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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1985-05-29, Page 1Birch Brunch Libmry Box 202 Blyth, Ont. NOM ili4 Jan. I r" e CONSERVATION POSTER CONTEST WINNERS—Ty Roberts, Philip Baumgarten, Carolyn Winkel, Corrie Fait and Brenda Baumgarten pose with acclaimed Canadian wildlife artist Glen Loates during an awards ceremony at the WinghaM district office of the Ministry of Natural Resdurces. The five students, all from Mr. Stewart's Grade 5-6 class at Howick Central School, were the top ;g:;.• team in the MNR's conservation poster contest during National •Wildlife Week out of 15 schools participating. Howick students also,topped the individual awards, with Carolyn winning first place, Corrie second and Brenda third.They won autographed prints of Loates paintings, as well as a framed print, a book, a poster and a plaque for the school. Glen Loates presents prizes to winners of poster contest "I've taken -naore from nature than I can ever give in return. I \ owe so much, having painted all these beautiful, things. If I can assist in preserving natural areas by lending my name to conservation projects or by using my art to draw at- tention to environmental issues, I feel I'm repaying an enormous debt of gratitude." That quote from his book A Brush with Life was used to introduce Glen Loates to a roomful of students, parents, staff and reporters at the Wingham district office of the Ministry of Natural Resources last Friday. It served to explain why the acclaimed Canadian wildlife artist had taken time from his busy schedule to come to Wingham to present prizes to a group of students who had won an MNR-sponsored conservation poster contest. The fortunate recipients of the prizes — autographed prints of Mr. Loates' beautifully-defailed wildlife paintings — were a group of students from Howick Central School. Carolyn Winkel, Corrie Fatt, Philip and Brenda Baumgarten and Ty Roberts, students in Mr. Stewart's. Grade 5-6 class, had done their posters as part of a class project on conservation. The result was that these talented young- sters not only won the team prize from among 15 schools in the district, but also captured the top three in- dividuai prizes from among 75 entries in the contest. Carolyn Winkel's poster was judged best overall, followed by the entries of Corrie Fatt and Brenda Baumgarten. Each of the students received a personally -auto- graphed Loates print, while the school also received an autographed„framed Loates print, a copy of A Brush with Life, a framed copy of the National Wildlife Week poster and a plaque from the • Chomyn appointed to. Wingham council seat Jerry Chomyn has been appointed to fill the vacancy on the Wingham Town Council left by the resignation of William Crump. Mr: Chomyn, a former councillor and currently a member of the town's planning advisory com- mittee, was appointed by council at a special meeting Tuesday afternoon. After receiving a recommendation from its finance and management committee that the vacancy should be filled for the balanceof the council term, council went into committee - of -the -whole in camera to discuss nominations before emerging to make the ap- pointment. Mr. Chomyn, who had previously served on council Fell asleep, youth injured A young Ripley -area man was treated at the Wingham and District Hospital Over the weekend for injuries received when the car he was drivinr-went into the ditch along Highway 86 early Sunday morning. Provincial police at Wingham reported that Andrew J. Teraa, 18, of RR 1, Ripley, was westbound on the highway, 200 metres west of the Huron County boun- dary in East Wawanosh Township, when he fell asleep at the wheel. His, car crossed the centre line and entered the south ditch. Mr. Teraa was taken by car to the Wingham hospital and later' discharged. Damage to the vehicle, a 1979 Ford, was estinted at $2.000 between 1980 and 1982, will occupy the seat until -November, when the next municipal general election is to be held. MNR. Speaking of conservation, his art and children, Mr. Loates told the group, "It's deeply ratifying for me to see how kids respond to my pictures. I'm sure Walt Disney must have felt the same sense of satisfaction when he saw how ehildren reacted to his cartoon characters; I know I thought they were a fairy tale come to life. "Kids today are much more practical, 'but that's another dimension, and it's terrific. They're remarkably well attuned to environ- mental issues; they'll come up to me at shows and tell me that they hope my pictures will help save the little - animals. Believe me, that's a great inspiration to keep on painting." Ron Spurr, extension services supervisor for the MNR in the Wingham district and one, of the organizers of the poster contest, explained it was intended to help promote National Wildlife Week..The contest was open to all Grade 5 and 6 students in Huron and Perth counties. Students were invited to draw posters emphasizing the themes of' habitat con- servation, the value of wild- life or resolving the conflict between man and wildlife. A total of 15 schools took part in the contest, with five entries from each school. A panel of five judges, one each from the Maitland Val- ley and Ausable-Bayfield conservation authorities and three from the MNR district office, judged the entries, which were graded on how well they conveyed their message (60 percent) and on the quality of the artwork (40 per cent). When all the marks were tallied, the judges discover- ed that not only had the Howick students won the school prize, but the top three individual posters also came from Howick. So far as he knows, Spurr said, the Wingharn district was the only one,fn Ontario holding a poster contest this year, and he feels they were very for- tunate in acquiring the services of Mr. Loates as their "wildlife am- bassador". Last year' Robert Bate- man, well-known for his paintings of birds, was Ontario's honorary am- bassador for National Wild- life Week, and the suggestion to invite Mr. Loates came from him, •Mr. Spurr ex- plained. Terry Matz, a con- servation officer in the Wingham district, made the initial contact and then he and Mr. Spurr traveled to Maple to visit the artist, who readily agreed to serve. MbkJI1J jflLtijfllfl ncti4inte FIRST SECTION Wingham, Ontario, Wednesday, May 29, 1985 Designed to stimulate business Single Copy 50c Cardiff calls federal budget fair, realistic solution to ills The budget handed down by Finance Minister Michael Wilson last Thursday has taken significant strides toward fulfilling the govern- ment's commitment to fairness and equity, to job creation `-and economic renewal, according to Murray Cardiff, MP for Huron -Bruce. Speaking from his Ottawa office on Monday, Mr. Cardiff said the budget embodies three main principles: encouragement of private initiatives in job creation, improvement in the management and ef- fectiveness of government, and taking concrete action to control the national debt. Above all, he said, the budget emphasizes a fun- damental belief in Canadi- ans — the entrepreneurs, small business owners and farmers — and in their ability to face and meet the challenges of economic re- newal. In the budget the need for economic growth, deficit reduction and job creation is addressed realistically, he said. "The real solution lies through a balanced program i)f ....rarowth, better manage - 4g4 Aes, A , A RETIREMENT PARTY was held recently for Stuart Holloway, right, who is retiring from the Wingham Works Department after 27 years. Wingham Reeve and works chairman Joe Kerr presented Mr. Holloway with a gift for his many years of dedicated pprirjr• ment, spending cuts and tax increases. "Mr. Wilson has carefully balanced the impact of the budget measures to ensure everyone carries his or her share of the burden." He said the budget con- tains a number of measures specifically designed to stimulate small and mediuin-sized business. Beginning this yew-, :1111 Canadians will be entitled to a tax exemption of $20;000 on capital gains and by 1990 the allowable exemption will rise to a lifetime maximum 44500,000. • This exemption will apply to all forms of capital, in- cluding stocks, bonds and real estate, Mr. Cardiff said, and it provides a much greater- reward and in- centive for 'Canadians to invest in new and growing business. The full exemption will be available im- mediately for capital gains realized on the sale of farm property, he added. "We have also maintained the intergenerational roll- over provision so farmers will be able to pass on their farms to the next generation without any payment of :capital gains tax. This measure will provide ef- fective assistance to this vital sector of our economy." Other measures in the budget include: — the extension of the Small Business Bond Program to 1987; — tax credits on research and development; —exemption for small businesses from the five per cent, one-year corporate surtax. The budget also proposes reforms to the pension system. "These new measures will strengthen self-reliance and significantly improve the opportunities to build decent retirement incomes for a growing number of Canadians in small business, farming and the profes- sions," Mr. Cardiff said. He added that the budget adjusts social programs so benefits will be targeted to those , most in need, saying the governthent is taking action to make Canada's social benefit programs "more progressive". He suggested that the action the government has taken Will substantially revitalize the climate for private -sector growth in the country. "Through a positive response by Canadians to the challenge, the economic outlook of the country can be made much better" Noting that already one out of every three tax dollars collected by the federal government goes to pay the interest on the national debt, Mr. Cardiff said something. had to be done to start bringing the debt under control. Even this budget only proposes to slow the growth of the deficit, not eliminate it, he noted. "There's been taxes put on, no question about that, but we had to have revenue. "I think almost ,every individual will be affected in some way," he said, estimatihg that a person earning between $25,000 and $35,000 will pay about one dollar a day in additional' taxes. But he said he thinks the tax changes are "about. as fair a way as it could be done," adding he believes most people have realized and accepted them. flie said Parliament will be dealing - with the budget nearly every day this week and it should be passed by next Monday night. Students come home winners from Canada -wide science fair %\\ Two girls from the ,East Wawanosh Public School came home winners from the Canada -wide science fair held recently at Cornwall, one with a first prize and the other with an honorable mention. Heather,Campbell daughter of r. and Mrs. Ralph Campbell of East. Wawanosh- and a Grade 7 student at the school, took first prize in the Grade 7-8 life sciences category with her study of the effects of air p011ution on plant and human life. Heather was presented with a $100 award from the Canadian 'Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. Linda Versteeg, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bill Versteeg of East Wawanosh and in Grade. 8.aL the. _schnoL received an honorable mention in the same category. The girls won their in - school competition last month and the district competition at-- Howick before winning at the county- wide science fair at Exeter ,,to qualify for the Canada - wide competition. Heather, who started her project during ithe March school break, said she wanted to determine what effect air pollutants such as dust, smoke and carbon monoxide have on plant and human life. She got some of her ideas from a government science publication and said her mother gave her a. few sugkestions. Ifi her first experiment' Heather "collected" pollution on glass plates covered with cooking oil 'at various locations: the deck of their house, in the pig barn, at the East Wawanosh Township shed and at her grandparents' home in Wingham. She said the highest concentration of pollutants were found outside. The young student also decided to find out- what effect dust -polluted air frail a barn has on a pant. To accomplish this end, Heather observed two similar plants for two weeks: one in the barn and the other in the house.. After the two weeks she charted the progress of ' the two plants and said she found some deterioration in the "barn" plant, while the "house" plant thrived. To study the effect of carbon monoxide on plants,' she placed one plant near a car exhaust for two to three minutes each day, while keeping .a "control" plant in the house to make com- parisons. Not surprisingly the plant subjected to carbon monoxide did not fare as well,. Heather used some human "guinea pigs", namely her family, in her final ex- periment: the effect of in- com_plete combustion wood buning on humans. For one minute each day for two weeks, she had her father and mother, brother and sister, stand by an open fire and then charted their reactions. The smoke definitely had a negative affect on the family as their eyes watered and ' burned and they found it hard to breathe. Linda also started, her project duing the , March break, but had done reseach earlier. She had been hearing for some time that a chemical waste dump might locate in Huron County, so she decided to study what effect chemical waste could have on crops grown in the area. She simulated, an outdoor scene and then poured acid into the soil, teating the water every day for 10 days to determine its acidity with the' use of 'litmus paper. Linda said she found sand and gravel held sulphuric acid best, clay was good, but soil had "early leakage". She also added sulphuric acid to a number of ger- minated plants, while keeping a control group with which to make obServations. Linda said sl found all the control plants performed better and it didn't seem to matter at what stage of growth the acid was added. ATTEND SCIENCE FAIR—Heather Campbell and Linda Versteeg of the East Wawanosh Public School recently returned from the Canada -wide science fair in Cornwall. Miss Campbell took a first in her category, the Grade 7-8 life sciences divsion, while Miss Versteeg captured an honorable mention in the same category. A third Huron County student, Kim Medd of the Blyth Public School (not shown), also competed at the science fair. Neutral substances tend to cause soil erosion, said Linda, even though there. is no leakage. She found it peculiar there was, not much leakage in sand or gravel, but found the limestone in sand and gravel was neutrali2ing the, sulphuric acid. In her estimation a chemical waste disposal site in Huron County could have disastrous effects On water quality an crop yield. She also is concerned about what effect these chemicals might have on the livestock that feed on the crops and if that meat would be in any way contaminated. A third Huron County student, Kim Medd, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dave Medd of Blyth and a student at the Blyth Public School, also attended the Canada -wide science fair. However she did not place among the top competitors. Both East Wawanosh girls said they had "a lot of fun" at the May 11 to 18 science fair. They spent one full day with their exhibits during the judging of the approximately. 500 i-chibits. They spent one day touring Ottawa, went on local bus tours and even traveled to Montreal for 'an Expos' game. They both agreed whole-heartedly though the best part of their stay was "no school". Heather, who will be in Grade 8 next year, said she intends to expand upon her air pollution theme for the 1986 competition. There is no county -wide science fair competition at the Aigh school level, so this will be Linda's last year. A