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The Citizen, 1988-09-07, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 7, 1988. Opinion 40 years of service The volunteer firemen of our area fire departments are the unsung heroes of our communities, giving their time and at times risking their lives to serve their neighbours. They all deserve credit for their work but seldom do we take time to say thanks. But sometimes even more gratitude needs to be shown. This week Blyth Fire Chief Irvin Bowes retired after 40 years of service, 30 of it as chief. The years of service would be enough but the accomplishments of the department under his leadership make his retirement even more notable. The Blyth department, through the Blyth and District Fire Area covers one of the largest areas of any department in the county. Blyth, Hullett, McKillop, Morris, East Wawanosh and West Wawanosh all depend on the department for at least part of their fire coverage. The problems of covering such a large rural area led Chief Bowes to be a pioneer in many areas of rural fire fighting. The Blyth department was a leader in the use of tanker trucks to increase the water supply to rural fires from the small supply the pumper trucks were able to carry. It means that today firemen can hope to save buildings in areas without fire hydrants that once they would have been forced to watch burn for lack of water. Under Chief Bowes the Blyth department also pioneered the use of two-way radio communications making it much more efficient in getting to the right place at the right time and getting help when needed. More recently, the Blyth department has also been one of the departments to realize that auto accidents and other medical emergencies are becoming a bigger part of their work and to buy extrication equipment, a rescue van and to train people in the needed skills. It’s notable, too, that while some larger communities have had so much trouble getting enough volunteer firemen to keep their departments equipped that they’ve had to turn to incentives to get people to work weekends, Chief Bowes’ department has no problem getting a full complement of staff. The Chief has served the people of a wide area of north Huron well. We can only say thanks and wish him a happy retirement. Don't push it Understandibly, the idea that after 150 years the County of Huron County Council might decide to move the county seat out of Goderich to its Huronview site near Clinton would upset the town of Goderich. Not only is prestige involved but many well-paid jobs would also leave Goderich with such a move. But if Goderich is wise, it will keep to a minimum speeches like that delivered to county council Thursday by Mayor Eileen Palmer. She reprimanded the councillors for taking too narrow a scope in the study it had ordered into the suitability of renovating Huronview into offices and asked that a consulting company be hired to examine all the ramifications of a move to Huronview. But the mayor really set teeth on edge when she told cou ncillors that one of the duties was to promote industry in the county and that the move to Clinton would ‘ ‘fragment an existing viable industry”. Did she mean that moving this “industry” to Clinton would m^an moving it out of the county? Or was she saying that a job elsewhere in the county wasn’t worth as much as a job in Goderich. It smacked of the kind of attitude one sometimes gets from Goderich that civilization stops at the edge of Goderich and doesn’t pick up again until you hit London or Kitchener. Let’s face it, the odds of the offices moving to Clinton are not large. History isonGoderich’ssideand many councillors wouldn’t want to vote against 150 years of tradition. Moreover, as Goderich town councillor Bill Clifford pointed out, the county staff live mostly in Goderich. Most of them won’t be happy about having to move or make the extra drive, and they will be exerting their own pressures within the county structure to prevent the move. For council to make the move against all these pressures would require a real demonstration that the Huronview site was immensely better than the present Goderich location. The one thing that could tip the balance would be more demonstrations of the kind of attitude from Goderich that has given it the reputation as the hogtown of Huron. Sometimes, Mayor Palmer, the less said the better. The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0 Phone 523-4792 Sunny days Mabel’s Grill 5 There are people who will tell you that the important decisions in town are made down at the town hall. People in the know, however know that the real debates, the real wisdom reside down at Mabel's Grill where the greatest minds in the town [if not in the country'] gather for morningcoffee break, otherwise known as the Round Table Debating and Fili­ bustering Society. Since not just everyone can partake of these deliberations we will report the activities from lime to time. MONDAY: Hauk Stokes was say­ ing this morning that he’s so sick of hearing about strikes. If it isn’t bus drivers it’s Bell technicians; if it isn’t dock workers it’s railway people. Now another union in the post office that nobody ever heard of is predicting the mail will be “ in a shambles” by the end of the week because the machines they fix will break down. ‘‘But will anybody know the difference?” Ward Black said. ‘‘It does get awfully tiring,” Julia Flint said. ‘‘Sometimes I just wish I could get away from it all like that family from Toronto that just got back from a five-year, round- the-world cruise.” “Too bad we couldn’t send the postal workers on a cruise that took five years. Maybe the mail would move faster,” Ward said. Hank said he was just thinking that we should have sent the mail with the family on their boat. It might have got there faster. Yeh, said Ward, but if they ever started touching the mail they’d want paid lunch hours too. TUESDAY: Tim O’Grady was saying Ed Broadbent must feel pretty important with the National Citizens Coalition starting a $500,000 campaign to talk about howdangerous he is. “After all when the Mafia wants to put a hit on a man, they can buy a contract for only 10 grand.” Julia said she thought if anyone was dangerous it was the National Citizens Coalition. “I don’t know,” Ward said. ‘‘Somebody’s got to speak the truth about these things.” Tim said the Coalition might be the best thing that could happen to Mr. Broadbent and the NDP. ‘‘First of all their campaign is getting a lot of sympathy for Mr. Broadbent who looks like even more the underdog than usual.” Second, the Coalition gave a $10,000 prize to Trade Minister John Crosbie for ‘‘promoting the values of economic and political freedom”. Mr. Crosbie says he’s going to use the money in his election campaign. ‘‘Getting ‘shot from the lip’ Crosbie back into the Commons might be enough to drive the whole country to vote NDP next election out.” WEDNESDAY: Julia was reading about an article in Pravda, where the Soviets are blaming the whole cold war on the Americans. ‘‘Great, said Hank, “lean see it now. The Americans will argue back it was the Soviets who caused the whole thing then the Soviets will argue back and then the Americans and the first thing you know we’ll have an international crisis again.” Continued on Page 17 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario, by North Huron Publishing Company Inc Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $17 OO/yr ($38 00 Foreign) Advertising is acceptedon the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited Advertising Deadlines Monday, 2pm - Brussels, Monday, 4pm - Blyth We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs Contents of Fhe Citizen are S Copyright Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Editor& Publisher, Keith Roulston Advertising Manager, Dave Williams Production Manager, Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 696b