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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1985-03-27, Page 1315-th Branch Lit,miry Box 202 Blyth, Ont. NOM Jan. i `" e Madill cheerleaders win all -Ontario championship The "Acro Cheer Squad" from F. E. Madill Secondary School, Wingham, has captured the all -Ontario cheerleading championship for 1985. In a competition this past weekend at Toronto against 42 other squads from high schools all a.crgss Ontario, including many from the large, metropolitan areas, the Madill squad captured its first-ever provincial, title in just its third year of, com- peting. For its efforts it earned a large trophy and cheque for $1,000, as well as keeper trophies for all members of the squad. The competition this year was "just incredible" report- ed Louanna Alexander, one of the coaches of the cheer- leading squad, and to come out on top against so many larger schools was "just un- believable!" "When they won, nobody could speak; they just screamed and cried." Dian Wood, who has, been coaching the squad for a number of years, explained they call themselves the Acro Cheer Squad to dif- ferentiate themselves from the popular image of cheerleaders as nothing more than scantily -clad bouncing pom-pom girls. Acro (for acrobatic) is a term coined by the'Ontario Gymnastic Federation for the newer brand of cheerleading, which involves strength, endurance and gymnastic skills. This year for the first time the Madill squad included male cheerleaders, and they provided a new dimension which helped its chances at the competition, Mrs. Wood said. Madill also had a "secret weapon" in the form of Pearl, its delightful horse mascot. "One of the judges said the horse really stole her heart away." Members of the cham- pionship squad are Ginny LeVan, Shawna Thomson, Tina DeBoer, Joelle Reavie, Stacey Thomson, Charlotte Cassidy, Judy TenPas, Donna Reynard, Leslie ,TenPas and, on, the male side, Jamie McPherson, Doug Wood, Byron Thom- pson, Darrin Watts, Bert Sjaarda, Doug McFarlan and Dave Linton. Appearing in the form of Pearl are Julie Nichols and Heidi Strong. Local residents will have a chance to see the cheerlead- ers demonstrate their award-winning performance on Monday evening, April 1, when they will appear as part of the Wingham Recrea- tion Department's "Gym- naestrade '85" in the large gym at Madill. The evening starts at 7 p.m. and also features girls' gymnastics, the Wingham Skip -It team, ballet, rhyth- mic gymnastics, the Wing - ham Canadettes, boys' gym- nastics and ladies' fitness. Daycare funding bonanza is no help to rural centres. The $30 million increase in day care subsidies an- nounced last week by the Ontario government may buy it some votes in Metro Toronto, but it offers no help to day care centres in rural Ontario, according to Wingham Deputy Reeve Patricia Bailey. Mrs. Bailey, who has become town council's of- ficial spokesman on day care issues and a leader in the fight to preserve rural day care centres, declared last week that the provincial government is "not doing one thing" to help. Small-town day care centres still have the threat of massive fee increases at the end of this year hanging over them and she said she no longer believes the government is unaware of the effect its policies will have. After a year of meetings .. with committees and cabinet ministers and intensive lobbying, "they have enough information down there now to know," she said. "They must realize what's hap- pening." She had obtained a pledge from former Community and Social Services Minister Frank, Drea that the Wingham Day, Care Centre would not be forced to close, but with Mr. Drea now departing the Frank Miller cabinet, "his promises don't hold water," she noted. "They were saying they were hard up and didn't have any money, but now they have $30 million." Declaring that the new premier "doesn't give a hoot", she said she plans to. get off some letters to Mr. Miller anyway, and she is urging other rural day care representatives to do the same. "It's all there for them to read. We're not the only ones in a mess, but they (the government) don't care." The sword hanging over ±he heais,oLrural,,da_y care., i4ntr a is One Ontario goy- , ernment'sannouncement more than ala year ago that it plans to cut off funding for the indirect subsidies which have enabled centres to keep their user fees well below the actual cost of service. The deadline for the cutoff was setas January, 1986. This would force centres such as Wingham to more than double the fees charged to parents of children enrolled in day care, raising them' to over $20 per child per day. Parents and day care representatives have said this would force most families to with aw their children from 'f.lic day care, with the result that the centres would be forced to close. The new funding an- nounced last week will be used to increase the number of subsidized spaces available in large urban day care centres, most of which have long waiting lists. However there are too few families eligible for direct subsidy in the smaller centres to keep them operating. )l ALL -ONTARIO CHEERLEADING CHAMPIONS—The Acro Cheer Squad from F. E. Madill Secondary School, Wingham, won the 1985 all -Ontario cheerleading championships at a competition involving cheerleaders from 43 high schools acorss the province. Members of the award-winning squad are Ginny LeVan, Shawna Thomson, Tina DeBoer, Charlotte Cassidy, Joelle Reavie, Stacey Thomson, Judy TenPas, Donna Reynard, Leslie TenPas and, on the male side, Jamie McPherson, Doug Wood, Byron Thompson, Darrin Watts, Bert Sjaar- da, Doug McFarlan and Dave Linton. The squad even has its own mascot, Pearl the horse, formed by Julie Nichols and Heidi Strong. The cheerleaders are coached by Dian Wood and Louanna Alex- ander. Their famous pyramids and other exciting acts can be seen Monday night at "Gymnaestrada '85" in the large gym at Madill. Wingham, Ontario, Wednesday, Mar. 27, 1985 pital board settles with curses, paramedical staff e Wingham and District Hospital has settled -the salaries and wages of its nursing, paramedical and administrative staff for 1984- 85, giving registered nurses a five per cent increase in pay while members of the other groups received an across-the-board increase of 4.9 per cent, with in- cremental increases bringing the total for the group to five per cent. Committee recornmencls lower dam replacement The ad hoc committee studying the Lower Town dam will recommend to the Wingham Town Council next week that the collapsed structure be replaced this summer with an earth -filled weir at a cost of slightly over $300.000. Following a meeting last week the committee voted. unanimously.. to recommend the proposal to council at its April meeting. During . the meeting last week the whole committee got a good look at the pro- posed structure which was designed by DelCan, YOUNG TiM CURRIE, a Grade 6 student at the Wingham Public School, recently placed second at the district level in an essay contest sponsored by the Royal Canadian Legion about Remembrance Day. Bert Morin, representing the local Legion branch, presented Tim with his cheque last Friday and congratulated him for his fine performance. Chairman Ron Beecroft reported. "We feel it is what we want for a dam. It's attractive - looking and quite a bit less money than the original proposal by Burns Ross." He said the committee together with Mr. Stinson will present the proposal to town council on Monday night. "We hope they will accept it and we can get the ball rolling." The total estimated cost of the project is $310,000, Mr. Beecroft said, and the committee is already looking into possible sources of funding. The plan calls for a fixed weir of compacted earth, clay and sand with an overlay of cabled . cement blocks. The blocks would be more stable than the earlier proposal of using,tieldstone, he explained. It also would have concrete wing -walls and a control gate to regulate the water level. In times of high water, what does not go through the control gate would simply go over the top, he explained. Mr. Beecroft said the weir would allow the water in the lower pond to be maintained at its old level with very little maintenance required on the dam. He hopes council will look favorably on the proposal, he said, adding it seems likely that if the project does not go ahead this year it might never get done since he understands that next year the town is looking at working on the upper dam. The settlement was ap- proved by the hospital board at its meeting last week. Following the meeting Gordon Baxter, hospital finance director, explained that since this is a "control" year under the Inflation Review Board, raises had to be held to a five per cent Maximum. He added that the set- tlement is in line with that agreed to by ONA, the Ontario Nurses' Association, which also settled for five per cent. The raises, which are retroactive to October, 1984 bring the salary range for registered nurses to $2,283 to $2,601 per month. There are 69 members in the registered nursing group at the hospital, however 45 of these are part-time. There also are 19 ad- ministrative staff and 15 paramedical staff, which includes laboratory, radiology, physiotherapy and occupational therapy., In other business at the meeting, during 'which the board spent 40 minutes in open session followed by an hour • in committee -of -the - whole in -camera to discuss a letter from its lawyer, the board approved increases in the rates charged to non- residents of Canada and self - paid patients. The rates for non-residents are now $500 a day in- patient, $75 out-patient and $250 for day surgery. The standard ward rate for self -paid patients (those not covered by OHIP) was raised to $224 per day, an increase of approximately five per cent. The board also heard that the hospital had ac- cumulated a surplus of revenue over expenditures approaching has million dollars during the past year. Finance Chairman Alex Graham reported a surplus to the end of February amounting to $460,000, though he said this was expected to drop by about $30,000 to $35,000 by the end of the fiscal year March 31. He also reported the community fund-raising program had reached 76 per cent of its objective, stand- ing at just over $303,000. This is an increase of $4,000 over the previous month. Reporting for the joint conference committee, a liaison committee among the board,executive director and doctors, Board Chair- man Mary Vair reported the hospital has hired a fully qualified pharmacist to start May5. In a report from the medical staff, Dr. Walter Wong ,said the doctors welcome the announcement that a pharmacist has been found. He also told the board that the medical staff has adopted a policy prohibiting smoking at its meetings and recommends the 'board consider adopting a similar policy. "You want to argue about that now or later?" asked board member Roger Keay, a smoker, while Mr. Graham, puffing on his pipe, inquired "That's just to cover cigarettes, isn't it?" No one proposed acting on the recommendation, however, and the matter was dropped as the board moved on to other items. In the executive director's report, Norman Hayes told the board the hospital will be getting an intern in physio- therapy for a number of weeks this summer. He also commented on the reported increases in hospital funding this year, saying . the Ontario Hospital Association has calculated the across-the-board in- crease for inflation is just three per cent. "When you read that figure of 6.7 per cent, it ain't us they're talking about." Police searching for Ripley bank robbers Police'are continuing their search for three men believed to have been in- vplved in .the robbery of - a Royal Bank branch at Ripley last Friday. A provincial police spokesman at the Kin- cardine detachment, .which is conducting the in- vestigation, said Tuesday that police are looking for two men described as being in their 20s and of average height and weight, one with a mole or mark on his left cheek, as well as a third man seen in the getaway vehicle as it left the scene. The vehicle, a tan and yellow Ford Granada, was discovered Friday evening where it had been abandoned along County Road 22 near Whitechurch. The car was foundto have been stolen from Hamilton that same morning. The two men armed with a sawed-off .303 rifle entered the bank at about 10:45•a.m. Friday and escaped with about $10,000. The rifle and a couple of jackets worn in the robbery were later found a short distance north of Ripley where they had been thrown from the vehicle. Police erected read blocks around the area on Friday but so far hie not turned up any suspects. The in- vestigation .is continuing under the supervision of acting -Det. Sgt. Harold McKittrick of No. 6 district headquarters, Mount Forest. SAMANTHA .GEORGE was tfe top pledge getter in the Wingham Public School's s p -a -than for the Ontario Heart and _ Stroke Foundation held Monday at the school. Over $1,300 was raised for the foundation at the school alone and skid -a -thous also were held Mon- day at Sacred Heart School and at the F. E. Madill Secondary School. SPONSOR ATHLETE—Paul Mutter, president of the Brussels Lions Club, and Brussels Optimist President Brian Huether recently presented Ruth Struthers of Ethel with cheques to cover her stay at the,1985 Special Olympic Games at Salt Lake City, Utah. Miss Struthers, a client at the Jack Reavie Vocational Centre in Wingham, will compete in the speed=skating events at the games.