commercial, non-commercial, school, youth and individual and three prizes will be awarded in each category. - Following the parade, Santa and Mrs. Claus will hold court in the Park Theatre on The Square where children will have a chance to visit with Santa and fill him in on their Christmas shopping list. Any child who visits with Santa and Mrs. Claus will also receive a special treat. Thieves enter libraryandarena An AM -FM cassette player with turn table and some felt marking pens were stolen from the Goderich Public Library during the night of Friday, November 19. A window was broken on the ground floor to gain access to the building. Police are still investigating. . Also on Friday night, a blue�tailgate with GMC lettering was stolen off a truck in McGee's parking lot and five sets of wire wheel covers were stolen from the tires of different vehicles throughout town. Four aluminum hubcaps were also stolen. Police are seeking co-operation from the public and ask that they call if they see any people around their neigh- bours' vehicles late at night. Chief Pat King warns that in colder weather, car batteries also become a popular target for theft. He advises that people mark their names or some identifying marks on their. personal property and says they can do so by borrowing special pens from the police department. - The snack bar at the arena was broken into Friday night by someone who kicked down a door. About $20 in chage was stolen and $40 damage was done to the door. Sometime during the week, four brown square downspouts, each 20 feet in length, were stolen offthe community -centre on Cambridge Street. Police are still investigating. INSIDE THE SIGNAL -STAR Basketball champs The Huron -Perth Conference junior girls' basketball championship was played last week and the GDCI Vikings were victorious. Dave Sykes followed the action, which took place in both Seaforth and Goderich and his story and pictures appear on the front page of the Recreation section. Trip to China Lenore Bradley and Isobel MacDonald, both of Goderich, have just returned from a trip to China. Signal -Star reporter, Joanne Buchanan talked to. Mrs, Bradley—about .her visit- to such -sites ,as tte Great Wall, a silk factory and a Vietnamese refugee camp..The story appears on page 10A.. Freighter lost Ower the years, storms on the Great•. Lakes have caused many boats to be sunk and numerous lives to be lost. One such vessel, the freighter Kamloops, was sunk in 1927 and was not discovered until 50 years later. The story of the boat's mysterious disappearance appears inside the first section.