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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1972-08-24, Page 3Hassle over school bus transportation (by Shirley J. Keller) The board of Calvin Christian School in Clinton would like to "share facilities" with the Huron County Board of Educatio[ and Calvin Christian board sec- retary Cecil Bruinsma and Principal Ralph Schuurman appeared before Huron's board Monday evening in Clinton to ask for free bussing for 23 of their pupils this fall. A recommendation before the board from R.L. Cunning- ham, transportation manager, suggested a "transportation agreement with the Clinton and District Christian School Board for a trial period of September to December 1972" and that the Christian School board re- imburse the Huron Board their proportionate costs on the bus routes involved. Before much discussion was held on the recommendation, Bruinsma informed the board the Christian School board was requesting transportation free of charge. "We're asking for some val- ue for out taxes, " said Bruins - ma, reminding the board that Christian School supporters paid taxes to the public school board although their children attended the Christian School. "The value is you send your children to our schools, " stated Mollie Kunder, Seaforth. "We cannot do that, on a mat ter of principle" answered Bruinsma. The Christian School board was asking that a maximum of three students be added to some bus routes throughout the county. Bruinsma said these students are scattered through- out the district and about 60 miles of bussing per day could be eliminated if I-Iuron School Board buses would pick up these children, all residing on roads travelled by Huron's buses. "Some buses are already stopping at these gates to pick up children attending other schools, " said Bruinsma. He said that according to last year's bus routes, there would be plenty of room for extra students. Principal Schuurman said that he didn't like to think of their request as being for "free transportation" but rather for permission to use "empty seats" on Huron County School Board buses. He referred to former Minist- er of Education Thomas Wells who suggested that Christian School boards go to their public school boards to see if arrange- ments could be made to "share facilities." Huron Board chairman R.M. Elliott said that in his view, Welts had abdicated his resp- onsibility by leaving it up to • Buy workshop building Renovation of the former Dashwood Industries Ltd. plant in Dashwood into a retarded adult workshop is expected to begin within 10 days, a spokes- man for the South Huron and District Association for the Mentally Retarded said Friday. Rev. Wilfred Jarvis, associat- ion publicity director, said plans call for the workshop to open in October with an initial enrol- ment of five trainees. Purchase price of the 37, 000 square -foot plant and an accomp- anying two-storey brick house fronting on Highway 83 will not be released for two weeks at the request of Dashwood Industries, he said. The association originally int- ended to locate the workshop in • the Kongskilde Ltd. Co., build- ing in Exeter, on which it had an option. Mr. Jarvis said the option was allowed to expire when the larg- er building, vacant since the Dashwood Industries moved south of Exeter of Highway 4, became available. The workshop will serve south- ern Huron County and part of Lambton County. It is expectdd to accommodate 25 trainees with- in a few years. A director for the workshop, Chuck Lutchin, will take over the Dashwood operation Sept- ember 1. He is now working with the London association's work- shop. About $27, 000 of a $90, 000 target has been raised for the workshop in an association camp- aign. The workshop will be the only facility serving the•area, The nearest workshop is in Goderich. Some mentally,retarded trainees may be brought to the new fac- ility from Orillia, Cedar Springs and Palmerston, where govern- ment-sponsored homes for the mentally retarded now exist. "100 different boards to deal with the problem in 100 diff- erent ways." "We're in the red now and we're asking for help." said Bruinsma, George Parsons, of Goderich asked if the Christian School Board had considered the dif- ference to their budget if they paid their proportionate costs to the Huron Board, "No we haven't admitted, Bruinsma, "But I don't think it would be too beneficial." Parsons told the delegation it should investigate the sav- ings through this arrange - Continued on page 21 Zurich girl killed An 18 -year old Zurich girl Joanne Fenna Plantenga, was killed Saturday when a car collided with two pedestrians and a light standard before coming to rest against the Royal Hotel on the main thoroughfare of Mitchell. Miss Plantenga was a pedestrian walking on the main street of the town. Also killed in the crash was Frank Rebelo, of Mitchell, who was a passenger in the car. As a result of the freak accident, a charge of crimin- al negligence was read to the driver of the car, Roger Bowes, 19, of Mitchell. He appeared before a justice of peace at Stratford on Monday, where the charge was given him. Also injured in the crash were John Parsons, of Stratford, and David Ritz, of Monkton, both passengers in the car. As well, another pedestrian, Arthur Silver, of Thedford, received minor injuries. Miss Plantenga is survived by her parents, Mr, and Mrs. Harry Plantenga, of Zurich; brothers, Eppe, of Holland, Dirk, of Terrace, B.C., and Harry, of Zurich; sisters, Mrs. Abraham (Stella) Zyde- (continued on page 20) Zurich 074&/ -pot News No regional government for Huron (by Shirley J. Keller) The Honorable W. Darcy McKeough was on the hot seat at a special session of Huron County Council Monday after- noon...and the subject was regional government. Accompanied by Hon. C.S. MacNaughton, MPP for Huron, McKeough arrived later than anticipated by council and gave members an opportunity tc discuss what they believed to be the implications of McKeough's June statement on Design for Development Phase Three. It also gave members time to formulate good quest- ions which made for an inform- ative session. The main questions in the minds of most county council- lors were whether regional government was coming, when it was coming and how it would affect Huron County. McKeough told council members he could not provide direct answers to those questions at this time. He said that his June statement had covered three topics --the regional development program, reform- ing tax needs and restructuring local government. The Minister said that a target date of 1975 had been set for the completion of data - gathering which would point the way to the future. McKough's June statement went this way: "It is our goal that everyone in the province BICYCLE PARADE WINNERS AT RECREATION FUN DAY will have a good idea of the direction local government is going by 1975. It wants to make it clear that this does not mean it will be possible to have legislated all those reforms by that date." McKeough told Huron counc- illors that a "restructured map" of the province would have to be drawn up before any mun- icipality can know the possible boundaries of their region. He said it would be unwise to formulate tentative boundaries at ttis point since there could be "areas left over unless somebody develops a whole map." He did reiterate his plan to develop five regions in the province rather than 10. McKeough said that during the past five years, many, many politicians and lay people throughout Ontario had come to realize that "the world is big- ger than our own back yard." In the past, McKeough said, regional development councils had been charged with the responsibility to "develop a common point of view." He said he saw the five proposed regions as a method by which to "strengthen the role of local government" because the 10 former regions were to be repl- aced with what he liked to term "the group of 70" - 70 municipalities within five regions. "The largest single input into the Design for Develop- ment program, " said McKeough "will come from this group of 70. At this juncture, McKeough indicated to council that the government was interested to hear from the "private sector" of citizens as well as "politic- ians, retired politicians and defeated politicians. McKeough touched on the Toronto -Centred Region con- cept which is a plan to divert some of the congestion of population as well as business aid industry away from Toronto to the Kitchener -Waterloo, Barrie and Port Colborne areas in particular. The Minister indicated that such growth cannot take place too far out of the Toronto district because the Queen City is the base for business and industry and development will radiate around the base before spreading to the outer -reaches of the province. McKeough said he believed his government set goals which were "realistic and not impract- ical." Reeve Elgin Thompson, of Tuckersmith asked McKeough if he could provide any idea of the size of the regions he was proposing. McKeough answered that the provincial aims and objectives of 1968 had not changed and that ideal- ly, a region would comprise 150, 000 to 200, 000 people. He said such a population base would be necessary to afford the kinds of services required by the kind of region proposed for Ontario. "It is not only what seems to make sense but also what will work well, " stated McKeough. Lower -tier government, McKeough said, should en- compass from 8, 000 to 10, 000 persons. McKeough pointed out that at this size a munic- ipality could provide "some pretty good staff." Reeve Jack Alexander, of Wingham asked whether the provincial government would approve the amalgamation (continued on page 24) 0 Youth group prepare report The Opportunities for Youth project which has been conduct- ing a study of Hay Township this summer is now analysing its material to prepare a final rep- ort. During the vacation period, the six students in the group have researched the history of industry in the township, and have contributed weekly histor- ical articles to this newspaper. In addition, they have been investigating the present econ- omic situation in the area, and have surveyed manufacturing industries, merchants, farmers, and cottagers for this purpose. Consequently, the group's rep- ort will consist of an analysis of the past industries, a discus- sion of the impact of various factors on the economy of this area today, a presentation of certain data on the township, and some suggestions for the future of this community. At the Bean Festival on Satur- day, the group will have a displ- ay of pictures of the past in the former McAdam's T.V. shop. They will also have copies of their booklet on hand for public distribution. The group would like to thank all those who helped them out by supplying information, equip- ment, pictures, and documents, as well as the many who gave advice and donated their time to the project workers.