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The Times Advocate, 2004-01-14, Page 66 Exeter Times -Advocate Wednesday, January 14, 2004 Opinion Forum News Seniors' perspective Continued from page 5 than one out of every 8 Canadians is now a senior. The rapid growth in the size of the senior population is also expected to continue well into the future. Statistics Canada has projected that by 2021 there will be almost 7 million seniors, who will represent 19% of the total population, and that by 2041 there will be over 9 million seniors, who will make up an estimated 25% of the population. Western Region 0.P.P. is pleased to announce it's latest senior's initiative entitled 'ComPaSS'? Community Policing and Senior Safety. Part I of this initiative involves providing some basic safety information, coupled with a questionnaire designed to identify and determine seniors pro- grams that will be developed within Western Region. Our goal is to be responsive and meet the needs of our senior population by providing seniors with information on topics that are important to them. So what can you do for us? Call your local Community Services Officer to receive your ComPaSS brochure and ques- tionnaire. Simply complete the questionnaire and return it to us. We'll do the rest. Help us help you and together we can make a dif- ference. For more information on Western Region's Senior Safety Program contact our Community Policing Section at: 519-652-4100. ATTENTION ONTARIO SENIORS - QUESTION- NAIRE WESTERN REGION Please take the time to fill out the attached ques- tionnaire, so that together we are able to identify and develop programs that meet the needs of your communities. Upon completion, please forward to your local OPP office in GODERICH, EXETER, SEAFORTH, CLINTON, WINGHAM and the HURON OPP DETACHMENT or by sending to Western Region OPP, 6355 Westminister Drive, London Ont. N6P- 1N5 Attention: Community Programs Coordinator Jim Bearss Patience is a virtue, but it's taking too long Hi, my name is Debra, and I have road rage. Well, road rage may be an overstatement but I definitely have a lack of patience while driving, particularly for all those slow drivers out there. Fortunately, I am not the only one out there who sees their own patience slowly fading away. With the continual improvement of technology our world is becoming faster and faster, but I bet that for some people even instant results will never be fast enough. People have an excruciating time with comput- ers in general if they have to wait an entire 20 seconds for an online page to load. They are quick to blame their machine for being too slow and outdated, and go out to look for an improvement to make that page load in 10 seconds instead. A few weeks ago I watched the movie "Almost Famous," the story of a young music buff in the 70's who is trying to break out into writing in the music industry. For his first assignment, his mentor has him do some research on the Rolling Stones and write a couple thousand words about them. Suddenly it dawned on me. At one point in time, people actually had to research things, and I mean honest to goodness research. What people do now is hardly research, you type in a few keywords and there you go, everything at your finger tips. Imagine the panic, the chaos if suddenly Internet search engines stopped working and people would have to make an effort for information. Someone may have to get off their computer chairs, and dare I say it, go to a library? I won't deny it, I'm just as guilty as the next per- son when it comes wanting the quickest way to do something, but I don't think that's much of a learning skill you can put on a resume. So next time you're stuck behind a slow driver, or downloading a web page that seems to be tak- ing forever, just remember, somewhere in the world someone else is probably having to walk to their destination or downloading that exact same page with a slower modem. Be happy, you have it easy. DEBRA TOONK Questions: 1. Gender M F 2. Age: 3. Community: Urban Rural 4. Have you ever attended a presentation hosted by the 0.P.P.? Yes No If yes, please describe. 5. List the areas of concern in your community. 6. List the types of seminars you would like to see delivered by the 0.P.P. in your community? 7. What types of crime prevention programs would you like to see implemented into your community? 8. How would you like to see senior safety informa- tion delivered by the 0.P.P. in your community? 9. How can we help you? Please provide any addi- tional comments and suggestions. 10. Postal Code: **************************************************** Increasing seniors' knowledge of safety and securi- ty will decrease their risk and fear of victimization thus empowering them to feel safer in their commu- nities. Personal Safety, Elder Abuse, being aware of your environment, being alert in your vehicle, being smart on the street are some ideas for everyone Contact: Sr Cst D. F. (Don) SHROPSHALL CSO/MEDIA RELATIONS Huron O.P.P. 1-888-518-4981 1-519-525-6563 Don.Shropshall@jus.gov.on.ca For the most up to date releases on 0.P.P. investi- gations across Ontario, check out "O.P.P. Headline News " at Internet site: www.crimealerts.net Promoting Crimestoppers is promoting Crime Prevention and safety in our communities. Please Help! Putting Our Community First. Huron OPP needs the assistance of the public. If you have any information that can assist Police with any investigation, please call the OPP or CRIME STOPPERS at 1-800-222-8477. (1 -800 -222 -TIPS). For reports of conditions of roads please call 1-800- 268-1376. Crime Stoppers does not subscribe to call display and does not trace calls. YOU COULD EARN A CASH REWARD IF YOUR INFORMATION IS SUC- CESSFUL IN APPREHENDING A SUSPECT The Old Duck: A man took his old duck to the doctor, concerned because the duck wouldn't eat. The doctor explained that as ducks age their upper bills grow down over their lower bills and make it difficult for the animal to pick up its food. "What you need to do is gently file the upper bill down even with the lower bill. But you must be care- ful because the duck's nostrils are located in the upper bill and if you file down too far, when the duck takes a drink of water it'll drown. The man goes about his business and about a week later the doctor runs into his patient. "Well, how is that duck of yours?" the doctor inquires. "He's dead," declared the heartbroken man. "I told you not to file his upper bill down to far! He took a drink of water and drowned didn't he?" "No" lamented the man. "I think he was dead before I took him out of the vice." Kindness in new year Cassandra Eveland spent her snow days in style. Hairstylist Jodi Willis cut ten inches off Cassie's hair, which she will be donating to the Canadian Cancer Society for a wig to be made for a child undergoing chemotherapy. (photo/submitted) Principal's message EXETER — I wasn't planning to write another column this year about snow days and our pro- cedures for bus cancellations and school clo- sures, but after the events of last week some of our parents may be wondering if we even have a procedure. We do, but it obviously didn't work well last Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday it looked as if we would have a normal day of school although it was snowing and blowing a little when I first contacted our bus contractor. Normally, we like to make our decision by 6:30 a.m. and con- ditions were not all that bad at that time. The weather started to deteriorate shortly after that, but even by 7 a.m. it was not bad enough to cancel the buses. We chose to go ahead and run the buses, but shortly after the drivers were out on the roads, they reported back that visibility was bad and conditions were continuing to worsen. The decision was made to cancel the buses at about 7:25 a.m. and the radio stations were notified. However, this is late to be making such a decision and we had to scramble to notify all of the parties involved. In the process, some miscommunication occurred and a couple of problems ensued. Unfortunately, one of the eight elementary schools that we report to the radio stations was not mentioned in the cancellation announce- ments. In addition, some of the buses had already picked up some elementary students, and staff at their schools had to decide quickly whether to take the children to the school or return them home. As some of the parents may have already left home for work, the decision was made to take the students to the school and determine from there how to get them safely home. In the end, things worked out and all of the students were looked after, but naturally, some of the parents were upset about what had hap- pened, and I cannot blame them for feeling that way. When I woke up and checked the weather on Wednesday morning, there were already schools closed in some areas by shortly after 6 a.m. Upon contacting our bus contractors in Exeter, Clinton, and Arva, I learned there were road closures, school closures, and bus cancel- lations to the north of us, to the east of us, and even to the south of us. However, the weather in the South Huron area was not a problem at all. In fact, at 7 a.m. it looked like our family of schools would be the only schools open in the area. The weather forecast, however, was calling for continuing squalls in the morning with clearing later in the day. It appeared we might have another day like Tuesday, where it might be fine early on and then turn nasty. Hoping to avoid another late call, like the one the day before, the decision was made to cancel the buses as a precaution: this time the decision came at about 7:15 a.m. It turned out, of course, that no squalls devel- oped in our area until late in the afternoon, and, consequently, we looked pretty foolish for hav- ing cancelled the buses and closed schools. In hindsight, we may have made the wrong deci- sion. However, if we are going to make a wrong decision about running the buses, I would pre- fer it be an unnecessary cancellation rather than a decision to run them when it is not safe to do so. We don't make these decisions lightly, and we do take into account all of the information avail- able at the time. However, just like the weather forecasters, we are not always correct and this was one of those times. I am hoping Mother Nature is more co-operative (or at least more predictable) for the remainder of the winter and doesn't put us in such a predicament again. But I wouldn't bet on it! On a totally separate note, I would like to remind Grade Eight students and their parents that our annual Grade Eight Information Night is scheduled for Jan. 20, starting at 7:30 p.m. in our large gym ... weather permitting, of course. JEFF REABURN PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE