HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1990-01-17, Page 3Seaf�rfh
THE HURON EXPOSITOR,'. JANUARY 17, 1990 --.- 3A
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Seaforth teenager Andrea Riley left fri-
day for a one-year adventure in Australia.
Motivated by a poster she saw hanging
in her school French class in the fall Of
1988, Svhirh:detailed student exchanges, An-
drea filled out an application form, was in-
terviewed in January 1989, and received
formal acceptance for the program this
past March. Once she was accepted, the
decision as to where to go, was pretty well
left up to her.
"I always wanted to go to Australia,"
said the 16 -year-old daughter of Ross and
Joyce Ribey. "My uncle used to go there
all the time, and it sounded like a good
place to go. They also speak English, so I
thought it would be easier to adjust. I also
like the climate, it's warm all year
'round."
Andrea is travelling with the Educational
Foundation for Foreign Study, a non pro-
fit organization dedicated to furthering in-
ternational understanding through language
education and cultural exchange. Every
year, more and more students are finding
out just how beneficial a period abroad
during their high school years can be, and
to date, over 20,000 young people around
the globe have participated in EF Founda-
tion programs.
The way the program is set up there are
only four years when a student is eligible
for a full -year or semester EF Foundation
program. He/she must be between the
ages of 15 and 18.
Participants have the opportunity to
study at a high school in Australia, or in
one of five European countries, for a full
academic year, or fall/spring semester.
During their stay, students live with a
local host family, and are expected to be
active members of school, family, and
comintlnitt life •
Bost families are eacef q+ `elected and
matched with studenl4,y'oundateon's
local contact f►,ex'so1M, the ,Area Represen ,,,,,
tauve The *ARO is'a trained volunteer
who supervises: families. and students`;
throughout the stay,
Host famdieS,treat Students exactly es if
they were their own sop or daughter -'the
only way to really become a part of the
family and the culture.. .
Academicand personal ;tnotivatheT are
essential for a student 'participating in the
program, and a cumulative Grade Point
Average of 70 per cent or higher over the
past two years is required. Whileabroad,
students must assume a full courseload,
and maintain a "C" grade average or
equivalent in the host high school, after au
initial adjustment -period: - -
"You don't have to be really smart, you
just have to be able to adjust," said An-
drea. "The interview is the main part, and
they judge you on your personality, then
decide if you are the type that will adjust
easily."
Andrea thinks she'll be the type that ad-
justs easily.
"It's the first time I'll have been away
for this length of time, but I used to go to
camp, and I always liked camp. In fact, I
always wanted to stay longer," she
commented.
Andrea will be living for the next year
on a hobby farm in the community of
Glastonbury, just outside of Gympie,
Queens, Australia. Gympie is located ap-
proximately 100 kilometres north of
Brisbane on the west coast of Australia.
She'll begin school on February 1 in Gym -
pie, and will take Grade 11 subjects.
According to correspondence she had
Provincial grants to
Twenty-one municipalities in the County
of Huron received special assistance grants
totalling $1,015,539.
Speaking on behalf of Municipal Affairs
Minister John Sweeney Huron MPP Jack
Riddell said: "I'm pleased Mr. Sweeney's
ministry was able to provide this funding.
It should help relieve the tax burden for
residential and farm ratepayers. The Coun-
.ty has experienced tax increases because
of changes to county and Scheel board
. cost-sharing arrangements."
received. prior to her depart,'ea; Andrea
will be .living with 'a,:Single parent family
of foie~ •,children P aged 20, 16, 13 ,and 10
•The -16-year-pfd :will be visiting .Qanada on
an exchartS program wiule Andrea cis in
Australia, The parent.is some kind of
social worker
"I haven't heard anything special about
it. I guess f'll ,list live .and leans, and find •
out on my Own:"
prior to ipovipg in with her adoptive
fautily, Andrea •.'is required to spend , a
week $ a Culture Camp.,' That camp is
located in Sydneyt A>ralia, and is set up
to ensure that exchange students are
aware of the laws and codes of behavior
they are expected to adhere to while they
are a guest in their host country. Also
whileat camp, students are taught the
dangers of-the-ocean,—and--are taken on a
number of tours of the area.
While she admits she "will probably ex-
perience some homesickness, Andrea said
she was looking forward to her stay in
Australia, and in particular, trying the
sports that are common to that part of the
world.
"I'm anxious to see them play hockey,"
she said. "I can't believe they have ice.
But there's no ringette or broomball,
although if they have ice, it wouldn't be
that difficult..."
The flight to Australia from Toronto was
expected to take 18 to 20 hours, with possi-
ble stopovers in San Francisco and Hawaii.
"I'm excited. It was a long time waiting,
but I'm looking forward to it now," said
Andrea. "I had a cousin who was in Saudi
Arabia nursing for two years, and when
Mayuko Yoshioto• was over from Japan
two years ago, it looked like she was hav-
ing a good time. I'm looking forward to it.
I'm taking a bunch of diaries."
ease Huron taxes
The new cost-sharing arrangements, us-
ing a uniform market value assessment
base, resulted in property tax changes of
varying amounts throughout the County.
The special assistance grants are provid-
ed to municipalities under the Ontario Un-
conditional Grants Program.
Receiving grants will be: Town of Clin-
ton, $3,290; Village of Bayfield, $18,168;
Village of Brussels, $2,409; Village of Hen-
sall, $1,021; Village of Zurich, $476;
Township of Ashfield, $108,541; Township of
ovative
pproach"
Colborne, $60,398; Township of Goderich,
$139,918; Township .of Grey, $62,078;
Township of Hay, $67,114; Township of
Howick, $31,133; Township of Hallett,
$54,598; Township of Mckillop, $102,064;
Township of Morris, $34,165; Township of
Stanley, $79,132; Township of Stephen,
$119,594; Township of Tuckersmith, $39,662;
Township of Turnberry, $14,267; Township
of Usborne, $51,014; Township of East
Wawanosh, $5,938 and Township of West
Wawanosh, $20,559.
DOWN UNDER - Seaforth teenager Andrea Ribey left Friday for a one-year stay
in Australia. The 16 -year-old will continue her studies while in the foreign country,
and will live with a host family. She will return to Seaforth prior to Christmas 1990,
no doubt with a whole slew of new experiences. Robinet photo.
to 90-91 courses at Seafort
Students and students -to -be at Seaforth
District High School will have an expand-
ed course roster to look forward to for
1990-1991.
Rob Parr, Vice -Principal at the high
school, outlined some of the new offerings
that students will be able to choose from.
A serious effort has been made by the ad-
ministration to expand 'in the arts area, a
division that has been historically weak at
SDHS.
"That's one of the areas that this school,
traditionally, has lagged behind in," Mr.
Parr admits.
He adds, however, "..now that we've ex-
panded our arts and technical program,
we're in really, really good shape to com-
pete with the other schools."
Currently, Grade 8 students from
Seaforth can choose from among Seaforth
District High School, St. Michael's School
in Stratford for the Catholic school option,
and Central Huron Secondary School in
Clinton.
"The number of kids that go to Clinton
now is down to the point that in the next
while there probably won't be a bus going
down there," Mr. Parr points out.
One of the reasons has been what Rob
Parr calls the "innovative approach" to
course offerings at SDHS in the past few
years. A glance at the 1990-1991 course
calander proves his point.
In the technical area, an auto servicing
course will be offered to any and all in-
terested students. A bonus for this course
is the 1990 Ford that was donated to the
school by the Ford Motor Company, slight-
ly damaged, with SDHS footing the bill for
only the cost of the shipping.
BLUEPRINT FOR THE FUTURE - Howard James visited with Seaforth Public School
Grade 8 students to discuss course choices for 1990-1991. Among the classes offered
will be auto servicing and an innovative keyboarding course for the musically inclined.
Elliott photo.
PUC spends Boxing Day at watermain break
Ken Cardno was on hand at the Seaforth
Public Utilities Commission meeting on
Wednesday night to go over the particulars
of the commission's comprehensive in-
surance policy for 1990. Dave Reed, Senior
Account Representative from Frank Cowan
Insurance Brokers, was unable to attend
the meeting as previously scheduled due to
illness.
One of the points noted was by' Mr.
Cardno was the fact that the insurance
company has taken all of the municipal in-
surance policies and established standard
figures right across the board, with blanket
. coverage. This, he explained, eliminates
the 'nickel and dimeing' usually en-
countered when considering the property
and varying coverage of each commission.
The policy actually works out to be more
profitable for the Seaforth PUC, who will
receive $2,283,000 worth of total coverage
at a premium of $1,729. This is in com-
parison with a policy cost of $1,739 last
year.
Another added feature of the policy is
the Conflict of Interest coverage, which in-
sures that a commissioner charged with
such will be reimbursed for up to 90% of
their legal fees if exonerated. This
coverage applies only to commissioners,
however, and not regular PUC staff.
The commission asked Mr. Cardno to
look into a few areas of the policy for
clarification, one of those being the
coverage on the Seaforth water tower. Cur-
rently, the 68 -year-old tower is insured for
$120,000 at a premium of $108 per annum,
but there was some confusion as to the
wording of the policy as it concerns
physical damage to the tower.
"It doesn't specifically tell you
anything," he conceded. Damages incurred
from natural disasters, such as a tornado,
or from a freak' occurrence such as a
plane crashing into the tower, would
definitely be covered by the policy under
'physical damage to property', but PUC
Manager Tom Phillips wondered about
damage due to structural weakness or
collapse.
"The older the tower gets, the more you
have to think about it," Mr. Phillips
remarked. "We continually check it."
The current value of the PUC's vehicles
will also be confirmed to make sure that
they are covered at or near replacement
value on the policy.
The insurance policy will also be slight-
ly revamped to change the maximum long-
term full disability payment from $300 a
week to $500 a week. The maximum par-
tial disability payment will remain at $150
per week. This will be payed out to any
commissioner as the result of any accident
incurred while acting on behalf of the PUC
or attending a PUC function.
EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE
The Seaforth PUC will be drawing up a
formal agreement with the Hensall and
Zurich commissions with regard to their
emergency assistance program. The agree-
ment, which up until this time has been in-
formal and on a trial basis, was set up to
give the Hensall and Zurich PUC the
benefit of emergency assistance from the
Seaforth commission. Since the program's
inception the early summer, Seaforth has
not had to answer a call.
"We should have something in writing,"
Manager Tom Philips stated, noting that
the two commissions are willing to pay
standby time for Seaforth should an
emergency arise.
WATERMAJN BREAK
The PITC crew spent the better part of
Boxing Day, from 5 a.m. until roughly 2:30
p.m,, repairing a watermain break on the
Main Street 100 feet south of the tracks.
There was approximately one and a half
inches of frost in the ground at the time,
in spite of the leaking.
It was remarked that, had the break oc-
Mr. ,Parr notes that girls at the school
will be actively encouraged to sign up for
the course.
"We would -like to see more girls taking
the shop courses," he stresses. "We have
a few guys here already taking some of
the family studies courses."
The auto servicing students will make
use elf ethe new. shop ,area that fluildeng
Construction students, under the guidance
of teacher Jim Muir, i ve been construc-
ting and refurbishing from the storage
barn behind the main school.
"That in itself has been a great learning
experience for those students," Mr. Parr
says, agreeing that it certainly beats
building birdhouses for a semester.
The Art department will be getting a bit
of a facelift in the coming year. At pre-
sent, general level art courses are offered
in Grades 9 and 10, with a combined
Grade 11-12 art class. Any students wan-
ting to obtain OAC level art credits have
had to do so through independent study
with the art instructor on their own time.
However, September 1990 will see the in-
troduction of 3A and 4A art courses which
will bring the art students up to OAC stan-
dards. In addition, a 1B basic art course
will be added for those students wishing to
obtain a general grounding in art basics.
Greg Sherwood, the art teacher at SDHS
since last year, will be looking after the
advanced art classes and has done "..done
a super job of encouraging the kids," Mr.
Parr adds.
One of the most exciting and innovative
courses to be offered at the high school in
quite some time is the Keyboarding course,
'strict High
which will be introduced in January 1991.
A survey was conducted to find out what
music course the students would be the
most interested in, with a choice of vocals,
instrumental and keyboarding offered. Ac-
cording to Mr. Parr, results indicated that
50% of the students would beinterestedin
taking a course in keyboarding.
"I ;;saw one . (keyboarding course)'. -in
operation in Fergus, and kids who -had ab-
solutely no musical background were °hav-
ing a lot of success," he notes.
One aspect of the course, which would
make use of 24 keyboards and possibly a
synthesizer, is the one-on-one teaching
method achieved through the use of head-
phones and a console. The instructor will
be able to conununicate with each student
individually via the headsets while the rest
of the class continues to work on their own ,
keyboards, with the sound transmitted '
through their headphone jacks. This will
allow students of varying abilities to take.
part in the same class and learn at their
own pace. Eventually, a computer hook-up
to the keyboards will allow the students to
arrange, compose and write their own
music.
"One of the things that we're looking for
is Conservatory students who have the
technical skills, but who maybe haven't
had the chance to play improvisationally
or by ear," Mr. Parr says.
By the same token, students with little to
no technical or music reading background
will be able, to succeed in the course.
"We're hoping to meet both needs."
The cost of purchasing the keyboards -
Turn to page 6A
curred closer to the tracks, the road would
have had to have been blocked off. This
raised the question of safety and the
possibility of having a second rail crossing
constructed in town. With Main St. block-
ed off at the tracks all traffic, including
emergency vehicles, have to detour out to
the next sideroad to cross the rail line.
Mayor Hazel Hildebrand pointed out that
the plan for a second crossing within town
had been brought forward in Council a
couple of years ago, but that the cost was
"phenomenal" and would have to be car-
ried completely by the town. However,
citing the potential for disaster should the
road be blocked at the time of an
emergency, PUC Chairman Jim Sills sug-
gested that it might be well worthwhile for
Council to look into the idea again.
TREE TRIMMING UNDERWAY
The PUC crew have been busy checking
over the trees in town and having approval
passed for the trimming and removal. As
soon as a full crew is available, work will
begin on this project.
Change -over of the hydro pole at Top-
notch has been underway recently. This is
a difficult operation, as the pole carries
two circuits of 4000 volts apiece along with
a streetlight, and the changeover is being
done live. The original pole, which has
been in place for 18 years, is in poor
repair.
Well samples at the Chalk St. site have
passed testing. There was some concern
when the bacteria count at the well read
at '1'. It turns out that some bacteria had
been accumulating in the drain pipe at the
top of the well, and as soon as the pipe
was removed and replaced, the count im-
mediately went back down to '0'. The con-
tents of the well were in no way affected.
The working agreements for the PUC
employees have been signed and delivered
to all workers and the union.
Turn to page 4A .
Wed., Jan. 17
1:00 - 3:00 p.m. — Parents and Tots
1:30 - 4:00 p.ne. — Senior Shuffleboard
4:30 - 5:30 p.m. — Junior & Belles Ringette
5:30 - 6:30 p.m. — Pee Wee "CC" Practice
6:30 - 8:00 p.m. — Minor Broomball
7:30 p.m. — Minor Hockey Meeting
8:00 - 10:30 p.m. — Ladies Broomball
8:00 - 10:00 p.m. — Recreational Volleyball
at SDHS
8:00 - 11:00 p.m. — Men's Competitive
Curling
Thurs., Jan. 18
4:30 - 5:30 p.m.
5:30 - 8:30 p.m.
6:00 - 7:00 p.m.
SDHS
7:00 - 8:00 p.m.
SDHS
6:30 - 8:00 p.m.
7:30 - 9:00 p.m. —
7:30 - 9:30 p.m.
8:00.10:00p.m.
8:00 - 11:30 p.m.
7:00 - 11:00 p.m.
8:00 - 12 Midnight — Teen Dance at Arena —
D.J. Worms Sponsored by the Optimist Club
Sat., Jan. 20
8:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. — Seaforth Optimist
Atom Hockey Tournament
1:30 - 2:30 p.m. — Story Hour at Library
Sun., Jan. 2
9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. — Atom Hockey our-
nament Continued
8:00 - 9:00 p.m. — Novice Hockey prat ise
9:00 - 11:00 p.m. I.H.L.
— Figure Skating at Arena
— Atoms practise
— Junior Gymnastics at
— Senior Gymnastics at
— Minor Broomball
Ballroom Dancing at SDCC
— Wood Carving at SDHS
— Mixed Basketball at SDHS
— Men's Broomball
— Mixed Curling
Fri., Jan. 19
Mon., Jan. 22
4:30 - 8:30 p.m. - Figure Skating
7:30 - 9:30 p.m. — Wood Refinishing at SDHS
7:00 - 11:00 p.m. — Men's Curling
8:00 - 10:00 p.m. — Competitive Volleyball at
SDHS
8:30 p.m. — Lucan vs. Centenaires
Tues., Jan. 23
9:00 - 10:00 a.m. — Fitness Is Fun at SDHS
10:30 - 12 noon — Moms and Tots
6:30 - 6:30 p.m. — Pee Wee "DD" practice
6:30 - 8:00 p.m. — Goderich vs. Atom
8:00.9:30 p.m. — Clinton vs. Pee Wee "CC"
1:00 - 3:00 p.m. — Open Curling
4:15 - 5:15 p.m. — Petite & Tween Ringette
6:16 - 6:15 p.m. — Junior Houseleague
Hockey
6:16 - 7:15 p.m. — Senior Houseleague
Hockey
6:00 - 8:00 p.m. — Junior Curling
7:15 8:15 p.m. — Jr. Belles Ringette vs.
Mitchell
8:00 - 10:00 p.m. Mixed Curling
8:15 p.m. — Milverton vs. Seahawks
Wed., Jan. 24
1:00 - 3:00 p.m. — Parents & Tots skating
1:30 - 4:00 p.m. Senior Shuffleboard
4:30 - 5:30 p.m. — Junior & Belles Ringette
5:30 - 6:30 p.m. — Pee Wee "CC" practice
6:30 - 8:00 p.m. — Minor Broomball
8:00 - 9:00 p.m. — Fitness la Fun at Arena
8:00 - 10:30 p.m. — Ladies Broomball
8:00 - 10:0D p.m. — Recreational Volleyball
8:00 - 11:00 p.m. — Men's Competitive
Curling
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