The Exeter Times-Advocate, 1976-03-11, Page 1Support grows to keep
Clinton hospital open
The drama of the Clinton
Hospital continued to unfold this
week as the hospital gathered
support from area groups and
hospitals and Ontario Liberal
leader Dr. Stuart Smith.
While support continued to
come in for the hospital, two
county units, in Wingham and the
Alexandra Marine and General
Hospital in Goderich decided to
reject a bed cutting idea that was
accepted by other county
hospitals.
They suggest that rather then
cut beds, 20 beds be transferred
from the defunct Goderich
Psychiatric Hospital to Clinton.
The plan met with angry
protests from the Clinton com-
munity and from Goderich coun-
cil who drafted a motion at a
meeting Monday night calling on
Alexandra Marine and General
to do everything it could to help
Clinton, including cutting hack
beds.
Elmer Taylor, administrator
for South Huron Hospital in Ex-
eter, said the board of directors
for the hospital is "opposed to
the closure" and is "willing to
look at the bed situation."
"We will support it to the ex-
tent we can" said Taylor, who
said they have not looked at the
possible overload if Clinton is
closed.
The Huron County Federation
of Agriculture decided to ap-
proach rural councils in an effort
to muster support for the
hospital.
The Federation decided to take
this course of action at a meeting
held in Clinton Saturday.
The meeting was attended by
Liberal MPPs Murray Gaunt
and Jack Riddell, who endorsed
the hospital and said that if the
county as a whole can come up
with the required savings then
Clinton can be saved,
Joe Murphy, Clinton hospital
board member said that Exeter
Please turn to page 3
BLOOD DONOR Deb Drew of Oshawa, a student at CCAT, donates blood at the clinic held in Huron Park
Monday afternoon. This is not the first time Deb has given blood, a process she claims is painless, The clinic
took in about 100 to 125 pints, below the expected minimum of 150, photo by Youngs,
*THIS WAS THE SCENE through the back door of the T-A last Wednesday morning. It was typical as the
whole area was crippled by the worst ice storm in years, T-A photo
One Hundred and Third Year
qhe exeferZmes-Abuccafe
Price Per Copy 25 Cents EXETER, ONTARIO, MARCH 11, 1976
Squirts trip in shambles as
executive moves to cancel
By FRED YOUNGS
The Exeter Centennial Soccer
Club all but nailed the coffin shut
on the Exeter Squirt team's trip
to England in a special executive
meeting held Tuesday night at
•
The club decided to cancel the
trip pending parental approval of
the decision. The executive of the
club will inform the parents of the
reasons behind the cancellation
at a meeting Wednesday, March
10,
Should the parents decide to go
ahead and continue with plans for
the trip, the executive has set a
deadline of March 30 for the
parents and fund raising corn-
mittee to have $4,000 in the bank.
The club has presently raised;;„
$1,700; $1,000 coming in from a .
government grant.
The club is now looking at
$5,000 to send the squirts to
England for a ten day tour, up
from the original $4,000.
The accommodations and flight
plans fell into shambles through a
series of breaches in protocol and
lack of communication between
VOLUNTEER DISHWASHER — Grace Farquhar cleans up after the
hot meal that was served at the Legion during the first days of the
black out. 50 meals were shipped out to the hospital and served free to
senior citizens. photo by Youngs,
RAP joins clean up
the Centennial Club and the
North American Junior Soccer
Association, a United States
based organization who awarded
the Squirts the tour,
The NAJSA had originally
offered the squirts a 14 day
package tour that would allow
them the trip to England and
their games there for $3,400.
Parents of the 14 players who
were to go felt a trip of that
duration would be too long for the
youngsters and opted for a 10 day
trip that would be arranged
through Anglo Soccer
Promotions who usually run the
trips for the NAJSA.
Anglo Soccer Promotions of-
fered a ten day trip, including
accommodations which they
would arrange fat slightly more
than $3,500. The remainder of the
money that had to be raised was
for the extra insurance that RAP
required the coaches to carry.
In a letter sent to club president
Damian Solomon dated
November 14, it was said that the
School Boys Football Association
in England would be making the
arrangements for ac-
WATERS-RISING — This horse stands on a "new" island in
overflowed the banks of the Ausable River.
the middle of the high waters that have
photo by Youngs.
No arena, no campers
for May weekend
RAP employees have been
aiding Works Department crews
and the PUC in repair and clean
up operations after last week's
disastrous storm.
RAP Resources Manager Alvin
Willard said that his employees
had been working with the other
crews in an effort to clean up the
town which has been littered with
branches and fallen limbs.
The combined crews have been
using a chipper, which Willard
thought was a slow process to
clean the streets. Limbs of
medium size are fed into the
chipper and it chews them into
small pieces that can be disposed
of.
The arrangement for payment
of hours is being worked on a
straight "trade off" said Willard
to RAP member Dave Zyluk who
questioned him about payment of
the RAP employees.
Willard said that his men keep
track of the hours that they work
for the other departments. Their
totals are compared to men from
the other departments that
Willard claims he will need to
help clean up the parks and
prepare them for the summer. He
said if the gap is too wide, then
one of the departments will he
billed, but if it is a negligible
amount of hours then the trade
off system will be used.
Willard said that RAP will
probably need the use of the
PUC's aerial bucket truck to
clear broken limbs from the tops
of the trees. He also said that the
Works Department has been
lending him men on a trade basis
to help in the preparation of the
parks in Exeter.
Willard and his employees
have their work cut out for them
in the next six weeks as they have
to prepare the parks in Exeter for
the summer months.
Cable TV
coming soon
The long-awaited arrival of
cable television service could
become a reality for residents of
Exeter next week.
Ron McIntosh, spokesman for
Ex-Cen Cablevision informed the
Times-Advocate that the 10
channel service could have been
turned on sooner but electrical
service was not available to the
antenna site.
cornmodation for the teams.
At no time during preparations
for the trip, all of which were
handled predominantly in--
dependent of the NAJSA, was it
stated that to qualify for
prearranged accommodations
the Centennial Club would have
to use NAJSA approved tours,
which their April date was not,
The NAJSA had little com-
munication with the Centennial
Club, preferring instead to work
on a sporadic basis with Squirt
coach Dave Silcock.
Silcock, who arranged the
games to be played during a,
vacation in England this past
summer, said that'Anglo Soccer
Promotions did not have "a good
rating" and that 90 percent of
their bookings were carried out
with soccer teams from the USA.
Solomon received a letter from
Anglo Soccer Promotions, who
took a 22,5 percent commission
rate on the proposed trip,
referring to a letter he sup-
posedly received on November 3,
1975, Solomon claims that he
received no letter from the
company,
John Green of the NAJSA sent
a letter to the Times-Advocate,
dated March 4, 1976, saying that
the Centennial Club had made
"certain false statements to the
mass media" about the tour costs
and the clubs placing in NAJSA
standings last year.
The letter arises from a London
Radio Station!s broadcast of
Wednesday, March 3. The in-
accuracies in the CFPL broad-
cast were picked up by a Detroit
station and summarily a Detroit
paper, which brought it to the
attention of the NAJSA, Area 16.
Solomon said that the in-
accuracies in the report, which
he did not elaborate on, stemmed
from the announcer and not from
the club's release. He said that
the mistakes "were honest
mistakes" because the broadcast
was read in a hurry, March 3
was the day that the power went
out in the Huron Middlesex area.
Solomon said that "off the top
of my head" he couldn't recall
Please turn to page 3
HIGH WATER poured through the Morrison Dam Thursday, as the Ausable River rose due to melting snow
and rain, Above, Conservation Officer Ted Jones does a check on the water level at the darn, T-A photo.
center would be too far from the
camp grounds.
RAP director Jim McKinlay
said that RAP had a "moral
obligation" to help the campers
find an alternative site for their
festival,
He suggested the Huron Park
air strip, but Jack Malone,
manager of the Ontario
Development Corporation said
that there would be difficulties in
obtaining it because the air strip
is still considered a public one
and use for any other purpose has
to be cleared with the Ministry of
Transportation.
Other locations suggested for
the event were St. Marys,
Seaforth, Goderich and Zurich,
Many RAP members con-
sidered Zurich to be one of the
better sites because of the
availability of the fair grounds,
arena and Crystal Palace.
McKinlay said he anticipated
no problems with the contractual
obligations with the group. He
feels that because the Ministry of
Labor closed the building, they
would not be liable for a breach of
contract suit.
nag ......... • ...wr;i .
The closing of the arena is not
only affecting the residents of
Exeter as the The Ontario
Provincial Association of Hikers
and Campers are going to have to
look elsewhere for facilities to
hold their 1976 camp out May 22.
The group had planned to rent
the fair grounds and the arena
from RAP for $1,000 but the
closure of the arena has left them
without a facility in which to hold
their dance.
RAP director Jim McKinlay
said that he investigated the
possibilities of them using the
high school gymnasiums to hold
their dance or the recreation
center at Huron Park,
The high school does not offer
enough washroom facilities to
house the number of people ex-
pected to turn out and the Huron
Park complex is too far away to
allow . the participants to keep an
eye on their children.
The campers police them-
selves, often leaving their
children asleep while they are at
the dance, but going back to
check on them. The Huron Park
V
People and events
•
c
TAKE OUT DINNER is planned for April 11 by the ladies of
Coven Presbyterian Church.
ELMORE BOOMER, counsellor for Information South Huron
and columnist for the Times-Advocate has accepted a position
with the Retardation Resource Centre, St. Lawrence Centre in
Brockville, Mr, Boomer begins his new duties there March 29,
SEVERAL HENSALL firms have joined together in this week's
Times-Advocate to promote their town, Daisy Days was
chosen as the theme to coincide with the opening of Hensall
Flowers, the newest business in town,
AREA FARMERS are invited to spend a day with Cooks on
March 18 at the Kirkton-Woodharit Community Centre or
March 23 at the Pineridge Chalet. Topics of current interest to
farmers will be presented.
THE ICE IN THE ARENA has started to melt, possibly for the
final time, as the ice making plant was turned off when it was
closed. It is gone around the center ice area, with only part of
it left along the boards.
RAP FINALLY DECIDED on its financial chairman for the
year, when they elected Dave Zyluk in a dosed ballot Mon-
day night. A BROKEN TREE dips its branches in the rushing water that poured
storm, Branches littered the banks on either side.
ASH WEDNESDAY Ash Wednesday ceremonies at Precious 4lood School were held Friday after the
blackout. Chris Van Gerwen receives the ashes from Father John Mooney. photo by Youngs, over Exeter dam after lost week's
I-A photo. •
,1
. • .
First the storm, then floods
force massive clean up
',..•;.".'VI-••••:•;• •