The Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-07-05, Page 14,5
Where's the fire?
The Canadian Coast Guard Cutter Rapid brought a few surprises to the
Goderich Power Squadron Sail Pest; Sunday letting loose with a barrage of
water as_it sailed by the north pier. (photo by Dave Muffittj" „
132 --YEAR 27
Shell finds as
deposit in Ashfield.
BY JEFF SEDDQN
Shell Canada Resources Ltd, a unit of Shell
.Canada Ltd, of Toronto, has discovered gas at
two experimental wells being drilled north of
Goderich.
E.R. Parker, public relations manager at
Shell Canada Resources ,Calgary operation,
said Tuesday natural gas was flowing from
.wells dug on Ashfield township.._ land the com-
pany has leased. Parkers d it was too early to
determine how large the gs deposits were but
would say that the two wells -were producing a
."reasonable gas flow" daily.
Parker said the gas discovered was 'sweet
gas" that required no processing before it was
put into the market. He said production tests
had to be completed on the two wells to
determine what, if anything, would be done to
transport the gas to market.
In a telephone interview Parker said ,the two
wells were very shallow. He said the first well
was drilled to a depth of 638 metres (2,09Ofeet)
and the second, drilled 250 metres (826 feet)
southeast of the first well, is 625 metres "deep
(2,050 feet).
Parker said the first well has,a daily flow'of
about 20,000 cubic metres (706,200 cubic feet) a '
day and the second well about,' 225,000 cubic
metres (7,944,750 cubic feet) a day. •
Parker was quick to point out that the
discovery in Ashfield township is no "western
Canada" and is...a "drop in the bucket" when
stacked against national energy consumption.
But he added that every bit of energy
.discovered -in Canada.helps•the country remain -
self sufficient for its energy•suppliest'.
He -said gas consumption in southern'Ontario
amounts to about 250 billion cubic feetannually
adding that with Kick, the wells discovered in
y
s
4,4
Ashfield may produce one half to one billion
cubic feet of gas.
Shell has been 'conducting extensive seismic
testing in Huron County since 1977 and this year
annqunced that the seismic' tests indicated,
there could be pockets of oil or gas in some
areas. Earlier this year county council was
approached -by Shell to lease mineral rights on
county owned lands to the firm. David L.
Johnson, a land man with Shell Resources, told
council his firm wanted to drill test wells near
the lakeshore but would not drill those wells
unless it could acquire»mineral rights.
Parker explained that tlae risks involved for a
company to drilla test well in areas'where it
does not have the bulk- oT`the mineral rights
leased are normally too great. He said when
wells are dug without mineral rights all the
company is 'doing is helping„its competition oil
the landowner with little return on its in-
vestment.
He said the scope of the Ashfield firfd would
not be know -ft -Fa -Ea -bout a month: -He explained
that that production tests -would take that long
adding that based on those tests the cornpany
would decide if it should drill additional wells to
get the gas ou•t or_just use the twaweitS-already
dug.
•
• The volumes of gas -discovered may appear
small compared to national energy con-
sumptions buy the dollar values are substantial.
Gas prices- to . the consumer average about
three dollars pen thousand cubic -"feet and based
$26on ,t000hat a •theday... market value of the find is about
The owner of the land the wells were dug on
gets five percent of the well head price of the
gas. The .average well head price is one•dollar
per't'h'ousand cubic feet which would net the
owner of the land about $400 a day.
Rat
Thursday gnight
After a two, year absence; harness -racing
returns to'G6'derich-Thursday night witha full
card: ' '
The-boderieh Raceway: --will operate ;nine
this -season on ' Thursday nights
throughout July and August. -
Post time Thursday is 7.45 p.m. and following
the first race, local dignitaries'," along with MP
Bob, McKinley and MPP Jack Riddell, will
perform a ribbon cutting ceremony at the finish
line in front of the'new grandstand.
The old grandstand , was condemned .two '
years ago and the new grandstand was recently
completed in -time for th•e17979-season.- --
THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1979
•
BY JOANNE BUCHANAN
ut s
Auburn's 125th birthday party last weekend
was a gafa affair ,despife the rain—Whin—
plagued
ainWhit-rplagued several events.
The weekend began with a kick=off dance on
the Maitland River Flats. During the dance,
Auburn's Heritage Birthday, .Queen was
crowned and'the winners of the -beard growing
_contest announced.'
There were seven entrants in the, Birthday---
Queen"contest: hey were Sherry Verbeek, Kim
McDowell, Linda Van Don_gen, Linda .Gari-
ningham, 'Shar-on Glousher, Lori Cartwright
and Anita Hallam. Each one was sponsored'by•
a different business or organizatiofrin Auburn.
They had to give a speech on 'Auburn's history,
dress ina costume from one of the decades,
' display's craft which could have been done 125
years ago and give a personal interview to a
panel of judges.•
Kith McDowell, who wore her grandmother's
(Mrs. Norman McDowell) wedding dress,
shoes and headpiece from 45 years ago; was
chosen as the winner. She was sponsored by,,
Robinson' G, neral Store.- '
Runners-up\were Sherry Verbeek and Linda
Cunningham.
Thereweretwo-main categories for the,beard
growing contest• those grown prior to January
1, 1979 and those grown since January 1, 1979. In
the first category, Ross Dobie won for most
•
•
'i
1
Features
. Kids take big step in
education. , . see
Graduation supplement
Sports
Bay City wins soccer
tourney ..... .. . Page 9
MacKenzie throws no
hitter e ..... o ...... Page 9
Nes-
Auburn
kicks up its .
heels '. m . , ... e Page l A
Ai.
colorful beard and Steve Cambell won for best
groomed: In the latter category, Jim Schneider
won' for most:colorful' beard; Allan Craig won
.LL -for hestgroomedbeard, ili Robertson w -o -n fo-r
bushiest beard and Gordt�-Braer won for "the
most scruffy_.beard.'
On --•Saturday morning an official birthday .:
•
dinner was held at'Knox United Church. Along '
with local members of parliament, reeves and
Auburn dignitaries, the mayor of Auburn,
Michigan, Wes Samborn ' and his wife were ..
• present. : -.
kuburn, Michigan is also celebrating its 125th' •-
birthday this year and will be having a corniest
July 12 to 15 to' mark the ,occassion. It is in the
process of becoming Auburn, Ontario's sister
. city. It is only ten miles from Goderich's sister
city, "Bay City, Michigan and has a population
Of 2„500, '
The birthday parade featuring close rto,.125
flea;ts, began at 1.__p.m. despite a downpour.
Thousands ..of.„people lined the streets, many
sporting umbrellas, to watch the hour long"-
. parade and a panel of judges surve'yed'•each.,
float. Besides the floats, the parade featured'
antique cars, clowns, bands, horses and funny
- vehicles. --Delegates from Auburn, Michigan
also rode in the parade. - -
Following the parade, • the official ribbon
cutting -to mark ,the opening of celebrations,
was moved inside the Auburn Memorial
Community Hall. Doing' the honors' were. W'.L."
(Bill) Craig, owner of, the, Auburn sawmi.11_.an.d
Bill Robertson, great-grandson of Eneas Elkin,
the first setler to Auburn.
' After the ribbon cutting, .a band tatoo •wash
'held outside the hall while the Shriners
people inside with a fish fry -and ham supper.
A •midway was set up all weekend 'outside the
hall::
The ball games to be• played, Saturday
evening , had to ,be held over until Monday
.evening because of rain. '
The'Auburn Women's Institue• slide -
presentation of Au -burn As It Was, was a huge
success with several different'show times.
On Sunday, July 1, Miss Margaret 'Jackson,
93, of Huronview 'sand formerly of Auburn, 'cut
'• the village's birthday -cake and two heritage
plaques were also unveiled. -
. The baseball, games and races were 'can-
�celled; due to rain and several other events,
Including the .memorial s-ervice fore Ball's
Cemetery, were moved indoors. _•• The Township of West Wawanosh.won,the tug
,of'war event. •
On Sur -day ening a concert of local talent'
was held. It was, moved to the tent on the
Maitland River Flats.
' The tractor pull scheduled"for Monday was
cancelled due to rain: -
Please read ,next week's Auburn News by
Eleanor Bradnock 'for. full details of .the bir-
thday events. " .,
Council to expand
pollution --contrI pthnt
.Goderich town council agreed at a special.
meeting Tuesday to proceed 'with expansion
plans of -the'" -•pollution. control plant in 1981 in
return for Ministry approval of a subdivision
plan. •
In the motion council agreed to begin con=
struction of the expansion to the pollution
control plant in 1981 provided that the town's
reserve fund for .the project and Ministry•
subsidies will cover the cost of the project.
,Estimates put the value of the expasnion over
' $1 million. ` • •
But council also included a clause that
construction of_ the expaiynion would begin
earlier if effluent readings are continually
outside the �:•• guidelines presently set the
Ministry of the E nvi-ron-ment with- regard to
biochemical oxygen demands and suspended
solids. ,
The Ministry had asked the, town to proceed
with the._ ptillution,: plant expansion to ac-
comodate a proposed 200 unit subdivision by
Suncoast ' Estates. The Environment ' Coiii=
mittee of council produced flow charts for the
pollution plant indicating the plant, had the
capacity to accomodate the subdivision.
." Deputy -reeve, Bob Allen, said that therecent
addition of storm sewers in -16wn has taken a
big load off the pollution plant and that sewers
along the Highway 21 contraction weft/Tr-also'
"help. •
-Councillor Elsa haydort asked whether the
subdivison coupled with --the proposed Borg
Warner plant would cause pollution.
Burns Ross told council that if the pollution
plant capacity , was_ doubled by 1981, Borg
Warner would not use it all and he added that
the company' -was to give the torkri two years
notice of building so the,town could adjust the
capacity at the plant.
Gef'ry 'Fisher; pollution control plant
manager, said he could, not see any danger of
the • effluent changing_ in---any-T"appretia"ble
amounts because of the subdivision. The
average effluent reading last year Was 9.6 parts
per million, -well below the Ministry guideline of
15 parts per million.
The Ministry waved the objection .since the
town has committed ltself to" expansionof the
plant and K n Hunter informed council at ee
reserve account is over $500,000 and the irrst
levy has added$84,000 to the town's pea)
t.
•
35 CENTSPER COPY
Fred Lawrence (left), president. of Auburn's
125th Birthday Committee, and Allan Craig;
vide -president, dressed in period costtttties and
watched proudly as last weekend's events
uhfoliled'in-Auburn after two years of planning.•.
Even -rein couldrOt dampen the festive spirit.
(Photo by Joanne Buchanan)