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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1986-01-29, Page 4PAGE 4—GODERICII SIGNAL -STAR, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 1986 I should have known better. Afterall, I am almost grown up. Well, sort of. , But, the prodigious purveyors of odds against the New England Patriots defeating the meanest group of guys• to emerge from Chicago without artillery were more than polite in suggesting they could come within 10 points. They shouldn't have come within 10 miles of the New Orleans Superdome. Another Super Bowldisappointment. Fact is, I put my hands on the refrigerator more times than the Patriots. My most . memorable moments from Super Bowl Sun- day involve the consumption of comforting beverages, notations Of salt buildup on crun- chy snacks and examining ceramic tiles during frequent trips to the washroom. I've been let down too many times, and DAVE SYKES submit that football aficionados and fanatics everywhere should have recourse in such natters. The least the league could do is supply the home phone numbers for the players and the league commissioner on the television screen, giving fans the opportuni- Opinion THE NEWS PORT FOR GODERICH & DISTRICT SINCE 1848 oaericn eEDT ALL RpUND COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER IN CANADA jOvnL,4un Cross 3500 45001 C 0 " 4 13.41.4v N1!wspopn, Cumpu44.411984 SIGNAL -STAR P.O. BOX 220 HUCKINS ST. INDUSTRIAL PARK GODERICH, ONT. N7A 4BB PUBLISHED BY SIGNAL -STAR PUBLISHING LIMITED Founded in 9666 end published every Wednesday et Ooderich, Ontario. Member of the COMA and OCNA. Subscriptions peyeble in edvence 922.00, [Senior Citizens 619.00 privilege card number required] In Canada, 13360.00 to U.B.A., 660.00 to ell other countries, Single copies 600. Diepl , National end, Cleeelfled advertising rates available on request. Please ask for Rate Card No. 16 ve October 1. 1985. Advertising le accepted on the conditlpn that in the event of a typographical or, the edvertIeIng • space occupied by the erroneous item, together with the raaeonable allowance for signature.' will not be charged for hue thee balance of the advertisement will be pelt' for at the applicable rate. In the event of e typographical advertising goods or services at a wrong price. Epode or service. may not be Bald. Advertising Is merely en offer to Ball, end may be withdrawn et anytime. The Signal -Star ie not responsible for the loos or damage of unsolicited menuecrifte, photos or other materiels used for reproducing purpose.. ' General Manager ' Editor - Advertising Manager SHIRLEY J. KELLER DAVE SYKES DON HUBICK FOR BUSINESS OR EDITORIAL.OFFICES...plea8e phone (5193524-2614 Second class .mail registration number 071 E. Member:►CNA, CCNA Seniors deserve dignity A proposal to renovate Huronview, the county home for the aged, will come before Huron County Council when they consider thebudgets of the various county departments for the , coming year.' Long range plans for renovations at.Huronview will decompose the institutional character of the home providing a warm, dignified, humane environment. Privacy will be created in the washrooms. The long hallways making the home feel like an institutional will be replac- ed with open communal space which will encourage casual social interaction. The four bed rooms will be replaced with two°bed rooms resulting in more stoage space and privacy for the residents. In short, an institution will become a home . The cost of the first phase of the project is $1.4 million but the county share will be $716,000 as the province will pick up 50 per cent. Some county councillors argue the county cannot afford two major projects at the same time; the museum project and renovations at Huronview. The reconstruction of the pioneer museum is equally worthwhile and both projects should proceed. Not even a crystal ball could have foreseen the province making money available for the renovations at Huronview and sometimes you have to manage money carefully to find the money for two important projects at the same time.. When it is considered that in the past three years departments providing services to peo- ple including Huronview, health and social services received a total of $2,300;153 compared to $5,624,000, it is possible that money cogld be found in other areas to provide money for Huronview renovations. It would be unfortunate to allow this opportunity go by especially.when provincial dollars are available. If the project is delayed it will only cost more. If you have doubts about the need for the Huronview renovations, go to the home and take a tour. It will surely change your mind. Our senior population is increasing dramatically and in the future any one of us could be a Huronview resident. Volunteers make us go 'ty to exchange pleasantries with the stars and offer an unprofessional critique of their performance. • If it was just another football game I wouldn't give it a second thought. But, my God, the SuperBowl is almost big- ger than life itself. An American Celebra- tion is the term NBC vainly tossed at viewers in a futile attempt to convey the magnitude of the event to the masses. It didn't come close. Why Joan Collins couldn't even command six hours of prime time television. And as a result of the com- prehensive ,overage of the event, millions of people are more conversant with the con- dition of Chicago Bear's quarterback Jim McMahon's butt than any behind that's been bared in magazines. But these are things the football fan needs to know in preparation for the Super Bowl. Which player was allegedly knifed by his Volunteers add a special dimension to the quality of life in any community. In fact, volunteers make the community. Whether it involves work with a service club or church group, in the hospital or nusring home or on the ball diamonds and in the arenas, volunteers and their efforts are much in evidence in this community. On the Community front this week we profile the untiring efforts of one of the town's most dedicated volunteers, Evelyn Carroll. Evelyn began working on a volunteer basis with mentally haddicapped people in Goderich in the 1960S and today she is still at it. Recently honored by, the Goderich and District . Association for the Mentally Retarded, Evelyn epitomized the caring volunteer who pitched in and worked for nothing when. paid help could not be found. ' We salute the indefatigable efforts of Evelyn and people like her. They give so much to the cpmmunity without asking anything in return. D.S. wife in a domestic and will it affect his abili- ty tp go deep in the big game? How many raw oysters can a lineman eat in one sitting in the French Quarter? Why was a helicopter flying precariously close to the practice field when McMahon pulled down his pants? Does the light go out when the door is closed on The Refrigerator? The media painstakingly and obligingly answered all these questions for the football fan by the time the Super Bowl had conclud- ed Sunday evening. But the biggest question remains unanswered. Why does the Super Bowl turn into the Poilet Bowl and go down the drain year after year? , I mean any self respesting fan worthy of the tag, "fanatic" spends the two weeks prior to the big game selecting snacks, judg- mg them for resilience, ( will they bounce off a m WC Mit V s►Vii as t r weA /.oaLV ue Losing crispness or taste?) adjusting the favorite armchair, arranging the lighting to create the perfect ambience and stockpiling beverages as a contingency plan in case all else fails. Everything was set. I had even, after hours of intense negotiations with the kids, arranged to have access to the television for most of the time. The Super Bowl would only be interrupted for a half hour during the air- ing of Fraggle Rock. It's a house rule, and it was either watch Fraggle Rock or seek a change in venue for the big game. I conceded under pessure and prayed that the game's critical plays would occur after the Muppets had signed off. As is the custom, however, the game was over before it was minutes old. Next year f'll know better. I'll see if I can book myslef an assignment. By Dave. Sykes Sugar and Spice ey Bill Smiley Garage sales are quitethe fad these days. Many people make them part of their lives. They troop around town watching for hand- made signs and check the ads in the classified section. Drive around any small town and you'll see a cluster of cars, in front of a house. "Must be a wedding or a funeral," you muse. Then you see a pile of junk with a hordeof human magpies darting around it, snatching .up bits, beating each other to another heap of rubble, like seagulls diving and screeching for a slice of french -fried spud. It's no wedding. There are no vows ex- changed, except that you takes what .you gets, "for better of for worse." It's no funeral, except for those who pay six bucks for something that cost three 10 years ago. It's a garage sale. This phenomenon . resembles a mini - auction -sale minus the auctioneer. The garage sale allows .the proprietor (often abetted by some of his neighbours) to get rid! of all the useless items overflowing the garage, the tool -shed, the basement and the attic. It sometimes brings in two or three hun- dred dollars to the venders, and the garage - sale groupies go home all excited because they have bought a three-legged chair, a horse-drawn sleigh, an umbrella with only one spoke "missing, or six paperback novels for a dollar. One of my contemporaries, an habituee of these bizarre events, was more than a bit thunderstruck when he found at one sale that he could buy text -books from our school, duly stamped as such, dirt cheap. He remonstrated with the owners, pointing out that the books belonged to,' the school arid had been stolen by their children, but they'd have none of it. They wanted cash. So much for human nature. These were taxpayers who had helped buy the books their)ids had stolen, and now wanted to sell them back to the system so that other kids. could steal the books they were still paying taxes for. Back to the garage sales. There is no sug- gestion of stealing here. Both parties, buyer and seller, areperfectly aware of what's go- ing on. The seller is trying to get rid of something he doesn't need. It's a classic ex- ample of our materialistic age. We want to get rid of some of the garbage we've bought, and the buyer wants to buy some more gar- bage. The epitome of a garage -sale -groupie would be a person who goes to four garage sale, buys a lot of junk, then has a garage sale to dispose of it, preferably with a small mark-up. But they're fun. A friend of mine, who'll make a bid on anything, even though he doesn't know what it's for, has bought two old-fashioned horse- drawn sleighs. He has worked on them until they are serviceable. All he needs now is a couple of beasts to haul the things, He'll pro- bably wind up with a camel and a Shetland pony (and will make a fortune hauling peo- ple around, when we run out of gas). . • Well, I wish I'd had a garage sale this past summer. First, I'd have sold the garage, a venerable institution. None of this electronic eye, or press a button and the door•opens. It has a vast door, weighing about 800 pounds. You hoist the door and it slides on pulleys and cables, and at the right moment, on a good day, it stops rising just at the height to tear off your radio aerial. The balances fill- ed with sand, aren't quite enough from crashing down on your hood, but I've fixed that. To one, I've added an axe -head, to the other a quart of paint. Perfect balance. A real buy. Behind the garage is a sort of tool shed. I say "sort of", because when I've sailed into the garage on a slippery midwinter day, I've sometimes gone an extra foot and crashed into the tool shed, which now leans about 35 degrees to the north. I'll throw in the tool shed with the garage, but not its contents. Migawd, the stuff in there would bug the eyes of either an anti- que dealer or a garage -groupie. We have garden tools in there that haven't been used since Sir John A. MacDonald's wife told him to get his nose out of that glass and go out and stir up the garden. We have at least four perfectly goodtires • for a 1947 Dodge.. We have enough holy tar- paulin (or is it holey? I've never known) to build a theatre under the stars. There's a . perfectly good set of golf clubs, a wee bit rusty. There's a three-legged garden tool that must have come over with Samuel de Champlain. There's, • a . three -wheeled lawnmower (mechanic's special). Six hun- dred feet of garden hose that ._a little adhesive would fix. And many more, too miscellaneous to mention. And that's' only the tool shed. In- side the house, we have eight tons of books, left by our children. The attic is going to come right through to the kitchen, one of these days. How about a copy of Bhagavad- gita,1,000 pages, at $1? Man, I wish I'd got this idea off the ground about six months ago? Anyone interested in an iron crib, sides go up and down, filled with $300 worth of broken toys, exotic pain- tings, some records and a bag of marbles? Who needs to retire, with all this wealth • lying around? Often we expect others to. be mind- readers. Being thoroughly familiar with our own thoughts and intentions from inside, we express mere fragments of these processes and take it for granted that the entire pic- ture is automatically visible to everyone else, including the press. Such incompleteness of expression is pro- bably behind most • claims of being mis- quoted. "That is not what I meant" is a fre- quent exclamation in public life. Thinking before speaking is a reasonable precaution, followed by saying exactly and clearly what it is you mean. If the projector is faulty and the picture out of focus, members of the au- dience do not register a clear image; no' matter how hard they look. Recently I was reminded how easy it is to find oneself in the position of a poor projec- tor. I was briefly interviewed over the telephone concerning the upcoming public meeting on the proposed annexation agree- ment between the Town of Goderich and the Township of Gbderich. I expressed several ' of my concerns. It is a normal and expected conclusion that a person who shows only concerns and questions in connection with a project, is op- posed to it. I did not have the presence of mind to emphasize that right now I am neither for noragainst this annexation, because so far there is not enough pertinent public information for a clear and in- telligent stand one way or another. All I am for at this stage is a public infor- mation meeting on the matter. I failed to ex- press myself clearly inall respectsand came across as an objector, through nobody else's fault. You might have learned from a recent advertisement that a public meeting has been called concerning the annexation in question. The meeting is to take place next Wednesday, Feb. 5, at 7 p.m. in the council chambers in the town hall on West Street. Mayor. Palmer has been quoted as saying she does not think that many people ate con- cerned over the annexation. She is probably right. There was relatively little interest in the municipal elections. It is still a valid pro- cess to go through. The opportunity should be there. It is up, to individual citizens whether or how they make use of it. kis. not immediately clear whether the predicted lack of concern speaks in favor of a project about which very little solid and factual information has been made available to the public. The political peptalk does not count. One may be forgiven for even wondering whether the annexation had been started at all, if the municipal election preliminaries had been known at the time. This is, of course, just a thought and has no bearing on the present stage of the process. As the municipal officials appear to count on minimal public attention, I feel sorry for therm. It must be discouraging to make cost- ly decisions in a public opinion and support vacuum. Will it be a folly or proof of wisdom? What bothers me is the lack of visible reasoning and the absence or even a modest needs study or \professional opinion. I am, not talking about) a lengthy and expensive study, but I would feel more comfortable knowing that the ,county planning director has been consulted. That is not the case. / It appears that the annexation was started when the owner wanted to sell his land to the town, In connection with another deal. In the Absence of a demonstrated need, wasthat the reason and is the town connected with • real estate transactions with public money? I have ne argument with the own r; but I ELSA HAYDON feel that the town council owes the public an explanation. One has heaitd that the town will pay $150,400 for the 46 or 47 acres of fields. It is our money, but we have not been told how it will be taken. This would leave the town holding pretty close to 100 acres of unserviced land in two separate locations, plus' a few acres of serviced land in the established industrial park. Procedurally the annexation and the pur- chase of this land by the town are two separate transactions, but for all practical purposes they must be discussed together, as one makes do sense without the other. If the town• intends to annex the land without buying it, will die process still be un - Contested? According the mayor, the town will be able to service the land whereas the township cannot readily afford it. How nice of the town. The construction of services is very expensive. I expect that the public will be given professional estimates for the whole deal and how we pay for it. In an abstract sense this annexation is a procedure remote to the public, but it does translate into a great deal of public money. And, this is where our concern comes in. Talking about putting a road through the woodiot should be also accompanied by pro- fessional information on the• cost in money and environmental consequences and con- cerns. T am ready to be convinced that this is a good deal in public interest, but mere political rhetoric will not do.