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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1986-01-15, Page 4P •1C:1' 4 GODERICH SIGNAL STAR, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 198( Any community is comprised of a diverse and rich mixture of people who all bring some special talents to the overall quality of lifestyle of a town. It is that gentle mix and blend of talents, personalities, ambitions and philosophies that make a town go. - Some people contribute in a more positive way than others; some people simply get more involved in a community' and its af- fairs; others choose to go about their lives in relative anonymity contributing in their own quiet way. But everyone: has impact of some kind. _ Whether its simply on another person, the neighbourhood or the community at large, -we all leave our mark in some small way. No doubt, once deaprted, we trust that history will respond in kind; acknowledging our efforts,. the positive aspects of our lives and personalities. Over the past few weeks the community NNW DAVE SYKES has mourned the deaths of a number of peo- ple who made such positive contributions to the community, all in different ways. Guy Emerson, who died in December, will long be remembered for his involvement in sport'in the town of Goderich, for ,his dedica- tion to principles and for his unfailing loyal- ty to the kids of Southwestern Ontario's minor hockey programs. A man respected for his integrity, Emer- son was also noted for his unwavering sup- port for his community, the Goderich Lions Club or whatever else he became involved in. I always enjoyed those infrequent but friendly encounters with Guy, because he bad so much to tell, so much to give. I often learned things and marvelled at the mettle of the man.'And yet, sitting behind the backstop at Agriculture Park on warm, sun- ny summer afternoon, he lamented in the fact that while the park was full of people, he recognized no-one. He °talked • freely of Vie. memories and nostalgia provoked by a visit to the ballpark, a park that now seemed to treat . him with cold indifference. It wasn't the same anymore and he knew it. By contrast, Fred Bisset, dairyman, photographer, active` Legion member and community volunteer contributed to the cor,uuunity in a different way. An amateur radio operator, he was a World War II veteran, a volunteer for the meals en wheels program and active photogrpaher. His many shots of Legion activities appeared in this paper regularly. A man whose family contributed a lot to the. development of the area, Gerry Ginn will be remembered as a straight forward politician who always had the best interests of his beloved township in mind. The former reeve of Goderich Township and warden of the County of Eluron, Gerry was a man who always got involved, who always did his share and excelled when the seemingly insurmountable challenge beckoned. He was uncompromisingly fair in his deal- ings with everyone ans was quick to credit the work of others.Just talking with the man left one with the impression that a friend- ship had started. A man who gave unselfishly of himself to the people of the Township of Goderich and area, Gerry Ginn will be revered as one of the county's finest reeves and wardens. As chairman of the township's 1-5-0 celebra- tions, he orchestrated one of the finest celebrations this area has ever witnessed. Gerry Ginn leaves us with a rich legacy of fairness, hard work, dedication and involve- ment in one's community. He epitomized the country politician and citizen. Many people such as these help shape our communities, help make them better places to live and raise children. And we thank them for it. Opinion THE NEWS PORT FOR GODERICH & DISTRICT SINCE 1848 the oaerici EIGNAL-STAFR P.O. BOX 220 HUCKINS ST. INDUSTRIAL PARK OODERICH, ONT. N7A 4B6 BEET ALL. WOUND COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER IN CANADA !Dm.. , Class 3500 45001 C C Becu•r Newspaper Cpmpauuor, 1004 PUBLISHED BY SIGNAL -STAR PUBLISHING LIMITED Founded In 1848 and published every Wednesday at Ooderich, Ontario. Member of the CCNA and OCNA. •- Subeorlptlons payable in advance 5392.00, [Senior, Citizens 819.00 privilege card number required) In Canede, 880.00 to U.S.A., 520.00 to all other countries, Single copies 800. Display, National and Classified advertising rates available on request. Please ask for Rete Card No. 19 effective October 1, 1985. Advertising is accepted an the condition thee In the event of a typogrephioel error, the advertising space occupied by the erroneous Item, together with the reaeiondble allowance for signature, will not be charged for but that balance of the advertisement will be paid for et the applicable rete- In the event of is typographical error advertising goods or services et a wrong price, goods or services may net be sold. Advertising Is merely en offer to sell, end may ba withdrawn at any time. The Signal -Star Is not responsible for the lose or damage of unsolicited manuscripts, photos or other materials used for reproducing purposes. General Manager Editor Advertising Manager SHIRLEY J. KELLER DAVE SYKES DON HUBICK FOR BUSINESS OR EDITORIAL. OFFICES...pleese phone [6191624-2614 Second class mail registration Member: number 0716 - PCNA Students complied With request f . • • Last week a letter to the editor under the headline `Barney says children lied to at Christmasr'' took'exeeption to the written submissions of students which`•,apPeared In a 7, special Holiday Greetings supplement to the Dec. 23 edition of the Signal, -Star.• , Y It should have been clarified that the writings referred to by the writer were athored by elementary Breaking the ice 1 t school studeits who made the submissions at the request of the Signal -Star. The paper requested that the students make ,sbumissions on the specific topic and the school, teachers and students merely complied with the request. t The writings do not reflect the opinions or teachings of the Roman Catholic faith, St. Marys School or its teaching staff. While the content of the submissions was1,challenged by letter last week, the situation should have been fully explained in fairness to the students, school and its staff. D.S. Acid rain clean-up overdue The Ontario Government's Countdown on acid rain clean-up was long -overdue. In mid- December Ontario Environment Minister Jim Bradley called for Ontario's four main pro- ducers of acid -rain -causing sulphur dioxide to reduce emissions dramatically by 1994. The plan mainly involved Ontario Hydro and three metals. companies, Falconbridge, Inco and Algoma Steel. These companies are reported to be producing 80 per cent of all Ontario - produced sulphur dioxide emissions. Bradely says :`stringent yet realistic limits have been set" on the companies to reduce emissions. They have been given until 1994 to complete acquisition and installation of necessary pollution.abaternent technology. What tookl the governments° long to act on this problem? Acid rain is nothing new. The problem has been with us for years. The plan should have been in place years ago. Bradley estimates the overall cost- to be several hundreds of millions of dollars. The .cost includes thousands of renewable resource-based jobs, the destruction of historic, public buildings and the loss of n''htural beauty. Acid rain is causing problems. A survey of 5,341 lakes' in Ontario found that four per cent or 220 lakes are acidified, 13 per cent are extretnely sensitive and 38 per cent are moderately sensitive to acid rain. act of acid rain on A number of studies have been done to assess the. economic imp tourism, agriculture, forestry, commercial fishing, commercial'.rapping and hunting as well as the value of damages to buildings and other+materials. Sport fishing, is threatened by acidification and fish populations are vulnerable. The ministry estimates acid rain has reduced sport fishing by about $4.1 million per year.' The government has taken the first important step in reducing acid rain and over the next . eight years sulphur dioxide emissions should be reduced. . Unless our U. S. neighbours follow suit, Ontario's sensitive lakes will continue to die. The effects, of Ontario's acid rain production on American state and other pada of Canada is minimal when compared to the effect of U.S. produced acid rain on Ontario. Even if our pollution is cut td zero, the lakes could not stand the acidification from the south; Hopefully, the plan set out by the Ontario government will be adopted by the United States. Unless the two nations work together on this problem the environment a we know it will cease to exist: Su ar sand Spice January is a trying time. For one'thing, it's so dang sudden. There you are, tottering along a day at a •time, thinking you must get the snow tires and storms on one of these Saturdays, and throw some firewood into the cellar, and get some boots and replace the gloves you lost last March. And then — bang! — you look out one mor- ning„ and there's January, in all it's unglory: a bitter east wind driving snow, and a cold chill settles in the very bones of your soul. Winter wind as sharp as a witch's tooth sneaks in around uncaulked doors and win- dows."There's a terrible draught from under the basementdoor. You investigate and find one of the basement windows, has been blown in and smashed on the woodpile. Youv clamber up over the wood, knocking pieces off shins and knuckles, and jam some card- board in the gap. , Creep cautiously outside, and nearly bust your bum. There's ice under that thar snow. Make it to the garage, and find that your car • doors are all frozen solid shut:Beat them with your bare fists until the latter are bleeding and your car is full of dents. Final- ly get them open with a bucket of hot water and a barrel of hotter language. _ Slither and grease your way to work, ar- riving in a foul mood and with bare hands crippled into claws, bootless feet cold as a witch's other appendage. Come out of work to go home and find a half-inch of frozen rain and snow covering • your car, and no sign of your scraper, and another deep dent where some idiot slid into your car door'on the parking lot. by Dave Sykes • B Bill Smiley I could go on and on, but it's only rubbing salt in the wounds of the average Canadian. Get home from work and find that the fur- nace is on the blink, and the repairman is tied up for the next two days. -• Surely there is some way around this sud- denness of January. Is there not some far- seeing politician (if that is not a contradic- tion in terms), who would introduce a bill to provide for an extra month between, let's say, November 25 and December 5? • • I wouldn't care what he called it. It could be Lastember, referring to your fast -dying hope that there wouldn't, be a winter this year. Or Last Call, or Final Warning, or She's Acomin! Anything that gave us a.good jolt. • It would be a good thing for'merchants. They could have special Lastember sales of gloves and boots and snowtires, and ear muffs and caulking guns and weather strip- ping and antifreeze and hose warmers. It would be great . for the Post Office, which Could start warning'us in June that all Christmas mail must be posted by the first day of Lastember if we wanted it delivered before the following June. It would make a -nice- talking point for all those deserters and traitors and rich people who go south every year. Instead of smirk- ing, "Oh, we're not going south until Boxing 'Day. Hate to miss an old-fashioned Cana- dian Christmas," they could really shove it to.us by leering, "Yes, we thought we'd wait this year until the last day of Lastember, you know. Avoid the pushing and vulgarity of the holiday rush." If nothing else, it would give us a break from the massive nauseating volume of pre - .614 Try to think of it this way. You are a works department employee in town. You have • worked straight weeks on snow removal, starting at 4 o'clock in the morning. Depen- ding on the severity of weather conditions, you may have worked some 19 hour days. You went out with the snowplow at 5 o'clock on Christmas morning and Boxing Day when other townspeople relaxed or celebrated with their families. It is part of your job and you are not complaining. ,All this said and done, would it not disap- point and even hurt you a little to hear impa- tient spurts of vague criticism, instead of some degree of understanding and ap- Iireciation of a difficult job kept constantly' and "well under control? Would it not discourage you further when the somewhat ill- considered is dished out publicly by per- ' sons on the same side of the fence - town council members? That is what happened last week at the council table. it is one thing to airn arrows at fellow council members, as they have equal means fordefending themselves im- mediately. It is• something else to use this public forum for vague criticism of services provided by the municipality, `leaving the blame, by implication, with the employees: Harry Truman's desk had a sign saying "The buck stops here". Perhaps we should place such a sign on the council table. It could be said for the council in this in- stance that most members were probably caught by surprise and did not possess the presence of mind to see, at a glance, the con- sequences of the isolated comments critical of the snow removal situation in town, out of proper context and without useful explana- tion. You cannot ignore the fact that if you want to see "balanced" reporting, you must make sure that you provide the immediate balance for the report right then and there. As you say or do certain things at the council table,- that is, how it gets recorded in the minutes (where applicable) and in the press reports to the public, whether you like it or not at a later date. Most town council members have years of municipal experience and can' -be expected to understand such basins instinctively. If it takes them a week to grasp the reaction and to speak out positively on behalf of the municipal employees' endeavours, they are remarkably slow thin►kersl, but it is definite- ly a case of better late than never. Council mentbers! have, of course, a duty to make sure that their constituents! con- cerns and their own observations are heard and receive proper attention. They can get explanations and possible improvements in procedures and methods from the depart- ments or they can bring such matters to the council table for discussion. In the latter case careful emphasis ought to be placed on the word :"discussion"; with complaints specific and to the point and counter - arguments visibly in place. Vague accusa- ttion. ions left dangling cause damage and fric- The subject of winter control will be dealt with at the regular meeting of the works Committee, with a possible recommenda- tion to the council. This meeting will take Place on Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. in the town hall on West Street, If you have related thoughts and concerns, plan to attend. You will learn the reasoning behind certain methods. If you are not satisfied with some conditions, make suggestions for improvements. The Whole thing deserves- a businesslike ap- pro eh. , The town &lined iso responsible fbr a ELsAE4AYOQN framework' policy, including the relation- ship between finances and winter control, but it is obvious that in the field of snowplowing' and snow removal the day-to- day (often more like hour -to -hour) opera- tions cannot be scheduled in advance, as the Christmas advertising, which begins toward the end of Octoberr and continues, remorselessly, right into Christmas Day. Best of all, perhaps it would give dummies like me a chance to avoid looking like such a dummy. Procrastinators, who flourish dur- ing a sunny November; would have no more excuses. All their wives would have to do is • point to the calendar and say:' "Do you realize it's only three days until Lastember. Isn't it time you did your Lastember chores?" In fact, if that fearless politician who is going to introduce the Lastemlier Bill in the house wants some advice, here is a codicil for him. Somewhere in. the Bill should be the warning, in bold type: "Procrastinators will be Prosecuted!" Jeez; why not? They pro- secute you for everything else! If such a month were added to the calen- dar — maybe we could start it with Grey Cup Day, — people like me wouldn't go on thinking that Christmas is weeks away. Instead, on the last day of Lastember, with all their winter chores in hand, they'd know that Christmas was practically on top of them, like a big, old horse blanket, and they'd leap into the proper spirit, lining up a Christman tree, laying in their booze, tuning up their pipes for the carols. i As it is now, we know that Christmas is like a mirage. It's way off their somewhere, and no need to panic. Then, with that startl- ,,,ing Suddenness, it's December 22, all the Christmastrees have been bought, the only • remaininturkeys look like vultures, and the -liquor store is ' ,edlam. Who's for a Lastember? , work depends on weather conditions - an un- predictable entity. The details of when and where, how otters and how far our roads and other public areas are cleared of snow must remain an on -the -spot and flexible judgment call of Superintendent Stan Meriam, who directs the works employees according to weather needs. M. Meriam's long years of ex- perience have equipped him well for creating his own system and network of coverage that works well for the town. Under him, the men working on the plows and trucks are doing an excellent job and deserve our appreciation. Perhaps we are spoiled in this town. We take too many good things for granted. and pay disproportionate attention to minor nuisances which are temporarily unavoidable in our snewbelt conditions. For a few people, not enough is done, ever; some others complain that too much is done. Most of us feel that we enjoy good municipal services with appreciation. I' hope that the municipal employees keep this in mind whenever they start to feel a little discouraged.