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Clinton News-Record, 1978-04-06, Page 1Blooming success The members of the local Exempler chapter of the Beta Sigma Phi Sorority proved to be top sales ladies when they sold 6,000 daffodils last weekend to raise money for the Cancer Society. The women raised over $1,000 for the canvass, which started last week. Here. Audrey Kemp and Lois Fitzgerald sell flowers at the daffodil tea last Friday in the town hall. (News -Record photo) Board. backs away from volunteers The Huron County Board of Educations. decided Monday not to get involved with the use of volunteers to oversee tutorials for Grade 12 and 13 students out of school because of the current secondary school teacher strike. The board decided to shy away from the volunteers because of potential liabilities, a small number of qualified volunteers and the possibility that the volunteers could be labelled strike breakers. John Cochrane, director of education, recommended to the board that the use of volunteers in the schools not be considered. He said that the effort to find the people willing to volunteer may not be wasted since the names of those people will be made available to senior students or parent groups looking to set up study groups. Cochrane told the board that one such group had already been established in Goderich and involved about 10 volun- teers and 40 students. He said the groups met twice weekly in the basement of Knox Presbyterian Church in Goderich. The director said the volunteer project was authorized by he and board chairman John Elliott. He said the two decided to "sample the water and see what the volunteer proposal would be like". He said the subsequent an- nouncement from the board office resulted in 28 names of people with of- fers that they were willing to help where they could. He said that of the 28 volunteers eight had the necessary academic background to be of any assistance to Grade 13 students. He said that spread over five high schools eight was not many. "When you come right down to brass tacks there were eight that probably could have been some assistance to Grade 13's," said Cochrane. Cochrane said the small number of 1 qualified volunteers combined with the possibility that they could be construed as strikebreakers, that they would not be paid, that the education adt demanded they not be used more than 10 days and the possibility of legal problemsnd liabilities prompted him to suggest that the board leave the volunteer program to local groups like the one in Goderich. The director also told the board not "to panic" about lost instructional time due to the strike. He said the students had not lost too much time thus far since the board had cancelled the mid-term exams and little time had been lost due to winter storms. He said that he knew of two students that went to another education system to study and he was advised that they were not that far behind. "But the clock is running," he warned. "From here on time is important for many of the students. Arena Tenders will be called for a new arena floor this week, but whether or not the floor will be ready in time for the Spring fair on June 2, is still un- decided. Clinton council at a special meeting last Monday night rubber stamped a request from the recreation - committee to go ahead and advertise for tenders, as the council has to be Ithe signing officer in any contract. The floor replacement cost,is estimated at between $100,000 nd $150,000, but no firm price will be known until the tenders are opened. Councillor Ron McKay, one of the COunCil'c ronrocont' tjvPc nn the rec oor tenders called committee, said that grants will cover roughly two-thirds of the cost of the new floor, while the rest will be raised through a canvass of the area, and other fund raising projects. He doesn't expect any money will come from the taxpayers. Early this year, the rec committee learned that the floor, which is badly cracked in places, was losing cooling solution, and the boards were badly heaved. In touring other arenas, rec members learned that the problem is lack of insulation under the floor which allows the frost to heave it. Councillor McKay couldn't give a definite date when the floor would be started or even finished, as there are only eight weeks before Spring Fair starts, and most contractors want the floor to cure for at least six weeks before any vehicles are driven over it. There was some debate Monday night over why the rec committee had to come to town council for per- mission to go ahead, but clerk Cam Proctor explained that only a municipal corporation could sign for Wintario and Community Centers grants, and council permission was merely an official procedure. HI MARCH 28 39 29 37 30 40 31 41 APRIL 1 52 2 33 3 34 Trustees confused, but proposal might have chance BY JEFF SEDDON A proposal that could bring an end to the 27 -day old Huron County secondary school teacher strike may still have an opportunity to work despite. some cons fusion among school board trustees. That confusion almost killed the idea before it had a chance to work. A series of misunderstandings coupled with—Some- rietty politics among some trustees over the proposal, which basically set an agreed upon deadline for the strike to be settled, almost prevented the proposal from being considered by Fire hits house Fire late Tuesday night heavily damaged a vacant house west of Lon- desboro. The house is owned by Bob Trick of Londesboro, who lives across the road. Mr. Trick discovered the blaze about 11:30 p.m. but by the time the Blyth fire department arrived on the scene, the fire was out of control. Mr. Trick said the firemen responded quickly to the blaze, and were able to save a near -by shed and barn. He said firemen thought the blaze started in an electrical panel. No damage estimate has been given. The Clinton fire department sent in their tanker truck to assist the Blyth' brigade. Firemen were at the scene until 4 a.m. Wednesday morning. the board of education or its negotiating team early this week. The proposal was initially made in- formally between a member of the board negotiating team and a counterpart from the Ontario Secondary School Teacher Federation District 45 negotiating committee. The suggestion was that the two parties agree upon a date r"r voluntary arbitration and agree upon an arbitrator, and then begin negotiations in earnest until that date. During that time the teachers would return to the classroom and both sides would make every effort to settle the contract dispute. The date originally proposed for taking .the matter to voluntary ar- bitration was April 30 but that date was considered premature and the time period for local negotiations was ex- tended until May 24. If no settlement was reached by that time the matter would be decided on by an arbitrator with no further disruption in school instructional time by striking teachers. The idea was given to the teachers for their reaction. Shirley Weary, spokesman for District 45, said she would like to see. it in writing for her committee to 'iscuss. She said at the time the proposal raised some questions that could be cleared up in a written proposal adding that she didn't want to "goof it up" when she took it to the teachers. That's where the problems began. The board failed to react to that suggestion and refused to back the informal First column: Strike By Jim Fitzgerald The main topic of conversation in these parts of late centres around the current strike of our secondary school teachers, a strike that has closed the schools for nearly 30 teaching days, and now threatens to do permanent damage to the education of many of our young people. A group of concerned parents in the county has approached this paper, and in fact all the papers in the county, to fully spell out just what are the issues in the strike. These parents have assembled a very comprehensive story on the problem, and it can be found elsewhere in this paper. If this doesn't clear up any confusion over the matter, then I don't know what will. If you have an opinion on the strike after reading the material, then let the board, or the teachers know your stand, preferably in a letter. Personally, I think that many of the borderline students have already lost their year, and all we can hope for now is that some of the brighter senior students can move off... if something is done now. + + + Another topic of conversation that is mulled aver nearly as much as the strike is the terrible weather, with ice storms, dense fog, and far below normal temperatures. Tony Chir of the Goderich weather station tells us that March followed on the heels of February... very cold. Tony says the average mean for the t._ month was minus 4.6 degrees C, far below the average mean of minus 1.5. The coldest day was March 2 when the thermometer touched down at minus 27.7 degrees C (-18 degrees F) while the "warmest" day was on March 31 when the mercury hit plus 5 degrees C (41 degrees F). Because the statistics weren't yet available, Tony could only say it was the coldest March in at least seven years. Precipitation was average at 59.5 mm. Tony also said that the final data showed February to be the second coldest in history, surpassed only by 1875, and even colder than 1934, which is used as a bench mark around here. It was also the fourth driest in history. + ++ All of which explains why I have a $213 hydro bill to pay, and why I haven't yet done any gardening, unlike last year when I planted on April 10. + + + Overheard at a horticulture society meeting: "With a green thumb, you're a good gardener — with a purple thumb, you're a near-sighted carpenter.'' +++ The baseball season officially started yesterday, a good sign of nicer weather yet to come, but the hockey playoffs don't start until next week, a good sign that the NHL needs more ticket sales to pay all those $100,000 plus annual salaries to their players. proposal, with something official. The proposal with District 45 president Ron refusal was combined with a vote by the Lane asking that he take it to the teacher board not to take the strike issue to negotiating team. He said he had later voluntary arbitration under any terms heard from Lane and understood that which seemed to indicate to the teachers the teachers wouldn't consider the idea. that the May 24 arbitration deadline was Elliott said the informal rejection by a dead issue. the teachers was the same as a formal The board's failure to send an official ~ejection adding that he would not proposal to the teachers centered aroundl,..-74 ,ppart the move to put the proposal in, board chairman John Elliott's con- writing. He said he was convinced the viction that the effort was futile since he idea had no support from the teachers had already flown a similar idea by a and that it was futile to push it any member of the teacher negotiating team further. and it had been rejected. The misunderstanding among the Elliott said he had discussed a similar trustees resulted in a vote in a private County backs board By a unanimous decision, Huron County Council agreed on Friday to support a resolution from Turnberry Township to support the position of the Huron County Board of Education in its current dispute with the secondary school teachers. The Turnberry resolution noted that in the past, the Huron board had been criticised for its spending practices. The resolution went on to say that since the board now appears to "desire to curtail their spending", it is important that the county municipalities support board members. Bayfield Reeve, Ed Oddleifson said, "We are ail concerned about what is occurring. We all feel that some solution could be arrived at. There does appear to be some irresponsibility somewhere. I'm not saying where." According to Oddleifson, the resolution was approved by council to "assist" negotiations. Warden Gerry Ginn said the people have known for sometime that a "stand has to be taken when people want more and do less". "This is a new era," said the warden. "Changes are going to have. to be made. I strongly commend the board. It is a difficult but necessary stand." Board chairman R.J. Elliott was present at the afternoon session of county council, along with trustee John Henderson. Elliott declined to comment on the situation when invited by county council to speak. board session over the board's in Ontario. willingness to send the strike matter to The chairman said he was also con - voluntary arbitration. The majority of vinced that the matter could be resolved the trustees felt that their ratepayers if the board could negotiate with Huron were asking them tp "stick to their County teachers without the Toronto guns" and not give in to the teachers and 'influence. thus defeated the suggestion for ar- "A lot of teachers came through this bitration by a wide measure. system and were born and raised in Clay Murray, a member of the OSSTF Hilt -on County," he said. "I would hope District 45 negotiating team, said they would put Huron County, par - Tuesday that the teachers had not ticularly the students of Huron County, rejected the ideas put forth by the board as their first priority." but merely wanted them in writing. He said there appeared to be some strings attached to one of the suggestions that the teachers wanted clearly specified before they made any commitment. Murray said the teachers were given the impression Monday that they would see something in writing that day and when that didn't arrive, and the board turned down a suggestion for voluntary arbitration, the teachers assumed it was a "dead issue". "My understanding was that there was a May deadline set for arbitration," said Murray. "As soon as a trustee mentioned arbitration we were ob- viously interested and were depressed when it was rejected." Elliott said Monday that he felt the problems over the strike centered around the pressure on the Huron Firemen for beepers County teachers from OSSTF. He said Huron County was .."a test area for OSSTF" and that the teachers here were out on strike over an issue that OSSTF wanted to get into a contract to see if it could be expanded to other jurisdictions Shirley Weary does not buy that argument saying Elliott has to "stop seeing Toronto influence behind every lamp post". Weary said the problems in Huron County were not unique citing Essex, Renfrew, and Perth counties as examples. She added that the two Toronto members on the teacher negotiating team were a minority and never allowed their vote to break a tie on an issue. She said their first concern is the teacher of Huron County and they won't support anything that doesn't have the support of the three Huron County teachers on the negotiating team. Ice, fog cause 12 car crashes Extremely icy roads and fog con- ditidns caused 12 accidents in the area on April 3 and 4, the Goderich OPP report. Highway 8 and surrounding area roads were the most dangerous during the two days which caused six accidents totalling over $4,500 in damages, but no injuries. An accident on April 4 caused over $2,500 damage when three cars collided on Highway 8 west of the Dublin -Perth Road 10 in Tuckersmith Township. A car driven by Annie M. Hillebrecht, 81, of RR 4 Seaforth was stopped in the heavy fog on the highway and was preparing to back into a lanewa`y'when a second car driven by Kenneth Code, 29, of Waterloo collided with the Hillebrecht vehicle. The Code vehicle, owned by Canamerical Auto Lease and Rental of Downsview w' s stopped on the highway, unattended when a third car driven by Douglas O'Reilley, 23 of RR 2 Dublin struck the back of the Code car. . On April 3, icy roads are bldmed for causing $1,000 damage to a 1977 Toyota driven by Donald Howard, 35, Seaforth when it was involved in a single car crash. Howard was travelling west on High- way 8 2.6 km. west of Seaforth at a slow rate of speed when his car skidded on the icy road and entered the north ditch and rolled onto its side. j-ioward and a passenger left the car uninjured. Also on April 3, while OPP Corporal Ray Primeau was on the way to an accident, the cruiser he was driving skidded on the icy roads, east on Huron Road 15. Primeau was travelling east at a reasonable rate of speed when the car he was driving went sideways off the road and hit a highway sign. Damage to the cruiser was $400 and $25 to the sign. Also on April 3, on Highway 8, 1.2 km. west of Seaforth, a car driven by Marie Schenck, 46 of Seaforth and a car driven by Samuel Bell, 32 of RR. 5, Clinton collided on icy roads. Schenck was travelling west on High- way 8 when the car lost control and slid across the road into the path of the on- coming Bell vehicle. Damages to each vehicle was set at $300. A number of other non reportable. accidents, under $400 in damages, were also investigated by the Goderich OPP during the adverse weather conditions. All the firemen in the Clinton volun- teer brigade want beepers, fire chief Clarence Neilans said last week. A report in the News -Record last week indicated that some firemen wanted the system, while others didn't, the Chief Neilans says that isn't so. The beepers are a small pocket-size communicator that emits a beeping sound to summon the men to a fire. The radio controlled device can receive signals up to 10 miles away, and could also be used to keep track of firemen at a fire, Chie; Neilans said. Each unit for the 22 -man Clinton area brigade would cost between $300 and $450, and as well a central answering service and dispatch system would have to be set up. The Fire Area Board will consider the matter at their next meeting on April 12. Slippery end j► creak April ice storm last Monday left area roads looking like skating rinks, causing a number of accidents. An Ontario Hydro truck, trying to stop at the Vanastra 6ideroad and Highway 8, slithered across the road and flipped on its side. Neither drivelr Don MacDonald nor passenger Len Fawcett of Clinton were hurt. Heavy fog on Tuesday afternoon cut visability and caused several more accidents, none of them serious. (News -Record photo)