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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Times Advocate, 2004-09-15, Page 66 Exeter Times–Advocate Wednesday, September 15, 2004 Opinion Forum News Seniors' perspective Continued from page 5 EXETER SENIOR CITIZENS NEWS: Submitted by Jane Dearing The Exeter branch of the United Senior Citizens of Ontario held their monthly meeting on Sept. 7 at the Exeter Legion, with 59 members and friends enjoying a bountiful pot -luck supper at 6 p.m. President Shirley Kirk welcomed all, and opened the meeting with a read- ing entitled, "Happiness Sings." Birthdays celebrated during the summer months and in September were: Maureen Wood, Sue Anne Guenther, Elwood Truemner, Berdene Morgan, Marian Dougall, Hilda Taylor, Bert Elliott, Ervin Sillery, Lee Thomas, and Shirley Kirk. Celebrating anniversaries were: Stu and Lil McLellan, Bev & Berdene Morgan, Sam & Aldene Skinner, Orville & Mary Webber, and John & Mary Horn. The next Euchreama date is Friday, Oct. 22 at the Legion. Ray Hodgson reported on the Senior Games and Jim Bearss reported on Senior Activities. The new Municipality of South Huron brochure was handed out to all members. We enjoyed some humorous stories by Jim. We are reminded of the memberships due in November 2004. Memberships are $5 each, with the Share -the -Wealth to be held each meeting. Christmas tickets will be available at a later date. Frank Cawthorpe introduced our guest speaker of the evening, Peter Hillen and his daughter Jolisa of Guelph, who took us on a trip to Mexico with their slides and commentary. They were two of 15 people of the Vineguard Mission Group who travelled to Mexico to help build a home for a single mother and her family in San Quinton Valley. They told us all about how the house was built from start to finish, and about some of the hardships the people from that area have to endure. They plan on going back next year and Jolisa is making crafts to help pay her way. Bert Elliott thanked them on our behalf, and presented Peter and Jolisa with a gift of appreciation. Bert also told the group some humorous stories. Door prize winners for the evening were: Ervin Sillery, John Horn, Chris Philips, Shirley Truemner, June Hillen, and Mary Horn. Share -the -Wealth winners were: Joyce Lavender, Jane Dearing, Marian Dougall, Shirley Bearss, Mary Webber, Orville, Webber, and Ervin Sillery. Ruth Insley volunteered to be our pianist for the coming year. Shirley read: "Take Time," and the meet- ing closed with the Seniors Prayer. Electrical facts to help you farm safely near power lines: • Most overhead power lines have no protective insula- tion. Any physical or equipment contact could be dan- gerous. • Non-metallic materials such as lumber, tree limbs, ties, ropes, straw, and hay, are capable of conducting electricity, depending on moisture content and surface contamination. • Electricity always seeks the easiest and shortest path to the ground. • You can be electrocuted by simply coming too close to a power line. Electricity can arc or "jump" between a wire and a conducting object, such as a ladder or a truck. • Always stay a safe distance from power lines: 3 metres or more, especially for high voltage lines. • When people or objects touch or come too close to a power line, there is an instant flow of electricity through them to the ground. • The flow of electricity through the human body can burn, severely injure or cause death. In fact, it takes less than one ampere of electricity to kill a person. • When electricity flows into the ground, it can electro- cute anyone who comes too close. Stay at least 10 metres away from fallen wires. Also, if you see equip- ment or a person in contact with a power line, be aware that the ground may be electrified and be dangerous to bystanders. What to do if equipment you're operating contacts a power line: Be sure you and everyone else in your operation know what to do in an emergency. • If equipment you are operating gets hung up on a power line, do not get off the machinery unless you are in immediate danger. If you touch the ground and the machine/equipment at the same time, then you'll become a path for the electricity to travel to the ground. • If you must leave the machinery, jump about a half metre away from the equipment and land with feet together and arms close to the body. Keep your feet touching each other and shuffle 10 metres away from the machinery or fallen wire. Don't go back for any rea- son and never get back on the machinery that is touch- ing the power line until the utility company has safely disconnected and de -energized the line. Excerpts from the Booklet "Farming Safely Around Electrical Power Lines." Available from Farm Safety Association or downloaded from Hydro One Web site or Clinton Resource Centre, 482-3333. THE LATE-NIGHT REPAIR JOB: A fellow decides to take off early from work and go drinking. He stays until the bar closes at 2 a.m., at which time he is extremely drunk. When he enters his house, he doesn't want to wake anyone, so he takes off his shoes and starts tip toeing up the stairs. Half way up the stairs, he falls over backwards and lands flat on his rear end. That wouldn't have been so bad, except that he had a couple of empty pint bottles in his back pockets and they broke, and the broken glass carved up his but- tocks terribly. But, he was so drunk that he didn't know he was hurt. A few minutes later, as he was undressing, he noticed blood, so he checked himself out in the mir- ror, and, sure enough, his behind was cut up something terrible. Well, he repaired the damage as best he could under the circumstances, and he went to bed. The next morning, his head was hurting, and his rear was hurting, and he was hunkering under the covers trying to think up some good story, when his wife came into the bedroom. "Well, you really tied one on last night," she said. "Where'd you go?" "I worked late," he said, "and I stopped off for a couple of beers." "A couple of beers? That's a laugh," she replied. "You got plas- tered last night. Where the heck did you go?" "What makes you so sure I got drunk last night, anyway?" "Well," she replied, "my first big clue was when I got up this morning and found a bunch of band-aids stuck to the mirror." HAVEYOU SEENTHE NEW INFORMATION RACKSATTHE SOUTH HURON MUNICIPAL OFFICE? Shelving space is now allocated for the farm and town community around South Huron and Exeter to pick up brochures provided by OMAF and the Health Unit. There are Fact Sheets: such as Programs & Services to Farmers, Adding Value to Farm Products, Meeting Procedures, Planning Bed & Breakfasts etc. Nutrient Management, Nutrient Management Workbook, Keeping Your Well Water Safe To Drink, Buffer Strips, Safe Movement of Farm Equipment, Planning For & Responding to Disasters, Common Sense Nutrition, Jams, Jellies Canning, Tastes of Huron, etc. Seniors and Health issues include: The Care Guide, Guide to Programs & Services For Seniors, Town Sr Country Directory of Services Directory, Diabetes, Healthy eating etc. If you require OMAF or Senior's information, please contact Jim Bearss at the South Huron office at 519- 235-0310 ext. 239 and let him know of selections you would like. Preserving local history Dear Editor: The Committee to Establish a. Middlesex County Archive (CEMCA) formed last fall in response to the lack of a cohesive historical document retention poli- cy and storage facility for local his- torical documents. Our concerns were heightened after amalgamations experienced by local municipal councils resulted in many former township offices — where these records had been stored — being made redundant. Many docu- ments are now housed inaccessibly, or even worse have been lost forever. We are also aware that there are many individuals holding clubs, businesses, and private historical collections in their own residences, which makes them inaccessible to the public and particularly vulnerable to destruction. Only a large grassroots response will convince county council — we hope to make our pitch to them in November — that this project merits their consideration. We already have support from many local historians and archivists and we are currently circulating a peti- tion throughout the county at fairs and local events. Our committee membership is county wide, and we are try- ing very hard to let as many people know about the plight of our local historical records. But we need your help! If you are interested in finding out more please join us Sept. 22 at the Parkhill Leisure Club, 176 Broadway St., at 7:30 p.m., or contact Jeremy Robson at 666-1627 or Helen White at 666-1217. Another meeting will be held Oct. 27 at the Westmount Library, Wonderland Rd., at 7 p.m. Sincerely, LESLEY TCHOREK A terrific job Dear Editor: I wish to commend the town planners and/or the council members, also the construction workers for the terrific job they did to improve the intersection of Highways 4 and 83. I sure hope vacationers passing through our town will be impressed, as well as all our own local drivers. One very pleased driver, thanks to all concerned, D.R. CORBETT Principal's message EXETER — The first week of school has come and gone and things ran fair- ly smoothly. Enrolment appears to be up a little over what we projected, and students and staff seem to be coping with our new time table structure. For the past five years all our courses have run year-long; this year, however, we have a blend of year-long and semestered courses. For Grade 9 students, half the time table is a year-long and half is semes- tered. In Grade 10 only English and math run year-long, and all Grade 11 and 12 courses are semestered. While this might seem confusing to people outside the school (and perhaps to some of us within), for the most part there has been little difficulty for us in making this shift. A new school year also means a new year for the School Council, and our first meeting of the year takes place Sept. 20, at 7 p.m. in the school library. We encourage parents to come out to these meetings to pro- vide us with input and feedback on school policies and procedures. The first meeting of the year includes the election of a new executive, but please don't let that scare you away: most of last year's members are return- ing and we should have no trouble filling the positions. We have only eight School Council meetings during the school year (on the third Monday of the month), and the meetings usually only last about two to two and a half hours. I find the School Council meetings informative and the members provide me with valuable information on how students and parents are responding to issues and mat- ters that come up during the course of the year. It is a wonderful opportunity for parents to get first-hand information on the decisions being made by the school administration, the Avon Maitland District School Board and the provincial Ministry of Education. One of the main goals of our board and of the school is to improve communication, and the School Council meetings pro- vide a great opportunity to do so. This year we are going to try something a little differ- ent at our meetings- the feedback from last year's com- munity forum suggested that parents want more infor- mation on a number of issues relating to teenagers and parenting. We have decided to incorporate information sessions on a variety of topics into our meetings. The first of these sessions will take place at our meeting Sept. 20. The topic is "Parents' Rights and Responsibilities," and we have invited two speakers to attend, a counsellor from the Huron -Perth Centre in Clinton and a counsellor from the Children's Aid Society Office in Goderich. I often hear from parents at a loss as to how to deal with their kids, especially over the rules and expectations at home. They are often seeking advice on how to get their kids to do what they ask without it resulting in a big fight. This session should provide a good opportunity for parents to get some answers to these questions in an informal setting. I encourage you to come out and take part in this information session. We will also be offering a series of workshops in con- junction with the County of Huron on Wednesday nights starting Oct. 20 and running for four consecutive weeks. This series was offered last year in Goderich and proved to be popular with parents. The topics of the workshops are: "Surviving your Adolescents: Improving your Relationship with your Teen," "Drugs and Alcohol: How to Talk to your Teens," "Healthy Sexuality," and a ses- sion on mental health, including eating disorders, cut- ting and community resources available for parents and teens. This series promises to be informative, and I encourage all parents to consider attending. The school will provide more information on this series as the time draws closer. Finally, I would like to inform parents that the student planner given to all students on the first day of school contains important information on school procedures and policies, as well as the dates for report cards, par- ent -teacher interviews, the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test and school events. I encourage parents to review this planner and encourage their kids to do so as well. This year's planner is three -hole punched so it fits into students' notebooks. Additional copies are available in the office for only $1. We try to encourage students to make good use of the planners to record dates for homework, tests and assignments, and we appreciate it when parents help us by reinforcing the importance of using the planner. It really is a valuable tool in helping students stay organized and on top of things. As I mentioned earlier, we are looking forward to another successful year at South Huron but, as always, if you have suggestions on how we can improve, please let us know. JEFF REABURN PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE