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Times-Advocate, 1988-10-12, Page 1• Ames Serving South Huron, North Middlesex One Hundred and Seventeenth Year dvocate & North Lambton Since 1873 EXETER, ONTARIO, October 12, 1988 Price Per Copy 60 Cents Mennonites go to work • OLD BARN GOES - More than 40 Mennonites from the Elmira.and St..Jacobs area converged on the Gerald McFalls farm on Huron street, just east of Exeter Thursday morning and quickly tore down the barn which was - more than 130.years old... BIA plans to expand boundaries EXETER - The boundaries of the Exeter Business Improvement As- sociation are expected to be expand- ed later this year. The new arca as suggested by the BIA board of management would reach from the north to the souther- ly boundaries of the town and ex- pand, to the cast side of William street and the west side of Andrew street. Unless town council receives a petition from at least one-third of . the persons entitled to notice by November 30 of this year, a bylaw will be passed at the first council meeting•in December: . The bylaw would provide a mini- mum BIA levy of S5.0 and a maxi- mum levy of S500 according to as- sessmcnt. Total assessment for the expanded area is S14,440385. The levy is collected by the town plea' se tum.to page 2 Osborne vs'PUC in court. USBORNE TOWNSHIP - Octo- • ber 27 is -the date for an examina- tion for discover)) in Stratford to begin hearings on the disputc be- tween the municipality of Usborne and the Exeter PUC over who should pay for the relocation of waterlines when the Anderson bridge was repaired. A meeting with the former Os- borne clerk and councillors who took part in the original discus- sions is set for a week before, on October 20, A delegation from the First Kirk - ton Scouts attended- Usbome's regu- lar council mecting on October 4 to request approval to plant trees at the Kirkton waste disposal to qualify for Citizenship and Conservation badges. Council will provide 20 trees this year, suggesting only the. first row be planted this fall. The road super- intendent will mark the planting line, and the township road depart- ment will supply steel posts, hose and wire. Daniel Verbekc, site officer for the Kirkton waste disposal site, will .be asked to attend the next meeting of Usbornc Council. The ministry of the environment has emphasized that only paper and brush can be burned at the site. , A letter will be sent from the Usborne township office to the municipality of Blanshard, asking that their ratepayers be reminded to separate their garbage, and notified that anything placed in plastic gar- bage bags cannot be burned. As the ministry also recommends that certain criteria in the plan of .operation and development be fol- lowed, Reeve Gerald Prout will in- quire about purchasing lands adja- cent to the site for a buffer zone. Glen Prout attended the session to discuss alleviating a drainage prob- lem at Part lot 7 and the north cor- ner of part lot 6 on Concession 2 by installing a tile drain outside the road allowance and close to the hy- dro poles. Since thc township road- way will benefit; council agreed to pay $500 toward the cost of install-. ing six-inch tile to provide an out- let. , The selling of 1988 licences .for the hunting of pheasants and rab- bits in Usbornc township was op -- proved. . I -- Council approved grants of S5 to the Junior Extension Fund for each 4-H member from-- Usbornc corn- . plcting a project -in 1988.- A public mecting .will- be held on Tuesday, November 1, at 1:30 -p.m. - to hear any objections to a proposed amendment to the zoning bylaw.on property owned by S. Ross Tufts at part lot 8, Southwest boundary con- cession_. The building inspector reported- -that six building permits. with a to- tal value of S170,000 were issued iri September.. Councillors moved in camera to discuss financing of fire protection. OPP costs GRAND BEND - The cost of keeping Grand Bend safe 'this sum- -mer was up only slightly over 1987, according to Sergeant Harold Melton of the Grand Bend detach- ment of the Ontario Provincial Po- lice, who gave the yearly report to village council last Monday. The total cost of the policing from the ,Victoria Day weekend to the Labor Day weekend was over $534,000, but the majority of that was paid out in salaries to- the 17 regular constables who were on duty during the summer, some coming from as far away as Niagara Falls and Welland. About $384;000 was paid out in salaries alone. Oth- er costs came from officer's meals _hotel rooms and overtime hours. Despite a hot summer, Melton also said crime was down in most categories during the summer. Niel - ton attributed some lower numbers to not having Burgcrfcst this ycar and a relatively calm Labor Day weekend. • - The most substantial increase oc- curred in minor Highway Traffic Act -offenses, which totalled 1052 this year. Minor occurrences were down 150 over last year to 2,156, but liquor possession charges were up 68: Lo_ 1355. Arrests dropped to 173, down 10() over the summer of 1988, while ac- cidents with injuries or damage over S700 was up only one to 50 this y� • up slightly Impaired driving charges totalled 56, and there were eight persons charged with narcotics possession. Village Reeve Harold Green said • it: was the lest year in recent mem ory . "I was very pleased with the- . co-operation we got—ft—one—the police this year and we .look forward to having you hack next -year," Greene told Melton. A motion was made by council to send a letter of support to OPP Superintendent HLC Hurray, in hopes gr'kcepinb Melton on next year and keeping the same amount . of manpower as well for next sum- mer. Greene said he hoped the re- port will quiet talk of Grand Bend starting its own police force. White wants negotiations with Fleck, get workers jobs back HURON PARK - Canadian Auto Workers union president Bob White told the laid -off Fleck workers he will try to get the company to give them back-th, jor s tliey arc losing to Mexico. • Over 200 Fleck Manufacturing workers lost their jobs last week when the company shut down the- plant heplant in response to a strike vote that rejected a 22 -cern pay increase. White camc to Huron Park not only to offer his support to the workers, most of whom are women, but to promote the Fleck situation as an example of free trade cconomics. "The actions of this company are terrible," White told reporters, sug- gesting similar plant closings could follow across Canada as companies find cheaper labour costs, not only' in Mexico, but also in the United States. White was asked if he was opti- mistic about reaching an agreement with Fleck. "I'm not," he said, "but I'm not going to;givc up." He insisted the company has an obligation to settle with its workers because they were the ones to put up with poor work- ing conditions and low wages as the company was built. - White also raised the question of -why Huron -Bruce M.P. Murray Cardiff changed his plans to attend the rally. Cardiff has instead agreed to speak with 10 representatives at his riding office in Brussels. The strikers booed Cardiffs name when thcy learned he would not come to Friday's rally. As thc speakers took to thc plat- form Sheila Charlton, union chair- person for the Huron Park plant, told the Fleck workers and support- ers from London, Windsor and Brampton the strike was very differ- ent from the violent demonstrations of 1978. "This time we don't have a heck of a lot to fieht for because our jobs arc gone," said Charlton, who suggested even if the strike vote had not gonc through, the trucks to empty the plant would have arrived sooner or later. Bob White agreed with Charlton about the inevitable plant closing and contrasted Friday's scene with Union links. layoffs to Free Trade deal HURON PARK - Canadian Auto Workers union representatives at the Fleck'Manufactur- ing rally Friday afternoon raised the question of the company president's stance on the free trade deal as related to the recent closing of the Huron Park plant. Glen Myers from the CAW pointed out James Fleck's participation in a series of tele- vision advertisements last year promoting the free trade deal. Mycrs said Fleck appeared on camera for the National Business Coalition for Future Trade and Jobs, citing the trade deal for keeping Canada competitive and protecting Canadian jobs. "I can remember seeing it two or throe times and it made me puke," said Myers. CAW local 1620 pre-if-din-1Bert--Raver_-_ Rover said of Fleck's television commercials. agreed, noting Fleck has been losing jobs to - eve so-disQuc the future of the work - the company's other plants in the U.S. and ers at Fleck's Tillsonburg p iion-union Mexico over several years. The Huron Park labourers who have traditionally had Their plant has dwindled from a peak of 650 workers wages matched to those of the unionized Hu - to the 200 workers who watched the plant tun Park workers. empty out last Saturday. "1 don't know what they're going to do with those workers," he said. The -CAW last made an attempt to start a union at that plant a year and a half ago, and Rover says the CAW will continue their efforts to organize a union in-Tillsonburg. ' Rover hopes Friday's rally will build aware- ness of the Fleck situation and get govern- ments involved in pressuring the company to settle with its laid -off workers. "Commercial made me puke" says Myers. "I don't know how you create jobs that way," challenged Rover. "There's been a slow shift to the U.S. and Mexico," he added, sug- gesting the free trade agreement will bring more unemployment to Canadians. "He's talking out of both sides of his face," 1978, which he described as 120 • women fig;ning with 500 O.P.P. for the right to have a union. Ile asked what would happen to these people today. • • . "Where do they go under free trader asked- White. "Do they crawl ina hole -or join the unem- ployment. scrap heap forever?" "What were seeing here today is an example of what's going to hap- pen in a lot of communities across • Canada," he said. White called on Premier David Peterson- to bargain with Fleck- to say •1>s_1 st with Satur- day's strike vote , White insisted the Toss of manu- facturing jobs to chcaper labour markets such as Mexico was not inevitable. "There will always be chcaper places in the wbrld," said .White, asking. government -to take steps to preserve Canadian jobs. After thc'speechcs, several of the region's NDP candidates for the No- vember 21 election were introduced to the crowd. FLECK SUPPORT - CAW leader Bob White speaks to Friday's rally and gains appreciation from Fleck plant un- ion representatives Fran Piercey (left) and Sheila Charlton. NOMINA TED Jennifer Taylor in running for Junior Citizen award Page 2 MEMORABILIA Hensafl barber shop an interesting spot Page 5 FREE TRADE LINK - Many of those at the Fleck ra 'y i'.. of what Canadians can expect from tree trade. A -SAILING Leigh Rose goes hat -way round world Page 9 USBORNE HISTORY Township compiling book for 1992 celebration Page 11 )s sug"esting the plant closing is an example. HOCKEY STARTS Hawks, Mohawks back in action Page 1A