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Clinton News-Record, 1978-06-22, Page 1• Two Clinton firemen are silhouetted by flames from a fire that completely levelled the Clinton Livestock Auction barn on the southerly outskirts of Clinton early last Saturday morning. Firemen had little chance of saving the structure, as the straw and dry wood in the building fuelled the flames which were out of control when the volunteers arrived. (News -Record photo) Fire ravages sales barn The business community of Clinton suffered another set back early last Saturday morning when the Clinton Livestock Sales barn burned to the ground in a spectacular fire. The auction barn, which has been the centre for livestock sales in the area for several decades, usually attracted several hundred area farmers every Friday night, and the building had only been empty' a few hours when fire raced through the structure. The fire, which caused an estimated damage of $75,000, was discovered at 1:03 a.m. by Jerry Uniac of R.R. 2, Bayfield, was completely out of.control when the Clinton volunteer fire department arrived several minutes later. Within 30 minutes, the livestock barn, the auction ring, and the front office and lunch counter were reduced to piles of smouldering rubble. , Leo Glavin of Crediton, present owner of the sales barn, said he had some insurance on the building, but wasn't sure whether he would rebuild or not. . Mr. Glavin had bought the auction arena from Loren Tyndall of Clinton, who had bought it from Joe Corey. Two weeks ago, the business com- munity suffered another blow when they learned that the town's oldest industry, the Sherlock -Manning Piano Factory, would be closing its door this year, putting 36 out of work, and leaving the town ,with only one manufacturing industry, Wildex. Where only several hours before 150 people wat- ched the Friday night livestock auction sales, only charred rubble remained following a fire early last Saturday morning at the Clinton Livestock Sales barn. The fire, which raced through the structure in 30 minutes, is being blamed on careless smoking. (News -Record photo) 113th year—No. 25 Thursday, June 22, 1978 30 cents Mood of optimism sweeps through hospital Optimistic smiles, and planning for a bright future were the -common themes of the Clinton Public Hospital's annual meeting held in Clinton last Monday night. The hospital, ordered closed by the Ontario ministry of health two years ago, has fought back, and now board members expect there will be a community hospital in Clinton for some time to come. E. Beecher Menzies, in his address to the meeting, said "Although we won't see a letter (from the government) about staying open, it wouldbe in- consistant of them to give us this money, and then close us." Mr. Menzies was referring to ap- proval the health ministry has given the hospital this month to carry out a phase of the renovation plans to update the fire safety of the hospital. The ministry has said that they will put aside $100,000 to help Clinton pay for the renovations, estimated to cost between $130,000 and $150,000. Mr. Menzies said the board hasn't yet Horses, people off and running on Sunday The Clinton iinsrnen Raceway opens its 1978 harness racing season this Sunday, and despite strong competition from area tracks, the club is hoping for a good season. The raceway will be racing 15 Sun- days, from June 25 until October 1, an increase from 14 Sundays of last year. In addition, the Kinsmen are trying something different this year when they will stage three twilight race meets on three Thursdays in July, the 13, the 20 and the 27. Those races will start at 5:15, and will be the only fully pari-mutuel licences twilight meet in Ontario. Post time for the Sunday races will be 1:30 p.m. The total 18 -day race meet will see ten races each day, and the raceway also boasts of several new innovations as well. George "Moe" Hill, a Varna native, is the new racing secretary this year, and is no stranger to the standardbred racing scene. Moe is used to working underneath horses, because for the last 12 years he was a horseshoer at many of the harness tracks in the area. But all those years of horses leaning on Moe while he tended to their feet has taken' its toll on Moe's back, and • last year the doctor ordered Moe to get a less demanding job. So when the Kinsmen club ap- proached Moe this year to be their racing secretary, he jumped at the chance and last May passed his Ontario Racing Commission exams with flying colours. As well as a new racing secretary, the raceway is also giving a man's or lady's watch away and admission passes every Sunday in free draws. Every race program will have a coupon in it that patrons tear ouf and deposit in a drum under the grand- stand. Feature this Sunday will be a couple of divisions of the Ontario Sired Stakes for three-year-old colt pacers for a purse of over $14,000. The track record Native headed presbytery After a year's service, Fred Morrell, a Clinton native, now of Toronto, will be completing his duties as chairman of the West Toronto Presbytery. Mr. Morrell, who was elected in 1977 for a one year term is one of the few layman to serve in this important position. "The typographical error is a slippery thing and sly. • "You can hunt until you are dizzy, but somehow it will get by. "Until the forms are off the press, it is strange how still it sleeps. "It shrinks down in a corner, and it never stirs or peeps. "This typographical error is too small for human eyes, until the ink is on the paper, when it grows to a mountain size. "The boss just stares in horror, then he grabs his hair and groans. "The copy reader drops her head upon her hands and moans. "The remainder of the issue may be as clean as clean can be, but the typographical error is the only thing they'll see." — (from the Salvation Army Triumph Press) How true it is. The above poem sums up nicely the horror that we feel whenever a mistake, be it typographical, grammatical or simply a misplaced headline or picture identification line creeps into the News -Record. We make every effort both in 'the newsroom and the composing room to eliminate these errors, but nobody is perfect, and inevitably a few sneak through every week. Actually, 'our percentage of error is very low, considering the thousands upon thousands of words we handle every week. In fact, the only perfect people we know of are now in Heaven. But that is small comfort to a person whose daughter's name was misspelled, or to a group who had a wrong headline on their story. All we can say is : point them out to us and we will try and make corrections and apologies in the next issue. As the sign on the News -Record wall says: "Doctors can bury their mistakes, General Motors can recall them, Presidents can classify them, but newspapers are hung out where everyone can see them." +++ At long last summer arrived, and even though it officially arrived at 2:10 yesterday (Wednesday af- ternoon), summer never really gets going until school gets out, which is next Wednesday. And then the doldrums really descend on this news staff. Sure, there's plenty of activity going on, people coming and going, and vacationers aplenty, but without our regular sustenance of meetings, sports events and school events gone, the poor news staff tends to grab at straws. So if you know of a news event going on that is unscheduled, give us a call, we sure wouldn't mind hearing from you. +++ Although we are being weaned off most of our regular diet of meetings, there are some other interesting summer activities to take their place, including the rose show this Friday at the Town Hall and the opening of the Kinsmen raceway this Sunday. I., feel sorry for the rose show organizers, however, because of the late spring, many exhibitors are having trouble coming up with enough good blooms for the show. A member and elder at the Islington United Church was described in the newspaper, the Bloor West Villager as a fervent and respected churchman. Born in Clinton, Mr. Morrell received his elementary education here and following further studies, he moved to Toronto. While working in Toronto he decided to enter Victoria College at the University of Toronto where he studied, in hopes of entering the ministry. Before he graduated, he served as minister at Queensway United in 1944. Following his pastorship he commenced working for the provincial Civil Service at Queen's Park. He has also served as an interim pastor at Wesley United in Mimico and Turn to page 3 • of 2:02.3 could be in danger if the speedballs that have raced in the stake so far, show up at Clinton. Raceway chairman, Paul Kerrigan,, also said that the club has a special occasion permit to run the Family Room in the arena, and if it works out, the facility will be fully licensed tfiroughout the race meet. Last year, the Liquor Licensing Board of Ontario closed down the room when they claimed the Kinsmen were selling more beer than food, as required on Sundays. Kerrigan said the club still owes about $35,000 on the new $250000 grandstand, which they built for the town last year, and he hopes the race has a successful season so the club can pay off more of their debt. received any approval for the other two phases, relocation of emergency services, updating the 1947 south wing, and eventual demolition of the 100 year- old north wing. "The morale of the staff has been boosted considerably by the renovation plans. There will be no fighting closure battles in the near future," Mr. Men- zies said. • He said that the board had already carried out some renovations in the last year, mainly to install a monitoring system for the boiler room at a cost of $11,000. In his review of the year, Mr. Men- zies noted that the board had lost a valued member in the late Joe Mur- phy; had signed an agreement with the Service Employees Unioni and had reinstated the position of director of nursing, hiring Mrs. Jean Cox. He also said that a liaison committee formed from representatives from all the county's five hospitals, and talks among the hospitals was proving "fruitful." "A rapport has deve,oped that didn't exist before (the threatened hospital closings)," Mr. Menzies said. Art Aiken, financial chairman, noted that the hospital budget had shown a slight surplus of $6,190 despite a tight restraint policy imposed by the ministry of health. The hospital working on a budget of $2 million, has changed its fiscal year from April 1st to March 30 to conform with the ministry of health's fiscal year. In fact, had the board wanted to, they could have spent up to $51,000 more and still been within the ministry's guidelines. Of the $2 million budget, the hospital paid out over $l million in salaries and benefits during the last 15 months. Property chairman Bill Counter reported a busy year, and noted that among the many repairs and supplies purchased, the board had bought the Ball property south of the hospital for future expansion plans. Dr. W.E. Harrett, noted in his report that the obstetrics unit needed up- dating and said two London doctors had been hired for summer relief help. Hospital Auxiliary president Margaret Coventry noted that the volunteers had raised $3,400 during the year, had donated a portable X -Ray unit to the hospital, and started the candystriper program which has been very successful. She said that the auxiliary was still looking after the tuck cart and the TV rentals. Hospital administrator Doug Coventry noted in his report that it was a busy year for the hospital, and a successful one, despite restraint Turn to page :3 • London man dies in crash Phillip Tuckey,_ 29, of London was killed instantly last Thursday evening on a Goderich Township sideroad when the car he was driving left the road and went out of control. Tuckey was northbound on Con- cession 13 - 14, just south of Highway 8 when the 1972 Oldsmobile he was driving left the road, entered the east ditch and rolled. Tuckey was thrown from the vehicle and found pinned under the wreckage. The Goderich detachment of the OPP investigated the incident. The car he was driving was completely demolished. No injuries were sustained in another accident when two cars collided on Sideroad 27-26 in Hullett Township last week. The Goderich OPP reported that a car driven by Bruce Mason, 26, of Blyth was stopped at the side of the road when a second vehicle driven by Julia Van Baaren, 22, of Londesboro came This 1972 Oldsmobile was completely demolished and its driver, Phillip Tuckey, 29, of London instantly killed in a single car crash last Thursday evening approximately 21/2 miles west of Clinton. Tuckey lOst control of the vehicle as he was driving on concession road 13-14 in Goderich Township. The car skidded sideways some 200 feet, jumped a creek and over- turned, throwing the driver out and pinning him under the wreckage. (photo by Steve Cooke) over a hill and struck the rear of the Mason car. Damage to the Van Baaren car was set at $600 and $150 to the Mason car. The Clinton Police Department had one reportable accident on June 19 when a car driven by Beverly Learn Jr. of Hensall and vehicle driven by Rose Lawson, East Street, Clinton collided. The Lawson vehicle was southbound on Victoria Street when it collided with the rear of the Learn vehicle. Beverly Learn received minor in- juries and damage to the vehicle she was driving was set at $200. Damages of $200 were also done to the Lawson car. In other police business, Chief Lloyd Westlake reported that tenders are going to be called to supply the necessary equipment for the new countywide police communications system. As well, Glenna Ellis has been hired by the police department through the Experience '78 program to gather information for the central dispatch system. Her first task will be to take a business census. Chief Westlake also reported that he and his wife will be attending the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Niagara Falls. The convention, which is the 27th one, will be held from June 25 - 29. l Weather 1978 1977 HI LO HI Lb. JUNE 13 12 14 15 15 17 16 20 '17 23 18 23 14 19 23 13 Rain 6.05 6 2 5 11 17 72 45 76 54 78 48 83 54 84 65 80 60 75 54 Rain ,20