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Times-Advocate, 1999-03-31, Page 9Wednesday►, March 31, 1999 Exeter TImes—Advocate 9 Opinion&Forum I 0 YEARS AGO March 29, 1989 ' - Last week, Doug Eckel was officially appointed by Zurich village council to the position of P.U.C. Manager. Doug is the son of Charlie Eckel who resigned from the position last week and is a 16 -year veteran on the Zurich P.U.C. Two expert bowlers, Gary Houston from Hensall and Doug Smith Jr. from R.R. 2, Zurich won first place in region two at the Ontario championships held in Hamilton and won trips for two to Florida. While the high school principal is the traditional focus of student complaints, South Huron District High School students turned the tables Monday morning when they walked out of classes to form a demonstration to protest the transfer of their principal Bruce Shaw to Goderich Collegiate. Exeter's Colleen Glasgow, 22, was named Toronto's Queen of the Irish, and was at the head of the parade of the St. Patrick's Day parade Sunday afternoon. She is a full-time pharmacy student at the University of Toronto and was cho- sen from more than 400 entrants. Does driving around the world 52 times sound like an enviable record? That's exactly what the bus drivers of the Exeter branch of Charterways have done during the past 1,000 school days with- out a single preventable accident. 3S YEARS AGO March 29, 1964 - Saturday Lucan honoured its favourite sportsman, Harvey Langford, with a spe- cial celebration that reflected the community. One of the tributes was made by Legion president Bill Smith, also an enthusiastic hockey player and coach. Bob Murray was master of ceremonies. . Executive of the Ausable River Conservation Att'hority spent most of Tuesday afternoon dis- cussingdetails in regard to the Parkhill Dam. Final drawings for the million dollar construction are expected to be completed by the end of April. f):40 YEARS AGO March 29, 1959 David Ducharme, grade 12. student won the right to participate in Ontario public speaking finals in Toronto by taking top honours in a contest in Listowel. The Pinery Park at Grand Bend, now in course of construction, will be one of the largest and one of the finest in Ontario. It will . include 13 miles of roads in its 4,200 acres, and two bridges across the Ausable River. Led by team captain Larry Heideman, Exeter Mohawks sidelined Forest to enter the WOAA "B" finals against the Phillipsburg Chevs. Allison Clark of Centralia has been chosen to represent SHDHS in the London Free Press School Queen's club. An award winning academic stu- dent, she has also captured honours in public ,and verse speaking, drama, citizenship, track and field and team sports. SO YEARS AGO March. 30, 1949 The RCAF will celebrate its silver anniversary on April 1 with an anniversary dinner. Preceding his sermon at James Street United Church Sunday morning, Rev. Harold Snell had a special message in welcoming into the Dominion,. Canada's 10th province, Newfoundland. Joe Creech was named manager of the Exeter baseball team at a meeting in the town hall at which president Bill Allison presided. Elgin McKinley, a farmer in Stanley township has been selected to carry the Progressive Conservative banner for the riding of Huron -Perth in the next federal election. 7SYEARS AGO March 29, 1924 - Mr.Charles Salter was in Guelph last week taking a short course in cream grading at the Ontario Agriculture College. Mr. and Mrs. Garnet Passmore and family have returned to their farm in Usborne township after • spending the winter in Detroit. During the severe wind storm .from the east Saturday morning, the large iron roof of the Central Hotel was completely blown off and deposited in the rear yard. George Beavers carried off the majority of prizes in the bird house competition conducted by the Exeter Horticultural Society. The houses are on exhibition in the show window of M.R. Gardiner's furniture store. BACK IN TIME LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Working together in the future Dear Editor: On behalf of the Exeter Public School Council and Parent's Association, I would like to write to the par- ents and guardians of children at Usborne Central School regarding an article in the Times Advocate on March 17, 1999. This article indicated that the par- ents of Exeter Public School "refused" to meet with representatives of Usborne School to discuss proposed boundary changes between our two schools. I would like to explain our actions in this regard, and I hope to encourage a continued spirit of co-operation between our schools as we face many important issues ahead. In early January, we were faced with two major issues. The first issue was the phasing out of Core French instruction for Grades 1-3 in Huron County beginning in 1999. The second issue was a request from the Avon -Maitland District School Board for a review of the boundaries between Exeter Public, Usborne Central, and Mitchell Public Schools to deter- mine if a solution could be found to the under enrol- ment at Usborne. In a meeting in early January, our School Council took two actions to address these issues. To address the Core French issue, we decided to approach the Board about continuing Core French, and our Parent's Association was willing to fund the yearly operating costs of the program. With respect to the boundary issue, we took a long, hard look at the potential impact of a boundaryshift between Exeter and Usborne schools, and decided that at that time, such a boundary shift was not in the best interests of the students or our schools. Our reasoning was three- fold: (i) shifting students from Exeter to Usborne could cause Exeter Public School to fall below the 80 per- cent capacity level by the year 2001; (ii) there is signif- icant over capacity in the family of schools that feed South Huron District High School, so that small boundary shifts between our schools could be reversed in the near future because of a bigger over capacity problem; and (iii) moving individual families between schools has a significant negative ei%ct'on those children who would be affected` by a boundary change. As a result of our strong reasons for not considering boundary changes between our schools, and because we were fighting the loss of Core French at the same time, we decided that at that time there was no useful . purpose in meeting directly with representatives of Usborne Central School. We did however, send our principal to a meeting between all the feeder schools, which coincided with a Board meeting where we made our Core French proposal to the Board. He was our representative, and it is our understanding that he explained our position as outlined above. I would like to assure the parents and guardians of students at Usborne Central School that at no time during our discussions did we see the problem at hand as an "Usborne-only-issue". We are keenly aware that the current under enrolment/over capacity problem is a shared problem that we all need to address togeth- er. We now understand that the Board has asked our schools to again look at the enrolment/capacity issue, and report back to them no later than May 16, 1999. We as a School Council are committed to working with the representatives of Usborne Central School to ensure that whatever recommendations we make are community solutions to a community problem. We apologize for any misunderstandings that have taken place in the past, and sincerely look forward towork- ing together in the future. Sincerely, RANDY M. WAGLER, Chair, Exeter Public School Council Writer appreciates South Huron Hospital's availability Dear Editor: I recently had a very sudden need of care at Exeter Hospital Emergency. Dr. Meyer, the nurses and ambulance staff were very quick in diagnosis and sending me to London. If the emergency room had been closed because of shortages, my recovery would have been a lot longer and much more costly on our health budget - hospital stay and therapy. I for one, appreciate the hospital being open. HELEN FABER Showing jitters TORONTO -- Ontario's Progressive Conservatives have a bad case of the jitters as they are about to seek re-election, despite many forecasts that they will win in a walls, Since Premier Mike Harris has a lead in polls which has been sufficient to assure majorities in past elections and a reputation as a strong campaigner, many in the media have predicted he will ERIC DOWD A VIEW FROM QUEEN'S PARK win. But one sign that the Tories are nervous was a bitter attack by two of their ministers on Liberal health critic Gerard Kennedy, unprecedented in that it was in a nursing home watched by 200 elderly residents. Health Minister Elizabeth Witmer had gone to the home's foyer to announce more money to hire nurses for homes. After waiting until she finished, Kennedy told reporters in the foyer he doubts that the Tories will hire as many nurses as they claim and suggested the seniors' home was being mis- used. Long Term Care Minister Cam Jackson followed by Economic Development Minister Al Palladini barged over and repeatedly told Kennedy he is a liar and has no health policy. They stood inches away shouting and jabbing their fingers in his face while the seniors watched disbelieving, and several were shaken and had to be counselled. All the combatants later apologized and Harris was forced to say he would not tolerate such out- bursts again. The incident showed that some Tories are becom- ing overwrought. Their government makes almost all its announcements in homes, schools and stores and on street corners and even boats, so it is a sur- prise when it makes any around the legislature: As a result, opposition MPPs, who cannot attract media as easily, have taken to following where reporters are. gathered to make their responses. The Tories have even interrupted critics' press conferences. When Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty held one on the legislature steps and accused the Tories of establishing funding that would close many schools, Education Minister Dave Johnson butted in to say his information was wrong, while a bemused .McGuinty protested, "you are gate-crash- ing my press conference." Harris also sent Dan Newman, parliamentary assistant to the health minister, and two aides to lobby reporters outside the federal Liberal caucus in Ottawa and tell them that the government there should pay more toward health care and Liberal MPs from Ontario were not standing up for their province. Witnesses of the screaming match at the seniors' home felt Jackson started it and this was partly in character because Jackson has long shown a mean streak, but usually expressed it by soft -voiced mocking and sarcasm. As examples, he twice taunted opponents in the legislature that they had been drinking, which most MPPs would never say because it can hurt careers even when those accused had not had a drink or were speaking soberly at the time. The second MPP whom Jackson derided strode across the floor and a fellow Liberal and the sergeant -at -arms grabbed and held him back, and some Tories later said they wished he had hit Jackson, so disliked is he in his own party. Palladini is more likeable and suffered previous vicissitudes, including a revelation that he paid child support to a former employee, without rancor. But this time both ministers lost control, which suggests they worry that their party is not getting its message across, particularly on health. The Tories' campaign chair, Tom Long, also has suddenly sounded off, calling McGuinty uncertain, indecisive, vague, unsteady, vacillating, lacking ideas, wishy-washy and just plain weak --as if he had just bought a thesaurus. This departs from tradition, because those who ran election campaigns in the past in all parties usually preferred to work in anonymity, leaving elected politicians to do the talking, and suggests another top Tory has frustrations with the way his cause is going. These outbursts also do not help Harris attain the image he is seeking. He has been putting a lot of '.effort into appearing humane and non -confronta- tional, and his colleagues are letting him down: