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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-03-22, Page 1{ The 11 a. fire r under Goderich Fire Department was called to a grass fire fire about m. Tuesday just south of the Dawnrose Drive subdivision. The aced through three or four acres beforerthe GFD brought it control. Although the ground was wet the grass was sur - Mi inj ne accident res three Three wo Sifto Salt Mi they were wo One of. the desborough, in London, w fair.. Two of his George Lang, Alexandra Mar the 18 foot fa satisfactory con A fourth man, at the time of the The men we Chemicals Group subcontractor, C Brampton. The men were siding on scaffoldin feetto the ground. The Ministry of investigation into the rkers were injured in a fall at the ne last Friday when the scaffolding rking on collapsed. injured, Frank Johnston of Lon - was taken to University Hospital here his condition was listed as co-workers, Dave Deveau and both of Goderich were taken to ine and General Hospital after 11. Both men were listed -in dition. who was working with the trio accident, escaped injury. re employees of Domtar but were working for a ementation Co. Ltd. of working on concrete shaft g tipped sending the men 18 Labor was conducting an incident. Budget blues The municipality' n-ar i;omplet meeting isn't until next in the council chambers. At the first budget me $7,000 was cut from the bu pass through the figures. Clerk Larry McCabe ha early estimates, it appear have to be deleted from the in Goderich are to remai year. At the present time, ho committee seems to' be ad seven percent increase ove require about $100,000 to proposed expenditures for the s 1979 budget isn't ion and the next budget week, March 27 at 7 pm eting last week, about dget on a preliminary s indicated that from s nearly $200,000 will 1979 budget if taxes the same as last ever, the finance vocating a six or r 1978, which will be cut from the year. Euthanasia Eld prisingly dry and created a visible cloud of smoke over the south- west section of town. The cause of the fire was not known. ( photo by Dave Sykes) Will st 11 it again BY SH4RLEY J.KELLER ,Despite another bid by Chris Kiar of Cam- bridge Street in Goderich to stop it, town council Monday evening gave third reading to a bylaw which will permit the dental clinic planned by Dr: Karl Campbell and Dr. Richard Speers to be built in that neighborhood. But the matter isn't closed. Kiar warped town council he andsome other residents. of Cam- bridge Street would list their objections to the project when a petition to rezone the property is circulated, and hold the matter up in an Ontario Mt. nicipal Board hearing. Kiar believes the project is in direct conflict ' with the town's official plan and the zoning bylaw.He feels the OMB will have no choice but to refuse approval for the project. In a six-page type -written brief, copied and handed out to every member of town council, Kiar claimed the Campbell-Speers proposal does not meet the criteria under the land use policy of the official plan; is way above and beyond the recommended restraints of the land use policies set out in the official plan; is in- compatible with existing buildings in the neigh- borhood; and -rs in conflict with the zoning bylaw which appears to offer some protection to residential property owners. "In this -case we feel this protection has not been properly enforced," the brief stated. Kiar reiterated the neighborhood's claim that the dental clinic would not be offensive to them if the entrance were off Huron Road instead of Cambridge Street. They feel the increased traffic in the neighborhood is unnecessary and that it is the intent of the official plan to prevent such from happening. Only Councillors Elsa Haydon and Stan Profit took the side of the Cambridge Street delegation. Haydon said she agreed there should be some "definite protection" for residential dwellers who had sought out a quiet neighborhood and wished it to remain that way. Profit, who has consistently opposed developments in Goderich which require rezoning because they did not comply with the official plan, said Kiar had raised "enough doubt" in his (Profit's) mind, to convince him to oppose the bylaw. "Maybe this is the very project for the town to become consistent in - enforcing its own bylaw," said Profit. Reeve Eileen Palmer said she was well ' aware the town's official plan was outdated. She claimed that in 1979, the plan would be reviewed and revised. "We are trying to raise the assessment in this municipality," she said. "We need the assessment." Councillor Jim Searls said Kiar was being "very selfish'. Councillor John Doherty said he felt the neighbors were wrong in suggesting that if the dental clinic was built according to their demands with an entrance off Huron Road, they would not oppose it. "I just can't support that," said Doherty. 132—YEAR 12 THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 1979 . 35 CENTS PER COPY rna,4ejt... they BY JOANNE BUCHANAN The Goderich Performing Arts, Foundation has overcome its first major hurdle in tran- sforming the former Polley's Livery Stable into a cultural centre for the performing and visual arts. In five weeks the Foundation has managed to raise $50,000 through the generous support of private individuals, the Sully Foundation and the Charles Ivey Foundation of Toronto in order to make the downpayment which secures the old livery stable building, its lot and its ad- joining lot. Now that the building and properties have been secured, research work and planning can begin, says. Heather Lyons, fund raising chairman with the Foundation. . • Mrs. Lyons says that the Foundation will be educating the, public further about the project and hopes to hold a public meeting some time in the near future. People have been very generous in their support of the project to date, she says. Many :ext step? people who say they can't afford to help financially, have offered to help in other ways. Where .volunteer labor can heused, it will be used, says Mrs. Lyons and it may be possible to give tax deductible receipts for time and labor. "This is a real grass roots projec'.t,'' she says. Ministry of Culture and Recreation em- ployees will be helping Foundation members by letting them know what resources are available to them through the government for conducting •research, planning and handling finances. A ski-a-thon which the Foundation had planned for several weeks ago to raise money, had to be cancelled due to lack of snow. It may be replaced later with a bike or walk-a-thon at which time the ski-a-thon pledges will be honored. Mrs. Lyons., who is one of 16 charter mem- bers of the Foundation, says she -is being very optimistic about the cultural centre's latest milestone. "We have met all the criteria that I know of so far to keep going," she says. erly fear the future BY SI•$IRLEY J.KELLE Jack Riddell, MPP for Huron -Middlesex, has been deluged with letters from Goderich and area. They aren't just ordinary letters from constituents to their member. They are letters filled with fear and frustration. They are mostly from senior citizens who are terrified of • becoming sick and immobile, with no place to go and no one to take care of them. Some of them, according to Riddell, that society is moving closer' and cl legislation that would permit euthanas act of bringing about gentle, easy de certain selected individuals for whom appears to be little likelihood to return sickness as normal, healthy, productive h beings. Men and women, growing old in H County after a life of struggle and care, actually "living in fear" that they will reduced to little more than bothersome burd without dignity or respect. Sad, isn't it? But there is an even stranger phenomenum. Huron -Middlesex MPP Riddell seems to be the only MPP getting many letters of this sort. A large number of those letters are coming from the Goderich area, Riddell says, and there's little doubt they are directly tied to the concern that is currently flowing out of the board room at Alexandra Marine and General"Hospital. That's part of the reason why Jack Riddell and his associates, Murray Gaunt, MPP for Huron -Bruce, and ,Sean Conway, MPP for Renfrew North and Liberal health critic in Ontario, were in Goderich last Wednesday. They were here on a "fact finding mission", They were here o talk to the grassroots of Ontario about th delivery of health care services. They got of ear full. R suggest oser to is - the ;th for there from uman uron are be ens DOCTORS AFRAID If the senior citizens in Goderich and area are frightened by the trends, in health care across the province, the doctors in the community are even more afraid. Perhaps the most .disturbed and the most vocal is Dr. Ken Lambert, an area surgeon who is fed up with the way things are going, He says the Ontario Ministry of Health and the Hon. Dennis Timbrell along with his civil ser'ants are playing a numbers game that is "purely political". "The government is absolutely off its stick," Lambert said recently when speaking about the ministry's province -wide formula for bed allocations."You can't formulize health care. They don't give a damn where people are st ffering and I think it's awful." Dr. Lambert had much more to say. With honest concern written all over his face, the respected physician pounded on the table for emphasis and spoke with conviction. 'The whole of Ontario is apathetic for God knows what reason," said Lambert. "This province is going right down the damn drain. Health care is going to hell on the tail of a kite." The doctor made a good point. The whole of Ontario does appear to be apathetic.Ontario government officials have commented to hospital board members that a flood of letters has arrived from the Goderich area .... and from nowhere else in Ontario. What makes Goderich people different? SOME REASONS It may be true that so much has. been hap- pening On the health care scene lately that people don't really recognize the implications f this bed cutting edict. It may be true that people actually believe bed cuts are the best way to reduce health care expenditures .... and that across the board cuts are really fair and just. •It may be that in some areas bed cuts aren't a hardship at the present time and probably won't bemuch of a hardship in the future. It could be that some communities like Clinton are somewhat infimidated by the ministry of health and are only grateful to have the crumbs the ministry hands out, It is possible a good many hospital boards across Ontario are only waiting ..... waiting to see what bed cuts will actually mean to them in practice and waiting to present documented findings to the ministry in a year or so after living with the orders for a while. It is possible there really was some fat that needed to be cutout of the province's hospitals. But in Goderich's Alexandra Marine and General Hospital, a community hospital providing nearly 90 percent of all the required medical services for the people who live in the area, and a hospitalthat has just come through one of the most rigid and strenuous cost-cutting exercises anywhere in Ontario, it is a hardship. A terrible hardship. And what's more it is dangerous. Dr. Bruce Thomson explains it the best. Dr. Thomson says doctors at AM&G have become "unbelievably scared" because they have been trying to "mix patients inap- propriately." He says "breaking the rules" of good medical practices and "squeezing the situation too tight" is to "invite disaster "We've put our goot .down and stopped it in spite of the fact we're running into financial problems,' he says, Dr. Thomson says the doctors are fooking at "other ways of running the hospital" but they really don't have any idea of what the cost will Turn to page 118 s ot X50,00 This forlorn hospital rooiii Will sit idle for a long time unless the board at Alexandra Marine and General Hospital can convince the ministry that Goderich is a unique situation and does not fit into a neat provincial mold.' The mold, of cpurse, is the 3.5 beds per 1,000 referral populatidn that is being proposed by the Ontario Ministry of Health as the ideal situation to efrert:',gaod health care in an efficient manner In every hospital in the province. Just recently, the Wingham hospital board decided to defy the ministry's edict and keep its 100 beds open. That story is on Page 3A of the second section of this week's Signal -Star. (photo by Dave Sykes)