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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1983-02-09, Page 1135 YEAR --6 t:e• SIGNAL- ST, GODERICH, ONTARIO, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9,19$3 ' Debbie and Curtis are Debbie Horton and Curtis Moore are the best in Canada. Horton, of Goderich, and Moore, of Wingham, both 16, won the gold medal in the novice dance com- petition at the Canadian Figure Skating Cham- pionships in Montreal on the weekend. As the skating duo accepted its gold medal at the presentations Friday evening in the Maurice Richard Arena in Montreal, it marked the first time the dance team has placed in the medal standings at the Canadian Championships. The 11 teams in the novice dance competition completed compulsory dance numbers Thursday and Debbie. and Curtis held second place behind the brother and sister team of Jennifer and David Chow earned the team a berth in the Canadian Cham . of Toronto. On Friday the teams completed °the ionshi s The rest is Canadian history... variation dance portion of the competition and P P Debbie and Curtis scored -14 ordinals, 57.40 points to In recognition -of the achievements of Debbie and be ranked first overall in the novice division. Curtis, a drop-in reception will be held this. Friday, Proud parents, Everett and June Horton of February 11, at the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch Goderich, were in attendance at the championships 109, from 7-9 p.m. after the dance team has been and an elated June described the emotional an- paraded around town on a fire truck. nouncement. The skaters will be quite active over the next couple of months participating in carnivals and exhibitions. ` Debbie and Curtis will perform at the Goderich Figure Skating Club Carnival Saturday, February 26 and prior to . that they will skate in Wingham February 18 and Chatham, February 19. On Satur- day, March 26 they will skatein the Kapuskasing Skating Carnival. Club for nine years, has been skating with Curtis for over four years. She attends school in Toronto and is coached by Ray' Bradshaw of the Upper Canada Figure Skating Club but returns home on weekends to help coach the Goderich club. The gold medal win in the novice divisions means the pair will mdve up to the junior level next year, a tougher level of competition. Last year Debbie. and Curtis enjoyed great success in the Canadian Championships by placing ninth in Brandon, Manitoba. This year the skaters placed first in the Western Ontario Sectionals in December .in Sarnia, thus qualifying for further competition. Their per- formance at the . Canadian Central Division Figure Skating Championships in Timmins, January 15 "Oh, we were very happy and . everyone was crying," she said. "The announcement was made within a half hour of the competition but we didn't hear the announcement in the part of the arena we were in. Everyone , came up and congratulated Debbie and Curtis and that's how we found out." Debbie, a member of the Goderich Figure Skating County seeks volunteers for museum committee • 50 CENTS PER COPY Deport seeing strange red li�gh Several people in town reported seeing a epee light over the lake last Sunday evening about 9 p..m. Sime thought it might be a UFO. A Goderich police officer also saw the same light and the Canadian Coast Guard was contacted. Police Chief Pat King says he has not heard back from the coast guard but he surmises that the light was caused by flares possibly being used in American Air Base tests. He explains that there is such a base across the lake almost opposite to Goderich and says that on a clear.night, one cap see such things for miles. . One caller to the Signal -Star describes seeing a "strange but beautiful rose colored light about he size of a rugby ball flickering and wavering" toward her window. She said there was a glow from it and a radius around it. Chief King says when people report seeing UFOs, there is very little police can do about it. In other police business This past week, the north end marina was broken into during the night of February 5-6 and a small quantity of food was stolen. Five per cent raise for county heads By Stephanie Levesque The county will also consider entering into a joint rood ovement program Five Huron, County residents. are being s�oy�gg-hh�t fQr,wOntario 1�ipiigh�,h..,� an advisory. committee for the Huron County Pioneer (ONTi:')•`with The Win of * e ch: f'ie lawn rs ap- Museum. plying for two such programs, but the $600,000 pro - County council approved the formation of the com- posal for North Street .(on which the museum is located) includes $480,000 for the museum project of. which the county pays hall. Exeter Reeve Bill Mickle questioned committing -•..,_., .-At- that meeting, the... ministry. indicated _it . would ....osunty..council to sucha..project when no. declaim to - pay 50 per cent of any feasibility studies done and been made regarding the museum. that it would like to..mrmeet with a committee made up "We're not. committing the county to anything," of citizens from --- --- - said property committee chairman Hay Township gested that the county reduce the number of alter - In museum. It was explained that Goderich will be applying to In consideration of the last point, council agreed irs and housing for the Vanastra not be considered as an alternative _ museum site. The school has been turned down ty study oe actual museum, in, of toe m ittm n can be because of anticipated renovation costs and because the county has no tenants for the unused space. The 1983 budget for the museum reflects the The alternatives left for the committee to.consider changes occurrinfl there as it is down over $15,000 include having no museum, building a new museum from the 1982 budget. The museum's 1983 budget is at its present site in Goderich or elsewhere, or to $110,400 compared to the 1982 budget of $125,650. The renovate the present building. county's share is down from $76,550 m 1982 to $70,160 Besides the five county residents, the committee ' in 1983. will include Warden Grant Stirling, property commit- Salaries, although reduced the 1982 budget tee chairman Lionel Wilder, a member of the plann- figureof 4,500 (rreduced fromg a cut in part die ing and development committee, a representative of stff),..take the.largest portion of, the budget at the Huron Board of Education, a representative of MAK ff),. the " Goderich Tourist Committee , and ex -officio members - clerk -treasurer William Hanly and .On the revenue side, the budgeted admissions museum curator, Ray Scotchmer. figure of $12,000 is down from the 1982 budget admis- Further delopments in the museum include the sions figure of $18,000. Not as many visitors are ex - go -ahead for aw engineering study by B.M. Ross and petted to visit the museum this year. . Associates of Goderich at an approximate cost of $500 Not included in the 1983.budget are funds for the to determine the extent of repairs needed to open the" planning studies' as plans have been made to take museum's first floor. It i9 expected the necessary those costs from the capital works building reserve I mince at its February 3 session. The committee idea follows a meeting of county officials with represen- tatives of the ministry of citizenship and culture. Reeve Lionel Wilder. n ' forthe that the former telecommunications school m the ministry of municipal affa g ONIP grant but as the county is awaiting a feasibili- repairs can be done by the museum staff. fund. Debbie. Horton, 16, of Goderich and her dance partner Curtis Moore, of Wingham, won a gold medal in the novice dance category at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships in Montreal on the weekend. Horton, a member of the Goderich Figure Skating Club, has been skating with Moore for nearly five years. Council to pay Town council backed off a decision made at its January 24 meeting by consenting to pay up to $600 to send the Clinton Pipe Band to the St. Patrick's Day parade in Bay City, Michigan in March on behalf of the town. The decision was made Monday .after a delegation from the Goderich Legion Branch 109 asked council to reverse its decision of January 24 and consent to split the cost of sending the band to the parade March 19. It was estimated that the town's share of the expenses would amount to approximately $600. Roy Mugford of Branch 109 told council that the relationship between the town and the Legion has • been extraordinary over the years and he hoped that relationship would continue. Legion profits go back into the community, Mugford told council while explaining that the branch helps needy individuals and families as well as war veterans. band expenses "The band will be going to Bay City," he told. council. "But there should be atie-in with the Legion and the town." John Doherty introduced a motion calling for council to share the band's expenses with the Legion claiming it would cost less than eight cents per capita. "For the last two years, and this year, the Laketown Band has been booked in Listpwel," be said. "1 think the original motion was lot for per- sonal reasons and it would cost less than e ght cents per person to grant the request." "In 1976 we adopted Bay City as our sister city but if it wasn't for the Legion we wouldn't have a sister city. Four years -ago council refused to give the Laketown Band $1,000 but the Legion gave it to them. It's'nnly-fair that we reciprocate.'.Turn to page 2 e New licence system stillconfuses drivers BY JOANNE BUCHANAN There is lots of confusion at the local licence bureau this year thanks to the provincial government's latest innovation in renewing vehicle licence plates. The new plate -to -owner system was designed to prevent the hassle of long line-ups at bureaus across the province by having people pay according to their birth dates. However, most people seem to be con- fused about just how the system works. Next year, car owners across the province will pay a standard $48 per car with the due date for -.this payment being on their birth date. But this year, car . owners must pay varying amounts of money, ranging from $24 to $68 according to their birth dates, NO LATER THAN FEBRUARY 28. If you have not renewed your licence sticker by that time, you are liable to a $28 fine from police. The cost for a licence sticker is calculated on a $4 per month fee. The new system works this way: If four ear, rom July to birthday monthss in the latter six ecember, you pay $4per month from January 1983 until the month of your birthday. For example, if your birthday is in October, that's 10 months from January multiplied by $4 which is $40 and your licence sticker is valid until October 1983. But if your birthday is in the firstsixmonthsof the year, from January until June, youpay y $4per from January until the month of your birthday in 1984. For example, if your birthday is in March, that's 15 months from January 1, 1983 multiplied by $4 which is $60 and your licence sticker is valid until March 1984. ... If you are even more confused than before with that explanation, here is a list stating what you will pay this year according to your birth date: If your bir- thdayis in June, you pay $24; July, $28; August, 02; December, September,48; 36JanOuary, $52; $40;November, $44; February, $56; March, $60; April, $64; and May, $68. Department heads of Huron County received a five per cent or $1,500 increase, -whichever is less, effec- tive January 1,1983. Huron County Council approved the salary in- creases at its regular session on February 3. Grey Township Reeve Leona Armstrong said most of the increase is being collected by the county for the federal government in the form` of income tax and other deductions. As an example, she used clerk - treasurer Bill Hanly's 1983 salary of $44,044, up from his 1982 salary of $42,536. "After all maximum deductions and exemptions, his take home pay with the $1,500 maximum reflects a two per cent raise while the five per cent raise reflects only an additional 2.8 per cent raise," noted Mrs. Armstrong. "I can still hear Mr. MacDonald of COPE (Cana- dian Unionof Public Employees representative Gor- don MacDonald' of London) say we don't appreciate our people. We do. But it's not easy to be fair," added the Grey Township reeve. She suggested that "static" be raised, to the school board as, "40 per cent of 245 teachers are over the $35,000 bracket". The 1983 department heads' salaries are as follows, with 1982 salaries in brackets: clerk -treasurer $44,044 ($42,536); deputy clerk -treasurer $37,154 ($35,646); county engineer $44,044 ($42.536): Medical Officer of Health $49,400 ($47,892); chief librarian $31,928 ($30,420); planning director $41,392 ($39,884); social services administrator $29,848 ($28,418); Huronview administrator $33,150 ($31,642) and museum curator $24,466 ($23,296). Dan Clark at the local licence bureau, located in the Huron Cycle store on Bayfield Road, advises car owners to get into the bureau as soon as possible if they want to avoid long line-ups and says the earlier in the day, the better. The bureau opens at 9 a.m. Registration cards must be filled out before yqu can be issued a sticker. If you would like to fill out One of these cards ahead of time, you can pick them up at , Huron -Cycle; the Brewers' Retail Store or the liquor store. Clark says the bureau has begun to get busier a few weeks earlier than last year with line-ups resulting already from the confusion over the new plate -to - owner system. And not only is there confusion over the new system of payment, for licence stickers, but there is also confusion about where to place one's sticker on Ihe licence plate. Unlike last year, when the new stic er was placed directly over top of the old sticker, 's year, the new sticker is to be placed in the upper right hand corner of the plate. • "We're trying to make sure to tell everyone about this plus there is a notation on the instructions that come with the stickers," explains Clark. If you do put yoursticker in the wrong place, try to scrape as much -Of it off as possible, take it back to the bureau and you will be issued a new sticker free. Although police are allowed to charge people under a section of the Highway Traffic Act for having their licence stickers in the wrong location on their plates, the Ministry of Transportation and Communication " has asked them to refrain from doing so this yea4r because of the confusion. Arnold Mitchell of Goderich places his new licence sticker in the upper right hand corner of his plate. Some people are confused this year about where to place, their stickers and many are mistakenly 4 placing them on top of last year's. Confusion is also resulting from the new plate -to -owner system of payment for licence stickers. (Photo by Joanne Buchanan) Lions donate to rebuild pavilion The Goderich Lions Club announced recently that it would donate $10,000 to the town of Goderich to be used for the construction of a new picnic pavilion at Harbour Park. 4„letto. to eouneillnh president Pete Bettgey theadAVVet1W40WWItlie64.%664.4 414 stahmnts, one to be paid prior to June 30,1983 and the seeond instalment *fiddle due. after that date The money is to be used for the construction of a picnic pavilion and a small plaque ,will be attached acknowledging the club's assistance with the project. Also, in consideration of the Lions contribution to the park, which includes the construction of the bandshell and pavilion, council agreed to rename the park as Lions Harbour Park. A motion to that effect' was endorsed unanimously by council at its January 24 meeting. , INSIDE THE SIGNAL -STAR "We haven't laid any charges yet. All we might do Is stop the motorist and tell him that his sticker is in the wrong place so he can go to the bureau and get it-/ corrected," says Police Chief Pat Ring. Writer carnival Goderich District Collegiate Institute held its winter carnival on Feb y 4. The students and teacheys both took part i i hockey and broomball ' games as well as a tug -of- ar contest and a pyramid building contest. Pictures of the various events ap- pear inside the first section. Playoffs begin The Ontario Minor Hockey Association play-offs began this weekend and out of the four Goderich teams that competed, only one team won. These Stories plus other ,sports stories appear in the 'Recreation section. Honest girls Due to the honesty of three Goderich sisters, a Michigan man has retrieved his wallet plus a large sum of money which he lost. The story about the returned wallet appears on page 8 of the Recreation section.