Huron Expositor, 2002-06-12, Page 2#,:
In brief
Community
Living and
Optimists
loin
for special
ball game
By Scott Hilgendorff
Expositor Editor
The community is invited
to Optimist Park on
Saturday for a special
baseball game; the first of
its kind in Seaforth.
Members of Community
Living will be joining forces
with the Optimist Club for a
baseball game that will let
any of Community Living's
clients take part in the game,
many of them for the first
time in their lives.
"Individuals with special
needs are sometimes left out
of these social activities.
Individuals should be given
the opportunity . to
participate in their
communities," said Janice
Bisback of Community
Living.
That means, if there's
someone from Community
Living in a wheelchair, they
will be able to play a
position in the outfield and
take a turn at bat with
someone from either
Community Living staff or
the Optimist Club to help
them out.
"We're hoping for 20 to
30 people to come out and
play with the Optimists,"
said Bisback. "They'll
participate as best they can."
She said they are aiming
to help anyone with special
needs who is part of
Community Living get a
chance to play the game.
"We want this to be a fun
experience for everybody,"
said Bisback.
At the same time, she said
this will be a community
introduction to help people
interact with clients from
Community Living who
have a variety of mental and
physical difficulties that
sometimes prevents them
from fully interacting with
the community.
"Everyone is welcome to
Come out and cheer us on,"
said Bisback who hopes
members of the community
will come out to watch the
gam.
The game will start
between 2:30 and 3 p.m.
Saturday afternoon.
Bisback said several
Community Living
members are eager to play
while others are more
fearful of trying it out.
However, she expects
several who only plan to
come and watch will be
drawn into the game as it
goes on, when they see how
much fun everyone is
having.
Inside...
Savings office
may close...
Susan Hundertmark photo
Reminiscing...
From left, Crystal Whyte, of RR 2 Seaforth, Pam Nolan, of London, Leanne Fenner, of Seaforth
and tori Boyes, of Listowel look through the old team pictures that Tined the cafeteria tables
during Terry Johnston's retirement party at Seaforth District High School Saturday.
Council running out of time
to plan new manure bylaws
By Scott Hilgendorff
Expositor Editor
Huron East council is running out of time
to consider four options on what to do with its
manure management bylaws before they
expire in September.
"I think if we had a plan for all of Huron
County we could control it better," said
McKillop Coun. Ferg Kelly after a
presentation from county planners Scot
Tousaw and Cindy Fisher at Huron East
council's June 12 committee meeting.
Working with the seven other
municipalities in Huron County to prepare a
county -wide bylaw is one of the options
Fisher presented but the idea has not been
approved by county council yet and couldn't
get started until fall at the earliest.
The other options include doing nothing,
extending the existing interim bylaws or
proceeding with a new manure management
bylaw for all of Huron East.
"The problem there is you have to do
something by September," said Fisher.
The former Tuckersmith Township council
had passed an interim manure management
See TEN, Page 2
Shallow wells at risk
of contamination,
county report shows •
By Sarah Caldwell
Goderkh Signol-Star Staff
Huron County's supply of
drinking water is good
potable water but people
with shallow wells should be
aware their water is at risk,
according to Dan Brown,
hydrogeologist, Golder and
Associates told Huron
County Council June 7.
The county hired Golder
and Associates to carry out a
Huron County Groundwater
Study to determine the
baseline for water
throughout the county in
different aquifers. It was also
used to determine the
vulnerability of aquifers,
maintenance of wells and
land use factors.
Shallow wells less than 50
feet deep had the most
significant numbers of
bacteria and chemicals; 79
per cent of shallow wells had
some total coliform, 69 per
cent test for E.coli, 66 per
cent had some nitrates.
Nitrates include such
contaminants as manure,
fertilizers and septic system
waste.
Although there was a high
common nitrate presence in
See N OT, Page 2
New plan
to save schools
is emerging
Moving Grade 7 and 8 students
into Clinton and Seaforth
high schools could save schools,
committee members tell council
By Scott Hilgendorff
Expositor Editor
Fred Leitch and Dick
Burgess are hoping council
passed a resolution last night
supporting their position that
Seaforth District High
School and Huron Central
Secondary School in Clinton
should house Grade 7 and 8
students in order to keep
both high schools open.
"What we've got is what
we've got and we have to
deal with it as best we can,"
said Leitch of the new
committee structure the
school board
h a s
established as
it prepares for
a
new round of
school
closures.
Leitch is the
lawyer Who
helped
successfully
defend the
community in
court. The
community
fought the
A v on
meeting outlining how the
process was going after the
first committee meeting in
May.
"The boards have the right
to close schools if they do it
with procedural fairness,"
said Leitch, who believes the
current committee structure
"is the beginning of that
fairness."
The committees,
representing different chunks
of Huron and Perth Counties,
are now looking at ways to
handle school
accommodation and the
empty spaces
Quoted
'What we've
got is what
we've got and
we have to
deal with it as
best we can,' --
Fred Leitch, school
accommodation study
committee member.
Maitland District School
Board and prevented the
board from following
through on plans to close the
high school and send the
students to Clinton.
Now, Leitch and Burgess
are representing Huron East
on two different school
accommodation study
committees. The committees
represent school
communities across the
district and are part of a new
process the board has
developed to study school
closures in hopes of fixing
areas the court system found
the board went wrong when
involving the Seaforth
community in the school
closure process.
Leitch and Burgess, who is
a Huron East councillor,
addressed the rest of council
at its June 12 committee
that exist in
many
schools.
Schools with
too few
pupils leave
the board
unable to get
full funding
from the
provincial
government
because of a
complicated
funding
formula that
links money
with the
number of
students.
Some of their work stems
from a 100 -page report from
a consultant that includes
recommendations that
Seaforth District High
School be closed and
elementary schools in
Brussels and Grey face
amalgamations with other
elementary schools.
Instead, Leitch is
suggesting Grade 7 and 8
students from Seaforth
Public School, now
overcrowded because of the
closure of Walton Public
School and the addition of
some area students from
Huron Centennial School
near Brucefield, be moved to
Seaforth District High
School.
The same would happen
with Clinton Public School,
See LEITCH, Popo 14
Scott Hilgendorff photo
Wild ride on Main Street...
An unidentified elderly woman was token to hospital by ambulance Friday morning after
witnesses report her car collided with four other vehicles on Main Street before coming to a
stop on the sidewalk, cracking the window of Hildebrand Flowers and taking a chunk out of the
store's exterior wall. A police report detailing the accident was not wa Table.
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