Loading...
The Goderich Signal-Star, 1976-10-28, Page 11Logan Goderich Town Council approved •a tender from. Logan: Construction Company of Stratford last week for. reconstruction of the Goderich arena. -. Council approved the tender. for $427,914 a new roof over the entire structure and spanning the dressing rooms, a new floor in the 'auditorium and the 'in- stallation of a sprinkler system on the advice of consulting engineers from C.C. P'arker:and Associates of London. '- The Goderich Recreation board ' building committee 30 lose jobs New roof, :new auditorium fic.Ori, rnkler 'yte Construction tender approved received: four tenders Mon- day; October. 18 and made a recommendation to council the following Wednesday. The total cost included a bid of $397,500 for the overall reconstruction of .tile roof, $17,720 for a new floor in the auditorium and $9,694 for the installation of anew sprinkler system in the arena. An additional $3,000 was added to the bid for roof insulation. The • estimated completion time of the project was set at 20.weeks. Councillor Leroy Harrison was enraged at the tender prices and suggested that the Textral .folds after 18 mos. J. F. Burgess, president of. Textral Fibers Limited, announced on Wednesday , afternoon that the company's Goderich operation was closing effective this Friday, October 29. "The . continuing deterioration of the- Canadian textile market for textured polyester yarns has forced this decision upon us," he said. "In the past few months the• Federal Government has made some moves -:to assist the textile trade and we have maintained limited production during .this time, believing that we 'would be able to get enough -business to resume a satisfactory level of 'operation but this has. not-', happened." "As the outlook has. not improved We therefore are forced to close this part of Textral Fibers manufac- turing. We would emphasize that the stretch nylon yarns will ,continue to be manufactured in the Elmira plant," he added. ' The termination of. operations means.the loss of work for . about 30, mostly female, employees. The $1,000,000 plant boasts the most modern machinery in the fabric business and opened as the fifth. company .to build • in Gad•ea;ich's Industrial Park in Maly or 1975 -The company employed. about about 30 people. • The: five huge .machines contained by the plant, each valued at • a quarter of a million..dollars, use a heat process to turn raw yarn into a' flexible, stretchy fibf that is texturized. The fibre is then sold to' the Dupont Texture and: • Fibre division to_ .be marketed and wovene into fabric for.shirts, blouses and other articles of clothing or cloth material. • • • The Plant has• been turning out about 300.,000 pounds of yarn per month and pperated •on a, round the ' dock basis with three shifts seven :days per week. At the time of the official opening:Mr. Dunbar said that further • expansion at Goderich was not out of the. question. The company had purchased five acres in the Industrial park which he said they "hoped to•use".. • • red retires BY DAVE SYKES Fred Barker never had a job he didn't like and the 83 year-old goderich re'sident". has worked at a number of occupations in a working career that has spanned 70 years and will continue on a part-time basis. -' Fred was honored at a' retirement party at Dearborn Steel Tubing last. Friday after 17 years service with the company. He began his career • at Dearborn at retirement age and headed up the pattern -making. division where he was instrumental in ;making' the moulds for hundreds of exhaust systems.. But Fred hasn't finished yet and has promised to maintain the flowers and shrubs at the two Dearborn locations on a part-time basis. As he reviewed his long history of employment he fondly added that his job at Dearborn was "the best job I ever had". " -- The Barker family emigrated from a small town near London, England to Canada in 1907 when Fred' was 13. The family, that in eluded six boys,. was headed for Alberta but -Fred's father learned- at the labor 9ffice on the boat that work was available on a farm near Clinton. • "We had no idea where in the world Clinton was but my father decided to take the job and when we landed at Halifax we took a train to Toronto," he said. From Toronto his father sent the farmer a telegram informing him of his arrival, but whenthey arrived in Clinton there was no' one there to,greet them. So Fred and his father discovered that Jack,Beacom's farm was just four miles out of town and they walked there leavinghis mother and five brothers - behind. Upon their arrival Mr. Beacom obligingly bit- ched up his team -and picked up the family in town. The family was given ac- commodation on the ' farm and Fred recalled that he and his father . earned'; $4 per month plus room and board for their labor. They also learned that their English c building comniittee re -tender the project.. -"I. would rather .see the project re -tendered and we have dope it before with • street , projecs; he said. "Eitherthe_ engineers are incompetent or we are getting. shafted," Peter James of C. C. Parker. and Associates. pointed out to Harrison that all 'four tenders were within five per cent of one another which indicated the con- tractors fully understood the - engineer's dr'awdngs::-and specifications; "I don't know what re- tendering the project would accomplish other than. wasting precious time," he remarked. Mayor i eb Shewfelt telda Harrison that the tenders' differed by only $7.0,000 and although council had re- - tendered street projects in the past it was only because of a vast difference inthe tender bids. The total cost of the project . `including architect, fees and demolition „ costs ` was. estimated at $465,000., Since the project is subject to Community Centre Board and Wintario grants the • towns people are responsible for approximately $123,000. Recreation director Mike Dymond' estimated that the fund raising committee has generate& $77,000 in money „ and pledges and would regrjire an additional $46,000: Fund raising committee.. chairman, Chris Cavanaugh, told council that the 'estimated revenue from scheduled banquets, dances. and other fund raising ac- tivities was approximately $24,500 which would leave a balance of $21,000, • TheWintario grant scheme. covers ' two-thirds . of the at 1 • , 6427,9 remaining. cost .following the Community Centre Board grant and is payable if the town has the necessary funds pledged by groups or citizens over a three year.period. Cavanaugh told council that it was time they en- dorsed faith in the people of the town to raisethe funds. "If council can recommend a tender then the respon- sibility is•. on the people to • raise the halan'ce," he said. "The people put their faith in the council when they elected there and now its time for council. to put their faith in•the people and pass the motion." Cavanaugh reminded council that the ccommittee .will re -canvass the. -ibwn by • •• telephone on November. 1 and 2: Earlier this week an anonymous donation of $1,000 wes received for the arena fund. Recreation board chair -- man, Pete McCauley said that LoganConstruction Company was prepared to begin work on the arena Monday and with the com- pletion date set for 20 weeks the arena should be. operational idMa. ch, • ihtimmemi 129 YEAR -44 k THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1976 SINGLE'C,OPY 25 Wait-and-see approach •Godericlj Town Council passed a special construction bylaw Monday afternoon that. is the last step' necessary for the town to ask the Ontario Municipal Board for .per- mission to debenture for the $1.5 million Industrial Park Storm Sewer. Council hopes .to get the OMB, approval in time to permit construction of the sewer this winter. to handle . spring d'rainage- problems. • The cost of the sewer -is estimated at $740,000 ac cording to town engineer Burns Ross who engineered the piping. That ' plus after mannerisms and language differed somewhat- from Canadians and he recalls his family scouring the dinner table that first night:' after Mrs: Beacom had suggested they help themselves to the head cheese. "We were looking for something that looked like cheese and we couldn't find it," he said. Later that evening. he walked to a neighbouring farm on the advice of -his father to borrow some coal oil for the lamp. A young girl answered the doo? and Fred in his English manner asked the girl if he might borrow some' paraffin oil. The young girl, 'bewildered, whirled around and yelled, "Pa, you better come to the door there is a foreigner here." TO GODERICH IN 1912 The • farm world was seasonal and the family moved. to 'Goderich' in 1912 and heand his father worked for the Ontario Lakeshore Railway Company. The Company was building a rail • $- ounciia 1. debenture costs will mean a total expenditure of about $1.5 million • for . Goderich ratepayers. The financing is° to be done under a general levy and council hopes to regain some of their in- vestment when land south and east of Goderich is. developed. The main outlet for the sewer is a 66 inch pipe which according to Mr. Ross, could handle all -the rtinofffrom the • undeveloped land that surrounds it. . Themain purpose of the sewer is to _.drain Industrial. Park but the engineer pointed out that • 1 nearly 400 acres of raw 'land around the park will .also. drain into the pipe. Council 'decided to finance the project . with a 10 -year debenture that will cost anywhere from $121,431 per. '.annum :to $125,652 a year depending on the interest rate i ,the :debenture.. The whole project' depends on OMB approval and . if that is granted the denture will be issued at thegoi g rate of interest. • 1 Councillor $ Dave Gower said he felt council shouldn't be considering anything short of a 1.5 year • debenture line from Goderich to Kin- cardine and the work • in- volved long hours of tedious labor and required a strong back. Along with a crew of seven. other men, Fred helped his.. father spike rails and was quick to add that he nearly lost his life working the line. ;A co=worker was attempting to straighten a railroad tie when ,the sledge hammer slipped from his hands and struck Fred on the side of the head. • "The hammer struck me on the side of the head and they saythat if it .had hit my temple I was gone," he said indicating the area on his head. "I don't remember anything until they picked me outof the ditch." The line was never com- pleted before the• railway folded, bort tracks were laid. as far as Kintail and grading was ,completed north to Aniberley. He was told that as the workmen were completing the bridge in Port Albert, four company executives took an Jubilee invites Royalt If the steering commit0 whi; s;is presently organizing festivities to celebrate. Goo ' h's •150th an- niversary has its way there --will bd-'``` long list of dignitaries on hand to help: These include the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, the Premier of Ontario, the Prime Minister of Canada and the Queen. At a recent meeting the committee tabled letters from all four. A letter from Pauline McGibbon, Lieutenant Governor'of Ontario, thanked the Jubilee Three Com- mittee fortheir invitation to Goderich during the June 29 to July 10 .celebration. The Lieutenant Governor noted that she would be pleased to come to-Goderich and asked the committee to notify her of final dates•and times. A second letter, from P9remier William Davis, adknowledged the committee's invitatiofl and informed the group that Mr. Davis hoped' to be -;able to*' visit Goderich for the bif~thday party and would advise further as the time-a-ppr-oaehcd. Matters seemed to be a little less definite with Prime. Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, His office informed the organizing committee that their invitation would be brought to the PrirneMinister's attention "at the earliest opportunity" but made no dornmitment. - A• --letter from the secretary to the Queen informed the Meeting that the Queen would be in Ottawa during the period of the retain events of Jubilee Three but that the invitation to visit Goderich would be considered: A final reply will be made when the agenda for the Canadian Royal Tour alp; •; is complete. Councillor. Gower said- by financing the project over 15 years the town would .have some breathing room financially if they had . to spend some money during the term .of the debenture. He added that -council will be looking at raising nine or 10 millsa year just to handle the debenture issue: Depuiat�y-reeve Bill Clifford said her felt the .towncould recover sone of their in- vestment as undeveloped land 'comes on the market. He. said•the town would have to formulate a costfor future hookups'to the sewer based on of la� inspection :ride ' on the line. The nail sections were greased and as the train came to the bridge, which. was as far •,.as the line was .completed, the engineer was unable to stop it. The train, with the wheels in reverse and turning backwards, descended ab grade onto the bridge and as it climbed up the other side of the bridge the engineer managed to stop it two feet from the end -of the line. During their railroad days, Fred's father built a small shack with bunks .. that ' the men would stay in : His father cooked the meals and charged the workers for room and board and the profits were divided among the men. Near the time the company folded the men began to quit their jobs and the shack was simply moved to the Barker property on Palmerston Street. - . 1. ' MANY JOBS The railway never did materialize and Fred found employment with a furniture company, across from the CNR roundhouse. Just a few Special edition ER in tilts Issue- . Next week is Energy Conservation Week across -the province. iirb time to th' ch tonserve energy - and -6 do something about ,.Signal -Star is pleased to enclose . in this "week's newspaper a special energy edition. In it, you will find all kinds ot.,vaivable information aboutw.-a'ys to save Canada's ' important • natural resources - as well as your own hard earned._, money. Look for it. 0 short years later the factory burned but he soon found work with a firm that was manufacturing grain doors for box cars. Following the First World War he' secured a position with, Dominion Roads, where his father and brother worked, at the old East Street location. There was sufficient work for the time as thea plant churned out wagons and other related accessories for the army. But as ' prosperity waned• into the lean years of (continued on page 13) a user pays theory which should return some of the money to the town coffers before the debenture is retired. • Councillor. Gower pointed out there is no way to know, how fast the undeveloped land" would be brought on stream and if it wasn't developed during the next ten years, the town may become strapped for needed dollars. Town 'clerk Harold Walls. said he didn't like long term financing and pointed out to council that the town would save a considerable amount of money by financing for 10 years just through interest • costs. The -clerk said the five years difference would only mean a couple of mills dif- ference -in taxation over the life of the debenture. ' Burns Ross told council he had ,worked out a rough formula for establishing costs for future hookups based on the cost of pipe size to permit the draining of extra land outside Industrial Park. The engineer said the town would have to Spend an additional $50,000 to install a pipe large. •enough to permit the - drainage and ' if that was levied against the land it would compute to about $250 per acre. He added that the pipe size was not paramount to draining the -entire area and the town should investigate •anether system of costs to Make the investment return more. realistic., Mayor Deb Shewfelt said he felt the town should workout a formula levying costs against each acre of land in thetownship as it •is• developed. r The :mayor explairiedr That what council faced was a decision that would set a precedent in the future for the • town to sell services to the township to allow land under their jurisdiction to develop. "The next thing will be sanitary Sewers," said the mayor. "If; we are going to supply ,service's I 'think we should do it at 100 percent of the costs plus 'some." The mayor said it was now up to council to.decide what' that extra cost would be and •. then "bounce it off .township council" to get their opinion. • "It's either that -or an- nex-ation," Said the mayor. Council decided •to take a wait-and-see approach planning to have a suitable cost .formula worked out timed with the OMB reply to. the debenture request. The town has an agreement with.. the township whereby the Sewer is constructed on township land but . before construction begins the town must inform the township of the charge for future hookups. Fred Barker, an employee' ot'• fearborn Steel Turing Incorporated, receives a kiss from ' Yvonne Turnbull and Donna Stegenstad at a retirement party last Friday. Fred, 830has been 4vith•the company for 17 years and his retirement marks the end of 70 ylears ot'labor. (staff photo) '°'