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Clinton News-Record, 1983-11-02, Page 1• Q1 r J t 1. /+ C T XIFIFLdD UGLE incorporating THE BLYTH STANDARD cents --N 44 Wednesday, Novem er2, 1 Five-year old saves mother's life 118th year 10 v By Rod Hilts TV Ontario is planning to conduct an engineering study to see if boosting the power of a London transmitter would be a viable solution in providing Huron County with TVO broadcasting coverage. At present TVO signals can only be picked up in the area through cable television or proper aerials and amplifiers. The nearest TVO transmitter is located at Byron and its capacity is a 28 -mile radius around London. According to Alex MacGregor, TVO assistant director of distribution services, an engineering staff isn't available at the present time but the study will be done. "We will be looking at the study to see if the transmitter output can be increased, how much it will cost and how big an area it would cover. The study should be completed by the end of February," Mr. MacGregor said. Fire leaves Clinton woman and two children homeless A blind Clinton woman, Valerie Anderson and her two children Michael, 5 and Brent, 11 were left homeless on Oct. 25 when fire gutted their 225 Spencer Street home. Within minutes the interior of the small frame house was blackened with smoke and heavily damaged despite the Clinton fire department's attempts to control the fire. While the exterior of the home owned by Clare Dechert of RR 2, Goderich, looks relatively undamaged, Clinton Fire Chief Clarence Neilans reported that most of the contents were lost in the late afternoon fire. Mrs. Anderson said the fire broke out in her home about 4:30 p.m. "I cduld smell smoke," she recalled, "but I was cooking supper at the time and wasn't thinking that the smoke could be from a fire." Mrs. Anderson said that her youngest son Michael saved her life. In spite of his speech impediment, the young boy was able to tell his mother that the house was on fire. He led her from the kitchen to the front door, where the fire was burning at its worst and outside to safety. Once she was aware that the house was on fire, Mrs. Anderson said she could feel the heat from the fire and could hear it crackling. "He didn't panic and he was very brave," his mother praised. "I was really, really lucky. If Michael hadn't been there I may not have realized that the house was on fire until it was too late." At a neighbor's home, Mrs. Anderson called the Clinton Fire Department and wihin minutes the brigade answered the call, However neight the fire fighters' ef- forts of the light rain could quell the fire. Friends and family have helped Mrs. Anderson and her two sons. People have donated clothing and furniture and the family will be moving into a new home at 97 John Street in Clinton on Thursday. It will take sometime before the Anderson family has established a normal household again and Mrs. Anderson noted, "any small donation would help." She is particularly looking for dishes and cooking utensils. Clothing should be ladies size 14-16 and boys size 5 and 10. Any donations may be taken to the Anderson home. The Clinton fire department is still in- vestigating the cause of the blaze. Chief Neilans estimated the contents damage at $5,000. Council agrees to spend $22,000 upgrade plant By Shelley McPhee The Town of Clinton will spend $ protect the Bayfield River from pollution. 000 t9 F Council, recently agreed to spend':$?2,000 to upgrade the process at the Clinton. Wage treatment plant which helps to coz.ol ef- fluent material levels. Associates of Goderich is $21,700. It is The council's decision was .stinnated that the installationwill pay.. or.. agreement with a recommendation from the ministry of the environment. The govern- ment department in a study found that because of the sensitive nature of the Bayfield River, effluent from the Clinton Sewage Treatment Plant should not have a phosphorous concentration exceeding 1.0 mg per L. Phosphorus aids excessive aquatic weed growth in a receiving stream. installation of a large bulk storage tank and some minor pipe changes. The original plant design included such a storage tank but it was deleted as a cost saving measure. The estimated cost of the conversion to liquid alum as determined by the engineering firm of B.M. Ross and Phosphorous removal is achieved by alum addition within the plant process. At the present time, the Clinton Sewage Plant uses a dry form of alum and mixes it with water on-site. The equipment being used was originally intended for alum use as a filter aid where only small amounts would be required. However phosphorus removal requires applications or Large dosages of alum. The Clinton Plant will be converting to use of liquid alum. This will necessitate the itself in seven years due to the reduced cost of purchasing chemicals in liquid form. Bulk purchases should reduce the cost of the chemical from approximately 36 cents a kg to 22 cents a kg. The use of liqud alum is also preferred because handling of the chemical is much safer since there is no direct contact with the alum. On-site mixing can be very dusty and lifting of heavy bags is required. Conversion to the new system may also be a cost saving method in equipment and labor costs. There is less equipment maintenance because chemical lines will be less likely to plug. As well, alum addition is automatic and there is no labor required to handle bags or mix solutions. If the reduced labor requirement is considered, then the system could pay for itself in approximately five years. Teachers had a break from teaching duties on Oct. 28, but not school, as 220 Huron County elementary teachers partipated in seminars and workshops at the Professional Development Day in Seaforth. The seminar also attracted 25 parents. Workshops in- cluded topics on trees, birds, projects and environmental impact. Louise Keskinen was one of several Clinton teachers attending the event. (Ron Wassink photo) Valerie Anderson and her two sons were;,leit homeless last week when fire destroyed their Clinton home 8t 225 Spencer Street. The blind mother was led to safety by her five-year-old son. (Shelley McPhee photo ) nty sign 1 He went on to explain thsst boosting the transmitter's power from its present two kilowatt output to four kilowatts would only increase the UHF signal three miles. "Boosting the power of the transmitter could cost as much as putting another one in," Mr. MacGregor said. Dave Bieman, the media co-ordinator for the Huron County Board of Education, said that Huron County has been pushing for two years in trying to obtain the TVO broad- casting signal. "At this point TVO reaches 90 per cent of Ontario's population. It's unfortunate that some of us are a part of the 10 per cent that don't have it. We are paying taxes toward it," Mr. Bieman said. The possibility of Huron County receiving its own transmitter at this time looks minimal because of a policy handed down by the Minister of Culture, Susan Fish. The policy states "no money will be forthcoming for new transmitters at this time." Mr. Bieman, who's also a member of the Advisory Council with TVO, said that the Ministry of Culture gave "strong indications that transmitters would be available in the future" at a meeting last October. Since then he said Eastern Ontario had been requesting. transmitters for Peterborough, Belleville and Kingston. Former Minister of Culture, Bruce McCaffery, had indicated that the Eastern -Ontario area would be receiving transmitters very soon. The new policy means they won't receive them at this time. Mr. Bieman explained that the Ministry of Culture recently put monies toward the repairing of TVO equipment and therefore cutbacks had to be made in the purchasing of new transmitters. "The Advisory Council was extremely disappointed with what happened in Eastern Ontario. We expected the other pockets without TVO would fill in once they (Eastern Ontario) got their transmitters," said Mr. Bieman. If the study finds that boosting the power at the London transmitter isn't viable, it could take some strong lobbying by Huron County residents before they get their own transmitter. "There is so much junk on networks now that TVO is a real benefit to viewers. It offers an alternative. If a the study is against boosting London's power, people in Huron will have to wait until a transmitter's put in," Mr. Bieman said. Weather OCTOBER 1983 1982 25 9 1 13 -5 26 10 2 15 -2 27 9 -3 17 -2 28 18 4 - 18 5 29 9 0 17 8 30 9 -6 15 3 31.: 11 -5 14 5 Rain 10 mm Rain 28 mm OSIS discuss revamping high school education By Stephanie Levesque Ontario Schools Intermediate and Senior, or OSIS, or more simply the revamping of high school education was promoted and demoted at the professional development day held at Goderich District Collegiate In- stitute on Oct. 28. Secondary school teachers, Grade 7 and 8 teachers, and others in the education field heard two from their ranks square off on OSIS. OSIS architect Morris Liebovitz, an education officer with the Ministry of Education, spoke on the ministry document which is the culmination of two other reports. The first report was SERP, Secon- dary Education Review Project and then came the ROSE report, Renewal of Secon- dary Education which is the ministry's response to SERP. "The next step was developing a policy document," said Mr. Liebovitz and thus came OSIS. To be implemented in September of 1984, the main implications of OSIS are the in- crease from 27 credits to 30 for a secondary school diploma with 16 being compulsory. Also streamlining of diplomas is included in OSIS with the number being reduced from two to one diploma. The ministry representative also noted that the revamping of the secondary educa- tion system doesn't mean Grade 13 will be abolished. Rather what are now termed Grade 13 courses will be called Ontario Academic Courses (OAC) which, said Mr. Liebovitz are more "prescriptive to ensure standardization across the province." Another part of OSIS is a code of behavior which is to be developed by individual secondary schools. Mr. Liebovitz said there are seven major areas to be covered in the code. These areas are punctuality, regular attendance, respect for authority, peers, property and self and preparation for class. Secondary school will be "more deman- ding, less forgiving" said Mr. Liebovitz con- sidering the increased credits necessary for a diploma, the number of complsory credits and the code of behavior. "Students have to be more committed to education," said Mr. Liebovitz. Although not opposed to the process or content of OSIS, Tom Dahl, executive of- ficer of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation asked Huron secon- dary school teachers to ask their board to delay the implementation of the program for one year. Mr. Dahl said his main message regar- ding OSIS is to ask each teachers' federation to talk to the community and their school board trustees about OSIS. Then he en- couraged the teachers to make a formal ap- proach to their boards to have the im- plementation delayed until September 1985. Lack of funding for anticipated costs is the main reason OSSTF is requesting its districts to ask their respective school board to delay the September 1984 deadline. Mr. Dahl brought statistics with him to back up his request. According to a recent study, mandatory French will mean an ad- ditional 4,000 French classes in the pro- vince. 'Again province -wide, this would mean about 600 to 800 more French teachers. "I don't personally care how many closet French teachers (those who previously taught French, but because of declining enrolment had to teach other subject areas) there are. Are they prepared or trained to teach French at three levels. There is a pro- blem." said Mr. Dahl suggesting profes- sional development would be necessary. The three levels refer to basic, general and advanced. Mr. Dahl also wanted to know who is going to pay for more texts and materials needed. Staffing, he said, is another area that has to be considered. "More credits do not result necessarily in more teachers," said the OSSTF represen- tative noting class sizes could very well in- crease. "We need time to adjust staffing," said Mr. Dahl. Other problems with OSIS, which Mr. Dahl suggests should be carefully con- sidered prior to implementation, are defin- ing where additional funds are to come from for such things as teachers, texts or possible incentives for industry and -or commerce to become involved in a co-operative program. Mr. Dahl also expressed concern that the public is somewt confused between special educatipn and OSIS. They are two separate items, but the public "has some difficulty in divorcing the two". A representative from District 45 of OSSTF said the local federation had unanimously approved to ask the Huron County Board of Education to delay the im- plementation for a year. Director of education Robert Allan was asked if the board had any plans to defer the changes to secondary education. "Personally I am reluctant to recommend it ( delay I to them," responded Mr. Allan. The afternoon session of the professional development day in Goderich was again on OSIS, but divided into individual subject workshops. A gorilla driving snowmobiler? Anything's possible on Hallowe'en. At Holly Gully on Sunday this competitor took part in the Ontario championship grass drag races. (Shelley McPhee photo)