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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1980-07-17, Page 2^,• nce, lee°, ,Serving the CorrtiTitmity First PubUahed at SAFORTR* ONtAltil9..e!!!!iTh1;flulay morning by McLEAND9CiS. Pir8144LER$ LTD. • SUSAN Wtierg; E51140 " ALICE 911gc News 000r . Member C'AissAlsai CorioutudAy 110WMPIIPer Association Oat** Weekly NowqmpeA-Assochlogur and AuditiOuteatt 01 Clreulail0P Subecription Rates:. Q0124(I4 advance) $14:00 nYe Outside Canada (la ;Advance) $30:00 Year SINGLE COPIES -35 CENTS EACH Second Class Mail Registration Number 0696 Telephone 527-0240 SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, JULY 17, 1980 Losing our heritage Someday, perhaps ten years from now, you might decide you'd like to take your children past the house that was butit by Seaforth's first reeve, and an early mayor dt tne town, Dr. T.T. Coleman..A nice house that sits on a hill, surrounded by lovely landscaping, built of strong Ontario brick. A large‘pouse, one of the few in town that's Georgian — style with decorative bay windows. You won't be able to though because that house, very important to the history of Seaforth, and" a decided asset at the east entrance to town, will be gone. It's being torn down over the next 'few weeks. '• For a variety of reasons, we think that's a shame. According to the house's latest owner, it's in unsalvageable condition, and thus he's tearing it down. The land, of course; will be valuable as a site for several new houses or perhaps an apartment building. One group in town, council's LACAC (Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee) committee tried some time ago to See that the Coleman house was preserved for uk, ' children and our children's children. LACAC wanted the -house aesip ed "a heritage property, which it certainly is._ Desi r ation Is an honour that adds to a hetise's valeand under Ontari legislation, can delay demolition. But the then owners of the house refused designation, fearing it would cause problems with selling the property! And Seaforth council refused to designate the house without the owners' consent. , Perhaps, had the Coleman house been designated, that honoue would have attracted potential buyers who were willing to spend the money necessary to make it more structutally sound. Perhaps Seaforth would still have its heritage house on the hill, for suceeeding generations to point to with pride. But that's all academic now...the house Is being torn down. 'The present owner has every right to do just that, given that he feels the property Is more valuable without the house than with it. Provincial and federal money is apparently not available to save the house because It's not historically or architecturally rare In the province or the country as a whole. Within Seaforth, though, the Coleman house is both those things. And It's sad, and frustrating that the house must be torn down. A , large chunk of Seaforth's heritage Is being -irretrievably lost. They Just aren't making circa 18.6.0 houses any more. A medical crisis Seaforth badly .needs et least one more doctor. That's not news to anydhe who's had a medical problem lately, or to anyonekwho read the lead story in last week's Expositor. With one doctor awiy on holidays, the town had only two full time physicians on duty last week. Serving a population the size of Seaforth end area's, they were putting in 80 and 90 hour weeks. We're sure that experience was enough to make the town's remaining doctors wonder why they ever carne here in the first place, that Is if they had time to wonder about anything at all. Obviously there's a crisis in medicat- care here, and the question anyone who's been personally affected by the doctor shortage wants to know is: what are we going to do about It? - The doctors at Seaforth Medical Clinic have been trying hard to Interest a new doctor in joining their practise. Opinions vary as to why that's such a tough job, but certainly the long hours that physicians in general practise In a small town must work, and the lack -of city -style, recreation here are two of the problems. And our first rection might be there's not a heck of a lot the ordinary citizen can do about any of that. But wait a minute. The recreation facilities that exist now in small towns like Seaforth are here because ordinary people got out and worked for such excellent cause S as the Lions park and pool, and the Optimist bail park. Other facilities, like the arena, exist because they are financed by tax dollars, well run by pUblic employees who care about the' town, and used by people who pay for the privilege. We're not suggesting that Seaforth needs, or can afford, a town run multi-million dollar redvation buitding, complete with indoor tennis, squash and swimming. But perhaps we should be looking at additional recreation facilities. Town council could take leadership het -e, with the help of Seaforth's hard working recreation committee and any private citizens who have ideas and planning time to offer. Over-worked doctors, like over-worked people in any fob, gel tired and ill tempered. And we can't think of anything that's likely to bug them more than people showing up at Seaforth Community Hospital's emergency department with a definite non -emergency. That's another way the average person can help white Seaforth faces this current medical crisis. We can keep our calls for medical mistarice to a minimum, keeping in mind that the doctors who are still here have a minimum of time. • But that's no long term answer. Seaforth arid area citizens, like everyone else in this country, -have a right to adequate medical care. Let's see the town, the hospital and citizens take some leadership to help solve our doctor shortage. Sugar and spice By Bill Smiley If you're so smart... "If you're so smart, why don't you write. something intelligent and literary?" That's what a lady said to me, after reading in that dumb article that I was a graduate in honor English. My immediate responie was "If you're so smart. sister. why are you reading that , trashy weekend magazine?" Fortunately, as they say, cooler heads prevailed, and my wife and 1 were once more pried apart before we could injure each other. Please turn to page 3 1 ( -e---- • nte- e- .Mereee•leenlenao: ..„,•,."74, • et. • "*" ' ••• . • •We A .•-•::-ne • 4' enen. .1 • -<..:- • 77--ir SKETCH BY LOCAL ARTIST—A recent.sketch of\a Hu n County farm by local artist Pam Carnochan. See the story on liege 1A. , 3 Sryarit girig•scarce in .1880 JULY16, 1880 On July 20, Seaforth will 'have a big parade of animals and stunt people from Adam Forepaugh's great railroad show. The contract for repainting the school house in section No. 4 Tuckersmith has been awarded to Jams Graves for $95.00. The meinbers of St. James Catholic Chinch in Seaforth intend erecting a new brick building for their pester on the lot beside the church. The Seaforth Waterworks received their initial test on the evening of Wednesday, last. The engine and pumps seemed to run pretty smoothly considering it was their first trial. Servant girls seem to be a scarce commodity in Seaforth at present. The Commercial Hotel has been advertising. diligently but no applications have been received. , JULY 14, 1905 Our veteran thresher, R. McLeod, Walton In the years agone has purchased a new threshing outfit annprising an 18 h.p. Bell engine and White seperator. The weather is ' somewhat wet and backward for haying in Walton. , A go -as -you -please fight at the Queens Hotel in Brussels on Monday will likely end up by being ventilated in the court room in the near future. Thomas Curtin of the 7th concession. Beechwood had two working horses and a colt killed and another colt blinded by fighteeleg this week. hams Scott of Roxboro underwent an aperation for appendicitis on Monday. The operation was successful. A number of our young men and boys should make themselves acquainted with the law regarding defacing pLoperty with indecent pictures and obscene language. A little thought on this matter will save some of them serious trouble. JULY 18, 1930 A successful taint 'raising was held on the 'Hensefl farm of Robert Munn. Lorne Stiess. Walton cut his hand some time ago with -a piece of steel and has developed into blood poisoning. Robert McKinley. Seaforth, met with a serious accident, when he opened the wrong door in the dark and fell into the cellar. Mrs. R.P. Bell. Miss Mary Bell and Mrs. James Kerr while driving to Wilton Grove this week saw a deer just south of Egmondville. Berry picking seems to be the order of the day with many in our town. Cutting of fall wheat will start this week in this section. The crop „promises a good average yield.- JTJLY 22, 1955 Miss AliCe Kyle, Hensall was taken by ambulance on Monday with a broken hip. She stumbled near her door Sunday and managed to crawl to the kitchen where she stayed on the floor till 6 a.m. Monday when she was discovered by he. nephew. The historical & log cabin committee is making arrangements to have a log cabin be erected in Victenia park equipped with historical artifacts ready for the Old Boys , reunion. Over 12S swimmers and potential sathet- mers are taking water safety lessons at the Seaforth Lions Pool. Atomic power a hot topic at Blyth You won't find much hotter a topic amend these days than atomic power. In any grotp you can likely start a good argument just by mentioning the subject. And so Ted Johns staked out a pretty hard task for himself when he decided to write a play about atomic power in general and the Bruce Nuclear Power Development in particular. He'd taken on a similar controversial subject in 1978 when In tackled the Huron County Teachers Strike. He came off looking like a genius in that orie when he seemed to Ike bath sides laugh at themselves. Could Ije do it again? Well from early action to his new play St. Sam of the Nuke Pile he seems to have pulled it off again. People from both sides of the argument seem to feel that the play supports their view. He has performed the magic act of making bnth sides confirm their prejudices while seeing a bit of the other side of the topic. if there is on dear verdict out of the play it seems to be that we have to live with the Bruce plant and other nuclear plants already built, so we might as well make the best of it. The character after which the play takes its name is Sam, the local entrepreneur who. wants to see the waste heat from the nuclear plant used instead of dumped out into the lake. He'd like to see it used to heat greenhouses and fish farms and even factories. He can see the Kincardine area becoming a "Buri'mgton of the -Bruce." BURLINGTON OF IITE I3RUCE Now whether everyone else wants to see Kincardine become a Burlington of the Bnice is open to question but whether you are a pro or anti-nuclear supporter the question of making use of waste heat seems an important one. Two millions gallons a minute of hot water go through the Bruce plant. The water is To the editor: Behind the scenes by Keith Roulston drawn in from Lake Huron. heated to steam to drive turbines then flushed out to the lake again. The complicated nuclear process for creating electricity makes use of only 27 per cent of the heat created. The rest is wasted. Mare than wasted, it may even bc doing damage by increasing the water temperature of the lake, for all we know. • It only makes sense to make USC of that wasted heat in these times of energy crisis. Yet nobody seemed interested in doing that until Sam McGregor came along. Sam. the St. Sam of the title of the play , caused some scepticism right off the bat because he as running for parliament when he got an announcement of the govenement's decision to create a pilot project to study his plans. He held a Toronto press conference and was surrounded by government bigwigs and then tried to say the project had nothing whatever to do with his political campaign. In the long ran, of course. it didn't. Sam lost the election but the study went on and today the first greenhouses under the study are producing vegetables. preduced with heat from oil furnaces set up to simulate the heating which would be provided by the nuclear -heated water from the power plant. STILL CIT ACT Sam's vision is still intact. He still dreams of hundreds of acres of greenhouses and millions of pounds of fish from the fish farms. He sees industrial plants !orating in 'the area to make use of the steam from the nuclear plant. He sees the entire ecbnorny of the province shifting to make use of the by- products af the Bruce plant. Because of this vision one of the characters in the play Sportsfest invites participants For fun. fellowship. participation arid Recreation...Come to Sportsfest- 80 Sportsfest i being held in the host Community of Goderich on August 15th, 16th, and 17th, 1980. It consists of 18 Recreational event tournaments, through which we encourage fun, good sportsman- ship, participation, low-key competition. and to promote on going intercommunity com- petitions in the future for these develop- mental sports. Sportsfest '80 is sponsored and organized by the Lake Huron Zone Recreation Associ- ation. (L.H.Z.R.A.) The events offered are for all ages. They include: archery, ball hockey, cycling, euchre, fun run, girls' softballogyrnnastics, horseshoe'pitching, karate, men's sio-pitch, shuffleboard, soccer, swimming. T -ball, table tennis. termis. women's softball and women's slo-pitch. The registration deadline date for these events is July 25th. 1980. If you are interested in more information or in participating in Sportsfest '80 in Goderich, contact your local Recreation Director or Recreation Committee. Tint McLean. Sportsfest Co-ordinator, can also be contacted by writing to 166 MacDonald Street, Goderich, Ontario N7A 3N5 or by calling 524-2127. Hope to see you participating in Sportsfest '80. Let's m4e it the greatest yet!! Sincerely yours, Tirn McLean, Sportsfest '80 Co-ordinator • suggests he should be a saint. If he can pull it off perhaps he should be. Ontario Hydro would have been quite willing to throw away 73 per cent of the heat it produces while going gang building ever mote nuclear plants. Businessmen were sceptical about the project. The government had to be pushed to get interested at all (could that be why Sam took advantage of a political campaign to get the government te agree to the pilot project thinking it might buy them an extra seat in the legislature?) Sam adrnitts that it's been years of hard work selling his idea to the bureacracy and technocracy of the many bodies he's had to deal with. After seeing the play one night last week (he liked it. by the way) he said Ted Johns did a good job of capturing the frustration he's felt trying to convince people his ideas were sound. P OTENTIAL PROBLEMS There are potential problems of course. What happens for instance if Sam does get his way and his project goes 'ahead? There is the effect of a huge cew development on a rural, area, the lass of farmland etc. What happens in 20 or 30 years when the nuclear plant is closed down because of old age and the cheap heat ends? Still when one looks at the etergy being wasted at the Bruce plant. at the Pickering plant. at plants around the world it makes nuciear powereven more of a sick joke. it is one thing to take the risks of nuclear power to get an efficient use of energy. When you see the wasted potential that nobody seems ready to use it's quite another matter. For better or worse we've got nuclear plants. Like St. Sam maybe we should be trying to do something to make the best of the situation. Expositor asks: Do you feel a responsibility to learn French? BY JIM HER How obligated are you as an individual to uphold the bilingual facade of this nation? On May 20 Quebeckers voted on a referendum question that could have changed the eventual structure of this country. The result, of mune, was a re -enforcement of Canada's bilingual pre- mise with further future developments. Now that we have determined what we want to be as a country. how can you help to create and maintain that image? This week, the Expcsiter Asks, "living in south-western Ontario, do you feel a responsibility to learn French as all attempt to help unify the country?' "I'd lite to be able to speak French, but I'm going onto 80 years of age, so there is no paha in it for me," said Jack McCarthy of R.R. 1, Dublin. "I think it is important if we are going to remain to be friendly with Que- bec," he said. "The kids should learn French. it would be nice for them," he added. Margaret Miller of R.R. 2, Staffa said there is a definite need fa': English speaking Canadians to make the attempt to • •learn French. ."We expect them to learn our language, we should be expected to learn theirs," said Mrs. Miller. Marlene Kraemers, of RIR. 4, Seaforth is a 13 -year-old student who studies French In school. She's net sure if she want* to continee. really like French," she said. "I don't really want to learn the langnage, but it may be necessary in the next few years. It may come up in a Gwen Hugill of R.R. 1. Seaforth said French is an important language fcr us to learn, but not too early in school. Mrs. ugill, a primary school teacher, said chi en should not he confused with another la guage at an age too young to have learned their own properly first. "I studied French for -five years in high stirool, so I'm up on the language a bit," said Mrs. Hugill. "I don't feel responsible to enlarge my French studies." Margo Kale, 17. said she's not sure if she'll ever get the opportunity to use the French she has studied in high school. "I think it is necessary to learn another language, but I don't feel obligated. I think it is good that we learn French," she said. "l'im sure I won't use it, but I think it is okay being taught in school," said Marj- orie Dale of 42 John St. in Seaforth. • `. "I don't know if the language would make you uoderstand the French People any better," she added. Bilingualism is beneficial t6 the country said Sheila Gunby of R.R. 1; Dungannon. "Certainly I think it is (important," she said-. "When I was in New Brunswick 1 found they are completely bilingual, Con- sidering that, it would be in tatir best interest as a nation to leen French." , •