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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance Times, 1995-05-24, Page 4e tnJp nr. Published each Wednesday at: Box 390, 5 Diagonal Road, Wingham, Mario Phone (519) 357-2320 Fax (519) 357-2900 J.W. Eedy Publications Ltd. Second Class Mail Registration No. 0821 We are: Jim Beckett - Publisher Audrey Currie - Manager Cameron J. Wood - Editor Norma Colley - Ad. Sales Stephen Pritchard - Comp. Jim Brown - Reporter Margaret Stapleton -Reporter Eve Buchanan - Office Louise Welwood - Office phis»'.ek tab`•t''•it:{VI • �� � . s.r)•Y.Y• CL 0 Member of: OCNA CCNA The Wingham Advance -Times is a member of a family of community newspapers providing news. advertising and information leadership. Letters Policy All letters to the editor must bear the writer's name, telephone num- ber and address. The Advance -Times wel- comes letters. We re- serve the right to edit, but will endeavor to preserve the author's intent. Deadline for letters is Monday before 10:00 a.m. Some exceptions may apply. Fax: 519-357-2900 or mail to: P.O. Box 390, Wingham, Ontario NOG 2W0 Editorial Viewpoint 1 • F of to es t' is. too easy for`•the media to be critical' of :certain , el'emen s of the community. The role of ° Watchdog over municipal, provincial and federal governments contributes to the ease as they frequently make good targets for themselves. • However, in respect to the latest issue, our municipal government has been caught in an awkward situation which it has no direct control over. They too have to sit back and observe the end results with dismay. The issue? The freshly painted traffic .and cross walk. lines on the streets. around Wingham. Quite simply, the end. result is disgusting and an embarrassment to the community as a whole. When the erratic painting was first discovered by the Advance -Times, it was simply put down to inexperienced workers. Perhaps summer students not yet completely familiar with the line painting equipment. Yet, when we queried members of town council, we discovered `"that the work is contracted out. Contracting, by the way, is not unusual, nor should such practice be criticized. We have several local companies that benefit from contract bidding — as does the town itself. Money can be saved or made, depending on the situation. However, with respect to the painting of the traffic lines, Wingham has certainly come out with the short end of the stick. Several councillors have expressed a deep desire to create a better attitude around the community...working on eliminating the attitude of `It can't be done in Wingham'. They have worked over the past six months to push council itself in that direction. In fact, council has been relatively pro -active in combatting poor attitude for some time. They expressed anger at the rising incidents of vandalism to beautification efforts made in the community, particularly the flower boxes on the Hanna Bridge last summer. Now we have these lines throughout the community that make our streets appear as though they were painted by some sort of primate not of the homo erectus species. These crooked lines create a visual element that detracts from the aesthetic appearance of our town; basically indicating to visitors that Wingham can't even paint a straight line. Granted, the work was not performed by a local firm -- something visitors) won't think of this summer when they surely notice. Which brings us to our bone of contention. Should council save a few dbllars by contracting the work to a firm that obviously, care' more about getting into town, throwing down some paint, grabbing the cheque and getting out; or should they find a firm which takes pride in contributing to the safety a,nd beautification ofa community which pays decent money for a decent job? Perhaps council and our works department could consider spending the money next year (if the lines fade rapidly) on internal Work and purchasing a paint machine which they too could contract out; or at least contract the services of a company that,comes highly recommended and straight forward. At least then, one less concern about how to improve the community will have been addressed. — CJW ?I reason iv ,mile'Wingfiam' . M Congratulations must go out to the Madill Soccer teams; all of whom made the finals this season. A special smile to the girls, who achieved success in only their second season. with Margaret Stapleton MAY 1948 Russel Adams, Lot 12, Con. 4, 'suffered a heavy loss last Tuesday evening when his large barn, re- cently equipped with hydro, was totally destroyed by fire. Rae Ad- ams, Mr. Adams' younger son, was alone in the barn and was in- jured by a falling timber, but his condition has improved and he has returned to high school. Get ready for the ball season at Stainton's Hardware. Baseball and softball gloves are priced from $3.75 to $9.50 and official softballs cost $1.98. Attention all fishermen: Bill Martin of Guelph caught a brown trout 24 inches long and weighing four and one-half pounds from the Wroxeter Bridge last Saturday. A regrettable accident occurred on Wednesday afternoon of last week when Ross Willets, son of Mr. and Mrs. Webster Willets of Turnberry lost his right hand at the wrist. Mr. Willets, who works for the township, had just loaded a stick of dynamite for blasting a large stone on the B-line when, for some unaccountable reason, it exploded. MAY 1960 Lieut. -Col. Elmer D. Bell of • Exeter presented the trophy won by the 99th Battery of Wingham in inter -unit competition recently. Capt. Robert Ritter accepted the trophy from Mr. Bell. Mr. and Mrs. Jack Salter have purchased the former Reynolds home on Leopold Street from Robert Mowbray. The Salters and their daughter Debbie will be moving into the house shortly. Merle Gowdy of Wingham won the Prince of Wales Scholar- ship for the highest marks in aca- demic work and practice teaching at the Stratford Teachers' College this term. Award winners at the Canadian. Girls in Training mother -daughter banquet last week include Audrey Collar, Nancy Donaldson, Peggy Rae, Susan Spry, Laura Walker and Fiona Edwards. Sharon Brown, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Brown of Wing - ham, wed Robert Charles Jones earlier this month at Listowel. MAY 1971 Darryl Sitter of the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club will be the guest speaker at the Minor Hockey Night on June 3 at the F. E. Madill Secondary School. Rev. J. Rea Grant hasaccepted a call to Calvary United Church in Listowel. He is married to the for- mer Hilda Tiffin of Wingham. Jennie Askes of RR 3, Wing - ham, became the bride of Spike Bakker Jr. on Friday, May 14. Clayton Baird, who will enter the field of geriatrics, pinned flowers on his grandmother at the graduation ceremonies of the Wingham Registered Nursing As- sistants School held last Friday.' Mr. Baird was, a member of the graduating c1as's. MAY 1981 Murray Elston, newly -elected MPP for Huron -Bruce, was the guest speaker at graduation cere monies for the registered nursing' assistants' class at the Wingharp hospital recently. Turnberry farmer William Kieffer was seriously injured last week when he was run over by a c orn planter. The Ontario Beef Exchange , Ltd. (OBEX) will be holding five video feeder cattle auctions in 1981. Spencer Burley, son of Don and Betty Burley, recently gradu- ated from Canadore College, North Bay, in avionics. He has ac- cepted a position with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources at Timmins. " The Wingham hospital budget for 1981 is $4 million. • MAY 24,1995 Encroachment ormanifest destiny can't help this feeling of sad- ness within me. Spring brings with it a sense of renewal and re- birth. Fields are being planted, live- stock tending to their offspring; the freshly fertilized acres. Spring brings an explosion of life...but, it also brings death. The season, and all that accompa- nies it, reminds me of man's inabili- ty to live within his environment. Of our lack of respect. If weau p se for a moment in our drives throughout the magnificent countryside, we can see the death ;; matalnd i91tdt�,,slsxi?c'es from�tl}e,r enline ` entre licstr''�'tfiet;arliriati �W.vi� ttii f'i•' e, eked aside by rolling rubber, life less andamangled. It saddens me to see how we are celebrating the return of the soil from its wintry bed while our less civilized neighbors meet their end. By no , means am I an animal rights activist. I don't endorse the rescue of bunnies from university la- boratories in the name of freedom. I eat beef, love Ontario pork and poul- try. I spent four years in high- school working on a sheep farm, tending to the flock and most necessary re- quirements of such livestock. Heck, I've even blasted a few snakes be- cause I just plain don't like them. So you can see, I'm not a sensi- tive, salad -eating vegetable -hugger. The death of which I speak sad- dens me because I do appreciate all life that has been granted to our glo- bal- home. And it saddens me be- cause it indicates that we, as simple The Outer Edge Cameron J. WOOD animals sharing the planet, are poor stewards. I was reflecting on this very as- pect last week during a drive through our beautiful homeland. My thoughts drifted back to my child- hood home. Despite Ii iqg in the gity, my .neiOhbOrhoOd-Wikbordered " lyy a marveliouswforestt:.fui11 of wild- life and blossoming vegetation. I loved the trilliums each spring blos- soming in many colours...and how the deer would wander into our backyards as if to watch us as we watched 'them. As I child, this to me was good stewardship. During the summer months away from organized educa- tion, my cohorts and I would often make the trek into the woods to a small brook and pond. Here we would spend hours getting wet, catching tadpoles or crawfish for closer examination, or just simply doing "boy" things. As I grew, this neighboring world became a big part of me. I learned to respect our neighbors of all species and celebrate the environment. Living in a growing city, this im- pression was shattered by the time I graduated from high school as the land had been cleared to expand the neighborhood. Progress. What had once been home to other living crea- tures became dozens of split-levels and bungalows. The painful irony is that many of the homes that replaced our child- hood haunts of the brook and pond remain empty and for sale...more than a decade later. It's one of the shining examples of the boom and doom economy of the 1980s. It seems mankind has become al- most too: intelligent for his own good. As an animal, we have over- educated ourselves to believe.. we are owners of the land...of the planet. We seem to have grown out of that sense that we are privileged to bor row this property for a few years and then return it to its rightful owners. We have forgotten that we are the guests. In reflecting on this I asked a friend what happened to the Boy Scout philosophy of camping..,leave the place cleaner than you found it. And so, I sat in my car, driving through Huron County staring at the growing evidence of death at the side of the road, wild and domesti- cated carcasses, wondering if we have forgotten how to share the globe. 1 feel that mankind has developed this dangerous sense of manifest des- tiny...the belief that it is our God- given right to control the planet. Dangerous because with that belief comes encroachment...and sooner or later we will run out of land and wildlife to encroach upon. Rae resigned to defeat? TORONTO - Ontario's first New Democrat government is in danger of vanishing not with a bang, but a whimper. This was not the way it was sup- posed to happen. Premier Bob Rae and his government have been noto- riously low in polls. But Rae is the smartest talker among the leaders and many claimed he had superior campaign skills and once in an election would quickly give rivals a run for their money and a few even thought he might pull off a win. This has not looked remotely like happening. Rae's campaign has not shown sparkle or flair, excited voters or stuck a chord that suggests it might bring a rush of support. Rae does not have the best of ma- terials to work with. He says the overriding issue should be the feder-, al Liberals' cuts in transfer payments for health and social services, but many see this as a dispute between governments that is technical and old hat. - The premier is accusing opposi- tion parties of making many irre- sponsible promises, but this seems to come from the wrong person when he made so many he failed to keep to win an election in 1990. Rae has tried a more substantial theme, that assistance he gave com- panies helped save jobs; but had heart knocked out of him when some employers said jobs would have been saved without his help and em- ployees said their gratitude does not with Eric Dowd extend to voting for him. Rae has been given no reason to feel confident the bulk of unionists offended when he cut pay for public sector workers will hold their noses and vote for him. The Ontario Federation of Labor has urged members to support Rae on the ground other parties would treat unions even worse. But many unionists are still withholding bless- ing and a star he wanted as a candi- date, former MP Howard McCurdy, could not even win a nomination with the stigma of Rae's endorse- ment. Rae cannot compete with other parties in making promises because he broke so many and it is difficult to rally support boasting of being pragmatic. He cannot even go down proudly with all guns blazing on behalf of workers because he compromised by acts like pay cuts, breaking union contracts and forcing store employ- ees to work on Sundays. His last supper before the election was with stock market whiz Andrew Sarlos and his cronies craning for a final look at this disappearing politi- cal curiosity. - this does not look much like the last stand of the work- ing man. There should never have been pre- dictions that Rae would wipe the floor with opponents in a carnpaign because in his first as leader in 1985, when the Progressive Conservative dynasty crumbled, he lost the initia- tive and government to Liberal Da- vid Peterson and his few catchy promises and seeming energy. In 1987 Peterson trampled Rae so thoroughly that he contemplated re- tiring. It was only after Petersan fell apart in 1990 and voters remem- bered the Tories' smugness that they turned to Rae as the only alternative - there was no brilliant strategy. Rae still has flashes of bravado, saying "we have come from behind before" and "don't underestimate me." But he has talked almost in the past tense about governing, saying "if I'm remembered for nothing more than I asked people to take Rae days (days off to cut government costs), then that's fine with me." He also has talked of having "se- renity" which sounds a lot like he is growing resigned to defeat. If Rae did seem to be making a •comeback, big business and a large section of the news media would be making a concerted effort to get rid of him, but that is not happening - there is no need' for it.