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The Lucknow Sentinel, 1988-02-10, Page 1CELEBRATE IN 1988 LUCKNOW'S 130th CELEBRATION JUNE 30 • JULY 3, 1988 PUBLISHED IN LUCKNOW NTARIO eesda Febru 40C PER COPY Lucknow Fire Dept. looks for donations Even if you've never been the.victim of a fire, everyone will agree that local firefighters are valued and necessary members of the community. They receive little thanks for their efforts and they cer- tainly don't become firemen for the money. The Lucknow and District Fire Depart- ment has undertaken a project recently that will eventually expand their training program, make them better prepared to aid when disaster strikes, and become an educational tool to be used in conjunction with the local schools and they need our help. The project includes the acquisition of a good, used color television and a VCR, and to complete the project, the firemen are appealing to the public for donations. Peter Steer has undertaken the position of Training Officer for the local depart- ment and is spearheading this campaign. Mr. Steer explains that special training tapes are available from the Ontario Fire Marshall's Office and, with the right. equipment to view the tapes, he feels they would be invaluable to the department and to the community at large. "There is always new equipment and new techniques being developed in firefighting," said Steer, "and it is often hard to keep up with these developments. By having use of a VCR and a television, we would possess the best way to trian our guys...except, of course, for hands-on. training, and we'd rather not wait until that hfippens." In addition to having the video tapes on hand for the local firefighters, they could be used for educational purposes at the community schools. "Keep in mind that we aren't asking for this equipment so we can sit around the fire hall and watch movies," added Steer. "The equipment would be used for training and informational purposes." Fire Chief Bud Hamilton explains that school groups often tour the fire hall and the availablity of such tapes would make the tours more complete. "Right now we don't have the facilities to show the training tapes that are available from the Fire Marshall," said Hamilton in an interview with the Sentinel. "If we had a television and a VCR, we could show the films to visiting school groups as well as use them ourselves. It would really help, that's for sure." Tape library The tapes that are available from the Ontario Fire Marshall are given free of charge and it is hoped, says Steer, that they can be recorded and kept on file to form a local video library of firefighting techniques. "A video library would be most us.efull," said Steer. �"It would help in public awareness 'essions . that we often hold, such as the one next Monday at the United Church. They ,would be handy for the public to use and the better trained we are, the better off everyone will be." While Mr. Steer,and the rest of the local fire,department feel this equipment is very necessary, they don't feel the tax payers should be burdened with the expense, hence, such capital as these items would require hasn't been included in the depart- ment's budget. "Basically, we're looking to the public and local service clubs to help us come up with the money we'll need," said Steer. He added that if anyone has a colour - television set or a VCR they would con- sider selling, or even donating, they should contact him as soon as possible. "We don't foresee any problem in get- ting this equipment. It's just a matter of letting the community know what it is we need and why," said Steer. The Lucknow and District Fire Depart- ment serves the third largest area in all of Southern Ontario and, as anyone who has had to make use of their services knows, it is important to have them as knowledgeable and as up-to-date as possible. While members of the local fire depart- ment undertake training session twice per month, the training involves imaginary, set-up situations. Video tapes would bring real-life situations to the department and allow them to see how the situations where handled at the time. "It's a lot different setting up an auto ex- tracation at the auto wreckers, and seeing an actual accident and how it was handl- ed," Steer said. "The video tapes are in- valuable training tools." The Lucknow Fire Department, that has served so well this community, is now ask- ing for its help. If you can make a cash donation to this worthy cause, or have in- formation about the availablity of a 21 inch colour television and a VCR unit, you are urged to contact Peter Steer at either 528-2946 or 528-2709. Bowers out on big bail Julie Bowers, the Kincardine women charged with the first-degree murder of the infant son she had -reported kidnapped, has been ordered to appear in Walkerton Provincial Court on March.7. At that time, a date will be set for a preliminary hearing. Bowers, 24, who was released on $100,000 bail Monday, was also ordered by Judge • Francis W. Olmstead to maintain the con- ditions of her bail by living with relatives in Cambridge, reporting to police weekly, not entering Bruce County except for court appearanaces, and not seeing her son Ben, 2, unless in the company of her husband. Bowers was charged January 15, the day after she told police her 11 -month-old son, Dustin, had vanished from her unlocked car while she and Ben were in the local bank. The baby's frozen body was found near cottages a few kilometres north of Kincar- dine just a few hours before Bowers was charged with the murder. When the weather turns cold and snowy, a youngman's heart turns to thoughts of hockey. Whether it be in the rink or on the street, like these youngsters we caught last week, there is nothing sweeter during winter than a breakaway and the winning goal. - (Rob Bundy photo) Weather we like it, or not While the weather we've had thus far this winter can best be described as "unusual", what with heavy rain the day after snow and cold temperatures, nothing to date meteorologicaly has been a record setter. Temperatures during the first week and a half of February have been, for the most part, normal, with the odd night of below normal temperatures. But what of years past? With a little help from the records kept by Mr. J.M. Greer, now in the posession of Harold Greer of Lucknow, we can get a pretty good idea of what the winter of, say, 1934 was like. On February 10 of 1934, the overnight low was set at -27 degrees while the night before, February 9, a record was set when the mercury dipped to -34. The warmest day in February of that year was a beautiful 32 degrees recorded on the 12th. The Village of Lucknow receiv- ed about 21 and a half inches of snow dur- ing February, 1934: To look even further back in time, to the weather records kept by W. E. McDonald for February 10, 1918, this month 70 years ago saw a record cold day set on the 5th when the temperature plummetted to - 33.8 degrees. By comparison, the warmest day ' in February 70 years ago was a balmy 44 degrees occuring on the 20th. There wasn't much snow that year as February saw only 4.5 inches of the white stuff. Looking ahead In an attempt to garner a little insight in- to what we can expect from the weather manover the next few weeks, we consulted the of Farmers' Almanac for 1988. According to. Dr. K.L. Franklin, the gentleman responsible for weather predic- tions, Ontario "will experience sub -zero temperatures with numerous lake snow squalls". The Almanac goes on to say that the end of the month will see "unsettled weather conditions" with "seasonal snowfall and polar air". By the way, 1988 is a leap year so we get an extra day this month. The last day of February will see 10 hours and 34 minutes of daylight. Free trade A series of free trade seminars will be held across the province to offer a sector - by -sector analysis of the free trade agree- ment, Agriculture and Food Minister Jack Riddell announced recently. "Farmers have told me they don't understand what the free trade deal will mean to their farming operations and to their incomes. These meetings will pro- vide basic information on the trade agree- ment so individual farmers can make up their minds," said Riddell. At the seminars to be held across the province, Riddell will discuss the overall impact the trade agreement is expected to have on the agriculture and food industry. Bob Seguin, director of OMAF's economics and policy co-ordination branch, will provide explanations as to what each commodity group can expect under the bilateral agreement. His seminar analysis is based on studies by ministry staff. A question and answer session will follow. "The seminars are a continuation of meetings I had with leaders of the agricultural industry during the negotiating stage and since the signing of the agreement on January 2. These meetings are important to ensure farmers are fully informed about implications of this deal — as well as' the costs and benefits," Riddell said. a A study on the impact of the free trade agreement on Ontario agriculture shows that farmers in this province stand to lose an estimated $95 million under the deal. Further losses will occur in the food pro- cessing industry. The closest meeting in this area is in Mildmay, February 29, 1:30 p.m. at the Knight's of Columbus Hall.