Townsman, 1991-07, Page 18If the tough get going when the
going gets tough, the people of Mil-
verton must be among the toughest
people around.
When the Deilcraft plant in Mil-
verton went bankrupt on July 4, 1990
throwing 110 people out of work in a
town of 1600 people, some members
of the community decided they
weren't going to take the blow sitting
down. They were going to fight back.
A year later, they have scored some
victories but have picked up a lot of
frustrations along the way.
It was almost exactly a year after
the closing of the plant that MilMor
Development, a community -owned
company, closed the deal and took
possession of the Deilcraft plant.
Already the group has one tenant set-
ting up in the building with more pos-
sible. The community battled heavy
odds to get this far— odds that turned
out to be heavier than anyone had
imagined. Along the way the group of
hard-working volunteers of the Mil-
verton-Mornington Revitalization
Committee, the group behind MilMor,
learned some valuable lessons about
government bureaucracy and the
Canadian banking system.
The Milverton experience could be
a model for other communities to take
control of their own affairs, says
Edward Bennett, chairman of MilMor
and a Wilfrid Laurier University pro-
fessor who farms four miles outside of
town. The process would be advanced
greatly, however, if government had
programs designed to help. Communi-
ties need help in identifying the skills
available in their community, he says
and if government gave support to
these programs, much more could be
done.
The decision of local people to take
their futures in their own hands is not
surprising in a place like Milvcrton.
Like many communities in the region -
it has a long history of self-sufficien-
cy. It was settled in 1848 with Ncw
York boot -maker Andrew J. West as
its first resident. A year later he
opened a hotel and soon had a black-
smith shop as a neighbour. Other
businesses followed to what was
called West's Corners. In 1871 the vil-
lagers decided West's Corners sound -
16 TOWNSMAN/JULY-AUGUST 1991
ed too muck like a crossroads so they
renamed the town Milverton after the
native English village of the town's
Presbyterian minister.
Today the town's main street is a
strange mixture of old and new. Lend-
ing it a feeling of times past is the
large presence of the Mennonite farm
buggies from the surrounding farms.
The town still retains many of the
classic Victorian business blocks built
in its early years. Mixed into the tradi-
tional setting are the trappings of
modern business. In many ways what
the Revitalization Committee has tried
to do is recapture the kind of commu-
nity action that helped create towns
like Milverton in the first place.
The efforts to change the pattern of
Edward Bennett
Other communities
could learn
from the Milverton
experience
things in
Milverton began after the
people involved in the Revitalization
Committee today, became worried
about thc situation of the Dcilcraft
workers. The plant was $22 million in
debt when it closed, half of that to
unsecured creditors including many
small suppliers who couldn't afford to
lose the money. The workers, owed
$765,000 in severence and vacation
pay were frustrated and angry. Thcy
felt that whcn a company goes
bankrupt, there should be protection
for thc workers (the Ontario Federa-
tion of Labour has used the Milverton
cast in its argument for a change in
the legislation). Angry workers pick-
eted another Toronto furniture plant
owned by the two brothers who had
owned Deilcraft, drawing Toronto
media attention.
Ed Bennett sought out the workers
and asked what was happening. He
went into the plant and talked to the
workers and he learned many felt the
Milverton community didn't care
about their plight. They felt all alone.
An informal group began to check out
how the community really felt about
the situation. A group of workers
addressed the Milverton Business
Association and explained their situa-
tion. The Milverton Town council
and Mornington Township council
were approached and supported the
efforts of the workers.
Meanwhile local ministers had
stepped in to try to help the workers.
Malcolm Wilson of the Anglican
Church and Neil Lackey of the United
Church had been counselling the
workers. Ann Brailsford -Child, secre-
tary of the Revitalization Committee
and a relative newcomer to the town
having moved there to open an
antique business two years ago, says
she has never seen clergy who care for
the community as much as the Milver-
ton ministers do.
Bennett started feeling out the com-
munity and came into contact with
Brailsford -Child who was president of
the Business Association. He talked to
Jack Schiavone, one of the unem-
ployed workers and asked him to
reach out to the church group and that
brought Neil Lackey into the group.
Bennett attended a meeting of the
workers to sec if they had any interest
in buying the factory they used to
work in.
It was Schiavone who was chosen
to talk to the Business Association, a
frightening prospect for him. The
Association, Brailsford -Child recalls,
was very supportive and very interest-
ed in being involved in changing the
situation in the town.
The revitalization group grew to
include Bennett, Brailsford -Child,
Rick Banks, manager of the local
Bank of Commerce, Reeve Reg Kel-
terbornc and councillor Mary Hon-
derich, a daughter-in-law of the
family that once ran the factory before
it was sold to Dcilcraft, represented
Milverion council. Judy Nafzigcr rep-
resented Mornington Township coun-
T