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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1988-08-24, Page 21i MIt or Ili brow: Member Canadian Community Newspaper Assoc. Ontario Community Newspaper Association Ontario Press Council Commonwealth Press Union International Press Institute Subscription Rates: Canada '20.00 a year, in advance Senior Citizens - '17.00 a year In advance Outside Canada '60.00 a year, In advance Single Copies • .50 cents each IIdltnru�i!n Taaliilphon, li19B $2 MallIn Addrau is Cooler weather prompts wo Besides 'relief the arrival of cooler weather means only one other thing to me - an end to the excuses for work left undone. I mean, I've preyed on the fact that it's been absolutely and positively too hot to do anything around the apartment. So much so, that I'm in dire straits now. No doubt I'm not the only one. The uncomfortably hot weather of the past weeks has allowed me, basically, the freedom to be a tad lazy - why, even doing nothing was a physically draining experience. Housework, always taken lightly in the summer to begin with, became a virtually unheard of task. Dishes were left undone for days on end, and dusting - well, that was definitely left by the wayside. Sweep- ing, vaccuming and/or anything else re- quiring movement (hardly a favorite ac- tivity even in the colder months) were eliminated altogether. The result, as you can imagine, was less than inviting living quarters - but I got around that too. It never even entered my mind that my somewhat messy apartment might offend any visitors. I mean, who in their right mind would choose to visit so- SWEATSOCKS by Heather Mcllwraith meone whose apartment averaged 100 degrees on a cool day. The only relief I could offer was a cold glass of lemonade (and even that didn't stay cold long), and a waft of warm air from my oscillating fan. Yep, apartment living, although advan- tageous in the winter months, is no easy task in the dead of summer. Once she heats up, she just don't cool down. And even more frustrating is the fact that there really is no escape - no one room is cooler than another, and if there's a breeze at all it's a warm one. One could, I suppose, escape to the base- ment, but even that in an apartment house, is only a temporary solution, since the basement is usually common ground for all apartment dwellers, and where would we be without our privacy. There is of course, also the thought that one would be forced to rohahitate mita thnce little creepy, crawly things that inevitauiy sub- sist in basements. So you seek alternate solutions. Cold showers provide immediate relief, but once one steps out of the tub and pro- ceeds to towel off, the relief ends. You're back in the hotbed of humidity and within seconds you're dripping again - this time with perspiration. Unfortunately one can hardly stand under the shower all day - doesn't extreme heat usually go hand-in- hand with a call for water conservation? Butall that appears to be over now. Things have cooled off considerably bring- ing us all a little relief in the process. Unfortunately though, those of us who have procrastinated over the past months for the sake of comfort, have no -reason for doing so now. Gone are the Dog (gone hot) Days of Summer. People, not property now represented For the first time this fall, school trustees will be elected to represent peo- ple and not n-nperty. With its si iitt from tax base to :population as a basis for determining school board representation, Bill 125 makes the system more fair. Each trustee will now represent a similar number of people, rather than a similar total property assessment. The legislation also gave the Huron County School Board the option, which it took, of returning to a 16 -member board, replacing the two seats lost when full separate school funding was implemented two years ago. But while the people will be more fairly represented following the next election, those who have argued long that too much education funding comes from property tax, still wait for solutions. It is true that a greater percentage of the users of our education system, especially in urban areas, own no property but should still have a more balanced say in education administration, as they will after Bill 125. It also remains true that a disproportionate amount of tax money coming from property assessment continues to go to education. In other words, those owning property pay more than what they perceived as their share towards education. The argument could be carried further, in Huron County at least. This year, a market value property reassessment began shifting the tax base from the towns to the rural areas. Now those same towns, where the population is concentrated, are gain- ing through Bill 125, a greater representation on school boards while paying less toward school operations. , While many welcome Bill 125 for distributing elected trustees evenly within the population, fairness will only be fully achieved once the Ontario government makes good its promise of 100 per cent education funding. -B.H. LETTERS TO T Cartoons R Tax bill smacks of extortion To The Editor: How are YOUR PROPERTY TAXES this year?...are you one of the lucky people or,...are you one of the great majority, again? When we were told that the County was going to market value assessment we were also assured that the mill rates would be adjusted to prevent extortion. There was even one publicized hint that taxes would decline by 4%. If you live in Goderich, where the assess- ment office is located, this may have hap- pened. However, if you live here in Seaforth, take another good look at your Final Tax Notices for 1986, 1937, 1988. See the box head- ed TAXES MUNICIPAL. If, in 1988, your market value was upped by 9% then, this year you will be paying over 26% more in municipal tax than you paid just two years ago. Did the local stores increase their prices 26% to you?...Did your take-home pay get a 26% hike? How did the county assessor arrive at your market value? Did he come round in 1984 and send you a note advising you of the 1984 market value? There is nothing secret about market value: it is the price you paid to buy your house in 1984. WHAT! you did NOT BUY your house in 1984? Then the value must be a guess and folks, your guess is as good as mine. If you sell your house this year for less than their guess will you get a refund of taxes overpaid? And how is this money spent? First of all, we have good roads in some parts of town and council can relax. Last winter, did the town plow roar past your place at twice the speed needed to clear that skiff of snow on the road?...and was your driveway careful- ly blocked each time the plow came by?... what is the condition of those new con- crete curbs on your street...great hunks have been chewed out of E William Street's and no effort has been made to fix the ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR TAX damage. The deep depression at the corner BILL? of Duke and Main will be a small skating - rink in November...when is it to be fixed? How many times have your glasses been knocked -off your face during that evening stroll?...the tree branches get lower every week. ]'s, that broken beer bottle still en- dangering your feet?...yes, I mean the one that has been there for the last six days. What did you think of the editorial in last week's issue: council wastes 45 minutes discussing drapes and two minutes to discuss the pending departure of an expen- sive asset. Money no longer has any mean- ing for our council, there is plenty more where the last lot came from...all that has to be done is to up the market -value of proper- ty by 10% and increase the mill -rate by 6% and there will be oodles more next year. AND THIS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL THE TAXPAYERS PROTEST. . For a moment, let's have a look at other municipalities. In Toronto, a house with a market value of $375,000 has total municipal and education taxes of under $2,500. In Lon- don, $1,500 will get your tax bill paid on a $180,000 mansion. But, in Seaforth, you pay $1,500 for a 2 -bedroom no garage cottage with an m.v. of $60,000! Seaforth taxpayers do not have to subsidize a public transporta- tion system or make large contributions to ethnic and other social organizations. Where does the money go? Ask your council representative. If you have read this letter why not cast a more critical eye on your part of town. Where things are wrong LET, EVERYBODY KNOW...this paper invites letters from local residents because the editor knows that nothing will galvanize of- ficialdom 'to action faster than adverse publicity! We need a few of our grandfathers back on council; these, old fellows are seldom hood- winked when it comes to looking after a dollar. Sincerely yours, Ken & Betty Oldacre Manure odors unpleasant intrusions As sent to Town Council: Your Worship Alf Ross and Members of Council, You are aware of our ongoing concern and annoyance this summer (since the middle of May) with the persistent problem of offen- sive and nauseating manure odors in much of our town. You also know that we have contacted the Ministry of Environment on several occasions (once more this evening) and made officials in the Ministry of Agriculture aware of this continuing and unpleasant intrusion. As we sit here inside our home, on the fourth successive day of another round of odor problems, we are quickly losing pa- tience. These uninvited and sickening smells penetrate even closed doors and windows! We do not want to hear from anyone else that nothing can be done. " Something must be done. In the twelve years of our residence in Seaforth this sickening situation has not per- sisted. It's not just the heat and the humid- ty; it's in the low 20s today and the problem, continues no matter what change the temperature or evening breezes seem to bring! It is not just a matter of aesthetics either: when the air makes your eyes water, when you wake up in the night with gut -retching nausea because of the sickening vapours creeping in a bedroom window, it becomes a matter of health and survival. What is going on? Is it the increasing number of uncovered, open liquid manure pits which are being placed in agricultural operations at the Turn to page 17 What's going on with cartoons today? I'm not saying today's animations are taking a turn for the worse, but they're far from resembling the cartoons of only 15 years ago. Every day at five p.m., when I was growing up, it was the Flintstones around our house. But, without a lazergun and spaceship Fred and Barney can't keep up with what's out there in cartoonland today. They can't even turn into trucks, cars, or spaceships. Sunday evenings we kids would pray there would be a cartoon instead of a movie on Disney, featuring all the original cartoon characters. Nearly every Saturday afternoon was highlighted by the antics of Wile E. Coyote as he was perpetually throwing himself off cliffs and blowing himself up in his at- tempts to catch the roadrunner. And Bugs Bunny would prance about the screen in- furiating the carrot farming Elmer Fudd, and an unscrupulous Yosemite Sam. But cartoons have started to take a dif- are going down MY TWO BITS by Neil Corbett ferent turn with characters like He -Man and all his Saturday morning pals. Car- toons like the popular Thundercats are sophisticated enough that (although I won't put their names,,here) I know of some adults who watch them. Technology and science have really caught up with cartoons. So much so they are now filled with computers, space ships and people, black holes, and all the stuff that fires the imaginations of today's kids. And what they're doing with animation today is pretty impressive to says the least. Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the movie which has been really selling tickets in theatres this summer, takes cartoons where they've never been before -on the screen with real actors. Sure we've all seen Dick Van Dyke singing with a bunch of cartoon bluebirds superimposed on the screen; but with Who Framed Roger Rab- bit you don't know if you're watching a cartoon with people in it, or people in a car- toon. The cartoons in this movie tate real guns, throw characters around, give them sloppy kisses, and even play "patti-cake" with them. With this kind of competition it doesn't look like Fred and Barney or the Peanuts gang will be making a comeback real soon. Maybe now that the writers strike is over in Hollywood the animators will decide that they're underpaid for drawing umpteen number of pictures for each car- toon. If they walk out we might get into reruns, and get back Into the good stuff. Seaforth Library built for $ 10,000 AUGUST 24, 1888 One night last week someone broke into the cellar of the American Hotel, at Brussels, and stole some bottled whiskey and food. They then adjourned to the office and cooly ate it there. The glass cigar case was also broken and a quantity of cigars stolen. Strange to say though, the burglars dropped a dozen new silk handkerchiefs, which are supposed to be part of the plunder taken from a store in Blyth which had been broken into a few evenings before. We are sorry to learn that Mr. E. McFaul, merchant, of this town, has been again laid up with an attack of inflamatory rheumatism, and is going to the Preston mineral baths, with the hope that he may there obtain relief. Messrs. Robert Staples, Robert Coates, and Robert Clarke, all of Hullett, left on Tuesday last for Killarney, Manitoba, where they intend taking up the land. Mr. Thomas Downey is making prepara- tions for the erection of a tenement residence on his property facing on John Street. Mr. Thomas Stephens, of the Queens, has had his hotel bus handsomely painted and so renovated, that it now looks as good as new. AUGUST 29, 1913 The bills are out announcing the sale of the entire household effects of the Dick Hotel. This will likely be one of the largest attended sales of the year as Mrs. Kling is leaving the hotel and there is a large quanti- ty of excellent articles to be'disposed of. The Seaforth Carnegie Public Library building is now completed and ready for oc- cupancy. In fact some of, the books are already in the shelves. The building is substantial, well proportioned, capacious and comfortable and in every way well equipped for the purpose for which it was designed. It is handsome in appearance both inside and out and is certainly an ornament of to the town. The building and equipment will cost about $10,000, the whole amount being furnished by Mr. Andrew Carneige. As an index of the very rapid increase in automobile traffic we may say that on Wednesday afternoon last eight automobiles passed up Goderich street within a period of less than 15 minutes. Ten years ago an auto on the street would have been a curiosity that would have drawn out half the people to see it. There are now 21 autos owned in town. AUGUST 26, 1938 School pupils will have nearly' an extra week of holidays this year as a result of the Department of Education ruling that schools will not reopen until the Tuesday following Labor Day. When a car passed Provincial Traffic Of- ficer J.W. Callander on No. 8 Highway near here Sunday, and travelling at an excessive speed, the constable thought it time to in- vestigate. He found the car to be travelling more than 70 M.P.H. and at the wheel was a little lady who, after a verbal skirmish with the officer, admitted to having no license. As Constable Callander was taking out his notebook preparatory to recording the facts, 'a voice piped from the back seat: "But you can't do anything officer; she's only 16 and just learning to drive." Commented the of- ficer: "I wonder how fast she'll go after she has learned to drive." Seaforth bowling club officials found it necessary to turn away entries for their fur- niture tournament Monday evening. Previously planned as a full day's tourna- • ment, the event had to be changed to a twilight when rain forced a postponment. H. Douglas and P. Pensive, of London, carried the Thomas McMillen Trophy away and also walnut end tables. On Saturday John Snider, an esteemed resident, completed 50 years in business in Brucefield. Born in Hessedramstad, Ger- many, in 1867, he came to Canada with his parents when about two years of age, arriv- ing in New York after a voyage of six weeks. While the ninth annual Hallowe'en Frolic is still two months away, arrangements are already underway for the eagerly awaited event. AUGUST 29, 1963 Attendance at Seaforth District High School will be down this year by approx- imately 100 students due to the opening of the new Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton. The chunky red brick building with- the a clock on its tower celebrates its 50th birth- day this month. Long a landmark in Seaforth for its reliability and dependabili- ty, the Post Office was opened for service 50 years ago this month. Murray Gaunt of Wingham, youngest member of the last Ontario Legislature, was again nominated to contest the Huron -Bruce riding under the Liberal banner in the September 25th provincial election. Fourteen -year-old Billy MacLean record- ed the first hole -in -one at the new Seaforth golf course on Thursday when he aced the par three 87 yard seventh hole.