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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