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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1982-07-14, Page 20A20 — THE HURON EXPOSITOR 1 ,-..___ o Laura May Small, 3 was very proud of her decorated bicycle that fluttered with ribbons and bows in the LionsDublinfest bicycle parade held lost .Soturday. Little Laura May completed the route up and down the main street of Dublin with ease.(Photo by Marie Dynes) Council bidding Sportfest for Seaforth With' town council's apprto al. Seaforthfsseeereatiore committee is bid- ding to hold the Lake Huron Zoete Recreation Association Sponsfest here next summer. Letters to support are coming in from e many local organizations. rec director Bryan Peter said in his report to council and a Sportsfest eommittee will be set up 1)2. Aug. I. This summer Sportsfest is being held in Hanover from Aug. 13-15 and that town has contributed 52000 for the event. If Seaforth's Sportsfest application is approved the rec committee will decide what events are to be held and a budget will be presented to the ree committee by Dem 15. Perth council vetoes grant Perth County Council, by a vote of 15 to 13 turned down a recommendation to give a SI .500 grant to the,,Stratford Shakespearean Festival. At its July 8 session, county council turned down the re- commendation because of the economic situation. Warden Elsie Karges did not vote. The $1,500 grant would have enabled the festival to get a matching grant of $3.000 from the Ontario gov- ernment. In lieu of a straight cash donation. for $1,500 the county could have sponsored a performance which county residents could have seen at the Avon Theatre. for half price. Logan Township Reeve Carl dock reminded council they had turned down grants to area universities, Stratford Summer Music and for sev- eral years. Gallery Stratford. Reeve Vock said he is also opposed to a reception which would have been held follow- ing the sponsored perform- ' ante. LION HUNT—Jennifer Marian follows the path in a lion hunt held at Seaforth Public School during playgound activities on Thursday. "They entertain us after we give a grant. I cannot support this," said Reeve Vock. Downie Township Reeve Wilfred Teter said the county has never donated to the festival and it is an advantage to the county as a whole. Wallace Townshipi Reeve --Robert Fotheringham agreed, saying the county should do something once a year to promote the arts. "I believe the festival is a good thing for the area," said Reeve Fotheringham. South Easthope Township Reeve Amos Gerber said he isn't sure if countv council House renovations for social services Renovations to the Perth County Court House continue as social services prepare to ntove in later this month. Perth County Council was told social services admini- strator Debbie Balla& plans to move the agency from its present location at the Child- ren's Aid Society to the court house at the end of July. Interior and exterior reno- vations to the court house have been carried on for over 3 year. At the July 8 session of county council, further reno- e isement area house were vations to of the cou approved. A three-foot walkway is to be installed at the back door entrance, with a ramp to the parking lot to provide access to those in wheelchairs. Sam Loghrin of the Stratford area has been contracted to do the work. Mr. Loghrin will also Isle ' doing repairs to the reof ofthe court house on a cost based on time and material at cost phis 10 per cent with labor at 514.50 per hour. Other renovations include flooring. BZ aterprises of Stratford will be installing vinyl flooring at the entrance of the basement corridor at a cost of 5468. Wolfe Flooring of Mitchell will be installing carpeting in the social see vices department. planning offices and corridor at a cost of $4.419. . The administrative com- mittee report informed coun- cil that, as of May 31, 521,952.94 has been spent on court house restoration in 1982. Park vacancy report The Ministry of Tourism and Recreation in co-opera- tion with the Ministr-y of Natural Resources says once agoin there will be Provincial vacancy ' reports pro- duced this coming camping season. Campers outside Toronto may call any of the Ontario Travel Information centres between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily. They can also get vacancy reports by calling the toll- free number I-800-268-3735. Monday t04 Saturdat 8 to 6 p.m. Weekend only reports will be available starting May These reports will be pro- duced Thursday and Friday at 3:30 with updates at 830 Friday and Saturday morn- ing. On June 24 the Nil summer program gets into ' full swing with reports avail - Phone Seaforth was one of the first towns in Weetern Ontar- be to recognize the value of the telephone. An old Bell Canada ledger recorded pri- vate line receipts for Sea - forth, Ontario as early as November 1880 - only six years after Alexander Gra- ham Bell had disclosed the telephone idea to his father In Brantford. °Marie in July 1874. Private lines in the early days were very simple to put up and maintain. One tele. phone was used at each end of a line strung by the users. The telephones were leased from the Bell company. Late in 1884 the first telephone exchange in Sea - forth was opened after a small switchboard and the clumsy batteries and other equipment necessary for its operation were installed in the rear of C.W. Papst's book and stationery store in the Cardno Block in Main Street. The bookseller and stet- tioner is thus written in history as Seaforth's tiro telephone manager' and his store as the first telephone central office in the Tim n me Papst directed the business of the Bell Telephor 1 onmdm in Seaforth for more than sixteen years Telephone service was li- mited in the early days. This modest telephone exchange was open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays; 2 p.m. to 4 p. m . Sundays: and 10 a.m.to noon and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. holidays. In October 1884. C.F. Sise, Sr. (organizer and. later, president of the Bell Tele- phone Compaity of Canada), who took a keen personal interest in the telephone growth of almost every Can- adian community, noted in his Log Book: "Seaforth has fifteen subscnbers." Seaforth was soon on the telephone map for limited long distance seri ice hich was supplied to local' subs- cribers from 1884 when a long distance line was comp- leted from Stratford to God- erich through Mitchell, Sea - forth and Clinton. In fact, one of Mr Papsdt strong points in interesting resid- ents in the telephone was that they would he able to all Stratford and Goderii Im mid intermediate pointe One of the first users of long distan in Seaforth was the late M.Y: McLean, editor of The Huron Expositor. On January 8. 1885 Mr. McLean held the first long distanee conversation from Seaforth is hen he phoned 1 h Expositor office to Clinton and talked with Mr. Holmes of the Clinton New Era and W. Jackson of the Clintrin exchange. He marvelled at the efficiency of the instne mem for which Alexander Graham Bell had 4,btainecl patents only eight tears previously: "Sitting in nur office we could hear the gentlemen in Clinton talking almost as plainly as if they were standing to eur side A long distance telep1wne call was a memorable cote!. ience in those dm s In January of 11015. N hen the first telephone director% amtaining Seaforth listings was issued, the number of subscribers had fallen from the fifteen mentioned h‘ Mr Sise to twelve. It is not surprising that some nf the telephone users decided to dispense with the ialkina Isis'. Man % people it ere suspicious of the telephime. and a few branded it witch. craft, while mon% others regarded it as reerel‘ a scientific tow In the earl% rias telephene numbers e. ere not nee meter% and operators knew and ".rc expected to remember i ho all the subscribers were history in Seaforth A PIECE OF SEAFORTH HISTORY — Bell Canada employee Harold (Bud) Eyre of Brodhagen is proud as punch to be the owner, of this sign that used to identify the former Bell office in Seaforth. It was given to him by the.late John Cardno-the office was below Cardno's Hall According to Bell's phone history of Seaforth the first long distance phone call from Seaforth was placed by M. Y. McLean, editor of the Expositor to Mr. Holmes of the Clinton New Era. The date was Jan. 8. 1885. (Photo by Reg Badley) aadu ally, however, the telt phone gained in popular- ity in Se a fort h as progressive businessmen and residents fnund it a valuable aid in their business and social affairs. The Huron Expositor reported that by April 30, 1885, four more customers (Commercial Hotel; Mr. Broadfoot's Office; Mr, Joh" Beattie. residence: Mr. Wil- liam M Gray, residence) had been added. By the end of the- year there were twenty- seven telephones in service in Seaforth and vicinity. By 1902. when I.V. Fear. a druggist. succeeded Mr. Papst as local Bell Manager. the total number of tele- phones had risen to seventy. Four years later a 'long chstance' telephone which crovided clearer transmis- sion was installed in Mr. Fear's store where the tele- phone exchange was then located. Until April 1. 1910 tele- phone service had been restricted to a few hours each day. However, On that date. , 24-hour continuous service was inaugurated. That same year. Mr. Fear retired and E. Denroche took over the man- agerial reins. In May 1911 the Telephone Gazette (an in-house publi- cation of the Bell) announc- ed: "It is expected that the work of moving our exchange to the splendid new premises in the Cardn9 Block will be completedbefore the end of the month. Seaforth will then have orte of the most Com- modious and best -equipped telephone exchanges in this section of the country... J.J. Griffin was appointed manager for Seaforth in 1915, with headquarters in Stratford. from where he supervised the work of Sea- forth's local representatives MSS M.J. Habkirk (1918) and her successor: Miss LM. McCormack (1919- 22 1922). • Seaforth's 200th telephone was installed in 1920. Mrs. E.M. Cluff was local representative in 1939 (re- porting to Stratford manager 3.M. McIntosh) when the new common battery tele. phonesystem replaced the magneto one. This meant an end to the old crank style telephones. Subscribers merely had to lift the receiver to signal the operator. Mayor J.J. Cluff placed the first call over the new equipment. Following the Second World War. Seaforth, like many other communities ex- perienced an unprecedented expansion in telephone grow- th. In less than ten years the number of tetephones in usee in the Seaforth exchange jumped from 373 in 1945 to 753 in 1951. making it necessary to repeatedly en - tame facilities. Switchboard positions were added in the surtuner of 1951 and again in 1953. Land was purchased on Chant Street in November of 1962 and a building was erected to house dial equip- ment. The automatic dial systern went into operation cm November 14, 1964. Simu- ltaneously, Seaforth's 800 customers were introduced to Direct Distance Dialing (DDD) by which they -could place their oivri station -to - station tong distance calls. Seaforth had been one of the first communities M Canada to use the Strriwger switching system. a forerun- ner of the familiar dial system. The Stroveger sys- tem was first introduced in Canada in 1893 by the Automatic Telephone & Electric Company of Canada., Limited. Installations were made at Terrebonne in Que- bec and in Ontario at Sea - forth. Mitchell and Arnprior. The equipment was a failure. Many difficulties had still to be overcome before the system woufd be practicable. .As of December 31, 1980 there were 1,877 telephones in service in Seaforth, Ontar- io. Bell Canada Telephone Historical Collectioe February 1975 revise February 1982 able daily at 3:30,p.m. as well as morning updates at 8:30 a.m. This program will run seven days a week through Sunday September S. Reports this year will have a slightly different approach. Two sets of numbers will be reported daily. First the ac- tual vacancies will be given as of 3:30 p.m. and then a second number which is the estimated Vacancies for 8 p.m. The 8 p.m. estimated vacancy report should be useful to the camper. be Park npedhonbeynueamilbinears any Travel Information Centre. has its priorities straight. He said he understood the area United Way needs more money this year. Council has previously turned down the United Way's request for a grant. In other matters mom- mendations on county office hours and the freezing of sick leave credits were referred back to the administration committee. Blinshaed Township Reeve Ron Denham said it had been brought to his attention the recomtmendations were made without speaking to depart- ment heads. He said he isn't speaking against the recom- mendations, but thinks it is neglect on the part of council 6-61- to inform department heads before action is taken. The recommendations in- clude changing office hours effective Sept. 1. from 9 a.m. 10 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and staying open during lunch hours. The freezing of sick leave credits was ream- meteded effective Dec. 31, 1982 with no further accumu- lation and pay -backs to the employees to be arranged. Elma Township Reeve Glynn Coghlin agreed it is oply courteous to discuss changes with employees be fore they are made. -*Keep the lines of aim- munication with employees open." said Reeve Coghlin. The county will invite Perth County Archivist Jim Ander- son to its August session of county council. Mr. Anderson is being invited to report on the collection in the Stratford - Perth Archives and to con- duce a tour of the two warehouses where items are being stored. GRACE COMMUNITY CHURCH Hunan Centennial School BR1UCEFIELD, ONT. 482-4260, 56S-5341 and 236.4979 V.00 a m - Family Bible School 11 00 a.m - Speakee Bruce Cibb • Preaching tne Doctrines of Grace zwraArowoirr-Agreihn ,....,,,..__ , tartele %editeei---. _ in Area Churches First PRESBYTERIAN Church 59 Goderich St. W., Seaford. Re -v. T_A_A. Duke, 1111alater Mr & Carol Carter. Organist SUNDAY, JULY 18, 1982 11:15 - Joint Service of Worship in Northside United Church ALL ARE INVITED ST. THOMAS Anglican -Church Re's. James R. Broadfnat, B.A., 51.01v. • SUNDAY. JULY 18, 1982 6t8 Sunday after Trinity 10 a.m. - Morning Prayer Charles and Emma Friend -NORTHSIDE , United Church 54 Goderich Si. West. Seaforth SUNDAY,JULY 18.1982 1115 a -m. -Church Service and Nursery Rev. T.A.A. Duke will preach . Rev. J.G. Vanslyke. Minister Margaret Whitmore Audrey McLlwain Choir Director -Organist Jr. Choir 1..eader F ie CIISON TIHE FAMILY.. FILM SERIES Filn-o 2 SHAPING THE WILL WITHOUT BREAKING THE SPIRIT In this film Dr. Dobson sets up a check point system to help us learn creative, non physical forms of discipline. Sunday. July 18.1982 Time: 7:30 p.m. Seaforth District High School Sponsored for the community by BE1 REL BIBLE C1-1111201 Water Street, Egmondville, Ontario PASTOR ARCHIE ROBERTSON