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The Huron Expositor, 1988-07-06, Page 1INDEX Dublin - A5 Farm - A6 Sports - A8 Hensall - A9 Obituaries - A15 Walton - A16 SDHS congratulates honor students. See page A7. Serving the communities and areas of Seaforth, Brussels, Dublin, Hensall and Walton sit r-Seaforth, Ontario ,HURON EXPOSITOR, WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 1988 50 cents a copy Administrator resigns Gordon McKenzie, Administrator of the Seaforth Community Hospital, has resign- ed effective June 6, 1988. Hospital Board President Fred Tilley made the announcement last Tuesday night at the annual public meeting of the board. Prior to the announcement notices had been circulated throughout the hospital that Mr. McKenzie was on a three month sick leave. Although the resignation appears to come at a bad time, with some hospital ex- pansion underway now, and more slated for the fall, Mr. Tilley said he doesn't foresee any problems. "The resignation came and we accepted it," he said, adding members of the hospital's board of management have been assisting in the daily operations of the hospital, and would continue to do so until a new administrator is hired. No decision as to how or when that hiring would hap- pen has been made. "We're just taking it a day at a time," said Mr. Tilley. As for the actual hospital expansion itself, Mr. Tilley said it is still coming fair- ly slow, with hold ups at the government level. "It takes time to get all departments coorindated, but we're still hoping to get along without too much delay," he said. Canada Day crowd biggest ever ASSESSING THE SITUATION - Seaforth Fire Chief George Gar- Firefighters were on the scene up to 13 hours searching for a hot rick, centre, gives final instructions to his firemen before they as- spot amongst the 4,500 bales of hay in the barn. Several bales cend into the hay loft of a barn belonging to Arthur Murray. were lost in the incident. Mcllwraith photo. a. Firefighters kept busy for TT3 -hOdrs Seaforth firefighters were kept busy Sunday trying to locate the hot spot amongst 4,500 bales of hay stored in a barn in McKillop township. Firefighters were called to the Lot 5, Concession 6 property of Arthur Murray at approximately 8:30 a.m., after Mr. Mur- ray, drawn to the barn because he smelled smoke, found smoldering hay. Some of the firefighters stayed on the scene for 13 hours, working with neighbors and relatives to unload the hay. Kenny McLI- wain used his front loader to push the burn- ing bales away from the barn. He (Mr. Murray) caught it in time," said Fire Chief George Garrick. "It could have been a lot worse." Mr. Murray himself credited his friends, relatives, neighbors and the firemen for the job they did in preventing a more serious occurrence. "They did well - a good job," he said. "I really appreciate all everyone did. I wish it had never happened, but 1 guess there's something positive to say about everything." Although an agtual account of the damages has not yet been made, Mr. Mur- ray estimates he lost a fair bit of hay Sunday. "And hay is hard to get. It's getting scarce, and when it burns there's even less," he said. "But I lost more than hay on Sunday, I lost a bit of pride. I wish it would rain, and. I wish I'd get some hay too." Local men drafting 4-H farm club manual Two local men are in the process of put- ting the finishing touches to a program manual they are preparing for distribution to Ontario 4-H Farm Machinery Clubs. Bryan Vincent of Seaforth and Peter Vande Borne of Egmondville, began work on the project in March after being ap- proached by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food (OMAF). OMAF was in the process of revamping its 4-11 Farm Machinery Club program so it offered something different every year for a period of four years. Mr. Vincent and Mr. Vs' de Borne are one of four different groups being asked to prepare a one-year project fur the farm equipment club. Since both h 4 been active in 4-H (Peter leads the lac . arm equipment club, Bryan 1, 'he computer club and both taught the leadership club), they picked up the challenge. It involves BOOK WORMS - Bryan Vincent, left, and Peter Vande Borne have spent considerable hours over the past months writing a book which will be distributed to 4H Farm Machinery Clubs in Ontario. Both say while the exercise has been time consuming, it has been a learning experience as well. Mcllwraith photo. The second year of Seaforth's expanded Canada Day program proved even more successful than the first. Seaforth Recreation Director Marty Bedard said he was pleased with the local celebrations, and noted 1988 was the best year for attendance. He noted approx- imately $1,577 was collected at the fireworks display, which should go a long way to help meet the costs of that event. "It was excellent. Everything went over well," said Mr. Bedard. He said there had been some concern that because Canada fell on a Friday this year, it would have a negative effect on local celebrations. "But it seemed a lot more people stayed in Seaforth and had their relatives and friends come to town. Everyone thought because it was a long weekend everyone would leave town, but I think it was the reverse," he said. •- -- George Hildebrand. who helped organize the local Canada Day celebrations, was equally pleased. "I'm really happy with it. Everything was a success. There was a good crowd for the ball game and the firemen's breakfast. There weren't as many entries in the poker rally walk, but there were as many walkers. They just walked in larger groups this year. And the crowd at the fireworks was fantastic. As far as I'm concerned it was the biggest crowd we've ever had," he said. Mr. Hildebrand noted even the flea market on Saturday seemed to attract a large crowd of people, and a large number of vendors. "It was a really good weekend," added Fire Chief George Garrick, who said the firemen served 576 people at their pancake breakfast. "Our breakfast was very successful. We had a good turnout and had to keep runn- ing to get more sausage and bacon. And at the fireworks the booth was busy too. It was a really good weekend, but long..." All money raised by the Seaforth and Area Firefighters through their breakfast and highschool food booth, will go to restore a 1949 International firetruck in their possession. For the results of the poker rally walk see the Recreation Preview on the sports page. preparing both a members and a leaders manual. "When OMAF approached us we didn't think it would be as much work as it's turned out to be," commented Mr. Vincent. He and Mr. Vande Borne have averaged 20 to 30 hours per week on the project. "It's not that it's real difficult. It's just time consuming. We've plugged a lot of hours into it." But the work hasn't been a waste of time. In addition to providing a useful program for Ontario 4-H clubs, Mr. Vincent and Mr. Vande Borne have increased their knowledge of farm equipment in the pro- cess. And since both work in the farm equip- ment business the expanded knowledge should serve them well. "It's helped us. We've gained a lot of in- formation about competitor's farm machinery," said Mr. Vande Borne. One of the prime reasons OMAF decided to revamp its old farm machinery project was because it was growing outdated. "For example farm club members used to take apart a tractor then put it back together again," said Mr. Vande Borne. "Well gasoline tractors haven't been around for years and farm equipment is get- ting so complicated now they can't do that anymore. Farmers today don't repair their own tractors when it comes to major repairs. So what 4-H member learn now is more preventative maintenance, safety, purpose of the equipment and how it works - the overall aspect of the machine. How to keep it out of the shop rather than how to take it apart." The topics Mr. Vincent and Mr. Vande Borne address in their program include con- ventional, minimum and no till tillage equipment and planting and spraying equipment. "Our manuals will present a complete program. All the leaders have to do is follow the guidelines we set down and pick a place to hold the meetings. All the leaders have to do is make sure they present the material out of the books we give them, in a manner so the kids can absorb it," said Mr. Vincent. Once Mr. Vincent and Mr. Vanden Borne complete the first draft of their manuals they will be sent to an advisory committee for review. The advisory committee is com- prised of 4-H leaders and members, a farm machinery engineer and OMAF staff from around Ontario. Following their review they will hold a teleconference with Mr. Vincent and Mr. Vandeborne to go over proposed changes to the final draft. "These manuals will be used quite a bit in Turn to siege 5 LOCAL PAINTER Charles Williamson has had to learn how to work a brush with his left hand after a stroke two years ago left him without the use of the right side of his body. Mr. Williamson has been painting old time scenes of how Huron County was farmed 100 years ago. Corbett photo. Seaforth painter overcomes crippling effects of a stroke Bouncing back from a stroke and trying to resume a normal lifestyle is a challenge many people have to face, and which many manage to conquer with varying degrees of success. People crippled by strokes have to learn all over again how to use crippled limbs. But Charles Williamson of Seaforth, who suffered a stroke two years ago, had something extra to recover that most people don't. Mr. Williamson is a painter, and painting has been part of his life for most of his 73 years. He was eight -years -old when he started. So when a stroke robbed him of the use of the right side of his body, he had a lot to learn. "I had to learn how to talk, how to walk, and how to eat all over again," he says. And in addition to this he put his brush in his left hand and has learned how to work his oil paints all over again. Mr. Williamson got serious about painting in 1948 when he started taking lessons from the minister's wife in Walton, Mistress Thomas, who gave painting lessons in the library. By 1952 Mr. Williamson had taken sick. He had very high blood pressure, and his doctor warned that if he didn't sell the farm and quit working he would likely havea heart at- tack. So painting became -a big pastime with him, and he still does about one painting a Irre week. He worked as an electrician for a while, and later travelled extensively. He has visited and painted parts of South Dakota, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite Na- tional Park, Hawaii, Germany, Spain and about six other countries in Europe, and has seen much of North America. He says all the different places he has seen give him ideas for painting. "You can't paint something unless you've seen something similar," he says. "If you live here all your life you can't imagine what a mountain looks like." Mr. Williamson paints a lot of things he has seen in his travels -from a castle on the Rhine in Germany to a street in our neighboring Brussels. He has also done six paintings of the farm where he was born, two and a half miles east of Walton. The paintings are done in a chronological order from the time before the land was settled, to when pioneers started to work it, to now when it is farmed with modern machinery. There is some of his work on display at Candlelight Studios in Seaforth. Lately Mr. Williamson has been in- 'erested in what he calls old time scenes -most of which he does from childhood memories or from what he has learned. Most of these scenes are of early farms and the countryside. He has done pictures of auction sales, farms, and machinery from earlier farming days. Turn to page 13A A