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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1977-06-13, Page 4Page 4 Citizens News, April 13, 1977 fid •swtiwit- "Sure feels good to be home and away from those reporters and flashbulbs... " Roads The problem of maintaining roads is of vital concern to all of us and has recently been the topic of some -discussion in at least one township in the area. Residents of a township expect to be able to travel well kept roads regardless of the time or year, and they feel they pay for the keeping of those roads through taxes. The problem as we see it is really one of disorganization. For example, if you take the 12 miles of the Goshen line, you may be surprised to find out that road is un- der the jurisdiction of four separate road committees. From the Dashwood highway to the centre of Zurich the road is the respon- sibility of the County of Huron. From there to the north boundary of the village, the road is under the jurisdiction of the village of Zurich. From the northern boundary of the village to the southern boundary of Stanley township the road is maintained by Hay township and from there to where the road ends at the Bayfield highway, the road is maintained by Stanley township., Four different bodies are responsible for that 12 mile stretch of road, is it any wonder the road conditions vary so much? The condition of the various segments of that road depend on the budget and priorities of each of these small road com- mittees. For instance, if you wanted to go from Zurich to the Bayfield -Varna highway by going up the Goshen, you will soon dis- cover the road conditions vary greatly. To.. the outskirts of the village the road is not too bad, from there to the Stanley township border the pavement deteriorates rapidly and in the township of Stanley the road is in good shape but is unpaved. The point is this. How can a large number of small groups be expected to maintain stretches of the same road on an equal basis? Hay township has decided to resurface their share of the Goshen this year, but what good will that do if the County doesn't repair their part of the Goshen south of the village? And who's to make sure Zurich doesn't let their part of the road deteriorate. If any section of the road is bad, then the whole thing might as well be forgotten. The Goshen is just an example, there are many others throughout the entire county.. We've probably all heard stories of feed trucks or milk trucks trying to get through to farms this past winter and hav- ing to have ploughs from three or four municipalities just to go a few miles. It would seem to us we could save a lot of money and confusion if we would just combine the responsibility for roads under one authority, probably the County would be best, and get some continuity into the situation. A larger number of well organiz- ed vehicles under the authority of one body could surely manage to keep the roads in good shape with fewer problems than a large number of small township road com- mittees trying to do their own thing. The system of each township looking after their own roads works just fine, if you are lucky enough to have men on the road committee who are knowledgeable about road conditions and care enough to do a good job and if that council is lucky enough to be able to hire a road superintendent who does a responsible job. But it only takes one poor council and, or one poor road superintendent to ball up sections of a lot of roads. This creates problems for those try- ing ry.ing to use those roads whether they are residents of that township or not. It's about time we got ourselves organized and brought some continuity into our road maintenance programs. FIRST WITH LOCAL NEWS Published Each Wednesday By J.W. Eedy Publications Ltd. ei. Manager - Betty O'Brien Member: Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association News Editor - Cathy McKinley Second Class Mail Registration Number 1385 Subscription Rates; $7,00 per year in advance in Canada $18.00 per year outside Canada Single copies 204 People are strange. If the month was October and the temperature was 9 degrees Celcius people would be walking around with heavy sweaters and jackets, perhaps even a scarf or two. But take those same 9 degrees Celcius, add some sunshine and make the name of the month April, and people will run around in shorts and kneesocks, light sweaters and definitely no jackets. It's time to catch a cold and after this Easter weekend I'll be surprised if there isn't an epidemic of them. There is still a problem around the village and outside the village with bicycle riders both young and old. Several times I have had to negotiate a car between cyclists who seem to thingk they own both sides of the road and the cen- tre too. I have seen "upteen dozen" kids fooling around in the centre of the highway, weaving back and forth on their bikes and paying no attention to who might or might not be coming up behind them. It would be too bad if people continue this "it won't happen to me attitude" because someone just may end up dead. If I saw my child riding on the highway the way so many kids do I would take his or her bike away for a week and give them a good lecture to boot. You are only helping them by making them aware of the very real danger of bike riding both in and out of town. I feel sorry for any students who have to attend secon- dary schools today.The decisions they must make regarding their future and the problems they encounter from the schools bureaucracy are mind-boggling. I know of one case where the student is in.Grade 11 and has been informed the courses she wishes to take will not qualify her for a Gr. 13 diploma unless she changes a few of them. They told her she made a mistakewhen she chose her Grade 11 subjects and has narrowed the area subjects considerably she can take in Gr. 13 as most of those sub- jects have numerous pre-requesities. • The ironic thing is what the guidance counsellors are now telling her she should have taken, after she is almost through her year, just happen to be the subjects she wanted to take and applied to take but was unable to take because the school couldn't fit them into a workable timetable. There are two problems here, one the counselling should have been done before the school year started, not after it ended, and two, the student should not be punished for something which was beyond her control. Leaving so much of the responsibility with kids who are only in grade nine or 10 does not seem very smart to me. I know when I was that age I certainly did not know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and I feel it is unfair to ask students of that age to choose in which direction they wish to go. It seems marter to me to give students a minimum of alternatives while ensuring they have the basics to enter almost any field they desire. Some say this alienates students and causes drop -outs, but I look at it this way. Forcing every student to get the basics ensures they will not get through high school by picking only slack or easy courses, a tendency which seems to have grown in the past few years. Just take a look at the young people you see around you today. Many of them do not want to work, they do not have the ambition to stick to anything and if there is an easy way out they seem to take it. That is a very broad generalization I know, but just talk to the farmer who wants to hire an inexperienced 18 year old to train if possible and offers him $150 a week to start and is laughted at. Why should they work for that they say when they can work in local starting at $5 an hour and when theyare regularly laid off they can clear close to $150 per week on unemployment. Or talk to the small contractor who needs men, the work is there, but the youth of today don't seem to want to work hard, there are too many easy ways out. Perhaps I am being overly pessimistic, I hope so, but it seems to me that somewhere along the line you have got to teach people you don't get something for nothing and there is nothing wrong with a hard days work but there is something wrong with living off the government when you are physically able to work. Maybe the schools are the place to start, maybe they are not, but we had better start somewhere, soon.