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The Times Advocate, 2004-01-07, Page 5Wednesday, January 7, 2004 Exeter Times–Advocate Editorial Opinion ROSS HAUGH BACK IN TIME I OYEARS AGO January 5, 1994 - Monday was a significant day for educa- tion in Huron county. It was the first day for the controversial Junior Kindergarten program. While many in the county strongly opposed it, the number of parents wanting to enroll their children was more than the spaces available. 20 YEARS AGO January 6, 1984 - For the first time in several years, the area covered by the OPP detachment in Exeter did not have a fatal highway accident during 1983. 25YEARS AGO January 5, 1979 - The detailed description provided by a Hensall woman was credited this week by police in the quick apprehension of two suspects wanted in connection with a recent theft of $279.81 from Drysdale's Home Hardware. At the recent annual meeting of Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Ltd. held in Guelph, Edwin Miller of Exeter was re-elected as a director. A number of CandyStriper volunteers at South Huron Hospital were honoured recently. They are for 200 -hours for Kelly Kernick and Cathy Keller and Jasma Zemitis, Angela Liehmann and Teresa Morrison for 100 -hours. For the second consecutive year, Exeter Post Office caretaker Mary Ford has won the Building Excellence award in category 1. District property manager Ed Lewicki made the presentation. Paul and Perry Pooley, twin sons of Bob and Audrey Pooley of Exeter are enjoying their first season with the Kingston Canadians of the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League. 35 YEARS AGO January 4 - Exeter's annual Minor Hockey Day held Saturday was a great success as a number of area teams were in to play Exeter clubs. The star selections from the local teams were Howard Schenk, Tom Hayter, Matt Muller, Jim Wildfong, Wayne Regier, Robert Ryckman, Randy Tieman, Scott Litt, Peter Glover, Larry Haugh, Ron Janke, Bill Bourne and Glenn Stire. 40 YEARS AGO January 5, 1964 - Mayor Si Simmons created an uproar when he recommended council salaries be reduced because a works superinten- dent had been hired to undertake some of the work previously handled by council members. His recommendation wasn't followed although Simmons said he would give back $300 of his $550 salary. A descendent of Col. James Hodgins, first reeve of Biddulph township has taken over the reins of the township. He is Wilson Hodgins who defeated James Ryan in a two-way fight for the reeve's position. Bill Wright and Lana Keller were named king and queen at the Exeter Teen New Year's Eve dance. Gordon Vincent shot a wolf in the Grand Bend area during a jack rabbit drive. Miss Greta Harness has retired after serving nearly 39 years at the local branch of the Bank of Montreal. District municipal officials were guests of Group Captain L.H. Randall at the annual New Year's levee at RCAF Centralia. 50 YEARS AGO January 6, 1954 - Opening of the new Exeter Farm Equipment building coincides with the fifth anniversary of the founding of the firm when Dick Jermyn took over the Case dealership in Exeter from Snell Bros. Ltd. 55YEARS AGO January 7, 1949 - Alf Andrus of Traquair's Hardware won a new Studebaker car New Year's Eve in a draw sponsored by the Exeter Legion. Provincial Constable John Ferguson and Exeter police chief John Norry had a lively time New Year's Day when they attempted to arrest two men from Ailsa Craig. They were placed in the local lock-up and Constable Helmer Snell escort- ed them to Goderich. 80 YEARS AGO January 6, 1924 - The old council in Usborne township was returned by acclamation. They are reeve William Coate and councillors James Ballantyne, Fred Stewart, Wellington Skinner and John Hanna. Local abattoir is an A -rated plant Dear Editor: As the Exeter Times -Advocate reported, Thames Road Meats has started slaughtering again. In order to do so, the plant has received an 'A' rating from the ministry. Last January, the plant received an 'F' rating from the OMAF auditor. The same day the OMAF inspector who worked in my plant wrote "no problems noted" in the plant log book, I removed the log book from the plant. An hour later the inspector showed up at the plant again because the ministry ordered him to pick up the log book. The inspector couldn't find the log book so he was suspended without pay for one week. I felt bad for him because he did nothing wrong. The same day the rating was assigned I called the local health unit and requested an audit. Under the meat inspection act the local officer of health has equal authority to that of OMAF. The inspector who came out had 35 -years experience in the field. After performing an audit, he told me it appeared as though I had some sort of political problems. He gave me the green light to operate as a free-standing pro- cessing plant which I did for 8 months. When the change in government came about I requested an audit from OMAF. The auditor from OMAF—that gave me an 'F'— gave me the green light to resume slaughter operations. We shook hands and he told me that he wanted to be my friend. In order to receive the status of an `A' -rated plant, the plant went through a major revamping including new stainless steel equipment, plastic coated walls, water purification equipment, HACCP approved uni- forms, PH testing equipment for dry -cured product, and a workforce with food -safety certification from the health unit. As plant operator, I am enrolled in the meat technologies course at the University of Guelph. I have received a score of 100 per cent on my first set of exams. All of the meat in my operation is coming from local farmers. My customers demand that I know where the meat is coming from. I hope the negative press my plant has received from the Times -Advocate doesn't affect the flow of locally produced meat to the local consumer. It has proven to be a financial burden to myself to meet the same standard of compliance of other plants that have received enormous grants of taxpayers' money from the former government. LARRY MILLER, owner Thames Road Meats Standards in this plant are higher Dear Editor: I am writing to you about an article that you printed in your paper last week with the title "Local abattoir cited for safety violations". To begin with, I am a proud employee of Thames Road Meats. I have been working since October 15, 2003, and purchase meat products from there. I have never seen any fecal mat- ter on any carcass. A story like this can really play on the morale of an employee. I enjoy working at Thames Road Meats, and I have never had a cus- tomer complain about their meat purchases being off colour, smelly, contaminated, or anything else wrong with it that would indicate that the meat was spoiled. You never mentioned about all the upgrades that have been done to the plant so that it could get its killing licence back again. I strongly believe that if the Inspectors thought there was something wrong with the way things were done in this plant, they would have not given the licence back to start slaughtering again. As a requirement for working in this abattoir, as stipulated by the plant owner I was required to take a Safe Food Handling course, and I was certified by the Huron County Health Unit. Having worked in a grocery store previously, I have become aware that the standards in this plant are higher. Sincerely, MANUELA LOERZEL-FELTZ Letters to the Editor The Times -Advocate welcomes letters to the editor as a forum for open discussion of local issues, concerns, com- plaint, and kudos. By mail: P.O. Box 850, Exeter, Ontario NOM 1S6 By fax: (519) 235-0766 By e-mail: editor@southhuron.com Please include your name and address. Anonymous letters will not be published. The Turner Reort MAD COW COULD INFECTYOUR MORTGAGE Just when we were looking forward to a promising new year - with stock markets hum- ming, real estate smoking and consumers spending up a storm - comes the saga of one diseased cow in Washington state. Now, this could be a lot more significant to all of us than is immediately apparent, whether you are a meat eater or not. The immediate impact, natu- rally, is on beef producers, the communities they spend money in and much of rural Canada as a whole. Beef prices dropped by 15% within two days of the latest case of Mad Cow disease being detected, and values will continue to sag. On the bellweather Chicago Mercantile Exchange limits on the amount that beef prices can decline in a single session have been tripled, and still trading has had to be halted each day in mere minutes. So far the equivalent of $40 billion in annual revenue has been carved out of the American beef industry, and that could double by this time next week. In Canada, the story is even worse. Since that one case of mad cow last Spring, our guys have lost $2 billion right off the bottom line, and the American border remains closed to the export of many beef products, plus live animals. Now the Washington cow has been traced back to Alberta by U.S. officials, and if that claim sticks it could mean the end of Canadian cattle exports for years and years to come. There is no doubt this is all an overreaction, and unsupported by pure science - but that's just what happens when politics is also involved. The reality is that American farmers enjoy a protected status south of the border which is completely unknown in this country. If anything, our agricultural community is a scant afterthought in Ottawa, as this new cri- sis will show once again. Now, if you don't eat beef and don't grow any, how does this affect you? In several ways, actually. First, this is going to dampen the whole economy since billions of dollars will go unearned and untaxed. Producers will be forced to sit on expensive herds for an extended period of time, or lose the animals entirely in a massive cull. Sadly, thousands of families on thousands of farms won't make it. Beyond that, this is a situation that could end up looking a lot like SARS. You'll remem- ber while that disease hit the Toronto region alone, there were ramifications for the whole country - including the tourism business on Prince Edward Island and in British Columbia. Mad Cow is now a North American problem, and the origins of it have been traced twice to Western Canada. Not the end of the world, but it pretty well guarantees the feds will b e forced to inter- vene. That will come in the form of costly grants and subsidies to prop up the industry, plus an easing of monetary policy by the Bank of Canada. So, the bottom line is that interest rates will be going down in the third week of January by at least a quarter point, and possi- bly a half. They will be going south again on at least one more occasion prior to the snow melting. The prime rate by Easter will be 4% or less, and variable rate mortgages will be widely available at just a hair over the 3% mark. Cheap money will certainly help ease some of the economic pain, just as it will keep the residential real estate boom alive in major urban centers across the country. It will also drop corporate borrowing and finance costs, help profitability and feed the stock markets. So, as almost always, lower interest rates are a good thing. But as your monthly mort- gage payments wither over the next few months, along with the cost of your line of credit and RRSP loan, remember there is a tragic reason behind it. And eat lots more beef. Garth Turner's Investment Television airs Sundays on the Global network. GARTH TURNER THE TURNER REPORT