Zurich Citizens News, 1981-07-02, Page 1HOT DOG — Dressed in o d fashioned clothes, and munching
hot dogs are Doug Finley (left) and Chris Gingerich. The
Zurich Public School held a hot dog day at the pavillion to
celebrate the 125th anniversary.
'Kids on the block'.teach
Zurich about disabilities
The "Kids on the Block":
Renaldo, 9 is blind; Mark, 11,
has cerebral palsy; Mandy,
12 is deaf ; Ellen Jane, 17, is
mentally retarded and
Jennifer, 11, has a learning
disability. Brenda and
Melody, both 10 do not have
any handicaps. All seven
"kids" are not children but
Muppet-like puppets. The
"kids" and their friends (a
troupe of four puppeteers)
are being 'sponsored by the
Zurich Branch Library and
are scheduled to appear at
the Hay Township Hall,
Victoria Street, Zurich on
Thursday, July 9, at 2:00 P.m•
The show consists of four
dialogues, each of which
highlights a particular
disabled "kid". Each
dialogue is followed by a
short question period in
which questions are invited
from the audience. For in-
stance, Renaldo is often
asked: "If you are blind,
how do you eat?"
The workshop that follows
will give the children a first
hand experience of what it
actually feels like to not to be
able to .walk, hear or think
quickly. A typical audience
will be divided into four
groups, each will be lead by
a puppeteer and one of the
"kids on the block". The
audience will leave having
gained some insight into the
predicament and the position
aspects that make up a large
part of the life of a disabled
child. They learn that kids
with cerebral palsy are not
"stupid" because they can't
speak fluidly; and that
"deaf" and "dead" are NOT
the same word!
No. 26/ ' � FIRST WITH LOCAL NEWS
POSTER WINNERS -- Shown with Willie Bedard (left) are poster winners of a poster con-
test sponsored by the Bank of Montreal in Zurich. They are: Shelly Laporte, third; Boun Ma
Daravongso, second and Tommy Durrand, first.
Challenge faces
Municipal councils face a
"tremendous challenge"
ahead because of govern-
ment cutbacks, observed
Jack Riddell, MPP for
Huron -Middlesex, when he
addressed the June session
of Huron county council.
Riddell warned municipal
councils will see cutbacks by
both provincial and federal
governments, meaning
municipalities will not be
able to rely as heavily on the
funds available from these
governments to support
many of the cost sharing
programs in place.
Both governments have
backed themselves into a
financial corner, said
Riddell, and they have little
room to manoeuvre.
Riddell made his com-
ments to council at their last
session before the summer
recess. a meeting when past
wardens and local mambers
of parliament are guests of
council for the day.
Riddell observed the
transfer of responsibility for
able-bodied welfare clients
back to the municipality
from family benefits, is one
more indication where more
responsibility will be placed
on local municipalities.
County council learned at
their meeting that It was an-
nounced recently that the
province will begin
negotiations shortly to
transfer this responsibility
to local municipalities. The
ministry will be setting up
pilot projects in the province
to work out the details of
transferring cases back and
the changes to take place
within the current cost-
sharing areas.
Council approved a social
services committee
recommendation that the
social services ad-
ministrator contact the
Ministry of Community and
Social Services, indicating
Huron County's willingness
to participate in a pilot pro-
ject to transfer some Family
Benefit Assistance respon-
sibility back to the
municipal level and request
additional information.
Bob Allen. chairman of the
social services committee,
said it is the desire of the
committee that Huron Coun-
ty become involved in the
transfer from the beginning.
He said it is a distinct ad-
vantage for the county to be
in on the ground floor.
There are three levels of
provincial subsidy available
under the General Welfare
Assistance program, 50 per-
cent, 80 percent and 100 per-
cent. The province will be
looking at implementing one
Price per Copy 25 Cen
Erb tells of Mennonites
The following stories are
resumes of the history of the
Zurich and Blake Mennonite
congregations. They were
presented June 13, when the
Mennonite historical society
of Ontario held its annual
meeting in Zurich. They tell
of the early history and
problems of trying to es-
tablish a church in the
Zurich area.
This is a resume of the
history of the "Blake Men-
nonite Church" as it was
called in the early days of
the settlement, the "Hay
Amish" church or as in the
legal deed of the property -
"The Amish Society."
For a lot of my informa-
tion I wish to give credit to
some authors who have
written some of the Men-
nonite history, notably,
Lewis Burkholder, Orland
Gingerich and the most re-
cent one, Dr. Frank Epp's
book "Mennonites in
Canada".
The Hay colony as it was
councils: Riddell
standard subsidy rate for all
programs.
In order to get clients off
assistance, support services
such as day care services,
life skill programs and
employment counselling will
have to be developed in
municipalities which do not
have them.
The proposed transfer of
cases back to the
municipalities will be the
first major change in social
services policy since 1973,
when the province assumed
responsibility from the
municipalities for per-
manently unemployable per-
sons.
In his remarks to council,
Riddell said a new fire code
will be introduced following
the recent hotel fires which
indicated various standards
were being used. He said the
fire chief will be responsible
for enforcing the act's
regulations when it is im-
plemented.
Riddell said there is also
some concern that equaliza-
tion grants are not being ad-
ministered fairly. Non -
regionalized areas are not
Please turn to page 2
Parade will close
village to traffic
The village of Zurich will
be virtually closed to traffic
Saturday afternoon to make
way for the 125th anniver-
sary parade.
The parade will assemble
at St. Boniface spearate
school the morning and at
the 2 p.m. parade time, will
proceed down Mary Street,
east to Goshen.
The route then follows
Goshen Street south to Cen-
tre Street Then it's Centre
west to Walnut, following
Walnut Street north to
highway 84. The final leg of
the parade will be along the
highway to finish at the
arena.
It is planned to set up
roadblocks outside the
village to control and re-
route traffic. An anniver-
sary spokesman said the
committee believed traffic
may be cut off from 2 to 4
p.m.
sometimes referred to in the
early days came about in
1848 when (Bishop) John
Oesch 1818-1850 moved from
the Wilmot and East Zorra
area to Hay Twp. The
Wilmot settlement was then
about 24 years old. John
Oesch had eight sons and
five daughters. Other
families followed,
Schwartzentrubers,
Beachlers, Brennemans,
Gingerichs, Kuepfers, Erbs,
Gerbers, Gaschoes, Shantzs,
Benders, Eglies, Wutherichs
etc. Bishop Oesch died in
1850.
This was the first perma-
nent A.M. Settlement in the
area.
Around this time or
somewhat later (re Dr. Epp
1887) there were a number of
Old Mennonite families in -
the area of Hay and Stanley
Twp. After a few years some
of them moved to Illinois
and Kansas and those who
were left, the Steckels, af-
filited with a group in
Waterloo, other,
Neushwanders, joined the
Lutherans.
The Amish of Hay had
preaching serfices in their
homes for 37 years. Life in
the community was
primitive, log houses and
barns were built. Stories are
still told of the long walks to
Goderich to get flour, sugar
and salt.
One of the first things they
acquired as a community
was a burial ground which
Please turn to page 3
DAYS GONE BY —
Marge and
seen in Zurich in days gone by.
skating club is sponsoring a sho
anniversary celebrations.
Hubert Schilbe model clothes
The Zurich and area figure
w of antique clothes for the