Times Advocate, 1993-03-24, Page 1C
You
redlirshmalld try them
Mat emaitaltIons
All colours
6°
bunch
cash & early
COUNTRY ftOWERS
Exeter
5E'rvlt:, Soutr Nlirlu
•
inside
PUC
Big year for projects
page 2
Life Membership
Kippen woman
honoured
page 7
Antiques
Lucan show
draws crowd
page 8
Hospital
More than
just emergency
page 9
Ringette
Gardner
to play in
Nationals
Second front
Skating school
March Break
on the ice
page 16
... ....................
Brinsley
woman still
critical after
car crash
NAIRN - A Brinsley area woman
is still.incritical.coudition after: her
station wagon collided with a van
near Naim on Saturday.
Marylin Morley, 47, was driving
the car with six children on board,
all of which are students of McGil-
livray Central School.
Three of the children, Shannon
Morley, Brandon Morley, and An-
drea Lee were treated and released
` from hospital in Strathroy.
Crystal Lee, Erin Lee. and Laur-
en Webster are no longer in critical
condition, but doctors are still do-
ing tests to see what further surgery
is required.
The van's two occupants were
from Sandusky, Ohio.
Workplace
thefts
EXETER- The OPP are warning
women to be alert of where their
purse is while at work.
A theft of money at a local factory
prompted the OPP waming.
The police said thieves will take
advantage of a situation where a
purse is left unprotected.
A London man was charged in the
recent occurrence.
100
CA
IMP
wort' & Lampton
a
Sine 1873 Wednesdal. March 24. 99.
G*iser Knesie
Investments
MVP's
GIC's
Sag Finds
75 cents
Grand Bend unveiling village future Saturday
By Fred Groves
T -A Staff
GRAND BEND - Residents of
this village will have a chance to
look into a crystal ball on Saturday
and have a peak at their communi-
ty's future.
At the Grand Bend Legion at 1
p.m., council's long range planning
committee, -headed by councillor
Cam Ivey, will introduce to the
public, what they have been work-
ing on for several months.
In consultation with the Ministry
of Municipal Affairs, the Ministry
of Culture, Tourism and Recrea-
tion, along with local committees,
the long range planning committee
has come up with suggestions and
observations for the betterment of
Grand Bend.
Ivey said Saturdays format will
be broken up into three one-hour
long segments. The first hour will
deal with presentations and where
the committee sees the village 20
years from now.
That will be followed by five dif-
ferent groups speaking for up to 10
minutes on their particular needs
and then the public will have a
chance to talk with members of
those various groups.
"They will also have the opportu-
nity to put in writing some con-
cerns they may have," said Ivey.
In the third and final hour, Ivey
said the public will be able to open-
ly discuss with the committee and
the groups about what they have
heard.
"The concept here is, the village
has gone as far as it can go. We
need to have input from the resi-
March Break in Luca)
Cuthbert and the Dragon's Teeth (right) was presented at the Lucan Com-
munity Centre Thursday moming for an appreciate audience of children on
March Break. Getting completely wrapped up in the action on stage, an
eager group in the front row (below) couldn't get close enough to offer ad-
vice and wamings to Cuthbert as he continued his quest to save the prin-
cess.The show was sponsored by the Optimists, Outreach Ontario, and the
Middlesex Library end the Southem Ontario Library Service.
uTh crime 'priibletr"ie'ing
tackled by police and schools
By Adrian Harte
TSA Editor
EXETER -'Everybody said 'no it
ain't going to happen here', but it
did," said Exeter police chief Jack
Harkness when asked about the re-
cent spate of youth crimes in town.
It was only a little over a year
ago when the town police force
hosted a day -long seminar at the Li-
ons Youth Centre, bringing in ex -
pens on youth -related crime to dis-
cuss the spreading problem.
Harkness said at the time he was
disappointed more representatives
from the local schools did not at-
tend, but realized few took serious-
ly the threat that gang -oriented vio-
lence would be coming to Exeter.
• Only a few months later and the
town police force has seen the num-
bers of crimes committed by youths
soar. Car thefts, break and enters,
assaults, mischief, and vandalism,
all committed by youths, are taking
up increasing amounts of police at-
tention in Exeter.
Former bank employee sentenced
All cases, however, are being
handled with what Harkness called
"zero tolerance".
"We're not looking the other
• way," said Harkness.
One of the last incidents was
what some have described as a
"rumble" which took place in the
high school parking lot two weeks
ago. One 16 -year old young of-
fender was charged with two
counts of resisting arrest, causing a
disturbance, trespassing, and under-
age consumption of liquor.
Other local towns have been af-
fected with the same problem, as
teen gangs seek trouble, if not with
crime and the police, then with ri-
val gangs in nearby communities.
The one common theme is that
they all "subtract from the lifestyle
rather than add to it," said Hark-
ness, but conceded gang violence
has become a North American
problem in general.
"They're really disrespectful to
authority - any kind of authority,"
said Harkness, which he said makes
it difficult for the police or schools
to do their jobs.
He also said the availability of
welfare to these teenagers also
makes it possible for the gangs to
leave their parents' homes, and lead
a separate lifestyle of nightly par-
ties, free of curfews.
Harkness said the police are well
aware of the ringleaders, their roles
and activities, and is quite familiar
with the Exeter gang that calls itself
The Rappers.
The chief said the police are
working hard with the schools in
the hope "an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure", but he said
the problem spreads quicker than
most imagine.
The Wellington Board of Educa-
tion started in 1986 to address
youth violence in schools, expect-
ing to sec gang problems arise
within three years. It only took half
that time before the gangs were
Continued on page 2
dents; people who are going to be
living here the next 20 years."
Differences: Ivey said there will
be controversy and differences of
opinions but he and the committee
are looking forward to Saturday's
meeting.
"We expect to come away from
that meeting with a prettyrfair un-
derstanding of what the issues are
and where people would like us to
go."
He said this plan will not stay in
place for 20 years ane# it will have
to be reviewed on a regular basis.
Ivey added the committee will have
to look at it every year or so and
examine where the plan has been
successful and where it has not.
The long range planning commit-
tee was set up in the fall and Ivey
said it is an area group and not just
centering in the village. He also
noted that the committee did not go
and look at other communities
which have similar problems as
Grand Bend.
"We have not gone specifically to
any other communities. Grand
Bend may have some similarities
but it's also fairly unique."
One way in which it is unique ex-
plained Ivey is the fact that the vil-
lage is a small land mass which ser-
vices a large population.
By the end of May, the commit-
tee hopes to_ have another draft of
their plan of action which would
help lay out a more specific timeta-
ble.
"If we go much later than May,
we start running into the things that
have to be dealt with every year in
Grand Bend and we tend to lose fo-
cus on things like this."
Everything has a price tag espe-
cially the revamping of an entire
community and this project looks
as though it could be costly. How-
ever, Ivey and the committee al-
ready have methods in which it will
continued on page 2
Should councillors
be paid for unused
benefits?
EXETER - Some councillors
receive an expensive benefit
package at the taxpayers ex-
pense. Others do not, mainly be-
cause they already receive insu-
rance benefits from programs at
work. However, some council-
lors feel this arrangement is fair.
Councilors Tom Humphreys
and Dave Urlin were arguing at
last week's council meeting that
paying for benefits to some
council members and not others
was unfair. They wondered if
those councillors should receive
payment in lieu of benefits.
Both Urlin and Humphreys re-
ceive little from the Mutual Life
program available to councillors:
$113.51 and $94.80 respectively
in 1992. Other council members
have their benefits paid for up to
$1,615.31.
Deputy -reeve argued that the
benefit package was available
for those who needed it, and
pointed out town employees
who are already covered under
a spouse's plan don't get the cost
of the unused benefits added to
their pay.
A motion was made for coun-
cillors not using the benefits to
receive cash in lieu, but it was
lost.
Councillor Bob Spears then
made a motion to put the whole
question of council remunera-
tion on the next executive com-
mittee agenda. Mayor Bruce
Shaw agreed that would be an
appropriate way to address the
benefit package question.
$2L2 si, from ba* spent ondrugs, nowt tow
GODERICH - An Exeter bank employee stole over
$200,000 from customer accounts to feed a cocaine
habit that cost her up to $600 a day.
The defense of Leona McIntosh painted a picture of
a woman caught up in an expensive addiction at a sen-
tence hearing in Goderich Friday afternoon. While the
crown pressed for a jail sentdnce up to five years, the
judge agreed to sentence the former Bank of Montreal
employee to 12 months in a London reformatory for
women.
McIntosh pleaded guilty on November 28, 1992 to
eight counts of fraud after being arrested a year earlier
for stealing funds from commercial customers ac-
counts and using a complicated system to cover her
tracks.
The fraud charges were the result of a three month
joint investigation by the Exeter Town Police and the
OPP Anti -Rackets squad. Charges were first laid in
November 1991.
Addiction the cause
Defense counsel for McIntosh, Michael Epstein not-
ed his client had no prior criminal record and had been
co-operative with police, admitting the thefts from the
bank when confronted with the evidence. Epstein said
he disagreed with the pre -sentence report's suggestion
McIntosh felt no remorse at her crime, even though the
victims included family members. He called such no-
tions "nonsense".
Mclntosh's family, he said, was devastated to learn
of her secret drug problem, but has since been suppor-
tive of her recovery. Several family members were in
the court to offer support, he said.
Epstein downplayed the police report that McIntosh's
lifestyle "was perhaps elevated lavishly" by her theft.
He said she lived in a townhouse, made car payments,
and "struggled as any mother of two".
Epstein pointed to Mclntosh's separation from her
husband in 1984 as the beginning of a life as a lonely,
young single mother with "many unresolved emotional
conflicts that should have been resolved with profes-
sional counselling."
He said pressures of trying to be a "super mom"
along with keeping up with work led to "depression
and loneliness".
She began to abuse light drugs, such as diuretics and
extra -strength Tylenol a nurse friend was taking from a
hospital and selling her. Soon, said Epstein, McIntosh
couldn't get through the day without them and began
mixing them with prescribed dict pills. When her doc-
tor refused to refill the prescription, she went to a Lon-
don doctor, since de-ecnified for over -prescribing.
"This was followed very shortly by the abuse of co-
irspiain, which he said again was given to
her 4100,11rised.
The drug abuse created a "spiralling effect", leading
to mistakes at work. When she confided in a co-
worker about her problem, she was refereed to three
sessions for drug abuse in Clinton that weren't effec-
tive.
"The probib:rrr<'was enormous, and she felt after
speaking with people in Clinton about the supposed
pill problem she could take care of it herself," said Ep-
stein.
He said McIntosh began to take more and morc co-
caine in the morning, at lunch, and after work, usually
costing $400 a day, and sometimes as much as 5600 a
day, an impossible amount given her salary of 523,800.
This is what led her to steal the $212,(00, "all of
which went to drugs" said Epstein.
When drug dealers in Exeter ran out of cocaine to
sell her, she had to find the time to make trips to Lon-
don, selling or trading jewellery for the drugs when she
couldn't steal the oney from the bank.
"She had nq mjney in her personal account," said
Epstein. "She
Int
a double life in a very real
sense."
When she and her boyfriend John Masselein plagn9d
renovations for their Parkhill home in September 1990,
she spent the money on cocaine and replaced it with
money from the bank.
Eventually, in August 1991, the bank began to dis-
cover the losses, the drug problem and referred her to a
London doctor.
"Employee relations kept in touch with her for one
month after she was fired," said Epstein.
After leaving a London detox centre in October
1991, McIntosh went to the Westover Treatment Cen-
tre for 21 days, followed up by regular rehabilitation
sessions.
"She feels the people at Westover, literally, saved her
life," said Epstein.
In the 18 months since then, she has remained com-
pletely drug-free, still receives counselling, and attends
Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous ses-
sions.
Epstein referred referred to several letters praising Mclntosh's
recovery and, said she has done much to help others
with similarproblems.
"This case...is a tragedy on one hand, but a happy
ending on the other," said Epstein, noting McIntosh
has plans to attend university as a mature student to be-
come an addiction counsellor.
He said her recovery has been remarkable. Even
during surgery and therapy after injuring her hand; she
refused any kind of pain killers.
"Not so much as an aspirin, for fear it would lead to
a relapse," claimed Epstein.
•
Continued on page 3