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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1988-03-02, Page 1J bur INDEX Births — A4 Sports — A6, A7, A8 Hensall — A9 Walton — A9 Obituaries — Al2 Legion — Al2 Dublin — A13 People — A15 McKillop girl winner in essay contest. See page A3. Serving the communities and areas of Seaforth, Brussels, Dublin, Hensall and Walton Huron • x � ositor Seaforth, Ontario HURON EXPOSITOR, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 1988 50 cents a copy HOME GUTTED - The Egmondville home of William and Shirley Seaforth firemen bring a hose through the front door to combat Ryan was ravaged by flames last Tuesday night, resulting in the the fire. Corbett photo. loss of the mobile home and the Ryan's possessions. Here Fire leaves Egmondville family homeless A fire that broke out in Egmondville last Tuesday night completely gutted a mobile home and left a family of three homeless. William and Shirley Ryan and their daughter Darlene, lost all their possessions in the fire, but were uninjured. Mr. Ryan was asleep in the house at the time of the fire and awoke to find it full of smoke. He us- ed a portable fan to break a window in one of the bedrooms and crawled to safety. Neither Mrs. Ryan nor Darlene were in the house at the time of the fire. Marj and Don Hulley, neighbors of the Ryans, called In the fire at 8:54 p.m. Mrs. outside and gave it a shot of oxygen and Hulley said they heard a knock on their door shortly afterwards•lt was barking again. and Mr. Ryan burst in and yelled "Don, Firemen were at the Ryan's tome until Marg, help me!" they had the fire out at 10:30 p.m. Chief Gar- rick said the fire was complicated by the fact that mattresses and furniture were smouldering and had to be watched to pre- vent the fire flaring up a second time. The cause of the fire has not been determined. The Ryans suffered another fire at the same residence in March of 1985. That fire caused $5,000 damage to the trailer, but left enough for the Ryans to salvage. Mrs. Hulley had to talk Mr. Ryan from go- ing back into the house to rescue the family albums and the family dog. When the fire department arrived there was already thick black smoke pouring from the home. Firemen found the dog in the house unconscious from the smoke, and Chief George Garrick said they took the dog Local egg producer reelected to board Bill Scott, an egg producer from Seaforth has been re-elected to his 11th term as a Director of the Ontario Egg Pro- ducers' Marketing Board. Mr. Scott, who is the Chairman of the Ontario Egg Board, will continue to repre- sent the 80 egg producers in Huron County, who elected him to the Board on February 25. Mr. Scott operate a custom hatchery in addition to his egg production operation, Scott Poultry Farms, near Seaforth. Policies and operations of the Ontario Egg Producers' Marketing Board is the responsibility of 15 producer -elected direc- tors. Thirteen of these are elected by egg producers in 13 zones, or areas of the pro- vince; two are elected by pullet producers, or farmers who raise chicks to egg -laying age. In each zone, producers elect a set number of committeemen who then elect a Director for that zone. Pullet producers elect committeemen to vote for a pullet producer Director for each half of the pro- vince. Directors are elected for a one year term. Hospital seeks tenders The Seaforth Community Hospital is seek- fire alarm system - was completed last fall. ing tenders for an addition on the east side of The third and final phase, estimated at $2.1 the present hospital to provide accommoda- million, for which approval in principal has tion for enlarged heating, mechanical and been received, should go to tender in late electrical services. Approval for the $700,000 April. According to Board Chairman Fred project, which is required to service the Tilley final plans are going forward this 10,900 foot addition to be built on the north week from architects Kyles, Garratt and side of the hospital, has come forward from Marklevitz for approval of the Ministry. the ministry. The third phase will provide for a 10,900 "The mechanical tender represents the se- foot addition that will accommodate new cond phase in the renovation and additions and enlarged out patients and emergency program for which the hospital has received departments, an enlarged physiotherapy approval: , department, and increased x-ray and The first phase - the replacement of the laboratory accommodation. Company reviews year The McKillop Mutual Insurance Company recently held its annual meeting in Seaforth, and amended a company bylaw pertaining to who can be a director and who can apply for a position with the company. The existing bylaw, Number 22, was amended to ensure a director must resign from any company position (such as agent) before taking a position on the board of directors. The bylaw had not yet caused any problems, but It was changed to ensure that conflict of interest type problems are avoided. Also at the annual meeting, Bill Vodden of Vodden, Bender and Seebach gave the com- pany's financial report. The same accoun- tants were appointed for the upcoming year. The total assets listed in the report for 1987 are $3,605,784. This is up from the 1986 • total of $3,330,282 last year. After Robert Coleman's resignation in February. of 1987 James Cardiff was hired to fill the position of secretary treasurer, manager. Donald Taylor of RR 3 Clinton was hired as an agent for the company, *placing Em- merson Durst who retired in December. As Mr. Taylor had been serving as director the board appointed John Tebbutt to serve as director for the remainder of the term until the annual meeting. Due to some large losses at the beginning of the year and a lot of smaller losses throughout the year the company could not offer a refund from surplus this year. The losses paid by the company in 1987 amounted to $25,705 for machinery, $52,179 Turn to page 12 • OFF TO MARKET - Luke Janmaat of Luke's Machine Shop gives his finishing mower the once over before he transports to a London distributor. The mower, which lists for 01,395, is an improvement on others of its kind, sold in North American. Only one other Canadian company makes a similar product although thousands are purchased by Canadians each year. Mr. Janmaat who took approximately seven hours to produce this particular mower by hand, will produce 100 more for sale to Farm Fleet, a London Distributor. The mower, painted a fiery red, carries the name Seaforth on the back. Mcllwraith photo. Wilma Oke retires Reporter's days of chasing It may be one of her most difficult assignments, but Wilma Oke, a longtime Seaforth resident and friend of The Huron Expositor, has decided retire from news reporting. I promised my family at once I'd been reporting for at least 20 years I'd quit. I think I'll mics it, but it's time," she said, ad- ding she would however, be willing to help out in an emergency. This spunky 71 -year-old (she'll be 72 in April), who got her start at The Huron Ex- positor, then wound up writing for nine newspapers, including the Stratford Beacon -Herald and The London Free Press, was also a correspondent for three televi- sion stations, and was a favorite at the events she covered. "Wilma had ways of gaining acceptance, and I wish she'd reveal them to us - and some of the recipes too," commented former Expositor Publisher A.Y. McLean, in a lighthearted address at a dinner last week, which paid homage to Mrs. Oke. "Her concern flowed from the fact that basically she likes people, wants to talk to people, and sometimes listens to people too. To her community is paramount. I have had great pleasure in knowing Wilma and my express hope is that she has many more happy years," he said. Jim Fitzgerald, former editor of The Clin- ton News -Record, and now Administrative Assistant for Minister of Agriculture Jack Riddell, brought greetings and gifts from Mr. Riddell and Ontario Premier David Peterson, bo of whom remembered Wilma. He erect some kind words of his own. "It's been a de t to know Wilma for 16 years, and I'm sad to see her ret. I know she saved my behind as an editor on several occasions. She must have produced enough copy to at least circle the globe once, and all of it was consistent and conscientious," he said. "After they made Wilma they must have fire trucks are over sl SHARING A LOOK at the book "A Farm in the Family" are retiring news reporter Wilma Oke and her granddaughter Alonna, 10. The book, which commemorates the 100th birthday of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, was a gift to Mrs. Oke from Minister of Agriculture Jack Riddell. It was presented at a retirement dinner held in Mrs. Oke's honor Thursday. Mcliwraith photo. smashed up the mold and thrown it away. People of her calibre, who have her spirit and her feeling of community interaction can't be found in the city. Those are very precious qualities and she'll be hard to replace." A wife and a mother of two daughters, Wilma got her start In the early 1960s after a friend suggested to Mr. McLean she might be willing to cover the controversy surroun- ding the consolidation of public schools in Huron County. "I was pretty green, but Andy (Mr. McLean) trusted me with the job and gradually I just did more jobs for him," recalled Wilma. Shortly afterwards Wilma was asked by a retiring Beacon -Herald correspondent to consider taking over where she left off. Wilma agreed, and although she was to have reported on women's meetings, she never did, preferring instead the larger challenge of covering current events. For the most part Wilma's career centred around meetings of school boards, town councils and churches, but she was present at sporting events as well and almost every other newsworthy event in Seaforth. Wilma claims she never missed a fire and a col- league once joked Wilma seemed quite often to be off to a fire, Well before the firefighters were even aware there was one. In one case she was, but only because the fire was at her house. "You know, pepple asked me why I didn't report on it, but really I didn't even think about it. It never even occurred to me," she said. But she did report on the other fires, and got to them at all cost. "I remember one time we had company and were all sitting around having a mid- night snack when the fire alarm went off," recalled Wilma. "Well, the company must have thought we were nuts, because the whole Oke clan got up and started rushing out the door. We forgot we had company. But we got to the fire - the whole family - and the company." It wasn't the first time the Oke clan got in- volved in the newspaper business. Accor- ding to Wilma her family was her biggest source. "One time my daughter Mary was babysitting and she called home because there was a lot of noise and fighting going on in the street. Actually I think she phoned home for her dad to come sit with her, because she was scared, but I thought it sounded interesting so I said mom will be right down to investigate. It turns out there was a motorcycle gang from London having a rumble in Seaforth." "Exciting things happen sometimes and that story made the Canadian Press fires," she said. As exciting. as that story was it was not Wilma's biggest. The biggest story involved two people posing as a priest and a nun, who were collecting money in Seaforth for a boy's school they were supposedly starting in Tavistock. A passer-by happened to notice the nun taking an unauthorized dona- tion from the cash register of a downtown business and reported the unholy action to the police. The two imposters were arrested a short time later in Tavistock and Wilma had her story. It was picked up by the Cana- dian Press wire service and made the papers in Toronto. "I've covered everything and enjoyed everyone," said Wilma. "I couldn't have lived on the pay, but it was my hobby. I loved it and I did get paid." Sometimes however, it did get frustrating, espepially said Wilma, when you sat through an all night meeting and on- ly got a two inch story out of it. But that wasn't as bad as some of the roads that had to be travelled late at night, and in some stormy weather. "I've had some narrow escapes, but I've been lucky. One time my car flipped over on the highway, but I've never had any serious trouble," she said. In fact for the most part Wilma said the years she's spent reporting have been rewarding. She acknowledged there are some ignorant people out there, " some who would love to tell you what to write in the reports" but there are people who ap- preciate your honesty. Tuckersmith council, for example, commended Wilma recently for her frankness and accuracy, and presented her with a plaque. Wilma is a native of Tuckersmith Township having been born on a farm south of Clinton. She attended the SS 4 Tuckersmlth and Clinton Collegiate before Turn to page 12 • a