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
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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.