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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal Star, 1976-04-15, Page 4k V •PAO 44+QDE.RI6H SIGNAL -STAR, THURSDAY; APRIL1$,1976, af+� Easter - • 'The • Dominion Ai torhabile Association is predicting 40-45 traffic accident related deaths in Canada over the Easter Tong weekend. Thisgloomy' Prediction is based on. the 1975 traffic accident death toll of 38..persons, and. .tales into account the Easter holiday is two weeks later than it* was in '1975:. Nicer, weather means more traffic on, -the: streets, and roads, ,according''to • DAA.' . However, .Onfario fatalities are expected to remain about the same as they were in 1975-15 traffic related deaths this Easter weekend. New seat belt Legislation .along with the reduc- tion in speeds across the province Will save lives this, Easter in. Ontario, the DAA feels. Most 'Other provinces will find ` an .increase in accidents and related deaths, this weekend, `the. association believes. - • Working from the -fates1 sl,liistics based on one death for .every, 104 ac- cidents, DAA is • predicting well over 4500 accidents this weekend in Canada. Again; taking into account that • Statistics Show one injury for every three accidents, the Easter- haliday- weekend' will produce more than 1500;' painful and perhaps disabling injuries to Unlucky. Canadian's, Dominion .Automobile Associati:on. safety W,A. Stephenson points out that accidents_ can be cut considerably if drivers ,pay more attention to'the•ir driving. DAA says safe .driving°: is a ., family affair...because- an accident „involves not only the people in the vehicles. but everyone in', their famil,ies: Be on, the alert this easter holiday. weekend. Drive safely -far your sake - and for the sake of those who love you.- SJK Big job ahead -. A 'move this month n by the. Huron County Board of',Education to invite. members of municipal councils in the county to their budget session deserves the commendation of the entire communit ... The. invitation from the board tp all Councils explainsthat Huron Co.unt-y's education budget must be restricted to "the... bare essentials", It _ asks the. mayors or reeves, the chairman .of the finance committees'and the clerks of.• each municipality to attend a special meeting in Clinton on- April 21 to "obtain first-hand knowledge of the problem facing theboad this year." It is to'be hoped that representatives °. from every municipality in- Huron County will: accept the board's in-. vitation to be in .Clinton next Wed- •nesday„Some municipal councils have complarned in the past about' the lack-- • of cam -r u.riicati.on._-between_.the. sch000L_:..h.l-9 overworked teachers and empty.. classes and desks. This won't happen, according to the Director of Education John' Cochrane.- The board.' hopes to take a common sense approach .:to the restraint recommendation. They'aredeter- mined to Kook at what is reasonable'' for both student and teacher. It is generally agreed that the school .op- pulation in. Huron County is declining, . as it is. almost everywhere. It is also a common area of agreement thaf'in the: lower •grades, fewer students per teacher is more necessary than in the. higher grades where teachers can adequately handle extra students if necessary., If the'board approves. the recom- mendation at the April 21 meeting, an average- class in Huron County elementary schools will range from a `” h of 39.9. students per teacher to a low of 24.7: .The ..highest number of students in.any one class anywhere Huron would be 37;. the lowest 18. Estimates are that six and a .half teachers and their .salar--ieswould be: saved. At .. an average .salary per teacher of $15,000, from $90,000-$10000. could possibly be saved across the county. It is not `planned that any teachers will be dismissed It could mean • some transfers and some board and other; locally elected of- ficials: Now is the time to grab the oppor nity to learn more about. the :board s functioning - the whys and:the whats about this business of educating Huron's students population; gine of the item's t� be discussed, at the. April 21' 'special board Meeting is the average size of classes in Huron. If was reported in the county weekly papers April 8 that the board was studying the possibility of increasing the pupil' and teacher ratio - that is, --•- putting more students in a class for one Teacher to instruct. Some readers may• have 'visualized 'crowded classroom conditions, *positions not refilled. The board is trying desperately to keep the tax increase down <.to.. something in the order of 20 to 30. per cent. in 1976. In the face of recent news p OE -AI EDITH In vi'"tat iof. :. Dear Editor: Adam Beck Public School, �• located at 400 Scarborough Road in the . east e}ad of • Toronto is , Celebrating. its 50th Anniversary this year. Plans .are.underway for the week long celebration, which will, qulminate ..in an Open House on Saturday, May 1iµ: • In order to make this event a' success, we are trying to locate all former students and, teachers -and ask them to contact the ' school :atthe above address. , We feel that many of these people we are trying to find have moved .out of the Toronto area; and it will be through,your help that 9re will be able to locate them. ` Yours very truly, Esther M. Richards Publicity Chairman It alon ° To 'meet. electricity needs of Toronto..... by Dave Sykes s soIarpowered uld repair ° Recently. the • • Vice P'resident of Whitesheii - Nuclear Research. Establish- ment AECL, talked to the Manitoba : Electrical .. Association in Winnipeg. R.G. Hart made some in= - teresting comments,many designed to refute the con- cerns . of citizens' about -nuclear energy - the wisdom 'of it, the cost of it, the dangers in it. The following are some of the remarks • of Mr. Hart from his speech entitled "Why that' neighboring school boards have; Nuclear?" ordered a 40 -per . cent hike for tax- + +.+ payers, the Huron board's goals .seem .' . all the more challenging:-SJK . • a Some plain talk Hon. Frank Miller, • Minister of - Health for the province of•Ontarip; has been on the hot seat in ¥he.'Legislature 'since his announcements about' hospital closings in several centres. Not long ago, Mr. Miller responded to the questioning of opposition MP..Ps.,. with some plain talk, Mr. Miller said: "Until.I became Minister of Health, •I never realized what a nasty guy I was.* I've been called arrogant, as somebody -.. reminded me from your benches, more often in the last three weeks than my wife has called. me in 25 years of marriage. I've been called dictatorial; I've been called insensitive: I've been called many things. But one thing I've . discovered, though, is the difference between me and you. is I'm •willing to make a decision without waiting until doornsday for enough•factsto have all of the facts ...." (Mr. Miller was •in • • • terrupted at this point.) ' Mr. Miller went :on: "The fact is,. though, the decision making is always based on incomplete,facts; One of ,the things I've learned about planners or . experts, is that there is always ,something else . they need to know before they give you advice. They need . - another study.;: "They need more' in - .formation. Theyhave to check more variables. The fact is`" that life -goes an and decisions have to be made." . He continued: "If, in fact, I wailed for all the facts nothing.would happen, • because they are never in. One of the things Isay in all seriousness is .that .'I've- never pretended to know that I made the right decision- on any par- ticular issue: That's the great dif ' ference between you and'rite.? I'm always aware I'M `.humanand'• fallible."-SJK CAVA. MO (gobtrt tt) . SIGNAL. -STAR The County Town Newspaper of Huron •-0 - founded in 1848 and published every Thursday at Goderich, Ontario. Member of the CWNA and OWNA. Advertising rates on re'queat'Suhscriptions payable In advance 111.00 in Canada, $12.50 in all countries other than Canada, single copies 25 cents. Display advertising rates available on request. Please ask.foi Rate Card No. 6 effective Oct. 1, 1975. Second class mail Registration Number 0716. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, ih the km; of typographical error; the advertising space occupied by the erroneous Item, together with reasonable allowance for signature, will Oct be charged for but the,balance of the advertisement will. be paid for at the applicable tate. In the event of a typographical error advertising goals or services at a wrong price; goods or service may not be Sold. Advertising -is -merely an offer to sell,' and may be with- drawn at pny time. The Signai°Star is not responsible for the loss ordamage of unsolicited manuscripts or phatob.' Businssi and Editori& Office TELEPHONE 524-8331 Ards coda Sig , Mailing Addrrs SOX 226, Gaddridii Seeprid dais nail 'regiittr'8tlon nNfrtibsr-0r16 Published by Signal -Star Publishing Ltd. - ROBERT G. SHRIER-president and publisher SHIRLEY J. KELLER•-•editor JEFF SEDDON-yeditorial •staff . DAV, e- .SYKES-=-ediforial staff. - EDWARD J. RYRSKI-••-advertising manager • Why Nuclear? The simple answer' is that when all the good hydro sit.es: are developed the utilities will.. have. two choices,. coal or nuclear, • and., nuclear is. cleaner, safer; -and in most areas ofthe country, cheaper than coal. Just let me repeat: The utilities will have, two choices, coal or nuclear, and nuclear is cleaner; safer; and in •most areas', cheaper. Let me expand on this statement. First of all, 1 said they would have two choices, coal or nuclear. Well what about oil, and gas? Europe ;and the.: United States have been using oil and . gas, for generating electricity for many years. And what about -solar energy, or wind' power., ar biomass?' We have seen lots of newspaper articles and heard lots of TV and radio programs about '• these utopias over the last -couple of years. What about them? Why .only coal and nu'blear? The plain fact about oil and gas . is that they are too valuable to burn in power stations. They are without doubt the most convenient fuels .the :.• .world has'. ever known and . we should be reserving them for the uses for which they are best suited, that is, as fuels for transportation and . as the starting , materials' for plastics . and fertilizer production. What 'about solar energy, and 'wind power, and biomass? People talk about these things as if they. are something 'brand new. Of course they are: not; they were the ' earliest foi;,ln'is of energy known to man and the fundamental reason why they are not now the primary Means . ;of supplying'man's energy 'needs is that they are too disperse. Because they are too disperse' they are too costly to harness economically.. 1 recently had one of my people do' some calculation usi>'ig . the latest. data published . by the National 'Research- Council, of . the areas required for solar• and wind -powered plants to meet the electritity needs of the City. of Toronto: I think the results will interest'you.' • A • solar, -powered plant would require an area of well over 100 square miles; that is at least a third of the size of the city. -As for wind power, . if you have the 'right wind, con- ditions, and you don't in most parts of Canada, you would need 160,000` windmills, 100 feet - in diameter. At an average :of three windmills; per square mile, you would need 53,000 square miles or in other words windmills all over Southern Ontario. And that 'is'jtist to meet the needs of Toronto. ' • . As for biomass, the most effective form of biomass is generally accepted to be hydro plan rIOOsqrmiI final analysis • have to make the decisions, understand this basic principle. Theyare not . making' their decisions out of stubborness, . or because they' can't see the sun. They know what choices they have and. are making their decisions on. the basis of the best factual information they can • get; - Public ' misunders.tanding. doesn't make these • decisions' any easier for them:' The second part of • my statement was , that nuclear • energy is cleaner than coal. I • doubt if anyone would dispute this with me but perhaps the most graphic' example can be seen from my office window where I can see both the WR -1 reactor and our fossil -fueled heating plant. The , reactor produces 60 megawatts ofenergy. and the. heating plant 10 megawatts. You never see .any effluent frorn.ehe reactor stack while '. there is always a plume of • • • would notary to claim that the uranium mining'operation is • a cleaner operation than the coal mining operation. Both have their problems and I , think . that in:both areas significant progress is being made toward solutions to these problem -s. The difference simply arises in the amount of -material that has to be mined. One tonne of uranium produces as much energy as 30,000 tonnes of coal; so -even though the uranium • con- centration in ores is low you ,• Wood. "I don't have any smoke from the heating. numbers: for Canada but in \ plant. the best growing. areas of the Many utilities havedone. a United States you would need ' go O -d job of minimizing the a 1600 -square -mile woodlot to fly ash :problem from coal - produce the electricity fired powerstations•and.some - required by Toronto.' " are ''starting to add sulphur In Canada, where our trees dioxide scrubbers, but: to the grow much slower, you would • best of, my knowledge th,e probably have tomultiply nitric oxideproblem remains that by a factor of two or with us. •. three. I . expect that the A factor that has been amount of oil or ' gas you mentionedin criticism of would have to use: to collect nuclear plants is .that they. all of 'this. biomass would bereject, large quantities of horrendous. • waste heat . to the en- Another fallacy is that you . , vironrnent. What people don't could produce this gas from , seem to realize is that both manure. A Pinawa high coal and nuclear plants reject school student who was doing large quantities of waste heat a science4project on biomass to -the environment: calculated -that if you . ,Nuclear plants .• do reject collected all the manure in somewhat more than .coal* Canada; human, pig, cattle, - fired plants but fortunately in sheep. and .eve1rything, and, Canada we have such an converted it very efficiently abundance of cold water that to methane, you ' would . this reject heat presents no produce about 6 per cent' of problem, 'The effluent areas Canada's current con- near both the Lakeview coal- surnption of" natural gas. It fired plant and the. Pickering would, probably; take more, nuclear , plant have been energ'than that to.collect it. extensively studied over a Now I want`you'to compare number• of years and- about those very large areaswith- the only significant effect: th'e half -a -square' mile you observed is that the best require for either nuclear of ° place to catch fish in the area coal -Tired plants, This is in the: effluents. ^ comparison of areas gives Seriously, though, adverse you the basic reason why it ' effects could be created if one would almost certainly cost located a large power station an order of magnitude more on a small river, so we mute- for solar, :wind or bibmass locate our plants judiciously electr•ie•ty than it does for and we also must'be sure that nuclear or coal. people are not led to believe It is simply a matter with that the environment effects very disperse forms of energy of a poorly -located plant in trying to complete with very Florida are going to be concentrated forms' and they' ;duplicated in a well -located cannot compete, . either plant in Canada, . economically • -or for that Perhaps the area • :of matter,. when it cornet right greatest difference in impact down to it, environmentally. on the enaironMent is in. the The utilities and our elected mining operation. No mining representatives, who in the operation is impact free and I 7 4 D' • still' have to move at least 100 times as much material per unit of energy if you use coal: The impact of. moving this vast :quantityof material simply has to be greater even if both operations are done with the utmost care. •+ + The third statement that I. made is that nuclear energy is safer than coal. This is the statement that most of the nuclear criticswouid'dispute so I am going to spend a bit mote, time• on it than on the others. You have probably heard or read about all of the horrible things ''that could happen through the use of nuclear 'efiergy. But I will bet you have never read or heard much about anything that has happened. The reason for that is that very little has hap- pened. The reason for the discrepancy is that the critics . like to talk about events that have .a probability of hap- pening perhaps once every 1,000,000 years but they very conveniently leave out the probability `Consequently, people get the idea of real danger when infactthe record shows that, the industry is very safe . indeed. Let usiust take a look at some of myths that have been perpetuated and see if we can put them in proper context: • -' (1) The critics would like you to believe that the mining aiid refining of uranium, the fabrication of nuclear fuels, the transport of uranium fuels, .and the operation of nuclear power stations are all very hazardous operations. .The record shows are all of these steps `lead to a fatality rate of about 0:3 people per 1000 megawatts of electrical capacity. ,..per year. The comparable figure for coal- fired units 'is about three people • per 1000 ,tnegawatts per year, 1 don't want to leave you with the impression that coal-fired generation is an unacceptably hazardous operation. It,. isn't. Its' ac- (continued on page 5) Spring's here Dear Editor: Our Parks' crew started working on Monday. Again it is our aim to see that the . a value for their Parks dollars. We continue to learn how to improve and .upgrade many aspects of this ' important work and we• hope. the results•• will 'please the eyes . of ' :. residents and visitors alike.. If any of you . has. suggestions or • comments concerning possible im- provements, I shall be always • very glad to receive your call or note. Altogether there . were 63 applicants for the five jobs on Parks. Clearly; it was im-, Possible to avoid disap-. pointing many people, very much to my regret:. -'-'-� • _-1VW y_ of-.tFie; .applicants.- were high school studencts and it is. good to see • their interest and eagerness to work. As the •really creative part of Parks ..R work (after the early cleaning). is done in,Apri1 and. May, the time availability of these `- students eliminated. them automatically. I.thank ' them all and wish them luck. Picking - the crew W% only had the different con- siderations . of;' reasonably advanced - Parks work in mind. I am pleased to say that we now have with us a Landscape Technology student • from Humber College; we hope to put some . - ' of his knowledge ' and ex perience to good use: ' Having mentioned the Parks dollars at the begin- ning perhaps I should not entirely ignore the figures my Council colleagues toss about With disarming abandon, the. most recent occasion having been reported in your last week's paper' and raising . some eye'b.rows. 0 O It would display good sense and logic to a more intelligent advantage if we looked atthe 5-yearincrease in .ex=.. penditures of all departments as well as in the total Town budget ,rather than con centrate on one section alone. And then we should analyse the •money. increase - in comparison to the produc- tivity. plus value of things accomplished.. . . I cannot afford - the . time -right now to elaborate on the theme, but it is, good' to rernember .that the Parks' ditures amount tc more than two per cent of the overall budget of the Town. The other day I found a poem by Ogden Nash which I think is suitable in concluding my first letter of the season on Parks: "I think I shall never see A billboard lovely as a trees' Perhaps, unless the billboards fall = - I'll never see a tree at all", • Since,ely, Elsa Haydon NFU viewnoint Dear Editor: Orderly .marketing is ar cornerstone, of National Farmers ' Union policy: Marketing ' boards. are: art important improvement over. a chaotic and unorganized , free market, amending 'on the tx mmbdit treydo assist `y' in such meaningful ways as: (1)' Providing. supply management in the sharing by producers of the available (continued on page 5) A •