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The Exeter Times-Advocate, 1976-10-28, Page 4Judging from the dire consequences be- ing cited by some people over the decision to shorten Exeter's race track, council made a most unfortunate decision last week. Indications are that Exeter Public School will have to close. After all, several youngsters from the school used the track periodically for physical education exer- cises and of course there's no way they can run on a three-eighths mile track. No, the track wasn't an absolute necessity for their program, but following the theory used by some organizations, that is hardly a consideration. Some prime supporters of the rodeo have suggested the shortening of the track will kill that event, and the parallel between their use of the track is about the same as the use made of the facility by the public school. There has even been a suggestion that the Exetez: fair will fold up because of the decision reached. There's little credibility in that argument either, because regardless of what site was chosen for the recreation centre, the amount of land con- sumed is the same. There's a story about an Indian who had a blanket that was too short. His solution was to cut one end off and sew,it on the other. In effect, of course, he gained nothing or lost nothing! And that surely is the situation facing most people who will use the community park when the new receation centre is com- pleted. There is one group, and one group only, who will suffer because of the decision reached last week and that group is the Ex- eter Turf Club. They will still have an exer- cise track, but the facility will not be suitable for regular racing events. There will be little change for any other organization with the exception that the new recreation centre will consume more land than the existing arena. It will primarily mean they will have to reorganize the use of the balance of the land to stage their events. What the fair may suffer in arranging outdoor exhibits will be more than gained for the indoor displays, program and dance in the new rec centre and that is, of course, the most profitable and patronized part of their event anyway. The kids at Exeter Public School will probably be able to cope with the new arrangement. Hopefully other people will be able to show equally mature wisdom. Worthy project With many communities lacking arena facilities this winter, there has been con- cern expressed about the lack of recreation for youngsters in the various communities. At a recent RAP meeting, some suggestion was made that plans should be undertaken to provide transportation for children in Exeter to attend public skating sessions in other arenas. Down in Strathroy, the Lions Club have undertaken such a program. They are providing a bus to take children to Mt. Brydges and are even going as far as hay- ing a Lion act as chaperone on each of those trips. With Exeter's RAP committee in no financial position to undertake a similar project here, perhaps one of the service clubs would be interested in assisting. Readers may be interested in knowing that the lack of ice facilities in 8xeter is apparently keeping some kids out of hockey. Minor hockey registration is about 120 this year, compared to approximately 185 last season. The biggest drop is in the , youngest group, where only 14 have registered, compared to over 30 last year. Fill those boxes Hallowe'en is a time for fun and excite- ment Or Canasligyz, Children, as, they go from house to house, collecting candies and calling-"Shellout, Shellout, the witches are out", or whatever kids call in your neighbourhood at Hallowe'en. But it is also a time for caring and sharing with destitute children around the world, through UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. Millions of the world's children live in conditions which we could not even imagine. An Italian jour- nalist, Virgilio Lille, gives a first hand description of the plight of many of these children, in the following article: "Throughout my life I have witnessed devastation, slaughter, epidemics, fires, revolutions, wars and floods. But what struck me most was children's hunger. Hungry children are identical in Asia, Africa and Latin America ; they all have the same big heads of hollow bone, the same frail and flabby necks of the hanged, the same thin chests of monkey skeletons, the same scrap-iron feet and hands, the same skin covered with red, purple, yellow pustules, the same drum-shaped bellies, ready to burst; the same enormous eyes, full of a mournful seriousness that flames the universe — they are the curse of crea- tion, the appalling fault of the "laziness of heart" of the developed peoples and coun- tries and they can, with amazing power, re- mind the developed countries of the ex- istence of starving people, in particular, of starving children, all over the world". A few coins in the orange and black UNICEF boxes which will be at your door soon can do so much. Six cents buys penicillin to cure infections, twenty-seven cents buys a thermometer which could save a child's life — so little for us but so much for them! Notes of unimportance `fie ex ele m ate SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A. CLASS 'A' and ABC Published by J. W. Eedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor Bill Batten Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Plant Manager — Jim Scott Composition Manager Harry DeVries Business Manager •-- Did( Jongkind Phone 235.1331 Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 Paid in Advance Circulation September 30, 1975 5,420 Canada $9.00 Per Year; USA $11,00 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Reviewing the issue Berries or prunes? "Good news, Margaret :: nobody deserted me today derstanding froin the members of our clubs. "They say they love purity and virtue yet we find them afraid to stand up and be counted over moral issues of the day. And so on down the list. The world expects one thing and gets something else, There is a story that one day Francis of Assisi was wandering through a small Italian village. Suddenly, a humble peasant came out from behind a hedge, tugged at his sleeve and said, "Good Master, I pray thee, be as good as we think you are!" The Church, or Christian community is being attacked in unprecedented fury these days. But perhaps underlying this furious censorship there is a strong longing to see Christians rise up and start to behave like they're supposed to. To be what they are, The trouble is often many of us go through life play-acting the part of the Christian. We say one thing and do the other. We talk about honesty and practice dishonesty in hundreds of ways. We speak about feeding the poor, yet many Christians are caught up in the greed of our times as much and maybe more than those outside the churches. The world doesn't want Sub- stitutions. It wants the real thing. Christ wants the real thing, too. He wants His people to be strawberries, not prunes. It's not always easy. There will be droughts in our lives, times of discouragement, sorrow, disappointments,criticism and hardship. The world looks at us to see how we react to these situations. It wants to see us be what we say we are. It wants to see Hope, Joy, Love and Victory. When it looks for Strawberries the last thing it wants to find is Prunes. A few fall notes of superlative unimportance. My elder grand- son, Pokey, is now, at two and a half years, in the pre- Kindergarten Class at the day- care centre he attends. He gets very annoyed when someone, needling, says: "Oh, you're in the Senior Toddlers' class now." With a curl of the lip, he retorts vehemently, "No! I in pre-Kindergarten," Even at that age, there's an immense covern with status. To the Senior ToddlerS, the Junior Toddlers are just punks. To the pre- Kindergarteners, the Senior Toddlers are practically babies, You remember how it was? If you were in Grade 9 at school, it was the supreme insult if someone asked if you were in Grade 8, back with all those little kids. It was the same in the service. When you joined you were a raw, ignorant rookie. In six months, you were.looking with tolerant scorn at the new recruits. When you finally got your wings, you looked down from Olympus at those mere children who were starting their training, Then you went overseas, and were suddenly a raw, ignorant rookie again, After operational training, which ensured that you were a dashing fighter pilot, you were posted to a squadron, and learned to your dismay that you were just a "sprog," the term for a raw, ignorant rookie. Same thing as a prisoner of war. You'd just been through a fairly traumatic experience, and a very dramatic one, being shot down, Captured, perhaps being beaten up. You got to a prison camp, and were looked at with the utmost contempt by old- timers (of perhaps 23) who had been shot down in such exotic places as Crete or Yugoslavia or Norway, and had been "in the bag" for three or four years. You felt like a five-year-old on his first day at school. Back to Poke. At day-care, — Please turn to Page 5 Amalgamated 1924 We've never considered the job of a daily newspaper reporter to be envied, considering the fact that meeting a weekly deadline is difficult enough at most times. However, for the past two or three weeks it has become abundantly clear that the T-A should be coming out daily because what we rgport from a meeting one night has been drastically changed by the time we get a story done on a meeting the following night. It gets extremely confusing for all concerned! However, from a newspaper standpoint, the past couple of weeks have provided an abun- dance of good news copy. It's far from some of the other mundane stuff that falls within our realm of reporting. But in many ways it is very sad to sit and watch the proceedings and hear some of the name- calling and stupid arguments that are presented. Too few people can keep on the track (no pun intended) of the topic at hand and it has indeed been fortunate that council members have not allowed themselves to dredge up some ammunition of their own to toss back at their attackers. True, they've brought some of the problems on themselves, but having sat in on their meetings in the past months and been fully aware of their conscientious deliberations, we sympathize with them most sincerely. Given the information they had to work with, they never really strayed too far off 'base when one considers the community as a whole, and obviously that is their prime concern. Take nine other people from the community who are not directly or passionately involved on either side of the issue, and we'd be willing to bet those nine people would reach the same majority decision as the present members. Let's consider the facts with which they had to make their decision. First of all, they had reports from a committee which had worked on the rec centre for well over two years. These weren't people who could be termed irresponsible in any sense of the imagination. They're residents of this town and area who wanted to do what was best for the community in which they live. The committee travelled to other centres and talked to various experts in a real effort to come up with a facility which would serve the community in the best possible manner. They looked at todays needs, and similar to any clear-thinking group, they looked at the prospective needs of the future. They presented their reports to council and backed up their opinions with facts. They solicited public. participation cn many occasions, The one and only bone of contention was the decision to use a portion of the existing race track for the rec centre. The "committee and council looked at that situation very closely and it was not dismissed as quickly as some would have us believe. But again, let's look at the facts with which the committee and council had to work, First of all, the track had been used for horse races about twice in the past 14 years, once in conjunction with the fall fair and once with the Exeter centennial, The latter was a complete flop and the fall fair event was Ob- viously nothing which sets hearts beating because it was not tried the following year, In the past few years, the use of the track has varied greatly, Basically, it has been used by only a handful of local horse Owners, some of whom were continually in arrears in their rent for use of the horse barn. That topic has been aired frequently at RAP meetings in recent years. An objection over the loss of the track was raised early in the discussion stage by a local horseman. However, he chose to charge that the conclusion was cut and dried and walked Out of the public meeeting which was in progress, rather than continue his plea. What has to be remembered is the fact that council members were making decisions about the rec centre last spring and through the early summer. The mounting opposition from the Exeter Turf Club was not organized until August 7. On that date, the club was re-organized, but there was still no indication given council for some time that there were so many people in the community interested in saving the track. To our knowledge the first official representation by the Turf Club to council came at a meeting of the latter on July 22 when the three groups (rodeo, fair, turf) sent letters and made personal appearances to voice their concern. Representing the race horse enthusiasts at that time was Jack Darling and he later told council that he felt the three-eights mile track reached in a compromise would be just fine. It turned out later that the Turf Club were not in agreement with his remarks, but how were councillors to know that when in fact the new turf club had not even been formed and there was no apparent centralized voice. Given all these factors, how would a normal, uninvolved citizen of the community • vote? It's utter folly to brand members of the rec centre committee or council with terms such as steam-rolling, misrepresentation, Hitler tactics, etc. In fact the only undemocratic thing that was involved during the entire deliberations was the fact that 'the people of this community failed to attend the meetings to hear the reports first-hand. Silence, after all, does mean consent in most situations of that nature! It was August 30 when council approved the calling of tenders and from that point on they were 30 Years Ago Mr. Frank Taylor's horse, Midnight Express, was entered in the 2.22 pace for a purse of $400 at ,Dufferin Park, Monday. Mid- night Express placed 12th, 1st and 2nd, Rev. Arthur and Mrs. Page of Owen 'Sound were the guests of Mrs. D. A. Anderson Sunday and Monday and renewed many old acquaintances in Exeter, Mr. Albert Morlock of Crediton is laid up with an injured foot. While moving some heavy machinery Monday, it fell on one of his feet crushing some of the bones. 20 Years Ago At the Sunday service in James St, United Church, Mrs. M, C. Fletcher and her Sunday School class"Learnersof God" provided the program which took the form of a Bible quiz, Friends and neighbors gathered Saturday evening for a farewell party for Mr. & Mrs, Doug Smith. The Smiths left for Ridgetown this Week where Doug will take up his duties as recreational director and arena manager. Fifty-one Grade IX boys toured Ridgetown Agricultural School last Friday, . . Marg? . .Yoo-hoo! " quickly reaching the point of no return. In fact, opinions expressed indicate that any drastic change in direction from that point on was going to result in sizeable increases to the rec centre price and lengthy delays in the project. Petitions, passionate pleas and the like were, in effect, too late. But one of the major factors in the final decision was un- doubtedly the intemperate opinions expressed by some of the -proponents for saving 'the track. To be termed a Hitler or communist does little but make people dig in their heels and oppose even more strenuously a plea to change their minds. After alt,, to call a man a liar and then expect that same man to bend over backwards to join your cause is beyond the realm of reason. To suggest that it is going to cost minor hockey players $200 each to play hockey in the new centre does nothing but damage your credibility. To suggest that the aim of that same hockey program is to turn out professional players elicits opinions that the use of a race track is even more of a com- mercial venture. There is an obvious lesson to be learned and that is that pressure groups should choose carefully those whom they would have speak for them so common sense will prevail. We must never lose sight of the fact that people have a right to fight for what they want, as long as that fight is conducted within proper legal and moral bounds. That is one of our basic freedoms. To over-step those bounds does little but damage the cause for which one is fighting, and open wounds that take a long time to heal. But the true worth of a person or group is illuminated best through the manner in which they can accept defeat or victory. Hopefully the conflict can be quickly forgotten and everyone will move ahead to continue the endeavours which make this community a thriving spot in which to live work and play. 15 Years Ago Fire destroyed Jerome Denomme's barn and its entire contents Friday evening. Mr. Denomme lives at RR 2, Dash- wood. William Cann, RR 1 Hensall, was elected chairman of the board of directors for the Exeter Curling Club Limited, November 1. Mr. & Mrs. Wallace Becker sold the Dashwood Locker Ser- vice to Mr. & Mrs. Hugh Boyle of Willowdale, 5 Years Ago Damage has been estimated at between $5,000 and,; to the new car wash, irt.4 gxeter which was extensiv,e1Wannaged by the gusting winds wtffeh hit. the area Tuesday morning. In Hensall diited Church Sunday morning' a special joint service was conducted by MI'S. Earl Rowe, president of Hensall UCW, assisted by Mrs. Mussel Brock, president of the Chiselhurst UCW, For the sebond consecutive year Brian Kipfer of Dashwood has won the grand championship at the Mount Forest Go-Cart Raceway. Perhaps you've heard about the congregation that was planning to hold the best Strawberry Supper ever, They worked on it for weeks, making colorful posters and advertising far and wide this superlative strawberry festival. They went out and sold tickets by the hundreds and people for miles around were eagerly waiting for the night of the fabulous meal. Unfortunately, there was a drought which resulted in a failure of the strawberry crop. But, the advertising had been done, the tickets had been sold, and the supper must go on. When the patrons arrived, their, mouths watering and set for juicy strawberries, they were met with a sign which. read, "Due to the failure of the strawberry crop, we are serving prunes instead. What a let down. And what a let down many people get when they look closely at our churches, They observe our advertisements, they look at our banners, their appetites are. whetted. "My," they say, "these' Christians must be a bowl of strawberries!" Then, taking a closer look, they often find to their dismay a saucer of dried up prunes. Then they push it aside sighing wistfully, "If only they could be what they say they are. "They say they are loving yet we seldom find real caring among them. "They say they are tolerant but they are not as tolerant as the people we meet in the cocktail lounge. "They say they are peacemakers, yet we find them fighting amongst themselves over doctrines and creeds. "They say they are humble, and we often find them stiff necked and proud. "They say they are sym- pathetic, yet we find more un- proposed location of the South Huron Recreation Centre on the Exeter Race Track on September 30, 1976. At a meeting ,a few nights later, with Exeter Council and the three opposing groups, Exeter Council agreed to consider to purchase land, to the east of the present grounds. If the land was available, move one half mile race track farther east, move horse barn etc. On the belief that the differences could be worked out, the writ against the Town of Exeter was dropped. Three days later at another meeting the three groups were told by Council, it was all off. It was a big trap. Two more meetings, a Week ago last Monday and Tuesday night were useless. Both nights there was over one hundred people in attendance. Monday's night meeting, resulted in Council agreeing to re-measure grounds, on Tuesday afternoon with the opposing groups, Yet once again they went behind our backs. They sent qualified per- sonnel to measure it by flashlight, Monday night after the meeting, Tuesday nights meeting, the Exeter Council was asked to hold the meeting at the High School, One of the couneillors answered this request le‘why should we leave our softseats at the Council Chambers.r. This was said to taxpayers of Exeter, because of the groups attending this meeting 70 percent were Exeter Taxpayers, 30 percent from surrounding townships, At this final meeting some members of Council made fun and ridiculed the spokesmen for the groups. The whole meeting was a big joker" The result of the final meeting Exeter Council voted to go ahead, build the complex on the proposed site. This vote doomed the half mile race track in Exeter. Exeter Reeve, Derry Boyle, stated to a horseman, that this will all be forgotten in a couple of years. But remember the following if sufficient funds are not raised to pay for the Complex, Exeter taxpayers will be debentured. Also, the South Huron Recreation Complex must have sufficient support from 'all the residents of Exeter and surrounding townships to operate this Complex once it is built. Will it receive the support? Or will the Complex become a White Elephant in future years? Time will tell! Another statement made in last week's Times Advocate issue was 100 percent true, there are no winners, only losers. Sincerely yours, Helen Preszcator * * * Dear Editor: This year, the people of Ontario will spend an estimated $7.5 billion on all forms of energy. In short, we've been spending about $900 annually for every man, woman and child in the Province on energy.. Up to 20 percent _of that could be saved through properly main- tained ; vehicles, better driving habits', more careful con- sumption practices and properly insulated homes. Through con- servation we could reduce the rate of growth of overall energy costs dramatically. The Ontario Government has proclaimed the first week of November Energy Conservation Week in order to increase public awareness of the need to con- serve energy. An increased public awareness Should stimilate people to take steps to reduce their energy bills this winter, We hope that the saving that can be made will ultimately add up to a billion dollar reduction in the Province's overall energy bill by 1980. I would like to invite your readers to write to you and share their own reasons on how energy conservation can be achieved in everyday situations. I hope,that during Energy Conservaion Week you will publish some of the best ideas your readers have on energy conservation for personal and community benefit, Dennis R. Timbrell Ontario Minister of Energy Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Dear Editor: In regard to the South Huron Complex site • at the Exeter Community Park, last week's issue in the Times Advocate stated that the Complex was in the planning stage for the past three years. I don't seem to remember, any knowledge being published in the Times Advocate before a year ago last summer. A question- naire was circulated last fall or early winter, on the proposed complex. Why was this not sent to all taxpapers of Exeter? Yet this questionnaire .was circulated to S.H.D.H.S., students. One of the questions on the questionnaire was "Do you wish the present half mile race track at the Exeter Community Park to remain? Last week's issue of the Times Advocate also states that anyone going to the meetings were heard. At the meeting in May at the S.H.D.H.S. objection of removing the half mile race track was raised, also heard, but that is all, we were laughed at. There has been numerous meetings between Exeter Council, Exeter Agric. Society, Exeter Turf Club and Exeter Rodeo Assoc. to try to come to an agreement to save the half mile track. These meetings were a waste of time, as the site for the complex was chosen in June, it was not going to be changed. A writ was served to the Town of Exeter on behalf of the three local groups opposing the No change for most •