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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1987-11-04, Page 1Goderich 1 139 YEAR — 44 GODERICH ONTARIO, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBE$ 4, 1987 60 CENTS PER COPY New life for an old soldier BY ROB BUNDY The old soldier who has watched over the Courthouse Square since 1924 will have a new look come the llth day of the llth month. For the first time in over 50 years, the Goderich cenotaph is getting a complete scrub -down. The 'bronze bath', contracted by the local Legion at a cost of some $6,000, is being done by Ottawa restorationist Tom Mills. Mills, 38, will take about two weeks to complete the monumental task: "I have a real respect for the past," says Mills from under the protective plastic that now surrounds the staute in the Square. "I love working outdoors. It's peaceful and there's a real feeling of accomplishment when it's all done." The process of scrubbing, scraping, clean- ing, washing, coloring and coating the cenotaph is not an easy one, but, once com- plete, the process shouldn't have to be repeated. After blasting the figure with a mixture' of tiny glass beads and ground walnut shells (yes, „walnut shells), an acitone wash is applied. Then, a chemical bath that will give the old soldier a clean but antique color. "It's important that the figure doesn't look shiny and new," explains Mills while reloading his powerful airgun. "It should look clean but antique. Right now, it looks like it's been covered in bright, gold paint." Once the cenotaph has been completely cleaned, and a clear finished added to resist acid rain, it will take an annual waxing to maintain the condition Mills has worked so hard to achieve. This is only the third such cenotaph Mills has had the pleasure of restoring. This system of cleaning the heavy bronze figures in Cornwall, North Bay and now Goderich came as "sort of an outgrowth of other work I've done in the past". Mills gained his skills in restoration from the Museum Technology course he attended at Algonquin College in 1982. It was 1985 that he was contacted by Parks Canada to ad- dress the problem of cleaning the Cornwall cenotaph. The success of that project has opened up a whole new business for Mills and his wife. ' "This type of cleaning started as a sideline to my museum work," admits Mills, "but I can see it providing me with a good, full-time business." While the polishing of the Goderich cenotaph isn't the toughest cleaning job he's faced, Mills says it's by no means a small task. "There's actually very little 'bird' damage here,"aar�says Mills with buffer in g Postal theft nets X60;000 A burglary at the Goderich Post Office on Kingston Sia eet netted the thief or thieves in excess of $60,000. Sometime during the night of Oct. 2&-29, someone gained entry to the office by forcing open the front door. The vault was broken into and a large quantity of stamps ( various denominations ), some cash and "proof sets," of collectors coins were taken according to investigating of- ficer Constable Peter Mason, of the Goderich Police Department. Minimal damage was done to the post office although some mail was tampered with. Goderich Police, in conjuncton with the Ontario Provincial Police Identification Unit from Mount Forest and Canada Post Security, are investigating the incident. Vandalism light Tom Mills, of Ottawa, has been in Goderich for the past week scrub- bing, scraping, polishing and coating the Court House Cenotaph. The cleaning of the solitary soldier, constructed in 1924, is expected to take two weeks and will cost the Goderich Legion about $6,000. hand. "Acid rain is what got this fella." Mills says he will use literally thousands of dollars worth of chemicals to achieve the finished look he feels the statue deserves. By the way, a 100 pound bag of crushed walnut shells costs $38 and he'll go through a number of bags before the soldier has been properly, and gently, cleansed. "It's very interesting restoring someone else's work," says Mills while eye -to -eye Once the cleaning is complete; it shouldn't have to be repeated. That is, as long as the soldier gets an annual waxing. (Rob Bundy photo) with the local statue. "The techniques and intricacies of the sculptor should really been seen close up." In addition to the new finish on the Goderich cenotaph, the local Legion will be .adding three permanent steel crosses . in front of the structure and hopes to have floodlights in place come November 11. "This one has a real feeling of joy or vic- tory to it," says Mills about our local soldier. "The other cenotaphs I've worked on have been solemn. Not sad really, but serious. This one is different." After 53 years of braving the elements, the Goderich soldier will soon have a new lease on life, one that will last through many Remembrance Days to come thanks to the delicate work of Tom Mills Mayors meet in Mitchell to discuss Highway 8 BY ANDY BADER "There is a need for it, everyone agrees on A committee of concerned mayors of the that, and we'd like to continue to display our towns along Highway 8 in Southwestern On- interests and show that we're keenly in- tario have continued to meet since last terested in this development." February as they continue to plan their The project, known henceforth as strategy on expanding the highway from the Highway 408, involves all the towns and the present two lanes to four from Kitchener City of Stratford westward from Kitchener. clear on through to Goderich. New Hamburg, Mitchell, Seaforth, Clinton This past February, the mayors of the and Goderich have all showed an interest in towns situated along the highway met with this project, not only because of the chance Ontario Minister of Transportation and to expand industrially, but to upgrade their Communications Ed Fulton to express their existing highway. need for a four -lane highway. Fulton was Ortelli said Goderich Mayor Eileen quite receptive to the visit, and told the Palmer, Seaforth Mayor Alf Ross, Stratford group that a plan for future development Mayor Ted Blowes and economic develop - would be drawn up. ment representatives from both Seaforth Last Thursday, the mayors again met, and Goderich attended the meeting last this time in Mitchell, to discuss their next Thursday. Mitchell Mayor Harold Jordan step in staying on top of the issue. Mitchell and Clinton Mayor John Balfour were representative Lloyd Ortelli said a meeting unable to attend. with the MTC engineers who are planning Ortelli said the committee of mayors plan the development project has been tenatively to meet on a three or six-month basis, set for Thursday, December 10th at 10 a.m. depending on whatever's necessary, to keep at the Mitchell Town Hall. on top of the issue. "We'd like for them (engineers) to visit "The committee feels very strongly right and explain what their future plans are," now that very little has been done in getting Ortelli said last week in an interview. traffic in our part of the province," Ortelli said. "In order to promote industry, you need a better traffic flow. We feel it's warranted." Ortelli said during last week's meeting that Stratford Mayor Ted Blowes would be "quite receptive" to a truck bypass through the Festival City. Originally, Stratford plan- ned on confronting the ministry themselves and having the MTC construct four lanes just to the limits of the city. Ortelli said this agreement to back the affected towns is an important step in receiving the eventual go ahead. "They've jumped on the bandwagon," Ortelli said. "They've given us 100 per cent support. It's great that we're getting this co- operation." Last month, a letter addressed to the members of the delegation who visited Fulton at Queen's Park in February receiv- ed an .updated letter from the minister. Phase one of the project is set for the spring of '88, that is, four-laning the highway from Regional Road 1 (County Road 22) of Perth County easterly to just east of Regional Road 6 (Old Highway 7 and 8, New Hamburg to the New Dundee Road). A new bridge over the Nith River in New Hamburg has to be completed, and it is an- ticipated, Fulton said, that construction will be completed by the fall of 1989. Ideally,the local committee would 'like the second phase of the project moved up, so that steady progress is being made on a four -lane highway from New Hamburg to Stratford and an eventual bypass of Strat- ford. Eventually, the project will continue westward through to Goderich. Fulton wrote in his letter that a review and a complete update of information per- taining to a four -lane highway from the Stratford bypass through to Goderich would be completed by the end of the year. Ortelli said the next meeting date of December 10th gives the engineers involved time to undergo their review and explain their future steps to the committee. "I trust that the actions mentioned are considered as a major step towards ad- dressing the traffic problems in the Highway 7/8 corridor westerly from Kit- chener," Fulton concluded. Sehl.to. head count cild abuse committee "Theof public school board has a draft child abuse protocol reporting and the legal and medical professions are develop- ing protocols," Sehl noted. Although child abuse is often thought of as a problem which happens somewhere else, Sehl said it is a problem of which the community must be made aware. CHILD ABUSE COMMUNITY PROBLEM "The idea of the committee is to ensure that people See child abuse as a communi- ty problem and not necessarily a FCS or family problem. We know the child abuse victim who receives no treatment usually ends up being the abuser. That's the pro- blem and we hope to prevent it," Sehl said. "Huron County is really a rural com- munity and abusive situations often occur when people are isolated and services to help are not available," Sehl explained. However, with 34 cases of child abuse reported in 1986, "Huron County is not necessarily worse than other places. It's not fair to suggest that Huron County has more or less than other parts of the pro- vince," Sehl said. "There could be more abuse than we know partly because of the isolation fac- tor. There is obviously more abuse than we know because abuse reporting just doesn't happen," she added. Child abuse statistics, such as those Turn to age 2 BY LOU -ANN DE BRUYN One in 10 persons are victims of serious physical abuse. - One in four girls and one in seven boys will be sexually abused by the time they are 18 -years -old. In 1984, there were 1,284 cases of abuse reported to , the Ontario Child Abuse Register. Of this number, 508 cases involv- ed physical or emotional abuse while the remaining 1,064 cases saw the victim sex- ually abused. In Huron County, there were 34 cases of child abuse reported to Family and Children's Services in 1986. Thirteen of these cases involved physicalor emotional abuse. Twenty-one victims in 1986 were sexually abused. Child abuse is a community problem. It is a problem that is apparent both in the urban and rural settings of Canada. It is a problem that cannot be ignored. The Huron County Community Child Abuse Co-ordinating Committee, formed in the fall of 1986, states its purpose as be- ing, "to help engage in the prevention of child abuse." At the helm of the commit- tee is Mary • Sehl, a recent Community Psychology Masters graduate from Wilfrid Laurier University. "Every county has a child abuse com- 'mittee," Sehl said. She noted the Huron C unt o , ittee w a run the Huron County FCS although other committees were run independent of county FCS operations. "John Penn, executive director at Huron County FCS, was one of the main people to get the program going. The program received a Trillium grant which means it is funded separately from FCS," she said, adding the program is being operated out of Huron County FCS simply because of Penn's involvement in establishing the committee. The interdisciplinary committee con- sists of a number of people, including doc- tors, lawyers, public health nurses, Bluewater Centre representatives, police' officers, lawyers and FCS staff members. "This is not necessarily a committee of experts," Sehl said, adding, "The commit- tee is representative of the community as a whole." NUMBER OF SUB -COMMITTEES The committee is divided into a number of sub -committees, each with a different purpose. These include a Child Abuse Review Team (which is mandatory at every FCS), a Fundraising Committee, a Confidentiality and Protocol Committee ( a sub -committee divided into three commit- tees responsible for developing reporting medical, legal and educational protocols for reporting cases), a Public and Profes- sional Education Qoinmittee ( a committee Mary Sehl who will be developing workshops on child abuse ), and the most recently formed Research Committee (to research child abuse in Huron County as well as treat- ment techniques). While the committee is just getting off the ground, some accomplishments have already been established. on Hallowe'en While plenty of. "trick or treaters," were out and about on Hallowe'en night, the night was a treat for Goderich police, as very few vandals were up to their old tricks. "It was a very orderly, quiet time," said Goderich Police Chief Patrick King, noting the only major incident involved the spray painting.of brickwork and win- dows of 19 businesses on The Square sometime during the night of Oct. 31. "It was a good, fun night, other than the spray bombing," said King, adding that police are still investigating the incident. Police also made nine charges for li- quor offences and responded to two leaf fires set by pranksters during the evening. Becker denies change needed A Goderich man, charged last week with a number of infractions under the Ontario Building Code and a local zoning by-law, contends the charges against him are unfounded. Juergen Becker was ordered by Goderich Town Council, at their Sept. 28 meeting, to either tear down a storage sh- ed built without a permit on his property, or file an application for a zoning change to allow the structure. Since Becker did neither by the Oct. 15 deadline set by coun- cil, the town proceeded with charges against him. He is faced with five Ontario Building Code charges and one charge under a local zoning by-law. Becker instead, chose to submit a state- ment declaring that he did not believe the zoning chane neccessary because he feels the structure, built this past summer, is an allowable use under the current M2 designation of his Oxford Street property. The town did not recognize Becker's declaration as compliance with council's directive, and so the charges were filed on Oct. 26. The case will come before Provincial Court, in Goderich on Nov. 12. GLT staging 'The Rainmaker' N. Richard Nash's romantic comedy, "The Rainmaker," will be staged by the, Goderich Little Theatre at the Livery from Nov. 4 to 7 inclusive. The play, directed" by Jennifer A. Black, of Goderich, is set in the western United States on a summer day, during a time of drought. The cast has been rehearsing for six • weeks and Black feels they are well- prepared for the GLT's first production of the season which, she predicts, will he a hit. "The audiences will just love it," Black asserts. Staring in "The Rainmaker," are: Earl Salter, Floyd Herman, Shawn Vin- cent, John King, Shelli Barlow, .John Hindley and Don Siemon. Curtain time for the play's four -night run is 8 p.m. ONSIIIIIF T E S GNAL STAR Juniors in final The Goderich Junior Vikings reached the finals of the Huron -Perth Conference Junior Football Championship with a win over Clinton Central Huron Redmen 42-22 Thursday .afternoon in Goderich. The Vikings play the Exeter Panthers at 1 p.m. Saturday in Goderich for the cham- pionship. For story and pictures, see the front page of the Sports section.