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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-05-10, Page 25sykes v Inside this section: New York is a zany city. You are likely to see anything in that city and that aphorism holds distinc- tive meaning for anyone that has visited the Big Apple. Well any New Yorkers who thought they had seen everything were misguided and mildly disillusioned last week. It seems there is an elephant on the loose in New York, Brooklyn to be exact, and city officials are unable to locate it. Several pPopIP called the--ci-ty. health_ department after apparently siting the animal but health department doctors gave up the search after a fruitless day of questioning Brooklyn residents on the whereabouts of the elephant. Can't you just picture a health department doctor roaming the streets of Brooklyn knocking on doors or going up to little old ladies in the street saying," Excuse me, you haven't seen an elephant about these parts, have Domtar Sifto-Salt evaporator plant crews get safety award Page 3A ,* Jack Riddell discusses the case at Douglas Point Page 8A Town finally closes deal on the property for senior citizens housing .... Page 11A Captain Comet names March, April winners Page 14A you? He's kind of tall, grey, a bit on the chunky side." Only in New York. But the elephant, which is likely one of 12 shipped to New York from Africa earlier this year, has frolicked about the city undetected. And besides it's against the law to have an elephant in your living room. So for the harried New York health department officials here are some sure fire leads to aid them in finding the beast. If the peanuts are sold out at the playoff game hefween the New York Rangers and Islanders after the first period, then the elephants is among the crowd cheering his favorite New york hockey team on to victory. City health officials should stake out New York supermarkets and arrest anyone for questioning with more than 15 jars of peanut butter in their shop- ping cart. Health department doctors should camouflage themselves with tree branches, stand erect in Central Park while imitating a sturdy maple, .and watch for any joggers with a size 15 EEE North Stars. New York police could check back issues of daily newspapers to see if the elephant's picture has appeared in the paper while doing a couple of disco numbers with Margaret Trudeau at Studio 54. Afterall, Maggie's picture has appeared with just about everyone else that frequents the popular disco. Health department pers.onell should attend Met and Yankee baseball games and he, watchful of a section the stadium where 40 people are injured during the seventh inning ,stret- ch. New York health department doctors would be wise to plant em- ployees at the city's zoos in case the elephant was desparate for a last minute date on Saturday night. Despite the precarious nature of the city's finances surely a detective could be hired to follow the elephant drop- pings that would surely lead to his lair. The health department could pur- chase an impressive ad campaign in the daily papers asking commuters to . ' report any suspicious looking character on the subway with the smell of peanuts on his breath. Officials should check out every movie theatre in the city hosting a Tarzan film festival. Certainly it would be the duty of every Ne'w York citizen to report a sagging floor in the apartment above. New Yorkers should be wary of any neighbourhood party that sounds. like -the host hired -a---brass•- baud -for en- tertainment. Travel agencies throughout the city should be on the lookout for anyone booking a holiday tour of the Carter peanut empire in Plains, Georgia. If we can trust television advertising the elephant is the one whose legs look like saggy pantyhose. But in New York, who's going to notice the elephant anyway? the1 oft J SIGNAL STAPH 132—YEAR 19 THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1979 SECOND SECTION Centraldispate-h syst.em 1 a reality BY JOANNE municipality gets it first signals. Signals from one power so it will carry. dispatcher is always at ture of some thieves in BUCHANAN and then the smaller• town are beamed through This a much cheaper, the other end of the Seaforth. It would have municipalities buy into the air to antennas in the more dependable and system. -No longer do they helped in the ap- it," he says. other - towns. They go faster method than have to rely on answering prehension of bank Chief King feels that through the repeaters .phone, says ChiefKing. services. And the ef- robbers at Londesboro other municipalities will and are changed back to There is a great saving ficiency of policing has too if it had been installed now follow Huron's lead VHF signals. and can then to be made through this been increased. Already, then, thinks Chief King. with communications be heard by every radio system because long Chief King points out, the The system makes it systems. He thinks that in the system. Basically distance telephone calls system has helped possible for all five police the police departments in then the repeater are no longer necessary. policemen to be more departments to know Goderich, Clinton, receives a weak signal There is added safety for effective in car chases exactly what is hap- Wingham, Seaforth and and repeats it at a high the policemen because a and it aided in the cap- Turn to page 2A • Exeter co-operate together much better now and feel closer because they are on the - same network. The Goderich Police Department is able to operate much more ef- ficiently and effectively these days thanks to the newly installed Huron Municipal Police Com- munications System...a dream that has at last become a reality. Chief dispatcher Ken Anderson says the basic idea behind the new communications system is to dispatch all of the police cars in the five participating towns (Exeter,: Seaforth, Wingham, Clinton and Goderich) from one centra•I - .station (Goderich) so that each of these towns can be served by police on a 24 hour basis. Separately, the -towns could not afford a 24 hour service. "The big advantage," says Anderson, "is that every department in the system can hear what's going on in all of the other departments through one main radio channel." Goderich Police Chief Pat King, host chief for the system, stresses that each chief still has full control of his own department. "All we're doing is dispatching his men from the Goderich station. i.1nd rthes sm sit has full authority," he explains. PHONE 8333 The emergency telephone numbers have been left the same in each of the five towns (in Goderich that number is 524-8333). When people phone the emergency numbers, they will get the central station in Goderich and the dispatcher there will then instantly dispatch the right police car to the right place. Each town also has a non -emergency number which people can use to seek information or for other non - emergencies so as not to tie up the main system (in Goderich this number is 524-8334). "The emergency numbers were all left the same in the other towns so the people in those tuwns woueelrthat — they were losing their forces. The only dif- ference is that when they A FIRST use those, numbers they will be answered from Chief King says the Goderich," ,explains Huron system is a first Chief King. for the province and Each of the five towns possibly even for Canada. has a local base station "It is the first time that and a local repeater five municipalities have about six feet high gone into a system like located on top of their this together right from town halls or water the word go. It's the first towers. These repeaters time a group of fick e uencp very si nagh ls Barbara Tilley, one of five dispatchers with the new the five towns will still dial the same emergency municipalities have q y ( ) g _Huron_Municipal I'olive-Communications-S,yste olive=- ,hone_ numbers -but . will.be answered b bought into the system from" tate poll-temen s works out of the central station in Goderich pn collectively. Other places portables and car radios dispatching idnfullcr operation Goderich now. This system has been have the system but and change them to ultra p g police cars s various locations in the in full since April 25. (Photo by Joanne Y g ° five participating towns of Exeter, Seaforth, usually a - large high frequency (UHF) Wingham, Clinton and Goderich. Citizens in each of Buchanan) When emergency calls come through on the new Huron Municipal Police Communications System, they are automatically recorded on this machine. The tapes are kept for 30 days. This takes the place of keeping written logs, explains Ken Anderson, chief dispatcher. The machine has two duplicate recorders but only one is in operation at a time. The other is armed and ready to go and will start within a fifth of a second if the other one fails. (Photo by Joanne Buchanan) I recently became an advocate of primal scream therapy. A primal scream is something one can do to relieve all the tensions and anguish people suffer from in today's society. It also helps you to lose an argument with your five year old daughter. I guess it would be appropriate to explain primal scream therapy. When you're tied up in a knot because of things going wrong at work or failure to balance the books at home you go somewhere for a little primal scream. You're advised to go off somewhere by yourself. If the wrong people see you doing a primal you may find yourself in a padded cell. You start primal scream therapy with some deep breathing. Once you've expanded your lungs to capacity you reach to your toes for energy and scream as long and loud as possible. Hopefully when ypur lungs and 'voice box give up you'll be relaxed. and1able to start all over again. Some people prefer one large primal scream. I like to do one .whenever I need it. The other night I needed several. The problem was one peice of chocolate cake and three people that wanted it. I like to think of myself of master of the house, besides I'm bigger than the kids, and as master I declared that I should have the cake and the kids would have strawberries and ice cream. My logic was simple, I don't like frozen strawberries. My youngest daughter was no problem. She'll sample just about anything you pass under her nose. But the five year old is a ticky bit more selective. And her selection on this occasion was chocolate cake. In my best Henry Kissinger voice I attempted to reason with the child. I created a situation for her and asked her to bass judgement. I asked her who should get the cake if there was only meamiimmormaimmiammannamminmy enough for one person, her or her sister. She replied just the way I wanted her too. She said if there wasn't enough for both then neither of them should get cake. My sentiments exactly. And because there's not enough for both you two are getting strawberries and ice cream. She then proceeded to confuse an otherwise simple problem by asking what would become of the cake if her and her sister were getting ice cream. I quickly gave her my world food crisis line telling her that rather than waste the cake dear old dad would be glad to finish'it off. She didn't buy that. As far as she was concerned if there was no cake for the kids there was none for the old man. She demanded equal opportunity for all and said I should also have ice cream and berries. I know that I'm going to have a problem if I exercise any authority. If I cake was taken out of the controversy. J tell her 1 don't like frozen strawberries she'll say she doesn't either. It would take forever to explain how the odd man out would win the cake in a coin toss. Besides the youngest can't flip a coin and if I flipped for her I don't know how honest I'd be if she won the toss. Only one thing to do. Out to the garage for a primal scream. Calmed down I came back in and asked her what ,to do with the cake if I also have berries. I figure that's the cruncher. No way she can awnser. Give it to the dog and save the dog food for tomorrow night. Back td th arage. I told her ca wasn't good for the dog so she de nded arbitration. Nobody eats anything until mommy comes home. Her decision will be final. I don't know what the darling child had for dessert when her mommy got home. But I do know that arbitration was a simple matter. The chocolate jeff seddon